The mont she heard those words, her breath seed to catch. Perhaps it was because she had adapted to this world without dungeons. Thirteen years later, Nine Holder was a city with the most hunters proportionally and where large and small dungeons occurred daily.
But during this period, there had never been a single one. If there had been, the 'Monster Crisis' wouldn't have been talked about so extensively for so long.
"Where, where is it?"
"Southeast. Not far from here. Are you going now?"
Esperanza nodded without hesitation and glanced at Cider. He looked at the instrunt panel with narrowed eyes, then detached a panel from the machine.
"What are you doing? We need to gather weapons and prepare."
"You are..."
"You're planning to leave
behind and go again this ti?"
"I'd like you to co with ."
The answer ca back as soon as the question ended. Cider's eyes widened. It was just the literal aning, but after saying it, she felt embarrassed and fled to her room with the excuse of changing clothes.
When she ca out after completing all preparations in a short ti, a carriage summoned by Millen was already waiting.
The carriage raced through Upper Lane at full speed. Neighboring residents who were alard by the sound of carriage wheels rolling like a rampage, wondering what was happening, saw the modified carriage and said, "That eccentric count again..." Having a ruined reputation in advance had such benefits.
"Where are we going from here, Count!"
Taylor shouted loudly. Cider looked carefully at the instrunt panel he had brought and answered.
"Keep going straight. Turn east at the next block."
The number indicated by the red needle kept getting smaller. Esperanza was shocked to see the building visible between the window fras.
"This is Pinent House!"
If that was the case, then the fact that a dungeon had occurred here now ant...
"The duke has really fallen out of favor."
The duke had no power to handle dungeons, and the blackmailers who possessed that power had decided to kill the duke.
"Because the queen refused to hand over the city property? Just because of that?"
"Your old colleague seems to be quite radical."
The Cyrus that Esperanza knew wasn't that kind of person. She could understand if he had changed over ti or if he had originally been such a person but was pretending otherwise...
No, that's not what's important right now.
Esperanza opened the carriage door and jumped out before the carriage even stopped.
"Hurry up!"
Taylor barely managed to stop the carriage. Cider gripped his walking stick and followed Esperanza. Instead of the jet-black magic stone originally embedded in the handle, an unidentifiable red liquid sloshed around. The gun muzzle protruding from the split end of the walking stick glead coldly.
"Count, what should I do?"
"I'll contact you again, so go buy so food nearby and wait."
How are you going to contact ?
There was no one to answer Taylor's question. It was a strange thing. The mont the count and his ward opened the front door of Pinent House and entered, it seed as if a giant mouth had swallowed them. As if beyond that door was a different space from this place.
Taylor, montarily flustered, stared blankly at the spot where they had been standing, then drove the carriage away, simply hoping that his employer, the count, would return safely.
??????°??☆????°??????
[Dungeon Occurrence!]
Type: Labyrinth
Grade: A
Danger Level: B
Hunter, we wish you luck!
The palace was quiet. Esperanza quickly read through the status window.
"It's an A-grade labyrinth-type dungeon. I'm weak against labyrinth types..."
[Special Terrain Occurrence!]
Please reach the central area where the dungeon boss is located within the ti limit. When the boss battle begins, all areas except the central area will be destroyed.
01:59:59
Hunter, we wish you luck!
It was a ti attack-type dungeon.
"They're really determined to kill."
It was like a confirmation kill in case soone might survive. But the duke aside, what about the people who knew nothing and would be buried alive with the duke inside there? Curses rolled around in her mouth.
"So, what do we do now?"
Cider asked, looking up at the mansion.
"We have to get to the central area before the boss battle starts. The problem is we don't know where the central area is. Probably all the corridors will be twisted, making it hard to find... And we have to rescue all the people in between, ah, what should we do."
Clearing this kind of dungeon alone was close to impossible. No, the strategy itself wasn't the problem. If only she abandoned the people in the palace. But if that was the case, she would have ignored the dungeon occurrence entirely from the beginning. Esperanza bit her lips.
She couldn't save everyone. But she would try to save as many as possible.
"Let's go in first."
There was no ti.
When she opened the mansion door, a hall that Esperanza knew well appeared. However, unlike before, the hall was distorted. The corridor that had been straight was now zigzag-shaped, and the end looked blurry.
"Should we try going toward the reception room first?"
Cider took the lead. At least he wouldn't be confused about where the reception room was.
"Where would people usually gather in large numbers?"
"If it's the master or guests, naturally the reception room or hall, but in this case the employees would be the problem, so probably the employee quarters, kitchen, or break room?"
"Are the employee quarters far from here?"
"They would be far. There's a high possibility they're not even in the sa building."
"Then let's search the nearby places first."
When she opened the reception room door, a gun muzzle touched her forehead.
It was a magic weapon. Soone who would have a magic weapon in this place. Esperanza irritably grabbed and pulled the gun barrel, then threw down the opponent who was dragged along.
"Your Highness!"
The maids huddled together in a corner of the reception room scread. The maid who had been holding a lamp above her head across from the duke opened her eyes wide.
Esperanza, who had mounted the duke and pressed his chest hard enough to make breathing difficult, waited until the duke's hostility subsided. After a mont, the duke opened his mouth.
