Chapter 535 – The World of the Dead (13)
“Oh, hello. By the way, who are you… ?”
That’s what I want to ask.
I checked their whereabouts again. It was a person who was thickly dressed as if in preparation for the cold.
Rather than expecting a cold wave, it’s like wearing all the clothes you don’t have. The bitter cold of this cold ice hell meant that it was an unexpected environment for them as well.
“Thank you for the reply. Oh, I’m Nord. Please take care of me.”
“Nord?”
“Now, could you wait a moment? Let’s talk among ourselves.”
“I see.”
When I agreed, they started chatting among themselves.
“… Are you okay? I don’t know if he’s trustworthy.”
“What if I don’t believe you? Let’s talk for a moment.”
“It doesn’t seem normal just by looking at it, but if you’re good at it, you might be able to cooperate.”
I heard what they were discussing in my ears, but I pretended not to hear it because it seemed like it would only make the conversation longer.
Do you want to borrow my power to explore this world? At the end of the consultation, they cleared their throats and said.
“That, yes. Anyway, Mr. Njord, what do you think? No, more than that… Aren’t you a resident of this town?”
“Of course not. As for my situation——”
I conveyed the story with a moderate mix of facts and lies.
The fact that this might be hell was left out as much as possible.
It was also my own reasoning without any basis for being certain, and from what I heard stealing the conversation earlier, it was because even if I brought up the topic of Niflheim, it seemed like it would go into a fit and refuse to talk to me.
“Are you saying you don’t even know where this place is?”
“Yes. I think it might be somewhere in a cold region.”
They hesitantly revealed their identities after I insisted on Molarehu.
“We are adventurous. Right now, he belongs to a place called the Belcourt Expedition.”
“Belcourt?”
Where have you heard of it?
Oh, is it there? A rival of the pyramid exploration team belonging to the first princess of Britannia?
“No, wait a minute? Then, by any chance, is this the newly discovered pyramid in Narmer-Nile? The pyramid with the right to select honorary nobles?”
I asked, dumbfounded by a sudden thought, but the adventurer, who seemed to be their representative, confoundedly nodded.
“That’s right. We were exploring there. But after going all the way down, I came up to the top for a while. Isn’t this what the outside world looks like? It is a place for ghosts to weep.”
It’s a great sympathy It’s not a story that you don’t know how to rot an ax handle in a fresh play, but when you came to your senses, wasn’t it that you took a picture of another world and sat down. There was no such thing as an idiot.
“… Does it mean that you came here because you came out after being inside the building? Didn’t you notice any sign of
“Right. Seeing that the circumstances are similar to yours, you probably came here the same way?”
When the representative nodded, I stroked his chin.
‘It’s definitely similar to the secret room in the basement where I was in.’
It means that they, like me, were doing their jobs and came to their senses and suddenly came to the underworld!
‘I don’t think Equinox played tricks on them.’
If that’s the case, there’s a high possibility that this pyramid is connected to the [Middle branch]——That is, to this world, just like that underground chamber.
Isn’t it surprisingly common to hear that ghosts are released to this world on Halloween or Chuseok? There was no law saying that there was no passage connecting this world and the next world.
And that story opened up a path of hope for me.
‘The underground secret room I came across had a blocked entrance, and it’s already gone.’
It’s worth digging into this pyramid.
After thinking about it for a while, I decided to dig up more information from the expedition members who were at a loss.
“Hasn’t some adventurer of the Sirius Expedition opened the underground door?”
“U-how? Oh, were you exploring the pyramids too?”
“No. I met the adventurer by chance and had a chat. But we are not close friends.”
First of all, since it’s a rival relationship to them, I’m consistent in not knowing.
However, it seems that the princess of Britannia opened the door that was blocked by the venom glands collected by her husband and I.
‘Maybe that’s the cause.’
It is the door to the underworld located in the depths of the pyramid. Are you worthy? Just hearing the name sounds like it could connect you to the underworld.
‘… But if that’s true, the princess would be there too?’
I’m glad we had a one-on-one ceremony.
