Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Old Ties (3)
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In the dark, dingy underground sewer.
Belnoa knelt on the damp floor soaked with moisture. No one had told her to do it. She just felt like she should.
"Why'd you suddenly start blasting spells and making a fuss?"
"Well, it's just..."
Belnoa broke out in a cold sweat.
Truth be told, she was a little scared of this professor. She remembered entering the realm of the mana spring.
Everything shook and twisted.
Yet amid it all, this professor stood utterly unscathed.
Like some other kind of being.
It was fear born from that sense of otherness.
...She won't shove me into the mana spring again, will she?
No way.
Belnoa sneaked a glance up at Lania. Same outfit as always. Ash-gray hair cascading down her back, neat robes.
Doesn't suit her at all.
She hadn't thought much of it at Aphria Academy, but facing her here in this sewer felt profoundly out of place. She looked like some noble lady.
A woman who had no business in a grim, shadowy place like this.
"Ahem."
As Belnoa mulled this over, Lania spoke up. She extended her fingers, pointing at Belnoa.
"So why are you kneeling?"
"...Pardon?"
"I didn't tell you to kneel. Your clothes will get dirty. Stand up."
"Ah, yes..."
Belnoa slowly rose to her feet.
She gauged Lania's expression before asking,
"Professor, what brings you to a place like this sewer...?"
"An old friend asked me to clean it up for him."
Old friend? Asked her?
Belnoa tilted her head.
Besides that odd old man, was there really someone else interested in this sewer?
"By any chance, your friend's name...?"
"You know him too?"
"Pardon?"
"I heard he's your adoptive father?"
There was only one person Belnoa could call an adoptive father. The old man himself hated the title.
"You mean old man Cardi from the potion shop?"
"Cardi, yeah. But old man? Him?"
"Pardon?"
"Hmph... Well, yeah, it was from Cardi."
Did that geezer even have friends?
Belnoa eyed Lania.
No matter how I look at her, she doesn't seem old enough to talk down to him like that...
Plus, wasn't she Rosel the professor's adopted daughter? To call that old man by his first name so casually, she'd have to be around Rosel's age at least.
Belnoa asked carefully,
"Um, Professor, if I may ask... how old are you...?"
"Twenty-o... Twenty-one."
Something didn't add up.
Belnoa narrowed her eyes. Her slum-honed instincts screamed that "twenty-one" was a lie.
"What."
"......"
"What is it? Spit it out. Got something to say?"
"...Nothing at all."
She couldn't very well ask her age outright again. Belnoa held her tongue.
I don't want to relive the mana spring.
He was a mage who valued his life.
"So, how much have you cleared?"
"I've cleaned the path I took to get here."
Belnoa gestured behind her.
"I cleared my path coming in too."
She pointed to hers as well. No need to check it.
Greenish blood.
Just the trail of blood leading to her feet told Belnoa roughly how many undead she'd crushed.
"Guess that leaves this way then."
Lania reached out her hand.
Her fingers pointed to a fork branching from the intersection.
"Let's go together, whatever."
"...Yes."
Belnoa followed after Lania, who took the lead.
Each step she took rang out with a ominous clang, claaang.
"Those shoes of yours..."
"Oh, these?"
She lifted her heel slightly.
"There are so many crawling undead. Why bother grabbing them by hand? Just stomp 'em."
She tapped the ground lightly with her toe.
But the sound that echoed was anything but light.
Clang, claaang!
...Iron plates?
The shoes were reinforced with iron plating.
They resembled military boots.
"Super efficient. Even a light stomp snaps their necks with a nice crack. Perfect weight too—my favorite pair."
Lania flashed a satisfied smile.
For some reason, Belnoa felt a chill from that grin.
* * *
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Squelch.
Each step brought a sticky sound. Maybe from the nearby flowing water and the humidity. But not just that.
"......"
Belnoa glanced at Lania's feet.
The boots were stained green. Undead blood. She looked back. A green trail stretched behind them.
Gulp.
Belnoa swallowed dryly.
Thirty minutes following Lania.
Belnoa hadn't cast a single spell in that time. Just walking behind her.
No monsters?
No, that wasn't it.
They came. In droves.
Zombies swarmed like mad as if this was the real deal. Enough that snapping a finger or two wouldn't cut it.
-I'll take the flank, so Professor, you...
-Move.
-Pardon?
-You're in the way. Move.
But Belnoa had nothing to do.
She glanced back.
"......"
Headless undead corpses piled up.
"Here they come again. No end to these things?"
And...
-Krunch!
The pile kept growing.
Lania casually extended her hand.
Grabbed the zombie's head. Squeezed.
Krunch.
