Episode 238
- Rumble! Crumble!!
Inside the rapidly collapsing building, the Hero Party struggles to move forward.
"We need to... escape from here... like this... everyone will be buried here..."
After closing her eyes tightly in prayer, the nun-like paladin who spoke those words caused silence to flow through the surroundings for a moment.
"H-Hero. We cannot abandon the Hero...!"
Vener, who shouted to break that silence, began her speech with eyes blazing intensely.
"We are the Hero Party! For the sake of the Hero, we must be ready to sacrifice ourselves at any time!"
"Even if we end up truly buried here, fulfilling our duty by the Hero's side until the end is..."
"...The Hero will be safe even if the building collapses. I and the paladin have already taken measures."
However, Ariane interrupted her excited words, and thanks to that, Vener quietly closed her mouth.
"First, securing survivors is the priority."
Ariane, who turned her gaze away from her, looked at the terrified maids standing behind them and spoke.
"The nobles have already mostly evacuated. But the maids were scattered everywhere, so most of them failed to evacuate. We need to gather them."
"Who are the maids in charge of today's verification ceremony?"
"...They're from the Starlight mansion. They say they were all assigned there because of their experience."
"Hmm, if it's them, there shouldn't be any troublesome incidents."
True to those words, most of the maids rescued from the building by the Hero Party were servants from the Starlight mansion.
"But... dragging them around in this situation is still too much."
However, no matter how capable they were, they inevitably had little to do with combat.
"It can't be helped. Let's give up pursuing Frey and make escape our top priority..."
Therefore, Vener, who judged that pursuing Frey any further was impossible, gritted her teeth and began to say that to everyone, but...
- Rumble rumble rumble rumble!!
"Ugh...!"
At that moment, a large tremor rang through the building once more, and she ended up falling to the floor, stopping mid-sentence.
"We can't die a pointless death here..."
In the atmosphere that had become even more urgent because of that, Aris tapped the wall distorted by spatial warping and muttered coldly.
"I must... definitely thrust a knife into Frey's stomach..."
At her chilling words, everyone's gaze briefly focused on her.
"Definitely..."
However, no one pointed out her words. Originally, there were very few people who liked Frey, few enough to count on one hand.
"...Your name was Aris, right?"
"Yes?"
But this building was a place where quite a few of those very few people who could be counted on one hand had gathered.
"So why do you hate Frey?"
That question was asked to Aris in a low voice by Isolet, who was moving with the Hero Party while wearing large armor even as the building collapsed.
"Hmm..."
Aris, who was busy searching for an exit with her companions, received Isolet's question that somehow had an edge to it, and after thinking for a moment...
"He oppressed commoners, took away my freedom, and rapes me every night."
She said so in a cold voice.
"Every night when he enters my room and sends lecherous looks my way... I can't stand the revulsion."
"...Hmm."
"So when I can't bear to meet his eyes and lower my head... at some point my consciousness fades. And when I wake up again, it's morning."
So shameful that Aris gritted her teeth until blood flowed from her lips.
"The scene of Frey watching the sun rise with a relieved expression, flicking his finger at me, keeps coming to mind. I don't know what he did during those gaps in my memory, but... what else could it be?"
She finished speaking like that.
"".........""
The surrounding people fell solemn.
"The rumor that Frey rapes servants every day had already spread widely."
"........."
"It's a frequently mentioned topic even among the mansion servants who entered the imperial family this time. I knew it would be like this."
In that silence, Vener muttered with a hollow laugh.
"That is known to be close to an urban legend, though."
Isolet, who countered her words like that, said.
"Hey, excuse me for a moment."
With an unsatisfied expression, she quietly extended her hand to Aris and handed her something.
"Yes? Why are you... Hmm?"
Aris, who inadvertently received what Isolet handed her, began to make a puzzled expression.
"What... is this?"
In her hand was a pure white ring.
"Ha."
The identity of that ring was the 'Ring of Purity' that Isolet had found among Frey's miniaturized clothing.
Most people didn't know, but Isolet, who had once been tested with the Stone of Purity as a candidate for the paladin order's captain, understood the ring's operating mechanism well.
"...This is absurd."
If she had been violated by Frey in any way, the ring would have immediately turned black.
However, the ring continued to shine white in her hand.
"...Excuse me."
Isolet, who was at a loss for words in such an absurd situation, took the ring from her hand and then held it out to the maids following behind.
"This is driving me crazy."
The ring was still white.
"...I will definitely make him experience that same unpleasantness someday."
When Aris, who had been tapping the blocked exits and walls with her companions, added that, Isolet, who had been standing quietly, looked at Ariane this time.
"Do you... have a reason to hate Frey?"
"...He took my friend."
"It seems like Irina likes him, though."
"...That's sorcery."
"I understand that no manipulation was found in the last surprise inspection."
"........"
Ariane, who heard those words, fell into silent contemplation.
"Indeed, something is strange..."
Then Isolet, who frowned and began to mutter...
"What are you doing right now..."
"Vener, why do you hate Frey."
When Vener approached her, she asked such a question.
"I remember seeing you a few times at Frey's house when you were young too..."
"...That's in the past."
"You don't remember eating rye bread together with him either?"
"........"
