“I- Iroha?! Where did she go? She’s gone…” Left behind in the throne room, Carol looked to the other two for an expnation. After stepping into a glowing circle, her girlfriend suddenly disappeared.

  Ririna was in the same boat as her. Her face grew worried as she waited for an expnation.

  “Ahh… That might have been a teleport trap I stepped on… That was careless of me… Nyahahaha…” Sarasa scratched the back of her head.

  “Teleport trap? What does that mean? What happened to her?” Carol stepped forward and shook Sarasa while grabbing her shoulders.

  “She’s fine! She’s fine, okay? All that trap does is teleport her somewhere nearby. Other than getting separated from us, nothing else happened to her.” Carol was a bit relieved and stopped just before Sarasa’s brain got completely scrambled.

  “Is that all? I guess it’s not too bad then… Where is she then? We gotta find her as soon as possible.”

  “Sorry, I don’t really know either. Teleport traps don’t have a lot of range, so my guess is that she’s still somewhere in this castle.”

  “To think we could get separated so easily…” Ririna added with a worried voice. “We should have gotten a map of this pce. How are we supposed to find her like this? If only we had a way to talk to her…” She lowered her head, then saw the girl next to her jump in pce. “Carol?”

  “I- I’m getting a…” A call… She couldn’t say that in front of Sarasa. But turned around and pulled out her vibrating phone. “Uhmm… I actually have a spell that will let us talk to her. Stay where you are, okay?”

  “Ehh? Really? You know magic like that?” Sarasa wanted to peek over Carol’s shoulder but stayed in pce like she asked.

  Carol accepted the call. “I- Iroha? Can you hear me? Where are you? Are you alright?” Their shoulders tensed up, and they waited for a response.

  “Ahhh…” A sigh of relief came through. “Carol… Your voice is so cute… I missed it so much~!”

  There was a small moment of shock. Carol’s face grew bright red, and she was lucky the other two were behind her. “Yo- you idiot?! What the hell are you saying? Now’s not the time for jokes! You’re on speaker, you absolute idiot!!!”

  “Oh…” Iroha’s reply was staggered. “On speaker… That was on speaker… Oh…” Yeah, feel the shame, you idiot! That’s what you deserve! Carol felt a bit better knowing that the girl on the other side had taken as much damage as her.

  “Where are you, anyway? Are you still in the castle? Did you get hurt?”

  “I- I’m alright. I’m inside a cell in some kind of dungeon. Probably somewhere under the pace.”

  “Do you need help? Can you get out of there?” Unlike Sarasa, Ririna knew a little of how phones worked and spoke loud enough for it to pick up on her voice.

  “I haven’t really tried yet, but I should be able to get out on my own. I have my sword with me, so I think I can bust these bars down. Is everyone alright on your side?”

  “Yep! All thanks to you. The secret door opened after you got teleported. Hurry up, or we’ll snag all the cool stuff!” That’s nice, said Iroha from the other side. Why is Sarasa talking about the door? Her priorities are all messed up.

  “Can you tell us more about where you are? We’ll try to meet up with you. Are you sure you’re under the castle?”

  “I’m not in any danger right now, so don’t worry. I’ll catch up on my own. Search for the keycard where you are, and I’ll keep an eye out on my way there.”

  “You don’t want my help?”

  “Ehh? Of course I do, but… Well, it’s not like that, okay? I’ll see you soon.” Carol thought Iroha was gonna end the call, then she heard a whisper. “Carol…” She turned off the speaker and sneakily brought the phone to her ear. “Keep Ririna safe for me. I’m counting on you.”

  “Right…” Carol heard the call disconnect. That’s the mission Iroha entrusted her with?

  “Did she, uhmm… Say something else?” Ririna quietly asked.

  “Not really…” With a satisfied smile, Carol put back her phone. She turned to Ririna and pointed at her with one hand on her waist. “You better stick close to me, you hear me? I don’t really care about you, but Iroha’s gonna chew me out if anything happens to you.”

  “She’s so overprotective sometimes… I can take care of myself…” Ririna pouted while clearly happy.

  “Me too, me too!” Sarasa raised her hand energetically.

  “You’ll protect me?”

  “No… I’ll chew Carol out too if anything happens to you.” She grinned.

