〈SYSTEM〉 Defeating ‘Giant Serpent (C-Tier)’ changed your stats.

Stamina +4.

Charisma +1.

‘I thought I was going to be eaten again…’

Rosé scratched the back of her head. She thought it was a dangerous situation when she saw it from afar, but looking at Emmett’s bewildered expression, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

She rushed over when she saw s*men towards the tail… But well, it was unnecessary.

“How, how the hell did you do that?”

Raiden approached her and asked, but Rosé kept her silence. It was not the place to answer, ‘I thought it might be s*men, so I took a quick look.’

The nobles interpreted Rosé’s silence differently.

“To possess such extraordinary abilities and still remain humble…”

“She must be a noble lady who received imperial education. Surely from a famous family.”

“It must be a family you would recognize just by hearing its name.”

You’ve surely heard of it. The famous fallen hero’s family, ‘Mora.’ You may know the name just by hearing it, but it is a family that is criticized and despised.

Rosé shrugged and returned to her place.

Thud!

It was the sound of the cave wall trembling heavily. It was a signal that it would soon collapse. The nobles, who had been making a commotion until then, kept their mouths shut and watched the Blue Knights’ every move.

Emmett wiped his hands and gestured ahead to the knights. They had to move forward before the ceiling collapsed.

“We will continue forward.”

As small rocks fell soundlessly, their group moved quickly. The faces of the people walking while looking at the person in front of them were brighter than when they started.

It was because they had witnessed the miraculous ability of s*men absorption, displayed by the amazing Black Cloak.

* * *

“Phew! The situation is under control.”

“Haa! This should be enough!”

“It’s over here too!”

Six hours of progress.

With the support of the White Knights, the advancing formations smoothly defeated the monsters. Giant worms and giant rats—all of them were low-ranked monsters of D or E-Tiers.

The Blue Knights moved their hands and feet calmly without drawing their swords, and the White Knights ended the situation with their considerable marksmanship skills.

Occasionally, some monsters would come over to the rear where the support troops were, but thanks to Taosa’s mercenary experience, most of them were fine without even lifting a finger.

Volunteer soldiers handed canteens from back to front to the knights who must have been going through a hard time. Rosé also handed the canteen that Ariel had given her to Raiden, who happened to be nearby.

“Ah, thank you. Ms Black Cloak.”

Perhaps he fought against hundreds of giant worms. Raiden’s ears turned slightly red.

“Sir, how much farther do we have to go?”

Rosé asked, looking at his thick neck with droplets of water. His slightly tanned skin looked even more provocative in the flickering light.

Raiden stopped drinking water from the pouch and spoke.

“I think we’re about halfway there. We still need to keep going without resting. As time passes, the number of demons increases.”

‘The number of demons is increasing?’

Rosé’s complexion darkened and she was momentarily interrupted from staring at Raiden’s neck. Then Raiden quickly cleared his throat.

“It’ll be alright. The demons’ ranks aren’t as high as you think, and the danger zone is narrow for a Grade 1 boundary. So, you don’t need to worry too much.”

Rosé blankly watched Raiden explaining with a shocked expression, then she burst out laughing.

He always seemed to have so much to say during the interview, but now she realized that he talked faster when he was flustered.

“Thank you, Sir Raiden.”

“Ah…”

Raiden made a gasping sound. He cleared his throat with effort.

“Well, then, let’s continue moving.”

Without taking a break to organize the ranks, they continued to march. Rosé also returned to the ranks of support soldiers and urged them on.

Even the nobles, who rarely walked for a long time, followed the Blue Knights without uttering a word, contrary to their expectations.

Their lives, of course, as well as the lives of their families left behind at the ball, depended on their actions.

Rosé also hid her exhaustion. But if she had been on the front lines, like the other knights, swinging a sword, she would have fainted a hundred times over.

Emmett and Raiden seemed remarkable. While the other Blue Knights were amazing, these two commanded even the White Knights.

“Halt.”

Emmett raised his hand. He stood still in front of a large hole. They had explored several crossroads, but this was the first path leading underground.

Perhaps this was the hole the two-headed beasts passed through. They tried illuminating it with a torch, but no stairs were visible. It was probably a snake hole, a wide-open hole they would have to slide down like a slide.

“I don’t sense any magic.”

“I agree.”

As the Blue Knights agreed with Emmett’s opinion one by one, the White Knights exchanged glances. Could they be planning to go down?

With the size of the hole, it would be easy to go down, but the problem was that once they went down, there would be no way back up.

“Let one of us go down first.”

One of the White Knights suggested. It sounded selfish to anyone who heard it, but Emmett strangely agreed.

“I’ll go down first.”

“No, I’ll also go down.”

Emmett held Raiden back and shook his head. Then he gestured to the people behind him.

