Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 189

189.

“Well, I’m completely trapped.”

El, who had approached the entrance, tapped the rock and shrugged. Alisa’s face was pale.

“I, I’m sorry. Because of me……”

“It’s okay, Alisa. Don’t worry about it. We had to go down anyway.”

El consoled Alisa, who was tearfully apologizing, with a kind face. The others also created an atmosphere where she wouldn’t feel guilty. However, Deron’s expression was not good.

“Seeing the door closed, it seems we’ve found the right place. Blocking the passage means they’ve detected intruders. The devices in the dungeon have probably started working.”

“Devices?”

“This dungeon was likely created to seal the Demon Sword. Dungeons for this purpose usually prioritize eliminating intruders, so there will be dangerous traps installed. From now on, be careful not to touch or step on anything carelessly. Also, refrain from making loud noises as much as possible.”

At his words, the group nodded with tense faces. I looked at the path ahead of us. The passage, with its huge open mouth, had been revealing the way to the underground for quite some time. The faint light of the night-shining stones that stretched inside seemed to beckon us to follow.

Glancing to the side, I saw Isana frozen stiff. I was about to talk to him, wanting to ease his tension even a little before we started moving in earnest.

“Isa……”

“Come on, Isana. Why are you so stiff? Let’s cheer up. We’re almost at the end.”

But El was quicker to speak than I was. Isana’s face brightened with his cheerful voice, as if he was boosting his spirits.

“Yes, thank you, El-nim [a term of respect].”

“No need to thank me. Not just you, but everyone else is strong enough, so don’t worry too much. Nothing will happen. Just think about how you can get what you want if you get through this place safely. The only hope to save your brother is right in front of you, aren’t you excited? I’m so happy that my body is trembling.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Isana nodded vigorously, his face filled with emotion. There was no room for me to intervene in their deep connection.

“Well, shall we all start?”

At El’s words, the group naturally followed his lead. The only ones who couldn’t blend into that group were me and Deron, who was still wary of El.

“That guy is deliberately trying to take your place,”

Deron muttered, glaring at the group walking ahead. I could only manage a weak smile.

“Does it look like that?”

“Yes. In my eyes, he’s using a face similar to yours to steal the favor that should be going to you. Aren’t you angry? If you keep letting it go, you’ll be completely swallowed up.”

At the quiet warning, I took a deep breath. I thought that someone who didn’t know the situation at all might see it that way. But…….

“……Maybe I was the one who swallowed it.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I slowly shook my head. I wanted to smile again, but no smile came.

The cheerful sight of the group walking ahead could be seen. Seeing a group that wouldn’t feel awkward even if I was missing, I suddenly wondered: Did I even have a place there in the first place? The contractor whom the predecessor loved like a son. Me, with the same personality and face as the contractor, formed by his wish. In the end, I am the one who is replicating. So, I am the one who took his place.

In the end, I might just be spitting out what I swallowed. So I shouldn’t grieve over losing it. This wasn’t mine from the start either.

But then, what about me?

What should I do from now on?

The feeling I had barely grasped seemed to be scratching inside my chest. My head felt like it was spinning, so I took a deep breath. Could I endure even after spitting out everything I swallowed? Like a stone being thrown on the surface of a lake, ripples kept forming in my heart. Following the thrown stone, my will was also gradually sinking. I didn’t know how long I could endure. I felt like it was getting harder and harder to hold on.

* * *

“What’s the matter?”

Lapis glared at the person sitting in front of him with a sulky face. A woman with flawless white skin and a voluptuous figure that any man would drool over gave him an enchanting smile. From the woman’s head to below her waist, long, abundant red hair flowed like a flamboyant flame. She was Ikana, the head of the Cliff Merchant Guild, known to captivate people with just her eyes.

Of course, Lapis, who knew the woman’s true identity, didn’t react at all to her seductive gestures. He only gave her a cold look, thinking, ‘What a disgrace for someone her age.’

“You’re trying too hard. Do you feel good about seducing innocent humans while half-naked like that?”

“Shut up. This is just the setting for this game, okay?”

“A perverted head is a setting?”

“No! The sexiest and most alluring woman head in the world!”

Ikana—Ifrit—retorted, flustered, at the face that asked why she had such a strange setting. Thanks to that, the seductive smile she had been wearing like a mask disappeared, and Lapis nodded with a look of relief.

“Let’s go back to normal, since we all know each other. I’m not in the mood to play along with your ridiculous game. Besides, it’s going to be hard to pull off that setting in that state, don’t you think?”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“You have no maturity at all. What’s the point of putting so much effort into making your chest so prominent? You’re just a fledgling virgin who’s barely shed her childishness. If you’re going to do it perfectly, raise the age range as well.”

“Changing the age takes a lot of energy to maintain! And you’re the only one who thinks that way! Do you know how much the men here blush when they see me?”

“Ah, about that. I looked into it a bit, and it seems like the humans in this empire have very low standards.”

“……You’re really annoying.”

“I’ll return that sentiment exactly.”

Ifrit bit her lip at the words that didn’t give an inch. The emotion that she found him annoying was openly revealed in her fiercely distorted expression. Lapis also glared at Ifrit with the same emotion.

It was the same with the previous Ifrit, but he really didn’t get along with the Fire Spirit King. It wasn’t a matter of energy, but an emotional one. An excessively flamboyant appearance, and an unrestrained, arrogant, and dignified personality were characteristics that generally appeared in those with the fire attribute. Because the Red Dragon was the one who inherited that attribute the strongest, Ifrit’s appearance, which was fire itself, felt like looking in a mirror.

