Prison (4)

There was a saying in this world: when prisoners live as prisoners for long enough, they start bragging about their shackles to each other.

Whose are bigger, heavier, sturdier.

How much they suffer wearing them.

At first glance, you might think, “No way—who would brag about that?” Yet the man believed it was true.

After all, he was no different.

Good equipment.

Status.

Money.

Skills and experience, and so on.

While he felt a sense of pride in the results he had earned through blood, sweat, and tears—and craved the validation of others—a hollow emptiness would occasionally sweep through him.

No matter how much fame or power he gained, what did it matter? The moment he returned to his original world, it would all become meaningless.

So, the man thought:

The gear. The status. The money.

No matter how much he talked about these things, in the end, it was all just a prisoner bragging about his shackles.

“Ha… I want a Big Mac.”

Because this world was a prison.

***
A man stood quietly, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

Ba-dump.

His face, considered quite handsome, was paired with white armor that covered his entire body.

Ba-dump.

After gazing at himself for a while, the man felt uneasy for some reason.

Well, truth be told, he knew the reason.

Slowly, he ran a hand over the upper left side of his breastplate.

Where his index finger touched, there was only a faint trace, so slight that it could only be noticed if you looked closely. It resembled the mark left after peeling off a sticker that had been on a surface for a long time.

Tap.

The man removed his hand from the mark.

He was no longer a paladin of that Order.

By officially leaving the Order, he became an outsider, and he could no longer use the title of ‘Paladin.’

As proof, he had also returned the crest that had been attached to his armor.

He no longer had to attend morning prayers, pre-meal prayers or the late-night prayers that everyone gathered for before going to sleep.

But…

Badump-

Despite this, the man in the mirror knelt on the carpeted floor, closed his eyes, and offered a brief, simplified prayer.

It was something he had continued every morning, even after leaving the Order.

“The star that rises at twilight shall guide us…”

Actually, the man hated praying.

Even within the Order, he often grumbled internally about why they prayed so much and sometimes made excuses to skip them.

Yet he still kept up his morning prayers for one reason only.

In a way, it was the same reason all humans prayed to gods.

“Your servant humbly beseeches you. Please do not take your divine power away from me. Grant me mercy. Deliver me from danger.”

Because he was anxious.

He’d raised a tanker character that used Divine Power as his main stat, and if that Divine Power were to vanish overnight, he’d immediately become a “trash character.”

In fact, there are quite a few cases where people lose all their divine power after leaving the church.

Well, to be honest, praying also puts his mind at ease.

Even a stone by the side of the road needed something to lean against.

Badump.

After kneeling like that for a moment, the man stood up.

Then he looked up at the ceiling and spoke.

“Please, I am begging you. From what I can tell, the Goddess seems to care about the Baron too, so I will keep supporting him properly from his side, all right?”

It was a disgracefully casual tone for speaking to a god, but for him it was nothing unusual.

Even when he lived in the church, he would pray aloud with pious words while thinking in a tone like this inside his head, and still his holy power steadily accumulated.

Maybe the Goddess preferred a comfortable relationship like that.

Or maybe not.

Knock, knock.

Just as he was about to head out, a knocking sound came from the door.

“Sir Parav, are you inside?”

On the other side of the door, a familiar woman’s face was waiting for him.

Small frame.

Round eyes.

She gave off an overall gentle impression, but she was also a stubborn and just woman.

“Miss Marone? What is the matter? There should still be time before the gathering.”

“I heard it’s difficult to put on large armor by yourself… I came to see if I could help. Well, it looks like you’ve already finished on your own!”

“Ahaha… It was difficult for me at first too, but eventually, I got the hang of it. Thank you for your concern.”

“If you’re finished, shall we go together? It’s almost time for the gathering anyway.”

“Ah, sounds good.”

The two of them left the lodging and headed for the gathering place.

Several people had already gathered there, including the vice-captain, who stood with a grim expression.

Versyl Gowland.

Another prisoner in this vast prison, with shackles comparable to his own. And someone who had recently acquired a new shackle.

“I didn’t notice it at first, but lately I’ve been feeling the weight of Mr. Jandel’s absence. Ms. Gowland must be having a difficult time…”

Parav forced an awkward smile and steadied his breathing.

Thump.

He hadn’t done anything physically demanding, yet his heart had been pounding since he woke up that morning. It was a symptom that had started the day he returned to this city.

It had already been several days, so he should have been getting used to it by now.

But it refused to become familiar.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

He still felt like he was going crazy with anxiety, and sometimes panic hit so hard it became difficult to breathe.

‘Please, let today pass safely as well.’

As his symptoms suddenly worsened, he closed his eyes and offered another prayer to the Goddess of this world.

And at that moment.

Fssshhhhh.

A sound like a fighter jet taking off assaulted his eardrums.

Everyone gathered in the open ground looked up at the sky from which the sound had come and fell silent.

Something shot up into the sky like a rocket, then traced a parabola as it fell back towards the centre of the city. From that height, it appeared to be moving slowly, but it was clearly travelling at tremendous speed. It traced a clean arc across the sky before bright lights began to rain down.

And then—

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The alarm bells installed along the city walls rang out all at once.

Boom!

Moments later, the entire city shook.

***

Rumble—!

