Chapter 196

01 On the third night, as soon as the water outside turned to mist, Mariela and Yuric rode on Koo, with the salamander on his head, and dashed westward. They passed by the black monsters en route without stopping whenever possible as they ran. The southwest tower they made for was where Yuric had first found herself. The day they’d washed up in this world, Yuric ran down the tower in one go and arrived at this rampart passage before sundown. The room on the fourth floor had few torches and was only dimly lit, and because the outside had been full of water, the north and east doors didn’t open. The third floor had also been flooded, and Yuric had been unable to get down there. However, on her way down the tower, she could see a path leading to the temple from the center of the outer wall connecting east and west, and apparently, it was precisely sunset when she’d tried to dive down and investigate while there was still light. On the third level, the outer circumference of the wall had collapsed and flooded. And in addition to the north and east doors, there seemed to be a staircase leading to the second floor. The daylight had disappeared before Yuric dived down to the second level. The water had thinned and changed into a dense fog, and before she knew it, she could breathe. Yuric had wondered what was going on and looked outside through a hole in the wall, where she saw several black monsters crawling up it. Although she put up a fight with her whip, too many came in through the gap. After frantically shaking off several that attached themselves to her, Yuric had dashed up to the fourth floor, only to be met by a few more of those inky creatures. Had the doors not initially opened because of water pressure, and had they now because the sea had vanished, or was there another reason? Regardless, they yielded, and Yuric moved to the east tower through the southeast one, where Mariela was at the time. Mariela had gone down the tower and found her way to the fourth floor long after the sun set, so Yuric probably came to the southeast tower before Mariela reached the fourth floor. Mariela and Yuric speculated that Koo the raptor had sensed his master’s magical power and was attacked by the black monsters that had been chasing her. Mariela and the others had come here as a group of six people. And there were most likely six towers. If they assumed each person had been brought to a different tower, where on earth could their other companions be? When Mariela and Yuric used fire bottles to Fire the ebon creatures that were lurking just before the southwest tower, they obtained stones, just as they expected. There were two: One was the golden-brown kind that seemed to be Edgan’s, and the other was gold on blue. Perhaps the rock’s shades informed Yuric of something, as she cried, “Mariela, hurry!” and ran for the fourth floor of the southwest tower while sending black monsters flying with her whip. Yuric’s impatience was apparent. That blue stone was probably one of Franz’s memories. Yuric taking no notice of the fact that they’d found a rock of Edgan’s at the same time made Edgan, who was getting crazy over in the northeast tower even now, seem just the tiniest bit pitiable. Black monsters were crawling up from a lower level toward the fourth floor of the southwest tower, which had few torches. The third floor was likely filled with the inky memory stealers. However, the group had fire bottles now, and the salamander would protect them from the flames, so it was possible for them to charge down. But their destination was something to be discussed and decided on together. If even Edgan was having a tough fight, it was likely the other party members had come to harm, too. Mariela and Yuric would have to try to deliver fire bottles as soon as possible. Yuric used her abilities to empower Koo’s legs, and after the raptor quickly kicked open the door leading north, they hurried toward the west tower. The fire bottles created fierce fire pillars at regular intervals and burned up the black monsters. The salamander not only protected the group from the flames, it also might have even been controlling the range of the blaze, as the ebon creatures that barred the way forward burned to nothing before the group ran through. Perhaps not all of the monsters carried stones, since Mariela and Yuric didn’t spot any new ones before they reached the west tower. When they forcefully opened the door to the west tower with a bang! and plunged inside, they found no lack of lit torches. This room was probably safe. Maybe someone had taken refuge here. “Is…is anyone here?!” Mariela’s shout echoed for a time, but there was no reply. “Yuric, let’s go to the northwest tower. There’s probably no one here, and even if there is, it’s safe, so I think it’s fine to leave this area for later.” “Got it!” The raptor carrying Mariela and Yuric broke into a run again, sprinting toward the passage crowded with monsters darker than the night. “Hii-yah!” Although Mariela’s fighting strength was nonexistent and her clumsiness second to none, the amount of magical power she possessed was outstanding. A fire bottle with as much energy as Mariela could put into it caught Yuric’s wind magic and flew toward the creatures blocking their way. Upon explosion, the salamander stretched the pillar of fire even farther. A second column of flame rose in the northeast as if in concord with Mariela and Yuric’s own. It was Edgan. He’d probably noticed the explosions along the third-floor passage of the northeast tower. Perhaps he’d been lured by the smell of food from the window. Might as well praise him for being so wild. Undaunted, Mariela hurled another fire bottle. Although she’d thought running through swirling flames would be terrifying, Mariela felt it was far more beautiful than she’d imagined. Thanks to the salamander’s protection, it was bright and warm despite being nighttime, and that seemed to urge them forward toward their destination. Mariela and the others exited the bright tunnel of flames, and just as they arrived at the northwest tower, that tunnel dispersed into thin air. A gentle light shone in from the east. “It’s morning! This fast?! The water’s gonna fill the place! And the door’s closed!” It would be unbearable to be locked out in a place like this. Mariela couldn’t swim, and it didn’t seem likely the salamander could exist in water. Without even giving a thought to the black monsters sticking to them, they somehow managed to rush into the northwest tower, at which point the outside was filled with water. Just like in the northeast tower, the door connecting east and west on the fourth level of this tower was gone, and water was pouring in. Of course, the torches weren’t lit, either. So the door may have been opened despite the fact that the place was nearly submerged. The black monsters clinging to Mariela and Yuric practically melted away as they vanished when the water touched them. Although they looked like slimes, they apparently weren’t aquatic creatures. Knee-deep in rapidly materializing liquid that was rising from below, Mariela put the salamander, who hadn’t yet gotten wet, on her head and shouted, “Yuric, we have to hurry upstairs!” “Got it!” Carrying Mariela and the others, Koo hurried up the tower at top speed to keep the salamander safe. It seemed like the mist steadily filled the place from below and turned into water when it reached a specific density. Koo’s ascent would for sure earn him a gold medal if something like a raptor track-and-field competition existed. And that would be no surprise coming from the beast who had once rescued Mariela from a death lizard’s blade. Koo usually fooled around, but he was the kind of raptor who did what needed to be done when push came to shove. Koo ran all the way to a room in the middle of the northwest tower in one go, and after Mariela and Yuric confirmed the torches there were lit, Koo finally stopped running and dropped to the floor. “Thanks, Koo. You’ve saved us so many times.” “Koo, you were great. Ya really are somethin’.” “Rawr, rawr raaawr.” The salamander jumped from the top of Mariela’s head to Koo’s and chattered as it tapped the raptor’s head with its tail. Maybe it was saying “Thank you” or “Nice work!” Koo seemed to be really pleased over being praised by both Mariela and the usually-strict Yuric. He was still panting as the raised tip of his tail quivered happily. “I’ll make us a feast today! Something that’ll really perk us up.” “Raptors can’t eat cooked stuff, y’know.” “…Rar.” “Rawr.” Koo made a disappointed noise as though he somehow comprehended Yuric’s statement. “Could Koo try it, at least?” “Hmm, just a little. More important, ya should give him water with magical power in it.” Mariela stood up to give Koo some water when Yuric suddenly exclaimed “Shh!” and stopped her. Mariela looked around to figure out why and found that Yuric, Koo, and the fire spirit salamander were all staring at the stairwell they’d climbed to get here. Koo appeared to be quieting his heavy breathing in preparation to start running at a moment’s notice. The area beneath those stairs ought to be half submerged. The black monsters should have melted and disappeared when they touched the water, and the torches in the room were brightly lit. Mariela and Yuric had thought the chamber was safe. But even Mariela could hear the sloshing of wet footsteps. Some time had passed since today’s flooding. Whatever was approaching had traveled through the water for quite a while. Just as Mariela felt so tense that she might explode, Yuric shouted happily: “Franz!” “…So you’re all right, Yuric.” It was indeed Franz. The previously nervous Koo went “rarf” as he exhaled a long-held breath. It was such a relief that Mariela wanted to say “rarf” herself. However, Franz’s behavior as he ascended the stairs while sopping wet struck Mariela as somewhat strange. “Yuric, who is this girl…?” “Uh, it’s Mariela…?” “Mariela… That’s right. She’s our current client.” Apparently, Franz had lost quite a bit of his memory. He couldn’t remember anything about Mariela except that she was his client. Unlike Edgan, Franz was a healing mage, so he’d been unable to repel many of the black monsters. “Franz… When night arrives, let’s leave this place together!” Yuric took Franz’s hand and tried to persuade him as she dried him off, but he shook his head and replied, “I can’t do that.” “Why?! Don’t tell me ya also think ya have to protect this place? That’s