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Chapter 128
Chapter 128. An Uninvited Guest in the Dead of Night
Jurgen leaned comfortably back against the sofa and watched the two young ladies' chatter.
The gossip about Clarisse had, before he knew it, extended into all manner of personal stories.
"Have you been to Soltera?"
"Ahahaha! Of course. I spend most of my time at the Del Alba Resort in Costa Bay."
"Don't go there."
"Pardon? Why?"
"They're in bed with the Mafia and sell off their guests."
"……Is that true?"
Not finding much opportunity to join in, Jurgen leaned his back leisurely against the sofa and watched.
How much time had passed?
Penelope, who could drink like a fish despite her delicate appearance, was joined by Vivian who was no less of a match——and in no time at all, the table was littered with empty bottles.
"Mmm, Miss Penelope, we get along rather well, don't we. Your drinking is quite something too. I like you."
"Is that so?"
"Indeed. Miss Penelope is the first lady who has managed to keep pace with me to the very end."
"Perhaps we ought to set a proper date and settle the matter of superiority."
"I may look this willowy, but I am a 6th Rank Knight all the same. Are you sure you can handle it?"
The two ladies in perfect accord. It looked as though they might throw their arms around each other's shoulders.
How much was performance and how much was genuine was impossible to say.
Vivian, who was beaming away like that right now, might turn icily cold the moment she decided Penelope was no longer of use to her. The same could be said in reverse.
Seen this way, the world of nobility was quite an exhausting one.
"Jurgen, I'm dreadfully sorry. I wonder if we've been too caught up amongst ourselves?"
"No, I'm fine. It was enjoyable just listening."
"Happy simply to look on, are you? Hmm, must be a pleasant time of life."
"What."
Vivian, who had shot him a sidelong smile, picked up the coat she had left hanging.
"Allow me to see you off."
"How gentlemanly."
Jurgen rose to follow, and Penelope stepped out into the corridor alongside them without a word. And then.
"……."
He detected something off at once. It was difficult to put precisely into words.
"Summer was sweltering. And yet winter comes so quickly."
"I wonder if the first snow will come before this month is out."
And yet over the gentle back-and-forth of their conversation there drifted an indescribable chill.
"You two, would you stop for a moment?"
"Pardon?"
"What is it?"
"Well……."
Jurgen let his words trail off. Even he himself could not quite make sense of what to call it.
But the ominous feeling was soon given form.
"Huh? Wh-what, what is this?"
In the blink of an eye, the candles that had brightly lit the corridor were extinguished all at once. Even the moonlight that had served as indirect illumination hid itself behind the clouds.
When the candles flickered once more, casting a strange green glow. In the blink of an eye, the interior of the Annex had transformed.
None of its formerly immaculate upkeep remained.
The red carpet laid along the corridor was so rotted that a mere step would send up a puff of dust, the candlestands were covered in vivid blue-green rust. The glass windows, against which birds might once have flown, were clouded with yellowish stains, rendered opaque.
Was this what would happen if a place was left untended for a few hundred years? And amid it all the flickering candles burned green, making one feel trapped inside an algae-covered fish tank.
"Am I…… perhaps quite drunk?"
"No."
"Or perhaps…… a dream?"
"That might actually be possible……."
The two ladies stood baffled.
―Shatter!
Jurgen wrapped his arm in his outer jacket and used his elbow to shatter the glass window. What was visible through the broken shards of glass was not the Courtyard.
A darkness so complete one could not see a single step ahead. An artificial darkness in which one felt that if one were to set foot inside it, one would simply plunge endlessly downward.
Tap. Tap-Tap.
He tapped the Magic Receiver in his pocket to contact Aiden, who was on guard duty.
―……
No reply came. The sudden change in the interior environment, the absolute severance from the outside, and this hair-raising atmosphere.
Jurgen felt a powerful sense of déjà vu.
The End Order's sorcery, which turned the space itself into one enormous ritual altar. 'Erosion.'
"This dreadfully unsettling feeling…… could it be a Dark Mage, by any chance?"
"Most likely, yes. Jurgen, come behind me."
Vivian was composed.
She immediately tore off the trailing hem of her dress and used it to tie back her hair. Penelope too, with equal composure, drew out her Palette containing her alchemical catalyst and stood in front of Jurgen, keeping watch over their surroundings.
"The audacity——to carry out such madness in Ashford's own mansion without a care."
"I've encountered them once before myself. They're exactly the sort who would."
"Is leaping outside out of the question?"
"It does rather seem like it would be……."
"Come to think of it, Miss Penelope, you said you had faced a Dark Mage before? What manner of people are they?"
"Completely unhinged."
"Even so, it will be alright. There are guards, and I hired a number of skilled adventurers for this event. If the interior of the Annex is like this, those outside should notice something amiss before long."
The two of them, sweating cold despite it all, trying to respond with composure. Whether because each had their own martial capability, they showed steadiness rather than panic.
But Jurgen's expression was hard.
Erosion was far more dangerous than the two of them realised.
Erosion was an extravagant banquet laid out for the Minions. It was a banquet that would not conclude until the Minions, forcing their way through gaps in the barriers of the outer world, had devoured every last person within.
"The priority is to rendezvous with Miss Serena."
"Understood."
"Lady Vivian, would you be able to look after the other guests?"
"Of course. That I must."
Just then. From further down the corridor came the sound of someone hurtling along. In the grotesquely distorted silence, where even the sound of dust falling could be heard loudly, the sound felt deeply unsettling.
"Wh-what is that……?"
And from down the corridor.
