BLADE & BASTARD: Drag Him High Volume 5 (eBook)

Kumo Kagyu (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-9356-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Who rules over the dungeon? The adventurers who plunder its riches...or the fathomless foes that lurk in the gloom? When Crown Prince Festin visits Scale, he seeks to bring the adventurers to heel and assert the kingdom's power over the dungeon. The prince soon meets Garbage, and though their statuses are polar opposites, the two bear a striking and uncanny physical resemblance. And then, the crown prince vanishes into the maw of the dungeon-signs point to him being kidnapped and dragged to the depths. Sezmar's, Schumacher's, and Iarumas's parties are sent in to rescue the prince from the darkness. However, when the adventurers descend, they are greeted with the mocking laughter of a bizarre and powerful enemy. Who rules over that unknowable abyss? Perhaps the truth can only be found within the dungeon.

Textauszug

Chapter 1: Heir to the Throne

The night was blue.

An awfully cold wind whistled across the wasteland, grating in her ears. In all likelihood, it was the moon’s fault. The gleaming moon, so radiant that the stars paled in comparison, cast an almost blindingly bright light onto the ground below. That light did not discriminate—it was fair and equal in its uncaring mercilessness.

It’s a big lie when they say the night is black.

The girl let out a secret sigh as she gazed upon this scene from the window. She was sitting in bed, hugging her knees against the bitter, freezing cold. Relieved by the meager heat her own life produced, she expelled another faint sigh.

She was here. That was an indisputable fact. But at the same time, the knowledge that she was the only one here assaulted her.

She felt uneasy—yes, uneasy. She was scared of everything.

Of tomorrow. Of what was to come. Of the future. Of the past.

But even if she voiced that uncertainty, no one would come to help her. She had no choice but to face things alone, to handle them herself.

The night is blue, not black.

Then...what about the dungeon? What color was its darkness?

Scale, the city with no night, stood far off in the distance. It would provide her with no answer.

Nor, of course, would the moon.

§

That day, Scale’s morning began not with the ringing of temple bells but with the sounding of a great many trumpets.

People crowded into the Temple of Cant, which wasn’t a common occurrence. Of course, many came and went from the temple every day. Its massive doors had hardly ever closed. Most visitors were adventurers, there either to treat their companions’ wounds or to request a resurrection. It was rare for the common folk to go there to pray—and even rarer for adventurers to go grieve at a lost comrade’s grave.

And yet on that day, throngs of people pressed into the temple, forming orderly lines. Not even the god Kadorto, who loomed over them, had ever claimed so many believers in this land.

That said, were all the temple-goers happy to be there? Hardly.

The officers of the Royal Guard stood in lines, flanked by groups of adventurers. As curious onlookers watched, the adventurers fidgeted awkwardly, glancing at one another. These were the familiar faces of those who stood at the forefront of exploring Scale’s dungeon. Even if the adventurers had not spoken directly to one another, everyone had heard a rumor or two about everyone else. And of course, they knew one another’s faces too.

“It’s almost like we’re here to be awarded a chevron of rank or something,” Sezmar of the All-Stars quipped, cackling at his own joke.

The man, always in good humor, was a constant source of exasperation for Sarah, who stood next to him. Though admittedly, when she had seen the handsome Sezmar in his finest clothes that morning—looking like a knight out of a painting—she’d finally started to reevaluate her opinion of him.

I guess if he’s still the same guy on the inside, how he looks on the outside ultimately doesn’t change anything...

“Now’s not the time to be so relaxed...” Sarah chided him.

“You can’t blame me,” Sezmar replied. “They called us here, so we couldn’t exactly opt out.”

“Well, yeah, that’s true, but still.”

For her part, Sarah had pulled out the robes of her sect, which worshipped the Goddess of the Land. Though she was wearing them for the first time in a while, they still fit her body without issue thanks to the elven blood flowing through her veins.

Alongside Sezmar and Sarah, High Priest Tuck was wearing a military uniform from some era long past, and Moradin had also donned unexpectedly sharp attire. The only ones wearing their usual garb were Prospero and— No, wait, had Prospero always owned such a fine robe? Then, actually, the sole All-Star who had dressed the same as usual was Hawkwind, and even he didn’t look so bad.

Honestly, he looks like he’s used to this kind of thing. He acted almost like he’d been to such a ceremony before.

