At the bottom of a staircase that had seemed endless, we found an underground structure built from great blocks of stone.

HISS.

Just then, the torch Knight Hugo was carrying burned out. Darkness began to close in, but Hugo lit another torch. Where had he found it?

WHOOSH!

The passage brightened again.

“Where did you get that torch? And the one you had when we came down the stairs?” Adria asked.

“Majorca Fortress is an important Great War ruin on the ducal estate. The ducal house wouldn’t simply abandon it. No one stays here permanently, but we inspect and maintain it regularly. The torches are for those visits.”

Adria looked around with renewed interest. Her hurt and anger seemed to have eased somewhat. As long as we hadn’t simply abandoned her to die, she had no reason to stay angry. And seeing a Great War structure with so much still intact, rather than ruins reduced entirely to rubble, seemed to have lifted her spirits.

“Let’s keep moving. They’ll continue to pursue us,” Hugo said. The rest of us stopped looking around and set off again.

“What was this place used for?” Bianca asked.

“These are the underground facilities of Majorca Fortress. The old empire built the fortress at the height of its power, so the facilities down here are enormous. Much of it has collapsed, though, and it’s hard to find your way around. It’s not as bad as aboveground.”

As he said, there were places where collapsed walls blocked the passages. Much of the underground complex had fallen in, but far more of it remained intact than the ruins aboveground. Great stones formed the walls and floors. The only sounds were our footsteps and the distant drip of water. Beyond the torchlight, we couldn’t see an inch ahead.

‘An underground complex beneath a ruin from the Great War... Is this turning into a dungeon story?’

The absurd thought made me chuckle.

“Why are you laughing?” Adria asked, looking at my face. Oops. I must have laughed out loud.

“It’s nothing. More importantly, could you tell us what’s going on now?” Instead of answering her, I put a question to the other two.

“Oh, right. I want to hear too.” Adria agreed enthusiastically.

Fortunately, neither Bianca nor Hugo seemed inclined to put off the explanation.

“Lady Adria, you’re well aware that some nobles oppose young master Simon’s engagement.”

I hadn’t been aware.

“Yes. An envoy from a neighboring territory even came to protest. That’s why I came to the duke’s territory.”

“Yes. But simply staying away wasn’t enough...”

As I listened to the rest of the explanation, I realized I really had landed in the middle of something dangerous.

“So you received intelligence that someone meant to kill Lady Adria to prevent the two houses from joining forces. And you planned to use this attack to investigate who was behind it, identify your enemies, and put pressure on them?”

In other words, this was the result of a large-scale political struggle involving House Gresia, which backed the First Prince; House Hierro, which backed the Second Prince; and the noble faction besides.

I couldn’t help sighing. Affairs within the ducal house were difficult enough. Now I was caught up in the kingdom’s politics? At this rate, I might end up in a world war. Worse, their preparations hadn’t gone well.

“From the looks of things, the plan has failed.” Hugo and Bianca struggled to answer. “Well...”

“Because young master Simon got involved,” Adria said sullenly instead.

My condolences to Simon... His love life looked set to become very difficult.

“... That’s part of it, but weren’t there far more enemies than you expected?” Hugo nodded grimly. “Yes. With numbers like that, it’s hard to call this a mere attack. They’ll have trouble smoothing things over afterward. What on earth are they thinking...?”

I had learned something of what was going on, but with the plan in ruins, I found it hard to trust everything I’d been told.

“Where are we going now? Is there somewhere to hide down here?” Adria asked. Hugo shook his head.

“The collapses have made this place a maze, but there’s no particular spot where we can hide. We can buy time, but we won’t be able to evade them forever.”

Then Hugo abruptly turned to history. “The Battle of Majorca Fortress during the Great War began with demons surrounding the fortress.”

Was this a story Adria liked? She picked it up at once. “I know that one. The heroes came to its rescue, broke through the encirclement from the outside, and turned the tide. It was the start of the counterattack in the Great War, when our side had been losing ground.”

“That’s right. But no one knows how the heroes and the reinforcements learned that the fortress was surrounded.”

“Oh... You’re right. Was there a hero with clairvoyance or the ability to foresee the future?”

“No. It wasn’t an ability. Someone got through the encirclement and carried the news to them.”

The conversation between Adria and Hugo flowed with remarkable ease.

‘They sound like a tour guide explaining the ruins to a visitor.’

It was an odd conversation to have while fleeing an enemy, but Hugo had made us all curious.

“He broke through the encirclement alone? Was there a hero in the fortress?”

“No. He escaped without fighting anyone.” Hugo lowered the finger he had been pointing upward. “He left through a secret passage beneath the fortress.”

A secret passage? There was one here?

“Is that where we’re going now?” Adria’s voice brightened.

“Yes. We’re heading for the secret passage.”

Both women were delighted, but his explanation left me with a question. “If there was a secret passage, though, couldn’t everyone have used it to escape when the fortress was surrounded?”

“Oh, that’s true. They could have left a few people behind, or fooled the enemy with dummies.”

Adria looked at me as though impressed, but Bianca watched Hugo with a grave expression.

