Chapter 397: Dungeon's Mutterings (Patreon)

Lady Riveria didn't seem to get along well with her family.

Then again, that was probably obvious. And come to think of it, wasn't she supposed to return someday and inherit the queen's seat, since she had no other siblings?

While Isagi's thoughts wandered, he and the two Elf women arrived at the foot of a tall tower on one side of the castle. The guards lifted the stone tablets out of the carriage and prepared to carry them upstairs.

"Let's go."

Riveria didn't delay for a moment. She called Isagi and Lefiya forward, and they entered the weathered gray tower, its walls overrun with vines and moss.

They climbed the spiral stairs, floor after floor. On every level, the damp mud-and-stone floors were piled high with books.

Elves almost never use wood. At first their furniture was all rather crude work of mud and stone. Later it became finely wrought, exquisitely beautiful furniture forged from various ores, which left their relationship with the Dwarves rather delicate.

With the Elves' frankly "merciless" demand for perfection, almost only Dwarf craftsmen were capable of forging the furniture they wanted. Yet the Dwarves considered it a waste to use such fine ore on furniture instead of weapons and armor. The Elves, in turn, sneered that Dwarves had no idea what "beauty" even meant.

That was about the level of tangled, unresolvable mess between the two races. And that was before getting into their differing tastes in coffee and liquor, or their arguments over fine fabrics versus practicality.

This tower held a great deal of the Elves' ancient "furniture."

There were openwork iron bookshelves, graceful lines spreading like branches and leaves. There were nearly transparent crystal tables, glimmering with faint light like stars in the dark. There were sharp, strangely styled stools that looked like countless spears and swords piled together.

Almost every piece was completely different, highlighting the character and taste of its owner. After all, each had been custom-made, with no assembly-line goods among them. The Elves were united, yet they cared deeply about individuality.

At last they reached the top floor.

Several elderly Elf scholars were already waiting there. Beneath their wide brocade robes, even those who had gone bald kept what remained of their graying silver hair immaculately groomed. Their thin bodies were held perfectly straight as they sat on the floor, studying the tablets that had been brought up with utterly serious expressions.

"Your Highness."

After that brief greeting, the research resumed.

"This is definitely some kind of writing from the ancient era. It looks like it belonged to a nation of that age..."

"Mm. It seems somewhat similar to a variant of the Koine, or perhaps its origin."

The Koine everyone used today was said to have first appeared because of the founding of Orario.

But not after the gods came down to the mortal realm. It was far, far earlier. Heroes from all over the world had been fighting back against the Monsters, and their efforts finally converged on the place where the city now stood, around the Great Pit. There they founded Orario.

Heroes and soldiers from all corners of the world, of different races, naturally needed to communicate with one another. And so the Koine was born.

At the very beginning, it should have come from the language of some great human nation. After all, rather than create an entirely new language, it was easier to pick the one with the most speakers and learn it. In the course of learning, it then evolved through new vocabulary born of local culture and customs and the differences between regions, until it finally became what it was today.

"You're sure it's the language of some ancient human kingdom?"

"Mm."

It wasn't Dwarf or Elf, nor demi-human, Amazon or Pallum. It was human. That was only natural.

The Elves had always had their own language, but it was highly insular and not widely spoken. Their numbers were small, and few of them ever went out into the world, which made it rarer still.

The Dwarves had lived alongside humans for a very long time and had never had a country of their own. The Pallum were similar. And because of their small, frail bodies, the Pallum were often discriminated against, and their circumstances were far worse than the Dwarves'.

The demi-humans were tightly knit and had cultures of their own, but they were too scattered. Most lived in tribes of a few dozen to a hundred, spread over different lands. Some had integrated into human nations, but mostly as marginal groups.

As for the Amazons, there was even less to say. They lived as perpetual wanderers. They had strong tribal customs, but they paid no attention at all to "culture."

So it could only be the language of a human kingdom.

The scholars present guessed that it might be one of the languages spoken by the Heroes and soldiers who first reached Orario and built the city there. Which country exactly would require further research.

After all, that was a turbulent age. Monsters ran rampant across the continent, and even a once vast and glorious nation could be wiped out overnight.

What followed was tedious, repetitive work. The elderly scholars had young Elves bring them bundle after bundle of ancient books, then compared the writing on the tablets against the books and parchments. When they found a match, they searched out the source and traced it back to its roots.

It was a massive undertaking. By the scholars' estimate, it might take several years, even decades. This was probably the Elven sense of time: as long as it wasn't centuries, it was "no big deal."

When Isagi heard these people say such things so casually, all he could think was how absurd it was!

Fortunately, Lady Riveria had some common sense. Her plan had been to "win fast." First she would see whether the text could be translated in a short time. If not, she couldn't let these old-timers take their sweet time, because the Elves, especially these elderly scholars, had an utterly outrageous sense of time.

So Riveria had a backup plan. She meant to send copies to scholars of friendly nations, or even seek out the gods who governed "knowledge" and "wisdom" to ask for help.

But a few days later, just before the group was due to leave, the scholars' research made a breakthrough. It might have been luck, or perhaps some destiny at work in the dark.

The Elves had found the ancient language matching the tablets. It truly was a nation that had vanished from the continent. But since it had once been a great power that dominated its region, a considerable amount of written material remained, and the translation progressed rapidly.

[What do trees and flowers look like?]

[What is a "mountain"?]

[What are rivers and lakes, and the ocean? Are they just different degrees of water gathered together?]

And:

[What is the sky like?]

