For the past hour, I've been breaking open each holding cell. The girls that can still walk have been helping me move the more incapacitated ones into the large room where Nora is. I just break open the last cage when I hear footsteps coming from the opposite direction.
"Cyrus— What happened?"
I turn around. Pierce and Lilith come running up to me. I step into the cell and help up the couple of able girls.
"Reuben killed Wyrmton," I say, loosely pointing to the Nobleman's corpse. "I killed the one pulling the strings."
The girls carefully make their way out the door. I help one of them carry a particularly wounded girl by supporting her other arm.
Pierce looks down. "...Had we anticipated this, we surely would have—"
"Yeah, well— we didn't," I reply. I motion them to follow as we make our way to the big room. "We have Reuben over there to partially thank for that. He had it in his mind the only way we'd win is if I went in alone."
"But we did win, right?" asks Lilith. "Say... Where is Nora?"
"Unconscious in the other room," I mutter. "A... A lot of things happened. She's not gonna wake up for a while."
"And the princess? What of her?" she presses.
"Not here," I reply. "These girls were used to keep the soldiers under control. But Elstaire, the guy who most likely abducted them all, didn't actually do the mind control. He only knew spatial magic."
Pierce frowns at the thought. Lilith and he help support the last wounded girl from the cage.
"There's a small bend just back the way you came," I continue. "She's probably through there. Whoever orchestrated this obviously didn't want Her Highness for that purpose."
Lilith and Pierce pass by the unconscious Reuben.
"Why is he untied?" Pierce asks me.
"He helped fight," I reply. "He might be a little off, but the only reason he's here was to find someone capable of rescuing the princess."
"Is that so?" asks Lilith.
"According to him," I reply. "Forgot to mention, but I also had to fight a boss to get through here. Reuben saved Nora and took a pounding in her stead. I guess I owe him some."
"You can't be serious. This place— a dungeon?" Pierce mutters.
"In both definitions, yeah," I reply. "Apparently no one's ever found this one. There's treasure chests everywhere, but they're untouched. I guess the things that called this place home were enough of a deterrent."
"Once we free the princess, it is in our best interest to collect them," Pierce nods.
"And here I was thinking I was greedy just because I contemplated opening one or two," I mutter.
"Not for myself. Obviously," he replies. "The aftermath of this is more devastating than we originally anticipated. We will need medical care for these women if we wish for any one of them to survive. If we move them, they will not make it. Therefore, we will need funds to transport medical staff and supplies from the Capital."
"O-Oh, right. That, yeah," I sputter. "Th-Then we'll need some kinda outpost here in the meantime, right? How do we keep everyone healthy until then?"
"We found a storage room with a year's supply for a single person. Wyrmton apparently planned to have stayed much longer than this," says Pierce. "How many were locked here?"
"Almost seventy," I mutter. "There were more, but... They didn't make it."
We're just about at the entrance to the large room now.
"This is evidently a dark day," Pierce replies. "Though... for some, I would be willing to bet this day is also their brightest. The day they were finally saved. We may mourn the dead, but what we must also do is pay homage to the innocent lives we saved. As we are grateful there are survivors, they must be equally grateful for their rescuer."
"N-No, I wouldn't say that, r-really, I—"
As if on cue, one after another the girls who can stand come up to me. Through a wall of weeps and thank you's, I'm embraced by twelve girls at once, with more catching on as time goes by.
"Wh-Whoa, h-hey," I say. "U-Um, I've got another injured here, p-please be careful, I—"
"I have her. Here." One of the girls manages to slip in and safely receive the injured girl. I notice Pierce and Lilith move along with her, leaving me to deal with the growing crowd of girls around me.
Normally, having dozens of naked girls around me would have quite the opposite effect it does now. But knowing what they've been through, seeing the conditions they lived in, I see that this is nothing short of desperation. They've had no one, not a soul to tell them that things will be alright, that they will ever be delivered from this hell on earth. The whole of this is nothing but cruelly sobering at this point. For them and for me.
The girls slowly begin to disperse, mostly from sheer exhaustion, and I'm able to reunite with Lilith and Pierce. Lilith is crouched over Reuben, tending to his wounds as best she can with the fabric she's torn from her own dress.
"Cyrus. Should we look for where Her Highness is being held?" Pierce asks, standing up.
"Nice of you to wait for me," I say.
