Ch.4949. The Possessed

We took a brief rest in front of the tunnel entrance.

Since we didn’t know how much longer we’d be trapped in the labyrinth, we were gathering our strength until the two priests woke up.

“…”

Unfortunately, the priests woke up not long after.

“Are you awake?”

Captain Kyle reached out his hand to help them up.

“…Not, necessary.”

The green-haired priest somehow managed to move her trembling legs.

Judging by that purely rude behavior without any malice, it seemed she had no memory of being knocked unconscious by Kyle.

‘Hmm.’

If he had hit her head to knock her out, she might have become nicer. It was somewhat disappointing.

“Reina.”

The green priest called out the red priest’s name and reached out her hand.

“Leisi. My legs…”

However, the red-haired one collapsed weakly as she tried to stand up.

From what I could see, she seemed to have trouble putting strength in her legs.

Could he really have hit her head?

“Your legs are trembling. Are you alright?”

Just as I was beginning to wonder, Kyle approached them.

“…I don’t, know… ugh…!”

The red priest didn’t seem to be in good condition, as she started dry heaving.

“Are you injured? Please explain your condition in detail.”

“Please, please… don’t worry about me right now…”

The green priest said while embracing her.

Perhaps because she was addressing Captain Kyle, she was more polite than when dealing with me.

“Reina, can you calm down?”

“Ah, aah…”

The red priest’s breathing became extremely rough.

She leaned against the green priest as if all strength had left her body, and her arms were trembling so badly that I felt sorry just watching.

The green priest focused solely on calming the red priest, seemingly unconcerned about her clothes getting dirty.

‘It’s not an injury, then.’

It appeared to be purely a mental issue.

It was like watching a modern person who had killed someone for the first time.

Well, not that I’ve personally seen a modern person commit their first murder.

Probably.

“…Haa, haa.”

As time passed, the red priest’s condition improved, and we were finally able to have a proper conversation.

“Could you tell us what happened in there?”

“…”

When I asked that question, the green priest silently glared at me.

I thought she might have improved after seeing how she spoke to Captain Kyle, but at this point, it seemed she simply disliked me.

“What happened to the lieutenant and the lady knight, and why were you two there?”

When the captain asked, the green priest showed signs of hesitation.

“…They died.”

She stared into space as if recalling a terrible memory.

“Can you describe exactly what happened?”

“…I said the lieutenant died.”

“Under what circumstances? Please explain the situation.”

“Something suddenly appeared, and he shouted for us to run. His head was torn apart…”

“Did a monster appear?”

She shook her head vigorously while clutching it, as if she didn’t know.

“I don’t know, I don’t know. Just… suddenly fell here, moved, went in here, told to run…”

Her previously rude character was crumbling, and she was starting to enter a mentally unstable mode.

I thought the green priest was at least somewhat composed, but perhaps she had just been barely holding it together until now.

‘It must have been quite horrific.’

As priests, especially privileged noble children like them, their reaction was understandable.

Even if they could somehow handle monster corpses, maintaining mental stability after watching someone they’d spent time with get ground up like in a shredder right before their eyes wouldn’t be easy.

The situation they faced was probably similar.

The lieutenant protected them and was brutally dismembered—that seemed the most plausible scenario.

‘Did the princess die too?’

This was essentially the core of our current situation.

“…What happened to the lady knight?”

Despite being fully aware that the priests’ mental state was fragile, Captain Kyle continued to ask.

For him right now, nothing was more important than the princess’s survival.

After some time passed, we finally got a clear explanation from the green priest.

She had trouble speaking, possibly due to her traumatized state, but to summarize what the green priest said:

1. They entered one of dozens of paths in the corridor.

2. They encountered an unidentified monster.

3. The lieutenant pushed the lady knight into a different path and shouted for everyone to run.

4. The lieutenant was torn apart before their eyes.

5. The princess disappeared as if teleporting the moment she was pushed into the other path.

Afterward, the priests somehow managed to hide from the monsters spread throughout the corridor until they were fortunately rescued by Kyle.

Anyway.

-Tap tap tap!

“Let’s go to the third path on the left! That’s number one!”

A maze with countless long corridors extending.

Everyone moved in unison following my command.

With that, I felt both a new sense of omnipotence and thrill simultaneously.

