I…didn’t know what to feel. My mind refused to settle. What was the best move here? Could the dreams Lanceil had even be an option? Before I could form an answer, Lanceil slid her arm through mine, and my racing thoughts crashed to a halt. I said nothing; it would be tactless to peel her off here. Honestly, if I did speak up, I’d want to thank her.
Just as it was with Éa, time spent feeling this beastmaid’s warmth flew by in an instant. We’d been strolling along at a leisurely pace, but already, the castle appeared before us. Lanceil led me through to the back entrance. We greeted the guards as we passed, walked down a few halls, then arrived at the kitchen door.
I knocked, then waited to hear a reply. “Pardon me for intruding on you at such a late hour, King Remlia.”
“It is no intrusion. I had been meaning to speak to you myself.”
We entered the room, and I bowed to the king. Lanceil followed suit but stayed behind and stood at attention near the door. After receiving the king’s permission, I took a seat across from him at the island counter. “King Remlia, allow me to present some Champion’s Tea, which, though recently has been recalled, is selling for exorbitant sums on the black market. I hope it is to your liking,” I said, then placed a bag of the luxury-brand tea on the worktop. Always better to butter the other person up first.
“Ah, yes, news of that Gastolfo lass’s entrepreneurship reached me not long ago. I’d also heard she was having difficulty enlisting partners, but she teamed up with you, did she?”
“Only as part of a temporary arrangement. We have not combined our parties, but I have set her up with some outside work.”
“Trying though she may be, her skill as a mage cannot be denied. She would make a fine addition to your party.”
“My wife would beg to differ, Your Majesty.”
“The two studied at Hoense together, as I recall. Do they not get on well?”
“Not at all. Or I should say, Lana one-sidedly detests Lady Freyja.” And yet, Freyja thought the world of Lana. Life as such an incredibly powerful mage must have been a lonely existence, so meeting a peer of equal level would endear you to them. Lana, too, for all her protestations, might not actually hate Freyja in her heart of hearts.
“A pity. But we have other matters to discuss. Souya, they tell me you reached the fifteenth floor.”
“Indeed. It’s the reason I requested this audience.”
“And it touches on the very issue I mean to broach with you.” I let the king go first. “It concerns Medîm,” he revealed, bringing up a name I hadn’t expected to hear. Now that he mentioned it, though, I didn’t see Pops around at the moment. “Do you know how deep he has ventured in the dungeon?”
“Yes, he told me he’d reached the twentieth floor.”
“And do you not find it odd that the man hailed as the ‘father of adventurers’ has delved no further than the twentieth level?”
Definitely odd, for sure. But according to the man himself: “Pops said adventurers who hid their embarrassment at receiving his help gave him the title, that he himself was nothing exceptional.”
“If that man is not remarkable, then every adventurer in Remlia, myself included, is nothing but a worm digging through the dirt,” the regent spat. “He was merely being modest; he’s always like that. Cursed with a perfectionist disposition, he has long nursed a wound left by a single instance of failure. It has tormented him all these many years, the demon lurking on the nineteenth floor.” For a moment, he fell silent. “………It’s already been thirty-three years.”
King Remlia spoke with a heavy heart. “Souya, the story I am about to tell concerns you as well now that you have taken a Heuress elf as your wife. As I believe I’ve told you once or twice, Laualliuna’s father, Mellum Raua Heuress, and I explored the dungeon together. He; his younger sister, Alma; Lanceil’s mother, Várceina; and Medîm—such was my first-ever party. Medîm, you see, was a mercenary the whims of the gods drifted over to the Right Continent, and though a remarkable swordsman and expert at keeping himself alive, he was at the time an arrogant, self-assured twat. Nowhere did that prove truer than when it came to Mellum. Those two were constantly at each other’s throats, unsheathing their blades at the slightest provocation. I assure you their mutual hatred would have ended in murder had Alma and Várceina not stepped in. They caused me quite a bit of trouble as well.”
Pops went through a cocky phase like Shuna? I can’t even picture it.
