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Silently sitting by the beds laid out across the room within the castle's guest room, the party that had been made to stay overnight within it quietly stared at Renryth who was unfolding his side of the story.

The story of Lier and how they arrived at the catacombs.

And the details that had arisen up to the point of the current situation.

...

The Catacombs, Slera's Castle—Guest Room [ Night ].

"...and right after that," the old man who was solemnly sitting by an empty chair at the back of the room spoke out. "We ended up going to a nearby cavern from the roadside whilst waiting for Lier to wake up," he said. "And when she did... We ended up coming here."

"Huh?" Raina tilted her in question as she heard Renryth's explanation. "...wearn't you all headed for Fal? How come you ended up coming here all of a sudden?" 

"Well, our original goal was to head to Fal," Renryth nodded his head. "However, after going through the cavern for a bit, we ended finding ourselves in a catacomb. Unbeknowst to reasons why Lier had insisted on staying here after meeting with the Sleras for the first time."

"...and you just agreed?" Ethaniel raised his brow.

"In the first place, the main reason we were headed for Fal was to find a place to call home," Renryth stated. "So, with the insistence from Lier, we never really refused on staying here."

"W-Wait... If Lier suddenly became that insistent, then what happened to Nicole?!" Frey cried out. "Have you all just given up on her?!"

"For Nicole..." Renryth sighed solemnly. "After the initial troubles of settling in and working towards finding the location of Nicole, we were never successful," he shook his head. "Days turned to months. Sanke and Lier both gave up after searching through the fields for so long. As for me..." one of his fists clenched whilst his other hand moved to the bridge of his eyes, covering it in shame. "Had I seen the signs earlier... Lier and Sanke wouldn't have gone through such hardships alone..."

"...Lier?" Whilst the group kept quiet at Renryth's silent woes, Shinto was deep in thought upon hearing the familiar name of 'Lier' continuously mentioned by Renryth throughout his story, thus leaving Shinto stumped. "Isn't that... Kaisus' mentor?"

The name of Lier was no stranger to Shinto. As he was a close friend to Kaisus, it meant that he would know his mentor as well. Thus, to hear such a name coming from Renryth, who he had never met before, came off as unexpected for him.

"The last Kaisus had spoken about her was that she disappeared suddenly," Shinto pondered on the matter. "But... She was here all this time? In some catacombs?" He imagined that Kaisus would be surprised at the fact. However, there was a problem. "But... If she was here, then..." with clues pointing towards a single fact, Shinto's head turned towards Renryth. "Lier. Did she... Pass away?"

At the firm question from Shinto, the old man kept quiet, as if hesitant to admit to a fact. However, with deep breaths, Renryth's sad eyes turned to glance at Shinto. "Unfortunately... She was the first of us to go," he answered with reluctance. "Just about a year ago? On the lamentation of Nicole's disappearance, Sanke and Rustly who had frantically run after Lier due to her disappearing away from bed witnessed the day she had turned to grey-ash," his hands formed into a fist. "I guess it was that day when Sanke decided to go after the Pendant of Purifying Flames."

"—Which led to his death, huh?" Shinto continued Renryth's sentence. "The Pendant of Purifying Flames didn't really contain that of its name but instead... It seemed to have contained demonic flames within it, isn't that right?"

"...that's right," Renryth nodded his head as he soon stood up from the chair. "Sanke was consumed by the flames before we could even put it out. Neither I nor Madam Ru knew that the Sleras had been protecting something like that for all these years," shaking his head helplessly, he slowly made his way over towards the entrance of the guest room.

"To think that the artefact that was said to revive someone was that of a lie..." Renryth's fists continued to clench tightly. "...but that doesn't matter anymore," he shook his head as he rid of the thought. "In any case, I'll be taking my leave now that you all understand the story."

"Eh...!? That's all?!" Frey cried out. "You're not gonna tell the story of how you got the slimes to open up to you or something?!"

Upon hearing the sudden cries from Frey, Renryth's footsteps stopped midway through the door. "...that's all that's important for you to know, really. For the matters in regards to the Sleras, why not ask Rustly or Reru? They would be a much better fit to explain."

"Bah..." Ethaniel scruffled his hair. "Enough of the questions already, will you? Renryth's the one having it rough, having to explain the entire thing. It's been a long day for him, and all of us," he stated. "So, just give him a break."