"Pierce, could you stay here instead?" asks Lilith. "I've already bandaged Reuben Khol to the best of my ability. All you will have to do is make sure the girls here are kept safe."
"Oh, yeah. You and the princess're friends, right?" I say. "Pierce, do your wife a solid and stick back here, okay?"
"...Fine. Bring her back here as soon as you find her," he replies.
"Where the hell else would I bring her...?" I mutter. "We'll be back."
Far down past the cells that had held the girls, the abrupt fork takes us far right, deeper into a part of the dungeon we haven't yet been to. For the most part, all that we find are a bunch of empty cells. When I asked some of the girls earlier, they said that there weren't any other prisoners back this way, except for the princess. But they weren't sure exactly where the princess was, either. So now, we just keep walking.
"Do you think Pierce and I really work well together?" Lilith asks suddenly.
"W-Woah, where'd that come from?" I sputter.
"I-I know... I just... A lot happened over the last few months, and at the time it seemed like the thing to do, like... the logical progression. But now I'm coming to realize I can't be sure I know him at all."
"...L-Look, I may be the last person to ask about relationship issues... and I really have no clue what happened with you two while I was gone, but..." I pause. "Back before then... it looked like you were always the happiest when you were around him. H-How about now?"
"I want him with all my heart," she mutters. "But the heart is impulsive, and doesn't listen to reason."
"Ain't that a solid slab of hard truth," I chuckle. "But... if you're courageous enough to take any advice from me, then I'd say to give him another shot. He never wanted to hurt you. And you can really tell he's trying his damndest to make up for it. And after seeing what you're like when you're pissed, I don't blame him."
"Is that how you would react?"
"If I—? Y-Yeah, I... W-Well honestly I don't know. I mean, look at me. I'm a nervous wreck with only semi-decent social skills who's been unable to get a girlfriend his entire life. Please take anything I say with a grain of salt."
"I ask this of you only because I admire your strength. You do what you believe is right and are always prepared to shoulder the burden of your actions."
"W-Well that's fair and all... but how does that relate to relationship advice?"
"...Maybe I just needed someone to tell. Someone I can place trust in to listen while I vent topics I'm not comfortable talking about with Pierce."
"Then in this case it's just convenient that I'm anyone other than Pierce," I say. "But... I won't go telling on you, in any case. So... v-vent all you want, I guess..."
At the end of the hall, between a stone pillar and a semi-collapsed dungeon cell, lies a thick iron door different from any others I've seen. Clearly, it's newer than the walls it's built into.
I ignite my blade in the same fashion I did to cut my way into the dungeon from the sewer grate. I quickly run it through the side to melt out the lock before dousing the flame and slowly opening the rusty door. The dim torchlight seeps into the room beyond, where a huddled figure lays atop a small wooden bench.
"P...Princess S—"
The figure leaps up and raises their hand. "Barrier!" They, a girl's voice, shouts. I'm suddenly blown out the door by a blue shimmering wall of light that has abruptly been erected inside.
"A new barrier spell? You have improved your magic since we last saw each other, Serenne," says Lilith, tapping on the wall with the back of her finger.
"L-Lilith...?" I hear from inside. The barrier disappears, and a girl hesitantly steps out into the light.
Serenne Von Seynith... In terms of looks, she seems only slightly above average on all accounts. She's few inches taller than Lilith, and has pale skin with curly blond hair. Under a pair of golden eyes, her cheeks are lightly peppered with tiny freckles. Her face tells me she's worried, but more than anything it's that she's surprised she's being rescued. Had it not been for a single other defining trait, she'd look no different than the other girls who are all commoners. And yet... there's this soft little pinprick of something, something I can't fully grasp and yet it seems to solidify her status as royalty to me. It's nothing physical, for sure. More like... a feeling her presence invokes. But maybe it's nothing more than the fact that I know she actually is royalty. For the sake of finishing this character description, let's say that's what it is.
"L-Lilith... I... Is it really you?" Serenne whispers.
Lilith smiles and quickly runs up to embrace Serenne. It's touching and all, but it kinda just leaves me standing there awkwardly until they finally part.
"Oh, Serenne—" says Lilith, stepping to the side. "This is Cyrus Avette. I cannot take even half as much credit in this rescue as he. Cyrus— Cyr is the one who put an end to... to..."
