The Traveling Hero Won’t Let the Innkeeper’s Son Escape

Eventually Ruth reaches the cold lab.

"It's still cold in here... speaking of which, what is this painting?

In the freezing cold, I looked up with my body in mockery, like a sword stabbed in a sphere written on a blackboard. I can't read the old letters, so I tilt my neck without knowing what it means to be written on the side.

"... oh, yeah. I found a card here."

Tilting his neck to the blackboard painting, Ruth remembered why he had previously entered this room.

The card I picked up in this room was the key to opening the deepest door, and thanks to that key, Ruth was able to get in the back.

"Is that left in the bag?

When I flipped in the room, I didn't see the cards present.

I might not be able to go back in Ruth without that card. I rush to start fishing in the bag.

"... good. There was."

Fortunately, the card was caught on the bottom of the bag. It was under the trash, so I guess it never went out on its own and fell off.

"... Brother Ruth. Can't we just leave yet?

Addy peeks me in the face from the trash I put out when I fished in the bag. She looked a little pale.

"Maybe you're feeling sick, Addy?

Originally trash cans shouldn't be like people getting in. Ruth is out right away so it's no problem, but it's not strange if she's been in there long enough to feel ill.

"Yeah... I might want to get some air outside... no?

To be honest, until it's all over, - I'd like you to at least stay in until you get to Alec and the others, but it would also be a problem not to let them rest because you're not feeling well.

"... no, that's fine. Come on out."

That's what Ruth said, pulling Addy's hand and pulling him out. I feel safe looking around for a moment, with no significant change from before entering.

(There were few melting demons out ahead, and are you okay...)

The path Ruth is planning to take is not the kind of place people go through. I never encountered a melting demon there before. It will be fine if Addy is on your side.

"So, Addy, are you coming? Follow me properly."

"Yeah."

Ruth hurried down the road again with Addy returning a healthy reply.

As it was, Ruth moved on through what could not even be called a passage he had passed before. I was not lost in any way, because I clearly remembered the way.

That would be thanks to the fact that we have always tried to act with caution around us in order to walk mountains. Mountains have many similar places and are easy to get lost. But Ruth never got lost.

"Wow, that's a nice place..."

"Yeah."

Eventually we reached it through a place that was not even a path, a place that had previously seen giant demonic squares painted on circular doors, in the shape of a side-by-side cylinder. But now...

"The demon squares disappear and the doors are open..."

Ruth used to have a small hole in the light of light red, and went into the back of it, but now the big door was usually open and the road continued.

"Alec and the others are already here...!

Realizing the possibility, Ruth rushes out.

"Ah, Brother Ruth!

Didn't even notice Addy calling later, and Ruth runs straight down the road as he does.

At the end of the door there was a huge space as I remember it. It's a vertically built, cylindrical room with countless doors along the walls.

"The road......!?

But the bridge to the center I had previously passed had disappeared.

At that time, if Ruth had moved the central device, the bridge here would have disappeared on its own. The fact that the same phenomenon is happening means someone is in that deepest part of the world.

"I see the stairs... Orha, carry us! Addy, come on!"

Ruth hurries into the dumpster with Addy and asks Orha to take every bag just like he did at first. When I got to the stairs that were showing up in the center, I ran down without even confirming that Addy had left.

(Alec, Alec, Alec!

I didn't feel so concerned about the stairs before, but I didn't like them long. I can hardly get to where I want to be.

As Ruth distracted herself and cut down the stairs letting her legs be, there stood a line of brave men who broke up this morning. They are turning their backs on Ruth and not realizing if they are concentrating on something. In the center there is Alec with something like a square box.

Alec tries to put the box he had on a platform that jumps off the floor.

"- Oh, wait, Alec! No, no!

"Huh... Ruth!?

"What, Ruth?

"Real!?

To Ruth's voice, Alec and his line turned with a surprised face.

When he saw Alec stop the box he tried to put down, Ruth jumped on its body. Alec accepted that it would be easier for Ruth, but he dropped the box he was supposed to have on the spot.

"You haven't done anything yet, have you, Alec? Procedures, nothing!?

"And the procedure? I didn't do that..."

Ruth touched Alec to examine his body. I touch my hair, face, shoulders and torso all over my neck. Alec was made an adult, but he stayed with me.

(Nothing, nothing has changed... stay Alec...)

Ruth sighed loudly, relieved that Alec looked no different from when he split.

"Oh... good... we made it. Good in time, Alec..."

Unexpectedly zero words were in tears.

Ruth himself didn't understand, but I'm sure he was more afraid than anything of losing Alec.

Alec's hand gently stroked his head as if he understood Ruth's mood like that.

"Are you calm, Ruth?

"Yeah...... sorry, I was in a bit of a hurry"

When he is stroked in the head and back and buried in Alec's chest, his rough and disturbed breathing calms him down with haste and fear. - That's how I finally figured out what's going on in my current state.

"Ah..."

When I look up from Alec's chest, his people are asking this one with an awkward bitter laugh.

