Chapter 66 - St. Jansk University and the Chamber of Secrets (9)

After spending some time bustling among the reliefs and stone pillars, busily taking notes, Elpihera returned looking triumphant.

"I've checked everything I can read! It really is a victory monument!"

"Whose victory, and in a war against what?"

"That's... um. That part is a little vaguely worded."

At Ivan's look, Elpihera scowled and shouted.

"Don't look at me like that! Church people, then and now, slather everything in metaphors as if they're speaking in riddles! Of course you can't make proper sense of it unless you specialize in scriptural readings!"

Which was why he should have brought a priest in the first place. Elpihera pouted and grumbled.

"Explain whatever you've managed to interpret, then."

"As you can tell from the language alone, this is a remnant of the old Church. Not from the Age of Myth, but antiquity... Ruins from when the Eastern Dellen Empire existed. I think it's about two thousand years old."

"Wars may have been commonplace then, but why would the Church erect a victory monument?"

"There were actually plenty of reasons back then. That was when the Church still actively carried out sentences of erasure from history. These ruins seem to be a trace of that, too. Roughly speaking, it says the crusaders of that era fought 'happiness.'"

"... Happiness?"

Wasn't that a rather odd concept for priests to wage war against? When Ivan frowned, Elpihera shrugged.

"Pillar number five over there says, 'And it is said: the darkest evil is that which whispers blessedness into the believer's ear. All worldly bliss comes only from the Lord's embrace, and beyond the peace of God there is no good news.' Hmm... Then there's a whole string of predictable Bible verses. But to give you the conclusion, it seems there was a cult here."

"... A cult."

"Heretics. Yes, that sort of thing. They must have had quite a following. This style of pillar doesn't belong to the Church."

Ivan looked around with fresh eyes. In other words, this place had belonged to some religious cult. After defeating it, the Church had carved new reliefs into the site to turn it into a victory monument, then buried the whole thing beneath earth and rubble...

Wasn't that strange?

"Why go to the trouble?"

"Pardon?"

"If they won the war and exterminated the heretical sect, why bother burying it? Destroying a whole building is vastly easier than burying one. Even if burial had some religious significance, there would have been no reason to create these elaborate spells and reliefs."

"Hmm... Church rites from that era really aren't a mage's field. You'd be better off finding a priest who works on deciphering ancient texts or recording biblical history. Anyway, that's all I've got. And we don't know for certain they buried it themselves, do we?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, well. Over two thousand years, a building could have naturally been swept underground with the passage of time. Something like that."

"Not a chance."

Ivan shook his head and raised a hand to point at the immense ceiling supported by the stone pillars.

"If time had buried it, we should be excavating ruins from the soil. This place is far too intact. And in that case, there would have been no need for a large-scale spell to protect it."

The fact that the protective spell had activated the moment the Dwarves' excavation artifact happened to damage the vicinity made it clear. These ruins had been deliberately sealed away.

Sealed. Sealed away.

Turning that unsettling phrase over in his mind, Ivan slowly stepped forward.

"Can you cast another protective spell?"

"W-wait, why?! What are you going to smash this time?!"

"Nothing of the sort. I'm asking because it may be dangerous. If you can't manage it, wait here."

"What? Dangerous? These are just some old ruins—"

"Hardly."

Ivan drew his axe and pistol as he spoke.

"There is a strong possibility that something lies dormant in here. Something the Church of that era dared not destroy, and had to seal underground instead."

It was a stretch to call that academy common sense. But judging by the circumstances, it was practically fantasy common sense. Dark fantasy, in particular.

There would very likely be situations ahead that required magical interpretation. But that was no reason to expose a member of the Hero's Party's child to an unprecedented danger.

Everything up to their arrival here had been within his expectations. If his "common sense" had been right, this should have been nothing more than an ordinary treasure vault. Naturally, protecting a single person would have been trivial.

Now things were different. If something like an ancient devil lay dormant here, something the ancient Church had raised a crusading army to seal away, he could not guarantee the child's safety.

"Wait here. Can you cast a levitation spell?"

"What does this human take me for?! That's basic magic!"

"Good, then. If you sense danger, get out of these ruins and use it to fly up to the waterway. If you lose your way, stay where you are and wait."

Elizaveta's agents would be all over Prizhenkaya's underground waterways by now. Once enough time passed after his departure on this mission, a rescue team would certainly be dispatched.

Better to send her back with them. Ivan turned and walked on.

"Wait, what about you?"

"I'll do what needs doing."

"What? N-no. If it looks dangerous, wouldn't it be better to pull back and wait for support...?!"

"We are directly beneath St. Jansk University."

Ivan kept walking without looking back.

"The Dwarven artifact has caused a breach, and ancient ruins that went unnoticed all these years have suddenly appeared. Can you guarantee they'll remain safe if we leave them?"

He had neither the intention nor any reason to explain further.

This was Ivan's "common sense." Once a seal was discovered, it would invariably break in the near future.

This was practically fantasy quantum mechanics. The state could be said to become fixed at the moment of observation. An encounter had been triggered.

