Ch.239Free rides are not allowed.

{O seeker of the blue flame, raise the crown in your right hand.}

{The emperor’s authority has already fallen, and what remains in the crown is mere attachment. Now is the time to transform that attachment into poison to corrupt the emperor’s mind.}

Following the blue candle, I arrived at the end of a dead-end walkway and held up the crown as instructed by the Arcane Words written on the wall, reciting their contents.

The Arcane Words on the wall transformed into light, flowing into the red gem embedded in the crown. The blood-red gem changed to a dark blue color reminiscent of the deep ocean.

It was a sight suggesting that the crown had been “corrupted” in some way.

“If only the crown has been fixed, that means there are two more places like this ahead.”

“It’s something I was expecting. Besides the path leading here, there were other passages with blue candles lit.”

“Then let’s keep looking. It would be nice if we could find some hidden treasure along the way…”

“Expecting that much would probably be too greedy.”

Currently, over 20 veteran adventurers are scouring every corner of this dungeon.

Meanwhile, we’re deliberately lagging behind to search for Arcane Words while avoiding others’ eyes.

By the time we reach any part of the castle, the exploration will likely be finished, so the chance of finding anything besides the Arcane Words is close to zero.

While following the blue candles to find the Arcane Words, we encountered a group of four adventurers resting in what looked like a reception room.

The problem was that after we passed through the reception room into the corridor on the opposite side, they hastily finished their meal and began following our party.

While it’s common for parties to cross paths in dungeons, the behavior of those four was suspicious to anyone watching.

“Those guys are maintaining a constant distance while following us, aren’t they?”

“It doesn’t seem like our paths just happened to overlap…”

“What should we do? Even if we stop here, they don’t look like they’ll go ahead of us.”

“Hmm…”

I had anticipated this possibility.

Our party has been attracting attention due to our composition and rapid growth over the past few months, and we were also the main heroes who saved the Wellord Mine during the recent Dungeon Overflow incident.

We also arrived at this dungeon several hours before other parties and discovered information about the Tyrant Emperor, making us the most noticeable people among those gathered here. If someone were to ask who stands out the most, everyone would point to us.

I can understand why some adventurers might try to leech off our success, but…

‘If you keep following us, I can’t comfortably read the Arcane Words.’

Of course, I could easily conceal the existence of the Arcane Words.

I could pretend to be reciting memorized phrases rather than reading the writing on the wall.

But regardless, having someone watching me read the Arcane Words is burdensome, and I don’t appreciate this one-sided surveillance.

However, initiating a violent confrontation or verbal argument with them now wouldn’t be a good approach.

Following another party without reason is taboo but not illegal, and even that taboo is often ignored in dungeons where movement space is limited.

Even if I confronted them asking, “Why are you following us?” I couldn’t expect a proper answer.

That leaves taking action, but under the condition of not causing them direct harm.

‘Jessica, I have a favor to ask…’

‘…Ah, I understand.’

‘This won’t cause problems later, right?’

‘It’ll be fine. They’re the ones who acted suspiciously first.’

After conveying the plan to Jessica via whisper, we continued forward along the corridor lit with blue candles.

Upon finding another Arcane Word, I signaled Jessica, waited for her to prepare sufficient magical power, and then initiated our plan.

“Diamond Dust!”

*Crack!*

After confirming that the ice created by the freezing spell had blocked the passage, I took a medal from my bag and quietly recited the Arcane Words written on the wall.

“{O seeker of the blue flame, raise the medal in your left hand.}”

“{The golden medal that protected the emperor’s soul has already fulfilled its duty. From now on, it shall become a device to bind the emperor’s soul and suppress his tyranny.}”

As the Arcane Words transformed into light and seeped into the golden medal, the pattern engraved on the back of the medal changed into a completely different shape.

Now only the scepter remains.

But I can’t leave the only passage forward blocked, so after putting the medal back in my bag, I signaled to Jessica that the task was complete.

*Crash!*

“Whoa!?”

As Jessica deployed fragments of mana and lightly flicked her finger, the ice blocking the corridor shattered into pieces.

And right on the other side were the four adventurers, looking bewildered as they stared at us.

They must have rushed over as soon as the Diamond Dust blocked the passage.

“Surprise~”

“W-what…?”

“You’ve been following us and paying attention to our movements, so I thought I’d play a little prank. If you have business with us, why not just say so?”

“…We don’t have any particular business. We were just surprised when the passage suddenly got blocked.”

“Then there’s no need to be surprised anymore. Our party occasionally does this kind of ice breaking to relieve tension.”

The meaning of “ice breaking” might be a bit different here, but that doesn’t matter.

What I just said should be warning enough for them.

That we can, at any time, do “something” while preventing them from seeing or hearing us.

The message is clear: spying on us will yield nothing, so don’t waste your time.

“If you have business ahead, we’ll step back. Good luck to you all.”

There are no more blue candles ahead in this corridor.

Confirming this, I began walking back the way we came with everyone, while the four adventurers who had tried to spy on us remained rooted to the spot, pretending to be busy with other things.

{O seeker of the blue flame, hold the black-gleaming scepter with both hands.}

{The legitimacy bestowed upon the scepter is for the emperor to command his subjects. If the king has lost that legitimacy, then it is only right that he too be commanded by the scepter.}

The final Arcane Word, the secret key to check the Tyrant Emperor, was hidden in an unexpected place.

In a small wine cellar located in the basement of the inner castle.

“Looks like others have taken all the wine that was left here.”

“Dungeon wine… I wonder how many years ago it was made?”

“And someone broke a bottle in the process… what a shame.”

“Ahhh~ If we’d known, we should have come here first…”

Jessica and Phyllis sigh as they look at the broken wine bottle.

Mina is even tasting the spilled wine by dipping her finger in it.

I’m not sure if it’s safe to casually taste wine that might be hundreds of years old, but if anything happens, Jessica’s antidote should be able to detoxify it.

Following the Arcane Word’s instructions, I corrupted the scepter, and just like the crown and medal, the red gem at the end of the scepter turned blue.

With this, the preparation of the three treasures needed to summon the Tyrant Emperor—crown, scepter, and medal—is complete.

I don’t yet know exactly how these corrupted treasures work, but according to Mina and Jessica’s investigation, they contain formulas for weakening.

While we probably can’t completely neutralize the Tyrant Emperor if he turns into a final boss, we can at least expect to diminish his abilities.

“Is our preparation complete now?”

“I believe so. We couldn’t find any more blue candles besides the three places we’ve visited.”

“Then is it time to awaken the Tyrant Emperor? Where do we go?”

“Since we were told to gather the crown, scepter, and medal and take them to the appropriate place… it’s probably where the throne is.”

“And the cunning usurper will be there too.”

The series of conflicts surrounding the Tyrant Emperor and the cunning usurper is ultimately a power struggle over who sits on the throne.

If that’s the case, the stage for the final act of this struggle is likely to be the audience chamber where the throne is located, and that place is probably this dungeon’s boss room.

“The investigation of the inner castle must be finished by now while we were searching for the Arcane Words. Let’s go and bring this to a satisfying conclusion.”

It’s time to wrap up this long and difficult Dungeon Overflow incident.