Chapter 147 – Saint and Holy Knights (2)

Originally, “dungeon” was used to mean the most core building existing at the center of a castle, but in games the meaning changed to a den where monsters live.

In this world, it referred to abandoned mage laboratories or ancient ruins occupied by monsters or demons.

The dungeon Sun-woo’s party entered was an underground laboratory that the mage who summoned the demon king had created.

The mage’s laboratory was designed to prevent external intrusion with various traps and summoned monsters placed everywhere.

However, after the demon king was summoned, it became a demonic lair with monsters out of control.

“The first floor seems completely cleared. No monsters are visible, and all the traps have been destroyed. It hasn’t been long since they passed through here, so everything’s still as is.”

Daniel, who had entered the dungeon first to scout, returned to the party and reported the situation.

Daniel, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, had different attire than before.

The shining blue full-body armor looked incredibly sturdy, made of who knows what, and the sword that had grown even larger obscured Daniel’s body.

Sun-woo tilted his head at Daniel’s appearance after scouting ahead and the prince’s appearance not taking the lead as before.

The prince’s demeanor, using honorifics and taking charge of tasks, was quite different from before.

“Being a hero was closed for business. I just returned to my original prince position. I tried hard to change when I took on the hero role, but the ending wasn’t good at all, so now I’m trying to live normally.”

The prince, who immediately noticed Sun-woo’s doubt, answered right away.

Fortunately, only his speech pattern had changed while his personality remained the same as before. He seemed to be a prince with a good character.

“It’s been a while for you too, Sun-woo. Despite appearances, you seem to have become incredibly strong again.”

Daniel had also changed besides his armor. He had reached the point where he could sense Sun-woo’s strength.

“Ah, I’ve also become quite strong. I registered the treasure armor from the dragon’s lair last time as equipment and changed my sword with points too, so now I can definitely pull my own weight.”

Come to think of it, Sun-woo seemed to have seen the armor Daniel was wearing in the dragon’s treasure vault.

Sun-woo had pushed it aside since he couldn’t use it, but Daniel had taken care of it himself.

“As known outside, Murmur’s dungeon is a typical summoning mage’s dungeon. Each floor has summoned monsters and traps placed… probably the mage’s laboratory is on the 7th basement floor.”

At Daniel’s words, the prince nodded, and the party walked past the first hall through the corridor.

It was a corridor made of stone over 4 meters in diameter.

Torches were stuck here and there, so even ordinary people could examine their surroundings sufficiently.

While walking, the prince and Daniel explained in detail to Sun-woo, who was curious about the dungeon.

“When a demon king is summoned, the dungeon falls under the demon king’s control. Living beings that can’t overcome the demon king’s dominance become the demon king’s limbs and become half-monstrous existences.”

“Monstrous existences?”

“They become beings that can’t be killed… no, beings that revive even when killed. Like how summoned demon kings are, their mind and body become half-connected to the demon king’s world, so even after dying, they revive after a certain time passes, and broken facilities are also restored by the demon king’s magic power over time.”

“Well, there was even a country that thought to use the revival ability to utilize it as a training ground for mercenaries and knights. Those countries were all destroyed after the demon king, who had become weak from summoning during cooldown, regained his strength.”

Prince Albert interjected after Daniel’s explanation.

“Fortunately, the stronger the summoned demon king, the longer it takes to regain strength, so the time to subjugate the dungeon increases. Still, they eventually burst out, so the state steps forward to handle dangerous dungeons.”

“This dungeon is exactly that kind of dungeon. Murmur is the demon king of the dead. Naturally, the Holy Kingdom took charge.”

While the two explained, the party saw various traces.

The corridors were structured to connect large central rooms to each other, and the room structure looked like a kind of breeding ground.

Old iron fences stretched across the rooms and rat-like monsters lying scattered throughout the rooms indicated this was a place for breeding monsters.

“It’s an ordinary summoning mage’s dungeon. They use their home as a breeding ground for summoned monsters to raise them…”

“That’s why they’re despised even among mages. Don’t know if they’re mages or monster tamers.”

At their words, Sun-woo tilted his head. His ring didn’t work that way.

“Aren’t summoned monsters originally supposed to live in subspace?”

“No way.”

At Sun-woo’s question, Daniel made an absurd expression, and the prince frowned as if something came to mind.

“I think I’ve heard of it before. A story about an archmage who mastered both spatial magic and summoning magic challenging a dragon to show off his skills, then dying. I think what that mage claimed was creating living facilities for monsters in subspace.”

“Well, just a story about an ordinary stupid mage who died to a dragon.”

Sun-woo looked at his ring with a lukewarm expression.

Not just his sorcery, but it seemed non-ordinary techniques kept increasing.

Walking for a while while talking, the party soon arrived in front of a large open iron door.

“This must be the gate room on the first floor.”

It was a room with strong monsters that the summoning mage had set up as gatekeepers to guard each floor.

‘A kind of boss room?’

At Daniel’s words, Sun-woo checked the large room.

A giant two-headed rat lay fallen in one corner of the room with both necks completely severed.

“The skill is good.”

At the prince’s words after checking the cross-section of the rat’s severed necks, Sun-woo also nodded.

