Give up?
Give up what?
Before the question could even settle in his mind, a door materialized in front of the two of them.
[Would you like to exit?]
At the guide voice echoing through the space, Tesila spoke.
“This really is different from a difficulty 3 dungeon. Let’s head out.”
Even if they left now, they could still receive the original objective reward, the ‘Windless Zone.’
And naturally, they would also obtain access rights to the Tesila Adventure Party.
Oscar stared at the door.
A door he could leave through with only a few steps.
Yet his feet would not move.
Unable to understand that behavior, Tesila tilted her head.
“Hm? You’re not leaving?”
“......Let’s try a little more.”
“Mm, sure. If the dungeon owner says so.”
Along with Tesila’s indifferent reply—
[Reattempt intention confirmed.]
[The door disappears.]
The door that had tempted him vanished without a trace.
Then, as though time itself were rewinding, the surrounding scenery began to reverse.
The sun that had been peeking over the horizon sank back behind the mountain ridge, and the moon rose.
The demon race member who had already become a corpse stood back up again before disappearing into the sky.
And at the end of that bizarre sight, what awaited the two of them was a peaceful village.
“It’s exactly the same as when we first entered.”
Tesila spoke while pointing somewhere with her chin.
“That old man was chopping firewood back then too.”
KWAJIK!
There, a muscular middle-aged man was splitting logs with an axe.
“I remember him too.”
“And if my memory’s right, those little brats too.”
She looked toward the children playing ball in the open lot.
“The ball should come flying this way soon.”
Just as she said, a child kicked the ball wrong, and it rolled toward the two of them.
Then the child standing closest came toddling over and picked up the ball.
“So we’re still invisible to them...... what exactly was lacking?”
At Tesila’s mutter, Oscar also sank into thought.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.
‘Originally, everyone in this village dies at the hands of that demon.’
Every house and facility in the village burns down, and only the charred remains of the villagers are discovered afterward.
It was a vivid memory from his previous life.
But by killing the demon, he had prevented that catastrophe.
So naturally, he thought he had fulfilled the clear condition.
‘No, now that I think about it, that itself is strange.’
Only a handful of people know that every member of this village was murdered by demons.
Most of them were already dead, at that.
‘Then did they read my memories in order to construct this dungeon?’
But when?
How?
He had met the Guide countless times, yet never once felt them using such magic on him.
Even if an artifact had been used, he should at least have felt a sense of déjà vu.
‘So it’s neither magic nor an artifact?’
Then how did they know these villagers were killed by demons?
Closing his eyes, Oscar searched through his memories.
‘Information.’
He needed information.
The deaths of those he failed to protect in this village still remained in a corner of his memory, but to be honest, the details of the situation back then were blurry.
After wandering across countless battlefields, this place too had simply become one among many.
‘Remember.’
Fortunately or unfortunately, he had encountered memories related to this village relatively recently.
When he visited Vince, the Nightmare Baron had pulled a stunt that caused him to recall this place.
‘Please.’
Anything was fine, so long as it could help, even a little.
As he dug through his memories with a deeply furrowed brow, a brief conversation flashed through his mind.
—This is pretty vicious. Judging by the methods and traces, it was definitely those demon bastards.
Those were the words of Magiro, who had approached while shaking his head.
—Any survivors?
—......None.
After that conversation ended, Radan muttered.
—Oscar. It seems their target was us from the very beginning.
Paat!
Oscar’s eyes snapped open.
‘Right, that’s it. Their target was us.’
There had been a reason why he, who should have been on the battlefield, had instead been leading the White Tower elites through this region.
Baron-class demon Varkan.
The bastard who spread plague and raised corpses had suddenly vanished from the battlefield.
‘Given the nature of his abilities, the moment he enters human territory, it becomes the beginning of a disaster.’
Just imagining tens of thousands—hundreds of thousands—of undead soldiers rising from the heart of the place they needed to protect was horrifying.
The moment that became reality, humanity, already at a disadvantage, would collapse under attacks from both inside and outside.
In the midst of that, the Imperial Family discovered traces of demons in this region.
Without even having time to investigate properly, they urgently dispatched him here.
‘But in the end, Varkan wasn’t here.’
To lure him and the White Tower elites away from the battlefield, Varkan had deliberately hidden himself and instead sent his subordinate demons here.
He remembered how the frontlines had been pushed back significantly as a result.
“......8%.”
Now he finally understood why saving the village had only resulted in an 8% completion rate.
The battlefield.
At the exact time this village had burned, the frontlines had collapsed there, and more than two thousand soldiers had died.
“Ha. This is insane.”
As Oscar let out a hollow laugh, Tesila asked.
“Why? Did you figure something out?”
“Maybe.”
“......Maybe?”
“Yes. About the demon that attacked this village.”
Oscar slowly looked around.
“Now that I think about it, doesn’t it seem strange? That a baron-class demon came all the way here just to massacre a mountain village with a population of only 182.”
“Well, they’re the enemy faction, so it’s not impossible...... but yeah, it does seem like overkill.”
“But what if that investment was actually the most rational choice?”
“What do you mean?”
“This village... no matter how I think about it, I believe it’s that village connected to Demon Varkan.”
Tesila’s eyes narrowed.