It was said that he was hiding his identity, but wouldn’t it be possible for the heir to the throne to die in a place like this? By now they would have been extremely wary.
Even if a fight didn’t break out as soon as they met, that meeting wasn’t a losing business. I thought that far and said.
“Anyway, if the door was open, you guys must have gone in there too.”
“Well, I came out after exploring the inside. I thought I had some treasure.”
“… Maybe I shouldn’t have gone in. I was cursed to wander in a strange place like this.”
“What if I regret it now? You couldn’t have passed on as an explorer either.”
The members of the expedition seemed to be tired of the rapidly changing environment, and they lamented all kinds of things with considerably lighter mouths.
At their words, I thought for a moment and answered.
“Pyramids are royal tombs where mummies are placed so that pharaohs can be resurrected. So it might be connected to the space on the normal pyramid side… Why are you like that?”
As soon as the name Pharaoh was mentioned, their faces turned grim. I asked, narrowing my eyes.
Come to think of it, it seems like Pharaoh was a kid and did it somehow.
“Pharaoh… ! Yes! That kid!”
“A kid?”
“The vision that appeared from inside the pyramid!”
They stomped in the snow as if they were indignant.
“I entered the entrance opened by the Sirius expedition, but the inside of the pyramid was a different world! It was so ominous that I couldn’t even get off my feet.”
“And suddenly a strange little apparition appeared in front of us, claiming to be Pharaoh, and urging us to go further inside if we wanted to return to where we were!”
“Where is the inside?”
“Of course, it would be lower. There’s no point in going outside, so if you want to go back alive, aren’t you trying to trick us by telling us to come down to a lower level!”
“… So once you get outside, you mean you’re connected here?”
“Ah, yes! It must be that rat-sized little boy who brought us here!”
I was a bit dumbfounded when the members of the expedition team cheered up.
I have no intention of defending a self-proclaimed pharaoh who I don’t know who you are, but after all, aren’t these grave robbers who trespassed on the little pharaoh’s tomb? It was not a position to be angry at.
‘You were taught a true lesson by that ghost while robbing a child’s grave.’
On the contrary, shouldn’t it be embarrassing? A kid and a thief I’m not even at home alone.
No, if it’s a specter that’s trying to kill rather than exorcise, that kind of reaction would be understandable.
But whatever it was, it was something I couldn’t judge until I saw it with my own eyes.
I shook my head and looked at the exit—or entrance—they came out of.
“Is it okay to go in there?”
“What? Are you thinking of going in? Stop it! As an explorer, it was a dreamy island that didn’t look like the real world!”
“Thank you for your words. But I can’t stay still.”
I vehemently refused them. From what I’ve experienced, this cold and ice hell was a hell of a realistic beauty wherever I went. No matter how nightmarish the world may be, it will be more comfortable than hell.
I wouldn’t have been in such a hurry if it wasn’t for the wives problem.
‘No, is it dangerous to go somewhere else?’
At least this place, with the possibility of returning to this world, would be the best.
‘If the risk is the same, it’s correct to choose the one with a sure return.’
When I refused, they licked their lips and nodded.
“Yeah, that’s right. Take good care of yourself.”
“Thank you.”
It seemed regretful that I didn’t join, but somehow it seemed to be relieved when the guy, who I completely believed and felt uncomfortable, disappeared on his own feet. Perhaps any more meddling would be out of touch with each other.
I only gave advice to the expedition members not to wander around this area as much as possible because it was dangerous and went inside the pyramid.
First of all, the area near the entrance looked like an ordinary stone building, but as soon as I found the underground stairs and went down, I had to give up the idea of ’ordinary’.
Whoa-oh-.
I frowned as the dry wind pierced my eyelashes.
It was a hot sandy wind as if it had been heated by the sunlight, but the wind that did not blow outside was blowing inside the building.
But I wasn’t surprised. It was because an amazing scene unfolded several times more than the wind.
“… Is it the horizon?”
Just below the pyramid was a vast desert.
A desolate sandy desert bathed in the sun!
