I Possessed a Romance-Fantasy Novel… So Why Are There Gates?! - Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Cheryl set fire to the ant eggs, and Linus and Heide cut down the soldier ants.
In the narrow burrows, the two of them had handled the ants well enough, but with the wider space and greater numbers, gaps appeared.
One soldier ant slipped past Heide and lunged at Cheryl, who had been too absorbed in playing with fire.
The sword it swung dyed Cheryl’s shoulder red.
“Count Sidonia!”
Larienne, who had been watching them, darted forward.
Before anyone could grab her, she was instantly wrapped in white light and rushed toward Cheryl, while Heide gritted his teeth and dealt with the soldier ants that swarmed him.
I picked up a sword that had fallen nearby and was about to join in, but most of the ants were already down.
Larienne was treating Cheryl’s arm, and the few ants that remained seemed manageable for Heide alone.
The fire that had spread to the ant eggs was now blazing uncontrollably.
I hid the sword behind my back and gave Linus a look.
Even in the chaos of swinging his sword, he caught my eyes at once, and I signaled to him with a nod.
As I moved toward the passage where the soldier ants had appeared, Linus took one glance at Heide, then quietly joined me.
Walking down the dark corridor with the nursery at our backs, he whispered a question.
“Ayrbet, where are we going?”
I met Linus’s eyes, shining brilliantly even in the darkness, and grinned.
“To catch the queen.”
“What?”
“Let’s catch her quickly and go home.”
Linus tilted his head at my words, but he didn’t ask what I meant.
That was why I brought him.
If I disappeared alone, he would chase after me like before. And among everyone here, Linus was the only one I trusted to keep yet another of my secrets.
The ant queen cannot die.
And as long as the queen lives, the ant eggs in the nursery will regenerate endlessly.
There is only one way to kill the queen.
The moment the ant eggs are completely destroyed, we must cut off the queen’s breath.
She had become the ruler of an A-rank dungeon, so she wouldn’t be easy, but with Linus and me together, we could manage somehow.
After walking for a long time down the passage connected to the queen’s chamber, we entered a cavern as large as the nursery.
A giant ant the size of a house noticed us and raised its body.
“Linus, do you see that barrier? As long as it’s there, she won’t die.”
I pointed to the bluish shield surrounding the queen’s body.
“Then what must we do?”
“At a certain moment, that shield will disappear. Don’t miss it. The queen’s weak spot is the back of her head, so aim only there.”
“Understood.”
Linus answered and wrapped an arm around my waist as he leapt.
The next moment, the queen struck down at the spot where we had been standing with her long legs.
Her speed and destructive power were stronger than I remembered.
As soon as Linus set me down, I raised my sword and jumped.
“Ayrbet!!”
Linus called out to me with a face gone white, but I brought my sword down on the ant queen’s crown and shouted.
“Circle around to the other side, Linus!”
Seeing me narrowly dodge the ant’s front legs, Linus clenched his teeth and ran toward its rear.
This wasn’t a monster he could handle alone while trying to protect me at the same time.
It had six legs, of course it was fast.
The queen ant, stung by Linus striking her backside, turned instantly, and I used that opening to climb onto her back.
“Ayrbet! It’s dangerous!”
“You’re the one in more danger right now!”
Linus, who was about to have his face ripped off by the queen, was still worrying about me.
I set my blade and struck down on the ant’s back.
Even if the sword didn’t pierce, it seemed to deal damage.
The queen twisted violently as if in pain, then flung Linus away and climbed up the wall.
When I could no longer maintain my grip behind the queen, who was hanging upside down from the ceiling, I jumped down to the floor. Linus, face still pale, ran toward me.
“Ayrbet, I think my heart will burst before the ant bites me to death.”
“Never die, Linus. I don’t want to be stuck alone with her.”
I looked up at the queen ant, who was dangling upside down and drooling.
Linus swallowed, adjusted his grip on his sword.
“I will never die.”
Then he shot upward, stirring a gust of wind.
When he sliced across the queen’s back, she twisted her body and trapped him between her legs as she fell to the ground.
“Linus!”
