Chapter 765
Puhk! Crack! Crunch!
The battle was one-sided.
Still, despite Arthur being not just a student but the current Mercenary King, Belya was, quite literally, toying with him.
Kwaaang!
Arthur was struck by Belya’s kick and went flying, crashing from one end of the wall to the other. The sword in his hand slipped free and clattered to the floor.
“Ah, Arthur!”
Molly quickly rushed over.
“……You’re supposed to be the professor of Toxicology? Not Magical Combat?”
Even Sasha muttered with a bewildered expression.
Arthur, sprawled across the ground, struggled until the very end to keep his fighting spirit alive, but at last his head slumped forward.
“Ah, that was fun.”
Belya, as if she had just eaten a delicious dessert, made a show of picking her teeth and dropped into a seat with a thud.
“Good endurance, satisfying to hit, too. The guards here were boring as hell, but now I feel refreshed.”
The hotel owner, in only his underwear, trembled as though some terrifying memory had resurfaced.
Belya picked up an expensive bottle of liquor from the table.
Gulp gulp!
Her throat moved noisily, then she exhaled, Khaaa—! wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Ah, on a day like this, nothing beats the mare’s milk liquor of my home grasslands.”
Thump!
She slammed the bottle down, then bared jagged shark-like teeth at the other two girls.
“You saw it, right? This red-haired brat said himself that it’s vacation, that we were meeting as rogue and mercenary, and he came at me first.”
Sasha sighed quietly.
“Well, a fool king who charges in without thinking, whatever the circumstance, is fine by me.”
Even now Arthur, groaning, mumbled that he wasn’t a fool king but the Mercenary King.
“Professor Keyzen robbing the private property of a hotel by force, are you in your right mind?”
“Hm?”
“Depending on your answer, you might have to give up your professorship, and deal with us as well.”
‘U, us?’
Princess Molly, frightened, glanced back and forth between Sasha and Belya.
“What the hell are you talking about.”
Belya made a show of digging her ear.
Thinking the conversation was going nowhere, Sasha spoke again.
“You sent a notice to this hotel, declaring you’d clean out all their money today.”
“A notice? Ah, that wasn’t a notice, it was a challenge letter.”
“……What?”
Belya explained the whole story.
She loved liquor and gambling, and with vacation starting she had come to the famous resort of Berino. While gambling there, she lost all the massive salary she had earned as a professor.
—No, how is that statistically even possible?
Furious, she immediately dosed the dealers, the fellow players, and the managers with drugs to force the truth out of them, and discovered that the entire thing had been a rigged “fraudulent gambling” scheme.
She confronted the casino’s head, the so-called “hotel owner” who controlled countless gambling dens in Berino, but instead of answering, he sent people to silence her.
Just treating her like another troublesome guest.
In the end, Belya crushed all the mercenaries sent after her, then delivered a challenge: “If you don’t return my money, I’ll storm the place at once.”
“……Isn’t that more of a threat letter than a challenge?”
Molly quietly corrected, but Belya ignored her and continued.
“But when I told him to give my money back, this bastard just beefed up his security and basically told me to shove it. So I smashed everything, and now I’ve got him kneeling in front of me like this.”
The hotel owner, still in his underwear, bowed his head trembling.
Though he was supposedly Berino’s most powerful man, whatever she had done to him, he couldn’t even meet her eyes.
Listening to the explanation, Sasha narrowed her gaze.
“I understand the circumstances, but taking money by force is still….”
“Thought you’d say that, so here, the contracts and certificates.”
She pulled fluttering papers from her bag and scattered them over the table.
“Of course, these were all written by them personally.”
Sasha and Molly approached to check.
They were written confessions acknowledging the fraudulent gambling, promising to return the money, and overlooking minor property damage or casualties. The hotel owner’s seal was stamped.
She had also obtained similar documents from the waiters and others at the gambling hall where she lost her money.
“Jane, that woman, she nags me every vacation.”
Belya flicked her ear as she spoke.
—I won’t say don’t cause trouble. Just make sure, whatever you do and wherever you do it, you leave a written record.
Molly, sweating, scanned the contracts.
“Except for suspicions of coercion and drug use, the contracts themselves seem airtight. Vice-chancellor Jane really does have extraordinary foresight….”
