After the scare we had, no one else could sleep. Fortunately, almost six hours had passed since we had stopped to rest in that place, and everyone had rested for at least three hours. It was time to move on.
We were on the fourth floor, and finding the staircase to the third floor was easy.
A few Hollow Knights appeared alone in our path, but now that we knew exactly how to defeat them efficiently, they were no longer a challenge.
An hour later, we reached the second floor. The place had much wider corridors than the ones on the lower floors and also had some rooms closed by thick wooden doors.
Inside these rooms, there were still some structural remnants of the things they were used for—such as ovens, spaces with shelves that looked like cabinets, depressions in the walls for hay beds, etc.
This made me think and realize that what was called the Temple of the Sun today was never actually a temple. It didn't make sense if, deep inside this "temple," there were knights from a fallen kingdom.
'Come to think of it... Laufus, Selrik, Odran, and Skerrion weren't like princes, but knights.
They probably served someone, but who?'
I didn't have the answer yet, but I was sure that what was now the Temple of the Sun had once been a castle, a fort, or even a palace. Time had buried it along with the earth, and the Forest of Thorns had isolated the place from the world.
It was while we were exploring some rooms on the second floor that we found another member of our group.
When Rosella opened a door, I realized from the sound of surprise that came out of her mouth that something was different. At first, I thought it might be a treasure chest—a real miracle on the first floors. I was ready to convince her to share it with me, but when I saw her expression, I realized that what she had found was not good.
"Guys..." Rosella called us.
Anton had opened another door further ahead, while Kyle and I were closer to Rosella. We peeked over her shoulders into the room and saw something sitting on the floor. The light from the torch I was carrying illuminated the interior of this room, and I saw that it was Mr. Hawklight.
His legs were stretched out, one arm hanging down at his side and the other clutching his stomach, where there was a large cut. His head was tilted to the right, and his eyes, wide open and white, were staring upward. Without a doubt, Hawklight, our instructor, was dead.
Kyle pushed Rosella aside slightly to get into the room and picked up his staff, ready to use healing magic.
He was about to start reciting a spell, but I grabbed his staff and pulled—not hard enough to wrestle it from him.
"What are you doing? I need to heal him!"
"... He's dead."
"What if he's just unconscious? I can still save him!" Kyle shouted, but anyone could see that Mr. Hawklight's skin was already white. It had been hours since he died.
"No, you can't. You know what happens if you use healing magic on a dead person, right? There's a chance you'll create an undead creature," I said.
Kyle was surprised to hear my last statement and backed away, his head bowed. "At least close his eyes, since we can't take him with us..."
"Of course," I replied, crouching down and closing Mr. Hawklight's eyes.
This was the first real corpse I had seen in my two lifetimes. The feeling of witnessing something like this was completely different from what I had expected. Instead of fear over a person dying in front of me, or despair because this person was supposed to be our instructor, I felt a little melancholic.
Hawklight was indeed inexperienced, but was that enough of a reason for him to die like this?
Before getting up and leaving the room like Kyle did, I looked at the wound on Hawklight's stomach. His blood was still slowly trickling down the cut in his abdomen, but now, looking more closely, something seemed off.
When I first saw the horizontal cut, I mentally deduced that it had been the work of a Hollow Knight.
They carried swords, so they could inflict wounds like that, and it hadn't been a clean cut. However, that had been only a superficial analysis, and now I thought:
'A well-aimed sword blow should have eviscerated him. Was it just a superficial cut?'
I had no experience with forensic analysis or autopsies, but something felt off.
"Are you coming?" asked Rosella, waiting for me to leave the room shortly after Kyle.
Her voice snapped me out of my concentration. "Yes, I just need to grab something."
Hawklight's bag was still intact next to his body, as was his sword. Since he would no longer have any use for either, I took them for myself.
Hawklight's leather belt was stained with blood, but the sword hadn't even been drawn.
'Did he not see the Hollow Knight until the last moment?' I wondered, fastening the belt around my waist and sliding the sheath and sword into it.
