I didn't blame him for coming to that conclusion. Truth be told, I had also thought that for a split second. I mean, it was difficult not to, when you experience pain to that degree. However, now was not the time or place to have a breakdown. First things first, I needed to figure out where we were.
It was difficult to make out most things through the darkness, but silhouettes were still enough to give me an idea. Me and around 10 other classmates of mine were all trapped inside some sort of ginormous hole. And by ginormous, I mean ginormous. This hole was big enough to be it's own country, and on top of that, it was so deep that it felt like I was being incinerated by the Earth's core.
This by itself gave me quite a good idea of where we were, but there was one other thing that was just the burnt icing on top of the already melting cake - mana-beasts. Hundreds, if not thousands of mana-beasts surrounded the area, each one at least Godly-tier. And with that, my theory was confirmed. I was back in the one place I had absolutely never wanted to return to. I was back in the- "-Lost Region..." I accidently gasped the last part out loud.
"Wait... wh- what?!" The prince cried, physically quivering from the mere idea of being stuck in a place best described as a hell-hole. "Did you just say that... that we're in the Lost Region?"
I inhaled my fear before responding, "...Yes."
"No... No, no, no! I- It can't be! Keizo, You're j- you're joking... right?" He pleaded with me.
I pointed one finger towards what looked to be a rocky wall that extended up at least 150 metres, "That wall over there is probably one of the quakes that surround a daybreak, and there's only one daybreak in this world that's this big - the Lost Region"
His eyes widened and his head fell into his hands. "I- I can't believe it... We're so dead."
Upon hearing those words, I knew what I needed to do. Long ago, I had been entrusted with the position of bodyguard for the elf prince and princess. I had made a vow. A vow to protect them under any and all circumstances. I would keep to that vow, no matter how much blood it took.
"Prince, we need to find the princess." I commanded, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him to his senses as best I could without injuring him.
Recovering from the whiplash, his fear evolved to something comparable to anger. Of course, it was nothing more than a momentary imitation to distract him from the overarching issues. "I swear... if something happened to Aria, then I'll-"
"Do what?" A higher, more feminine voice interrupted from behind the prince, "You know that I'm stronger than you, Lance."
The prince rushed to scan over his shoulder, before finally noticing his sister walking up to the two of us. She had her same confident smirk and, other than a few dirty patches on her clothing, appeared perfectly fine. A slight glint glew in the prince's eyes as I assumed tears formed.
"Seriously, if any of us three need to be worried, its y-" This time, it was the princess getting interrupted as the prince practically flung himself at her. This quickly made her smirk slightly falter, as she was confronted with the truth that she made her brother worry.
After around a minute, the two finally loosened the embrace and approached me. I had wanted to break the two up around the ten second mark, but I had felt too awkward to do so.
"I see that you're fine, Kei." The princess greeted me, still using the nickname from when we were 13.
I scanned her over once or twice, before finally letting a small smile through. "Did you really doubt me?"
"Not even for a second." She instantly remarked, finding a nice rock to sit on to rest her legs.
I myself didn't even know why, but when I was around the princess, I seemed to be able to let my guard down and relax just a little. I truly couldn't understand why, though. It's not like she could protect me, as I was still quite a bit stronger than her, even if we were both Doomsday-tier. However, one thing I did know, was that it was comforting.
I sighed, before sitting down as well and signalling for the prince to do the same. After we had all taken our seats, I decided to discuss our situation. "To fill you in, princess, we've only discovered one thing so far. We're in the Lost Region."
"Yeah, I figured that out myself. Are you, uh, doing alright, Kei?" She questioned me, concerned from knowing my past with this area.
"I'll be fine. Right now, my main concern is just finding a way out of here." I reassured her.
The princess then scanned both her brother and I's faces, looking for any semblance of a plan. "So~, have you thought of anything yet?"
I looked up. From her eyes, I could tell that, while she was putting on a brave face, she was terrified, as any normal person would be, if they were in a place that had a near 100% fatality rate. Her being able to put up such a convincing facade was rather impressive. Although, I guess it's not that surprising, considering that, while her history with the Lost Region doesn't run as deep as mine, she has been down here before.
"I've got a plan," I sighed, "But one of two things will happen when I reveal it; neither of you allow it, or the prince doesn't allow it."
"Wow, it's gotta be pretty messed up then, huh?" The prince questioned
I shrugged. "Fairly."
"Well... what is it? Might as well hear it." The princess reasoned with the both of us.
"Alright... If you haven't realised, we're not the only ones from our school here. From what I've seen, there's 11 of us. What I'm suggesting is that we leave them all here, and continue on ourselves. I know it sounds fucked up, but it's the most efficient method of guaranteeing both of your safety."
While the princess contemplated it, the prince's response was immediate. "What?! Are you insane, Keizo?! I know that we're in a tough spot... but... come on, there's gotta be a way to save everyone!"
I gave the prince a slight accidental scowl. "Listen, this is a life or death situation. What that means is that it's perfectly fine to throw morals and principles out the window. If we're objectively good people, then we won't live, and that's a fact."
Silence fell over the three of us for a few seconds, before I continued, "I mean, I won't force it on you two, if you really don't want to, but you have to decide now, and you can't go back on your decision. Once we help them, we help them, and they're with us now. Once we leave them, we leave them, and we're less detectable."
The prince steeled his nerves and made his decision, "I think we should help them. We have to retain some morals, otherwise, even if we do survive, we won't deserve to be alive." He then caught my gaze, "Uh, no offense, Keizo.."
Finally, after quite a bit of contemplation, the princess made her decision. "While I do agree that it would be nice to move in a smaller group and have less people to protect and feed, I also think we should help them. I'm sorry, Kei, but we need to have morals."
I scanned both of their faces, before sighing slightly, "It's fine, don't apologise. I guess... I'll just have to protect all of you weaklings."
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