Woooong!
At the top of the hill in Banaditsa fortress. The huge amethyst floating above the hexagonal inner castle continuously hums, emitting vast magical power.
The vast magical power emitted by the amethyst becomes a pale river of light like the Milky Way, flowing and splitting into five branches, seeping into the tops of the watchtowers built on the plain.
The five watchtowers, though broken here and there but still standing firmly, shone like lighthouses, brightly illuminating the ruins below.
Collapsed barracks. A cold blacksmith’s forge. A garden with leaves gone and frozen puddles.
A road dug up and bumpy, in complete disarray. Rusty weapons and armor fragments scattered on top of it.
It was a scene like a fortress abandoned and neglected for a thousand years right after a war.
“Wow… it’s somehow, really, pretty…? No, it’s magnificent…”
“It is.”
While it could be seen as a desolate sight in some ways, perhaps due to the dense magical light visible to the eye, it actually felt somewhat dreamlike.
A bit, what’s it called… atmospheric? Yes, it felt atmospheric. It did look magnificent, as Friede said.
Though thoughts might change once we set foot inside the fortress.
“But don’t let your guard down too much, I’ve heard the inside is quite dangerous, unlike its appearance.”
After looking over the view of Banaditsa and roughly arranging Friede’s hair, I sat down next to her to rest, drying our clothes in the cold wind.
Since we had just fought an intense battle with the undead in the water, both Friede and I were honestly a bit tired.
If we crawled into that place in this state, we might not be able to walk back out.
The empty ruins-like appearance was just the surface. This was clearly one of the hidden dungeons, after all.
“Ah, right. Miss Hilde, that arm! Give me your arm quickly, hurry.”
As we were resting like that, Friede suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to grab my left hand.
“Huh? Why suddenly the arm…”
“Why? You cut it with a dagger earlier, remember?”
Ah, that’s right.
I had half-forgotten about it, being busy with the fight, but now that I was reminded, my arm suddenly started stinging again.
“You suddenly cut your arm without saying anything… Do you know how startled I was?”
Friede grumbled in a tone half worried, half scolding, as she removed my gauntlet and rolled up my sleeve to check the wound on my arm.
A clear red knife mark on the pure white skin.
The wound itself wasn’t very deep, but perhaps because we had swum in river water, the blood hadn’t stopped and was still dripping.
“Look at this, what have you done to your pretty arm…”
Friede sighed while carefully caressing my arm, then rummaged through a small bag at her waist and pulled out a small potion bottle.
…That hurts more than expected.
Proper potions had anesthetics mixed in the drug itself to heal wounds without pain, but the cheap mass-produced ones flooding the market could hardly be expected to have such anesthetic effects.
As fugitives, those mass-produced ones were all we could get.
We had been using them for lack of better options, but honestly, I was quite reluctant each time, feeling like I was pouring sulfuric acid on the wound.
“Um, Friede? Isn’t it a bit wasteful to use a potion on a wound that would heal on its own…?”
So, with an awkward smile, I subtly expressed my refusal, saying there was no need to use a potion for such a wound.
“No way, if we leave it alone, it’ll scar!”
Of course, it didn’t work at all. Friede shook her head firmly like a wet dog and tightly grabbed my wrist.
It was the absolute truth, so I had no words to refute.
While it was a wound that would heal on its own if left alone, as Friede said, that would leave a clear scar where the wound healed.
…I guess there’s no choice. Judging by her attitude and expression, trying to excuse it by saying scars are like medals for knights probably wouldn’t work either.
“…Alright. Here.”
I closed my eyes slightly and obediently offered my arm. Friede, who had pulled the cork from the potion bottle with her teeth, poured the potion over my forearm.
Tssssss….
The red liquid covering the wound bubbled with small foam and released a stream of smoke. The split flesh writhed and contracted, sticking together to close the wound.
Ow, it stings…
I turned my head slightly so Friede couldn’t see and grimaced.
As expected, it really stung terribly. It felt like increasing the body’s sensitivity tenfold, then pouring salt, pepper, and vinegar all over the wound.
It was at a level I could endure if I tried, but it was still a sensation somewhat difficult to accept calmly.
Really, this is why you should always use genuine products.
Damn adventurers. They all carry around fakes because they’re cheap, so we who looted and used them also had to suffer the pain of fake potions.
* * *
After the treatment that made me feel like shouting that our base is north of the mountain, we rested until our stamina fully returned, chatting about various things.
More precisely, I kept talking, and Friede listened attentively, nodding her head constantly. Like a high school girl focusing intently in her favorite teacher’s class.
