CH 11

I descend a dimly lit staircase and find myself in a throne room. The calm atmosphere almost chills me to the soul.

It looks as majestic as a royal palace, with ornamental knightly armor holding swords to their chests, lining up to salute the Lord.

In addition, there is a monster on the throne.

The monster sits on the throne and raises its head, making a hard sound. The sound is unnatural as if it is forcing a stiff joint back into place.

The monster then turns its vacant eyes towards me.

“Who’s it…… Le Cain?”

The monster’s skin is morbidly pale, and every time he exhales, the air around him freezes. He looks like the noble undead – a vampire I’ve heard so much about.

“I’m Henry. I am the lord of this land.”

If you ask me who I am, I have no choice but to say it.

“My name is Nos Tora. I’m tired of waiting. I have waited long enough, and I can’t bear the boredom of living in this labyrinth where time seems to have stopped.”

“That sounds terrible.”

I could only give a safe reply to his pretentious words. I don’t know who Le Cain is, and I don’t understand why this monster, who seems to be the master of the labyrinth, hasn’t attacked me.

But if I can communicate with him, it would be a good thing. If I can avoid the battle and get through the labyrinth, I should be able to get the reward that was written on the stone monument.

Blood-red eyes are turned towards me. Unlike Thor’s red eyes, they have a coldness to them.

“Henry…… you will never be able to understand how many nights I have endured as a vulnerable human being like you.”

“It must have been hard for you. …… Let’s talk about it. I’m sure it would be comforting. How about a story about the various forms of harassment I received at the royal palace?”

“Nonsense.”

I thought it would be well received, but it was dismissed as trivial. It was a bad memory, but I thought Nos, who seemed to have a strong sense of humor, would like it. Besides, I’ve never had any friends, so I couldn’t think of anything else fun to talk about.

A topic that vampiric people would love. “What kind of blood do you like?” I wonder if I should talk about that.

The air around us freezes as Nos lets out a deep sigh. The fallen ice crystals reflect the glittering light.

“I’m tired of living. There’s no point in guarding this labyrinth when Le Cain won’t come. Then there is only one thing to do.”

Nos stands up from his throne and holds his hand out in front of him. A wand appears out of nowhere and falls into Nos’s hand.

“Let’s start the hunt to pass the time. I am the hunter and you are the beast.”

Nos raises his staff and a spear made of ice begins floating into the air.

“Now let’s have some fun.”

The wand is swung in the air. The ice spear spins and flies at me, trying to pierce my body.

A cold sweat runs down my spine. It’s a sign of death.

“Shit!”

I leap to the side and avoid it in the nick of time. I’m wearing armor, so the blow from the metal hurts a little.

The ice spear flies at me as I roll around shamelessly to avoid it.

“Wait! I have no hostile intent! Let’s talk about it!”

“No! If you don’t want to be hunted, then kill me!”

As he shouts this, Nos’s face is severely distorted. Rather than enjoying the hunt, he looks as if he’s asking me to kill him.

I take out a「Clairvoyance Scroll」from the item box and read it. The effect is to detect the location of enemies and traps. Unfortunately, there are no traps in this room that I could use.

“What are you doing?! Henry!”

Nos rushes toward me as I kick the ground and jump. I catch the swinging staff with my sword. We strike each other two or three times and then backstep away from each other.

It’s impossible to discuss this anymore. I have no choice but to defeat him here and now.

I take out a healing potion and pour it on my sword. If it’s an undead opponent, the healing potion would burn its body.

Nos holds up his staff to produce another ice spear. I slash horizontally to take advantage of the small gap, fresh blood dancing in the air.

“Guuuuuuu!”

Blood overflows from Nos’s abdomen. The healing potion seems to be working as I expected, and he appears to be in pain.

Nos stares at me with eyes full of anger.

“…… You humans are really interesting. From the looks of it, you’re just human with no talent whatsoever, how did you get that power?”

“I got it by fighting and dying in this dungeon!”

Nos smiles with amusement. It reminds me of my life in the royal palace, which was no fun at all, listening to my father’s nonsense.

“Interesting, interesting. I’d like to die, too.”

Nos raises his staff above his head, his face distorted.

He raises his cane above his head and a blizzard blows through the room as if he were in a snowy mountain. It was so cold that his breath turned white, and his vision was extremely limited.

As I turn left and right to look for Nos, I hear a voice from somewhere.