When I left the room, Anton was standing with his arms crossed and his back against the door.
"So, he died up here? Pathetic... The most dangerous monsters were downstairs with us. We've only encountered two Hollow Knights since we got to this floor."
"One was enough," Kyle replied dryly and started walking.
The great atmosphere we had after making so much progress in the last few hours without encountering many problems was completely destroyed by the discovery of Hawklight's death.
Rosella was quiet and thoughtful.
Kyle seemed angry — with everyone, and also with himself.
Anton, on the other hand, was angry for some unknown reason.
He was probably thinking about what his snobbish friends would say when they found out that his instructor had died on his first mission. Of course, he would omit the fact that we had fallen into a trap because of his ignorance.
However, I shared the blame with Anton this time. It was I who had selfishly brought everyone to the Temple of the Sun, but there was no turning back, and I didn't regret it.
We continued our journey to find the exit from this dungeon. As the dungeon was shaped like a pyramid, the floors became smaller and smaller.
In a few minutes, we found the stairs that led to the first floor, and without encountering any monsters, we found the staircase to the third floor.
We had spent almost twelve hours down there in the dungeon. So, if it was dusk when we entered, it was now dawn. The sun kissed our faces as we left the Temple of the Sun, and the cool morning breeze refreshed us with its pure air.
"It's so good to finally get some Vitamin D," Kyle said, closing his eyes as the sun kissed his face.
"I think the best part is not smelling dust," Rosella commented.
"About the dust, I agree," Anton said as he brushed his clothes with short pats.
When I was about to say something too, we heard a voice.
"Finally, you guys showed up. I was starting to think you all died in there," someone said in a serious tone.
We all turned left and saw Sun, Anton Wilxes' bodyguard. She was sitting on one of the stones from the Sun Temple Ruins like a bench, her hands extended toward a small bonfire.
At that moment, I realized that the one who was likely the strongest among the group was also the luckiest. Sun had been teleported to the first floor and had no trouble leaving the dungeon.
"Hey! Were you out here the whole time?!" Anton exclaimed, voicing the indignation we all felt upon seeing Sun without a scratch.
"While I was getting my ass kicked in there, you were relaxing out here! You should have come to get me, helped me, and done your job!" he said, stomping toward Sun.
"I was hired to protect your life in case of an attack by a monster stronger than you. But with all due respect, sir, you are a Rank-D Fire Elemental Mage who may one day become Rank-C."
Sun defused Anton's anger with a compliment.
"That was just a Rank-D Dungeon. I believed you could get out of there without any problems, and from what I can see, I wasn't wrong. You look stronger than when I last saw you."
"Thinking about it that way, I guess you did the right thing. Not having you around made me work hard to take care of myself." Anton closed his eyes and smiled proudly.
"I'm glad I helped." Sun smiled softly, bowing her head to Anton.
Then her eyes fell on me and the rest of the group. Her gaze met mine for a brief moment, and she seemed to finally notice someone's absence.
"Come on... Where's your instructor? Don't tell me—"
"Yes, he died," Kyle replied. "He was on the second floor, so if you had thought to come down and help us, you probably would have found him in time to save his life!"
Kyle was about to lunge at Sun when I grabbed his shoulder again.
"What are you thinking of doing?" I asked Kyle. "Attacking a member of your own group is a crime the Church rarely forgives. You might avoid being arrested by living here inside the Tower of Babel forever, but even so, I don't think it's worth getting a black eye trying to hit her."
Kyle looked at me and pulled his shoulder away, freeing himself.
"You must think I'm stupid. Always trying to warn me about everything... You got Mr. Hawklight's map, didn't you? So, let's take advantage of the fact that it's dawn and continue searching for the damn Angelica Roots. We still have to fulfill our mission anyway."
I looked at Rosella when Kyle said that, and she shrugged.
"He's right. We still have a mission to accomplish if we want to get back to the Tower of Babel," Rosella said.
So, we agreed to continue our original mission and reentered the Forest of Thorns — though something about Hawklight's death still lingered in my mind.