## Chapter 155 – Kobolds and the Underground Labyrinth
A revolving lantern.
“So this is it.”
My body was falling.
Looking around, I saw the corpses of kobolds, already dead and sprawled out, falling with me. It was a surreal scene, like a massive accident had occurred on a space station, with the entire crew losing their lives in a gravity-reversed space, colliding and fluttering about.
“Death.”
Amidst that floating sensation, I murmured about death.
Having lived in this other world for too long, I couldn’t quite recall much beyond a few intense memories. Mostly, I remembered my father, but the problem was, my father had a hell of a lot of eccentricities.
Each one was being recalled in ultra-HD quality, so vivid that I almost felt like it wouldn’t matter if I died. Like I said, my father was a bizarre man. He was a man who couldn’t suppress the uncontrollable impulses within him.
“Ah.”
Birdman Kim Kkatteu can’t fly.
Of course. Because he has no wings.
Birds are born with beaks and wings from the moment they hatch from their eggs, but I, a mere human, didn’t have such transcendent organs.
“No regrets.”
But I had no regrets. I didn’t have wings, but I had two women on either side of me like wings. So, no regrets.
“That’s a lie. Actually, I do.”
…I want to eat the ramen my mother made.
Before death.
There’s no one without regrets.
“Dying.”
As befitting a mother with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the ramen my mother made was truly clean and refreshing. Eating that ramen made me strangely think that maybe obsessive-compulsive disorder wasn’t so bad after all.
“I don’t like it.”
Not being able to eat that is my last small regret.
“Kkatteu, you’re talking a lot of nonsense today, aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
“Do you have something on your mind?”
When I came to my senses, I was being held by Claudia. Looking around, even Winia was tucked under her arm. It seemed she had caught us as we fell.
Oh, hail Claudia.
“Thank you for saving me… Claudia.”
“Don’t cry.”
Having half-experienced death, tears were flowing from my eyes. Looking up at the sky while being held, it was quite high… If it weren’t for Claudia, I would have kicked the bucket for sure. It would be impossible to climb back up.
“…Let me down, Unni.”
Winia said quietly. After Claudia let us go, I thanked her again with tears and snot, and checked my physical condition. It seemed fine. I was more worried that Claudia might have been hurt.
“I’m fine. But I used too much mana.”
She seemed to have consumed a large amount of mana to catch me and Winia as we fell. I clung to her ankle, half-crying.
“Huh?”
But what about Elise?
Could she be dead…? Just as I was about to fall into anxiety, a voice came from behind.
“…It’s unbelievable.”
As the dust settled, what appeared was Elise, our lower-ranking nun from the Holy Light Cross Society, striking a cool landing pose. Seeing her, I was relieved that she didn’t seem to be seriously injured or dead.
“Elise? Are you okay?”
“…Yes. I’m fine, but I can’t move because of the guilt.”
That cool landing pose was like a paratrooper in a near-future sci-fi movie wearing an enhanced suit, enjoying the afterglow after landing. Elise spoke in that pose.
“Because of my foolish actions…”
Come to think of it, the moment I piled up the corpses and impacted the pattern on the monument, light had burst out from the pattern. The ground caving in happened immediately after that.
I figured that the corpses served as some kind of sacrifice, and impacting the pattern became a kind of activation phrase.
Elise seemed to think so too, as she had a very gloomy expression.
Well, of course, if we had died here, I would have said something, but we lived, so that’s enough. Rather than scolding her now, it was more urgent to gather our strength and get out of here.
“I’m really sorry, Winia-nim. My stubbornness has endangered our lives.”
“…Don’t do useless things.”
“Understood.”
Elise stood up and apologized politely.
“Claudia-nim. I formally apologize. I’m really sorry. It was all my fault.”
“It’s okay. It’s not a big deal, right? It’s not like Kkatteu died.”
“I’m grateful that you say so…”
That expressionless face that always wielded the iron mace with unwavering faith was now stained with gloom. She was sincerely sorry, so I couldn’t say anything. She was the last conscience of this era, able to admit her mistakes.
“To the Saint…”
“No. Thinking about it, I encouraged it too. Who knew this would happen.”
I was excited and went wild too.
Anyway, I looked around. This wasn’t the cave we were in just now. The floor and walls were all made of stone. The ceiling was so high that I couldn’t tell what it was like up there, but anyway, it was a scale that could be called a large underground cavity.
It was like some kind of huge ancient site.
Above all, there was the monument that we had screwed up. It wasn’t a monument.
“This dust is annoying… More than that, this is a bit interesting.”
It was a large obelisk.
This large pillar pierced the ceiling and only the tip was exposed above, making it look like a monument. Some kind of unknown, chaotic languages were engraved on it, but I couldn’t read them. Winia also didn’t seem to be able to read them.
“It looks like an ancient ruin. I can smell money.”
“Hmph, it’s interesting. Just seeing this makes me think it was worth coming here. Why is it in such an underground place?”
Is it because she’s a mage? Winia also started to examine it in detail, and Claudia, who also likes new things, looked around the obelisk.
More than that, I was worried that the kobold corpses lying around might cause some kind of reaction again. I pushed the corpses away while thinking. First, I need to find a way out of here.
“I’m tired of this. Darkie, lead the way. Let’s go now.”