"Elstaire," I reply. "And you're welcome."
"And... And of the other girls? How do they fare?" asks Serenne. Her voice is quiet, but still holds a certain amount of urgency.
"They're all pretty beat up," I mutter. "And not all of them made it through... But those that did are looking like they'll pull through. Assuming we can get medical supplies from the Capital, that is..."
"Oh..." Serenne's eyes begin to tear up. "Oh... I... I see..."
"S-Serenne," says Lilith.
"D-Day after day... I heard their cries... I heard them, b-but I couldn't do anything... I've never felt so powerless in my whole—" She chokes up on the last bit. Her voice is almost at a whisper by the time she stops herself.
"There's... almost seventy other girls in the other room that aren't too late to be saved. Let's leave the tears for once we've saved them, too," I mutter, choosing to ignore the fact that I may have shed more than my fair share just prior.
"B-But... I can't..."
Lilith leans in and puts her head on Serenne's shoulder. Serenne tenses, but slowly relaxes back into it. She sniffles, and wipes her face with the back of her hand.
"This isn't the ideal rescue scenario, but it's what we'll have to work with," I say. "We need to get back and finish cleaning through the dungeon."
"Th-The dungeon...?" Serenne whispers. "Why do you need to do that...?"
"Because honestly, our only job was to rescue you," I say. "It's gonna take a lot of money to convince over a dozen carriage drivers it's worthwhile to venture down such a dangerous path."
"Regrettably, that does seem like the case," Lilith nods. "According to Cyr, there is wealth scattered around the dungeon. We'll use it to purchase medical aid and transportation."
"Th-Then I will help...!" Serenne exclaims— which isn't much of an exclamation, but more of a slight raise in her normal voice.
"Let's just get you out to the main area," I say. "We'll talk from there."
As we reach the hall before the boss room, I put a hand over Princess Serenne's eyes.
"Wh-Why are you—"
"It's better this way," I mutter.
The reality is that we had to leave all the bodies in their cells. Assuming we can even get enough carriages for travel back to the Capital, there's still no way we'll be able to transport the dead as well. And with the Princess seeming to blame herself for some of this, it's best not to have that be the first thing she sees.
I wait until we've cleared the large doors before taking my hand off her eyes. As soon as I do though, I realize that this won't be much easier on her either. All the girls are huddled around each other, not unlike how I found them in their cells. Serenne cups her hands over her mouth as tears begin to streak her face.
"Th-This way, Princess," I mutter to her.
We slowly walk our way around until coming up to Pierce, who is leaned against a large dislodged brick. He seems pissed, but I can't tell who it's angled towards. Is it me? Is it Elstaire? Or is it himself?
"P-Pierce... of the Adventurers Guild...?" Serenne asks.
"Princess," he nods without much inflection in his voice.
"Serenne... This is... This is my husband," says Lilith. "I... wasn't sure when the right time to mention it was, but... yes, Pierce and I are married now..."
I can tell what Lilith is trying to do just by talking to Serenne, all while slowly stepping around so she's between she and the girls. She's trying to invoke a sense of normalcy, to redirect the attention. Effective in most tragic situations, by many accounts. Or not. But it's working now. Or at least it seems to be.
"Lili... you're... married...?"
Lili? Some kinda pet name? How annoyingly adorable.
"It came at such a strange time, and we decided to put any romance aside until you had been rescued," says Pierce.
Lilith eyes Pierce, as if to tell him to shut the hell up. It's here that I realize I'm really out of place, and I have no right to be a part of this conversation.
"U-Um, so listen... I'm gonna go see if I can scrounge up some valuables from those chests further into the dungeon, alright?" I say, taking an awkward stand. "U-Um, mind keeping an eye on things here...? All of you...?"
"I-If you would let me—!" The Princess quickly stumbles to her feet. "I-I said I wanted to help, s...so..."
Lilith looks to Pierce, then back to Serenne. "Well, yes, I suppose you did say that. Are you up for it? Are you feeling well enough?"
"I-I am... if... if it isn't too much to ask..." Serenne timidly looks down at her feet.
"I suppose I don't have any reason to decline," Lilith nods. "Pierce, can you please watch over this room again? We need someone here in case anything h—"
"Th-Thank you, b-but i-if it's okay, I am willing to go alone with... with..."
"A-Are you certain?! Will you really be—" Lilith blurts.
