Chapter 72 Falling
"It's finally over.. Now that those two are finally gone, I can regain my honor. I will tell Lord Reynolds that Felicia and Allen were pushed into the pit when fighting the orcs."
When Reynolds asked him to be the overseer, Wulfgeat finally felt relieved of all his frustration because he, who shouldn't be able to touch the earl's daughter, finally got an excellent opportunity. To prepare for his murder of Felicia and Allen, he purposefully told them to assemble at the guild, then deliberately arrived late.
Luckily, just as he was about to make a plan, someone with a dark red robe came up to him and gave him a tool to control the orcs. Although the tool could only be used once, Wulfgeat made good use of it, he put 38 orcs into the room. But he didn't expect that the orcs would resort to cannibalism when they didn't receive demonic mana.
"Lavinia! Wake up! Hey Priestess!" shouted Wulfgeat to the unconscious Lavinia.
Lavinia woke up, and she immediately sat up and looked around.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" she shouted suddenly.
"A serious problem has happened!"
"What's wrong, sir? What the hell is going on? Where are Lady Felicia and Allen?"
"Calm..."
Wulfgeat told Lavinia what really happened. He told her about Felicia healing Lavinia's wounds while she was being swarmed by orcs and about Allen killing the orcs. After piling up all the truth, he gave a little spice of a lie at the end, which was...
"After that, Lady Felicia felt faint and walked toward the pit before falling into it helplessly because she had been made to kill the orcs. Allen dove into the pit to save her. I have tried to reach them, but I can't.. I can't any longer see their figure inside that hole."
"OH MY! We must immediately report to the guild and organize a rescue team! Since the one who fell was Lady Felicia, surely the earl will give orders to the guild to rescue his daughter!"
"I don't know; I have my doubts about that."
"What do you mean?"
"Lord Reynolds might not love his daughter, he always felt that Lady Felicia was a burden."
"Sir, what are you talking about?! That's impossible! There's no way a father would let his daughter die!"
"Maybe not, but do you think they could survive after falling six or seven floor? And maybe down to the tenth floor. Then, if they survived the fall and could reach the sixth floor, do you think they could survive on the sixth floor?! There's no way those two little kids could survive.
I've known Mr. Reynold for almost three years; even if he loved his daughter, he wouldn't waste his money looking for something that is most likely dead or maybe doesn't exist anymore."
Lavinia then immediately approached the hole, and she saw the crimson bird flying around the hole. She didn't want to believe what Wulfgeat said, but everything he said made perfect sense.historical
'Allen is strong, but his strength won't be enough to defeat the monsters on the 6th floor. Then, when they fall, there's no way the crimson bird will just let them fall,' Lavinia thought doubtfully.
But she didn't want to give up.
'There must be a way...'
Lavinia ran outside.
"Where are you going?!" shouted Wulfgeat.
"I'm going to search for help!"
"It's futile!"
"Even so, I need to save them! I have an idea!"
"What are you doing this for? Why did you want to save them? Why did you want to save that peasant child?! When he's trying to kill you?!"
Lavinia immediately stopped and looked back.
"What do you mean?"
"You don't know Lady Felicia, and I don't know about your relationship with that black-haired peasant, but it doesn't seem like a good thing..." Wulfgeat said as he approached Lavinia.
'This guy, why is he acting so casual when the earl's daughter just died under his responsibility?'
"Allen... I heard him when he was talking to Lady Felicia.
He was fine from the beginning. He didn't get hurt, but he didn't save you; he just hid when those orcs came out to attack you.
And Lady Felicia said he deliberately waited for you to die first, then he appeared and saved Lady Felicia, but because Lady Felicia healed you, both of you could be saved."
"Did Allen really say that?"
"No, he didn't. That's just Lady's assumption, but do you think it's wrong from the circumstances?"
Lavinia pondered; she recalled Allen's tearful face when looking at her inside Barkaley's dungeon, begging for help to cure his mother. And actually, Lavinia could have tried to use her god's blessing to heal Queen Orc, but she turned away from Allen's face when he asked for her help, because she also wanted Queen Orc to die.
Then, when she saw Allen for the second time, Lavinia was sure that Allen really hated her. And his hatred must have been so great that he wanted to let Lavinia die.
Lavinia then clenched her fists.
Her decision not to heal Queen Orc was not wrong. But strangely, she felt guilty for not being able to help Allen that day because when she saw Allen's crying face, her hatred for Queen Orc instantly disappeared. But even though it was gone, she still didn't want to cure Queen Orc.
