Chapter 65

Wendy's and Chelsie's perspective.

Wendy and Chelsie rush to the dungeon, pushing past people and adventurers to get to the entrance.

They presented their adventurer cards to the guard and went in.

“Do you have anything, Wendy?”

Sniffing the air.

“Yes, it’s faint, but I don’t think it’s the scent we’re looking for. I think it’s the scent when Nyx entered inside; I don’t smell him leaving.”

“He is still in the dungeon, then we better get going; take the lead.”

Reluctantly, like a part of her didn’t want to do it, Wendy says.

“Okay, but when we find Nyx, you’re approaching him.”

Confused, Chelsie asks.

“Why?”

“It’s just in case of something.”

Wendy shivered a bit as she began running. Chelsie follows, and they make their way down the floors.

Passing the first stratum and into the second, Chelsie asked Wendy again if she smelled anything, but Wendy shook her head.

“So Nyx is in the second stratum; do you think he’s okay? It’s been hours already.”

“I’m sure he is fine; it’s Nyx we’re talking about.”

Wendy had a meek smile, looking afraid, like she was trying to repress a memory when she said that.

They continued making their way down the floors, hoping they would find something.

Eventually, on the 18th floor, Wendy finally noticed something. She suddenly stopped and sniffed the air around her.

Seeing her stop, Chelsie asks.

“Do you have something?”

“Yeah, but…”

Grimacing.

“I smell blood; I think it’s Nyx.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, not only him but other people too.”

Hearing that, Chelsie also grimaces.

“Where?”

“That way.”

Wendy pointed down the trail, and they began running again, following the trail and going off of it till Wendy stopped.

Chelsie was about to ask if Wendy had something, but when she was about to ask, Chelsie smelled the distinct scent of blood in the air, which she even could smell.

They looked closely at their surroundings and saw traces of a battle. When they investigated the area, they saw pools of blood scattered around everywhere despite not seeing any dead bodies.

Chelsie turned to Wendy, about to ask if she smelled any of the pools of blood were Nyx’s, thinking about the worst-case scenario, only to see Wendy immediately start running in a certain direction.

Stopping near a tree at a distance, Wendy put her nose close to the ground to smell a couple of small droplets of blood.

She smells the blood and grimaces even more. Chelsie ran up to her and asked what she found.

“This is Nyx’s blood; he ran in that direction. I think he was being chased by someone.”

Wendy sniffed the air again and said.

“They’re from a completely different group.”

“Different group?”

“Yes, Nyx was definitely attacked, but another group showed up and attacked him next, much more dangerous than the first group.”

“How so?”

“The first group, I could smell from their stench, but the second, I could barely smell them for some reason, like they were trying to hide their presence.”

Chelsie and Wendy had a serious and grim expression because from what Wendy had said, it meant Nyx must have dealt with the first group that attacked him, but he had to run away when the second group showed up.

“Could it be those black knights Alice told us about?”

Wendy nodded but had some doubts because, from the Black Knights they had fought, Wendy didn’t expect someone as strong and crazy as Nyx to run away from a fight.

“We better hurry.”

They began running again, this time much faster than before.

Eventually, they found the ledge where Nyx jumped from and the cave Nyx went in.

Wendy stops again, smelling the air in the cave, then tells Chelsie.

“Get a health potion out; I smell a lot of Nyx’s blood.”

Nodding, Chelsie took out a health potion, and they carefully walked deep into the cave, reaching the end, which had an empty chest and a mysterious passageway.

Looking at each other, they made their way to the passageway, but when they reached the end, they were shocked by what they saw.

They saw a circular room that had blood and body parts scattered around the room; gory is what they thought best described what they were seeing.

That was not the most shocking thing because there was the dead, unmoving body of what seemed to be a drake.

It has wounds across its body, and Nyx’s own weapons stab into its body.

Approaching the dead drake, Wendy cautiously approached and pulled Nyx’s sword and short sword out of the drake's body in case the drake was still alive since monsters usually disappear after they are killed in a dungeon.

She held the sword and sniffed the air around her again, then walked toward the only closed door in the room.

“What's wrong, Wendy?”

“I smell Nyx going through this door.”

Chelsie followed Wendy to the door, where Wendy placed her hand on it to open it.

The metallic door slowly opens to reveal another cave-like passageway, like the one they came in.

They walked in and reached another door. When they saw it, they were a bit surprised to see it since it was a very strange and weird-looking door that had a small window that showed a very unfamiliar place past it.

