Chapter 439 – Ruins and Wilderness

000

Squeak… Puck. Squeak… Puck.

A sharp lump of metal digs into the ground, pulls out a lump of soil, and moves to the side.

On a hot sunny day, in a vast wilderness with no shade, Cleon was shoveling on the bare ground while wiping his sweat in a light suit.

Even in the surroundings, there were several pits that he seemed to have dug, but without even finding anything worth mentioning, he was sweating and scooping up soil over and over again.

“Hey. Is this really meaningful…?”

Finally, hit the shovel! With a clatter, Cleon wiped the sweat from his chin.

His voice His was directed to a woman in a white coat, standing on top of a box a short distance away as Cleon dug a hole.

Her hair, thick and dark, like the color of the darkened deep sea, was a bob-cut that came just above her shoulders.

Her bangs were asymmetrical, slightly covering one of her eyes, and a crest symbolizing the academy was worn on her hair.

On her face her, wearing glasses made of round lenses without rims, and with a thin cigarette in her mouth, she was silently looking at Cleon.

When Cleon asks such a question, she looks at the notebook she was holding in her hand for a bit, then answers while holding the cigarette in her mouth her with her hand her.

“Hmm… It’s certain that it’s in this area. Search a little longer.”

“…I believe that. Attis Sleinen…”

“Yes.”

Cleon’s trust in her is overshadowed by her calm answer to her.

Then, Cleon moves the shovel once again and digs into her ground.

Why did things turn out like this…

001

Two hours by high-speed unicorn from Asteris, the capital of the Eastern country, further east.

Since it was a unicorn that could run 3 times faster than a regular wagon, Cleon and his party set foot on a land that was quite far away, which would have taken 6 hours if they had just been riding on the wagon.

The reason why the Eastern country is called that name is because it is a country located in the eastern part of the kingdom in the center of the continent.

And, if you go further east in that eastern country, you will find a small city-Eratus called ‘the end of the world’ because it touches the endless sea.

The place where Cleon arrived is a small town just before reaching the end of the world.

No, the population is small enough to be a bit embarrassing to call it a village, and there are no specialties worth mentioning.

It just happens that people come together to form villages.

Of course, there was no name, so it was only called ‘the place that appears on the way to the end of the world’.

It is a secluded place where old people live together, without young people.

Even until a year ago, this place was considered a place where you could stop by and rest for a while before arriving in Eratus, or feed the horses.

Recently, thanks to the staff of the Dark Dragon Firm who came from Asteris, it started to become more lively, albeit a little.

Their purpose was to investigate the artifacts and ruins of the primordial world unearthed near this village.

This is because he needed a stronghold, and in order to build a stronghold, he had to establish good relations with the natives around him.

The residents of the village set only three conditions for the merchants who came from the center.

First. Wipe the written spot clean.

Second. Don’t make noise at night.

Third. Bring Asteris snacks and tea from time to time.

Elderly people who were out of the world didn’t want that much.

The Amryong Chamber of Commerce accepted all of these conditions, built a camp to investigate the ruins right next to the village, and used it as a base to excavate the surrounding area in full swing.

“…That’s what happened until the establishment of this camp. That’s why I want everyone to be polite to the residents of the village. Do you understand?”

At Calia’s words, who had followed Cleon’s group as a guide, the group all nodded.

She must have been a high-ranking person in the company, but since she also had the role of Herti’s secretary, she took the responsibility of entertaining her guests herself.

If you are sincere, should you say you are sincere?

Furthermore, as for Lilim, who hadn’t woken up yet, she had no choice but to leave it at the mansion, but Calia and the people of the upper house confirmed her condition and promised to take care of her, so the party couldn’t ‘t help but feel that they were providing convenience in many ways.

“But. There’s really nothing there. The huts for the investigators to investigate the ruins, and the houses where the old people originally live… Is this really an artifact excavation site? This place.”

When Lila recounted what she felt as she looked around, Calia responded with her wry smile.

“It’s been less than a year since the investigation began in earnest. It’s barely started.”

“Huh…”

“It’s such a peaceful place… It’s like our hometown.”

Quon rather nodded his head as if he liked this quiet atmosphere.

“Quon’s hometown is still a bit bigger than this, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, but it’s similar that there are only elderly people.”

“Ah – that seems to be a problem in any town these days.”

If Calia responds like that to Quon’s answer to her, only Sasha tilts her head as if she can’t relate.

