I frowned and turned to look at him.
"Don't tell me you can't read the ancient script?"
"..."
"It's written right here. 'Bring a bone stained with the blood of a pure maiden.' If you place it here, the door will open."
A pure maiden, really.
What ridiculous nonsense. But in any case, that was exactly what was carved into the door.
Among Leonard's companions was someone from a devout priestly family.
Thanks to him, they had immediately understood what the inscription demanded.
When I picked up those stones, everyone looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
Still, because I had brought several stones with me in advance, they were able to open the door and go down to the next floor without having to retrace their steps.
They had used a stone smeared with my blood to open the door, and then abandoned me.
"So let go of me, already."
"..."
With a reluctant expression, Isael released my wrist.
"Then that stone is...?"
"You saw the statue we passed on the way here, the one weeping blood? It's pebbles scattered beneath it."
"You thought to gather those in advance."
"I knew we'd need them to open the door."
When I replied without hesitation, he clicked his tongue and asked, "Are you saying you figured that out with your clairvoyant ability, too?"
"Of course. I knew it from the upper floor."
"..."
"Anyway, if we place this here, the door will open."
Ignoring Isael's suspicious look, I set the bloodstained stone in front of the door.
Moments later, the door that had been sealed shut swung open as if it had never been locked at all.
Once we stepped through, the door closed behind us and vanished.
What lay before us was a staircase stretching endlessly downward.
Without a word, Isael and I began to descend.
The stairs seemed to go on forever, as if there would never be an end.
But the moment when one would step onto the final step would surely come.
Both Isael and I knew that well from experience.
After walking for a long time in silence, we finally reached the fourth underground floor.
At the foot of the stairs spread only emptiness.
A vast open space filled with nothing but smoke.
The haze was so dense that it was impossible to judge how wide the floor really was.
"…So it's true," Isael said.
"There really is nothing here."
Muttering as if he couldn't believe it, he soon turned to look at me with a peculiar expression.
"Well? Wasn't I right?"
"..."
"This place is like a resting floor, so to speak. All we have to do is endure until the door to the next floor opens."
"Endure…against what?"
"Against whatever tries to keep us from enduring."
With that, I once again scanned our surroundings.
We needed to find a suitable spot.
There was still a chance Leonard and his companions hadn't made it out of this floor yet.
I still need more time before I can fully wield the fruit's power.
Until the door to the fifth floor appeared, I had to make use of every moment.
"First, we need to find a dead end. That's where we should settle."
I grabbed Isael's forearm as he walked ahead.
I felt his body jolt in surprise under my hand.
"W-what? Why so suddenly?"
"Uh… Sorry. Did I startle you?"
"..."
"Sorry. But bear with it for now, even if you don't like it. It'll be a problem if you get separated from me."
This place was filled with such thick smoke that even a little distance apart could mean losing each other completely.
Of course, it also meant it was a convenient place to hide from unwanted company.
Either way, holding onto Isael, I reached forward with my other hand, groping through the air as we walked.
Soon enough, my hand brushed against a wall. A dead end.
There was no telling when or where the door would open, and with the entire floor shrouded in smoke, finding it would be no simple task.
But if I could use my ability properly, that problem would be easy to solve.
Strange… He hasn't once complained about me not treating him like royalty.
If it were me, I would have brought it up long ago.
After all, he was a prince.
Yet Isael didn't seem to mind that I'd been speaking casually to him and treating him informally from the very beginning.
Well, in a place where you never knew when you might die, worrying about status and treating each other by rank was about as meaningless as it could get.
"Hold on. Just stand right here and wait."
I gave Isael a firm warning.
Then I took out the flower he had pulled out by the roots from the cliff and handed to me earlier.
"That flower, why are you…"
"I'm going to plant it here."
I crouched down and pressed the flower into the dirt floor.
Isael, who had been quietly watching me, soon plopped down beside me.
With his arms resting on his knees and his head tilted, the way he looked at me was the very picture of laziness.
"…Suspicious."
"Huh?"
"You're suspicious. No matter how I look at it."
He tossed the words out, his gaze fixed on me, filled with suspicion.
I kept finding my eyes drifting toward the sword at his waist.
A thought flashed through my mind.
But before I got to that, I needed to ease his suspicions first.
"What exactly seems suspicious?"
"It's not just that you claim to have clairvoyance ability. Your attitude, the way you carry yourself, it's too composed. Too calm."
"..."
"It's like you can see right through this entire place."
…A sharp suspicion indeed.
Well, I had pushed it by making him do the item farming for me, hadn't I?
But what could I do? I was injured at the time.
"The truth is, I have another ability, something even greater than clairvoyance."
"And what ability is that?"
"Insight."
"..."
"It's innate."
Isael looked at me, speechless.
I avoided his gaze and changed the subject.
"But I've been wondering, that's a sword, right? Did you pick it up in the tower?"
"Found it on the second floor."
"Can I see it?"
Isael stared at me for a moment, then apparently decided there was no harm in showing it. He drew the sword from its sheath.
The exposed blade was chipped in several places.
But I recognized it instantly.
I had suspected, but...
That's the Holy Sword.
The Holy Sword, Exolid.
I'd wondered why it was missing, no matter how hard I searched.
Turns out Isael had gotten to it first.
That was why I couldn't find it on the second floor.
I didn't know how it ended up in Isael's hands, but it was originally supposed to belong to Leonard, the protagonist of this world.
Should I call it fortunate?
In any case, because Isael had taken it, I didn't end up finding it and foolishly handed it over to Leonard.
At least I didn't get relegated to the role of the abandoned extra who armed the hero with the Holy Sword.
"…It's still usable, despite appearances."
Apparently interpreting my fixed gaze at the sword, Isael muttered that as he slid the sword back into its sheath.
How do I awaken him so that he can become the true master of the Holy Sword?
Since he'd seized the protagonist's blade for himself, maybe helping him become its rightful wielder wouldn't be such a bad idea.
I was sinking into that new dilemma when suddenly my vision went completely black.
It's starting.
In a casual tone, I explained to Isael, "Don't be too afraid. Just wait it out and it'll pass."
"…Do you know what this is?"
"It's just… the void."
"The void?"
"Yeah. Darkness and silence. This will repeat over and over."
The trial of the fourth underground floor was, in a sense, simple.
In a space where nothing existed, in the darkness, in the silence—
All you had to do was endure the passing of time.
But making it through that trial was not as easy as it sounded.
When you're forced to withstand endless stretches of empty time, it's only natural that anyone without exceptional mental strength would gradually lose their mind.
Because it would feel as if the repetition of this time would never end.
Because you couldn't shake the thought that there was no way out.
And sometimes, you even get dragged into hallucinations.
But the flower I had just planted could nullify the demon's power that governed this trial.
Which meant we didn't have to worry about being swallowed by hallucinations.
Hmm…
I asked Isael, just in case.
"If you're scared, want me to hold your hand?"
"Ha… No need."
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