"Miss Hunter. How did you co?"
"You don't need to know."
"Did you co to save ?"
The duke's sharp eyes were still operating a calculator even at this mont. Esperanza clenched her fist and struck the duke's cheek. Thud, the duke's body, having lost balance, fell to the floor.
"Stupid bastard."
"Esperanza."
Cider grabbed Esperanza's shoulder and lifted her up. The duke looked at Cider as if incredulous, then burst into low laughter. Esperanza's face contorted with anger as she stomped on the duke's chest with her foot.
This bastard is laughing?
"I absolutely can't save all the people here. If these people die, it's all because of you."
"But you will do your best."
The duke, who stood up simultaneously with his answer, spat blood into a handkerchief and folded the blood-stained handkerchief into his jacket.
"Please. Save my people."
"What's the price?"
A huge gun appeared from thin air. He had received reports about it. They said that woman flew around carrying a gun as big as a person's torso with one arm. Seeing it directly, it wasn't quite as big as a person's torso, but...
"Anything."
Bang! A thunderous sound erupted from the gun muzzle along with a bright blue light. A hole large enough for a person to pass through appeared in the tightly closed door. The cross-section made a sizzling sound as if being burned by fire.
The maids brightened up and glanced beyond Esperanza's head. Esperanza led the way with her gun aid and crossed through the door.
'As expected.'
The corridor couldn't possibly co out straight. In labyrinth-type dungeons, north, south, east, and west get mixed up randomly, and inside and outside get turned upside down. Doors that had connected familiar spaces now led to unexpected spaces, and paths deceived people.
Unlike when entering the reception room, outside the door was a round hall connected to narrow passages. The mont the last person entered the hall, stone walls dropped down with a thud, blocking every opened passage including the door they had been through.
Thud. Thud.
Looking back, the last maid to escape seed to have barely pulled her foot out and was sitting right in front of the wall.
"I, I almost died..."
The maid's eyes were full of tears as she barely stood up with the support of other maids. However, there was no ti to comfort her. The hinges attached to the stone walls made clicking sounds as they stuck to the pillars. In an instant, the walls beca new doors, and huge locks secured those doors shut.
Right, this was how it originally was. Esperanza, who sighed, opened the map. While only the reception room and the exhibition room she had entered with Duchess Sherbury were colored beige, the strange eastern end was open.
"We ca to the eastern part of the mansion."
"It's the place used as a gallery. It was closed because it wasn't being used."
Red wallpaper with brass embroidery and dusty chandeliers that still gave off light. The walls where gilt-frad pictures would have hung in rows were empty, and coldness could be felt from the floor and walls. Esperanza quietly humd the background music exclusive to labyrinth-type dungeons.
"The dungeon center is northwest."
Cider, who had been staring only at the instrunt panel even as stone walls fell from all directions, said.
How does he know that? Esperanza suddenly stuck her head over his shoulder. Standing on tiptoes, she whispered close enough for her lips to touch Cider's earlobe.
"What shows up there?"
"I thought nothing would show up when entering a dungeon, but seeing that it keeps displaying, it must be pointing to where the boss is."
The instrunt panel had a small compass-shaped directional indicator and a semicircular distance ter. There were other unrecognizable indicator lights and dials, but those two occupied the most space. The red needle of the distance ter maintained about 20 degrees from the left while flickering, and the directional indicator stood stiffly pointing northwest.
When she asked the duke about the northwest part of the palace, an imdiate answer ca.
"The only place in the northwest that could be called a central area is the chapel. You can find it without difficulty if you follow the corridor. But..."
Now that corridor is blocked.
Esperanza thought for a mont.
"Let's break through."
Esperanza, who had shouldered the butt of the rifle she was holding, raised her mana. With clicking sounds, the operating mana gradually increased. Destructive blue light gathered at the gun muzzle. Enough to imdiately pierce through the thick stone wall like so unidentifiable ancient architectural structure.
Just as Esperanza's finger was about to pull the trigger, the area beyond the wall beca noisy.
"I can hear people's voices."
The duke ran to the wall.
"Is anyone there!"
Murmuring sounds. Then a clear voice was heard.
"Your Highness, this is Kirkfield. There are five people on this side, three of whom are injured."
"Five people?"
"Originally there were eleven, but the rest are all..."
The rest could be guessed. Even the maids who had never experienced a dungeon intuited what had happened from the tone of those words. The duke tightly closed his eyes, thinking of the employees who would have been massacred by monsters they had never seen before without understanding what was happening, due to his mistake.
"How much space do you have over there?"
Mrs. Kirkfield, who seed almost pressed against the wall, answered.
"Just a narrow corridor without even a room. The voice sounds familiar—could it be Miss Hunter? How are you here..."
"That's not important. More than that."
A thudding sound ca from far away. Esperanza stopped speaking and looked around. It wasn't a sound from here.
"Is sothing happening over there?"
"All the paths are blocked! We're completely trapped!"
A young servant answered. His voice trembled at the end, terrified.
The structure was such that if she broke through the wall, the people gathered behind it would inevitably be hurt. Then what should she do? Esperanza checked the status window with a side glance.
[01:48:30]
Already 10 minutes had passed. If she didn't break through this...
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