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Wherever Rasha went, she was rarely welcomed, so she had packed her subspace pouch full of various items. After drying herself off, she changed into a new set of clothes.
She gave up on driving the old man away. Having dealt with him for so long, Rasha knew all too well that he wasn’t the sort to listen just because someone talked to him.
Rather than wasting her strength on pointless efforts, it was better to fulfill his request quickly and send him on his way. That was her decision, but it didn’t make the humming old man next to her any less irritating.
“What could be on this island that’s important enough for someone like you to show up in person?”
Suppressing her discomfort, she asked the question, and the old man smirked.
“A miracle personally left behind by the Lord.”
“Ah, of course.”
So even after ascending to the position of Pope, this man hadn’t changed at all. Then again, it was no surprise that someone this unhinged could climb to such a position.
“But, old man, before we go into the dungeon, can I look around the city for a bit? I’m looking for someone.”
“If it’s Haysan, the A-rank adventurer you’re searching for, they aren’t here.”
“...Seriously?”
“A noble of the Soladin Kingdom took them. Skilled individuals always find themselves useful, don’t they?”
“Ha. Damn it.”
After swimming all the way to this accursed archipelago, not only had she failed to meet the person she wanted, but she’d also ended up with more trouble. She didn’t know who had taken Haysan, but if she found out, she’d crush them.
“Let’s head straight to the dungeon. Once the work is done, I’ll arrange a ship for you.”
Rasha hesitated at the old man’s words. What was worse—sharing a boat with this creepy old man or swimming back to the mainland?
The decision came quickly. No matter how resilient Rasha’s body was, the experience of crossing the sea had been nightmarish.
“A miracle left in a shabby place like this?”
Examining the decrepit cave, which looked like it could collapse at any moment, Rasha tilted her head. No matter how she looked at it, this didn’t seem like a place for miracles—or even wild animals—to reside.
“Just go in and see for yourself.”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just do it. You’ll understand.”
Though skeptical, Rasha begrudgingly followed the old man’s instructions. Soon, she was stopped by something unidentifiable.
“What the hell is this?”
“One of the miracles from the past. Those without the qualifications can never pass through it.”
Hearing the old man’s proud tone, Rasha let out a derisive laugh.
“Old man, you can go in, right?”
“Oh? Are you doubting your own strength now? Are you afraid you can’t break through?”
“No, damn it. Of course I could smash it to pieces. But if I did, wouldn’t the whole cave collapse?”
Rasha loved the thrill of battling strong opponents, but she had no intention of making an enemy out of this old man. To invoke his wrath would lead to something far worse than a fight—it would be a hunt.
Imagining her own gruesome end with no chance of happiness, Rasha shuddered and scratched at her goosebumps.
“That kind of restraint...”
“Enough. You must have a way to open it, or you wouldn’t have brought me here. Just do it.”
“Ah, such impatience. One should take the time to appreciate the beauty of the miracle before them.”
“Is that something you should say to an apostle of the Evil God?”
“Even an apostle of the Evil God has eyes, don’t they?”
“Argh! You’re insufferable!”
Rasha shouted in frustration, and the old man chuckled in amusement.
“All right, all right. I’ll stop teasing you.”
“The idiots in the Church should have seen this,” Rasha muttered, watching as the old man approached the barrier and infused it with his divine power.
What the barrier contained was a miracle lost during the war between the Evil God and the Lord—a structure so complex that no modern cleric could hope to comprehend it.
But the old man was an exception. He was one of the few remaining survivors from the age of myths.
“Whoa. No matter how many times I see it, it’s disgusting.”
“Disgusting? That technique I just displayed—”
“Shut up. Don’t explain.”
“No, I must. It is my duty to convey the wonder of God’s miracles.”
“Please! I’m sorry, okay? I was wrong!”
“Listen carefully. This is...”
Even as Rasha cursed and flailed, the old man pressed on with his explanation, proving the adage that only someone crazier could outlast a madman.
Exhausted from the relentless chatter, Rasha snapped to attention when she noticed the barrier shimmering and disappearing.
“All right! Let’s hurry inside! This is what you came for, isn’t it, old man?”
“Hm? No, it’s fine. I’d like to take a moment to...”
“Not listening! Not listening! I’m going in first!”
With a determined stride, Rasha entered the cave. The old man chuckled softly before leisurely following her.
“What is this? This isn’t an ordinary dungeon.”
As Rasha examined the dungeon’s entrance, she tilted her head in confusion. Most dungeons exuded an ominous aura right from the entrance, as all dungeons were inherently tied to the Evil God.
But this one was different. The faint divine energy emanating from the entrance was something she had felt before—when facing Lucy.
“Ohhh!”
The old man, who had finally caught up, gazed at the entrance with an expression of pure joy.
