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Thus, The Argument Was Started
Like fog being lifted from your head, Eclair’s consciousness was brought back from the dark depths of death.
“Where am—Cough cough!”
Right as Eclair wanted to speak, the dried blood in her mouth went down her throat. After she had gotten her coughing fit under control, she tried to get up. However, her arms and legs, as well as her body were restrained by something, not allowing her to move.
“What is happening?!” She was utterly baffled, as she used her free neck to look around.
Considering the stone-paved and dimly-lit room, she was probably inside the cathedral. Her limbs were tied to corners of the floor, keeping her locked up.
“Where am I…”
“Waaah! My head! So much blood!”
Shortly after, the priest Jam and the spearman Cracker spoke up, too. They probably ended up the same way.
“Hey! I don’t know who you are, but don’t think you’ll get away easily after doing this to us!” Eclair roared in anger towards the individual who locked them up like this.
After a brief silence, an unfamiliar voice responded.
“We’ve brought you back from the dead, and yet you don’t even offer our lord a word of gratitude? You truly are lost lambs. I’m glad we decided to keep you restrained.”
It was probably the high-ranking priest who had used the resurrection magic. After that statement, the deep voice sighed. Right after, a familiar voice followed.
“It’s as you can see, dear Priest. That’s why, please leave the rest to me.”
“Is that you, Princess?!” Eclair screamed as the 7th princess Rufa offered no answer.
The priest ignored her all the same.
“Is that so? Then I’ll let you handle them.”
“Thank you very much. We will properly repay you for the room and everything else.”
“Be safe by the God of Light, Ord’s blessing.”
The priest walked away after leaving a prayer and closed the door. They heard the sound of the door being locked, as darkness filled the room once again. Out of the shadows, Rufa appeared.
“Good day to you. How did your trip to the depths of hell go?”
“Hah, some runaway girl’s finally got some guts, huh?” Eclair spit her saliva at Rufa, but it fell before reaching her.
As it dropped back onto her own face, Eclair realized that something was off.
This doesn’t make sense. What is going on?
Even if her body had been weakened after the resurrection, this wasn’t anything normal. With the aura of a 5th-floor adventurer, she should be able to easily fire her spit at the ceiling, and easily break free from her confinement. And yet, none of that worked. In fact, she couldn’t even build up any aura, to begin with.
“What the hell did you do?!”
“Could you tone it down a bit?” Rufa looked down at the pale Eclair, forming a fiendish smile.
The moment Eclair saw that, a rush of terror passed through her. The 7th princess in front of her may be an elf, but she has the blood of the emperor. She was calculative, caring for the citizens, but she has the qualities and necessary talents to be a ruler.
“Then, why don’t I explain it to you.” Looking down at Eclair who cowered like she was strangled by a snake, Rufa continued with a smile. “Dangerous individuals like you should have had their bodies burned and be turned into Lost, but Alba-sama saw this as too much despite your deeds, which is why we resurrected you.” Rufa urged them to show their gratitude to Alba, as she slammed her wand on the ground. “However, leaving you alone might result in Alba-sama’s life being targeted yet again, which is why we completely erased all possible sparks for that.”
“What did you…”
Eclair was assaulted by an eerie premonition, as she looked down at the floor. There, she spotted a magic circle drawn on the stone, emitting a faint light. She thought this was the circle used for the resurrection magic, but that seemed to be wishful thinking.
“It’d be quite problematic if high-ranking adventurers were to commit crimes or treason. Even if you keep them locked up in a prison cell, they can easily break free, or move through transportation magic, see.” Rufa politely explained, placing several magic stones on the ground she bought from the cathedral.
Following that, they started glowing and shattered into mana that filled the room.
“So, what happens if an adventurer too strong to punish causes a crime? First step would be to turn them into Lost. It’d be the easiest solution, but there are many times where killing the adventurer is impossible.”
In that case, the Empire would try to solve things. First, you subdue them and put them in a closed-off room. And the 7th princess knew of the ritual.
“Second, you turn the powerless. And that is the punishment I decided for you.”
“Y-You, wait a second…” Eclair and the other two grew pale, as Rufa smiled innocently.
“Hee, hee. The Labyrinth Preservation Force is quite a big deal in the government, so you must have heard of it, I presume.”
Where did she even dig up that name? Eclair couldn’t help but regret having looked down on this princess.
“That’s right. The adventurer shall receive the greatest punishment imaginable—the Energy Drain.”
