Chapter 6 (2/2)
“Isn’t it because those wasps have a greater range of surveillance than these giants?”
“Ahh… I see. I guess I’ll accept that idea for now. But then there’s still an issue; why are they protecting this place?”
That was certainly a good question.
Luru didn’t know of this ruin.
From the appearance of the ruin, it was a small, round and flat building[Note: think a short cylinder], and though Luru was a bit far from it, he could see a staircase a little from the entrance.
There were a bunch of piled rocks near the stairs, so the stairs probably weren’t normally exposed[ and were normally hidden].
The stairs seemed to lead downwards, so you could tell that they headed underground, but Luru had no memory of such a building.
He didn’t know the purpose of the building either, and had no memory of a place guarded by Lupes Gigantes and Cannon Apis during the war.
That meant that this place was necessarily built after Luru’s death as the demon king, but he couldn’t imagine a reason why they would build such a thing.
Could the ancient demon race have survived longer than he had expected?
It couldn’t be helped that he was concerned about what was inside the ruins.
That’s why Luru spoke.
“I’m going to go into the ruin, and search for…”
However, Gran immediately rejected it.
“Oi. That’s no good. I won’t allow it.”
His words were natural.
It was the job of adults to stop children from doing reckless things.
His words were extremely natural.
However, Luru should have been more correct from a logical point of view.
“Things will get dangerous if we don’t hurry up, you know. A bunch of wasp model Magus Machines escaped, right?”
Right. As long as they didn’t know the range in which they were active, deactivating them quickly was a priority.
They had no hints about how to do so, and so there was probably no mistake that there would be something in the ruins, meaning that they needed to hurry up and investigate inside. His argument was sound.
“That may be true but… To begin with, you’re a kid. Do you get it? Do you have enough power to fight? You don’t, right?”
However, though Luru’s argument may have been natural, to Gran, Luru was definitely just a kid.
There was no way that a kid would be able to do something like that, and he argued that there was no way he could let a kid do something dangerous.
Though Luru managed to discover the Lupes Gigantes’ range of action, in the end it was nothing but that approaching and retreating, so it looked like nothing more than an extended game of tag.
In truth, that was basically all he did.
To Gran, Luru was nothing more than a child with fast legs.
And because Luru understood this quite well, he didn’t think that they would get anywhere with just conversation.
That’s why Luru spoke.
“In other words, you’ll accept it if I have enough power, right?”
“Well, frankly speaking, yeah, but…”
“Then just watch me.”
“Huh…? …O-, OI! Stop it, idiot!”
And without time for Gran to stop him, Luru headed towards the Lupes Gigantes.
He then shrouded his fist in mana and attacked the Lupes Gigantes.
From Gran’s point of view, it was an unbelievable action.
A seven year old child attacked the three metre giant of rock with his bare hands.
However you thought about it, it was nothing more than an act of suicide.
However, what was even more unbelievable to Gran was that the one hit Luru threw at the rock giant’s chest had smashed it into tiny pieces of rock.
Without even stopping, Luru continued towards the next Lupes Gigantes and continued to crush them one by one.
“Oi, oi… What the h.e.l.l is that kid!?”
That was all Gran thought.
“Amazing…”
“So Luru was actually this strong…”
“It’s unbelievable…”
The shocked voices of Rusty, Mii and Yuuri could be heard.
Each time Luru swung his fist, the Lupes Gigantes would be reduced to rubble.
Luru’s small figure that danced about, struck and kicked the giants and leaving them as just bundles of rock looked almost like he was playing.
Despite doing all that, he was still taking it easy.
That was what Gran could feel from him.
And then, by the time they had noticed, the Lupes Giantes around them were all turned to sc.r.a.p rock, and not a single one remained functional.
Having done all that, Luru turned to Gran and spoke.
“I wonder if there’s any problem with my power.”
“…No. Since you’ve done this much, I can’t say a thing.”
“Then you don’t mind if I enter?”
Having said that, Luru stared at Gran.
Gran sighed, and replied,
“I got it… But yanno, these ruins have turned into a pretty big find. You can tell from the Magus Machines just now, right? That’s why it seems like it’ll be annoying in the future if you go in alone.”
“Meaning…?”
“I want you to go with Yuumis and I. But the wasp Magus Machines are a problem. So if possible, I want you to head back temporarily if you find a way to stop them. Then if the ruins continue beyond that, wait for us before you go in, or head back to the village for a little. I don’t want you going in too far. Also I suppose I may as well say this while we’re at it, but I’ve also heard in cases where Magic Dolls{Golems} in ruins aren’t being controlled by someone directly, they’re being controlled by some equipment left in there. Considering that these Magus Machines are moving together towards the same goal, they’re probably of the type that I just mentioned. In these cases, if you mess about with the controls, or you break them, it seems the Golems will stop. That’s why if you find one, destroy it. After that, wait there. If not, then wait somewhere not too far in for us. Those are my minimum conditions. If you accept, then I’ll bring these guys back to the village. …You fine with that?”
Gran looked at Rusty, and said that.
To Luru, as long as he could stop the Magus Machines, he would be happy for now, so he nodded.
If possible, he wanted to search every inch of the ancient demon ruin for clues, but whining about it now would be annoying, so he didn’t.
“Got it. I’m fine with that. …Well then, I’ll leave Rusty and the rest to you. …Rusty, Mii, Yuuri – be careful heading back, alright?”
When he said that, the three of them obediently said,
“Yeah! You be careful too! I mean… I get that I can’t go in with you, after all.”
“Rusty is being obedient for once… Luru. Don’t try to do anything that you can’t, okay? But I know that you won’t do anything reckless like Rusty, so you might be fine even if I didn’t say this.”
“Sorry about this, Luru. I tried to stop Rusty and Mii but… in the end I just made trouble for you all the same. I’ll show you my grat.i.tude later.”
Saying that, they followed Gran and headed towards the village.
Luru once again gazed at the ruin.
They weren’t built of anything strange.
It didn’t look very different from the buildings he had often seen as a demon king.
It seemed that there was no mistaking that this wasn’t built too long after his defeat at the hands of the hero.
“…It’d be nice if there weren’t any traps. Wait, or perhaps the Magus Machines were the trap…”
Like that, Luru headed into the ruins.
Lupes Gigantes: Luu Pehs Gi Gans Tes
Was a bit liberal with ‘その方法をグランたちに教えたところで、遺跡の中にあるだろう中央装置の扱いを知らなければどうしようもない。’
Haaaah!? is a type of scoffing ‘whaat!?’ sound. I don’t just write ‘what’ because ‘what’ lacks the scoffy-ness, and ‘haaah’ is close enough to someone going ‘huuuuh!?’ in the same circ.u.mstances.
/Chapter 6 END
<script>