Only Obedient to Me! Sir Knight Chapter 21

First floor. Stomp, stomp—his feet kept treading on piles of rubble. Since many parts of the floor had collapsed, Van carefully observed the ground and moved forward slowly.

‘I should have brought a light.’

Although moonlight was streaming in through the windows, it was insufficient for clearly distinguishing objects. Van recalled the candles lined up along the hallway walls on the second floor. What if he went back up to get one of those candles? He had heard that those candles, which burned by feeding on Rowy’s magic, would never go out unless Rowy wished them to.

…However, because Van did not know the principles behind how magic worked, he did not put this into action. It wasn’t that he was worried about the fire going out. He was simply afraid that he might disturb Rowy’s deep slumber.

Van heightened his vision to scan his surroundings. There was nothing particularly unusual on the first floor. It was just that there were an excessive number of broken areas in the floor. As he walked along the corridor from one end to the other, Van encountered a hallway that had completely collapsed. There had clearly been an attempt to reinforce it, as plywood was placed over the top, but even that was in poor condition.

“Hmm.”

The other side of this hallway was a dead end anyway. Van glanced at the wall, then shifted his attention to the area beneath the collapsed hallway.

‘I thought there was a basement.’

Van looked down and gauged the depth. However, the floor, untouched by light, was endlessly black.

“…”

After a moment of contemplation, Van jumped down into the darkness. And so, the basement. Drip. Drip. Somewhere, the sound of water falling could be heard continuously. Van closed his eyes for a moment to adjust to the darkness, then slowly opened them.

The basement was not as dark as he had thought. This was because light was seeping in through cracks in the ceiling here and there. Relying on those small rays of light, Van looked around.

‘Was this originally a dungeon?’

In the mossy basement, piles of rubble created by crumbling walls were stacked in various places. Trying to guess what the place originally looked like, Van walked cautiously between the ruins.

‘There doesn’t seem to be anything here either.’

The basement was quite large, but because the walls had all crumbled, it was easy to take in at a glance. In a place where he could see from one end to the other just by turning his head, Van explored the surroundings slowly, not even knowing what he was supposed to be looking for.

‘Anyway, this place isn’t going to collapse, is it?’

A massive underground space without a single supporting wall—it felt quite precarious. If it were to come crashing down like this….

‘No. Surely not. Rowy said it wouldn’t collapse.’

If he had known that actually only applied to the second floor, would something have changed? No, even if he had known, he probably would have just worried about the sky falling. …He never imagined the ground would cave in.

“…!”

Unable to even let out a scream, Van disappeared beneath the collapsing floor.

. ꕤ ｡ ˚⋆

‘Was there a second basement level too?’

Even after the sudden fall, Van regained his balance and landed, remaining vigilant. The sound of water was closer than before. Having dropped one more level from a place that was already dark, even Van, who had sharp eyes, could now barely see in front of him.

“Haa….”

Letting out a sigh, Van relied on his intuition and walked forward. The second basement, which he hadn’t even known existed. This place also had a floor that was broken here and there. Every time he touched a wall, pieces of stone would crumble down. Van moved his body even more cautiously than before.

…There were no special findings here either. Just the fact that there was a strong smell of water, perhaps because a waterway was nearby. The water pooling on the floor seemed to have leaked out from that waterway.

‘If I go in any further, I won’t be able to see a thing.’

The space, which looked even more massive than the first basement, seemed to have no end no matter how far he walked. After walking deep, deep inside for a long while, Van eventually turned back. It would be better to bring a light if he wanted to examine it closely. And… he was lost.

‘I’m sure the place I fell through earlier… was right here.’

He turned back and checked the ceiling, but the ceiling was blocked without a single gap. Thinking he might have misidentified the spot, he wandered around the vicinity, but it was all in vain.

“Ha.”

Van let out a dry laugh in disbelief. Getting lost in this wide-open space? Does that make sense? But no matter how much he examined the ceiling, all he could see were firmly blocked stone walls; there wasn’t a single crack large enough for Van to have fallen through. It seemed he had lost his sense of direction because it was too dark.

‘I need to get back before Rowy wakes up.’

After a moment of thought, Van decided to gauge the direction the air was flowing and began to walk that way. There had to be a way out, whether it was a waterway or something else. And so, how long had he walked?

“…Again?”

The floor collapsed once more! As he fell down, and down, Van let out a silent scream.

‘What on earth is this castle made of!’

. ꕤ ｡ ˚⋆

Meanwhile, in the bedroom. Rowy had woken up and was lying in bed, tears streaming down his face. It was the situation Van had worried about so much.

‘Where did Van go?’

