NBFTR 17

Chapter 17

Airy took a moment to catch her breath in front of the king’s office.

An unpleasant memory was firmly lodged in her mind, making her stomach churn for no reason and the soles of her feet itch.

She entered through the door opened by the attendant and lowered her eyes in greeting.

“Your Majesty.”

“Sit.”

Airy stopped when she saw the oddly placed chair in the middle of the room.

A punishment chair?

Come to think of it, Penin Mupala was sitting below the platform where the king was seated, sweating profusely. Documents were spread across the desk, and he seemed to be handling his work right there.

Airy sat down with relief.

The punishment chair was that one.

“Are you feeling all right? I heard your eyes were rolling around and you were spouting nonsense.”

She bit the tip of her tongue for a moment before answering calmly.

“I am fine.”

“Good. You should be the one looking after your labor rights.”

Airy bit her tongue again.

The king watched Airy over his glasses.

A suffocating silence lingered for a moment before the king slowly parted his lips.

“Lord Laertes asked me to let him join the Northern Exploration Unit.”

“What?”

“He said he wouldn’t join the Knights, but he wanted to take part in that mission. I told him no.”

It was absurd.

The Northern Exploration mission itself was a reckless assignment with a low probability of returning alive. And now Laertes wanted to join it?

As Airy stared at the king in bewilderment, he clicked his tongue briefly.

“You didn’t even realize, did you? You detected the underground tunnels in the north. Does it not follow that the Magic Knights who were presumed dead during the early stages of the Great Raid may still be alive?”

“It does. But why…?”

Until now, Airy hadn’t paid much attention to the detailed results produced by the formulas she had researched.

She had heard that underground tunnels had been detected and that there was a possibility that the Magic Knights from the early stages of the Great Raid had survived.

She had simply thought, Good enough.

How could she have known that, while Fourth Wave monsters now covered both the sky and the earth, a group of fewer than thirty knights was preparing to rescue them?

By Airy’s standards, such a thing was impossible, so she had never even attempted to think deeply about it.

The king let out a long, frustrated sigh.

“The entrance to the Cozenta Mountains is a crucial strategic point in the Great Monster War. That is why the previous king sent the most important mages there. If we could bring them back, wouldn’t our situation improve somewhat? Isn’t that right, Lord Penin Mupala?”

“Yes? Yes, Your Majesty.”

Mupala straightened his posture as he answered.

“Furthermore, Lord Laertes Salisbury believes that Duke Luvent Salisbury may be there. He says that even if he isn’t, it doesn’t matter.”

“So that’s why he’s going there…”

That crazy young master doesn’t even know how terrifying monsters are.

Airy bit down on her lips until it felt as though she might swallow them and narrowed her eyes.

“I also believe the Northern Exploration is premature. If the Grand Duke is alive and can return, it would certainly be a joyous occasion for the nation. But reclaiming the capital must remain our priority.”

“I agree, Your Majesty.”

“Then think of a way. I’ve been harassed by him for five days, so now it’s your turn. I’ll give you five days. Convince Lord Salisbury.”

The woman looked at the king, and the king looked back at her.

Their gazes met in a tense standoff.

Then the king raised one corner of his mouth.

Airy controlled her nostrils and lowered her head.

“I shall obey your command.”

“You are quite well-versed in etiquette for someone of your background.”

That son of a—

She wanted to curse him thoroughly, but since she only had one life, Airy withdrew gracefully.

She immediately asked where Laertes was staying.

The attendant answered as though he had been waiting for the question.

“The young master is almost always on the surface.”

“The surface? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“It is dangerous. For you, Lady Coilestium. There should be a knight guarding the entrance, but I recommend taking particular care.”

Someone—whether it had been Lord Coco or Lord Roro, she couldn’t remember—had once said that Laertes wasn’t destined for an easy death.

Airy decided to trust those words.

She was puffing out her cheeks as she climbed the stairwell when she encountered a familiar-looking woman.

She seemed to be someone from one of the ministerial offices, so Airy bowed her head in greeting for the time being.

“Where are you going during working hours, Lady?”

“His Majesty has given me an order, so I’m going to take care of it urgently.”

“…Take care.”

In any case, this royal palace was so tiny that eyes watching and ears listening were everywhere.

And they call this a royal palace!

Grumbling, Airy continued up the stairs.

The moment she actually saw the monsters, however, she became frightened.

She asked one of the knights to call Laertes.

The man soon came running over, covered in blood and radiating demonic energy.

“Airy? What brings you here? It’s dangerous, so come inside first and let’s talk.”

“I heard you volunteered for the Northern Exploration.”

“…You heard from His Majesty?”

“Yes. His Majesty gave me an order. He told me to change your mind.”

“Phew…”

She realized one beat too late that she had made a mistake with the way she addressed him, but Airy’s expression remained firm.

The form of address was not the issue.

Airy clearly remembered his childhood. She had shared life-and-death situations with him and felt close enough to him to behave without reserve.

She absolutely could not stand by and watch him go to his death.

Airy brought out her strongest card.

“If you’re really going, then I’ll go too.”

“Absolutely not, Airy.”

“I’m going with you. I’ll bring Pepper too.”

“No. Stay here and do the research you like while you wait. I’ll definitely come back.”

“What? Like? Research? Me? What are you talking about? Are you insulting me?”

“I think you’ve found a place that suits you. You’re being recognized, and you’re enjoying yourself. It’s safe, too.”

“Ah, enough! I absolutely cannot let you go alone! You’d better understand that!”

Leaving the man behind as he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, Airy stomped down the stairs.

But at the same time, another thought occurred to her.

