Side Story 6

Athrun’s Perspective

In the Dradevow dungeon, Athrun was with Sarah at the start of the 17th floor.

He held his swords by the hilt. On his right was Moonlight, a sword with a pale silvery-white blade, and on his left, Nightingale, a sword with a blade as pitch black as night.

As for Sarah, she held a golden staff that was covered with cloth.

Both of them wore their armor, made from the strongest of materials, the kind reserved for the most dangerous of dungeons.

Athrun had a serious expression, compared to his normal aloof one, with Sarah being the same.

"What's taking them so long? Did Cor run off again?” arms crossed and fingers tapping against his sleeve.

“They are probably caught up on something or maybe doing last-second preparations? He isn’t that type of person to fool around too much when he knows he shouldn’t."

Not having a serious expression anymore, Sarah tries to comfort Athrun’s impatience and give the benefit of the doubt to Cor.

“Yeah, I guess you're right.”

Continuing to wait for their party members to arrive, and eventually, after another 5 minutes, they arrived.

A hulking person in full plate armor that made it look like he was a black dragon walked up to them, followed by another. Compared to the person in black armor, he was of average height, with red hair, carrying a pair of golden swords by his waist, which looked most similar to a khopesh.

It was Nox in the black armor, with Cor following him. They both wave, so Athrun and Sarah wave back as well.

“What took you so long? Did Cor do something again, Nox?”

“What?! I didn’t do anything this time. Nox took a bit longer than usual to put on his armor.”

Turning to Nox to see if it was true, Nox nodded under his armor.

“See.”

Sighing a bit from his jovial mood, since it wasn’t the time to do so, but also relieved that he didn't cause any trouble, Athrun said.

“Right, sorry. Lead the way, then.”

Cor smiled, and Nox nodded; then they began to lead Athrun and Sarah. The place they were leading to is the secret passageway Nyx had found, which transported her to the 29th floor.

It had been a day after Nyx and Clare had left Acton for Farsbarow, and they all finally had enough time to go there together.

The mood was silent, other than Cor’s cheerful humming from killing whatever monsters came in their way.

Eventually, when they reached the ridge Nyx told them about, Athrun asked.

“Is this it, Nox?”

“Yes.”

“Yep, it took us a while to find; it was really well hidden.”

Nox was the first to jump down the ridge, followed by Cor and Athrun next, and Sarah was the last.

Holding his giant arms out to catch Sarah, Sarah landed in his arms. Then, putting her down, Nox made a path through the bushes to the hidden entrance.

Going into the cave, Nox was fortunately just small enough to enter with his armor. At the end of the cave, they then enter the passageway to the boss room.

There, they found the drake Nyx had slain. They looked at it with interest—until Athrun felt a faint buzzing from a pouch on his belt. Everyone’s eyes turned to him, and all of them knew what it meant.

Sarah cast a protection spell as Athrun reached into the pouch. He took out a small rectangular device around the size of his finger. Using both hands, he pulled on each side, expanding it into a thin tablet-like screen that lit up with a soft glow that fit in his hand.

A warning flashed across it, and everyone grimaced.

“Everyone, we'd better finish this quickly. Nox, get a sample from that drake. Sarah, help him.”

While they worked, Athrun’s thoughts drifted back to what Nyx had told them, confirming it to the description she had given him of what he saw.

Everything was in accordance with what Nyx told him, so he then looked for the door that led to the area Nyx had mysteriously woken in, which wasn’t too hard to find since it was on the opposite side from the entrance.

Placing a hand on the door, Athrun already has one sword ready, as does Cor with both his swords out and ready, just in case anything should happen, since Nyx also told them the passageway he was in flooded and sent him to the 29th-floor oasis when he tried to leave through it.

Thankfully, nothing happened, and both of them waited for Nox and Sarah to finish up, which didn’t take too long.

“Okay, done.”

“Good, let's proceed.”

With Nox taking the lead again, they moved through the passageway, past the first door, until they came to another—one far different from the one they had entered earlier.

Athrun was the first to speak, examining the door and what’s past it, saying, “So, this is it. Wow, I didn’t think it would be this intact.”

“Amazing,” Sarah breathed.

Cor gave a low whistle of admiration, while Nox remained silent, his gaze fixed on the door.

Pulling out the device in his pouch, he expanded it again, but fortunately, with no warnings flashing this time. Next, he presses on a small box with a strange sigil that expands to cover the screen, followed by changing it to glowing symbols arranged in neatly aligned rows.

Then, after entering a password of some kind in the device, he held it up at the door; however, nothing happened.

Confused, Athrun fiddled with the device and tried again, but it had the same result, and nothing happened.

“Haaah… Why are things never easy?”

Disappointed that it didn’t work, Athrun looked back to the boss room and saw the doors that led them to the doors to the medical bay were still open.