  “Yeah… Thanks for nothing…” Ririna cast a disappointed gnce at her. “Let’s resume our search.”

  “Let’s go!” Sarasa nodded, unbothered.

  The three of them gathered behind the ruined throne. A small passage opened in the white wall behind it, leading to a hidden room. There wasn’t a single window in the small room, and the only light there had to enter through the other room.

  “*Cough cough!* It’s too dusty in here!” Sarasa’s nose was particurly sensitive, and she covered it in a hurry with a piece of cloth.

  At first gnce, the room looked like a vault. There were many chests and closets lined up against the walls, with paintings that had long lost their luster hung up on the walls.

  Up against the wall opposite from the entrance, in the middle, was a worn-out statue. It depicted a giant man with a colorless gem on his forehead, kneeling and holding something between his rge fingers.

  “Is that it? Nyahahahaha! We did it!”

  “Are you serious? That’s the thing you were looking for?” Sarasa ran up to pull it out of the statue’s finger with Ririna following closely behind.

  “Yep! At least I think so! It looks just like what I was told!”

  “Hmmm… Congratutions. Now, let’s meet up with Iroha so we can get out of here.”

  “Hehehe… Thank you for coming with me! I thought we’d face some resistance, but… Guess not. Oh yeah, remind me to thank Iroha too.” Sarasa returned to the throne room, bouncing with joy and grinning at the treasure in her hands.

  “*Sigh…* Has nobody ever taught you not to celebrate too soon? Save the thanks for when we return to Ebrilyon.” Carol could understand why she would be so happy, but would it really kill her to take things more seriously? Things were much more serious when fighting alongside Katja and the others. Since when had she gotten surrounded by so many idiots? And worse, when had she gotten used to it?

  “He- hey… Did any of you hear that?” Suddenly, someone tugged on Carol’s sleeve. Ririna was cowering behind her.

  “Hear what?” The throne was covering the entrance to the throne room, but otherwise, the room was clear. No, wait… Ririna’s right. There’s rattling coming from somewhere. Sarasa noticed it too and quickly swapped the keycard in her hand for a pair of daggers. “Stay close to me, Ririna.” Carol said.

  Sarasa and Carol approached the throne, then poked their heads out from cover. “What the hell is that?!” Sarasa let out a whispered scream.

  Through the gap they had left open in the big door, multiple knights wearing full pted armor entered the room with weapons in hand. The armor they wore was the same they had seen in the hallway, and they limped forward unnaturally, with their weapons drawn.

  “Shit! They’re definitely here for us!” Carol bit her lip in frustration. Of course something had to happen. Why would anything ever go right for her? With knights continuously pouring into the room, there was only one thing they could do. “We have to fight!” She jumped out from cover.

  “Agreed!” Sarasa jumped forward too. “I’m on it!” She ran towards the nearest enemy, and Carol followed right after.

  Carol nded a cautious ssh on one of the soldiers. Sarasa thrust a dagger into another one. Both their weapons bounced off the armor. In retaliation, the knights raised their swords and swung sluggishly at them.

  “What’s that? You’re never going to hit anything like that~!” Sarasa mocked as she avoided the sword with ease. No matter how sturdy the armor is, with movements like those, they’re easy prey! “There!” She leaned forward and stabbed her daggers into the crevasses of the armor. After a vicious twist, the armor fell to the floor like no one was ever wearing it.

  “What’s that? How did you manage that?” Carol asked, staying out of range of the knights.

  “I don’t know… Maybe the armor’s moving on its own. I think it might be some kind of monster. Aim for their weak spots, and they’ll go down easy!” Sarasa lunged forward once more, eliminating another set of armor with a strike aimed for the neck.

  “Aim for the weak spots, huh? How’s this?” Carol approached the nearest enemy and ducked under another slow ssh. She managed to get behind him. Aiming for the back of the knee, the leg was blown off and the armor fell. The enemy was defenseless on the floor. Carol stabbed her sword into a crevasse on the back, and the rest of the armor piece detached lifelessly.

  “They’re not that tough, but there are a lot of them. Do you think we can get them all?” Carol asked Sarasa as they moved from enemy to enemy.

  “Have you looked outside the door? It’s a sea of them out there!” Two knights charged Sarasa from both sides. She dodged their sword and stabbed them both in the eye at the same time. “Let’s push them out of this room and close the door.” Carol nodded. They needed time to figure out their next move.