"Eek! Eeeeeek!!!!"
Serena was dashing along in her nightclothes, trembling all over.
"Serena!"
"Lady Penelope!!!!"
She had been about to run past the intersection in the corridor, but caught by Penelope's call, she spotted the group and made a turn. Small as she was, she was incredibly fast. Serena cried out in a voice barely holding together.
"Quickly! Quickly, r-r-run! Run awaaaay!!!"
What appeared behind her were two monster-like creatures——the Minions of an Evil God. They had no faces; only grotesquely enormous mouths.
Jurgen recognised what they were.
―Screeeek. Screeeeeeeek.
Hungry Ghosts. The dead who had fallen into the abyss, lost their reason, and twisted into monsters tormented by an infernal hunger.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
Serena slid in like a runner stealing a base and darted in between the three of them.
"Miss Penelope, can you provide support?"
"Of course."
Penelope and Vivian each moved to draw upon their respective strengths to face them.
"We need to run."
"There are only two of them. We can manage."
"No——we run. Right now."
Penelope looked puzzled. But Jurgen always had a sharp edge to him. He would not say something like that for no reason……
At the additional monsters' cries being added to the din, Penelope looked back down the corridor.
―Woooooah! ―Screek! Screek!
"Th-this isn't going to work!!!"
The Hungry Ghosts were not merely two in number. Pouring in from around the corner like a wave, the number of creatures swarming in belatedly was, by even a rough count, in the hundreds or more. It was reckless to face numbers like that without even knowing how powerful they were.
"Run!"
The three of them turned their backs without hesitation. The wide corridor had in an instant become a running track.
"Wh-where do we go from here?"
"First, to the guest floor. We'll need to look after the other distinguished guests as well."
"Should one person slip out through the main entrance and call for help?"
"Did you not see what kind of space the outside had become? Waiting for rescue is the priority."
Vivian, as though surprised by Jurgen's reaction, which was far calmer than expected, lifted her eyes slightly and gave a nod.
"I'll lead the way!"
Vivian, familiar with the layout, took the front, with the rest following behind.
"I received a blessing……. I received a blessing from the Saint……."
Jurgen hoisted the seemingly deeply aggrieved Serena onto his back and swiftly followed Vivian up toward the second-floor staircase.
"Miss Penelope, now."
The moment Jurgen gave the signal, Penelope drew out her catalyst.
"Flowing Flame."
A blaze of orange light spread across the entire staircase like a carpet. It then flowed to fill the narrow stairway completely.
A clever method to block the passage.
SKREEEEEECH!!!
One of the Hungry Ghosts that had been giving chase set foot on the staircase——and turned immediately into a lump of charcoal.
One that had tried to spring off a wall and launch itself forward thrashed in agony at the scorching heat, then fell onto the landing and contributed its share of ash.
After shaking off the Hungry Ghosts with that stopgap measure.
They moved swiftly around the second floor where the Suites were and gathered people. The Annex was large, but the distinguished guests were few enough relative to the rooms that it was not difficult.
Some guests who had already sensed that something was wrong were already hovering by their doors.
The shelter they chose was a Panic Room set behind a concealed fireplace. In a noble's mansion it was only natural to have a safe area prepared for emergencies.
The interior had solid granite stone walls, and the door was a double iron gate. The facilities were excellent.
For somewhere reached by stooping through a narrow passage, it was in fact rather tastefully appointed——like a sitting room with a slightly low ceiling height and no windows.
The distinguished guests who had evacuated in their nightclothes numbered three in total. Vivian's aunt. A widow who had inherited a vast estate from her late husband——the Countess Sterling. And Bandes, a magnate in the insurance industry.
Their faces were filled respectively with fear, anxiety, and fury. A perfectly understandable reaction when one has been hauled off to a Panic Room out of nowhere while fast asleep.
"Vivian, what is the meaning of all this? Has a war broken out?"
"I'm so sorry, Auntie. It isn't a war……. It appears to be an attack by the End Order."
"Wh-what? The End Order? Good heavens! This is outrageous! What exactly does Ashford think hospitality means! Safety above all else!"
Bandes, a portly middle-aged man, shook his plump jowls and vented his fury.
"What is to become of us now……? I-I haven't even spent half of half the inheritance he left me, I can't die like this!"
Beside him, the Countess clutched her knees and sobbed.
An absolute circus. Penelope inwardly clicked her tongue.
"We gathered the people and all we got were dead weights……."
Considering that the North's nobles included a considerably higher proportion of high-ranking Alchemists and Knights than other regions, the result fell far short of expectations.
But at times like this, it was all the more important for Penelope, a 5th Rank Alchemist, to keep her wits about her.
She would leave Vivian to look after her own guests……
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine, Jurgen."
"Thank you. That's reassuring."
So she said, but Jurgen, true to form, maintained his composure even in the face of crisis. Not mere bluster, but the ease of someone who had weathered countless situations just like this one.
She did vaguely recall him mentioning in passing that he had been a soldier…… Was this the nonchalance that came with experience?
Next was Serena. Timid as Serena was, and having just played tag with monsters, she would surely be sobbing her eyes out——that much was obvious.
And yet. Serena was standing before a wine cellar stocked along one wall, looking completely at ease. Not the composure of someone who had given up, but the reaction of someone with something to fall back on.
"Serena, are you alright?"
"Yes, Lady Penelope. By the way, look at this. It's an air raid shelter and there's a wine cellar in it. Wow……. Now that's real wealth. Shall we have just a little?"
Penelope was faintly dumbfounded.