## Chapter 1067 – Ancient Beings

ㅡWhoosh!

Using the Celestial Demon’s Swift Steps to jump, I kicked off the wall in mid-air and shot back up into the space I’d been in before. All that remained at the scene, where a large hole had been blasted in the floor, was the massive coffin and its detached lid.

The last prince of the Titans didn’t leave behind anything that could be considered spoils. You know who the worst of the wicked bastards are? It’s those penniless sons of bitches.

The nerve of this bastard!!!

His heart corrupted by evil, his inner vault empty, and he didn’t even have anything to take…!

“Motherfucker.”

Feeling a surge of murderous intent rise again, I pictured my women naked to calm myself. All the anger melted away like snow, bringing peace to my mind.

“Ooh.”

Anyway, the coffin.

A damn big coffin.

But what’s it made of?

It felt like a sarcophagus, roughly speaking.

I ran my hand over it, wanting to examine the material, but I’m no professional mineral fondler, so I couldn’t identify the material just by touching it. But it’s seriously huge. A coffin big enough to hold a Titan, indeed.

It’s a little over 5 meters long.
Looks heavy as hell, too.

Should I take this with me?

Whatever it is, it’s practically an ancient relic. It’s bound to have some value, no matter what it’s made of. A historical artifact, you might say. But this Titan bastard was completely annihilated, so I don’t know if it can be used as historical data.

It looks valuable, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll fetch much money.

“…”

I think I can carry it, roughly speaking.
First, I went over to examine the lid.

“Hmm.”

The lid was split.

It was because I kicked it and sent it flying earlier. It hit the wall and fell, splitting neatly in two.

Since it was a coffin that sealed an ancient Titan, I naturally assumed it would be made of a strong and sacred material, but seeing the lid broken like this, it seems it wasn’t such a transcendent material after all.

For now, should I just take a piece of this coffin lid with me?

I’ll look into it and come back to retrieve it if it seems worthwhile. After all, there probably isn’t anyone else who can thoroughly search this underground waterway.

ㅡSlide.

And so, I took the lid of the sarcophagus—no, now it’s just a piece of stone, really. I picked out one of the nicer-looking pieces and, pushing off the ground, jumped back out through the square exit I’d first entered through.

From here, I’ll run straight up to the surface.

“Kieeeeeeeeeeeek!!!”

ㅡThwack thwack thwack!

I sprinted with all my might.

* * *

Back home, I immediately explained everything that had happened that day to them. I left early in the morning, but by the time I got out of the waterway, it was already late afternoon, the sun having set.

Feeling extremely sorry for coming home so late, I explained everything with all my heart and soul. Their eyes widened at the story of the Titan, and they breathed a sigh of relief when I said I’d killed it easily.

“So that’s why I was late.”

I didn’t expect to encounter something like that.

“Well, it was a task befitting the great demigod baron paladin. If anyone had been watching, they probably would have composed a song praising my great achievement.”

But as I explained, replaying the situation in my mind, I realized that Kim Kat had once again done a Kim Kat.

Slaughtering the sealed ancient Titan prince?

This was the kind of thing only a legendary hero of justice would do. Come to think of it, the Celestial Demon is a hero, and I am indeed legendary and righteous, so it all fits. I’m starting to wonder just how great I’ll become… Anyway, I accomplished something amazing without even thinking about it.

“Did Blackie do something great again today?”
“Yeah.”
“You did so well?”

Wienia smiled and praised me.

“Right?”
“But why did you do it alone? It could have been dangerous.”
“Oops.”
“Yes, Kat! You should have come right back up after discovering it! You were too reckless!”

I guess that’s true.

“No, it’s fine, I just finished it quickly and came back. And that underground waterway smells, you know? I didn’t think there was any need for you to come with me.”
“Oh, really.”
“Come here.”

Wienia and Hilde immediately came and sat on either side of me, and I put my arms around their shoulders, grabbing and fondling their breasts with my hands.

“Still, Blackie. It’s too dangerous. What if you get hurt messing around by yourself?”
“Of course, there’s no way Kat would lose, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt.”

That’s also true.

“Sorry. But it ended well, so that’s all that matters.”
“Ended well? How can it end well when there was such a great spectacle and you didn’t call us?”
“Us? Aren’t you worried about me?”
“Yeah, right.”

Anyway, I reassured the worried women appropriately.

“Hehe, still, you did very well. So those beings are no match for Kat now.”

Claudie seemed quite pleased, which was only natural.

“Hehehe, that’s right, Claudie. That’s so obvious. How could something like that be a match for me? I just crushed it in an instant.”
“But I wanted to see it for myself. Will you do it together next time? Okay?”
“Okay, okay.”

It’s a shame I couldn’t show them the sight of me tearing the bastard a new one.

“By the way… then were those cultists in the waterway aiming for that Titan?”

I had that thought as well.

“Maybe. But I didn’t ask those bastards, so I don’t know.”
“Father? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you about this before? A while ago, Claudie, me, and some other people went into this underground waterway and caught and killed some cultists.”
“Ah… yes. I remember.”

I had already told them this story.

“At the time, I didn’t know why those bastards were sneaking in there so dangerously, but now that I think about it, it’s a bit suspicious.”
“Indeed. It’s a peculiar thing. To think that something like that was sealed in the underground waterway…”

Risha, who had been listening to the story, stroked her lips and expressed her doubts.

“No, did our witch not know? You’ve lived here for a long time.”
“Did Karin not know either?”
“Well, I’ve heard rumors like that. You know, the kind of rumors that exist in every big city. Like how there’s an ancient dungeon sleeping beneath every big city. Haven’t you heard of that?”

