CH 150

Chapter 150

When Peaceful Times Cease To Exist : The Archfiend Workshop, Part 5 — Laboratory Of Nightmares

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

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Elsa and Eliza carefully sneak into the workshop through a cave taught by the『Dog.』At first, the structure had the appearance of a natural cave, but gradually the walls were built in a way that showed they had been worked. The walls, which had been rough, were gradually prepared, and the floor was also flat and easy to walk on. Elsa and Eliza looked at each other with a sense of discomfort.

As they proceeded further, the ceiling gradually became higher, as expected. It’s good that they’re clearly creating a space to build something, but seeing that their hands are so high up that they cannot be reached by human hands, Elsa was thinking that the scale and capabilities of the enemy may be far greater than expected, and so on.

The inside of the cave was clean and processed for easy walking, but the air in the air was lukewarm and the cave was uncomfortable, sticky and clinging to the body. The illusion of being caressed by the humid air is enough to make Elsa’s vigilance maximum.

「（This air is more disgusting than any I’ve ever fought with. These black mages are not the most interesting people you can imagine. This is apparently different from my previous assignments.）」

Elsa, walking in front of her, swears inwardly and corrects her preconceived notions. Eliza, who should’ve been in the vanguard of this pair, was brought backward because the air in the cave was more dangerous than she had imagined. Elsa had been planning to play a supervisory role in Eliza’s development, but this time she did not seem to have the luxury of doing so.

At that moment, Elsa noticed a strange smell that pungent in her nose. At the same time, she controlled Eliza behind her with her hand while gently peeking out from around the bend. A large cavity opened up before them, and they sensed the presence of numerous creatures, but when Elsa sensed no killing intent directed at them, she urged Eliza to head for the cavity.

But the cavity was empty, and signs of creatures could be felt from further in. The cavity was at most the size of a room in the Deep Green Palace, empty and deserted. The passageway divided in three directions.

「The path is divided… And there’s a smell of blood?」

「Perhaps a fight is inevitable. So, three roads: left, center, and right. You decide which way you want to go, Eliza.」

When Elsa urges Eliza, Eliza compares the three paths. The middle path was quite large, and it was hard to believe that it was intended for human traffic. In contrast, the right and left sides seem to be designed for human traffic, but Eliza pointed to the left path.

「…To the left.」

「On what basis?」

Elsa’s conclusion was the same, but she wanted to know what Eliza thought. It’s important to know the thought process of the people whose backs they entrust to a person in order to improve their chances of survival as much as possible.

Eliza also tends to be seen as a bit of a dimwit, but she don’t see any sign of that on the battlefield. She reads Elsa’s intentions in an instant and responds immediately without hesitation.

「I feel the presence of a powerful enemy to the right and in front of us, I definitely don’t want to proceed there. In contrast, the left side is not as dangerous and also has the strongest smell of blood. I thought it might be worth looking into.」

「You’re not a Sensor, is that your intuition then?」

「It’s intuition and experience. Because I trust my senses.」

Eliza answers immediately. Seeing her face, Elsa nods.

「Well, that’s okay. What you rely on most on the battlefield is your own intuition. In a group battle, but especially when you are working individually. This time I have the same impression and a hunch is fine, but if you are going to move a lot in the future I would like to see some evidence. Otherwise, it’s hard to move a large army. Some of them won’t follow just a hunch… Look at them.」

Elsa heads to the left path and crouches down. Looking at the area Elsa pointed to on the ground, there were some scratches. Plus, something as big as a fingertip was stuck in the ground. When Eliza noticed it, Elsa stared at Eliza with a complicated expression.

「What do you think these are?」

「These are… human fingernails.」

「That’s right. That means there are people who were dragged here. It seems that they resisted by clinging to the ground so tightly that their fingernails were peeled off. I wonder what horror awaits us all.」

「…」

Elsa didn’t fail to notice that Eliza’s fearless face turned a little blue at Eliza’s slightly threatening tone. At the same time, she was drawing something like a magic circle on the ground with a small stick that Elsa had also produced before entering the cave.

「Elsa-sama, is that a white chalk?」

「Yes. Specially made.」

「What are those magic circles for?」

Elsa responds to Eliza’s question with a mischievous smile.

「It’s a precautionary measure in case of emergency. If you ever feel like you can’t go on, just grab me. Okay?」

「? Understood.」

「Okay, here we go. There might be survivors.」

「Yes.」

Elsa begins to walk with firm steps, as if feeling no fear. Eliza follows a little later, but Eliza turns around once, looks once with her green eyes at the scratch marks left on the ground, and adjusts her expression, which becomes reluctant for a moment, before heading on.

A short while later, they continued on their way. As usual, no traps of any kind were encountered, but just as Elsa was becoming suspicious of the fact that we were so alert, she encountered a sight that blew her doubts out of the water.

