[Chapter 215] Under the Ruins

As the ground disappeared beneath her, a flash of fire appeared before Neris' eyes. But that wasn't all. It felt like she was hitting something hard and getting scratched, but more than that.

The longer fall than expected puzzled her more.

Thud! At the end of the fall, something soft cushioned Neris' body, mitigating the impact of the fall.

"Ugh."

It was clear that an earthquake had occurred again. And the fact that she fell into a crevice created by the moving ground.

Normally, falling into such a crevice would be thought to be fatal... It was strange that there was a slide-like passage that a person could pass through without any trouble. Was it because of the strange voice she heard before falling? She doubted if all this was not magic.

Anyway, she was a victim of a high-level magic that was not funny. The few years spent in the illusion, as with most things experienced in dreams, were mostly blurred, but if another magic was waiting, it would be very annoying.

Neris first examined what the soft thing that just cushioned her was. It was all dark around her, and the smell of dust was strong. And the thing that cushioned her felt like a bed or a sofa when she groped it roughly with her hands.

"Cough, cough! Cledwin?"

She called out the name of the person she most wanted to be with in this situation while coughing. But there was no answer.

Come to think of it, there was no reason for a bed to be underground. She stood up abruptly. And she tried to listen for any sound around, but there was no sound of any creature moving that could make noise.

Where is this? Could it be that she died again and time turned back?

If so, this place must be one of the places she had experienced in the past. She groped around, feeling short of breath.

Something resembling a pillar was touched. It was a decorative pillar, intricately carved with something that wasn't in her memory. And then, a moment later, the wind blew.

…You've come, …Trude.

Neris was startled. The voice carried on the wind knew her name.

"Who's there?"

The next moment, everything was bright.

She realized that she was in a bedroom she had no memory of. And it was extremely luxurious.

The bedroom was about the same size as the Grand Duchess's room in the Grand Duke's mansion, but twice as high. There were no windows, but instead, decorative pillars extended like trees in a forest throughout the room.

The decorative pillars were made of white marble, wrapped in vibrant plant carvings like living ivy, and they sparkled like stars. This was because magical light fixtures, the culprits that had just illuminated the place, were attached to each pillar.

The floor of the room was covered with white tiles the size of a palm, each painted with cobalt blue. And the walls, while devoid of any tapestries, were made of bare stone, but they were white marble that sparkled like stars, just like the pillars, and they were even more elegant with their carved, graceful arches.

Was the rumor true that there was another ruin beneath the gentle hills of Dreicum?

"…It's amazing."

Actually, it was more than amazing. Dreicum was a city famous for its mysterious ruins, said to have been built and forgotten 400 years ago, but those ruins might have been built more than 600 years ago.

But around that time, human society was very primitive. Humans, oppressed by the evil dragons, found it difficult to form even small tribal alliances, let alone an empire.

Naturally, the architecture built at that time was closer to a pile of stones than a work of art. Even the artifacts kept in the Imperial Palace treasury or the Academy Museum as relics of that time were crude and rough. Even the craftsmanship of the ruins that had originally been on the ground here was too good to be from that era.

Even decorating the floor with tiles and painting on them, it's an architectural style that shouldn't exist in a 600-year-old ruin. At least, that's what was known so far.

There were definitely many people living in the south of Maindelant, and they had built their own civilization, but they disappeared without leaving a single trace of legend. How could that have happened?

Even more surprising in this space was something else. It was the magical light fixture.

It was difficult to imbue magic into an object. Moreover, an object that emitted such… bright light was a treasure that the Imperial Family cherished.

Neris had been to the Emperor's treasury once in her past life, and the light fixture she had seen there was exactly the same size and brightness as this one.

The magnificent traces of the past overwhelmed Neris.

"This place is… "

She was speechless. They couldn't build a building of this level even now. Not even if they invested all the Imperial Family's wealth.

She looked back at the bed that had cushioned her. The bed was decorated with a fabric that shimmered faintly like moonlight and gold. Although it was slightly smaller and thicker than modern beds, it was so luxurious that it could have been the Crown Prince's bed.

The bed's ceiling was just a ceiling. There was no trace of her having just broken through it.

'Is this a dream?'

She pinched her cheek. And she confirmed that the situation she was in was not a dream.

She hadn't gone back in time either. She was wearing the same clothes.

'For now, at least.'

I had to go out. If this was another illusion created by magic, I had to figure out my surroundings and get out as soon as possible.

****

Cledwyn, who had thrown himself into the hole in the ground that had swallowed Neris, hadn't caught her. It was more accurate to say that he couldn't even keep his own body steady.

"Ugh!"

It wasn't strange to be trapped and die in a crack in the ground that had opened up because of the random earthquake. But luckily, or perhaps unluckily, he took advantage of the long, almost passage-like crack and slid down, eventually landing in a wide, stable space.

Although he had been caught and scraped by rocks and tree roots as he fell, he had landed safely. Cledwyn looked around cautiously at the pitch-black surroundings and shouted.

"Neris? Neris!"