Usually, one would feel affection for a being similar to oneself, but Lapis felt displeasure instead. It was close to a kind of self-loathing. He thought that this Ifrit might have some cuteness because she was female, but no. He only added one more realization that gender didn’t matter in compatibility.

“So, why did you call me so suddenly?”

When she asked, nervously sweeping her hair back, Ifrit shrugged and picked up one of the scrolls nearby and threw it to him. Lapis, who carelessly caught it, furrowed his brow, demanding an explanation with his eyes.

“It’s a secret letter that arrived this morning. You know that the Emperor’s knights are coming here, right? They were entering disguised as mercenaries to escort our trade caravan, and I received word that they were almost here. But it seems like they’re stuck in front of the last gate since dawn.”

“What, were they caught?”

“They haven’t revealed their identity yet. It’s a situation where their status is being questioned, but.”

“Sounds like they were caught.”

“I’m telling you, it’s not like that!”

Why do they all talk back like that? Ifrit once again gritted her teeth, glaring at Lapis. Appearances don’t win over personality, it seems. Besides a uselessly handsome face, there was nothing about this man that she liked. She now understood exactly why the previous Elquines had refused to contract with him so many times. Just watching from the sidelines made her blood boil; if she had been directly contracted, she would have exploded. Perhaps because of that rejected memory, he seemed to value his current contract with El quite a bit. But she doubted how long that would last with his personality.

Still, she had to use him as long as she could. Ifrit calmed herself, recalling her initial purpose.

“There’s nothing wrong with the disguise. It’s just that our caravan’s situation isn’t very good these days. You know that there are bastards who are persistently harassing us, right? It seems like this is one of those kinds.”

“Hmph, the Demon Worshippers?”

Lapis replied with a nonchalant face, skimming the contents of the scroll. The lengthy paper was densely filled with the current situation of the knights, written in elaborate vocabulary. They were using imitation mercenary badges made for disguise, and it seemed that was the problem.

Formal registration with the mercenary guild started with bronze badges; other applicants or temporary workers were issued wooden badges. Wooden badges didn’t require identity verification and were issued to anyone, so they were easy to obtain and easy to counterfeit. The imitations used by the Emperor’s knights were also made of wood.

As there were many loopholes, the wooden badge itself wasn’t very useful. In order to prove one’s identity, it was the rule to either possess another identification badge or have a formally registered mercenary accompany them to vouch for them. Looking at this alone, it was natural that they were caught at the checkpoint. However, in reality, this regulation wasn’t perfectly observed. Once an employment contract was completed, even if only the employer’s identity was confirmed, it was usually accepted to some extent.

In fact, being managed by the guild was cumbersome and involved a lot of taxes, so many lower-ranked mercenaries deliberately didn’t belong to the guild. The same was true for those hiring mercenaries, who sometimes preferred mercenaries with wooden badges over formal mercenaries. Therefore, mercenary groups consisting only of wooden badges were rare, but not nonexistent.

Given this reality, it was very rare for the soldiers at the gate to take issue with that part. Since the Cliff Merchant Guild’s identity verification wouldn’t be insufficient, it was an obvious act of picking a fight to anyone who saw it.

“Usually, if we appease them appropriately, they would harass us a little and then let us go, but this time, they must have received some kind of instruction because the situation isn’t very good. They seem determined to drag them all the way to the underground prison. Since they’re only questioning the ‘mercenary group’s’ identity, the caravan can’t intervene any further. They’re probably planning to damage our reputation this way. If the perception that we’re a caravan that can’t guarantee identities spreads, no mercenary group will want to contract with us.”

“So?”

“You’ve heard the whole situation, right? If they’re imprisoned, they won’t be able to get out for at least a month and will be completely trapped. The probability of the knights’ identities being revealed also becomes very high. I need you to go and resolve it.”

“Why me?”

Ifrit’s eyes turned fierce at the crooked reply. Of course, Lapis didn’t back down and met her gaze.

“What I was asked to do was to protect a woman who is Isana’s cousin. I have no intention of taking on anything else.”

“This is an extension of that matter. The Emperor’s knights are the people who will be helping April in the future. The crisis they face is the same as your young lady’s crisis.”

“Who is my young lady? Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I don’t know you’re trying to pass all the troublesome things onto me?”

Lapis twisted his lips and sneered, and Ifrit’s eyes wavered. But soon, as if nothing had happened, she returned to Ikana’s appearance and smiled brightly.

“Oh my, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. But El will be a little disappointed if he finds out about this.”

“What?”

“Well, you know. He went to all the trouble to get the Demon Sword and came back, but how disheartened would he be if the situation here was a mess? It would be much easier to proceed with things after returning if the princess had laid the groundwork. He’ll be really disappointed. Right?”

“……”

“It would be good if he took this opportunity to realize that he shouldn’t trust just anyone with work. Well, even if El is naive, he wouldn’t easily let this go. Now that things have come to this, he might as well reconsider the contract.”

Damn it!

In the end, Lapis headed towards the gate some time later, grinding his teeth. The only weakness he had, to whom there was nothing to fear in the world, was his contract with the Water Spirit King. Even though he recognized that there was nothing he could do about it now, he had never been as annoyed by that fact as he was today.

“I’ll never listen to such a request again.”

He shouldn’t have agreed to the request to stay in the first place. If he had known that these troublesome things would be passed on to him, he would never have accepted it, no matter how desperately they requested. He was already displeased that he had been neglected for several months, and what was he even doing that he was draining all his mana to the point of vomiting blood? When he complained about that fact, he was even scolded for being insensitive. From his perspective, it was a deal full of losses.

“Did you say to solve it on my own? Good, I’ll make you shudder at the consequences.”

His red eyes burned with revenge. He didn’t know what kind of guys the Emperor’s knights were, but he intended to make them pay dearly for bothering him.