Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: From the Bottom
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“I had a family until four years ago. I had many siblings, but food was always scarce. So I never got to eat properly, and eventually my body grew weak and I fell ill.”
“Four years ago? So when you were eight?”
“I’m not entirely sure. My age isn’t exact, and neither is the time I spent at the bottom.”
“The bottom?”
“Yes. The bottom.”
Didi closed his eyes and spoke slowly.
“One day, when I had a high fever from my illness, someone picked me up in the middle of the night and secretly took me somewhere.”
“You mean Zagura? The empire’s largest slum?”
“No.”
“No? But I thought you were from Zagura?”
“The place I originally lived was Zagura. The place I was abandoned was the sewer.”
“Cough!”
Suddenly, Dabi beside me started coughing as if something had gone down the wrong way. This story was getting incredibly heavy...
“So, your parents threw you into the sewer?”
“Yes. They tossed me into the hole where rainwater flows into the sewer.”
And then silence followed. How the hell was I supposed to respond to this? Should I try to say something positive somehow?
“Well, at least you somehow... didn’t die. That’s fortunate.”
“I surely would have died if nothing happened. My bones broke and I was badly injured while tumbling into the sewer. And I was already sick to begin with.”
“......”
“After falling to the bottom of the sewer, I was swept away by filthy water and kept drifting somewhere. I was half-unconscious, and I only remember someone pulling me out before I lost consciousness.”
“From the sewer? Who?”
“When I opened my eyes later, a huge wolf was glaring at me.”
“No way, the Ancient Wolf you mentioned earlier?”
Didi nodded. Oh ho, now I was starting to get a sense of where this story was going.
But why was it in the sewer? Weren’t Ancient Wolves magical beasts that lived in the Eternal Forest?
“I thought it had pulled me out to eat me. Rigal said that was his initial intention too.”
“Rigal?”
“That’s the wolf’s name.”
“Did you give it that name?”
“He told me himself. At first I thought it was just a huge wolf, but I later learned that Rigal was a special race called an Ancient Wolf.”
Wait a minute, that’s not the issue.
Ancient Wolves can talk?
The ones I hunted before just howled like demons from hell.
“......So?”
“He pulled me out thinking I was food, but saw I was a living human, and for a human, I had a good vibe, so he decided to let me live for now.”
“How?”
“He kept licking me. He said Ancient Wolf saliva and tongues have the power to disinfect and heal wounds.”
Ah, right.
Come to think of it, those guys... they licked their dying comrades vigorously.
Thinking back now, it feels like I did something pretty awful to them. Well, I actually did.
“Even so, the poison accumulated in my body was too much, so he said he fed me something special. Then he asked me to do him a favor.”
-I ended up settling in the sewer due to circumstances, but Ancient Wolves are a race that lives in packs by nature.
-I’ve been separated from my pack for so long that I couldn’t mate with anyone, and I was going through mentally tough days.
-So, talk with me.
-Any story is fine. How does the human world up there work? How did you end up falling here? What’s your name?
“So at first I told my story, and later I listened to Rigal’s. He was an Ancient Wolf from the Eternal Forest far to the north, but because he was born as a twin, he had no choice but to leave the pack.”
“Twin? Why’s that?”
“He was the child of the previous chieftain, and he didn’t want to fight his brother over the next chieftain position.”
“Power struggle? Even so, why the sewer of all places? It’s so different from the forest you lived in before.”
“I asked the same question, and he said it was to hide his scent.”
Didi sniffed in like a wolf, making a ‘sniff!’ sound.
“He said Ancient Wolves can detect each other’s scent no matter how far apart they are. So to hide his own scent, he had to hide in a place with an even more foul stench.”
“Scent......”
“There are two places on the continent with the worst smells, but one he couldn’t enter, so he chose the other: the sewers of Emperlord.”
What a pitiful story.
On the other hand, Didi’s face, as he told the tale, was full of life. It seemed he was on very close terms with that wolf......
But what to do about this?
To proceed with the next route, I had to massacre a bunch of those Ancient Wolves.
“After that, I lived in the sewer for several years, sharing many stories with Rigal. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Rigal raised me during that time.”
“You mentioned four years ago earlier. So you stayed in the sewer the whole four years?”
“Yes.”
“And what about food?”
“Emperlord’s sewers are vast in scale. Some areas even have their own ecosystems.”
“Ecosystems?”
“Moss and mushrooms grow, and various animals live there. Some of them were edible for me.”
“Even so, it’s a sewer? Didn’t you get sick from eating that?”
“Rigal gave me everything edible and only ate what I couldn’t. Mostly rotten food coming down from above, but Rigal was completely immune to poison, so it didn’t bother him.”
“Right. With that ability, he could even suck out His Majesty’s poison......”
“Prince, as you said, there’s no need to hunt Ancient Wolves.”
Didi mimicked a knight’s salute with a serious face.
“If I ask, Rigal will surely give me the core.”
“Core?”
“Rigal said that Ancient Wolves like him, who have lived long, can produce a special substance in their bodies that can remove all kinds of poison.”
“What?”
“That’s the core. He said when I first fell into the sewer, he forced me to eat one to remove the poison accumulated in my body.”
“......So that can cure His Majesty the Emperor’s poison too?”
“Yes. Rigal is my lifesaver. So I humbly request that Your Highness not hunt Ancient Wolves, the same race as Rigal.”
Then he plopped down and bowed his head.
And I, gripped by this astonishing story, clenched my fist slightly.
What is this!
An Ancient Wolf with a backstory was hiding in Emperlord’s sewer?
And I could obtain the substance to detoxify the Emperor and Crown Prince without killing it?
This was a completely new route!
The Emperlord Sewer Route, no less.
