With a sigh of relief that we were out of danger for now, I slumped against the wall. To my left and right, all that greeted me were long hallways swallowed by darkness. The light from Merlin's magic and the fire torch I was holding didn't reach far enough, so we had no clue where we actually were. To the right, occasional protrusions in the walls signified doors, but one could only speculate what lay behind them. To the left, the hallway had an inclined ceiling that curved. Most likely a spiral staircase.
"You two alright?"
I looked down at the two girls. In the rush to get them inside, I didn't even notice that they were trembling, but now that I got a proper look at them, their terror was clear as day.
"Any injuries I caused when I carried you in?"
I asked, in an attempt to get their thoughts from something else than the fact we got nearly swarmed by another group of goblins.
They both shook their heads in denial. Seems like I didn't hurt them anywhere, thank goodness.
"Stay here with them, I'll go check out the rooms."
"Alright."
I decided to explore the area to the right first. I opened the nearest door and shone some light inside the room with the torch. What I saw left me more than a little perplexed, I must say.
A red couch to the right, a wooden wardrobe to the left, beds in the far corners of the room and a small nightstand in between the beds. A thin layer of dust covered everything like a blanket, but the air was clear and fresh, which was surprising. I expected it to be heavier and more stagnant. Who knows how long this place had gone without any proper ventilation, after all.
I checked inside the wardrobe, but it was completely empty and nearly falling apart, so I carefully closed it again. Best not to touch that carelessly.
I cast some quick Clean on the beds so the girls would have a place to comfortably rest. I asked Merlin to hold the door for me while I carried the girl with the broken leg inside. I gently lay her down and had Merlin cast a Heal on her. That should at least somewhat help with getting the leg fixed. Heal can fix some scratches and other surface-level injuries, though a broken bone is a little too much for it. We'd need a High Heal for that, but Merlin didn't have it unlocked yet. However, it should help with healing any damaged tissue inside the leg, which would force it back into its proper position.
"Thank… you…"
The broken leg girl spoke, this time much clearer than when she tried to speak before, with no signs of a coughing fit following.
"You two should rest for now. You're obviously exhausted. We'll talk more once you're awake."
The two girls weakly nodded. I and Merlin left the room to have chat so as not to disturb them.
"Quite the grifter, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Mercilessly killing Clive in order to have no witnesses, but going to the trouble of helping two complete strangers. Your morals jump from left to right real quick. Or is it because they are girls?"
From his shit-eating grin I could tell he was just teasing to try and get a reaction out of me and didn't actually mean any of that, but the way he said all that still made me want to sock him in the face. Well, annoying people was his way of de-stressing so I couldn't blame him much, he's used up quite a lot of mana in this fight, after all.
Normally, mages would try to limit their total daily use of mana to half of their maximum mana capacity. Merlin used that much and more in a single fight. Had we been forced to continue the fight, we probably wouldn't have survived, especially not while protecting two non-combatants.
If a mage's mana reserves drop below 25%, they would start experiencing symptoms similar to severe sleep deprivation, a state called mana deprivation. A little bit of rest and a mana potion can easily fix it, but if a mage's mana reserves drop below 10% of their total reserves, they might straight up fall unconscious and be unable to use any magic until at least half of their total reserves recover. In the case where a mage uses up all of their mana with a single spell, the missing mana will be extracted from their lifeforce, permanently shaving off their HP, and potentially leading to death if the spells is too demanding.
That is the reason why mages try to use only half of their mana in a day. They leave just enough for emergency situations and they try to avoid into a mana deprivation state.
This doesn't happen with us martial arts users, thankfully. Usually, our own stamina and bodies would give out on us before we ran out of mana from overusing the martial arts, as they cost so little we can regenerate the used-up MP during a fight or with a short rest after it.
I looked at Merlin as I sighed.
"This is this, and that is that. I have no qualms hurting people that deserve it. However, leaving those two to their fate would leave a sour taste in my mouth. And I mostly just wanted to piss off the goblins."
Merlin was about to say something, but got interrupted by a big yawn. I silently chuckled. Seems even his body needs some hard-earned sleep.
"Go rest, you've used up quite a lot of mana. The more you manage to recover, the better. I'll continue exploring these… ruins, or whatever this place is. We can talk once you don't look like you're about to fall asleep on your feet."
