"Will they be alright?"
"Huh? Ah, Itsuo and Selene can handle themselves, that Kaien guy seem capable, too. They should be alright."
"No, not them. Sieghart and the others. The enemies are with them, right?"
"Ah, don't worry. Sieghart and his party knows who the enemies are, Susun and I told them beforehand. Everything is following right according to our plan."
Sieghart and everyone else was seperated from Christa, Edle and the others. With an unbreakable wall keeping them from communicating with each other. Both sides finds themselves inside a cave along with monsters waiting to strike.
Christa and the others took a path where a giant boulder came rolling towards them and went to find the culprit hiding behind the walls and monsters.
Meanwhile on Sieghart's side. Being surrounded with horde of monsters. Everyone decided to take exit on seperate ways.
Sieghart entered one of the holes together with Ronan. While behind them is a mob of monsters, desperately trying to chase after them.
"They're keeping up... We'll keep going further."
"Okay."
While keeping a close eye over the mob chasing them, Sieghart suggested to go further. The hole they entered is one that is heading north of Kruule. The same direction where they came from.
"Ora!"
"Ha!"
Jinrah and Edward reached the end of the hole they entered. And finds themselves inside of what it seems to be a butcher room underground.
Leaving no choice but to fight the monsters that followed them inside. Jinrah and Edward fought side by side as they confront the enemies. Before long, the last of the monsters was taken down by Jinrah's fist. Sending them across the butcher room.
"Ora!!"
"I think that's the last of them, Adventurer Jinrah."
"I think so too. But... Why would they build a butcher room in here?"
Jinrah's eyes curiously wandered around the illuminated room filled with butchering tools everywhere. A cleaver, sticking knife, chop knife, steak knife, skinning knife, roast needle, sharpening steel, block brush, larding needle, bone saw, machete, and even an axe and a guillotine.
They can be seen everywhere in the room. Either they are lined up in a stainless table, hanging in a wall mounted bar hooks, or just lying around in a corner. What's makes it even weird other than the fact that it was built in a quiet and monster infested area, is that all the tools that Jinrah has seen are more than twice the size of it's original size. It's like they are being used not just from a cattle but to something bigger.
It's giving Jinrah a chilling feeling down his spine.
"These things... They're definitely not used just for meat."
Jinrah continues to gawk around every corner of the room. That is until he caught a glimpse of a flash of light under one of the stainless tables.
"What is...?"
He crouched down and leaned forward to see the source of the flickering light in a more close view. There he finds a severed hand, with a ring on its ring finger.
"What in the world...?"
...
"Damn it! This is not how it should be! If only I could get around the mob of monsters..."
Looking back behind her, a huge horde continues to follow Susun. At the same time, she remembered the scene where David helped Rein and entered one of the five holes together.
"Of all the people who could have gone with her..."
Susun closed her eyes in frustration and anxiousness. Then, he stomped her left foot to slow her momentum until she eventually stopped moving. She then turned around to face the monsters coming her way.
"I have to come back!"
Susun pulls out two knives with her two arms on her waist.
"I have to!"
She then dashes forth towards the crowd of monsters.
...
"It doesn't seem like they are following us anymore, I can't hear their footsteps from here. That wall of lightning you created was a handy move for this enclosed space."
David referred to the three lightning orbs Rein used behind them to create a powerful surge of lightning that acts like a wall for the monsters. Those who tried to touch them were electrocuted to death or those who tried to go passed the surge of lightning were burned to a crisp. That is why the monsters could not continue to chase after them.
"I... I only did what must be done to survive..."
"To survive, huh..."
Some time ago during their trip towards Kruule. Sieghart, Jinrah. As well as Lira and David sees a force field surrounding all four of them. Together inside with them was Christa and Susun.
"Hey, everyone. We would like to talk in private..."
Moments after explaining to Sieghart's party everything.
"They're an enemy?" Asked, Sieghart.
Christa nodded as a response to the adventurer. Confirming what he asked.
"Anyway, plan goes as follows, Sieghart's party and me will deal with the 5 henchmen of princess Celestine. Christa's party and Edle's knight will take care of obtaining the Gates, while Christa herself will help Edle get to the royal castle and rescue the Queen and other rulers." Susun spoke in a strict tone. Which Sieghart and the others find it unfitting to her physical appearance.
"It might seem easy to say than putting it into action. But if we can follow this simple plan, we might just be able to rescue the rulers and stop Castile and whatever he's trying to do."
Christa followed suit.
"Obviously, meeting you all with Christa is not part of my orders. Meaning that they know that I'm no longer under control of princess Celestine." Susun added. "Assume that they know that were already planning against them. Still, keep acting as normal as possible and wait for the right opportunity to strike."
