The Third Rune – 1

“His Majesty the Emperor personally appointed you to the position of Knight Commander-nim of the Knights of the Pitch-Black Holy Night, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“It seems there was a reason for His Majesty to make such a decision.”

‘As expected.’

At this point, it was funny to care about the Silver Dawn Knights’ storyline, but the words that came out of Cassandra’s mouth told me that I was far removed from the Knights’ storyline.
There was nothing to be surprised about, as it was a situation I had already expected.

Although it varies by route, in the case of the Silver Dawn Knights’ route, they subtly suggest if the player would be willing to work in their territory.

If you accept, the subsequent story changes slightly, and if you refuse, you proceed with the Silver Dawn Knights’ storyline as is. Of course, that level of branching was implemented.
That was similar to the dialogue spoken when the player takes a route connected to the Emperor. They say His Majesty the Emperor’s discernment is truly outstanding, as he took notice of you.
It seemed that Kaikilia showing great interest in me was probably a significant factor.

‘It seems more than half is confirmed as the Imperial Palace route, but…’

I thought about it briefly, then dismissed it. There was no need to think deeply about the subsequent story. Even if I did, it wouldn’t be of much help.

I can just think of it at the moment I encounter it.

“For accepting my sudden proposal and resolving it like this, I sincerely bow my head in gratitude. Knight Commander-nim of the Knights of the Pitch-Black Holy Night. Thanks to you, I could rest easy.”

Cassandra bowed her head deeply. As her upper body tilted slightly, the dress around her cleavage dipped down. Cassandra didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding the cleavage exposed through her dress.
A noble of such rank couldn’t possibly have not learned about proper conduct, so it was probably a very intentional action. I calmly accepted her greeting.

When there was no change in my expression, Cassandra briefly made a surprised face, but soon wore a bright smile again.

Seeing the change just now, I was once again certain. If I had shown a reaction, she probably would have been much more aggressive than before. Since there was no reaction, she must have given up cleanly.

“Cassandra-nim, I have one favor to ask, would it be alright?”

“Of course, it’s okay. Please tell me anything. What is it?”

“You told me to take all the loot and byproducts from the dungeon, including the rune, but unfortunately, nothing much came out besides the rune.”

“Yes, I understand. I must personally reward you for your efforts. I will invite all of you to my mansion.”

To put it bluntly, it meant that since I got nothing from the dungeon, I wanted them to compensate me instead, but perhaps because of what she had said herself, Cassandra nodded obediently and turned around.

While Cassandra was moving away, I quietly called Helga and whispered.

“I’m leaving the next task to you, Helga. Take the kids and go back to the mansion first. I have something else to do. If they ask why I didn’t come, answer them that way.”

“I understand. That you have something to do, is it perhaps related to that witch?”

“That’s right. We can’t just leave her here alone and go in by ourselves, can we? I’ll delegate all authority to you, so you decide.”

“Yes. Commander-nim. Please go and come back.”

Helga gathered her subordinates and followed behind Cassandra.

The Lord saw the Vice Knight Commander standing where I should have been and paused her steps for a moment, but when Helga whispered something, she resumed her steps.

After confirming that Cassandra, her direct knights, Helga, and her subordinates had completely left, I went a little deeper into the forest to prevent any voices from being heard.

And I shouted loudly.

“Nyx!”

As soon as that happened, Nyx’s figure appeared right in front of me. It was a reaction speed to the extent that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she was just waiting for me to call her.

Nyx, who approached right in front of me in an instant, laughed eerily.

“Kihhihi, did you call me?”

“Of course I did. Were you hiding because of that Lord?”

Nod nod, her head shook violently up and down. Her chest swayed along with it. I gently stroked her head. It seemed I had completely adapted to such actions now.

“Aren’t you going with them? I can just wait alone until you guys are done with your business.”

“I’ve already waited alone many times,” a murmur was added.

“Not really. It’s not like I came here expecting something like that.”

That’s probably the same for those kids, not just me.

It’s not like I came here expecting a reward, but it’s also not like I can do the work for free, so I’m asking for something. Also, to alleviate Cassandra’s psychological burden.
Rather than saying I helped with this matter purely out of goodwill, leaving with a reward is much more helpful in alleviating the burden. Because they’ll feel at ease if there’s something given and received.

“So, while waiting for them, let’s go somewhere for a bit. You can still use teleportation, right?”

Originally, I was thinking of choosing an appropriate time, but since Nyx can’t enter the city anyway, I decided to seize the opportunity of the free time.

It’s not like I can wait all day in the forest for them to get their reward and come out. Since I can also use teleportation, it’s much better to quickly get it done during that time.