"Got it, I'll – yawn – go crash on the couch then."
After yawning one more time, he turned around and walked back inside, leaving me completely alone in the dark hallway, the light of the torch the only thing to keep me company.
I opened the door opposite the bedroom and walked in. From what I could tell, this room appeared to be some sort of communal bath area. There was a large pool in the floor filled with water, wooden square shelves where you could leave your clothes at the near wall, showers on the far wall and some engraved decorations on the left and right walls. It reminded me a little of the bathroom we had back in the castle, just more advanced. Most of what was possible back on Earth with technology was successfully imitated with magic here on Miqta, though they were ludicrously expensive and the general populace didn't have access to such magical items. Some things were left to be desired, such as that the stream of water was constant and you couldn't tune how much water you wanted. You could tune the temperature, thankfully.
I noticed a black slate next to the door, conspicuously drawing attention. When I put my hand on it, the material felt similar to what the Status Crystal and Crime Orb were made out of. I instinctively poured some mana inside the slate and three rows of symbols lit up on it.
'Can't read this one, huh.'
Despite possessing [Language Comprehension], I could not make heads or tails of whatever was written on the slate. I ran my fingers across one of the rows and suddenly, the entire room lit up with bright light as the crystals in the ceiling and along the walls came to life.
'A command panel?'
And with a touch screen to boot? These guys indeed had quite the fancy tech. Uh, magi-tech? Either way, they were advanced. I tried tapping the other rows to see what they did. One turned the large bath into a hot tub and the other changed the color of the light coming from the ceiling. I tried tapping the row I touched first again and it changed the brightness of the light. With the right settings, you could easily get a dim red light with a running hot tub. That right there could easily turn the mood spicy very quickly if a young or romantic couple were to enter here together. I returned the bathroom lights back to what I assume were default settings and left.
The door next to the room where Merlin and the girls were sleeping led to another bedroom, but that one had a partially collapsed ceiling, and the last door I could enter led to some sort of control room. There were a bunch of black plates identical to the one in the bathroom, but none of those lit up when I poured mana into them. They were either broken or required a key or something else to activate. Either way, I could not get any of them to work, so I let the room be.
I had to stop my exploration of this side of the hallway here, as the path forward was blocked by a cave in. I turned around and went to the other side, where I thought I saw stairs leading down before. Lo-and-behold, there they were, spiral stairs that left much to be imagined as they snaked their way deeper into the ground.
I descended the stairs and was greeted by a very large room, even larger than the communal bathroom from before. Shelves that towered all the way to the ceiling that was at least 4 or 5 meters high, millennia old dust blanketing their surfaces as torn and half eaten book covers lay strewn about in the paths between the shelves, forming a wooden maze. I had found myself in what most likely used to be a library.
I wandered around and couldn't help but notice the strange silky cocoons that could be found on just about every shelf and inside every eaten book.
Sera chimed in with her knowledge, taking on the duty of this world's encyclopedia. According to her, while she couldn't tell us anything about society, she had a limited access to knowledge about the world's fauna and flora, which was still very helpful.
A single cocoon was the size of my hand, so these little monstrosities must be pretty big. A shame so much knowledge has been quite literally eaten, but if I'm going by the symbols on the covers that are still recognizable, nobody would've been able to decipher what's in them anyway.
I continued to stroll about, wondering if there was anything else down here other than the library or if there was any door leading deeper into whatever facility we found ourselves temporarily lodging in.
Nothing caught my attention in particular, just tons of cocoons, book covers and an occasional spider web, until I ran into a slightly sunken brick in the wall behind one of the shelves. A sunken brick behind a bookshelf in an underground library can mean only one thing. I had found myself a button.
I pushed brick without hesitation, sinking it deeper into the wall.
Click. Clack.
A few clicks and clacks of a hidden mechanism later, the bookshelf in front of me sank into the ground wall the wall opened inwards, leading to a hidden room.
This development caused me to have one of the biggest smiles I've ever had. I was smiling so hard my cheeks hurt a little, but there was no way I could stop myself from smiling.
I just found a real-life secret room, after all.
I walked in with a confident stride, anticipation of what lay ahead rapidly rising in every single cell within my body. Dim, dark-blue light illuminated the room, but I wasn't about to part with my trusty torch just yet despite the provided lighting. If the lights suddenly went dark on me, I'd me screwed without my torch.