“It seems like we don’t have to go to the 29th floor.” Turning to everyone, he then said. “I’ll leave the dungeon and contact headquarters about our discovery. Sarah, Nox, and Cor—seal off the entrance so no adventurers stumble in here.”

Clare’s perspective

Walking in the dark of night, Clare wore a hood covering her face as she looked at her surroundings. There, she spotted someone at a glance.

He was dressed in the plain clothes of a commoner. It was the same man who had been watching their carriage when they first entered the village. Clare wasn’t sure who he was or whether he might be one of her mistress’s family’s Black Knights. So, considering that, she left, and her mistress stayed in to find out.

Under the light of a lantern in front of a store by the village center, Clare took off her hood, revealing her face, and went in.

“Hello, how may I help you?”

Being greeted by the shopkeeper, who looked like he was about to close up.

Clare returned the greeting while pretending to browse through the shelves and barrels, like someone desperately searching for something after combing through all the shops in the village, with this store being the last one.

“Sorry for how late it is, but do you have—”

Telling the store owner a list of hard-to-get items that a store like this most likely doesn’t have, using the request as a distraction while she stole glances at the man outside. To her surprise, the shopkeeper actually had one of the things she mentioned.

“Hmm, I'm afraid I don’t have most of the items you’ve listed. But I do believe I have a box of Windal Cherry petal tea in storage. If you don’t mind waiting, let me go in the back to get it for you.”

Feigning a bit of relief, like one of the things she needed to find was found, she said, “That is amazing, thank you.”

Seeing the owner go to the back to retrieve the item she had asked for, Clare drifted to the front of the store, toward barrels filled with non-perishable food, where she could get a much better view of the guy watching her as she pretended to look at the barrels. From the corner of her eye, she saw him across the street, who, on closer inspection, wasn’t subtle with his gaze that was fixed on her, his attempt at surveillance clumsy and obvious.

When he finally turned and walked away, Clare understood he had gotten what he wanted. She stayed put until the shopkeeper returned, accepted the tea, paid, and left. But instead of hurrying back to her mistress as fast as possible, Clare calmly followed in the direction the guy had gone.

Seeing the almost empty streets, Clare walked down it, stopping before a man who was leaning on the wall of a back alley.

He was wearing adventurer clothing and equipment and had a scar across his left cheek. At first, when turning the corner to walk down the street, he gave off the impression of someone waiting for his friends to show up for a drink, until Clare stopped in front of him, causing his facade to drop. The laid-back air vanished, replaced by the sharp bearing of a veteran soldier.

Without a word spoken, Clare and the scarred man walk down the alleyway. There, Clare saw the guy spying on her and two other people. A short-haired woman in a mage’s robes holding him down, one hand clamped firmly over his mouth to stop him from screaming. Nearby stood another man with a plain face, dressed like a merchant.

The three of them gave off the same aura as the man Clare was next to, since they were the three knights from the second knight order, who were still protecting her mistress.

Not telling Rita about them was a lie Clare told to protect her—because in her mind, there could be no half measures. Whatever it took to safeguard her mistress was necessary, even if it meant deceiving her.

Walking up to the man who was pinned to the ground, unable to speak but with a small murmur, Clare looked at him like a bug.

From his poor attempt at tailing her and how quickly she had noticed him, she judged he was nothing more than a hired hand from her mistress’s family, sent to notify them if they found her while their own retainers were scattered and disorganized.

Signaling to let the guy speak, the female knight released her grip on his mouth but pressed a knife to his throat instead.

“Wait, please, this was all a misunderstanding—”

"Cutting him off," Clare said. “A misunderstanding of what, exactly?”

Caught in that lie, the female knight pressed her knife to his throat, causing blood to spill, so in desperation, he begged. “I have a family; I need the money.”

Having tears in his eyes, Clare was surprised that he broke so easily and even more so when she did not detect a trace of deception in his words, but…

“So, what of it? Is that supposed to change anything?”

Turning around and walking away, already done with the conversation, she said to the knights, “You all know what to do.”

Pulling the knife away from his throat, the female knight mercilessly smashed his head into the ground and proceeded to inject him with some sort of drug.

A moment later, his limp body was hoisted over the shoulder of the male knight beside Clare. They would be taking him out of the village to Acton for interrogation and then disposal.

This had all been arranged beforehand with the lieutenant of the Third Knight Order. To ensure Rita’s safety, Clare had already prepared traps around Acton to catch spies and informants searching for her mistress. Even this man’s sudden disappearance would raise no alarms—it would only look like another failed agent swallowed by the snares she had already laid.

As Clare walked away, back to her mistress, she took a deep breath because remembering the torture Boras did to her, all the injuries that were healed and gone began to flare up again. It serves as a reminder that if she were not careful, it would happen again, and the next time, it may not have been her, but her mistress.