Volume 3 Chapter 7.4
Translator: Adam Seacord
Editor: Weasalopes
About ten minutes had passed. By the time Haruna had took her time changing and returned, they were all ready to talk.
“Ya all right, Haruna-san?”
“Y-Yep. I’m fine…”
Taking a warm cup of herbal tea from Hiroshi, Haruna answered as she warmed her shivering body on the fire. While it wasn’t as bad as catching a cold, she did seemed to be chilled to the bone, her skin having turned blue. While the party didn’t notice during the game, it seemed that the water was very cold.
“…So warm…”
“Did you want ginger tea instead?”
“No, thank you. This is great.”
Haruna answered Hiroshi’s offer with a happy smile on her shivering face. From Hiroshi’s specialty tea with all sorts of extract, she could feel her body regain warmth.
“Don’t mind me. Keep going.”
“You got it. Now, tell us all about this ruin.”
“Who do you think you are, Miss Washboard? Save that kind of gesture for when you have at least something to show for, like this girl over here.”
The mole countered Makoto chest-puff of a demand with some serious shade. Very curious that this mole was concerned about the contours of the human body.
“Never mind the bickering. Can you tell us what this ruin’s about?”
“What it’s about? It’s an amusement facility created by the People of the Continent, of course.”
“People of the Continent, huh? Who are they, and how many of them are there left?”
“Who… Hmm. There are Hybrids like me, who are better suited for living underground, and Humanoids who have developed the technology to live underground. We’ve been through a lot, and there are only a hundred or so of us left.”
So, they had been powering through these levels for a viewership of a hundred, max. That was a sad revelation.
“Have all one hundred of you been living here all this time?”
“Negative. We went into a long slumber in waiting for our comrades to return, or new guests to arrive. We all woke up when you entered the ruins.”
“To return? So some of you left to go somewhere?”
“Some of us left to find the God of the Underworld, while overs left to find a way to live above ground.”
“What do you mean find the God of the Underworld?”
Haruna couldn’t help but jump in to confirm. She was ready to leave Tatsuya to drive the conversation as she listened, but she couldn’t ignore the mention of something that could become very relevant to them.
“It was three thousand years ago, I believe. The God of the Underworld and the Priestess Princess went missing, leaving a note.”
“What kind of note?”
“It read ‘I’m leaving. Don’t look for me.’”
“What were they, schoolkids?”
While the note might have been a little less on the serious tone, it was no laughing matter as their whereabouts were still unknown to this day.
“Three thousand years, huh? Don’t think that Priestess Princess are with us anymore.”
“Of course, we don’t expect her to be… Might I ask you something about that?”
“Shoot.”
“Was there a major change above ground three thousand years ago?”
Even though they took a moment to thinking it over, the Japanese members were not that privy to the history of this world. Nothing rang a bell.
“I believe it was three thousand years ago when Farlane was built…”
“Really?”
“Yes. Farlane is the oldest nation in the world. That being said, it was a small country with Wulls at the center of it, at first.”
“I would have guessed a thousand or so, since the current king’s the 60-something-ith…”
“Until about the eighth monarch, I was told that that royalty lived very long, and each of them ruled for about a hundred years on average. Also, the average length of a monarch’s rule in Farlane was very long throughout at about fifty years. I believe the history of three thousand years is accurate.”
The party took in Primula’s explanation. In their original world, even Japan (a country ruled by the single longest line of succession) could only trace it’s ruling back to the sixth century, if they were being accurate. If all of the ancient texts are to be believed, the history of Japan would be 2600 years, and while it is widely accepted that there was the first emperor of Japan, the equivalent of the Emperor Jimmu, it was debatable whether or not his existence dated back as far as 2600 years ago. Considering the relatively peaceful history and well-preserved nature of the historical documents of Japan only knowing that much back in their history, Farlane and its recorded three thousand years of history seemed quite formidable. This did seem almost inevitable as Farlane, as much as Japan, was isolated from any external invasion, barring any self-destructive events.
Tatsuya continued: “For one, the biggest country we have now was built around that time.”
“Most likely, they had something to do with it.”
“Only the gods may know.”
“Do you have any connections to them?”
“We kind of do, but it won’t be immediate.”
“That is fine. We would be asking of a favor, we have no complaints.”
For the first time, the mole appeared rather humble. The party looked at each other.
“I mean, it looks like it’ll tie-in to our goal, too, it ain’t much trouble.”
“You’ll have my gratitude. And, if you don’t mind…”
“What?”
“Our world, with a population of a hundred, can get quite lonely. Once in a while, could you bring someone done here…?”
The party couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for the mole and his earnest request. They did have to conquer all the levels, but it was perfectly safe at the very least. It didn’t seem like bringing anyone else down would be a problem.
“Lessee… Elle’d be way into this.”
“Maybe we can bring her down when we have some spare time.”
“Elle wouldn’t understand the top floor.”
“Oh yeah, how’d you get all these ideas, anyway?”
The mole said, and showed them a bundle of DVDs (labeled ‘trend archives’) and a slightly outdated laptop. Judging by the model of the laptop, the data stopped at the very beginning of the twenty-first century.
“Why would you get ideas from that…?”
Makoto couldn’t help but groan, lamenting the entertainment industry of her own country.
“Oh, speaking of, here’s your participation award of sand oysters and set of underground coffee.”
“Coffee!?”
“Hang on, brother. We don’t know if it’ll taste like the coffee we know.”
“We’ll find out as soon as we brew some!”
“We have plenty of coffee to give. Please, come back again.”
Seeing Tatsuya flip out at the mention of coffee, the mole seemed sure of his victory.
It should remain between us that Aearis, who was brought down here later on fell in love with the obstacles, and continued to repeatedly come down here during her stays in Darl, and finally seriously considering the prospect of building a similar amusement attraction in Farlane… And that Octogal seemed to hear of this through the grapevine, and started frequenting the place.
This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eewebn(o)vel.com