Chapter 15:
The Worst Welcome
I was being ridden away via horse. My upper half was stuffed into a sack, and I couldn't see anything. "Mmf!" I tried to speak. Where was I being taken?
Well, only one way to find out. I cast a giant fireball spell and made sure it exploded in the sky. Hopefully, someone would see it and know it was me.
"Fuck! The little shit's a mage!" a voice came from behind me.
"No way! I made sure she couldn't speak!" another voice, this time from in front of me. I burned the binds on my head, and ripped the sack on my head off.
I turned around, and a rough looking man with scars on his face was looking at me furiously. We were riding down an alley.
"You need to learn your place, little girl!" He swiped at me with his massive fist. I dodged in time, and propelled myself off of the horse using wind magic.
The guy still on the horse yelled, "As long as we bring back the body, we'll get paid! Get rid of the bitch, won't ya?"
The second man jumped off the horse, and drew closer to me. He unsheathed his blade. I felt a chill down my spine as I began to back away. I really, really wasn't expecting this.
I stepped back, and created a stone wall to get some distance away from him. I didn't know whether or not this man knew the Sword God Style's technique, but I couldn't take a risk here.
"Seriously, what the hell is this all about?!" I exclaimed to myself, in a hushed tone. I ran away from the wall, but something stopped me dead in my tracks. My foot was hot. So hot. Unbearably hot, so hot, so hot, so hot.
I cried out in pain. "FUCK!"
I looked back, and a dagger was wedged deep inside of my foot. Heal yourself… heal yourself…
I fell to the ground. The man was approaching further. I managed to turn around to see him. "Nowhere to run now, bitch. You almost make me feel sorry for ya, kid. Just the way it has to be." He raised his sword, and I flinched.
A flash, almost invisible, passed me by. And then, the man was split in half. I had no time to think. I needed to do something about this wound before it became beyond repair. I braced myself.
I tore out the dagger.
"Oh god, oh, oh, oh fuck!" I clutched my wound, now covered in blood. Time seemed to slow down. Tears welled up in the corners of my eyes as I began to heal the stab wound. The throbbing pain began to dull as the spell affected my leg.
I let go of my now healed wound, and let myself fall backwards. I breathed out, and my head started working properly again. I could think clearly.
I looked around, and saw that someone had gotten mixed up with this. Someone with broad shoulders, dark skin, and white hair. She turned around.
"The name's Ghislaine Dedoldia. I'll handle this for now." The beastwoman turned around, and put her hand on the sword in her sheathe. That moment, the tip of it cut through the air in a flash of crimson light. The head of the other man fell from his shoulders.
All I could do was watch. They're dead? Really?
"Hm. Were those the only ones with you?"
I was instantly brought back out of my thoughts. "O-oh, yeah. Thank you, Miss Ghislaine. You saved my life."
"Drop the miss, would ya? Just Ghislaine is fine." I nodded in response.
"Under the lord's orders, I was tailing your group. I lost you when you got kidnapped, but I saw your fireball. Impressive for a nine year old."
"W-well, you sure took care of those guys fast. I mean, it took less than ten seconds." I said. Half of me was admiring the lady, and the other half was freaking out about how strong this person was.
"I wasn't that fast. Besides, anyone from the Dedoldia family can kill in seconds. By the way, was that your first time dealing with a North God swordsman?" She asked, almost casually.
"I…I've never really been in real combat, so no." I stammered out.
"Figures. Let me warn you here now, people who use that sword style don't ever stop until the other side is dead."
Until the other side is dead…
Right. I'd almost just died. Turned into a corpse, just like I once had long ago. I trembled as I recalled the sheer fear I experienced as I awaited my near certain doom. It was real. Everything about this world was real, even if I had experience with another.
"Let's go, then. I'll get you back with your parents."
If I hadn't run away, if I had made a single mistake, I would have died. But… I had already died once. What if I died again?
I shivered as a wave of indescribable terror was sent through my spine.
When we reached the manor, the sun was going down.
"Haah…" I exhaled.
My family and Sylphie's were rushing outside. "Lumi!" My mother cried out. "Are you okay? Hurt anywhere?" She asked in a panicked voice.
"I'm fine now. Ghislaine saved me." I pointed at her. Now that I could see her clearly, she was quite imposing. Her leather jacket and gray eyepatch made her look like the badass that she was.
"Hardly, kid. Just doing my job." She turned to Philip. "Found one of your butlers sniffing around after I saved the girl. He'll talk. I'll make sure of it."
"Lord Philip! It was a misunderstanding! Please forgive me!" the butler cried out. He was bound in rope.
"Take him away." Philip looked at the man the way someone would look at a bug.
My mother wrapped me in a warm embrace. "You have to be careful, alright Lumi?"
That was when Sylphie launched herself at me. "Lumi! Lumi, I was so…worried!" She began to cry over me. "I'm alright, I'm here now."
She exclaimed, "No matter what, I want to be by your side!" I wiped away her tears, and gave her a long hug. "I'll stay with you. I promise." She then suddenly gave me a kiss on the cheek.
"Mmm?" I looked at her. "I love you, Lumi! Don't ever leave me, please!" She tightly wrapped her arms around me.
I made up my mind then. I wasn't going to let anyone tear me away from this world. From the people I loved.
