Chapter 180: Ruins [1]

"It’s definitely a ruin."

Elisha examined the faded geometric drawings and strange runes carved deeply into the massive stone pillars. Their exact origin was hard to pinpoint, but the erosion suggested they were thousands of years old.

’This could be the archaeological discovery of the century,’

she thought.

Even as a top-tier prodigy at the Imperium Academy, she didn’t recognize this specific civilization. Unearthing ancient ruins hidden beneath the Iron-Sand Desert was incredibly valuable; they often contained lost magical formulas or forgotten history.

"It’s the precursor to the Ironridge foundations."

Elisha froze mid-fantasy, whipping her head toward Lucien.

"What did you say? You actually recognize this?"

Holding a makeshift torch he had crafted from a broken wooden spear and a localized fire spell, Lucien brushed the dust off a massive mural.

"It’s the symbols and language of the Aethelgard Empire," Lucien stated flatly. "They were the continent’s dominant power two thousand years ago. It shares root structures with modern Imperial script, but it’s hard to recognize since the civilization went completely extinct."

"Uh..."

"Due to the inherent resource limits of a desert capital, the declining Aethelgard Empire ultimately fell to the Tritus Coalition during the First Continental War, leaving these ruins buried and forgotten under the sand."

"..."

His rapid-fire, flawlessly accurate historical explanation left her entirely speechless. There was absolutely nothing to nitpick or correct.

’What the hell?’

Elisha thought, staring at his back.

’First he acts like a ruthless executioner, and now he’s a master archaeologist?’

Whatever. She decided to just accept it. If Lucien said it was Aethelgard, it was Aethelgard.

"Thanks for the history lesson. Do you know how to get out?" Elisha asked, pointing upward.

The quicksand vortex that had spat them onto the stone floor had completely solidified, sealing the ceiling shut with tons of compacted earth.

Lucien glanced up at the sealed roof, then turned his gaze down the long, pitch-black corridor leading deeper into the subterranean temple.

"The entrance is a one-way trap. We’ll have to clear the ruin to unlock the exit."

Elisha let out a hollow, incredulous laugh. Did he not understand what he was suggesting?

"Are you insane? If this is an untouched ancient empire’s ruin, how can just the two of us clear it?" Elisha argued, her voice echoing off the stone. "Unmapped ruins of this scale are packed with lethal traps and dormant Guardian monsters. By Association law, an unmapped underground ruin is classified as a Grade A hazard. It requires a full raid team led by a Gold-Rank Knight, or a party of Platinum Knights!"

She crossed her arms. "We’re Academy cadets. I know you’re unexpectedly impressive, but this is absurd. Clear it? Fine, we could try. But we should think of realistic extraction options first... Cadet Lucien?"

Mid-lecture, Elisha realized she was talking to empty air.

She looked ahead. Lucien was already walking away, his torchlight fading as he headed deeper into the ruin’s depths.

"Hah!" Elisha sighed heavily, jogging to catch up. "Hey, I’m not going down there blindly. That’s a suicide mission—"

Her words caught in her throat.

As she stepped out of the faintly illuminated entrance chamber and into the corridor, the absolute darkness pressed in around her. Worse, as her boots crunched against the stone, the noise disturbed the inhabitants.

Skitter. Scrape.

Dozens of massive, pale desert-centipedes and armored scorpions began crawling out from the cracks in the walls, agitated by the sudden light and noise.

"Eek!"

All her noble pride vanished instantly. Elisha sprinted forward, practically throwing herself to Lucien’s side to stay within the small radius of the torchlight.

Lucien casually unholstered the Reaver shotgun with his free hand. "Pursuers behind you?"

"No! Bugs!" Elisha shivered, aggressively brushing her cloak.

She hated them. She hated the dark, she hated ghosts, and she absolutely despised giant, multi-legged bugs. Her nerves were entirely frayed.

She couldn’t stand walking slightly behind him, surrounded by the shifting shadows. She wanted to be in the front, directly under the light.

"I’ll take the lead," she declared, stepping past him.

The moment she put her foot down, a heavy hand grabbed the back of her collar and violently yanked her backward. She didn’t even have the leverage to resist the sheer physical strength pulling her.

"What are you—!"

WHOOSH.

