Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Into the Ire Ruins
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On the day of departure for the expedition, Bazkal asked whether they shouldn't split up the group and rendezvous outside the city to avoid drawing attention.
He seemed to remember Arsen's previous comment about how too many people had made them conspicuous.
“It's fine. We're already in a situation where we couldn't possibly stand out more.”
As he said, Arsen had already become one of the famous figures in the ruin city.
He had unilaterally crushed 'Roaring Znark,' the captain of a guard district and a powerhouse rumored throughout the city. On top of that, Rasur from the increasingly popular Dawn Excavation Team had been protecting him like a relative.
Moreover, since he was wearing Znark's weapon and armor, he'd need to disguise himself if he wanted to hide his identity.
“Better to become the sun and moon than linger as a star that could wink out at any moment.”
It would have been best if they could quietly slip out with just the relic and key, unnoticed by anyone.
But since that was no longer possible, it was better to elevate that fame and make it shine even brighter.
A middling status invited jealousy, while a lofty one drew admiration and worship.
After leaving the city amid the guards' respectful salutes and marching for several hours, Arsen turned to look back at the group trailing behind.
This time, anticipating heavy loads, they'd brought extra mounts, slowing their pace compared to before.
Arsen mentally gauged the distance for a moment before asking Rino, who was riding beside him as his aide.
“Do you think we can arrive today?”
“If we keep this pace, yes. It's much closer than the ossuary.”
“I see.”
At that moment, a soldier who had peeled off from the column for patrol came galloping up on his mount to report to Arsen.
“Captain, there's a group to the left fighting magic beasts.”
“Should we help?”
“No need. They're quite strong and already in the process of subduing them.”
“Then we pass by.”
If it had been dangerous, they might have helped out of duty, but stepping in when they could handle it themselves was just meddling.
Following Arsen's orders, the group gave the battle a wide berth to avoid interference and continued marching.
Not long after, the soldier patrolling to the left reported in.
“That group from earlier is approaching. They're moving fast, so we'll meet soon.”
“How many?”
“A little over ten. Three knights, all riding Jin.”
“Got it.”
From the sound of it, they didn't seem like a major threat.
Shortly after, the group the soldier had reported began slowly closing in on Arsen's party.
Judging by their direction, they weren't targeting them—their destination was just in the same direction.
Once they were close enough, Bazkal stepped forward first.
“Hold it, don't come any closer! If you have business, send one person.”
The approaching party halted en masse, and one of the knights rode up to greet them.
Arsen stepped out as his group's representative to meet him.
“Hello.”
“Pleased to meet you.”
Exchanging greetings in the city's customary fashion, Arsen subtly scanned the group without drawing notice.
As the soldier had reported, the three knights were all mounted on Jin, with two black-robed mages trailing behind.
‘For an excavation team, that's a pretty elite lineup.’
They all wore brass-painted armor and helmets reminiscent of ancient Greece, leaving their faces fully visible. Probably relics from the same ruin.
“I'm Rashka of Eden.”
“I'm Arsen of Beluan.”
“Pleased to meet you, Sir Arsen. Your reputation precedes you.”
Before Arsen could retort about why someone from outside would bother greeting him, Rashka acted familiar and friendly.
When Arsen replied politely, Rashka smiled warmly and said,
“I'm one of the few who witnessed the tale of Neck-Breaker Arsen firsthand. To snap the neck of Roaring Znark—his pride and joy—and kill him? What a magnificent heroic saga.”
Arsen let the flattery about how Znark deserved it as a villain slide while subtly observing Rashka's expression.
Eyeballs, eye muscles, the slightest twitches of cheek and brow.
At the same time, he didn't forget to respond appropriately to the empty praise and bootlicking.
Rashka continued at length afterward.
He had personally seen Arsen duel Znark and become a huge fan in the process. That's why he'd mustered the rudeness to approach like this.
Only after receiving a stone tablet where Arsen had scratched his name with a dagger—as proof of his admiration for the knight he idolized—did Rashka wish them good excavating and depart.
As Arsen stared after the group vanishing ahead, Bazkal teased from beside him.
“Brother, you're really popular. Too bad they weren't women.”
Arsen sighed at Bazkal's words.
“If it were something that trivial, it'd be preferable.”
“Is there a problem?”
“That guy earlier was suspicious. If you meet him without me, don't believe a word he says, no matter what. Treat him as an enemy outright.”
“Huh?”
Arsen spread the word not just to Bazkal but to everyone else.
They all looked confused but assented since it was Arsen's order.
Arsen frowned toward the direction Rashka had gone.
‘Suspicious bastard.’
Even in his previous life, Arsen had been adept at reading people's emotions.
Not quite psychic level, but with a knight's exceptional eyesight and his specialty of accelerated thinking, that sense had developed to near-superhuman levels.
To Arsen's eyes, the demeanor of that knight called Rashka had been highly suspicious.
‘It wasn't the attitude of someone looking at an object of admiration at all.’
This might sound self-deprecating, but Arsen had smelled a kindred spirit in Rashka.
The scent of a snake that constantly flicked its tongue at its surroundings, gauging what kind of person they were, how strong, and what could be gained.
Rashka had fawned over Arsen enthusiastically.
There was nothing off in his expression. His tone and gestures conveyed genuine passion and admiration.
But even as he spoke, he'd kept glancing at Arsen's group, observing them ceaselessly.