“In those days, the Adventurers Guild had far less assistance to offer than it does now, making dungeon explorations a severe, grueling endeavor. Though, perhaps because we faced such daunting crucibles, all animus and envy hardened into unwavering trust in one another. That was what it meant to be an adventurer then. You risked your life, entrusted your survival to your party members, and, once you’d all proven yourselves up to the task, swallowed your pride, and respected the strength your fellow members commanded.
“Our party was the first out of our peers to show real promise, and with that came outside pressures. Our unusually diverse team, a rare mix of an elf, a beastmaid, and two heims, did not go unnoticed. For better or worse, the attention we drew pushed us to form strong bonds, indelible even—or so I’d thought until Alma disappeared. We lost her on the nineteenth floor as we traversed it, vanishing without warning.
“We searched for her. Oh, how we searched, as if our very lives depended on it. But in the end, she was never seen again. And that sealed the demise of my first party. Mellum abandoned the adventuring life, returning to his forest, and I found new companions with whom I continued my explorations, but Medîm never ceased looking for Alma. To this day, he has not stopped.”
“To this day”?
“I believe he began looking after initiates to save others from a similar fate. Souya, it is not for me to fathom the kind of life you will make for yourself in this line of work. However, no matter what you choose, do not go down the path of obsession only to become prisoner to that which you seek, like Medîm. In life, we must at times have the courage to carry on after great loss, to take up the mantle and carry forward with us the hopes and dreams of those who have perished. It is too terrible a fate for an adventurer to be captured by such demons, frozen in time and place. That truth is what plagues the man we call the father of adventurers, and this is my advice to you as the king of the adventurers.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. I sincerely appreciate your concern.” It was tough to hear, especially as someone who was seriously considering hanging up his adventurer’s gear for good.
Still, a vanished elf—and a Heuress descendant at that. I’ve got a terrible feeling about this. And, as luck would have it, a sneaking suspicion I might have an idea as to what’s going on.
“Ah, forgive me. The older I get, the longer I blather on, though I don’t think I’m quite as long-winded as you whenever it comes to the subject of food.”
“Right, my apologies.” He didn’t even try to soften that punch to the gut.
“So, Souya, my lad. You wished to see me for something?”
“Yes.” I took a deep breath. Unless I choose my words carefully, I could trespass into the dark underbelly of the kingdom. I had accepted that risk, but there was no telling what I might find.
“Today I asked my wife—in front of our party—about the incident where she reduced the Heuress Forest to ashes.”
“Ahhh.” A shadow darkened the king’s face.
“I did it looking ahead to the future, wanting to get anything that might cause discord between us out into the open.”
“And did the princess answer you?”
“She fled.”
“Yes, I imagined as much.” The sovereign looked deeply troubled, like a man who knew exactly what demons haunted Lana. But would he tell me, too?
“Souya, I must first ask, do you come to me now as an adventurer? Or as the husband to your elven wife?”
“………” It was a tricky question. “As an adventurer.” Which is exactly why I responded immediately. No amount of consideration would produce a clear answer, so better to save time by making a split-second decision—a rather adventurer-esque move, if I do say so myself.
“If so, I cannot give you the answer you seek. Tenderfoot adventurers have no business meddling in those affairs.”
“Then what level of accomplishment must I achieve before you’ll agree to tell me?”
“At the very least, you should reach the thirtieth………no, twentieth floor for your party. And you must satisfy one condition.”
“Condition?”
“You must make it to the twentieth level without losing either of the Heuress daughters. Do this, and I will tell you everything.” Without losing Lana or Éa? That shouldn’t even be a question.
Ohhh, I get it. The king must be projecting the loss of his friend Alma onto the girls. Perhaps seeing them both break through the nineteenth floor unharmed will give him some solace. Not a bad deal.
“Understood. I promise to bring them both safely to the twentieth floor.”
“I expect you just might, adventurer.”
In the end, I had no choice but to delve into the dungeon before I could decide whether I’d never delve into the dungeon again. How goddamn ironic.