Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Seven: Arrival at the Blank Zone
Horst was led away by the knights surprisingly easily. He might have believed it pointless for Karen alone to exhaust her magical power, since Horst’s companions were waiting in the blank zone.
After remaining without magical power for a while, her body gradually adjusted to the dungeon’s environment. If one had been in this state since birth, perhaps one could get used to it enough to enjoy the spa.
“Sis, aren’t you getting thinner?”
“You feel that way?”
“…Yeah.”
Thor nodded with an anxious expression.
Though there was no way she could be getting thinner, Thor seemed to see it that way.
“Wanda, you see it too, right?”
“Eh? What are you talking about?”
“Obviously about my sister! Sis used up all her magical power, and now she’s got almost no presence, right? That’s what I’m talking about!”
“Could you not yell at me? Oh yes, that’s what happened. Your older sister was trying to use up all her magical power… where is she?”
“She’s right in front of you! …Doesn’t seem like you’re joking, huh?”
“No, I’m not joking at all. As you say, she is indeed faint, Leader. If I let my guard down, I feel like I’ll lose sight of her again. When we test magical strength, we sometimes have endurance competitions by channeling magical power into herbs, but we never actually exhaust all of it. I had no idea this was what would happen.”
Both Thor and Wanda were looking down at Karen with confused expressions.
“Leader’s older sister, um, Ms. Karen, you have advanced in rank… right?”
Wanda asked while choosing her words carefully.
Karen remembered the words Wanda had spoken the other day.
“Do you mean I look like an insect?”
“Hah?”
“Don’t glare like that! Even you, Leader, were about to lose sight of your sister!”
“…Nah, if I pull back the magical power I have in my body, I don’t think I’ll lose sight of her.”
Thor stared down at Karen intently, then looked like he was about to cry.
“Thank goodness… even though all your magical power is gone, I can still properly see you as my Big Sister. Though you’re faint.”
“That really is good. There was a possibility I’d become invisible?”
Karen also breathed a sigh of relief. She had never imagined that by using up her magical power, her own little brother might see her as nothing more than an insect.
“But right now, Sis, you’re so incredibly weak it’s scary just looking at you. Let’s hurry up and go grab Julius and bring him back, and get home quickly so you can return to your normal self.”
“Wait, Thor, you are coming too?”
“Of course I am, right? If Julius can enter, that means I can enter with you too, right, Sis?”
“I suppose that would be the case.”
“Then let’s hold hands!”
Thor took Karen’s hand.
If Thor came with her, he would be the most reassuring ally Karen could have.
The moment Karen and Thor held hands, Wanda’s gaze suddenly wandered through the air.
It was as if she found it unbearably difficult to keep her focus on Karen, who had used up all her magical power, and Thor, who was holding hands with such a Karen.
Boromias’ group no longer even glanced at Karen and Thor. It was as if they had forgotten their very existence.
“No matter who set a trap in that blank zone, as long as I’m there, we can handle it.”
Thor, too, must have sensed some kind of intention from Horst’s behavior. There was no way there wouldn’t be traps. There was no way someone wouldn’t be lying in wait.
So if Thor couldn’t enter together with her, Karen thought Thor would never allow Karen, who was far too weak right now, to try to enter alone.
—When they reached the border of the unmapped blank zone, Thor smoothly let go of Karen’s hand.
“Thor? This way, Thor.”
Thor suddenly turned his face away from the direction he should be heading and veered off the path. His consciousness seemed to have been diverted. Karen grabbed Thor’s hand as he was about to leave without even noticing he’d gotten separated from her.
“Whoa, so strong!”
Not only did Thor not budge when Karen pulled his hand, but she was dragged along instead.
Part of it was because Thor’s strength was great to begin with, but it might also be because Karen was too weak right now from not being clad in magical power.
Julius was surely inside. If so, perhaps Karen could bring Thor along if she carried him. But with Karen’s current state, she was too weak to even carry Thor on her back.
Karen gave up and let go of his hand.
“I’ll be back, Thor.”
Karen waved at her brother, who seemed unable to hear her voice, and turned her back.
With each step forward, her body became lighter and lighter.
“…Even though it’s inside a dungeon, there’s no magical power around here.”
If anything, she felt the magical power in the air was even thinner than in the royal capital.
Even when she had used up all her magical power at the orphanage, the pressure in the air had affected her body, which had exhausted its magical power.
Now, she hardly felt even that.
Beyond the narrow passage carved between towering rock walls, there was an artificial settlement—wholly out of place in a dungeon—atop a plateau.
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