Chapter 89

Introduction A Knight Darker Than the Darkness A passageway made of stone continued forever. Cool, damp air filled the maze, and a girl’s clear voice could be heard echoing along the passages. “Burn them to ash. Fireball!” A small sphere of flame leaped from the wand that Rufa the elf mage gripped in her hand. It shot toward the goblin trying to attack her, blowing up its head. Monsters. Nothing more than clusters of magic. The goblin burst into a million particles of light, which flowed into Rufa’s body. That boosted her aura, but she didn’t have time to be happy about that. “Grark!” snarled another goblin, unfazed that its ally had just been defeated. It leaped toward her. A dwarf heavy fighter skidded in front of Rufa. Garnet. She used the shield on her left arm to fling back the gnarled beast. “Gyaaah!” Garnet swung the mace in her right hand down onto the goblin’s head, smashing it open. That monster became light and disappeared, but the hordes of monsters in front of them didn’t appear to be shrinking. In all directions were the stone walls of the maze. Essentially, they had nowhere to run. They were trapped. “Dammit! This is all your fault!” shouted Garnet to her childhood friend behind her. Rufa pouted unhappily in protest. “Rude. My strategy for us to get strong quick by using an Alarm spell was perfect.” “Perfect, huh…? If we can get out of this alive!” If they gathered all these monsters but weren’t able to defeat them, the plan was just pie in the sky. Garnet shouted at Rufa as she struck and defeated another goblin, and Rufa smiled bravely. “Hee-hee. Have no fear. I thought this might happen, so I nabbed a spell scroll for Fire Storm from the castle’s stores.” “This isn’t the time to brag! But we have no choice now! Hurry up and use it!” “Hee-hee… I think I may have left it back in my room.” “You dumbass!” Garnet shrieked at her as she clubbed a third goblin with her mace. Rufa’s face went pale as she rooted through her bag. Her breathing was becoming ragged. She could tell her stamina was reaching its limit. “Urgh. I can’t believe I’m going to die here…,” Garnet whimpered. The gang of monsters closed in slowly but steadily. Behind her, Rufa steeled herself. “We have no choice. It’s better for one of us to escape than for us both to be killed here.” “Are you really—?” “It’s my fault, so I’ll run away. Buy me time—even if it kills you.” “I think you’ve got it backward!” “As if a weak little elf mage could buy time! Everyone knows it’d never work!” “Don’t get angry at me!” “Or are you saying an elf girl should be violated by goblins like in some erotic novel?!” “Oh, shut up!” Garnet used her little remaining energy to punt dirty-minded Rufa in the butt. While their little comedy played out, the goblins were frozen still. “I dunno about anyone else, but we’re all just blobs of magic. We ain’t got no bodily desires…” “I wish everyone would stop assuming all sex offenders are sex pests.” “We’ll team up with the orcs and sue you!” Looking like she heard their conversation, Rufa’s eyes glinted as she appraised the goblins, who’d forgotten the battle for a moment. “Now!” She dashed past the goblins who were standing still, but the gods wouldn’t overlook evil so easily. “Awaaagh!” Rufa’s foot caught on an uneven flagstone in the floor. She tumbled, face skidding across the floor. The goblins slowly surrounded the stupid elf who had fallen on the ground. “…Should we kill her?” “Guess so.” The goblins nodded to one another, looking bored, and raised their rust-covered short swords. “What the hell are you doing, Princess Pea-Brain?!” Garnet was furious but dashed out to try and save her friend. Just then, she felt something horrible and threw herself to the ground out of sheer instinct. At that moment, a black beam swallowed the passageway, slashing the goblins’ torsos in half and passing directly over the girls’ heads. “…What?” While Rufa and Garnet watched in amazement, the monster crowd had been cut in half and their bodies scattered to the ground with a single attack. Magic swirled into their bodies, and Garnet was starting to get dizzy from the new power, but she managed to look down to the path where the black flash had originated. “Was that sword art…?” Maze explorers—“adventurers”—had a mysterious power called “aura.” It could be used for many purposes, even allowing a normal person to fight against powerful monsters. There were the “physical arts,” which strengthened your body, and the “magical arts,” which were unleashed through spells. Then there was “sword arts,” which allowed the user to unleash their aura by putting it into their blade. Any adventurer who fought in the front lines of their party would know one or two of these skills, but those were generally only enough to increase your sword’s sharpness. Mowing down dozens of monsters with a massive aura blade was simply not your ordinary skill. “Could it be a sixth-floor adventurer? But why would they be on the first floor…?” Garnet and Rufa were more confused than excited about being saved. In front of them, a figure silently appeared in black armor that blurred into the darkness of the maze and with a magic sword as red as fresh blood. The full helm covered even their eyes and looked like the face of the devil himself. Aura seeped from their body, spreading out behind them like unfurled demon wings, twisting the scenery around them like some sort of black heat mirage. Was it really a human inside that armor? Or was there actually a demon? Rufa already knew the name of that sinister armored knight. “The Dark Knight…” The reaper of the maze. He who stands in the way. Archenemy of all adventurers. There wasn’t a single person who had seen him and returned alive. Stories of his appearance came from those whose companions had managed to return their bodies for resurrection. His massacres were legendary. “……” Faced with death, Rufa looked up in amazement, unable to draw the will to fight back. The Dark Knight approached, footsteps making no sound. He raised a hand, like the Dullahan proclaiming death… “I can see them.” …He pointed at Rufa’s white panties, which had been exposed when her skirt had flipped over. ““……”” An uncomfortable silence settled between the elf in her underwear and the Dark Knight. “…What the hell?” Garnet’s question was the only sound in the maze, which was dead quiet now. That was how Princess Pea-Brain—Rufa—seventh in line for the throne of the Gordeau Empire—met the Dark Knight, named Alba, a country boy.