Chapter 16: Arthur

Hundreds of insect monsters fell to the ground at once.

Even the normally dignified Icicle Arana and the elegant Frost Moss crawled like mere bugs in front of the Absolute.

Watching that sight, I realized the hierarchy of this world once again.

“Wow… even controlling bugs,” Prostia exclaimed.

“Riko, you’re really amazing…”

Her words puzzled me.

The Absolute of Sia Kalt didn’t know the abilities of her possessions.

The growth of Licorice that we had watched for two weeks might have been new to Prostia as well.

“Master!”

Licorice’s roots proudly carved letters into the snow.

As I watched that, I felt memories from the past two weeks flash by.

The being that had been fearful at first was now able to write and express emotions.

“Ah… to be able to write.”

Prostia’s voice was filled with emotion.

“But Master? Just Prostia… No, this is good too…”

Her smile was filled with sincere affection.

At that moment, I realized.

There was a deep bond between them that we could not even imagine.

“But, what are those humans?”

Her voice, which had changed in an instant, froze me.

Every cell in my body sensed danger.

Even for me, who had spent my entire life on the battlefield, this was the first time I had felt such absolute fear.

(Crap! Humans! Rico trained them!)

“You interacted with… humans?”

In an instant, the temperature around me dropped sharply.

This was not a simple cold.

It was the aura of death.

Everything inside me seemed to freeze.

I could hear Brian’s sword falling, but I couldn’t blame him.

I, too, wasn’t holding my shield properly.

“We just…”

Marianne opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

Her courage seemed amazing.

But at the same time, she seemed foolish.

Our words had no meaning in front of the absolute being.

“Shut up.”

It was as expected.

Her words were cut off.

(Rico! Language! learned it!)

Prostia’s expression changed subtly at Licorice’s handwriting.

It was an expression that seemed to be calculating something, or as if she had discovered a new possibility.

“Hmm… Interesting…” she muttered.

At those words, a small hope bloomed inside me.

Maybe we could live.

“Originally, I was going to kill you and feed you to Rico, but…”

At that moment, Oldin’s face turned pale, and Kevin seemed to have already lost consciousness.

They were the weakest I’d ever seen them.

But I was no different.

“No! Master!”

“Good! Humans!”

Licorice’s handwriting was rougher than usual.

I could hear the sound of roots digging into my eyes in a hurry.

At that moment, I felt a strange emotion.

Was Licorice really worried about us?

Or was she acting so that the toy wouldn’t be ruined?

Prostia affectionately stroked Licorice’s petals.

Her cold eyes slowly melted.

Like ice melting in the spring sunlight.

“Yes…” She sighed.

“Humans who live for a fleeting moment…”

The contempt contained in those words stabbed my heart.

In her eyes, we were nothing more than fleeting existences, nothing more than dust.

My pride as an A-class adventurer crumbled in an instant.

“I’ll spare you. If Rico wants it.”

The chill of death gradually receded.

Only then did I realize that I had been holding my breath.

“But…”

Her voice became as cold as ice again.

“If I see you again, your blood will be nourishment, and your corpses will be fertilizer.”

The roots of the Licorice swung towards us.

At that moment, I saw the petals of the Licorice tremble slightly.

As it… apologizing.

We backed away in a hurry.

As we ran away, we heard Prostia’s words.

“Now, shall we have some time alone?”

A sweet scent and countless pastel-colored flower pollens spread across the snow.

Prostia’s affectionate laughter echoed across the Sia Kalt Mountains.

We walked for a long time.

No one spoke.

Each of us must have had different thoughts in our hearts.

“… survived,” Hapel spoke for the first time.

Her trembling voice broke our tension.

“Arthur…” Brian asked carefully.

“Was it really Prostia, the ruler of the Great Labyrinth?”

We didn’t answer.

Everyone knew.

That was the legendary being, the absolute being of Sia Kalt.

All I could do was move forward.

“Hurry.”

My voice was more relaxed than I thought.

It felt like I was still standing there.

I kept thinking back to that moment when I had become small like a bug before the absolute’s gaze.

We stopped walking when we saw the village.

The peaceful village scenery felt strange.

