There's a Space Under the Sewer

"...And so, I won't be able to attend lessons for the next several days."

I gave Kaya a rough rundown of the commission. Naturally, security concerns meant I left out a great deal — I simply told her that a noble had hired us to guard some rather important facility.

Having heard me out, Kaya folded her arms with a dissatisfied look and leaned back against the wall in a crooked, sulking pose.

"Sounds like a dangerous job to me. You're precious cargo, kid — if you go and get yourself hurt somewhere, that's a problem. Can't you just call it off?"

"It doesn't look all that dangerous to me. It's just a matter of taking precautions, isn't it?"

"No. My gut is screaming at me. This one's dangerous."

"Well, I'll admit the mood lately hasn't been great."

I agreed with Kaya's assessment. Even the inner walls, always so warm and cozy, were stretched taut with tension these days. Still, wasn't it better than being dragged to the front lines by the Conscription Order to grapple with cultists?

"Ah — right, the Conscription Order. If the enemy's a cult, it's entirely possible. Hmm, what to do about that..."

"Are you not subject to conscription, Lady Kaya?"

"Who the hell's gonna force me?!"

"Fair point."

Kaya shouted, clenching her fist. Apparently, once you climbed high enough in rank, you slipped out of the conscription pool. Or maybe Kaya just moved however she pleased, regardless. Either way, she scowled for a good long while before declaring with iron resolve:

"Bah! Call it a favor to a friend! I'm coming with you on this job! In exchange, your body belongs to me while we're at it. Twenty-four hours a day. Nonstop."

"Uh, I don't mind that, but are you sure it's all right to barge into a commission like this?"

"Take it up with the client. If it's really such an important facility, no one in their right mind would object to someone of my caliber joining. Besides — I'm free."

"...That's true enough."

"...That's more or less what happened. Will that be all right?"

"Hmmm... The Fist King is not exactly a woman one can control. And she seems peculiarly hostile toward nobles... I wonder if we truly ought to let her into the Ruins..."

"Her safety will be guaranteed."

Kaya's notoriety seemed to weigh even heavier on the nobility — Catherine sank into thought for a painfully long time. I'd noticed it before, but I honestly couldn't imagine what kind of trouble she'd gotten up to over the years.

After a deep, deep deliberation, Catherine made her decision with a face stiff as stone.

"...Very well! I will take responsi— take it upon my— myself, so please, do bring her a—along!"

Catherine finished the sentence with visible, agonizing effort. In that brief span, I could see how many waves of anguish had flashed through her eyes. Was this really a matter worth agonizing over to that degree...?

In any case, permission secured, I sent Lena and Noah off to fetch Kaya.

...

Before long, Noah and Lena returned with Kaya in tow. Their expressions looked fine, so thankfully it seemed Noah's true nature hadn't been discovered.

Kaya glanced at Catherine behind me, crinkled her brow slightly, and spoke.

"First time meeting you. Name's the Fist King."

"A pleasure. I am—"

"Yeah, yeah, already know. Skip the tiresome self-introduction."

"Yes... Though you're far more... imposing in person than the rumors suggested."

Catherine's mouth hung open as she exchanged a handshake with Kaya. Handshake was generous — the sheer difference in their builds meant Catherine's hand looked as precarious as a plover bird's head disappearing into a crocodile's jaws. If Kaya applied even the tiniest squeeze, the count's daughter's dainty little hand would vanish without a trace.

To Catherine's remark, Kaya answered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠coldly.

"Warning one."

"...Pardon?"

"Around me, don't say imposing, muscular, build — anything along those lines. No compliments about that stuff."

"???"

"For the record, there is no second warning. The fist comes out immediately."

Kaya brandished her enormous fist. Catherine, accustomed to rhetorical flourishes at all times, was thrown into utter disarray by this out-of-nowhere warning. She hadn't invented anything false — she'd merely complimented what was visible — so the hostility must have caught her completely off guard. I probably should have warned her in advance.

But even accounting for her complex, that reaction was bizarrely hostile, no? Does she hate nobles?

There was that noble young man sprawled in front of her house the day I first met Kaya, too... Perhaps something unpleasant had happened to her involving nobility in the past.

Catherine adroitly changed the subject.

"I shall engrave the Fist King's words deeply upon my heart. Since you seem to prefer dispensing with unnecessary formalities... shall we continue on our way? The Ruins await us."

"Hmph. I've been through Ruins plenty of times. Just hope there aren't any traps."

"You needn't worry. The Ruins are under my family's complete control. And they're remarkably well preserved... I promise you, Fist King, you've never seen a Ruins retaining its original form like this one."

"Now that's a little interesting. Let's go."

Thankfully, Catherine's efforts bore fruit. As if this had all been some kind of test, Kaya wore an expression of grudging approval and waved a hand. The moment her expression softened, it felt as though the temperature around us returned to normal.

Catherine turned elegantly and resumed leading the way.

...

The road to the Ruins was harder than expected. The farther Catherine led us forward, the more labyrinthine the sewer became. What had seemed so spacious twisted into narrow, winding passages, an aggravating maze. Sometimes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the path doubled back on itself and we had to pass through what looked like secret channels used long ago.

But one thing was certain — we were steadily descending.

We must be thirty feet underground already. Geothermal heat rising from below has pushed the temperature up a little, too.