The room was mostly empty. There were a few boxes that probably used to store some materials in ages past, but all they held within them now was empty space. Stone tables that copied the room's layout were covered in engravings I could not make sense of and a chair with a skeleton sitting atop it, slouched on one of those stone tables.
What was curious about this room was the complete and utter absence of dust, as if this room had been left untouched for untold thousands of years. A piece of this world's unknown history left in pristine condition. The Adventurer Guild's researchers are going to absolutely love this. If we get out alive and manage to tell the guild, that is.
I got closer to the skeleton, the only actual abnormality in this room. Its arms were clutching a steel box as if it were the most important thing in the world. I gently removed the box from the skeleton's clutches and examined it.
A plain, opaque steel exterior. The corners of the box had a second layer of steel drilled onto it to increase the box's durability and the screws themselves had strange symbols glowing on their hats. I tried to figure out how to open it, but to no avail. There was no keyhole or any lock visible on the grey box. The only hint that the box could be opened at all were the glowing symbols on the screws, but I had absolutely no idea what they meant or what to do with them.
'Any idea what those are, Sera?'
Figured as much, this thing is obviously made by people, not by the system.
I rattled the box a little and I could definitely feel something within it move around, but unless I found a way to open the thing, what it was would remain a mystery. Oh well, guess I'll take it with me. Hopefully, Merlin will be able to make sense of the symbols with his [Analyze], because I'm really not keen on forcefully opening a magically sealed box from an ancient civilization. Who knows what kind of countermeasures were slapped on it to prevent uncouth fools from obtained whatever was within the box.
I explored the rest of the library, hoping to find yet another hidden room or something interesting, but all I found were oversized cocoons and empty book covers. I had been exploring the ruins for about two hours now and thought it might be a good idea to head back. There was nothing left to explore, after all.
After carefully examining the wall through which we came in by placing my ear against it and confirming no vibrations, meaning the goblins were thankfully not trying to dig through, I took a blanket from the room with the caved-in ceiling to use as cushioning. I carefully opened the door to the bedroom the girls and Merlin were sleeping, doing my best to not wake them up. Both the girls and Merlin were sleeping like logs. I and placed the fire torch in a sconce next to the door. I then spread the blanket on the floor a few steps away from the couch. It wasn't the most comfortable bed I ever lay on, but it was better than sleeping on the cold, hard floor.
I closed my eyes and drifted off to a light slumber. I wasn't physically tired, just somewhat mentally exhausted.
○○○
I got woken up as something shook my body.
I begrudgingly opened my eyes and saw the face of the younger girl staring at me, her black hair running down her shoulders. I rubbed my eyes as I sat up.
"Hello there. Need something?"
"…Toilet."
Ah.
I realized that might be a bit of a problem, as there are no toilets down here.
'No, wait a minute…'
What about the massive bathroom? I guess that place could function as an emergency toilet. Worst comes to worst, we'll just have to clean it up with magic. By 'we,' I of course mean Merlin.
"Uh, there are no actual toilets down here, so you'll have to do with some showers."
I stood up and stretched to shake off the drowsiness. Leading the girl to the large bathroom, I realized I still didn't have a name to go with the face, neither for her nor for the older girl with a broken leg.
"Come to think of it, I don't know your name yet. Anyway, as I said before, I'm Astoshan. My friend that's sleeping on the couch is Merlin and as you can see, we're adventurers."
"…Rell."
She seems pretty reserved. Or still just terrified from getting tied up by goblins and being thrown into a room full of abused corpses that smelled worse than Hell. Yep, probably that.
"And the other girl? What's her name?"
"…Anita. My big sister."
Before long, we found ourselves in front of the bathroom.
"Well, here we are."
I said, opening the door. Bright light assailed our eyes and we both squinted. Oh yeah, I forgot about the damn lights that are in this room. The only source of light to accompany us until now was the light coming from the fire torch, which was much, much dimmer compared to the artificial lighting coming from inside the bathroom.
Actually, I'm surprised the torch is still blazing, as it must have been a few hours since I lit it up. What a champ of a torch.
"There are some showers at the back. Just walk out once you're done, I'll wait here."