“Because Sasha’s village… Is a bit special.”

When Cleon, who knows the situation, talks to Sasha like that, she says, “Ahaha, Sasha too…” And she smiles bitterly.

[I don’t think it’s because of me.]

When Ruben talked like that inside Sasha, that voice even reached Cleon.

“Anything that’s overinvolved is the problem.”

When Cleon nodded at Ruben’s words and muttered-

“Yes. That’s right.”

Right next door. Someone’s low voice interrupted and flew into Cleon’s ears.

When the group stopped at that voice and turned around.

There was a woman he had never seen before.

She is a blue-haired woman in a white coat with candy in her mouth.

She wasn’t wearing an Oriental costume, so she was a foreigner.

Like the shape of her face her, I can feel the atmosphere similar to Demis and Rio Mess everywhere.

The problem must have been distance.

The tip of her candy stick was touching Cleon’s cheek as she held her face her right next to Cleon’s her.

“Wow…!”

When Cleon suddenly appears without her presence her and falls startled by her, Amelia sees it and makes her surprised face her as well.

“Oh, sooner or later…”

“Before a while ago. If you keep pace and hold your breath, it’s not at all difficult to follow someone.”

To her astonished Amelia, she searches her pockets her and pulls out her lollipop and hands it to her.

“This is my first time greeting you. Princess Amelia Chaldearis.”

“Oh, do you know me?”

“A few years ago. Once during the kingdom’s victory parade.”

As Amelia accepts the candy she gave her, Cleon stands in front of Amelia, wary of her.

“…”

And the one who walks next to Cleon is Layla Flamewatch.

“…Why are you here?”

“Lyla?”

When Cleon looks back at her, at the sound of her her voice her, Lila, as if she knew her.

Lila sighs and puts her hand to her forehead and talks.

“Artis Sleinen, former professor of archeology at the Academy.”

“Ryline. You really have become an adventurer.”

At her words her, Cleon’s gaze once again turned to the woman.

Artis said to Cleon, pointing at the pen that was stuck in the breast pocket of her white coat as if it were her finger her.

“And. It must be you. The dark horse clan that is making the continent the most uproar right now. The person called Cleon. As far as I know, he doesn’t wear glasses or anything like that… Did he wake up to fashion?”

“Never mind the glasses. …By the way, do you know about me?”

“Of course. As a scholar, I’m the type to investigate things I’m curious about.”

After she said that, she twirled her own pen from her fingertips, then returned it to the pocket of her white robe her, where it had originally been tucked in, and held out her hand toward Cleon.

“As I was just introduced. Artis Slainen. Originally a professor at the Archeology Department of the Academy. Now, I am the general manager and head of the Artifact Search Department of the Dark Dragon Firm.”

Aside from her drowsy eyes and low voice her, perhaps her personality her itself was not that dark, so Cleon held her hand her with a little relief.

When two people’s hands meet, a handshake is made.

Two people’s hands that should naturally fall apart.

However, for some reason, Artis grabbed Cleon’s hand and refused to let go.

“Kuh… What.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t meet you for the first time. Would you like to give me a drop of your blood?”

As she said that, in her other hand, there was a tool that seemed to be used to collect a very small amount of blood.

“Atis!”

Layla immediately stood in the way between Cleon and Artis, but Artis just looked like he wanted to stab Cleon with the tool she was holding in her hand her.

“Artis, don’t be rude to the customer. It’s a pay cut.”

When Calia looks at Artis and talks like an accusation, Artis finally changes her expression her and turns her head to her her.

“Wait a minute, this is like a greeting. It’s my own way of communicating. If I get a pay cut this much, food and drink… And cigarettes… “

“It’s self-sufficient. Besides, the last one just went well. Isn’t it a way to quit the beginning of the year at this opportunity?”

As Calia ignoring Artis’ request her in a fit of rage, she bows her head heavily to Cleon.

“I’m sorry. Our staff is a little weird…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. If you’re from the academy, that’s about it…”

“Wait!? I can’t hear that!?”

As Cleon listens to Layla’s voice beside her, he thinks of his short time her at the academy.

As soon as he saw himself as a member of the dark horse clan, he said, ‘I want you to give me your hair.’ ‘Please provide blood to make a chimera.’ ‘I want to see the reaction caused by the holy magic and the clan of dark demons, so please become a test subject.’ ‘Give me the semen’… I’ve received many difficult requests.

“…I’m sorry. It’s impossible to give blood if you don’t tell me where to use it.”

