Ian... who are you?

TL/ED: Lolz

As they entered the cave, the darkness grew thicker.

A vast amount of energy could be felt inside.

Ian's lips curled up slightly at the nonchalant setting.

"You can walk comfortably for a while."

Meanwhile.

Step by step.

Silvia's movements, as always, were infinitely graceful.

In truth, she wanted to illuminate her surroundings with magic.

The darkness frightened her.

It was probably due to her childhood, separated from her parents.

The upper echelon of Laurent was always busy, and young Silvia, having nightmares, had no one by her side.

The deep darkness, like a night without someone to rely on, was always frightening.

‘... This should be fine. Ian must be thinking of something. There must be a reason for preferring darkness in strategy or something.’

Actually, Ian just liked the night, that's all.

- Thud.

A stone rolled under Silvia's wrongly placed foot.

Her face remained composed, but her trembling eyebrows betrayed her fear.

‘Ahh! Don't shout! I can’t do that!’

Internally, she was in a panic.

"..."

Ian was walking about ten steps ahead.

She wanted to get closer without being noticed.

Could she get closer by talking about something?

Silvia pondered for a moment and remembered a topic.

"Uh, did you hear about Lina Rosewell acting strangely in the dormitory yesterday?"

Step by step.

Ian lightly stopped and started walking again, allowing Silvia to get a bit closer.

"Strangely?"

"Yes. She was wandering around at midnight, asking why the world was treating her like this. She seemed like she might have been sleepwalking, but her expression was scary."

"Did you hear any more specific details?"

Silvia tried to recall.

She had already pushed aside anything related to work.

There seemed to be a reason why this rumor came to mind.

"Oh! She said she was looking for you, Ian. Is there something between you two?"

Another half-step.

While Ian stopped, Silvia closed the gap.

"No, nothing special."

"Hmph. Boring."

What should she talk about next?

Come to think of it, it was the first time she was considering a conversation topic to get closer to someone, not about work.

"And also... Why am I worrying about something like this? Ian, do you have nothing to say?"

“If you’re scared, you can create light. Don’t sneak up behind me.”

"Oh, no, it's not like that!"

Silvia cried out reflexively without realizing it and regretted it.

She should have just honestly said she was scared.

Maintaining the image of the upper-class heiress was her constant effort for sophistication.

'... Come to think of it, Ian seems like he wouldn't care about such things.’

Silvia observed Ian quietly.

Despite his somewhat dirty appearance, his clothes were surprisingly neat.

... Was he always like this?

Or was it just that the dim light concealed the scruffy look?

Silvia tilted her head and asked Ian.

"Do you not manage your image?"

"Image?"

"Yes. People think you're just someone who walks around with pretty girls without knowing the subject if they don't know you."

Straight to the point.

Ian paused for a moment.

Silvia silently celebrated her boldness.

"Does the rumor match the real me in your eyes?"

"No. I've talked to you, so I think better of you... No! What am I saying! It's just that the rumor is a bit different! I really hate judging people based on appearances!"

Ian chuckled in response.

"I feel the same way. So, turn on the light. Your elegant heiress concept won't work on me."

"Huh? This isn't a concept; I'm genuinely the successor of the prestigious Laurent. But since you said to turn it on, I'll turn it on."

"Okay. Okay."

As Ian responded smoothly, Silvia glanced at him, moments before she was about to memorize a light spell.

"Lux... Kyaaa!"

As the light spread, dark entities scattered away from the light.

-Shashashashak!

At the chilling sound, Silvia involuntarily froze in place, clinging to Ian's arm.

"Why."

"I-Ian, there's something rustling!"

"It's touching."

"Eek!"

Touching Ian's arm, Silvia, startled, pulled away as something strange retreated.

Ian comforted her.

"And don't worry. It's just the lingering mana reacting to the light."

"Lingering mana...?"

"Some kind of ghost-like entities..."

As he finished speaking, something terrifying happened.

-Shararararak!

Unidentified forces moved again.

Already on edge for various reasons, Silvia, stepping on a wrong root, swayed a few steps forward.

Ian swiftly covered her.

"Kyaa!"

A loud scream.

-Thud.

The two bodies overlapped.

Their bodies intertwined. It was Silvia underneath, but a student from Lichten was unlikely to be severely injured.

However, rough breathing was audible.

"Ha... Ian."

"Sorry."

First contact with a man.

Silvia reflexively clutched her body, but surprisingly, she didn't push him away.

"Ah..."

Having seen it when she was covered, she turned her head.

Sharp spikes were embedded in the cave wall.

