Chapter 155

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Right after leaving the border.

On the road to Arpen Duchy, Noa recalled the events that had transpired just a few hours earlier.

The protective talisman given to Delia had been used, which meant the Trial of the Hero had partially failed. And that there were only three days left to sort it all out.

But there was one thing that weighed on his mind.

‘…Partial failure.’

This wasn’t an entirely new phenomenon.

It had often happened in the original story.

This was an occurrence that took place at an extremely low probability, mainly when someone else interfered with the trial.

‘But still…’

The problem was that the subject in question was Delia.

Because in the original story, the only heroes who experienced partial failures were Laurea and Sven.

After grasping all the circumstances, Noa confessed the truth to Ulan.

After hearing the whole story, Ulan boldly declared, “We’re going to the Arpen Duchy.”

This was a natural decision.

Noa respected Ulan’s choice, and together they headed not toward Arsen Academy but toward the southeastern border.

To save Delia.

“Noa.”

“Yeah?”

“How much longer do we have?”

A simple question about the remaining time.

Noa glanced at the watch on his wrist.

“It’s two days and nineteen hours.”

“We need to hurry then.”

“Yep. The sooner, the better.”

Even at their fastest pace, it would still take about two days to travel from the Empire’s border to Arpen Duchy. The distance was short but the terrain was rugged.

‘But that would mean we’re late.’

Noa and Ulan’s goal wasn’t just to arrive at Arpen Duchy.

The real objective was to eliminate everything that could hinder Delia and help her tackle the trial again.

‘So…’

As mentioned, the sooner they arrived, the more time they had to spare for other matters.

While he was processing this thought, Noa’s eyes widened in surprise.

“…Huh?”

The reason was simple.

Ulan suddenly wrapped his arms around Noa’s waist.

Noa, taken aback by the sudden tight grip, gasped.

“W-Wait! Why are you…?”

“I’m hurrying.”

“Huh?”

What did that have to do with this?

Noa looked confused.

Then his eyes widened as Ulan started striding toward the cliff’s edge, still holding him up.

Whoosh!

A fierce wind howled through the canyon.

Looking down at the sheer cliff, a dizzying sense of vertigo hit him. As he was stunned by the sight, Noa’s face turned pale.

He realized what Ulan was about to do.

“W-Wait! You’re not seriously…?”

“You got it.”

“I haven’t even said anything yet?!”

Noa shouted in disbelief, but no answer came. Ulan firmly secured Noa to his side and replied with actions instead.

“…!”

In that instant, memories surged back.

When Ulan had suddenly done something reckless while crossing the prairies.

“Hang on tight.”

“N-No, wait! Aahh!”

Ulan’s actions hadn’t changed a bit.

As Noa felt the déjà vu, he lifted off the ground. His scream echoed like a thunderclap through the canyon.

4.

A world shrouded in darkness.

For a moment, he thought night had fallen, but that wasn’t the case. Blinking his eyes, he found the surroundings hazily coming into focus.

“Ugh….”

Upon regaining consciousness, a reflexive groan slipped out.

His head throbbed. The little girl, Delia, frowned and surveyed her surroundings.

“Where… am I?”

Enduring the intermittent headache, she gathered her composure to recall the memories from before she lost consciousness.

Summer vacation at Arsen Academy.

During the brief vacation of about two weeks, Delia had returned to the duchy to visit her half-sister, Rudine, who had been confined by royal decree.

After arriving at the duchy, she had headed south of the royal castle.

Her goal was to pick flowers that Rudine loved before visiting her.

‘Valley of the Falling Stars.’

A place famous for its clusters of Starlight Flowers that shimmer like the stars in the night sky. She had been in the midst of selecting the brightest blooms when dense fog began to envelop the area.

In that moment, Delia felt an instinctive alarm; something unusual was happening.

‘It was just like back then.’

The Abyss Worshipper incident.

The eerie fog that had blanketed the area then was similar to what she was experiencing now. Moreover, the escort team nearby had mysteriously vanished.

‘As I stumbled through, I found an unidentifiable ruin…’

One she had never seen before.

Normally, she would have been cautious, but Delia felt an inexplicable pull and stepped inside the ruin.

‘And then…’

A mysterious world welcomed her.

A world that sparkled as if the starlight above had fallen to the ground. As she walked, entranced by the dreamlike atmosphere, she suddenly came across a dead end.

A massive door barred her path.

On it were inscribed these words.

“Heir of Einar.”

“I ask you.”

“From where does the power of the stars originate?”

Written in the Ancient Fairy Script.

Reacting instinctively to the unexpected question, she answered, and the jet-black door creaked open on its own.

Soon after, another path appeared.

As she walked silently along it, another door with a question stood in her way.

The sudden onset of a Q&A session.

Initially, she solved the questions easily, as they weren’t terribly difficult. But as time went on, the problems grew harder, and her pondering took longer.

Then came a new disturbance.

‘…An ambush.’

A group of hooded figures in gray.

Out of nowhere, the enemies appeared and abruptly attacked Delia. Among them, the masked swordsman was particularly menacing.

His sneak attack nearly severed her head!

‘But…’

She barely escaped with her life.

Right after realizing she was being attacked, she had torn the protective talisman she received from Noa.

The protective talisman.

The spell that activated automatically defended her against all attacks. Thanks to that, Delia was able to grasp the situation and prepare to cast her own magic.

‘I should thank Noa when I get back.’

If it weren’t for the talisman, Delia would likely be dead by now.

After letting out a sigh of relief, she resumed her recollection.

After the talisman activated, Delia drew on her magic and quickly prepared a spell. She was getting ready to counter the imminent ambush and launch an attack on the assailants.

