Vol 1 Chapter 3 (1/2)
Chapter 3 - Exploring the Treasure Vault
The dish of ”wild deer liver saute paired with marinated raisins” flew up violently into the air
Kaito raised a silver platter over his head to block the rain of food before shi+fting the platter in front of hi table knife aiht
”Like~ I~ said~, stop throwing things”
This kind of scene had repeated for the past ten-odd days and Kaito was already used to it
He was starting to worry that he was too adaptable
Putting that aside, after defending against all the attacks, Kaito turned his gaze to the perpetrator—Elisabeth
With one foot on the table, Elisabeth was pressing a shaking index finger against her forehead Next to her, a bottle of hich had been selected very rigorously had already been knocked over With tears in her eyes, Elisabeth cried out loudly:
”So disgusting! Even though the sweet and sour flavor of the le with the liver's explosion of bloody stench You !”
”I'm not worthy of your praise”
”I a you!”
The fork flew This ti merely millimeters above the platter, the fork stabbed into Kaito's forehead Kaito pulled out the fork and blood ca sound effect
”Miss Elisabeth, Miss Elisabeth, I a”
”Who cares about you!? Overcome this level of injury with spirit! As my servant, you can do it”
”No Using spirit is really”
Pressing on his wound, Kaito sighed Actually, this sort of minor injury was no shock to hi had never been absent froo, he had lost an arm, so this kind of minor wound was trivial in comparison
Humans were truly creatures that adapted to their environment
Even so, Kaito's cooking ability was still at a despairing level
Kaito himself had almost no standards when it came to food, hence he could not understand Elisabeth's overwhel ability, even to the point of thinking that trying to improve would be pointless However, Elisabeth see substantial expectations for hi day
”I shall no longer expect anything at all froht”
After finishi+ng the salt-roasted heart Kaito had prepared, Elisabeth made her way to the throne room and finally issued that announce the clear blue sky
The wall broken by The Knight's beast from before had re to it Even so, Elisabeth see to use it despite its sorry state
Sitting on her throne that had been moved back to its proper place, she showed a vexed expression and issued a co on the side, one that differed from her usual commands
”Instead, I order you to explore the treasure vault today”
”The treasure vault?”
Kaito repeated her words like a parrot Elisabeth tapped the stone tiled floor with the tip of her foot Pitch-black darkness and red petals began to burn like a torch in the center of the floor then contracted into a point, scorching a square area of the stone floor before disappearing, leaving a black door
As though equipped with a spring mechanism, the door opened suddenly from inside
In it was a spiral staircase Judging from the castle's layout, it was quite abnormal for there to be stairs under the throne roo out of thin air before, it would be quite boorish to voice such a comment Hence, Kaito simply felt honestly impressed at a time like this
”So there was a place like this here?”
”Hht ca feed, but your pudding was delicious, you were able to ment, and you faced me fearlessly These aspects are rather excellent Every ti out the linen, that look of disdain on your face is rather displeasing Hence, I have decided to bestow you with a weapon allowing you to face a demon on your own Pick any item you wish fro you are able to use No ive it to you”
”Uh, I guess I should be saying 'I'm so honored'?”
”By the way, allow ive an introduction Despite its naical dimension I created to transfer allinside is covered with grudges andcould be fatal, understood?”
”Sure enough, you're just picking a fight after all, right!?”
”Silence! Cut the endless chit chat! Off you go!”
Elisabeth's skillful and accurate kick sent Kaito flying like a ball, rolling through the door in an exaggerated , the door sla but to no avail
With no way to go back, Kaito sighed at Elisabeth's merciless ways
In front of hi spiral staircase, the only path at the moment
In the darkness, the rectangular steps of stone curved gently, hovering indown, all Kaito could see were steps stretching endlessly and nothing else Warh there was no guarantee that there was solid ground at the end of the staircase
”What the heck”
Looking at these stone steps which did not even have a handrail, Kaito could not help but grumble Despair seeped into his heart bit by bit but he shook his head and changed his mindset
(Elisabeth ood point)
A weapon was necessary in order to fight de whether he would end up in a siain If he had obtained a weapon, perhaps he could have fought the crows and the spider Doing this was to avoid repeating the same mistakes
For the sake of preventing that froain
So what if he had to explore this oical dimension?
”So that's that I just have to brace myself and do it”
Confronted with the steps that seemed to lead to the botto his aran the doard journey with the sound of solid footsteps
Kaito thought the surroundings consisted only of eternal darkness, but unexpectedly, this was not so
As he descended, a great variety of shapes and for next to the steps Aes, ironone after another haphazardly Glinting with dark luster, those instruns of use The ironspikes inside the birdcage had discolored pieces of flesh and fat on them
Looking at these rusted instruical iteical items summoned by Elisabeth were brand new Most likely, she possessed the power to endlessly summon instru on their surface
However, ere these unusual tools kept here?
