Chapter 243 – Under the Sanctuary.
“But it’s strange that someone you didn’t see suddenly came and claimed to be the owner of this place.”
“That’s right.”
After all, something like a secret base could not remain a secret forever. However, it was difficult because he could not forcibly take the place where the girl was.
“What shall we do if we can’t even get in here?”
“I have to find it somehow. If it doesn’t work, I have no choice but to cover the garbage pile and sleep.”
“But why do you have to hide so much?”
Usher said it was night soon, but he couldn’t figure out why he had to hide so desperately. It was the girl who answered his question before Krikaliev did.
“If you don’t hide at night, you’ll be eaten.”
“What?”
Do you mean that there are monsters in a place like this?
“Because the bottom of the Holy Land is full of creatures that have survived on their own.”
“Are you familiar with this place?”
“I know because I used to live here.”
The girl seemed to stare at Krikaliev for a moment, then opened her mouth.
“Then do you know what was in it?”
“Huh? Are you trying to guess that right now?”
“If you were really the owner of this place, you would know at least one. If you guess it right, I’ll let you in.”
“Ghmm, it’s an old thing, so I’m going to go to the middle of the day.”
It was during the time when he was struggling with the sound of pain. The same sound as before rang again, and all the devices floating in the sky disappeared. It wasn’t just those devices. I’m confused in front of my eyes that became dark for an instant.
“First of all, there must be quite a lot of junk that looks useless.”
“It’s too comprehensive.”
Krikaliev and the girl have an unchanging conversation. As the villages that had been lighting up began to turn off the lights one by one, the surroundings began to get darker and darker.
“Isn’t there a piece of iron carved and a lamp attached to it?”
“It’s common in other houses too.”
Soon all the fire died out and all that was left was a faint light leaking from where the girl was, and Usher felt the goosebumps begin to set in him. It wasn’t because of the darkness that was all around. The problem was due to the sounds that began to be heard from the surroundings after the light in the sky was turned off. I could hear the sound of flowing water, like a wave crashing, or a crunchy sound like something crawling.
“Did you dry the mushrooms?”
“If it’s something that was there when I first came here, I’d say it’s more accurate to say that I raised it rather than dried it.”
“What is it? There must be some pictures.”
“What kind of painting? It’s all so old I couldn’t even see it.”
“Hey, I don’t think it’s time to be like this.”
The conversation never seemed to end, so Usher, impatient, intervened. I couldn’t see it yet, but I felt like something was creeping up from everywhere.
“Even now…”
It was when he was about to talk about hiding under a pile of garbage.
“It’s nice. It’s the only thing that stands out the most. It’s the board with the word Park written on it.”
“Come in.”
Hearing his words, the girl blinked her eyes for a moment, and with that one word, she left the door open and went downstairs. Thanks to this, they managed to get down into it and hide.
“Oh wow, that was close.”
While Krikaliev, who had let Usher in first, closed the iron door, he looked around. Usually, when you think of a secret base, you think of a shabby shack or a place where grass is randomly woven. A small lamp flickered with a crackling sound in the low ceiling, and in one corner lay an old desk, chair, and other miscellaneous items. Besides that, even a bed or a small kitchen. As I was admiring the house-like appearance more properly than I thought, I soon encountered a gray light.
“Huh, is this place so amazing?”
“That, not really.”
Usher averted his eyes, blushing at the gaze. She had been in a hurry and couldn’t see it properly, but it was because her girl was too beautiful. Her dark hair, which cascaded down to her legs as if it reached her floor, was tinged with gray gold in places, reminiscent of the night sky, and her skin was flawless. Above all, as if looking at him intently and expecting something, the gray light that shimmers like a jewel seems to poke his cheek softly with full of curiosity.
“Huh? Were you looking at my clothes?”
“What!?”
When I looked up in surprise at the unexpected words, I ran into a smiling girl. Come to think of it, I saw that a long-sleeved white top and a long dark blue skirt were strewn across the room. Then the breath of a girl who came up to him and whispered in his ear.
“Cunning.”
“Oh, oh must! It’s just that the room is amazing!”
It was really a misunderstanding. It was just amazing that there was such a proper space in the basement. I had no intention of stealing anything.
“Oi. I know it can’t be helped because it’s in the prime of time.”
“It’s a misunderstanding!? What’s wrong with the old man!”
As if driving him all the way to Krikaliev, Usher felt unjust. When he was wondering what to do to clear up the misunderstanding. Suddenly, I ran into the gray color of a girl who had covered her mouth with her long sleeves and swallowed her laughter.
“Pufu! Ahahahahaha!”
At the same time, seeing her burst into laughter, Usher realized that she had been made fun of.
“Mister.”
“Oh, this is still there.”
Looking at Krikaliev, he was already pretending to be looking for things and acting out the other way, so it was futile.
“Ehihe, I’m sorry. I stopped thinking about it.”
She could inadvertently make fun of people. She seemed to understand why I felt like I had seen her somewhere, even though she was a girl I had never seen before. Her appearance was completely different, but she had the same feeling as Mediah. She chuckled for a while, brushing off her laughter before opening her mouth again.
“What’s your name?”
She was the girl who asked with her glistening gray at the end, but Usher shut her mouth and turned her head away.
“Where are you from? The bag is big! Are you carrying a sword?”
But she doesn’t give up and follows his head around him asking questions.
“Why are you wearing a dress?”
“Ugh, why do I have to tell you!”
It was when she expressed her nervousness and said that she wanted to back down if she got angry at her persistent clinging to her. Suddenly, she felt as if there was more air between her own legs.
“What, what are you doing!!?”
