Don Quixote's Reverie (5)
"Thank goodness, thank goodness, truly..."
Ranne held me tight, repeating those words under her breath.
The girl's face was buried against my chest.
Her loose blonde hair brushed the tip of my nose.
She was panting as if exhausted, but her breathing was filled with clear relief.
"Truly... I knew you would be safe!"
Ranne spoke in a choked voice.
Before I knew it, I was patting the girl's back.
Damp beads of sweat, and the girl's distinct, refreshing scent.
All of it had happened so suddenly, but only one question kept circling through my head.
'How...?'
How on earth had she found me?
The entrance I used should have vanished, shouldn't it?
By now, hundreds of question marks were floating over my head.
I even wondered if she might be a disguised monster or an illusion...
'But that's not it either.'
After hesitating for a moment, I opened my mouth.
As if reacting to that, a pair of violet eyes snapped up and met mine.
"Um... Miss Ranne."
"Yes, Sir Viktor!"
Her eyes sparkled so brightly it was almost overwhelming.
I asked carefully.
"How did you enter this place? I did think everyone would be searching for me... but this space is so unpredictable that I thought support would be difficult to send. There didn't seem to be any passage leading outside either."
Lumiera's Temple.
Originally, it was a dungeon designed to be cleared solo.
It could not be entered without a passage at special coordinates, and even that came with the restrictions of being single-use and one-person only.
Once that passage had already been used, it was almost impossible for anyone else to enter.
'Almost impossible also means there are cases where it is possible, though...'
In theory, it was possible.
Put another way, it was a method that only sounded feasible in theory.
Still half-doubtful, I asked.
"Don't tell me... you found another passage?"
"A passage, you say? I am not sure if it was a passage, but during the search, I found a magic circle that looked exactly like the one that swept Sir Viktor away. I jumped into it right away, and when I opened my eyes, I was on the first floor of this place. After that, I climbed to the third floor where I sensed a presence, and that is how I met Sir Viktor."
As expected.
She really had found another passage.
'Is this for real...?'
I was inwardly stunned.
Finding another passage.
In truth, if you only looked at that sentence, it might not sound especially remarkable, but as someone who knew the difficulty and probability involved, I felt differently.
'A side path.'
That was what the second passage into the temple was called.
The side path activated exactly 12 hours after the first passage was used.
Its location was random.
The passage appeared at exactly one point in all of Kihano County.
Literally, finding a needle in a desert would have been easier.
'In my past life, I tried to break down this gimmick too...'
Leaving aside the fact that there were no related bugs, even finding it in-game was not easy.
The spawn point was 100% random. There was no particular pattern either.
Even in my past life, I could count on one hand the number of times I had properly used the side path.
Because of that, most users did not even know the passage existed.
The developers also said they had not expected anyone to use it, and that it was just something they slipped in like an easter egg.
'And yet... she found that?'
In weather where a blizzard was raging.
She had searched the vast snowfields of the North and found it.
No matter how much she was the original protagonist, that was luck and persistence beyond common sense.
"You mean... the moment you found that passage, you jumped in immediately without any suspicion?"
"Yes! There was no time to hesitate!"
"Isn't that reckless? What would you have done if it had led somewhere else?"
"It was all right. It is difficult to explain properly, but I had an intuition that it would be all right."
"Intuition?"
"The Blessing of the Stars. It is part of the power that dwells in my heart. Sometimes, it sends me intuitive signals. In truth, the reason I was able to find the passage out in the empty fields of the North was also thanks to this intuition."
I went blank for a moment, then belatedly understood Ranne's words.
A girl who shared her life with a star, with its authority engraved into her heart.
'Ah.'
Intuition.
At times, Ranne showed an excessively sharp side.
In the original, this was mentioned as [Star Path], with the setting that it was a passive skill that rarely activated.
But its exact activation conditions or method of use were never revealed, so it remained a MacGuffin-like element for the protagonist.
For Ranne, it seemed to operate in the form of intuition.
'I suppose you could call it... a kind of revelation from the star.'
And that had activated right now.
Either way, it seemed she had not found me purely through luck.
'For now, I guess this worked out.'
