Chapter 209

What… is that?

My eyes widened.

Giant golems, gleaming with a blue light.

Not just one, but at least ten of them had emerged.

“Gasp! Wh-What are those?!”

Allen stammered in bewilderment.

“Ugh, be careful, Allen.”

Elaine seemed relatively calm.

A question struck me.

‘Where did they come from?’

Golems appearing in droves in this place?

I had never heard of such a thing.

It meant this was the first time.

Then, as expected.

‘They must be related to those guys…’

My gaze focused on Gulshan and Natasha.

“Grooooar!”

“Grooooar!”

The golems let out loud, grotesque roars.

Like wild beasts threatening their prey.

And then.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!

They started charging towards us like madmen.

It was clear that they were targeting us.

At that moment, I realized.

This was an opportunity.

“Why, why are they coming at us?!”

Allen hurriedly raised his spear, his face pale with fear.

I shouted at him,

“Don’t waste your energy! Just retreat!”

“Huh?”

Allen looked confused.

But Elaine seemed to understand my intention.

“Come here, quickly!”

Elaine pulled Allen back.

I was already running backwards.

In the end, only Gulshan and Natasha were left in front.

“Wow, look at these cute little things.”

Gulshan chuckled, as if he found it absurd.

“Humans, I swear.”

Natasha clicked her tongue.

“I’m human too, you know?”

“That’s why I don’t like you either.”

“Ouch, my feelings are hurt.”

“Shut up and get out of the way.”

Natasha jumped back, unwilling to play along with my obvious intention.

My intention was, of course, to make them fight the golems.

If that happened, we would gain two advantages.

First, we could deplete their strength.

Second, we could exploit the opening while they were fighting.

They would naturally know my intention, so they wouldn’t fight willingly.

But it didn’t matter.

The situation had become complicated, which was already an advantage for us.

“Hehe, I can just hide.”

Gulshan, using his specialty, concealed himself in the darkness.

That sneaky bastard.

Just as I thought that.

“Do you think that will work on them?”

Natasha said bluntly.

Huh? Really?

At that moment.

Boom!

A golem’s giant fist slammed into the ground somewhere in the darkness.

“Ouch, what the hell are these things? Why are they searching for me?”

Gulshan’s figure reappeared next to Natasha, grumbling in annoyance.

“They can detect any living being.”

“You could have told me that earlier.”

“Did you give me a chance to speak?”

“Huh? You should create your own opportunities.”

“Ugh, seriously!”

They were still an odd pair.

Well, all the Red Rain executives I knew had strong personalities, so there was no sense of unity or organization among them.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!

A game of hide-and-seek between golems, humans, and a dark elf.

Boom!

“Ugh!”

Allen screamed.

“Ah, dodge it yourself, Allen!”

…Elaine mercilessly abandoned Allen.

I had noticed it during the battle at the lodgings, but our commoner heroine had definitely become more decisive.

In the past, she would have been held back by her concern for her weaker comrade.

This was what it meant to overcome her personality limitations.

“Waaah, d-don’t abandon me!”

Allen wailed.

But I wasn’t worried.

He was exceptionally skilled at running away.

Elaine probably abandoned him because she knew that.

Anyway, I couldn’t just stand by and watch.

“Hey! Over here, over here! A dark elf is a much tastier prey than a human!”

I loitered near Natasha, trying to shift the aggro to her.

“That human is really…”

Natasha glared at me, her eyes narrowed.

Honestly, I was scared, but I held it in.

As long as I had the heart, Natasha wouldn’t recklessly target me.

Especially in this complicated situation.

“Huh? Is that so?”

Gulshan blinked.

Natasha was being mentally attacked even by her clueless ally.

…I suddenly felt sorry for her.

“No, it’s not!”

Her voice was thick with stress.

If she kept that up, she wouldn’t live long… well, she had already lived a long life.

“Grooooar!”

Boom!

Boom!

The golems’ attacks rained down.

“Whoops.”

I dodged.

“Tsk.”

Natasha dodged as well.

“Ugh, these annoying rocks.”

Gulshan also moved to another location.

‘Those guys are really something.’

I clicked my tongue inwardly.

As Red Rain executives, they naturally had enormous egos to match their incredible abilities.

It must have been humiliating for them to keep dodging these rocks.

So they should have taken action by now, but they still hadn’t.

It seemed like their pride was being channeled elsewhere.

The pride of not wanting to be the first to act, as if it meant losing.

It felt ridiculous that five adults were engaged in a childish game of pride.

‘Anyway, this isn’t going to end anytime soon, is it?’

Just as I was mentally preparing for a long battle.

An unexpected event occurred.

From below.

Tap, tap, tap, tap!

The sound of someone hurriedly climbing the stairs.

“Senior!”

“Senior!”

Camian and Annette’s voices.

My eyes widened in surprise.

Huh?

What were they doing here?

Would there ever be a time when I would be so happy to see my juniors?

Even a long-awaited rain wouldn’t be this welcome.

I was truly overjoyed.

“Come up quickly! Quickly!”

I shouted, even waving my hand.

Camian and Annette.

And Leon, Slain, and Lucia as well.

With them, we would have enough of a breakthrough to escape this crisis.

“What, who are they now?”

Gulshan sounded bewildered.

“Sigh, seriously.”

Natasha frowned, seemingly lost in thought.

Yes, that’s right.

The unresolved golem situation, plus the appearance of our allies.

It would be confusing.

Just as I was inwardly smirking, watching her reaction.

“Let’s go! Let’s just ignore them and go! Hurry!”

Natasha shouted with a determined expression.

“Huh? Let’s go?”

