Kwa-kwa-kwa!
It felt as if he was being sucked into a dark tunnel in an instant.
"Ugh!"
Zeke's mind reeled from the dizzying sensation, on the verge of losing consciousness.
But thanks to his unique authority, he managed to hold onto his awareness.
Soon, the dark tunnel ended, and his vision filled with light.
Zeke was able to open his eyes again.
***
"Rex."
Back in Rex Thurn's body, Zeke was startled to see the person in front of him.
"Mother?"
Laura Agamemnon looked at him with a worried expression.
"How is Mother here?"
Rex seemed surprised too as he gazed at Laura.
"Laura? What is this...?"
He looked around. It appeared to be the campsite they had set up in the cave near the dungeon entrance before going in.
The arrival point set by the spatial teleportation scroll Ramon had activated was this location.
"Ugh."
Rex realized that bandages were wrapped tightly around his body.
There wasn't a single part of him that didn't ache.
He turned to Laura.
"Wh-what happened...?"
At that moment, Ramon emerged from the forest, having gathered dry twigs.
"Laura was the one I called."
He set down the twigs and approached Rex.
"The scroll I used was one she gave me. Just in case. I set the location, but I never thought we'd actually need it. She basically saved our lives." Upon hearing Ramon's words, Rex tried to sit up.
"Ugh..."
Laura supported Rex, who was forcing himself to rise, and said,
"I healed you with healing magic, but you're not fully recovered yet. Lie down a bit longer."
The injuries from inside the dungeon had apparently worsened during the spatial teleportation.
As Rex struggled to compose himself while enduring the pain, he suddenly snapped to attention and shouted,
"Arthur!"
The image of Arthur collapsing with his heart pierced by the unidentified magical beast flashed vividly in his mind.
He looked at Ramon, but Ramon said nothing and merely sat on a nearby rock.
Laura spoke to Rex, who watched him.
"I came here right away after getting Ramon's message. It's been about two days since you all came out of the dungeon. But... Arthur still hasn't come out."
At Laura's words, Rex forced himself to his feet.
Ramon quickly approached to lay him back down, but Rex swung his arm to reject the help.
Staring at Ramon, Rex said,
"Arthur is still in there. We have to go get him."
Ramon frowned and replied,
"Rex, Arthur is dead."
Rex shot to his feet at Ramon's definitive declaration of Arthur's death.
"Arthur isn't the type to die just because someone says so!"
He was boringly uninteresting, rigid, and self-centered, but Arthur was still their precious friend.
He was the weird type who only gave strange daggers of unknown origin as birthday gifts every year, knowing nothing but swords, but he never missed celebrating his friends' birthdays.
Laura didn't get along well with Arthur's personality either, but she still tagged along faithfully whenever he suggested going to a dungeon, even if she grumbled about it.
Sure, they'd had a big fight recently and sworn never to adventure together again, but that would blow over eventually.
She understood that, despite his poor way of expressing it, he truly considered them friends and cared for them.
That's why Rex couldn't accept Arthur's death, and even if he was dead, he couldn't leave his body abandoned in the dungeon.
But Ramon was different.
"Think about it rationally, Rex. That thing killed him in one hit. Even if we go down there injured, there's nothing we can do."
True to his Siemens bloodline, Ramon assessed the situation logically.
Rex understood that in his head, but his heart refused to accept it.
"Arthur couldn't have died. He's probably faking it to trick the magical beast. He's waiting somewhere in the dungeon for us to rescue him right now." He forced himself to stand and searched for his sword.
Ramon yelled at Rex, "You idiot!"
Ramon forcibly pushed Rex down to prevent him from rising and raised his voice. "If you go, you'll just end up dead too! Do you think that's what Arthur would want?" Ramon glared at Rex, breathing heavily.
His clenched fist trembled.
Rex, seeing Ramon like that, slowly lowered his head.
"...Ramon."
He too knew Arthur was dead, so he realized he was being unreasonably stubborn. But he couldn't just sit idly by.
At that moment, Laura spoke up from behind.
"Ramon, first we should inform the Draker side of the current situation. Even if Arthur... is really dead, like Rex said, we need to retrieve his body."
Ramon paused at her words, then let out his breath and slumped onto the nearby rock.
After a moment of silence, he slowly spoke. "...Draker won't move just because we tell them." Rex and Laura were both shocked by his words.
Laura looked at Ramon and asked,
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't Draker move? Arthur is a direct pureblood line of
Draker. Why wouldn't the family act?"
Ramon lifted his head and continued.
"He is a direct pureblood line of Draker. But... that's exactly the problem." At Ramon's words, Rex seemed to catch on, his eyes widening. "You mean the competition for the family head position in Draker?" Ramon nodded slowly at Rex's question.
Arthur Draker was a direct pureblood line, but he wasn't the only one. In fact, he had quite a few siblings.
Moreover, in terms of bloodline alone, he ranked quite low in the succession order.
For support in the succession competition, the size of the maternal family had been crucial.