"Oy. Don't go making me out to be some kinda creep," I retort. "And again, my name's Cyr, Princess."
"I... I am certain. Th-Thank you for your concern, b-but... I, um... I n-n-need to speak with Cyr in private—!"
Lilith twitches, and Pierce absently raises his eyebrows.
"D-Don't give them the wrong idea—!" I exclaim.
"O-Oh—! I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I-I'm s-so sorry—!"
"Well... whatever." I rub the back of my neck, turning to face the two still sitting. "I cleared out all the monsters when I came through, so don't worry, you two. Um... go... catch up with each other while we're gone, or... something."
A few rooms back into the dungeon, and Serenne and I still haven't said a word. From what I'm seeing, she's a timid soft-spoken type. And when combined with an ex-antisocial like me, it's bound to create some disconnect.
"U-Um, so—" I mutter. "Th-The... first treasure's in the next room... I think."
She nods. We start walking towards the next corridor.
"Y-You mentioned... needing to speak to me in private...?" I say.
"O-Oh, y-yes... I did..." She pauses. "W-Well... I m-mainly said that s-so that I wouldn't t-take Lili from Pierce. I-I could see that he j-just wanted to be alone with her, a-and since they're married..."
"Holy crap, you saw that in him? He just looked like he normally does to me," I say.
"Y-Yes, well..." She pauses. "S-So you are the one who rescued me...?"
I take a long breath.
"...I can't in the right mind take credit for this rescue," I reply. "I just showed up and killed a few things. Some brainwashed soldiers. The dungeon monsters. But I can't even take full credit for beating the one who actually captured you. That's... someone else's victory, as well. Reuben Khol."
"R-Reuben...?! He was here again?!"
"Y-Yeah. He's back in the other room by some of the other injured girls," I say, pointing a thumb backwards.
"I-I m... I must see him, th-then—!"
"He's unconscious, so there's not really anything you can do," I say. "But... from the way Reuben talked about you, I guess you both mean a lot to each other, yeah? ...I can clear the dungeon on my own. Go ahead and—"
"A-Ah, r-right— N-No, I... I apologize. I told you I would help."
"R-Really, it's f—"
"I insist."
"...Well... Alright, I guess."
We keep going. The silence returns between us. I'm stuck between trying to think of something to say and letting her keep her silence. Luckily, she's the one that breaks that silence.
"Are... you an Adventurer, Cyr...?" she asks.
"I guess so. For now, at least," I reply. "There's probably more I can do out there— to help people who need it. The Adventurers Guild is a good start, anyways."
"A-And what do you call it? This position you speak of?"
"Well," I mutter. "A hero, probably. But not by your country's definition. Why?"
She doesn't say anything. I get the feeling I've said enough about myself. But she probably doesn't want to talk about herself, either. Luckily, at the far end of this room, I see a large closed chest.
"Hey, u-uh— there it is," I say, splitting off to move towards it. She matches my step and rejoins me. "I took the liberty of peeking at it when I came through the first time. It should be gold coins, and plenty of 'em. Err... Sorry, spoilers."
It was decided that Lilith and Pierce would leave for the Capital with the treasure trove to offer as compensation for the multitude of carriages being dispatched. They left not much later than when the princess and I returned.
Now, maybe four hours have passed. The food storage has been sacked and the food is being rationed out by a girl who strangely seems to be the only one with her clothing still fully intact. This has left the princess and I mostly to our own devices. The wounded have been taken care of as best we can. Everyone else is trying to find some peace of mind after everything that's happened to them. The best thing I can do is let them be. Or maybe that's the worst thing I can do. I don't know what to do, so I instead seek company with Serenne, who is seated off near one of the magical brazier fires. She has the still unconscious Reuben's head in her lap, and she's softly stroking the top of his head. My armor undone and laying at my side, I sit down in my plain clothes. Nora is not too far from me. I decide to do the same with her as Serenne with Reuben.
"Do you mind telling me how you two know each other?" I ask.
"He is my cousin. Th-The son of my late mother's sister," she says. Her weary eyes are still fixated on him. "H-He was always like a little brother to me, though. He would always follow me around like a baby duckling whenever he came up to the palace."
I ponder for a moment whether I should actually ask what I'm about to ask.
"If it's not too much to ask, mind telling me the whole story?" I ask. "He... Well, all I know is that he hated his father enough to have no problem putting an arrow through his head."