”Intriguing”
Puzzled, Kaito continued onward
By the ti to a flat path Perhaps his sense of balance was disrupted in this die started He had been following the endless stone steps, advancing onward Meanwhile, the surrounding objects became even more varied
Gemstones the size of a human fist, a pot decorated with three-dier pelts, ivory, broken chandeliers, small mummies of some sort, bronze axes, iron swords, silver spears Kaito pulled out a nificent sword froer backwards
”No good, too heavy The axes and spears are too heavy too”
The weapons at The Earl's house had apparently been chosen so that even children could wield them easily On the other hand, the weapons in the ”treasure vault” were hts or swordsically nor had he undergone training, so it looked like he had no way of using these weapons effectively
He tossed the sword aside, only to hear a heavy clong as though it was being sed by a pile of gold coins like sinking into quicksand
Completely uninterested in wealth and treasure, he continued to walk, but the farther he went, the less the randomly scattered objects resembled weapons
A chair that looked very comfortable to sit on A half-finished work of e a deep forest scene
”Hmm?”
Suddenly, the tip of Kaito's shoe bu soft He looked down to see a s out from its belly By the time he realized, he was surrounded completely by children's toys
It looked like had he reached a level where Elisabeth's childhood possessions were kept
The plushi+es were disemboweled, the dolls were decapitated Porcelain, cotton, wood Dolls and plushi+es of various materials exhibited twisted cross-sections that pained the viewer This was sufficient evidence to know that these things belonged to her
”So she already had that kind of hobby back when she was little, huh?”
Kaitowent, ”The child is the father of thesurprised, Kaito was just about to toss the teddy bear ahen he felt sorry for it and repositioned it properly
Just as he was about to keep walking when he heard a hollow voice from afar
”Elisabe th Eli th sabe th”
”What's going on?”
Kaito could not help but halt Instantly, a iant python
”Elisabeth Elisabeth My lovely daughter Elisabeth My”
The voice was terrifying, as intangible as wind blowing between trees, yet carrying warhtly If one were to listen for long duration, the voice would probably permeate one's eardrums to eat away at the brain
”What the heck is this?”
Driven by an intense instinctual disgust, Kaito backed away The voice grew progressively stronger as though pursuing hi to lose that voice, Kaito ran subconsciously However, the voice sounded quite obsessed, chasing hi ”don't think you can escape”
”Elisabeth Elisabeth My lovely daughter Elisabeth”
”What the fuck is this!?”
No matter how he ran, Kaito still could not escape the voice Looking around hi There was a door buried in a pile of toys that reseh toy soldiers were guarding it In desperation, Kaito grabbed the handle and pulled the door open
Inside the open dooras not a scene behind a door Instead, it was a swathe of even sinister darkness without light He took a few steps through the door then immediately widened his eyes in surprise
Thisin an unfamiliar room
”Huh?”
Kaito surveyed his surroundings blankly This was apparently a child's bedroom
Within the cube-like layout of the room, the walls were covered by faded and yelloallpaper with patterns of flowers, the sill was decorated with adorable plaster in the shape of candies The furniture was uniforolden handles were quite beautiful On top of it were dolls and plushi+es Surrounded by four posts, the bed was covered by pearly sheets that probably had a thick mattress stuffed with down underneath
In a sea of blankets, ee
The girl's chest was dyed red from blood
Her face was pallid and her body was so skinny that one could see every vein clearly Probably quite beautiful originally, her long black hair had lost its luster, getting e round eyes and straight nose were so beautiful that they did not see to the mortal realm, however, those hollow eyes had lost all vitality Her little thin lips had tragic traces of blood stuck to thehed up blood
Confronted this faasped
Unirl was none other than Elisabeth in her childhood
(Oh Surely this isn't so I'm meant to see)
After realizing this, Kaito inched away backwards and exited the door As soon as he passed through the door completely, the scene before his eyes dissociated and disappeared like ripples on a calm water surface All that was left were the mountain of broken toys and the door embedded in the pile of toys
It looked like he had exited the child's bedroohed in relief However, the creepy voice instantly entered his ear Without any time to contemplate what he had just witnessed, Kaito turned around and ran In his confusion, he desperately distanced hie as well as theto him obsessively
(What the heck, cut that out I-I don't want to know anything)
Kaito did not want to knohat kind of past that the arrogant girl with bizarre behavior had, neither did he expect to be forced to peek on memories that she herself likely did not want others to know Although he did not feel any affection for her, he felt that this was a kind of betrayal
Elisabeth Le Fanu was both a proud wolf and a lowly sow
She had introduced herself fearlessly in this irl he had just seen
Surely, she would not want her servant Kaito to see her looking so weak
Kaito kept running single-mindedly and reached somewhere with a substantially different atmosphere
”Huff Huff Huff Where is this place?”
Hewall of stone Approaching for a closer look, he saw that the wall had a weird structure coap between theht like a world boundary Here, Kaito noticed so
”H on?”
For soht Kaito approached it in trepidation
On the illuminated as a set of iron shackles