Under normal circumstances, Van would have come running the moment he heard Rowy rustling, but today, even though Rowy was sobbing, he was nowhere to be seen. It couldn’t be helped; Van was currently wandering around the basement.

‘He actually left just because I told him to.’

Of course, Rowy, having no way to know that, cried his heart out while resenting Van. He didn’t even know what was so sad. The tears just kept pouring out. Why was it like this only at night? Was there really something wrong, just as Van had said? Should he have seen a doctor? But… what kind of medicine is there for depression?

Did they say to set your mind at ease and exercise? Rowy recalled what Joseph used to blather on about. But he didn’t feel like doing anything of the sort. The symptoms, which he thought would get better soon, were gradually worsening like this.

“…”

He tried thinking about various other things, but sleep still wouldn’t come. Ah, why is my life like this? Tears came again. Rowy stopped thinking and just let the tears stream down.

Since when had he been like this… it wasn’t a long-standing symptom. Rowy tended to live as he pleased, and therefore, he didn’t really get stressed. That was why this sudden depression was even stranger. Let’s see, when did it start… so.

‘The island is cursed.’

Be careful.

Two years ago, on the boat entering the island, the captain told Rowy. He didn’t know how those words would sound to Rowy. Rowy, who had scurried onto the island, started digging into the mysteries of the island recklessly. A year passed in the blink of an eye. And a year ago, depression suddenly surged in.

‘The island is cursed.’

Could this be the curse? There was no way to know. Rowy kept burrowing deeper into his blankets.

. ꕤ ｡ ˚⋆

The third basement. Beneath the abyss, an abyss. Falling into the gaping mouth of darkness where he couldn’t see an inch ahead, Van thought. He fell so deep that he was under the illusion that he had been falling for several minutes.

Presently, in the darkness where nothing could be seen, Van performed a break-fall based purely on his instincts. As an excellent swordsman, Van landed correctly even in a situation where he couldn’t see a thing. …However, the place he fell into this time had a floor covered in water up to his ankles.

“Good grief.”

Dusting off his soaked clothes, Van pulled himself up.

‘This place is….’

So. Could he even call this the third basement? He had fallen so deep. Anyway, it was the basement of the basement of the basement. Van scanned his surroundings with an enlightened expression. However, all he could see was darkness. Just in case, Van lifted his head and looked at the place where he had fallen. …As expected, he could see nothing. Darkness on all sides.

“…Ha.”

Left alone in the middle of the darkness, Van sighed in bewilderment.

‘This is a big problem. At this rate, I really won’t be able to get back before Rowy wakes up.’

The worst-case scenario was that Van would eventually fail to escape this place, and Rowy would have to come all the way down here to find him. He was a former knight, so it would be shameful to keep being rescued by his master. Especially since he had come down here quite confidently, claiming he would find the source of the castle’s danger.

‘…I have to get back somehow.’

After Van made a firm resolution, he touched the wall and began to walk, feeling his way. Regardless, the fact that there was a space here in the basement meant there had to be a way up. If he followed the wall and found even a broken staircase, he could just use that to get out. After walking for a while, he saw a faint light at the end.

‘An entrance. Thank goodness.’

Van hurried toward it, feeling relieved. However, the closer he got, the more he realized something was strange. That light wasn’t an entrance. It wasn’t an entrance, but….

‘What is that?’

Van approached the light even closer. The light was flowing from the wall.

‘This is….’

The closer he got, the more the identity of that light became clear to Van’s eyes. It was a familiar shape. A silver ring, and a blue gem embedded in the center.

‘Isn’t this the master’s magic tool?’

A ring identical to the one that had been on Rowy’s finger was sticking out right in the middle of the basement wall. The faint light was flowing from that gem. Why is this in such a deep basement?

For a moment, he remembered Rowy saying that he was supporting the entire castle with magic tools. If so, was this one of them? But… did it really need to be kept in this deep basement? Even though there was a magic tool here that was supposed to support the space, why wasn’t this place collapsed? As someone unversed in magic, Van had no way of knowing the reason.

‘A magic tool embedded in a wall….’

Lost in thought, Van unconsciously touched the gem with his fingertip. And in that moment, …suddenly, the entire basement began to wake up and move. It was the work of Rowy’s magic power that had been dormant inside the magic tool.

Whoosh! Torches along the wall ignited one after another. At the same time, the broken walls and floor were restored, the floor that had been ankle-deep in water dried up, and the form of the massive basement was fully revealed before Van. As Van watched the spectacle, feeling even a sense of enchantment… horror gradually began to appear on his face.

‘What in the….’

As the darkness lifted, what appeared before Van’s eyes was… an unimaginably large devil-summoning circle.