And so, that was how I spent my first day in Roa.
As it turns out, one of Philip's butlers was in cahoots with a noble who wanted me dead at all costs. He hired a few hitmen, and I was on track to lose my life. The noble's name and motive were still unknown, as the butler was blinded by money and thus didn't ask questions.
What had I done to piss off some noble? This was the first time I had ever left Buena Village! Were they stalking me? Was that red-haired boy who warned me seconds before it happened helping them?
My mind was just full of questions that couldn't be answered. I had recovered from the shock of being nearly murdered, but I was hesitant to go out in the city again again. It took me three or so days for me to finally agree to come out. For now, Ghislaine was to stand by my side at all times while I was out and about the city.
Ghislaine and I talked a bit, so I discovered a few things about her. Ghislaine was originally a member of the Fangs of the Black Wolf, which was the party my parents were a part of before they retired.
"You know, your father was a real scumbag back in those days. Back then, I would've never thought he'd marry Zenith. In fact, one day I had trouble sleeping at night. Paul invited me for a swim and–"
I cut in before she could say anything else. "Actually, I'd prefer if you didn't continue that story."
"I see." She said, in a deadpan tone.
Ghislaine was a pretty fun person to talk to. Jokes kind of flew over her head, too. Her expression was always serious, which made some of the things she say sound ridiculous coming out of her mouth.
Anyways, with her by my side, our vacation resumed.
It was a great time. I, Ghislaine, and Sylphie went off on our own. The vendors were selling all sorts of things. I saw daggers, potatoes, even dresses. The variety was really what you'd expect from a city like this. Hehe. Seriously reminded me of Konosu-
"Lumi, look at the sky!" Sylphie said, pointing upwards.
"Huh?" I said, turning around.
The sun was a deep shade of orange, and the sun was being obscured by a few clouds. What a nice sunset. I finished that thought, and widened my eyes at what I saw.
"Eh? Laputa?" I exclaimed. There was a far off floating castle in the sky. It looked like it hung thousands of meters in the sky. Is this what Paul had meant by the floating castle?
"Is it your first time seeing it? That's the Armored Dragon King Perugius's floating fortress," Ghislaine explained.
"Perugius?" I asked.
"You haven't heard of him before?" She asked, with a puzzled look on her face.
"Er…Not that big on history," I said, chuckling softly.
"He's one of the three heroes who defeated the Demon God Laplace."
Laplace…? I wanted to ask about who he was, but I had a feeling I'd just end up embarrassing myself. So I just changed the subject, and moved on.
During my three day long exploration of the manor, I found out that they had a library. And it was massive. I was curious about Perugius, but not enough for me to bother looking through the tons of history books.
So, I decided to continue browsing. I stumbled across a book. One that really stopped me in my tracks. Labyrinths and The Monsters Within. I spent the whole rest of the day reading through the book.
From what I had read, labyrinths were a type of monster themselves. Not like a cosmic terror type of thing, but more like a classification. The way a banana could be classified as a berry. Anyways, labyrinths began as simple cave systems underground, but they were converted slowly via the accumulation of mana.
At the final floor–err, the deepest part of the labyrinth, there was a large magical crystal which was basically the engine of the whole thing. There was a sort of boss monster in every labyrinth, created from raw material and the pure magical energy from the magic crystal. The mana emitted by them was particularly appealing to all sorts of monsters, so they gathered inside of it, hoping to get a piece of it.
But, monsters weren't the only ones being attracted to the crystal. Humans were, too. Many spells and powerful equipment were powered by mana crystals, so adventurers found themselves tempted to try and get one. Even if someone wasn't going for the crystal itself, materials collected from the remains of monsters were mildly valuable too.
They all died, one way or another. Their bodies disintegrated into mana, which the labyrinth then consumed, making the mana more appealing, which in turn drew more monsters to it. It had a nice cycle to it and everything.
During this cycle, weapons and equipment used by the humans and monsters alike were dropped onto the labyrinth floors. Over time, they slowly became imbued with magical energy; turning them into magical items. The items themselves drew in even more people.
Magical items were basically enchanted equipment. They came with all sorts of different effects, abilities, and buffs. The vast majority of them were garbage, but every once in a blue moon, there would be an item that gave an ordinary person the ability to flood a town. Those items sold for exorbitant amounts of money. Money-hungry adventurers were drawn to the labyrinths, and then they met their doom.
Do this for a couple hundred years, and you have yourself a legendary labyrinth with godlike equipment at the bottom of them. One such example was The Pit of the Dragon God, located in the mountain range that split the Central continent into several regions. The same one that cut off the north from being accessed unless you took a detour.
Geography aside, it was written that it was nearly ten thousand years old, and had some twenty-five hundred layers. That sounded insane to me, and it was merely just one of these legendary places on this planet. Just exploring the most dangerous ones was regarded as the most difficult thing an adventurer could achieve.
I'm not much of an action and fighting driven girl, but this kind of tickled my enjoyment for dungeon diving RPGs from back in my old life. Who knew such a world that was this similar existed?
I spent the rest of the day holed up in the library, enjoying myself. I was seriously turning into a bookworm, and my hair wasn't even blue!
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. Decided to make the first half of Volume 2 a chapter longer, so chapter 17 marks the beginning of the second half.
Real big turning point coming up soon, so please stay tuned!