Chapter 43: From Duel To Last - Part 5

...To make her dream come true, I'll leave it all to you, Arezu... With a dream that brought tears to his sleeping face, Arezu slowly opened his eyes as he woke up. "My, my... Tell me, Mr. Arezu. How should I console you to wipe away the sadness from your eyes?" The teasing remark came from the girl who was gazing down at him, staring directly into his eyes. She wore her usual mischievous smile—the one he had grown familiar with—paired with her vivid blue eyes, each bearing two black pupils that overlapped and collided like two different worlds connected. A pair of eccentric eyes he had seen once before. Regardless of the flashing memories from his past, Lynn's teasing made Arezu realize he had indeed been crying in his sleep. To hide his flustered embarrassment, he covered his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to calm his wistful emotions. Although she felt sympathy for his sadness—and curiosity about its cause—Lynn, in her typical mischievous demeanor, couldn't help but continue teasing him, especially given their current situation. Not because they were alone inside a large tent with Arezu wearing nothing but bandages on his upper body, but for something far more teasing-worthy... or so Lynn decided. "Or are you just that happy to be sleeping on my lap that it brought you to tears?" Her remark made Arezu suddenly aware of the unfamiliar softness beneath his head. That realization made him instinctively sit up—so quickly that he bumped his forehead against hers. —Ouch!— "That hurt, Mr. Arezu!" "Ugh!... Why does my head hurt so much?" Setting aside Lynn's complaint, the pain coursing through Arezu's head clearly wasn't just from the bump. As he writhed on the ground, clutching his head and trying to endure the pain, the memory of what happened during their exploration of the uncharted Dungeon returned—especially the final moment before he collapsed and lost consciousness. Recalling the sensation of a hard, cold object shattering against the back of his head, Arezu quickly pieced together its true nature—and the identity of the culprit responsible. As soon as he managed to sit upright—well, technically on the blanket—still nursing the ache in his skull, he turned toward the obvious suspect. "Explain yourself or I'm really gonna get mad, Lynn!" Arezu was referring to the moment Lynn fired a block of ice—an improvised version of her mystic spell Ice Lance—to knock him out as he attempted to destroy the Dungeon Core. Startled by his sudden raised voice, Lynn instinctively curled up while still cradling her forehead. But even though she could tell Arezu was being serious, Lynn still tried to lie her way out. "Well... I thought you were getting corrupted from wielding that cursed weapon, so I immediately knocked you out after you won the fight," she said, feigning ignorance—despite the fact she knew, thanks to her eccentric eyes that could see the flow of mana, that Arezu hadn't used any combat skills or even channeled his mana while wielding the cursed sword. Putting aside her concern—or the fact that Arezu had his own reasons for not using combat skills—her explanation still sounded suspicious. Glaring at Lynn, Arezu said something she hadn't expected. "If you don't confess now, I'm invoking your promise and disbanding our adventuring party." That made Lynn panic—a reaction Arezu had never seen from her before. "You can't use my promise to undo your promise, Mr. Arezu!" "Then confess now." "What? My feelings for you?" "Your misdeed, Lynn!" Cornered by Arezu's threat, Lynn finally confessed the real reason for attacking him. "I only said we would conquer the Dungeon. I never said anything about destroying the Core or the Dungeon itself." Looking back, Arezu realized Lynn had never explicitly said they needed to destroy the Dungeon. Only he—and possibly Gwen's party—had assumed it was part of the goal. Still, that didn't explain why they shouldn't destroy it, especially since it involved the safety of the missing and possibly corrupted adventurers. "Seriously, how much of a country bumpkin are you, Mr. Arezu?" His dumbfounded look annoyed her so much she couldn't help blurting out the half-insult—and her audacity nearly broke his patience. In Lynn's defense, destroying the Dungeon Core wasn't necessary to resolve the situation. Unlike the case with Alex and the infamous Goblin Flashers, there were no lives currently at risk—no abducted villagers or captive adventurers. Yes, the missing adventurers would remain corrupted, but they weren't hostile toward each other. Everything would've been fine as long as someone guarded the entrance and stopped others from entering until reinforcements arrived. But if that was the case—why didn't they do that from the start? "Why didn't we turn back and seal the entrance when we first met Mr. George?" Arezu asked seriously. "Haven't you been listening to what I said earlier, Mr. Arezu?" Lynn snapped, clearly annoyed. "About what?" "About getting rich by conquering a Dungeon!" By defeating the corrupted adventurers guarding the Core, their group would be credited with conquering the uncharted Dungeon—a significant financial and reputational gain. That was Lynn's real reason for continuing the exploration, even though it had looked like a rescue mission. Arezu gave her a long, disbelieving stare. Then, in a tone half furious and half stunned, he asked: "You put everyone's lives in danger for money?!" He raised his voice again, but this time, Lynn didn't back down. She leaned in with a serious tone. "You're the one who doesn't understand how important money is!" That argument left a dent in their partnership. Even so, once the tension had cooled, Arezu calmly asked about what happened after he lost consciousness. Still brooding and avoiding eye contact, Lynn recounted the aftermath. Minion 1C healed Minions 1A and 1B, while Lynn healed Gwen. Together, they restrained the unconscious, corrupted adventurers and carried them out the same way they'd come in. With more people needing to be carried than there were carriers—a six to five ratio—Gwen, the strongest, had to carry two on her back. After exiting the Dungeon and meeting up with Minion 2, Gwen's party made two additional trips inside to retrieve the rest of the unconscious adventurers still hanging from walls, columns, and ceilings. Meanwhile, Lynn remained behind to guard their wagon and the rescued victims. She also used an enchanted beacon to signal the Adventurers' Guild headquarters in the capital of Eileen Kingdom, requesting reinforcements. As she finished her story, Lynn added, no longer brooding: "For now, how about you take a look outside, Mr. Arezu?" When he got up and stepped outside the tent, Arezu was met with the sight of a busy camp—and it was already daylight. Adventurers' Guild personnel had arrived in force. Gwen's party was being interviewed by a familiar elven woman inside an open tent. The rescued adventurers were receiving medical attention in a different tent. More adventurers were entering the Dungeon—while others were emerging, carrying more unconscious corrupted adventurers. As Arezu tried to make sense of everything, Lynn approached him with something else in mind. "Now that you're awake, I suppose it's time for us to get going," she said, whispering sweetly behind his ear—only for Arezu to awkwardly pull away. "To where, exactly, Lynn?" he asked warily. "Home, of course! You're not seriously thinking your task is done until we get back to the capital, right? But don't worry, Mr. Arezu. My loyal steed, Chevaline, will handle most of the journey." "Seriously..." Arezu began, wanting to retort—but stopped when he saw her satisfied smile, like their argument never even happened. With a heavy sigh and a faint smile, Arezu simply said, "Alright. Let's go home, Lynn." "Mhm!"