They tried opening it, but it would not open, so they tried forcing it open, but it also did not work.

Realizing they couldn’t get past the door, Chelsie told Wendy.

“No use; we better get back.”

Reluctantly, Wendy replied with a yeah.

Making their way out of the dungeon and back to the hospital to inform everyone, they walked into the room with grim expressions because it was news nobody wanted to tell.

The door opens with everyone in the room looking hopeful that Nyx is with them, but… as they see Wendy’s and Chelsie’s grim faces, their hopeful expectations are dashed.

Seeing Nyx not with them, Clare was the first to ask.

“Where is…”

Clare was about to say her lady's name, but she had enough composure to catch herself and said.

“Master, Nyx?”

They looked at Clare, and Chelsie spoke.

“We weren’t able to find Nyx.”

Chelsie told everyone how Nyx encountered and fought two different groups of people, ran to a cave and a mysterious passageway that led to a boss room, and then to a mysterious and strange-looking door and the place past that door.

Clare stood still upon hearing the news.

“Clare, are you alright?”

Clare did not respond, so Alex asked again, this time in a gentle voice, to prepare himself to be the target for her anger instead of Chelsie and Wendy for not finding Nyx.

“Clare, are you okay?!”

However, contrary to what he thought, Clare responded in a calm, almost cold tone, not what Alex expected.

“I see.”

Clare forces herself to bottle up and control her emotions from the thought of her lady missing, not knowing if she was alive or not, and her powerlessness in her situation of not being able to do anything significant.

Alex had a guilty expression seeing Clare have an unnatural, cold, and detached expression, so he turned to everyone.

Sensing what Alex was going to say, Chelsie stopped him.

“Alex, no, we can’t just leave to find Nyx, not right now.”

Hearing her words, Alex gritted his teeth. Nyx is Alex’s friend. He feels a similar sense of helplessness as Clare, and he can’t help him back and return the favor.

Taking a breath to cool down, Alex, with some calm, asks what they should do.

“We wait until the knights from the capital come, which should be at least a day or two from now. Until then, we need to prepare.”

Skis's perspective

In the guild master’s office, Skis was talking to two people in the room.

One of them was Iris, while the other person was a blue-haired and-eyed woman, wearing ornate knight armor, sitting on the couch to the right of Skis’s desk and opposite the couch Iris was sitting on.

Gracefully, she picks up the teacup offered to her and sips it, then asks.

“Did you find the thieves?”

Skis, with an expression that he didn’t want to answer, made himself look small and meek from her intimidating glance.

Her name is Lieutenant Argena Vanca, second in command of the third knight order. She had personally come and rushed to Acton upon hearing of Alice’s assassination attempt since the Lunslur family was in a really precarious situation.

Their power struggle within the family didn’t just affect them but noble society as a whole. Due to how influential and powerful the Lunslur family is, if any more were to happen, it would cause chaos, which would lead to instability in the kingdom, something Argena cannot allow.

“Unfortunately no, we just found the document went missing at most two days ago.”

Skis had answered her question, to which she responded.

“That is very unfortunate.”

“Then what exactly did the thieves steal?”

“It was the file of an adventurer closely related to Lady Alice.”

“I see, may I ask who this adventurer is, then? Ms. Iris?”

Iris looked at Skis to get his approval, to which he nodded in affirmation.

“His name is Nyx; his relation to Lady Alice is through Alex. I believe you know of him from our report.”

“Yes, I have.”

“You see, Nyx is friends with his party, and by chance, they ran into each other when Lady Alice was kidnapped. In the end, he helps Alex retrieve Lady Alice back from the kidnappers.”

“That is quite strange.”

“I agree.”

“We should talk to him then if there are any possible leads he could give us. Do you know his whereabouts?”

“I’m afraid we do not since we don’t keep track of those things, but I think we should ask Alex and his party because they probably do know.”

“I see, and where are they?”

“I believe in the hospital, helping guard Lady Alice’s knights while they are recovering.”

Turning to Skis, who was silent in the conversation, Iris asks him.

“Guild master, could you go find Nyx while I help with the investigation?”

Reluctantly, Skis said yes.

Iris and Argena nodded and then left the office as Skis went to a cabinet to retrieve his sword since there was a chance that his life would be targeted.

Taking the sword out of the cabinet, Skis unsheathed it and looked at the metallic blue-colored sword with a wry smile.

“I guess I need you again.”