Rell nodded as she closed the door behind her. It was now just me and my trusty torch again. I looked at the hot-headed stick in my hand and toyed with the idea of naming it.
'Hmm, what would be a good name for a torch… ah!"
A brilliant name hit me.
"Brisingr! From henceforth you shall be Brisingr!"
I raised the torch as if it were a triumphant hero coming back after slaying the mighty and evil demon king.
I froze mid-pose, realizing just how ludicrous I would've looked had anyone else seen me.
'I need help, I'm talking to and naming torches now.'
Didn't ask! But thanks!
After fiddling with the torch for several tens of minutes, and nearly burning myself on multiple occasions, the door finally opened and out came Rell. She now looked much cleaner than before, and her hair was also damp. Guess she took a shower while she was inside.
"All done?"
"Mhm."
She gave me a curt nod and we headed back.
I placed Brisingr back in its rightful throne, the sconce, and sat down on the blanket. Rell climbed back onto her bed and leaned her back against the wall as she covered her legs with the blanket.
Ten seconds passed.
Thirty. seconds passed.
Then a minute.
Then I got up because I was bored beyond my mind. I grabbed the glaive that was leaning against the wall and decided to go practice a little. The room where I found the steel box was spacious enough for me to swing the glaive around, so I was going to take full advantage of it.
"I'm going to train so I don't die of boredom. Want to stay here or go with me and watch? It might not seem as too much fun, but I bet it's going to be better than staying here in complete darkness."
Because Merlin was asleep and didn't really need to keep the orb of light anymore, he cancelled the spell, meaning the only source of light down here was now Brisingr.
Rell looked at me for a few seconds before nodding her head. We walked down the spiral staircase and she took on the most noble duty of holding Brisingr.
Fuck, I really like that name.
When we came down to the library, I thought about just toppling some of the shelves, but after thinking it through, I realized it wouldn't do much in creating space, so I gave up on the idea.
"…What is this place?"
Oh my, would you look at that? She started a conversation! Is she finally starting to feel a bit safer after cleaning herself up in a shower?
"Most likely used to be a library. Now it's just a wooden maze with woodpulp moth cocoons, half-rotten wood shelves and the occasional spider web. The webs are actually pretty rare, I counted only three when I scoured the place while you guys were asleep, so tell me if you find one."
Why was I asking her to tell me about any spider web she noticed, you ask? I haven't got a clue. I spoke faster than I could process what I was saying, and this was the first thing that came to mind. A little game of Where's Waldo, ancient library style.
"Woodpulp moths?"
Rell asked with an inquisitive look.
"Uh, oversized moths that like paper, basically."
"Ah, okay."
Yeah, she most definitely still doesn't have a clue what the heck I'm talking about. I mean, I don't really know either. I just know that according to Sera, the cocoons left behind most likely belong to woodpulp moths and judging by the fact that every single damn book is empty, I deduce that these guys really, really like paper. Or the stuff paper is made out of.
We finally found ourselves in the hidden room and I told Rell to keep her distance from me. I was going to swing a weapon around, after all. I wouldn't want to explain to Anita why her little sister was missing an arm later.
Rell sat in the entrance of the hidden room and I began practicing with my glaive. It was good that proficiency skills could increase just from practicing like this, though I did have to follow what I learned. Simply swinging the weapon around wouldn't increase the proficiency by much, and according to general Bakecria, the increase nearly ground to a halt even when practicing properly after hitting 75% for most people. Some had their proficiency stop growing even after it hit 50% or 60%.
After around an hour of training, I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my sleeve and took a big sip of water from my canteen. Rell's gaze followed the canteen like a cat followed a red laser dot. Chuckling, I extended the canteen towards her, inviting her to come take a sip. Rell got up and took the canteen from me.
"Come to think of it, how old are you? Can't imagine you're an adult yet."
Curiosity got the best of my as I tilted my head and looked at her short stature greedily monopolizing the canteen of water.
"Um, I turned 14 not long ago, Sir Astoshan."
A wave of hatred for goblins surged through me, but quickly dissipated. Those inferior creatures knew not what they were doing, Astoshan. Calm down, me. Don't get heated here.
She timidly handed the canteen back to me while wiping her mouth with a sleeve.
"No need for the 'sir,' I'm only 18, after all."
"You're the same age as big sister then."