“Okay. Kihhihi. Where should I go?”

Nyx didn’t even ask about the details and immediately clung to me, asking where to go. I took out the map I had put in my uniform’s inner pocket and carefully compared it with the map in my memory to find the location of the dungeon.

I felt a gaze staring intently at me right beside me. I ignored the gaze and pointed to a valley located somewhere on the mountainside of the Empire.

“It’s here. You can go, right?”

Nyx, who nodded her head vigorously, came close to my side and prepared for teleportation. I waited with the map in my hand. It wasn’t time to fold the map yet.

Compared to Minerva, who could go accurately from one end of the Empire to the other end of the Holy Kingdom if she only knew the exact coordinates, Nyx’s teleportation lacked considerable precision.

Even when we came from Aurora’s territory to this city, if it had been Minerva, there would have been no need for several hours; she would have just arrived by swinging her staff once.

But that’s because Minerva is an out-of-spec monster, and it was by no means Nyx being lacking, so I waited patiently. Soon after, a black magic circle swallowed both of us.

“We’ve arrived.”

Only after Nyx adjusted the coordinates about five or six times was she able to successfully teleport right in front of the rune dungeon. I confirmed that fact and put the map back into my pocket.

The dungeon entrance was exactly as I had seen it in the game. A sight that would make anyone who came to check it confirm, “This is a dungeon.”

Except for the fact that this place is in the middle of a sheer cliff, and the vicinity is subtly hidden by rocks and trees, so that by conventional methods, one wouldn’t even guess that something exists here.

“Let’s go in.”

“Uh-huh.”

Nyx followed silently behind me and stepped into the dungeon. Just in case, I put the Wingless Nightmare I was holding back into its scabbard. In this dungeon, there was no need to fight enemies.

Because this is a trap-type dungeon.

Just like the place I entered to find the Crystal Scroll before.

‘This time, since Nyx is here, it should be fine.’

Back then, Minerva, whose eyes had completely flipped, took care of all the traps herself, but now Nyx was going to take on that role instead. I brought her for that purpose from the beginning, too.

Rather than dungeons where monsters appear, trap-type dungeons generally had a higher chance of hearing “This game sucks ass.”

Because of the damn traps, you’d have to circle around for over 10 minutes for a distance that would normally take just a little more walking to reach, or even if you could just jump over, you’d have to go all the way down into a valley and come back up.

But now, we won’t have to do that.

“This is where the rune is, and it’s a dungeon full of traps.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’ll handle disarming traps and finding the way, but sometimes there are traps that are impossible to disarm or are just annoying.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You, Nyx, just need to break all of them as we go.”

“Kihhihi, okay.”

‘……She’s not asking anything?’

If it were other people, at this point, they would have asked questions like, “How do you know that?”, “How did you find this place?”, or “How did you realize there was a rune here without even investigating rune fluctuations?”

Well, since it’s a good thing for me, I decided to just let it be. Even if Nyx were to ask how I knew such things here, it’s not like I could give a proper answer anyway.

“Just a moment. Stop.”

We hadn’t even gone far inside when a cleverly protruding trap on the floor greeted us.

At first glance, it looks like a slightly protruding brick that’s out of alignment, but the moment you step on it, your ankle gets caught in a trap, and a large rock falls from above. It was, of course, an instant death judgment.

A large rock crushed the player with a gruesome `eudeudeuk` sound, and blood spread across the nearby floor, and there were more than a few users who were shocked to see themselves welcoming Miss You Died.

“Be careful not to step on that. A rock falls from above, you see.”

“Uh-huh.”

Nyx again answered only briefly and followed me, circling around the switch to the side and crossing.

From then on, it was easy. I dealt with all the traps I could handle, and for traps that required circling like a maze or had annoying intermediate steps, I called Nyx and had her smash them all to pieces.

Especially sections where a puzzle had to be solved to open a door, and to solve the puzzle, one had to go back and forth collecting materials from all sorts of places, and there were even more puzzles in the process of collecting materials.

In such places, I didn’t care about puzzles or anything; I just melted the doors with firepower and passed through. It was a very refreshing feeling.

As I disarmed all sorts of mazes and traps without a moment’s hesitation, along with Nyx, who kept sending me admiring glances, we entered the central part of the dungeon. It was just a little further.

Nyx smashed the round boulder rolling from behind the slope with magic. Originally, it was a section where you had to repeatedly run and stop at the right time, but both of our steps were leisurely.

Taking advantage of the brief lull, I opened my mouth. Now was the chance to ask.

“Nyx.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I heard from Helga. She said that breaking centipede corpses was useless ‘here,’ what does that mean?”

“…….”

Nyx stopped dead in her tracks.