Chapter 19
**CHAPTER TITLE: The Paladin's Secret Wound**
In his previous life, the body before him bore no such scars.
Moreover, that demonic energy...
Even if Irene was considered one of the weaker purifiers, the demonic energy that had seeped into her hand yesterday was far from ordinary.
What in the world had happened to Michael?
And how grand must that dungeon have been for the royal family to show such gratitude?
Irene stared at the list of dungeons that had occurred outside the fortress for a long time.
She tilted her head, then approached the staff member holding the list.
“Excuse me, are all the dungeons that occurred this period listed here?”
“Yes, but is there some kind of problem?”
“The records of the dungeon that occurred in the Tirenia Kingdom seem to be missing. It looks like it was at least high-grade, but...”
At Irene's words, the staff member shook his head as if what she said was impossible.
“That’s impossible. If it was a dungeon of that level, we would have recorded it. If not... then perhaps they requested a private treatment from that kingdom.”
“Private treatment? Is that even possible?”
Dungeon information was shared under the laws of the continent.
That was because the types, forms, attributes, and other details of the monsters that appeared inside were useful for future dungeon raids.
Of course, people were also curious about the information on rewards.
“Even if it was a high-grade dungeon?”
Private treatment might be possible for low-grade dungeons, but high-grade dungeon information was something everyone desperately wanted.
Yet they had requested private treatment for that?
“Shh. Keep your voice down.”
The staff member looked troubled and shushed Irene.
“After all, laws have loopholes. If you spend a lot of money, even the impossible becomes possible. Still, to leave no trace in the records, they must have spent a considerable amount. There must have been some reason.”
“If there’s a reason... what kind of reason do you usually have for requesting private treatment?”
“Usually, that would be to keep the information inside exclusive. Otherwise...”
The staff member whispered in a small voice that could never be overheard by others.
“There was a particularly strong monster inside. In that case, the name of the area where it occurred would become the monster’s name.”
At the staff member’s words, Irene recalled the name of the monster she remembered.
The monster recorded at the first dungeon occurrence was basically named after its appearance or abilities.
“Something like Blade-Tooth Rat or Siren of Enchantment.”
But as dungeons kept appearing and similar subspecies of monsters emerged, naming them became a bit bothersome.
“So names like Blade-Tooth Rat Sion-type appeared.”
A dungeon that occurred in the city of Zion.
There, a subspecies of the Blade-Tooth Rat had appeared.
On the surface, it was just the two teeth that looked a bit bigger. But its jaw strength was exceptional, making it much harder to fight.
Because the dungeon was not extinguished in time and left behind, it poured out, and eventually the city of Zion was reduced to ashes.
“Even so, Michael handled it all, so it ended there.”
In any case, after that, people began to call that monster simply Sion.
“The Tirenia Kingdom probably wants to prevent something like that.”
It seemed the staff member had sensed Irene’s thoughts, as he continued explaining.
“In countries with a lot of trade like Tirenia, that’s not particularly strange. Well, think of it as transferring dishonor to the next discovered country with money. But really, what came out inside to cover everything?”
The staff member muttered and then went back to his work.
Irene returned to her seat as well.
“It’s not something I know, so I can’t help Michael further.”
Thinking that, she let out a small laugh.
“Pull yourself together. It’s not the time for me to help others.”
One hundred thousand gold.
Although the room was nicer, the clothes she wore were softer, and the food was more abundant, the amount she had to pay to the count remained the same.
“Since I missed the transparency ring, I have to fill the one hundred thousand gold with something else.”
Fortunately, Michael had changed the contract conditions by paying the purification fee yesterday, or it would have been truly dangerous.
“In the next dungeon, if the things that should originally appear don’t show up, it will be a problem.”
The lump of rock that had been casually placed instead of the transparency ring came to mind.
Gathering one hundred of those things would be trash.
“Please, please... make the stone of silence appear exactly like before.”
Irene prayed to an unknown god and organized the papers.
Since she had obtained the desired records, it was better to return to the room and sort them alone.
Just as she was about to stand up, a paired couple entered the document storage area.
