Volume 1 - Prologue

A long, stony road, continuing forever, the chilly, freezing atmosphere drifting in the underground labyrinth, only a girl’s voice could be heard loud and clear.

“O flame, roam free, and burn it all to cinders, ‘Fireball’.”

From the cane, held in the elven girl’s, Rufa’s, hands, a small egg of fire was brought forth, and blew off the head of a goblin that was about to attack her. Being a monster, nothing more than a lump of magic, the goblin turned to small particles of light, and was sucked up by Rufa’s body. As a result of that, her aura grew stronger, but she had no time to enjoy that.

“Geki!”

Not showing the slightest hesitation after his ally was murdered in front of his eyes, another goblin raised a roar, and made his way to jump at Rufa as well. However, the female dwarf heavy warrior that slipped in front of her, Garnet, sent him flying with her admirably huge shield, held in her left hand.

“Hoi!”

Following up with a mace swing, which she held in her right hand, she cleanly separated the goblin’s head from it’s body. Once again, the monster broke down into light, and disappeared. However, the tens of monsters in front of them didn’t care all too much about yet another lost comrade. And, to their left, right, and even behind them, there was only the cold wall of the labyrinth. Meaning, they had no place to run off.

“Damned, this is all your fault!”

As Garnet threw that at her childhood friend standing in her shadow, Rufa puffed out her cheeks in a sulking manner.

“How rude. My plan to gather the monsters with my ‘Alarm’ chant, and get stronger in an instant was a perfect success.”

“It is perfect, yes…Unless we get defeated first!”

Nothing would have any meaning if they didn’t manage to defeat the gathered monsters. While Garnet was busy smashing down yet another attacker, Rufa showed an invincible smile.

“Fu fu fu, do not worry. I have anticipated that something like this might occur, which is why I stole a magic scroll with ‘Fire Storm’ on it from the castle’s storage room.”

“That is not something to act big about! But, there’s no use right now. Hurry and use it.”

“Fufufu…I forgot to bring it with me.”

“You idiot—!”

Fishing in her bag, Rufa’s face went pale, and as Garnet screamed out yet another insult, she struck down a goblin with her mace once again. During that process, her breathing had gotten rough, signalizing that she had soon to arrive at her limits.

“Ugh, so it all ends in a place like this…”

In front of the slowly approaching sea of monsters, words of despair leaked out of Garnet’s mouth. Behind her, Rufa showed a dauntless expression as she prepared for the worst.

“Can’t help it. Rather than having both of us fall victim here, it would be wise to have at least one person escape.”

“Are you—”

“I will bear the responsibility of running away, so please die for my sake and buy me some time.”

“Would it not be the other way around?!”

“Having a meagre elvish magician like me buy time is impossible!”

“Or are you saying that a female elf like me should just end up violated by these goblins like in some erotic novel?!”

“So noisy!”

Garnet mustered up all the strength she had left, and slapped the butt of the perverted elf. Watching that comedic exchange, the goblins were standing still in bewilderment.

—I don’t know what it’s like for them, but us being lumps of magic, we have absolutely no sexual desire or anything…

—I really wish they could stop this trend of treating as us sex offenders everytime they see us.

—Just like the orcs!

With an expression that could be interpreted as her understanding their conversation, Rufa’s eyes gave a slight sparkle as the goblins forgot the battle for a moment.

“Now!”

She tried to slip past the sides of the standing goblins, giving off the dash of her life. However, the gods weren’t that forgiving today.

“Blergh!”

Her foot got caught in the stone paving, and Rufa did a beautiful dive into the ground, head first. Not long after, the goblins slowly surrounded the foolish elf.

—Should we just kill her?

—Yup.

Exchanging glances with a fed-up expression, the goblins brandished their rusty daggers.

“What are you doing, you idiot princess!”

All the while being enraged, Garnet still dashed forwards to save her childhood friend—instinctively leaning over, filled with dread.

That moment, a flash of darkness completely filled the passage, bisected the goblins’ torsos, and flew past the girls’ heads.

“……Huh?”

In front of the dumbfounded girls, the bodies of the monsters that brimmed in the passage were perfectly split in half. Rich magical power from the monsters filled their bodies, feeling strength to the level of getting dizzy, Garnet focussed her sight down the passage where the black light had come from.

“Was that…sword magic just now…?”

Those that crawled around in the labyrinth like these girls—Adventurers, had this mysterious strength called ‘Aura’ dwelling inside them. Using this strength, they could bring worth ‘Arts’, enabling them to fight against these monsters, against which the normal folk saw no hope of winning. There was the form of ‘Martial Arts’, with which one could strengthen one’s bodily parameters, creating various forms of phenomenons through chants called ‘Magic’. And, by running this aura through your sword, you let loose the ‘Sword Magic’.

Acting as a vanguard adventurer, you would hold at least one or two of those sword magic spells. However, there is a limit to the sharpness of the blade, and being able to create big enough of an aura blade to cut through this amount of monsters certainly wasn’t a common skill.

“Maybe some 6th rank adventurer? But then, why would such a wild one be here on the first floor of all places…”

All the while gratefully accepting their second chance, something appeared in front of the slightly perplexed girls, producing no sound whatsoever. A jet black armor, blending into the darkness of the labyrinth, a large blade, red like it was drenched in fresh blood, and a mask imitating the face of a devil. Oozing out of the armor, a thick and dense aura, looked like a devil’s wings, a heat haze warping the atmosphere. Was a human wrapped in this armor, or was it actually the devil himself?

The girls knew the name of the sinister armored knight.

“The Dark Knight…”

The death god of the labyrinth, the obstructor, the sworn enemy of all adventurers. Nobody had returned alive so far after laying eyes upon this monstrosity, the ones that fell victim to him were resurrected, and their appearances riddled by disappearance were enough to stir up the legends of slaughterer.

“………”

The Dark Knight just calmly, silently continued to walk towards Rufa, who could only stare at the one that would bring her inevitable death earlier than she had wished, not showing any signs of resisting. And, like the Dullahan, sentencing people to death, he pointed at the poor girl, and—

“I can see it.”

Past the finger tip he was using to point at the girl were her white panties, still visible after her skirt got flipped up during her failed escape.

““………””

An awkward atmosphere filled the space between the exposed elf and the Dark Knight.

“…What’s up with this?”

Only Garnet’s fed-up retort reverberated inside the labyrinth’s walls.

This was the meeting between the idiot princess—the 7th princess of the Goldot Empire, Rufa, and the Dark Knight—the countryman Alba.