“Especially this muscular man! Judging by the remarkable vitality that has kept him alive this long, one or two arrows should not kill him. He is unconscious, so he will not feel any pain either.”
“…….”
“If we hold him up in front of us and break through quickly, it should be possib—”
“You insane Imperial bastard! Why should my companion have to become a meat shield?!”
Naturally, Hecate, his companion, immediately flew into a rage and snapped back.
“Young lady of the Rom Federation, you should let your lover go now. He has already lost consciousness, has he not?”
“Are you insane? He and I are family! What, do you Imperial bastards sleep with your own blood relatives?”
“No, what sort of young lady speaks…… How can your language be so vulgar?!”
Their heated argument continued for some time.
‘……Hm? What is that?’
Something resembling faintly shifting letters on the wall suddenly caught my eye.
At first glance, they looked like words engraved into the stone…….
A phrase?
Was it some kind of hint?
“Everyone, take a look over here. There are some words carved into the wall.”
I immediately pointed toward the inscription and called out to the others.
Soon, murmurs broke out as everyone gathered around the wall.
The inscription reads as follows.
「Pass through in order of nobility.」
「If you do not agree with this, turn back without delay.」
‘Is this a trap with a special condition?’
This was…… an extremely rare type of special trap.
And it had appeared here of all places?
“Order of nobility…… Surely this refers to the dignity of one’s bloodline?”
“Everyone! Line up in order of ducal houses, count’s houses, and baronial houses! Ah, anyone who is not the child of the lawful wife is excluded!”
“Could it perhaps refer to rank within the knight order? If your houses are of equal standing, let us divide ourselves once more according to our positions within the order!”
The bastards efficiently sorted themselves according to rank among themselves.
Eventually, they lined up with the knights first and the ordinary soldiers afterward.
Since most members of the Imperial Knight Orders were the children of noble families, the common soldiers naturally ended up pushed toward the back.
‘What an absurd spectacle…….’
Apparently, more sons who had failed to inherit titles or had been pushed aside by their families joined the Imperial Knight Orders than I had expected.
‘But why are those three knights in blue cloaks standing at the back instead of the front?’
Now that I looked closely, even James, an Imperial Knight, had been pushed all the way to the rear, standing in nearly the same position as the ordinary soldiers.
……Was that bastard a commoner?
DING!
[TIP – With the exception of the commander and vice commander, every member of the Imperial 7th Knight Order, which is responsible for compulsory enforcement, comes from a commoner background.]
A message appeared at that moment.
‘There are three Imperial Knights standing in the rear, including James…….’
I glanced at their faces.
All three of them had honest, upright-looking faces.
‘……Is one of them the mentioned in the quest?’
【An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth】
-Find someone who participated in the attack on the Underground City and take revenge!
‘If all three of them die, maybe the quest will automatically fail?’
……Oops!
I had entertained an unkind thought.
Good thoughts. Good thoughts.
Just as I was correcting my mindset—
“As a member of a great ducal house, I shall lead the way!”
A knight who was supposedly the son of a duke stepped to the front and began walking forward with trembling steps.
It seemed the procession through the arrow trap had just begun.
“Uh…… Uhh……! The arrows really are not firing!”
“It is true! Keep moving forward!”
Hm?
‘It actually works?’
The trap had not activated.
Apparently, their ridiculous Imperial system of ranking people by status really had worked.
‘If we follow the Imperial hierarchy…… after the Imperial commoners would come the Rom Federation, and Ailant, as a vassal state, would be last.’
I watched the Imperial Knights march along in the ridiculous order of duke’s son, count’s son, baron’s son, and illegitimate child.
“……Hm?”
Then I heard someone quietly muttering beside me and instinctively turned my head.
“N-No, no, no…… They are all going to die at this rate…… That is not right. They cannot do that—”
“……?”
Hecate was beside me, gnawing anxiously at her fingers as she muttered.
“What is wrong? The trap is not activating. Is there some kind of problem?”
