Ambush (2)
"Here, here, try eating this too. How is it? Tasty, right?"
"Hmm, not bad. This is fitting enough as my tribute."
"It must have been really hot, but you're eating so well! Seriously, people are never what they seem!"
"I'm not a huma... Eh, whatever."
Once the Inquisitors left, we returned to the tavern and resud our lavish drinking party.
The rcenaries, far more excited than just before, poured alcohol into their mouths nearly nonstop.
And at the center of those rcenaries was rsaya, sitting confidently while accepting the food handed to her.
Judging by her bright smile, being revered by everyone must have felt quite delightful for her.
[Is that what they an about giving another rice cake to a slow child?]
'Eh, from the rcenaries' point of view, maybe they just think of her as a cute little sister or an adorable daughter.'
Although she was being treated a bit like a slow-witted child, rsaya herself was mostly unaware of that fact.
On the other hand, Kisea and Ian visibly seed disappointed, perhaps at missing the chance to fight the Inquisitors.
"Don't be so disappointed. Anyway, I think another chance will co soon enough."
It seed Sehenz picked up on their mood, tapping his large mug on the table as he spoke.
Then, turning his gaze toward , he gave a smirk.
"Well, I'm sure you already suspect as much."
"You're overestimating ."
"Overestimating? Just look at all the trouble you've caused until now."
Sehenz made such a flabbergasted expression that it seed like he genuinely couldn't believe what I'd just said.
"Thinking about what I heard from Rutia... Well, never mind, that's all water under the bridge anyway. But more importantly, what are you going to do?"
"You an the Inquisitors?"
"Yeah. After provoking them so blatantly, they must be seething."
I simply shrugged at his words.
Honestly, those guys would have started sothing even without being provoked. It was better to have them show their hostility out in the open where it was obvious.
"Of course, we'll need to be careful. I think they'll target Sehenz."
"... Wouldn't they be more likely to target you?"
"They might co for as well, just as a bonus."
With this latest provocation, their enmity toward might have grown enough to put on their target list, too.
But now that the number of Inquisitors entering the corridor was cut in half, I felt confident we could respond.
'After all, we have four Sword Masters and a dragon.'
I wanted to sound relaxed saying this, but the other side also had four Sword Masters.
If rsaya hadn't taken care of one, we'd have had to face all five as Sword Masters.
'But... sothing about that didn't sit right with .'
The Swordmaster who fought rsaya, even accounting for possible carelessness, was still too weak.
The rank of Swordmaster isn't sothing achieved just because you have a lot of magic power; even without magic, a Swordmaster is still fundantally different from others.
Yet, for him to have been taken down so easily by rsaya...
[Isn't it odd how many Sword Masters they seem to have with them?]
'True. If you count Jerta and even those who weren't present, they've got at least seven Sword Masters. Whatever their real intentions...'
By tomorrow, everything would be revealed.
If things went as expected, they'd definitely pull sothing in the demonkin's corridor.
* * *
The next day, we headed straight for the demonkin's corridor.
There, ten Inquisitors were already stationed and waiting for us.
Sehenz, scanning over them, spoke coldly, his eyes turning frosty.
"You're not thinking of breaking your promise, are you?"
"We never break our promises, no matter how unreasonable they are."
The five of them getting wiped out by rsaya had all been because they'd made a cowardly proposal first, and yet, they genuinely seed to believe we'd tricked them.
"Hmph, how ridiculous. Human wretches, so weak."
At Luem's words, rsaya snorted under her breath, causing the guy to snap his focus onto her.
"Co to think of it, that kid's behavior caught my interest. It's not how an ordinary child would act..."
As Luem nailed her with a sharp glare, rsaya's face stiffened, mocking grin fading.
"Is she perhaps a heretic? Now that I think about it, it's strange for soone her age to have those skills."
He projected a calm deanor, but his eyes shone with a peculiar madness, especially when he stared at others like now.
"N-no, I'm not a heretic..."
Apparently intimidated, rsaya tugged on my sleeve and tried to hide behind .
As I'd noticed before, rsaya was actually quite timid and easily scared.
