Master and Slaves

"Haa. I’ll go too. If nothing happens, I’ll come call you. Until then, wait here."

I told my slaves and the Quono group, and tried to enter the ruins with Sophia.

"No, we can’t allow you to do that. Tomass and I will go."

"E~ am I going?"

"Tomass!"

"Hai hai. But you stay behind."

"...... Why?"

"Who’s guarding Hiroyuki?"

"...... Right. Then I’ll go. Since Sophia is an elf, I think it’s better for me to go, since I can fight with weapons?"

"That makes sense too. Then, I’ll have fun talking with Cathy."

Tomass said the discussion was over, went to Cathy’s side, and started talking to her.

"Tomass! Haa, I’m sorry."

"No, then, please take care of Sophia."

"Understood. I’ll also do a little investigation inside."

Quono bowed to me with "well then," and went into the ruins with Sophia.

He had said he had investigated the ruins on the way here....

That was probably out of consideration to expose us to as little danger as possible.

He was quite stubborn.

No, it was professional awareness.

"Well then, what do we do?"

Muriel turned and asked me.

Cathy was talking to Tomass.

Tiria was also talking to Lilli.

"Let’s wait here."

I sat on a large stone nearby.

"Cathy is unlucky too."

Muriel sat beside me.

"Ah, but it’s good rehabilitation... ah, it might become training."

She wore those ornaments because she didn’t want to be afraid of people.

Well, it was an immediate man, but it was probably okay for talking.

Cathy didn’t seem that bad either.

Still, I was worried, so I just gave a warning.

"Training...?"

Muriel asked me.

Ah, I hadn’t told her.

"Ah~ well, rather, Tiria is more unlucky, isn’t she?"

I evaded and looked at Tiria.

Tiria was talking to Lilli.

She was talking to Lilli because she had given permission to talk, but she seemed a bit confused.

"Are you worried?"

"Yeah, I guess."

I stood up, approached Tiria and Lilli.

"Ah, Master!"

Tiria, who noticed me, called out to me even in the middle of conversation.

"Hey, Tiria, are you listening to my story?"

"Ah~ Lilli. What are you talking about?"

"Slave stories. I’ve seen slaves being beaten with whips. I thought maybe Tiria gets beaten too. Does that hurt? I’ve never been beaten, but slaves keep saying ’it hurts, it hurts.’ Does Hiroyuki-sama ever hit with a whip? What does it feel like? Is it good?"

Lilli’s mouth kept spewing words like a machine gun, but the content was awful.

It didn’t sound like something a child would say.

So I changed the topic.

"I’ve never been hit with a whip, so I don’t know. By the way, where did you live, Lilli?"

"I? Um, various places. Empty houses and trees. Recently I stay in an inn with money from Quono."

"Um, family?"

"They chased me out and told me to live alone. Haha, it’s said that we hobbits have to live alone when we’re 15. And my dad and mom are always going somewhere, so there’s no fixed house."

...What kind of race is the hobbit?

"Hobbits have a wandering habit, so they live freely."

Muriel explained the hobbit race.

Elves and hobbits, the personalities change a lot depending on the race.

"Yeah, that’s why. I got interested in Tiria-chan."

Lilli stuck out her tongue.

Well, Tiria is a To-Dule, so it’s the exact opposite of the hobbits.

At that moment.

"Hiroyuki-dono...."

Muriel looked around and called me in a low voice.

What?

I also looked around.

"Thunderball!"

Tomass shouted suddenly, and an explosion occurred far to the right of the ruins entrance, with smoke rising.

"What happened!?"

"Giant centipede. It’s fine, it should be dead."

"Giant... ah, big centipede. They often come out around here."

"What! Why didn’t you say that!"

Tomass confronted me.

Muriel extended her arm in front of me.

I was protected by Muriel.

"We try to avoid danger as much as possible. Say the information in advance!"

Tomass raised his voice.

That was true.

"Sorry."

I apologized honestly.

"...Is the inside of the ruins okay?"

Tomass asked me after calming down a little.

"Yeah, it’s fine."

I answered that, because it hadn’t been attacked inside the ruins.

"I see. Understood."

At that moment, Quono and Sophia came out from inside the ruins.