“Who says I threatened them! Hah?”
Belya slammed her fist on the table, glaring at the hotel owner.
“Did I threaten you?”
“Gulp! Gguuulp!”
“Answer in human words!”
“No, you did not!”
The hotel owner, meeting her eyes, reacted as though he might faint on the spot.
There would probably be no trouble later. Even if he changed his mind and tried to raise an issue, there was no reason to cross her, backed as she was by Keyzen.
“Well, that ended up anticlimactic.”
Since no major problem was found and the situation had settled, Sasha yawned once and returned her plant-type summons to subspace.
“Helping with the fool king’s mission wasn’t on the plan anyway. If I had gone to the grasslands with Simon’s group, by now….”
Pfffuuuuhp—!
Belya, mid-swig from the bottle, suddenly spat her liquor out at those words.
The liquor splattered wetly over the hotel owner’s face.
“What did you just say?”
Belya leapt to her feet.
“Simon? My little darling went to the grasslands?”
“Yes, so what.”
Sasha answered indifferently.
“Professor Hongpeng invited them to her home on the grasslands, for a visit. I was so jealous.”
“……Oho?”
At that, Belya’s eyes gleamed sharply.
* * *
They drew near the region in question.
Simon’s group felt the need to act more cautiously. Maelyn dispelled her Dark Frost Barrier, and they approached overland.
The sky was gradually darkening.
They reduced their footsteps, carefully parting the underbrush, advancing step by step. At this point, even without relying on Kamibarez’s sense of smell, Simon himself could feel the suspicious aura.
“Whoa.”
Dick’s eyes went wide.
“What the hell is all that?”
Beneath the dense greenery of the grassland’s lower interior, an enormous ancient city lay hidden.
Unidentifiable structures of strange design rose up, most notably stone constructions piled step by step into shapes resembling pyramids.
“No wonder it feels so eerie.”
Kamibarez hunched her shoulders as she spoke.
“I don’t like this place.”
Maelyn rubbed her arm and muttered as well.
But with the chance that Hongpeng was here, they had no time to waste. Simon quickly pressed his back to the city’s outer wall and peered inside.
“No sign of life, let’s go in.”
At last, they entered the city in question.
Inside, the ominous feeling only intensified. Maelyn, glancing around sharply as they walked, asked Simon in a low voice,
“Simon, could this be the ancient civilization’s city from your history books?”
“That’s my thought as well.”
Meanwhile, Dick approached a nearby structure and brushed his palm along its surface, then stared at his hand.
“What’s wrong, Dick?”
“I mean, it’s clear this is a city from the era of ancient civilizations, but….”
He looked around the area.
“Doesn’t it feel like it’s been maintained?”
It was true. If this ancient city had been abandoned for such a long time, it should have been overrun with weeds and vines.
If the city were this openly exposed, there was no way adventurers or archaeologists would have failed to discover it.
Simon stroked his chin.
“So, someone’s been using this place recently?”
“Probably.”
Clearly, something was off. The four of them moved even more cautiously.
As the day grew darker, the city of this ancient civilization seemed less majestic, and more grotesque. He couldn’t explain why. It was a foreboding sensation, closer to instinct than reason.
“Come to think of it.”
Simon suddenly stopped walking.
“Hey, don’t.”
Maelyn warned him.
“This ancient civilization practiced human sacrifices….”
“I said don’t! Idiot!”
Maelyn slapped Simon on the arm with a horrified expression.
Kamibarez also flinched and looked around, while Dick narrowed his eyes with a grim face.
“Wait a second. Then Professor Hongpeng might already….”
Smack!
This time, Maelyn swung full force at the back of Dick’s head. Dick let out a strangled grunt and lowered his head.
“Wow, discrimination! For Simon it’s just a ‘slap’, but for me it’s a ‘smack’!”
“You lunatic! Think before you speak!”
While the two bickered, Simon pointed ahead.
“Doesn’t it look like someone’s there?”
At the top of a tower-like structure.
There, someone appeared to be tied up.
Their faces hardened instantly.
“P-professor Hongpeng?”
“No, the silhouette looks like a man.”
“I’ll go.”
Simon sprinted up the ruins.
“Si, Simon! Be careful!”