「This is…」

「Wide, isn’t it?」

It was an open space. The room was in the shape of an exact cube, a space that could have accommodated about 500 soldiers in training. But when they stepped into the room, they were speechless at the sight.

「Oh my god…」

「How gruesome.」

The room was lined with a number of haphazardly placed beds. A number of creatures – humans, yes, but also dogs, horses, and even some magical beasts and orcs—— were sprawled haphazardly on top of it. All of them had their bodies cut into pieces, and some of the creatures were secured in the air by chains-like objects fixed to them from the wall. Some were dead with expressions of anguish uniformly on their faces, their faces contorted into ugly expressions as if they had seen an evil spirit.

There were many tubes of varying thickness and length running through the ground, which were connected to the creatures on the bed, but Elsa didn’t know what effect they served. The other end of the tube is connected to a container of some suspicious liquid.

There are also many cages around, some open, some not. But what they all have in common is that there is nothing inside. There are many cages on the walls, but there seems to be something inside those cages. There was no voice, but they could feel the breath and presence of the beast’s distinctive breathing.

Elsa and Eliza knew that this scene was extremely dangerous, but if you don’t go into the tiger’s den, you will not get the tiger’s child. They nodded to each other and walked into the room, ready to go.

「Do not step on the tubes. I’ll take the left, you take the right.」

「Understood.」

Elsa and Eliza walked carefully with pale expressions on their faces. Even Elsa, who is not surprised by anything out of the ordinary, had lost her color.

「（I’d like to see the face of the guy who conducted this experiment. I can assure that it’s someone who definitely doesn’t have a sane nerve. Pleasure killers, rapists, cannibals, demonic possession… I’ve faced all kinds of people, but all of them are children compared to this. If you look at the faces of these dead guys, I can clearly see that they were cut up alive. I’m sure they’ve done that to so many… and repeatedly.）」

As if to confirm Elsa’s inference, the ground was already blackened after the blood. Near the entrance of the room, the ground was a dark brown color like the walls, so the area where Elsa is now walking must have been discolored by the blood. This doesn’t happen often, even at a murder scene. Elsa’s alertness level was now at an all-time high.

Elsa was rather surprised that Eliza was following her around amidst this stifling smell of death. When Elsa glanced at Eliza, she saw that Eliza was following her at a certain distance, keeping a watchful eye on her surroundings. Her face is pale, but her emotions don’t seem to interfere with her movements.

「（A knight of the House of Lazaar, indeed. Though she’s a woman, she’s magnificent.）」

Inwardly, Elsa gave her compliments. At that moment, Eliza suddenly stopped.

「Elsa-sama, look at that…」

Eliza pointed to a woman tied to a cage on the ground. Unlike the other corpses, she alone showed no signs of having been tampered with in the experiment. But if her belly had been eaten through, she was certain to die. The curly hair and the workmanship on her neck suggest that she was of noble birth.

But what was more unusual was that the woman had died of laughter. What in the world had happened to this woman? Eliza, who is about to look up and start laughing at the sight of the woman sunk in madness, holds her mouth down as she imagines the scene.

「Uuuh…」

「If you’re going to throw up, do it somewhere else, Eliza. But this…」

Elsa examines the scar by the woman. The scar was torn from the inside.

「Was she eaten through from the inside?」

「Horrible…」

Eliza involuntarily backed away at Elsa’s words, and just as she bumped into the operating table behind her, something grabbed Eliza’s wrist with a firm grip.

「Hii!」

「Help, me…」

On the operating table was a man whose body had been cut open. His heart wasn’t visible, but his internal organs were in full view, and even his brain was visible. The legs were already gone, and looking closely, the arms had been replaced with those of a beastman. The man grabbed Eliza’s wrist weakly, but she didn’t expect him to be alive in such a state, so she stood there, forgetting even to shake his hand off. It’s rather a big deal that she didn’t make a big deal out of it.

But when the man tried to open his eyes, Eliza finally ran out of patience.

「My child… Elma… help…」

The man’s eyelids slowly opened and his eyes weren’t what they should’ve been. Two hollows stared vacantly in the direction where Eliza was. Eliza involuntarily screamed at the absorbing darkness.

「Kyaaaahh!」

「Eliza!」

Elsa hurriedly held her mouth from behind, and the act brought Eliza back to her senses in an instant and she stopped screaming, but it was already too late. Perhaps reacting to Eliza’s scream, the creatures on the operating table began to make noise all at once.

「Guuoooohhhh!!」

「It hurts～ It hurts～」

「Ahhhhhh～」

「Gebuuh, gohuu!」

Both of them froze at the unworldly sight of the creatures on the bed starting a chorus of pain all at once. It was all they could do not to scream, even Elsa. When it came to Eliza, she was struggling just to keep from fainting. In such a state, it was perhaps not surprising that the two didn’t notice the footsteps coming into the room.