The Return Of The Exiled Villain

”Oh? The room is much larger than I imagined,” he was a little surprised.

Cells lined both walls from the entrance to the far end, constructed from the same dark glassy stone as the fortress above.

It was reinforced with containment arrays on every surface, the suppression field coming off them dense enough to be physically present as a pressure against his mana sense.

And inside them... There were obviously people, but not just humans, but other races as well.

The first cell on the left held three dwarves, stocky and broad, even when sitting, their characteristic grey-brown skin carrying the pallor of those who had been underground without sunlight for too long.

One of them was awake, looking at Gray with the flat, assessing eyes of someone who had stopped expecting rescue some time ago.

Across from them were two figures that took Gray a moment to categorize correctly. Beastkin, wolf-type by the ears and the residual mana signature, their usual physical energy absent, the suppression field flattening their strength to nothing.

Further in...

A group of four humans, mages by the look of their clothes, though from which academy or institution he couldn’t immediately determine.

They were awake and clustered together at the back of their cell, as if being close to each other was the only way to defend themselves.

Next to them was an elf, solitary, seated with her back against the cell wall and her knees drawn up, her long pale hair falling forward over her face.

Her ears, the characteristic length of her race, were visible through the hair, and the mana coming out of her was almost dim.

More cells.

More occupants.

A second dwarf, alone.

Two humans together.

Something Gray didn’t immediately recognize, small and dark-skinned with large eyes that caught the dim light and held it, watching him from the back of its cell without moving.

He moved deeper into the room.

The second-to-last row on the right.

”...Seraph.”

She was sitting against the cell wall with her sword gone, her hands in her lap, with closed eyes, but her body quivering.

Her long hair was disheveled, dust from the underground on her shoulders, and a small cut above her left eyebrow that had dried without being cleaned.

She looked up when he appeared before her cell.

Her expression moved through several things in rapid succession.

”G-Gray...?” She was genuinely relieved.

But then, her posture returned, as she coughed slighly.

”...You’re late,” she spoke.

”I was inside another worm earlier. It affected my schedule,” he joked lightly.

Something crossed her face that was almost a laugh, but she decided not to be one at the last moment.

”Gray...”

”Are you hurt?”

She blinked, her hand lifting slightly toward the cut on her brow as if she had forgotten it existed until he mentioned it.

”No,” she said after a moment.

”Nothing serious.”

He studied her for another second, then turned his attention to the containment array sealing her cell, his gaze moving across its structure before drifting to the cell beside hers.

The last one in the row.

He almost missed her.

The figure inside sat in the far corner, pressed back as far as the confined space allowed.

She was an elf... but quite different from the one further up the row.

Where that one had the quiet, weathered presence of someone old in the way that elves were old, this one was young, or appeared young, the specific agelessness of elven features making precise assessment difficult.

Her hair was dark, almost black, falling past her shoulders in considerable disorder.

Her clothes were fine in a way that was visible even in their current condition, the fabric and cut of them communicating their origin regardless of the dirt and damage they had accumulated.

Her ears were slightly longer than the other elf’s.

But her energy... was the most familiar to him. It wasn’t mana, but spirit energy, an energy solely possessed by the royal elves.

Gray looked at her for a moment before turning to Seraph.

”That elf in the last cell...”

Seraph glanced in that direction, her eyes softening just slightly.

”She was already here when they brought me in,” she replied in the same low tone. ”She hasn’t spoken once. I don’t know how long she’s been like that.”

Gray looked at the elf again.

The girl had not moved, not even lifted her head.

Either she had not heard them, or she had heard and chosen not to believe.

He took a step closer to Seraph’s cell.

Without another word, he reached out and placed his hand against the containment array.

The moment his fingers made contact, the structure trembled, the suppression lines flickering as his mana pressed into it, unraveling the pattern piece by piece until the lock holding the door gave way.

The barrier dissolved.

The door slid open.

For a second, Seraph did not move, as if the sudden absence of restraint felt unreal.

Then she stood, and the composure she had been holding onto cracked the moment she stepped out.

She closed the distance between them in a single motion. She grabbed him, her hands tightening against his clothing as if letting go would make everything collapse again.

”I thought... ah...” her voice broke before she could finish, ”I thought you weren’t coming back...”

Her grip tightened, her face pressing into his chest as the words came out in fragments, no longer measured or restrained.

”It was dark, and they took my sword, and I couldn’t feel anything, I c-couldn’t even... I didn’t know if I’d get out of here...”

She shook slightly against him, the fear she had held down for so long finally finding a way out now that she no longer had to hold it in.

”I was scared,” she admitted.

”I didn’t know what to do...”

Gray did not interrupt her or pull away.

His hand came up slowly, resting against her back, holding her there without forcing her to let go.

”I’m here.”

She nodded once against him.

”...Yeah,” she answered.

But she didn’t let go yet.

At the same time, Gray looked at the elf in the last cell, his eyes narrowing slighly as he then remembered a random thing that had appeared in the journal.

’...Is she the missing Elf Princess?’

[An Elf Princess?]

Jasmine suddenly got curious

’Yeah,’ Gray nodded lightly.

’Elaríen... she disappeared eight months ago, with the Elven Council declaring it as a political withdrawal. Half of the kingdom probably thinks that she’s already dead.’

[Is she that important?]

’Yup... she was in succession for the throne. If she hadn’t disappeared, she’d probably be the Elven Empress by now.’

He deeply stared at her.

’...She could be useful.’

He pulled away from Seraph’s grip and crouched down to be at eye level with the cell’s occupant and spoke quietly.

”I’m opening this door. You don’t have to come with me. But if you stay here, I can’t guarantee another opportunity.”

She didn’t reply to his words.

Then, slowly, the elf’s head came up.

Her eyes, when they found his, were dark green and considerably more alert than her posture had suggested, the eyes of someone who had been paying close attention to everything while appearing to pay attention to nothing.

She looked at him for a long moment.

”Um.”

The elf princess nodded, causing Gray to turn to the array

Gray turned to the array on her door.

It was constructed differently from Seraph’s, the inscription lines denser and the gap in the southeastern quadrant smaller.

He found the gap anyway.

It took slightly longer.

Forty seconds instead of fifteen.

The array dissolved, and the door opened, and the elf princess carefully stood up from the corner.

She was taller than she had looked sitting down.

Gray looked at both of them briefly.

”Close behind me. Single file in the narrow sections. Don’t speak unless necessary. Don’t run unless I run.”

Seraph nodded.

The elf princess looked at him with those alert dark green eyes and nodded once.

Gray turned toward the corridor and started leading them away.

He took the right path without hesitating, retracing the route he had taken on the way down with the accuracy of someone who mapped spaces automatically and didn’t need to think about it.

First branch. Second branch. The narrow section where his shoulders had been near both walls.

Then the stairs.

He checked the corner before taking them.

Empty.

They went up.

The upper fortress was considerably more active than the underground had been; the ongoing disturbance Aurora had created was redistributing the population away from the corridors closest to the eastern wall and toward whatever she was currently doing.

They crossed two intersections without encountering anyone, took the corridor along the eastern wall, and reached the secondary entrance.

The three gate guards from before were gone.

Pulled toward the disturbance presumably.

Gray moved through the entrance and into the Nether Realm’s bruised, ugly exterior air, Seraph and the elf princess a step behind him.

He looked at the open space ahead.

’[✧Swap✧]’

”Huh...?”

For some reason, he couldn’t use his mana.

”[Spirit Eyes]”

Swoosh...

He instantly noticed a dense red smoke around the whole area, blocking every ounce of mana that passed through it.

Another.. anti-mana field.