Did Ian throw his body to protect her? His eyesight and reaction speed were truly extraordinary.

Without that, she might have been seriously hurt.

She was indebted to Ian's abilities.

Silvia lowered her head.

"No, I'm sorry. I couldn't stay calm. This is a dungeon, too."

Mumbling, her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment.

"T-Thank you."

◆

This was a feature of this cave.

A moderately enclosed cave size, thanks to the geothermal energy maintaining a comfortable temperature.

The echoing sound of footsteps.

Walking for a while, tension would ease, and thoughts would drift away. Suddenly, sharp traps would spring.

The boss monster of this dungeon had set up a kind of trap.

He had planned to warn her while walking, but there were some miscalculations in understanding Silvia's psychology.

Since she had already identified the trap locations, they passed without harm.

‘She seems to be more scared of the dark than I thought.’

Fear of darkness.

It was the driving force behind Silvia's growth.

That's why Silvia learned her light-type magic, which had special properties.

Compared to her characteristic 4-star performance in Fanta X Aca.

However, in this dark dungeon, her abilities could be used quite effectively.

The real strategy had begun.

"Silvia, illuminate!"

"Yes!"

This is a dungeon where mana flows from both mountain ranges.

This dungeon collected mana flowing from both mountain ranges. Ghost-type monsters of a difficulty level around 7th grade.

However, they had no inherent resistance to light.

-Pahat

Silvia's light magic slowed their movements.

-Puhuk

Ian beat them with the Lunar, which was filled with moonlight.

Since most of them were naturally occurring monsters, the strategy wasn't too challenging.

They had reached the dungeon's central area.

Before them, a vast pond-like expanse unfolded, with a wide area visible in the middle.

It was undoubtedly the place where the dungeon's owner resided.

"We've arrived. Boss room."

Ian declared, and Silvia couldn't hide her amazement.

"W-Who are you really? How did you handle those grade 7 monsters so easily...!"

"Don't be too surprised yet. Get ready."

"Are we going to cross this water?... No, wait a moment."

Silvia looked at the pond in front of her with a blank expression.

It was so wide that it was hard to believe it was inside the cave. It would be more appropriate to call it a lake.

And gradually, Silvia's expression turned from surprise to shock.

At first, she thought it was water, but it wasn't.

"I-Ian, this is...!"

"Yeah. It's all mana."

Ignoring Silvia's astonishment, Ian sat down in front of the mana lake.

"A V-shaped ravine. A shape that allows mana from the mountains to gather easily. The mana that gathered through the small holes that looked like caves has crystallized here."

"But it doesn't look like pure mana..."

"Various elements must have mixed in. Mana itself is colorless and odorless. Many elements and things must have mixed during the crystallization process."

Ian explained, then touched the mana lake with his fingertips.

"Wait a moment! I don't have a good feeling about this! It feels like magic. Touching it carelessly might trigger a mana explosion...!"

"Don't worry."

Ian, undeterred, pressed his fingertips against the mana lake.

A tingling sensation in his fingertips.

"!!!"

Ignoring the fuss Silvia was making beside him, Ian closed his eyes and focused.

A lake made of mana. At first glance, it seemed majestic, but in reality, it was different.

Mana gathered while experiencing many things in the mountain.

There were many impurities.

Externally, it felt like magic, similar to Silvia.

The peculiar energies had a significant presence.

However, they were just some of the impurities.

The mana lake, made up of mana and all things, wasn't as fatal or overwhelming as one might think.

Ian envisioned this purified place.

At the same time, he activated his ability, Dishwashing.

—Chijijijijik

Dark energies emanated from the lake near Ian.

"... Purification? W-Wait a moment. A-Are you really trying to purify all of this? Such a thing..."

Even through Silvia's voice that could be heard beyond his consciousness, Ian dismissed it from his mind.

Dishwashing was an ability.

However, the one manifesting this ability was Ian, merely a human.

He couldn't purify all of this alone.

But.

'I sense the earth's energy within the mana.'

The mana gathered along the mountain slope.

Originally, it was mana derived from the earth.

Even if they were contaminated, the impurities also came from the earth.

In that mixture, he sensed the energy of the earth.

— Gurgling!

The lake reacted as if boiling.

From the corner where Ian was positioned, waves spread gradually, extending further and further.

"... No. What the h*ll."

Black vapors rising from the entire lake.

The black mists emerging from the vast pond in the cave were overwhelming in themselves.

"Ah..."

Silvia stared blankly at the scene unfolding before her.

It was a spectacle created by Ian.

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