CH 58

「How’d it go over there, Nia?」

「No good, nobody wants to listen.」

「Well, of course they wouldn’t.」

Rhine looks as if it were a matter of course. Alfiris and the others called the mercenaries to leave the dungeon at once, but no one agreed.

「What, is money more important than your life?」

「Even if I don’t, there are those who suspect it’s your operation. There’s no way to prove that we have no other intentions. Most of the mercenaries are mean-spirited people.」

「And so, all we have to do is find some other food for them to jump on, right?」

Kazas suggests.

「The question is, what are we going to do with the bait?」

「How about Alfie being naked?」

「Why is it always about that?」

「That’s because your nudity is the most powerful. Don’t spare a naked body or two, people’s lives are at stake, you know⁉」

「Something precious to me is at stake too!」

「So, let’s go with Fenna, shall we?」

「If that’s okay with you, I’ll do my best!」

「Don’t try so hard there! If you’re going to say that, why don’t we do it on Miranda?」

「It would be unfashionable if a Sister took off their clothes. I can’t let the reputation of the Arnelian Order be tarnished.」

「Put your normal behavior on the shelf.」

「What did you say, Alfie?」

「What are you talking about, you stupid nun. What do you mean there is no sign of a proposal for Lisa to take off her clothes, damn it.」

Lisa, who had left with a swear word, returned.

「The point is, if you know where the hidden staircase is, it’s the fastest way to get there, right? No doubt they all bite.」

「If it were that easy to figure out, there would be no trouble.」

「No, I already figured it out.」

「「「「「「Ehhhhhhhh!?」」」」」」

Lisa remains aloof while everyone is astonished.

「So they haven’t been able to find it for a long time. It is common practice to accompany the sensor in dungeon exploration, but they wondered why they couldn’t find a hidden staircase or something. It is not a dungeon with sensor sealing throughout. But considering that this is a beginner’s dungeon, it’s probably not surprising. Even I managed to find a gap in the hidden door as far as I could tell. A novice sensor would not be able to detect this. Moreover, the hidden position is indescribably out of character. After all, it is located on the second basement floor.」

「Isn’t it on the third basement floor?」

「No, it was wrong. The third floor is probably a psychological trap to confuse the intruders and they will go down directly from the second floor. It would be impossible to find.」

Based on Lisa’s explanation, they arrived at the location. However.

「How do we open it, Lisa?」

「Who knows?」

「What do you mean…」

「Lisa is not all-powerful. What are you relying on me for, Alfie? Why don’t you send a little nutrition to your head instead of only to your chest?」

「I didn’t grow up liking them!」

「Well, we’ll talk about that later at night, but I think you can figure out how to open this wall. Regarding that, are we doing it at night?」

Kazas speaks up.

「Heeh, does Sensei know this?」

「I’m a professional on archaeological sites. I can usually tell from the architectural style. There were fashionable tricks and such depending on the era.」

「So, what’s the trick here?」

「The structure suggests a Dwarven style about 300 years old… If so, there’s one stone with a different mass that you’d have to push to open it…」

「One of these?」

The walls of this dungeon itself are ruins made of palm-sized stones assembled together. To search for one of thess would be a daylight search.

「That’s going to take some time…」

「But we have to do it.」

「Everyone, just a moment, please.」

Fenna is mumbling something with her hand on the wall. A few moments later, Fenna strode over,

「Here it is.」

And she suddenly pushed one stone. Then some stones popped out the other way and,

Goh–goh–goh…

The wall cracked in two with a low sound of something moving.

「Fenna, how did you know?」

「I’m an earth mage. I can do this much.」

「Great, I’m going to go down and talk to the mercenaries. Alfiris and the others can go down first and make sure it’s safe.」

Rhine said and runs away.

「I will give priority to the investigation of historical sites. If a large number of people come, I may not be able to do my research.」

Then Kazas quickly descends the stairs.

「We’ll go down there too.」

Following Kazas, Alfiris and others descend the stairs.

＊＊＊

The stairs were very long. The group wondered if they would reach the bottom of the earth, but Lisa said it was not more than 100 meters down at most. Being underground makes one lose a sense of time. The oxygen is naturally thin, and the air is heavy with moisture, making Alfiris keenly aware of how blessed they are on the ground where they usually live.

