Chapter 113

It was a truly horrific sight.

The leader of the sewer, the giant cockroach.

It was big, too big.

Bigger than any decent street stall.

The bristly hairs on its legs and its waving antennae were like whips.

Even its maw, with filth caked on it, was all too clearly visible.

I furrowed my brow and shook my head.

I had a destiny I shouldered.

A heart that had rotted away.

A soul that had seen countless things it never wanted to see.

That giant cockroach presented a physiological disgust that even such a world-weary, regressed prince could not handle.

“Ugh.”

I looked down at my own hands.

They were empty, holding nothing.

I couldn't bear to touch it with my bare hands.

Even ‘Fantasy Finger’ felt unsettling.

“Mr. Pneuve, could I borrow your sword?”

“…It's not because you don't want to touch it, is it? It's a sword I cherish greatly.”

“Of course not. It's because I didn't bring a weapon.”

“…I'll trust you.”

Pneuve Freira unfastened his sword with a face that showed not a shred of trust.

His eyes were full of suspicion.

“It will be heavy.”

A Greatsword.

Its length was that of a ten-year-old child, its width that of a person's head.

An ordinary person couldn't lift it and even someone with a bit of extraordinariness wouldn't dare to swing it.

Even as he handed over the sword, Pneuve Freira looked worried.

For an eighteen-year-old, I had a small frame, looking no older than fifteen at a glance.

He was worried that I might not know any better and try to use this heavy sword, only to injure my arm.

“Nice sword.”

To his surprise, the sound of the sword cutting through the air, whoong whoong, was loud.

I swung the greatsword around as if it were a piece of straw.

This was different from seven years ago, when I was eleven.

I hadn't drunk Lahukala, nor had I taken out Valziart.

My own arm strength was enough.

Seven years since leaving the Empire.

I had trained and trained.

Amethus had helped me.

To be able to use the third Ars, ‘The Heated Iron Bloodline,’ with my bare body.

My grip strength was at a level where I could squeeze juice from a fruit with my bare hands.

“I'm starting to covet this.”

“…You are going to return it, right?”

“I'll think about it.”

“…Excuse me.”

Instead of answering Pneuve, I slung the greatsword onto my shoulder.

It was made of high-quality steel and was well-maintained.

It had been so thoroughly cared for that the blade's surface could likely be used as a mirror. It gave a hint of its owner's disposition.

“A cockroach Magical Beast……”

I walked with a swagger.

The way I carried the sword on my shoulder made me look like a loafer.

Pneuve fretted that his beloved sword might get damaged, while Onseu Om watched me and smoked his cigarette. Meh frowned, but I paid him no mind.

“I'll have to finish this without touching it as much as possible.”

The smell would probably be awful.

Soon, there was a loud pasasasat sound.

It was from the swarm of cockroaches that had gathered, perceiving me, who was approaching their leader, as a threat.

They had merely been crawling on the walls without much reaction when Onseu Om burned thousands of their comrades, but now they were incredibly aggressive.

My blue eyes narrowed sharply.

The sight of thousands of child-sized cockroaches swarming towards me was extremely unpleasant.

I leaped up, filled with disgust.

The swarm of cockroaches charged.

The pasasasat sound was so fast that by the time you heard it, an antenna was already in your face.

But they couldn't reach me.

By the time the bugs charged, I had already leaped away to dodge.

I jumped so high that it seemed there was no way to reach me without flying.

But these bugs seemed to have forgotten how to fly due to their long life in the sewer.

Or perhaps they had lost the ability altogether.

‘Not that it would matter if they could fly, they still wouldn't be able to reach me.’

‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’.

The second Ars of the Septem Arcana.

Even if they were bugs, if they were alive and moving, they had a will.

The Ars that pushed away all things with a will secretly protected me.

After just nine leaps, I was already in front of the leader, the cockroach Magical Beast.

“You're ridiculously big.”

How should one describe the feeling of looking up at a building-sized cockroach?

Overwhelming disgust? A paradoxical admiration of disgust?

Whatever expression one used, the word disgust would surely be included.

