CH 77.1

Chapter 77.1 : Underground Waterway is Kingdom of Dream

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

There were literally countless numbers of branches in the Republic of Ariadya’s underground waterway. Moreover, they also built a lot of entrances to the underground waterways to make it easier for the government to maintain the place.

And we descended into the underground waterway from one such place.

The underground waterway was really spacious since it was built with the consideration of people coming inside.

If it was this spacious, I guess we didn’t need to crouch inside.

In addition, sidewalks were built in several parts of the waterway for humans to walk. But that was actually unneeded for now since the water depth in the waterway was shallow due to the lack of rain nowadays.

Thus, we could actually walk inside the waterway without having to make our feet wet.

「O LIGHT」

I invoked a simple lighting spell to illuminate our path.

One had to use an illumination spell since there was no light source in the underground waterway.

A sphere of light around 30 cm in diameter was floating in mid-air, illuminating our surroundings.

「As expected of Chiyuki-sama. With this, we don’t need to carry a torch anymore.」

Shizufae, who came along with us, sang praises for me.

Shizufae and co were the members of our investigation party.

General Clasus had divided the freedom fighters into several groups and each of them entered a different entrance.

The other freedom fighters should’ve already entered the underground waterway around this time too.

The members of our group were our usual members: Reiji, Shirone, Sahoko, Rino, Nao, and me.

In addition, Shizufae and co, along with hero of fire, Novis, and Decius were also included in our group. Ainoe, who got restricted by us, was also coming along.

「WHY ARE YOU TAKING ME TOO?!」

Ainoe screamed as we brought her by force.

「Ainoe-dono!! Forming a contract with a Daemon is a grave sin!! Don’t you feel sorry for doing something against God’s teachings!?!! In addition, we also found out that the lesser daemon who made the contract with you is lurking inside the underground waterway. That’s why you should come obediently with us.」

Ainoe made an extremely vexed face upon hearing Decius’ remark.

「GOD MY A*S! WHY THEY DIDN’T COME WHEN I WAS IN TROUBLE!! THE DAEMON IS FAR BETTER THAN THOSE SH*TTY GODS OF YOURS IN THAT REGARD!!」

「WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, AINOE-DONO!!? AREN’T YOU AFRAID OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT!?」

Those two were bickering non-stop.

「Calm down, Lord Decius. And Ainoe-san, I’ll use silence magic on you if you keep shouting like that.」

I stepped in to stop those two.

But, it seems that my words were far from enough to stop them.

I heaved a sigh.

「Shizufae-san, if worse comes to worst, please escape along with Ainoe-san and Lord Decius.」

「I understand, Chiyuki-sama.」

Shizufae bowed to me.

The reason why we took Shizufae and co along with us was to prevent Decius from going out of control. He was a serious man with a strong sense of responsibility after all. But, he was no match against the thing hiding in the innermost part of this underground waterway.

He might be killed by accident if he got involved in our fight.

But, since it was a waste of excellent human resources if we let Decius die, we attached Shizufae and co as his protectors.

As one would expect, the gentleman Decius wouldn’t force them to go with him to such a dangerous place.

「Then, let’s go.」

At Reiji’s cue, everyone went into the underground waterway.

The vanguard was Reiji and Nao. Following behind were Rino and I. And behind us was Shirone and Sahoko. Following behind them was Decius along with Shizufae and co.

「It’s smelly~」

Rino raised a complaint.

「Yeah, it’s a really nasty smell. Almost like kitchen waste.」

Sahoko spoke in agreement with Rino.

We went even deeper into the underground waterway.

Suddenly, Nao stopped in her tracks.

「EVERYONE STOP!!」

And shouted at everyone to stop.

「Is something the matter, Nao?」

「There’s something in front of us.」

Nao then moved on toward the center of the waterway, walking on the water surface like some sort of ninja. Well, she might be able to move far more easily using that technique.

And then, Reiji also followed Nao from behind, walking on the water surface.

Nao took out her boomerang while Reiji readied his sword.

「Oi, what’s hiding in there? I can’t see it at all!! Please make the light brighter!!」

The one who spoke was the vanguard of Shizufae and co, Novis.