Anita is the same age as me and Merlin, huh. A shame we're hauling ass out of here at our earliest convenience. Once we return back to Sandhol, this whole incident is sure to cause up a bit of a stir. This quest was nowhere near E-rank difficult, it was at least high D-rank, more in the realm of a C-rank. The faster we left, the better.
There was also the option of not reporting the incident at all, but that was not possible with the girls around. In the first place, the disadvantages weren't that big and would take time to properly spiral out of proportion. I absolutely didn't plan on staying while they investigated the whole thing.
I heard footsteps coming closer towards us and saw a ball of white light appear in the entrance to the hidden room, illuminating a tall figure.
"Morning, sleeping princess. Did you have a good rest?"
I mockingly greeted Merlin, who had come down here, presumably looking for us. A brown magic circle appeared in front of his hand and I lithely dodged the pebble he conjured with earth magic in an attempt to get back at me for calling him a princess.
"Good to see you're in high spirits."
"Sure am. Anita is up as well, so I thought about fetching you two and having lunch."
"Sounds like a good idea."
All three of us then returned to the bedroom, where Anita was sitting on the side of the bed while examining her leg. After getting healed by Merlin, it moved back to its proper position, though it would still take some time to heal completely. All the Heal did was repair the muscle and tissue around the bone, practically forcing it back into its original position. The area where the leg was bent before was now swollen and it was evident from a glance she wouldn't be to walk with that for at least a few weeks.
"Morning. How are you feeling?"
"Big sis!"
I greeted Anita as Rell quickly ran to her sister, hugging her tightly. They separated after a moment and Anita lightly bowed her head towards us.
"Thank you for saving us and even healing my leg, sir Astoshan, sir Merlin. I cannot possibly express the depths of our gratitude."
"Slow down with the thanks, we're still not out of the mud just yet and your leg just got a quick fix, no way you'll be able to walk on it for at the next half a dozen or so weeks. Also, drop the overly formal language. We aren't nobles, just some adventurers. And according to Rell here, you're the same age as us, so even more of a reason to drop the formal language."
"What he said. Neither of us care much for formality."
"You're the same age as me?"
Anita made no effort to hide her surprise as both me and Merlin chuckled.
Guess she didn't expect the people to fearlessly raid a goblin nest to be her age.
"That aside, how about some late lunch?"
Merlin said, retrieving the two boxed lunches we received from Mrs. Arkleit from [Inventory]. There were also some of the boar leftovers from our first night spent under this world's night sky, though it seemed Merlin decided not to take that one out of his [Inventory].
We opened the boxes and four sandwiches in each of the boxes greeted us. More than enough to feed four people. We finished our meal with surprising quickness, showing that all of us were famished. I and Merlin hadn't eaten anything since morning and the girls probably were without food for even longer.
"Fuuh. Those were some damn good sandwiches."
"Yeah, I'm stuffed."
"Mhm, truly delicious."
I said, as I patted my stomach. I'll have to give Mrs. Arkleit my thanks. It's a wonder how she managed to make such a simple meal taste this heavenly. The others shared my sentiments and also praised the sandwiches.
After our meal, we sat around in the bedroom and idly chatted about how Anita and Rell were apparently on their way to Sandhol to buy some stuff for their village when the goblins kidnapped them, random trivia, and later on we also brooded over our strategy on how to defeat the goblin knight and his lackeys that still awaited us.
I also brought up a discussion about the steel box I found in the hidden room of the library. Merlin tried to use [Analyze] on it, but all it told him was 'a mysterious box.' Deciding to pursue the issue of the steel box at a later time, he stored it in his [Inventory] for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, we might find some clues on how to open it in other ruins once we get out of here.
During our talk, both Anita and Rell seemed to have opened up to us much more than when they first woke up. Rell was no longer shy and timid, but instead exuded a cheerful and bubbly demeanor. Anita let go of her stiffness and formality and was now casually chatting with us, occasionally throwing a joke of her own into the conversation every so often.
"What are your plans after you finish this quest?"
Anita asked us as she supported her head with her arm while laying on her side. I studied her body language to discern if there was any deeper meaning behind it, but it seemed she was just genuinely curious and asked in order to keep the conversation going.
"To head north, preferably the day after tomorrow. We don't plan on sticking around for long."