“As I thought! My instincts weren’t wrong! This is indeed a place prepared by the Lord!”
“Well, it certainly seems that way.”
“Come, Rasha! Let us enter and uncover what lies within!”
“Wait! Hey, old man! You can’t just charge in like that—ugh, damn it!”
Though Rasha grumbled and complained, she wasn’t genuinely worried.
With Rasha, one of the continent’s strongest, and the current Pope exploring together, what dungeon could possibly stop them?
Or so she thought—until they had narrowly escaped death ten times within the dungeon.
“Damn it. Is this really a place where the Lord left something behind?”
Watching her severed arm regenerate thanks to the old man’s magic, Rasha flexed her hand and spoke with suspicion.
The old man, who might normally chastise such words as blasphemous, couldn’t bring himself to refute her this time.
Even he couldn’t reconcile the dungeon’s vile hostility with the idea that it was a place left behind by the Lord.
“Not even the deep levels of major dungeons are this unforgiving.”
“I know.”
“Going any further is suicide. We’d die before seeing what lies at the end.”
The old man responded to Rasha’s words with a bitter smile, silently agreeing.
They had been inside for barely an hour, yet they had faced countless brushes with death. Despite this, they hadn’t even properly explored the dungeon. Continuing the exploration was impossible.
“Let’s turn back. I must have overlooked something.”
“Phew. Good. If you’d insisted on going forward, I was seriously going to throw hands.”
“I may be insane, but not enough to throw my life away pointlessly.”
Though the old man cast a lingering glance at the depths of the dungeon, he eventually turned away.
He wasn’t afraid of death, not after all he had lived through. But his life wasn’t so meaningless that he’d squander it in a futile endeavor.
“Let’s move. We need to board the ship before nightfall.”
As the old man retraced their steps, Rasha stretched and followed. The hellish path that had taken an hour to navigate on the way in took only minutes to traverse on their way out.
The day after returning from the archipelago to the Allen family, the skies turned gray, and snow began to fall.
“Damn it. If it’s going to snow, it should come down hard enough to cancel training—not this half-hearted nonsense.”
“...If I were more skilled, I’d have conjured up a storm myself.”
“Prince! Lady Partan! You’ve only had one day of this and you’re already complaining! While you were relaxing, I’ve been stuck in this hell the entire time!”
The one who welcomed our return the most enthusiastically was Jakal. His eyes were filled with venom after being left behind to endure relentless training with the knights.
“And do you think the Allen Knights would halt their training just because of a little snowstorm?!”
“That’s insane. Even harsh training has its limits.”
“Exactly. Severe weather increases the risk of accidents.”
Arthur and Joy, spouting entirely reasonable arguments, glanced at me nervously as though begging for my agreement.
Unfortunately for them, I couldn’t side with their logic. After all, the Allen Knights operated on a different set of rules—ones where common sense didn’t apply.
“Normally, this inferior prince spouts nothing but nonsense, but for once, he’s right. The Allen Knights don’t know the meaning of the word rest.”
Thinking about it brought back memories of midterms. Training with the knights during a storm had been truly awful. When the wind had swept me off my feet, I genuinely thought I was being reincarnated into another world.
Seeing my amused smile, the two of them paled as they realized Jakal hadn’t been exaggerating.
“Joy, can you dispel the snowstorm with magic?”
“If I could do that, I wouldn’t be a student at the academy—I’d already be at the Mage Tower.”
“...Fair enough. Damn it. Are we left with nothing but prayer?”
Ignoring their sudden shift to praying for the storm to subside, I fiddled with my necklace.
In just a few days, it would be the anniversary of Lucy’s mother Mira’s passing.
Last year, I hadn’t known anything and couldn’t do anything. But this time was different.
Having seen Mira’s love for Lucy through the fragments of her past, I decided to visit her grave.
I had my doubts about whether I had the right to visit, but the ache in my heart every time I thought of Mira’s grave made it impossible to ignore her anniversary.
“Come, Lucy. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“It’s all right. One day, someone who truly understands you will come to your side.”
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“They just don’t know how kind you are. It’s not that they hate you on purpose.”
“Lucy, it’s okay. This mother will always be by your side.”
“Lucy, my sweet daughter.”
As memories of sorrow and regret flooded my mind, I felt myself sinking into melancholy. But then I reminded myself—I wasn’t alone anymore.
Shaking off the gloomy thoughts, I returned to reality.
“What’s with the weird faces? Are you crying just from imagining training in the snowstorm? Pfft. That’s pathetic. I can’t stop laughing. Poor things.”
Even though I forced myself to smile as I had been trained to, my friends’ conflicted gazes didn’t change.
Feeling uncomfortable under their stares, I abruptly stood up and left the dining hall.