“We’re coming too!”
The other three followed. Simon reached the top first and approached the figure.
It was a man, shriveled like a mummy.
From his appearance and attire, he seemed to be a grassland native. Bound to a pole, he looked as if he was about to be offered as a sacrifice.
“Are you alright?”
Simon undid his ropes as he spoke. But the man could barely speak.
“!@@^! 2$@$@!”
He groaned, muttering strange words.
Supporting him, Simon brought him down, the others regrouping at the base.
Once completely down from the ruin, Dick handed the man a water flask.
“Why were you tied up there? Who did it to you?”
Thirsty, he gulped down the water. But perhaps it was only an instinctive act, his eyes still showed no focus.
“Have you seen Professor Hongpeng? Hongpeng Tun Sokum Marlat!”
The moment Simon mentioned Hongpeng’s name, the man flinched.
“Sacrifice! A sacrifice!”
“…What do you mean by that?”
His eyes turned to the sky.
The sun had already set, darkness covering the heavens. Suddenly, he began foaming at the mouth and convulsing.
“Aaaarghhhh!”
He flung Simon and Dick off him, then dropped to the ground, crawling.
“Sacrifice, sacrifice! A living sacrifice! Uuuaagh!”
Thrashing wildly, he bolted into the forest like a madman.
“W-wait…!”
“Leave it, Simon.”
Dick grabbed Simon’s shoulder.
“For him, running away here is safer. More importantly, the chances of Professor Hongpeng being here just went up.”
“Ah.”
At that moment, Kamibarez raised her arm.
“What is it, Kami?”
“Over there…!”
Her fingertip trembled.
“Blood…!”
The sun had set, and night fully descended upon the city.
At that instant, blood began streaming down from the tops of every temple. Flowing endlessly, like wine.
And that wasn’t all.
On the temples drenched in blood, human figures began to appear, faint at first, then clearer. Simon realized they were the same beings he had glimpsed the previous night during his watch.
“Stay calm, this way.”
If they stayed out in the open, they’d be seen. Simon guided the panic-stricken group into a narrow alley.
More and more of those unknown people kept manifesting around the temples.
They swung tools, stabbed, and struck at something. Each time, thud! sounds echoed, and blood gushed. The city of night was transforming into a flood of gore.
“Uugh!”
Maelyn froze, horrified. Blood cascading from temples and towers was pooling across the ground. Kamibarez, a little calmer, spoke up.
“It’s okay! That’s not real blood!”
“R-really? Then what the hell is that red stuff….”
“Move first!”
Whatever it was, getting caught by them could only mean trouble. Then Dick pointed sideways.
The largest temple nearby.
Its entrance was a massive gaping hole. The four of them dashed through Darkness itself to reach it.
—Grugh!
—Kikikik?
But the blood-drenched monsters roaming near the temple spotted them and charged.
Their appearance defied description, grotesque beyond words.
“Run!”
Dick shouted.
Dick led in front, Maelyn and Kamibarez in the middle. Simon covered the rear, casting Bone Armor to fend off the attackers. They ran with every ounce of strength they had.
The three slipped inside the temple, and Simon, last in, stomped hard with his left foot.
“Open Gate!”
Chwarararara!
Overlord blades surged from the ground, grabbing the stone door and slamming it down. With a thud! it sealed shut.
“……”
“……”
The four held their breath, hands over their mouths.
Through the crack in the wall, they saw the monsters staring blankly at the sealed door. Not particularly intelligent, they soon shambled away.
All four exhaled in relief, simultaneously.
“Who….”
Then, a strange voice. They all flinched.
“Who are you?”
Simon turned his head.
A little girl, no older than ten, clung to the wall with a terrified face.
‘The continental tongue!’
While the others stiffened with wariness, Simon alone smiled gently, stepping forward and speaking in the continental tongue.
“Hello, we are Professor Hongpeng’s students.”
There was a reaction.
The girl’s small eyes widened in surprise.
Keeping some distance, Simon crouched to her eye level.
“Hongpeng Tun Sokum Marlat. You know her, right?”
The girl, hesitating, gave a small nod.
“We came at Professor Hongpeng’s invitation. Where can we meet her?”
“……”
At those words, the girl lowered her head.
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