Audience (1)

The sixth underground floor of the royal prison. A place where there was no way in or out except through a teleportation magic circle.

She’s young.

And, judging by the sound of her voice, a young girl was imprisoned here.

When I looked again at the spot where the palm print had been left after hearing that voice, I realised it was positioned quite low. It was at a height where a ten-year-old child might reach if they stretched their hand out while standing…

‘No, wait a minute.’

A sudden bolt of inspiration struck me, like a certain thinker while sitting in a bathtub.

‘The Earth Witch…?’

The Earth Witch.

The main villain who had driven this world to the brink of destruction, leading to the creation of the peculiar city of Raphdonia.

It didn’t feel like such an absurd leap to think that the mysterious ‘girl’ trapped in the box might be connected to the Witch.

After all, this was the underground prison of the royal palace.

Given how many secrets the royal family was known to keep, it wouldn’t have been odd if the Witch, or even her grandparents for that matter, were kept down here.

And above all…

—Is the Witch of the Earth really dead?

Some time ago, when I asked Auril Gavis this question, he gave me the following answer:

—She is alive.

The Witch of the Earth was alive.

It could have been a hallucination, but I had met a girl claiming to be “Alice Groundia” several times within the labyrinth.

Until now, I thought the witch might be hiding and living within the labyrinth.

Well, that’s not the important thing right now, though.

BAM BAM BAM!

I knocked on the wall with my watermelon-sized hands, trying to communicate with her.

“Who’s in there? Say something. Are you really trapped in there? Huh? Say something! You said you needed help!”

But for some reason, there was no reply.

I thought she couldn’t hear me from this side, so I pressed my palm against the wall, but nothing happened.

Even the handprint that seemed to have been pressed from inside had disappeared without a trace.’

“Mr. Jandel, is someone there?”

“Ah… well…”

After a moment’s hesitation, I just asked Raven directly.

“Raven, can you check if there’s someone inside?”

“Hmm… Probably not?”

“…Without even trying?”

“There’s no reason to try. Judging by the amount of mana I am detecting, the volume of the portal inside should not be much different from the size of that cube-shaped structure. In other words, no living creature could be standing there. At best, it might be crouched in a corner. Otherwise, it would have already been sucked into the portal.”

Raven’s reasoning briefly made me wonder if I had hallucinated hearing the voice, but I quickly dismissed that idea.

After all, this was not the modern world. This was a fantasy world.

A world where magic exists, psychic powers exist, divine power exists. A world where mysterious phenomena defy logic and science, and where people could even beat up ghosts using those abilities.

“So what are you going to do? I can activate the magic circle immediately.”

At Raven’s question, I fell into thought.

What should I do? Should I investigate this box further?

“There’s something you always used to say to us, Mr. Jandel.”

“Huh?”

“Set your priorities first. Is your curiosity more important, or should it be something else?”

Her words left me speechless.

‘Curiosity…’

She wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t just curiosity.

From the moment I heard that voice from the box, I had felt something inexplicable. Something like fate.

The moment the voice came from the box, I felt an inexplicable sense of destiny. It was as if the ‘someone’ trapped had called me there.

“Raven, what are the odds that the ground would just happen to collapse beneath us while we were running through the corridor on the fifth underground floor?”

“Extremely low. If Thunder hadn’t fallen twice in rapid succession, the underground prison likely wouldn’t have collapsed.”

Her voice was thick with sarcasm. I knew she understood what I meant.

I slowly lifted my head and looked up at the ceiling. There was a hole where we fell through. Everywhere else was perfectly fine, yet for some reason, a hole appeared exactly where we were running. However, even that hole was repaired in just a few minutes.

Since then, I hadn’t felt a single tremor or seen any debris fall. It was as if we were inside an isolation chamber.

“I understand what you’re trying to say. I don’t really want to stop you from doing whatever you plan to do. But shouldn’t you make up your mind quickly?”

At Raven’s urging, I asked her one last time,”This is a two-way magic circle, right?”

“Yes. I don’t know where it leads, but there will definitely be an identical magic circle there. If we want, we should be able to come back.”

Right, that’s it…

Thanks to that, I could come to a decision a bit more easily.

“Activate the magic circle.”

There’s no doubt that some enormous secret is hidden here.

But now is not the time for investigation.

For now, I’m satisfied with having found the path this time, and it’s best to return later fully prepared to investigate.

As Raven had just said.

Everything has its priorities. Surviving this situation safely with my companions matters far more than investigating this place.

So…

“Then I’m activating it?” Raven asked

I nodded, and after a moment, the magic circle activated.

Flash!

A brilliant light instantly filled my vision. Soon, the light began to fade, and my sight returned.

“This place is…”

White walls and a white ceiling. It was another sealed room, with bright light shining down on us as though we were standing directly beneath a lamp.

Raven, looking around with uneasy eyes, pointed to one of the walls.

 

“Why is only this wall made of metal?”

“……”

“Oh? There’s a thin gap between the metal panels. It looks like it opens sideways.”

“……”

“Mr. Jandel? Mr. Jandel? Are you listening?”

“…I am.”

My senses were fine. My mind had just gone blank for a moment.

Step. Step.

