Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 57

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 57.
The Road to the Royal Tomb Ⅱ
“Wait, please! I’m coming right now!”
“Stop.”
I grabbed Kazen’s shoulder urgently.
Does this man have no capacity to learn?
Or is he simply too good-hearted for his own good?
Either way, he’s not the type to survive long in the forest. No wonder he was dead before the game even began.
I spoke while looking at the tent.
“Can you come outside?”
“I’m sorry……. My legs are injured, and I can’t move…….”
“……”
“I’ve lost so much blood……. Please, please save me…….”
Suspicious as hell.
If I’d been alone, I would have continued questioning and checked each suspicious detail one by one.
“Kaindel. That person doesn’t look well at all.”
“Shouldn’t we help them right away……?”
“…….”
If this were like most games, with alignment displayed on a status window, there’d be no question—these two would register as good.
Unfortunately, I don’t.
“Kria.”
“Yes……?”
“Raise a skeleton—any decent one—and have it help the woman out of there.”
I would have preferred to order Wizely or Alto, but both of them were too small to drag a person out.
Kria hesitated for a moment, then obeyed my command.
Clatter.
A skeleton rose at Kria’s command, and she emerged from the tent moments later with the woman in tow.
“…….”
First, I examined her wounds.
Her claim of heavy blood loss appeared to be true.
Looking at the injury, I spoke.
“A blade wound.”
“Yes, that’s right…….”
“Who did this to you? The Undead around here don’t have bladed weapons.”
“That is…….”
The whimpering woman looked at us and answered.
“The Looters. They did this to me.”
* * *
The woman’s name was Aira.
Her Delver badge was a Bronze Badge—technically one rank above the Wooden Badge I’d received.
“The moment we entered the Landfill, we encountered a group of skeletons, and unfortunately there was a Named Monster mixed in…….”
That much matched our experience…….
The situation diverged after this point.
“Unluckily, our mage took the first arrow and died. I thought we were finished, but another party came to help us.”
“Another party?”
“Yes……. Thanks to them, we barely managed to escape.”
Something felt off.
Sure enough, Aira muttered with a distorted expression.
“I shouldn’t have trusted them so easily…….”
“…….”
“It was all a trap……. Those bastards had been using us as bait from the start. They probably dragged the Undead to the entrance themselves—to gain our trust and lower our guard…….”
“Ah.”
Kazen let out a sympathetic sound.
He seemed to empathize with Aira’s predicament, to feel genuine pity for her.
The others wore similar expressions…….
‘Why do I doubt this more?’
Is this late-stage paranoia talking?
Something felt caught in my throat—an uncomfortable sensation I’d experienced recently.
In the Royal Capital, when I’d asked a man for directions to an old bookshop.
‘That turned out to be nothing but baseless suspicion.’
That man was simply guiding us out of goodwill, nothing more.
‘Sigh.’
…I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
But I can’t trust everything this woman is saying just like that either.
“And then?”
“…They said that party’s objective was to enter the Royal Tomb. To do that, they’d need to eliminate five gatekeepers of the Royal Tomb. Since they weren’t strong enough on their own, they proposed cooperation. The division of rewards was reasonable, so I accepted…”
Aira’s jaw clenched audibly.
“…But it was all an act in the end. A vile performance to deceive us. Those bastards betrayed us during the battle with the Flame Jester, and my entire party was dragged away by them.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
While Kazen offered condolences in a somber tone, I asked.
“Dragged away?”
“Yes…”
“Why bother with something so tedious? It would’ve been simpler to kill all of you there and strip your belongings.”
“…I don’t know either. But are you suspecting me?”
Aira’s voice carried a note of hurt.
I continued questioning without directly answering her.
“There’s more than one thing that doesn’t add up. If they were really Looters from the start, why did they help you in the first place?”
According to Aira’s account, they’d faced near-annihilation when they first encountered that group of skeletons.
Which meant if they hadn’t helped then, Aira’s party would’ve been wiped out—and they could’ve easily claimed the now-masterless equipment.
There were actually Delvers who specialized in exactly that.
‘Scavengers.’
Like crows or hyenas, creatures who preyed only on the corpses of other Delvers.
Just as it hadn’t been illegal for me to collect an Exploration Crystal from a dead Delver’s body, they were cunning enough to exploit the legal gray zones.
‘For Looters, it’d be getting something for nothing.’
Yet they went out of their way to rescue these people and travel with them, building trust, only to betray them at the critical moment?
Too much effort.
“…Since they needed to secure five Royal Tomb gatekeepers, they probably planned to use us however they could and then kill us.”
Aira answered without hesitation.
If it felt like she’d been waiting for exactly this question, maybe it was because I’d become too paranoid myself.
“…Kaindel.”
Kazen was watching me.
Looking around, the others mostly wore expressions suggesting they found me difficult to understand.
As if asking why I was pushing so hard.
‘Damn.’
I ignored their complacent stares and continued questioning Aira.
