Chapter 11: Ruins of Visitor (part five)
It was my first time to experience Pass Wall.
So, my body penetrated the wall, and the feeling of passing through the wall was an unknown and incomprehensible sensation—
No, wait……There was something similar to this sensation, what was it?
The memory of my previous life revived in my mind.
At a very common tavern and a bento shop, I experienced a sensation similar to this magic.
(—Oh, it is a short curtain1.)
Should it be said that it is a sensation of going through a lot of whole-sized curtains in a passage of about three meters.
There was a familiar experience where I didn’t expect it.
(What exactly is fantasy…Ah, but this is surprisingly fun.)
The effect time of Levitation was sufficient.
The sign for the end of the effect was that the diameter of the magic circle around our foot became about half of the original size.
Before the magic circle stopped supporting our body, I waved the wand again.
“Perhaps, isn’t it better for us to exit the Ruins of Visitor by passing through the walls, so that we wouldn’t use too many wands?”
“It’s risky.”
“Why?”
“Outside of the Ruins of Visitor are considerably thick rocks. If we make a mistake in estimating the depth and can’t pass through the rocks during the effect time…”
“We will be squeezed inside the rocks. That’s wretched.”
“It is. Moreover, even if we successfully pass through the rocks, the outside of the Ruins of Visitor is mostly the sea. If our escape angle is wrong…”
“We will drown. That’s wretched.”
“It is. I don’t want to increase any more bizarre causes of deaths.”
“More what?”
“Oops! About this. Please don’t mind it.”
“Erica, you……”
I looked away in a hurry.
I was about to carelessly mouth off the collection of bizarre deaths of Erica, the villainous lady.
He wouldn’t understand my previous life’s knowledge in any sense.
It should rather be left unsaid that there was a story in the game about what happens when you fail at teleporting2.
Somehow, from Klaus, I am getting a feeling of being watched with eyes like watching a pitiful child.
……Harsh.
With such a situation, we explored each layer at ultra-high speed even though there were trivial and personal failures.
While we were exploring using the Pass Wall, Ann finally began to appear in Urd Sight.
They were nothing more than images of a time that had passed.
Even if we tried to follow her past footprints, we would be obstructed by the wall immediately because of the labyrinth which has already changed.
However, it seems that some of Klaus’ worry has eased a little.
Thanks to the confirmation of Ann’s moving figure.
I want to meet the real Ann quickly.
When I think about the sad future where these siblings would be separated by death, my heart feels painful.
“Wait, Erica. There is something.”
We were about two layers down from where the simple base camp was.
Klaus extended his hands to shield me and glared at the end of the passage.
“Eh……”
“Sounds of something being dragged on the floor is shaking the air slightly. I wonder if it is a monster or a beast that broke away from your older brother.”
Eh, a monster?
Wait a moment, I have been preparing for a battle, but my heart isn’t ready yet for the actual battle.
When I listened carefully, I could hear faint fricative sounds steadily getting closer.
Should we run away?
“Don’t make a sudden move. Stay behind me.”
“Oh, yes.”
Klaus kept me behind his back and held his staff at the height of his waist.
What should I do, I have to help him. What wand should I use?
Offensive wands are on the right side of the belt……Aah, I didn’t take out the Wand of Hold!
“Don’t push yourself. Be ready to escape at any time.”
“Eh, but–”
“It is a man’s job to protect a woman. Your job is to calm down by taking a deep breath. On the battlefield, a friend who is panicking is scarier than the enemy.”
“Fuh…haah…You are calm, aren’t you, Klaus-sama?”
“I’m undergoing combat training and I’ve accompanied my father in hunting and deadly extermination.”
So the duke and his son directly goes to get rid of evil spirits, huh?
In the ancient royal family era, there was a story that said Hafan of the East was also the highest priest of the indigenous Sun God.
We saw a shadow of something wriggling in the corner of the passage.
Klaus quickly brought out two spellcards from his bosom with his left hand and threw them toward the shadow and chanted a few words of spell quickly.
The thrown spellcards flew while expanding a magic circle, burst open mid-air and emitted bright white lights.
