Sieging the Labyrinth

Chapter XXVI

Sieging the Labyrinth

“Monsters! The boy is surrounded!”

“Knights prepare!”

“Hold it right there!

“Those are goblins!”

“Run!”

“They raid farms.”

“[Screee, screeth!]”

“They are friendly!”

Pandemonium ensued as the yells of the Deepford men, the knights, goblins, and Enji’s party members mixed in cacophony.

Enji unsheathed his sword, just like everyone else in his party. Crap, crap, crap!

Kasus, Simier, and his associates moved to stand in front of Enji, his party, and the terrified goblin tribe. The two mages, undecided, remained with their unconscious companions.

The knight Astakan took a step forward. “Why is the Swift Blade taking sides with monsters?”

Swift Blade? Isn’t he just a butler?

“As far as I’m aware, they can speak and behave like people. That makes them something more than monsters,” Kasus calmly replied.

“We, the kingdom’s Red Lizard Force, have been tasked by the king to exterminate all kinds of monsters!” Astakan refused to yield.

“Must I remind you that you are no longer the Red Lizards and don’t serve the crown anymore?”

Astakan vacillated for a few moments. “Still, we had always done so. As knights, it’s our duty to follow orders, even if they are from the past.”

Kasus pointed to the black haired boy. “Lord Enji took it upon himself to help the goblins out of compassion. Lord Enji, the Grand Mage’s disciple, declined the king’s offer to take over the domain and instead suggested appointing Lady Aslei. I believe you owe a lot to Lady Aslei. Am I wrong, Astakan?”

“But...” Astakan glanced at Enji, who stood with his sword drawn in front of the goblins.

“What seems to be the problem?” Someone arrived and stood between the two opposing groups.

All the knights dropped to their knees when they recognized the owner of the voice.

Kasus bowed. “Lady Eithea, we are merely discussing whether goblins are monsters or not.”

Eithea frowned when she saw the goblins. She approached Enji.

Oh, man! She hates monsters. Enji remembered when Eithea had snapped at him when he suggested that monsters were intelligent.

“Are you able to speak to them?” Eithea stared at the goblins hiding behind Enji.

“Yes. With Galakei’s translator, we all are.” Enji swept his hand to show his team.

“Lend it to me.” Eithea extended her hand.

Enji removed his arm brace and handed it to the fox woman.

“I’m Eithea. What is your name?” Eithea asked the goblin women behind Enji.

“Oma.” She pointed to her chest. The other goblin, a younger girl, replied, “Ama!”

Eithea straightened, with her eyes as big as dishes, stared at the goblins before her. “Enji, did you use magic to tame them and teach language?”

“No, Lady Eithea. They are like that.”

Eithea returned to where Kasus waited. She faced the knights. “All of you, rise!”

The old knights rose and stood at attention, waiting for Eithea’s words.

“As you might know, I’m no longer a royal, but I’ll ask this of you.” Her sight hovered not only over the knights, but also over the people from Deepford. “Any goblin or monster under Lord Enji’s protection is under the protection of the Kingdom of Whitewall!”

“Yes, My Lady!” the knights shouted. The other people remained silent, confused as to what she meant.

“My lady, how come you are here?” Kasus asked when she approached the goblins’ defenders.

“I was on my way to Deepford to see Aslei when I decided to drop by out on a whim.” She winked her eye at Kasus.

“Ah!”

***

“Eithea wants everyone in the main tent,” Kasus informed them.

Skia rose from her seat. “Let’s—” She hesitated for a moment. “Since we are out of the maze, I believe Lord Enji is the one who shall give orders.”

Huh? Where is my Skia? Had she been replaced by an alien? “No more worm?” Enji joked.

“Not in front of all those people,” she whispered. “You are a lord.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Nilsei butted in between Skia and Enji.

“That we should show respect to Lord Enji.” Skia gave everyone a stern look.

“Acknowledge.” Popa saluted the same way she had seen Enji do so many times.

Oma pulled on Enji’s shirt.

“You want to come?”

“Oma follow Enji.”

“Then let’s go.”

The big tent didn’t seem so large anymore with all the people crammed inside for the meeting.

Presiding over the meeting was Eithea. Kasus stood behind Eithea, looking like a proper butler. With Astakan were two of his knights, and from Deepford was Gamo, accompanied by four of his people. Simier’s party and the two guild mages were also present. They all stared at Enji and his party when they arrived, especially at the goblin woman.

Eithea stood in the center and spoke, “I was informed that Tilek’s priests infiltrated all the way inside the kingdom and came to this labyrinth for unknown purposes, and that they tried to assassinate a guild mage who discovered them. Enji, did your party encounter any people in the maze?”

Ack! Why ask me? Skia was the leader. “No. There were no other people besides the mages we found in the temple.”