In contrast, there stood that “son of a shoemaker,” Schumacher. He just waited there silently, looking out of place in ordinary clothes. Though he’d done what he could to tidy up his appearance, he owned no formal attire. As for the rhea girl who was jabbing him in the thigh teasingly with her elbow, well, she wasn’t much different. And this was to say nothing of the other members of Schumacher’s group: the red-and-blue twins, the black suit of armor, and the ranger girl...

Besides those two parties, other adventurers were present as well.

There was Elsarion of the Gale, an elven swordswoman whose face was so beautiful that rumors spoke of her possibly being a princess from another land. Elsarion’s followers were all beautiful women as well, though that only served to make the princess stand out all the more. Her elven mithril chain mail, which did nothing to hide her figure, was the same armor she wore in the dungeon. Yet there was such an elegant confidence in her bearing that it put even the Royal Guard to shame.

Pretty people have got it so good... Sarah thought, twitching her long ears—as if she weren’t benefiting from her looks in the same way.

Next, Sarah lowered her line of sight and saw some dwarves who resembled mountain bandits. This was Mugar’s party, and in line with tradition, it was entirely made up of dwarves from his clan. That was certainly one way to choose companions, but... Well, they had survived and even made a name for themselves as first-rate adventurers. Their skill was not to be questioned—they were old hands, as High Priest Tuck might have called them.

Ironheart Sabata, Britomart the Silver Spear, the sage Rodahl who “walks the empty plain,” Aria of the Stars and Frost... The denizens of Scale would invent these epithets for high-level adventurers to amuse themselves, then tell tales of their feats. Sarah had heard a rumor or two about each of these adventurers, just as she knew the irresponsible gossip that circulated about her own group...

They came from a myriad of places, races, and occupations—their equipment, ages, genders, and alignments varied wildly. But the adventurers gathered at the Temple of Cant all had one thing in common: Most couldn’t have cared less about being there, and their lack of interest was readily apparent on their faces. Sarah, of course, was one of them.

None of them had business at the temple, so for what reason were they summoned?

“His Highness the Crown Prince will soon arrive. You must all stand at attention and pay due respect!”

That was the reason.

Sarah sighed. She stood up just straight enough to comply and put on a vaguely serious look.

I don’t see why he’s bothering after all this time...

Some prince from the Royal House of Llylgamyn had come to offer words of encouragement to the adventurers. But they’d been ordered to come to the temple. Of course they were going to have a somewhat cold reaction.

Okay, sure, the town of Scale was inside the kingdom of Llylgamyn. But that didn’t mean even a single adventurer in town obeyed the crown. They hadn’t exactly come here to adventure for the sake of the royal house. Fame, fortune, honor, deeds of arms, exploration—whatever it was they’d come here for, they were challenging the dungeon for their own reasons.

What difference was it going to make to them if some prince trotted out to offer words of praise?

Adventurers didn’t like others telling them what to do...

“This guy thinks he’s so important... What would someone who’s never set foot in the dungeon even know about it?”

“They say the crown prince is pretty good with a sword.”

“By inland standards. That won’t get him anywhere—not even against a kobold or an orc.”

“I wish he’d take a page out of Prince Alavik’s book...”

It was perhaps a bit cruel to expect him to measure up to that legendary prince who had challenged the dungeon on a quest to strike down the demon Davalpus.

Sarah perked up her long ears, focusing on what other conversations she could overhear.

“Honestly, getting called in by a royal is just ominous...”

Despite their misgivings, the whispering adventurers had gathered because this was the Temple of Cant. They might’ve had no respect for the royal house, but if a call came from the temple, that changed things. After all, offending the temple, and by extension Kadorto, was quite literally a matter of life and death for them. It was only with the blessing of Kadorto, ruler over the circle of transmigration, that they were allowed to return from the abyss of death to the world of the living. So if, for any reason, they were to be excommunicated by the Temple of Cant... The thought alone was horrifying enough.

Ainikki, the one who had gone to the trouble of summoning them in the name of the temple, was all smiles. She held her beautiful, lily-white hands in front of her, level with her hips. They rested one on top of the other, as if she were showing them off. The pose was almost like that of a saint.

Sarah’s friend, a ring sparkling on her finger, was in awfully high...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.10.2025
• Reihe/Serie: BLADE & BASTARD
• Illustrationen: Kumo Kagyu
• Übersetzer: Kumo Kagyu
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Dark Fantasy • dungeon diving • Gore • Light Novel • Magic • party mechanics • Resurrection
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-9356-3 / 1718393563
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-9356-1 / 9781718393561