Since he had no way to explain all that to her, he headed deeper into the ruins.

"But, but all by yourself?"

"I'm used to it."

Though it primarily operated in small strike teams, the Extermination Unit was fundamentally a special-operations force specializing in infiltration and reconnaissance. Naturally, he had performed plenty of solo missions within assigned areas.

And he was "used to it" in another sense, too.

What was a scout?

Scouts were agents dispatched to identify threats along a route before friendly forces entered uncharted territory.

Thus, having served in a scouting unit, and the Hero's Party's scouting unit at that, meant only one thing.

Be able to return alive from any situation.

Be able to respond to whatever one encountered.

Essentially, every mission Ivan had undertaken assumed he would be facing an unknown enemy. All the way to the doorstep of the Demon King's castle.

So this was familiar in every sense. Unwelcome, but if it had to be done, he would do it.

"Ugh!!"

He heard quick footsteps running up behind him. Elpihera stopped close to his back and let out a deep sigh.

"For your information, looking after the lesser races is an elf's duty, and protecting commoners is a noble's duty!"

"That differs somewhat from the elven duties I'm familiar with."

"Do you know elves better than I do?!"

"No."

"Then consider yourself informed as of today. Honestly, why are so many humans racist? Is it their uncivilized society and culture?"

Wasn't that itself racist?

The thought briefly crossed Ivan's mind, but he chuckled at the sight of Elpihera following on clicking heels despite her terror.

He had thought it would be enough if she took after Veolgrin even halfway. Her personality was a slight improvement on his.

"It really brings home how much time has passed. You've grown up well."

"Pardon...? You know me?"

"Of course. How could I forget?"

Ivan chuckled, remembering Elpihera back then. Apprehension steadily mounted on her face.

"When...? When did we meet?"

"Twelve years ago. I first saw you when Veolgrin came to our camp. Didn't you tell me to fetch my 'elven master'? You wanted a meal, not fodder."

"Uh... uhhh...!!"

"Remember?"

"Unlike HUMANS!! We have... good memories."

Elpihera's face flushed so red it looked ready to burst.

"You... um. You look rather different from how I remember... different... very different... don't you?"

"It's been a long time."

"... Right. Humans age quickly. That's right..."

She hesitated, as though she had something to say, then turned her head away.

* * *

Elpihera said nothing as they passed the stone pillars and ventured deeper into the ruins. She simply followed him in silence, occasionally stealing a glance at his face.

After a long while, when they finally reached the far end of the enormous temple, Ivan stopped.

Before them stood an immense door that anyone would have found suspicious.

"Can you sense anything?"

"No. The mana is actually... fainter than at the entrance."

"Hmm."

Ivan cautiously raised his axe and nudged the door. He had expected a seal, or at least some sort of resistance. Instead, it swung smoothly open as though its hinges had just been oiled.

WHOOSH.

Warm air washed over his face. Ivan shielded his eyes with one hand and held his breath. A sweet scent spread through the air.

Poison?

He was about to warn Elpihera urgently when the sight before him froze him in place.

"... What in the world?"

Beyond the door lay a vast chamber filled with mountains of little objects, each smaller than his palm.

They glittered in light shining down from somewhere in the ceiling.

Heaped high like treasure from a story...

"Combs...?"

Ivan narrowed his eyes and surveyed the chamber. He could see nothing else.

Combs of every kind, adorned with mother-of-pearl, gold, mithril, and all manner of precious metals and jewels... lay glittering in haphazard piles.

No, on closer inspection, their shape differed slightly from ordinary combs. A full handspan smaller than usual, they seemed designed for one very specific purpose...

'Beard... combs...?'

Ivan faltered back a step. Why would beard combs suddenly appear in a place like this? With something so plainly suspicious afoot, he raised his axe and looked for Elpihera.

Standing right behind him, she was murmuring in a daze, utterly spellbound.

"Gold... and spell scrolls... Good heavens, is that loraine...?! What is something so precious doing here...? That... with that, I could extend my life by ten years..."

She was also muttering things he couldn't understand, apparently mixing Elvish into her ramblings.

At that point, Ivan nodded.

'So that's what they meant by happiness.'

The victory monument's reliefs had declared, "The darkest evil is that which whispers blessedness into the believer's ear."

Then there was the fragment of the past he had briefly seen upon entering this place. His memory of the former king.

And what Elpihera had said when he woke her from unconsciousness. ["It was such a good dream."]

It hadn't been a delusion meant to show them their regrets or lingering attachments. It was simply an illusion recreating the moment each most desired.

The North Wind and the Sun.

After all, the hardest opponent to resist was one's own happiness.

Ivan nodded. In that respect, he could count himself lucky. Apart from beard combs, there was nothing he wanted in this uncivilized, premodern world.

Everything he wanted now existed only on Earth.

Family whose faces had grown indistinct, friends whose names he could no longer remember, food from home he could eat whenever he wanted, televisions and smartphones. Whatever it might be.

So that explained this spectacle.

Ivan chuckled as he watched the brilliantly colored beard combs cascade before him like a waterfall.

Then he promptly slapped Elpihera across the cheek.