“Temple?” Eithea, astonished, asked. The rest of the people were as bewildered as she was. “Do you mean a man-made temple? Did the goblins build it?”

“The Raarea, this is how the goblins call themselves, don’t know who made the temple, as well as several smaller structures spread through the labyrinth.”

“Perhaps, there’s a connection between the temple and the Tilek’s priests,” Simier suggested.

“Uhmm, that’s unsettling. Had the wounded mage girl woken—the same for the other guild mages?” Eithea inquired.

“The wounded girl is recuperating, but still too weak to talk; she lost a lot of blood,” Gamo informed.

“Ultonaliefang and Tiloki had not awakened yet,” the middle-aged guild mage, whose name was Senta, replied.

Eithea paced along the center of the tent, taking in the assembled group. “Lady Aslei has already requested aid from the capital, and I sent a message to the Grand Mage. If there are still more Tilek’s priests in the vicinity or inside the maze, we have to find them. Then there is the problem with the unusual number of monsters.”

Astakan took a step forward. “Lord Enji, I was told you and your people fought a new type of monster. Can you describe it?”

“Sure!” Enji turned on his smartphone, surprising those who had never seen it before. “These are real images of how they look.”

“Is that magic?”

“Incredible!”

“Lord Enji, you are not joking with this? Are you sure you fought those monsters?” Astakan held the smartphone with trembling hands. “These are [graks]!”

Everyone crowded to look at the image again.

Graks? I don’t remember that name. Enji turned to his party; their faces were pale, and their eyes were wide open and unblinking. Huh? What’s wrong? “What are graks?”

“They are the monsters from the World of Shadows!” Eithea replied.

***

A new caravan arrived from Deepford late the following day. More tents were erected, and the new volunteers began building a stockade wall to defend the impromptu frontline command post. A siege had started.

Enji watched everyone bustling to build the camp as if they were ants. The presence of graks so far away from their original territory terrified everyone, prompting the whole kingdom to mobilize against the impending calamity.

And the results of the panic were made evident when the kingdom sent its finest. In a cleared area, which Enji questioned, for what purpose they had leveled the ground and surrounded it with torches, the first arrival appeared.

“Dragons!” Enji couldn’t believe his eyes. Two magnificent Western-type dragons had landed on the flattened ground. Each carried five people besides the driver.

They were guild mages, ten of them.

That was when Enji remembered that he was on his way to visit Tona, who had recently awakened. He hurried.

Skia, Silma, Nilsei, and Popa were waiting for him.

“What took you so long?” Silma chided him.

“I was watching the dragons.”

“What’s so special about some lizards?” Skia looked at Enji, puzzled.

Lizards? Those are dragons! Big fricking dragons! “Never seen one before.”

Enji followed the girls to the tent, where Tona and the other mage were recuperating their lost magic strength.

“Ahhh! They came to take me back again!”

Enji looked, confused, at the terrified elf who tried to edge away against the wall, pointing to the people who had arrived.

The other mage girl held Tona, trying to calm her.

“What matter of torture did you inflict on this girl?” Skia addressed his companions.

“We just captured her when she ran away,” Silma defended herself.

“Yes, that’s all we did. We also captured Enji Lo!” Popa proudly stated.

“Oi, long ears, snap out of it and listen to what we have to say.” Skia’s murderous look terrified the elf girl even further.

“I don’t want to talk! Get them out of here! Help!”

Skia turned around. “Let’s go!”

They left the tent.

“Stupid long ears!” Skia spat.

“Why is she so scared?” Enji asked. Skia ignored him.

“She always seemed a little jittery when she was at the farm. Always suspecting that we wanted to hurt her,” Nilsei replied.

“Paranoid?”

“I don’t know what that means.” Nilsei cocked her head to the side.

“It’s a word from where I come from to describe a mental illness.”

“My lord, I believe you may be right.”

Enji watched the girls ahead of him, realizing they each had a distinct personality with their own quirks. Nilsei is the deredere type, Popa the playful pet, Silma the tsundere, and Skia... I thought she was a dandere, but she hints more towards a yandere. I hope she doesn’t get out of hand.

With those thoughts in mind, Enji followed the girls, but his attention was soon diverted to a new dragon arrival.

From the basket-like passenger gondola attached to the dragon’s back, four figures descended.

Galakei approached them with her characteristic smile on her face.

“Amazed to see me, my disciple?”

“Welcome, Lady Galakei.” Enji bowed.

“Enji, nice to see you again.” Elpinia curtsied.

“Lord Hasegawa.” “Lord Enji.” Lia and Maka bowed.

“Welcome to all of you.”

“Enji, walk with me and tell me what has transpired.”

Enji explained to Galakei everything that had happened up to that moment.

“I see... Where is that stupid elf?”