This was just when I had been feeling the lack of firepower.
I had not expected a party member to appear with such perfect timing.
And one who ranked third in the year, right behind Rin Glacia and me, at that.
'The clear will get easier.'
Ranne was well-balanced.
Her focused firepower was also top class among the group.
Fatigue had been slowly piling up, so it felt like I had suddenly gained an army of reinforcements.
"At any rate... I'm glad I got to see you like this."
"I am relieved as well! I was so worried that something terrible had happened to Sir Viktor..."
"I'm happy you were that worried for me. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine. I don't have a single scratch on me."
"As expected, you are amazing, Sir. Even after being caught in a Cultist trap, you do not show the slightest panic."
"Cultist? Trap? ...Ah."
Now that I thought about it, that was the concept.
I tilted my head, then slipped back into acting mode.
"What is there to fear? If I am with Miss Ranne, we can make our way through anywhere."
"Th-That is too much for me to bear! But I will do my best to live up to it."
"I'll also try not to become dead weight."
"By the way, earlier I rushed over and could not look around properly... but this is a strange space. A Cultist trap. For something like that, I barely sense any dark mana, but that too may be a trick to make us lower our guard. Or perhaps this is simply a space meant to imprison us, so dark mana was not needed."
"......Hm. Right."
Sure.
Let's go with that.
"We must hurry! From their point of view, after Sir Viktor, even I have now gone missing."
"Good. Let's break through quickly. I don't want to make the others worry any more than this."
"I will open the path from the front!"
"In that case, I will support you from your side."
Clank, clank.
Perhaps they had sensed the commotion, because knights were gathering at the end of the corridor.
We each raised our spear and scythe, aiming them at the ice armor.
Our steps struck the corridor without hesitation.
Taak-!
"Here we go!"
After that,
for a while, the fourth floor was never free of the sound of ice and steel shattering.
***
We cleared the fourth floor with unstoppable momentum.
Ranne's flash led the way, with my scythe supporting her.
The Knights of Old Winter were swept away like fallen leaves in an autumn wind.
"Huuup...!"
I swung my scythe at the knight standing in the very front.
Puuk.
The blade dug into the gap in the pure white armor.
Right after, I twisted the angle and moved my lips.
"Activate. Thorn."
Shwaaaak-!
Thorns rose up and shattered the knight to pieces.
Then, like flowing water, I moved into the next attack.
A dozen or so knights charged in at once.
I transformed the scythe's shape again.
"Activate. Shield."
Tuuuung-!
A shield as large as my body blocked the knights' path.
After pinning them there, I sent the girl a signal.
"Now!"
Kwaaaang-!
No sooner had I shouted than a flash of light surged beside the shield.
The starlight barely missed me and swallowed the armor clustered together.
Pububuk-!
A single spear stroke pierced the ice.
The knights looked like skewers threaded in a row.
I placed the shield over Ranne's spear, as if pressing it against the weapon.
"Activate. Coating."
Charrrrk-!
The shape came undone, and pitch-black wrapped around the spear.
As if painting over light, the scythe covered the spear shaft.
"Activate. Thorn."
Then came the murmured words.
Dozens of thorns rose from the coated spear.
Kwagwagwagwak-!
The knights impaled on the spear immediately met their fate.
Only after they broke apart and sprawled across the floor did I return the weapon to its scythe form.
My breathing was calm, just short of strained.
"Whew..."
A smooth clear.
That was because the firepower we lacked had been perfectly filled in.
'As expected, we have good compatibility.'
I thought while glancing at the blonde.
If only the two of us formed a group, Ranne and I were especially compatible.
No, in truth, it was probably because Ranne herself was a reliable protagonist who fit well with anyone...
'Well, it's also true she fits especially well with me.'
My combat style walked a fine line.
Ranne steadily supported the flaws that came from it.
'Is that the last one now?'
Fragments already numbered in the hundreds.
Above the wreckage of those knights stood the final gatekeeper.
A tall giant soldier. It looked at least 15 meters tall.
It was blocking the stairs leading to the fifth floor.
"Miss Ranne!"
I put away the scythe and pulled out the Balloon Sword with my other hand.
