Chapter 311 – Departure
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Someone was shaking me awake.
Consciousness that was buried deep inside quickly comes to mind.
After waking up, I sleep soundly.
Don’t even dream
It’s an amazing sleep.
Having suffered from insomnia once, I knew what a great blessing this was.
“…Wake up! Fool! It’s late! How long will you be sleeping!”
A familiar voice scolded me.
Maids are not.
They won’t wake me up from a good night’s sleep unless I tell them in advance.
And there are few people… Who can talk to me like this.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes with a slightly sharp impression.
It was Ayla, my elf lover.
“…What’s going on?”
I asked Ayla, narrowing her eyes.
“…What’s going on? You were supposed to leave today!”
…Was it today?
Seeing Ayla get angry like this, it seems a little late.
She forced herself to stand up.
The blanket rolled down, revealing a huge object that woke up together.
I thrust the butt into Ayla.
-Slap.
“Everyone except you is waiting with me, but there’s no time for that!”
Ayla, realizing my intentions, scolded my gigantic jerk, blushing in her face.
Writhing…
“It’s… I can’t help it.”
It was said that it was too late to receive the morning fella, so I decided to leave quickly with good manners.
Even though it’s already late, I don’t have manners or anything.
In an instant, magical armor was formed and worn.
Like a real man, he doesn’t even wash his face.
I finished all the preparations in less than 10 seconds and left the dorm energetically.
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As Ayla said, all the departing members had already come out and were waiting for me.
On the left is the warlock subjugation party I brought.
On the right, the lord’s knights and soldiers were gathered.
It was like she was waiting impatiently for me to come out after all preparations had already been made for departure.
Liliana and Christina, who had been out beforehand, were glaring at me coldly.
I overslept and made many people wait.
…Sorry…Not sorry…No, just didn’t think much of it.
If they knew about my shameless thoughts, of course they would have been outraged, but fortunately, no one would know unless I spit it out.
“His Holiness, did you cough?”
Judith came up to me and greeted me politely.
“Heung! You slept well, so you should come out now.”
Cristina reproaches her with a sour expression.
“Kuhm…”
It’s a shame that I can’t refute after hearing this from a kid.
Than causation.
Make no excuses.
It is true that I did wrong, so I decided to endure this humiliation like a man.
The knight leading the lord’s troops, Rance, approached me.
“Unho-sama… Guild Alliance forces passed this place in a hurry not too long ago.”
“Guild union?”
“It seems that the lord made a hasty move after hearing the news that he was dispatching troops to the 11th floor fortress.”
Normally, he would take a short break here, but seeing that he moved right away… It seemed that he was intending to quickly put an end to the rebellion in the fortress before the lord intervened.
“Can we start right away?”
Asked Judith.
“Yes, all preparations have been completed. The kick-off speech is…”
“A march…A speech?”
“Yes! His Holiness’s words will greatly lift everyone’s hearts!”
Judith looks at me with expectant eyes.
Nominally, since I’m the captain… You can.
Does Judith want me to do that embarrassing thing?
“…Enough. Let’s just start.”
At my words, Judith’s face suddenly turned sullen.
Does Judith like this?
But it doesn’t fit my personality.
Even when I was a student or a soldier, I didn’t like the leader’s speech that much…
I honestly had nothing to say.
I pretended not to know Judith’s feelings and ordered a quick start.
The warlock subjugation team led the way and started moving, followed by the lord’s troops.
However, it wasn’t just us who set off.
Quite a number of adventurers followed us.
I don’t know if it’s the adventurers who were going to go back in vain, or if they’re new adventurers… But since the curfew at the fortress on the 11th floor seems to be resolved, it seems like they’re trying to move together.
As long as it doesn’t cause damage on our side, I didn’t have any intention of stopping it from following.
We led a fairly large procession and entered the cave.
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The size of the cave was considerable.
The ceiling was as high as 30 meters, and the width seemed to be twice the height.
The sound of clear drops of water falling somewhere resonates intermittently in the cave.
It wasn’t as dark as I thought.
Could it be fireflies?
On the wall of the cave, countless luminous objects emitting an unknown blue light were sticking to it, illuminating the inside of the cave.