“So what are you going to do now?”
“Yes…?”
“We saved you. Putting aside the matter of compensation, having you with us and protecting you right now poses a significant risk for us too.”
“…Are you asking for money?”
Her tone held such disappointment that I found myself irritated again.
“We can talk about that once we reach town. For now, can you pull your weight in the party?”
“…I am a swordswoman. But right now my sword is broken―”
“As expected.”
Aira spoke, her lips pressed thin.
“…Give me one Potion, please. If I can just recover, I can manage my share somehow.”
I answered as if I’d been waiting for this.
“500,000 Cide per bottle.”
“500,000 Cide? But this looks like a low-grade Potion.”
“Don’t you know a Potion’s value shoots up in the forest?”
Shouldn’t she be grateful I hadn’t doubled the price?
Seeing my expression, Aira sighed and spoke.
“I’ll pay you back once we return to the city.”
“Kazen. Give her the Potion.”
“Yes, of course.”
Kazen retrieved a Potion and treated Aira’s wounds.
“…”
Truth be told, even that Potion felt desperately wasteful.
But I sensed that if I pushed any harder, the party members’ gazes might turn even colder.
They were already sending looks of shock.
‘What did they take me for—some kind of saint?’
It was a ridiculous misunderstanding, but looking back, it was understandable to fall into such confusion.
My bond with Kazen and Kria began when I rescued them from being chased by those Shadows, after all.
And there’s the memory of lifting Seigerna’s spirits when she collapsed after Laurent’s betrayal.
‘Well, this works out better then.’
It was an illusion that would have shattered anyway.
Besides, going forward, there will be plenty more chances for them to witness this side of me.
* * *
The presence of Looters became even more certain, but there was no retreating from here.
Being a Delver meant running into Looters constantly, whether you liked it or not.
If I fled each time, I couldn’t even scrape together the party maintenance costs.
‘The Secret Chamber is off-limits now.’
But there’s still things to gain from the Royal Tomb.
We pressed onward in somewhat dampened spirits, making our way to the next location—the Cliff Ossuary—with Aira in tow.
The Cliff Ossuary was exactly what its name suggested: a burial chamber perched at the edge of a sheer precipice. The problem was the path leading there.
“This is…….”
“Mm.”
The others let out uneasy murmurs.
Far below the dizzying cliff, thick fog rolled densely, and above it swayed an unsteady rope bridge.
“……Surely we have to cross this?”
“We do.”
It’s the only entrance to the ossuary.
“H-how are we supposed to cross this? Won’t it snap while we’re on it?”
It won’t.
Despite how precarious it looks, this rope bridge is surprisingly sturdy.
That’s when it happened.
“Don’t fall back……! Damn it, keep fighting!”
A faint shout carried from beyond the bridge. Followed by the clash of metal, and cries that were almost bestial.
“Aira!”
Aira called out in alarm.
‘Could those be from another party?’
I focused my vision through the fog.
Hazy as it was, I could make out a group moving with intense ferocity.
From what I could tell, they were fighting the mid-boss of the ossuary—the Ruby Skeleton.
The problem was.
“Kgh……!”
“Heiz? You damn bastard……!”
“No! Aira! Hold the line!”
Their situation didn’t look good either.
I watched Aira bouncing on her feet, ready to dash across the bridge at any moment, then spoke.
“……For now, only Laurent and I cross. The rest of you wait here.”
“What?! That’s too d-dangerous……!”
I answered without revealing my true thoughts—that going together would be far more dangerous.
“If things start looking really bad, then you can join in. We’re close enough that shouting will let us communicate.”
“But……!”
“Kazen. You remember what I said to you earlier, don’t you?”
“……!”
When I’m not here, you’re the leader.
Kazen flinched, then slowly nodded.
“……Understood.”
I considered laying out more specific instructions, but with so many variables in play, doing so would likely backfire.
“Let’s go. Laurent.”
Laurent nodded and followed.
As I crossed the precarious rope bridge, the battlefield came into full view.
A party drenched in blood, locked in combat with the Ruby Skeleton.
A priest standing at the rear saw us approach.
“Who are you……?”
“Don’t be wary. You’re with Aira’s party, right? We heard from her and came to help…….”
“No, that’s not…….”
The priest’s face twisted in anguish.
“W-we did our best……! Y-you said you’d save us!”
“What?”
“I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die! Please, save me……!”
A sudden chill ran down my spine, and I looked past the bridge.
Through the mist, which had grown thinner than before…….
Aira’s figure came dimly into view on the far side of the bridge.
“Ugh, gah…….”
Aira’s body was swelling up like a balloon.
‘Damn.’
What the hell was that?
There was no time to think.
Bulge—
The bodies of those fighting the Ruby Skeleton were swelling up too.
“Gah, no, no lie…… lie, you, you……!”
“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
In that instant, I remembered the final moments of the Corpse Snail.
Boom!———
The swollen bodies of the Delvers exploded in succession.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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