65. Ancient Ruins (1)

※Below was translated by Sephallia. Thank you very much.

The dungeon was composed of ruins located deep in a forest just outside of the Empire’s capital city, Ruhm. Partially hidden under a sloped surface, we could see part of a man-made door that looked out of place. Having found our destination, we stood there amidst the overgrown trees and shrubbery, peeking inside.

“The entrance is surprisingly small, isn’t it.”

While curiously looking around, Simone carefully patted the walls, perhaps curious about the foreign materials’ texture.

“I mentioned this earlier, but once we’re inside please make sure not to touch the walls. I’ve been told that the traps on the higher floors have been disarmed, but there’s no way to tell what might happen.”

“I know, I know!”

Having been warned by Lambert-san, Simone quickly pulled her hand back.

“Lambert-san, are you familiar with these ruins?”

“Hmm, I suppose I’d say I’m relatively familiar. I have entered these ruins a couple of times before, but no one’s ever explored past the middle floors. Speaking of Alea-chan, weren’t you at all surprised?”

“What, by this?”

“L-Lily was really surprised…”

As for what we were talking about, the entrance to the ancient ruins had been closed off by a really hard material. We actually stood before that hard material now, but a horizontal fissure ran straight through it. According to what we’d heard, the ruins themselves had actually been discovered long, long ago. However, that hard material covering the entrance prevented anyone from actually exploring inside. It was only rather recently that this fissure formed and people became able to enter. So, a natural question to pose was, “Just what could’ve been used to make a horizontal fissure like this?”

“I suppose rather than feel surprised, it made me feel nostalgic.”

“Oh, then you must have an idea of how this fissure was formed?”

“Yes, more or less. If I had to guess, it was Dorothea-sama, wasn’t it?”

“Ohhoh! You’re exactly right.”

Lambert-san’s expression as he responded was half surprised and half impressed.

“We suspected these ruins belonged to an ancient civilization rather early after discovering them, but with the unknown material in our way, we weren’t able to enter―that is until the Late Empress Dorothea swung her sword.”

“Just looking I can tell that the material used for these walls is very tough. However, I’m confident there’s nothing my master’s sword cannot cut.”

That said, the cut truly was magnificent. Confident as I was in my own growth, could the current me make a cut like this?

“Alright then, we should go in. We’re on a tight timeline.”

“Right. Lily-sama, Simone, are you both ready?”

“Y-Yes!”

“You bet!”

　◆◇◆◇◆

The air within the ruins was different. Perhaps a result of the lack of sunlight, the air felt cool and the faint scent of dust lingered. There were metallic pipes bundled together strung along across the walls as well as faint blue symbols that glowed, phasing in and out, at various locations. The material for the floor looked similar to the one used for the walls at a glance, but was in fact different. When we stepped onto it, it wasn’t as hard as it looked and felt easy to walk on. I was experiencing first hand just how incredible the technical prowess of the Science Loop really was.

“It doesn’t seem like we’ve run into any monsters?”

“Yes, it seems most of the monsters on the higher floors were taken care of. I’ve heard that the Empire periodically sends squads to subjugate them.”

“T-Then we’re safe for now.”

“Lily, you know that’s a flag, right?”

We made sure to remain cautious of our surroundings, but fortunately we were able to proceed without feeling too tense.

“Oh. Please come to a stop in front of the next wall. And, make absolutely sure not to touch the device on it.”

Shortly after Lambert-san’s warning, a wall appeared before us. The surface was a large piece of glass that had been formed into a neat rectangle. On the lower part of the wall, we could see some sort of peripheral that had what looked like a series of buttons.

“A display and keyboard, huh. It needs an ID and password… If I remember right…”

Pulling out a little memo pad from his breast pocket, Lambert-san seemed to refer to that as he pushed the buttons before him. The glass wall in front of us flashed a couple of times as we saw characters seemingly materialize on it. Finally, we heard a beep and the wall split into two halves, each receding into the ceiling or the floor.