The soft blue light flowing from the luminous body and the huge stalactites, stalagmites, and stone pillars illuminated by the blue light created a quite dreamy landscape in the cave.
Looking at it this way, it seemed like a pretty good tour course.
It seems that the inside of the cave is rather brighter than the outside.
“By the way, why didn’t you look at the fortress on the 5th floor of the labyrinth?”
Liliana, who was walking beside me, asked me.
“…”
…There was a fortress on the 5th floor of the labyrinth?
“…Could you not have known?”
“No way.”
Once I got off the pretense.
However, Liliana’s suspicious gaze did not disappear.
Come to think of it, she once asked Marie to investigate the labyrinth when she first went to the 10th floor of the labyrinth.
She thinks she heard then…
People make mistakes
It is a law that can be forgotten and forgotten.
But suddenly, Liliana was offended.
By the way, are you talking about that now?
Wouldn’t it have been better if she had told me earlier.
Am I a helpless human?
While muttering inwardly, I immediately went to the enemy.
I cast the blame on others.
However, there is no way to go back just by investigating the fortress on the 5th floor of the labyrinth.
Not a serious mistake.
Wouldn’t it be okay to stop by and take a look when you return?
Well… The mission could be completed before then.
“The investigation of the fortress on the 5th floor of the labyrinth has been delivered to the temple in advance. Paladins arriving later will investigate it.”
After hearing Liliana’s conversation with me, Judith intervened at the right time.
“Did you hear?”
I was so arrogant that I looked down at Liliana arrogantly and said,
“What is ‘heard?’! A topic I’ve completely forgotten about!”
“Uh huh, I didn’t forget. I just trusted Judith.”
This would not have happened if I hadn’t brought Judith, so this is the result of my excellent mercenary skills.
I smiled happily and stroked the competent Judith’s head with my stigmatized hand.
“Thank you. His Holiness! I will continue to repay your love for you.”
Liliana was staring at the two of us as if she were wearing eyes.
The march into the cave proceeded smoothly without any major threats.
Although monsters often attacked…
They were crappy monsters with no nutrition that couldn’t even become intermediate level corroded bodies, and were quickly cleaned up by my maids and elves.
I heard that it takes about two days to reach the 11th floor.
That means that you will have to camp for a day.
And we were able to find a suitable campsite.
It was a huge natural clearing that looked almost two to three hundred meters wide, and many adventurers’ tents had already been built there.
At a glance, it seemed that most of the adventurers would rest here and move on.
As a large number of humans entered the clearing, the eyes of the adventurers were drawn to this direction.
– Hung-seong-gung-seong.
(What is it? What kind of people have so many…)
(I don’t think it’s the Guild Alliance guys’ side…)
(Paladin? Look at that, the knights of the lord behind.)
(…That’s why the Guild Alliance moved in a hurry without resting.)
It seems that the troops of the Guild Alliance, who did not want to be intervened by the lord in this case, just passed by this place and marched.
‘Hmm… What will happen if the Guild Alliance subdues the rebels first?’
I told the lord that I would help with the occupation of the fortress… But it is also true that it would be ambiguous if the Guild Alliance bastards took over the fortress again and normalized it.
The Guild Alliance guys won’t dare to collide with us…The chances of colliding with us are significantly reduced.
Should I beat it up and take it away?
But I don’t really like fighting with people who don’t have the will to fight.
…It was meaningless to think about now.
Things might get messy, but I had no intention of rushing after the tails of the Guild Alliance bastards.
We set off again after setting up a suitable campground in an empty lot as per the standard, taking a sufficient rest.
And we came face to face with a huge fortress.
The appearance of the exit fortress was quite different from what I expected.
It was a fort on a scale incomparable to any fortress I had seen before.
A gigantic castle visible from the outside, visible from the 11th floor beyond the cave.
And a wall that could have been 10 meters high was blocking the cave. Unlike other labyrinthine fortresses, the walls were also built with hard stone.
‘What? Did these guild unions try to establish a kingdom here?’
It was a fort where you can clearly feel how much effort they put into making it.