The undead's head burst. No messy spray of fragments. She swung her hand lightly, and chunks of flesh mixed with bone shards plopped into the sewer.
Crisp movements.
Barely any effort.
...Collecting them as she bursts them?
Who knows the trick. Clearly not her first rodeo.
No wasted motion.
Extend arm, grab head, swing. Repeating a set routine.
But the results spoke for themselves.
With each step she took, headless undead bodies rolled across the floor.
Mana consumption: minimal.
Ruthlessly efficient combat.
Less like a mage and more like...
Like a well-trained soldier.
"Professor Lania."
"What."
Belnoa asked,
"Before becoming a professor... may I ask what you did?"
Most professors were scholars. Built on years of theory, backed by practical skill from that foundation.
But not this one.
Belnoa sensed it instinctively.
This was experience forged in the crucible of real battle. No hesitation in her movements. Light-footed yet efficient.
Battle-hardened.
Belnoa, who had grown through slum scraps, recognized it.
Twist joints, seize throats, burst heads.
Neutralize naturally.
No way such moves came naturally.
"Why ask?"
"You seem so proficient in combat..."
"Hm..."
Lania fell silent at the question.
"Well."
After a moment's thought, she spoke.
"Rolled around in some filthy places."
"...Filthy places?"
"Filthy. Probably the filthiest."
She said no more. Belnoa didn't press. She had a guess.
The filthiest place...
One spot came to mind.
She'd asked her adoptive father Cardi about his hometown once.
-My hometown?
-It's changed a bit now, but... there's the Ashen Wasteland.
-Ruins of a kingdom reduced to ashes. Word is, all sorts of underworld scum have set up shop there.
The Ashen Wasteland.
A lawless hellhole teeming with massive organizations dwarfing even the ones Belnoa had toppled.
Cardi had called it,
-The demon realm, really.
-Not the actual demon world, but close enough.
-Filthiest place in the human realm.
Belnoa surmised,
Someone from there...?
It made sense. Knowing that old man, the combat prowess... Yeah, from that lawless zone.
Had to get used to it to survive.
Just like her.
Belnoa recalled her past.
Habits for survival.
No holds barred.
Use everything at your disposal.
Prioritize efficiency. Hesitate and you die. So aim for vitals from the start.
Raw mindset.
A past that demanded it.
"......"
Belnoa glanced at Lania leading the way.
"Hm..."
A little.
But that back felt familiar.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
"......"
I paused mid-step and glanced back.
"Hm..."
Belnoa nodded, seemingly convinced. I'd bullshitted something vague, but it worked?
Can't exactly say I rolled in battlefields.
Misunderstanding or not, if she's buying it, good enough.
I faced forward and kept walking. Undead poured out, I cleared them, repeat.
How long had we gone?
Suddenly Belnoa spoke up.
"...Why not sweep them with an AoE spell?"
"What?"
"That one from the auditorium. One cast and no need to fight them one by one..."
What was this kid on about.
I snorted.
"Here?"
"Pardon?"
"One wrong move and everything's gone. You wanna collapse the sewer chasing rats?"
I didn't know how sturdy these sewers were, but even that earlier Smash had the bricks shaking.
Smash was borderline. A full AoE on purpose...?
Buried alive.
Escaping wouldn't be hard, but cleanup after? Tedious.
"Gotta see what's at the end. Blowing it up makes checking a pain."
"The... end?"
"You think this is normal?"
I pointed into the shadowed depths of the sewer.
"Monsters in sewers? Sure. Leftover botched experiments from some mage? I thought that at first too, but..."
Seeing more changed my mind.
"Overkill."
This was excessive.
"Too. Damn. Many."
"......"
"And more the deeper we go... Doesn't that tell you something?"
I nudged the freshly crushed undead's body with my toe.
"Freshly made."
"...True."
"More ahead means something's back there."
I narrowed my eyes.
Not just darkness.
Something's there.
Something beyond the naked eye.
"See?"
I grinned.
"All this prep? Something's gotta be there."
Hiding ahead in the dark.
-Grrrk, grrrlk.
Not simple undead.
Something like dozens of zombies mashed together blocked the passage end.
"...Urk."
Belnoa pinched her nose at the stench.
Smells rough, yeah.
I cocked my fist for a Smash—wide area—but paused. Fragments would fly everywhere...
Battlefields toughened my stomach to horrors and guts. But zombie chunks splattering... nah.
Imagining it turned my gut.
"Sigh."
I unclenched my fist, spread my hand, aligned index, middle, and thumb. Stocked spells rubbed together.
"Gotta burn that thing."
Ash.
Ignite.
Ashen flames roared up.