Vener, who firmly cut off her question...
"That childish play ended a long time ago."
"Hmm."
"It's also been a long time since I severed ties with the Starlight family."
"Is that so."
"I am now only Lord Ruby's guard knight."
She said with a cold expression.
"I will kill Frey, Ruby's enemy, without mercy."
"........."
Isolet, who heard those words and fell into silence for a moment...
"That's right! Bad Frey!! We must definitely kill Frey!!"
- Shing...
While listening to Perluce's foolish voice shouting with a serious expression, she quietly drew her sword from her waist.
'...Frey.'
"What, what is this..."
She, who simultaneously began to emit killing intent...
'Everyone hates you...'
"P-please calm down. Right now in this place..."
Vener, flustered by her reaction, tried to stop her and moved forward, but...
'But don't worry.'
- Zzzzzzt!!
'Those threatening you...'
At that moment.
'...I will cut them all down for you.'
Isolet's sword energy cleaved through the air.
- CRASH!!!
"W-what...!"
At the roar and dust cloud that soon arose, those with bewildered expressions...
- Whoosh...
When the cloud cleared and the shattered wall was revealed, their mouths fell open.
The distorted space that showed no signs of breaking no matter how hard the Hero Party tried...
Isolet had destroyed it with sword energy alone.
"Then... let's go..."
Thanks to that, while everyone looked at Isolet as if she were a monster, she herself walked forward with an expression as if this was nothing...
"...Hic!"
Before long, as if her legs gave out, she fell to her knees and sat down on the spot.
"P-Professor!"
"...Are you alright?"
Thanks to that, the flustered Hero Party rushed to her, but.
"N-no... I'm... fine."
Isolet, whose face was completely red for some reason, waved her hands and stood up...
"T-then... let us... proceed... to the road..."
She began to walk forward, noticeably staggering.
'Frey, you bastard...'
She, doing so, looked slightly inside her armor at the chill spreading through her body while sweating cold sweat.
'...Why did you wake up?'
- Rustle, rustle...
Because Frey's miniaturization transformation had worn off, she had to hide Frey until the spell's cooldown time ended.
And the most suitable place to hide him was none other than inside the large decorative armor.
Of course, she had only intended to hide her body briefly with Frey.
But because she told the Hero Party, who was trying to inspect the armor, that she was wearing it herself, she missed the timing.
"Hmm..."
Therefore, Frey, who was still tied to Isolet inside the armor, hugging her waist with his stomach against hers...
"......."
Opened his eyes at the continued movement and began to look up at Isolet with a languid expression inside the armor.
"It's cramped, but just endure it a little, Frey..."
Isolet, who looked down at him with trembling eyes, checked the Hero Party following behind her and began to whisper quietly.
"I found a way to escape. If we keep going like this, we can escape this building..."
"...Meow."
".....!?"
When Frey, looking up at her, made a bright smile and let out a cat's cry, she made a flustered expression.
"W-what is this..."
Isolet, who didn't have much expertise in magic, didn't know even in her dreams.
The side effect of Frey attempting the miniaturization magic again without any rest time right after the miniaturization wore off had appeared.
"Purr..."
The side effect being that during the cooldown time, he would behave in ways matching the beast he would transform into.
"...Sigh."
But Isolet, who couldn't have known such a thing, walked forward exercising transcendental patience, but.
"Lick."
"........Ugh."
When Frey inside the armor, who was nestled against her, closed his eyes halfway and gently licked her, she staggered again.
""........."""
And Vener and Aris, who had received the tracking map from Ariane, exchanged glances while watching her.
.
"Haa... haa..."
Rosewin, whose face had turned pale, was breathing heavily as she made her way through the collapsing building.
"What is this..."
Although the spaces were still distorted, the building's collapse had destroyed a significant number of the distorted spaces, and thanks to that, Rosewin was able to move relatively easily.
"What on earth is this..."
But her mind was still plunged into a cauldron of confusion.
"........"
The system window that suddenly switched over, the one she had waited and waited for. Ruby, speaking to her with an incredibly chilling expression. The potion that didn't work.
And the hacked-up photograph she saw in her dream, and the photographs hanging on the wall.
[ㅍ ]
"Ugh..."
And the name window with its short but unconventional power that had been terrifying her since earlier.
"It... it doesn't mean... Perluce... right... haha."
She tried to force a smile by raising the corner of her mouth and muttering like that, but she already instinctively had some intuition.
"B-but... it doesn't make sense..."
However, she couldn't accept it.
"Even just today... he assaulted the Hero, didn't he?"
Therefore, she, who had been leaning against the window frame and muttering again...
[Evidence automatically recording......1%]
"Hmm?"
Tilted her head at the text floating before her eyes.
[Automatically records the truth of the world observed by the helper.
The recorded scenes will help drive away the darkness in the far future.]
"W-what..."
Soon, she who had been staring blankly at that text...
- S-stop... stop it...!
- Stay... still...!
Saw the scene floating before her eyes and made a shocked expression.
"This is..."
In the waiting room in the video, Ruby was on top of Frey, pressing him down and licking her lips.
- Noooooooo!
"............"
When Frey's pitiful scream was heard from the video, Rosewin was left speechless.