Chapter 10: The Labyrinth (2)
(I)
“Summon the undead….”
Having dealt with the adventurers, I grasped my head, tormented by a headache, and activated the skill. A dark, ominous magic circle began to unfold on the stone floor littered with corpses.
Shadowy figures that resembled darkness began to flow into the circle from unknown sources. Initially gray and white, the ash-like particles gradually took on distinct colors and shapes of their own.
After a short while, instead of ash, two figures—a man and a woman—stood neatly within the magic circle. I reached out to them in a daze.
“Ah….”
They were my summoned servants, the only beings I could trust in this world filled with distrust: the zombie maid Tina and the vampire butler Alfred stood atop the dark summoning circle.
“Tina, Alfred….”
Tears flowed from my eyes as I gazed at my summoned servants. I thought I had steeled my heart, but seeing their faces unleashed the sorrow that had built up alongside my anger.
What if I had listened to Tina’s worries during the hostage situation and changed my mind?
What if I had acted carefully after deciding that my only true allies were my summoned servants and doubted everyone else?
Everything might have changed.
I might have been soaking up the warm sun on a beach somewhere, instead of being trapped in this cold cave.
Regret crept in alongside my weakened heart, which was softened by sorrow.
“Master!”
“My lady.”
As soon as the summoning was complete, my servants rushed toward me with concerned looks. Tina embraced me tightly, like a long-lost lover.
“Master, we have come. Please don’t worry anymore.”
“Ah….”
Though her icy blue skin was cold, having lost the flame of life, the warmth of her embrace felt more comforting than anyone else’s.
“Please don’t cry, Master. We’re here now.”
“….”
Did my servants also know how I had spent eons in hellish agony? Tina held me close, patting my back gently as I cried.
“When the door between the living world and the underworld closed, we felt your chaotic emotions and were very worried. We’re so glad you’re alive.”
Alfred took off his coat and wrapped it around my bare body. The rough texture of his formal wear brushed against my skin, stimulating my senses.
In a soft voice, Alfred spoke to me.
“My lady, from now on, we will always be by your side. Please don’t worry.”
“…Okay.”
Nodding in response to his solemn vow, I felt Tina gently take my hand and help me back to my feet.
“What you see and feel, even if we’re in the underworld, we can sense it too.”
“….”
“Those humans, I will never forgive them.”
Tina’s red eyes blazed with anger. A similar ominous energy emanated from Alfred behind her.
“How dare they deceive and violate you with such a pathetic charade? I swear on my heart that I will repay that humiliation.”
“…Yeah.”
I nodded in agreement with my summoned servants.
Varius and Lilianel toyed with my emotions, Elzerba. They had left me with an unforgettable sense of betrayal and shame, and even took the life of my closest friend.
“I won’t let it slide.”
Once again, my thirst for revenge ignited.
“I will repay it a thousandfold.”
The vow I made just before being sealed under the night sky.
I promised to find them and repay the debt.
Finally, the time had come to fulfill that long-awaited promise.
“…For now, I think I need to rest a bit.”
…And to do that, I needed several days of sufficient rest.
My condition was far from normal.
At least until this splitting headache went away, I wanted to rest quietly.
“Yes! We will do our utmost to assist you during this time!”
“My lady, please focus on recovering your strength.”
Tina smiled brightly at my words. I smiled back at her. It was a smile filled not just with simple joy, but with relief at reuniting with my servants and anticipation for what lay ahead.
“…Cough.”
“…!!”
Just then, a coughing sound came from a corner of the plaza. It was an unfamiliar sound, and Tina and Alfred immediately drew their weapons, assuming a defensive posture.
“Cough, cough….”
…The source of the sound was indeed a human. One male adventurer, who had been lucky enough to survive after losing a leg instead of his neck due to my attack, leaned against the wall, his face pale and battered.
“Human….”
As soon as I recognized him, Tina approached the adventurer with her greatsword drawn, her red eyes blazing. The way she gripped her massive weapon suggested she could cleave him in two with a single strike.
“Tina, stop.”
I urgently halted Tina, who was about to strike. She looked at me with a restless gaze.
“What? But….”
“It’s okay, let him be.”
…He had already lost too much blood and wouldn’t survive without immediate treatment. I wanted to extract as much information from him as possible before he died.
“….”
I covered my exposed body with Alfred’s coat and approached the barely conscious adventurer.
-“Vampire….”
The adventurer, clumsily attempting to staunch the bleeding from his severed leg, paled as he saw me approaching. I stood before him and spoke.
“…Answer my questions. I’m very angry right now, so if you try any tricks or refuse to answer, I won’t kill you gently.”
-“Ugh…?!”
At my cold gaze, the adventurer hurriedly turned his head away. Though I didn’t hear his answer, I took his silence as a form of affirmation and asked my first question.
“Tell me. Where is this place?”
I looked around as I spoke.
The last thing I remembered was being sealed in the Royal Palace of the Avilia Kingdom. But this place looked more like a dungeon within Avalon’s Tower.
I needed to know where this was. If it happened to be somewhere in the far north of the continent or in some deep-sea ruins, I would be in serious trouble.
-“This is….”
The adventurer trembled in fear, trying hard to answer despite his fear.
-“The deepest chamber of the ‘Labyrinth of the Undying,’ to the west of the Avilia Kingdom….”
“The Labyrinth of the Undying…?”
Indeed, this place was a labyrinth. I maintained a calm expression upon hearing the response. It was a common cliché for heroes to seal the monsters they had defeated in the deepest part of the dungeon.
