Chapter 17: The Dungeon Of Secrets

I wanted to make it interesting. She had powers now, and she could use her mana to do some actual damage on me. If Lady Belmauer wanted to hurt me so badly, I wasn’t going to make it easy for her.

“You’re kidding, right?” Faye gaped.

“Do you think this is fair, Serrian?” Mae commented. “She is a level five priestess. You’re a level 30 fighter.”

Faye’s face went red, embarrassed by Maelise’s words no doubt.

“Don’t worry, I’m not fighting back. All she has to do is land an attack on me. I’ll play pure defense, without striking her once. That should even it out. What do you say, priestess?”

“If it’ll shut the both of you up, then I’m for it!” Faye growled, not giving me a second to position myself before she swung at me with my dagger.

Well, it was clear that handling a gun wasn’t all she was good at. She had the posture, even though her footing needed work. She was leaning too much of her body into her swings, and wasn’t able to capitalize on her follow up move. I was ducking and weaving her attacks, realizing what she was doing.

I caught on pretty quickly. I was faster than her, so she tried to submerge me into one of those parallel pools. Forcing me to swim wasn’t the idea, but maybe she thought that those deadly looking fish inside could do the job for her. Clever, but I wasn’t about to fall for it. Though, when I dodged her attack, she leaned in too far, losing her balance. Faye was about to fall into the water, the fish getting excited below. I grabbed her elbow to keep her from falling, but she used my kindness against me, the clever blond slicing the back of my wrist as I helped her up.

I winced a little, but the trick didn’t kick in yet. Until I noticed that devious smile on her face looking at me.

“Gotcha.”

Shit, I couldn’t lie… I was impressed. She sliced me without even using any of her special skills…

“Faye, you play dirty!” Maelise giggled.

“Now, I have to ask; were you ever in any real danger?”

“I’ll let you use your imagination, Butcher.” I released her, Faye drawing closer to me. “Now, if the gift of Essera stays true to enlightenment, then this part should come easy to me as well, just like I knew how to open my stats menu.”

“Go ahead. You deserve it.”

“All right, here it goes.” She stretched her hands over my wound and tapped into her mana. Or at least, tried to. After a few empty seconds, I started to worry, until her finger tips started to glow, glitter-like particles hovering between us. Sure enough, the slash she gave me began to heal up, my flesh stitching itself back together with a sensation that felt like gentle tickling.

“EEEeee!” Maelise jumped, bouncing up and down excited. “We have ourselves a priestess!”

I smiled at Faye warmly. “Impressive. You did great, Faye. You know, for a spoiled brat and all.”

“Shush you! I will not allow you to ruin my moment!” She smiled, Faye happy herself.

“Come on, let’s make our way back upstairs to say goodbye to everyone. Congrats, Faye!”

++++

It felt rather uneventful for me, but at least Faye was made our official healer. Truth be told, I was proud of her. I saw the enthusiasm in her demeanor, and I could tell that she was more than eager to show us that she had some grit after all. As we walked toward the dungeon’s exit, I felt something pull at me. At first, on all sort of directions, and then, down the left fork. Maelise was talking to Faye in front of me about her new powers, making it easy for me to trail back and satisfy my suspicions.

I couldn’t explain it, the feeling felt like home, but distant.

It was as if I was about to jump right into the portal I came through, and the longer I walked down the stone halls, the stronger that feeling became. Until the air fell still, and the notion of someone around these empty cells overcame me.

I eagerly looked around, all of my searching bringing me to the very last cell in the aisle, and it was occupied.

I gasped faintly, my eyes growing wide to the naked girl curled up in the corner, shivering.

She looked incredibly fragile as her features screamed at me. She had metallic scaled over her light blue flesh, two frontal horns on her forehead, and long tousled ivory hair. There were patches of dark spots on her skin, and the tips of her toes looked purple, the cold nipping at her extremities.

Before I said anything, I needed to learn my place. I had no right to judge her condition; she could have been Litheenia’s prisoner of war. Even so, seeing her this way struck a chord in my chest. I furrowed my eyebrows, and relaxed my gaze, the malnourished girl finally acknowledging my presence.

Her hands… they were tied and taped completely, pinned behind her back. I noticed them when she looked up to me with those vengeful yet terrified eyes. I couldn’t imagine the perception she had of me—just another predator here to make her life a living hell.

For some reason, she reminded me a lot of myself…

“I’m not sure what you did to deserve this, but… it can’t be anything good,” I said, the girl giving me an empty response. “Still… you don’t look too different than the girls upstairs. You got a name?”

