Toward the End

“Damn! This place is like a maze!”

Medrauta’s blade leapt through the air rapidly as she decapitated the heads of four soldiers who barred their way, all of them dissolving into clay and liquid instantly. Unfortunately for Medrauta and Viviane, Isadora didn’t exactly have much guidance to offer when it came to navigating the castle’s interior, and though the knight had intended to capture and interrogate one of the guards, they hadn’t run into a single human as of yet.

Perhaps I should’ve put more effort into breaking Dame Marilyn out of that damn trance, Medrauta thought for a moment before shaking her head. There was no time for regrets now that they were in the belly of the beast. The survival of the soldiers and knights who fought bravely outside now depended on her success, and there was no way she’d allow them to die simply because she couldn’t find a single person inside a castle. Despite that, the fact that there wasn’t a single human guard roaming the halls was incredibly frustrating.

Continuing down the hallway they were in, Medrauta led the way around a corner. She turned carefully, ensuring that she would be ready to counterattack even if there were a homunculus lying in wait to ambush her. Thankfully, there was nothing of the sort. In fact, the sheer emptiness of the hallway they stared down was eerily unsettling especially when compared to the heavily patrolled sections they’d just emerged from. As artificial beings, homunculi didn’t exactly have much presence to speak of, but Medrauta’s finely tuned instincts could still sense if danger laid ahead.

Strange... Medrauta frowned, her eyes flickering from door to door as she progressed down the hallway with Viviane close by her side. Though the noblewoman’s bow was unslung with an arrow already nocked and ready on its bowstring, Medrauta doubted that it’d be much use in close-quarters. She’d seen Sakura pull off some incredible feats of archery even from a near point-blank distance, but she doubted Viviane could do the same at the moment.

“Okay! I think I’ve got it!” Viviane said abruptly, completely derailing Medrauta’s train of thought and causing her to whirl around in surprise. The noblewoman beamed at her knight, pumping her fist in a gesture of victory that only served to intensify Medrauta’s moment of confusion.

“What? Got what?” Medrauta asked, thoroughly perplexed. After exiting the secret entrance, Viviane had fallen quiet even after their encounters with several homunculus patrols. Although Medrauta initially thought her lady’s silence had been brought on by exhaustion or deep contemplation, Viviane’s current expression told her otherwise.

“It was quite difficult, but I think I’ve got the hang of it now!” Viviane announced. “As it turns out, people are pretty easy to sense, especially knights since they’ve got so much more energy around them, but homunculi are kinda... Not there? It’s hard to describe, but it’s like you’re looking for something that’s absent instead of looking for something that’s present!”

“Huh.” Medrauta blinked, not knowing how she should respond. She understood the basics of what Viviane was trying to convey, but she didn’t truly understand its magnitude or how it functioned. “That’s, uh... That’s really awesome, Viviane!”

Of course, her lady acquiring a new skill made Medrauta happy, especially when Viviane had mentioned that ki sensing had been one of her weaknesses, but she wasn’t exactly sure how to praise Viviane due to her complete lack of knowledge on the subject. While she could sense killing intent and sometimes the presence of individuals attempting an ambush, she figured it was a much different sort of “sense” compared to what Viviane was describing. Based on the snippets she managed to pick up during her lady’s conversations with Sakura, the knight surmised that Viviane and Sakura could actually “see” an individual using this ability whereas Medrauta could only feel their presence.

Despite the pressing situation they were in, Viviane couldn’t help but giggle at Medrauta’s half-baked reaction. “Basically, it means we’re done running around like headless chickens. I couldn’t really get the hang of it no matter how Lady Sakura tried to teach me, but I guess having so many homunculi around helped. When you know what it feels like to look for something that isn’t there, it’s much easier to look for what is!”

“Go figure,” Medrauta grinned. “So how exactly does this work? Can you instantly map out the entire castle or something now?”

As silly as it sounded, Medrauta’s question was genuine. She had no idea how ki worked, and if she hadn’t known any better, she might’ve thought that it was magic at first glance. As a knight, she wasn’t exactly knowledgeable on the subject of mana either, and though she seemed to possess a plethora of knowledge regarding witches and their craft, she had no idea where that knowledge even came from in the first place. As far as she knew, a ki practitioner could even become capable of flying.

“If only,” Viviane grinned. “I’m still pretty new at this, so I’m not anywhere as skilled as Lady Sakura. I’m not sure if she could map a building, but she can probably sense things in a larger radius than I can, that’s for sure. For now, it’ll just make locating a real guard much easier!”

“Right. I’ll leave it to you, then.” Medrauta was already pretty tired of searching through rooms and dealing with whatever homunculi patrols they ended up running into, making Viviane’s newfound ability a welcome one.

With Viviane now leading the way, the pair encountered much less homunculi patrols. While some homunculi possessed heightened intelligence, the ones patrolling the castle’s interior were clearly designed to follow simple instructions and nothing else, allowing Medrauta and Viviane to avoid them easily now that the noblewoman was capable of sensing their presence far ahead of time and even through obstructions.