Light hit the upper right corner and the lower left corner of the passage – and diagonally shone on the true form of the shadow.
“—A flock of moving bones!? And moreover, this number is…”
Various types of beasts’ bones were grouping together while being suspended mid-air.
How many? Several tens of heads?
Lots of bone chunks that couldn’t be counted were filling up the passage and drawing near in a surge.
That was the identity of what was illuminated by the magic of Light.
“They have enough Magic Resistance to trick my Glam Sight……No, they are monsters with magical structures that I don’t recognize……no, what are those!?”
“Klaus-sama……”
“Listen to me. When I give you a sign, run away and don’t look back. If you keep going straight using Levitation and Pass Wall, there should be a valid exit.”
Tension ran on Klaus’ face.
After glancing towards me, he pulled out a bundle of hundreds of spellcards from his sleeve at once.
No matter how much battle experience he has, no matter how much of a future genius mage he is, if those bones are undeads it would be inevitable—
In fact, if we encountered such a huge number of undeads, it would’ve been a crisis of life and death.
—However, looking at those figures, on the contrary, I was relieved.
“Klaus-sama, it’s alright.”
“What!?”
“That is the cleaning automaton that my older brother made, an acid hydrogel golem.”
“—Ha!?”
Those are not undeads.
The large amount of bones are floating inside a golem made of translucent jelly-like substance.
Unlike the regular golem, it is not humanoid but a cube.
It spread its flexible body all the way into the passage and performed cleaning by swallowing up every garbage without exception.
A few days before regaining memories of my previous life, I had seen prototypes of this in brother’s room.
It had an appearance like a moving apple jelly.
I thought it was convenient, but I never thought that the real golem would be so huge……
As expected, brother……it is on a different scale……
“The inside is strong acid, but the outside is made of gel. It’s said that it is a smart and safely designed golem that swallows only carcasses and the expensive materials are protected with neutral ingredients.”
“Why!! Why did your older brother put such a thing inside the labyrinth!?”
“For cleaning……Because there were so many monsters’ corpses, I think that the golem cleaned up bone remains to collect materials for alchemy.”
“Eei! That’s so confusing!!”
That is exactly right.
But, that is something you should tell my brother directly, not me.
Oops, I remembered important things.
“Ah, but, if we pass through him in this Pass Wall state, we will be killed instantly by the strong acid without being stopped by the outer shell.”
“Kuh, Eduart Aurelia……!!”
“We may as well stop exploring for now.”
Eduart-oniisama himself is a nice, gentle person.
But regarding alchemy he has no mercy and would never go easy on other people, without that dangerous flaw he is a perfect person.
If we kept going without noticing, would the white bones of me and Klaus have also floated over there?
Wait a minute, I just noticed it now but are my death flags all caused by brother?
The star crystal necklace.
A trap of death set in a storage box.
And now the acid golem and Pass Wall scroll combo.
“Is everything okay, Erica, your eyes seem dead……?”
“Oh, I’m alright, Klaus-sama.”
That is not good, I was about to get caught up in the darkness of my mind.
I actually began to doubt whether the gentle Eduart-oniisama is trying to kill me.
Let’s put some more trust in other people, me.
Well, let’s keep going and stop the golem.
If it was an ordinary golem made of earth, stone or metal, it would’ve been difficult to stop unless I was the maker.
However, since it is a slow-moving golem made from translucent gel, I can stop it.
First of all, I proceeded to the front of the moving golem which was trembling and observed its interior while holding a lamp.
By using Glam Sight, I quickly discovered the core of the golem – a shard engraved with activated spells – among the countless bones.
With this, I should be able to stop the movement of the golem.
Huh? Near the shard, there is something floating—
“Klaus-sama, there is something familiar floating in the body of the golem.”
“What do you recognize?”
“That, over there, doesn’t it look like Ann-sama’s hair pin?”
Klaus stared at a certain point about one-meter high.
What was floating there was a white material……It was probably an object made of porcelain or bone.
The metal pin seemed to have melted, but the characteristic petal-like decoration remained intact.
“……!!”
“Klaus-sama. It’s alright. Ann-sama shouldn’t be using the scroll of Pass Wall.”