“We were never supposed to take this path in the first place…… We have to turn back…….”
“Why?”
“……It is a feeling. We just cannot go this way!”
She clutched at her hair again, looking tormented.
‘What is this uneasy feeling?’
Some SSR heroes possessed exceptional abilities.
The power to foresee the future, monstrous strength that no one else could match, the ability to wield their own Mythic-Grade Equipment…….
Depending on their respective Unique Myths, some came with all sorts of extraordinary abilities as additional traits.
……If that was the case.
‘Could this girl have an exceptionally powerful ability to foresee danger?’
But the trap was not activated.
Was there something I had overlooked?
A community post I had read a long time ago suddenly came to mind.
-Does this game not care about historical accuracy, yet somehow get weirdly serious about it at the same time?
└What does that even mean?
└King Arthur can be a woman, but no matter what you do, she cannot enter the rogue progression because she has no aptitude for it. All because of “historical accuracy.”
└What are you talking about? King Arthur was always a woman.
‘If she is a newly released character in this game, then her abilities must be closely connected to her Unique Myth.’
I sank into thought for a moment.
Hecate.
The Goddess of the Moon and Night.
And the Goddess of Life and Death, Boundaries, and Crossroads…….
……Hm?
Wait a moment.
‘The boundary between life and death?’
A hypothesis flashed through my mind.
And with it came an ominous certainty.
“Rian, Aileen! We are staying here. Do not go any farther yet!”
“What? What do you mean, Setanta? Everyone else crossed safely……?”
“Do not set even one foot inside!”
One of the most powerful categories of traits in this game was the .
Perhaps Hecate possessed a special ability derived from her Unique Myth.
After all, she was the Goddess of Life and Death and Crossroads.
Yes, something like…….
‘The ability to sense the boundary where life leads directly into death.’
In other words.
She might be able to sense the aura of being utterly doomed.
“Huh? Why is the path ahead blocked?”
“We passed through the trap, so there should be another passage here! It cannot possibly be a dead end……!”
Sure enough.
I heard the bewildered voices of the knights who had reached the other side.
“Wait! Everyone, look at the ceiling! The holes are not only on the left and right. The ceiling is covered in them as well!”
“Huh? Uh……?”
A brief silence followed.
“Uh…… U-Uwaaaaaaaaaagh—!”
Then countless spikes dropped from the ceiling directly above the entire knight order.
SHNK!
[……returns to the Goddess’s embrace.]
[……returns to the Goddess’s embrace.]
Dark crimson blood pooled together, forming a red lake in the distance.
Everyone who had crossed the path was wiped out.
In an instant.
“S-Setanta…… This is…….”
“……There is another sentence on the wall now.”
Beneath the inscription on the wall, a new message had appeared before we knew it.
「There is no order of nobility.」
「There is only an order in which you go first.」
Every precious scion of the Imperial nobility had been skewered to death on spikes…….
* * *
‘I cannot believe this.’
Every Imperial Knight who had crossed the arrow trap had been impaled and wiped out.
Everyone except the three blue-cloaked Imperial Knights who had been standing at the back because they were commoners.
[Imperial Knight James’s Mental State deteriorates.]
“This is a nightmare. There is no possible way such an absurd reality can exist…….”
“…….”
“Is that not so?! Someone, anyone, answer me! Where are the glorious knights of the Imperial House now?!”
“They are over there, impaled on those spikes.”
When I pointed them out with my hand, James laughed as though he had lost his mind.
“Ha, ha, hahaha…….”
[The target hero is under extreme stress.]
[Status Effect - Mental Breakdown!]
His eyes rolled strangely, and he began circling the same spot while muttering.
His Majesty, His Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty…….
Listening to him was enough to make me feel like I was going insane myself.
‘If you are going to lose your mind, at least do it quietly.’
Even the ordinary soldiers nearby were already beginning to panic.
This was precisely why managing a party’s morale was so important.
Anxiety was contagious.
‘Compared to them, look at how composed the first three heroes I summoned are.’
