Makairo’s Chamber.

A hidden space that appears after continuously climbing the stairs that look like infinite stairs backward, the place where we obtained the Mystery Box and new armor.

Surely, when we last came here, we were flustered.

Because the mid-boss “Makairo” was already dead, turned into a skeleton, lying in the coffin...

“......”

“......”

Returning to the chamber again, we could only be flustered in another sense.

“Where the hell did this guy disappear to? The corpse wouldn’t have walked away.”

Opening the coffin, the corpse had vanished.

“Hey, Aures. You were the last one to come alone to investigate last time, right?”

“Y-yes... but...?”

“Was it there then? Inside the coffin.”

When Ibaekho asked sharply, Aures avoided eye contact and trailed off.

“Th-that...”

“Say it clearly. Was it there back then or not?”

“...I don’t know.”

“Don’t know? What does that mean?”

“When I came then, I hadn’t opened that stone coffin to check...”

“Hey, are you kidding? You came all the way to the chamber and didn’t even open the coffin before turning back...? Don’t tell me you didn’t even go to the chamber and just slacked off?”

At Ibaekho’s interrogation tone, Aures vehemently waved his hands denying it.

“Of course not! I definitely went properly! My legs hurt, so I climbed a bit slowly...!”

“Don’t be too harsh. It’s a mistake.”

Then Jaina, who was nearby, spoke up in defense, maybe giving him strength.

Aures’ voice grew louder than before.

“F-first of all! Don’t you know you gave me the most annoying task? Still, I went without complaint, so it’s too unfair to say this...!”

Not quite brazen, but anyone listening would be irritated.

It was the simplest investigation despite taking time, and yet he couldn’t even do that properly.

“Hah! Unfair? Hey, do you want me to make it really unfair for you?”

“Cut it out. It was our fault to send Aures alone. We should have expected he couldn’t handle such a simple task by himself, but we failed to do so.”

At the words of the old destroyer, Aures seemed to ponder if it was a blame or a defense, then nodded.

“...As Lord Ruinjenes said!”

Apparently, he decided to take those words as defense.

But looking at this, I feel drained.

According to the old destroyer, it seems like our fault for giving such a task to him?

In fact, Ibaekho seemed to think similarly and just sighed deeply without further reprimand.

“Hah... well, that’s not important.”

“How on earth did the corpse disappear...?”

The topic that had drifted away returned to the main point, and everyone shared their opinions.

“There is room for interpretation, but I think there is a possibility that someone else is hiding inside this ruin.”

“There’s no guarantee it’s just one person.”

“Yes. Also, if that is the case, it is highly likely they have high-level stealth abilities. We searched thoroughly, but didn’t even find a single hair.”

“...Oh! Now that you mention it, maybe they’re bald!”

At the GM’s speculation that someone might be hiding inside the ruins, Ibaekho nodded.

“Surely someone might be hiding here.”

“Yes, we cannot exclude that possibility—.”

“Well, it could be that one of us has some secret motive.”

He is always like that.

Is it a habit to suspect comrades first?

‘That’s almost a sickness...’

Of course, knowing roughly Ibaekho’s painful past, it’s not entirely incomprehensible behavior.

But...

“Stop suspecting comrades. That should be reserved for the very, very last resort.”

“...What did I say? I only said it could be possible. We have to keep possibilities open, right?”

When I gently admonished, Ibaekho, like a spoiled kid, pouted slightly.

I sighed internally and changed the subject.

Because I felt it was time to hear this.

“Enough, speak properly. This time don’t try to divert the topic.”

“When did I do that?”

When did you not? You’ve been doing it the whole time.

“Why did you come outside the castle walls?”

Ibaekho had led the comrades outside the walls.

I asked repeatedly why, but had never received a proper answer.

“...What does that have to do with the current situation?”

“Of course it does. No matter how you look at it, what we experienced doesn’t seem like it was aimed at me and Havelion.”

Someone destroying the magic circle to the city and committing suicide.

A mysterious man guiding us to that dimensional monument while gathering materials to repair the magic circle.

And now being trapped in this golden ruin.

“Whoever the unknown mastermind is, I think they’re targeting you.”

“......”

“So now just say it clearly. We need to know your purpose so we can at least guess theirs.”

Saying firmly, Ibaekho looked at me and, seeing my expression, reluctantly opened his mouth.

“I didn’t come out to do anything grand. I just wanted to investigate a little more about that ‘Ashen World’ the baron mentioned.”

“Investigate? Say precisely.”

“To see if that Ashen World is really expanding, I wanted to find out properly.”

“Isn’t that something you can know just by watching quietly?”

“No. Not really. Sometimes it seems to approach slowly, but the next day when I check again, it’s further away. Like the tide coming in and out.”

“So what was the conclusion?”