I honestly told her our plans. Even in the case someone from the castle came looking for us, we're using different names and are a lot stronger than the information they have on us would suggest.
"North? Are you heading to the Britian Union?"
"That's the plan, at least for now."
Merlin threw in his two cents as well, confirming Anita's question.
"Hmm, in that case, are you be interested in taking a look inside Arngeno? I know you adventurers love your traveling and sightseeing."
"Arngeno? You mean the country of isolationist dragonoids?"
"Yes, that's the place. While they are mostly isolationist, they still trade with others, albeit in limited amounts. My uncle is a merchant situated in Knigh, the capital of the Brit Union, and he often goes on a trip along with a merchant caravan to trade in Arngeno. I could write you an introductory letter and ask him to hire you as bodyguards for the caravan."
"Merchant caravan?"
Merlin asked, unclear as to what a merchant caravan was.
"A group of merchants that travel together to visit Arngeno. Since Arngeno allows trade with neighboring countries only twice a year, many merchants decide to make the trip to acquire some rare goods from there. Arngenian silk and porcelain are some of the best I've ever seen, and they sell for a lot outside of Arngeno due to their limited supply."
Anita explained in greater detail, and I must say, my interest was piqued.
"That letter would be much appreciated, then."
If we manage to get inside Arngeno and somehow convince them to let us pass through it, we'll be able to get to the Samadian Kingdom without much difficulty. Normally, we'd either have to go by boat but the northern seas are haunted by a ton of hidden rocks and large sea monsters, making sea travel nigh impossible. As such, all the harbors are in the south and some are in the east of Eidrea. The other option would be to go through the Shemnesemyan Theocracy, but I'd rather not interact with racist elves if possible. This encounter is shaping out to be an unexpected boon.
"I'll write the letter once we're in Sandhol, then!"
Anita clapped her hands and gave us a warm smile.
"Thanks."
I expressed my gratitude, but Anita simply waved me off, saying it wasn't even worth mentioning.
"Thought, I'm surprised you can write."
Merlin said as he flipped through an herb encyclopedia he had been reading for a while now, trying to memorize as many useful plants as possible. When did he even have time to yoink that book? Was it in the castle?
"Ah, that's also because of our uncle! You see, our father is our uncle's younger brother. They were both born to a prominent merchant family, but our father wasn't as smart as our uncle and preferred to settle things with fists, so he chose to become and adventurer instead of pursuing the path of a merchant! And on one of his adventures, he met our mother and they settled in our village, Thiina."
This time, Rell was the one to do the talking as she excitedly talked about her father and uncle.
"And because our father was from a merchant family, he knew how to read and write, so he taught us as well!"
"Though, saying he taught us is an exaggeration. While he did indeed try to teach us, I actually learned the most from our uncle whenever he came to visit, and I taught Rell afterwards."
Said Anita, as she chuckled lightly while talking about their father.
We continued talking for a few hours longer, the atmosphere being very light and cheerful, despite the fact that we were stuck in an underground ruin and our only way out was blocked by a powerful goblin knight and multiple hobgoblins.
Time slowly moved forward. I and Merlin got ready to face off against the green bastards and fight our way out of this place while making sure all four of us would make it out alive.
○○○
It had been a few days since Philip and Mark, ehem, Astoshan and Merlin went missing.
A muddy darkness permeated the castle's walls as I walked through the dim corridors, my assigned maid following four steps behind me.
I was on one of my casual nighttime walks in order to enjoy the night, or that was at least the excuse I made up. In reality, I was mapping out the castle in my head so I could use [Dimensional Tunnel] anywhere within it. One of the drawbacks of the ability was that I had to have seen the place with my own eyes, otherwise the image wouldn't be clear enough for the skill to work.
I also already had an outlined plan on how to get out of here and knew of a way on how to undo the curses on Sarah, Elizabeth and Evelynn. The key lay in one of Sarah's unique skills, [Unchained]. It allowed her to remove any abnormal status effect for an amount of mana proportional to the strength of the abnormal status. I'd wager that the 'Curse of Subservience' and 'Suggestion Weakness' were one of the stronger ones, meaning they'd take up quite a bit of her mana. Considering she needed to undo two abnormal statuses from three people, this couldn't happen overnight.