Likewise, the attackers were gearing up to cut her down. Just as a clash of force was about to erupt, dense fog split the two sides apart.

A moment later, the landscape shifted. As the enemy presence faded, a wave of drowsiness washed over her.

‘Right, that’s when I collapsed.’

That was all her memory accounted for.

Finishing her recollection, she slowly opened her eyes. Then she looked around with a much calmer gaze.

‘This place is…’

Different from where she had been earlier.

Where she had come from was a bright, dreamlike space, but now it was dark, gloomy, and filled with fog.

And one more thing stood out.

‘It’s like a maze.’

High walls surrounded her on all sides.

Using her observational skills, she noticed these walls stretched endlessly.

It was truly a maze.

At the same time, an inexplicable unease washed over Delia, causing her to huddle her shoulders.

‘…I want to get out of here.’

Normally, she would have been curious about where this place was and what it was about, but not this time.

Delia immediately set her feet in motion.

She wanted to dispel her uneasy feelings and find the exit out of the maze. With that, she disappeared, swallowed by the thick fog.

5.

After leaping off the sheer cliff, Ulan pressed on relentlessly.

He traversed the canyon effortlessly, and even the notoriously rough mountain terrain near the border was no match for him.

As a result, Ulan and his companions crossed into the Arpen Duchy before dawn.

“We’re almost there.”

A proud smile bloomed on his lips.

And rightfully so.

This achievement came while carrying Noa, who would run out of stamina after just thirty minutes.

The reason this was possible was simple.

Since jumping off the cliff, Ulan had been hauling Noa around like a sack of potatoes. Of course, Noa’s condition was less than ideal.

“U-Ulan…”

Noa’s face was ashen.

In a voice that seemed close to dying, he beseeched, “Can’t we take a little break?”

“Why’s that?”

“If we keep going like this, I think I’ll die.”

This was certainly no exaggeration.

Usually, it took over two days to travel from the Empire’s border to Arpen Duchy.

‘Meanwhile, Ulan…’

He had somehow cut that down to just five hours.

With superhuman strength and endurance to boot.

The Hero’s Enchantment granted him stamina that never tired. Ulan, however, looked at Noa with a puzzled expression.

“Aren’t we in a hurry?”

“Well, I think we’ve hurried enough.”

Thanks to his relentless pleading, after five full hours of being hoisted like a sack, Noa finally touched the ground.

During the brief resting period, they filled their bellies with food and water provided by the Empire’s border guards.

“Oh! That’s right.”

While doing so, Noa’s eyes widened, as if he had remembered something important.

“By the way, do you know where the Trial of the Hero is held?”

“Of course I do.”

Ulan replied readily.

Because he had heard it from Delia in a past life.

It wasn’t just that; he also knew why she was undergoing the Trial of the Hero.

‘She said she got caught up in it while picking flowers that her little sister liked.’

The valley where stars fall.

A place colloquially referred to as “Valley of the Falling Stars.”

After finishing his recollection, Ulan laid it all out, and Noa exhaled a sigh of relief.

“Phew, I’m glad it matches my memory. By any chance, did you hear about the contents of the trial?”

“I don’t know that.”

Beyond what he had mentioned, all Ulan knew was that she had passed the trial over three days.

He hadn’t heard what exactly had transpired during the Trial of the Hero. This applied not only to Delia but to all the other heroes, too.

‘Not particularly curious about it, either.’

After all, it was probably a trial where they fought off monsters. Ulan was sure of that.

Did Noa somehow sense his thoughts?

She warned, “Oh, just so you know, Delia’s trial is completely different from the one you faced.”

“Really? How different?”

“The trial you did was all about defeating increasingly stronger monsters, right?”

That was spot on. Ulan nodded.

As Noa said, he faced numerous monsters during the week-long Trial of the Hero and passed it with flying colors.

‘So I thought they would all be similar.’

Based on her reaction, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Ulan listened closely to her words, and soon the answer he had been waiting for came.

“Of course, in terms of overcoming challenges, there’s not much difference. However, Delia has to face problems instead of monsters.”

“Problems?”

“Yes, questions related to stellar magic.”

The Trial of the Hero has its own unique concept for each hero.

For example, Ulan’s was the fight.

The objective was to win against every type of monster encountered.

“Other heroes are the same.”

Ian’s was protection.

Laurea’s was purification.

The aim was to either guard the sanctum at the heart of the trial or cleanse a desecrated sanctum, and all trials had time limits.

“Then Delia’s trial is…?”

“Arcane. The aim of her trial is to unravel the scholarly aspects of the stellar magic that has existed since time immemorial.”

Noa, having finished answering, recalled the original story.

During the Trial of the Hero, Delia faced a total of ninety-nine questions. After resolving all the problems, the trial’s master would appear.

‘The Arch Lich.’

More specifically, an Arch Lich at the level of a sorcerer who used Stellar Magic, just like Delia.

And that’s where problems arose.

Namely, the fact that the Lich was quite powerful.

Delia’s Death Branch Point also stemmed from variables occurring during the battle with this Lich.

‘But this time, it will be fine.’

His azure eyes shone with certainty.

Having absorbed part of the Source left by the Swamp Ruler, Delia had grown stronger than she was in the original story.

The likelihood of death was greatly reduced as well.

‘But the problem is…’

The development that didn’t exist in the original.

Namely, the occurrence of “partial failure.”

As that crossed his mind, Noa snapped out of his thoughts and immediately stood up.

“Let’s move again.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t rest a bit longer?”

“Nope, this is enough.”

His trembling legs had steadied significantly.

With that, they wrapped up their rest and redirected their steps toward their final destination.

The place where Delia was isolated.

The location of the Trial of the Hero.

To the Valley of the Falling Stars.

Chapter 37. Rescue

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