The Guide Played Her Role as a Stand-in a Little Too Well - Chapter 54
After extricating myself from Hedonia’s embrace, I faced Shaelock.
She stared at me intently.
“You look so injured.”
Shaelock’s hand moved towards my cheek but then hesitated.
Following her gaze, I touched my cheek and only then realized the extent of my injuries.
“Ah, then I must have gotten it all over Lady Hedonia’s clothes.”
My eyes instinctively drifted to the clothes he had worn.
Seeing the tunic stained with blood, a sense of guilt washed over me.
“Is this really the time to worry me?”
Embarrassed or not, Hedonia averted his eyes and responded gruffly.
“Anyway, we need to find a way to call down that Blackbird, it’s up there somewhere.”
At Pheon’s words, I gazed up at the Blackbird, now just a black dot high in the sky.
“It seemed to like jewels.”
“We know that. But even by luring it with jewels, it doesn’t come down easily.”
“It’s not that it doesn’t come; it won’t come. It was sleeping in the cave.”
It seemed everyone was aware of its fondness for jewels.
“Do we have to wait until it comes down?”
“…No, I’m sick of being here. We need to get out fast.”
Hedonia shook his head.
“Besides, the air currents here are unusual.”
Hedonia looked around, taking in the surroundings.
The sky above the seemingly empty forest was now covered with a swarm of black birds taking flight.
Like baby birds seeking their mother.
And the tiny dots gradually increased in size.
Despite being the dungeon’s apparent ruler, their initial small size now made sense.
…They weren’t fully matured yet.
Even monsters, feeling threatened by us, were fighting with all their might.
‘They really should have dealt with it earlier.’
Naturally, this raised a question.
Apart from the Blackbird nearly reaching its demise, Esban and Pheon looked far too unscathed.
“So why didn’t you defeat it?”
Even to me, the Blackbird didn’t seem that challenging.
It could have been easily dealt with when it wasn’t fully matured, not to mention it didn’t possess tremendous attack power.
If both Espers and Shaelock’s Christopher had gone together, they could have easily taken it down.
Then we wouldn’t be suffering like this now.
…And I wouldn’t have been in danger of dying.
At my words, Esban blinked.
Seeming at a loss for words, he coughed awkwardly and averted his gaze.
He glanced at Pheon and continued to avoid my eyes.
“It seems that it is indeed the boss. It keeps getting bigger.”
“That’s right. We need to take it down quickly.”
Pheon quickly chimed in,
“You still haven’t answered.”
I stared intently at the two of them, determined not to move until I heard an answer.
That’s when Hedonia stepped forward.
“Let’s discuss this outside.”
“The bait might not work,” Shaelock added, taking Hedonia’s side.
It was the first time they seemed to be on the same page.
Hedonia glanced at me briefly before speaking.
“If we can’t lure it down…”
He pointed to the sky.
“Then we go up.”
Hedonia was asserting himself.
It wasn’t just confidence.
It was the ease of someone who already knew the answer.
“It’s impossible for us to reach that high with our own power.”
“We just need to get up there, though.”
“That’s true.”
Shaelock looked at Hedonia and asked,
“What’s the plan?”
“We use all our strength.”
His response was straightforward.
* * *
S-class Espers usually don’t need to think too hard.
They can win without it.
‘But to finish this quickly, we definitely need to use our brains…’
What we need is the explosive power in an instant.
“With the maximum explosive power I can generate…”
“You mean to add my power to it,”
Shaelock interjected. Beside her stood not Christopher, whom I had seen earlier, but a woman with long silver hair.
“I’ll create the best gust of wind I can muster.”
She spoke with an elegant voice.
“Then I will go up and slash it down in one stroke,”
Esban volunteered, as if he had been waiting for his moment.
“But what about coming down? How will you manage that?”
Even if we somehow get up there and defeat the Blackbird, the real challenge would be coming back down.
How could anyone survive a fall from such a height?
“I’ll catch him on the way down. To be precise, Rodite here will catch him.”
At Shaelock’s words, the woman beside her nodded.
“I’ll go inside for now, Shaelock.”
“Okay.”
As soon as Shaelock finished speaking, the woman named Rodite disappeared.
“…How long has it been since I fell asleep?”’
Seeing everyone looking more tired than expected naturally led to my question.
“At least a whole night has passed.”
Pheon responded and rubbed his eyes.
“I’m sick of this forest now.”
His calm voice seemed truly fed up.
It made sense that he’d be tired of the forest after searching through it to find me.
“Let’s move then,”
Shaelock decided.
Following Hedonia’s earlier suggestion, we began to move.