"Okay. So all we gotta do is to keep these 5 into their place while letting Christa and the others do their thing, huh? Let's do it."
Sieghart agreed and is willing to comply with their plan.
"Sign me up, too!"
"Me, too."
Unlike Jinrah and Lira, David kept silent.
"Now that the latter is settled. I have one small favor to ask of you."
"A favor?" Jinrah asked curiously.
Susun then pointed at a certain person taking a ride with them.
"Personally, I want to be the one to take care of that girl. But not all things go according to plan. That's why, if any one of you end up with her, I ask you not to kill her."
"Eh? We shouldn't? Do both of you know each other?" Lira wondered.
The elf's question made Susun stuttered.
"N-no. But I have my reasons..."
Susun answered. But she won't tell them exactly why. Why doesn't she want her to be killed? Why would she go so far as to ask them to spare the girl's life? What is Susun's connection to the girl? Why is she trying to hide the reason behind it?
"You have your reasons, huh? Well, it wouldn't hurt to just knock her out to sleep, right?"
"I don't mind."
These questions are what David wanted answers for. But Susun doesn't seem to want to give them what he wants.
For that reason, David did not accept Susun's request.
"I'm sorry. But I will not follow your request."
"What?"
Susun and everyone else was utterly surprised by his answer. As Sieghart, Jinrah and Lira have agreed to Susun's request without second thoughts, they did not expect that David would decline.
"Hey, David. What are you saying?"
"I said that I will join everyone into rescuing the Queen of Reilaea and the others. That and being Sieghart's party member is the reason why I'm here with everyone. But, keeping an enemy alive whose power is equal to us Diamond rank adventurers is not part of it."
David is right. Saving the Queen of Reilaea and everyone else is the reason why he's standing to where they are now. If not for the situation Reilaea is currently in, and that if Sieghart did not agree to help Edle back then, David wouldn't bother to be with them.
David is an adventurer who doesn't take requests from people who do not give an exact or even a clear reason why they want him to do a job for them. To David, those kind of people are just a group of scums, trying to lure you into promising a good sum as a reward for their request. And when you take the bait, that's where they'll strike from behind. Seeing that scenario happen in his own party members 15 years ago, his belief only grew that those kind of people are indeed a group of scums and liars.
On the other side of the conversation, he can see Susun who seem to be trying to keep her composure, but her troubled look cannot go out of her face. It's almost like she's trying to hold herself from saying something, as if something will happen if she ever spoke her reason. Seeing this, David thought that something must be rendering her from speaking. And so, he tried to reconsider Susun's request and says.
"I will not say no anymore unless you give me a concrete reason why I should keep someone who can kill any one of us at any moment alive."
"Ah...!" Susun's troubled look only grew more visible on her face. Her eyebrows begin to frown as she tries to keep it to herself.
"It's just my assumption but... I think Susun and that girl are sisters."
When it looked like she was about to explode from forcefully keeping her voice leaking out, Christa suddenly speaks in an unexpected moment.
"Huh?"
An assumption that caught not just David and the others off guard, but even Susun as well.
"Well, you see, look at their hairs."
"Hair?" David asked.
"Don't they look like the same?" Christa replied.
David begin to observe Susun and the other girl. From what he can see, they both really have distinguishable silver hairs.
"Now that I looked into it. They do both have the same silver hair." Said, David. "Fine. If Susun and that girl really are sisters, then I'll consider your offer. But since you cannot speak to us the truth whatsoever, I will only think of your connection as an assumption, just like what Christa said. If we ever end up being together, I will not kill her on the spot, but if she proves to be trouble to our plan and put me into a tight situation, I will not hesitate to shoot her."
...
Back to the present time. Both David and Rein are still moving deeper inside the cave. Watching her walk from behind. David keeps his distance from Rein. Continuing forward, both of them stopped moving as they noticed the faint light in the far distance in front of them.
"A light?"
"Let's go."
Out of curiosity, David invited Rein to keep going. As slowly and carefully as they approach the source of light, the light becomes more and more visible. Before long, they reached an area, illuminated with torches all around the vast space.
"This place is..."
The two of them kept moving until they find themselves in the middle of the vast cave.
*Growl*
"Ah...!"
The two then stopped as they heard a loud growl coming from somewhere inside the cave. Behind the dark spots that weren't illuminated by the torches, monsters appear one by one. There are dire wolves, killer rabbits,wither bees, night cougars, vampire bats, goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, trolls and ogres.
"This is bad. I think we just found their nest...!"