The purifier’s age was similar to Irene’s, and her face still carried the freshness of having just come of age.
And beside her was a knight who looked as big as a bear.
“Be careful on the stairs.”
The knight naturally held his purifier’s hand and climbed the stairs.
The moment Irene saw that, anyone could tell that the pair truly loved each other with all their heart.
Irene murmured the woman’s name as she entered with her cheek flushed, holding her knight’s hand.
“Reina...”
She was one of the purifiers Irene knew.
One of the ten second-rank purifiers in the fortress.
And one of the few people who had treated her well.
Irene recalled the Reina she had met in her previous life.
At that time, to repay ten thousand gold no matter what, Irene had severely restricted her meals.
While she had given up on everything else, every time she saw the fruit carried into the upper-rank purifiers’ rooms, Irene would stare blankly and swallow her saliva.
Fortunately, the count’s mansion was located in a warm region, so there were plenty of surplus fruits. Therefore, at night, she could secretly pick the fruit away from others’ eyes and eat it.
But in the fortress, that was impossible.
While looking enviously at the fruits the others were taking, Reina was the one who gave permission, saying, “If you’re okay, let’s eat together.”
“Here, I don’t know anyone here...”
As she said that and handed over the fruit, Reina had lowered her head in embarrassment.
She had become the subject of people’s mockery for the opposite reason from Irene.
“For Reina, even though she was a strong purifier, she chose a knight without dungeon-hunting experience.”
She had arrived at the fortress for the first time this year and paired with Felix, the knight who had been her childhood friend.
Because of that, from the very beginning, she had attracted people’s attention.
Second-rank purifiers could easily pair with experienced, seasoned knights.
In other words, it meant they could gather money from dungeons.
But she had given up on all those opportunities and chosen her childhood friend.
The fortress people mostly mocked her choice of pairing with her innocent first love.
“It’s good for a while. They’ll just have to watch from afar while others go to high-grade dungeons?”
“I wonder if they can endure as the gap with other second-rank purifiers widens.”
But contrary to people’s thoughts, the two’s relationship grew even closer.
One day, Irene had found a place to be alone and entered the depths of the fortress’s sponsorship when she overheard two people talking.
“You can’t avoid going to the high-grade dungeon? No matter that I can heal you, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Reina was clinging to Felix, pleading. Felix looked at her with affection and gently brushed her hair aside.
“But if you endure it just a little longer this year, from next year you won’t have to come here anymore. And... I no longer want to hug you for the sake of purification.”
The two only wanted to earn money at the fortress this year and then return to their hometown afterward to live a peaceful life.
Irene had cheered them on from the bottom of her heart.
People who wanted a relationship where they could support each other even without being a pair.
Those two had looked so happy.
But that wish was not fulfilled.
“Felix! Felix!”
On the day they entered the high-grade dungeon, Felix was killed instantly by the strong monster’s attack.
Healing was possible only while the heart was still beating.
A cold corpse that had lost its life could not be revived no matter how it was held.
“And Reina collapsed right then.”
The shock of losing the beloved she had paired with just that year was enough to drive her mad.
In the fortress, while calling out for her knight, she would wander around, and people would click their tongues.
“We knew it would come to this.”
And not long after, Reina’s family took her away.
They did not feel sorry for their daughter; instead, they dragged her onto the carriage while scolding her for her foolish act.
The memory Irene had of Reina’s last moment was seeing the carriage carrying her away while calling her pair’s name.
At that time, a staff member entered the document storage area, handed a piece of paper to the staff members inside, and left.
The staff members who received it were in a flurry.
Curious, Irene approached the staff member and asked.
“A high-grade dungeon has appeared. It’s the first high-grade dungeon of the year. It has been assigned a number starting with zero.”
At those words, Felix said to Reina.
“I have to apply to hunt that dungeon.”
Then Reina replied.
“You can’t avoid going to the high-grade dungeon? No matter that I can heal you, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Although the past, place, and time had changed, the exact same words flowed from her mouth.
In that moment, Irene involuntarily stepped forward and said to them.
“Don’t go to that dungeon.”