“Varkan...... you mean Varkan of Pestilence? The viscount-class demon?”
“Yes. You really do know your history well.”
“W-What!? I only learned about it while studying, okay? Back when the war was at its peak, I was only.......”
“Anyway. I remember reading in history class that when Varkan caused the frontlines to collapse, he used diversion tactics like this.”
At those words, Tesila pondered briefly before replying:
“I admit the situations are similar, but couldn’t it just be a coincidence?”
“When I saved all 182 villagers here, the completion rate was only 8%. If that completion rate simply represents the number of people saved.......”
“Then assuming 100%, that’s over two thousand people?”
“Exactly 2,275.”
Oscar continued while looking at her.
“And when the frontlines collapsed because of Varkan’s scheme, the number of soldiers who died exceeded two thousand.”
“......I see.”
Tesila slowly nodded with a serious expression.
“Then there’s a high chance this dungeon is recreating actual history. If so, then I understand what it meant by telling us to give up.”
“Yes. While this village was under attack, the frontlines were collapsing as well.”
“182 villagers and over 2,000 soldiers. It’s telling us to abandon one side.”
With a somewhat gloomy expression, Tesila looked at the villagers.
“I guess...... saving the side with more people is the right thing to do?”
The side with more people.
At those words, Oscar unconsciously took a deep breath.
He himself had once chosen the greater good between humanity and the White Tower, abandoning the smaller side.
He had boldly declared he would never regret that choice, yet in the end, he failed.
Because when facing death, there was no helping the lingering sense of regret.
‘Of course, even now, if someone asked me, I still couldn’t say I regret it.’
Because he had already decided that.
Instead, there was one thing he had resolved in this newly given life.
‘After I died, I wanted to live only for my own people.......’
But after actually living again, even that proved difficult.
It was simply his nature.
He could never ignore those asking for help.
That was why he resolved to become stronger.
‘Become stronger than anyone else, and live a life where I abandon nothing.’
If he had been vastly stronger than the Demon Emperor.
If he had possessed enough power to withstand the demon army alone.
Then he would never have been cornered by such pathetic threats.
That was why this dungeon held a meaning beyond being just another dungeon to him.
‘Has a person like me grown after death?’
Whether he was merely a dreamer with grand thoughts, or whether he truly possessed the strength worthy of that resolve.
This place was no different from a stage to prove it.
“I won’t abandon either side.”
Tesila’s eyes widened at Oscar’s words.
“Neither one?”
“Yes. Neither.”
“But...... how?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
With those words, he checked the watch on his wrist.
‘5:42 PM. There’s plenty of time.’
The demons would arrive at this village at 2:32 AM.
That meant there were still around nine hours left.
“Before dawn, we need to visit the battlefield and rescue as many soldiers as possible.”
“What? Is that even possible? Even if we figure out where it is...... ah! Wait, don’t tell me?”
“It is.”
Jjeojeok!
The space before them split apart as a subspace revealed itself.
The engraving of information still hadn’t finished yet.
“So I was right. You’re using spatial magic.”
“Yes. With this, getting to the battlefield won’t be a problem.”
“Then we’re going in?”
“Just a moment. There’s something we need to confirm first.”
Oscar moved the portal entrance in front of the children kicking the ball around.
Naturally, they still could not perceive him.
Even if he spoke to them, they ignored him, and he couldn’t touch the ball either.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m checking whether the villagers can use the subspace portal.”
If they could use the portal, then every problem would be solved.
There would be no need to defend the village at all.
He could simply place all the villagers inside the subspace and focus entirely on the battlefield.
“Looks like it doesn’t work?”
Just as she said, unfortunately, the experiment failed.
Like ghosts, the children simply passed straight through the portal.
“That’s unfortunate. If this had worked, things would’ve been much easier. Let’s go.”
Following behind him into the subspace, Tesila voiced her impression.
“When you said subspace, I expected it to be quiet, but it’s busier than I thought.”
“It’s a mess right now because it recently underwent some semi-forced remodeling, but the functionality’s the same.”
“So you really can move all the way to the battlefield with this?”
“More than enough.”
When he pulled on the strings of space, a new exit opened not far away.
Naturally walking out through it, Oscar nodded.
“I think we arrived in the right place.”
“T-This really is the battlefield.”
Below the cliff where they stood, crude barracks and tents stretched endlessly across the plains.
At the scenery thick with the smells of blood and death, Tesila suddenly looked back.
“Even the air feels different...... just how far did we travel?”
“About 585 miles.”
“Mm, so roughly 942 kilometers?”
Oscar flinched in shock.
“You know the mile system?”
“Hm? Of course. A lot of old dungeons and records are written using miles. Adventurers basically have to know it.”
“That’s a cool profession.”
“......I have no idea what part of that sounded cool to you, but seriously. Over 900 kilometers.”
She glanced at Oscar with the eyes of someone who had found desirable prey.
“The more I see, the more valuable a property you look like.”
“I’m not property. I’ve never even been put on the market.”
Cutting off the conversation, Oscar looked past the barracks toward the battlefield.
This place, far north of the mountain village in Sirin, was already dark with the sun fully set.
Thud. Thud.
Together with a massive, unpleasant rumbling that felt like the earth itself was trembling—
A black wave began writhing forward from beyond the plains.

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