Direct Deal
by Afuhfuihgs
After the break, we moved a bit and fulfilled the secret condition to head to the 2nd floor. Everyone stepped towards the portal created before their eyes. I followed suit.
The scenery changed as if I had passed through something. It was a vast prairie with no end in sight. And in the center was a castle.
Not a castle with a common design touched by human hands, but a sinister castle boasting a massive size that clearly revealed the crude craftsmanship and aggression of monsters.
The castle surroundings were filled with all sorts of monsters and human corpses. All the flesh had disappeared as if they were butchered prey, and some were crushed or mixed together, forming the ground.
I blankly stared at the castle for a moment, then belatedly regained my senses and looked around, saying,
“Is everyone alright?”
“No problems here.”
“I’m fine.”
Thanks to the bracelet’s effect that we received upon entry, we all gathered without scattering. The Golden King and the golem were also able to safely cross the portal.
We arrived at a good vantage point to survey the prairie, allowing us to easily observe the surroundings.
Fortunately, there were no patrolling scouts nearby.
Raelan, who was using magic to look into the distance, said,
“It seems no one has escaped the maze yet. It would be good to secure a good spot in advance.”
“Then how about that mountain? It seems easier to defend against enemies coming from above by taking advantage of the terrain.”
What Konrad pointed to was a huge mountain dominating one side of the prairie. Raelan turned to me with a look asking if it was okay with me.
I hesitated for a moment and shook my head. Konrad looked at me as if asking for the reason, so I explained why I refused.
“Even if it looks fine on the outside, it’s an active volcano. If the volcano erupts, everything near the mountain will be swept away and disappear. We need to move to the opposite side of the mountain to avoid the eruption.”
“…I don’t see any signs of an eruption.”
“But the king of that castle has the ability to forcibly erupt the volcano. It will definitely erupt.”
He’s the king who erupted the volcano even when facing just one Roel. If numerous intruders appear on the 2nd floor, he will definitely erupt the volcano.
Konrad, looking surprised at my words, scratched his chin and said,
“Hoo… that’s quite a power. Just who is the king of that castle?”
“It’s a goblin.”
A moment of silence flowed. Konrad, scratching his head as if he had heard nonsense, asked with an awkward expression.
“…Are you perhaps talking about the goblin I know?”
“That’s right. It has a similar appearance, but it will be very different from the goblins you’ve experienced. This is… a labyrinth, after all.”
At my words, everyone turned their heads to look at the castle. A monster’s castle with a form that instinctively made them reluctant to approach.
The Goblin King, who rules the 2nd floor of the labyrinth, lives in that castle.
A goblin born in the labyrinth, who became the ruler of the 2nd floor and took on the duty of stopping intruders.
“Then let’s move there. There’s a river flowing nearby, so we can block fire attacks, and even if the volcano erupts, we’ll be far enough away to avoid damage.”
Following Raelan’s suggestion, we moved immediately.
***
Upon arriving at a suitable location, Konrad and Ellie exchanged opinions and nodded.
“It would be good to make a palisade using the nearby trees.”
“If you make the frame, I’ll assist.”
“Alright, let’s start here then.”
As Konrad and Ellie waved their staffs, a huge palisade was created in no time.
I was amazed that this was possible with magic, then belatedly remembered that the hideout beyond the closet was also created with Nelson’s magic.
As I naturally drifted into thoughts about the club members and let out a sigh filled with worry, the Golden King, who had been sleeping on the golem’s shoulder, suddenly rose up.
She hadn’t opened her eyes yet, but she seemed to sense something and was turning her head towards another direction.
Reacting to that, Raelan climbed onto the palisade and surveyed the direction the Golden King was looking at. Then, she turned around and smiled at us with delight.
“I didn’t expect them to come looking for us first.”
“…?”
At Raelan’s words, I realized that monsters weren’t the ones approaching. Raelan, who had come down from the palisade, gestured for us to follow her.
“Let’s prepare to welcome our guests.”
“Who’s coming?”
“The Order.”
“…!”
I never imagined they would come looking for us first. As a condition of the deal, we could receive the Golden King’s help for a day, but if the Order stayed on the 1st floor or hid, there would be nothing for the Golden King to help with.
That’s why Raelan showed that the Golden King was with us to gain as much advantage as possible. No sane person would attack us, who were with Lily and the Golden King, first.