They were petrified with fear. Protecting the people should be Raiden’s responsibility, as he specialized in defensive techniques.

“…Be careful, Emmett.”

At the words of Raiden, who had returned to being a close friend, Emmett chuckled and entered the hole.

Ten minutes had passed. Cursing under his breath, Raiden was about to enter the cave.

“You can all come down!”

It was a faint voice, but it was clearly Emmett’s voice. The White Knights, who had been secretly worried, sighed with relief and tapped each other’s shoulders. They decided that they would enter the cave one by one.

Whoooosh!

Whoosh!

They sent people down into the cave until the final turn, Raiden. Surprisingly, what awaited them was a ‘door’.

Emmett brushed off the dirt from his shoulders and spoke to the people.

“It must be the path to Quamad’s room.”

Quamad. The origin that raised boundaries.

The door, which was mostly closed at most boundaries, was likely to be Quamad’s fortress. To make matters worse, there was a strange and alarming amount of magic felt in front of the door.

The support troops discreetly glanced at the Black Cloak behind them. Nine members of the Blue Knights and one Black Cloak. Yes, there was nothing they couldn’t do.

“Then, I’ll open it.”

Brody and Kevin pulled the door from both sides. Creak… The rusty relic made a creaking sound as it moved.

What appeared was a corridor of immeasurable length. A dark corridor without a single candle. And on both sides of the corridor were several stone statues depicting people.

Each one had a different appearance. A noble standing straight, a knight with his hand on his sword as if ready to draw it, a young girl holding a doll, a lady with her mouth wide open as if screaming, a man tightly clutching his young son, a maid who quickly turned her head as if she had seen something terrible.

That’s all they could make out with the light of their one remaining torch.

Unfortunately, due to the statues, the corridor was narrow. A young child would easily pass through, but if it was an adult, it seemed like they would bump into the statues while walking.

Some statues were reaching out with their arms, and some were lifting their feet. More often than not, someone would collide with the statues.

“It would be better for the person at the front to hold the torch and pass through. Since the space is so narrow, let’s go in one by one.”

Still, there shouldn’t be any problems just because the width is narrow. Since there were no monsters, people’s worries gradually eased.

“Now, let’s organize the ord—”

“Oh my goodness, Amy!”

But at that moment, a middle-aged support soldier broke through the knights and stepped forward. The man was Baron Bornein, who boasted of having attended a military academy.

Without the knights being able to stop him, the baron entered the corridor. He pointed towards a certain statue and shouted to the people.

“My younger sister, Amy! My eldest sister who disappeared at the Princess’s Palace when a boundary appeared 19 years ago!”

19 years ago, boundary, disappearance…?

The brows of the Blue Knights began to furrow gradually.

The Grade 2 border that appeared at the First Princess’s Palace 19 years ago. It was the worst tragedy in Monchen, where 531 out of the 2,452 people who attended the ball disappeared within the boundary.

The knights who attended the ball at that time claimed that the magical power of the boundary had weakened and disappeared naturally. But there were more than a few questionable points.

Ordinary boundaries naturally disappeared in two cases. Either it was a lower-class boundary with a very small number of demons from the beginning, or the Quamad sealed it on its own. In the latter case, there was always a possibility of the same boundary reappearing.

The Blue Knights quickly assumed a combat stance. But Bornein was still grieving in sorrow, facing the stone statue that had become his sister. Emmett urgently shouted to him.

“Come out! It’s dangerous!”

“What danger are you talking about! Oh, Amy. My poor sister…”

Bornein reached out his trembling hand towards the statue of his sister as he choked with tears.

Thud.

At the moment his trembling hand touched the cold, hard stone, he couldn’t feel any warmth.

“Sis…ter?”

Bornein’s eyes widened. The statue moved. More precisely, Amy’s face split in half.

The stone was alive. A skull, brain, blood vessels, and eyeballs were visible in the gaping face. Confused, Bornein looked back at Emmett, not knowing what to do.

“This… what on… earth has happened…”

Bornein’s voice stopped there. Emmett’s eyes squeezed shut in surprise when blood suddenly spurted out, and when he opened his eyes again, Bornein was already lifeless.

The tentacle-shaped mouth that had emerged from the statue tore into Bornein’s head, devouring it.

Tap, tap. The sound of bones being chewed resonated through the corridor.

“What’s that? That…?”

“What did I just see? Like, what?”

“That can’t be true. A demon on the statue just now…”

After devouring the entirety of Bornein’s head, the tentacles went back inside the statue.

The statue, which had been cracked before, was now spotless and adorned with a smile. It was the same statue that had left Bornein gaping in awe when he first saw it.

From that moment on, confusion spread. People vomiting in the corner, people kneeling and trembling, people throwing their swords and trying to climb up the mound again, and even people reciting prayers prohibited by imperial law.