Again, silence.

“I’m not here to hurt you, if that’s what you’re thinking. Here.” I reached into my sash and took one of those trail bar snacks. I pushed the tip between the bars, but she didn’t budge. “Look, I know you’re hungry. There’s no reason to be prideful with me.” I crouched down to her level. She was skeptical, but I could tell that she wanted to trust me. “It’s safe.” I took a bite out of it to show her, and that was when she finally crawled closer to me. Though, I didn’t think me biting into the bar was what set her off. She leaped, slamming her face right into the bars. Up close, she looked worse, her hair greasy and filthy, her skin dry and blotchy. Her eyes were locked on my crest, the girl so moved by it that she started to pant deeply.

You are reading story The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure at novel35.com

“S-ssqu-squ—” she tried to annunciate, hoarse screeches coming out instead.

“My name is Knives. I was told that I’d been summoned by Lady Lust for protection.”

That must have been the answer she was looking for, because as soon as I mentioned that, she took a huge bite of my bar.

I smiled. “There. Doesn’t that feel better? Can you tell me why you’re here?” I asked as I fed her. “Why do you have your hands tied behind your back? What did you do?”

Her cheeks were stuffed as she suddenly fell into silent tears. My chest tanked, the poor girl probably recollecting the tragedy she had endured before she was locked up in here.

Something inside me was telling me that she wasn’t a threat, and I wanted to believe it. Though before I could get any answers from her, I heard footsteps to my right.

“Please, don’t say anything…” Maelise said, disgruntled.

I stood up, scrunching my face at her. “Why?”

“She’s Dera-Dera. You weren’t supposed to see her. She’s the sorceress who had ripped the portals open.”

“What do you mean, Mae? Nayla had told us the portals cannot be opened again.”

“They can’t. It is dangerous.”

“You mean you won’t. There’s a difference. And this is why they’ve stopped showing up, right? After you’d closed them? Nayla and Lucile lied to us.”

“I don’t think you understand. If we release her, she will bring your precious Ebonmere to the ground! She is Greed’s slave! His concubine! And her only mission is to give her master everything he asks for. And Greed wants Earth for keeps!”

“She’s from his nation?”

“No, Dera-Dera is Litheenian.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then that means she has a good reason for betraying her people.”

“She’s a traitor! There’s nothing more to hear from her story!”

“If she’s Greed’s slave, then there is plenty we don’t know about her.”

“Knives, she’s the reason we lost Onessa! She’s the reason my brother is dead! If it were up to me, I’d kill her myself!”

Maelise had passion in her shattered voice. I didn’t argue with her. Despite this lie, I was more disappointed in the situation. If she was the rare sorceress Nayla had mentioned, then that means that she could ship Faye and I back home. We didn’t need to save Onessa. We didn’t need to go on this dangerous mission of slaying the six other sins. Maelise knew that. I could tell by the way she was looking at me. She looked hopeless, her face begging me not to change my mind.

But I was torn…

Did this mean that Lucile and her alchemists couldn’t bring us home? Did they need Dera-Dera’s assistance?

“Please come back, Knives. I don’t want Faye catching up…”

“Answer me this, Maelise—how long were you going to keep this secret from me? Do you need her to open the portal to Earth, or not?”

“I’m sorry, Knives… I’m not sure…”

“Where the hell did you venture off to, Butcher?” Faye said, pulling up behind Maelise. “This isn’t even your home and you’re roaming around, being nosy!”

“Faye, can you excuse us for a sec?” I said as I approached the girls to prevent Faye from following me further and noticing Dera-Dera.

“Is everything all right?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I said to her honestly, Faye noticing me looking at Maelise a bit cross.

“Oh, all right. I will be out in the front waiting.” She left, leaving Maelise and I at the fork.

“I want you to answer me honestly. I don’t mind staying and helping you girls out, but I need the truth. I have been more than transparent with you and the court. I expect that same respect, Mae.”

She lifted her tilted head timidly, and answered, “Dera has no reason to open any portals for you, or us. Like I said, she is working with Greed, or Lord Kurrun of Bydo. Her alliance is with him and him alone. When we brought her in, she wasn’t even willing to help us close the portals she’d already opened! Please, Knives, pretend that you’d never seen her. She is trouble. And I’m being transparent with you. If she could capture Greed’s heart, then she is a master in her trade. Don’t let her fool you, too.”

You can find story with these keywords: The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure, Read The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure novel, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure book, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure story, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure full, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure Latest Chapter