impossible for a healing mage! Ya should leave that to Edgan!” “This temple is connected to my roots. The blood flowing within me tells me to protect it.” Franz’s eyes peeked out from his mask. Their color was the same gold as that in the stones Mariela’s group had picked up along the way, but different from the gold eyes of Mariela’s master. If Mariela had to say, she’d describe them as having a damp shine reminiscent of a reptile’s, and the pupils were vertically long and narrow. If those stones had the same colors as Franz, surely the hair hidden under his hood was blue. No matter how desperately Yuric urged him, Franz seemed to have no interest in leaving the tower. He stubbornly reiterated, “I’m staying here to protect the temple.” “Anyway, why don’t we all have something to eat? Mr. Franz, are you hungry, too?” “I’d appreciate that,” Franz replied to Mariela’s suggestion. While he seemed averse to leaving the tower, he was okay with passing the time with Mariela and Yuric until night arrived. “Fish? I have some to add to that.” “I’ll help ya carry it.” Yuric probably wanted to be with Franz, even if it was just for a short time. Mariela left transporting the food from the top floor of the tower to Yuric, Franz, and Koo while she herself began cooking. They’d left the monster fish she and Yuric had caught for Edgan, so there was little food remaining. The lean fish was rich, and Mariela could prepare it like meat depending on how she cooked it, so she decided to marinate it with garlic-like herbs and the seasonings she’d brought with her before roasting it. The aquatic plants Yuric had plucked along with those used for the fire bottles were just perfect for that. As Mariela marinated the lean monster fish in a Transmutation Vessel, she gathered medicinal herbs from a window. It would be helpful to have more edible vegetation, and she’d be even more grateful if she had gepla seeds to make more fire bottles. Unfortunately, the group’s current floor was too deep to find gepla, but Mariela plucked those plants she could get cooking oil from. Their roots were edible as well. They were fibrous and would get stuck in one’s teeth if eaten as is, but when Mariela cut them diagonally and fried them in oil, they took on a burdock-like flavor. The aquatic plant salad tasted a little bitter and monotonous, so the roots would make a good accent. “Mariela, I’m starvin’.” As Mariela was using the salamander to dry the lean fish that had been marinated in the seasonings, Yuric and the others returned. From the look of it, they’d harvested what useful vegetation they could, too, which they’d piled onto Koo in back-breaking quantities. “…Whoa, look at all that stuff. Koo, Franz, you guys’re both musclemen.” They’d brought so much that Mariela reflexively uttered something silly. It befit Koo, who was loaded with so many aquatic plants they practically reached the ceiling, but also Franz, who had lugged an enormous serpentine fish monster wrapped around his body. “This tastes like chicken.” The monster looked more like a snake than a fish. “Chicken… Deep-fried… To fry it in such a small amount of oil, I’d need to…” Mariela was in serious mode. As she pondered something, she gazed at the fish monster with the same intent expression as when she made potions. “Mariela, I’ll help.” “Thanks, Yuric. In that case, could you cut the snake monster into bite-size pieces?” Two girls doing some outdoor cooking. If that was all there was to it, surely it would have been a charming scene, but a serpent that looked like it could have swallowed them whole lay before them. Franz did the work of slicing it lengthwise with a knife and tearing off the skin, but Yuric was the one who mercilessly butchered the pink flesh. Mariela tossed the cut meat and seasonings into a Transmutation Vessel with “Just a little Pressurize,” then added flour she’d made from tubers and vigorously spun the entire Transmutation Vessel before shaping another one into a nozzle and using that to uniformly spray what little oil she had. Mariela made full use of the transcendent high-grade potion creation techniques that only she could perform. “Superheat.” The temperature was important for deep-frying food. Mariela had once made the Elixir, however, so cooking was rather simple by comparison. She listened carefully to the sound of the meat to make the outside crisp and the inside juicy, and she completed the dish by tweaking the heat to bring out the flavor without wasting a drop of the fish’s oil. Meat was, in its own sense, a material. There was no way the ultimate alchemist, now quite hungry, couldn’t draw out the best from such a substance. It was only because Yuric and Franz were with Mariela that they could enjoy cuisine made of such advanced alchemy skills. “It’s good.” “Delicious! Franz, if ya come with us, ya could eat this kind of cooking every day.” “…That’s a shame……… A real shame.” Mariela’s transcendent alchemical meal and Yuric’s cunning psychological attack caused Franz’s strange sense of obligation to waver. The three spent their brief time together enjoying incredibly delicious food, but all the same, Franz persisted. “I’m staying,” he insisted, refusing to travel with Mariela and Yuric. That night, everyone decided to sleep in this room midway up the tower. Mariela had Franz’s stones in her pouch. If she slept here, she would probably glimpse some of his memories. With that in mind, she offered to spend the night on a floor above, but Franz and Yuric stopped her, saying it would be dangerous. Mariela didn’t explain the circumstances regarding the rocks to Franz. Yuric, who knew about these special dreams about the past, had said, “There’s still a lot we don’t know. Let’s focus on determining exactly how we recover the stolen memories first.” She seemed to think Mariela being present was one of the conditions for stolen recollections returning. Mariela and the others fell asleep within the bright light shining in from outside the windows. The dream of Franz that Mariela had was memories of carefree days he spent living with Yuric in his clinic in the slums of the imperial capital. The appearance of the simple infirmary and Yuric and Franz’s modest living somehow reminded Mariela of when she had lived with her master in their Fell Forest cottage. Although there were days with unreasonable demands from unpleasant customers and those when Franz and Yuric were looked down on for their race or appearance, they helped and supported each other. Together, they overcame all obstacles. It wasn’t a one-sided relationship of Franz protecting Yuric, either. It was clear that Yuric’s presence helped keep Franz going, too. Ordinary days with nothing special to them. Franz’s memories brought a sense of nostalgia to Mariela. I have to find my master… Mariela reaffirmed her determination. The salamander, curled up beside her, watched her with its glistening golden eyes. 02 They had probably been impatient, Mariela thought. Mariela wasn’t strong enough to fight off monsters. If one that neither Yuric’s whip nor fire bottles worked on appeared, they would have no choice but to flee. Mariela had lived in the Fell Forest. She knew this better than anyone else, so she had been exercising caution up to this point. All she’d encountered thus far were those inky things that, despite being ominous and many, could be defeated with simple explosives, so she’d been convinced that only those black monsters appeared in this strange structure. “Let’s leave the exploration of the west tower for later and hurry to the second floor for now.” Mariela and Yuric had decided to remain in the northwest tower, partly due to Franz’s memory having largely disappeared. His recollections from the stone Mariela picked up had returned, but that was just a portion of what had been stolen away. But more than that… “Franz! Your face…” When Mariela turned in the direction of Yuric’s trembling voice, she saw that the other girl was about to remove Franz’s mask. The hair spilling from the lowered hood was the same blue as that of the memory stone. It was neatly trimmed and swept out behind him. Mariela didn’t get a good look at the man’s face, but he struck Mariela as much younger than she had thought, possibly closer in age to Sieg or Edgan. Rather, he had a very calm air, so if you lined him up next to the overly excitable Edgan, he would probably seem far more mature. But what surprised Mariela wasn’t Franz’s calm disposition. The same shade of blue as Franz’s hair was also present on his forehead and the bridge of his nose. When Mariela squinted, she thought she could see scales. Franz noticed Mariela’s gaze and quickly returned the mask to his face, but the azure things peeked out from under the facade in spots around his eyes. They say Franz has demi-human traits. But…his face. Weren’t those scales…? Franz had said that this mysterious place held some connection to his roots, and that he had to protect it and couldn’t leave. Assuming what he spoke of was his demi-human blood, then perhaps this structure somehow gnawed at his heart and caused him to fight the black monsters here and lose his memories. It’s like he’s being wholly remade… The thought was enough to make Mariela shudder. If Franz lost all his memories, what would become of him? If Mariela had everything she could remember taken away, could she still say she was herself? “Yuric, let’s hurry.” “Got it.” After giving Franz fire bottles and food, the two girls rushed out of the northwest tower right at sunset. Southward, southward, southward. Yuric ran the raptor toward the southwest tower as they burned up black monsters with fire bottles. En route, they passed through the west tower and continued to plunge toward the southwest one. “Mariela. Fire bottle!” “Okay!” Mariela had gotten somewhat accustomed to handling the alchemical explosives. What’s more, she had a fire spirit with her. The pillars of flame that rose up didn’t burn even a single hair on her or Yuric’s heads. Mariela tossed a fire bottle into the third-floor room of the southwest tower, and the group flew into the enclosure not a moment later. Just as Yuric had told her, part of the wall on this level had collapsed, and the black monsters were freely invading from the outside. If you looked at the tower from the exterior, you’d probably see flames jetting out from the collapsed parts of the building. The blaze caused by Mariela’s explosive immediately went out thanks to the salamander, but only the cinders