Chapter 71 :

Chapter 71 - Unlucky

This damned underground passage.

Gude cursed under his breath once before setting foot on the stairs that had started again, then patted his waist.

Up and down, then up again.

“Why is it so complicated!”

Gude shouted as though he did not understand the meaning of the words secret passage, then once again adjusted the bottle he held in his arms.

His legs were far too short and plump to walk through this long, long underground passage.

Even while struggling, he refused to entrust the item in his arms to anyone else, sweating profusely as he waved the candlestick here and there to light his narrow field of vision.

“Huff, huff, we’re almost there now. Right?”

When he spotted the outline of a large pillar ahead, where the faint light stretched out, he urged his subordinates on in excitement.

“Yes, Lord Gude. Once we turn right up ahead, the stairs will come out!”

Joy was mixed into the voice of the man who had been forced to listen to all of Gude’s irritation beside him.

But no one looked as glad as the man following at the very back of the group while carrying the jar filled with holy water.

The man whom Gude had specifically chosen to carry the large jar full of blue liquid lifted the corners of his mouth at the thought that this exhausting ordeal would finally be over, even forgetting the fact that they were fleeing after being chased by intruders.

But by the time he reached the pillar, his face turned ashen again.

Because what spread out before them was a dense staircase with no end in sight.

“The door leading outside is at the end, Lord Gude.”

At the words that reminded him of a truth that infuriated him even though he already knew it, Gude furrowed his brow and stepped forward.

One step, then another.

The farther he moved forward, the more his knees and thighs throbbed, and sweat poured down like rain, but he could not stop.

One step.

At last, when Gude reached the right corner, he rummaged through his pocket with a noisy jingling sound.

It was at that moment.

The candlelight flickered, and Gude’s shadow distorted.

“Ugh!”

Clang!

Following the death cry of the man carrying the jar at the very back, the sharp sound of glass breaking rang out.

The moment he realized that only two candles remained for them now, the flustered Gude shouted.

“What is it? What happened!”

But that was as far as they got.

Before the remaining five men could even draw their swords, foul smoke was rising from beneath their feet.

* * *

“Huff, huff, we’re almost there now. Right?”

“Yes, Lord Gude. Once we turn right up ahead, the stairs will come out!”

At the administrator’s breathless voice coming from ahead, Seya looked back.

“I guess we really are almost there now.”

Even though he knew she could not see him, Mir nodded at Seya’s words.

Small sighs of relief burst out behind the child.

To avoid being discovered while following them, the children had walked while relying only on the small candles of the men ahead and on Seya.

Walking through the darkness while under the tension of having to make no sound was far too exhausting for the children.

“That bastard whined so damn much that I thought there was still a lot left.”

Seya, who stood at the front, spoke while tapping her shoulders, as if she was glad to finally be freed from that whining voice.

“Now all that’s left is to run?”

Perhaps he had heard Seya’s mutter, because Nihil’s voice trembled uneasily from somewhere around the middle.

“Yeah, so we need to untie this now too.”

Seya shook the rope tied around her waist.

Nihil felt the vibration at his waist and gripped the rope tightly.

This rope connecting them to one another was something the young duke had thought of.

It was because, if they relied only on Seya’s footsteps in the darkness, they might become separated from one another.

Thanks to that, the slower children had made it this far without falling behind, but to the faster children, it was an annoying shackle.

For Nihil, who belonged on the slower side, it was only natural that he felt reluctant to untie it.

“Can’t we just keep it on? We can run while wearing it.”

“Of course not. Running and walking are different. If something goes wrong, we’ll all fall together.”

Nihil, who had benefited greatly from the rope, asked hesitantly as he untied it, but Mir’s answer was sharp.

Because there was nothing wrong with what he said, the children who had benefited from the rope, including Nihil, groaned and had no choice but to finish untying it.

“Don’t worry too much. We’ll all be able to escape. We’ve already done something similar once.”

The young duke, who was standing third from the front, spoke in the darkness as though encouraging them.

“That’s true, but.......”

“If you fall, no one’s going to help you, so just run like your life depends on it. I’m throwing it now.”

Nihil, who had been muttering without confidence, glared at Seya, who had once again cut off his words.

In truth, he could not see anything because it was dark all around, but the same applied to the other side, so he could glare to his heart’s content.

“Three, two.......”

As if she had no intention of giving them time to prepare themselves, Seya tapped the floor and began counting.

Right, this was the kind of people they were.

Nihil bit his lip at the extraordinary nerve of Mir and Seya, which he was realizing all over again.

“One!”

Without the slightest hesitation, Seya leapt forward.

Her target was the man carrying the candlestick in front of the man holding the water bottle.

“Uwaah!”

At Seya’s charge, the man who had been struggling to carry the water bottle let out a pathetic sound and fell flat on his face.

Along with a crashing sound, blue liquid splashed everywhere.

Before the man could turn around at the commotion behind him, Seya snatched the candlestick from his hand.

Mir took the flame with a clean, efficient movement.

Everything went smoothly.