“Cleon!?”

When Lyla looked back at her Cleon as if she were serious, Artis shrugged her shoulders before replying.

“Ah. If that’s the case, don’t worry. Archaeologically, the blood of the Dark Horse clan is highly valuable. I just wanted to keep a little sample.”

“Aren’t they used for strange experiments?”

“I’m an archaeologist, not a wizard. Don’t worry. I’m really just sampling.”

Cleon nodded as if he understood her words of her, and Artis smiled slightly. She lightly pokes the back of Cleon’s hand with the needle attached to the tool in her other hand.

Then, a single drop of blood came out of the needle, and Cleon’s wound her healed immediately.

Only then did Artis let go of Cleon’s hand and put the tool she was holding into a test tube that seemed to be always on hand.

“That personality. Looks like you haven’t fixed it yet.”

Layla talks while glaring at her as if her head her hurts, and Artis replies, erasing the smile she had kept on her lips her.

“Of course. Because there is no need to fix it.”

In response to her confident answer her, both Layla and Calia sighed at the same time.

“First… Let’s go to her camp. As for her, her detailed story about her, we’d better hear it there.”

“Well. It’s better than standing and talking. And you have to explain to each person what they have to do from now on.”.

When Attis heard Calia’s words, she spun and turned around, leading her to the drooping tent.

“…Be careful, Cleon.”

“Yeah. I know. I don’t feel any malice. They’re the kind to be wary of.”

At Layla’s attention to her, Cleon responded with a silent nod.

Then, Layla shook her head at her Cleon’s words and said this.

“She is the one who was stripped of her professorship and expelled from the academy by the Council of Twelve. Her crime is her is, ‘Study in forbidden studies’.”

“…”

“No one knows what she was researching at the time. Except for the elders. Translation of 34 old books. Restoration of 13 artifacts. It is certain that she was a tremendous researcher who discovered 3 huge ruins. There’s no doubt that the professor was ‘expelled’ for conducting dangerous research.”

“…Wouldn’t it be better to tell Calia about it?”

At Cleon’s words her, Layla puts her hand on her chin for a moment.

“No. Maybe she should say she-. Herti knows. She was at the time Riomes and Demis were at the academy, and her expulsion her was a big topic.”

“…Is it.”

Conversely, it also meant that even if she was a person with such a time bomb-like danger, she was competent enough to be appointed while embracing all those risks.

“I can’t be careless.”

“Yeah. So, don’t allow your heart to be flattered, okay?”

At the last sentence Layla added, Cleon looks at Layla once more.

“…That-“

“Come on! Okay, let’s go!”

Before she could finish Cleon’s words, Layla blushed as she grabbed his hand and headed for the tent.

002

The camp hut set up for the excavation of ruins is an investigation team operated by the largest trading company in the East, so it is thanks to the state-of-the-art facilities.

Unmaginable from the shabby outside, expensive equipment was installed here and there, and investigators under Artis were busy manipulating them.

When Lyla enters the tent and her eyes her sparkle at the unfolding scene, Artis looks at Lyla and raises the corners of her mouth her.

“Huh. Are these equipment hard to find in the current academy?”

At her provocative tone her, Layla’s forehead suddenly sprouted, but Calia stopped such Artis once again.

“Don’t provoke me. I’m a colleague who will work with you from now on.”

“What. I just said what I thought. Come on, my investigation team.”

As if she were the owner of her mansion her, I put her breasts in her hands and bowed her waist while Amelia looked around and talked.

“Awesome… If you add all the tools inside, it’s more than enough to build a mansion.”

“As expected, princess. Do you have that much knowledge?”

“Because there’s nothing to do but read a book in the Tower…”

At Amelia’s answer, ‘Hmm.’ Artis caressed her chin.

“Well. I don’t mean to make them come all the way here and just read books. I have to run around properly.”

“Bah, that’s what I wanted!”

Amelia burns her willpower by clenching both of her fists as if she wants it instead.

“So? What are we going to do from now on?”

“Before explaining that… First of all, it’s probably first to find out what kind of ruins are buried around here.”

When she snaps her fingers at Cleon’s question.

As the surface of what was thought to be a table turns translucent, the built-in illusion projector unfolds.

When the blue light appeared, it looked like a map of the area.

You can see villages and camps, as well as nearby forests and wilderness.

She once again took out of her pocket the pen she had used earlier when pointing at her Cleon her, and pointed with it to her map her.

