Chapter 56
Chapter 56
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Izunu Ruins
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After camping by splitting the site in half for the night, they gathered in a simple meeting area.
Arsen and Eloise, Bazkal and Rino, Marun and one unnamed adjutant—six in total.
Marun, stretching languidly, glanced at the soldiers tidying up the camp and Bazkal before speaking.
“By the way, from what the elder told me, only Sir Arsen and Lady Eloise crossed over... Where did these people come from? Even knights?”
Arsen replied to Marun’s question in a nonchalant tone.
“Friends we recruited in Narvik over the past few days. All fine warriors.”
“You’d have more than enough with just us, so why...?”
“We need people to use the relics we excavate. We dug up dozens of weapons, but Eloise and I can’t wield them all. We only have two hands, after all.”
Arsen waved his hands teasingly.
“First, I’d like to know our destination. Which ruin are we tackling first?”
“You mean the ruins? Darin, where’s the map?”
“Here it is, Sir Marun.”
Marun took a map from his adjutant and spread it out on a flat rock.
“Here’s the map of the surrounding area!”
Though he called it a map, it was more like a crude drawing a child might make looking down at the ground from high in the sky. A very sloppy one at that.
Thanks to small notes labeling some terrain features, it was somewhat legible, but it was still hardly a proper map.
It was more like a game minimap, really.
“Is this the north...?”
“That looks like the south. See all the hills here? Then this must be the east.”
Using Bazkal and Rino’s discussion of the map as reference, Arsen analyzed it.
In the northwest from Narvik, near a fortress, he spotted a spot labeled “Izunu Ruins.”
Arsen pointed there with his finger and asked.
“Is this the first ruin we’re targeting?”
“That’s right! Did the elder tell you beforehand?”
“Yeah, somewhat.”
As Arsen conversed with Marun, Bazkal looked at the spot Arsen had pointed to and spoke up proudly.
“Brother, I’ve been there before!”
“Yeah?”
“It’s pretty famous. These... ancient ruins. They’ve been looted of everything worth taking long ago, but there’s a door inside that won’t open. Touch it, and weird words come out. Keep your hand on it, and you get cursed and die.”
“You mean the ruins with that ‘Cursed Door’?”
Rino seemed to know about it too.
Arsen turned back to Marun and pressed him inquisitively.
“I’m guessing my role is to open that door.”
“Probably so?”
“It says you die. You sure that’s fine?”
“Well... We haven’t actually opened these ruins ourselves yet.”
Arsen furrowed his brow and glared, prompting Marun to hem and haw excuses.
“I-It’ll be fine! No successor has ever been harmed by ruins before. Absolutely not.”
“Are you certain this ruin is like the others?”
Unconvinced by Marun’s words, Arsen pressed again, and Marun mumbled without a proper answer.
Watching from behind, Bazkal spoke up.
“I touched that door once too. Touching it briefly is fine. Just pull away while it’s muttering, and nothing happens. To get cursed, you have to deliberately hold on for dozens of seconds.”
It was at least a comforting anecdote.
Arsen deliberately sighed loud enough for Marun to hear, then tapped the spot on the map with the ruins and declared.
“Let’s head out, then. Are we prepared?”
“O-Of course!”
* * *
Naturally, Arsen’s troops and the Starburi detachment marched at some distance from each other.
There was no reason they couldn’t stick together, but it would clearly stress out ordinary soldiers like Bazkal and Rino if they did.
Arsen’s group took the left flank, the Starburi detachment the right.
A group of over twenty splitting up like this also meant they were more likely to attract magic beasts’ attention.
“Large magic beast on the right!”
“Fire!”
The detachment’s mages aimed their staves at a massive fox walking on two legs with four arm-like appendages.
With a rumbling roar, lightning burst forth and struck the beast.
But unlike the helpless bandits from the night before, the magic beast didn’t fall.
It simply let out a ferocious howl and picked up speed as it charged.
‘That looks familiar?’
The thought that he’d seen this beast before was fleeting; Arsen quickly realized what it was.
It resembled the ma-in he’d encountered while subjugating bandits in the past.
That ma-in had probably mutated into this form.
Back then, it had been incredibly strong—even three knights struggling against it hadn’t brought it down easily.
“It’s not working!”
As one mage screamed, Marun shouted in an uncharacteristically calm voice.
“Sir Arsen! Buy us some time!”
“Bazkal.”
“Got it, brother!”
Arsen and Bazkal rushed to the right flank, positioning themselves in front of the mages.
The beast turned its gaze to the two knights charging boldly at it, roaring in fury at their audacity and lunging.
Rubber-like arms stretched and whipped out. Arsen calmly deflected the claws at their ends and stepped back slightly.
Bazkal, experienced against magic beasts, dodged without much trouble too.
As they danced around in front of it to stall, something else caught his eye.
Rotting, slimy skin. Seeing it jogged another memory.
Arsen immediately spoke to Eloise via earring.
[This thing’s weak to fire. Can you hit it with fire?]
[Fire? Give me a moment. Flame spells have short range, so I need to get close...]
“Fall back now, Sir Arsen!”
Mid-conversation with Eloise, Marun shouted from behind.
Arsen leaped back and turned to see Marun holding something.