It was a completely different scene from the horror we had experienced just a moment ago.

People buying things at the market as usual, children playing in the alley.

“They probably don’t know,” Oldin muttered.

“What kind of being has awakened beyond that mountain…”

“But Licorice… helped us.”

Hapel laughed coldly at Marianne’s words.

“Help? She just wanted to protect her toys from her master.”

“I don’t agree.”

Brian shook his head.

“The conversations we had for two weeks, their sincerity…”

“Seriously?” Lien interjected.

“What kind of sincerity did you expect from a monster?”

I thought for a moment.

Did Licorice really speak up for us?

I recalled the times we had spent together for two weeks.

The moments when we had slow conversations in awkward handwriting.

It was clearly too pure to be a simple act.

“First, let’s go to the guild.”

People swarmed the road to the guild.

“The A-class party is back!”

“What happened!?”

“What was the identity of the fragrance and the red moon?”

“Why did it take so long?”

“Where did all the monsters go?”

Questions poured in.

However, I was looking for one person.

“We need to meet the guild master.”

People opened the way at my words.

As I headed to the office on the second floor, I wondered how to start the story.

Who would believe this?

“Come in.”

I could even knock on the door, but I heard the guild master’s voice.

As I entered the office, his sharp eyes scanned us.

He was standing in front of the desk, looking out the window.

“You… saw something.”

His sharp eyes scanned us.

He had been leading the guild in this small town for decades, but his sharp intuition was never wrong.

Brian took a step forward.

“Um… This may be hard to believe, but…”

He began.

“We saw Prostia.”

The air in the room froze in an instant.

“What are you saying?”

“The legendary ruler of Sia Kalt…”

Brian’s voice trembled.

“The being that destroyed a kingdom hundreds of years ago…”

“Nonsense!” someone shouted.

The office was already filled with residents who had come in at some point.

“Prostia is just a legend.”

“Just an old story.”

“You wouldn’t believe that…”

Voices of disbelief followed.

It was a natural reaction.

I would have been the same.

“I saw it.”

When I opened my mouth, everyone became quiet.

The testimony of an A-class adventurer had a different weight.

“A giant ice dragon appeared…”

My voice wavered.

“In an instant, it transformed into a silver-haired woman. And…”

Everyone held their breath at the story that followed.

The encounter with the flower that was a monster, the appearance of Prostia, and the absolute fear we felt.

“There’s a story I heard from my grandfather when I was young,” the guild leader said, looking out the window.

“They say it was a pitch-black winter.

Black snow fell all week, and even in broad daylight, only a soft light like moonlight illuminated the sky.

People didn’t know that it was a sign of Prostia.”

He took a breath and continued.

“And then a dragon appeared.

It happened hundreds of years ago, my grandfather said.

A kingdom knelt before the absolute.

But after that… no one has ever seen that dragon and come back.”

The guild leader’s voice gradually became lower.

“And now that being has awakened… The Black Eye has not yet fallen.”

His words trailed off.

There was no need to finish them.

“This is…”

Oldin let out a deep sigh.

“Something terrible is about to happen.”

The room stirred again.

Voices mixed with fear and anxiety could be heard.

“Prostia has returned…”

“What about our village…”

“Will the kingdom fall again like the legend says…”

I looked out the window.

The Sia Kalt Mountains seemed endless.

Was Licorice really speaking out on our behalf?

Or was she simply protecting her toys?

Had Prostia truly saved us?

Or did she have a grander plan?

One thing was certain.

We were now facing what we thought was a legend.

And that fact was terrifying us all.

“Saint, you’re going to Sia Kalt,” the leader of the Temple of Light asked with worried eyes.

Moonlight filtered through the stained glass and illuminated the saint’s white robes.

“Mikel gave me a revelation.”

Seraphina’s voice was calm.

“I saw it in my dreams every night.

The snowy mountains of Sia Kalt, and… his flowers.”

She hesitated for a moment before adding, “The flowers stained with blood were praying in the name of Michel.

This is definitely a sign.

There is someone I must meet…”

Her words trailed off.

She looked at the snowy mountains in the distance beyond the window with a lonely smile.