of the wooden boxes and shelves, let alone of the monsters, remained on the third floor of the tower. That, and several spherical objects scattered on the floor. “More stones… They’re sooty and hard to see, but this one is…” “Mariela, we can check those later. Let’s hurry to the second floor.” How many rocks did that make? Mariela could check later. They needed to press ahead as much as they could. After Mariela and Yuric collected the stones and put them away in a pouch, her group continued down to the floor below. “There are…no stairs to the first floor, huh…?” “This wasn’t goin’ to be that easy.” “Graaar…” There were only doors leading to the north and east on the second level of the southwest tower—no steps to the first floor. To head for the temple, they would have to keep searching for a way down. They hadn’t expected smooth progress, so Mariela and Yuric weren’t discouraged, but there was one creature who seemed fidgety with discomfiture. “Koo, what’s wrong? Ahh, the carpet? It’s all right. No one’ll get mad if we get it dirty.” A very expensive-looking rug had been laid out on the second floor of this tower, and Koo the raptor, who usually didn’t go inside, was confused by the fluffy feeling under his feet. “Rar!” After Yuric told him it was acceptable to step on the carpet, Koo happily started kneading it on the spot and enjoyed its softness. “There’s something very different about this place.” It was not just the rug, but the materials and construction of the chamber and doors were different from those on the third floor. Perhaps it was like a palace or temple from ancient times? The most splendid building Mariela knew of was the house of Margrave Schutzenwald, but the structure here seemed more magnificent and solemn. “This room might be fancy, but there’s nothin’ here. Let’s move on.” Koo was the only one enjoying the fluffiness of the carpet. Yuric promptly ran up to the door leading east and quietly opened it. “Mariela, there’s another room… As far as I can see, there doesn’t seem to be any monsters, but the light’s sparse, and I don’t know if it’s safe… Same for the north side.” Yuric opened the way to both halls and inspected them. Corridors with no additional rooms connected the towers from the third floor and above, but on the second, several extra chambers adjoined each hallway’s respective inner side. What light came from them was sparse. Since the doors were illuminated, the only torches were probably near them. Extravagant carpets were also laid out in the corridors, and because they didn’t look wet, neither hallway appeared to flood. “If there are lights next to the door, I wonder if inside the room is safe?” “Who knows? The door’s normal-sized, so we won’t be able to go in without getting off the raptor first.” Yuric took a step into the east-west hallway from the eastern passage she’d first opened. There was a row of doors on the north side—in other words, the left-hand side—and after several steps, she found that the first door appeared to be openable. For now, Yuric decided to check what was on the other side of the door leading from the tower, and she took in the lay of the land as she moved forward. Thinking it was probably safe, Mariela and Koo also followed Yuric and stepped into the hallway from the southwest tower. Windows were open on the right-hand side at fixed intervals; the outside was dark, so dawn hadn’t yet arrived. From what they’d seen up to this point, black monsters should have been flooding the outside, yet none could be seen in either the southwest tower or this hallway. Maybe this place was safe. Just as Mariela and Yuric were beginning to think that, they heard a distant sound like something being struck. Boooom, boooom, boooom. “!!! That noise! It’s gotta be Donnino.” The outside was dark, and the light in the corridor was unreliable. The weak illumination obscured the end of the hall stretching east, and Mariela and Yuric couldn’t tell whether it continued to the southeast tower or if there was something in the way. But they had heard the rhythmic sound of a hard impact from the other side of that hallway. “Let’s go, Yuric! There might be an exit. We can go outside since it’s still nighttime!” The two spurred Koo on without opening any of the doors and traveled at full speed east toward the noise. Running through the straight, dark corridor with flickering torchlight here and there flying past them made it feel like a phantom world. This strange place also seemed like someone’s nightmare. Booooom, booooom…… The concussive sounds, which had gotten louder as the group chased after them, suddenly stopped. “The noise…! On the other side of that door!” About halfway across the east-west corridor was a large double door. Unlike the other doors, this one was much more imposing, tall and wide enough for the girls to pass through while still on the raptor. “That path to the temple started somewhere around here, right? Maybe we can find a way out!” Perhaps a staircase leading down lay beyond these ornate doors. And surely there would be a door to that temple, too. Maybe there was a chance they could reach the temple before dawn when the world would fill with water… Mariela and Yuric had been in a hurry. They’d seen Franz, who had lost his memories and whose very appearance was even changing. And they had been careless because they’d easily dealt with the black monsters by using fire bottles. They had grown comfortable in a structure they still understood very little about. Why had the striking sounds stopped? Were the torches on both sides of this door lit? And was the color of the sky visible from the windows in the hallway the dark of night or the white of dawn…? Paying none of that any heed, Mariela and Yuric chose to open the door. Creak… Leaving Mariela on Koo’s back, Yuric nimbly dismounted and put a hand on the knob. The door opened with a smoothness that belied their sturdy appearance. Just as they’d suspected, the area beyond the door was an entrance hall that continued to the temple in the center. The second-floor hallway became a staircase on the other side of the door, joined with the steps from the southeast hallway at the landing, and went down to the first level. That’s how the structure had been built, anyway. Unfortunately, a large, imposing tree lay in front of the spot where the stairs joined, barring entry to Mariela and Yuric’s destination. “A tree…? It’s like a wall…” The branches of the tree, so enormous it touched the ceiling, spread out as if to obstruct all advances, and several other equally tall trees grew near it and blocked the stairs so the group couldn’t go descend them from the west side. If they could pass through a gap in the many boughs, they’d probably be able to get outside, but winding ivy grew between the trees. If there was any way past the barricade, Mariela and Yuric didn’t spot it. The scent and sight of the greenery reminded them of the middle of a forest, but the unnatural density of the trees with a single giant one at their center also made it seem like a twisted hedge. “We can’t go outside from here. As for jumping to the lower floor…” Yuric set foot into the room with the stairwell and looked down at the first floor from a railing. “Heeey, anyone there?” Yuric called. When she did, someone near the foot of the steps answered. “That you, Yuric?” “Donnino?! You’re down there?” “Thank goodness you’re okay, Mr. Donnino!” Mariela exclaimed on reflex. Those loud, concussive sounds from earlier really had been Donnino after all. Donnino, who maintained the armored carriages in the Black Iron Freight Corps, wielded a hammer as a weapon and used his strong arms to smash his enemies. Although he wasn’t the speedy type, in no way did that mean he was weak. Despite this little reunion, what Donnino said next was a sharp and urgent command. “Yuric, get away from there right now!” At Donnino’s shout, Yuric jumped back to the hallway side where Mariela was. In that instant… The trees blocking Mariela and Yuric’s path suddenly shook. The ivy covering the giant tree and connecting it to the others around it rustled, and all at once, it cleared away like tied-up hair coming undone, exposing the tree’s surface. “Eek! A face?!” Faster than Mariela’s shriek, the loosened ivy wriggled like a living creature, lashed at the spot where Yuric had been mere moments before, and contorted from the recoil. If Yuric’s retreat had been even a moment slower, the vines might have struck and torn her apart. The exposed tree trunk had bloodred eyes, nostrils, and a mouth like a wound cut into flesh. The frightening being glared at Mariela and Yuric. “This thing’s a Necklace!” Yuric shouted after narrowly evading her demise. A Necklace. That was the common name given to a particular breed of face trees, monstrous plants with human faces. Just as there are various types of ordinary trees, there is a great deal of diversity among monstrous ones. This one probably had a formal name given by scholars in the imperial capital, but to adventurers like Yuric, the official nomenclature was inconsequential. What kind of monster was it, and how should it be dealt with? Understanding those things was far more critical. The common name Necklace also clearly expressed the special quality of this plant creature. As both the facial expression that appeared on the trunk and the name suggested, this tree was said to be the vainest species. However, since no one had tried to communicate with this monster tree, there was no evidence to back up this claim. Unlike typical face trees, which sometimes decorated themselves with hideous flowers or fruit, this one didn’t bear either. The expression of this austere tree seemed more jealous than any of its kind that Mariela had encountered before. Its inflamed eyes and its mouth, bright red like it had just drunk blood, made it look as though a vengeful spirit had possessed it. And the creature used the ivy as limbs to indiscriminately attack people and beasts who passed by. To adorn itself, it hung a feeler from its neck like a pendant. That’s how this variant had earned the nickname “Necklace.” The monster couldn’t use its roots to relocate, but its ivy was tough as steel, excelled at both offense and defense, and could move at will. The creature was belligerent and troublesome. “Yuric, let’s meet up at the west tower. Listen now, at midday. Come exactly at midday! Got it?!” They couldn’t see Donnino. But what they could hear were the clangs and crashes of