Chapter 16 - Lady Auf and Vice-Captain Vihita
I am Vihita, the vice captain of the 2nd Unit of the Queen’s Guard, an all-female knight corps, in the Kingdom of Sepans.
I was one of the first knights to explore the 9th floor of the dungeon.
Most of the time, I serve as a knight stationed at the Nausa ducal household, protecting the noble family.
Having just returned from the 9th floor, I am now sitting in the garden with Lady Auf, the third daughter of Duke Nausa, sipping tea and answering her questions about the dungeon.
“So, the 9th floor is a vast grassland...?”
“Yes... The captain and I split into two teams and followed the walls for about three days, but we still couldn’t complete a full circuit, so we turned back.”
“How many steps did you take?”
“My team took about 94,000 steps. Considering our equipment, supplies, and battles with enemies, that was our limit.”
“So... based on your height and stride, that would be roughly 67 kilometers, wouldn’t it?”
“......Is that so?”
Lady Auf, the third daughter of the Nausa ducal household, is an exceptionally intelligent young woman.
Due to the scars from her skin condition, she had secluded herself in her room for a long time. However, after the effects of the Hot Spring Dungeon reduced her scars to a mild degree, she began venturing out more often. Now, she sits with me in the garden, sipping tea and asking questions about the dungeon.
Having known her during her painful past, seeing her so lively now fills me with joy.
“You mentioned the ceiling isn’t visible... Is that because of fog or haze in the air?”
“No... In fact, visibility is quite clear... yet the ceiling is still invisible.
Honestly, the sky felt much higher than the long staircase we descended from the 8th floor.
Perhaps the 9th floor simply has no ceiling, and the sky stretches endlessly?
I’ve heard that some dungeon floors can have physical anomalies that defy logic.”
“......Vihita, was there any wind in that grassland?”
“Wind...? ...Now that you mention it, it was completely windless.
Though, being inside a dungeon, the lack of wind isn’t surprising. But for a vast grassland, it’s certainly unnatural.”
Why is she asking this?
And for some reason, Lady Auf looks pleased with the answer.
—The Next Day—
Lady Auf summoned a merchant and placed orders for several items.
One was a recently invented device called a “telescope.”
It was a curious tube that allows you to see distant objects.
This makes sense. Such a tool would be useful in that vast floor.
But given its absurd size, it might not make much of a difference.
She also purchased a large quantity of cloth and rope from the Thread Dungeon.
Then, she gathered craftsmen from the royal palace and had them start working on something.
What could she possibly be planning?
“Vihita, are you familiar with hot air balloons?”
Ah, I see now. So that was what the lady was planning to do.
Lady Auf plans to float high above the grassland, use the telescope to survey the area, and locate the hot spring.
However, hot air balloons are still in the experimental stage and far from practical.
While they can carry people, they’re difficult to control, and there are reports of several deaths each year due to accidents.
“But... it’s dangerous. Even a slight breeze could be fatal... Oh.”
“That dungeon has no wind, doesn’t it?”
Right... There’s no wind.
And unlike those experimenting with balloons as a means of transportation or cargo delivery, our goal is different.
If we can simply ascend in a windless environment, scout from above, and descend safely, that is all we need.
Compared to the challenge of navigating wind-filled skies to transport people or goods to specific locations, this is far simpler.
We’ll build the balloon parts here, disassemble them for transport to the 9th floor, and reassemble them in the grassland.
Once the balloon is floating high, we’ll use the telescope to survey the area, then descend.
If the hot spring isn’t found, we’ll move to an unexplored area and repeat the process.
The monsters are small beasts that charge from a distance, so there’s no risk of sudden attacks destroying the balloon.
The only concern would be flying monsters, but the only sighting was the demon girl reported by the captain’s team.
And that demon showed no signs of hostility.
“...It might be possible.”
“It is possible. In a windless space, all we need to do is float up and come back down.”
“But... how much area can we actually survey?”
“Theoretically, the observable distance increases with altitude...
Based on the balloon and telescope’s capabilities, realistically...
Assuming we can observe from an altitude of around 3,600 meters... Hmm.”
Lady Auf scribbled some incomprehensible formulas on the ground, calculating something.
...Honestly, I have no idea what the numbers and symbols meant.
I can’t even begin to understand what or how exactly she was calculating.
“Roughly, we should be able to survey about 200 kilometers in every direction...?
Of course, the difficulty of finding the spring depends on its size.
And we can’t assume the 9th floor’s grassland has an infinite ceiling...
Nor can we assume the dungeon’s terrain curves like a planet, so it’s hard to estimate the exact observable distance.”
“......200 kilometers. Is that so?”
In three days, following the walls, my team and I walked about 60-70 kilometers, but we could only visually confirm about 1 kilometer ahead from the walls.
With Lady Auf’s method, we could survey a 200-kilometer radius in no time.
The difference in scale and efficiency compared to walking is staggering.
Oh... With this...
We might actually find it.
Thanks to Lady Auf’s wisdom and ingenuity.
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