"What happened? Explosion was heard, but something happened?"

"Ah, it almost got attacked by the giant centipede. I took it down."

Tomass pointed to the still-smoking area.

"I see. Then, no one got injured."

"Yeah, fine."

Quono looked around and asked, and Tomass answered.

"So, how was the inside of the ruins?"

"It’s clean at least until the back room. Also, it wasn’t cursed."

"So you said it was fine."

Sophia’s curse was met with Quono’s "aha ha" wry smile.

"Sorry."

"No problem. Then, let’s go."

Quono gave the signal, and we entered the ruins.

......

"So, this is the back?"

That was the place where I and Helene had been decoding the characters.

"Here is a hidden door. I’ll open it now."

"No, if you know the location, let Lilli do it. Lilli."

"Understood."

Lilli, who received the short dagger from Tomass with illumination on, stared at the wall with the hidden door, then carefully touched it with his hands.

"Yeah, understood."

After a while, he muttered that, then pressed the indentation on the wall.

The wall split in two and slid sideways, revealing a path.

There was a room where Sophia was imprisoned beyond.

"Hey! Lilli! Say you’re opening it first! What if there’s something inside!"

Tomass shouted at Lilli.

"Sorry."

Lilli stuck out his tongue and apologized.

"Well, anyway, the hidden door opened safely, so let’s go forward."

Quono appeased Tomass and urged him.

Then he took the short dagger from Lilli and went ahead.

"Hiroyuki-dono, is there anything dangerous here?"

"I haven’t seen it before, so I don’t know. You should ask Sophia, not me."

"Then, Sophia-dono, what do you think?"

Quono asked Sophia when I said that.

"There is a door ahead. The destination is beyond that door. There is a golem, but since the magic of this ruins is insufficient, it probably won’t move."

"I understand. But in case something happens, please come after us."

"It’s fine. The golem stops when you say the password."

"What is the password?"

"It is ’I know the gods. Receive my words. Stop.’"

"...... What language is that?"

"It’s an ancient language. I don’t understand the meaning either."

Quono and Sophia talked like that.

But I understood the meaning.

In other words, Japanese.

The pronunciation was quite off.

But it was normal.

The characters written on the wall of the previous room were also Japanese.

But I decided not to say the meaning of the words.

It would be troublesome if I was asked too much.

"I can’t say it. What about you, Tomass?"

Quono turned to Tomass, who shrugged and shook his head.

"I see. Then, please, Sophia-dono."

"Understood."

The talk progressed.

I thought I should have said it myself, but I decided not to say anything after all.

......

When the talk was finished, we advanced.

Then, at the end, like always, Lilli checked the back door, opened it with the signal.

It was a vast circular room with a diameter of 50 meters, and in the back stood a metal golem.

It was about 3 meters tall.

It was a match with the Geizer we fought earlier.

The shape was mostly round, and it vaguely reminded me of an old robot.

"Whoa, it’s big."

Tomass groaned exaggeratedly.

"Tch! It’s metal. The compatibility is bad."

Quono cursed while looking at the greatsword he held.

"Tomass, I’m bad at this opponent. You can do it."

"Yeah, I’m good at it."

When Quono asked, Tomass rolled up his sleeves and licked his lips and answered that way.

Come to think of it, the magic I used to defeat the giant centipede earlier seemed to be electrical.

He said it was compatible, probably because Tomass was good at electrical magic.

Conversely, Quono uses a sword, so he was bad with metal.

What would be compatible with this... iron saw?

"Okay, let’s go."

"Yeah, understood."

While I was thinking, Quono and Tomass stepped into the room.

Then the golem’s eyes lit up yellow, and it slowly moved.

"Sophia-dono!"

"Understood. ’I know the gods. Receive my words. Stop.’"

Sophia chanted the password at Quono’s signal.

However, the metal golem didn’t seem to stop.

"Impossible..."

"One more time, please."

"W-Understood. ’I know the gods. Receive my words. Stop.’"

Sophia repeated the password, but it didn’t stop.

"Wh-What..."

"...Let’s go, Tomass."

"Roger."

Quono and Tomass, on signal, advanced toward the golem.