“Okay.”
Anyway, let’s start.
Leaving the obelisk behind, we moved through this underground ruin-like place. All there was was the floor and the walls. Since we didn’t know anything, we decided to go straight ahead.
“Claudia. Are you really okay?”
“I told you I’m fine. Hehe. Are you that worried?”
“I’m so worried I’m going crazy. You fell from that height and you’re okay? You’re not lying because you’re worried about me, are you?”
“There’s no problem. I just used a lot of mana.”
I was so anxious I was about to go crazy. My body is one thing, but I didn’t want Claudia to get hurt.
“Darkie, why aren’t you worried about me?”
“Claudia saved you well.”
“You should still ask if I’m okay, shouldn’t you?”
“More than that, you should thank Claudia.”
Winia frowned at those words and said to Claudia, “…Thank you, Unni,” squeezing the words out forcefully.
Hearing those words, Claudia grabbed Winia from behind and started stroking her exposed shoulders. She would have screamed normally, but she was docile now, knowing her situation.
Legal sexual harassment…
“It’s very wide. This is a completely unexpected situation… A trial caused by my stubbornness. I just want to repent.”
“It’s okay. Well, these things happen in life.”
We went straight for about 10 minutes.
ㅡThump, thump.
We heard footsteps that weren’t ours. Adventurers? Or kobolds? Either way, we were in a state where Winia’s light magic was like turning on an LED light.
Our location would already be exposed.
…Well. Considering that there was no light source despite making footsteps in this dark place, it must be a monster. If it were people, they would have lit a fire and walked around like us.
“They’re coming. It’s like a monster.”
I raised my arm to protect my face with my gauntlet and pointed my sword. The footsteps got closer. Finally, the sound approached the boundary illuminated by the light magic.
The identities of the walkers were revealed.
ㅡ…
ㅡ…
“W-What the hell are those!”
I felt a little embarrassed.
Two kobold warriors wearing hoods that covered their faces were walking towards us with indifferent postures. The hoods were divided into two at the nose, showing off some kind of evil aura. The exposed noses and mouths looked gluttonous.
“Saint, do you remember those? The day we first met.”
“These were there then too. Ah. That bastard back then.”
I remembered.
When I first met Elise and went to destroy the kobold sanctuary, I remember catching and beating up a kobold wearing a hood like that. The ones in front of me were wearing hoods with a similar feel.
“Then the only thing to do is to kill them like we did back then.”
“That’s right.”
The hooded warriors walking towards us didn’t show any particular aggression, but once you encounter a monster in a dungeon, you have to kill it first. This was a universal common sense, as common as dissecting an alien after capturing it.
Elise and I stepped forward.
I’ll pretend to whistle and kill them…
ㅡKyuururururu!!!
ㅡKyuurururut!!!
“Saint!”
Then suddenly the guys roared and kicked off the ground, running towards us. Surprised, I took a stance and prepared for the attack.
ㅡKyuurussaat!
The kobold warrior, leaning his upper body back with all his might, raised his arm, showing off his muscles.
Like a monster with no intelligence, he thought it would work if he just attacked like that. For guys who aren’t even wearing armor to expose their upper bodies like that is like advertising, ‘Please kill me.’
ㅡPaat!
I also kicked off the ground.
Closing the gap in an instant, I stabbed my sword into the guy’s exposed chest. Poohk! Colliding with the speed at which we were running, my blade deeply penetrated the guy’s chest.
ㅡKyusasak…!
I immediately pulled my leg back to pull out the sword, and kicked the guy backwards. Hood or not, the physicals were just like a kobold warrior. With my skills having improved dramatically, they were very easy opponents.
The cruel thug Elise had already smashed the other one’s head and was picking up the hood. She didn’t forget to cut off an ear either.
“Kobolds are wearing hoods?”
Winia said, poking the corpse with the end of her staff.
“I’ve never heard of that. Darkie, do you know about this?”
“Uh… A long time ago, I heard that some kobolds built a sanctuary, so I went to destroy it with Elise? I’ve seen kobolds wearing hoods like this back then.”
“Kobold sanctuary? What the hell are you talking about?”
Where do I start explaining this?
I briefly explained to Winia what this pattern meant and my past actions. She was just listening roughly before, but now she was starting to listen properly, as if she had just become interested.
“So that necromancer is related to this pattern, and these suspicious bastards were found here? Darkie. Don’t you think this is dangerous?”
“I do. That’s why we need to get out of here quickly.”
I was starting to get anxious.
Is something going to happen?
“Could they be used by those cultists? Like zombies or gargoyles.”
Ah. Cultists.
Claudia, who was drawing a picture on the chest of the corpse with the tip of her curved sword, said.
“Ah, the ones in the waterway? They certainly used gargoyles.”
“What story is that again? Darkie, are you going to keep telling me stories I don’t know?”
“Give me a break. I can’t help it, it happened when you weren’t there.”
Anyway, I put the looted hoods, fangs, and claws in my bag and started again. We intermittently encountered kobolds wearing hoods. We killed them all and kept going.
I was curious and afraid of what would be at the end of this. Could there be a cultist group inside? No, I don’t know. Dozens of adventurers are pouring in like a flood from right above.
Maybe we got the best opportunity?
Risk is always accompanied by return.