"...right, it has been a long day," Raina nodded her head as she turned to Renryth with a smile. "Take care of yourself, Renryth. Thank you for explaining everything to us. I can grasp the situation better now."

"...you're welcome, I guess," Renryth sighed as his head turned towards his front. "...have a good night's sleep and... As for tomorrow, Madam Ru would like to see you all in the throne room. So keep that in mind," with his final words, Renryth left the premises of the guest room.

"Okay so like... What now?" Frey blinked at the sight of Renryth already leaving the area. "Do we um... Sleep? Has it already been that long since we left the caverns?"

"Probably..." Ethaniel shrugged. "If anything, if you want to log out of the game for a while then I guess it would be a perfect time," he stated. "Or if it's possible, you could try to explore around the new busy town again, but I doubt anything would be opened at this time."

"What about you?" Frey tilted her head.

"Me? Meh. I'm just gonna sleep," Ethaniel yawned. "That stupid fight with Reru got me all exhausted... And because of you guys keeping me up all night, my energy is completely drained."

"Us?" Raina pouted. "Surely, you're as interested as much as all of us, right? You were practically listening in on the entire thing when you could've just slept through it like Kon."

"Kon?" Ethaniel blinked slightly as he saw that Kon was sleeping peacefully by Shinto's lap. "Eh... He's Kon. What worries does he have? As for me, I'm only up because of this damn fear that we might end up in another situation that won't let us get a break!"

"...well, fortunately," Shinto calmly stated. "It seems that Renryth won't involve us any further than this."

"You sure? That's pretty much jinxing it," Ethaniel scoffed. "I swear if we end up in some other quest that has us needing to explore the forbidden area because, for some godforsaken reason, secret shit happens there, then I'm not joining you."

"Aha... You sure you won't be joining?" Raina chuckled.

"Yes. In the first place, how did we even end in this situation?!" Ethaniel shouted out. "We entered into a dungeon because Frey found a key and... It led to this entire thing. Had I known it was this long and terribly tiring, I would've just gone out of my way to refuse!"

"Hey! I didn't find the key!" Frey furrowed her brows. "Renryth gave it to me! That old man who I received a quest for, gave me this key in return for completing it!" folding her hands whilst nodding proudly, Frey showed a prideful aura towards the group.

"How did you even get such a quest to a dungeon like this?" Ethaniel raised his brow. "I mean... You were what? 11? And this dungeon is way above our level! The quest prerequisite should be hard, right?!"

"All I did was some escorting work to the old abandoned town area!" Frey said. "After that, I got my reward. Simple as that!"

"S-Seriously?" Ethaniel stared at Frey with a dumbfounded expression. "Argh... Whatever! Whether it was pure luck or because of coincidence, I'm too tired to question this! I'm going to sleep!"

"Shoo! Let me peacefully bath in my proudness for unlocking this dungeon for us! Frey humphed as she saw that Ethaniel had already lied down on the bed.

"Aha..." Raina sighed at the scene before her. Soon, she turned towards Shinto. "What are your thoughts on this? Do you think we might end up in another sudden situation?"

"...well," throughout the conversation amongst the group, Shinto had been in thought on the reason as to why Renryth had approached Frey. "Just as I said earlier, I doubt we'll get more involved in this," carefully putting aside Kon, who was sleeping soundly by his lap to the bedsheets, Shinto slowly stood up from the bed. "Well... Unless we actively involve ourselves, that is."

"Huh?" Raina tilted her head. "Where are you going?"

"...I've got to return a book I took from the library," Shinto said as he took out the book: 'Spells of the Gloop' from his inventory and showed it to Raina. "So, I'll be leaving for a bit to return it."

"Why not tomorrow?"

"...I fear we might not have time," Shinto reasoned. "So now's the best time than any, honestly."

"... I see," nodding her head, Raina soon covered herself under the blankets. "If that's how you want to put it, then go ahead I guess..." letting out a yawn, she slowly dozed off to sleep. "...I'll just... head to sleep now."

"..." Noting that Raina and Frey had drifted off to sleep, Shinto muttered out in a solemn tone. "...sorry, that's not what I was planning to do," with a sigh, he exited out of the guest room. whilst turning off the lights.