Sparkling radiance wrapped around the surrounding area.
Ding-!
[Skill Name: Vitality Recharge!]
-The light originating from this weapon recharges vitality.
-Vitality is absorbed by the designated target and restores basic energy, such as stamina, mana, aura, and more.
Absolute Balloon Sword Premium Plus.
My soul mate emitted bright light.
The clear flash reached Ranne, then swirled as if gathering around her.
Whiiiii-!
The light raised the girl's condition another level.
A matching amount of stars condensed in the hand gripping her spear.
<Gruuuuuu!!>
Kuung, kuung-!
The giant soldier tried to slam its axe down on us.
Toward that giant, the blonde fired the star gripped in her hand straight upward.
-Kijano-Style Spearmanship Ninth Form-
'Reverse Starfire'
Kwaaaang-!
A thrown spear aimed at the gap in the armor, the neck.
That attack pierced the giant soldier cleanly.
Having lost the connection between head and body, its head rolled down to the floor.
Kuuuung-!
Just like the previous knights, the giant was neutralized and shattered to pieces.
In the end, we destroyed every knight on the fourth floor without leaving a single one behind.
At the same time, a blue screen appeared before my eyes.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the fourth floor of hidden space 'Lumiera's Temple'.]
[The door leading to the temple's fifth floor has opened.]
[Your trial has been prepared.]
[The dungeon's master has become aware of your presence.]
[Apostle 'Grand Justice of Old Winter' awaits your trial.]
Having a dependable party member really did make the stability of a clear feel completely different.
The fourth floor clear, which I had thought would be rough, went that smoothly.
I had not even used the crown yet.
"Let's go."
"Yes."
We passed by the remains of the giant soldier and climbed the stairs.
These stairs were especially long compared to the other floors.
The climb continued for about 30 minutes.
As we walked, the girl suddenly spoke to me.
"......Um. Sir Viktor."
"Yes, Miss Ranne."
"I am sorry."
Ranne suddenly apologized.
When I was about to ask why, the girl gave me a complicated smile.
"For dragging you into this..."
"Dragging me into this?"
"Back then... what if I had not followed the traces and had waited for support instead? I kept thinking that. If I had made a slightly better decision, perhaps this accident would not have happened. Somehow, it feels as if everything is my fault."
"Miss Ranne, your problem is that you always try to carry too much. It would be fine for you to learn how to rely on others a little more."
"......But. In the end, the responsibility for this matter lies with me. It is no different from me dragging all of you into it."
"Miss Ranne."
Tap.
I suddenly turned back and placed my hand on the blonde hair.
Then I pressed down on that head full of thoughts.
The girl flinched and grew flustered.
"S-Sir Viktor...?"
"I told you clearly, didn't I? That I trusted Miss Ranne's choice. We trusted you, Miss Ranne, and everyone shares the responsibility for that. There is no one in this world who can solve everything alone. No one will blame you for something like that."
"......"
"And why would Miss Ranne need to blame herself? The ones at fault are the bastards who set this stage up, aren't they? Criticism should be directed at the person who laid the trap, not the person caught in it."
True, I wonder who laid this trap.
If I caught them, I would give them a serious scolding.
"......I, see."
Ranne chewed over those words for a long while.
The girl hesitated, then gave a timid nod.
The violet eyes that had been pointed downward looked up at me again.
"My head... feels a little clearer."
"I'm glad if that's the case. Huhu."
Only then did Ranne's smile seem a little more natural.
I gave a short laugh and led her on.
Before long, the stairs reached the fifth floor.
A gate carved from ice was waiting for us.
Holding the doorknob, I briefly looked back at the blonde girl.
"From here on, please maintain silence."
"Yes...?"
"Causing a disturbance can negatively affect the trial result, you see."
"A trial? What do you mean by...?"
Kuuuuu.
Instead of answering, I threw open the door before us.
Cold air surged through the crack, scattering pure white fragments.
"Whew..."
A breath slipped between chilled lips.
In my ears, the ringing of the status window reached me faintly.
Ding-!
[Apostle 'Grand Justice of Old Winter' gazes at you.]
[Your trial begins.]
It had started.
The trial to obtain the item.
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