The aura of adventurers is what separated them from the average citizen. By draining them from this privilege and removing it completely, it would ruin all their hard work, sweat, and tears.
“In reality, this technique was developed to defeat the Dark Knight, the guardian of the 6th floor.”
You could gather ten people with an aura level of 1, and create one individual with an aura level of 10. In doing so, you could surpass the Dark Knight as a small group of invincible adventurers. Evidently, when this magic was first developed, it was only out of the best of intentions. However, this absorption ability had nothing but evil deeds waiting.
“Even if I have three 5th-floor adventurers here, there’s no guarantee that I can move up to become a 3rd-floor adventurer.
It was flawed magic that gathering ten 1s might not be enough to even reach 2. However, you could use this ability to punish evil adventurers and turn them into regular citizens.
“With your assassination of Alba-sama having failed, as well as having been robbed of your aura, I have no idea just what might happen.”
“S-Stop…”
A plea escaped Eclair’s lips, but Rufa didn’t pay any attention to it, simply swinging her staff.
“Receive your punishment for increasing another rival in love for me!”
This would have been the perfect moment to retort on such a foul reason, but the magic circle activated, as the Energy Drain magic began its work.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
The aura they practically paid for by leeching off the White Wings, the strength that turned them into superhumans, was now forcefully taken from their bodies. Basking in this sensation, Eclair and the other two screamed. If this had been a painful sensation, then maybe Rufa had some sort of resistance towards using this. However…
“Feels so gooooooood!”
The sensation of being stripped off their aura felt so good it made them hallucinate that they got the soul sucked out of them. It was a momentary catharsis as they lost everything they worked for. And since this continued for quite some time, Eclair and the others started drooling out of pleasure, their bodies convulsing.
“This is…quite the sight, indeed.”
Despite being the person who cast the magic, Rufa was frankly disgusted at this sight, and had trouble thankfully accepting the aura she sucked up.
*
An hour had passed since Rufa went underground where Eclair-san and the others’ bodies were stored. During that time, the rest of us were waiting outside, explaining the circumstances to Chidori-san.
“The Evil God of Demise who will bring ruin to the world…”
“I know it sounds hard to believe, but we’ve acquired plenty of proof, and considering the Emperor ordered Alba’s assassination, we can assume that there’s something fishy going on.”
Even after listening to Garnet’s words, Chidori-san seemed half in doubt, but eventually nodded.
“Until yesterday, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. However, seeing Glutton grow three heads definitely was an irregularity. If you tell me that there’s something shady going on inside the labyrinth, I have to believe that.”
“Thank you,” I thanked her, to which Chidori-san smiled and shook her head.
“I should be thanking you. Just thinking that I didn’t know about the Evil God’s resurrection sends shivers down my spine. Rather than challenging the Dark Knight, the safety of all the citizens is much more important.”
“Yeah,” I nodded since I agreed.
Seeing that, Chidori-san seemed determined for something and looked straight at me.
“I cannot betray my teammates who’ve helped me get this far, but when you end up fighting the Dark Knight, you shall have my blade.”
“That’d be great.” I offered her my hand, and she answered by taking it.
After that, her face turned faintly red.
“S-So, after we defeat this Evil God of Demise, I wouldn’t mind becoming your wi—”
“Alba-sama, I have returned!”
The front door of the cathedral swung open as Rufa appeared. And then, she came dashing towards me and stepped between me and Chidori-san.
“I’ve finished giving them their punishment, so let us get going to celebrate our victory over Glutton.”
“R-Right.”
Rufa forcefully took my right arm and started walking. She seemed a bit forceful for some reason. Immediately after, Chidori-san latched onto my left arm.
“Wait, I have many more things to ask about my father. Thus, I shall tag along.”
Yeah, that’s no surprise. I told her that I’m assuming her father to be my master, but we need to tell each other more stories to be absolutely sure. That’s why I was not against the idea of her joining us, but—
“My, Chidori-sama? Should a loser like you truly participate in a party to celebrate a victory?” Rufa said with a smile that completely silenced me.
Sh-She’s scary…And if that wasn’t enough, Chidori-san didn’t back down, either.
“And for that, I shall pay the festive fee. Unlike our little princess using the budget of the church, I am both rich in pocket and heart.”
“That almost makes it sound like I am a cruel woman. Are you certain about that?”
“Apologies, you are quite the well-meaning princess, I know. So for that, you’ll allow me to participate and take Alba-dono’s side, won’t you?”
“Hee hee.”
“Hahaha.”