‘A bow?’
What Marun held was a bow made of unidentified metal.
The frame was almost as tall as a person, and the arrows were correspondingly huge—more like small javelins.
He nocked an arrow, aimed, and paused. Then light extended from his right hand, coiling around the arrowhead.
It was obviously temporarily enchanting it with magic.
“This arrow shall punish the foe!”
With a childish shout, Marun released the string.
*Twang.* A thick, heavy sound rang out as the arrow soared through the sky.
The force was so immense it sliced through the air at a speed even a skilled knight might struggle to track, embedding itself in the beast’s chest.
Yet the arrow didn’t penetrate deeply.
Its slimy skin resisted piercing attacks exceptionally well, as Palato’s javelin had proven before.
The arrow merely dangled from the surface, inflicting no real damage.
But as the beast thrashed to pull it out, explosive flames erupted from the arrow.
The fox’s unique skin protected it from the arrow itself, but not the blaze that followed.
■■■■■----!
In agony as its body burned, the beast howled desperately, clawing at the flames.
As if that might extinguish them.
Of course, the fire didn’t go out, feeding on the beast’s oily skin and dancing fiercely.
As Arsen watched from a distance, Marun approached, bragging.
“How about that? My flaming arrow!”
Excited from the battle’s heat, Marun was annoyingly upbeat. No trace of his earlier seriousness remained.
To calm him, Arsen spoke softly and deliberately.
“Settle down a bit. I didn’t know you used a bow.”
“Oh, this? I usually unstring it. It breaks if I leave it strung!”
Back in Belleuan territory, most used javelins over bows.
The concept of bows existed—some guards carried them.
But Belleuan rarely used them because they were largely useless.
Fine for ordinary people or small beasts, but larger magic beasts were too tough to stop with arrows.
Belleuan lacked strong elastic materials or the tech for composite bows anyway, so even handmade ones had clear limits.
No matter how big or powerful, they couldn’t surpass a well-trained squire or knight’s javelin.
Bows were seen as tools for regular soldiers against bandits or criminals.
“You knew this beast was weak to fire?”
“The Nepal Fox? Yeah, they pop up around my hometown sometimes. You wouldn’t know, Sir Arsen. They don’t appear in the east.”
“I’ve seen one before.”
“Really? They’re not from around there.”
Arsen saw no need to mention it was a ma-in, not a beast, and just nodded.
Just then, the beast collapsed from exhaustion, drawing Marun’s gaze too.
Arsen quietly admired Marun’s stylish bow.
‘This is a magic knight’s fighting style... Unique, but impressive.’
Magic knights sounded mighty and threatening, but a little thought revealed them for the paper tigers they were.
In a world of ultra-high-speed combat with exchanges every second, who had time to chant spells lasting seconds?
Without time to cast, they were just ordinary knights.
Marun maximized his strengths with a ranged bow and enchanting magic.
The bow was made of rare materials, but wielding it effectively came down to skill.
The man might be frivolous and odd, but his ability was respectable.
“Hmm, what a shame. Nepal Foxes are best caught without fire...”
“Put out the fire first, unless you plan to take every beast around here.”
“The fire? Sure. Hey! Everyone, douse it with water!”
The mages approached and cast water creation spells.
Pitiful compared to Eloise, but with ten casting at once, water poured like a waterfall, soaking the beast.
Once extinguished, the corpse merely smoked and reeked without burning further.
* * *
Arsen shaded his eyes from the pouring sunlight and stared at the massive building ahead.
It was unmistakably an ancient ruin left by mages.
Its smooth form, incomparable to crude modern structures of wood, stone, and dirt, resembled an Earth concrete jungle.
Dust-laden wind swirled silently around the ruins, devoid of any human presence.
But recent digging marks from tools like shovels dotted the ground here and there.
As Arsen examined them, Rino noticed and explained.
“People visit these ruins around here sometimes. Rumor has it unexcavated relics turn up if you dig. Some hope they might open the ‘Cursed Door.’”
“Any relics actually dug up from the ground?”
“Rumors abound, but I’ve never heard of any properly excavated. Just pipe dreams.”
Glancing at Bazkal, who’d been here before, he looked deeply embarrassed.
Clearly ashamed to be one of those ‘dreamers.’
Arsen offered Bazkal soulless comfort.
“Don’t sweat it. Everyone has dreams.”
“No, well...”
Using his mumbling excuse about hearing real relics had been found as background, the group approached the ruin’s center.
Countless excavation teams over the ages had left nothing but the building itself.
If it were near Narvik, they might’ve demolished it for building materials.
“Here it is.”
The structure Bazkal pointed to rose like a massive pillar.
Over ten meters tall and imposing, but past the entrance, the real impressiveness lay below.
A spiral staircase coiled around the central pillar, so deep that even a knight’s dark vision couldn’t see the bottom.
Faint purple vines blanketed the walls, obscuring their original color.
“Go down here and straight in, but sometimes magic beasts live down there. The stairs are big, but not enough for anything huge.”
“Grim.”
Echoing Bazkal’s explanation, Arsen turned to the group and issued orders.
“We’re entering the ruins. Magic beasts might appear, so ready your weapons.”