Chapter 2 (1/2)

mbb Chapter 2: Darkness-Splitting Flash

I dashed into the cellar below the workshop as soon as I arrived home, without even sparing a thought to changing out of my wet clothes. It felt like exploring that place was the most logical thing to do, or rather, to put it in other words, I didn’t feel like I had any other option. I ran down the wooden stairs into the underground room. As my boots kept raising puffy clouds of dust whenever I made a step.

“…*cough* *cough*”

This place was dilapidated. As far as I could recall, the last time I had been here was back when I had accidentally wandered down the stairs as a child.

“Alec, that’s enough! You'll get your clothes dirty with all the dust, don’t go down there again!”

Ever since Mom had scolded me that time, I had never approached the cellar again. Who knows, maybe she had only done that to hide the existence of that ‘Queen of the Underground’.

“Though, even if that were to be true…”

…Just who could be that queen? From the moniker 'queen', it was obvious it had to be a woman. Probably someone wearing a royal attire, I guess. But more importantly, how come I never felt like there was someone living below my house for seventeen years?

I kept on walking when suddenly I heard a different sound from under my feet, the floor rang hollow. I kneeled down and removed some of the dust with my fingertips.

“There’s silver here…”

There was a silver slab on the ground, a rather old one from the looks of it. I started to remove more of the grime and uncovered what looked to be letters and pictures etched into the silver. I hurried to expose the whole thing. That writing made up descriptions of various combat skills for a «Silver Smith». The first one being:

“[Punish]…”

A skill that used the properties of silver ‘To restrain and enslave a violent monster’. To put it simply, [Punish] was nothing but ‘Silver Chains’. The chains would restrain the target, and, if it tried to resist, they would bite into its body inflicting damage. If I used what I learned from [Lightning Craft], I should be able to master this skill in no time. Then I remembered what prompted me to inspect the floor and knocked on the silver slab again.

“…Yeah…”

There seemed to be an empty s.p.a.ce below the layer of silver. There must have been some sort of hidden staircase somewhere around here. Without much hesitation, I used [Lightning Craft] to absorb the silver into my left hand and reshaped it into a long tube. But I didn't expect—

“Huh…”

—the floor to suddenly disappear from under me completely. I fell back-first into freshly exposed pitch-black s.p.a.ce below me.

“….Whhooooooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh---!”

Due to all the dust, I hadn't noticed that the silver slab covered a much wider area of the floor than I expected it to. Including the bit that I was standing on. For an instant, I could feel the Reaper of Souls prepare his scythe for a swing at me. Thankfully, in the end, the strike never came. Luckily, this pit wasn’t deep enough to endanger my life. I landed on a rock hard floor with a m.u.f.fled thump. This was the second time I had fallen on my back today.

“Ow, dammit, this hurts…”

Vincent wasn’t here, but I recalled him saying ‘This is what happens to someone who skips training’. I was undeniably in pain now because I had skipped training for three months now.

I stood up, aching all over, and secured the silver rod inside the pocket of my jacket. In front of my eyes, there was… an underground room bathed in very faint light. It looked like I had fallen into the cellar of the cellar of the workshop. Though, considering this was underground, this place was quite broad and the ‘ceiling’ was pretty high too. Judging by the aged look of the stone that made up the floor and the walls, it must have been a couple of hundreds of years old and probably built by our antecessors. From the lack of dust, I guessed it had been completely isolated from the outside for a long time. It was also cold, the chill refusing to leave my skin. I came to the realization that this is how it must have felt inside a dungeon.

It was then when a ‘white object’ streaked through my field of view at a high speed.

“---!”

I instinctively moved out of the way and shoved my coat out of the way on my hip.

“…Ah.”

My preferred weapon---my ‘Silver Gun’ wasn’t present at my hip. I had left it back in the workshop. It made sense at the time, no one would carry weapons when visiting a grave. I calmed down pretty much instantly, however.

“…Sigh, so it was only a rat after all?”

On a closer inspection, the white object was a rat and it was natural for it to run away from me after I had intruded in this place. Feeling safe again, I tried to get up from the floor, but a hard object knocked on the back my head as I tried to stand.

“---!”

I took a deep breath and felt my heartbeat spiking. I looked up and I saw, towering above me, three times my height… a Black Giant looking down at me. I sprung away from it, trying to create a gap between us. Again, I instinctively reached to the holster on my hips, only, to my regret, to once again recall that I had forgotten to take my Silver Gun with me.

…Who the h.e.l.l is this---

A drop of sweat trickled down my neck. I stood like that for a few minutes, but I noticed no movement from the giant. It didn’t even feel like an animate object. I squinted trying to get a better look through the gloom.

“No---it's only an armor…”

It wasn’t a giant, only an armor. A big, ominous, pitch-black armor. Its helmet was merged with the torso, and there wasn’t a single part of the body that it wouldn't guard. The shape, and the fact I was rus.h.i.+ng to get up, caused me to confuse it with a giant.

…Well, even if it was an inanimate chunk of metal, it still had an ominous appearance to it. It was not weird for it to startle me.

“Hm? There’s a sword pierced right through it…”

After a closer look at its ‘neck’, I saw a silver greatsword stabbed through it. It looked like the thing was less 'standing upright', and more pinned to the wall. Judging from the design and the size, the weapon seemed to be a ‘b.a.s.t.a.r.d Sword’. The gloss on the blade shouted 'sharp' at a first look.

