CH 161

Chapter 161 – I’ll Forgive You ＞(゜∀゜ )

Bella and Tozume kicked in the doors from both sides, and Shumel and Ms. Zamir rushed into the room with the speed of a gale. I, Isla, and Grande followed, and inside the room was a rather large space.

It’s more like a reception room or office for the facility manager.

“I’m impressed that you have managed to get to this ― W-wait… Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!?”

Then, a person in a terrifying robe in front of the desk was quickly beaten by Shumel with her gold crushing rod and crushed to the floor by Ms. Zamir’s short spear.

“It hurts. It hurts so much! Wait! Time up! Stop! I give up. Please forgive me!”

“What are you begging for?”

“Don’t mind him, just do it.”

“Alright.”

If this guy was friendly, he could have warned us before we were attacked by the ghouls on the way, or talked to us before we got here, or any number of other ways to get in touch with us beforehand.

And yet, he’s definitely not a normal guy when he’s just sitting here waiting for us.

“Aaaaahhhhh, wait, wait, wait! You must be looking for something, aren’t you? I can be useful to you!”

The black robe guy screamed when he saw the gold crushing rod that was raised. Hearing the word “useful,” Ms. Zamir also stopped her attack and glanced at me. What do you want me to do? I guess that’s what she meant.

“What do you think? Isla.”

“I don’t think we can trust what Lich has to say. I think he should be obliterated.”

“Oh, a Lich, huh? My understanding of a Lich is that they’re an ancient and powerful undead magician, is that correct?”

“That’s right. Did they exist in Kosuke’s world?”

“No, they’re just an imaginary being.”

I can’t say for sure that they didn’t exist, but they probably didn’t exist in a world where there was no such thing as magic.

“It’s okay! It’s okay! I’m a Lich, but I’m just a makeshift Lich made up of Ring of the Dead! I’m just a small-fry Lich! I’m actually safe!”

“You say that, but?”

“The Ring of the Dead is said to be an ancient relic that automatically makes the wearer a Lich when they die. However, its existence has never been confirmed.”

“This! This is the ring! I’m not lying!”

The robed guy ― Lich, shows me the golden ring that fits on the middle finger (bone) of his right hand, which he presented to me. I see.

“Interesting. I’ll confiscate it.”

“If you take it, I’ll disappear! Please forgive me because I will disappear! I’ll do anything!”

“Hmm? Did you just say you’ll do anything?”

“Eh? Yes.”

The Lich raises his head and looks at me. Yeah, it’s a skeleton. It’s the one with the blue flames behind the eyes. I wonder if I can trust this guy.

“Then tell me your purpose. What did you use the Ring of the Dead for, become a Lich, and holed up in a place like this?”

“Well, the damn Elves attacked the Omit Kingdom, you know.”

The Lich sat upright on the stone floor and began to speak. I wonder if there was a culture of sitting on the floor in the Omit Kingdom.

“I know that. And?”

“So, this is an evacuation shelter made from a dead dungeon, where I and other high-ranking people from the surrounding area took refuge.”

A dead dungeon? I’m curious about this word, but I know what it means, so I’ll let it pass. I can’t go on with the story.

“It’s a shelter for the higher-ups. So how did it turn into a dungeon full of ghouls and a Lich?”

“I was in charge of this place, but I was the first to be killed.”

“That’s how you became a Lich.”

The Lich nodded at my words, sitting upright.

“Yes. But right after I became a Lich, I was so angry and resentful that I lost my mind.”

“What did you do?”

“I was so angry that I put a curse on the rest of the food and water and made the survivors kill each other.”

“That’s a really evil thing to do. I think it’s better to wipe this guy out.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Isla nodded in agreement with my words. The rest of the group reacted in the same way. Well, of course.

“Wait, wait, wait! Just a moment. As you can see, the people who have killed each other have become ghouls, but as I watched them wander around as ghouls for many years, my resentment and anger subsided.”

“Shouldn’t the undead disappear when the resentment is gone?”

“Normally, yes. But as far as I can tell, this one is no ordinary undead.”

Grande replied while maintaining a stance that allowed her to jump on the Lich at any time. The Lich nodded to Grande’s words.

“Yes. The Ring of the Dead did not cause me to disappear, and I regained my reason. But I didn’t have the courage to remove the Ring of the Dead and disappear on my own…”

“So you decided to play dungeon master, huh?”

“Yes. Well, I was bored, so I was mostly idle.”

“I see… What do you think?”

“Lich is still a Lich, even if he is rational. He’s still a dangerous undead. It’s better to wipe him out.”

“I’m with Isla on this one.”

“The undead are not in harmony with the world. It makes sense to exterminate them.”

“I don’t know how to explain it. But I don’t see any reason to keep him alive, right?”

“I have no idea.”

“Even if he were playing dungeon master, we would have been torn apart by the ghouls. I don’t think there is any room for sympathy for someone who wants to kill us.”

My companions’ opinions were harsh on the Lich. Well, he’s undead. There is no guarantee that he will not suddenly reveal his true nature and attack the living, and there is no reason to keep him alive. Is there any reason to keep him alive? Not unless there is a safe way to control him.