Well, come to think of it, it wasn’t much different.
The topics I brought up weren’t appreciation of the scenery or trivial small talk, but information and precautions about Banaditsa.
“Oh, so… it was a castle built by your ancestor, and just before it fell to the enemy, one of your ancestors sealed the entire castle…?”
“That’s roughly it.”
I nodded. A few important pieces of information were missing, but I had explained most of the key points.
As I was explaining the story I had read in the novel as if it were a legend passed down through generations in my family, I had to omit some information or use vague expressions.
“I was honestly half-skeptical, but seeing it directly like this… it’s a bit- no, very amazing. It’s exactly like the old stories my parents told me.”
“Um… Miss Hilde, I’m just asking in case, but… were you perhaps from a family like the royalty of a fallen country, or something like that…?”
Friede carefully asked back. With an expression asking if I might have been a princess from somewhere.
Well, it’s a natural reaction.
The fortress alone was three or four times larger than the lord’s castle of an ordinary noble family, and moreover, this place clearly looked more like an outpost than the family’s main castle.
In other words, it meant that the Eisenstein family at its peak possessed at least two castles of this scale.
Moreover, it even had the powerful forces to seal such a castle entirely and protect it from river water.
With that level of power in ancient times, they could have rightfully called themselves kings.
In fact, during the time when Banaditsa was intact, Eisenstein was one of the strongest powers of the era.
Though closer to a warlord organization than a dynastic state, they were so powerful that if they had called themselves a kingdom, everyone else would have acknowledged it.
The being who sealed herself in that amethyst to maintain Banaditsa was proof of that.
…Or should I say, witness?
The lord of Banaditsa, Valfreyja Eisenstein.
According to the novel’s setting, she was the knight commander and archmage of the old Eisenstein, said to have been a powerful figure with few equals in the past.
How strong was she for such a description to be attached? Well, to explain it simply…
Estimated level 90.
The guardian of Banaditsa sleeping in that amethyst was a monster that no demon folk except the Demon King could defeat one-on-one.
That’s why I earnestly warned Friede not to even think of approaching near the inner castle on the hill, because of that Valfreyja.
If a descendant of the Eisenstein line approached near the amethyst above the inner castle, Valfreyja would break out of the amethyst, thinking the time had finally come.
Then it would all be over.
Not just Friede and I, but even if we gathered all the hero parties from each country, at their current point, they would be annihilated with a single gesture.
You might think, since she’s my ancestor – no, Brunhilde’s ancestor – wouldn’t she be a helpful ally for me as a descendant?
Not a chance. She wasn’t that kind of benevolent being.
No, from the start, Eisenstein itself was a power far from goodness or justice.
The ones who attacked Banaditsa, who forced Valfreyja to choose sealing by drowning the entire castle, were none other than the humans of the past.
The hero of that era was probably among them too?
Since the Eisenstein at its peak was completely erased from records, it’s a story few know now.
Even that bastard Gunther only knows the Eisenstein family as traitors to the Kingdom of Rhine, clearly showing no knowledge of the history before that.
The Kingdom of Rhine probably didn’t know either.
So they must have embraced those bearing the name Eisenstein – descendants of the fallen old Eisenstein – as nobles of their country.
Even that ended when those descendants staged a rebellion and were crushed, so now they’ve probably been struck from the list of nobles.
It’s a bit ambiguous since the original novel was discontinued, but Brunhilde probably didn’t know about her family’s past either.
The reason she was obsessed with the hero’s party was to receive pardon for the traitor family label and revive the Eisenstein family.
She only knew up to the point of rebellion, but had no knowledge about the peak era, which could be called easily a thousand years earlier.
…Well, it wasn’t particularly something to worry about.
My goal wasn’t to revive the family, but to obtain a peaceful life and future, and my purpose in coming here wasn’t to meet Valfreyja.
I’m not crazy enough to wake up a level 90 boss mob.
My purpose wasn’t to defeat this dungeon’s boss and clear the dungeon itself, but to take what I needed and get out. Just as the possessed person in the original novel did.
“…Let’s get going. You remember everything I told you, right?”
“Yes, yes! I remember everything!”
I gently patted Friede’s head as she nodded, and stood up. Feeling renewed gratitude and relief that Friede’s true identity was ‘Friet’.
Her role was crucial to achieving our purpose here. More precisely, the role of the trait called <Battle Instinct> that she should possess.
Yes, I’ll trust only you, Friede.
So protect me well, my own hero.