I also tried experimenting with how the 'Curse of Subservience' acts and what it does. I changed my appearance and bribed a greedy servant to spread bad rumors about the kingdom among my classmates.
Nothing seemed to be wrong while he was talking with them, but the second he walked away, the classmates that had just finished talking with him all sought the nearest person of high authority and reported everything they heard. I hadn't seen said servant since.
That incident confirmed that we were forced to be subconsciously loyal to the kingdom under the influence of that curse. As such, I couldn't carelessly bring up the topic of the abnormal status effects put on us in front of Sarah and the others.
I was also afraid that Sarah or Elizabeth and Evelynn would report the incident from inside the dungeon, where our party suddenly started gaining a lot more experience due to my [Extreme Experience Boost], but I guess the curse isn't omnipotent in this regard and won't compel someone to report things as long as they aren't blatantly against the kingdom. I was still walking around with freely, after all.
Now that I was free of the influence of that curses, it was blatantly obvious that the maids assigned to us were there mainly for monitoring any abnormalities in our actions. That warning from Astoshan seriously saved my ass back then and continued to be helpful even now. I'm sure I would have acted out and revealed myself had he not warned me to act discreet.
I turned a corner, ready to walk into an open inner ward decorated with stone statues and a fountain, but quickly changed my mind and decided to go the other way after I noticed Simon and princess Alicia having some adult fun behind one of the statues, if you catch my drift.
Ever since Astoshan and Merlin disappeared, Simon has gotten a lot closer to the princess as he now took his training more seriously. I think he instinctually felt that those two weren't dead but managed to run away, because after a day of him constantly badmouthing them, he stopped talking about them completely and acted as if he realized the pieces just weren't fitting together. Despite his trashy personality, he was actually somewhat smart, so it was definitely not too farfetched to think he realized something was amiss.
Because of his increased vigor in training, he had also gotten much closer to the princess, who took a liking to him since the day we were summoned. Though, I didn't expect their relationship to advance to the point where they'd sneak off together during the night to do the nasty.
Life sure is a rollercoaster.
I decided to cut today's walk short and bid Yuria, my assigned maid, goodnight as I returned to my room. I took in the majestic and otherworldly scenery as I stared out the window at the royal garden, this world's purple tinged moonlight shining on the flowers within it.
'I've got enough of the castle mapped out in case of an emergency. I think it's now safe to proceed with the plan.'
Thinking to myself and going over how I'll trick Sarah to use [Unchained] on herself, I decided to go through with the plan to release her, Elizabeth and Evelynn out of the clutches of this kingdom. I'll have to test whether my [Dimensional Tunnel] can take other people along, though, and how big of a distance it can actually cover.
So much stuff to do while walking on eggshells in the heart of enemy territory. The idea of everything going wrong with the slightest of mistakes, juggling the lives of my twin sister and her best friends, made cold sweat run down my back.
'But I have to go through with it.'
Because if I didn't, my sister would forever be the puppet of this kingdom, her free will taken away from her without her ever realizing it. I absolutely could not allow such a future to happen.
I climbed into my bed and went to sleep.
I went through the next day as usual, feigning weakness in our spars and diligently listening during our afternoon lesson on monsters. After dinner, I pulled Sarah aside.
"Hey, is it alright if we talk later? In private."
I put a bit of seriousness into my voice, and my sister's usually carefree and cheerful face turned into a frown, as she realized I had something serious to discuss.
"Alright. Meet me in my room in an hour."
"Thanks."
I expressed my gratitude to her for agreeing to my request without further questioning. We each went to wash up after another day of hard work.
As I made my way to her room, my heart beat faster and faster, running over scenarios of what would happen in case the curse came into effect while I was trying to force her to use the unique skill on herself.
I had the means to always get out of here with my [Dimensional Tunnel] if everything really did go wrong, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave Sarah behind even if worse comes to worst.
Steeling my resolve, I took a deep breath and knocked on Sarah's door.
"It's me."
"Hi there. Come on in, come on in!"
Sarah opened the door and invited me inside, acting all cheerful, completely oblivious to the mental wars I've been waging the past few days.
I smiled at her, trying to hide my inner turmoil as best as possible, and walked inside her room. She closed the door behind me as she ushered me to sit on a chair. Sarah sat down opposite me and pushed a cup of tea towards me.