This wasn’t simply an emotion derived from controlling people.

-Swoosh!

When we encountered monsters along the way, Kyle sliced them up.

If there were invisible traps, the blue-robed mage would alert us, and even if he missed one, Kyle would step on it and continue forward.

This was originally a map from the 10th floor, but it felt nerfed to the 5th floor level. Moreover, with an overpowered character right in front of me, the experience was quite different from when I played through the game.

‘We need to move as quickly as possible.’

According to the priests’ testimony, the princess disappeared the moment she entered a certain path.

If my memory served me correctly, that was a shortcut leading to the third corridor.

Usually, taking a wrong path would result in limb amputation or encountering unreasonable monsters, but if lucky, there was also a shortcut to the fourth corridor.

‘I hope she’s alive.’

Even knowing the situation, causing someone’s death didn’t sit well with me.

As we progressed, there were puzzles and some monsters that required specific gimmicks to defeat.

All of it was handled through predictions disguised as coincidences, or by me secretly solving puzzles without the other squad members noticing.

And so, we were on our way to the third corridor.

“…The flow has completely changed.”

The blue-robed mage expressed his displeasure.

The deeper we went, the higher the contamination level of demonic blood became.

Each monster was reaching early to mid-level 3rd grade in strength.

“Kieeek!”

-Thud!

But for Kyle, it was still a one-hit kill.

***

After several hours had passed, we arrived at the fourth corridor.

“…I’ve found a survivor!”

Kyle shouted after finding the princess.

“Are you injured anywhere? If you need a potion, please tell me immediately.”

Perhaps she had been holed up at the entrance to the 4th floor.

The princess was there, intact without any major injuries.

“Now that we’ve found the survivor, how about taking a short break? We’ve been moving for a long time.”

Since we had rescued the princess and there was no need to rush anymore, I suggested taking a rest.

“I agree.”

Starting with Kyle’s agreement, everyone nodded and stopped walking.

While replenishing our strength was part of the reason, the real reason I suggested this was:

‘The priests are in really bad shape.’

Since Kyle was in charge of combat, Shiro and I, being the next physically strongest, were carrying the priests.

I was carrying the red-haired priest.

“Mom…”

She kept muttering like this, making me feel like I was losing my mind.

I understood that being trapped in a labyrinth was mentally taxing, but for someone who was supposedly a noble to keep calling for her mother…

“I don’t want this anymore… I want to go home…”

“…”

At first I was just annoyed, but as she continued to mutter barely audible words, I started to feel strange.

“Your name is Reina, right? Please hang on a little longer. You’re safe now. You’ll be able to go home soon.”

She didn’t just look a little tired—she looked like someone who could die at any moment.

Even though she had been somewhat rude to me, seeing her in such a vulnerable state made me feel sorry for her.

“…No.”

I thought she would ignore me, but surprisingly, she responded to my words.

Had she become nicer after entering this traumatized state?

“No.”

…?

Her voice was devoid of emotion.

“Excuse me, Reina?”

“No.”

She began to speak compulsively.

“No.No.No.No.No.No.”

Her voice was so quiet that no one except me seemed to hear it.

She must be in a severely damaged mental state.

I didn’t realize her mental fortitude was this weak.

“I hate the labyrinth too… Please send me home. I don’t want to be here.”

Her voice gradually began to fill with emotion.

“At first, I thought being born a noble would be fine. But then being exiled… living in the labyrinth. People dying… This is so different from what I imagined. No, it’s not…”

Information began to seep through her words.

“Being born a noble would be fine” wasn’t exactly a phrase one would use to describe their own life.

“…I miss my mom. I miss my family… I miss my friends. Why did I come here? It’s strange. Strange. Strange. Strange.”

“Excuse me, Reina, are you—”

“—Idon’twantthisanymoresendmehomegetmeoutofhereI’dratherdie.”

She was releasing something that had been building up throughout her life all at once.

In such a state, she probably wouldn’t hear anything I said.

“…”

Though it was sudden, I roughly grasped what was happening.

As her words continued without stopping and began to invade my mind, I finished my assessment and uttered one word.

“Earth.”

“…”

Her muttering stopped momentarily, and she clutched my arm with a voice that sounded like she might cry at any moment.

“…Are you. Perhaps. Like me…?”

She was a possessor.