something hard colliding. The sounds left Mariela and Yuric to infer that Donnino was battling the Necklace downstairs. He was probably distracting the monster to create an opening for Yuric and the rest to escape. “Roger!” Yuric replied. The Necklace regarded not just Donnino as prey, but Mariela and the rest as well, and its vines slithered after them. “Rarar!” Koo easily avoided the attack. “Hurry and get outta here! That ivy isn’t this thing’s only weapon, so watch out! I’m gonna fall back, too!” With that final warning, Donnino apparently began to retreat somewhere. Little by little, the sounds of battle grew more distant. It didn’t take long for Mariela and Yuric to discover what Donnino meant. As though losing its temper over failing to ensnare Mariela and the others, the Necklace shook its entire body. Thud, thud, thuuud. Several objects fell from the Necklace’s foliage that blotted out the chamber’s ceiling. If those bodies that writhed around had been smooth and white… Well, that still would’ve been more than deserving of a scream, but at least the things wouldn’t have been so creepy looking. Fur, spines, and poison. Many legs, although they were very short, and strong teeth. Were the black spots on their heads eyes, or just a pattern? Mariela and Yuric couldn’t tell, but they had a feeling like they had locked eyes with the repulsive things. “Haah—” Was it Mariela or Yuric who instinctively gasped? With speed like a spinal reflex, Yuric leaped onto Koo and spurred him at full steam back the way they came. The giant things that had come from the Necklace gave chase with bizarre speed. The large creatures, which looked like they could take off a human head in a single bite, poured through the door and crawled out from the floor, walls, and ceiling. “AAAAAUUUUUGHHHHH!!! HAIRY CATERPILLAAAAAAARS!!!” The girls’ screams reverberated throughout the second-floor hallway they’d gone through so much to reach. 03 Caterpillar monsters—both the hairless and the hairy types—and treants had been closely involved with human life since time immemorial. Of course, it depended on the type, but the lumber obtainable from treants was stiffer and more fireproof than ordinary wood and was traded as a high-class item. The thread that caterpillars spit was strong, thin, and warm, and its great elasticity and breathability made it prized as a material for high-performance cloth. Incidentally, Mariela’s tights she’d obtained in the Labyrinth City were also created from caterpillar silk, and they made her legs look curvier than they were. Magnificent functionality. By the way, for some reason, Mariela had imagined caterpillar monsters to be roly-poly and somewhat charming, hairless caterpillars that munched grass and cutely spit out thread. In reality, the caterpillars raised to produce silk for ordinary citizens’ clothing were a type that was comparatively easy to handle among their larger phyla. Not only were they giant—five times bigger than Mariela imagined and twenty times more grotesque—but they ate raw meat instead of grass. What’s more, the thread was collected after they spit it out and scattered it all over when they went berserk and made “grrrgrrr” sounds, which was a frequent occurrence. At the very least, that domestic breed didn’t have strange patterns, somewhat fluffy hair, or spines that made you feel itchy just by looking at them, and they didn’t send poisonous fibers flying in place of thread. The domestic breed’s appearance and attack methods were by no means as atrocious as the horde of approaching hairy caterpillars going “greeeeaaaaaaaaar” that were about to bite off the swaying tail of the raptor Mariela and Yuric rode. “Mariela, fire bottle!” Yuric looked like she was about to cry as she steered the raptor to the right and left while avoiding the toxic fibers. “Okay!” Mariela also looked like she could start sobbing at any moment as she threw a fire bottle while clinging to Yuric. “Rawr!” Thanks to the salamander, the flames from Mariela’s explosive spread, filled the passage, and began engulfing the hairy caterpillars. Although there were many rooms along the length of the hallway, Mariela’s group had gone all the way to the room with the Necklace without checking any of them. They had opportunities to plunge into one of the rooms, but if the one they went into was dangerous, it would probably spell their doom. That’s why they now had to escape back to the southwest tower while fighting back with fire bottles. Unfortunately, the alchemical explosives, their last ray of hope that had burned the black monsters to nothing, didn’t seem to stop the hairy caterpillars. They broke through the blaze and extinguished it with their enormous bodies and sheer numbers as they continued to advance. “Whoa! They’re still coming! They’re kinda smooth now!” “Gaaah! They’re still coming! They smell kinda tasty now!” Aside from whether the hairy caterpillars with their lightly broiled exteriors were delicious, their spines had been burned away, eliminating the danger of toxic fibers, so the fire bottle hadn’t been completely wasted. However, at the sight of the giant hairy caterpillars closing in, heedless of getting burned, the two girls went well beyond teary eyes. “Whyyy, why aren’t they burning?!!” “Maybe…they’re soggy?” “Sog…?! Don’t say that, Yuric!” “You’re the one who asked!” Mariela and Yuric screamed in unison from atop Koo. Was it that Yuric was girlish after all, or did she simply hate bugs? Few humans, regardless of fighting strength, would probably be able to stay calm at being chased by a large number of enormous hairy caterpillars, so maybe it was a reasonable reaction. Perhaps because the blaze had scored them, the hairy insects at the front of the charge began to slow. Mariela’s group put as much distance between themselves and the caterpillars as the chaos would let them, but that only lasted a moment. Swoosh, tmp-tmp-tmp. The uninjured monsters in the back trampled the ones who’d stalled after being burned, closed in on Mariela’s group, and sent poisonous fibers flying. “Raaah!” “! Koo!” One of the toxic barbs pierced Koo’s tail, and his speed dropped right away. Did this hairy caterpillar toxin paralyze its prey? “Hang in there just a little longer!” Mariela faced the monsters closing the distance before her eyes and threw fire bottles one after another at them. The group was almost to the southwest tower. The fire bottles only had a slight effect on the frightening insects, but if their progress could be slowed even a little, maybe the group could make it to the tower. “Rawr!” The salamander on Koo’s head cried out as though to encourage him. “Grah, grah, grah.” Koo’s breathing grew labored, but the raptor ran with the utmost effort despite his poor control over his legs. The hairy caterpillars behind the group drew near, as if to devour the very space between them. So close were the insects now that Mariela and the others could feel the hot air coming off the monsters after they’d charged through the alchemical conflagration. Even the hem of Mariela’s cloak seemed to be getting scorched by the hot air. Mariela was clinging to Yuric so she wouldn’t be thrown from the raptor, who was nearly tripping over himself, and she couldn’t afford to look behind her. Even without risking a glance, she knew the terrible creatures were very nearly upon her. “Har!” Yuric’s whip whirled and twined around the knob of the door several yards ahead of them. The southwest tower was a hop, skip, and jump away. Yuric pulled on the whip to open the door, and Koo practically slid through as he plunged into it. As soon as he was in the tower, he tripped over his own legs and collapsed. Both Mariela and Yuric were thrown from their mount and toppled onto the floor. “Eek!” Mariela let out a rare girlish shriek and rolled over and over like some sort of baby animal, while Yuric quickly righted herself after one tumble and yanked on the whip, still coiled around the doorknob, and shut the door. The coiled lash both pulled on the door and released the knob as though it were a living thing and returned to Yuric. Ba-bam, bam, thud, thud, spatter, spatter, squelch. Many collisions reverberated from the other side of the closed door, and then they heard what sounded like something being squished. “…Whoa.” It was probably inevitable that the first thing out of Mariela’s mouth after she unsteadily got to her feet with her cloak flipped over her head wasn’t an astonished “We’re saved!” She didn’t know whether the tower door was far sturdier than it looked or whether some mysterious power was at work, but Mariela and the others seemed to have escaped from the surging tide of hairy caterpillars. The awful crunching sounds on the other side of the door told one all they needed to know about what happened to those monsters at the front of the charge. “Koo!” “Mariela, hurry and use a potion!!!” Yuric was far more worried about Koo than any splattered hairy caterpillars. Koo’s tail, which had been struck by a poisonous fiber, was turning a purplish red. Most urgent of all, it was swelling a great deal and very painful to look at. Koo himself lay in the same position he’d slid into and twitched repeatedly. “Yuric, have him drink this for now!” After Mariela handed a potion with recovery and detoxification effects to Yuric, she applied a cure potion to Koo’s tail and neutralized the poisonous spine while washing it away. “I think this is a type of toxin that numbs the body. All I can do with potions made from makeshift ingredients is alleviate it. If you have him rest for a few days, he’ll probably recover, but…” The concoctions Mariela had with her were imitations she’d made from the medicinal herbs she’d gathered around this structure, so their effects weren’t powerful. The poison of the caterpillar monsters inhibited movement to make catching their prey that much easier, and since Mariela had neutralized it to some extent, Koo’s heart wouldn’t stop. However, it would be a considerable amount of time before he could walk. “Wouldn’t it be fine if we had the materials?” “Yeah. But I don’t think there are any above us…” Up to this point, Mariela and Yuric had climbed a few towers and collected materials. Still, all the towers had offered similar vegetation, so even if they went up this tower, they probably wouldn’t find the necessary medicinal herbs. If so, there was only one way to go. “Koo, we’ll definitely be back, so wait here.” “Nrr…,” Koo responded weakly. He partially