He should learn to be more discreet.

「WAIT, NOVIS!!」

Shizufae tried to stop Novis with a flustered voice.

It seems she was having trouble because of Novis. For some reason, it felt like a sister rebuking her naughty little brother.

「I’ll make the light brighter.」

「Sorry for the trouble, Chiyuki-sama!!」

I moved the light sphere toward the surface of the water while hearing Shizufae’s apologies.

The light sphere illuminated the area around the water surface.

And then, a giant thing floated on top of the water surface.

「NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!」

「WHAT IS THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!」

Sahoko and Rino screaming to the top of their lungs.

「Giant slug…」

The thing that appeared in front of us was a giant slug around two metres high, and god only knows how many metres its length was.

It seems to be a monster called a giant slug. And that giant slug wasn’t the only one. There were so many giant slugs of various sizes clinging on the ceiling and walls in the underground waterway.

Maybe because the giant slugs have yet to notice our presence, they just crept along slowly on the floor of the underground waterway.

Yuck.

「Seeing them is enough to sent a chill running down my spine…」

Even Shirone, who was relatively calm when dealing with those kinds of creatures, was trembling upon seeing the giant slugs.

「What should we do, Chiyuki?」

Reiji asked while looking at us with an amused look on his face. It was an unpleasant face for me.

「GEEZ!! STOP LAUGHING AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM ALREADY!!」

「Haha, leave it to me Chiyuki!! O light!!」

Reiji fired several light bullets while laughing at us.

The light bullets hit the giant slugs, roasting them alive.

「UUh… I want to go back already.」

Sahoko was sobbing messily as she spoke.

I understand what she felt right now. She was extremely disgusted by the sight of the disgusting giant slugs. Honestly, I wanted to go back too.

「Wait!! There’s still something in there!!」

Nao was pointing at the inner part of the waterway.

I made a light sphere flying over there to illuminate that area. And there, I saw several black figures.

「THAT’s ThE INTRuDER!!」

「THEY FOUND US!!」

「RUUUN!!」

The black shadow was running at full speed toward the light sphere.

「Is that a rat?」

Shirone, who saw that spectacle by my side, spoke with a disgusted voice.

「Yeah, it was a rat. The only problem was the fact that they’re as big as humans, bipedal, and equipped with weapons.」

Just as Reiji had said, it was a bipedal rat equipped with a weapon.

「Ratman, huh.」

「Ratman… Somehow, I feel giddy when I hear that name. Shouldn’t they just named it after a certain mascot of the dream country?」

Nao almost said something really dangerous just now. Moreover, that theme park was quite distasteful too.

「A-A-A…」

「What’s matter, Rino-chan.」

Sahoko was the first to notice Rino’s abnormal voice.

「The rat-san just now are… former humans.」

Our attention gathered on Rino all at once.

「Is that true, Rino-san?」

Rino nodded to me.

「Maybe. My eyes saw through their true form after all.」

Rino doesn’t seem to have that much confidence as she said that.

The power of Rino’s illusion breaker was the strongest amongst us. As long as she focused her eyes, no one could ever hope to hide their true form from her.

「I guess we’re facing a difficult situation, huh.」

Nao spoke with a displeased voice.

「Sahoko, assuming that it’s a curse that transformed their appearance, can you undo their curse?」

Sahoko shook her head upon hearing Reiji’s question.

「I won’t know until I try it, Rei-kun. Let’s try it for now…」

Sahoko doesn’t seem to have that much confidence either.

「Then, let’s try on a rat first.」

Sahoko nodded upon hearing my remark.

「It’s decided then, let’s delve further inside.」

Thus, we advanced further inside.

「What are you doing now Kuroki…」

I happened to hear Shirone mutter when we were advancing.

===

◆Daemon Lord, Ulbard

We’re currently in the deepest part of the underground waterway, the place called the altar of Badon.

The rats in front of me kept making a ruckus.

My aides who saw that spectacle made a disgusted face.

Those rats were former humans who were changed into familiar animals by Zand. Since they were former humans, they could make a child with humans, and their body fluids contain viruses that would transform a human into a ratman.

For that reason, with the right environment, we could increase the number of these rats.