EP.140 Meeting Room
A ridiculously large and fancy door covered in shiny gold decorations.
As I stood there staring at this waste of money, I felt compelled, as if enchanted, to reach for the doorknob.
“Wait a sec! Lowville!”
A panicked voice from behind grabbed my attention.
Startled by the sudden commotion, I instinctively jerked my body, turning my gaze toward the direction of the voice.
“Dawna..?”
The source was none other than Dawna, clearly worried at first glance.
Breathless and with beads of sweat glistening on her forehead.
Her usual energetic demeanor was nowhere to be seen; instead, she looked exhausted from a series of trials, enough to snap my muddled consciousness back to reality.
“Dawna, what brings you here…?”
“I’ll explain later! We have to get out of here, quick! Hurry!”
She slammed her staff into the back of my neck, roughly pulling me along.
Thanks to her unique consideration, I wasn’t choked or fell on my butt, but that didn’t ease the confusion swelling in my mind.
“Dawna… didn’t you say you were feeling under the weather and were going to take some medicine and sleep yesterday?”
“Th-that’s!”
She looked away hastily as if struck in the heart.
Was it due to her natural constitution or insatiable thirst for knowledge? She suffered chronic sleep deprivation, often staying awake five nights a week. But when she set her mind on sleeping, she would sleep heavily for an entire day.
So, it made no sense that Dawna, who declared bedtime just last night, was already up at this early hour.
“Hah… let me guess, you spent the night tinkering with magic tools, didn’t you…? That’s definitely bad for your health. I’ve told you countless times to break that awful habit…”
“Shut up! Are you my mom or something? You have no idea why I’ve been up all night!”
“Ah! What have I done this time!?”
Her worried comment was met with a sharp retort and ruthless violence.
If her eyes were any more bloodshot, they’d nearly burst. No question about it.
The wooden staff aimed with precision at my head wasn’t that painful since Dawna was the only one in our party who could match my strength.
She must have been aware of that, hence her playful antics.
“Dawna, I’m really busy right now, right? So, how about you stop playing around and let me go…”
“Playing around? Don’t be ridiculous!”
As I raised my hands in a mock surrender and tried to grab the doorknob again, Dawna lunged in front of me like a squirrel, blocking my path sharply.
“I won’t let you pass until I’m in my grave! Lowville! Do you even understand how dangerous this place is!?”
“Uh…?”
What stopped me wasn’t her words or actions, but her expression and gaze.
The determination pooling in her rare black eyes sparkled with an intensity far too brilliant to dismiss as mere playfulness.
“Hoo… I see… It’s hard to expect someone to accept a conclusion without any introduction. That was my blunder. It looks like my bad habits are surfacing again. Well then—!”
“D-Dawna! What are you—!”
With her finger tracing her own furrowed brows, Dawna suddenly turned and swung her staff toward the Meeting Room door.
In that fleeting moment, I could sense what she was about to do.
Magic Bullet.
Among the thousands of spells she’d mastered, it was the simplest but fastest.
Before I knew Apis’s arrows, that had been the fastest projectile I’d ever encountered, now aimed fiercely at the tightly shut Meeting Room, menacingly stirring the air around it.
BOOM! CRACK!
Before my scream even echoed, a chilling explosion reverberated through the corridor.
But the sound came not from the Meeting Room door but from right next to Dawna, who had cast the spell.
It resonated through the wall that pierced her long black hair as she carelessly fidgeted with it.
CRUMBLE.
As particles of the crumbled wall fell to the floor, time in this area, which had been frozen for a moment, slowly started moving again.
“What’s going on…?”
“The miracle of reflection. The ability to repel all impure beings that approach, a legendary feat said to be possible only by the First Saint, Onorel. I had memories of this from my time in torture, but to think it was a real technique and not just a legend…”
Had she shifted even a little off-target, there would’ve been a hole in her head.
Dawna, unconcerned about her singed hair, appeared surprisingly composed.
“According to the users, this has been the state since you fell asleep. It’s been firmly rejecting all beings approaching the door without exception. Moreover, if someone tries to force the door open like earlier, it strikes back. I heard that high-ranking clergy are actively discussing countermeasures.”
As soon as I heard Dawna’s explanation, I pulled a button off my collar and tossed it toward the Meeting Room door.
BANG!
In response, the button—exuding an unmatched momentum—whizzed past my ear like a bullet.
“…Huh.”
I was speechless at the unexpected turn of events.
If something this serious was happening, I should have received at least a message from my attendants.
Why was there no news up until now?
As that reasonable doubt floated in my mind, it was quickly resolved by Dawna, who read my expression.
“I tried to consult you a few times, but it was difficult because of the Hero… As you know, when the Hero falls asleep, he considers everything around his surroundings an enemy except for you, Lowville. Moreover, today, his scope of threat somehow expanded, so whenever someone approaches the room, he releases his murderous intent, preventing anyone from coming close…”
“That’s enough. Thank you for explaining, Dawna…”
After quietly thanking her with one hand, I gripped my head with the other, momentarily lost in thought.
The Saintess causing various incidents was nothing new, but I could not fathom the motive behind her actions this time.
To so staunchly reject everything that approached her…
It felt almost like…
“It feels like I’m looking at a person who’s about to die…”
Dawna murmured my thoughts, which I couldn’t voice out loud.
“What’s the Sister doing right now…?”
“Oh, if you’re talking about that busty Sister, she went to call you, but got hit by the Hero’s killing intent through the door and fainted. For a regular person, she handled it well, at least she didn’t sustain serious injuries.”
“…”
The continuous stream of uncomfortable and bad news weighed heavily on my spirit, making me want to slump down to the floor in despair.
“Hah…”
CLACK.
At that moment, Dawna, who had been staring blankly at me from in front of the Meeting Room door, suddenly grabbed my arm.
“It’s no good.”
“What is?”
“Have you forgotten how long we’ve known each other? I can tell what you’re thinking just by looking at you.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Are you planning to enter this place?”
That hit the nail on the head.
It was an undeniable fact and a clear realization.
I had tried to hide my expression with a feeble attempt to raise my hand, but it seemed I couldn’t fool the eyes of an old friend.
“Dawna, I…”
“I’ll say this in advance. If you’re thinking about trying to persuade me, you’d better drop it. No matter how experimental-minded I may be, I wouldn’t risk an old friend’s life on a whim.”
Her serious tone was a stark contrast to her usual lightheartedness.
Normally, she would’ve stopped me with magic, but the fact she was physically holding me revealed just how serious she was.
“Besides, I’m not particularly fond of this place… I find it almost respectable that Lowville could casually come in and out of here… When I came the last time, it felt uneasy, but this… it’s beyond that…”
The tremor in Dawna’s grip around my wrist conveyed unfiltered emotions.
“Mysterious Meeting Room of the Saintess. After hearing that esteemed name, I’d always wanted to see it in person as a scholar, but all traces of curiosity disappeared in this dreadful aura. This overwhelming darkness feels less like a god, but more like… well…”
Doubt. Shock. Alarm.
And fear.
“It feels like a dungeon…”
And the fear only grew.
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