Chapter 76

Chapter 76: The Vanished Sword Saint - Part 1

The day after Julius's last day of vacation, he was supposed to return to the castle, but there was no sign of him.

This seemed unprecedented, and the castle was in a state of turmoil.

Normally, Chloe and I would be at the academy with the princess at this time, but an incident had occurred - Julius was missing, and we had the day off from school.

"Jin, where do you think Julius went?"

"Considering it's Julius, I don't think he got involved in any incidents."

Amidst the chaos, there was one person who remained calm.

"Princess, you seem surprisingly composed."

"Of course. If a member of the royal family panics just because one of our retainers is missing, that would be unacceptable."

"As expected of you, Princess."

I said this to the composed princess, and we discussed where Julius might have gone.

"The most likely place is the dungeon in the Rocky Mountain, as you mentioned a few days ago, Jin."

"That's right. After hearing about Mithril, he asked for a day off from you, Princess, and disappeared that day. So, the most probable place is the Rocky Mountain dungeon."

But if that's the case, it's strange that Julius isn't here now. The difficulty level of the Rocky Mountain dungeon isn't that high, and Julius, as the Sword Saint, wouldn't be in danger alone.

"Jin, do you think Julius might have become engrossed in mining and lost track of time?"

As we pondered Julius's situation, Chloe suddenly suggested this.

Getting engrossed in mining and losing track of time...

"That's a possibility. Mining requires a lot of concentration, so it's possible he lost track of time."

"Even in a place without a clock, Julius is known for keeping precise track of time."

"Normally, I would agree, but when I last saw him, he disappeared immediately after hearing about Mithril. Looking back on it, it seemed like he had been seeking Mithril for a long time. Did that fit Julius's character? He never mentioned anything like that when he was teaching as a hero's mentor."

"True. I understand. I'll inform Julius's search party about our conversation later."

The princess relayed our discussion to one of Julius's search team members who had been called into her room.

Afterward, Chloe and I returned to our respective rooms since we couldn't train at a time like this.

"Julius's search will be handled by the castle's capable soldiers, so I don't need to get involved, but..."

Not long ago, I wouldn't have even considered taking action myself.

After all, the opponent is the Sword Saint, and the kingdom's capable people are on the search team. They might have thought there was no need for me to get involved, but I owed Julius a lot.

"So, I'm thinking of going to look for Julius. Chloe, what about you?"

"Yeah, I've relied on Julius for advice and help with my problems, and I want to help the princess as well. Let's go find Julius."

"Agreed. Let's go find Julius," I said, and we returned to the princess's room to inform her of our decision.

Leaving the castle, we first headed to the Adventurer's Guild, partly for information gathering and partly to discuss Julius. When we told Finé and the others at the guild about Julius, it turned out that he had visited the guild a few days ago to inquire about the dungeon.

"Jin, it looks like Julius did go to the Rocky Mountain dungeon, just as we suspected."

"Yeah, but it's been a few days since then, so there's a chance he might have moved. Let's go to the Rocky Mountain dungeon to check."

After that, I left the guild and boarded a carriage I had reserved since last week. It usually takes more than three hours, but when I explained the situation to the coachman, he said, "I'll have the horses do their best," and we arrived in about two hours.

Once this incident is resolved, I'll give the coachman a token of gratitude and maybe some carrots for the horses.

With these thoughts in mind, I got off the carriage and asked a soldier near the dungeon entrance about Julius.

"Julius, you say? He entered here a few days ago, but come to think of it, I haven't seen him come out since then."

"As I suspected. Thank you."

I thanked the soldier for the information, and Chloe and I entered the dungeon. We proceeded to the teleportation circle just a little way from the entrance and moved to the safe zone on the 20th floor.