“Can you survive this?! Aer ・ Robustus ・ Glaciem ・ Hastam.”

An incomparably large ice spear comes flying at me.

I couldn’t avoid it and my left arm was gouged wide open. Blood overflowed from the punctured wound.

“Gaaah!”

Gritting my teeth, I take out the last of the healing potions from the item box and sprinkle it on.

My inventory is now empty of recovery items.

“Hahahahaha!How does it hurt, Henry?”

“There you go!”

I rush in the direction of the voice.

I find Nos and latch on to him with all my might, and he lets out a pained cry.

“Guh! What are you doing!?”

While clinging to him, I take out the「Explosive Flame Scroll」and begin reading it.

A raging fire erupts from the scroll, engulfing Nos and me.

I read the Transfer Scroll before the flames completely engulfs me. Then, due to the scroll’s effect, I am the only one who can escape the fire.

“GUOOOOOOO!!!”

Nos is screaming in the fire. Undeads are weak against holy things and fire. Nos is no exception to this rule.

Nos approach me step by step in agony. His fire-burned skin looks sorrowful. His noble demeanor from earlier is gone, and he now looks more like a monster.

Nos holds up his staff, and I raise my sword to confront him.

“This has been fun, human ……, no Henry. Just finish me already.”

I nod my head and swing my sword down. Nos held his stance, but did not resist.

◇◇◇

I get down on my knees and hold the fallen Nos.

He doesn’t seem to have the will to resist anymore, and Nos seems to be calm now. It seems hard for him to open his mouth with his burned body, but he doesn’t care about it and starts muttering.

“You’re surprisingly …… strong, Henry.”

“Nos…… You weren’t being serious right? Why?”

“No, no, I really tried my best to hunt Henry.”

Nos was using magic he had never seen before. It looked like he still had a few more tricks up his sleeve, but in the end he had given up on even fighting. I couldn’t believe that was serious.

But now that I had weakened him with the scroll and cut him down with the sword, I could no longer do anything but ask him if he had a will.

“Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?”

“I am a prisoner of Le Cain. I have been trapped in his vile trap and have spent what seems like an eternity in this mysterious dungeon. I have no more words to say and no one to say it to.”

Does Le Cain and the others hold the mystery of this dungeon? The one who captured the mighty undead like Nos. I’ll have to be careful in the future.

I look at Nos, who seem somewhat lonely, and come up with an idea.

“If you’d like to join me, I’d love to have you as one of my people.　It’s in the middle of nowhere, but I think it’d be fun to make some friends …….”

If I could find a way to heal Nos in the dungeon and save him, he might become a resident of my land. Although he attacked me, I don’t think Nos is a bad guy.

This dungeon is truly complex and bizarre. There is a possibility that we can heal all of our injuries just by going out through the exit.

“Friends huh? …… I miss those words. But everything bothers me now, I’m tired of living.”

Nos’s body begins to crumble.

“Hey! If you keep this up, you’re gonna die!”

“The longer I spent in the …… labyrinth, the more I wished that there would be a being to …… kill me.”

There is no power in Nos’s eyes. He seems to have lost the will to live.

“I’ll answer Henry’s question …… one last time. As a parting gift.”

“Then…….”

There are so many questions to ask, but none of them are easy to ask, considering Nos. I feel like I’m taking advantage of him.

Then there’s only one thing to ask.

“I believe your name is Nos Tora, right? Could it be that the ‘Tora’ in ‘The Tiger Trap’ comes from Nos’s name?”

Nos seem to be amused. It was too stupid a question.

“Hahaha…… hahaha! Yes, Le Cain used that trap to catch me. That was painful!”

“I know, I know. That thing bites harder the more you try to run away from it.”

Nos and I laugh together like idiots.

I talk about many other things with Nos as he’s crumbling. We talk about the vile traps and monsters in the dungeon. He was also very interested in the scrolls I used during the battle.

Time passed, and Nos’s body nearly completely crumbled. Nos could only speak now.

“This is it, Henry. I don’t know why you are here, but perhaps there is a reason. All life is born with a role to play. I wonder what your role is in…….”

As soon as he finishes his sentence, Nos crumbles into ashes. I pray over the remains of Nos – his ashes – on the red carpet and then stand up.

The gate behind the throne shines brightly as if celebrating the completion of the labyrinth. This must be the end.