“No conclusion yet. I just marked a few places and was about to go back after properly testing.”

Was about to go back...

That phrase gave me a sudden thought.

Maybe the unknown someone wasn’t trying to interfere with whatever Ibaekho was doing outside the walls.

No, very likely that guy’s goal was.

[Ha, we’re screwed. The old man said it would take at least a year.]

To prevent Ibaekho from returning to the city.

So that person destroyed the return magic circle and erased the evidence.

‘But luckily GM and I were also outside, so we joined up.’

The appearance of GM, who can repair the magic circle quickly, disrupted someone’s plan, so that guy lured us here with the ‘dimensional monument’ and trapped us.

‘...Is that a leap?’

Hmm, well... not exactly a leap, but there isn’t enough evidence to say this definitively.

Therefore, I continued asking.

For example.

“You mentioned a year ago.”

Maybe the most important thing to understand this current situation.

“What exactly will happen then?”

“......”

“Tell me. We have to know to at least guess who destroyed the magic circle.”

“Ha... really, this headache is killing me.”

Ibaekho rubbed his forehead and gently shook his head. But maybe he judged that hiding it now won’t help.

“I’ll say it just once, so listen carefully.”

Then Ibaekho’s mouth slowly opened.

“War.”

“...War?”

“When Noark’s preparations are done, they will advance to Hwangdo Karnon and kill the King of Rafdonia.”

Is it just my imagination that I can already smell blood?

Noark is planning to kill the king.

And it is highly likely that Ibaekho is closely involved in this plan.

‘No, he must be playing a key role. His skill alone can blow up half the palace.’

The problem is that if this happens, there will be too many people who would try to stop Ibaekho.

Hard to pinpoint who exactly.

‘But if I had to guess, the royal ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) family probably got information and intervened...’

Such sneaky tactics are also typical of the royal family.

“But Baron, if it’s true like you said that they are targeting us, then you know how much worse it makes the situation?”

“...What do you mean?”

“I mean not that word-of-mouth got out, but that we didn’t even tell the lord of Noark we came out.”

“So?”

“That means there really was a traitor among us. Whether someone close to the royal family pulled strings or just leaked information that we were leaving.”

As Ibaekho opened his tiger-like eyes and glanced at the comrades, only Aures flinched and shrugged his shoulders.

‘What kind of warrior is this with no spirit?’

Watching that, Jaina quietly whispered.

“He was beaten to near death before, that’s why.”

“To Ibaekho?”

“Who else?”

Ah.

No wonder the others just glare but accept it, but only he acts like that.

Step, step.

Ibaekho slowly walked forward and stopped in the center of the group.

“Anyway, I think now is the time to verify this. What does everyone think?”

“I don’t care.”

“Me too! I don’t care either!”

“At this point, it might be better to just check once.”

Everyone agreed without exception to Ibaekho’s proposal.

If there really was a traitor, this kind of reaction would be difficult to fake.

But did they decide that they must properly verify it?

“Alright, since we got everyone’s consent...”

Ibaekho took out an item from the pocket dimension.

No.7234 Broken Trust.

The very same one I’ve used several times before.

But does he always carry this kind of thing that can also detect lies?

“Honestly, this gives better judgment than my abilities. I’ll use this, everyone okay with that?”

Despite Ibaekho’s strong move to bring out Broken Trust, the comrades remained calm.

Whoooooosh—!

He pressed the power button, and the needle on the disk started moving slowly.

And in that state.

“Jaina Flyer, have you ever passed information that we were coming outside to someone?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Ibaekho asked each person one by one.

As expected, no one was unable to answer when questioned.

But was he still not satisfied?

“Reck Aures, do you have even the slightest connection to us being trapped here?”

Changing the question from earlier to leave no loopholes, he asked the comrades.

No matter how many times it was repeated, the answer was the same.

“No, I have never done that.”

“Ibaekho, stop it. This much proves everyone’s innocence.”

“Right? Seems there really isn’t a traitor among us?”

The suspicion slightly eased, their tone became less sharp.

But Ibaekho was more efficiency-driven than me.

“Ba-baekho? If all suspicion is cleared, can we stop here—?”

“No, there’s still time left, it’d be a shame.”

“A shame? What do you mean—?”

“Exactly what it means. Since it’s turned on, let’s take a little more time to get to know each other. We’ve been together for quite a while, but we don’t really know each other well.”

Speaking in a low voice, Ibaekho smiled slightly and looked at Jaina Flyer.

“Now, the first question.”

“......”

“Jaina Flyer still wants to kill me, Ibaekho.”

I had no idea why such a question suddenly popped up.

But...

“If true, say yes; if not, say no.”

His playful look suddenly disappeared.

Jaina hardened her expression and answered coldly.

“Yes.”

...How do they even function as comrades?