Chapter 11 (1/2)
Chapter 11 – Collapse＊
Thinking back upon it, coming from the village to the depths of the ruins was nothing but a series of huge troubles, but going from inside the ruins to the outside took almost no effort at all, and ended with nothing but walking.
“…But still, in the end, was this ruin an ancient demon ruin?”
Muttered Gran, the first one to crawl out of the ruins, to Luru and Iris who were still in the darkness of the ruins.
By the time they left it, the dark curtain of the night had already fallen, so it was dim.
However, perhaps because the moon was out, it was still much brighter than the inside of the ruins, and the outside was filled with the indigo coloured darkness.
“I wonder about that. Wouldn’t it be fine to get Yuumis to investigate? She’s knowledgeable, isn’t she?”
Luru who knew it was definitely an ancient demon ruin, or at least one with some kind of relation to them, just played dumb.
According to Gran, in this age there was no way to determine if something was an ancient demon ruin or not, so he didn’t want to get involved in any unnecessary trouble.
There was also that he wanted Yuumis to investigate appropriately, fulfil her desires for her romance, and on top of that he wanted her to state her knowledge on it.
At the end of the day, no matter how many books he read, Luru had pa.s.sed no more than seven years of his life, and his only information sources were basically only the books at home and his parents, the people in the village, and the merchants that came; speaking frankly, he was ignorant of the world.
There was no way he could know in detail about what was in this world.
At best, he knew the name of the neighbouring countries, and broadly about what kind of regions they were, and what they produced; there was no way for him to find out more than this.
Until he asked Gran about the state of the tools in the city, he didn’t even know that primitive Magus Tools existed.
Though it was true that from the state of the village he had expected that over these thousands of years, the technology had degenerated, there was quite a gap between what he imagined and seeing and hearing about the reality himself.
Perhaps there existed in this world, even magics and technologies that Luru hadn’t even thought of; because of that, he might have no choice but to act.
No, he had to. At least that was what Luru thought after this time’s adventure in the ruins.
That’s why he was thinking that once he got back to the village, he wanted to speak with Yuumis who seemed to have the atmosphere of quite an expert, but thinking about the details of the events leading up to now, it didn’t seem that it would be too easy.
If you thought about her interactions with Gran as an adventurer pair, you could tell that she didn’t seem the type to hold grudges[/drag things out].
However, they would still have to make up first, and Luru was feeling just a little reluctant[/pressured] at having to do that.
Whilst thinking about that, Luru crawled out of the ruins.
After the last member Iris finally crawled out, all of them gazed at the ruin.
It was already night so they couldn’t see it too clearly.
However, the sight of the ruins illuminated by the moonlight was fantastical, and beautiful.
This was where Iris had been sleeping.
Because of that, Luru was able to meet her again in this world.
Right now, she was the only brethren he had in this world.
Rusty was close to him, as were his parents, and the people of the village; there was no mistake about this.
However, Luru held many secrets that he couldn’t talk to them about.
There was n.o.body he could share these with, or in the true sense of the words, tell everything to.
That’s why the fact that Iris was by his side was to Luru, fortune that seemed like a miracle.
Iris was gazing at the ruins as well.
He couldn’t tell what emotions lay in those eyes of hers.
However, after she removed her gaze from the ruins, her eyes met with Luru’s, and she suddenly began to smile.
And at this difficult to describe expression that eased his heart, Luru felt that something that had been frozen in his heart had thawed for the first time since he was born.
“Well, there’s no use in watching this forever… Let’s make a detailed exploration once we have Yuumis. This ruin is that big of a find. A research team might even be dispatched from the capital. It’s sure gunna get busy, huh…!”
Said Gran with a smile.
It was what an adventurer was supposed to be doing; opening up new frontiers.
Whether they were frontiers in regards to the land, or in regards to treasure, or in regards to the sphere of research, it was undeniably the job of the adventurers.
And it was through these achievements piled again and again that their name became famous.
With this time’s discovery, Gran and Yuumis would probably become quite famous.
