A dungeon like a mine shaft leading underground.
Erika, walking with Mia's shoulder for support, was pale and seemed to be suffering.
“I'm... sorry.”
To Erika, Mia replied cheerfully.
“It's all right! I may not look it, but until recently they called me a tomboy. If it's just you, Lady Erika, I can get you outside the dungeon.”
Then they came to a crossroads. Mia thought for a moment, then nodded and spoke. Erika, looking pained, glanced left.
“To the right, yes!”
“To the left.”
Their opinions split.
Mia was troubled.
“Huh? It's to the right, isn't it?”
“I think it's left, though?”
Just like that, their opinions constantly differed.
Mia nodded.
“Well then, last time we went left because I said so; this time let's go right!”
“R-really? Thank you. But... where about are we now?”
Every passage in the dungeon looked the same.
Mia acted cheerful.
“It's fine. I'm sure the exit will appear soon. Look, the entrance to a different floor has come into view!”
So saying, the two passed the third underground floor and went deeper.
That was the entrance to the fifth underground floor.
The two who pressed on deeper contrasted with each other. Unlike usual, Mia had a healthy complexion and was full of energy. In contrast, Erika was pale-faced. The exact opposite of normal.
“Lady Erika, are you all right?”
“...I'm fine. More importantly, if worst comes to worst, escape on your own.”
“Eh?”
Surprised by Erika's words, Mia stopped walking. But Erika continued.
“If it's just you, you'll be okay. Not even monsters will attack you.”
“What do you mean?”
Mia thought. It was true, she had never been attacked by monsters. Even in the Empire, monsters never approached her. How the monsters avoided her earlier also came to mind.
“Could it be, Lady Erika knows something about it?”
Laughing painfully, Erika said, “I talked a little too much,” and leaned her back against the wall.
“Me... ever since I was young, I attract monsters. So, if you leave me behind, I'm sure you'll be saved.”
Mia was troubled.
“Um, monsters attack people, you know.”
“That's true. But I'm special. I'm hated.”
The word “hated” bothered her. Then... it was almost as if she herself had been hated by monsters—.
Once her thoughts reached that point, Mia peered deeper down the passage.
“No way. Why is there such a scary monster here?”
What poked its head out from the depths was a monster just barely able to fit through the passage. Not the kind of monster that appears in a shallow part of a dungeon like this. Far too different from the monsters they'd been told about beforehand.
Mia hurriedly tried to take Erika away. But Erika had collapsed where she sat, clutching her chest painfully.
“Lady Erika!”
“Aah! ...G-go, go!”
Squeezing out her voice, she urged Mia to flee, when an air bike shot past their side and rammed the monster.
The monster was blasted away. Then, with gunshots ringing from the passage opposite the monster, the air bike exploded.
The air bike burst into flames from ignited fuel. As the surroundings brightened all at once, the one approaching them was Leon.
“Oh, unusual. Haven't seen that face around here. Right, die.”
When the monster emerged from the flames, Leon raised his shotgun and pulled the trigger.
At the muzzle, multiple magic circles unfolded; a shotgun shell tore through, and purple lightning was generated.
The purple lightning pierced the monster, turning it into black smoke.
Inhaling the black smoke, Erika coughed painfully.
“Lady Erika!”
Mia shouted, and immediately Leon was beside them, fitting a mask onto Erika.
“Why did you come this deep! Don't be reckless.”
With the mask on, Erika calmed down a little.
When Luxion approached, it began some sort of analysis.
*‘Even on the fifth underground floor, it seems quite harsh. I suggest wearing a mask. Or rather, I would like to forbid entering the dungeon.’*
Looking down the passage, Leon instantly readied his shotgun.
“A crowd, huh?”
*‘Monsters are gathering, aiming for this location. Master, please buy us just five minutes.’*
“Will my shells hold out, I wonder?”
Monsters kept gathering one after another. If the earlier talk was true, they were gathering because they were aiming for Erika.
While Mia clung to Erika's arm, this time a knight clad in black armor charged the monsters.
