Cecilia had thrashed the demons near the royal capital when she was young to level up.
As a result, a rumor spread among the demons that used Teresia as their base.
Beware of the silver-haired butcher!
The nickname was given because of her emotionless expression while mercilessly killing demons, just like a slaughterer.
Demons living in nearby areas could somewhat share each other’s emotions, and this was the same for magical beasts.
In short, the reason the mimic didn’t bite Cecilia was because it was ‘scared.’
Despite the series of events, the raid party started moving again.
“Lady Cecilia. It’s getting cold.”
Beatrice said limply. Cecilia blinked and lowered her hand. Then the wind that had been ruffling Beatrice’s hair stopped.
“It’s well dried.”
“……Thank you for drying it.”
I swear to the Goddess, if it weren’t for Cecilia, she wouldn’t have gone near that treasure chest.
But Beatrice couldn’t complain much. Because she’s her superior!
Even now, she was walking almost alone with Cecilia at the very end of the raid party, which made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
Moreover, Cecilia kept glancing at her.
‘Am I missing something here……?’
While Beatrice was desperately pondering, Cecilia was thinking about something entirely different.
‘Wh, what should I say?’
Awkward!
She had conquered countless dungeons before.
But she had never tried to build camaraderie inside a dungeon.
As the two were struggling with their own thoughts, the knights’ steps halted.
“Lady Cecilia. There are two paths.”
After passing through a narrow corridor, they came upon a large cavern with a fork in the road.
So, they sought Cecilia’s advice. But Cecilia kept her mouth tightly shut.
The quick-witted Beatrice immediately understood.
“We’re supposed to find it ourselves……?”
“Hmm, I guess so.”
Riharten had predicted this. He just thought they would cooperate since the dungeon difficulty was so high.
“Alright, you heard her. Let’s think about it.”
“Hmm, wouldn’t splitting into two groups be better?”
“No. If we split our forces in half already, clearing the dungeon will be tough.”
Though they might have to split up eventually, this wasn’t one of those situations.
“Wait a moment. Lady Cecilia told us to move unexpectedly.”
“Now that you mention it……”
At Beatrice’s words, they recalled Cecilia’s warning. But even remembering it didn’t help.
“How do we move unexpectedly here?”
“I really have no idea.”
There were exactly two paths. Wasn’t either way fine?
Beatrice also racked her brains but couldn’t come up with an easy answer.
‘If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve studied more.’
She hadn’t finished reading the ‘Newbie Must-Read Book’ yet.
‘Maybe I should step in.’
Old habits d*e hard. Can’t resist when I know something.
“Imagine you’re a demon. You make a dungeon and set traps to stop intruders.”
Cecilia always starts her dungeon strategies from there.
Understand the developer’s intent. If there’s a problem, identifying the problem setter’s tendencies is only natural.
“What would you do? Where would you set traps and where would you defeat enemies?”
“Isn’t it best to dig traps on all possible routes?”
“For a normal dungeon, yes. But ancient site dungeons are too vast for that. The budget is insufficient.”
‘Do demons have budgets……?’
A question that arose in everyone’s minds.
But it made sense. Since demons aren’t gods, they can’t create something from nothing.
“Then, install traps on expected routes……?”
Beatrice cautiously suggested, and Cecilia nodded.
“Yes. That’s why we need to move as unpredictably as possible. Demons designed the dungeon by predicting humans.”
“Ah……!”
The rookie knights’ eyes widened. They had never thought of that. Now they finally understood clearly.
“So, how do we act unpredictably here?”
But with Cecilia’s question, they were back to square one.
They understood the principle, but executing it was another matter.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know this? Surprising.”
“Ugh.”
The knights had nothing to say and bowed their heads. Cecilia sighed and spoke as if she couldn’t help it.
“The simplest answer is usually the right one. Remember that.”
Cecilia clenched her fist. And swung it at the wall.
KABOOOM-!
The wall shattered spectacularly.
The rookie knights were speechless.
“……”
‘Who would know that!’
‘Even if I knew, how could I follow that!’
The rookie knights couldn’t voice their complaints.
Originally, the first floor of the ‘Ancient King’s Ruins’ was filled with numerous traps.
No matter which path you took at the fork, traps were installed everywhere.
However, Cecilia smashed through walls and advanced—though curious rookie knights tried smashing walls too, not a scratch appeared—and the raid party safely moved to the second floor.
“Hmm. Nice armor.”
Cecilia looked thrilled.
With a face full of curiosity, she inspected things and would stand for a long time admiring small trinkets if there were any.
Thanks to that, she fell a bit behind the leading rookie knights, but Beatrice couldn’t rush her.
She smiled slightly, watching Cecilia press on the armor enthusiastically.
“Looks like you enjoy ruins.”
“Yeah. What about you, Betty?”
“I……”
Beatrice laughed bitterly.
“To be honest, I’m scared.”
Cecilia tilted her head while looking at Betty.
“You’re not scared right now.”
“That’s because Lady Cecilia is here.”
“I see.”
Cecilia walked off with her hands clasped behind her back.
She passed by Beatrice who was leaning against the wall.
Her face devoid of any expression or interest.
‘As expected, Lady Cecilia wouldn’t understand someone like me.’
Just as Beatrice’s mood began to turn gloomy,
Cecilia quietly spoke.
“Then you’ll never have to be scared again.”
“Huh?”
“Because I’ll always be with you.”
“……!”
Beatrice’s eyes widened as she stared at Cecilia’s back.
The silver-haired girl smaller than herself was walking leisurely.
Come to think of it, Cecilia always walked slowly.
Maybe that was consideration for someone lagging behind.
Beatrice called out brightly and ran forward.
“Yes!”