“What an amazing contraption…”

“W-Would this also be considered a kind of magic artifact…?”

Lily-sama and I both seemed to breathe those words out in a sigh.

“Hey dad, is this kinda stuff just normal for you in your research?”

“No, stuff on this scale is rather rare, honestly. Especially if it’s still functional.”

“Just curious, but what did you do just now?”

“Hmm, how should I describe it… It’s like exchanging a special secret.”

If the wrong secret is exchanged, defense mechanisms would be activated and we’d be in for some pain. If it were just a bunch of hard walls like the one outside, Dorothea probably could’ve fully explored the ruins, but apparently she got fed up dealing with contraptions like this and gave up. After that, the adventurers guild and researchers of the Science Loop came together, slowly figuring out what they needed to do to get through each of the contraptions.

“If we’d tried to go through this alone, we would’ve gotten stuck here. Lambert-san, I’m really glad we have you with us.”

“Ah, it’s not really…”

“That’s right! You see? My dad’s amazing!”

“S-Simone-chan seems to be even happier than Lambert-san…”

With that, we continued through the ruins. Along the way we came across multiple more similar… I believe Lambert-san called them checkpoints? But thanks to Lambert-san’s expertise we were able to break through each of them without trouble.

After descending multiple flights of stairs, the air within the ruins once again changed. I heard something mechanical moving.

“According to the documents we’ve received from Philine-sama, this floor is where we’ll start to see more traps and monsters. Let’s focus up.”

“Understood.”

“W-We’ll be careful!”

“I’ll just try not to get in the way.”

We continued on, making sure to be much more careful than we were on the floors above. For better or worse, the occasional mechanical noises we heard kept us sharp. It was obvious this floor was “alive”.

“Lily-sama, can you sense any enemies?”

“N-No… actually not at all. How about you, Alea-chan?”

“It’s the same for me. While I can hear what I believe sounds like stepping, I can’t sense any sort of presence at all.”

Gauging by the sound, whatever it was should be within fifty meters of us. Despite that, my sense that I relied on for things like this wasn’t picking up on anything at all.

“If I could make a conjecture, I believe that may be something like a special trait of the monsters in these ruins.”

Lambert-san provided his input.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The monsters in these ruins are… well, not alive.”

“Huh?”

“N-Not alive…?”

I could feel Simone stiffening as she trembled right beside me.

“Y-You don’t mean t-they’re… u-uuu-undead!?”

Come to think of it, Simone had an aversion to stuff like that.

“No, they aren’t undead. I don’t mean creatures that were once alive but now dead, but they weren’t ever alive in the first place. Rather than a creature, I suppose you could say they’re more like tools.”

“I’m having trouble imagining it…”

“Well, for example, bows and swords aren’t alive, are they?”

“T-That’s true.”

“It’s kinda like if bows and swords were given orders and they were roaming around. They’ve been instructed to attack any intruders.”

Perhaps they could be compared to something like chimaera or gargoyles as well. When I suggested that,

“Right, that’s relatively close. Chimaera and such are still made from stitching together organic matter, but there’s quite literally zero organic matter in the monsters here.”

It appeared that I was close, but not quite on the mark.

Just at that moment we heard something like an explosion followed by the sound of displaced air.

“There!”

Unsheathing my sword, I immediately cut at the thing that flew toward us. Whatever I’d made contact with felt a lot heavier than I’d expected, which surprised me, but it seemed like I was able to eliminate whatever it was.

“What was that?”

“Must be a gunshot. They make a small metallic bullet and use something called gunpowder to project it out of a shaft. Be careful, their weapons aren’t designed specifically to kill, but if you get hit in a bad spot you won’t be able to fight anymore..”

“Understood.”

Another explosion, in fact, consecutive explosions. Relying on the direction of the sound, I predicted the position of the bullets and managed to cut down all three.

“Show yourself, coward!”

While likely not actually in response to my provocations just now, “it” did show itself.