## Chapter 1073 – Ancient Beings

I grabbed the thing and got out of the secret space. I tried to find the bag I had roughly tossed aside earlier and put it inside.

“Why the hell doesn’t this bastard fit in the bag?”

This bastard is too big to fit in the bag I brought.

I had no choice but to tear the bag apart and wrap the jewel skull with the leather. There were some protruding parts, but it should be fine to carry it around without raising too much suspicion.

This jewel skull is obviously huge and sparkly.
If I just carry it around raw, it’ll attract too much attention.

Let’s get out of here.

“You son of a bitch. If you say anything outside, I’ll just kill you.”
“I’ll… be quiet…”

I gritted my teeth and threatened him, and he answered in a barely audible voice. Ancient being or whatever, if you get caught by me, you’re all dead.

If you don’t want to die, beg for your life.

“Good. Just be quiet like that. Only answer my questions and don’t make any other sounds.”
“I understand…”

Did the ancient humans offer their blood to such a pathetic bastard? What a disaster. Condolences to the humans who died because of this cowardly bastard.

Anyway, I took him above ground, and the hot sun was shining down.

Is it around noon?
It ended earlier than I thought.

Exploring didn’t take long in the first place. It only took a little while because I was shaking this bastard around.

“Hmm.”

But this bastard… It would be a disaster if he suddenly went berserk and shot mental waves everywhere. There are too many civilians around. I need to keep a close eye on him to prevent that. I’ll destroy him as soon as he shows any suspicious signs.

And I need to put those locks I broke back on somehow.

Should I report this to the church?

No.

Even though Commander Bakarel is reasonable, he’s still a paladin at heart, so he’d go crazy and try to kill it as soon as I reported it. Let’s keep this to myself for now. The defenses here will be strengthened anyway because of this demon incident.

Even if the heretics come targeting the underground waterway and this jewel skull, they should be able to stop them.

I’ll buy some locks later and put them on.

—Thud!

With that, I kicked off the ground and ran home at full speed.

* * *

After returning home, I showed the jewel skull to the girls, who were now awake and eating, and explained what happened today.

“Such a terrible being!!!”

Hilde pointed at the jewel skull on the table and vehemently criticized him, spewing out harsh words.

“Such an evil being that lives on human blood must be eradicated from this world! Katt! You must extract the information and destroy it!”
“Yes, Father. I think it would be best to kill it.”

Ari, sitting next to Hilde, chimed in with a blank face.

“Calm down. I have a plan. Of course, I can’t tolerate such a being…”
“But Katt.”
“Hmm?”
“You went alone again. I said I’d go with you.”

Claudie gave me a look of pity and stroked my cheek. No…! It’s not like that!

“No, Claudie. It’s just that I found it in the slums. It wasn’t a big deal. I just used Byugal to find it and check its stability. I didn’t really fight or anything. It was nothing like that.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. This was a really minor thing compared to the last one. I brought it here quickly to show you.”
“If that’s the case…”

Claudie nodded, and Karin next to her nodded as if she understood.

“Okay. I’ll let it slide since you didn’t fight. Anyway. This is a race with ancient knowledge, and they can even talk really well?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm…”

Karin ran her finger over the surface of the jewel skull, as if she found it interesting. It would be a decent decoration if it didn’t have a brain inside.

“Ugh, but it’s really gross. What’s with this… Look at what’s inside.”
“Ugh… What the hell is that? What kind of people lived in ancient times? And is that a human brain?”

Liztina and Winia were already grimacing with disgust. Whatever else, it’s a fact that they both have relatively normal sensibilities.

“No. It’s too big to be a human brain. Is that even its main body? Did they just extract the brain of some race and imprison it in an artifact?”
“That could be it. Hey, Darkie. So you don’t know anything about its identity? It can’t talk because it doesn’t have a sacrifice?”
“That’s the situation for now.”

If it can’t open its mouth because it doesn’t have blood, as it said, then we can’t even find out its identity right now.

“Hmm… I’m very curious about what kind of knowledge they stored to seal it up like this.”
“Hey, Witch? Can you figure this out?”

When Risha said that, Karin laughed teasingly and gently poked Risha’s side with her finger.

“Of course! Isn’t this my specialty! Just leave it to me!”

Then Risha shouted confidently.

“Ooh! It’s been a while! Our Witch knows something!”
“Today will be the last day you say that! Today will be the last day you talk as if I’m called a witch and don’t know anything!”

She seems very confident, judging by the fact that she said it twice.

Right. Whatever else, manipulating things like this is Risha’s specialty. She should be able to touch its brain or extract knowledge.

“Hehehe, okay. Risha, take a look. But you have to be careful. When I touched it earlier, it shot out mental waves and attacked me.”
“Wh, what?! What are you talking about, Katt!!”
“Darkie? Mental waves?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”

I briefly explained that I was exposed to its defenses for a moment while experimenting to destroy it. No need to worry. It was a really insignificant attack.

“A mental attack… That was dangerous. But Katt is strong mentally, so it was okay, right?”
“My mental strength is pretty strong.”
“Darkie’s invincible now. But…”

—Glare.

After hearing the explanation, the girls began to glare at the jewel skull.

“How dare you do such a thing. You skull bastard.”
“I can’t forgive it.”
“That’s not a good sign.”