They might have already possessed fame and fortune, but even so, something like this wouldn’t hurt no matter how much of it you had.
“I’m so envious, Gran.”
That’s why Luru ended up saying that on a whim,.
He wasn’t jealous or anything, and it was just a joke with some irony mixed in.
They were words he spoke hoping to get a rise out of Gran, but as expected you could perhaps say, Gran wasn’t the type of be bothered by this.
While giving a manly[/hearty] smile, he declared something shocking.
“Hahahah! Watcha saying? You’re gunna become busy too, yanno?”
“…Hah?”
Luru tilted his head at Gran’s words.
As for Iris, she was chuckling quietly, and it seems that she understood the meaning behind Gran’s words.
“I was sleeping for a very long time, so I don’t fully understand the circ.u.mstances but… Luru-sama, you too explored the ruin with Gran-sama, did you not? …Being the case, it would not be strange to take you as a person with the important achievement of discovering a ruin, would it…?”
At Iris’ words, Luru finally realised, ‘Ahh, that might be so.‘ but even so, Luru was still a child.
The ones praised for such discoveries were adventurers, and because of reasons like ‘A village child won’t get dragged into that kind of thing.‘, Luru thought, ‘Isn’t that impossible?‘ and refuted Gran.
“Don’t be ridiculous… I’m just a seven year old child, you know? Even if you say that I was one of the explorers or whatever, n.o.body would believe you, you know?”
However, Gran shook his head as though he felt no problems at all.
“No, everybody would believe it I think. If I go around spreading it, that is.”
“…What?”
“My mouth is looser than a potato sack you know?[Sorry. Couldn’t think of Eng equivalent expression so made one up.] If I start drinking I’m confident that I’ll immediately start talking about what happened today… Moreover, Yuumis is mortified at having her barrier tampered with by you, so she’ll start spreading the same thing, yanno. You should already know what bad drunks we are, right? Just the other day, you saw it yourself after all.”
For an instant, Luru thought to seriously ask him to stop, but seeing how bold he was, it seemed pointless to Luru, so he gave up.
To begin with, thinking about it carefully, he wasn’t planning on hiding for the rest of his life or anything.
It was just to the degree of not wanting to start insisting in public that he used to be the demon king, and he held no reservations about using the magecraft and martial arts that he had acquired.
He was fine with these rumours being spread.
It was a topic that wasn’t a problem at all.
Having said that though, he felt like pa.s.sing on both being treated like a braggart, and being looked down on.
If it was spread that a seven year old held the achievements of being a ruins explorer, he would probably end up being called a liar and looked down on.
About these problems, Luru asked Gran.
He replied,
“Well, it’ll probably be fine not to worry too much about that. Though we look like this, Yuumis and I are actually quite famous adventurers in the capital. If the two of us evaluate you highly, as long as they aren’t a total idiot, they aren’t gunna pick a fight with you. Moreover, as long as you’re in the village, you won’t get involved with those sort of guys. Well, since there is a ruin, there might be more adventurers coming here than before, but, it’s just to that degree. Don’t worry about it so much… And well, honestly, that’s only if I start spreading it. In the end it was just a joke, so don’t sweat it. If you really wanted me to spread it, and you wanted merits for what you did this time, then I don’t mind since it’s the truth and all but… You don’t want that, right? I’ll stay quiet, so relax.”
Like that, Gran guaranteed him, so Luru felt relief that his lifestyle didn’t seem like it’d be getting all that difficult.
In the end, what he said just now was just returning a joke to Luru’s joke, and he probably had no intentions of spreading any rumours.
Gran was an adventurer, after all.
He couldn’t be that loose-lipped, since his responsibility of confidentiality as an adventurer wasn’t something that he could just toss away.
That’s why in that sense, it was also a relief, Luru thought.
And like that, feeling like everything they needed to say before returning to the village had been said, the three of them began to head away from the ruins.
The next time they’d be coming would probably be tomorrow, or the day after…
Thinking this, just as they began to walk, a huge rumbling could be heard from behind them, and the three turned around.