I finally came to my senses and walked towards the metal wall that appeared to be a door. Raven was muttering to herself, tossing out various guesses.

“Does it require some kind of magical trigger? But I don’t feel any mana…”

Magical mechanisms and mana. These were reasonable possibilities a mage would first consider when seeing a ‘door’ without a handle. And usually, a mage’s reasoning is the most accurate.

However…

“Step aside.”

“…What? If you’re going to try opening it by force—”

“Relax. That’s not what I’m doing.”

Now standing before it, I slowly reached out with my hand.

I still had no idea why this thing existed in this world, but I knew how to use it.

Click.

I extended my Frankfurt-sausage-sized index finger and pressed the button.

Ding!

Not long after, a chime rang out that felt out of place in this world.

Whirrr.

And the elevator doors opened.

***
Raven didn’t give much thought to the nature of this mechanical device.

Only two things struck her as strange.

First, the flimsy security where pressing a button opened the door.

And the complete absence of mana.

That was all.

“Ah, now that I think about it, it’s similar to a mana-powered lift. We have something like this in the mage tower.”

Listening to her, I was certain.

This machine did not run on mana.

Raven seemed convinced that there were undetectable magical circuits at work, but—

‘No way.’

I had ridden mana lifts several times before.

They were nothing like this.

They were closer to cages, with poor safety, using mana to move pulleys.

But this—“Mr. Jandel?”

“I couldn’t tell whether it ran on electricity or mana just by looking at it. No, actually, I could.”

‘Fuck, why is this even here…’

The distinctive design was what gave it away. It was highly refined, the kind of elevator that wouldn’t look out of place in a luxury hotel, and unmistakably modern. The ceiling lights, the buttons by the door, even the mirror on the wall….

The mirrors reflected a barbarian and a mage standing there in full gear, and for a split second I nearly forgot we weren’t supposed to be in the modern world…

“But how does this lift actually operate? Usually we send a voice message to an operator to activate ours…”

As Raven wondered about it, I pressed a button without thinking, like it came naturally to me. It was the only button besides those for opening and closing the doors.

“Oh! It—it’s moving!”

The elevator began to move as the floor button was activated. From what I could tell, it felt like we were going up, not down.

“M-Mr. Jandel, please say something. It’s unsettling when you stay silent like this… What if something shows up once the lift stops and the doors open?”

“…….”

Well… that was something I was afraid of as well. What would be on the other side when those doors opened?

At this point, I couldn’t even imagine it.

Hoooo…

So I waited quietly. I was ready to swing my weapon at any moment, but I remained calm.

Hummm…

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

I silently counted the time and regulated my breathing.

And then.

‘50 seconds.’

When about 50 seconds had passed.

Hum…

I felt the elevator slow down before coming to a smooth stop.

First of all…

The space resembled a hotel lobby. In the centre was a chandelier and a small fountain. The floors were polished marble.

And…

Step.

A single knight was standing before us.

“…….”

The knight didn’t show any sign of surprise while looking at us. It was as if he had known of our visit in advance. He stood in the center like a Royal Guardian on duty and asked nothing.

‘…A mid-boss right from the start?’

It felt like entering a labryinth and immediately encountering a mid-boss.

I knew it at a glance.

This guy was no pushover.

‘Anyone guarding a place like this can’t be weak.’

That said, I was not intimidated.

I mean, who was I? I was a superpowered barbarian who knew, without a doubt, that I’d never lose to anyone in a contest of aura. That was who I was.

The only problem was whether I could protect Raven behind me…

Slish.

I stepped back, shifting into a more defensive stance so I could better protect Raven. Then the knight smoothly drew his sword and pointed it at me.

And…

‘…Huh?’

That was it.

Drip.

By the time I realised what had happened, a thin line had been carved across my cheek.

Drip.

A sharp pain followed, and blood trickled down.

‘I was cut…?’

Impossible.

Sure, if this knight were an incredible master, cutting me before I could even see it was not impossible.

And the distance between us was more than twenty paces, but even that was not impossible in this world.

But—

“…Interesting.”

If an attack like that made me bleed through my physical resistance, that changed everything.

And he had not even used aura.

‘If it’s not aura, then…’

Ignoring the wound, I stared calmly at him. No, more accurately, I looked at the sword he was holding.

‘Was it the sword…?’

The secret behind that strike was likely in that blade.

I had never seen it before.

No such numbered item existed in my mental database.

But there was no other explanation.

So—

‘I need to either disarm him or force him into a fight where he can’t use that sword—’

Just as I began forming a plan—

Click.

As if that strike had been nothing more than a show of force, the knight abruptly sheathed his sword and turned his back on us.

Then—

“Follow me.”

He began walking across the marble floor, his footsteps echoing across the marble floor.

Raven, who had been standing behind me, cautiously peeked her head out and asked in my stead.

“Uh… where are we going…?”

Her voice sounded like that of a frightened herbivore, tense and wary.

Without so much as a guard up, the knight answered while continuing to walk, his back still exposed.

“The audience chamber.”

“…What?”

It was a completely unexpected turn of events.

“His Majesty, the King of the New World, has granted you an audience.”

…Who would have thought we’d end up meeting the king like this?

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