Chapter 23

“Thank you for today. I'll be returning for now.”

“Thank you for the presents, Nayala.”

“Please take care.”

We gave our goodbyes. The rest turned around and returned to the manor, but I stood there before Nayala, waiting for the door to click. She seemed to notice that I might have some business with her, and didn't leave immediately.

“... Is something wrong, Fortisbel?”

“... You have a reason, don't you?”

She cocked her head. “Reason? What are you talking abou- Oh…” she waved to her escorts and approached me. “We need to talk about this somewhere else?”

“Sure.”

She motioned one of the mages to come closer, and teleported us away from the manor. She took me to a familiar office. It was her office in the Eastern Wolves’ headquarters. Once we were inside, she motioned the mage accompanying us to leave.

“But, Your Highness-”

“Don't worry. Please just wait up front.”

The mage glanced my way, but let out no comment. “As you wish.” He went to the door and closed it. Nayala locked the door before returning to the room, sitting down on her chair.

“Please sit, Fortisbel.”

I did as she told, gulping. It felt somewhat ominous. I have a feeling she wouldn't do any harm to me, but I feared the words or plans that might come up next. Her expression turned serious, the bright smiles from the previous party had disappeared.

“... So, what did you want to talk about?”

“I'm pretty sure you know what I want to talk about.”

“But I might be mistaken, so I wanted to make sure.”

“Well, you have a reason for holding a party and giving Maya a musket. I have an inkling that it's related to the demon king.”

She let out a soft sigh. “Nothing escaped you, huh?”

“Well, let's just say it's my intuition.”

Nayala then looked underneath her desk. She pulled out a piece of paper with a familiar symbol on it. It wasn't a magic spell, rather, a symbol that existed in the bottom floor of every single dungeon we visited.

“Have you ever wondered why demon-tempered monsters don't appear outside dungeons?”

“Because more powerful monsters are the ones that were left to grow in them.”

Unlike us, the average person doesn't go dungeon crawling. There weren't many things in them, so people spent most of their time on the surface. Unless you were grinding or looking for some magic stones, there's little reason for you to come to a dungeon. Even then, you could do grinding and magic stones hunting on the surface. It's safer that way.

Thus, as the demon king, you would want to temper with the ones deepest in a dungeon, because they have more time to grow and be stronger.

I thought I was somewhat correct, but to my surprise, Nayala wiggled her fingers.

“This is something Akareseki discovered, and maybe, his primary source of concern, but as it turned out, the symbols are some kind of doors that lead to the underground palace where the demon king is sealed.”

“... What?”

The symbols weren’t similar in any way to the symbols from magic spells, and if it had something to do with either Syilaian or Azuskran, then Emori or Nayala would understand it. Due to how different it looked, I thought that it came from the giants that lived in this world.

They had long become extinct, so we had no way of confirming it.

“But if it’s a door, then how do we open it?”

I never saw anything that remotely resembled hinges or gaps. It was sealed tight, just like a floor built into the dungeon’s bottom.

Nayala folded her hands. “Akaraseki never discovered how, but he’s pretty damn sure that it had something to do with the demon king. The demon king knew how to open it, not that we could ask him.”

“Has he ever seen it open?”

This is Akaraseki we’re talking about. Half of me didn’t want to trust him after the trouble he put us in. Especially after seeing what he did to Emori.

“During questioning, he stated that he saw the monster during its formation, magical energy oozing from the symbol. The floor itself wasn't open.”

The time a monster took to form varied, but it didn’t take long. At most, it took around an hour. Considering just how many dungeons there were, seeing one forming in front of your very eyes is a pretty rare experience.

“Are there no other eyewitnesses?” I wasn’t so willing to trust him. The image of him fighting Emori was still vivid in my mind.

Nayala shook her head. “But there are some other things that he wrote about that had come true. The increase in demon-tempered monsters, for example. The lengths he went to during the last incident wasn’t something he would do without good reason.”

She had a point. Considering how he treated the imperial family and us during his coup showed that he didn’t have interest in the throne. If he wanted to, he could kill all of us the second our eyes met. Making war with the rulers of Nanawak was never his goal. He wanted to stop this impending disaster from happening, thus why he went to such extremes.

“Assuming that’s true, then what does it have to do with giving Maya a musket? And holding her a party?”

“... Before that, will you help me no matter what happens?”

“That depends on Emori.”

“Oh, you did start a relationship with her recently.” She nodded with a slight smirk.

Just how many people did she told it to? She didn’t tell her brother, did she?

I scratched my cheeks, thinking of a way to reply.

“Well, Emori is my princess, she’s the one I’m serving.”

