Two things before I begin today.
First, I couldn’t upload for quite a while due to my religion. I couldn’t write anything like this in the last month and the stocked chapters ran out sooner than I expected. I’ll try to make it up to you guys, and enjoy the four chapters I’ll be uploading at once today.
Second, whoever it is reporting the shared content on my google drive and my Patreon account, please stop. I don’t know what you don’t like, but if you find something offensive, let me know in private or here in public.
P.S: There are some comments but I’ll only be able to check them tomorrow, since I will be very busy today with both of my projects since the restrictions to upload on my Patreon has finally lifted yesterday.
Now, after such a long message, I hope you still feel the urge to read. Enjoy.
Chapter 122
The morning sun wasn’t even fully up yet when the caravan stood in front of the temporary residence of the lord’s family.
Zara stood at the forefront on a white horse, a silver robe adorned, even though she was said to be a fire mage, the Hector family’s crest on the back, which I was properly seeing for the first time because, for some reason, the guards of the estate never had that crest on their armor.
Probably because they weren’t knights and all.
Anyway, it was a silver bird, an eagle maybe, but maybe it was a fantasy bird rather than the eagles I was familiar with.
Flanking her from both sides were Cassandra and Colton, both in armor, tall and proud. Zara’s other son, Xander, stood next to Colton.
Lucas, for some reason, was next to Cassandra, nervously looking at her occasionally.
I could tell he could feel others’ stares because Cassandra had personally called him beside her. Even though Zara remained silent, I could tell she didn’t approve of it, but Cassandra didn’t seem to care.
In the middle was me, my family, who were assigned as attendants, except Sandra, who was assigned some grand role of management of the crew as a candidate member of the Hector family.
Along with us were some soldiers of the estate, also in armor, but no crest on theirs. No knights, since the only knight in this town was the former lord.
Behind us, at the end of the caravan, were the servants and crew, along with a few soldiers and a knight provided by Redford.
There were about thirty people in total, which wasn’t much, considering the reason for this venture.
Not to mention, a noble family was going out, having more servants was kind of like a sign of authority, and with this small number, rumors about the Hector family were bound to go around the noble circle.
However, Zara had perfectly spun the story in a way that it made sense for these little people to go. The reason wasn’t important; it was how she had thrown this matter on Redford, so that he would be the one responsible if it ever came up.
“Do forgive me, Lady Hector, as I cannot assign any more men than this, even though you are practically doing what I was here for.” Redford stood next to Zara with two knights behind him, his arms behind him, and an apologetic expression on his face, which he was a hundred percent faking.
“It is understandable, my lord. If not me, who else would know the troubles of ruling over people?” Zara also kept a fake façade up as she added, “And it is my husband who is concerned at the moment. Of course, I should do everything in my power.”
Nobles scary.
A few more fake pleasantries were exchanged, which involved regret from both sides not being able to help the other, but both knew deep down that it was all bullshit.
Finally, once the sky was partially alight, the group left the town. We made our way straight to the town’s edge. Once we had left the town, Zara raised her hand to stop everyone and turned to address them.
Her horse neighed as she turned it around and looked at everyone before saying, “The purpose of this mission is to find my husband, Lord Hector. Lord Redford was kind enough to assign us a knight, so the safety of this mission is guaranteed. We ride for seven days, during which we would scour the forest for any signs of my husband and lord Ruthhaven. If no signs are found by then, we would return and, unfortunately, have no choice but to declare that the forest claimed him.”
There was a tinge of sorrow in her voice at the end, which she did best to swallow so as not to appear weak. Another act to show people how fragile she was.
Again, nobles scary.
Her eyes met mine for a second, a silent signal to which I didn’t nod, of course, but she understood anyway.
“Understood!” Everyone replied to her little speech, and we turned to resume our journey. It took some time to reach the forest since not everyone was on a horse, so when we arrived at the forest by noon, Zara allowed everyone to rest for about two hours.
Or two cycles in their language.