Ferdi had laughed heartily even in the face of death.
Rian was still trembling now, but he was holding up reasonably well.
And Aileen was…….
‘Hm?’
……What?
The corners of her mouth were slightly raised.
Thinking I had imagined it, I rubbed my eyes and looked again.
‘No, she really is smiling.’
A faint smile.
Clear, transparent eyes.
With the same fresh expression she had worn before the Underground City was destroyed, she stared at the group of blue-cloaked knights who had all been skewered together.
At the knights whose cloaks were now so drenched in blood that they could no longer be called blue.
[Aileen’s Mental State stabilizes.]
“Setanta, it was thanks to your warning that we survived.”
“…….”
Aileen continued in a gentle voice.
Even her expression and tone felt exactly as they had before the destruction of the Underground City.
She looked astonishingly like her old self.
“As always, I can only marvel at your remarkable insight.”
“……It was not me. This person here sensed the danger.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“This woman. The one whose horse we stole.”
I jerked my chin toward Hecate, who was sitting on the ground and trembling.
Aileen’s eyes slowly turned toward her.
“Your name was…… Hecate, was it not?”
“…….”
“Thank you. May the protection of Ailant be with you as well!”
Aileen smiled softly and gently patted Hecate on the shoulder.
At that moment, Hecate flinched.
Almost as though she were frightened.
‘Well, at least our side seems to be in relatively good mental condition…….’
Aileen’s behavior bothered me somewhat.
But after looking at James, who had lost his mind and was walking in circles while muttering to himself, our situation seemed positively respectable by comparison.
“Setanta, my Mana Nerves seem to have stabilized to some extent now.”
“Oh.”
“I think I should be able to cast one spell without difficulty.”
As it happened, our Dark Mage’s casting cooldown had finally reset as well.
It was time to resume conquering the dungeon.
「Pass through in order of nobility.」
「If you do not agree with this, turn back without delay.」
‘It said to turn back if we did not agree.’
“Everyone, let us turn back just as the inscription on the wall instructed. Perhaps a new path has appeared!”
I took out my spear and led the way.
The remaining Imperial soldiers stared blankly at one another before eventually staggering to their feet and following me.
[Your high Charisma makes your words more persuasive.]
The other two blue-cloaked knights hesitated for quite some time before finally taking the deranged James with them and following behind me.
We continued like that for some time.
“Look over there! There is suddenly a fork in the road that was not there before!”
“What? That path was not there earlier.”
“Just as that man said, a new path really has appeared!”
The passage we had traveled through earlier had changed into a fork.
‘……But is this choice not ridiculously unbalanced?’
The left path was sinister and drenched in blood-red light.
The right path was brightly illuminated, almost as though it led directly toward heaven.
‘What am I supposed to make of this?’
I narrowed my eyes and stared suspiciously ahead.
At a glance, the left seemed like a direct route to the Boss Room.
The right appeared to lead back to the surface.
“An exit…… It is an exit! God has not abandoned us!”
“O God! Thank you for saving us!”
“Let us take the right path immediately!”
Sure enough.
The Imperial soldiers’ faces lit up as they rushed toward the right path in a crowd.
“We can finally get outside! We can receive treatment……!”
The soldiers whose mutations had progressed considerably were especially overjoyed.
They had believed they would either die here or turn into monsters, only for a lifeline to suddenly descend before them. Their reaction was hardly surprising.
‘But is it really safe?’
Ever since I fell into this damned world, events that differed from the original game had screwed me over again and again.
There was no way things would be this easy, was there?
“……Hecate, what do you think about those two paths?”
I immediately asked Hecate.
The Hidden Route-exclusive SSR hero who probably possessed a rare trait…….
“You sensed something was wrong with the arrow trap earlier, did you not? What about this time?”
“The right path…….”
“Yes?”
“If we go to the right…….”
Gulp.
She swallowed.
“We will definitely die. In a single blow, we will be sent straight to the Goddess’s side…….”