I kicked off the floor, rushed in, and kicked the ant’s face as I called his name.
Somehow, Linus had slipped out between her legs, and he lifted me into his arms, pulling us away from the queen.
“You scared me.”
“I told you I wouldn’t die.”
Even now, the smile on his face was so fresh I was at a loss.
Stepping out of his arms, I put distance between myself and the queen and muttered toward the direction of the nursery.
“What are they doing over there?”
That was when it happened.
“Ayrbet, now.”
At the small voice, I turned to Linus, he was already charging at the queen.
I followed his trajectory and ran toward her.
As the queen swung her forelegs to block my sword, Linus leapt into the air, aiming for the back of her head.
While her attention was on me, the blade aura from Linus’s sword split the queen ant’s skull clean in two.
Before she could even cry out, the ant queen collapsed in a heap. I dropped my sword and sank to the ground.
Wow… I haven’t done this in a while, no wonder I’m out of breath.
Panting, I pulled up my status window, and the letters I’d long been hoping for appeared across the screen.
[Status]
Queen of Undeath A 100%
The dungeon will vanish in 23 hours 59 minutes
□□■■□■□ ■□
“It’s overrr.”
After confirming the clear, I flopped backward onto the ground.
Linus, who had been rummaging near the back of the ant’s head, hopped down and approached me.
He held something wrapped in a handkerchief right in front of my eyes.
When I sat up and took it, it was a monster core.
An A-rank core, bigger than Linus’s fist.
I swallowed without thinking and looked at him. He smiled with a spotless, radiant face.
“You seemed to treasure it.”
“You’re giving this to me?”
“Yes, Ayrbet.”
This wasn’t something you treasured, it was something inherently precious.
A monster core this size could buy an apartment building by the block.
I was about to calculate how much that would be here, then realized I had no data.
In my old world, this would’ve changed my life, but here it was probably just a dungeon souvenir.
There was no technology here to refine this into electrical energy.
Ugh, what a waste.
Still, since Linus brought it for me, I decided to accept it gratefully.
It was pretty anyway; I could display it in my room. That’s what souvenirs are for.
“Thank you, Linus.”
“I’m more grateful that you accepted it.”
“No, I should be thanking you. Oh, and Linus, about what just happened…”
“It’s a secret, isn’t it?”
Sharp and without greed, Linus gave the right answer immediately.
I winked playfully and nodded.
“Exactly.”
He smiled brightly enough to show all his upper teeth and asked,
“May I ask you out for another walk?”
“I’m tired of the garden. How about a meal instead?”
“That would be very, very good.”
Linus clenched his fist with joy as he answered.
His expression showed his feelings so plainly that I couldn’t help laughing.
Seriously, he’s cute.
We’d even picked up a souvenir, so it was time to head back.
I was just about to return to the nursery where Larienne, Heide, and Cheryl would be.
Whether they moved first or by coincidence, the three of them entered the queen’s chamber.
Heide and Larienne looked shaken at the sight of the queen’s corpse, but Cheryl spotted something else and her eyes changed.
She walked toward me, her gaze locked on the monster core in my hand.
“That… is that a magic stone?”
Magic stone?
What’s that?
It seemed they called monster cores magic stones here, but that term had never once appeared in the original novel.
Which meant it wasn’t important enough to affect the plot.
When I moved the core wrapped in the handkerchief to my other hand, Cheryl’s gaze followed it exactly.
I shifted my hand slightly and her head moved with it.
She looked exactly like a cat staring at a toy.
Her face made it painfully obvious she wanted it, so I held back a laugh and asked,
“Would you like it, Count?”
Cheryl’s eyes widened as she looked up at me.
As if she’d heard something unbelievable, she stammered,
“Y-you’re giving that… to me? Really?”
“I’ll give it to you.”
I held out the monster core… no, the magic stone, to Cheryl.
I didn’t know what a magic stone was, but I was only going to use it as decoration anyway, so whatever.
Cheryl parted her lips slightly and accepted the stone carefully with both hands.
Her big dark eyes sparkled like beads, making her look even more like a cat.
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