“What?”
N-No, wait.
Did my magnificent chest muscles seriously just ruin everything?
“You said you bastards have been living in the Underground City all this time! Then you can spend the rest of your lives rotting in an underground prison! You…… parasites who’ll spend your entire lives underground!”
“How does one button flying off somehow lead to that conclusion-.”
“That’s it. I’m calling the guards right now! Guards! Over here, guards-!”
“……!”
CLACK!
[Aileen’s new Trait, 【Intermittent Madness(-)】, is on the verge of awakening!]
Aileen’s silver-armored hand had already moved toward her Ironwood Sword.
Her breathing came in ragged, irregular bursts.
Her face was twisted so badly that she almost looked like a completely different person…….
‘This is driving me insane.’
Her eyes were completely gone.
“Aileen, wait! You mustn’t bite him!”
I immediately sprang forward and blocked Aileen with my entire body just as her eyes rolled with madness and she tried to lunge at him again.
Damn it, she’s human, so I can’t exactly put a muzzle and leash on her!
[Warning! - Engaging in combat within the city may cause your Morality Value to decrease significantly due to civilian casualties…….]
Even the combat warning had appeared.
‘……Charles, you’re my only option now!’
Squeak?
I reached toward my final hidden card.
The soft Silk-Furred Rat nestled inside my clothes.
Just then—
CRASH!
All the apples piled on the fruit stall spilled onto the ground at once.
‘Huh?’
ROLL, ROLL, ROLL-.
The little apples rolled adorably through the middle of the market street.
Everyone’s attention instantly turned toward them.
The fruit shop owner, who had been shouting for the guards, was no exception.
“Oh no, no! What is this?! My apples! My apples!”
CRUNCH!
Then came the crisp sound of someone taking a bite from an apple nearby.
“Hmm. Guess I was mistaken?”
“……?”
“They say the terrorist is filthy and looks terrifying, right? But these people all look perfectly presentable. Shopkeeper, I think I might’ve gotten the wrong idea.”
The black-haired woman.
Hecate winked at us.
‘……Is she helping us?’
Or was she simply trying to prevent a fight?
Either way, it worked in my favor.
Hecate pointed toward Achilles beside her and continued.
“And he’ll pay for all the apples that fell. He stepped backward just now and caught his foot on the stall.”
“W-What? I did?”
“Knowing you, this whole mess probably happened because of that cursed heel of yours again.”
“Th-That……!”
Achilles touched his heel a couple of times with a bewildered expression, then opened his wallet and began paying for the fallen apples.
“M-My apologies, shopkeeper……. It wasn’t intentional! My heel is afflicted with a terrible curse…….”
“What, so you did this? Look what happened to all my apples! I can’t sell anything that hit the ground!”
“Th-Then would buying about three baskets’ worth be enough? Of course, I’ll be deducting the price of that rotten apple you sold me earlier…….”
While Achilles frantically worked out the payment, Hecate left the bruised apples on the ground and swiftly picked out only the pristine ones still displayed on the stall, filling her basket with them.
“Want one too?”
Perhaps trying to make us accomplices, she handed an apple each to Rian and me.
“And one for the scary-looking lady over there!”
Finally, she tossed an apple toward Aileen as well.
……CRUSH!
Aileen’s silver hand squeezed it so hard that the apple burst on the spot, spraying juice everywhere.
“Whoa…….”
Hecate’s eyes widened like a startled cat.
Now that I looked closely, one of her eyes was a slightly different shade from the other.
A pair of blue-toned odd eyes.
“Wait, the numbers don’t add up! And you only took the good apples! You damn bastards!”
The fruit shop owner belatedly wailed as he searched for the two adventurers who had already disappeared.
‘Now!’
We hurriedly slipped away while he was distracted.
Fortunately, after all those apples rolled noisily across the street and occupied the shopkeeper’s attention, no one came after us.
.
.
.
[Your infamy is spreading throughout the Empire!]
“Have you heard? They say the ghost of the Underground City made a pact with a demon to take revenge on the Empire!”
“You mean that monster carrying a spear as large as a house? I heard he has three eyes, his jaw splits into five parts, and the stench of blood pours off his entire body.”
“They say he looks like something that crawled straight out of hell. Apparently, he’s an incredibly disgusting and hideous brute!”
DING!
DING, DING!
[Your Fame is rapidly increasing.]
[Fame + 1]
[Fame + 1]
[Fame + 1]
…….
[Current Fame: 17]
[Warning! - If your Fame becomes excessively high, unexpected special events may occur.]
* * *
After walking for quite some time, we finally managed to leave the crowded shopping district behind.
There happened to be no one around the massive tree standing near the outskirts, so we decided to climb up and hide among its branches.
Rian was staggering and bleeding from his mouth and nose, probably because of the Mana Backlash, so I personally carried him up on my back.
‘The foliage is thick enough that it’ll be hard for anyone to notice us.’
The tree was so tall that we could see clearly beyond the city walls.
The view was not bad, either.
“Let’s rest here for a little while.”
“…….”
“…….”
[The Heroes are under extreme stress.]
[Warning! - If a Hero is driven too far mentally, an unexpected incident may occur.]
Anyway,
The state of the party was terrible.
‘They haven’t eaten properly or slept. They lost their home overnight, and everyone around them was massacred…….’
On top of that, they had been forced to watch a companion who had been captured and tortured finally find his rest.
In a way, it would have been stranger if their minds were perfectly fine.
“Just hold on a little longer. We’ll have a chance to get out of here soon.”
We only needed to endure a little more.
According to the original game, a major event was about to occur.