They were smiling at each other, but I could feel sparks of aura lighting up between them. Garnet, save meee!
“Can’t be creating more bodies in front of the cathedral. Stop fooling around and let’s go!” Garnet sighed as she slapped her hand on both Rufa’s and Chidori-san’s butt.
I used that opening to escape.
“Tsk, fine. We can decide on the seats at the party with a normal conversation, at least.”
“Fine by me. I will show you that raw strength isn’t the only thing I excel at. My second sword is my skill with the word.”
More sparks flew between the two, so I just started walking before things could get more south. I’m happy Chidori-san is willing to help us, but why did things have to get this messy?
“Are you joking right now?” Garnet grumbled, making it almost seem like it was all my fault, as pain filled my stomach.
*
Standing in the center of the Rings Wall that protected the 9 districts was the radiant white Imperial Castle, currently showered by the moonlight. Deeper inside of that was the Emperor’s office. At the walls lined up pictures of all previous Emperors, making the current one feeling like he was being watched 24/7. However, if one were to falter at this pressure while governing an entire capital of hundreds of thousands of people, let alone the entire Empire’s population, then one wouldn’t be Emperor to begin with.
The current owner of this room, the 41st Emperor Graf, possessed plenty of qualifications like that. That is the reason why the Knight Ox, met with the Emperor’s sharp glare, was feeling a cold sweat creep down his back.
“So they’ve failed.”
The Emperor played with a round marble stone in his hand as he calmly muttered. His voice reflected no anger, and yet Ox immediately kneeled down like he was cut, severely begging for forgiveness.
“My sincerest apologies! I will definitely succeed next time!” He prayed, and yet the Emperor still looked at him without a single emotion in his gaze.
“Those in the east are forgiven three times of failure. However, I believe that is a bit too much.”
“Y-Your Majesty…”
“Did you think you’d be given one next time?”
“…?!”
Ox hadn’t been summoned to receive a reward. It was to inform him of his untimely end. Knowing that his life would soon burn out, Ox was at a loss for words, looked at in pity by the Emperor.
“I was a fool for leaving this task to you. Forgive me.”
“You don’t…”
Rather than anger or disdain, this apology hurt Ox much more.
“However, I have to show my followers that those who can’t fulfill their duty need to be punished. Thus, you shall receive a punishment.” The Emperor placed the marble down, stood up from his chair, and declared. “Knight Ox, for faking the sigil of the Imperial Family and undermining the imperial army, you will receive a life sentence.”
Nobody was allowed to know that the Emperor ordered the assassination of an adventurer. Thus, he will put the blame and punishment on Ox, using him as a scapegoat.
“Once I step back as the Emperor and give my position to my successor, I shall allow you to return to this world.”
However, that was a thing of tens of years away, and Ox would be treated as a criminal, locked away in a dark prison cell all by himself.
“Be thankful that I don’t order an Energy Drain or the death penalty on you.”
“Y-Your Majesty!”
Fearing that he would lose all his land and honor, Ox frantically clung to the Emperor’s leg. However, before he could do another move, a person clothed in black appeared and chopped his hand into Ox’s neck.
“Gah!”
Ox immediately passed out, as the clothed individual put him on their shoulders, disappearing into the darkness again. Watching that off, the Emperor sat back down on his chair.
“Not quite working out,” he grumbled as he closed his eyes, playing with the marble again.
Too many things weren’t going according to his plans. Even if he managed to bring half the continent under the rule of the Goldo Empire, he didn’t have free reign on everything. Despite the retirement, his father’s political influence had yet to subside, and there were the seven princesses fighting for succession, the army that was controlled by former 6th-floor adventurers, the people and the economy of the Empire, as well as the adventurers who love their freedom…Too many powers worked together that any kind of stimulation could lead to a rapid downfall.
Thus, he decided to forget about all of the problems out of his control, focusing solely on the fake Dark Knight who appeared, while trying to bring back his daughter to safety.
“Not good enough.”
He repeated himself as he tightly grasped the stone. The territory war continued on the continent, as well sa several terrorist attacks against the Empire’s side, and there were many other problems that he really didn’t have time for such triffling matters. Out of frustration, he put more strength in his grip, crushing the marble.
“Now that things have progressed this far…”
The pieces of marble dropped to the ground as he stood up, walking towards the window. And while he looked down at the capital, illuminated by the moonlight, he muttered.
“I shall consign to oblivion.”
This declaration of war didn’t reach anybody’s ears, as it melted into the darkness.
CClaw Translations 