Chapter 49: Scarlets Research 3 (2)

"Eh? Is that so?"

"Yes. Isn't the sun, with its relentless shine on the earth, rather masculine? Paternalistic, you could say. The feminine equivalent could be the land, water, and the moon..."

"Hey, we are not here to discuss this, are we?"

The leader of the Four-headed Dragon cut off Ars Longa's lecture.

Though it was appropriate. The sun was almost disappearing beyond the horizon. If they continued to stay here and chat like this, the sun would really set. Then they would have to spend the night in these ruins. Before that happens, they would need to at least ensure their safety.

"Hmm. Your lecturing can come later. For now, our priority is to examine the site."

"At the very least, we need to make sure there are no monsters in the area, and if there are, we need to get rid of them first!"

"Oh? There’s that, I guess."

The adventurer from Ars Longa shrugged.

Feeling relief that he appeared to be convinced, Gerald swept his eyes around the alliance members gathered around him.

First of all, there were four members of the Scarlet Shield, including himself. There were the two survivors from the Four-headed Dragon. There were four members from Ars Longa. And as for the Apostles of the Dawn...

"Hey."

A stiff voice echoed over the evening mountaintops.

"Where did the Apostles of the Dawn go?"

* * * *

Hiding themselves from the alliance behind a corner of the ruins, the Apostles of Dawn were smiling at their success in getting away from them.

"Hmph, it was such a foolish choice to team us up with a bunch of frontier barbarians, thieving lowlifes and academic nerds."

"Indeed, Teacher."

"This must be, ‘solitude for those at the peak of magic’."

The leader nodded repeatedly at his members' flattery.

(What were they doing lounging around in front of these musty ruins?)

The Apostles of Dawn were a group of mages from the nobility. For them, adventure and quests were akin to hunting and killing monsters for sport. There was no concept of adventuring in dirty caves or tomb raiding. Even if they were hired by commoners with reward money, they would not lose the pride of their noble birth. It was with this in mind that they rose to the rank of B by solely slaying monsters in open spaces.

Therefore, they were unacquainted to archaeological research. In fact, they despise culture from ancient times. They see those as relics that died out for whatever reason before they were born. Hence, relics were nothing more than broken, primitive toys. They, who live in the present day, were naturally superior to people of the past, because they were refined through the passing of time.

This kind of thinking is frowned upon at the Gallerien Magic Academy in St. Gallen and the Heptarch National University in Molbaehr. From historical research, it was discovered that ancient civilisations possessed more intricate and advanced magic technology than they have at present. Many of the relics found include the ultra rare alloy, orichalcum, to various others out-of-place magical artifacts.

But they knew nothing about that. They were nobility from the Kingdom of Arquell. St. Gallen was, in their eyes, a barbaric nation that had taken their territory through cowardly deception fifty years ago. On the other hand, Molbaehr was a nation of pirates across the sea to them. And it was their narrow-mindedness and lack of knowledge which led to them failing to inherit their family titles and leaving government service. They would never admit these though.

In short, their knowledge of ruins in general was full of holes. They don't know the potential threats they might face in a ruin type dungeon, such as traps for thieves, ancient curses and powerful monsters such as guardians.

This was why they were eager to work on their own to outwit the other adventurers in the alliance.

"Besides, we have proven, through this quest, that our magic is effective on A-class monsters. There's no reason for us to be beholden to the country bumpkins of the west any longer."

"Yes. I especially dislike that unmannerly redhead."

‘I was considering shooting him from the back.’

"Let's not do that. It would be a blow to our pride."

As he spoke, a sudden realisation came to him. Perhaps this was for the best.

Look at the battle against the Cyclops. Despite the pompous commanding of the A rankers, the final blow was only possible because of them. How would those self-important faces distort if they fire magic at them. He would be lying if he said he wasn't curious to find out.

However, he had a more interesting idea in mind.

"It would be more pleasurable to be a step ahead of them and explore the site ourselves."

Let’s show the so-called top adventurers how good we actually are and reveal their incompetence at the same time. How amusing that would be.

The leader of the Apostles of the Dawn looked above him while sniggering. The roof of the towering ruins laid before him.

"Well, guessing based on the height, the light was coming from somewhere above here, wasn't it?"

"Shall we go, Teacher?"

"Yes, of course."

They were about 20 meters away from the top of the roof. That’s taller than the height of a Cyclops. However, for accomplished mages, such heights were nothing but child’s play.

After all, they could fly with magic. If the goal was to get to a higher altitude, levitation was an efficient method that could conserve magic power, although not as fast or as flexible as flight. Since ancient times, mages who could use magic to fly have been both feared and revered by the public. They were unlike the warriors who crawled the ground with barbaric weapons in their hands.

"Levitation.……"

Upon the activation of magic, his body started to lift gently. His disciples, or followers, performed the same magic and became airborne.

Without meeting any mishap, they floated 20 metre up and landed on the roof of the ruins.

"Hmph, trivial."

"I only feel pity for those without magic Since they wouldn’t be able to do this."

"What do you think, Teacher? Wouldn’t it be nice to look down on all those people wasting their time at the entrance?"

"No, let's not. It is most impressive to only reveal the trick at the final stage. It would be more interesting to present our findings to them, who can only claw at the surface. Don't you think so, gentlemen?"

"I see. As expected of Teacher! You have a far more refined taste than we ever could!"

After exchanging smiles around, the Apostle of the Dawn surveyed their surroundings.

The roof, or rather the rooftop, of the ruins sloped in a strange manner towards the centre of the building. And in the middle of the slope, there was a huge, gaping hole. It was like the nest of antlions.

And the light that they saw earlier in the distance seemed to be coming from inside of this hole.

"What a stupid design...Isn’t it just asking to be infiltrated from above?"

"Indeed. It must be the shallow wisdom of the primitive. It shows the extent of those who built it."

With a sneer, he approached the hole.

They imagined that there were mountains of gold and silver inside, causing it to shine in the evening sun. Even the most ignorant would know that the remains of tombs and palaces could sometimes contain vast amounts of wealth. It was not surprising that the mages from the Apostles of the Dawn came to such a conclusion.

A glint of desire appeared in their eyes. As dropouts from nobility pretending to reach the apex of magic, they were naturally not apathetic to matters to do with money. In fact, since they were surrounded by wealth in their childhood, they had a strong desire to seek out treasures, though it was a slightly different motivation compared to the Four-headed Dragon party.

They wish to return to their luxurious lifestyles. They want to return to a life where they could wear lustrous silk clothes and adorn themselves with jewels. They wanted to eat and savour the delicacies that were only worthy of their blue blood. They wanted to have a beautiful princess in their beds who would be the envy of kings and nobles. They wanted to look back on those who kicked them off the seats of power. There were so many things they could do if they brought back treasure. With the exception of saints, the seeds of desire were more infinite than vast grains of sand in the world.

Driven by such greed, the Apostles of Dawn peered into the interior of the ruins.

"I greatly. Advise against. Prying eyes."

A monster crawled up from below, and was directly opposite them.

"Huh?"

Who was it that could not help but reply in that way?

Before their eyes was a strange woman. It was strange enough that there was a woman in the ruins hidden deep within the mountains, but where she was now was much more confounding. There was a tunnel connecting the large hole in the rooftop to the ruins. Her hands and feet were on the wall at the edge of the tunnel, and she was clearly in the process of climbing.