"Hey! Are you trying to accuse our kid of heresy just because she's a little ntally off?"
"You call yourselves priests after that? Huh? If a kid's sick, you should help her, not pick on her!"
Thinking Luem was bullying rsaya, the other rcenaries stepped in front of her, forming a barrier.
rsaya looked sincerely touched seeing the rcenaries doing that, though her expression turned a bit complicated at what they said next.
[They're kinda teasing her, aren't they?]
'I think the rcenaries genuinely want to help rsaya...'
Everyone seed to find rsaya endearing.
Probably.
"... Fine. I'll let it go, since it's not important right now. As I said before, we'll take the lead in investigating the corridor."
"What...!"
The other rcenaries tried to protest again at Luem's words, but Sehenz raised a hand, instantly quieting them.
Then, with perfect composure, he nodded.
"Fine. Do as you please."
"Elder brother!?"
"We're just hired to complete a task, so as long as the job gets done, it's all the sa to us. I won't stir up useless conflict."
Luem gave a strange smile at Sehenz's smooth handling of things.
"As expected of one of the Seven Heroes. I admire your sense of professionalism."
So rcenaries were clearly grinding their teeth, but none dared voice their protest.
"... Will that be enough?"
"Yes."
Watching Luem enter the corridor first, Sehenz whispered softly to .
"It's easiest to understand their intentions if you let them do things their way first."
"Ha, looks like we're almost done, but things just got troubleso."
"I think they'll show their true colors soon anyway."
At least, according to what I saw in the synopsis.
After exchanging glances, we followed the Inquisitors into the corridor.
Now, the real search was underway.
* * *
"Haaah!"
With Luem's vigorous shout, the charging monster was cleaved in half, collapsing in a heap.
The Inquisitors were a suspicious bunch, but it was true that in the demonkin's corridor, they displayed overwhelming strength.
Just as I had run rampant using Divine Blood, their magic power also contained a noticeable amount of holy power. Monsters fell in agony whenever struck by the Inquisitors.
"Tch."
Watching the Inquisitors, the rcenaries clicked their tongues and shook their heads.
"I don't like it, but their skill is real."
"How on earth did Setram raise so many people like that?"
It had been five days now since we started searching the demonkin's corridor with the Inquisitors.
Surprisingly, those guys hadn't caused any trouble and had been focusing solely on their search.
At this point, even the rcenaries' suspicion toward the Inquisitors had faded considerably.
'That must be how even Sehenz and Fabian let their guard down and got caught.'
Honestly, if it weren't for knowing the synopsis, I might have let my guard down as well. Even Sehenz seed confused whether they really were enemies.
'But the real problem is...'
[What, there's another problem?]
'Yeah. By now, the demonkin should have started showing up.'
We were currently in the fifth floor section.
Considering we'd searched from floor four to five in five days, it was a pretty fast pace.
'Strange—why haven't I seen any yet?'
In the original story, as the protagonists made quick progress through the corridor, demonkin would appear before them.
[You an what you asked about before? About what level of demonkin to expect in the corridor.]
'Yeah, but back then, I hadn't read the full synopsis.'
Even so, the synopsis never gave any specifics about the strength of the demonkin.
It was only ntioned toward the end, and by the next chapter, it started right at "after the demonkin were repelled, then ambushed by the Inquisitors."
In other words, the appearance of the demonkin and the fight were really just signals that the Inquisitors' ambush was about to happen.
But since the demonkin weren't appearing, I had no clue when or how the Inquisitors might betray us.
"There seems to be a core nearby."
At that mont, one Inquisitor approached Luem and said this.
I was a bit taken aback upon hearing that.
'A core?'
In the original, the specific location of the core was never even ntioned.
The reason was obvious.
They never had ti to find it—Fabian's party got ambushed by the Inquisitors and had to escape down the corridor.
After that, Fabian evaded Setram's pursuit and ended up at so valley.
"Good. Lead the way. Feels like this tedious search will soon be over."
Luem simply replied in businesslike tones, following the Inquisitor's lead.
