Chapter 23: Bad Dog
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 23: Bad Dog
Yesterday, when I threw the pot at the Regressor, the pot that should have been full of stew was completely empty. Someone had eaten all of it before I even got there.
There were two likely suspects. Either Azzy, or some entity hiding in the cafeteria.
But the entity hiding in the cafeteria was a golem, and golems don’t eat. With one suspect naturally eliminated, it was as clear as day who the culprit was.
When I confronted her, Azzy’s eyes went wide as she shouted. How about that? Surprised, aren’t you?
“You ate all the food?! By yourself?!”
“You’re the one who ate it!”
“No! Woof! I didn’t eat! I was hungry but I waited! To eat together!”
Despite my sharp questioning, Azzy denied it to the very end. Even now, when her guilt was all but certain, her staunch insistence on her innocence was enough to make even my cold, rational mind waver.
Could she really be telling the truth? Or is she just being a stubborn dog, forgetting inconvenient facts? Since I couldn't read her mind, I really had no idea. If she were human, I would have known instantly whether she was lying or not.
But people other than me, the non-mind-readers, manage to muddle through life without knowing the truth. When someone lies, they look for evidence and witnesses to arrive at a reasonably accurate conclusion. Just for today, I would follow their methods.
“Well, we’ll know for sure once we check. Captain Abbey! Were you in the cafeteria all last night?”
『Affirmative. I connected to this unit around 4 o’clock yesterday to gather information.』
“In that case, did you also see who stole and ate the stew from the pot?”
『Affirmative.』
“Excellent. Let’s get a positive ID. Ta-da!”
I hummed a little tune as I lifted the golem by its armpits. I thought I heard a faint haaah sound, like air escaping, from the golem’s microphone.
Holding the golem carefully from behind, I looked around and announced.
“Captain Abbey. Now, please choose from the suspects here. Point to the culprit who, last night, crept out like a rat in the darkness and secretly ate the stew from the pot!”
Now, who would the golem’s finger point to? Well, there weren’t that many options. Just one, maybe?
The golem slowly raised its finger. I watched in anticipation of the future its cold steel would reveal.
The golem’s hand pointed at me.
Huh?
“It was me?!”
Good heavens. A twist that should never happen in a mystery novel! Was it really me? Something my subconscious did?
『Negative. I am not pointing at you.』
The golem shook its head and raised its finger again. Looking closely now, I saw its finger was pointing slightly past me. When I tilted my head to the side, it didn’t follow.
Wondering what was going on, I walked slowly in the direction it was pointing, as if dowsing for water. With each step, the direction the golem pointed changed slightly. Correcting my course as I went, I fumbled my way forward until I finally reached a steel drain cover riddled with small holes. It was the drain for pouring out water when disposing of leftover food.
It looked a little too narrow for a person to fit through. With a sinking feeling, I looked down at the golem.
“…You’re saying the one who stole the food is… in here?”
『Correct.』
“Is there a rat or something inside?”
『A foolish question. No subterranean creatures or insects of any kind exist in Tantalus.』
“Right. There isn’t even any mold here. Dammit…”
This was a land cursed by Mother Earth, a place her workers could not invade. That was why I had been so certain Azzy was the one who stole the food. The only living beings in the Abyss were me, Azzy, and the Regressor. Among them, the dumb dog who was weakest to desire would have been the prime suspect for anyone, not just me.
Plus, since I could read minds, I knew the Regressor hadn’t eaten it. The process of elimination, empirical evidence—every clue pointed to Azzy.
And yet, the culprit was a third party. It was a completely unexpected result.
Come to think of it, didn’t I hear a faint thought from the cafeteria last time? I’d dismissed it then, but the clue had already been given. I should have assumed there was another being in Tantalus.
Anyway, the past was the past. What mattered now was deciding what to do next. I didn’t want to stir up a hornet’s nest, but if I was going to deal with it, it was better to do it now while Azzy was here. If this was a monster, I probably couldn’t handle it alone.
When danger is afoot, a dog is man’s oldest friend.
“Azzy.”
“Woof!”
“They say the one who stole your food and my food is down here.”
“Woof woof! That’s mean!”
“Mean, right? So let’s get it out and teach it a lesson. Can you get it out for me?”
I was too scared to get it out myself, so I’d have Azzy do it. A dog is man’s best friend, after all.
Azzy came over to my side. But instead of immediately digging at the drain, she looked up at me with a dissatisfied expression.
“But you were meaner! I didn’t eat it! I waited nicely, but you yelled at me for eating it!”
Ah. She remembered. I was hoping she’d forget, but it seems she wasn’t that stupid. Apparently, a dog’s memory is better than a goldfish’s.
Still, Azzy was the Dog King. A being who could be persuaded with words. A mere dog was nothing. I’d win her over with my eloquence.
“Azzy. Is that really important right now? We have a common enemy. The real thief who stole our food.”
“Woof! I didn’t eat it!”
“Right. I’m sorry for suspecting you. For now.”
“Woof! I didn’t eat it!”
“Okay, okay. I said I’m sorry. Let’s be friends from now on.”
“Woof woof! I didn’t eat it! But you yelled at me and said I did! You got mad! I don’t wanna be friends!”
“Look, Azzy.”
“You were mean! Woof! Mean!”
“…”
Sigh. I guess there’s no other way.
This was a disaster of my own making. I would have to pay the price.
I went back to my room and, for the first time in a while, took out the leather ball. Having been neglected for a few days, it was already deflated and limp.