closed his eyes in apparent contentment at Yuric stroked his head. Yuric and Mariela walked toward the one other door, which led north. “This time we’ll check the rooms.” “Yeah. Let’s go through carefully.” The door on the east side had already quieted, but it was probably better not to approach it for a while. The hairy caterpillar monsters might be nearby, and even if they weren’t, no doubt there was a terrible sight out there. Mariela and Yuric opened the door to the north passage and slowly and quietly stepped into the hallway. “No monsters. I’m gonna take the first door.” “Okay.” Ready to flee at a moment’s notice, Yuric slowly and quietly turned the handle. “…It’s a…normal room?” “It sure is. I wonder if this place is a workshop? Where could the craftsmen be?” The first room in the northern hallway was an alchemy workshop resembling Carol’s, with rows of glass and metal equipment. Dried herbs lay in one corner of the room, and expensive materials in vials lined the shelves. Partially processed medicinal herbs had been left on the desk, and based on their condition, there seemed to have been someone here not too long ago. At present, the chamber’s only occupants were Mariela and Yuric, however. “…This all seems really convenient. You think this might help Koo, though?” “Yeah. Probably. Let’s see, is there treant fruit…? There is. Lund petioles, too. Hmm, they were processed poorly, but they might just barely work.” The curiously plentiful reagents had been handled sloppily. Since this place had materials for high-grade and specialized potions, it seemed to be the workshop of a capable alchemist. By Mariela’s standards, this person was intermediate at best, however. Regardless, they seemed to be very well-off, as the room contained many complex and shiny magical tools. But then, this was a typical workshop for an alchemist who could make high-grade potions. Regular alchemists didn’t have restrictions on their Libraries. Even if the high-grade potions were crude, they would sell at a much higher price than mid-grade brews, so it was customary to make high-ranking concoctions with expensive tools to compensate for lack of ability. Since Mariela still hadn’t completely shaken the sense that her own proficiency as an alchemist was average, she just felt uncomfortable. “Mariela, there’s lunamagia in the refrigeration magical tool over here!” “Really?! It hasn’t been processed yet. I might be able to manage with this.” With unprocessed lunamagia, it seemed like Mariela would be able to make a high-grade antidote of reasonably good quality. Mariela expanded a Transmutation Vessel as she had done so many other times and, after completing a high-grade cure potion in the blink of an eye, she rushed back with Yuric to the southwest tower where Koo was waiting for them. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Koo. Here, got you a potion!” “Nrrr…nr? Raaar!” “Whoa, Koo, ya perked up way too much.” Just as you’d expect from one of Mariela’s mixtures. Koo recovered on the spot, stood up, and began licking Yuric and Mariela. “Thank goodness, Koo. But what were those venomous insects doing here?” Yuric pondered briefly before answering Mariela’s question. “There were those big fish, even in the daytime. Are the black creatures the only ones that appear during the night?” “So you’re saying they weren’t random in the places we’ve been to so far, and normal monsters are active even during the day?” When Mariela looked out through the tower window, she saw that dawn had long since arrived, and large fish would occasionally pass by and stare at the group with goggly eyes as they swam around the tower. All the aquatic monsters were so huge, they couldn’t fit through the long and narrow windows, so they didn’t attack. That was a poor comfort when one caught sight of their well-developed jaws and sharp, jagged teeth, though. “Mariela, Donnino’s waitin’. Let’s keep goin’.” They were safe here, but they needed to meet up with Donnino. He’d said “Let’s meet up on the opposite side.” Could he have had a reason for not designating the safe second floor of the southwest tower? At the very least, he’d told Mariela and Yuric to meet up with him, so there was no doubt they could get to the first floor if they went through the north hallway. “Okay. But, you know…” After healing Koo and taking a short rest, Mariela began to ponder things a little. The hairy caterpillars from earlier. Mariela hadn’t thoroughly observed them, but she thought they were the larvae of a poisonous moth species known as Mojolaus Meiyo. If so, they were the material for a particular potion. It wasn’t one that could be used to attack, but there were those enemies that couldn’t be defeated with fire bottles. It was better to have many means at their disposal. Gathering what they could from the hairy caterpillars aside, what was in the numerous other rooms in this corridor? The first chamber on the north side had been an alchemist’s workshop. Would the other rooms prove as useful? When did Mr. Donnino say to meet up with him, again…? Would it be okay to be a little late? Although they’d made a promise with Donnino, finding their way there without being attacked by monsters was their first priority. A face tree and hairy caterpillars had already attacked them. There was no telling what awaited them ahead now. Mariela suggested to Yuric that they discuss the plan from here on out. 04 “…We shouldn’t go in there.” “But it might have some materials.” “Didn’t we just decide not to go in there?” The two began to argue in front of the western door where the insect monsters’ corpses were scattered about. Yuric vehemently refused to go in, so Mariela slowly and quietly opened the door herself with reluctance. She’d put her ear to it first but had caught no sound. Nonetheless, how many humans existed who could recognize the sound of crawling hairy caterpillars? Even if any of the things were scurrying about, there was no way Mariela could’ve heard them. She quietly opened the door about four inches and tossed dried fish meat inside. If any of the insect monsters were left, they would likely rush to snatch it up. Mariela didn’t detect movement. Thinking it was safe, she peered through the crack in the doorway and involuntarily muttered at the terrible spectacle. “Whoa… It’s like…magical power is being scraped and whittled away…” If that was true of anything, it was likely sanity, not magical power. Perhaps the surviving hairy caterpillars had returned to the Necklace, as Mariela didn’t spot anything crawling around on the other side of the door. However, the phlegm as far as the eye could see and hairy caterpillar corpses everywhere made Mariela uncomfortable. Just that alone was unbearable, but even worse was the smell hanging over everything, and Mariela desperately suppressed the nausea welling up within her at the terrible, unfamiliar fishy smell. “We at least gotta do something about this stink. Blech, they’re too damp to use, too. For now, Dehydrate, Ventilate.” Mariela put in considerable magical power to dry the carcasses around her and blew them away with a puff of air. The west side of the hallway was now in a much better state, both visually and olfactorily. “…Mariela, let’s hurry and finish this up.” Perhaps she felt she couldn’t afford to let Mariela do all the work, as Yuric reluctantly followed the alchemist’s lead. “Thanks, Yuric. Let’s see, this…no good. Then, over there…” The light coming in from the windows highlighted every detail of the caterpillar carcasses that one really didn’t want to see. Perhaps Mariela, who screamed when she thought of them as bugs, was fine when she thought of them as materials, since she inspected every corpse that hadn’t been wholly crushed. Each time, she sighed. “I can’t use this one, either.” “What’re ya lookin’ for?” Yuric asked. She was worried that if Mariela did everything herself, it would take too long, and the gruesome bugs would return. “The intestines are located near the butt, but hairy caterpillars’ organs are soft, so they were crushed in the impact and got all mixed together.” Yuric wished she hadn’t asked. “…In that case, wouldn’t it be faster to search a bit farther along the hallway?” Yuric put Mariela on Koo’s back while avoiding looking at the hairy caterpillar carcasses as much as possible, then led her around the end of the heaps of phlegm and chunks of meat. Thanks to Yuric’s reluctant help, Mariela was able to obtain the reagents she sought, and she began to collect one other material in the room on the northwest side where she’d made the cure potion a short time ago. “Mariela, are ya goin’ to use the magical tools?” “Yeah. I need these blowers.” “Then what’re you cutting ’em up for?” “I only need this one part.” Something got lost in translation between the two of them. Mariela collected only the blowers from the magical tools, and she used scissors to cut out the balloon parts that inflated and expelled air when you put magical power into them. Hence, it was only natural for Yuric to misunderstand. The balloon pieces of the ventilation magical tools expanded when you poured magical power into them because they were made from the cheek pouches of creatures called bravado frogs. Despite technically being monsters, they were a weak variety, and they blew up their cheek pouches to astonishing sizes to make themselves appear stronger. The sturdiness of these sacs was evident from the fact that they didn’t break even when given some pokes at maximum capacity. Still, the best characteristic of this material was that, even if it didn’t suck in air, it would instantly inflate with wind magic if it was fed magical power. The bravado frog’s survival strategy was to deflect attacks with a sudden expansion of its cheeks. Then it would expel air to escape. Magical tools for ventilation made use of this characteristic, but the balloons were still made from a living thing’s skin, and a frog at that, so it wasn’t like they could be used indefinitely. Most modern societies, including the Labyrinth City, had outgrown using these components, but for some reason, this workshop had ventilation tools that ran on this antiquated method. Naturally, there were several spare balloons for replacement. Mariela used scissors to cut loose and collect the cheek pouches. After drying them for a short time, she turned the cheek pouches into powder and boiled them in water loaded with Drops of Life. What concentrated wind with magical power was the many cells