"They don't seem to be doing anything suspicious."
"Indeed... it's a bit different from what you told ."
Sehenz looked puzzled, since the Inquisitors' response was different from what I'd described.
"Well, you could just have gotten it wrong, so try not to worry about it. It'd actually be best if nothing happened."
"... That's true."
I nodded, but I still couldn't shake my doubts. It felt like I was missing sothing.
"The monsters' behavior is odd."
Then Ian spoke to in a casual tone.
"The monsters' behavior is odd?"
"Their approach patterns as they tried to ambush us have subtly shifted. Almost as if..."
"Hold up. Let check directly."
Ian had the best detection skills among us, but by now, even I could replicate so of it.
I radiated magic power and felt for monster movents. If anything seed off, I checked with Eye of Insight for details.
"Hey! What are you slacking for? Get over here already!"
The Inquisitors up ahead called us over impatiently.
It was then that we moved toward the spot where the core had been found.
As we walked, I kept sensing magic, and saw many things with the Eye of Insight.
"There's a space on the other side of this wall. I think the core will be there."
"Good job, husell."
Luem praised the subordinate who discovered the space, drew his sword, and struck the wall.
The wall collapsed with a roar, revealing a wide, empty cavern on the other side, just as Husell had said.
"Is that... the core of the corridor?"
Soone muttered, dazed, staring at it.
Floating in the center of the cavern was a glowing purple orb.
Eerie demonic energy constantly spread from it, giving birth to monsters and sustaining the passage to the demon realm.
A clear barrier surrounded the core, looking tough enough that ordinary attacks would hardly leave a scratch.
"What do you think? I'll let you have the honor of finishing things."
While I was gazing steadily at the core, luem walked up and spoke to us.
Naturally, Sehenz wasn't about to take his words at face value.
"Oh? Why so generous all of a sudden?"
"Our only goal is to destroy the corridor. It doesn't matter who does it."
Judging just by his words, nothing seed out of place.
But that didn't an we could take him at face value.
"No thanks. We'll just watch; you can finish things however you want."
"Hmph, fine."
Luem showed no particular regret and stepped up toward the core with the other Inquisitors.
And just as he raised his sword to destroy the core—
Sehenz's shadow suddenly writhed.
Kang!
"What the—?!"
A black blade darted out of the shadow, slicing toward Sehenz's waist, but he easily shattered it and leapt aside.
Frowning as he sensed the rapidly fleeing "sothing",
Sehenz squinted.
"So, the demonkin finally show up."
From the shifting shadows cast by the core's light, seven demonkin appeared.
They blocked the entrance through which we had entered.
"Damn! Of all tis, they attack now?!"
Luem shouted in a panic.
The other Inquisitors also looked flustered, gripping their weapons with tense faces.
"We have the core at our backs! They won't easily charge at us!"
If the core is destroyed, the corridor completely collapses in about an hour.
That ans if you break the core, there won't be ti for a battle.
"We must hold out against their assault near the core! Everyone, gather here!"
Fighting near the core ant the demonkin wouldn't be able to attack us aggressively.
If the core broke by accident, we'd all be buried together.
So Luem's strategy made perfect sense.
Even Sehenz nodded in approval.
"Truly."
But not .
I simply gave a vague smile and looked at Luem.
"What are you doing, with the demonkin right in front of us!"
"Drop the act."
"What?"
I shrugged, glancing between the demonkin and the Inquisitors.
"That's not even the real core."
"...!"
Luem's eyes widened slightly at my words.
As we approached, I was already keeping an eye on the demonkin's movents.
It was undetectable by ordinary senses, but I'd already seen the "Shadow Clan" moving with the Eye of Insight before.
"There was no need to separate them after all."
With a calm sigh, I clenched my fists.
At first, when I read the synopsis, I thought Fabian's group was ambushed by the Inquisitors while fighting the demonkin.
That guess was basically right.
Just a minor detail was off.
"To think, from the start, they were working together."
The demonkin in this corridor and the Inquisitors were allies from the start.
There was no point in trying to distinguish the two all along.
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