Epilogue

It was difficult to put into words.

The rubble crumbled away from under the soldier’s foot, and he finally noticed as he nearly took a clumsy fall. He had been so entranced by the view that he wasn’t watching his step.

It was impossible to see anything here without night vision, and it was completely silent from having rejected any intruders for such a long time. Looking up, the ceiling was too distant to make out, even with his ability to see in the dark.

His breath was a faint white as he exhaled. The dust falling down from above was like snow, and the way sound was absorbed without resonating here likewise reminded him of a landscape covered in deep snow.

“So this... is the third floor of the ancient labyrinth...” he said to no one in particular.

The structure of the labyrinth was completely different from what he had seen before, and the ceiling was staggeringly high. Looking around, he could see hollows and drawbridges all over the place, and he realized the place had an intricate three-dimensional design. This place was so full of magic that black crystals had formed in various spots.

“This is a surprise. It’s just as my grandfather said. He said this place had morions growing all over it. This is the floor...”

“Yes, and this land is the destination we’ve been seeking. Though, I doubt your grandfather mentioned that this is the land of salvation,” someone responded while supporting the soldier’s arm so he wouldn’t fall.

Maybe he was a little out of it. It could have been because he was actually seeing the place he had heard about in fairy tales in person. He casually looked up at the speaker, and his armor clinked noisily as he hurriedly stood up straight to salute.

“C-Captain?! My apologies!”

“At ease. I understand you’re amazed, but pull yourself together. Don’t forget you’re in the middle of a mission,” he said, and the soldier was surprised when the captain flashed a grin at him.

The captain was the biggest hard-ass around, and he had never been seen smiling like this before. This land continued to ward off humans as it always had. And yet, the captain appeared to be in a good mood as he passed by.

The soldier suddenly came to his senses and hurried after him while thinking over that earlier comment.

“Captain, what did you mean when you said this land is our destination?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds. Unlike the greedy humans, we demons have few desires. We only wish to eradicate the humans that are protected by god, and to bring back the former age.”

The captain’s side profile was as intense as ever, but he was more talkative than usual today. His color-faded hair swayed, and his shoes clicked against the ground as he continued to walk forward. Suddenly, his honey-colored eyes turned to the soldier.

“I hear that hero candidate, Zarish, was defeated by a human.”

The soldier was at a loss for words for some time. He was unable to process it right away. After taking several more steps toward the captain, the man clad in metal armor finally found his voice again.

“Do you mean to tell me someone actually took down that monster?! Th-Then, does that mean the royals of Arilai have caught on to the hero candidate’s betrayal?”

“Judging by the situation, that would be the logical conclusion... But who knows? Even if they did notice, that man would never kneel, even before an entire army. That means he should have been able to cause some serious damage before being felled by the enemy.”

It was obvious from his phrasing that this was not the case. In other words, the scouts must not have reported anything along those lines. That meant the hero candidate had been defeated by a small team, or even an individual, though that was hard to imagine. It was impossible to figure the situation out with such little information, but whatever happened, this would greatly affect the fight moving forward.

The soldier realized this, then slowly glanced toward the captain walking beside him. He was sure the captain would be concerned about it. But surprisingly, the man was grinning. It was that same carefree smile from earlier, as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

“Everything will all be fine now. More than half of the soldiers we’d been counting on managed to survive. I’m glad... We managed to make it in time.” There was something terrifying about that smile, which should have instead been comforting.

They had finally made it to the third floor, so was everything really going to work out? Come to think of it, the captain had left the soldier in the dark up until now. He never explained their objective, their plans, or why they needed to buy time to hold off the human invasion in the first place.

According to rumors, he had lived for an entire millennium. Rumors said that the color had completely faded from his hair over that unimaginably long span of years. How had he lived for so long? For what purpose?

Although his wide smile spread across his face, it didn’t reach his honey-colored eyes at all. Seeing his face from the side, a shiver ran down the soldier’s spine for some reason.

The captain eventually reached out his hand to touch a seemingly ordinary wall.

Then, the wall opened without a sound.

The armor-clad soldier immediately understood. This must have been the destination the captain had spoken of, and the reason he had been living for an entire millennium.

Countless specks of dust fell from the sky like snow, and the captain’s smile widened further. It was as if his smile was welcoming the finale of the story.

— Chapter of Midsummer to be continued in the next volume —