When they reached the basement, they found it to be a much more open space. It is larger than the hall on the first basement floor. Alfiris guessed that this would not be a natural cave. The construction is obviously different from what they have seen before. First is the size of the man-made red door, or rather the gate, that rises before us. It is clearly twice as tall as a person. In front of them lay a number of white bones. It was a somewhat unsettling sight. Everyone silently had the same words in their minds that this door should not be opened.

However, despite Alfiris’s concern, Kazas examined the door intently.

「Apparently they dug for this space… Aside from why there is space here, the style of this door is strange. A mixture of architectural styles… Oh, there are letters here.」

Kazas carefully wipes the dirt off the door and tries to read it.

「…No good, I can’t read it myself. It’s not a currently used letter. Can anyone read them?」

Kazas calls out to Alfiris and the others. Miranda was the first to react.

「Let me see… This is partly a church letter. The ones that the Arnelia church uses when they don’t want to leak information to the outside world. The one that only priests and higher status can read, but why is it here?」

「There are some beastkin letters in there.」

「Elf letters are also in there too.」

「The characters over here are… What is this?」

「It’s one of the ancient languages used to inscribe curses and dragon language script.」

They were all surprised when Alfiris answered. Especially surprised was Kazas.

「That’s dragon language script, huh… I have seen it in books, but this is the first time I have seen the actual thing. So is there a dragon involved here?」

「Not necessarily, it could be dragon people. It seems to be a script used by high ranking dragons when they take on human form, but even dragon people can use it if they have more than a certain level of knowledge.」

「…Then it may not be readable. Like the church script, it is probably a secret of the dragon people. And I can’t read ancient languages either.」

「I can read them all.」

Everyone was even more surprised by what Alfiris had just said.

「Is Alfie smart after all?」

「I don’t know if I’m smart or not, but linguistic knowledge is essential for magic. Like I said before, I also had a friendship with the dragon. I just have a bad feeling about this, though. Let me see………… This is………」

As she followed the words with her eyes, Alfiris’ face darkened. Then, when she finished reading, she said clearly.

「We should turn back.」

「W–Why is that?」

「This may be beyond the control of man, no, any other creatures on this world.」

「What does it say?」

「That was——」

At that moment, I heard many voices from the stairs. Apparently, Rhine had brought the mercenaries. What a bad time, Alfiris thought to herself, but it was too late.

「Ohh, we’re out in the open.」

「Looks like someone’s already been here before us.」

「Geh, what’s with the white bones?」

「That door is the way to the treasure!」

The mercenaries started shouting. Miranda and Nia wondered what was going on, but Alfiris acted quickly.

「All of you, listen to me!」

A dignified voice shouted out a warning to the place. The voice was so clear and taut that everyone there involuntarily stopped moving.

「This door is not to be opened. There is no treasure behind this door!」

「Hey, hey, You can’t smoke us out, you know?」

「You’re going to keep the treasure all to yourself anyway, aren’t you?」

「Yeah, that’s right!!」

On the contrary, a big commotion broke out and everyone started complaining. It seemed as if a riot might break out at any moment. However, Alfiris did not take a step back; on the contrary, she drew her sword with ease. The mercenaries were unintentionally stunned by this action. Only Rhine whistled「Hyuu～」in admiration, though.

「If you insist… I’ll be your opponent! If you want the treasure, go ahead and cut me down!!」

「Wait, Alfie!?」

「What are you suggesting??」

Miranda and Lisa come to stop her, but Alfiris was having none of it. They can see quite a bit of determination on her face. The mercenaries must have noticed the commotion, because it was replaced by a roar. The mercenaries were no fools. They had few educated people, but they had seen enough of dirty people to know that they would take on any task that money could buy. The female swordsman currently standing in front of them with her sword drawn did not look like a money-grubbing person at all.

Besides, they are sensitive to their own personal danger. Many of them saw Alfiris and realized in their gut that they were about to do something irreversible.

「What do we do now?」

「If she’s going to go that far, it might be something really bad… Doesn’t look like that woman is lying to me.」

「Maybe she’d be more serious about us.」

「So, can you at least tell us why we should not open this door?」

The voice that came out of the crowd was that of a boy whose eyes met Alfiris at the assembly.