The tremors could be faintly felt even on the sixth underground floor.

I quietly organized my thoughts while looking at Raven.

“So, there’s a portal…”

When a barbarian heard something nonsensical, they never called it impossible or let it limit their imagination. The mage who had voiced the ridiculous idea, however, seemed to doubt her own senses.

“It’s just that I can faintly sense the unique mana wave of a portal over there…”

Although she wasn’t a ‘Guide’ who could instinctively sense portals from afar, she was a mage who was more sensitive to mana than anyone else.

So there must really be a portal over there.

Besides… I’ve heard about this place before.

Tap, tap…

The Round Table twenty years ago.

Well, since quite a bit of time had passed by then, I suppose it would have been the Round Table from twenty-some years ago, but still.

An evil spirit from another world, Kagureas, had said this:

[There is a portal in the basement of the Royal Palace.]

Besides the Dimensional Plaza, there is another portal somewhere in the palace basement.

Perhaps this is it.

“It’s unlikely to be a portal connected to the labyrinth, right…?”

Well, I’d have to check to be sure, but it’s highly likely it’s not connected to the Labyrinth.

Because ‘Kagureas’ had also said this:

[I only found out by chance, so I don’t know well, but it doesn’t seem to be a portal connected to the Labyrinth.]

Well, this was also closer to hearsay.

But since it came from the original discoverer, it held some credibility.

“Is there anything else besides the portal?”I asked

“I think I would need to examine it more closely.”

“Hurry. We might have made a huge discovery.”

Raven seemed to like my wording and immediately rushed off to examine the ‘box’ she believed contained a portal. She made one lap around it to examine the exterior, then circled it again to check for any indents, before finally using float magic to see if there was anything above it.

Boom-!

I struck the walls with my iron mace, then followed Raven’s instructions to dig into the ground with a shovel, and so on.

After doing everything possible, there was only one thing we could figure out.

That there was nothing to be found other than the existence of the portal.

Ah, maybe there was one more thing.

 

However, this was not something we discovered through investigation.

“Oh? Mr. Jandel, look over there. The ceiling we fell through has been repaired!”

The part of the fifth underground floor that had dropped us here was now neatly repaired.

Because of that, the faint vibration we had been feeling had gone too.

It felt as if we had entered a space completely cut off from the outside world, and I felt a surge of panic.

“What about teleportation? We can still use teleportation, right?”

“Pardon?’ Then realization set in, and fear crossed her face at the thought that she might be trapped here forever. ‘Ahh… j-just give me a moment!’”

And then…

“Um, Mr. Jandel…?”

“Say it.”

“Well… There’s good news and bad news—”

“Bad news first.”

“It seems I can’t use multiple teleportation magic here. The magic keeps scattering….”

‘So are we really trapped here?’

It was hard to believe, but I tried to continue as calmly as possible.

“Then what’s the good news?”

“‘It’s not visible to the naked eye, but a teleportation magic circle is engraved into the floor. I think that’s why the mana keeps dispersing. Still, if we activate it.”

“Keep it short.”

“We can escape, but we won’t know where we’ll end up.”

…So at least we don’t have to worry about being trapped forever.

That alone was a relief.

“Since you’ve used military magic circles before, you might know this. It works almost the same way. You set up a designated coordinate, and then you can move back and forth by just consuming mana…”

“The point.”

“This one has only a single circuit. It only allows movement in two directions. So what do you want to do?”

There was no need to think about it.

“Are you certain there’s nothing more we can learn here?”

“Yes. If I had proper research equipment, I might be able to figure something out, but with just myself here, this is all I can do.”

“Understood. Then activate the magic circle immediately.”

“Yes.”

As if she already knew what I would choose, Raven didn’t say another word and promptly started activating the magic circle.

 

“It’ll probably take a while. I want to run a check to see if there’s anything dangerous. I’ll let you know when it’s finished, so you can rest in the meantime.”

Since she said it would take a while, I approached the cube-shaped structure in the centre. It wasn’t black, but it wasn’t white either. It was a gray cube. When I touched the outside, the surface was soft enough to leave an indent, yet durable enough that even repeated blows from my iron mace failed to produce a single crack.

‘If there’s really a portal inside, there must be a way to enter…’

Hmm, was it the kind of thing that needed magic or a card key to open an entrance? But if magic worked, Raven should have been able to do something.

After a moment’s thought, I decided it was a waste of time and brought up a different issue.

Noark. Who are they working with, and what are they aiming to achieve?

hat was probably a more important question than figuring out what this mysterious box was. There were several suspicious points I couldn’t ignore if their only goal was to destroy the royal palace.

‘…District 7.’

And is District 7 okay?

From what I could tell, Thunder seemed to explode once more before everything completely collapsed. I sincerely hoped they were safe.

“…Huh?”

All of a sudden, I flinched and instinctively stepped back from the box.”

I could not help it.

From the lower part of the wall that I had touched earlier, something that looked like a human handprint began to appear.

Sliiiide.

As I slowly reached my hand towards it, the handprint on the opposite side twitched as if in response.

Then, I heard a faint voice.

[Get me out.]

I was so taken aback by the situation that I got shivers, but thanks to that, I finally understood what this box really was.

[Please.]

This box was a prison.

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