Their eyes were overflowing with murderous intent, to the point where I was scared for a moment. Right, that’s what this crazy skull bastard did to me! It deserves to die!!

“Father. But it’s not talking.”

Ari, also with a similar look in her eyes, said to me.

“Ah, that’s because I told it not to talk. Then let’s make it talk now. Hey, you son of a bitch. From now on, answer our questions sincerely.”

I grabbed the skull’s head and said that.

“…I understand.”

It answered.

“Oh! Oh shit, it’s really talking!”
“Where is it talking from!!”

Karin and Liztina were shocked, and the others each swallowed their breaths. Only Claudie and Ari didn’t show much reaction.

“Hey. But you said you can’t break it with your bare hands, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I experimented with it a bit at first. It can be cut with a mana-infused blade, but it doesn’t take any damage from bare fists.”
“Hoo… I see.”

That was the moment.

—Thud!

Karin punched the skull.

“HooOOOOOOOOOONG!!”

Suddenly, Liztina kicked the skull that had been launched into the air from the impact.

—Whoosh!

Just as the skull was about to hit the wall, Risha summoned a black magic hand and caught the skull like a catcher.

It seems like the two older sisters wanted to test it out.

Soon, the black magic hand brought the skull back.

Of course, the skull was fine.

“Wow, it’s really fine?”
“It can withstand this much attack? It only takes damage if you infuse it with mana?”

The two women were quite amazed that it had withstood their attacks, even though they were bare-handed, and they grabbed it and tortured it, punching and kicking it as if it were a sandbag.

“Aaaaaaaah!!!”

A mournful scream erupted.

It needs to be hit more.

“As expected of an ancient being…! But it doesn’t matter if we can kill it anytime! I want to do it too!”

Hilde also joined the event, grabbed a club, and began to strike the skull’s head.

“Hmph… So Katt, this guy knows a lot of things? But we can’t find out right now?”
“Yeah. So I think Risha needs to take a look first.”
“What about absorbing it with Byugal?”
“I’ll try that after I ask Risha.”

Is there any other way?

“Leave it to me.”
“Okay. But you have to keep a close watch on it while you have it.”
“Hehehe, are you worried about that? It seems like I haven’t given you enough faith lately. Don’t worry.”
“Of course I trust Risha! Please do a good job.”
“I understand.”

She’s so trustworthy…!

“Hey, Darkie. But what exactly is that knowledge?”

Then, Winia asked.

“Yes, I’m a little curious too. Did it imply what it knows?”

Liztina also stopped punching and looked at me.

“Just some ancient knowledge. Forgotten forbidden knowledge or secret knowledge. Or knowledge about forgotten magic… It was talking like that. Anyway, it gave off the impression that it knew something amazing.”
“Hmm… Ancient knowledge. Could it be knowledge from before the Idol War era? If so, it could be quite useful. Karin! Let’s attack from both sides this time!”
“Okay!”

After hearing the answer, Liztina resumed her violent acts with Karin.

“Ancient magic…”

Winia muttered, licking her lips.
It seems like Winia is a little interested.

“Why, Winia? Are you interested?”
“No. I’m just curious, but I’m not very interested. It requires blood, right? I can’t do it because it’s disgusting. That kind of thing.”
“That’s true.”

The very act of offering human blood as a sacrifice to such a thing provokes my anger to an unbearable degree. If that’s the only way, I’ll make it Byugal’s meal.

“If it’s such a being, it seems like the heretics would target it, Father. A lich wouldn’t care about human sacrifice. They might have offered a large amount of human slaves’ blood to… try to obtain dangerous ancient knowledge.”

That’s right.

“That’s it, Ari. What would happen if something like that fell into the hands of evil beings?”
“To put it in Father’s words, the world would… uh, ‘go to shit’.”
“That’s right! To prevent that!”
“We have to work harder.”

Ari smiled brightly as she said that.

“As expected, our Ari knows a thing or two.”
“You taught me everything, Father.”

As I was stroking Ari’s head, Hilde, who was clubbing the skull, shouted.

“No matter what, we must prevent this from falling into the hands of the heretics, Katt!!!”
“I intend to!”

As if I’d hand it over to a lich.

“Then Katt. You did a righteous thing again today?”
“Hehehe, ah. I’m accumulating righteous deeds more and more as the days go by.”
“That righteous heart makes Katt even stronger. Then shall we rest today?”
“Ah. I still have some things to do. I’ll go buy some locks after eating. I broke all the locks there. I have to restore them.”
“Oh my, then there are traces left? But then should we inform the church or the lord? Isn’t that a facility they manage?”
“That’s the thing… I need to think about what to do about this.”

It might be okay to just say that I investigated it myself. I can just destroy the secret place.

Let’s buy the locks first and think about it slowly.

* * *

A few days later.

The jewel skull was under strict surveillance, and Risha was conducting experiments using it very smoothly.

Right now, the basement is filled with all sorts of black magic energy and magic circles. In the center of it, the skull was having its crystal skull dissected and undergoing brain surgery by Risha. If it’s Risha, she should be able to extract the information coming into its brain.

And today is the day of the banquet.

It is said that the demon attack on Isvant has finally been completely resolved. So Isvant planned a banquet, and I was naturally invited.

Let’s go and ask about the underground waterway.