SIAHG 5

Chapter 5

With my appearance, the tense mood loosened slightly, and the group stood up.
The tension still lingered, however.

“Where do you intend to go, Your Highness?”
Yeniel politely asked the Crown Prince, and he replied:

“First, let’s go to the first floor. If we leave the mansion, we might be able to escape this shadow world. And staying on the same floor as those monsters we saw on the 5th floor is too dangerous.”

No one voiced the ominous thought that the monsters on the first floor might be even more dangerous.

The Crown Prince laid out the situation:

“Most survivors probably went down the central staircase. Lady Devnoa declared she would head east. In any case, we’re likely to run into others on the way down or at the entrance. Let’s proceed carefully toward the first-floor entrance.”

The group slowly descended from the 5th floor to the 4th.
The staircase was wide and massive.
Only their footsteps echoed eerily in the silence.

“…This mansion is vast. Far larger than the imperial palace.”
The Crown Prince’s voice echoed unsettlingly.

Strategist Sian replied heavily:

“The shadow world changes according to the dark sorcerer’s power and intent. This mansion has likely been distorted, twisted, and enlarged as a deadly trap for us.”

They reached the 4th floor, where doors lined the hall, but no one dared explore.
They kept descending…

—Yet each level revealed the same doors.

“…Aren’t we passing the same doors again and again?” Yeniel asked.
“We’re looping back to the 4th floor. I wish I were wrong,” said Sian.

He placed a handkerchief on the floor.
But after descending again—
the same handkerchief appeared beneath their feet.

“Hi-Hiiik!”
The Crown Prince’s attendant gasped.

It was the 4th floor once more.

Everyone looked to the Crown Prince.

“It can’t be helped. It seems this door is the only way forward. We enter the 4th floor.”

The attendant Max protested in fear, but the Crown Prince was resolute:

“Our choices are either to return upstairs, back to the 5th floor banquet hall with that monster waiting—or to enter here. Do you see another option?”

“…No.” Max fell silent.

Sian opened the door.

“Magic is weakened here, but I can still shield us. I’ll take the lead.”

A long, dark corridor stretched before them.
The air smelled faintly of blood.
The group walked quietly, guided only by Sian’s faint spirit-light.

But soon the corridor grew stranger—doors disappearing like mirages, the path behind swallowed in darkness.

“What are you looking at, Lady April?”
Yeniel tugged gently at my sleeve.

“The darkness.” I answered innocently.
“…Not good. We’re wandering inside the dark itself.” Yeniel muttered grimly.

The deeper they went, the heavier the air grew—moist, reeking of iron and blood.

At last—

The corridor opened into a vast, gray cityscape.

Buildings two to three stories high stretched out eerily silent.
The sky was ominous.

“Are we really in the right place? The corridor is gone…!”
The attendant turned pale.

Where the corridor had been, only forest and mountains now remained.

“This… is a dungeon, Your Highness.” Yeniel explained.

“The city below resembles the old capital from a thousand years ago. This place must be constructed from the Archmage’s memories. We’ve fallen into a dungeon of the past.”

The Crown Prince groaned.

“So, must we enter? It feels like we’ve been deliberately herded here… it reeks of danger.”

Yeniel remained calm:

“We have two choices: go forward into the dungeon, or descend through the forest to the city. But avoiding the dungeon may not yield good results.”