So what now? Do we just wait around? Patch up these soldiers and wait for Commander Ender to find Ms. Sanderson? Should our party leave the city?

  It seems like things have calmed enough for the time being. I don't want to be around when the nobles bring the hammer down on all those involved. It'd be the perfect time for them to strike down their enemies in one clean sweep, whether they had a hand in this or not.

  Damian's whole party was still helping the wounded. Frey was now helping to hold down uncooperative patients, allowing Fergus to act more freely. Damian could only hover nearby on account of his missing arm.

  He could still help, but it wasn't reassuring to patients to see a one-armed man part of the group healing them. They may think they'd butcher the job and lose their feet.

  Commander Higgins was already back to directing the men and women under her to start transporting the injured.

  Major Aberman wasn't doing much of anything. Just standing by and tapping his foot on the ground. His adjutant seemed to have connected his call and was relaying the news to command. Unfortunately, the man was faced away from them, so even Fergus couldn't work his magic.

  'sigh'

  Looking down to his side was the wizard his party helped first. She was sitting down, rubbing her legs all over, making sure they were correctly attached.

  Her dark navy blue hair cascaded down, covering much of her face, as she looked down. But golden circular spectacles shone through the cascading hair. Expensive.

  "What do you make of all this?" Damian threw out the question to the wizard.

  "? Me?"

  "Yeah, just thought that a well-educated wizard would have a different perspective on all of this—especially one in the military. I had asked around what some of the adventurers thought, and they felt that this was all because of a blown-out succession war. I'm not fully convinced."

  "Hmph! You'd best keep opinions like those behind closed doors. You'd get lashed in public for spreading things like that." Damian shrugged off the warning. He'd probably get an earful later from Frey.

  "So? What do you think? Why all of this? Why are the Valkyrie in the Earthen Spire, not cleaning up the undead?"

  "... I won't be speaking about the attack, but the Valkyrie spending a lot of time within the tower isn't necessarily uncommon. There have been numerous recorded instances where several Valkyrie have entered the Four Great Spires for prolonged periods of time."

  "No one knows what they do; the most common belief is that they are clearing higher levels of the dungeon. But the amount of time they spend has never been consistent, nor has the interval at which this occurs. The time for it shouldn't have been trackable..."

  "As for why the Valkyrie do this, they have never given a straight answer. I bet there will be a slew of new theories about what the Valkyrie are up to. I need for my own thesis to be among the first to come out... hmm."

  "... And?"

  "And what?"

  "What's your thesis?"

  "I'm coming up with it now."

  *cough*

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The wind was taken out of Damian's sails. From the way she was speaking, he'd been sure that she'd have already had something in mind.

  "So... what are some of the other existing theories? Other than clearing higher levels of the dungeon."

  "Hmm, let's see~ High Magus Mi-Lark once theorized that they are performing maintenance on the Spires. This was partly deduced from his finding that these occurrences have occurred at slightly shorter intervals over the past 100 years than the recorded average over hundreds of years. He made the reaching conclusion because most things wear down over time, and with continued use, they'll need more maintenance the longer they exist."

  "Many have discredited this claim because they noted other periods where the occurrences happened more frequently when you look at a small enough subset of time. However, none of these spans exceeded 50 years. Hmm..."

  "There was also the retort that the Valkyrie seldom enter the lower dungeons. The structures are basically invulnerable, so what maintenance could there really be for the goddesses' creations? There's never been a recorded instance where someone has seen damage to a dungeon. Any dungeon... Hmm."

  "Ah! Magus Hyde Lampoon from the School of Arrays had the belief that the Four Great Spires are actually part of an array that spans the entire world."

  "He noted that the Earthen, Inferno, Ocean, and Sky Spires were all roughly equal distance from the Dark Spire. His theory concluded that they were placed that way to seal the Dark Spire in the center."

  "If this were true, they would need a source of mana to keep the array from failing. He concluded that the Valkyrie were maintaining the array with their own mana, although many mocked him for this. We already have runes and arrays that can gather mana from the surroundings, so why wouldn't the goddesses?"

  "Plus, there have been no signs that the Spires take in the mana from their surroundings. They likely function on principles that we can't even fathom~."

  "Uh huh... Anything that could explain their current absence? From what I've been told, they entered the tower as soon as a bunch of undead appeared. And I don't think they went in to kill the undead."

  "Hmm~ I believe that one Valkyrie was already in the tower when this all started. Another entered shortly after the undead appeared in the Spire. The third, fourth, and fifth Valkyrie were out helping with plague victims in the countryside and a high-tier who was on his deathbed.

  "I overheard that one of those helping with plague victims left right away, but the others stayed to finish their work before coming back to the Spire. Well, at least until word reached them that a tier 7 wraith had appeared. Then the one who watched over the dying man carried him with her toward Duco. Didn't make it in time though... Hmm."

  "So whatever happened in the Spire didn't need immediate attention, but something that required their aid before helping the city... At least it needed the immediate attention of at least three Valkyrie." She continued to ramble, but Damian was learning a lot of little tidbits about their situation.

  "The two who came later did do a sweep when they arrived and put several undead and wraiths to rest. But they didn't wait for more undead to rise, hmmm. I did hear that some of the Valkyrie from other cities were going to come, but the palace denied their aid. This was after the tier 7 wraith had already been slain. Huh, men and their pride."

  "...Do you know if there were undead on the lower floors when this all started? I believe that Colonel Sanderson's search party only met with the undead starting on the 40th floor. I myself had run into one tier 5 at floor 39."

  "Oh! Yes, when the attack on the Spire first occurred, undead began appearing on the 10th floor and up to the 60th. Some reports stated the dead were stored in safe rooms, with notes saying, 'Do Not Disturb.' Truly a dreadful strategy."

  "Hmm, I'm not certain if the weaker undead had been killed by adventurers, dungeon monsters, or possibly that second Valkyrie that entered, Hmm..."

  "Since a Valkyrie immediately entered the Spire when the disaster first started, the military was held back from engaging. I wonder if that first Valkyrie was wiping the undead out and then had to change plans to do something higher up the Spire..."

  She continued to hum in thought and theories.

  'sigh'

  Still nothing solid. Just a little more information and some more questions.

  "Thank you for your insight, miss...?"

  "Agatha, Agatha Williams."

  "Damian, just Damian."

  They shook hands, but then she wiped her hand on her clothes, leaving a black ashen stain trailing down her mage robe. Damian ignored it.

  "I hope you come up with a wonderful thesis that explains all of this."

  "Oh, don't worry. I will. Then I'll drop this military duty. Simply dreadful. It's no place for a wizard such as I. We were never supposed to see actual combat other than leveling in the dungeon."

  "Aha..."