Chapter 127: Morgue of the Headless Prince (part six)
“This, just what exactly......”
Lièvre exclaimed in confusion.
“It’s probably an altar which has had its ritual rewritten by somebody. I don’t think it’s a good thing.”
I replied while glaring at the altar.
As a matter of fact, it’s not just 「not a good thing」 but 「corrupted」.
This would be a corrupted altar, similar to the altars in the nearby religious buildings in Knot Reed.
The difference, I guess, would be that there are many containers that look like specimen boxes.
Chloe took out her amulet accessory that was in the shape of a snowflake from her pouch and wore it.
I activated the spell of Levitation on the boots I wear to avoid stepping on a strange trap.
“It’s dangerous, so please wait here, Lièvre-san.”
“Y-yes!”
Chloe and I slowly approached the magic circle while having Lièvre on stand by.
“Erica-san, is that......?”
Chloe pointed at the magic circle in the back, so I illuminated it with the pale light of the star crystal lamp.
On top of the magic circle were dozens of white creatures—the white worms.
“White worms......no, this is—”
Then, in front of us, five of the white worms turned into huge chunks of meat and gradually began to take on another form.
A phenomenon similar to the golem of that time1 is happening.
The mutation curse which overwrites even pseudo-life form, overwrote the body configuration of the white worms.
They undulated as if dancing, increased in size, and several segmented legs grew from the wriggling lumps.
The white worms had changed into something similar to a spider.
“Those white worms have become mutated. It’s a corrupt curse that erodes and mutates life forms.”
When I said so, Chloe swung her snowsilver sword and stabbed it into the magic circle.
The black light that was gushing out from the magic circle clung onto the sword like tentacles.
However, the snowsilver sword cut through the magic circle with the black light regardless of the bouncing curse.
When about 30% of the magic circle was destroyed, the mutation of the white worm mass stopped and the light from the magic circle receded.
The body of the imperfect spiders shrank gradually, leaving only the white worm carcasses.
“The monstro we killed up until now, were those these white worms mutated inside this magic circle?”
“Yes, that seems to be the case. Those monstro were made using the specimens and the worms which were stolen by someone......”
Chloe quietly nodded to my words.
“As expected, did the museum staff or someone around them do something like this in these ruins?”
“That, I don’t know. It would be difficult for us to search for the person who set this up, so we should escape quickly and tell the principal about this place.”
The one who has sneaked into this academy is none other than a vampire.
We cannot keep such dangerous facts to ourselves.
“But let’s dispose of the white worms before they escape.”
I saw some of the white worms moving slowly so that they could reach the place where the magic circle was.
When the lamp was used to illuminate the opposite direction of the white worm’s direction of travel, we found what we were looking for.
Just a distance away, there was a big glass jar.
White worms were overflowing about two meters in radius around the jar.
“There is a possibility that someone will use them again, so I will burn them after deactivating them.”
First of all, I deactivated them using the wand of Grease.
Next, I baked those white worms using the wand of Lightning Bolt.
Just in case, to make sure there are no worms in other places, I activated the Eyes of Overworld.
It seems that there are no other organisms than us on our current layer.
There are some monstro wandering about in the upper and lower layers, but there is no large group that we can’t handle.
We may be able to feel relieved at least for a while, as those monstro do not have the ability to proliferate like white worms after mutation.
As I raised my field of vision, I found three lights that mark living beings in the upper layer.
Two humans and one small dragon.
Perhaps, they are Klaus, Auguste and Goldberry.
After confirming it, I could feel myself reaching the limit of the visual information load and ended the demonic eye magic.
“There are no white worms anywhere else, and I think we have successfully eradicated them. And it seems that my friends are coming here.”
“What a relief. That would be great.”
Why were we transferred? And who created this mechanism in a place like this?
There are many things that are still worrying me, but it appears that this is it for now.
When I informed them of the current situation, Chloe seemed to be calm, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“N-now then, you guys. Let’s go home quickly......!”
Just as I said so, the fragile body of Lièvre suddenly fell on the ground.
“......!?”
Confused, I stood still for a few moments.
Sounds like metals colliding with each other could be heard in the immediate vicinity.
I realized that Tirnanog had gotten in between me and Chloe unnoticed.
I finally understood that Chloe attacked Lièvre.
It seems the reason I wasn’t hurt the first time was because Tirnanog helped me.
“Two criminal candidates.”
Hearing Chloe’s words, I was able to understand her intentions.
If there is a perpetrator involved in the altar of vampires, it should be among the people in the museum tonight.
There is me, who had mobilized together with Chloe, and unintentionally enticed her to follow me to this place.
And Lièvre, who went to a dangerous area when one normally doesn’t have to.
From Chloe’s perspective, both of us are suspicious.
It’s not strange that we would be misunderstood as vampires or manipulated human beings.
(Uwah, even looking at this situation objectively, I’m on a suspicious level that cannot be explained......!)
Lucanrant’s people seem to have a mindset of sealing the movement of anyone suspicious.