The sight of each and every shiny hair on its legs was deeply unpleasant.

“What should I do with you… yikes.”

There was a kwang, then a ururu from the side.

It was the sound of the cockroach Magical Beast charging at me, but missing its target and hitting the wall, causing a pile of rocks to fall.

Normally it would just be creepy, but with a body the size of a building charging, the ground shook.

“You're quite fast for your size.”

I gripped the sword tightly.

I swung it lightly, without even using both hands.

I had a ‘Fantasy Finger’.

Even the greatsword Pneuve Freira was proud of and felt like straw to me.

“But being just fast doesn't mean anything.”

The cockroach Magical Beast charged.

Its black, shiny bulk loomed, but I didn't dodge.

Again, there was a kwang, then a ururu.

The thing that had hit the wall charged at me again.

Once more, kwang, ururu.

Even though I was standing still.

It seems it didn't even know its own antennae had been cut off during the first charge.

I snorted.

The sight of it waving its six hairy legs in the air was quite unpleasant to look at.

So I cut them off one by one. While being careful not to let any of its bodily fluids splash on me.

-……!

A dim, magical light shone above the cockroach Magical Beast's head.

That Halo was proof of the shamelessness of a mere magical beast using magic.

What kind of magic would a cockroach Magical Beast use?

Such a question did arise, but I had already thrust my sword forward.

The giant Magical Beast, without even finishing its spell, was split in two and sank into the dirty water.

“This was so easy it's embarrassing to even try and look cool.”

***

“Take your sword, Pneuve.”

“…I'll have to scrub this thing raw when we get back.”

Pneuve Freira looked crestfallen.

He was heartbroken at the sight of his beloved sword, stained with the cockroach Magical Beast's fluids and with hairy cockroach legs stuck to it.

He took out a sword-cleaning cloth and nearly cried as he wiped his beloved sword.

Onseu Om sidled up and spoke to me.

“That wasn't the swordsmanship of a novice.”

“It's just child's play.”

I was not a swordsman.

But I had spent these seven years with the diviner Amethus.

He was a swordsman whose equal was hard to find even in the Great Cordis Empire.

So naturally, my swordsmanship had improved.

It wasn't as if I had no aptitude for martial arts to begin with, so while I didn't know proper sword fighting, slicing up a monstrously large creature was easy.

“Meh, are we good now?”

“Yes. Let's head inside.”

The four of us carefully moved forward.

We were worried another creature like the cockroach Magical Beast might pop out from somewhere.

But far from another Magical Beast, not even an ordinary cockroach magical beast came near.

Were they a little scared now that their leader was sliced in two? Onseu Om chuckled.

“The third sluice gate is a triple structure. Three gates are layered… the two inner gates are fine. Only the outer one was destroyed.”

Meh stroked his beard.

It was Meh himself who had destroyed the third sluice gate twenty years ago during the Merion sewer construction.

“I thought back then that we might have used a bit too little explosives, and it turns out I was right.”

“Is that good news?”

“For us, right now, it is. If the explosion hadn't reached the inside……”

He shone the mana lamp towards the darkness between the inner gates.

It was hard to see, but there was a small iron door.

A gasp of admiration burst out at the sight of it, somewhat dented but not heavily damaged.

“…That's right! The control room is intact! In that case, maybe……”

Meh quickened his pace.

A creaking sound was heard as he grabbed the handle of the iron door.

Whether due to the previous explosion or the long years, the door was misaligned and didn't open easily, but he put his strength into it and yanked it open.

“…Oh, Genote!”

Inside the control room was a very faint red light.

Meh smiled brightly and clasped his hands together.

If it weren't for the sewage on the floor, he looked reverent enough to drop to his knees immediately.

“To think that even the control system is alive. This is truly a miracle! Who knew the mistake from my first project would be helpful in this way. Ah, how great is Your providence!”

Meh, somewhat excited, fiddled with the equipment.

“Still, it'll need some fixing.”

Hmm, hmm.

He even started humming to himself without realizing it.

