Duke Pendragon

“Um, so… you are saying that it has been around six days since the lord left with the warriors, Lady Kara.”

“That is correct. But you don’t need to call me with that title. I am too old to be called that.”

Kara spoke with a soft smile, but Killian shook his head with a determined expression.

“No. Old or young, a lady is a lady. In particular, it would be unbefitting of a knight to not call such a beautiful person a lady. It would rob me of my knighthood. In fact, it would be a sin against the world.”

“Is that so?”

Killian spoke with a fiery determination, and Kara tilted her head in response. Unlike the calm, cool Duke Pendragon, his knight was overflowing with enthusiasm. In particular, the knight’s eyes seemed to blaze even hotter when he was looking at herself. She wasn’t completely sure because she had arrived at the Great Forest at a young age, but Kara could guess the feelings contained within the eyes of the knight.

It was a little similar to the eyes of the human knights or nobles she met in the occasional human village when she wandered the world with other elves in the past.

‘Just because the lord does not possess any greed, it does not necessarily flow down to his subordinates.’

Kara felt a little bitter as she replied.

“Anyways, I am glad that the friends of Duke Pendragon have come all this way. It must have been quite a tiring journey, so please stay and relax.”

If the human knight established a good relationship with one of the female elves of Red Moon Valley, it would help in maintaining a good relationship with the Pendragon Duchy. Even now, Killian’s smile did not falter even once as his gaze constantly flitted between the female elves. Kara had no doubt that he would gladly accept the offer.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

Killian asked back with slight surprise. Kara was also startled by the unexpected response.

“Including Sir Killian, everyone must have had a hard time journeying through the Great Forest. Why don’t you take a few days off and stay in the village?”

Killian shook his head firmly at Kara’s invitation.

“I am grateful for the invitation, but I am afraid I must decline. The lord is still going through hardships on his journey, so how could I relax and rest easy and still call myself his knight? It would be an even greater sin than not calling your beautiful self a lady.”

Kara was briefly at a loss for words when Killian declared boldly with a stern, determined expression. His foolish grin had completely disappeared.

But soon, a gentle smile appeared on her face once more. It was the softest smile she made since meeting the members of the Pendragon Duchy.

“If that is your will, Sir Killian, please do as you wish.”

“Just seeing your beautiful smile softens my heart, my lady. Hoohoo!”

Killian smiled with sizzling eyes, and Kara returned the smile. It seemed like an inevitable characteristic of the knight to like females.

“Stop talking nonsense. My hands and feet have shriveled so much that it’s rotting in the ground. Anyways, so you are saying that the Pendragon scarecrow headed to the wizard’s tower of the Oberon human? To kill the Troll King?”

Karuta stepped up.

Kara nodded in response. She had heard that Karuta was the young head of the group of Ancona Orc warriors, who were an old ally of the Pendragon family.

“That is right. As I told you, sorcerer Jean Oberon is not a good man as you may have thought. Duke Pendragon left to find clues in the tower of the sorcerer, to find clues regarding the creator of the mountain giant’s king.”

“Hmm.”

Killian nodded with a stiff expression, then fell into thought as he stroked his chin. Learning about Jean Oberon’s true nature came as quite a shock to him. He would have preferred a clearly defined enemy, but unfortunately, the sorcerer’s true identity nor purpose were known as of now.

“For now, I have sent griffons to El Pasa, so we should be hearing back pretty soon.”

“Thank you again for your consideration. So now you will be…”

They had already refused her invitation to stay, but Kara was worried about the state of the Pendragon Duchy’s troops. The soldiers had travelled through the Great Forest for several days without a break.

“Kereul…”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Killian and Karuta smiled at each other, then turned to Kara before speaking at the same time.

“Water and food.”

“And please spare us a pathfinder as well. We will be departing right away.”

A bright smile hung around Kara’s mouth as she looked at the two figures. From beginning to the end, the two were only full of worries and thoughts about their lord and friend.