Looking at the cleanly cut cross-section, they were definitely considerable masters.

“Seeing there’s absolutely no damage on the human side in passing the first floor, seems a proper elite force came. At this rate, looks like they can push through non-stop to the laboratory where the demon king is.”

“Thanks to that, we can also go comfortably.”

The party descended downward through the stairs behind the fallen giant rat.

Then, Alda, who had been watching for an opportunity, finally opened her mouth.

“Can we talk now?”

Sun-woo sighed seeing Alda, who stood close beside him and brought up the subject.

“What story do you want to hear?”

“Everything. Who you are, where you came from, why you came to the island, why you lied there.”

At Alda’s appearance with fire in her eyes, Sun-woo made an awkward expression.

“Didn’t Caroline explain everything when you saw her then? And Daniel must have told you.”

Despite Sun-woo’s words, Alda continued to glare at him.

“You didn’t say anything yourself!”

Sun-woo sighed in lamentation at Alda’s stubbornness in wanting to hear the explanation he’d already heard again.

She was a stubborn person difficult to understand.

Sun-woo was organizing his thoughts to unfold the long story when he caught a glimpse of Alda’s expression.

Her sad expression didn’t seem to want the same explanation from Sun-woo’s mouth at all.

Sun-woo sneakily peeked at her past while pretending to brush off her clothes.

The meeting at the volcano, regaining memories at the dragon’s lair, and even the scene of hearing explanations from Caroline and Daniel after becoming a summoner.

Having skimmed through memories related to himself, he now knew what Alda wanted.

Sun-woo stopped walking, looked straight at Alda, and bowed his head deeply.

“I apologize. For deceiving and approaching Lady Alda, for causing Master’s death without explanation, for changing memories, and for not apologizing until now. I’m sorry for everything.”

When Sun-woo bowed his head, Alda, who was shocked, soon began to tear up as the apology continued.

“To find the reason why my memories and what the spirits say about Master’s death are different. For a long time, a really long time, I traveled around. Whether I killed Master and don’t remember it, or whether the spirits went crazy… And even after my memories finally returned, no one acknowledged Master’s death.”

Alda, who was speaking while shedding tears drop by drop, burst into crying mixed with grief and began crying loudly while grabbing Sun-woo’s collar.

“No, I…”

Sun-woo became even more awkward.

The action he took to resolve an awkward situation had created an even more awkward situation.

If he hadn’t skimmed her memories, he would have just pushed her away.

However, having stolen a glimpse of her hardships through his skill, Sun-woo couldn’t bring himself to do that.

He looked around to ask for help, but everyone was avoiding this situation.

Daniel looked at Alda with an apologetic expression, and the prince was giving a thumbs up toward Sun-woo for some reason.

***

As Daniel predicted, the party could continue descending without any interference at all.

While descending, they saw more numerous and stronger monsters lying fallen.

Nevertheless, no casualties among the holy knights were visible.

Alda, who had cried for a while, moved along with the party with a relaxed face as if her mood had improved.

However, Sun-woo had to suffer from heat because of the fire spirits that kept approaching him.

Eventually, the party met the holy knight order on the 7th basement floor.

Though the party rushed at the sound of fighting heard from afar, they could only watch.

About a dozen knights in full plate armor were overwhelmingly pushing back the monsters.

Knights in the front row holding tower shields emitting flashing radiance blocked muscular bull-headed monsters charging with their shields, and knights in the back row stabbed long spears between front-row knights to wound the monsters.

On one side, one knight was fighting alone against an even larger bull-headed monster.

The knight, who had been fighting on equal terms with the over-3-meter monster for a while, threw off her helmet as if dissatisfied with something.

When the helmet was thrown off, the knight’s long hair flowed back and a beautiful face revealed itself.

The holy knight fighting the bull-headed monster, the Minotaur, was a woman.

“Saint-nim, please give me some support!”

When she shouted while throwing off her helmet, a scream mixed with lamentation burst out from among the holy knights blocking other monsters with shields.

“Just do it!”

“We can block it without it!”

However, breaking through their opposition, one man’s voice was heard.

“I’ve been waiting.”

The heavy baritone voice flowed from a man standing behind the holy knights.

A tall man with broad shoulders built like a rock.

Seeing the white robe, he was definitely the saint they were looking for.

The man gently raised both hands then tapped one foot.

“O God!”

Against the backdrop of the holy knights’ screams.

While fluttering his robe.

He began to dance the maiden’s dance!

A gently bitten smile.

Lightly treading steps.

Alluringly moving arms and fingers.

Sun-woo, who was watching, felt like his eyes were rotting.

“What is that?”

Daniel answered Sun-woo’s words with a very uncomfortable expression.

“It’s the maiden’s dance, a representative holy technique of the Holy Kingdom’s priestesses. It’s reputed to be strong and beautiful for conveying God’s power to others through dance… never thought I’d see a man doing it.”

The prince was already looking elsewhere, and only Alda was watching the dance with an amused expression.

And the holy knights were attacking the monsters like crazy.

“Die! Die! How hard did I fight not to see this!”

“O God, why this trial!”

The mood of the holy knights accepting divine power seemed far worse than watching.

They began pushing back the monsters with power, whether it was divine power making them stronger or the power of anger.