“I told His Highness first…!”
Max tried to protest to me.
“Hm?”
I tilted my head innocently.
The moment our eyes met, Max flinched as if he sensed something.
“That’s enough, Max.”
The Crown Prince stopped him.
“I’m sorry, but I saw everything just now. Grow up a little. What does it matter who found it? Either way, it helps us get out.”
“That’s……”
Max trailed off when he heard that the Crown Prince had been watching his actions.
“Still, I should thank Lady April. What did you call this again?”
The Crown Prince thanked me while holding up the bundle of keys.
“It’s sparkly.”
When I answered brightly, the Crown Prince held back a laugh.
“Sparkly? This? Ah, because it sparkles, it’s sparkly? Pfft.”
He likes my improvised naming a little too much, doesn’t he?
“Thank you, my lady. For giving me the sparkly. It’s fortunate that Lady April doesn’t know anything. Sparkly, sparkly. Did you give it to me because we’re friends?”
“Yes. Friends give each other nice things!”
“Pfft, hahaha. Thank you.”
The Crown Prince laughed as he examined the bundle of keys.
His sickly complexion had worsened, but thanks to the joking around, he seemed to have regained a little energy.
There were a total of three keys attached to the ring.
“Room 202, Room 212, and Room 207. There are three keys.”
The Crown Prince separated the three keys.
“Rather than all going together to every room, let’s split up to save time. Two people, two people, and one person. I’ll go to Room 202. Lady Yeniel, would you come with me to Room 202?”
But Yeniel shook her head.
“All the monsters here prioritize targeting Your Highness, so it is dangerous. Would it not be better to entrust your safety to Sir Isengriff? I have no means of protecting Your Highness.”
Room 202 ▶ Crown Prince, Sian
▶ Max
▶ (One or more people)
-Undecided: Yeniel, April
But the Crown Prince did not accept Yeniel’s refusal.
“In urgent situations, I often rely on Lady Yeniel’s judgment. So please lend me your wisdom.”
Max also added to the Crown Prince’s words.
“An excellent choice. Your Highness and Lady Yeniel should go together, and I shall go with Sir Isengriff!”
He was shameless to the point that it was hard to believe he was the same person who had been constantly picking fights with Sian.
Room 202 ▶ Crown Prince, Yeniel
▶ Max, (Sian)
▶ (April)
At that moment, the atmosphere turned cold.
The instant Max spoke brightly, everyone—even Yeniel—looked at him with faint contempt.
“Are you out of your mind? You want to send only Lady April alone? Max, are you truly sane?”
I remembered that this was a romance fantasy world.
Even if she was sturdy for a noble lady of the Sharon Marquis family, April Sharon was still a precious young lady raised as a lady.
‘No. I don’t think they would’ve reacted like this if Yeniel had said she’d go alone….’
The Crown Prince rebuked Max.
“If you have any common sense, think about it. What are the chances of Lady April surviving alone in front of a monster? You are talking about sending a six-year-old child by herself.”
No, saying my mental age is six is too much.
But even Sian and Yeniel seemed to agree with the Crown Prince, so there was nothing I could do.
“I don’t really know, but then April will go with Sir Max!”
I raised my hand brightly and shouted.
“What?”
“Huh?”
The Crown Prince and Sian opened their mouths in surprise.
I looked at Max’s hair, which I had found very annoying since earlier, and smiled brightly.
“April will take very good care of Sir Max. Sir Max! Please escort me well.”
“……Y-Your Highness!”
Max turned pale and barely forced the words out.
“I will go alone.”
“Well, I suppose that makes sense. If Lady April went together with Max, then Max’s hair would probably… Pfft.”
Is the Crown Prince holding back laughter again? His sense of humor is really strange.
Room 202 ▶ Crown Prince, Yeniel
Room 207 ▶ Sian, April
Room 212 ▶ Max
“Then it is settled. In Room 202 will be His Highness the Crown Prince and myself, in Room 207 Lady April and Sir Sian, and in Room 212 Sir Max. Let us gather as many clues as possible from our assigned rooms and meet again in one hour.”
Yeniel organized the situation.
The moment everyone agreed and received their keys—
Craaack!
A greatsword suddenly pierced through the door. The sword twisted and completely smashed the door apart.
The door shook and shattered into pieces.
‘Did the door to Room 203 break because the next room appeared? Was it holding out until now because the event was still ongoing?’
It broke so easily that it was strange to think it had not broken before despite being struck from outside all this time.
Bang!
The demon worshipper who entered still carried the head of Max’s doppelganger.
That grotesquely dangling thing still looked disturbingly out of place.
Fortunately, the greatsword became deeply lodged in the door.
The demon worshipper trying to chase us paused briefly to pull the sword free.
Taking advantage of that opening, everyone urgently ran out.
“Let’s split up! One hour later! Everyone remember!”
Yeniel shouted.
After receiving the key to Room 207 from the Crown Prince, Sian hesitated for a brief moment before tightly grabbing my hand as if leading me.
“Lady April. Let us go.”
“Yes! Sir Sian, hurry!”
Holding Sian’s hand, I matched his pace as we ran.
True to being a strategist character, Sian did not have much stamina, but perhaps because he exercised at least a little, he did not tire quickly like the physically weak Yeniel.
The distance, which could not have been more than thirty steps, felt unusually long.
With a loud noise, the monster pulled the greatsword free from the door and came stomping after us again.
It moved so quickly that while I could dodge it, the others probably could not.
Still, Sian had spirits, so I was not as worried about him as the others.
The demon worshipper who had run out after us paused briefly, as though debating which direction to chase since we had split into three groups.
Meanwhile, after arriving at Room 207, I opened the door. Before entering, Sian stopped me.
“Lady April, please wait just a moment. For His Highness’s safety—no. Just count to twenty.”
“Yes! One, two….”
I answered brightly and pretended to count.
While I did that, Sian watched the Crown Prince and Yeniel enter Room 202.
At last, the demon worshipper decided whom to pursue and chased after the two of them.
Max? No need to worry. He was so quick that he was already out of sight. He had already entered Room 212.
Only Sian and I remained in the hallway, watching to see whether the door to Room 202 would be broken through.
Fortunately, not only could the greatsword not pierce the door to Room 202, none of the monster’s actions worked on it.
‘Is it a <Safe Zone>? Or maybe, like Room 203, it just cannot be broken during the exploration event.’
Safe Zones were safe areas scattered throughout <The Great Mage’s Mansion>.
Places monsters could not enter.
They were often unlocked through certain conditions.
That was why I had barely unlocked any.
How was someone like me, who specialized in combat, supposed to fulfill conditions that required understanding the story?
Not that I needed them much anyway, since I barely used them.
After wasting effort for a while and giving up, the demon worshipper turned its head and started stomping toward Room 207 with its greatsword raised, as if deciding it would at least catch us.
“Sir Sian, I counted all the way to twenty.”
“Is that what matters right now? Hurry and get inside!”
Sian, horrified, pulled me along.
We immediately entered Room 207, shut the door, and locked it.
Unlike me, who felt no tension at all, Sian’s face was filled with anxiety.
Inside the room where only the two of us remained, the sound of Sian’s and my rapid breathing echoed through the air.