One swing of the sword in his hand turned the monsters into black smoke.
“Knight-sama! Brave-kun!”
*‘Mia, you're safe!’*
*‘I told you to stop with the "Brave-kun"!’*
Fin was cutting down monster after monster as they appeared, but there were so many he struggled.
Leon supported Fin. He shot through the head of a large tiger-like monster that pounced toward Fin.
“I'll back you up, so feel free to rampage more flashily.”
At Leon's words, Fin looked a little pleased.
*‘Don't hit me.’*
“You'd be fine even if it hit you.”
Both even seemed somewhat composed.
Watching the two, Mia thought. *(Knight-sama somehow looks happy.)*
Seeing Fin enjoying himself more than when he was in the country made Mia happy.
Usually he was either tense or endlessly worrying about her. For Mia, who had wanted to see him smile more, she felt that coming to the kingdom was the right choice.
*‘It hit! Partner, that piece of scrap metal hit me!’*
*‘...Because you moved strangely.’*
*‘Liar! You definitely could have predicted it!’*
*‘I cannot predict the weapons of New Humanity. I don't even want to understand them!’*
“You guys are noisy! Luxion, you do your job properly too!”
*‘Master, do you doubt me?!’*
*‘Kurosuke, you focus too!’*
*‘Partner, treat me more preciously!’*
Still, Brave and Luxion did not look like they got along.
While the two were kicking up a racket, all the monsters were wiped out.
◇
Around that time.
On the surface, Melse was pressing a court physician, a friend of Roland's, into a corner.
The place was a warehouse no one ever entered.
“What a fine hobby you have.”
What had been compiled in a report was information about the court physician's hobbies. Written there were hobbies that couldn't really be made public, and Roland's friend hastily hugged the report to his chest.
“Th-this is, well!”
“I don't need excuses. If you don't want this spread around, you know what to do, don't you? You brought it properly, didn't you?”
The court physician took medicine from his bag. Melse snatched the bottle with a skull mark stuck on it.
“As long as I have this, I can say goodbye to that shitty old man.”
Melse, who called Roland a shitty old man, looked truly disgusted.
“What‘My dear Melse’? If you want to be my lover, you need to be younger. I have no interest in old men.”
At the noblewoman's ladylike words, the court physician averted his gaze.
“Why would His Majesty be interested in someone like you...”
“Mind your tongue, lowlife! A perverted piece of trash dares call me “you”? Listen—I was supposed to marry into a count's family. A countess, I was to be. And because of that man, this is what happened—”
Careful not to provoke Melse, who was breathing heavily, the court physician crammed the documents into his bag and fled.
Watching his retreating back, Melse laughed.
“If you tell that dim-witted His Majesty, I won't forgive you.”
Approaching Melse, who was laughing crudely, was Ludtoart in work clothes.
“Sister, you're in a good mood.”
“I am. I won't have to deal with that old geezer anymore.”
“His Majesty? Didn't you say you haven't even kissed him yet?”
“Just listening to his boring prattle irritates me! Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through to extract information on the Royal Army?”
Melse kicked Ludtoart.
“S-sorry, sister.”
“If you're a man, be more considerate of women! That's why you're worthless! If only you'd hurry up and get married and kick that trash out of the mansion, we wouldn't have suffered this much!”
“That trash” meant Balkas and the others.
“A territory like that isn't worthy of me! I want a domain on the mainland. I'm sick of being ridiculed just because it's the countryside.”
“It's because you say things like that that that bastard Leon got carried away!”
It was completely unrelated, but Melse just wanted to vent her anger.
As Ludtoart was dirtying his work clothes, Zora arrived.
“You're noisy, Melse!”
“M-Mother. ...I'm sorry.”
Even Melse shrank back at Zora's single word.
Sitting in a chair that was in the warehouse, Zora held a bottle of alcohol. Several empty bottles were scattered on the floor.
“Honestly, every last one of them makes a fool of me. What‘Forest of Ladies’? Deciding I'm to blame on their own and taking it out on me.”