“It's certainly an old piece of equipment. It's not using Pengmo's Quaternary Mana Dynamics. The Lawrence-Lahal style magi-clockwork's array is also inefficient……. Did the man from twenty years ago really use something like this? How did I not even realize how inconvenient it was? Still, once the noise settles down, right away……”

“Meh, honestly, I haven't really understood what you've been saying for a while now.”

“All you need to know is that our job has become much easier. I am truly grateful. Really, it's Genote, Genote!”

He exclaimed excitedly, and I also muttered as if in reply, “Genote.”

It must have been a Horm language word for expressing thanks to god.

Meh, somewhat excited, fiddled with the equipment.

“Yes. As soon as the mana noise settles down, we can use the device right away. Then this job will be over.”

“Why is there noise?”

“It's because of the mana field emitted by the magical beasts.”

“In that case……”

“Yes. The three of you can just take care of the magical beasts in the vicinity.”

“That's not difficult.”

This has become surprisingly easy. Onseu Om muttered.

“It will take an hour, everyone. I'm counting on you.”

“We'll do that.”

I bowed my head at Meh's words.

“Mushat.”

“Mushat.”

***

“What does Mushat mean, Mr. Shion?”

Pneuve Freira asked.

Even though he was a man of the Del Conti family, he had been strangely friendly to me.

Come to think of it, I hadn't seen him act rudely since we first met.

For that reason, I felt like answering him kindly.

“It's a greeting in Horm. If you trace its origin, it's Mushiya-Oteu. It's a blessing for the other person to have God's grace.”

“Ah, Oteu means God, right? I've heard that much. Then does Mushiya mean grace?”

“It's slightly different.”

I waved my hand.

A crawling cockroach was crushed. It was the first Ars that commanded an invisible hand, ‘Fantasy Finger’.

Since I had fought with Pneuve before, there was no need to thoroughly hide my power.

“A direct translation of grace would be Mus, with a slight change it becomes Mushiya, a blessing for grace to be with the other person.”

“So Mushiya-Oteu was shortened to Mushat. Then what is Genote?”

“Gena-Oteu. Thankful, to God, that's what it means.”

“I see.”

Pneuve Freira also swiped through the cockroach magical beasts.

Onseu Om was nowhere to be seen.

He disliked socializing with others, he was a man's man, and others disliked socializing with him.

He was probably off somewhere spitting curses and smoking a cigarette.

“Then what about Jote?”

“Ji-Oteu. Be careful with the pronunciation. When ‘Ji-’ is attached to the front of a Horm word, it gives it a negative meaning.”

“Then Ji-Oteu would mean God is not, or there is no God, something like that.”

“Yes. It's a slang term used in negative situations.”

Though it's not quite a curse.

After finishing my Horm language lecture, I glanced at Pneuve.

“Why are you asking me when there's a Horm native right here?”

“Because I'm more comfortable with you than Mr. Meh, Mr. Shion.”

“Even after I embarrassed you in our duel?”

“I believe losing to a strong person is not an embarrassment, but a matter of course. Besides, Shion, I heard you're not Viscount Rampo anymore?”

“Uh.”

I let out a dry cough.

Have I been too lax these past few years……. The alias Viscount Rampo had a feeling of being made up too sloppily.

I quickly changed the subject.

“…Ahem, Meh seems like a very good person.”

“Not so much to us.”

Pneuve smiled bitterly.

“Even as retainers, we're of the Del Conti family, so he wouldn't look upon us kindly.”

“It can't be helped.”

The Bururade Grand Canal is too vast for a single company to manage.

Therefore, the canal company established branches in each city and transferred the operational rights to the influential figures of the city.

The operator of the Merion branch was the Del Conti family.

In return for taking the huge profits generated by the Grand Canal, they also had the duty to take responsibility for its management.

“Even now, I just hope this incident can be concluded without any trouble. I don't like noisy affairs.”

“Hmm.”

“Besides, Mr. Shion, why don't we have a meal together when we get back? I know a very good restaurant……”

“Uh, if you say something like that……”

A booming sound, urureung, was heard.

It was as loud as if the sky were collapsing and it was soon followed by Meh's shout.

I clutched my forehead.

“…I knew this would happen.”

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