"I had my maid prepare this tea before you came. So, what is it you wanted to talk about?"
Despite keeping her cheerful town, I could tell there was quite a bit of seriousness and nervousness in her voice. I've known her for my entire life, after all. It'd be weird if I didn't notice.
"It's about your unique skill, [Unchained]. I just thought we could experiment with it a little, you know?"
"What was with all the seriousness when you asked to meet me, if it's only something like this?"
Sarah raised an eyebrow at me and sipped her tea.
"Uh, honestly, I was just a bit nervous. As you know, I'm useless, so I was wondering if you'd find it annoying or something, haha."
I scratched the back of my head in feigned embarrassment, hoping that she wouldn't see through my act. I was even utilizing [Avatar of Falsehood] to help me out with my acting, so it should be hard even for Sarah to notice that I wasn't entirely speaking the truth.
"How could I ever find spending time with my cute little brother annoying?"
Sarah affectionately ruffled my hair as I just stared at her in embarrassment. What the heck do you mean by 'cute little brother,' woman? I'm only a few minutes younger! I swatted her arm away as she stuck out a tongue at me, obviously enjoying my flustered state.
"Anyway, how would you want to go about experimenting with my unique skill, anyway?"
Sarah supported her chin with her arm as she looked me.
"I don't know, like, uh, what the system constitutes as an abnormal status effect? For example, would it consider bleeding as one? Or what about a broken bone? Does that count as an abnormal status effect?"
I started listing some ideas to try and steer the conversation to the usage of her skill.
"Actually, have you tried using it yet?"
"Yes, on myself."
I suddenly felt as if a lump got stuck in my throat. Because she's already tried it, it was now a genuine coin toss on how the conversation would unfold from here on.
"Oh, really? Does anything pop up when you use it on yourself?"
I intentionally worded the sentence in a way to ask if she'd see anything right now if she used the skill.
"No, nothing pops up now."
'Calm your breathing, James.'
Sarah eyed me with slight suspicion now. The dice have already been cast and if they rolled in favor to me, as I thought, this would be the best possible outcome for this situation. Calming my nerves and steeling myself to try and escape in case I was wrong about this, I spoke a simple term.
"Curse of Subservience."
"So, you've also managed to get rid of the curse, just as I thought."
Sarah gave me a slight smile and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I slumped in my chair, the tension draining from my body.
"Just as you thought?"
I posed her a question. Going by what she said, she had a suspicion I wasn't affected.
"Yes. When I tried using [Unchained] on you, nothing popped up. Oh, and another thing I discovered, the skill takes a proportional amount of mana in predetermined fractions of my maximum mana. When I released both 'Curse of Subservience' and 'Suggestion Weakness,' it took exactly half of my mana on both occasions. I got rid of the 'Curse of Subservience' shortly after we were summoned when I tried using [Unchained] out of curiosity, but I felt extremely tired afterwards, so I tried waiting with using it on 'Suggestion Weakness' until I had more mana, but it didn't really help, as it took exactly three quarters of my mana anyway."
"I see."
If what she said was true, it meant she could use the skill only a limited amount of times per day no matter how large her mana reserves were. It was both plus and a con. She could undo high-level abnormal status effects even while she is low level. Conversely, removing even low-level abnormal status effects would suck up a lot of mana once she levels up.
"How'd you get rid of yours, though? Is it somehow connected to how we suddenly started gaining double the XP in the dungeon?"
Sarah inquired.
"Uh, sort of?"
I then told her in great detail how Philip, now Astoshan, warned me through the note, what [Mythical] did and what unique skills I gained as a result of my class being 'restored.'
Sarah pondered for a short while, mulling over everything I just told her.
"We could use your [Dimensional Tunnel] to escape from here once I remove the stuff from Eli and Eve."
"I'll have to test whether it works with other people, and how far away from me it can open, but yes, that is the most surefire plan I came up with as well."
Well, with this, my business with Sarah was settled and the outcome turned out exactly as I had hoped it would. I continued chatting with Sarah for a while longer while drinking the tea. After some time, I excused myself and went back to my room.
I flopped onto the bed, strength leaving my body as the mental strain of the past few days took their toll on me. I lazily undressed and crawled under the blanket, the sweet embrace of deep sleep soon taking me.