She wasn’t unaware of what it felt like to be separated from one’s parents.

If Duke Salisbury might actually still be alive…

Then maybe there is a way.

Airy knew that pursuing this thought was like digging the grave she would eventually lie in, but once the idea had begun, she couldn’t stop it.

Back in the laboratory, Airy listened to the people around her nagging her with one ear while searching for the underground city development proposal.

No matter how much she thought about it, it wasn’t an entirely unrealistic idea.

When Airy opened her eyes, it was morning.

She rose groggily from the laboratory desk and wiped the drool from her mouth.

She had no idea when she had fallen asleep.

Sleeping face-down had left the left side of her neck and shoulder aching terribly.

After stretching lightly and groaning to her heart’s content, she checked the early hour and confirmed that no one had arrived at work yet.

She skimmed through the proposal she had written until dawn and, deciding that it was good enough for now, stood up.

Originally, as the first meritorious noble since the Great Raid and a researcher working on the nation’s highest-priority research, Airy had the right to request an audience with the king.

Even so, she stood outside the king’s office again, just one day later, sighing heavily.

She simply couldn’t bring herself to go inside.

Apparently, she had developed some sort of fear or avoidance disorder toward the king.

In the end, she called an attendant, handed over the proposal, and escaped the fourth basement level as though she were fleeing.

As she climbed the stairs, Airy absentmindedly thought about the superstition surrounding the number four.

The superstition had originated in cultures using Chinese characters, and there was no reason it should transcend worlds and follow her here.

But if an ordinary woman living on a small peninsula in the world could end up possessing the body of a character from a book, who was to say that superstitions couldn’t come along too?

Four really is ominous.

It must be an express train headed straight toward death.

Come to think of it, what was the tone of the number four in Chinese again?

After thinking endlessly, Airy shook her head and quickly forced herself to concentrate.

I haven’t gone crazy yet!

When she came to her senses, she was standing in front of the sunlight room.

Apparently, her instincts had realized that this was where she could survive.

The early morning sunlight illuminated the walls of the vast underground cavern.

The garden, with the yellow sunlight slanting across it, looked somewhat mysterious.

But Airy liked it simply because there was no one around.

She planned to walk one lap around the garden before going to work.

Then a figure suddenly sprang up in a flurry of activity, ruining Airy’s plan for an early start.

“Oh, Kailey-nim?”

“Ah… Lady Airy.”

Else Kailey, wearing work clothes and arm covers and holding a shovel, awkwardly lowered the brim of his hat.

Even so, he couldn’t hide his gaunt jaw.

Airy thought she could have recognized him as Else Kailey even with her eyes closed.

“What are you doing here? Were you the one managing the garden, Kailey-nim?”

“No, that’s not it. Someone asked me to do this.”

“Did His Majesty order even this? That’s a serious violation of labor rights…”

“Whatever you’re thinking, that’s not it, so stop.”

He’s only forty, but he’s acting like some dignified old man.

Airy pouted and trudged toward her utterly undignified research supervisor.

“You’re up early.”

“Only today.”

“What is the name of this plant?”

“You don’t even know mucheong? You really are a hopeless mage.”

“Don’t insult me…”

She had never seen such stiff mucheong before.

Airy grimaced, her aching shoulder throbbing.

She didn’t want to speak with someone who didn’t even know what dried radish greens were.

“Lady Airy, what brings you here so early? I thought you were the type to sleep late.”

“You seem very interested in me.”

“One can’t say anything around you.”

“My head is complicated because of the Knights’ departure. Well, various things happened.”

“Is it because Lord Salisbury applied to go on the expedition?”

“That’s right. In any case, he’s my young master.”

“You’re the same age, yet you treat him so formally. Is it because you grew up together?”

“Well… yes. We met when we were only seven, after all.”

“That young? No wonder Lord Salisbury is so helpless around you.”

“Young mas— I mean, Rael always gives way to me. I hope he’ll do the same this time, too.”

“I know I’m hardly in a position to say this looking like this, but I’ll tell you one thing. Don’t let His Majesty’s words sway you too much. That’s all I can say.”

What a good old-fashioned nag…

Airy was mildly impressed.

Perhaps misunderstanding her expression, Else Kailey frowned slightly and added,

“Don’t listen too closely to me either. A scholar must always question and verify. That is the most important thing my master taught me. You must even question and verify your master’s teachings if you want to become a scholar better than your master. Magic scholarship is—”

I take it back. He’s a terrible old-fashioned nag.

Airy let her eyes go unfocused and let his words wash over her.

And as soon as she left the sunlight room, she went back to her room to change clothes—

—and fell asleep.

If Yoster, a fellow researcher who lived in the room next door, hadn’t come to wake her, she probably would have slept until lunchtime.

It seemed to be an unusually hectic day.

Airy, who had arrived spectacularly late, ate lunch while marveling that the sun hadn’t set yet.

Then she spent the afternoon suffering at the thought that quitting time was nowhere in sight.

She would probably go back to her room at the end of the day with the eyes of a frozen fish, without even washing herself, and immediately fall asleep.

If she hadn’t been summoned by the king.

“His Majesty is calling for you.”

“Again?!”

Airy reflexively asked, then covered her mouth and stood up.

The attendant skillfully pretended to be a man without ears.

“His Majesty has summoned Lady Coilestium after reviewing the underground tunnel proposal.”

“I’ll go right now.”

Leaving her bewildered colleagues behind, Airy hurriedly gathered the rest of her documents.

The “Underground City Proposal” had, just like that, changed its title to the “Underground Tunnel Proposal” overnight.