Chapter 46 – The Lord of the Forest (2)

“A filthy spellcaster… How dare they touch Lord Belloc’s belongings.”

“I think it is a bit of a stretch to call it ours… After all, what we are doing is also grave robbing.”

As Adel became indignant, another spellcaster scratched her forehead. Or maybe not? Fiddling with the magic book tucked inside her robe, Kara changed her words.

“Even so, it is outrageous! Because of that guy, we might not even be able to solve the secret of this book?!”

“Things are getting complicated.”

Belloc, too, felt anger beyond mere irritation at the demons’ interference, which he had lost count of. Leaving aside the fact that they had turned the forest into a mess, who would have thought they would even invade the ruins? What a trick. Belloc muttered.

“Did he also come targeting the alteration stone? To make a rune sword or rune armor?”

The alteration stone. A mysterious stone that, when embedded in weapons or armor, altered the properties of the items to grant them special powers. Since its value was unique and the number excavated was so small, it was a treasure cherished by the kingdom. It was also the original purpose of the group coming here.

“Judging by what you said, it sounds like the resting place of a mage with great skill. If so, there must be a lot to gather, not just the alteration stone. There will be left-behind research materials, spell scrolls, and such. What is his plan… is he trying to start a war? No, that is not what is important right now.”

Kara said, snapping a branch blocking their way.

“Yes, we are in a situation where there is a thief one step ahead of us. Hey. Reincarnation of Specters.”

Belloc also agreed and tapped Tollio, who was hanging from his waist.

“Command me.”

Perhaps because he had been rolled and thrown around all this time, the answer popped out immediately. Stroke-stroking the guy’s head, Belloc spoke.

“We are currently heading to the ruins where the guy you call your master has settled.”

“I know. Are you asking for a shortcut?”

Belloc twitched his eyebrows. ‘This guy. His initial image is completely shattered.’

“You are far too quick-witted to be considered a knight. Like a thief. So, are you going to sell out your master?”

Tollio immediately shook his head, which dangled from Belloc’s waist.

“There is a shortcut that only a few people, including myself, know of. If we go there, we will arrive much faster than if that elf bitch leads us.”

“How can I trust your words?”

“If that elf bitch is not blind, she should be able to distinguish it to some extent. The choice is up to you, Master.”

Now he was calling him master. Holding back a dry laugh, Belloc spoke.

“Lead the way.”

“I have one condition. Please swear on your honor as a knight that you will spare me.”

“How dare a guy who has nothing but his head left…”

Stopping Adel from drawing her sword, Belloc lowered his gaze. In the dark forest, the undead, with only a head remaining, stared straight up at him.

Unlike before, he had a face that seemed to have made a major decision. ‘Do you want to live that badly? Well, whatever, I’ll do it. Even a fake honor is useful if it works.’

“Swearing on my honor. If this matter ends well, I will let you go safely.”

“…Understood. First, turn left at the rock you see ahead…”

The moment Tollio blinked and opened his mouth. Isabel, who was walking ahead, stopped dead in her tracks. Her long ears twitched.

Soon, turning her head, Isabel cut into the conversation.

“Are you really going to believe that filthy guy’s words? What if it is a trap he dug?”

Burning green eyes, and a hand fiddling with the dagger at her waist. Wearing a disgusted expression, the elf glared at the undead.

If Belloc’s group had not been there, she looked ready to turn him into a pincushion for arrows immediately. Belloc did not care about her gaze. He simply tapped the head at his waist and nodded.

“Keep leading.”

“Wait! No matter how much I think about it, believing in a creature of darkness is the most foolish…”

As Isabel hurriedly tried to stop him, Belloc cut her off and spoke.

“Did you not also deceive us? I cannot understand your behavior so far if you really came for gold coins.”

Isabel, who was about to speak, shut her mouth tight. After all, it was true that she had come for some reason. Belloc stared at the elf. Soon, he raised his gauntleted hand and clinked open his visor.

His emotionless black eyes stared long at the elf’s green eyes. Belloc opened his mouth.

“I understand that you are angry. This guy is the enemy of your kin. However, that is merely your own business. We just need to arrive at the ruins even a little bit faster.”

“What about a trap…”

“We will just break through it then. Of course, this guy’s head will be smashed.”

Belloc wrapped his hand around Tollio and squeezed hard.

“Aaaagh!”

Dusting off his hands, Belloc shrugged.

“Follow us if you want to follow, or leave if you want to leave. Just do not get in our way.”

Isabel twisted her fair face in a frown. She seemed to have much to think about. Perhaps it was about the mission she had originally been tasked with, or perhaps it was mourning for her dead companions. Or maybe she wanted to plant an arrow in the backs of those humans who were freely roaming their old homeland.

Belloc did not care and walked forward. Adel also snorted and followed her master. Kara looked back at her with slightly pitying eyes, but soon the hem of the mage’s robe also drifted away with a rustling sound.

As the light emanating from the staff grew more distant, darkness settled over the surroundings.

Isabel stood in that pitch-black darkness for a long time. Finally, gritting her teeth as if making up her mind, she chased after the receding light.

Sssssrkh!

The elf’s dagger struck hard at the branches blocking their way. Belloc’s greatsword also split the bodies of the undead that wriggled closer.

A stench like a sewer wafted from the sticky blood and flesh spilling out.

Holding her nose, Kara mumbled as she chanted a spell. A sphere made of light surged straight ahead, illuminating the path they needed to take.

The group continued to clear their way through the forest, which used to be the elves’ home but had now become the den of the undead. Steel boots marched proudly, trampling the corpses they killed.

Weathered bone fragments snapped and crumbled, and soft flesh burst open. The elf’s agile leather boots and the blood-splattered hem of the robe followed carefully behind.