“First. This place. Centering on the camp we are standing in, the place we are focusing our investigation on is the wilderness area where the forest is not spread. Because.”

When she presses a button on her pen, the tip glows red and draws a red line over the illusion.

The line was to dye the rim red as if to emphasize the wilderness that had been created in the surrounding area.

It was said to be larger than the total area of ​​the campsite and the entire village where the party is standing now.

It also seemed small compared to the surrounding forests and meadows.

“Certainly. If there is no problem with the flow of spirit veins. It is a strange story that weeds cannot grow only in this place.”

Layla nods as if agreeing with Artis.

“Nature is dry for a reason. You’d better think that things underground are affecting the power of the earth.”

“Do you know what’s underground?”

When Cleon asks such a question, Artis replies by fixing his glasses.

“Roughly. It’s a realm of speculation, but the ancients-the ancients we’re talking about here aren’t the early days of the succession world, but the late stages of the primitive world. -I think it’s their research institute.”

“A research institute of the ancients!?”

Lila pulls herself up in surprise.

“Yeah. However, it won’t be such a clean place. It must have been researching something enough to make the land sick. The result. This wilderness.”

“Then… It’s a weapon of some sort. Is it something like that?”

When Quon spoke as if he was a little worried, Artis huffed and continued to spin his pen in his hand, pondering for a while before opening his mouth.

“There is a possibility.”

“Something… A little scary…”

Sasha shrank at Artis’ answer.

Weapons of the Ancients –

I’ve seen a few weapons from the primitive world, but most of them are enough to cause great confusion in the world today.

The holy sword and the magic sword. Except for those, armor like ‘Enkidu’.

“…Either way. It’s something a regressor might be aiming for.”

“Yes, that’s right. Actually, the reason our investigation team noticed this place was because a villager who had seen regressors wandering around this area filed an appeal to the Beauty Painter.”

“Have the regressors appeared recently?”

At Cleon’s words, several of the researchers nearby darkened their faces.

And when I turned my gaze, I saw several people lying on sick beds installed in the corner of the tent.

“They’re new and clever, so if you have government troops attached as escorts, they’ll make a fuss somewhere other than here, as if they’ve been waiting for it. …Asteris doesn’t have that many troops , so it’s better to divide up the soldiers and deploy them. It might be because it’s hard.”

“It’s our turn from there…”

At Cleon’s words, Artis nodded, took out something from under the table, and handed it to Cleon.

“…Shovel?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, in yesterday’s raid, some of the weaker children in the field survey ended up lying down…”

“…”

At her words her, Cleon looks down at the shovel, feeling a bit uneasy.

“So. Could you help me with a shovel? To find an ‘entrance to the underground’ somewhere in the wilderness. If it’s Cleon, even if he’s attacked, he’ll be able to blow it up right away.”

“…It’s nice to be evaluated. What about the others?”

Artis answers Cleon’s question with a raised corner of her mouth.

“Because everyone has different things to do. Calia. I’ll leave the rest to you. Just as I told you before.”

“…Ha. I see.”

Then, Artis approaches Cleon as he is, and he pulls his arm her.

“Come on! Let’s go! Relics are waiting for us, Cleon crew!”

“Now, wait…!”

“Hey, Cleon!?”

The party watched Cleon being captured and dragged away by Artis, but after Calia reassured them, they headed towards other facilities in the tent.

003

That’s how many hours

Digging and digging, Cleon continued to shovel to find, as she said, an ‘entrance’ buried beneath the moor.

However, the more she did that, the more she felt that the eyes around her were increasing.

“Atis.”

“Yeah. I know. Huhu. I think I got it right.”

“Did you mean this from the beginning…”

And, as soon as Cleon’s words were finished, the sound of horse hooves was heard from the other side of the wilderness.

Those wearing robes were running toward the place where Cleon and Attis were, raising sand dust.

“Looks like you’re getting tired of yesterday’s today! Foolish guys! The ruins of this wilderness are ours!”

A man who seemed to be the leader was approaching shouting with a huge ax in his hand. It was almost believed that he was a bandit.

“No, are you really a bandit?”

“Exactly, they’re savages. Anyway, they’re the bad guys who hurt my cute men.”

Artis sat down where he had been standing, took out a new cigarette and lit it.

“So… What shall we do?”

When Cleon asked her employer’s intentions of her, she stretched her arms wide and replied.

“Yeah – Revenge me enough to make my stomach feel refreshed.”