It wasn’t an illusion. It was nothing but a girl squatting in front of him, lifting her dress and sticking her head under it. The girl tilted her head as Usher hurriedly lowered her skirt and stepped behind her.
“But if you don’t teach me, you’ll have to figure it out yourself.”
“What does that have to do with this?!”
“Huh, that’s right. Even looking at it myself, I don’t know why you wear a dress.”
“Ah really.”
Usher stopped and touched his forehead. She had to get the pants she bought wherever she picked them up fast. Why was it that everyone he met was so anxious that he couldn’t lift the hem of his skirt?
“You should.”
“Yes?”
“My name, Usher.”
He had no choice but to give her name because he thought that if he didn’t tell her, what the hell would happen to this girl?
“You say Usher~ Usher? Usher, Usher♪”
“…Don’t call me by my first name.”
She was similar to Medea, but she was more outspoken than Medea, and her behavior was so unpredictable that she felt tired of talking about how long they had met.
“I’m Erica, call me Erica.”
“Erica?”
She bulges her cheeks as she stretches the end of her words at the feeling of her deja vu again.
“Chii, Erica, not Erica! If I called you that way, would I call you Anna?”
“Ugh, okay. I’ll sing it properly. Stop it.”
Eventually she figured out his name, and Erica next saw Krikaliev, who was looking around behind him.
“So what about you?”
“Ok?”
“The name. The name!”
“Krikaliev only.”
She heard him and seemed to narrow her eyes and look at him.
“Uhh, I can’t help it. I can’t force it.”
She looked sullen, but she couldn’t help it, stomping her feet across her room and into what appeared to be her kitchen. Because she looks at him, she shrugs her shoulders as if she doesn’t even know Krikaliev. She was a truly unstoppable girl.
“But there is everything that deserves to be here.”
Then, when she looked at the room again, it was hard to believe that it was a secret base underground.
“Well, it’s because it was remodeled in the past to be self-sufficient for one reason or another. It would be hard to expect an environment like this anywhere else.”
“Hee hee, I’m living well thanks to you.”
As I was talking about this place with Krikaliev, Erica brought something of her own from her kitchen.
“Oh, spread the statue over there.”
Following her gaze, there was a small iron plate statue standing on the wall. Spreading it out in the middle of the room, Erica puts something she brought from the kitchen on top of it.
“Mushroom?”
What the girl brought were mushrooms. It was as small as a grain of wheat, but I could tell it was a mushroom because it had a stalk and a cap. There were so many of them that they piled up on a concave plate. The warm steam tickling his face seemed to have blanched it.
“It’s eaten here as a staple food instead of bread.”
“Yes, but that’s all I can do for my guests.”
The quantity was quite large, but Usher found it difficult to get his hands on it. Erica, who lives in a place like this as her home, doesn’t seem to be very well off. It was not enough for her to let them in, and she was too presumptuous to be served a meal. He couldn’t bear to touch it, so the girl took a handful of mushrooms in her hand and held them out to Usher.
“Come on, ah~”
“Wait, what are you doing?”
“Huh? Serving guests?”
“Normally they don’t feed themselves!”
Erica looked at him, blinking her eyes for a moment.
“Then what if we’re not normal?”
Usher couldn’t quite figure out what the girl was thinking. Then Krikaliev took the empty seat.
“Just eat it. You’ll be able to pay it back later.”
“That’s true.”
“Ah, then can I ask for the body?”
“That’s a crime!”
In the end, Erica was beaten by Krikaliev. She looked very light on the outside, but Usher, who had been beaten so many times that night, knew how painful it was. As expected, tears hung from the corners of her eyes and rubbed them with both hands.
“Uuuuu, but adults often say it.”
“Just because an adult does it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing to do.”
“Huh, that’s right.”
Why the girl was smiling Usher did not know.
“It’s ugly. Me too.”
Rachel let out a sigh as she tucked herself into her bed. She hadn’t even changed her clothes, only the armor that had been draped over her clothes and the gaiters that tightened her ankles had been roughly removed, so she was still dressed as she had returned from her envoy as evening passed.
“If it’s Master.”
She muttered her words over and over again, but the words no longer brought relief. She just fears that her parents will scold her, and like a frightened child, only anxious thoughts eat away at her mind. She was when Rachel ended up wasting her time lying there, unable to do anything to her deep sense of helplessness.
“Rachel.”
Her smart, someone knocking on her door and calling her. Judging by her voice, she seemed to be one of her nuns.
“What’s going on?”
“The saintess said she was worried about not having dinner and sent me a meal.”
Rachel bit her lip at her words. Diana couldn’t believe that she really forgot dinner. She didn’t want to eat dinner at all, but she couldn’t ignore the nun’s hard work in bringing her meals, so Rachel allowed her to come in.
“…What is all this?”
She couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from quivering at the sight of her food placed in front of her.
“The saintess requested that Rachel-nim not eat properly for a while.”
It was full of all kinds of delicacies. From the eggs of freshwater sharks, which are hard to find even in the holy land due to their limited population, to thick-sized steaks. It was getting harder to find plain food. She even had so many that she doubted she could eat it all by herself, which made her even more ridiculous. She must have sent this because she was worried. But first of all, it is not a good picture to refuse the favor of her superior than her, so Rachel only heard a bowl of soup among them.
“Is this enough? Tell the saintess not to worry too much.”
“All right.”
Seeing the nun’s back as she exited her room, she looked down at her soup. Even this soup, which seems the simplest, must have been made with expensive ingredients. Rachel swallowed it as if she were drinking it straight out of her frustration. She could also see that what went down her throat smoothly was not an ordinary material.
She said that the taste of hypocrisy was both sweet and bitter.