“Yes, quickly, before it gets even more troublesome!”

Natasha started running forward.

“Hey, wait! Then the entrance will be exposed!”

Gulshan, surprisingly, tried to stop her.

“It’s obvious they already know about it!”

…No, we didn’t know where it was.

I was planning to investigate where those golems came from.

“Ah, is that so?”

Gulshan’s figure vanished.

My gaze was fixed.

On the place where they were disappearing.

A large illusory door appeared where there had been nothing before.

“Aha, I see. There’s a hidden passage there, huh?”

It was probably a dungeon.

Because I could smell a familiar scent from those golems.

The scent of guardians.

There was definitely a guardian in the dungeon where the heart was.

“Huh, a double dungeon. That’s why I didn’t know.”

I had thought the secret archive was the main part.

Anyone would think that.

But that itself was a clever deception.

The real thing was hidden somewhere else.

“The Saint was really persistent.”

This must have been a mechanism set up by the Saint.

Something she had tried so hard to hide.

Just how important was it?

I didn’t know.

But I was certain.

That I couldn’t just let this go.

The moment I made that decision.

Rumble!

The ground shook again.

Just as I thought something else was emerging.

“Huh?”

I saw it.

The large illusory door was starting to close.

“Damn it.”

I immediately started sprinting with all my might.

“Wh-Where are you going?”

“We have to stop it!”

“C-Coming, Team Leader!”

I could hear Allen’s voice chasing after me.

“W-Wait! Me too!”

Elaine followed as well.

“Senior! Where are you going all of a sudden?”

Camian’s voice called out to me, as if he had arrived.

“S-Senior! Where are you going?!”

I heard Annette’s voice too.

I wanted to explain, but I didn’t have time.

I ran with all my might to stop the closing door.

* * *

“What the hell are these rocks?”

Slain muttered, as if he had seen something truly bizarre.

A giant fist swung at him.

Slain blocked it with his chain scythe.

Clang!

An incredible force.

Even Slain, with his immense strength, was pushed back a few steps to absorb the impact.

“Huh, these things pack a punch.”

The corners of Slain’s lips curled up in amusement.

“Eek!”

“Get back, Annette!”

Boom!

It seemed like Annette and Camian were also being threatened by the golems’ attacks.

“Tsk, there are too many of them.”

Lucia said bitterly.

Ten golems swarming around.

She didn’t know what they were, but they didn’t seem like easy opponents.

“Hehe, why are you whining about this? Let’s have some fun and smash them.”

Slain seemed excited.

At that moment.

“That way.”

Leon said, his eyes narrowed, staring at something.

“What?”

“Everyone, run that way!”

Leon started running.

“L-Let’s go too, Camian!”

“Right!”

Annette and Camian hurriedly followed him.

“What are you doing? Run.”

Lucia said.

“Huh?”

“We have no choice but to run.”

Lucia started moving.

“Ugh, fine, you party poopers.”

Slain followed Lucia with an annoyed expression.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

The golems chased after them.

* * *

Screech!

I barely managed to stop one side of the door with the Turtle Sword.

On the other side, Elaine was holding the door back with an ice wall.

“Wh-What is this?”

Elaine asked, her face filled with confusion.

“I don’t know either. It’s definitely some kind of dungeon, though.”

“A dungeon?”

“Yes.”

“…Those scary people from earlier went in here, right, Team Leader?”

Allen asked this time.

“Yes. But why are you just standing there? Can’t you see everyone working hard?”

I glared at him.

I didn’t know what kind of mechanism had been activated, but the pressure of the closing door was no joke.

I was using both my physical strength and mana to hold it back.

And this clueless guy was slacking off.

“Gulp, s-sorry! I thought we had some leeway…”

“Hey, stop talking and help out, you idiot.”

“Y-Yes, Team Leader!”

Allen hurriedly came over and helped.

My body finally felt a little lighter.

But…

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!

The annoying sound of the golems’ footsteps coming from behind.

I turned around.

“S-Senior!”

“Senior!”

A faint smile appeared on my lips.

My cute juniors.

Well, except for Camian.

But the first to arrive was Leon.

Leon, quick-witted as always, supported the door that Elaine was holding back with his spear and said,

“We’re going in, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then it would be best to close the door as soon as our friends arrive.”

He only said two sentences, but he was on a different level from his brother.

…I used to have such reliable ‘male’ comrades too.

Why did I only have heroines to rely on now?

Well, it wasn’t bad in its own way… Ah, this wasn’t a harem story.

“Huff, huff, s-senior!”

Annette, my cute junior, arrived.

“What’s going on?”

Camian asked as soon as he arrived.

“Do you think we have time to explain?”

“…”

Tap, tap, tap, tap!

“Whoa, isn’t this the great womanizer senior? Fancy seeing you here.”

Slain, the annoying and dangerous junior.

It would have been a disaster if Regina hadn’t taught him a lesson at the tavern.

But the past was the past, and at least for now, he was a reliable asset.

“Show some respect to your senior. What are you, a kid?”

Lucia scolded him.

After our one-on-one draw in the mock battle, she at least respected me.

Mercenary-like pragmatism, I liked it.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!

“Let’s stop talking and go inside!”

Leon shouted.

“Alright. You guys go in first, juniors!”

I said, acting like a senior.

“Okay.”

Camian pulled Annette and went in first.

Slain and Lucia followed.

As soon as Leon moved as well.

“Alright, let’s go in too!”

With my shout, we also jumped inside.

Rumble!

I could hear the door closing rapidly, despite our efforts to hold it back.

And then.

Boom!

The door closed completely.

“