Klaus tightly clasped the heart part of his clothes.
He was wearing a painfully sad expression.
“Ann-sama is not inside. Surely, the golem was just picking up what Ann-sama has dropped.”
“Oh, yeah…I didn’t see anything that looked like human remains. I know that. I’m fine.”
That said, he looks much paler than when we thought we were going to battle strong undeads.
He doesn’t seem to be alright.
Although he was jumping to a wrong conclusion for certain, it is impossible not to be affected when it has something to do with the life and death of a blood relative.
Klaus is also a 10-years-old child, although he is getting stronger.
The stress his mind received is immeasurable.
I hope this clue successfully leads us to Ann.
“The acid may splash, let’s step back a little.”
While retreating, I took a Wand of Mage Finger from my leather bag.
The Wand of Mage Finger was made of yew.
At the end of the wand is an opal, and the handle is golden with a pattern of spider’s nest and legs.
The core material is the foot of a giant spider3.
A little magic circle in the rainbow color surrounded the five fingers of my right hand like a ring after I waved the wand with my left hand.
It was visible through the Glam Sight that the Mage Finger made with magical power were formed inside the golem.
I tried to open and close my right hand.
—Alright, it moved.
The Mage Finger was opening and closing following the movement of my right hand.
If I can reach the core, stopping the golem would be a simple job.
I moved the Mage Finger and grabbed the shard.
From the characters of emet engraved there, I scraped off one character with Mage Finger and changed it to met.4
Soon the golem lost its shape like a boiling hot water and melted into the ground.
“I see, the death of an automaton.”
Klaus said so with a strange expression.
Certainly, if you live in the East, it might be hard to see the collapse of a golem.
The rainbow-colored magic circles on my right hand immediately disappeared.
That is because of my emphasis on scraping off the characters on the golem.
Because of such delicacy, Mage Finger can only be used for fine work.
The hundreds of beasts’ bones that were swallowed by the golem, the core of the golem, and the hair ornament were falling.
I washed away the remaining acid and picked up the core of the golem.
I have to return this to my brother.
Klaus too, he picked up the hair ornament that seemed to be Ann’s.
It was a pretty hair ornament that imitated the flowers of the eastern country with elaborate workmanship.
“I certainly remember this. The material was also made of the horn of a unicorn that lived in the Hafan’s forest. I have no doubt that this is Ann’s.”
“Then, Ann-sama passed by this point, didn’t she?”
However, as soon as we were ten meters beyond the turning point we met a dead end.
Both of us waved the Wand of Urd Sight.
I could see Ann Hafan’s back walking towards the end of the dead end.
She noticed something and expressed a startle, then she started to run.
Maybe because she was in a hurry, Ann didn’t notice that her hair ornament had fallen.
I am certain that she saw the bones mass inside the golem.
A sigh of relief from Klaus could be heard nearby.
“I have a feeling that we have neared Ann-sama, but the labyrinth is changing.”
“It’s okay. Since we know the direction, we can use Pass Wall.”
“Yes, Klaus-sama, let’s chase after her.”
There is a limit of the effective time of the first Pass Wall scroll.
If we can join with Ann quickly, the three of us can escape together with the second scroll.
At least, we should catch up with her soon before the encounter with the sealed ancient evil spirit in the bottom layer!
We used Levitation, kicked off the air quietly and ran towards the direction of Ann.
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1 暖簾 (noren) is a short curtain hung at shop entrances, or split curtain used to divide spaces in a house in Japan.
2 I don’t really understand this sentence: テレポートに失敗するといしのなかに入ってしまうあのゲームの話なんて、言わずもがなだ。 but I think it’s referring to a game called Wizardry, where there is a teleporter’s trap which sent the party into a wall and caused instant death for the party.
3 Giant spider (大蜘蛛) here is the alternative name for Tsuchigumo, the name for a race of spider-like youkai in Japanese folklore.
4 In Jewish folklore, a golem is inscribed with Hebrew words on its forehead, such as the word emet (???, “truth” in Hebrew). The golem could then be deactivated by removing the aleph (?) in emet, thus changing the inscription from “truth” to “death” (met ??, meaning “dead”).