After that, we entered the forest, Martha next to me on a horse that she shared with Rayla. I would have loved to share a horse with them, but practicality got in the way.
Only the nobles had horses. Everyone else had to rent, so when I went to rent them, I rented one for each, but Julian and Rayla declined, so it wouldn’t hurt our finances, and decided to ride as few horses as they could.
Lucas and I were supposed to be on one, Martha and Sandra, and Rayla and Julian would share one.
However, Sandra and Lucas were provided with horses by Zara and Cassandra, so there were three horses for us. I still tried to have Rayla ride with me, but she told me not to be uncomfortable and chose to ride with Martha since she was shorter in size, and it wouldn’t be comfortable for them.
As I said, practicality got in the way.
Anyway, after it was dark, we once again came to a halt, and after finding a suitable place, a camp was set up for everyone.
I had been going the whole day without any sort of action, so I was itching for some. Luckily, I was chosen for the night’s watch for the first two cycles, and paired with me were a few guards from Redford, Martha, Lucas, and Cassandra, who didn’t need to be on the night’s watch, but I heard some arguing between her and Zara earlier.
Must be about this.
Anyway, I was approaching Martha to grope her and her plenty butt a little since I hadn’t done anything with her since the foursome, when my bad luck got in the way.
Grumble…
A low grumble fell in my ears, and I wasn’t the only one who heard that.
“Did you hear something?” Cassandra asked out loud while drawing her sword. Redford’s soldiers had heard the same and drew their weapons as well.
Martha came close to me while pulling out her dagger, and Lucas also got ready in case a battle was coming along.
Zara was notified, and she came out with a cane in her hands and listened. The grumbling sound only got louder and louder after that. But no one could tell where it was coming from.
“Be ready for battle,” Zara announced.
By then, everyone was up, and everyone had assumed a battle pose. Everyone was ready for anything that could surprise us.
But even then, no one could tell where that sound was coming from.
No one but me.
And wanna know why I felt that?
Well…
[An emergency primary quest has arrived]
[Labyrinth of the Devoured]
[Difficulty: ???]
[You are to…zzz… right now…zzz…]
[Task: Defend…zzz… clear…]
[Reward: zzz…]
[Punishment: zzz]
[Warning]
[Warning]
[An unexpected encounter before the user’s designated timeline has occurred]
[The system has encountered an error]
[Please wait until the system finds the cause of the error and fixes it]
[Good luck until then]
The fuck…?
The system was malfunctioning? That had never, ever happened before in any of my lives.
Before I could be worried about that, though, the grumbling got louder, and soon the ground began to shake along with it.
Well, at least now we knew where that sound was coming from.
And just then…
Crack!
“The ground is collapsing. Get away!” Zara shouted, and I quickly grabbed Martha.
I was moving towards the rest of my family, and Lucas and Cassandra were just behind me, along with some soldiers.
Alas, we were all too late.
The ground collapsed, and we fell in.
Into what, however, I had no idea.
“Kyaahh!!”
“Aarr!!”
“Save meeee!!!”
It wasn’t just us. Everyone else was also swallowed by this strange phenomenon.
I could tell what it was, but it had never happened to me before like this.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
I heard three thuds, including mine, before I felt the hard ground below me. The height we had fallen from must have been roughly ten meters. Not a lot to hurt us, even if I wasn’t holding Martha to protect us.
The problem with it was only one, though.
The ceiling was closed. We had no idea how we fell in here.
The gate sucked us in, huh?
“Are you alright?” I heard a familiar voice asking and a familiar voice responding, “Yes.”
I turned to see Cassandra helping Lucas up and making their way to me.
“You alright?” Lucas asked as he grabbed Martha and helped her up, while I stood up myself, “Yep.”
“Any idea what just happened?”
More than one, actually, but none, I might say, at the moment would make sense to them.
It didn’t make any sense to me either.
After all, I had never personally witnessed this phenomenon before, no matter what world I was in.
The formation of a dungeon.
~~
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