"W-Well yes, I do know the whole story, but..." She pauses. "It all leads into why I was taken. What Wyrmton wanted from me..."
"H-Hey, don't feel obligated to. I was just asking," I say. "If it's too much, then..."
She shakes her head. "I-I've kept it all a secret too long. Now that... Now that Wyrmton is gone, I... think that I should tell it." Her hand stops atop Reuben's head for just a second before she starts up again.
Serenne's mother's older sister was married off to Wyrmton. At that time, he was apparently nothing like what he became. He was young and handsome and genuinely cared for his wife. But years of pressure by his house and the other Nobles to procure a male heir stretched him thin. Wyrmton was aging, and his wife still hadn't given birth to any child, much less a male heir. When they finally managed to conceive, it wasn't at all as he expected. The child was born genderless, something that can supposedly happen in this world on rare occasions when not enough mana reaches it before birth. Reuben Khol was that child.
"So... you mean to tell me that Reuben... isn't actually a boy?" I ask.
"He is genderless. Or it could mean that he is both," Serenne replies. "Reuben was the name given to him by his father, but Priscilla, his mother, had another name for him. Their true name. Robynn."
"Robynn... So his father wanted a more masculine name for him?"
"To cover up that he had no male heir. But this still wasn't enough, and a disturbed man's depravity only grew."
It goes without saying that Wyrmton despised him, and continued his attempts to procure a male heir. But soon, he found out that Priscilla could no longer bear children. Wyrmton tried to get rid of her, to find a new wife, but law forbade him from any other partner without just reason. So when a reason fell into his lap, he took it.
Robynn Khol killed a man. It was during his archery training at their father's estate in the Third Rung. Their trainer was a retired guardsman, whom Wyrmton overpaid to make a man out of a very young Robynn. Their frustration was let out after the trainer finished his usual manner of literally beating them into shape. Robynn took a stand then, nocking an arrow and shooting the man straight through the heart. Wyrmton immediately tried to blame it on his wife, who instead managed to convince everyone else it was just an accident. So instead, Wyrmton began to cultivate Robynn's desire to kill. For the next ten years, he planned incident after incident, where more and more people were killed by Robynn's hand. But still, Priscilla's influence as the late empress's sister made her word concrete. Priscilla could do nothing to stop what her husband was doing to their child, but she could cover up Robynn's murders. She did so until the very last, but toward the end fell into a deep depression that left her a husk of a woman. She's alive, supposedly, but hasn't left their estate in years.
"Th-That is what leads us to what happened here," says Serenne. "Wyrmton, he... gave up on trying to procure a legitimate heir. That is why... That is why he had me kidnapped. I... I think that when Elstaire was done with what business he set out to complete, Wyrmton was to... was to..."
"I get the idea, don't force yourself," I sigh. "What matters is that you're safe. That's all you should be concerned with right now."
"...S-So... So many people... they died because of me, they are suffering because of me..."
"Yeah, well by the way things are going, you're probably gonna be the next leader of this empire, y'know?" I say. "What I mean by that is that you're gonna have people dying because of you every single day. That just goes with the territory. So when that time comes, all you can really do is become a leader, a person, worth dying for. And honestly, now's as good a time as any to get started." I subtly motion over to where the girls congregate.
"B-But... what should I say...?" she whispers.
"That much is up to you," I say. "And who knows. Maybe you'll fail."
"Th-That doesn't help—!"she pouts.
"But it's still experience, isn't it?" I pause, letting out a sigh. "The fact that you obviously want to do something for them despite the fact that you've got no real obligation to do so speaks novels toward your resolve."
"M-My... Resolve..." Serenne nods, and carefully rests Robynn's head back on the floor, hesitantly taking a stand.
When I first came onto this urgent mission, I was worried just what kind of person Serenne Von Seynith would be. During the last six months, I saw over and over again just what nobility looked like, and what displeasure it brings everyone below them. At the lightest, Serenne could've turned out as an 'ignorant dolt,' which is typical of a stereotypical princess figure. At worst, she could've been using these other girls as human meat-shields. Were she born into any other noble family, that one would've been the most likely.
However, that's not her at all. She sheds tears for these girls she might've not even seen before. If she's who will he taking up the throne, then hell— maybe this place isn't so bad after all. I can dream, after all.