I’d regressed nine times, and I had no idea such a secret was hidden underground in Emperlord.
But if I look too excited, it’ll seem suspicious.
“Whew......”
I turned my gaze away and pretended to sigh.
The story was so fresh that I desperately wanted to rush into the sewer right now.
I might feel the same thrill as when I first discovered the lich in the Great Temple basement. With a calm voice, as if making a grave decision, I spoke to Didi.
“Alright. I’ll put off hunting Ancient Wolves in the Eternal Forest.”
“Thank you, Your Highness. But putting it off until later means......”
“What if things don’t work out in the sewer? If I can cure His Majesty with that core, I’ll cancel the plan entirely then.”
“His Majesty will surely recover. Then let’s head to the sewer right away.”
Didi stood up with a resolute face. I nodded with a smile and said.
“Yeah. But I’m coming with you.”
“There’s no need for that. I can go alone and bring back the core.”
“I want to see it myself. So let’s go together.”
I had to insist on this no matter what. Didi looked troubled for a moment before saying.
“Understood. But I don’t think it’ll be a good experience.”
* * *
Ah, damn it.
Why did I insist on coming here?
From the moment we arrived in Zagura, the slum, the smell was ominous. Then, the instant we entered the sewer passage in some back alley, an otherworldly stench assaulted my eyes and nose.
“I never knew this before.”
“What do you mean?”
Didi, leading with the torch, turned his head. I mumbled while covering my nose and mouth with a handkerchief.
“That when the smell is this horrific, it rots your eyes too, not just your nose. I can barely see, let alone breathe.”
“This isn’t a place for someone as noble as Your Highness. Why not turn back now? I can handle it alone.”
“Yeah. Maybe right now... No, it’s fine. Let’s go all the way.”
Ugh, now my instincts were overriding my reason. But I’d come this far; no turning back.
The path we walked was the walkway beside the sewage channel. We’d descended quite deep by ladder from the entrance.
Emperlord was a city built systematically about 300 years ago. I hadn’t realized even the sewers were this well-maintained.
“The smell is awful...... But judging by the flow, they’re drawing from a nearby river tributary?”
“The flow isn’t that strong now. When it rains, an enormous amount of water comes rushing from the upper sewers. The water level rises up to here.”
Didi raised his hand above his head. I wiped the tears streaming from the stench and asked.
“What do you do then? Escape outside the sewer?”
“There are places inside the sewer to avoid the water. The place we’re heading to now is one of them.”
“Is the Ancient Wolf there?”
“He’s often there.”
“What if he’s not?”
“Then we go to the next place he frequents. It’s about an hour more walk.”
“Please be close. Please.”
I couldn’t even sigh deeply for fear of inhaling too much. Come to think of it, Didi mentioned something about smell before......
“Right. When we went to the ogre village, you said you lived in a place even worse-smelling than that?”
“Yes. This is that place.”
Didi answered with an expressionless face, as if accustomed to the smell.
Maybe his greatest talent isn’t something else but resistance to stench?
Or perhaps his sense of smell is already numb?
Whew......
Anyway, not just the smell—the space itself was disgustingly foul.
The walls, lit by torchlight, were covered in unidentified slime, and the sewage in the channel felt thick and viscous every time it sloshed.
“Something’s off......”
“Did you say something?”
“Hm? No. Just amazed you lasted four years in a place like this.”
No matter what anyone says, this wasn’t a place for humans to live long-term. Didi blinked a few times and replied nonchalantly.
“By time spent here, it’s about three years. It was tough at first, but I adapted. Talking with Rigal was enjoyable too. After about three years, Rigal said maybe it was time for me to go up top.”
“He suggested it first?”
“Yes. He said my presence had alleviated his loneliness. But humans should live among humans, he said, and told me to go up.”
What a deep-minded wolf, for a wolf.
“I said I was fine staying here. It wasn’t like I could return to my old family now, and I had no other skills to survive. But Rigal......”
Didi trailed off and stopped walking. I stopped with him and asked.
“What about Rigal?”
“......He said I’d surely be good at raising or tending animals. So when I first went up top, I looked for jobs like cleaning stables, and through connections, I ended up managing the stables at the Imperial Academy.”
“It suited you well, huh?”
“The horses followed me well. And I had a goal. I wanted to save money to give Rigal proper food.”
“That was your goal? Come back down here to feed the wolf?”
“Yes. Even when I first went up, I said I’d come visit sometimes, and I actually came down about once a month.”
That’s why he brought all this stuff this time too.
Didi was carrying a huge backpack that seemed to crush his small frame.
It contained fresh meat just bought from the market. But Didi’s nodding face as he walked looked somehow off?
“What’s wrong? Something up? You stopped walking too.”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“A strange path appeared suddenly. There wasn’t anything like this here.”
Didi pointed to the left where we’d stopped. Looking closer, there was a large hole there?
“What’s this?”
Fwoosh!
When I tossed a small fireball into the hole, a circular tunnel about five meters in diameter revealed itself.
“This place......”
Didi stuck his head in and scanned left and right for a long time.
“When I came last three months ago, there was no such tunnel. Unless I took a wrong turn......”
It was right then.
Rumble rumble rumble......
An ominous sound echoed from inside the tunnel.
“......?”
Didi looked baffled. But I knew exactly what that sound was.
Yeah. No way I’d forget.
Even in hell, I couldn’t forget that sound.
One of the otherworldly nightmares that wiped out countless imperial troops.
“Didi?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Back away now. The thing that dug this tunnel is probably......”
Rumble rumble rumble!
“A monster.”
Death Worm.
A name I’d learn nine years from now when the otherworld invasion begins—one I couldn’t utter here.