“I see…”

“Were you expecting something from me?”

“The truth is… I need you to stay in Nanawak, maybe longer than the original plan for three months.”

“... Longer?” I gulped.

“This is also something Akareseki discovered, but he stated that while the target will still be Syla, Nanawak will suffer the brunt of the attack.”

“Why is he attacking Syla in the first place?”

Nayala shrugged. “I have no answer for that.”

“Even if he’s right… why?”

Syla was closer to the underwater castle where he was sealed. Even if the demon king used the dungeons, then surely the path to Syla would be closer compared to through Nanawak.

“Maybe it’s because of the natural resources Nanawak had?” Nayala murmured.

True. Compared to Syla, Nanawak had much more gold and oil reserves underneath its sandy deserts. I never saw any magic related to these elements, though, so I couldn’t tell how they’ll be relevant.

“Akaraseki begged me to send you back, though. I'm not sure why.”

“Probably because of him losing to Emori?” I tilted my head. Nayaka reacted with a shrug.

“Despite that, we still need you and your team to help us, hence why I’m trying to keep you around by providing you with things.”

“Are you supposed to tell me this? And you sure it's alright to ignore what Akaraseki wants?”

“I don’t want to get on you or Emori’s bad sides, and you’ve began figuring it out anyway. I don’t want to lie to you. Regarding Akaraseki, it's hard to determine whether he’s lying or not, especially after last time. Honestly, I just think that sending you back isn't the right call.”

“... I’ll talk to Emori then.”

“... Okay.”

Nayala stood back up. We made our way outside, where the mage was waiting as instructed. “Please take him back to the manor.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I took the mage’s outstretched hand and looked back at Nayala. She gave me a smile and wave. The next second, I found myself back in front of the manor.

“Thank you.”

“It’s my honor.” The mage teleported away. I made my way into the manor. I went through the first floor, looking for Emori. The living room had returned to its original state, and the kitchen was clean like before. Not finding her, I went up to the second floor and knocked on her door. It didn’t take long for her to appear. She was already wearing her pajamas.

“Fortis? Did something happen? You disappeared all of a sudden. Did Miss Nayala take you somewhere?”

“We need to talk.”

Emori widened her eyes. “... Okay.” She got out of the room and went down to the kitchen, me following behind her. She made two cups of hot tea before setting it down on the table.

“... Why?” I asked.

“I have a feeling this will be long.”

“You’re right, unfortunately.”

I took a quick sip from the hot tea she prepared for me, then began explaining what Nayala told me. Emori’s expression turned to a frown the longer my story went on.

“... I see… She must trust Mister Akareseki.”

“I didn’t ask her that.” I took another sip to quench my thirst. All the explaining had left my throat dry.

“But… I never expected those symbols to be that important.”

“I wonder if it’s some kind of spell.”

“We should test it the next time we reach the lowest level of a dungeon.”

Considering how busy we were, it wouldn’t be long until we got that chance.

“So, will you be helping Nayala?”

Emori pondered it for a bit. “I… I’m not sure. If the demon king really does target Nanawak first, assuming I have no responsibilities in Syla, I don’t see why not… But… What if my family called me back?”

“That’s a hard decision, sure.”

While the royal family hadn’t restricted Emori much so far, that may not be the case in an active war. They did call her back when the coup happened.

“Still… I can’t think of a single reason why the demon king would choose to conquer Nanawak first, assuming his target is Syla.”

“Maybe there’s something hidden deep in Nanawak that he needed for his plans?”

The demon king’s strategy had changed in the years following his defeat. For one, demon-tempered monsters didn’t exist in the war a century ago. For two…

What else changed, exactly?

Other than the existence of demon-tempered monsters, I didn’t know about anything else that changed. I didn’t even fight in the first war. The game was set after the war ended, the fight presented in a flashback.

I need to talk to Asytelar.

I imagined the crow’s face and tried to use Connect, but the spell failed. I probably didn’t have an accurate enough image of the crow’s face.

Should I return to Syla for this?

I did manage to memorize the Wolves’ office rather quickly. If I can concentrate, I should be able to memorize my room for Teleport.

“I think I’m going back to Syla. I need to talk to your castle mage.”

Well, his crow to be exact, but I hadn’t told Emori about Asytelar yet.

“To Arnold? I think I can use Connect on him.”

“I prefer to talk directly.”

“... Could you Teleport back?”

“I’ll memorize my room tonight.”

“Alright, I’ll contact him. I’ll notify you tomorrow.”

With that, we returned to our room. I memorized the room I lived in and did some teleportation tests. After being able to constantly teleport there, I went to bed and got some good night rest.