But for the Order to come looking for us first… this was truly unexpected.
Opening the gate of the palisade and looking at the approaching Order, I gathered mana so that I could fight at any moment.
The Golden King also half-opened her eyes and looked at the approaching Order with languid eyes.
Stopping a short distance away, one person walked forward. He walked to a dangerous distance where he could be attacked at any moment, then suddenly took off the mask he was wearing.
It was Belker, the vice-leader of the Chaos Order, with blood-red eyes.
Creating a gentle smile on his lips, he politely paid his respects and said,
“I cannot commit the rudeness of wearing a mask in this glorious position of facing the king who rules the West. It is an honor to meet the Golden King-nim like this. I am Belker, the vice-leader of the Chaos Order and the proxy of the leader-nim.”
“Did someone as high as the vice-leader come here on their own two feet to stupidly throw away their life?”
Raelan cut into the conversation, but Belker ignored her and fixed his gaze on the Golden King.
“The reason I came here so abruptly without any courtesy is because I thought a good deal that could be helpful to each other was possible. We have what the Golden King-nim wants most, and the Golden King-nim can easily obtain what we want.”
“…What I want?”
Whether he heard the Golden King’s quiet murmur through magic, Belker replied in an even more polite manner.
“The only thing that can make the Golden King-nim escape her long-standing ennui.”
“Do you think you can deceive the Golden King with lies?”
As Raelan cut in again, Belker, who had a gentle smile on his lips, became serious.
“If you are not the Golden King-nim’s proxy, do not interrupt the conversation!”
“Then I’m the proxy.”
“…”
Belker shook his head with an absurd expression at Raelan’s brazenly immediate answer.
Still, with a glimmer of hope, Belker looked at the Golden King, and she nodded slightly.
It seemed that she had readily accepted the offer as she could pass on the troublesome conversation to someone else.
Belker, looking at the Golden King and Raelan with a dumbfounded expression, changed his expression and continued speaking.
“…Our proposal is this. If you capture the Lily over there and hand her over to us, we will hand over the Golden King-nim’s precious lover, whom we are safely protecting.”
At Belker’s words, I unknowingly frowned.
The Golden King had clearly said that Edio was her first and last lover… Seeing them come so confidently to propose a deal like this, it was highly likely that they had her lover, as Estelle had warned.
But I didn’t feel particularly threatened. Even if a lover existed as the Order said, that person wouldn’t be the lover who waited for the Golden King to endure her sloth and ennui and return.
The Golden King, who was sitting on the golem’s shoulder and slowly moving her feet, stared blankly at Raelan.
Raelan, who received the Golden King’s gaze, shrugged her shoulders and stepped forward.
Raelan, who usually had no expression, was somehow acting with a flustered expression.
“…I understand the terms of the deal. But isn’t confirming the fact that the lover the Order is protecting truly exists the priority of the deal?”
“The Order does not lie. Of course, it is true.”
“To my ears, that sounds like an excuse that you can’t prove whether that statement is true right now.”
As Raelan erased her flustered expression and twisted one corner of her lips, Belker twisted his lips in the same way.
He thought that Raelan, flustered by the situation where the Golden King was about to betray them, was trying to escape the situation with words, and ridiculed her.
“Of course, the Order can always prove it.”
Saying that, Belker pointed his staff into the air. A red flash soared from the end of the staff like lightning, creating letters of bizarre patterns.
The letters trembled and began to leave afterimages in the air. Konrad, who was watching, opened his mouth as if he had realized something.
“This is… crude but clear space magic. Is it an independent magic created using the mysteries of space cutting?”
Finally, as numerous afterimages were created, the space itself distorted, the letters disappeared, and a box tightly bound by chains appeared in their place.
“Heh heh, did you think we would come without any preparation? That’s a vain hope.”
As Belker wore a victor’s smile, Raelan made an awkwardly angry expression.
“There’s also the possibility that the contents are fake.”
“…You’re pathetic until the end.”
Belker waved his staff, and the chains surrounding the box melted like liquid.
Belker waved his staff at the box once more. Then, the tightly closed box opened, and we could see it clearly.
Inside the box was a hatchling’s egg that looked exactly like the one I obtained as a reward for clearing the Trial Room.
0 Comments