Chapter 48: A Surprisingly Short Trek Through the Castle

As soon as we all entered the big bronze door, it slammed shut. Unfortunately, we seemed unable to open it no matter what we did.

"I guess we have to defeat the Evil King in order to get out alive," Touwa said after our fifth failed attempt to reopen the door.

"No wonder nobody knows anything about the interior of the castle," Yuri remarked.

"Hana, can you tell where the Evil King is?"

"Uh…" I looked around, trying to find his silhouette. "There he is! He's on the top floor in the center of the room!"

"We know where the ******* (illegitimate child) is so let's go already!" Mari huffed impatiently.

She started to walk away… right to where a trap was.

"Stop, Mari! It's a trap!"

It was too late. Mari stepped on the trigger, causing the floor to fall out beneath all of us. We seemed to fall forever until we finally landed with a dull thud.

"Where are we?" I groaned, getting up despite the pain in my rear.

Kiku created a light, allowing us to see our surroundings. The room we were in looked almost like a jail cell except for one small detail. We weren't alone.

Grrr!

In front of us stood a huge three headed dog. Unfortunately for us, it must have been hungry because all three mouths were overflowing with drool.

Grah!

The giant dog leapt at us. Yoko produced a vine and whipped it in a flash. The dog jumped back, whimpering in pain. Instead of attacking again, it cowered in the far corner.

"Ha! This mutt's all talk! Is this the best the Evil King can do?" Mari gloated.

"I agree, but we do not seem to have a way out," Kiku replied.

"Let's think about this logically. If that dog is kept down here all the time, how do they feed it? I doubt adventurers storm this place often and that the Evil King would sacrifice his minions just to feed one monster. There must be a hidden exit somewhere. Why don't we look around for it?" Touwa said as she started feeling the walls.

The rest of us mimicked what Touwa did until we finally found a switch. After flipping it, part of the wall lifted, revealing a set of stairs.

"Hana? Can you check and see if there are any traps on the stairs? We can't be too cautious."

"Sure… I don't see any traps around here so we should be ok."

After climbing up the stairs for what seemed like forever, we found ourselves in what looked like a storage room. There were large crates everywhere and most of them stunk of rotten meat.

"Han, are there any traps in this room?" Touwa asked in an unusually nasal voice due to her pinching her nose.

"I don't see any," I replied as I looked around. "C'mon guys! It's not that bad!"

When I looked at the others, they were all pinching their noses in disgust. Kiku looked ready to throw up.

"Easy for you to say, farm girl! Since I am a princess, I do not have to deal with such awful smells. Let us leave this putrid room already! We have a king to defeat!" she said as she walked over to the exit.

Behind the door was a long, suspiciously barren hallway. I led the way, though I didn't need to as there were no traps to speak of. At the end of the hallway was a big wooden door. Another hallway intersected horizontally at the door's wall.

"Well, I'm honestly surprised it was this easy," I said, stopping in front of the door.

"What do you mean by that, Hana?" Touwa asked quizzically.

"We're already here. This door leads to the Evil King."

"Hmm… we better be cautious. This could be a trap that your skill can't sense."

"What do you-?"

"What are we standing around for?! Let's go already!" Mari shouted as she kicked down the door.

I had a bad feeling about this.