Chapter 47
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Mural
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Unfortunately, Kench said he couldn't take anything like a holy relic. Since only humans could use them anyway, it would just be a hassle to deal with.
"Heh heh. Whenever you activate the magic tool we gave you, we'll come running. We eagerly await a fruitful transaction."
In the end, Kench left after gifting us ten goblins and a summoning magic tool that could call one of his subordinate dungeon merchants from now on, instead of himself.
I immediately handed off all the gifted goblins to the Red Demon Tribe. Even though they'd said they could handle anything, they were struggling to keep up with the absurd growth rate of the crops. They were thrilled at the sudden influx of labor and immediately put the goblins to work in the fields.
But even though the labor shortage I'd been worried about was resolved, my mind was far from settled.
'That hero called Gwanghui is furious beyond belief...'
If his disciple had been that precious, shouldn't he have never sent her here in the first place? I felt utterly wronged, but the body of the hero named Chris—who had entered the ruins and died—had been personally delivered to the empire's capital by whatever "Temple of Return" they had. And upon seeing his disciple's corpse, Gwanghui had erupted in rage.
I'd even been thinking that if word spread further that this place was a dungeon, maybe humans would steer clear, calling it 'maintained' or something...
I needed to scrap those complacent thoughts. In the worst case, that 5-star hero or whatever might come charging in here himself.
"Erze, do we have anything valuable enough to trade with them?"
To prepare for that, I needed defenses first. I couldn't just keep lazily maintaining the place like a cleaning operation. I had to actually turn this space into a proper 'dungeon' or something and prepare to fend off intruders.
And the best way to do that was to make use of those 'dungeon merchants.'
From what I'd heard, they sold usable monsters for troops, as well as all sorts of weapons and strange magic tools.
"Nope."
"...Tch..."
The problem was, no matter what defenses I wanted to set up, we had nothing to our name. We'd armed the kin with basic weapons they'd brought themselves, but if a 5-star hero actually got pissed and came here to smash everything, we'd all be dead meat in our current state.
"Hmph. This lady's confident she could take on some 5-star hero."
"Shush."
I knew Erzsebet was strong, but she'd only just recently suffered the humiliation of being sealed by a 2-star hero. I couldn't just sit back relying on her alone.
"Hmph. If you're looking for trade goods to deal with those dungeon merchants... how about checking underground?"
"Underground, huh..."
"That archlich's stuff might still be down there."
Erzsebet made a slightly pouty face, but then I made another proposal: to search the underground of these ruins, where undead had emerged and we'd found Desmond.
'Now that we have extra labor and the farming's stabilizing, it might be time to resume searching.'
Previously, after discovering the stairs leading underground from the garden, I'd gone down with Erzsebet to investigate the source of the undead rising from below. That's when we'd found Desmond, subdued him somehow, and contracted him as a [staff member].
Even now, Desmond was still out cold from the contract's backlash, reduced to Dry's nutritional snack.
After that, I hadn't wanted to venture back into the creepy underground, and farming issues with the Red Demon Tribe had delayed it further...
'Yeah. There might be something down there.'
I remembered the throne-like chair Desmond had animated with undead when I first entered underground. It looked ornate and valuable... Given how he'd called himself their 'lord' and the armaments he'd paraded before the undead...
There might be some decent stuff underground.
Thanks, Desik. I'll put it to good use.
-Twitch!
As I mentally thanked Desik... er, Desmond, his body—currently being drained by Dry—twitched. He must be happy about it. A model employee indeed.
*******
I left the Red Demon Tribe and kin above and headed underground again, just Erzsebet and me.
"Master... Can't we just send the kin to handle this?"
"Quit whining and follow me."
There might be dangers besides Desmond down here, so I'd brought Erzsebet along as my guard. She was the strongest in these ruins right now, so I kept having to rely on her.
The ones who thought I was the dungeon master would find it weird if I brought them searching... A dungeon master searching his own dungeon? Suspicious.
"There's that throne first."
"Roger. We'll take that too."
Last time, I'd been too exhausted from dealing with Desmond to grab the ornate throne, but it was still there, so I picked it up right away. The undead must have been holding it—without my [Cleaning Mask], it reeked of musty corpses, but the chair itself looked high-end. Worth a pretty penny.
-Kihihihihi...!!!
"These guys are still around."
"With such dense grudges, some undead can linger even without a summoner. Master."
As we searched underground, ghosts popped out to block our path just like before, but I vacuumed them up with the [Ghost Cleaner] before Erzsebet could even step in.
"This one's... a death knight, right?"
"The archlich's unconscious, so it can't move on its own."
"Are the armors they're wearing usable?"
"Tainted with grudges, but... yeah, pretty decent."
"Grab 'em."
"These jewels are exquisite. May I have this one, master?"
"We'll see later."
We also snagged the death knights' armors, various decorative ornaments, and some gold coins that looked ancient. Wow. I'd figured there'd be something, but this was a total jackpot.
Would Desmond throw a fit when he woke up? Whatever. He tried to kill me, so this is just compensation.
"Take this too, and this... Hm?"
While sweeping up whatever looked useful during our underground rummage, a mural on the wall caught my eye. Walls in ruins often had murals, so that wasn't unusual...
'Is this... Desmond?'
There'd been a mural in the blood-soaked room where we'd found Erzsebet, but it was caked in blood for so long that I couldn't make it out. This one here was at least somewhat discernible.
This guy holding a bone staff with skeletons behind him—had to be Desmond, right?
"What are you looking at, master?"
"Just some mural here."
Erzsebet, who'd been grabbing the pretty jewels, got interested in the mural I was staring at and came over to inspect it. She skimmed the presumed necromancer Desmond and focused on the woman beside him.
"...This is..."
Hair drawn in white pigment, filled with red like blood. It was just like how ancient people might depict Erzsebet now if they painted her on a wall.
"This is... you, Erze?"
"...Seems like it."
I hurriedly checked the rest of the mural. Between them, a massive tree drawing grabbed my attention. It could pass for a simple tree, but... there was a woman embedded in the trunk.
'Looks like Dry.'
Desmond, Erzsebet, Dry. Murals of the three figures slumbering in these ruins, side by side. And above them loomed something depicted as a pitch-black blob of light.
'What the hell is this?'
Desmond had this arrogant vibe like everything under the sky was beneath him, but this black blob was painted even higher than him.
'Some god?'
And opposing it, a white blob of light—but whether from age or intentional, even though it was pure white, it gave off an ominous vibe against the black one.
"The rest... too damaged."
The preservation was decent, but time had taken its toll; the other murals were unrecognizable. Excluding the god-like blobs, there seemed to be seven in total.
Let's see. Aside from the ones presumed to be Erzsebet, Dry, and Desmond, the least damaged other one...
"Wings...?"
The only vaguely identifiable one showed a figure with bat-like wings.
I could make out the wings, but the body they were attached to was so damaged I couldn't tell if it was male or female.
"Erze. You don't have wings, right?"
"I can make some from blood sometimes... but Blood Demons don't have wings by default."
"Know any winged races?"
"Hmm. Too many... Half-dragons, succubi, harpies, that sort."
"Any guess from this?"
"Too damaged. Can't tell."
Hmm. Seeing Erzsebet and Dry depicted, it felt like all these mural figures were somewhere in these ruins.
Excluding the lone blobs... seven of them?
'Hope one of them's relatively normal.'
Having already encountered three crazies here, it wouldn't be weird if more demonkin were slumbering in the ruins. I just hoped at least one was sane.