“There’s no safe way to keep this guy, right?”

“He’s a rotten Lich. He can’t be kept under control.”

“Not even with a slave collar?”

“No. There is no way a person with a Ring of the Dead could be a good person with any sense of ethics. Every single necromancer is an outcast.”

“What a terrible discrimination!”

“The world’ s opinion of necromancers has been built up by the necromancers themselves. In fact, you’re the one who turned those ghouls on us. There is no room for rebuttal.”

Isla looked down at Lich with a horribly cold eye. Hmm, that’s cruel.

“So that’s it then.”

“Kuh..! If it comes to this…!”

Lich’s eyes shine suspiciously as he looks at me. What’s that?

“Fuhahahaha! You’ve been caught off guard, you idiots! I’ve taken over the man’s consciousness! If you want him to live…”

“What did you just do?”

“…Eh?”

The Lich has a stunned look on his face. No, there was something shiny in his eyes. Did he do something to me? He said that he had taken over my consciousness, so he must have done something like hypnosis or brainwashing or something like that.

“Maybe some kind of mind spell. Brainwashing or hypnosis or compulsion. It won’t work on Kosuke, who has no magic.”

“I see… So you attacked me.”

When I looked at the Lich, he gave me a flirtatious smile. I wondered if even skeletons could smile.

“P-please forgive me…”

“I forgive you.”

I did my best to put on a smile. When the Lich saw my smile, he looked relieved. He’s a guy with a lot of facial expressions.

“But I doubt this guy will forgive you!”

I pointed my submachine gun loaded with mithril silver jacket bullets at the Lich and pulled the trigger.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaa!?”

The Lich, who was sitting upright, received a barrage of mithril silver jacket bullets and was torn apart. I knew I should have made a machine gun for the mafia.

I pull out the Ring of the Dead from the Lich’s shattered middle finger and place the scattered bones in my inventory.

“It was a waste of time, really.”

“Good grief…”

Shumel shrugged. No, we didn’t get any information, and it was a real waste of time. I’m going to take what I can get and get out of this nasty place.

☆★☆

“Welcome back!”

“I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Good work, guys.”

“…..”

When we returned to the surface, the Harpies flew over to us and gave us words of encouragement. They were waiting for us after they finished taking care of the fields while keeping an eye on the perimeter of the exploration base.

“What was it like inside?”

“It was full of ghouls. There was a Lich at the innermost area.”

“Kosuke tore him apart with his sabumashingan.” [T/n: Submachine Gun.]

“As expected of Danna-sama.”

We all returned to the base and checked the things we had brought up from the ruins, arranging them one by one.

“So many things are broken.”

“It’s been hundreds of years, after all. It seems that there have been internal conflicts.”

“But there’s also a lot of valuable stuff. Jewelry, precious metals.”

“It seems that the Lich was telling the truth when he said it was a shelter for the influential people.”

There are many things that have been damaged by the years and the brutality of the ghouls, but there are many ornaments and furnishings made of precious metals. For those that are broken, repairing them using the blacksmithing facility’s repair function will increase their value.

I’ll ask Isla to make a list of the things we brought up.

“There are many ornaments and furnishings.”

“There are also some weapons and magic tools. Also, a lot of garbage.”

There are a lot of broken beds, wardrobes, and other furniture remnants. Also, it seems that torn paintings and clothes cannot be repaired.

“There are also a lot of books, but nothing like scriptures.”

There are many books like journals, stories, and travel books to pass the time, and a few grimoires and technical books. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the old Adel scriptures that we were looking for. Unfortunately, it seems that there were no religious people in that shelter.

“For now, there were many things that could be worth money, so it was a successful exploration.”

“Yes, from an adventurer’s point of view, it was a great success.”

“If you become an adventurer, you’ll make a lot of money.”

“Just being able to bring back so much stuff is a guarantee of success as an adventurer.”

Just being able to carry as much luggage as possible is pretty much a violation, isn’t it? I know exactly what it means. The fact that there is no limit to the amount or weight of items I can carry in my inventory is a big help to me too. That’s the thing, though; there are a lot of survival games that have restrictions. For me, it’s easy and a big help. Being thrown into this world out of nowhere was hard, though.

“I wouldn’t call the mission a great success.”

“It can’t be helped. It’s only the first stop. There are more places to explore.”

As she said this, Isla made a list of the items we had collected. This list will be used as a basis for additional rewards to be given to Shumel and the others according to the value of the items found. Me, Isla, Ms. Zamir, and the Harpies belong to the Liberation Army, so we don’t have to do that, though.

For your information, Grande is not a member of the Liberation Army, so she is treated the same as Shumel and the others.

“I think we should have a party tonight to celebrate the success of our adventure.”

“Oh, that’s great! As expected of Kosuke-san, he knows perfectly!”

Bella raised her voice in genuine happiness. We’re going to have a better meal and more drinks than usual.

And so, our first exploration of the ruins ended in success. Well, let’s hope the next one goes as well.