Lavinia looked straight at Wulfgeat, then said
"Even so, I will try to save them. As long as there is hope, I will save them. I am a priestess... And a priestess's job is to save people."
Lavinia turned around and walked out of the room.
Wulfgeat, who was left there, began to feel annoyed; he felt a sense of defeat for failing to make Lavinia desperate.
"Tch. What a crazy priestess. I meant to make her desperate to lower the child's chances of surviving. But whatever she did would have been pointless. Let it go."
Seeing Lavinia's face, which looked so confident, made Wulfgeat a little doubt they died. So he tried to convince himself that there was no way Allen and Felicia could survive there.
...
As Allen was thrown into the pit with Felicia, Allen cursed to himself how careless he was to let humans touch him.
"If this keeps up, I'll die!" thought Allen.
His body was still immobilized due to the Wulfgeat god's blessing, which made him unable to move for one day.
Meanwhile, below Allen, he felt the killing lust of the monsters. He saw two large birds flying below him. Allen remembered that Lavinia called the birds crimson bird.
This crimson bird is black and red; its body looks like a rock filled with lava, which slightly glows around it. It has four wings that resemble a combination of chicken and pterosaur wings. While its head has the texture of lava rock and the shape of a chicken's head, it has a long beak that extends up to a quarter of its body. Its body size is probably around 10 meters, with a beak of 3 meters.
"It's going to eat us! I have to do something!
Shit! Did Reig also get affected by that guy's mana too?!"
The Crimson Bird then stopped flying, hanging on the hole's walls while opening its beak to catch its prey.
Allen closed his eyes, trying to concentrate fully on his mana, then imagined the other mana inside him being contradicted.
"I have to throw away that guy's mana."
Slowly, the demonic mana inside Allen began to adjust Allen's divine mana that Wulfgeat's mana had contaminated. The two mana conflict within his body, making Wulfgeat's mana disappear from his body.
Then..
Allen, who should be paralyzed for one day...
was healed in less than a minute.
"Finally! I can move my body a little!
REIG!" shouted Allen to Reig.
Reig immediately picked up Felicia's fallen body and tied her. After that, it pulled Felicia's body into Allen's arms.
Allen then prepared to use the crimson bird's body for landing.
Considering the point of fall, Allen was able to fall on the left side of the beak, which helped him gain a foothold. Of course, Allen didn't intend to stand there. He was using that to fix his position. And then, he tied his scarf to the crimson bird's beak.
"Ghaa!"
Allen's ties to the beak made the crimson bird's beak close. Because Allen hung on its beak, Allen's and Felicia's weight caused the crimson bird's high drop.
Keeping its balance, the crimson bird flew while raising its beak upward.
The other crimson bird took this opportunity to eat Allen and Felicia. Still, when the bird was about to eat them, Allen immediately removed his scarf from the first crimson bird's beak and tied it to the crimson bird that was about to eat them. The crimson bird that was tied up flew back to where it had been, while the crimson bird that was tied up with Allen tried its best to get back up.
This gave the other crimson bird the perfect opportunity to devour Felicia and Allen. Nevertheless, as the bird prepared to eat them, Allen immediately untied his scarf from the first bird and fastened it to the other crimson bird about to eat them. The tied-up crimson bird flew back to its original location as fast as it could, while the red bird that got tied made every effort to get back up, as it was scared of something below.
"What's wrong? Why are they so desperate? When I have shown no desire for killing them?"
They continued to descend and drop until everything became dark. There were no crystals below that illuminated the dungeon, and strangely, instead of getting tired, the crimson bird was even stronger trying to fly upwards.
Realizing its strength was not enough, the monster immediately hit its head against the wall to make Allen fall. As a result, Allen's bonds were untied, and the crimson bird flew quickly upwards.
"No! Reig! Tie it up one more time!"
Reig extended again, trying to reach the crimson bird's legs.
But it didn't reach...
The crimson bird had already flown very far up.
"AAAAAAAAA!!!"
As Allen thought he would die, he tried his best to stand, ending up just breaking his leg if they fell.
-SPLASH
As it turned out, Allen and Felicia fell into some pretty deep water. Since the fall wasn't too extreme, they could escape death.
Since they didn't fall from very high, they fell under 2 meters of water. Allen immediately opened his eyes and looked for Felicia in the darkness.
"blubblubblub" Allen tried to call Reig, but without hearing his voice, Reig immediately understood what he had to do.
Allen's scarf changed shape into a crystal that hugged his neck. And the crystal was glowing. Allen could see in the water as the crystal glowed...
Felicia, who had fainted...
And behind Felicia was a huge, eyeless fish face...
Looking at him with a smile.