All we had to do was use the chaos to slip out of the capital.
‘Everything up until now was only the opening act. The prologue has only just begun.’
The finale of Chapter 1 was about to begin.
From that point onward, red-corrupted areas would start spreading across the Empire.
And then came the central feature—the very heart—of the roguelike genre.
Underground dungeons…….
The Red Labyrinths would begin appearing one after another throughout the Empire.
Only by clearing them could the red corruption spreading across the land finally be stopped.
And only then could this world be protected from the true villains behind everything.
The wicked remnants of Ailant, who had supposedly offered up their own souls as payment in order to destroy the Empire.
…….
……Or at least, that was how the setting went.
‘But we weren’t the ones who did this in the first place, were we?’
More importantly, the Ailant people who were supposed to be the villains were now my own faction.
My head hurt.
Still, this was supposed to be the final stage that closed out Chapter 1.
Was it really all right to escape the capital without clearing the dungeon?
Really?
‘Ah, I just want to go home already…….’
Just as I pictured a soft bed, an ice-cold cola, and every kind of digital entertainment from my old world—
RUMBLE!
Far beyond the city walls, in the middle of the open ground.
Something resembling tangled crimson veins began pushing its way up from beneath the earth.
“Lord Setanta! There’s something strange outside the walls……!”
“…….”
“The ground is rising!”
SQUELCH, SQUELCH…….
After a short yet strangely long span of time, the thing finally took the form of a blood-red bud protruding from the ground.
It had only just begun to pulse…….
Like a beating heart.
[Warning! - A powerful flow of mana has been detected nearby!]
For an instant, the sky turned crimson.
“L-Lord Setanta, w-what in the world is that……!”
“What on earth is that……?”
Rian and Aileen stared in horror.
And then…….
‘What the hell? Why is it that huge?’
I was so shocked that I almost fell out of the tree.
The first Labyrinth in the original game was definitely supposed to be the smallest and easiest version.
I held my breath and stared beyond the city walls from atop the tree.
People were running around in panic.
Blue-cloaked Imperial Knights rushed out with their swords drawn…….
Soon, the city gates opened, and the Imperial Army hastily formed ranks and marched outside.
BOOOOM!
Then an enormous sphere of magic cast by the Imperial Mages flew straight into the crimson bud.
‘Whoa, hey, you shouldn’t do that.’
Sure enough.
The instant an ominous red vapor rose from the point of impact—
SPLASH!
A liquid resembling blood sprayed in every direction and soaked the earth.
It looked as though a heart were bursting apart, healing itself, then bursting again.
It was quite a grotesque sight.
Screams soon followed.
The Imperial soldiers drenched in liquid from the crimson bud began convulsing one after another as their bodies twisted into bizarre forms.
[Warning! - Numerous monsters have appeared nearby!]
‘This is why you don’t put units with low resistance on the front line…….’
Still, the disturbance worked in our favor.
If we were going to escape the capital, now was the time.
“Aileen, Rian! Now! Everyone’s attention is on the monsters. We need to escape through the gates!”
I immediately led them down from the tree.
The Imperial capital had once again descended into absolute chaos.
Outside the open gates, monsters were pouring in without end.
“This is a blind spot! We’ll wait here for a moment, then leave once the number of monsters drops!”
I led the party up onto a ledge above an alleyway and hid there.
Under the crimson sky, screams continued without pause.
‘There are more monsters than I expected. Some of them even look fairly strong…….’
The difficulty had gone completely insane.
This was only Chapter 1, so why did the scene look like something from the middle stages of the game?
“Setanta, how much longer must we wait? Perhaps because of all that running, Rian’s condition appears to be worsening rapidly…….”
“Give him to me. I’ll carry him when we make our run.”
I leaned my head over the side of the ledge and roughly gauged the distance to the city gate.
Hmm.
This was awkward.
‘If we sprint full speed toward the gate…… no. The monsters are too fast. There’s a good chance they’ll catch us.’
What should I do?
At this rate, it looked as though we would barely be able to escape even if we had a horse—
NEIGH!
At that moment, a small white horse caught my eye.
Its owner did not seem to be anywhere nearby.
“Let’s take that horse! Right now!”
I immediately hoisted Rian onto my back, ran over with Aileen, and climbed onto the horse.
NEIGHHHHH-!
The horse thrashed in surprise after suddenly finding itself carrying three people.
“Easy, easy…….”
After somehow calming it down, I was just about to make it run when—
“What the hell are you people doing……?”
A woman’s voice came from behind me.
I turned around.
Hecate was staring up at us with an utterly baffled expression.
She was the woman who had been with Achilles back at the fruit shop.
“Why are you riding our pony……?”
“…….”
“Are you thieves? Are you seriously stealing it?”
She was supporting a limp Achilles beside her.
He had apparently injured himself again somewhere, because blood was streaming from his ankle.
‘Damn it……. No wonder the color of that mane looked familiar.’
The horse already had an owner.
And apparently, it belonged to the very woman who had helped us at the fruit shop earlier.
“Setanta, it seems that horse has an owner……! I think we should return it immediately.”
“…….”
But what would happen if I gave up the horse now?
The highly capable Mage who had proven his worth until now would most likely die.
My precious SSR Hero, who might be impossible to replace with anyone else all the way to the ending.
[Warning! - Immoral choices decrease a Hero’s Morality Value!]
‘What should I do?’
I considered it for a moment.
“……Thanks for the apple! Hyah!”
“What?!”
I simply ignored Hecate.
Then I kicked the horse into motion.
“Sorry, but we’re borrowing your horseeeeee!”