Drinking straight from the bottle and wiping her mouth, Zora had aged drastically compared to a few years ago. She looked older than her years.
“...Ludtoart, you've investigated the academy's information, haven't you?”
“Y-yes!”
“Then capture that good-for-nothing's fiancées. Take them hostage, and I'll torture that waste of space right before my eyes.”
Ludtoart hastily stopped her.
“Mother, it's impossible. She's a duke's daughter!”
“Once we take back the country, she'll just be a mere little girl! I've disliked her for a long time. That little girl who only has high status, looking down on me.”
Drinking, Zora recalled her first meeting with Angie. It seemed she couldn't forgive the attitude of being made a fool of.
“Also bring that commoner girl. I'll torment her right in front of my eyes. I'll get to see that good-for-nothing cry and beg for forgiveness. In the end, I'll send the corpses of those good-for-nothings to Balkas. And what shall I do with that villain Balkas, who's forgotten the favor I did by marrying him?”
Both Melse and Ludtoart were completely taken aback.
But the two couldn't stop Zora, who had lost everything and was running wild drunk.
Then, Zora handed Ludtoart an item she had ordered from abroad.
“Mother, what's this?”
“An item handed over by the executives. They forced it on me because they didn't know how to use it. Apparently it's some kind of Lost Item that becomes armor. Ludtoart, you use it. If you take this medicine and use it, you can obtain tremendous power, they say.”
Zora handed Ludtoart a medicine that looked suspicious no matter how you looked at it.
“... Eh?”
It seemed to be part of some black armor, but Ludtoart worried about just how he was supposed to handle such a thing.
◇
The next day.
Having met secretly with Roland, Melse used the poison given to her by the court physician. It was a slow-acting toxicant, and she'd heard it absolutely leaves no evidence.
Roland hugged Melse.
“I couldn't steal your lips today either. I'm disappointed, Melse.”
“Oh, Your Majesty.” *(My lips? Don't mess with me, old man!)*
Pushing the hugging Roland away with both hands, Melse waved.
“I'll be waiting again, Your Majesty.”
“I would have liked you to call me Roland, though.”
“Oh my, then next time, perhaps.” *(But there won't be a next time for you. The root cause of our suffering should think yourself lucky just to have been entertained by me.)*
“...Let's leave it at that. Well then, goodbye.”
After Roland departed, Melse put on her hood and began to move. Stepping out onto the main street, she recalled how she used to play far more flashily in the old days.
*(Why do I have to sneak around like this?)*
Just then, a trio of one man and two women came walking from ahead.
“Hey Finley! Why do you have that much pocket money!”
“Jenna, calm down already.”
“Leon-niisan gave it to me. When I tearfully appealed to him, he was a total pushover.”
“What's that guy doing?”
Jenna was angry at Finley. Nicks watched his little sisters in amazement.
“Aah, I heard there's a popular salon in the royal capital, so I wanted to try it at least once.”
When Jenna said that while stretching on her tiptoes, Nicks laughed.
“Desperate to snag a younger man, aren't you? How about fixing your personality first?”
“What did you say! It's because of that attitude of yours you can't get married! Lord Oskar would never say such a thing!”
“Because that guy isn't interested in you. The other day, he was talking about muscle training the whole time, you know. He kept asking me, ‘Those are good muscles. How do you train them?’—it was terrifying.”
Finley was eating a crêpe.
“You're too desperate, Sis. But don't worry. Lord Oskar might end up calling you ‘sister-in-law,’ you know.”
At Finley's provocation, Jenna shouted.
“Just you wait! I'll definitely make him turn my way. Finley, give me your crêpe!”
Having her crêpe snatched away, Finley grabbed Jenna's arm.
“Give it back!”
Watching the cheerful sisters, Nicks let out a sigh.
“You two get along well.”
Melse, who passed by the three, bit her lip.
*(Why are you guys enjoying yourselves while I have to sneak around hiding? You're not even people who should be able to play around in the royal capital.)*
Forever trapped in the past—that was Melse.