Rumors that there might be an ancient dungeon beneath a big city… Now that I think about it, I think I heard something like that back when I was a nobody. Adventurers are experts at spreading all sorts of nonsense, after all.

“Hmm… rumors… I don’t know much about that.”
“I’ve heard of it.”

Liztina replied.

“The story that there are dungeons used in ancient times sleeping beneath certain cities. That kind of thing is quite common.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard of it too.”

Wienia nodded in agreement with Liztina’s words.

“That’s right. In the first place, all the technology used in cities is based on the excavation of ancient technology, right? I don’t know much about architecture, but that’s what I know. Building cities on top of dungeons and reusing the dungeon’s facilities, or something like that.”
“Yes. That kind of thing. Everyone’s probably heard of it. It’s only natural that some of the older cities might have something like that… But to think that a Titan race was sealed away…”

It seemed that Liztina and Wienia knew a bit about this.

“Sis? Then is Isvant a city with some history?”
“Yes. I know it’s a fairly old city. Now that I hear about it, it seems that the underground waterway has been there since ancient times. Then perhaps they built the city with that in mind.”

When Isvant was first built, they knew about the existence of that ancient underground waterway?

If so, then the ruler at the time might have known that the last prince of the Titans was sealed there.

Then there’s a high probability that the current Duke of Isvant knows…

It’s just speculation, but I should go ask him.

“So the rumors were true.”

Karin nodded.

“Hmph… so the city has that kind of history? I didn’t know.”
“Claudie came from the desert! It’s only natural that you wouldn’t know!”
“Hilde didn’t know either…?”
“No! I didn’t know! Because I’m from Pandemonium!”

They all have different backgrounds, after all.

“Then the waterway itself is a facility for sealing… no. Perhaps it was built to hide the Titans. It would be hard to find if you hid it in a place like that. Father wouldn’t have noticed at all if it hadn’t been for Andromalius’s help, right?”

Ari is right.

“That’s right. Even though it was suspicious, I wouldn’t have known at all. I would have just come back up if he hadn’t reacted.”
“So it seems like they were trying to hide it on purpose… It might not be important, though.”
“It’s important, in a way. Anyway, Risha, please check the material of that stone slab. I was going to bring the other sealing tools, but they all disappeared.”
“Understood.”

There were so many suspicious things in that place.

“But… if we assume that the cultists knew that the Titan prince was sealed there…”
“Hmm?”
“It seems that the lich knows a great deal.”
“…I guess so.”

If that lich was aiming for the sealed Titan prince…

What reason could he have for aiming for him?

Considering that he tried to steal the soul of a Great Demon, we can speculate that he was trying to absorb the Titan’s power in a similar way. I don’t know how he would absorb it, but if we make that assumption…

Right now, the lich is probably…

Trying to gather `materials` of some kind.
That’s the feeling I get.

Whether it’s a Great Demon, a Titan, or the humans he’s been kidnapping and trafficking. They’re all things the lich is gathering. One thing that’s certain is that he’s gathering humans to perform human experiments and create undead.

“Oh. But besides that, that Titan bastard also said something about humans originally being the Titans’ slave race.”
“What?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Wienia and Karin immediately frowned.

“No, well. He just said something like that. But since he also mentioned the curse of God, I’ve kept it in the back of my mind.”

Even as he was dying, he said something incomprehensible, but it was too vague.

“Isn’t it just nonsense? He was talking nonsense because he was about to die.”
“It seems like it. Blackie, you usually don’t believe that kind of thing, right?”
“When did I say I believed it? I just remembered what he said.”

I don’t believe it either.

Well then.

“Anyway, that’s all for the story of the Titan in the underground waterway.”

I’ll have to investigate and research this separately, and I’ll need some help from Risha or Kadia.

“This is why I’m saying this, but I’m going to go there soon. We went to the Kobold Dungeon before, right?”
“Blackie? You almost died then.”
“It was dangerous. But not now.”
“Well… I guess so.”

I briefly explained about the Kobold Dungeon I went to a long time ago.

“The Kobold Queen and everything else were messing around there. It was the cultists who did it. Risha. You remember that I brought back the crown, right?”
“I remember everything.”
“No matter how you look at it, the cultists were doing something professionally.”

There’s definitely something there.

“I just let it go back then, but I think I should go check it out now.”

So I’m planning to go.

“Blackie? But what could be there? It’s different from the waterway inside the city. Even if they took anything, they probably took it all a long time ago.”
“So I’m just going to check. And I’m going to go to the Necropolis I told you about a long time ago.”

I’m thinking of searching there while I’m at it.

“Hmm… I don’t think there’s anything there? Isn’t it a place that was discovered years ago? It’s probably already been looted, right?”

Karin said with her arms crossed.

As she said, there wasn’t much there back then either.
It was already a looted place.

All that came out were worthless ancient relics and skeletons.

“But skeletons came out back then.”
“The cultists must have done something. Sis remembers that too, but they said they already created an investigation team and went there after it was discovered. The time you went was probably after it had already been looted.”

I know that.

“It was called Orcotta Catacombs, right? I’ve heard that something like that was discovered in the vicinity. I told you about it when you told me about it back then. It’s an old story, so even if you go now… I don’t think there’s anything there.”

In the first place, that Necropolis was discovered long before I came to Isvant. It was discovered when I was rolling around as a nobody in Krasheim, and a professional investigation team had already looted it all.

I went there with Kopson, Meria, and Elise after that.

That was after it had already been looted, and there was nothing there. But that was the point when the skeletons started to rise in earnest. Perhaps the cultists, like they did in the underground waterway, discovered something hidden at the lich’s direction in a place that had already been looted, and raised the undead?

That’s roughly what I was thinking, so I want to check it out.