Unable to adjust to the sudden darkness, Gude’s plump hand fumbled through the air.

Even though he had immediately dropped the key, he showed an unpleasant level of obsession by never letting go of the bottle carefully held inside his clothes with his other arm.

Smack!

But then he collided with Nihil, who came running next, and even the bottle he had been holding so dearly ended up falling.

From far away came the light crack of a thin bottle breaking.

“Nooooo!”

His scream, thick with nausea, echoed through the stairs.

Regardless of that, Seya quickly picked up the key rolling near his feet and shouted.

“Run!”

At the young child’s voice, the men looked around in panic, but robbed of their sight and their stomachs, they merely flailed through the air and could not put up any real resistance.

Mir ran in the direction where he had heard Seya’s voice leading the way.

The darkness was thick, but because there was a risk of being caught by the men, they did not have even a single spark of fire with them.

They had no choice but to run while relying on one another’s footsteps.

Judging by the sounds of the men retching behind them, the plan seemed to have succeeded perfectly.

To avoid losing Seya, who was running ahead, Mir ran and ran again.

Not long after, she heard the sound of something striking with a thud ahead, followed by a metallic clicking sound.

It had to be the sound of Seya, who had arrived first, opening the door with the key.

The thrill of success ran through her head.

It would have been even better if not for the ominous sound coming from behind her.

Thud.

“U-uaah.......”

As always, ominous premonitions were never wrong, and the small sobbing that followed proved that what he had heard just now was not simply a mistake.

It was probably one of the ones who had fallen behind.

It was unfortunate for the one who had fallen, but they had to keep going.

From the very beginning, they had not expected everyone to escape.

Saving strangers one did not even know was an option one could only choose in a situation where at least one’s own life was guaranteed.

Herself and the few precious friends she had on the street.

That was Seya and Mir’s small world.

A small but overwhelming world that they, who had nothing, had barely managed to gather into their arms.

Mir squeezed her eyes shut as she listened to the sound of footsteps gradually slowing right in front of her.

But it seemed that, before she knew it, Mir’s closest friend was thinking of taking one step outside into a slightly larger world.

“Mir.”

Because Seya, who had stopped at some point, called Mir in a low voice.

“Just go.”

“Mir.”

“They’re strangers anyway. You said it yourself. If anyone falls, we leave them behind.”

“I heard one set of footsteps moving away.”

As if to calm Mir, who was speaking breathlessly, Seya whispered.

“It’s obvious who it is.”

Yes, it was obvious.

There was only one face that came to mind, and Mir bit her lip.

She had realized it from the moment that unlucky face smiled without getting angry.

No, perhaps she had noticed it from the moment they first met.

That immature young master would bring a huge ripple into their small world.

If it was Seya, she would willingly leap into it.

And if she did, she would have no choice but to follow after her friend once again.

“Take this and go. I’ll come a little later.”

Feeling around for Mir’s unresponsive hand, Seya placed the key she had taken from Gude into her palm.

After squeezing Mir’s hand once, the child ran back the way they had come.

By now, the flash bomb had almost died out too, and Seya ran into the faint light.

Perhaps she was colliding with the children running toward the entrance, because the sound of footsteps broke off here and there.

But she did not come back.

Mir blankly stared in the direction where the sound of footsteps was moving away.

“Ah! Has that one lost her mind? Where is she going? What? Why are you here too?”

After bumping shoulders with Seya, Nihil also bumped into Mir, who was standing still, and asked irritably.

Mir looked at Nihil once, then quietly took Nihil’s hand.

“What is it? Why are you holding my hand like a creep? Huh?”

Nihil, who had been about to shake off Mir’s touch, stopped moving when he felt the slightly lukewarm, damp key in his hand.

“If you go straight this way, there’s a door. Once you get out, take care of the rest with this.”

After placing the round object in Nihil’s hand, Mir let herself be swallowed by the deep darkness.

* * *

“You damned brats! Uegh!! I’ll kill you all! If I catch you, I’ll kill every last one of you!”

Perhaps the effects of the vomit-inducing bomb were still lingering, because Gude kept retching as he shouted.

Even though more of the people had recovered to some extent, now that all the candles that had barely lit the way had gone out, they probably could not move easily.

“What are you people doing! Catch them all and kill them!”

Since his body would not move as he wanted, he began repeatedly ordering the subordinates around him to kill them.

But there was no way his subordinates possessed stomachs strong enough to withstand that intense nausea either.

Still, they’ll come to their senses soon.

The young duke thought so as he carefully moved his feet to avoid making any sound.

“I-I’m sorry.”

The child on his back whispered in a voice full of tears.

“It’s all right. You’re not as heavy as I expected.”

Considering that the young duke’s back was soaked with sweat despite saying that, the child quietly clutched the boy’s clothes.

What weighed more heavily on the young duke’s heart than the weight of the child, who was nothing but skin and bones, was the fact that even that slightly hoarse voice was growing quieter and quieter, and that the blood flowing from the child’s foot was soaking his leg.

