Unedited
63 Unknown Underground Waterway
Just in what way will the monsters in the border disappear, in order to investigate that and prevent the war, we prepared to go to the kingdom.
If only teleportation can leap extremely long distances then we would have in a single leap, but it"s too bad that the magic"s approximate can only work at the city"s proximity.
I call it a preparation but because I just dump everything in the dark s.p.a.ce, there"s nothing much for me to do.
When Ciel"s father learned about the existence of my almost infinite storage box, he handed over his inventions saying it might be of help for something.
A medicated paste that can cure a scratch at once, a potpourri that"s useful for a quiet sleep outdoors, a compress that removes fatigue, they"re everyday goods that focuses on even the finest of details.
I was even given some kind of beautifying serum. I candidly said I didn"t need it and tried to give it back, but the man claimed that the frivolously potent gunk would “boost mana recovery and repel mild attacks when applied”.
Of course, it"s going to make the skin springy, he said.
[Why are you modifying these things to become high-performance?]
Ciel replies to my simple question.
[Because those are things he made for Kasan.]
Ohh, I see, I"m convinced.
Leaving the elven woods, and then Great Forest Megipus, we proceed towards the west.
The inventions Darrel gave me were surprisingly useful, and because the Habartalt domestic was peaceful without any changes, our comfortable journey was overdue.
We resupplied our horses on the town we stopped by and took two weeks to cross the country, we gone back as far as the Sacred City"s vicinity.
[We"re directly going to the border from here, right?]
As I, who has learned how to ride a horse alone, was being swayed on horseback, I asked everyone as a confirmation.
[We can probably only do that.]
[An entrance restriction might be applied to the place we"re going.]
[If that happens, we have no choice but to cross that mountain.]
Ciel pointed to the mountain range which holds the Amburezza Mountain.
The mountain stretches out when I faced towards the north of the border, and on its foot extends the Zohana Lake, a lake of great length that almost spans over the country.
Going north towards the lake where powerful monsters appear, although the number of monsters making an appearance drops drastically, it apparently requires much effort to reach there.
[If that happens then we don"t have a choice but to take some time. Although it would be nice if they can let us through somehow.]
[We can"t wait that long.]
[Uwah!? Dy, don"t just suddenly appear, you"ll scare the horse.]
The demon appears behind me from within the shadow and saddles on the horse, he selfishly s.n.a.t.c.hed the reins.
[Come over this way, there"s a secret path.]
The place we"re heading for while being led by Dy was an abandoned historic ruins.
Although there are marks indicating that humans have stepped foot in the small forest, the surroundings of the ruin"s entrance have no traces that that it has been demarcated, and it seems n.o.body has entered it yet.
When he fiddled with the base of a grimy statue—its original form scoured away into obscurity by the wind and rain—stairs leading underground appeared.
[This is…]
[Come on, if we go through this road then we can use it as a shortcut to go to the kingdom.]
We follow the stairs and go down the bas.e.m.e.nt while being urged.
It felt as if I was being swallowed within the darkness when the door was closed, but the stairs looked blue when the sunlight disappeared.
We followed after Dy who was going down while floating casually and we soon came out into a wide pa.s.sage.
The floor of the pa.s.sage was as if it was illuminated with a black light, the pa.s.sage itself looked like a transparent underwater aquarium tunnel.
To my surprise, the other side of the tunnel is covered with water.
[Ah, it"s fishes!]
Is it because there"s no light, fishes that look like deep-sea fish which has degenerated eyes are swimming underwater.
[Hm, I don"t remember having seen any strange fishes such as these. What a truly strange place this is, is here the undersea?]
A soft sound echoed when Ragna lightly hit the pa.s.sage"s wall.
It"s made of a material I"ve never seen before. It a substance that somewhat resembles plastic.
[It"s not the undersea, this is a gigantic . The vicinity of the groundwater source on the border is bountiful, and although it was said on one theory that there"s a waterway along the border, it looks like it"s true.]
Ciel also puts his hand on the wall, he"s looking at the underwater and the tunnel itself.
[Could having living beings here be because there"s also magic power flowing together in it? The material of this wall also, I wonder just what on earth it"s made of. If it wasn"t at this time, I would have liked to study it.]
Ciel lets out a sigh of amazement. During the series of events, Aleph has always been suspiciously staring at Dy.
[Demon King, is this pa.s.sage a demons" relic?]
[Well it"s something like that.]
[Do all demons know?]
[After all this time, I"m probably the only one who knows.]
Aleph throws a sharp look towards Dy who turned towards the river bottom with lowered eyes.
[Then that means that there are no possibilities for others to use this pa.s.sage for evil aside from you, right?]
[Oh my, to be decided that I will use it for evil, could it be that you"re expecting me to do it? Should I answer your expectation?]
Dy sharply perceives the nuance on Aleph"s words and his gaze, a disquieting presence enshrouds and I hurriedly step in and mediate.
[Hey, don"t talk about dangerous things! Aleph, too, stop with that belligerent tone.]
[… My apologies, it seems I"ve gotten too worked up. Although the Demon King is suspicious, time is valuable.]
The demon brought up again the conversation extremely lightheartedly to the swordsman who was walking in a fast pace.
[I wonder what is good to do~, as I thought, something like illegal importing/smuggling? Or should I maybe destroy the walls confining the feeble humans here, does such a course of action follow your expectations?]
[DY! What the h.e.l.l are you saying, saying such irresponsible things even though you"re not will to do so, you"ve been strange since a while ago.]
Upon my query, the demon smiled. The smile that looks too perfect without any gap makes me understand at a glance that it was made up.
[That"s because we won"t even have a chance to relax if a war breaks out, right? We must quickly go and stop it.]
It was unlikely that I could further question Dy who slowly went away after sending me a sidelong glance while hiding his real intentions.