Adel spat on the ground. Kara also sighed and brushed her hair. They rescued a few lost adventurers, and passed by several trees where hanged corpses hung like fruit.

“We have arrived.”

The group was finally able to reach the destination. Tollio’s voice was drowned out by the sound of rushing water and was hard to hear. However, the group could tell instantly because of that. Tapping her waist with her staff, Kara’s eyes sparkled.

“A secret room behind a waterfall. How romantic. It would have been better if we did not have a predecessor, though.”

Belloc also narrowed his eyes, looking at the falling streams of water.

Small glass-like droplets bounced and collided with each other. Although the resulting water mist obscured his vision, his superhuman senses discovered the empty space existing behind that irregular space. ‘It seems we have found the right place.’

“You did not lie.”

Belloc tapped Tollio’s head as a gesture of appreciation for his hard work. The group quickly moved their steps. It was because they did not know when the demon’s minion occupying the ruins might sweep away all the treasures inside.

Standing in a single file, the four people slowly descended the winding path while holding onto rocks or trees along the trail.

Stone crumbs fell, and the branches they grasped shrieked in friction. By the time they descended and walked into the hidden space, their entire bodies were soaked by the falling streams of water.

“Wait, rushing is good, but we must not let our guard down. If he is a normal mage, he would have planted ‘eyes’ here and there. By now, he might be preparing a welcoming party to greet us.”

Kara spoke, squeezing the water from the hem of her robe. As Belloc lowered his gaze, Tollio kept his mouth shut and rolled his eyes.

Belloc, who was about to strike him, stopped his hand. In any case, the guy kept his word. He had done his part. Fine, he would let it slide.

“I believe we must end this swiftly.”

Adel, who was glaring into the depths of the cave with her shield forward, shouted bravely. Soon, she began to emit the Goddess’s flame while chanting a prayer in a low voice.

When the white light from Kara’s staff and the orange flames clashed, it created quite a chaotic spectacle. Belloc, whose giant shadow was cast as a result, nodded.

“The only answer is a frontal breakthrough. Elf. What are you going to do?”

Nocking an arrow to the bow in her hand, Isabel spoke.

“Rather than handing over our ancestors’ relic to a demon’s minion, it would be more appropriate to put it into the hands of humans. Moreover, the guy inside is the enemy of my kin. I will follow.”

“It is decided.”

With Belloc leading, the group walked again. The end of the cave, which would normally have been blocked, had a large hole dug open as if someone had hollowed it out.

Beside it was a small groove that looked as if something should be inserted into it.

Spotting something unusual with her eyes, Kara took out the magic book from her bosom. Holding up the Galdrabok, she tilted her head.

“Is this the key you were talking about? It seems to be the exact size of that groove.”

Belloc nodded.

“Yeah, inserting that there is supposed to open the hidden door. Though I did not expect them to break through in this manner.”

Kara looked at Isabel this time. It was a gaze carrying the intention of asking if she knew anything, since it was an elven ruin. Isabel shook her head.

“I was trained as a messenger and a soldier, not majoring in archaeology. I am sorry.”

“The guy squirming inside might know. We can just ask him.”

Drawing the sword slung over his shoulder, Belloc took the lead. After walking a bit past the rough, uneven natural cave, a smooth stone wall chamber that was clearly man-made welcomed the group.

Kara brought the light of her staff close and caressed the wall. At that, the space carved with strange patterns fluctuated slightly, and the rune book at Kara’s waist also glowed. Stepping back slightly, Kara widened her eyes.

“It seems he was a truly great mage. Besides, the reaction just now… it is resonating with this magic book. This is truly…”

At that moment, a woman’s voice they had never heard before resonated throughout the stone wall chamber.

“So the cute stray cats have come all the way here. A whore of Helena, a pointy-ears, and a mage—what a colorful combination.”

The group turned their eyes to Belloc’s waist. The voice came from there. Tollio was rolling his eyes back, mumbling away. In the quiet space, the woman’s voice continued to echo.

“You have run amok too much. Not only did you harm my creations, but you even invaded this place. If it were not for the research I am currently conducting, I would have finished you off long ago. But that ends now…”

Kara snapped her fingers. With a crackle of static noise, the woman’s voice cut off abruptly.

Tollio’s rolled-back eyes returned to normal. Soon, he stared up at Belloc’s group with a look of utter bewilderment.

“Is there a problem?”

Looking at the undead knight who was left with only a head, Kara clicked her tongue.

“Attaching eyes to creations is a common thing. Well, this makes it certain. That guy is waiting inside.”

“He is also a guy who will die soon.”

“That is very true.”

Adel nodded, and the group moved their steps. Making their worries groundless, the owner of the voice did not attack them immediately.

Only parts of the destroyed stone walls or rooms that appeared to be laboratories welcomed the group here and there. In the quiet corridors or inside the rooms, only rotten forearms or skeletal bones were scattered on the floor.

Belloc stroked his chin.

He could roughly tell how the owner of the voice had broken through this ruin. The guy had breached the walls with the power handed down by the archdemon and pushed the corpses forward to disable the traps. ‘This is a truly ignorant bastard. Is he even a mage?’ Belloc, who held a romance for dungeons, clicked his tongue inwardly.

After walking for a long time with those thoughts, a door that was tightly shut unlike before came into view. The traces of the undead also cut off there. The group instinctively felt it. There was something inside.

As Kara muttered something and tapped it with her staff, the door of the stone chamber opened with a rumble.

At that moment, bypassing the unique chill of the underground, the body odor of the dead rushed toward the group.

Three headless knights and one death knight.

A few ghouls were waiting as if to welcome the group. In the midst of the monsters, a woman clad in a pitch-black robe stood vacuously.

The woman’s crimson lips parted.