“But strangely, there aren’t many monsters.”
The exploration of the ruins continued. All they had figured out so far was that the ruins were unimaginably vast, and even after several hours, they hadn’t seen any demons or monsters.
“It’s too smooth, making me even more tense.”
Riharten frowned. The only monsters they had encountered were a few measly skeleton soldiers.
“This is definitely strange.”
“Lady Cecilia. Is this normal?”
“No.”
Cecilia shook her head as she spoke.
“However, in hidden dungeons, sometimes there are no minions, only a strong boss.”
“……So this dungeon is.”
“Even so, this size is inefficient.”
Cecilia nibbled her index finger slightly.
“The possibility is probably……”
‘I’ve figured out the dungeon structure. There are no demons where the wind flows. No strong monsters either.’
It was indeed unusual.
Normally, ruin-type dungeons are filled with many monsters, gradually increasing in level.
As people gain confidence and become greedier, climbing higher, the difficulty suddenly spikes and kills them.
‘Have they already withdrawn?’
No, Cecilia dismissed that case. For that to happen, the smell of demons would be too strong.
There’s definitely a pretty strong demon in the boss room.
Then one possibility remains.
‘They must be extremely confident.’
“……The case where all the dungeon’s efforts are concentrated into one trick.”
“Is, is that even possible?”
“Yes. But for that to work, that one trick must be absolute.”
Having finished her judgment, Cecilia slightly raised the corners of her lips.
“This is getting interesting.”
The difficulty increases according to the number of people.
What kind of trick could it be?
Cecilia was curious.
“There! There’s a big gate!”
After walking for a while, they finally reached what seemed to be the door to the boss room.
It was markedly different from everything they had seen so far.
An enormous gate that was hard to look up at.
And angel-shaped statues standing guard on both sides.
“Step back for a moment.”
At Cecilia’s words, the knights stepped back with blank expressions.
SHWING-
With a sharp sound, wind gathered on Cecilia’s sword.
The pressure was so intense that the knights covered their eyes with their arms.
At that moment, the statue opened its eyes, which turned red.
[Foolish hum…]
“Air-”
Cecilia swung her sword diagonally.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The poor statue vanished without uttering a word.
“……Goodness.”
But the rookie knights were more surprised by something else.
Sure, the unknown statue(?) being instantly obliterated was shocking enough-
But what was truly unbelievable was that the door remained intact.
“It’s sturdy.”
Cecilia muttered softly while looking at her sword.
‘Though it’s a cheap longsword.’
The blade was completely dull. It was fortunate it hadn’t broken.
“Lady Cecilia! There’s something written on this stone tablet!”
Cecilia’s eyes lit up as she walked over.
Indeed, there was an inscription in an ancient language on a square stone tablet.
[Zar’kesh dorai nûm vel’tah, mor’kai thul emar.]
“Betty.”
“Yes.”
“Can you read it?”
‘It’s from Chapter 22 of the Newbie Must-Read Book.’
The title of Chapter 22 was ‘Learn Ancient Language Quickly and Easily!’ Fortunately, Beatrice had read Chapter 22.
“Ah, I’m still not good at it.”
“Still, try your best to read it.”
“Okay……”
Beatrice began reading haltingly.
“Awaken, devil, sleep, him……?”
“Do not awaken the devil’s sleep, unless you wish to see him.”
Cecilia corrected her. The rookie knights went “Oooh-” and liked it.
“Wow, as expected of Lady Cecilia!”
Beatrice awkwardly smiled and praised her. But Cecilia squinted and looked at her.
“You need to study more, huh?”
“Ye-e-s……”
Beatrice slumped. Anyway, Cecilia thought.
‘For demons, ‘devil’ also means ‘object of fear.’ And ‘him’ also means respect. Considering that, if we slightly alter the sentence-’
-Do not awaken the object of fear. Unless you do not wish to see the one you respect.
Such a warning itself was a ‘declaration of rules.’
It was also the most underhanded rule. This was a ‘contract you can’t help but break.’
In short, it was like saying, ‘I warned you? But you opened it anyway? Well, no complaints now, right?’
“Hmm. I wonder what it means?”
“Betty. Who do you respect the most in the world?”
“Eh, eh?”
Beatrice was flustered. Cecilia had a very serious expression.
“D-, Do I have to say it myself……?”
“Yes. Definitely.”
Beatrice’s face turned red. She bowed her head deeply and mumbled.
-Lady Cecilia.
Cecilia smiled brightly.
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Huh?”
As Beatrice wore an expression of confusion, Cecilia stepped back.
“I can’t go in here.”
“……!”
“It seems the demons cunningly put up a barrier rejecting ‘Cecilia Windsor.’”
‘Of course, I could break it if I wanted, but there’s no real need to.’
The rookie knights were greatly shocked.
To lose the strongest Cecilia in a ‘Very Difficult’ dungeon?
“Don’t worry too much.”
Cecilia closed her eyes for a moment.
She sensed a demon lurking not far away.
While these guys broke this ‘trick,’ Cecilia planned to extract information from the demon.
“You can clear it yourselves.”
DRRRR-.
Proving Cecilia’s words true, as soon as Cecilia disappeared from sight, the massive door slowly opened.
The 20 rookie knights slowly entered. As soon as they did, the enormous door closed with unbelievable speed as if worrying about someone’s intrusion.
THUD!
And-
They faced reality.
“……Clear it ourselves?”
“sh*t.”
The rookie knights couldn’t stop their trembling hands and feet. That’s how overwhelming the presence was.
“That’s a monster.”
A huge hall.
In the center, a little silver-haired girl hugging a rabbit doll and sleeping soundly was visible.
“……Lady Cecilia?”
It was 8-year-old Cecilia.