And in Arsen's view, snakes like that didn't cling without wanting something.
‘What kind of guy is he?’
* * *
“We've arrived.”
The Ire Ruins.
Among the 'unconquered ruins,' it was one whose existence had only recently become known, which meant plenty of people still rushed in hoping to conquer it.
Unlike the Mirror Ossuary, which had devoured countless people over centuries and was half-considered impossible.
In that light, the excavation team Arsen's group had met before—the ones rescued after challenging the Mirror Ossuary—could indeed be called eccentrics.
Challengers endlessly attempted to conquer the ruins, got smashed by magic traps, and spread its notoriety back to the city, repeating the cycle.
Tiger Claw, the group that had clashed with Arsen's party earlier, was one such.
That had gone on for about forty years, but unlike the Mirror Ossuary, here there was still a chance to salvage even mangled corpses, so it wasn't a graveyard with thousands of gravestones stabbed into the earth.
After arriving at the ruins, Arsen first sent soldiers to patrol the surroundings.
The uneasy feeling from that knight they'd met on the way hadn't faded.
Especially since they'd been heading in the same direction.
Soon after, Rino returned as the soldiers' representative to report.
“No one else around.”
“Good.”
“Yes. There are signs of someone passing nearby, but they've already gone far ahead.”
Arsen shook his head, thinking it had just been paranoia.
After brief discussion on whether to set up a base camp, they decided to push straight into conquering the ruins quickly.
Unlike other groups that had to enter, exit for rest, and re-enter, Arsen's party had the key and solution, so they could do it in one go.
According to Maroon's info, this ruin was only a bit more troublesome than the ossuary but conquerable without major issues.
“Then we enter.”
Before going in, Arsen's group carved the entry time on a stone tablet and left it at the entrance to deter other excavators.
Then, they entered the ruins.
Not long after, another group arrived at the ruins.
They smashed the stone tablet Arsen's group had placed and followed them inside.
* * *
“The atmosphere here is pretty unique.”
Eloise's words echoed softly inside the ruins.
While appreciating the echo, Arsen nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. It's quite... dreamlike.”
After descending the spiral stairs typical of ancient ruins, they were greeted by a space where walls, floor, and ceiling were made of translucent crystal.
The crystal, sometimes green, sometimes violet, emitted light from an unknown source, illuminating the ruin's interior.
Before them loomed a massive metal door over 5 meters tall, welcoming Arsen's group.
It looked almost like a jewel, so Bazkal quickly leaped off his Tiger and drew his shortsword to scrape at the floor and walls.
“Think we can take this?”
Naturally, neither floor nor pillars showed a single scratch.
Despite Bazkal's shortsword being a masterpiece forged from a lord's talon.
Maroon, watching from the side, clicked his tongue.
“Come on, Sir Bazkal. If that worked, the previous visitors would've stripped it all bare, right?”
At Maroon's words, everyone around turned to stare at him in unison.
They all shared the thought that it was uncanny for Maroon to have such logical reasoning—maybe a Ma-in had stolen his face or something.
Startled by the attention, Maroon looked around with a dumbstruck expression.
“Why are you all looking at me like that?”
For a moment, he glanced around, but since they weren't here to play, Arsen steeled himself to maintain a serious demeanor.
To that end, he first scolded Maroon.
“First, tell us how to conquer this ruin. Sir Maroon.”
“Ah, yes. Understood. So...”
Maroon opened the book and read haltingly.
“First, you come to a door. Anyone can open it, but if the successor commands it to open, it does so automatically. Then, whenever you hit a fork, always go right, but everyone must stay together. If you get more than sixty arm's lengths from the successor, traps activate.”
Sixty arm's lengths—about 18 meters converted.
A fair distance, but with over twenty people, it could feel cramped.
Plus, they'd brought many load-bearing mounts.
“A single file won't work, then. The passages are wide enough, so switch to a square formation. I'll open the door first—get the formation sorted.”
After entrusting formation to Maroon, Arsen approached the door and placed his hand on it.
Rasur had told him before that the door was so large and heavy that normally a knight had to force it open.
But Arsen had no need for that.
As soon as he touched it, the now-familiar voice rang out.
Suddenly, Arsen wondered why it was always the same voice.
There must be some secret to that too.
-Hello, visitor. Welcome. What is your business?-
“Open the door.”
-Command acknowledged, visitor. Welcome.-
Just like at the ossuary, the door began to slowly open.
Then, another voice echoed in Arsen's mind.
-Current security traps are active. If similar non-humans in your company stray too far, traps may activate. Caution advised. Suspend traps temporarily?-
Quite accustomed to such situations now, Arsen didn't blunder into pointless surprise like last time.
He'd half-expected something like this anyway.
Glancing back, the others were busy maneuvering their mounts to reform the formation.
Too far for whispers to carry.
“Suspend traps...”
He started to whisper the suspension but paused, turned back once more, and asked,
“Can traps be reactivated from inside?”
The previous door hadn't recognized other questions, but it had answered those related to its functions. Thanks to that, Arsen had learned it could maintain an open state.
In other words, the door's voice wasn't true AI but could answer about ruin-related functions.
-If the visitor desires, it can be done from anywhere in the facility. However, if other visitors are present, consensus is required.-
A remarkably fluent response, as if prepared for such queries.
Arsen whispered his command softly.
“Suspend traps.”
-Traps suspended.-