Chapter 237: Sewers
After receiving special treatment from Justine, I went to bed, closing my eyes and trying to simply let my consciousness drift away.
That should have been normal, but the emerald-green eyes staring at me made me nervous. Lying beside me, Alicia watched me with a suspicious look.
’Does she know?’ I wondered. "Did she see what Justine and I did?"
If she knew, she didn’t say anything, merely staring at me with an annoyed expression.
"Hey, Alicia, step away, please. You and Sarah slept by his side yesterday, so it’s our turn now," Erina said, pointing at herself and Justine.
They had just settled it with rock-paper-scissors, like the mature women they were.
Alicia didn’t protest, but she was clearly reluctant. The moment she left the space beside me, Erina jumped onto the covers as if she were diving into a swimming pool.
After that entrance, which was hard to ignore, she turned towards me and struck a pose, propping her head up with one arm.
"Hello there~" Erina said flirtatiously. "Long time no see."
"We just talked a few minutes ago."
"You’re no fun, Rick. After all the effort I put into getting to sleep beside you."
"You worked hard... by playing rock-paper-scissors?" I asked sceptically.
"That’s right!" She had the nerve to answer me like that. "When I focus hard enough, I can manipulate my luck."
How could someone spout so much bullshit in just a few seconds? Especially Erina, who could be quite intelligent—how could she say so much nonsense?
That was a great mystery to me, even greater than how they had managed to move the statues on Easter Island.
At that moment, Justine lay down beside me. She avoided looking at me, probably embarrassed to be so close to me after giving me a "good night." She looked immaculate, as if her body hadn’t just been drenched in semen.
"Are you two hiding something?" Erina asked us quietly enough that the others couldn’t hear. "Is it something sexual?"
"O-Of course not!!" Justine answered, startled.
"That sounded like a yes to me," Erina said, staring at us with a wicked smile. "Not that I mind. After all, I don’t want to fight with my friend over a man, even if we both love him."
"Erina, that’s very mature of you—" Justine began to praise her.
"After all, superior people don’t fight over trivial things." But Erina made sure to disappoint her at the last second.
"Never mind," Justine simply said.
There was no anger in her voice. Only deep disappointment, as if she saw the girl with wine-red hair as a lost cause.
"Anyway..." Erina and Justine moved closer to me, pressing their breasts against me. "Remember not to try anything naughty tonight."
"That sounds like a difficult mission for me. No, it’s an impossible mission."
"Don’t say that. Tomorrow, when we return from this mission, you’ll certainly be rewarded." The girl’s slender fingers touched my face.
The two girls from Silver Fang knew very well how dangerous our mission the next day would be. Their words were an unspoken promise that we would return safe and sound.
"Yes, tomorrow."
I didn’t notice when sleep overtook me. Maybe the silly conversation I’d had with Erina had relaxed me enough to fall asleep. Maybe her scent had soothed my anxious heart. Or maybe her words had given me peace, as if tomorrow were just another ordinary day.
Regardless of the reason, I fell asleep, and the last person I saw was that stupid girl looking at me with a cheerful smile. A beautiful, cheerful smile that I carried with me into my dreams.
...
"It’s even worse than I imagined," Alicia complained as she stared at the underground entrance. "Even my imagination couldn’t come up with a smell this awful."
"Well, it’s the entrance to a sewer, so it should smell like everything that went down the drains in the houses." Diane stated the obvious.
"You’re not helping."
Alicia clearly wasn’t thrilled, but honestly, I couldn’t blame her. In front of us was the entrance to a brick tunnel through which the city’s sewage flowed, filling the area around its outlet with a horrendous stench.
"Look on the bright side. After spending some time in there, we might end up getting used to the smell," Erina said, teasing the princess.
"I refuse to get used to such a disgusting smell!" Alicia snapped irritably. The young woman then took a breath to gather her courage. "Let’s go. We have to reach the area beneath the Battalion before the sun sets."
We arranged ourselves so that we could defend against attacks from both the front and the rear. Since the place was extremely dark, it would be very easy for Giant Rats or Giant Cockroaches to ambush us.
"I figured as much, but we really won’t be able to use Hawk Eye, will we?" Erina said to me while we were still at the tunnel entrance.
"Right. Your power allows you to see over long distances, but it doesn’t let you see in the dark."
"Then how are we going to find our way to the Battalion?" Sarah asked me.
I pointed towards one of the tunnel walls. Among the bricks was a Silver Fang symbol.
"This mark appears every few metres," I told her. "They’re meant to show the maintenance workers the way to the manholes."
"Even so, how will we know which direction to go?" Diane asked me. "These marks show us the path we should follow, but they don’t tell us which direction leads to the sewer beneath the Battalion."
"As for that, we’ll have to follow the tunnels to the city centre. From there, we’ll be able to find the right direction towards the Battalion. Although it may seem complicated, the layout of the tunnels is quite simple, forming a circle around the city."
"The same layout as on the surface," Sarah recalled.
"That’s right. Once we reach the centre, the directions to the different parts of the city are clearly marked."
"The Battalion is in the eastern district of Backwater City," Justine reminded us. "The entrance we’re at is in the south."
"Unfortunately, we have to follow the tunnels instead of simply moving in a straight line towards our destination, so we’ll have to head to the centre first."
I looked each of my Valkyries in the eyes, and I could see that they were all willing and ready not only to cross the sewers, but also to face the challenges awaiting us on the surface.
There wasn’t much need for words of encouragement, but I wanted to say one more thing before we moved forwards.
"Let’s do this thing."
"Right!" my wives answered in determined voices.
We continued through the dark tunnel with only the light from our lanterns illuminating the way. Diane and I walked in front, guiding the others.
"Stay close to us, Alicia," Diane told her.
"Right."
"Hey, Diane, you don’t need to worry so much about Alicia," Erina said to her in a laid-back tone.
"I’m still Alicia’s bodyguard. It’s only natural for me to worry about her," Diane replied calmly and politely.
"You’ll get crow’s feet if you keep worrying like that," Erina teased her.
"Crow’s feet?"
"That’s right. Stress damages your skin, or didn’t you know?"
Erina’s comment made Diane look at me with a nervous, insecure expression. She was probably afraid that stress would make her less attractive in my eyes.
"Diane, don’t worry about that kind of thing... Huh?" I immediately responded to her expression, but stopped when I sensed a presence. No, there were two of them.
Diane sensed them as well. After all, we had the same skill, which allowed us to detect nearby enemies.
"Squeak!"
The rats’ high-pitched squeals began to reach our ears, but unlike those of small rodents, they were much louder.
"Gulp!" Alicia swallowed hard when she noticed what was right in front of us.
Only a few seconds after we first sensed them, the Giant Rats charged towards us.
There was no time for us to fully make out the creatures’ forms. We only managed to see their silhouettes, but that was enough for us to kill them.
Almost instinctively, Diane and I leapt forwards, driving our blades through the two creatures. In a split second, both of them collapsed to the ground.
"Squeak..."
One of them was still alive despite the fatal blow, though it didn’t have much time left. I simply finished what I had started. I plunged the tip of my sword into the rat’s neck and moved it like a lever.
At that very moment, the monster’s body stopped moving or making agonised sounds.
Now that their bodies lay motionless beneath the light of our lanterns, it was easy to make out their forms. They were rats the size of adult wolves, with slender bodies and two protruding front teeth.
They hadn’t been a problem this time, but the deeper we ventured into the sewers, the more vulnerable we would become to attacks from every direction.
"We’ll encounter many more of these down here. Be careful."
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