“Unfortunately, they couldn’t. You’ll understand when we arrive.”

He really did have a way of sending everyone’s spirits up and down. The mood, which had briefly relaxed, grew tense again, and we continued along the underground passage with worry on our faces.

Unfortunately, the fortress basement was nothing like the dungeons in novels and films from my previous life. There were no traps, and no monsters appeared. Only small, ratlike animals fled from the light.

We followed the passages, passed through a hole in a wall, and reached the deepest part of the complex. The farther in we went, the less man-made our surroundings seemed. Neatly laid stone walls gave way to natural rock. Timber supports appeared beneath the ceiling here and there, until at last we were in a cave of bare stone.

Eventually the cave ended. Rock blocked our way. Its surface was covered with cracks and marks where pieces had broken away, while pickaxes, shovels, and tools I didn’t recognize lay scattered in front of it.

Hugo led us up to the rock. Bianca stared at it. “It’s just a rock. Don’t tell me this is the secret passage?”

Was it a rock that opened when you said, “Open sesame”?

I put a hand on the rock and murmured the words. Everyone stared at me. Hmph. Guess not.

“Yes. I called it a secret passage, but it’s really a rocky cave—or rather, a gap between the rocks. The workers expanding the fortress underground reached this spot and found rock blocking their way. There was no need to expand farther, so they left it alone. Later, they discovered a way out through here.”

He brought the torch close to the rock. As the flame shifted, the shadows moved, revealing a crack near one corner. Bianca went over to it and stopped.

“So that’s what you meant earlier.” Her voice was strikingly calm. One look at the gap between the rocks, and I understood too.

There was no way every soldier in the fortress could have escaped through it. Would even one or two have managed? The gap was too narrow for an adult to pass.

Bianca looked at Adria and me. “You two can make it.” She sounded relieved.

Adria inspected the gap, then burst out, “No! I’m not running away! If we fight together, we can win. Yes—we only have to hold out a little longer, and the duke will come with his soldiers.”

She cried out to Bianca, but Bianca didn’t look at her. Instead, she bowed her head to me. “Please take care of Lady Adria.”

I watched Bianca for a moment, then turned to Hugo. “Was this your plan from the moment you sent Simon away?”

“Yes. Young master Simon is large for his age. He’d have trouble getting through here.”

He had brought me along because, in the end, I was the only one small enough to protect Adria on the way out. Hah. He really was stubbornly dutiful. A knight who had come to a place where he would die, without making excuses, to carry out his orders and save others.

I studied him. A big man with a rough-looking face. Everything about his speech and behavior made him seem the very picture of an old-fashioned knight, blindly loyal to his master. But appearances weren’t everything. Or perhaps I had been treating the people of this world like fools all along.

“I’ll tell the duke everything you did. And... no. matter. what. happens, I’ll remember you.”

“Ha ha. I’m honored that you’ll remember me, young master.” A smile spread across his rough face. Of course, he hadn’t understood what I meant.

Bianca eventually persuaded Adria as well. I found it hard to understand, but when Bianca spoke of a noble’s duty, Adria agreed to do as she said.

Hugo ran his hand over a small symbol carved beside the gap. Perhaps because I had heard the whole story, his voice sounded more at ease. “There’s a story told around the fortress that the person who escaped to seek help was one of the heroes. Just one of those common legends, of course.”

I felt as though I’d seen that symbol somewhere before. Where had it been?

“But who knows? Perhaps you or Lady Adria will grow up to become someone like that hero.” He seemed to be trying, in his own way, to cheer us up. The mood remained somber.

Looking awkward, he pointed to the gap in the wall. “You should go now. Don’t stop partway or come back, whatever happens. The enemy might attack with fire or use a special ability.”

Bianca added, “Hurry. We don’t know when they’ll reach us.” Adria bit her lip.

“Don’t you dare just die!”

“Of course not. I’ll do everything I can to survive.”

Now that we had decided, we couldn’t waste time. I took Adria by the arm and squeezed into the gap. Even I couldn’t walk through facing forward. But thanks to my small size, I could move easily enough once I turned sideways. Adria’s chest seemed to catch on the rock, but she forced herself onward, working her arms and legs.

* * *

The young boy and girl disappeared into the gap. Bianca let out a breath.

“They’re gone. Do you think they’ll make it safely?”

“There’s no way to know.”

“Goodness. With a personality like that, I’m amazed you rose to a position of responsibility.”

“I’m grateful to the duke for it.”

“What a shame. If I’d known you sooner, I might have happened to drop a handkerchief.”

“Hmm. That is a shame.”

The two of them chuckled. Their exchange had been the sort of last bit of small talk people shared before charging into enemy lines.

They gripped their swords again. They had told Adria they would try to survive, but neither intended to do as they’d said. They needed to move as far from this place as possible and confuse the enemy.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes. At least I’ll have a dashing knight with me at the end.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

They started running in the opposite direction. The light from Hugo’s torch dwindled in the distance. Soon faint screams and shouts rang out. The clash of swords continued for a while, and then the light disappeared.