The child, who had been especially thin among them, had failed to run properly in the darkness and eventually fallen down the stairs.

If he had not chased after and caught the child midway, they would have rolled all the way to the bottom of the stairs.

The young duke frowned as he imagined the terrible situation that had not happened.

Perhaps luck had not been on the child’s side either, because they said they had injured their leg on a shard of a broken bottle while falling.

Unable to tell whether the bleeding continued because the child was unhealthy, or because the wound was deep and would not stop bleeding, Plin grew anxious.

It seemed he needed to get out quickly and have the child treated.

He wanted to climb up before all those men came fully to their senses, but the problem was that while going down after the child, their positions had become reversed with the men’s.

‘Should I just force my way up?’

A reckless plan appeared in his mind, then deflated with a hiss.

It was far too risky to charge through those men, whose eyes were wide open, while carrying a child on his back.

“Ah. You were here too.”

The young duke, who had been catching his breath with a frown, smiled faintly at the sound of his small friend from inside his arms.

“Yes? I’ve been here since earlier.”

Perhaps the young duke, who had suddenly started talking to himself, seemed so exhausted that he had lost his mind, because a voice full of fear came from behind him.

Come to think of it, the children here did not seem to talk to animals much.

And one gluttonous certain someone had even started drooling right away.

Remembering the face that had repeatedly made excuses about how the squirrel looked cool, the young duke held back his laughter for a moment.

“Mm, anyway, I think you should go first now.”

The young duke spoke to the small beast he could not see in the darkness.

This clever creature had undoubtedly understood the young duke’s words.

Because the warmth that had stayed still for a moment vanished in an instant, and a chill larger than the vanished volume lingered in its place.

He felt a little lonely, but thinking that it was better than being in danger together, the young duke took a step forward.

That was when it happened.

Smack!

From above, where Gude and the men were, came a blow that was by no means quiet.

“Aaagh! What is it!”

Along with the sudden scream, the young duke felt something heavy roll down from above.

Only after an adult figure brushed past the young duke did he realize that what had come rolling down was one of that group.

“Damn it, it’s this way! He pushed me from this side!”

“They said it’s that way, you idiots! Hurry up and catch him!”

The voices of the men scattered throughout the area were gathering toward the far left.

For the young duke, there would be no better chance.

Taking advantage of the commotion, he ran with all his might.

“No, no! It wasn’t me, it was him!”

“Aaagh! This is my arm!”

Leaving behind the sounds of them grabbing one another’s arms and legs in the darkness and fighting, the young duke ran.

Skitter.

He nearly stumbled slightly at the feeling of something climbing up his leg.

A familiar warmth settled on his shoulder, and a soft tail brushed his cheek.

“Darami, is that you?”

At the delighted voice, the small animal on his shoulder seemed to stiffen slightly, but since it usually reacted this way whenever its name was called, the young duke was able to smile.

“You didn’t go. You’re the bravest squirrel I know.”

“Chik.”

The little friend gave a short answer, then looked down at the men below the stairs from the shoulder of his slightly less little friend.

Its eyes seemed as though they could see through everything even in the darkness.

* * *

Only after the shouts of the men grew distant could Plin stop his legs, which felt as if the muscles were about to burst.

“Are you all right?”

This time, unable to answer simply that he was fine and brush it off, the young duke slumped down onto the stairs.

No matter how much they were nothing but bones, that was not a weight he could carry while running.

Sweat poured down like rain.

“Can you go alone? It should only be a little farther now.”

The young duke thought they had probably passed about half of it.

“Th-then, what about you, young master?”

“I’ll rest just a little and then go. Don’t worry.”

“Just a little?”

The child feared that the little while the young duke spoke of might become forever.

“Th-then don’t do that. Let’s go together. This time, I’ll try carrying you.”

Perhaps the child was not merely saying it, because they put their hands under the young duke’s armpits and tried to lift him.

But with the small child’s strength, he was neither lifted nor even dragged.

At this rate, they’ll only bleed more.

Thinking that all their efforts so far might end up for nothing, the young duke carefully removed the small hands.

“I really am fine. Go first. In any case, even if I’m caught, they won’t be able to kill me right away.”

Thinking that way made him feel a little more at ease.

‘Right, if I gave the name of the Feedus family, I thought I would be able to buy at least a little time.’

Once his heart relaxed, exhaustion rushed in all at once.

“Still, if you make it outside, go to the Feedus estate and bring people.”

The moment the young duke, who had finished speaking in broken intervals, closed his fading eyes, hands suddenly slipped back under his armpits.

With a rough strength that could not even be compared to a moment ago.

The powerful force that made his eyelids open on their own lifted the young duke upward this time.

No, could someone suddenly become this strong after resting for just a moment?

“Are you finished playing at unlucky last words?”

As the young duke was having a foolish thought that did not suit him with his clouded judgment, politely rude words settled above his head.

“Oops. By ‘unlucky’, he meant ‘ill-omened’, young master. Mir sometimes gets his words a little mixed up.”

Seya’s absurd defense came as a bonus.