(Ah!)

Ruth had completely forgotten about them, filled with heads that he had to make sure Alec was safe.

I suddenly get embarrassed to be holding each other, and I rush away. Alec's hand was reaching out, but I grabbed it and stopped.

"Um... Um... Um, this is..."

Even Alec laughed bitterly at Ruth's appearance as he turned his face bright red and was openly upset and managed to explain.

His people are going through a bitter laugh and about to erupt. But the expression is warm.

"When I first saw it, I thought it was fake..."

"This person looks like Mr. Ruth himself."

"First of all, Alec admits to being Ruth."

"Well, that's for sure."

"There's no way Alec made a mistake with Ruth."

"I think it's real, even from the amount of magic in his body."

"Huh? Huh, fake!? What do you mean?"

Alec peered into his face when Ruth was confused by an unsure convincer.

"So, what's the matter, you're in such a hurry... how did you get here, Ruth? Normally you can't come."

To Alec's question, his companions also tightened the look that was crumbling.

Their doubts will be natural. This is not just a place for village youth to know, like inherently Ruth.

Those who understood that there was a forgotten and advanced civilization in this world, and were led along with it - Alec, brave men. It is a place that cannot be reached without a single line. Normally, it's difficult to get in.

Yet Ruth, a normal young man, had reached this place after Alec and the others who had gone out earlier.

"I've been here once before....... I forgot until today though. And thanks to that, you can come all the way here."

"What do you mean?

"Probably led by something..."

"Guided?

I just want to explain Alec's question properly, but on top of talking a little longer from scratch, I don't know the real reason Ruth has been here before either.

(Something's wrong with calling it all a coincidence...)

Ruth also noticed after I got my memory back, but a lot of things were too much to do. There's never going to happen to be anything lost, I can't say enough. But it would be strange to get to such depths in a building as large as you can imagine without taking the time to reach them. Normally, you get lost in front all the time, or it's not weird that you're dead in the first place.

(Well, all thanks to that light of light...)

The thin red light that brought me this far while leading Ruth not to be killed. Without that, it must have been impossible to get there safely.

(I wonder what that was... more than that!

Later in the discussion, Ruth had something to tell the Aleks. That's more important than anything.

"Anyway, I'll tell you more about how I've been here before. More than that, there's something I need to tell the Aleks. Follow me."

"Oh, oh,"

When Ruth pulls Alec's hand, he takes the card out of his nostalgia and goes underground through the door that was in the corner of the room. "Uh, how did you open it?" He went down the stairs as he heard Alec and the others raise their bewildered voices.

"This place..."

Alec and the others raise their voices of surprise.

"That's right. This is what this ark still stands for."

In an incredibly large space from an earlier small room is a giant, cylindrical glass case connected with many machines. Strong light is emitted from it, and I don't know what's in it. It just emitted an atmosphere that I could see at a glance from the glass case body and the demonic squares applied on one side of the wall.

Four cases are lined up so as to surround the glass case in its center. Contrary to the center, I could see people in that glass case.

(I've seen it before...)

"This is the depth of this building. And... the four men here are the four gods of Sestias. To move this sealing device, he's a former hero."

I could hear Alec and the others breathing in Ruth's words. I don't know how much they know about this place when the Ark came in saying it was the final dungeon, but it must still be the first time I've seen it.

"And then, Alec, look here"

Apart from the central glass case, Ruth leads Alec to the case placed on the floor. The glass case there had people in it in two, but also an empty case.

"The two sleeping here must be the historical braves who are said to have been in front of Alec..."

Men and women in old shaped clothes. Even from what Wonok was smelling, there would be no mistake that they were the brave men of history taught by the priest.

"This is the historical brave......"

"Yes, I'm sure all the brave men who have ever appeared in the world have become human pillars in this institution to seal the culprits who nearly destroyed people a thousand years ago"

Ruth held Alec's hand strongly.

"Alec is also a candidate when he becomes a brave man..."

I don't think Wonok, who told me a lot until he took Ruth's memory, is lying.

If someone doesn't make a sacrifice, I'm pretty sure we can't keep the peace right now. And it needs Alec's help. Someone as powerful as Alec. No other changes will work.

(I know that...)

The importance to the world and personal feelings can't be on the scale. Not to mention you shouldn't listen to Ruth.

"... but I don't like that..."

Ruth shrugged small.

I had answers and such before I bothered. Alec was the only thing in Ruth's head, even if the world was told that people were, and so on. Even though I knew I was wrong, I couldn't imagine "Alec has no choice but to be a human pillar for the world".

(Stupid, me... why would I say that)

What Alec will do is for him to decide. If it means being a human pillar for the world, then Ruth must be wrong to stop that opinion.

When you're biting your back teeth in a gut so that you can't exaggerate any more about the true meaning of it that you've zeroed in, you're held by surprise.

"It's okay, Ruth. I can't believe I was originally meant to be a pillar."

"Huh?"

When Ruth looks up, Alec, smiling somewhere happy, strokes his cheek.