It seemed that Vellius Varius had decided to relocate my seal to the labyrinth to prevent easy access.
I directed my next question toward the increasingly haggard adventurer.
“So, who are you? Why are you here? And why did you unseal my prison?”
-“We, we are the ‘Red Moon’ extermination squad. We came here to obtain the ancient relics said to be in the deepest part of this place.”
“Red Moon…?”
-“The, the seal… It seems one of our members made a mistake! I, I am truly sorry….”
“….”
The adventurer bowed his head to the ground in apology.
There was no need to apologize for unsealing my prison, but I chose to remain silent.
“Immortal labyrinth and ancient relics….”
If the relics buried here with me are referred to as ‘ancient relics,’ just how much time has passed?
Usually, the term ‘ancient’ is used to refer to a time far older than what is considered old.
“Hey.”
-“Y-yes? What, what do you want?”
“…What year is it?”
-“O-oh, this year….”
The adventurer began counting on his fingers, and the number that came out of his mouth was far beyond what I had anticipated.
-“Ah, it’s the 1267th year of the Avilian calendar….”
“1267 years…?”
It was a four-digit number. According to my memory, when I was possessed by Elzerba, it was year 267 of the Kingdom’s calendar….
“Th-thousand years…?”
So, it meant I had been sealed for exactly a thousand years. The sheer length of this time was beyond comprehension, causing my expression to harden.
“Ha, haha….”
A thousand years, not even a century but a millennium. The time it took from the founding of Silla in Korea to its fall. A time so long that it would be surprising if the world hadn’t changed a hundred times over.
“I can’t believe it….”
I had thought it would be at most a hundred years. But it had been ten times that, so much time that it wouldn’t be strange if the world had been destroyed.
My thoughts froze.
“Vellius, Lilianel…!”
Furthermore, a thousand years was such a long time that it cast doubt on whether Vellius and the elf Lilianel had survived.
“What happened to the hero, and his companions? Is Lilianel still alive?”
-“Ugh! My, my leg!!”
I immediately grabbed the adventurer by the collar and lifted him. The pain from his severed leg caused him to scream in agony, but I had neither the time, the inclination, nor the reason to spare him.
I pressed him harder against the wall.
“Answer me! Are the hero and Lilianel still alive?”
-“Ugh…! H-hero? Lilianel…?”
“Yes! Are they alive?”
Driven by greed, they might have even sought eternal life and somehow maintained their existence until now.
The adventurer, grimacing in pain, answered.
-“If you’re referring to the Kingdom’s chancellor, the elf ‘Lilianel Greenfield,’ she, ah, is still alive…!”
“Lilianel…!”
The first answer was satisfactory. As expected from an elf seeking eternal life. Surviving for a millennium and eventually becoming the Kingdom’s chancellor, Lilianel’s boundless greed was maddening.
The adventurer continued to speak.
-“And, if you’re referring to the hero, ‘Vellia Grandius,’ he, of course, is alive as well….”
“…What?”
I narrowed my eyes at the strangely different name of the hero.
“What is the hero’s name? Vellia ‘Grandius’? Not ‘Vellius’?”
-“Y-yes, it’s Grandius! He, just last month, thwarted the demon invasion and is a hero among heroes….”
Despite the vampire who had killed all his comrades being right before him, the adventurer’s eyes were filled with hope and pride when mentioning the hero.
-“The guardian of the people, the wing of hope, the Kingdom’s ’21st’ hero, Vellia Grandius….”
“21st hero….”
Ah.
So that’s how it is.
Even heroes cannot defy the passage of time, and Vellius must have eventually left for the afterlife, living out his natural life and returning to the earth as nature intended.
And now, his descendant, a hero of the 21st generation, has inherited the title and is fulfilling the role.
…It was expected.
“….”
Although I had roughly anticipated this, hearing about Vellius’s death directly left a hollow feeling in my heart. The adventurer who shared this information began to mock me openly.
-“So, you should be careful. Once word gets out that your seal has been broken, Grandius will surely come.”
“….”
-“He is strong. Beyond the Kingdom, he is the strongest man in this world. So, someone like you, a vampire, is….”
“Shut up.”
-“…Ack!”
I snapped the adventurer’s neck without hesitation. The sound of breaking bones echoed softly, and soon his hands and feet went limp.
“You were too presumptuous. Zero points.”
I threw his lifeless body to the ground and muttered. I had obtained all the necessary information, and he was of no further use. He should rather be thankful that I ended his life quickly despite his arrogant attitude.
“‘Wing of Hope,’ what nonsense….”
I scoffed at the corpse of the adventurer.
Grandius and all that. If Vellius, the predecessor, couldn’t even touch the ends of my hair, what could his descendant do?
If he becomes a hindrance to my future plans, I can simply kill him. Before finding a way to drag the deceased Vellius from the afterlife, it might not be a bad idea to deal with his descendant first.
“…For now.”
However, it would be best to handle the immediate and certain matter first. I had just learned the whereabouts of the person who, along with Vellius, had condemned me to a hellish thousand years.
“Lilianel….”
The elf, Lilianel Greenfield, who had killed Sophia and betrayed me out of petty jealousy. Imagining her now living grandly as the Kingdom’s chancellor after a millennium made me laugh.
“Hee hee hee….”
I laughed madly.
“Hu hu hu….”
I continued to laugh endlessly.
────I’ll be waiting. I’ll find you first and tear you in half.
“….”
Fulfilling promises,
Achieving goals,
Is always delightful.
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