They all returned to the tent they had just left. When they arrived at the entrance, a voice from inside reached them:

“...if we feign to be still incapacitated, we don’t have to fight those monsters. Let those stupid four ears and humans die, for all I care!”

Galakei moved aside the flap that covered the entrance. Enji and the girls followed. He wasn’t expecting to see what he saw at that moment. Tona was washed by the other mage girl with a sponge.

Before they had time to scream or protest, Galakei spoke, “You are a disgrace to the mages’ corps! Your people had always rubbed me the wrong way; so proud, so high and mighty, superior to all the other races. What you are is a bunch of kids throwing a tantrum at the slight inconvenience and blaming everyone else for your failure. High Elf, my foot! You are the lowest of the low!”

Enji had seen Galakei get mad before, but this time she was really on a roll.

“W-who... are you?” Tona asked, forgetting she was half naked.

“I’m the unique and magnificent Galakei [Kilai] Deadleaves!” She delivered her introduction in a stern voice, devoid of her usual, elaborate mannerisms.

“T-the Grand Mage!” the mage girl, terrified, uttered.

“I-I... I...” Tona stuttered incoherently.

“For what you had said, you could be hanged for treason!”

Tona dropped to her knees, her eyes flooded with tears, as she begged for leniency.

“Showing your paltry excuse of a chest in front of a lord. Lord Enji, do you want to enjoy her nakedness further, or should this elf cover her shameless body?”

Enji felt the eyes of four girls on him. Oh, boy! “She can cover herself. There’s nothing of interest for me to see.” Enji feigned indifference. What am I saying?! I was very much enjoying the view!

The mage girl hurried to bring Tona a blouse.

“Tell me, elf, do you have with you the grimoire you had at Eithea’s farm?”

“Yes!” Tona rose, hurried, and rummaged through her bag for the book. Enji enjoyed the view of the crouching girl. Nice legs! The elf girl had covered her chest with a blouse, but on her lower body, she only had the small bikini bottom that resembled a pair of white panties.

He quickly shifted his eyes elsewhere when he felt the glares again.

Galakei took the grimoire that Tona offered to her. “Ah, I see. This was a draft I wrote while transcribing the ancient magic spells. I’m taking this back, since it was stolen from me. You’ll receive the regular issued grimoire from the guild.”

“As you wish, Grand Mage,” Tona humbly replied.

“Ah, I was forgetting the most essential part. Did you thank your rescuers? Lord Enji was the one who entered the cursed chamber and carried you out.”

“What?! That human rescued me? A lowly human touched me?!”

“Be careful of what you spout, elf. You could become Lord Enji’s slave if I so wish it.”

“Apologies, Grand Mage. Apologies, Lord Enji. Thank you for saving this miserable elf’s life,” she shamelessly professed her insincere apology.

Whatever sympathy Enji felt for the Elf girl was gone when he realized how petty her behavior was. She was full of lies and deceit. The fright she showed before when seeing Silma and Popa was just an act.

“Lady Galakei, should we ask her about the summoning incantation?” Enji asked the mage in a whisper.

“There’s no need at the moment. There will be plenty of time later on.”

Enji wondered about Galakei’s cryptic reply as they left the tent.

***

“Remarkable, indeed!” was Galakei’s response upon seeing the goblin.

Oma had remained in Enji’s tent and was now breastfeeding her infant daughter.

“Thus, you acquired a new wife and had a baby with her.”

“She’s not! That’s not what happened!”

Oma looked at them, puzzled.

Galakei stopped laughing. “Calm down. You are scaring the child. Tell me, what do you intend to do with them?”

“I was going to ask your opinion. I was thinking of asking King Menidas for a piece of land where they can live safely.”

“There’s no need, you already own such land.”

“What land?” Enji looked at her, confused.

“Your villa. It has a considerable amount of land, which includes a forest.”

Are you for real? “I thought it was just an old house.”

“What gave you that idea? Nevertheless, you wanted to show me something.”

Enji pulled the old leather-bound book he found in the temple from his bag. “It is written in another language.”

“It is an ancient magic grimoire. The translation isn’t that difficult; the issue is that many of the terms are unclear... What were the words you used? Ah, yes! The elements and effects escape my understanding.”

“The thing is, since I touched this grimoire, I’m able to use magic without depleting the spellstones.”

“So, now you can use the [sug].”

“I don’t think it’s the ‘sug’, it felt different than when I’m connected to Skia or Maka, and magic flowed from them to me.”

Galakei leafed through the book. “It has some interesting spells...” She closed the book and looked at Enji. “...and since we are on the topic of spells, I studied the incantation Tona used to summon you. The wording is specific for bringing something to the person who summoned it, not for sending it away. I’m afraid that the spell is useless for returning you to your land.”

Enji remained silent, digesting what she had just said.