Chapter 242 – Under the Sanctuary.
When I came to my senses at the tickling of my fingertips, I saw that I was standing in a field full of red flowers around me. I couldn’t understand when or why I was standing in a place like this, but it was a comfortable and familiar place for some reason. A place where waves of flowers resembling girls and a cozy and warm feeling make you fall asleep if you do something wrong.
“Here.”
Then I just remembered. I’ve come to this place once when I drank water from the Holy Grail to gain magic. I couldn’t understand why he had forgotten, but this was an opportunity.
“Where are you! Where are you?!”
At that time, I must have met a white girl here. He had to get together once more with her, who would have given him her magic. If you meet that girl, she might be able to get a hint for using magic. It was when Usher was running through her flower-filled fields looking for her, not knowing exactly where her white girl was.
[Hee hee, got it!]
“What?!”
Suddenly, he felt a hand grabbing his wrist. Because of this, he almost fell, but it was also thanks to the small hand that held him that he did not fall. Let him look back at him.
“Who are you?”
It wasn’t the white girl who was there. Unlike her, she was a black girl with a blurry appearance that was dyed all black and seemed to be crackling. At first glance, he thought it might have been just a different appearance with a similar appearance to the white girl, but he felt that it was different from the white girl.
[Well? Who do you think you are?]
“There’s no time for fooling around.”
I had to get a clue about magic as soon as possible, but I didn’t have time to get along with other girls’ pranks. Then, the black girl puffed out her cheeks as if dissatisfied.
[Cheit, I was trying to help a little. If you don’t like it.]
“What? Do you know where he is?!”
Somehow, he seemed to know where the white girl was, so Usher grabbed her hand that was holding his hand instead.
[Now, wait, it’s difficult to be so active.]
“Please. Tell me where he is. I need to learn magic quickly.”
He held her hand and prayed fervently. He needed magic to change himself, who was so helpless and pitiful to him. He wanted to protect the girl. But when he thought he wouldn’t teach her silent look.
[I’m sorry, but Erda won’t see you anymore. Erda is strict.]
The black girl answered that. It was the moment when she tried to raise her head again, wondering if that was the name of the white girl.
[It’s time to get up now.]
I wanted to say that it’s not yet and ask for a little more time, but for some reason the words didn’t come out. If she vomited it out with a painful feeling, as if her mouth and nose were blocked, as if she had filled up with water.
“Kuck! Kek! Week!”
“Ow! What a thrill!”
Krikaliev’s voice woke him up. To get to the holy place, they had thrown themselves into the sewers leading there and were riding the running water. The current was so strong that he seemed to have lost consciousness after drinking the water.
“I think I’ll die if I get thrilled one more time.”
I’m enduring the fact that I keep trying to vomit the fishy smell of water in my nose.
“Sah, man?”
“Someone has floated away!”
I heard the voices of strangers screaming in surprise, and when I turned around, there were people staring at them with wide-eyed eyes. In all darkness, strangely bright lanterns were behind them, making it difficult to see them properly, but the person was clear. Usher thought they were the people of the Holy Land, but he couldn’t stand looking at them any longer.
“Let’s jump around!”
Krikaliev grabbed him and started running.
“Why all of a sudden!? Are you going to become a monster that imitates people again?”
If it’s the same person, there’s no need to avoid it, right?
“This is a secret place even in the Holy Land! But what if an outsider comes in?”
“Even, run away! Catch it quickly!”
As soon as he spoke, he heard the cries of the busily moving people to catch them.
“Why did you come to this place!?”
“It’s the fastest way to come, and I lost my mount, so I can’t help it!”
Fortunately, the depth of the water they were soaking in was not too deep, so they didn’t seem to have any problems running.
“What if we get caught like this?!”
“It’s going to be difficult to rescue the little girl!”
“I jump out with the determination to die!”
“That’s right, it’s hard!”
Beside them was a square piece of land that seemed to be made of the same material as the stones that made up the sewer system, and it could not stop the people running on it.
“Hurry up!”
“What’s so fast?!”
Rather, it seems that the more they run, the more people chasing them. At least, the space was wide, so I kept running away, but I couldn’t keep running like this.
“What’s wrong!?”
“Yes!”
“Then what are you doing without writing it right away!”
“But isn’t it thrilling?”
“Is this the time for thrills?!”
Krikaliev picked Usher up and jumped straight up onto the ground. Then I saw people around me staring at them in amazement.
“Hmm?! What’s happening all of a sudden?”
“A person? A person came up from the water?”
Fortunately, they weren’t wearing blue uniforms like those who were chasing them. It was because they looked like simple villagers, wearing sloppy everyday clothes with traces of stitching and mending here and there, and burnt marks. However, the surrounding area looked like a market with a long line of stalls that looked like small houses but had open interiors.
“There it is! Grab it!”
“Then excuse me!”
“Wow! What are you doing!?”
With that sight, Krikaliev confirmed the people who had come right behind him, and immediately squeezed himself into a gap in the crowded market. However, since he had Usher with him, he couldn’t help but run into people around him and cause unintentional nuisance.
“Oh Chaga!”
“Who is going around with water like this?!”
“Oops! Today’s changeori!”
