"A treasure chest lies in front of her. Strategically placed at the end of a hallway, as if, the dungeon itself is offering a treasure to the goddess. Aqua stepped forward towards an obvious trap with no trace of suspicion like a complete idiot, seriously STOP IT'S MIMIC!!!"
Aqua stopped in her tracks and took a step back. "Wh-what?"
I threw a stone from my hiding spot and let Aqua watched in horror when the walls and floor swallowed the stone. She took a step back warily before gulping a little. "Th-thank you, Kazuma…"
"After her close brush of being preyed upon once again, Aqua stepped away from the mimic and continued her way through the dungeon. Perhaps the mimic will teach her a lesson to spot an obvious trap despite her lack of intelligence,"
"Kazuma, I am not sharing this dungeon's loot with you, you hear me!?"
I just laughed silently as Aqua finally reached the expected end of the dungeon. She walked around in confusion, looking for a treasure, when a part of the wall suddenly turned sideways, opening a gap.
We didn't do anything. It appeared to had been opened from the inside.
A low and vague sound came from the other side.
"Is there a priest?"
I decided to stop hiding and accompanied Aqua into the secret room. I sensed no hostile intent coming from that place, but I do sense a stupidly powerful presence in there.
There was a simple bed, cabinet, a table and a chair in the room. An oil lamp was placed on the table. The person was sitting on the chair besides the bed. He has the same aura as Wiz so I can safely say that this is a Lich, perhaps even Keele himself.
"Morning, first time we met. I don't know what time it is outside, should I say 'good evening' instead?"
And perhaps the Lich of this world are actually cool and friendly bunch. I mean, between this guy and Wiz, I'm starting to think that being a Lich is one of the coolest way to cheat death.
After greeting us, that person lit the oil lamp with magic. The oil lamp illuminated that person who was in the dark. He wore a long cloak, he was a skeleton covered in dried skin.
"I am Keele, creator of this dungeon. I kidnapped the daughter of a noble, an evil wizard."
And so, he started his story. Apparently, what he wished to the king that day was simply, the happiness of the girl he loved. The king didn't grant his wish and Keele took it within his hands to kidnap the girl and protect her here in this dungeon.
"After making this wish, I kidnapped that lady." Keele said proudly.
Seriously, are Liches actually beings filled with love and compassion? Because so far, I haven't seen a lich that doesn't deserve my respect.
"… Which means you are not an evil wizard, but a good one? In order to get on the good side of the king, the daughter was offered to the king as a concubine. But she wasn't loved, and didn't have a good relationship with the queen and the other concubine, and had a hard time. And you said something like 'since you don't want her, give her to me' right?"
After hearing this, the bones in Keele's throat area rattled, as if he was laughing.
"That's the gist of it. After I proposed to the lady I kidnapped, she accepted me. After that, I brought her along in an elopement of love while fighting the army of the kingdom… Ara, those were happy times. Oh, by the way, the one on the bed is her. How does she looked, the curve of her collar bone is beautiful right?"
I looked in the direction Keele pointed at and found a skeleton placed on the small bed. Obviously, she's dead, but since she didn't turn into an undead, I'm assuming she died happily without any regrets.
Aqua who was beside me looked at Keele with shining eyes. She probably couldn't wait to purify him.
"And so, I have a request for that lady over there," Keele suddenly said.
"Request?"
"Could you send me to the other world? This lady should have the power to do so."
With that, Aqua went to work. Using the chalk she used to mark her way through the dungeon, she drew the magic circle used to purify the lich. Although the magic circle just need to fit in Keele alone. But because Aqua was really into it, the circle not only encompassed the bones of the lady, but the entire room as well.
Keele was heavily injured in a fight to protect the lady. In order to guard her till the very end, he abandoned his humanity and became a lich.
It might be wrong to say this, but I felt that turning into a lich that way was really cool. Maybe after seeing Aqua bully Wiz earlier, I felt this lich here was really manly.
After becoming the concubine of the king, the lady didn't have many chance to go outside. She was suddenly the enemy of the state and toured the entire world to escape capture, and spent the last moment of her life in this dungeon.
Despite the lack of freedom while on the run, she didn't had any complaints, and smiled happily instead– That's what Keele said.
"Ara, that's a big help. A lich can't do something as ridiculous as suicide after all. I was waiting for my end quietly here when I felt a powerful holy aura. So I woke from my long slumber."
In the gentle magic circle that covered the entire room, Keele said amidst laughter.
Aqua finally finished her chanting and using a gentle I only saw her use once when she revived me, she smiled at Keele.
"Arch wizard Keele, you forsake the laws of the god and became a lich by your own conviction. In the name of the goddess of water Aqua, I absolve you of your sin… When you wake up, you will be before a goddess with unnaturally large breasts named Eris or a goddess who looked like child named Paradox. If you don't mind the age difference between you and the one you love, or if your relations are not between a man and a woman, and if you wish to meet her no matter what form it may be in… You can try asking Eris or Paradox. She will make your wish come true."
"Sacred turn undead!"
— The light dissipated, and the room was enveloped by Darkness once again.
That lich and the remains of that lady (for some reason) had disappeared without a trace.
Aqua and I were silent in the heavy atmosphere.
"… Let's go back."
And go back we did, through the way we come from. Aqua's work on purifying the dungeon made our way back much smoother and easier. I didn't try to hide myself, opting to hold her hands instead much to her embarrassment.
"So, how was it Kazuma? I handled that pretty well right?"
I made a thinking pose. "I'll give you an eight out of ten,"
Aqua narrowed her eyes. "What happened to the two?"
"The mimic ate it."
The girl pouted a little at that. "Stupid mimic, pretending to be treasure," she muttered.