Hoo. With a long sigh, I raised my left arm straight. With my right fingers, I rhythmically tapped my arm from elbow to wrist. As I performed the designated somatics, my pathetic body squeezed out some mana and sent it surging into my left arm.
“To think the day would come when I’d be the one to suggest a game of fetch. This is a disgrace to humanity. But remember this, you mutt. I have been defeated, not humanity.”
Mana gathered. The mana spread throughout my body flowed through my veins toward the fingers of my left hand. I felt a sense of omnipotence at my fingertips, as if I could do anything. At the same time, I could see the limits of this omnipotence. The poignant regret that once I used up this pittance of mana, just enough to fill a single finger, this feeling of power would also end.
Why is my mana so low? Grumbling, I stuck my finger into the ball and chanted the incantation for the Level 0 spell.
A Level 0 spell that calls forth the phenomenon of an airburst itself.
“Pascal.”
With a pop, the leather stretched taut and the ball swelled to a large size. The ball, made by sewing smaller pieces on the inside and larger pieces on the outside, wouldn’t leak air if inflated in one go. I pulled out my finger, sealed the hole with alchemy, and carried it back to the cafeteria.
There, her eyes sparkling more than ever, was Azzy, her front paws on the table, her tail wagging furiously. She was thrilled to see the leather ball.
I held up the ball and said.
“Will a game of fetch do?”
“Woof woof! And a yummy meal!”
“Alright. I’ll make you something delicious.”
“Awoooooo! Yay! Yay! You’re nice! You’re nice now!”
“Okay, then. Please get what’s inside out of there.”
Azzy nodded, then immediately ran to the drain and began digging at it with her front paws, just like a dog digging in the dirt. After scratching at the floor a few times, Azzy stuck her butt straight out, shoved her head halfway into the drain, and finally managed to grab something.
An arm, severed below the elbow.
A leg.
This time, a large hand.
And the last thing Azzy pulled out, grunting and straining, was a large torso with only one arm and one leg attached.
The muscular body looked even tougher than the golem’s, with a short beard and hair. It looked like an esteemed martial arts monk, but with an arm and a leg torn off, the sight was nothing short of gruesome. The cross-sections clearly showed the muscle.
“Ugh.”
My gorge rose. That wasn't a person, it was just… a person.
The cuts were clean. Judging by the twisted marks, it looked as if a giant had played with it like a toy, twisting its limbs off. But there was no blood, and the bones were still intact, making me wonder if it was just a well-made anatomical model. Despite its gruesome, dismembered state, its bronze skin was spotless, making me question if it was really dead. But since I couldn’t hear a single thought, it seemed it was definitely dead.
Someone must have attacked it, torn it to pieces, and then thrown it in the drain. It must have held on for a few days with its powerful life force, only to die a lonely death where no one would find it.
“Oh, dear. To think you’d meet your end in a place like this…”
The thought I heard back then must have been its last gasp. It was a pity, but there was nothing to be done. I decided to bury the dismembered corpse and lifted its severed right arm. This land was cursed by Mother Earth, but being buried was still better…
As I grabbed the right arm, the right arm grabbed me back.
Uh.
Oh?
“Aaaaaaaah!”
I was so shocked I tried to throw the arm away. But the hand gripping me was immensely powerful, and it only shook along with my hand, refusing to let go.
Holy shit, this much strength from a severed arm? If it were whole, it could have crushed my arm with its grip alone.
This was no time to panic. I flipped my other palm over and took out the card I had hidden there. The Ace of Diamonds, a sturdy and flexible playing card made of metal intricately woven together with alchemy.
I slid the thin card between the fingers gripping me. With a slight twist, the fingers slipped and lost their hold. After prying them off one by one from the pinky to the middle finger, I was finally able to pull the right arm off and throw it away.
“Hah, haah. Hah. What is that thing?”
The right arm, now on the floor, tried to crawl using only its fingers, but eventually, its strength gave out and it stopped. Faced with something beyond horror, pure gore, I gasped for breath.
As if she already knew, Azzy was staring at the arm nonchalantly. I turned to the golem and asked.
“Captain Abbey. What is that?”
『A right arm that moves even when severed. I surmise it belongs to one of the Undying.』
“Was that a trainee too?”
『Correct. It was witnessed being killed by another trainee during the prison break, but it appears it did not die due to its immortality. To be able to regenerate from such wounds… I must raise its evaluation by one level.』
“You should have told me if there was something like that here! You scared me!”
Azzy was curiously poking the right arm. Every time the arm twitched, she would jump back, startled, only to return once it went still again. I pushed Azzy aside, carefully picked up the right arm, and tried to place it against the corpse’s elbow.
The cross-sections matched perfectly, but it didn’t reattach. The right arm was completely separate, acting as its own entity.
My god. A right arm that moves on its own.
“So you’re saying that right arm ate the stew?”
『Affirmative. It instinctively sought out sustenance to heal its comatose body.』
“What the hell. That’s terrifying.”
Now severed hands were moving on their own. Tantalus was truly home to all sorts of monsters.
The golem looked at me and asked.
『What will you do?』
“Do about what?”
『About the Undying.』
“That thing? What am I supposed to do about that?”
At my irritated retort, the golem turned its head to stare directly into my eyes. A cold light glinted from the inorganic—no, the purely mineral—crystal orb.
『I propose that you eliminate the Undying before it can regenerate.』
What?