***

Shuah!

A brilliant blade of light buried itself in the forehead of the minotaur.

Uwuah…

Alongside a lengthy cry, the protector of the labyrinth’s second underground floor shattered into pieces of light before disappearing.

“Ha! Heuk…!”

Raven fell to one knee while breathing heavily.

As the lord in charge of a floor perished, the goblins under its command scattered; the red glimmers disappeared from the goblins’ eyes. Until now, the goblins had been rushing towards the intruders under the influence of magic while disregarding their own lives, but now that they were no longer under control, they would not hastily attack those who they deemed stronger than them.

“Are you all right?”

She felt apologetic asking the same question every time the battle was finished, but Eltuan’s concern for Raven was serious. Eltuan hastily ran towards Raven.

“I’m quite tired, I think I should get some rest. Anyways, what about our casualties?”

“Two brothers have fallen. Six have died already.”

Eltuan’s expression was grim.

Although she had solidified her determination when she left the village, it was still painful to lose the warriors. She had shared a deep relationship with the warriors and losing them was like losing her real siblings.

“There are only two floors left. It might already know of our presence, so maybe the Troll King could come out sooner.”

“Hm.”

Eltuan nodded her head. That might prove to be a preferable situation. It had already been three days since they entered the enormous maze. Three days without sunlight.

There was no difficulty with vision and mobility thanks to the luminous rocks embedded in the walls and ceiling, but the monsters that attacked them every floor were vicious and threatening. It was truly fortunate that Raven was able to take care of the floors’ lords with his Dragon Blade.

If the Red Moon Valley elves had entered by themselves, they would have been forced to retreat without even penetrating the entrance or the ground floor.

“For now, I must console the brothers that departed to the side of the gods.”

After saying so, Eltuan walked towards where the other elven warriors had positioned themselves into a large circle. After chanting a gentle spell, Eltuan sprayed soil over the bodies of the dead warriors. When the other elves echoed the rather gloomy voice of Eltuan, a small bud sprang up on the soil filled with mana. Soon, leaves and roots wrapped around the two deceased elves.

It was a sort of aerial sepulture, a unique funeral of the elves.

Elves valued harmony with nature, and the elves of Red Moon Valley were blessed by the Earth God. As such, they returned the bodies of the dead to the earth.

Due to the circumstances, they could not go through proper funeral procedures, but the elves still returned the souls of their dead comrades with a simple ritual. Afterwards, they took a short, well-deserved rest.

For them, death was a returning journey to the Earth God who accepted them.

The Red Moon Valley elves were able to quickly regain their composure; the sorrows of death were equivalent to the glory of spending eternity by the side of their deity.

“By the way, I am still quite amazed. I don’t even know exactly where I am right now, so how could you know the way so well?”

In an attempt to change the atmosphere, Eltuan asked after coming back to Raven’s side. She had no doubts about Raven’s ability so far. However, she was very surprised that Raven was able to find his way in a complicated maze, especially since he could not sense the flow of air and mana.

“…..”

Raven smiled bitterly without saying a word.

He could not speak the truth. He could not tell her that he had walked the same paths years ago, and that he had to go through numerous hardships with hundreds of sacrificed lives just to arrive on the second underground floor.

“Hmm, is it an ability granted to you because of your contract with a dragon? Anyways, it is amazing in many ways.”

When Raven did not answer, Eltuan replied with a shrug. She did not want to dig into something he did not want to mention.

“Anyways, we just need to go down two more floors, right?”

“That is correct. The 3rd floor is guarded by the manticore, and the floor below is guarded by the golem.”

“Golem…?”

She had heard about it before, but was not too familiar with the golem.

“Yes, it is a giant creature made of stone. It is composed of stone just like the gargoyle, but it is made of granite. It will not have any fissures or gaps. Even axes and maces will be useless.”

“I, is that so?”