Even so, it was an absurd sight, but the sensations transmitted to the five senses were too vivid to conclude that it was not reality.
Looking at the blue sky and the dry land alternately, I bowed my back.
─Sabak.
I grabbed a handful of sand. As I opened my fingers, the fresh feel of the sand was blown away by the wind.
Fine grains of sand were carried by the wind and blown to the ruins not far away. It was not a place where people lived, but a place like the old site of an oasis where desertification had progressed.
Is this a surreal sight? I felt like I could understand why the expedition members had run away.
“… Did I tell you to come downstairs?”
If so, does that mean there are at least a few more such “Layers”?
I laughed dejectedly.
“Fuck, what is a tower climb?”
How could such a large space exist in a fucking building?
It wasn’t even a magical space. I opened and closed Odin’s eyes and half-opened them.
‘I was a little surprised, but… I guess I know a little about it.’
One fact that I realized after rolling enough to roll in this amazing different world.
‘There are no exceptions or mercy in the laws of this world.’
There is a narrative to all the nonsensical things that you want to see at a glance and make sense.
Narrative.
In this case, it is some kind of coherent process and law that makes that ridiculous spectacle make sense. Simply put, every effect has a cause.
No matter how much I thought about it, I had to borrow the power of magic to create a subspace of this size.
However, there was no magic spell here.
‘There’s a possibility that it’s a sorcery that’s so damn fucking awesome that even these eyes can’t see through it… ‘
Even so, at least it would have been possible to distinguish whether it was magic or not. Even if it was god-level magic, it was difficult to understand that there was no magic like it is now.
The source is not clear, but Odin’s eyes are not lacking in the power of the gods.
It’s hard to ignore the probability that my eyes are buggy, but when I looked at some possibilities, I came up with one or two hypotheses.
‘Anyway, this isn’t realistic either… Ike.’
It was when I was thinking so many things.
Sensing signs approaching, I looked up at the sky. The shadow of a bird suddenly covered the blue sky that could not be seen as underground. 50 was a number that could easily be exceeded.
“Pie ee ee ee ee !!”
The colorful birds came down to the sandy field, fluttering in circles. It was a strange fluttering of wings that was not realistic, as if it were a shadow or an illusion in itself.
‘What the fuck is that?’
As I put on a face and avoided my body, the flock of birds gathered and fused like clay.
The fluttering feathers melted as they rotated as if caught in a sandstorm, condensed in one place, and turned into people. In the meantime, there is still no movement of mana.
─Puff! The whirlpool exploded, revealing a human shadow from the inside. The flurry of feathers sank like a stage play. Like some kind of hero landing, the girl who was kneeling slowly got up.
《──Pharaoh appears!》
Pat—! The girl who appeared as the birds fused together raised her finger in the sky and shouted.
What the fuck is he I opened my mouth in dismay.
She was a young girl who may or may not have reached middle school. She is short and her hair is white.
If there is a characteristic, it is the eyepatch that covers her left eye. Her skin was light brown, and her clothes were quite flashy, but she was a kid who digested it very naturally, as if she were used to it.
《A new visitor who has reached the land of the dead by reversing the inevitability of the present world and the underworld! This meeting, which took place over the years of insanity, must be a fate foretold by the sun god!”
The little boy looked up at me from the top of the mast as if looking into the distance and took a lively pose like a sophomore.
《My name is Dual King Sehetefibra! This body, the 68th Pharaoh, the son of Amenemhet, and the author of riddles and puzzles! I will test you with the ordeal of the scribe god Thoth!!
─Corruption! A self-proclaimed pharaoh who recites lines and points at me.
When I couldn’t answer the sudden appearance and looked at him stupidly, the blindfolded boy hesitated, then straightened his expression again and took his pointing hand back to the eyepatch.
《My name is Dual King Sehete Fibra!》
“Oh, let’s do it again from there?”
《Ugh, ugh… !》
When I cut off my lines without even realizing it, the light-brown kid’s face turned bright red and his shoulders trembled in resentment.
I appeared with a good form at best, but I was clumsy with my reaction. I’m sorry.