My eyes, long since accustomed to the faint gloom, darted about as I checked our surroundings. Unlike the bitter cold outside, this place was warm enough that standing still brought a light sweat. Whether because we'd left the ordinary sections behind, the sludge-filled waterways vanished at some point, replaced by plain corridors stretching on and on.

Wandering the depths of the earth with no idea where we were would have been enough to trigger a serious case of claustrophobia, but with Noah along — who would have every route memorized regardless — that worry was moot.

The real concern was the air...

Sniff, sniff.

There's something strange mixed in, but it's still fairly fresh. There must be a ventilation system somewhere. A facility built a thousand years ago, still working properly...

I couldn't tell whether anyone maintained it or not, but it was impressive engineering even if it didn't match the Ruins themselves. What kind of war must have raged a thousand years ago, among people who possessed technology like this?

Psshh...

For the third time already, a secret passage opened its thick metal door at Catherine's gesture, revealing its dark interior. When we'd first entered the sewers, lights embedded in the walls had been frequent enough to make out the outlines around us, but they'd gradually thinned and now had all but vanished entirely. Meaning: no one came this far for any ordinary purpose.

Catherine pulled something like a flashlight from her coat and illuminated the area as she spoke.

"From here on, this is a completely restricted zone. Traps are hidden throughout, so step only where I step."

"How much farther do we move?"

"Another... two hours or so?"

"Damn it! It's cramped enough to drive me insane."

Kaya, whose frame was far larger than anyone else's and who had to fold herself in half every time we hit a secret passage, finally erupted. But her tantrum didn't shorten the road one bit. If only we could reach the Ruins before Kaya's temper turned.

...

About an hour later — mercifully far faster than Catherine's estimate — we arrived at the Ruins' entrance.

A massive silver door lay half-buried in the bedrock. Though dirt and grime had dulled its luster, the seamlessly sculpted surface — not a single seam visible — proclaimed at a glance the height of the technology concentrated within it.

The Ruins. The first one I had faced since the laboratory.

"Ah, here it is. We made better time than I expected."

"I'm dying here..."

Lena, weighed down under her heavy armor and shield, collapsed onto the ground with a groan of the dying. Sure, there were other reasons too, but the road here was hard enough that Lena — a full-fledged Awakened — struggled with it.

I sidled up to Noah and murmured quietly.

"Doesn't this remind you of when we escaped from the laboratory?"

"It is similar in some ways. Though these appear to be fissures formed naturally over time."

From the halfway point, Catherine had guided us into a small hole bored into the bedrock beneath the sewer. At a glance, it was invisible in the darkness — the sort of ordinary-looking hole anyone would step over without a second thought — yet its interior ran remarkably deep. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Unlike the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sewers, where a proper path existed, the passage inside was truly a natural vertical cavern.

It was no place for Catherine, whose physical abilities verged on an ordinary person's, to guide anyone through, so midway along, Noah simply carried her.

"It wasn't too heavy... was it?"

"No problem at all."

"Hehe. Miss Noah looks so slender, but she's astonishingly strong."

Catherine gazed at the utterly unruffled Noah with eyes full of awe. Small frame or not, if another woman carried you up a vertical cavern, you'd probably react the same way.

But coming this deep underground brought a thought to mind.

Could cultists really push this far in...?

Without knowing the way, they'd never find the place. And given how brutal the route was, I doubted any large force including non-Awakened could fight its way through. A small elite unit could manage it... but whether there'd be any reason to seek out a place like this, I couldn't say.

"Whew... let's go in, then."

Catherine, having straightened her disheveled clothing — damp with sweat and cavern humidity — stepped forward. Tap, tap, tap. She stopped before the Ruins' door.

Standing before a door big enough to swallow four or five dump trucks at once, the slender woman's smallness threw the door's scale into sharp relief.

Catherine raised her voice in a sharp, ringing tone.

"A rightful authorized one has arrived! O Ruins, open thy door!"

Piiii—

Barely had Catherine finished speaking when, with a small chime, a translucent red light rained down from the top of the door. The light wound around her for a long moment, then vanished like a mirage.

A young woman's voice rang out crisply from somewhere.

...'Factory'?

Rattle-rattle-rattle-BOOM!

The word factory had barely registered in my mind when the enormous door — seamless, without a single visible joint — split apart as if by magic, stealing my gaze. The door shuddered with a clamor of metal on metal, and the bedrock near it shuddered along with it, groaning ominously.

It's not going to collapse, is it...?

A cave-in thirty feet underground would be an absolute catastrophe. Aura or no aura, wouldn't we be buried alive on the spot? Yet Catherine wore the calm face of someone long accustomed to this. Then again, she might simply have lost all sense of danger.

GGGRRRRRK!

Thankfully, after about thirty seconds, the door finished opening and the trembling stopped. The gap was only wide enough for a single small vehicle — a modest hexagonal passage.

"By the way, why on earth do you speak so formally to the Ruins?"

"Because the spirit managing it might get angry if you don't. I don't know exactly what the administrator position entails, but it did come stamped with temporary, so we must always be careful."

Hmm... I don't know whether the owner of that voice is an AI or not, but they understand it as a spirit? Well, considering a voice speaking out of empty air, it's not unreasonable they'd think so.

Was the thing managing this factory an AI, or merely a simple system? Personally, I didn't think it was an AI. The intonation was too flat for an AI... and its behavior too simplistic. If it were an intelligent being, it would have registered not only Catherine's identity but the presence of all of us behind her as well. Since it had verified Catherine's credentials alone, it seemed to be a purely mechanical system executing commands.