The current family head of Draker had formed marriage alliances not only with massive blood oath families but also with others as needed, regardless of their size, and had children.
Thanks to that, the Draker family had grown even larger than before.
The past as a vassal family of the Agamemnon family was now a distant memory; they stood at the center of Midland.
Thus, the competition to decide the next family head was inevitably fierce.
And Arthur Draker, while a direct pureblood line with exceptional skill, did not have a particularly powerful maternal family.
More precisely, it wasn't weak, but it was disadvantageous for Arthur Draker.
His maternal family had been a merchant house, not nobility, that had amassed great wealth by supplying armaments to the Draker family.
The current family head had taken the daughter of that merchant house as his fourth wife, without regard for her commoner origins.
That's how Arthur Draker was born, but the problem was that the merchant house had been dismantled amid scandals like accounting fraud and various corruptions.
It was hushed up, but everyone in the family knew the current family head had been behind it.
The merchant house's assets had flowed into Draker, and Arthur Draker was left with only the stigma of being from a corrupt merchant bloodline, receiving no support whatsoever.
If he hadn't been a direct pureblood line or lacked talent with the sword, he would have been expelled from the Draker family without issue.
Ramon explained Arthur Draker's then-current situation to his friends.
Laura, unaware of these details, finally understood why Arthur had been so guarded around others.
Then Ramon spoke again.
"The Draker council of elders has always been wary of Arthur. Because his talent overshadows the most promising candidate for family head."
Draker's principle was that the family head position should go to the most outstanding individual of the generation.
The eldest son held the strongest position in the family by blood, but in talent, anyone could see Arthur Draker was superior.
Becoming a blue knight in his twenties and manifesting an aura blade was unprecedented even in the Draker family blessed with aura.
Thus, the Draker family viewed Arthur Draker with suspicion.
"Arthur's reckless dungeon explorations were probably a way to escape the family's scrutiny. But... Draker turned that against him."
As Ramon added his thoughts, Rex's expression changed.
"Ramon, you don't mean... Draker lured Arthur here on purpose, do you?" Ramon's face hardened at Rex's words.
Laura, equally shocked, looked at Ramon.
"Even for Draker... to trap a direct pureblood line? How could they..."
The despicable and ruthless scheming of Draker made Laura's mind reel.
When her own family was on the brink of destruction due to a curse, Draker hadn't helped—instead, they had stabbed them in the back and seized the blood oath and dominance in Midland.
She knew they were such a family, but she never imagined they'd use cowardly tactics even against direct bloodline members.
Ramon looked at Rex and Laura and said,
"Listen up. What I just said is just a hypothesis. But if it's not a hypothesis, but fact..." He swallowed dryly and continued.
"We have to keep quiet about Arthur's death. Otherwise, to Draker, we would be..."
"Keep quiet, you say."
At that moment, a familiar voice came from behind.
Ramon, Rex, and Laura turned in surprise.
Rex shot to his feet despite his injuries.
"Arthur!"
Incredibly, Arthur Draker, whom they thought dead, had returned alive and well.
He walked slowly toward them.
Step, step, step.
As Arthur Draker approached slowly, Ramon's face grew paler.
In the light of the mana lamp set up in the cave, Arthur Draker's face was clearly visible.
At that instant, Laura sensed something off about the returned Arthur.
"What is it?"
His appearance was the same, but the aura he exuded was different.
It felt as if a being of immense power had been compressed into the shell of Arthur Draker.
Rex, not noticing the change, approached and grabbed his shoulder familiarly.
"Arthur! My God, I thought you were dead!"
Seeing his friend alive, Rex shed tears without realizing it.
Surprisingly, Arthur smiled and responded to Rex.
"Rex, my loyal friend. Thank you for worrying about me. Don't worry anymore. I'm fine, as you can see."
The old Arthur was taciturn and rarely said unnecessary words.
But the returned Arthur, unlike his formerly awkward expressions, spoke like a skilled actor and used elegant phrasing to comfort Rex instead.
Overjoyed by his friend's survival, Rex didn't notice the change.
Then Arthur turned to look at Laura.
"Laura, you came all this way for us. Thank you. Better late than never, let me express my gratitude."
But unlike Rex, Laura felt disconcerted by the sudden shift in Arthur Draker's speech.
The old Arthur was irritating and annoying, but he had a human side.
Yet the current Arthur evoked an inexplicable disgust. "What is it? Arthur came back alive, but something feels off." She was instinctively repelled by him.
Despite Laura's complex expression and silence, Arthur smiled at her and turned away.
He then slowly approached Ramon.
"Ramon, thanks to your quick thinking, we all survived. As expected of Siemens blood."
It sounded like praising a vassal, not a friend.
Ramon sensed the change in Arthur but couldn't easily speak.
Arthur stood right in front of Ramon, slowly gripped his shoulder, and continued. "Thank you, Ramon. But I have one question." Arthur's eyes flashed.
The hand gripping Ramon's shoulder tightened gradually.
Looking Ramon in the eye, he said,
"Why did you lead me into that trap?"