within the cheek pouches, and if you heated them like this, they would turn clear and sticky and allow you to take out the individual cells. The work of diluting them with water filtered as much as possible, separating them, and then condensing them again was by all rights extremely time-consuming, but the process was basic. “And nooow, those hairy caterpillar materials we…” “Ya don’t need to explain every li’l thing.” Mariela completed the new potion, albeit not without the occasional chiding from Yuric. “Another alchemist’s workshop?” “What’s goin’ on with this place?” After Mariela completed the potion, she and Yuric checked the rooms at regular intervals while making their way through the northern hallway. They were heading north to meet up with Donnino as soon as possible while inspecting the chambers to see if they could be used for shelter. The pair didn’t check all the rooms, but every single one they opened was an alchemist’s workshop. What was the meaning of this? Just like the chamber they first went into, they all looked like people had been in them until just a little while ago, as they contained partially processed medicinal herbs and, on rare occasions, meals with steam rising from them. There were no actual inhabitants to be found, though. One other mysterious thing was that the materials Mariela processed into potions or crystallized could be taken out of the rooms, but if they took fully processed medicinal herbs from the rooms, they crumbled and vanished. Although she couldn’t take out the smoke bombs she’d made by simply kneading and mixing powdered medicinal herbs, those that Mariela repurposed by extracting the components and combining them again could be taken out even if she mixed in materials from a workshop. Because they didn’t get hungry again when they left a chamber after having a meal, the rooms seemed to have a rule that nothing could be taken from them unless it became Mariela’s or Yuric’s in some form. Even the door of a chamber they left ajar so they could take refuge there at any time closed, pushing the baggage Mariela and Yuric had placed to keep it from shutting into the hallway, when they entered a different room. The rooms had magical tools for illumination, lit lamps, and other lighting forms, so it wasn’t as if they were dark. Without torches at regular intervals like the chambers in the towers, monsters could still invade. It was probably best to think of the spaces in this corridor as hiding places. “Let’s move as carefully as possible so we don’t meet any unpleasant creatures.” “Sounds like a good idea.” Mariela and Yuric cautiously proceeded north as they scanned the interiors of the rooms. It was a few hours after they’d left the southwest tower when they encountered an identical pair of double doors to the ones they’d found earlier. Distance-wise, it was right around the west tower. Mariela and Yuric had rushed out of the northwest tower where Franz was as soon as night arrived, traveled through the southwest one, met Donnino in the south second-floor hallway, and were chased by hairy caterpillars. A lot of things had happened, and Mariela felt like a lot of time had passed, but since they hadn’t taken any naps, she felt like this would be a good time for night to come. Mariela gazed out the windows that were still bright after who knows how many hours. What was it Donnino had said? She was positive he’d stated, “Exactly at midday.” Didn’t exactly midday mean noon in the normal world? Not here after the night had been shortened? “Mariela, are ya goin’ to open it?” “Yeah.” Yuric’s voice drowned out Mariela’s ponderings, and she automatically agreed. This time, she carefully opened the door just a little and peeked inside. A bright light spilled through the crack. “A greenhouse…or somethin’ like that?” “For a greenhouse, the trees sure are in rough shape, though.” Peeking through, the two saw a large atrium that began on the first floor of this tower. It was lusher than the entrance where the Necklace had attacked them, and it called to mind a botanical garden. On the second floor, a passage went halfway around the wall before coming to an end, and it didn’t connect to the northwest tower. Mariela couldn’t see well because the trees were in the way, but there might have been a staircase in the middle going down. The walls seemed to be made of marble or some other beautiful alabaster stone, and they looked far brighter than those in the rooms they’d seen up to this point. The width of the outer facade was the same as the previous tower chambers. Still, several splendid pillars in the inner court supported the tower that continued upward, and the room further expanded such that it protruded into the courtyard. The walls on the courtyard side, built as a semicircle, were glass-sided, and the ceiling had a dome-like curve from around the middle of the second floor where Mariela’s group was. The first floor had waterways and water fountains as well, and the fact that it was covered in trees and plants in a disorderly way gave it that ruined sort of beauty. An abandoned garden. The room suited that feeling, and you could say the way the light, diffused through the water outside, poured in and filled the trees with a pale glow that seemed straight out of a fairytale. Mariela and Yuric probably would have been captivated by that beauty if the plants growing in the chamber weren’t all monsters, and if they hadn’t all been broken off at the middle or cut up as though something sharp had gouged them. “I wonder if Mr. Donnino fought here?” Mariela opened the door a little more to get a better view of what remained of the timber, broken and piled up in disarray. “The way they were defeated…doesn’t look like Donnino’s work…” Yuric carefully peered in through the gap that now commanded a view of the room’s left and right sides. “Mr. Donnin—” “Shh, Mariela, quiet!” Yuric covered Mariela’s mouth as she started calling Donnino. Yuric’s gaze, which keenly surveyed the interior of the chamber as though seeing through the fallen timber, stopped at a point on the wall a little above the trees. From their perspective, the spot was left of center on their side of the room. Since it wasn’t right in front of them, they probably wouldn’t have noticed unless they’d carefully looked around like this. Something pitch-black clung to the pale surface of the wall on the outer facade side. Many slender legs were folded up. It was impossible to say they were symmetrical. Several looked to have been severed, and others were bent in strange directions. If the body hadn’t been swaying irregularly, it would have resembled the corpse of a spider. The ebon thing was clinging to the smooth surface of the wall, swaying up and down with its stomach pressed to it. If it were a normal spider, its head and chest would be joined, the legs would be attached to the cephalothorax, and it would have a large, puffy abdomen. However, this dark-colored creature had no midsection, and the cephalothorax was bulging like lumps had built up on it. The uneven surface gave the impression that something had chewed it. Several streaks of liquid smoothly ran down the surface of the wall from below the black thing’s stomach. The thick substance was green or light yellow. The ebon creature slid its body downward as though to chase the liquid and audibly slurped it all up. Yes, this unknown being slurped. It didn’t lap the goop as beasts did with water. It drank as a person would have. A face appeared from under the black something’s cephalothorax, at the liquid’s source. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a head, however. Mariela and Yuric had seen both the spilled phlegm and that head before. So many had chased them. It was probably impossible for them to forget those enormous hairy caterpillars that had hunted them. After the thing finished drinking the phlegm, it lifted its cephalothorax a bit and pressed its stomach against the hairy caterpillar again. Squelch, squelch. Slurp, slurp, slurp. Drip, drip, driiip. Unpleasant sounds reverberated despite the fact that it looked like the weird creature was merely pressing its body against the hairy caterpillar to crush it. There was an unmistakable sound of greedy chewing, as though it had been a long time since the thing had eaten. “Mariela, get back!” Yuric seized Mariela’s arm and yanked her away. Mariela wasn’t sure exactly what happened in the next few dizzying moments. What she could perceive in the rapidly moving scenery was the door of the west tower, which she swore had only been cracked, suddenly opening wide. She also made out the spiderlike being extending its long and narrow legs into the opening as though to block the light shining in. The joints of the creature’s limbs and the bottom of the cephalothorax turned in Mariela’s direction. A slit in the cephalothorax widened like an expanding gash, and within that slit were sporadic teeth that resembled a human’s. And… “H…ungry… Hungry, hungryyy…” The maw that had greedily devoured the hairy caterpillar monster spoke. Was it flames emitted by the salamander on Mariela’s head that dyed her field of vision red right before she was yanked back? After falling on her backside, Mariela retreated by way of Koo, who grabbed her cloak’s collar in his mouth and pulled her. After Yuric threw multiple potions and smoke bombs toward the door she’d been peeking through just a moment ago, the entire group plunged into a nearby room. They put a broom through the ring-shaped handle of the door in place of a bolt, hoping that would keep it shut. If a monster pulled on the door, such a thin stick would probably break easily, but it opened in the direction of the hallway. They couldn’t pile up scattered items to bar entry. Yuric stayed close to the door and strained her ears for sounds in the adjoining passage. Mariela hadn’t been able to sense the immediate danger, but Yuric had understood everything and leaped into this room. The monster—let’s call it the “black spider” for convenience—had finished eating the hairy caterpillar and decided Mariela’s group was its new prey. The black spider had moved so swiftly that it’d been upon Mariela before she even knew what was happening. It had used its legs to throw the slightly ajar door wide open, and it had exposed the underside of its body to Mariela and Yuric. That maw on its underside unmistakably had to be the creature’s weak point. If the mouth had possessed sharp fangs like a beast’s, it might have