Volume 7 - Chapter 12 – To the Ancient Ruins (2/2)

“Eh?”

“The ruins aren’t that large, you see. We’ll just take a quick peek inside, and it’ll be over after that.”

“Is that right?”

Jin asked and the elder nodded.

“Yesh. If it were a little more noteworthy there would be a lot more people, see.”

Apparently it would be quite a let-down. But, as they had already troubled themselves they kept carrying the luggage they had.

After ten minutes of walking, they arrived at the face of a huge cliff.

“A cliff…?”

“It seems to be at least a hundred meters tall.”

“The entrance is over there, check it out.”

The elder pointed at the nearby vertical cliff that was all granite, and at its base was the entrance to the ancient ruins.

“There’s no dangers or anything. Sometimes during hot summers we locals go in to cool off.”

The elder’s explanation somewhat dampened their interest, but as the group had come for expressly this, they moved towards the entrance.

“It seems to be somewhat disappointing.”

Reinhardt said but,

“Even so this is my first time in a place like this. Maybe it’ll be unexpectedly interesting once we enter.”

Elsa said. Jin kept walking in silence. Then, Reiko suddenly stopped and grasped Jin’s hand.

“Father, there is someone in the ruins.”

Just like she said, from the entrance of the ruins a single person came out.

“Oh, how curious. Visitors, eh?”

“Oh, teacher, investigating the ruins today too I see.”

This person seemed to be an acquaintance of the elder as they called him teacher. He too was old enough to be called an elder. No hair was found on top of his head, and instead on his chin was a magnificent white beard.

But his back was upright, and from his grey eyes one got an impression of overflowing vitality. He was wearing a white robe-like coat, indeed giving him the atmosphere of a researcher.

“Mh-hm, if I don’t come here once a day I can’t calm down.”

He said, turned to Jin’s group and,

“Young people having an interest in ancient ruins like this makes me the happiest I can be as a researcher. I am Rucall, the town archeologist.”

“I’m Jin. This is Reiko.”

“I’m Reinhardt. And this is Elsa.”

“My name is Claude and I am their butler.”

As the man named Rucall introduced himself, so did Jin’s group introduce themselves and greet him.

“I’ve investigated these ruins for ten years now, but there’s still a very much left that I do not understand. Even so, would you like me to be your guide for a bit?”

Rucall offered. They were honestly thankful to have a person who’s done research on the ruins as a guide rather than just look around aimlessly.

“That’s right, in that case if you would, please.”

Reinhardt acted upon the group’s interests and said.

“Alright, then come this way.”

Rucall led the group to the entrance of the ruins he had just himself left.

The ruins’ entrance was a crack in the cliff’s granite, giving a really rather weathered and crumbling sensation, but after stepping inside that impression was blown away.

“Wha…What is this?”

It was a wide room with many chairs, benches, and beds. Scattered around were piles of trash.

“Hahaha, you must be surprised. This was originally a wide empty room, but as this place is cool in the summers and warm in the winters, the locals started using this place for summering and wintering. And because of that the condition is like this.”

Rucall explained. Likely for that reason magic lamps were set up here and there, and although it wasn’t as bright as during the day, it was still plenty bright.

“Oh, so that’s how it was.”

“It was so sudden, so I got surprised.”

After Rucall’s explanation Reinhardt and Elsa laughed and said, while only Jin had a frown on his face.