Chapter 20 Trapped With Strangers II

"It's all your fault, filthy non-magus!"

"..."

"If only you weren't as mediocre!"

"Shut up, Luke! You didn't do any better! what is all that magic for? huh!? Nothing!"

"Shut up for me you vixen! look at your sword! utterly useless!"

The yells wouldn't stop, once despair is due... the blame has to be imparted and one of the haughty humans wouldn't think twice before discarding himself of any guilt and imparting it to others as if they were gifts on Christmas.

Five humans they were, Constantine had already learned their basic features.

Three men, the haughty one was a baldy with robes and by his side, there was a broken staff... his gaze contained disgust to his party as he closed his eyes to sleep, in any case, they were already due to die, no one would save them in the forest, let alone this dungeon.

Two of the men were bulky warriors, they had bodies that suggested at least a thousand pushups straight from the womb, they had so many scars that Constantine didn't know if they were men with scars or scars with men.

One of the girls had auburn short hair, she panted and tried to sleep too, too shy to involve herself in this matter, she had a pair of gloves which she probably used as a weapon, they were rusted and clearly not in the best condition, wearing trousers and clothes foreign to Constantine.

The last one was a lady with purple hair in a ponytail, it was dirty... her eyes were blue and she was bruised.

A silver plate covered her chest, and he could 'feel' with his gaze that area was a little constricted, unlike the other girl who seemed to be naturally 'flat'.

Of all of them, she was the one that wouldn't tolerate Luke's nonsense.

...

Constantine heard complaints but he didn't pay attention to them, crawling through the path his magic created, he kept moving beneath the ground to the next checkpoint.

His head raised up from the soil, dirty and covered in dust, then his hands.

He cast his wind magic and expected an air current, but... this one wasn't it either.

Sighing he continued, this is the third entrance and yet nothing, it is time for the next.

However, as the mocking complaints kept resonating, even amusing the group of ants, he decided to give good luck to those humans.

After some crawling, his head kept to the soil once again, roughly calculating where the humans would be, he looked to the sides and found nothing.

That was until he turned around a hundred and eighty degrees to come face to face with a pair of buttocks covered in trousers.

"..." He was momentarily stunned, as always his calculations were impressively accurate.

He could see the earthen coloured array start to engulf him and he felt suddenly weak.

[Get out of this magic array, it is one made to suck vitality and turn it into those crystals!] Zebellia yelled and he did precisely so.

Sinking back into the soil he moved away from the circle, but still close enough to the woman.

[The other one is a magic limiter, stay away from that one as well, it seems that man is a magus] She said once again, a precious input.

"How is my magic currently, I think I have used a lot..."

[The dizziness wasn't caused due to lack of magic, it was that array... however, I can show you mana status if that's what you desire...]

"Thank you!" He said as enthusiastically as he could muster.

[It was nothing...] Her voice sounded like a stutter.

'Treat the secretary well... treat the secretary well...' That would be his new motto.

...

[1st Ether Magic Core (Earth): 42%]

[2nd Ether Magic Core (Earth): 42%]

[3rd Ether Magic Core (Earth): 42%]

[4th Ether Magic Core (Earth): 40%]

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

'I'm doing well with mana...'

[Why don't you try to contact them...?] She snickered, perhaps hoping that by doing so the ants would discover him and it would trigger a chain of actions that would decrease his debt.

Or give her fun.

But the thing with the conqueror... stupid he was not.

"Hey, girl!" He whispered, still with his head protruding from the ground, it was the only part of him showing, he gazed onto that pair of constricted buttocks.

!!!

The purple-haired woman heard his words, she turned back and forth several times but didn't find anything...

"W-Who is it?" She whispered back.

It was relieving for Constantine that for some reason, everyone in this world spoke his language... it would be so troublesome otherwise.

"Can you see me, girl?"

"No... who are you, where are you!? please help us..." She bent forward, and the curvature of her body pronounced on that glorious butt, he couldn't help but gulp slightly, there is definitely something odd going on there.

"B-Butt..." He stuttered and heard a disgusted twitch from inside, clearly Zebellia's.

"Ah!?" The woman exclaimed in disbelief, butt!?

"Am I talking with my butt now? this array is definitely making me nuts!" She whispered, unable to hold her head due to her shackles, all she wanted was to slap herself and wake up.

"N-No! I'm not your butt, I wish was!" He said once again, one can't blame the emperor, that place was so constricted, all he wanted was to research what was going on in there, it was as if the woman was purposefully trying to make herself 'plain'.

"Eh!?" Now she was slightly frightened, who is this butt-addicted entity?

The more the voice spoke, the more confused she was.

"Listen, let's begin from the start..." He sighed, this is going nowhere.

"Yes, please... explain yourself properly, how can I be talking with my butt?"

"Simply... you aren't... now, can we stop talking about butts? can you tell me how you ended up in this situation?" Regaining his regal self, he questioned the woman.

"Please, first tell me who you are exactly, how do I know you're not one of those ants, introduce yourself..."

"I'm Constantine..." He said, introducing himself to someone in this world for the first time, his gaze set on the ants, the moment any of them caught his movements, he'd run.

"What are you? a warrior, a magus... bandit? I'm Zamira, a warrior woman... where are you?" She introduced herself, a simple name he thought, and the occupation for some reason wasn't as important for him.

"I'm behind you." He said, keeping his eye on the next exit, one that was crowded with a bunch of ants, for some reason, that looked like the exit and he didn't like it.

"So you're my butt after all!? who named you Constantine!? I would have named you Riku..."

"..." He wanted to deadpan, but his hands wouldn't reach his forehead.

'It seems I found a 'treasure'... in more than once sense...'

"Please, stop talking about your butt, I'm literally behind you, if I creep up, those ants will see me, so just keep whispering."

"Oh, I see... can you help us?" She requested formally, not actually expecting any human beside them to be in this godforsaken place.

"How did you get in here?" He inquired, hoping she'd say something useful, but that wasn't the case.

"We were captured in the Lindom Forest, the one next to Town of Loup." She explained the same way she'd explain anyone from the neighbourhood.

He had no idea where the hell that was.

"I see, I was captured there as well, but managed to escape... currently looking for the exit." He lied swiftly, it would create a lot of questions to say anything else, questioning he didn't want.

"It is not easy to escape this place, this is the Infamous Cave of Sandork, who would have known one of its entrances was located in the Lindom Forest, right?"

"I have no idea what this Cave of Sandork is... Zebellia?" He mumbled.

[How can I know? this is my first time in Sandoria, Conqueror... I know as much of this place as you do...]

'Tch!' He clicked his tongue, refraining from insulting the useless Valkyrie lest his debt increased once again.

"Who could have said, right? anyway... I'm looking for the exit, I can't assist you now even if I wanted..."

"Please help us, we can pay you back!"

"How much money are we talking about?" Once again the hustling activated itself, he knew not what he could do with this world's currency, but money is money here or in hell...

"I-I can hug you?"

"..."

Her words hadn't even finished when Constantine's head had already sunk inside the soil, he didn't even laugh at that joke.

"C-Constantine...?" The girl had awaited his response, she was broke and imprisoned, what else could she offer other than a hug from her strong arms?

The moment her new acquaintance ignored her, she felt like crying.

Did he really have to leave like that!?