A massive, rusted crescent blade swung down from a hidden slit in the ceiling, slicing through the empty air exactly where Elisha’s neck had been a fraction of a second ago. The metal was so polished her pale, terrified face reflected on its surface.

The heavy blade swung side to side like a pendulum, making a low, menacing hum.

Her heart hammered against her ribs.

Lucien’s cold voice belatedly hit her ears.

"It’s a pressure plate trap. Did the Academy teach you to sprint blindly into unmapped ruins just because you saw a bug?"

At his sharp warning, Elisha rubbed the back of her chilled neck, her face burning with humiliation.

"...Sorry."

Lucien didn’t lecture her further. He took the lead again, stepping carefully. He disarmed tripwires, bypassed pressure plates, and navigated the ancient traps with a casual perfection that suggested he had memorized the entire layout of the dungeon.

Watching his broad back, Elisha felt her strength drain.

’...I’m just a burden right now.’

She had hitched a ride on his camel, gotten him dragged into a quicksand trap because he stopped to help her save the guards, and then nearly gotten her head chopped off by a basic pendulum trap, only to be saved by him again.

"... "

"... "

They moved forward in complete silence.

Elisha hated the silence. She wished he would at least yell at her. Call her an idiot. Tell her to stay out of the way. But he just kept moving, entirely focused on the path ahead.

’...This is so embarrassing.’

Memories of all the times she had openly badmouthed Lucien at the Academy surfaced in her mind. For a moment, she felt a pang of guilt, but she quickly justified it. The

old

Lucien was undeniably a piece of trash. Despising him back then wasn’t a mistake.

’But feeling sorry now means...’

Her perception of him had completely changed.

The Lucien who had returned to the Academy after his suspension was 180 degrees different. All the criticisms and rumors thrown at him since then were complete misunderstandings. He wasn’t bullying people; he was neutralizing threats.

’He’s really changed a lot.’

She still didn’t know the upper limit of Lucien’s combat strength, but his ultra-long-range sniping and flawless dungeon exploration skills were already beyond the capabilities of most Gold-Rank Knights.

Because he relied heavily on firearms, traditional logic dictated he should be weak in close-quarters combat. But the arm that had effortlessly carried her through the camp, and the hand that had just yanked her out of a death trap, possessed physical strength that rivaled the top vanguard martial cadets.

Back when he led the Academy’s delinquent circles, a single solid kick would have made him vomit his guts. Now, he was moving like a seasoned veteran.

"... "

The silence made her mind race faster.

Was Lucien really the secret Executioner of the fallen Holy Empire, operating in the shadows?

And above all, if he was secretly protecting people... why did he fight Kael?

It was a tangled, infuriating mess, and it was giving her a massive headache.

*****

Was I too harsh?

Seeing Elisha walking silently beside me, staring glumly at the stone floor, my thought turned into certainty. I might’ve actually hurt her pride.

’Ugh.’

I genuinely disliked Kael. I strongly disliked his entire party and their naive, hypocritical ideals. But that didn’t mean I needed to mentally break them.

Thinking about it, I remembered a piece of her character lore from the original game. Normally, her fragile inner self was buried under layers of thick noble pride, but Elisha harbored a severe childhood trauma. It was a trauma so deep that, in the early stages of the story, it occasionally caused her hands to tremble so violently she couldn’t even draw the Ravenscroft family’s prized bow.

She was a proud noble on the outside, but a deeply wounded girl on the inside. My sharp rebukes and the near-death experience in the quicksand might’ve triggered that trauma.

Having dealt with my own trauma in my past life, I knew that suffocating pain well.

’Now I just feel like a villain.’

I had a perfectly logical excuse. This was an unmapped, highly lethal ancient ruin. I had saved her from getting decapitated by her own recklessness. Wasn’t I justified in snapping at her?

’Haa. Enough dumb excuses.’

If she started having a panic attack down here, it would be dangerous. Trauma surfacing in the middle of an A-Rank perilous realm was a recipe for a team wipe. If the Empire’s premier archer dropped her weapon because of a mental breakdown, I would be the one taking the hit.

I stopped walking and quietly pulled a thermos from my inventory. It wasn’t my usual coffee. It was a special flask Ariana had packed for me before I left the mansion. It had some medicinal properties too.

A small, neatly folded note was taped to the side:

[Love

♡, please stay safe and have a good trip! And don’t get involved with any girl.]