On a second look, Chloe’s sword is sheathed and Lièvre is not even bleeding.
Perhaps, Lièvre is only unconscious.
For now, it seems determining the identity of the suspect is the utmost priority and she has no intention of killing us.
(If so, it would be better to surrender completely rather than deny things unskillfully.)
Deciding so, I called out to Tirnanog.
“Tir. Don’t protect me.”
『......!?』
After flinching for a bit, Tirnanog loosened up his stance.
“You don’t have any intention of taking our lives, do you? If so, do as you will.”
Turning towards Chloe, I held up my empty hands and smiled.
I surrendered without a fight.
Will she believe me a little with this gesture?
Then, the depths of Chloe’s eyes that look like a lake of ice shook for a moment.
“I thought that there is no way that you’re the culprit......that this person is more suspicious, but Erica-san......it’s really you?”
Chloe murmured with hoarse voice.
Even though I intended to raise a white flag, it seems I was strongly misunderstood.
“How did you come to that conclusion? You see, I’m surrendering without a fight, you know?”
“......Because you’re not good at pretending to be a human being, right?”
“Pretending? It’s not pretending, I’m very much a normal human being......”
It seems that I have dug a grave, but I don’t understand what went wrong.
“If you were an ordinary human, I don’t think you would give someone else like me the right to take your life. That’s just like a young bloodsucker who is not good at pretending to be human......”
Hearing Chloe’s words, Tirnanog nodded his head repeatedly in agreement.
I feel like my shoulders are becoming narrower and narrower as even my friend finds fault with me.
What am I to do with this feeling of feeling out of place.
“I don’t want to believe that you’re a bloodsucker, but......”
Chloe pulled out her sword out of its sheath while showing a bewildered expression.
She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again.
This time, there was no more doubt in Chloe’s eyes.
She was full of deep murderous intent to the point that I could even feel them with my skin.
(There seems to be no room for excuses. I just wanted to get along well, so why......!)
『Erica, this woman is serious.』
“Yes, it can’t be helped since this has happened. If possible, capture her without hurting her.”
The moment I jumped back with the spell Leap that was charged into my boots, I released Tirnanog’s restraint.
Tirnanog transformed from a small golem to a horned dragon that is about the size of an elephant with armor coiling around him.
Chloe and Tirnanog’s battle began.
Tirnanog mowed down and deflected the sword which Chloe swung towards him many times.
Tirnanog is naturally better in terms of physical strength and magical power, but Chloe is agile and hits with powerful blows.
It will be difficult for him to adjust his power so as to not hurt her.
(In addition, Tirnanog’s scale-like armor that was hit by Chloe’s sword is flaking off......!?)
The golem character carved on the star steel has been invalidated by the snowsilver sword.
Tirnanog seems to be careful so as to not let her hit him directly, but she is still scraping off his armor little by little.
If the battle cannot be settled quickly, the damage on Tirnanog will increase.
I took out the wand of Gust to support him.
Hold, Disarm and material creation spells that are magical layer-only spells would not work on Chloe.
However, since this wand compresses air with magic and generates gusts in the physical layer, it should be effective.
(Rearrange the spells in a configuration that will not kill her, but able to stun her in a single shot—)
As I interfered with the wand and rearranged the spell composition, a loud voice came out from the darkness.
“Wait a second! Are you serious about killing each other? That would be such a waste of human body!”
Lièvre, who was supposed to be unconscious, was getting up and said so.
At that moment, she was blown away by the gust I reflexively released.
Her body was blown about thirty meters away and she slammed against the wall on the other side of the room.
“......Chloe, I guess your reasoning wasn’t wrong.”
Lièvre was laughing as if nothing had happened, even though she was supposed to have slammed against the wall.
Her lips look redder than before, is it just my imagination?
“Most likely she is the vampire who was trying to corrupt this altar.”
In response to my words, Chloe and Tirnanog instantly turned around towards that direction.
When I thought that Lièvre was trying to get up, the distance to her was halved at the next moment.
In just one step, she had closed the distance up to fifteen meters.
“It’s troubling that I’m going to be exposed in this way. Aah, I wanted to avoid abducting my students, but—”
While her eyes were showing a sorrowful expression, Lièvre’s mouth curled up into a smile.
“You guys are going to become my sacrifices.”
Her mouth was as red as a split pomegranate, which made her pure white uneven teeth stand out even more.
1 Referring to ch 89: Altar of Vampires.
#that moment when you fail so bad at life that your acquaintance thinks you’re a vampire (your friend too!)
Changes this past week:
So, there are two terms the residents of this world call vampire with:
血啜り (bloodsucker) and 吸血鬼 (vampire). The first one has an insulting connotation, and the people who usually use this term are Palug and now Chloe. Until now, I didn’t differentiate how I translate them as on ch 89 血啜り has the reading of ‘vampire’. But now I have changed a few of them to ‘bloodsucker’ depending on the emotion of the speaker.
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