As they had just gotten out of the water, not only did the water get on the clothes of the people they bumped into, but they also pushed a woman on her way to the market and spilled things.
“Hey! You bastards! How can grown-up things run around like that in a crowded place?!”
“Oh, I’m sorry! I’m in a bit of a hurry right now!”
Even Krikaliev’s body collided with the desk of a street vendor selling various foods, twisted it, and knocked it over, ruining business unintentionally.
“Isn’t it our nuisance joke?!”
“You can ask me later! It reminds me of the old days!”
In this way, they ran and ran among the boksaetong overflowing with people, and after running, they turned around and hid in a secluded alleyway.
“I’m sure I saw you going here, but where did you go?”
They stood leaning against the wall as they heard the grunts of one of those chasing them from the back of the road they had hidden. Then I was relieved that the sound of my footsteps had finally faded away.
“How do you know a place like this, Mister?”
Usher and Krikaliev hid themselves at the back of the alley, which at first glance looked like a dead-end road with water, just like the place where they had just fallen, but looking to the side, it was a space at the end where there was a small space to step on.
“I just found out when I was walking around a long time ago.”
“Is this your hometown, by any chance?”
“Draw.”
As if he had no intention of hiding it, he nodded his head at Usher’s words. It was even more strange to run like I knew the whole road, and to know the hidden places in these nooks and crannies that I couldn’t find unless I looked really closely. The sound of water rushed in front of them.
“But why are you trying to hide in the Holy Land?”
I glanced at it on the way, but the houses were small and closely packed, so it looked like an ordinary village with nothing strange about it, although the structure was a bit unique. Each of them continues to live their own lives.
“Where do you see this place in the Holy Land?”
“Isn’t it just a town?”
“Then look at the sky.”
“Why is the sky all of a sudden?”
But Usher couldn’t see the sky. What was there was not a sky, but a large wall made of stones that used to form a sewer system. But the walls didn’t end there. Above it, the sight of small and large cogwheels and trivial devices made of iron was busy moving, blocking the sky. If it weren’t for the lights shining everywhere, I wouldn’t have noticed.
“…What is all that?”
“You know that the Holy Land is a legacy of the Tsushima Age, right?”
“Yes.”
That’s a fact that if you’ve ever heard of the Holy Land, there’s no way you wouldn’t know. It was said that it was a land where humans were blessed by God and were able to leave magic tools when they were unable to use the magic they took for granted and went to war to obtain the remaining magic tools.
“Each of those devices has been handed down from the era of the great magic. After all, the holy ground itself is a relic and a huge magic tool.”
“The Holy Land itself was a magic tool?”
Usher realized that if you’re too surprised, you can’t even exclaim. It was only a story that everyone had heard of the Great Magic Age, when everyone could use magic, but it was hard to believe that the entire Holy Land was a magic tool.
“It’s not that surprising, but it’s not such a great place.”
Actually, Krikaliev looked up at the sky full of devices and said it with an amused expression.
“If this isn’t great, what’s great?”
“It’s because the holy ground is a defective product that doesn’t work on its own.”
“Is it defective?”
It’s a defective product. The magic tool itself would be great enough, but is there a problem?
“This is the basement of the Holy Land.”
Only then did Usher realize the incongruity. They apparently entered the Holy Land through the sewers. At first, I thought the reason it was dark here was because it was night.
“It’s so wide. It’s underground?”
“Isn’t that a great skill from the Great Magic Age?”
As it turned out, it was not at night, but it was underground, where even sunlight never came in.
“Isn’t it strange that people live in a place like this?”
Hearing those words, the place that I thought of as an ordinary village just a moment ago felt different. If this place was really underground, at least there was a village in the ground lower than that wall. It was then.
-Puuuuu!
The sound that echoed throughout the basement was heard. It wasn’t loud, but it was clearly audible.
“What are you talking about?”
“Hey, I don’t have time to talk, but it’s almost night. Until I hear that sound again, I have to go home. If I don’t do that, the scouts will get in trouble.”
The problem was that they had just come here, so there was no such thing as a home.
“Uh, what should I do? At least find an inn.”
“Is there any way to have an inn in a place like this? Come and see.”
As Krikaliev walked along the side road where they were hiding, Usher cautiously followed him.
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know if it’s still there, but there’s one I know of.”
With my back pressed against the building, I felt it gradually widen as I walked along the path where I could barely put my feet on it. Then, the place I arrived at was a space with a lot of things piled up like a garbage dump. I even wanted to take a look around.
“I was somewhere here… Oh, here I am!”
What he found was a floor with something like a round iron plate attached to it. At first glance, it looked like a shield, but it was too plain and flat to be used as a shield.
“Isn’t it just an iron plate?”
“It was a secret base, but it wasn’t obvious.”
“If it’s a secret base.”
I felt again that Krikaliev had a childhood enough to make such a thing.
“Once you go in, you know. Ehh?”
But even after opening the iron plate, they couldn’t get inside.
“Who?”
Because there was a girl who showed her face clearly. She was looking at them with her gray, transparent, sparkling eyes wide open as if on alert.
“That, what are you talking about? It’s the original owner there.”
The girl looked at Usher for a moment, then her eyes seemed to open wide, then she looked at Krikaliev.
“Hijacker?”
“Why do you only see me as a kidnapper!”
