Chapter 15

In terms of difficulty, the gap between A and C rank was as wide as the gap between a full scholarship and repeating a grade.

The difficulty of clearing a C-rank dungeon and an A-rank dungeon was on completely different levels.

Even a raid team composed of five S-rank awakened couldn’t confidently guarantee success in an A-rank dungeon.

And among our group of five, one of us absolutely could not reveal her true nature.

Himong, that little brat.

You never told me the test questions could come in modified form.

“Duke Piction, they’re coming!”

Already in battle stance, Heide called out to Linus from the front.

At the crown prince’s voice, Linus stopped coating my hand with honey, figuratively, and smiled before turning around.

Even before the ant swarm arrived, his sword was already stained black.

Golden aura rose from Heide’s sword as the soldier ants appeared.

Even when they were just C-rank monsters, the soldier ants had foul faces, but with their rank upgraded, their vicious appearance had upgraded too.

“Kieeeeeeek!!!!”

And their voices.

God, they were loud.

The battle against the ants began, and contrary to my worries, the three of them weren’t being pushed back at all.

I was ready to jump in at any moment, but instead of joining the fight, I focused on the echoing sounds.

Inside an ant nest, everything felt the same, making it hard to grasp one’s exact location.

But the fact that soldier ants appeared immediately after the dungeon rank increased meant the Ant Queen’s chamber was close by.

If the direction the ants came from connected to the queen’s chamber, then her cradle must be somewhere nearby.

When I focused, I felt the heat from Cheryl’s flames drifting toward somewhere behind us.

As I stepped quietly back to check it out, Larienne grabbed my arm in alarm.

“Lady Titanoa, no. I know you’re scared, but please stay with me.”

“Lady Toned, that’s not it. I think there’s something over there.”

“That’s even worse. What if it’s a monster?”

If it’s a monster, I’d kill it, was what I wanted to say.

But to Larienne, who believed I was the famously frail noble girl, I must have looked like I was scared and trying to run away.

I couldn’t exactly tell her I used to be the captain of a high-level raid team and was an S-rank awakened, so I forced a smile to reassure her.

“If it was a monster, it would’ve attacked already. It just feels like there’s another passage that way. I’ll just check, that’s all.”

“But…”

“If something happens, we need to know where to run, right? I’ll only check where it leads.”

If I were still a raid captain, I would have smacked any member who tried to act alone, but gentle Larienne only nodded with a worried face.

“Then let me go with you.”

I moved with Larienne in the direction opposite the ongoing battle.

Turning the corner, we found a three-way junction.

I grinned widely.

I remembered this place.

Left led to the Ant Queen’s chamber, right to the Queen’s cradle, and the center path led somewhere random.

“We could get lost here.”

Larienne’s face darkened further as she held tightly onto my arm.

If I were alone, it would be fine, but moving further with Larienne was too risky.

We had achieved our goal, so I turned back to guide her away, when something large and black charged toward us.

“Ayrbet!”

Holy…!

Its aura was so ominous that I thought it was a monster.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a monster but Linus, bursting toward us with his sword swollen pitch-black.

“Are you all right? You disappeared so suddenly I was alarmed.”

“You shouldn’t have come here! What about the soldier ants?”

“It’s almost finished over there.”

Almost finished meant it wasn’t finished yet.

But Linus checked me over from head to toe, sighed in relief, and smiled brightly.

Shouldn’t you be protecting the crown prince if he’s fighting monsters, you pro-imperial duke of Piction?

I tugged Linus along and went back, where Heide and Cheryl had just finished their battle and were catching their breath.

Immortal Queen A 96%

□□■■□■□ ■□

I checked the status window. The clear percentage had risen notably.

They had killed a lot in such a short time.

Even if the narrow tunnels made it easier to deal with a mass of enemies, their skills were still unbelievable.

This was romance-fantasy, sure, but protagonists were still protagonists.

Even so, it hadn’t been easy, Heide’s clothes were ripped and tattered in several places.

As he stared at Linus with a bewildered expression, I quickly spoke first.

“It looks like there’s a way out over there, Your Highness.”

Of course, it wasn’t a way out, it was the entrance to the deepest part of the ant nest, but they had no way of knowing that, so bluffing seemed fine.

Heide glanced at Larienne, but she didn’t know any more than he did.

While the two hesitated, I tugged Linus’s hand again.

Linus followed me like a puppy going out for a walk. The other three reluctantly followed behind us.

When we reached the junction, Heide furrowed his brows and sighed.

“A fork in the path. If we take the wrong one, we’ll get lost.”

“This way, Your Highness.”

I pointed to the left path.

Heide tilted his head, clearly wondering how I knew that.

I couldn’t tell him the truth, and I didn’t want to spend three nights and four days wandering like the first time I cleared this dungeon.

So I boldly insisted instead.

“This is the way.”

The moment I spoke confidently and began walking, Linus followed immediately.

Heide sighed again but still came with us.

We walked through the dark tunnel for a long time until a faint light appeared in the distance.

Chasing the light, we arrived at the cradle, a massive cavern greeted us.

And it was filled, wall to ceiling, with ant eggs.

“Don’t tell me these are all eggs?”

Cheryl muttered as she looked up at the countless ant eggs clustered along the ceiling.

They were all eggs.

This was the Ant Queen’s hatchery. And once enough time passed, they would all hatch.

If the ant nest was being threatened right now, all the ants waiting to hatch would be soldier ants.

The first time I saw tens of thousands… no, hundreds of thousands, of ant eggs, the despair was overwhelming.

Back then, we didn’t have a wide-area skill user, so we struggled quite a bit, but things were different now.

I quietly stepped over to Cheryl and spoke.

“Che… Sidonia Countess. Burn all of them.”

Cheryl turned her head and looked at me.

Her dark, unreadable eyes examined me as if searching for something, and I flinched without meaning to.

Was she offended, thinking I was ordering her around?

Cheryl was far more difficult to handle than Heide or Larienne.

“It is Sidonia. Not Shedonia.”

I know that. I just almost said her name.

“Yes, Count Sidonia.”

I corrected myself with an awkward smile, and Cheryl turned away, flames rising from her hand.

The fire blooming in her palm quickly became a pillar that spread to the ant eggs.

Burning everything without distinction, friend or foe, was the specialty of Cheryl Sidonia, also known by her title, the Witch of Fire.

As the massive cavern was swallowed by flames, soldier ants poured in through one of the tunnels.

“Ayrbet, please stay back.”

Before I could answer, Larienne grabbed my wrist.

She pulled me to a corner untouched by fire or ants and then stood protectively in front of me.

What’s gotten into her all of a sudden?

Even if I was pretending to be a frail duke’s daughter, I was not weak enough to need protection from the non-combat heroine.

“Lady Toned?”

When I tapped Larienne’s shoulder, she turned around with a serious expression.

She hesitated for a long moment, struggling with her words, then spoke.

“Lady Titanoa… by any chance…”

“By any chance… what? Tell me, Lady Toned.”

My impatience pushed her, and she bit her lower lip before shaking her head.

“Lady Titanoa… when we leave this place, may I come visit you?”

“Me?”

“Yes. There is something I wish to talk about with you.”

“What is it…?”

“Next time. And when that time comes, I’d like you to call me Larienne.”

Larienne smiled softly, as if asking me not to refuse.

Why does everyone in this world use their faces so well?

Dazzled by her radiant smile, I nodded before I could stop myself, and she beamed even brighter, thanking me.

I remembered, far too late, my old resolve not to get involved with the protagonists, but when I came back to my senses, I was smiling back at her like a fool.