The tablets were carved with one question after another, questions that felt almost "incomprehensible."

Did these even need answers? Even a small child, from birth, would naturally understand what the sky, the ocean and the mountains and forests were. Why would anyone ask such things?

Nearly every tablet was the same. All of them held fundamental questions like these, as if a child born in pure darkness, understanding nothing, were asking you about everything in the world.

Isagi understood quickly once he saw them, because it was very easy to understand.

These questions were exactly what "the Dungeon itself" wanted to ask. She had never seen any of these things, so all she could do was guess. She really was a pitiful one.

The Elf scholars translated and recorded every question, and did so efficiently, probably because Lady Riveria was standing over them as "overseer." They compiled a rough translation booklet. If similar tablets were found in the Dungeon later, they could use it to do basic translations on the spot.

The trip went even more smoothly than expected.

And so, a week later, Isagi and the two Elves boarded the carriage back.

"By the way, Isagi."

A cool breeze came through the carriage window. As they drew farther from the giant forest behind them, before long a stretch of fields appeared. It was a small village where humans and demi-humans lived together.

Isagi saw a little boy holding a wooden sword and a small Cat Person girl in a gray dress standing by the road, watching them pass. In their eyes was that familiar longing for adventurers and for Orario, the "center of the world."

Perhaps ten or twenty years from now, those two little ones would become adventurers too, go to the city, and resolutely step into the Dungeon.

"If these questions are what the Dungeon wants to ask, then how would she know this writing and language?"

"Because of the Heroes and soldiers who first arrived and entered the Dungeon, I suppose."

"Hmm... that's actually pretty reasonable."

Lefiya nodded to herself, but Riveria still looked puzzled.

"But the Dungeon has taken the form it has now. Doesn't she have rivers, waterfalls, lakes, forests and grasslands inside her as well?"

Not only that. Isagi's special Dungeon even had a castle.

The boy had a different feeling about that, which was...

Setting the original Dungeon aside, his own special Dungeon probably existed because his "memories" had formed some kind of connection with the Dungeon. Just like in the Dark Hall within his dreams.

A premonition suddenly struck Isagi. Could it be that, deeper in the Dungeon, there might appear a—

*

Before returning to Orario, the carriage stopped once more to rest in the town with the flower fields at the foot of the mountain. They planned to head back to the city the next day.

There was no need to rush this time. So while Riveria went to visit her family maid, Eina, she also told Isagi and Lefiya to rest properly for a day.

"The hot springs here are wonderful too. Of course, they're even better in winter."

"The flowers are beautiful right now, too! Isagi, let's go to the flower fields!!"

"Sure."

The Elf girl was especially happy. She grabbed Isagi's hand and ran down the mountain.

This seemed to be a tourist town. Along the way they passed plenty of visitors, with a particularly large number of Elves, probably because the scenery really was lovely. It wasn't only the road down the mountain. The area around the flower fields was crowded as well.

That seemed to embarrass Lefiya a little. She had probably been planning to roll around in the flowers like a silly little bear cub. Naturally, she couldn't do that now. No matter how much of a social butterfly she was, she wouldn't do something like that in front of so many of her own people.

So the two of them simply walked a loop around the flower fields.

Just as Lady Riveria had said, the air here was really good. The late-summer sun wasn't hot at all, and the breeze carried nothing but the scent of flowers.

As evening approached, the orange glow of late summer spread out all at once, and the whole mountainside looked as if it had been drenched in a thick layer of orange juice.

By then Isagi and Lefiya were resting on a bench among the flowers. At some point the Elf girl had drifted off, leaning on his shoulder and snoring softly. Faint rosy clouds colored her cheeks, and she was smiling a little, who knew what good things she was doing in her dream.

Since Her Highness was still away, the two of them would probably be eating dinner alone. Nobody had phones in this day and age, so there was no way to look up the famous local restaurants. They could only ask passersby, and even that got them no definite answer.

The town wasn't big, but it had an especially large number of places to eat and stay. In the end Isagi went on instinct and picked an unremarkable little shop run by a Dwarf uncle.

The lamb, slow-cooked in a clay oven, had barely been set on the table when Lefiya, who had still been half asleep, was woken by the smell. Unlike most Elves, she was a girl who loved big chunks of meat.

Watching a huge lamb rib sizzle and drip with fat in front of her, drenched in the Dwarves' special heavy sauce, her appetite surged.

The result was that both of them ate until they were stuffed, then dragged themselves back to the inn where they were staying, bellies full.

A full stomach made one want to rest. There was nothing else to do, so after washing up, Isagi planned to go back to his room. Lefiya, meanwhile, wanted to bring some food to Lady Riveria. Probably because dinner had been so good, she wanted to share it.

Isagi let her go and went back to his room alone. In the night, which had grown fully dark, he lay down on the bed. Before long, he drifted gently off to sleep.

Darkness enveloped him all at once, yet his consciousness felt strangely clear. It felt a little odd, yet strangely there was no sense of "worry." If anything, it felt very "familiar."

Suddenly, in the darkness, a cold little hand seemed to touch his face.

In the space of a daze, Isagi found himself in the "Dungeon."

This was absolutely the Dungeon. The darkness before him was nearly bottomless, and under his feet was a very familiar slope. At the end of that slope, Isagi could see the black sphere the Xenos called "Mother." No, perhaps it was better to call it a sort of "egg."

Wrapped within that boundless black was the black-haired girl he had seen before.

There was no mistake. She was the [Dungeon]. And in that very instant, Isagi realized that she had come right up before him, and then she smiled faintly.