seemed a more formidable point on its body. But what lay in the black spider’s maw were rounded teeth like a human’s, and the area around the mouth was shaped like lips. The moment Yuric had thought it was over for them, the salamander on Mariela’s head had spit out flames, and the black spider had recoiled in apparent fear. Seizing upon that opportunity, Yuric had pulled Mariela back and hurled recently crafted potions made of hairy caterpillar phlegm and bravado frog cheek pouches at the black spider. Fortunately, Mariela had recast their vials to be a lot thinner than usual. They broke easily upon impact against the spider, and their effectiveness could not be denied. The liquid inside was scattered at an explosive speed and changed into thin white thread as though stretched out by the airflow. The way it ensnared its target as it spread was like a spider’s web, but it covered the frightening monster like an insect cocoon. These were Potions of Binding. Those hairy caterpillars had been the variety that attacked with poisonous fibers rather than thread, but they still made cocoons. Mariela had made concoctions that combined the body fluids the monstrous insects used as the base of their cocoons with the rapid inflation property of bravado frogs. Since the hairy caterpillars’ organs were soft and fragile, obtaining the materials was difficult under normal circumstances, and they rarely appeared on the market, but the mixture was easy to use and effective against both people and monsters. The Potions of Binding’s effects seemed reliable, and they were able to buy the group time to escape by immobilizing the black spider, which had shown such nimbleness before. Simultaneously, Yuric had obstructed the creature’s field of view with smoke bombs, so it couldn’t have known which room they had taken refuge in. It shouldn’t know… Yuric tried to convince herself as she listened carefully for sounds in the hallway. That black spider was clumsy. Surely it would be incapable of finding her and Mariela. Crunch, crunch, rip, rip, rip. It sounded like the thing was biting a hole in something thin and tough—perhaps the Potions of Binding’s restraints. “…ungry… H…un… Hung…” The voice gradually got closer. How did this black spider speak a human language? Swallowing that question, Mariela and even Koo lowered their voices and stayed motionless in one corner of the room. “Hungry… Hungry… Hungry… Hungry…” The sound of it scratching at the different entrances along the hallway echoed. Despite being capable of speech, the black spider may have only possessed low intelligence, as it didn’t seize any door’s handle. Instead, it seemed to be pushing its legs against and scratching at the barricades that would simply open if it only pulled on them. Scratch, scratch, scratch. “Hungry… Hungry…” The voice of unsatisfied craving seemed to have finally reached the other side of their door. “Hungry…” Were Mariela and Yuric now only separated from that disgusting black spider by a thin layer of stone and wood? Was that gruesome maw that resembled a laceration waiting for them beyond the door? Scratch, scratch, scratch……… Bang! Whether it was by chance or by the powers of this world, the black spider’s leg seemed to catch on the ring-shaped door handle. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! There came a cacophony as the creature tugged its limb back and forth. The broom handle that Yuric had used in place of a proper bolt began to strain and creak. It’s not gonna hold… Yuric gripped her whip tightly, and Mariela held several potions at the ready. The battle would have a low chance of success, but they didn’t want to be devoured by such a vile monster. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang. Bang……… After the door made an especially loud noise, it unexpectedly fell silent. What’s goin’ on?! Yuric, who’d even held her breath, could hear a faint sound like something vibrating. Bzbzbzbzbzbz…… Buzzing? That’s…a killer bee or somethin’? “Hungry… Hungr… H…un… Aa, aa…” The humming of what seemed to be several bee monsters, the black spider’s complaints of hunger, and the sounds of a scuffle between the two sides were intermittently audible. And then—splat, crunch—there came the noises of repulsive mastication. Apparently, the black spider had found a different meal. Little by little, the sounds moved in the direction of the west tower, and when Yuric couldn’t hear them anymore, she at last breathed a sigh of relief. They had made it. Mariela shot a look asking if they’d escaped the danger, and Yuric silently nodded. When Yuric looked at the door, she saw the broom had almost snapped. Just as she decided to look for a replacement, Yuric noticed her right hand was still wrapped tightly around the handle of her whip. I gotta calm down… She took a silent, deep breath to loosen the tension in her muscles. Mariela gingerly tiptoed up to her and held out a potion with recovery effects. “Yuric, are you okay?” Mariela mouthed silently. “I’m fine. But let’s keep quiet for a little while,” Yuric replied in much the same manner. Any noise risked drawing the attention of that black spider. Both women kept quiet in fear of such an event. Mariela nodded in agreement with Yuric’s proposal. Eventually, the pair came across a long stirring rod discarded in one corner of the room. It looked to be a suitable bolt substitute, and they used it to secure the door. Then they huddled with Koo in a corner and waited for time to pass as they mentally kept their fingers crossed. “Come exactly at midday,” Donnino had said, most likely to warn them of this danger. Donnino had far higher attack power than Yuric, but he wasn’t the speedy type, so the black spider was probably tricky for him to deal with. Maybe that was why he’d avoided it and had wound up where the Necklace was. Exactly at midday meant noon. So if we’d just been patient a little longer… Donnino wouldn’t have designated noon without reason. Mariela didn’t know if the monster would be asleep or weakened, but if it being midday increased their chances of escaping from it, they had to buy a few more hours here. Amid the quiet tranquility, where the only sounds were the breathing of her and her companions, Mariela took stock of the chamber. This room also seemed to be an alchemist’s workshop. The worktable installed in its center was a high-class item cut from a large slab of rock. It was the most durable kind when handling acidic slime liquid or various other corrosive materials. However, it didn’t have a uniform thickness, and the height was adjusted with something resembling plaster. Its glass, too, was low quality with air bubbles in it. All the objects in this chamber had been manufactured with low-level technology compared with those in the Labyrinth City. This place probably… Without speaking the answer that came to mind, Mariela shifted her gaze to outside the window. Through the long, narrow aperture, she could see the courtyard and the temple, both hazy due to the water. Bit by bit, things resembling air bubbles flowed through the window into the water—like raindrops on an intensely windy day being blown away. Several streaks traced diagonal lines on the window, and after meeting en route, they joined to become larger specks. When several combined and grew to be about as big as a grain of barley, it burbled and began to swim away from the window. Huh, a baby monster… Could the semitransparent little monster be eating the sediment that clouded the water? The sea outside the window was slightly cloudy, and Mariela couldn’t find the nearly transparent small fry. If so, it’ll be dawn soon. I wonder if babies are born in the morning… Maybe it wasn’t the case for Yuric, who was used to traveling through the Fell Forest day and night with the Black Iron Freight Corps, but there was no way Mariela wouldn’t be sleepy after moving around all night. It was probably also because she’d relaxed a little after the extreme tension from up until a short while ago. The salamander twined around her shoulders was nice and warm. Before she knew it, Mariela fell asleep while absentmindedly gazing at the infant monsters being born and swimming away one after another. 05 It was the middle of a deep forest. Had the trees been this big? Had the night been this dark? A group of people wearing hoods low over their eyes were walking in the wood. Maybe it was more accurate to say they had strips of cloth around their heads instead of cowls. The attire of the people moving through the forest was too simple to rightly call clothing. Were there only twenty of them? The group advanced while trembling at the sounds of a beast howling in the distance and an owl flapping its wings overhead. The tree branches blocked even the moonlight, and the weeds growing thick further hampered the people, who were dull-witted compared to beasts. If they happened to meet a monster, would they have any way to fight it? A dreadful, frightening nighttime forest. It seemed the only thing protecting the people from the night, from the forest, from the monsters, was the light of the lamp the person in the lead held aloft. The candle, painstakingly made from materials of the finest quality so the flame would stay lit for a long time, could be an offering to the fire spirits on its own. Actually, what lit the tip of the candle in the lamp was a little fire spirit. The spirit with fiery hair hovering around her who flickered and burned within the lamp seemed to be a very young individual, judging from her size. She was completely tired of the forever-unchanging woodland scenery, and every time she yawned from boredom, the flame wavered and almost disappeared. Whether or not he could see the spirit, the person holding the lamp frantically chanted something to curry her favor every time the light wavered. —Boooring. Now I get why the others told me not to do this.