  “If you wanna seal the entrance, I can help with that.” Ririna said from behind cover.

  “And how are you going to do that? You’re not thinking about anything reckless, are you?” Carol hopped back with a rhythm as one of the armors approached. The armor swung too early and missed. Carol was out of range. As the sword hit the ground, Carol shot forward, and another helmet flew into the air.

  “It should be fine. I just need to get somewhat close to the door. I can create a small block of ice to hold the doors in pce and close the gap. That should be good enough.”

  “Gotcha!” Said Sarasa from the top of one of the soldier’s head, cluelessly trying to reach for her ankles. “Give us a couple minutes then!” A kick while jumping off was enough to send the head flying and the armor crumbling down.

  Good thing they hadn’t opened the doors all the way through. The gap was only big enough for one or two armors to come in at a time. At that pace, the two girls managed to defeat the ones who had already entered and pushed them back to the doors.

  “Now, Ririna!” At Carol’s signal, Ririna ran forward with the required items already on hand.

  Once close enough, she threw a small cylinder into the knights trying to force their way through the door. White mist started rising up from the floor, but nothing happened right away. “Just hang in there for a minute.”

  “It’s freezing! What’s that?” Carol felt a chill down her spine when the mist touched her hand.

  “Now! Get back!” Carol and Sarasa did as Ririna asked. They jumped back just as she tossed a tiny blue flower into the mist. Once they made contact, the mist rapidly turned to crystal and formed one tall, sturdy block of ice.

  “Wow! That worked! Nice job, Ririna!” Sarasa spped her back, and the three of them looked at the ice.

  “I’m gd I could help, but what do we do now? We’re stuck here.”

  “You’re right… It’s not looking good.” Carol crossed her arms in thought. “Why did we suddenly get swarmed by those things? Was it because you grabbed the keycard?”

  “Ughh… It looks like it, doesn’t it…? The keycard doesn’t even belong to them. Why did they have to make it so hard for us?” Sarasa gred at the suits of armor through the ice while biting her nail.

  “Is there another way to get out?” Carol asked. “What if we jumped out through a window?” The three of them turned to the side. Sarasa ran up to take a closer look.

  “I’d be fine, but from this height, I don’t think you and Ririna would make it.”

  “We can always wait here for Iroha…” Ririna interrupted. “She’s on her way here. She can get us out of here.”

  “Ehhh…? *Sigh…* You’re not an adventurer, so it’s fine that you don’t know, but that’s not gonna happen. Have you seen how many of them there are outside? I really doubt she could handle so many of them.” Sarasa shook her head.

  “No no, she definitely could! The odds were much worse when she had to fight the horde, and she still did it!”

  “Tch! No! We’re not just gonna sit around and wait for her to rescue us! She has enough to deal with as is. I refuse to be a burden on her!” Carol raised her voice, and Ririna responded in the same way.

  “What do you want to do then? I can remove the ice whenever you want, but it’s not like you two can defeat them all on your own, right?”

  Before things escated any further, the sound of walls creaking turned their heads to the doors. Were the suits of living armor trying to breach down the doors? No… The sound wasn’t even coming from there… It came from…

  *Rumble!* From the vault room. The statue of the man they saw holding the card, four times taller than them, broke into the room. He pushed through the obstacles with heavy movements and targeted Sarasa with a downward punch.

  “Woah! Why me?!” Carol didn’t forget her promise. First thing she did was grab Ririna’s hand and pull her to the opposite corner of the room. Sarasa was freaked out, but an attack that slow wasn’t going to catch her. The keycard she had sloppily stored, however… “Arghh!! Dammit! It fell! You can’t have that, you- you- you brickbrain! That’s important!”

  Sarasa tried to sneak under the monster to grab the keycard, but it reacted in time to reach for her as she approached it. “Just give it back! You’re gonna step on it!” She was forced to jump back to avoid getting grabbed.

  “Sarasa, you idiot! You’re gonna get us all killed if you do dumb shit like that! I’ll make an opening for you, so wait for that!” Carol adjusted the grip on her sword and thought about how she would accomplish that. “You stay as far away from it as you can, got it, Ririna? *Sigh…* Why did she have to go and get herself teleported away…? The things I do for her…”

  Bam100