He had jumped into the same place as soon as he saw her being sucked into the ground, so naturally, he would have come out the same way. He assumed so, but there was no answer.

Instead, an echo came back a while later. Neris… ris… ris.

Just hearing the echo made it clear that the surroundings were quite wide. Cledwyn gritted his teeth and pulled out a dagger from his waist. He used the ignition device hidden in the pommel to light a small portable wick, and the surroundings became slightly brighter.

"What is this?"

The floor was decorated with white tiles painted in various colors, and majestic pillars lined the surroundings. As far as Cledwyn knew, this was an architectural style that had never existed in Maindelant.

'The floor was empty, so I fell like this.'

When Cledwyn held up the light, the top became slightly brighter. But the pillars extended too high. They were so high that the ceiling was out of sight.

'Inside the ruins.'

I knew there was another ruin beneath the hills of Dreicum. But I wasn't at all happy about a chance historical exploration.

This place was strangely eerie. A slight breeze carrying the scent of earth blew by. It was also clear that Neris wasn't around.

My heart felt like it was burning. Cledwyn took a deep breath. He was sure he would go crazy if he didn't.

It hadn't been long since he almost lost her for a ridiculous reason. And now, he was separated from her, again for a ridiculous reason, and he didn't even know where she was?

An earthquake was a natural disaster that could kill even the most powerful person in an instant. He looked back at the way he had come.

He had fallen from a height of about half a person, but there were no convenient-looking holes that met that condition. There was no sign of Neris, unconscious.

He gritted his teeth. Then, suddenly, everything became bright. He realized that the place he was in was much larger than he thought.

It was a kind of corridor.

The ceiling was so high that it would take five adult men stacked on top of each other to reach it. The end of the corridor was so far away that an entire Imperial Palace building could fit in it, and the width of the corridor… it was actually a width that would be suitable for a place called a hall, rather than a corridor.

'How deep did I fall?'

If he had come this far by chance, it was an incredibly lucky coincidence. Under normal circumstances, someone who fell through the ceiling of a place like this would have their neck broken.

The ceiling of this enormous space looked like unhewn rock, but it was studded with gems that sparkled endlessly. And magical light fixtures were attached to the pillars that extended from the ceiling.

The things holding the light fixtures were gargoyle sculptures, as vivid as if they were alive. One on each corner of the pillar.

Rrr-r-r. Suddenly, a chilling sound came from the gap between the shadows of the pillars. Cledwyn drew his sword.

"Are you the one who took my wife?"

Even as he asked, his sharp mind was racing. It wasn't a wolf's howl. It was a sound he had never heard before.

As if a sleeping giant had awakened, a menacing breath and presence filled the air.

Not one or two. Black shadows.

They charged.

Whizz.

The next moment, what fell, spewing blood, cut down by Cledwyn's sword, looked like a short human at first glance. It walked on two legs, held a weapon in its hand, and wore clothes.

But the whizzing sound didn't come from a human mouth. A face that most resembled a pig among common animals, but much more distorted, filled with hatred and malice.

He had heard of such creatures. Children in the Empire of Vista would hear stories about them at some point in their childhood.

Creatures that had gradually disappeared from this world after the heroes defeated the evil dragon 600 years ago.

Monsters.

He was surrounded by pig-headed monsters before he knew it. No, that wasn't all.

Eight or nine different monsters were approaching from all directions.

Most of the monsters had pig heads, but interspersed among them were taller monsters with hyena faces instead of pigs. Kii-ik! Kirr-r-r-r! The monsters lunged with malicious eyes.

Blood splattered with light every time the sword moved. The situation was cleared in an instant.

The remaining pig-headed monster stared at the insane human who had slaughtered all his companions with an emotionless face, trembling in fear.

The monster had simply come because it smelled human. Humans were enemies. And good food too.

'She' will surely be happy. If the human who entered this place dies. Of course, there are special humans that 'she' told him to leave alone, but looking at those eyes, this one wasn't among those special humans. The color is a bit of a concern, but it's definitely 'not' anyway.

Still, his companions had died. In the blink of an eye. And the human was radiating killing intent towards him.

The sharp sword touched the monster's throat. The monster screamed.

"Whizz! S-save me, human! Whizz!"

The human's brow furrowed.

"It can even talk."

"O-orc! Whizz!"

"An orc, huh. Yes, I remember the name from a book I read as a child."

The human bared his teeth and asked ominously.

"Human woman. Have you seen her?"

"Whizz! M-many! Whizz! I've seen her!"

"So many humans come in and out of here? There were people sneaking into this place in my territory without my knowledge. What kind of rats were they?"

Cledwyn, who had clicked his tongue once, asked the orc.

"I don't need any other woman. A blonde woman, about my age. Short, with purple eyes. A violet eye, close to red. She must have fallen nearby. Have you seen her?"

The orc tilted its head. It only smelled one human scent nearby.

Whizz! Purple? Whizz! I don't know! There's only, whizz! You, whizz!

Is that so?

The orc fell backward. The life drained from its eyes.

Cledwyn muttered, wiping the blood roughly on the orc's crude clothes.

Then I don't need you. I'll have to find her myself.