“Still no dice, huh?” Medrauta asked in a hushed voice. The two of them had already made their way through multiple sections of the castle and still hadn’t encountered any humans. It was incredibly strange considering how the nobles of Revelo fief’s knights should have been inside the castle, and fifty nobles packed into a building certainly weren’t easy to miss.

Viviane shook her head. “No. At this point, we might be better off trying to look for the room that Dame Isadora described. What was it again?”

“I think she mentioned it was a door encrusted with rubies or something,” Medrauta shrugged as she slipped past a patrol with Viviane. The homunculi continued down the hallway, following their directive while remaining oblivious to the pair’s presence. “Sounds a bit too fancy for a hidden entrance if you ask me.”

“That’s only if it was meant to be hidden in the first place,” Viviane said. “Dame Isadora said that she didn’t remember the door existing before Bastiche became the acting duke, and she said that it was near the nobles’ quarters, right? If so, I think I might know how to find it...”

While Viviane wasn’t entirely convinced of her own theory, it was still worth a shot. As a member of a ducal family, the noblewoman was familiar with the layout of not only mansions, but also palaces and castles. Although Viviane was no architectural expert, she was familiar enough with a castle’s layout to know the nobles’ quarters would most likely be on the second floor and near the castle’s central area as it was the safest section of the structure. The only problem was that the two of them hadn’t passed by any staircases or windows yet, but Viviane already had another solution in mind.

“Alright, stand back, Viviane.” Medrauta said as she prepared to launch herself upward. She didn’t exactly think Viviane’s plan of busting down a section of the ceiling instead of trying to find a set of stairs was very ‘“ingenious” despite the smug smile that adorned her lady’s face, but she was willing to give it a shot at the very least. The worst that could happen was the entire ceiling coming down on them, and Medrauta was confident she could protect Viviane should that happen.

Once she confirmed that her lady had stepped a safe distance away, Medrauta thrust her legs against the floor, launching herself upwards and swinging her fist mightily. The force of the blow caused the entirety of the hallway to shake violently even as the ceiling erupted into a burst of stone, wood, and an assortment of other construction materials that soon situated on the floor below. Medrauta herself was covered in various debris and dust, causing her to shake her head fiercely in an attempt to dislodge most of it like a duck shaking off water.

“It worked!” Viviane grinned, clapping her hands delightedly. She leaned over, patting Medrauta on the head. “Good work!”

“I’m never gonna get this shit out of my hair...” Medrauta grumbled as she wrapped an arm around her still-smiling lady’s waist and leapt upward through the hole she’d created. The two of them landed neatly on the second floor, finding themselves in an empty hallway lined with plush carpet. Across from them was a small window that granted them a limited view of the castle’s courtyard.

“The nobles’ quarters should be around this area, but I’m not sensing anyone.” Viviane frowned. “Not even homunculi.”

“Bastiche probably didn’t expect anyone to get this far.” Medrauta remarked as she set Viviane down once they’d moved a good distance away from the hole. She was sure that the homunculus guards on the first floor had heard the commotion and would soon investigate within minutes, leaving the two of them with limited time to begin planning out their route through the second floor.

Thankfully, it didn’t take Viviane long to choose a direction, and one that she strode down with confidence. With her eyes fixed forward and her hand clasped firmly around Medrauta’s while she led the knight through the castle’s interior, Medrauta had the feeling that Viviane somehow knew exactly where they were going.

“Did you sense something?” Medrauta asked as Viviane strode briskly, the noblewoman’s leather shoes soundless against the soft carpet.

“...Something like that.” Viviane replied with a dark look on her face. “It’s not a person, but... I don’t know. It’s something evil. Very evil.”

“Yeah, I got that part. And it’s radiating from that room?” Medrauta indicated the door they were heading toward. It was a plain oak door, and though it was decorated with gold and carved designs befitting a noble’s room, there wasn’t really anything special about it. At least, it wasn’t ruby encrusted.

Viviane nodded as she stopped in front of the door. Her hand reached towards the doorknob almost hesitantly as if she were afraid to even touch it. Sensing her lady’s apprehension, Medrauta stepped in front of her lady and grasped it instead, flinging the door wide open with her sword at the ready.

“...Well, well, well.” Medrauta shook her head with a sigh. She could feel no malicious intent in the room despite feeling Viviane suddenly cling to her arm, but she needed no sixth sense to know what had caused her lady’s reaction.

The door revealed an opulent room decorated with a plethora of luxuries that Medrauta could never have imagined. Glistening bed sheets woven with golden threads, luxurious clothing imported from the East, and even half-eaten gourmet dishes littered the vast room. However, none of those drew the silver-haired knight’s attention.

Standing before them was the ruby-encrusted door that they sought, and though it remained closed, Medrauta instinctively knew what awaited them behind it. With a deep breath, Medrauta steeled her resolve and turned to her lady.

“Are you ready, Vivi?”

Viviane grip around her knight’s arm only tightened at those words, drawing strength from Medrauta’s presence before she responded.

“...As ready as I’ll ever be.”