Chapter 200: Reaching the Heavens Part 6 Part 1

A contract. A two sided transfer of merits to both parties involved. For paying the agreed price, you can obtain something that you were previously lacking.

People of the underwater city Lulilas made a contract with Kutanid. So they had to give something to it. And what could they possibly obtain in return? That’s the question.

「If we want to get some answers for ourselves, our best bet is to look for them ourselves. No other choice but to explore the castle.」

「This, this is……」

I guess this is it, we can only do that, since we currently have no other option.

「A written report. Someone’s diary or notes. Notes and report logs from an experiment. We look for anything that may resemble things like that.」

A medium like that is a nice tone setter. It helps to keep the suspense building up, and it adds flavor to any horror-like setting. Nothing better than finding disturbing, blood-soaked notes. No matter the contents of said notes.

In this kind of setting the usual suspect would be a monster breaking out of a secret underground laboratory, or a military virus getting released outside by accident or on purpose. But no matter what happened here, we must get to know what it was if we want to have a chance at this fight.

And what do you know? As luck would have it, our Team A managed to discover something. It was a diary alright, but we have found it not in the throne room as you would expect, but in the chamber that looked somewhat like an office or a study. At the same time Rust and her Team B ventured into the top floor of the castle.

「Now then…… Let’s give this thing a read, shall we?」

“I wonder? How long it’s been since the arrival of the ‘Blue’ that brought with it the end of the ocean? At first it was only the cities in the West. Then the cities in the South had been all but swallowed up by it. Those who tried to fled from it on the ships ended up resting at the bottom of the ocean. Eventually, even this island was devoured by ‘Blue’ and ended up eroding completely.”

“And it was such a horrifying sight that it was more than enough to cast not only the common people into despair, but the entirety of the royal family as well.”

What the hell is this!? Stop throwing new settings at us already! ‘Blue? The hell is this whole ‘Blue’ thing all about!?

…… No, no, no. Calm down, me. At least there are two crucial things that we have learned at this point. This place was indeed an island, and something managed to invade it, although it was not Kutanid.

“The streets are now completely overrun with ‘Blue’, and everyone and everything it touches becomes the part of the ‘Blue’ as well.”

“Fortunately or unfortunately, we managed to evacuate most of the ministers and innocent civilians inside of the castle walls, giving all of them a temporal safe heaven. Not closing the castle gate on anyone in need of help is the least we can do in this time of despair.”

「For now, I get the impression that the one who wrote that diary must have been a really good person…… Let’s see what comes after that.」

“I am terrified of this stalemate that’s been going for so long now, but I cannot voice my worries and concerns to anyone, especially not the ministers.”

“With our regular attempts at driving the ‘Blue’ out of the city, we are constantly losing small number of soldiers. It is a loss, but at the very least with less soldiers we are able to provide accommodation for more citizens. At this point in time, the castle walls were able to take in all of the remaining people from around the city.”

“Originally the number of citizens was way bigger than what we are down to now, but there is nothing that we can do to fend the ‘Blue’ off, and it is that exact powerlessness that I cannot absolutely forgive myself for. As it also turned out, no one from the immediate surroundings of the His Majesty knows how to address this current threat that is looming over us.”

At first I thought that this ‘Blue’ thing might be some kind of foreign invader, but the more I read the more that seems not to be the case here.

The person who wrote this…… I don’t know who it was, maybe some regular citizen or maybe one of the smartest people around here, but there were using the word ‘Blue’ in a singular form here rather than plural.

Thinking about it for a moment, does that mean the ‘Blue’ is one huge singular entity? Or maybe it’s just a concept of something? …… Could this really refer to Kutanid?

“It’s really frustrating that we cannot do anything but to wait in here while the ‘Blue’ constantly besieges us. The fact that some of the ministers who fled the city by ships took most of our food supplies with them is not helping us, either.”

“Seeing as our current food and water reserves are not nearly enough to sustain hundreds of people every single day, I cannot help it but to think that our fate is to slowly wither away and die here.”

「This pattern will always lead to infighting and the surviving community basically tearing each other apart from the inside as time goes on.」

「That being said, there is no evidence that supports the assumption that there was any fighting inside of the castle’s walls.」

To sum up: once the invasion started, people have fled to the castle for safety, but there was no fighting amongst themselves. Rather, the most likely cause of their deaths was the fact that they died of starvation and dehydration, since a bunch of retarded ministers fled the city by ships, taking food and water with them for the ride. At least that’s my understanding.

“A terrible storm happened today. The kind of storm that would normally take everything in its path and return it to the sea whence it came from. “

“However, it is impossible to simply wash away the ‘Blue’, not now since it has taken roots so deep into the foundations of our city…… At the very least, that’s what I thought.”

Hm? What’s with that flow? It’s as if……