Eltuan spoke in a slightly worried voice. But she soon continued with expectant eyes.

“But if it’s the Dragon Blade, wouldn’t it be possible to knock it down?”

“It should be.”

‘If I could use it over and over that is…’

Raven answered with a grin, but he did not voice the emerging, uncertain thoughts.

As Eltuan said, it would be possible to defeat the golem with the Dragon Blade. There was nothing in the world that could not be cut by a skill containing Soldrake’s power. However, the problem was that the power could not be used indefinitely.

The ability of regeneration he gained from defeating the Troll King in the past allowed him to recover after a few hours of rest, but it was unclear how many times he could utilize the ability in a single battle.

Facing the golem would be unlike any of the previous battles. Even if several body parts were destroyed, the golem could quickly recover its broken areas with surrounding soil and stones. Moreover, its inner core, which provided the creature with life and movement, changed location frequently.

In other words, it was unknown how many times Raven would have to use Dragon Blade to completely destroy the golem.

Unfortunately, there was an even larger problem.

‘Even if I defeat the golem, if the Troll King appears at the same time…’

That was Raven’s biggest concern.

The Troll King was strong. It was incomparably strong compared to any monsters he had faced until now. In addition, countless monsters were by its side.

In the past, dozens of paladins had borrowed the power of the priests and sacrificed themselves to defeat the golem. But as soon as they defeated the golem, the Troll King had made its appearance with hundreds of monsters.

The end result was the annihilation of more than 1,000 troops from the demonic army and the entire coalition.

Had it not been for the efforts of the priests and the paladins, Raven would have crossed the river of death as well. The paladins and the priests had attacked with their dying breaths, even as they were puking up blood and their limbs were being torn apart to pieces, and Raven had managed to drink the Troll King’s blood.

Therefore, no matter how strong the Red Moon Valley elves were, there was a chance of their annihilation as well.

‘But…’

Raven stopped thinking useless thoughts and reaffirmed his determination.

Now was different from then.

He had the regenerative powers of the Troll King and the power of Soldrake.

If the elven warriors were able to keep the subordinate monsters of the Troll King occupied, he could kill the monster’s king without much sacrifice. No, he would surely do so. Raven vowed with determination.

“Let’s continue to move. The goblins might come again.”

“Yes.”

The elven warriors got back to their feet at Eltuan’s words.

The large circular space protected by the minotaur had six entrances as high and large as castle gates. Raven looked around, then headed towards an entrance.

“Let’s go this way.”

Raven had found the way forward several times already, so Eltuan and the elves followed behind him without saying a word while carrying torches.

How long had they walked along the wide, long road?

The path was embedded with glowing rocks along the way, and incomprehensible, ancient patterns were etched into the walls. Finally, the group came across a five-way fork once more.

“Where to now?”

“This way.”

Raven walked towards the path second from the left without hesitation. In the past, they had sent five scouting parties into each of the entrances, but only the one sent into this particular entrance had come back alive. Afterwards, there was another crossroad, and they found a safe path by repeating the same process.

‘If I had been included in the reconnaissance squad that had been sent elsewhere…’

He would undoubtedly have perished. Raven continued forward in the direction he had safely passed in the past.

It was then.

“Hmm?”

Raven became startled as he turned a corner.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Eltuan asked curiously, but Raven narrowed his eyes without answering and rushed to the wall of the road he was about to enter.

“Hmm…”

Eltuan and the elves were surprised to see Raven’s flustered attitude. He had never displayed such emotions since departure.

But ‘surprise’ was not enough to describe Raven’s current feelings.

“What the hell is this…”

Raven patted a side of the wall with trembling hands, disbelief evident in his eyes.

It was an arrow pattern roughly etched into the wall.

It was…

“This is…. What I… made…”

Raven’s eyes quivered like a boat in a storm.

When he lived as Raven Valt of the demonic army, he had made the exact same marking on the wall to avoid losing his way in the maze.