CH 93

After I went through the tunnel at the bottom of the dried well, I finally arrived at my destination. I sent Noir inside first to make sure that it was safe to proceed.

“Nyaa.”

As I followed after Noir, I could tell that we had arrived at an open area. When I stood up and looked over my surrounding, suddenly light spread from under my feet.

“…Eh?”

The faint light turned stronger within no time, and the whole room was wrapped in a light that was bright enough to irritate our eyes.

But it happened for only a moment as the light changed into a calming one.

“W-what is this…?”

Maa-kun looked at me with an astonished look, but even I didn’t know what was going on.

“Mark!”

When I turned to look at the direction of the voice, there were the children that I saw just now. Everyone had dirt all over their bodies and they looked worn-out, but for the time being I was glad that it didn’t seem like they were injured, as far as I could see for now.

“Have you come to save us?”

When the tallest child asked, Maa-kun nodded.

“And what about that kid?”

“She’s here with me to save you guys. She came to this town along with the knights from Izel fort.”

“Hooray! The knights have come to save us!”

Among the delighted children, there was a child who was slightly faltering. I wonder if their energy had deteriorated because they had always been passing the magical crystals all this time?

Talking about the magical crystals… I wonder if the silver light that shone before was all of the crystals here? It was said to be valuable, so it was pretty amazing for this place to have that many, way too amazing even, right?

Particularly the large clump of magical crystal located in the middle of the room, it looked very valuable.

But why did they suddenly shine just now?

“Hey, are you a magician?”

Uhm, I am a sage, not a magician, but I wonder if they will get it if I explain it to them?

Hmmm… I guess it’s better to say that I can use magic, then?

“I can use magic.”

“Eh. Really?”

When Maa-kun was surprised, the tallest child laughed, saying “You also didn’t know that?!”

“I just met her, after all… More importantly, that magical beast is way cooler.”

“Magical beast?”

Maa-kun pointed at Noir, who tilted its head and meowed, “Nya?”

Hau. How adorable.

“What? It’s so small and looks so weak.”

In response to the disappointed boy, Noir turned its glance at him.

Before the intimidating air that Noir suddenly exerted, not only the boy, but everyone stiffened.

“Hey, Noir!”

Good grief~! Don’t just rashly scare them.

“Nyaa.”

The moment Noir loosened its intimidating air, the children took some deep breath as if their paralysis had just been lifted.

Forgive my Noir.

What do I do? There are several children who look like they are weak in the knees now.

“Nyaa.”

Even if I wanted to get angry at Noir, I couldn’t, not when I saw its figure with its ears facing down as if it was showing its remorse.

“From now on, you can’t do that kind of thing again.”

It was also my bad for not knowing that Noir could exert such an intimidating air even when it was in a small size.

Or rather, it couldn’t exert such an intimidating air during its small mode before, so I wonder if it had grown to be able to do that?

Since I couldn’t tell Noir’s level, I couldn’t really say anything.

“Nyau.”

After it showed its remorse, Noir sat down just like a good cat it was.

“Now, let’s hurry and escape. Uhhmm, can you run?”

There was a child that sat down hard on the ground among the children. Maa-kun also extended his hand to help, but it didn’t seem like they were able to get up.

Is it really impossible to quickly go up the rope ladder without being spotted by the guards?

Hmm… This is troubling me.

When I was troubled over what we should do, Noir walked towards the wall and let out a small cry.

“What’s the matter, Noir?”

As I took a closer look at the spot among the wall where Noir was scratching at, there was a small crack there.

I approached it and saw that there was a thin light beyond the crack, but it was still too dark to see things clearly.

“I wonder if this is connected to the surface? How should I make sure of it? Hmm…”

The crack was too narrow for even Noir to go through it. I could enlarge this crack using magic, but it would be meaningless if the other side of this crack didn’t lead to the surface.

“Ah, that’s right.”

I just thought of a good thing!

I put my hand inside my cat pouch and took out an item box.

Then, with this thing that I had received from Amanda-san…

“Oi, what are you doing?”

Maa-kun looked at me with a puzzled expression as I suddenly began writing a letter on a paper that I took out.

Fufufu~n. This is used this way.

“To Frank-san. After I went through the passage located at the bottom of the dried well, there was a big room, and there were the children as well as stuff that seemed like magical crystals. But it seemed impossible for us to go up the well again. There’s a crack on the wall here and this letter is written to confirm whether the crack is connected to the surface or not. If this letter were to reach you, please go towards the direction the puffball flew in. …Hmm. This will do.”

I blew the puffball that I received from Amanda-san and let it fly towards the direction of the crack.

The puffball that had become a white fluffy mass was gently sucked towards the other side of the crack.

“Yay! It seems like it’s really connected to the surface.”

Then, I should enlarge this crack with magic.

Uhmm, it’d be dangerous for me to use Fire Ball since it’d envelop the room with gas, water would be dangerous too, so it’d be either the wind or thunder magic, but I wonder if the wind magic would blow away all the debris?

“Hold it, everyone, stand behind me. …Hm. This should be fine. Then, Wind Lance! Gooooo!”

A spear that was made from the swirling wind went towards the crack.

Boooooom!

The roaring sound resounded as the crack grew larger.

The debris dispersed outside along with the spear of wind. Then, the blue sky could be seen beyond that.

“Yaay! Hooray!”

As I jumped up and down in joy, Noir also came to my side and seemed to be in good spirit as well.

Maa-kun and the others also cheered from behind.

We did it, it’s a success!

For some reason, the blue sky could be seen beyond the crack, but… We were supposed to be going underground, so I wonder why.

However, I shouldn’t get too caught up thinking about the minor details.

As I was about to hurry and go outside, Noir suddenly growled.

“Noir, what’s wrong?”

When I turned around, there was something moving at the corner of my field of vision.

Rumble, rumble rumble… There was the sound of something heavy moving.

As I blinked, the mass of stone in the middle of the room moved.

Thump, thump.

Then, it formed something in a twinkle…

What stood up together with a bang was the familiar stone monster from Elysia Online—.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?! Goleeeemmmmmm?!”