— As she complained, the fire spirit waved her right hand to shoo something away. When she did, several beasts in the direction she waved her hand ran off into the forest. Beasts and weak monsters feared flames. This was believed to be because spirits dwelled in flames and drove evil things away. Despite complaining, it seemed this fire spirit was doing her job perfectly. The group continued walking toward the depths of the forest with a number of short rests along the way. When the sun came out and revealed their figures, they proved to be extremely thin and dressed in clothes that couldn’t be called proper garments. The weapons they carried were metal, but both their surfaces and their edges were dull. They looked awful, but that didn’t mean they were slaves. They carried weapons, and they even wore ornaments made from bird feathers and the fangs and bones of beasts. This was a very, very old memory. A recollection from such an ancient time period that nothing—magic, technology, knowledge—had been developed, and people depended on the spirits’ divine protection to survive. On the way, monsters devoured two people, and another who suffered severe injury was left behind. The fire spirit, who saw this from within the lamp, stopped her fickle wavering and protected the remaining humans with her small but powerful light. Thus, the group reached their destination at last. A clear, beautiful lake marked the sudden end of the deep forest. No rivers could be seen flowing into or out of it. The water’s calm surface, which resembled a large pool, reflected the surrounding forest like a mirror. The lake was so clear you could even count the rings of the fallen trees beneath its placid facade. The tiny fire spirit gasped as she gazed at the center of the lake. —Whoa… Beautiful.— What she saw there was most likely the water spirit that ruled this lagoon. They possessed androgynous features and hair that cascaded down their back like water from melting snow. The creature’s kind, pale blue eyes were reminiscent of the lake bottom. Because of their appearance, they seemed to be a powerful spirit. One born a long, long time before the fire one in the lantern. The lake spirit captivated the fire spirit, and as the latter stared unmovingly, the group of humans left both her and the lamp on a nearby rock. They then set to work purifying and making an offering to a simple altar that had been built by the pool. Once all preparations were complete, they initiated some sort of ritual. The person who had walked at the head of the company and wore many adornments was probably a priest. He chanted some words of prayer, and then a few people took over the recitation. Those in waiting behind them took out a tightly sealed box from the baggage they had brought. The humans didn’t seem to notice that, even with the lid closed, a black mist had begun to pour out of a crack in the container. They might not have been able to see the fire spirit or the lake spirit, either. When the priest unsealed the box, the interior turned white, or the dark spot rose up. The box contained many crops that had been eaten by insects and rotted, as well as something larger than two palms wrapped in enchanted cloth. —Diseased crops. And…— The fire spirit understood the reason the priest and the others had risked their lives to come here. “…gry… Hu…y… ……” The humans couldn’t hear the whispers coming from the shadowy vapor. It was a form comprised of a disease that had rotted crops alive, and the remains of a baby who had perished of starvation as a result. The enchanted cloth seemed to have gathered and confined in the remains the deep grudge of a person who died of hunger. The feelings of pestilence and human famine had mixed and formed this black mist. The people had come here to exorcise the calamity that had struck their village. With a reverent gesture, the priest placed the box overflowing with ominous vapor into a small boat they had prepared and sent it into the lake. The fire spirit looked in the direction of the lake spirit with worry. Powerful and pure water prevented corruption from getting close. Suppose the contaminant was taken in, purified, and properly returned to the world. In that case, the lake spirit, the forest trees, or even living creatures could harbor it and gradually circulate it through the world. However, they would be corrupted themselves until the purification was complete. It was the domain of fire spirits to excise vicious pollution like this. They burned and cleansed it with mighty hellfire and returned it to ashes. It was best to weaken its power and then slowly return it to the world. Of course, a tiny fire spirit didn’t possess the strength to cleanse this much foul influence. Despite the lack of wind, the boat carrying the diseased crops moved all the way to the center of the pool, where the lake spirit was located, and it sank into the water as though a hole had opened at the bottom. “…gry… Ung…ry… Hu…” The ebon corruption spread thinly into the lake, and fish that had gathered unnoticed picked at it until it disappeared. Undoubtedly the malefic influence had spread far and wide to all the creatures living in the water. “The calamity in our village has been exorcised.” “The crops have been purified.” “Our suffering has passed.” The people chanted in unison. They picked up the lamp with the fire spirit once more and turned back the way they came. —Hey, you okay?— The fire spirit placed her hand on the glass of the lamp, worriedly watching the lake spirit. The other creature didn’t answer the fire spirit, who was so small she looked like she might be blown out in a single breath from the watery entity. However, before the water spirit disappeared into the lake, they smiled with the utmost gentleness. 06 That dream just now…what was that? Mariela felt that this vision had also been someone’s memory. This one, however, seemed to take place in an era from a very long time ago. Mariela herself had been born over two hundred years ago, but the attire she saw in the dream seemed from a far, far older time. Mariela wondered if she should check the memory pearls, but since she’d collected them in a hurry yesterday, she didn’t know how many there were, and she hadn’t checked the colors of the sooty ones. Inspecting them now wouldn’t reveal much. “Mariela, you awake?” Yuric, who’d been near the door keeping watch, returned. “Sorry for being the only one who fell asleep…” “I’m used to it. It’s more important for ya to recover your strength. It’s almost time, so ya should at least have some water.” Had Yuric stayed up this whole time? If so, that meant only Mariela had that dream. Did Yuric guess from the position of the sun, or did her biological clock tell her? Regardless, it was almost noon, as Yuric said; they should go meet up with Donnino soon. That meant opening the door to the room with that black spider again. Neither girl knew if the place they were in was safe, but they had no other path forward. Above all, they couldn’t run away and leave Donnino behind on the first floor, where the escape route was blocked by the Necklace, while that black spider was wandering around. “O-okay.” Mariela nodded resolutely. “Ya should stay on standby on Koo,” Yuric suggested with a little laugh at Mariela not taking a means of escape into consideration despite her lack of fighting power. After the two girls ate premade sandwiches and washed them down with just a little water, they stood in front of that door once again while paying exhaustive attention to their surroundings. Mariela clung to Koo’s back so she could flee whenever necessary, and Yuric stayed close enough to be able to jump on the raptor. Fully alert, they opened the door as carefully as careful could be. On the other side, the place was more devastated than it had been a few hours ago. Perhaps the black spider had battled it out with some other monsters, as the tree-creatures growing in the room had been violently smashed, and most had collapsed. On a closer look, Mariela and Yuric found things resembling giant bee wings and insect legs in the aftermath. They couldn’t confirm the black spider’s whereabouts. Thanks to the tall, fallen tree monsters, they now had a good view of the inside of the room. Half of the passage that went about halfway around the wall was broken, including the handrail, and seemed dangerous, and the stairs that went downward were utterly destroyed and unusable. Yuric slowly and quietly set foot in the west tower, where all was still. From the other side of the broken heaps of timber, or the left or right. Maybe above the door she’d just passed through. Yuric gripped her whip and assumed a posture that would let her throw a potion no matter where the black spider jumped out. Yuric was so tense she felt liable to snap, but suddenly, a voice from right below her broke through it. “Yuric, you made it.” “Donnino! Your voice is so loud!” Yuric was flustered, thinking the black spider had come. “Ha-haaa, you came here during the night, didn’t you? I thought I said to come exactly at midday. We should be fine at this hour. Come on in.” Guessing the situation from Yuric’s state, Donnino laughed heartily as he replied. “What do ya mean?” Slowly, quietly, Yuric entered the west tower. Mariela, who rode on Koo, followed at a slight distance. When they were all in the tower and got close to the partially destroyed handrail, they saw Donnino down in the first-floor section of the atrium. “I’ll tell you later. Bring me up to the second level. That black spider-looking thing ate my rope.” Mariela tied up rope ivy in a bundle to make a cord and fastened it to an intact part of the handrail. Donnino had a good physique and carried a heavy hammer, so if she didn’t braid several rope ivies together, it wouldn’t be strong enough. “…ngry… Hu…y… Sob, sob…” In the middle of preparing the tether, Mariela had the distinct feeling she heard a quiet call, practically a whisper. “That voice!” Mariela looked around in a panic. Yuric, too, seemed to have realized the identity of the speaker. She gripped her whip tight and warily examined their surroundings. “Donnino! Behind ya!!!” There it was. The black spider, looking up at them from behind Donnino. It had compressed its body to spring at his defenseless back. “Don’t worry.” But Donnino didn’t seem panicked as he took a single swing of his hammer. The black spider that had attacked Mariela’s group with so much agility a few hours ago leaped at Donnino at a gentle speed, like a ball lobbed toward a child. The hammer repelled the monster, and it struck a wall. “Hu…n…ngry… Sob, sob…” On a closer look, its body was far smaller than it had been a few hours ago. Mariela couldn’t make out any details of the creature, which was pitch-black all over, but most of its legs were gone or broken, and its torso had thinned considerably. Its uneven form gave off the impression of something that had been eaten. “Monsters chewed it up, yet it still won’t die…” Donnino turned toward the black spider. The salamander on Mariela’s shoulder leaped off and landed on the top of the man’s head.