“Guess this is one of the works of my ancestors…”

I could now see a Silver Lion inscribed into its pommel. It was the kind of old artifact that could normally only be seen in the museums of Sigurd. As for the armor, however…

I couldn't tell where had that huge thing come from. It definitely wasn’t a creation of the Wolfgang family. That it wasn't made of silver was enough of a proof in itself, but there was also the ominous design and scary shape, a style that just didn't fit with my family's usual craft.

I wonder if people who would be willing to wear this kind of sinister equipment even exist…

“Is it iron?… No, it isn’t… but it is made of some sort of metal…”

Even at times like these, my inner smith wouldn't stay quiet and before I noticed what I was doing I was already staring fixedly at the armor, studying the details.I approached closer and tested the surface by rapping it lightly with my knuckles. It was then that---

“Is someone here…?”

---a m.u.f.fled voice came from inside the armor. I froze on the spot.

“Hmmm, there really seems to be someone here---”

“T-t-t-the armor…s-s-SPOKEEEEEEE---?!”

“Fool! How can an armor possibly speak? Try using your ears, kid.”

…It was true, it wasn’t exactly the armor itself that was speaking. The voice came from inside the plates. It was definitely a person’s voice. It sounded female. But the reverberation from being enclosed inside the metal made it impossible to discern her age.

“…Hmm, since you found your way into this underground room… you must be a «Silver Smith», no?”

The stranger, certainly a woman, spoke with a somewhat outdated accent. It didn’t take long for the sobriquet ‘Underground Queen’ to surface in my mind.

Could it be that the person talking right now is…? But wait, the armor will only suit a person with a big build… Someone even bigger than my father is…

“You must be one of Wolfgang's kids.”

“…Yes, I’m part of the Wolfgang family.”

I answered after a moment of hesitation looking up at the armor.

“Now that I think about it, I don’t seem to recall hearing your voice before. What happened to

‘Gilbert’?”

“D-do you know my father!?”

“Father you say… So you are his son? Ohohoh… To think that that socially awkward Gilbert would… become someone’s father. How hilarious.”

She was clearly laughing now. The way she spoke about my father made her sound like she was some sort of ‘old acquaintance’…

“…Could it be that…you are the ‘Queen’?”

My mental picture of a queen was that of an elegant and graceful person and what I had in front of me now — a huge, ominous armor — couldn’t be further away from what I expected. However, that seemed to be the most likely scenario in this situation.

“Yes, that is correct. I am a queen.”

The reply was immediate. In other words, the correct way to describe what I saw was that the queen was inside the armor.

“Then…Why is a queen inside an armor?”

Obviously, that was what had been intriguing me the most. No matter how I thought about it, it made no sense. The queen replied sounding displeased.

“Do I look like I’m in this thing because I want to?”

“What do you mean by 'Do I look…'? All I see is this stupidly large armor…”

“Tell me, kid, do you want to get to know me?”

“Well, that’s…”

If I told her I wasn’t interested, I’d be lying. She seemed to be an old acquaintance of my father, after all, maybe she knew something about him that I did not. She roared with an overbearing tone.

“Then take the sword! Everything shall become clear to you once you do!”

Her voice resounded throughout the room, and I… just kept standing still silently, scratching my head.

“That must be a joke…”

No matter how I looked at it, the sword didn't seem easy to remove. Moreover, it gave an impression of being there to seal something away…

True, according to the stories I had heard in the past, only demons or witches were treated in such a manner. I had never heard of someone sealing a queen.

“…I’ll ask you one more time. Why are you inside that armor?”

“I don’t know.”

Once again, her reply was immediate.

“To tell you the truth, I would like to learn that myself.”

“That doesn’t tell me anything and you know it.”

“I can’t seem to recall. All I remember is waking up in here. Some sort of memory loss from

the shock of entrapment, perhaps.”

“Whoah, that sounds soooo shady…”

“Y-You uncultured swine! Are you implying that I would dare to lie!?”

She was clearly demanding a privileged treatment, her voice rising as she spoke.

For her to get this worked up, she might not be exactly lying…Though I still don't have enough information about her to really trust her.

I settled on continuing the interrogation:

“By the way, when was it that you met my father? And what did you two talk about back then?”

“Hold your horses kid. Now it’s my turn to ask a question.”

Apparently, she also had some questions.

“…What do you want to know?”

“Hmm---It’s about the «Sword Labyrinth».”

“Huh…”

I couldn’t help getting startled, I wasn’t expecting the queen to mention that place at all.

“Is there anyone who managed to arrive at the lowest floor?”

“Ah, no. Not yet…”

As far as I knew, there hadn't been anyone who had managed to get further down than the «Imperial Exploration Squad».

“Hmm, I see. That’s a relief.”

She seemed to be in a better mood now.

Maybe there’s some connection between the queen and the «Sword Labyrinth»…

“So, what has become of Gilbert?”

“Hey, now it should be my turn to ask---”

“---Did he pa.s.s away?”

“H-he’s not dead, not yet!”

“What do you mean by ‘not yet’?”

“Well…”

“It seems that something has happened. Tell me. You are lucky, I have so much free time I don’t know what to do with it.”

I had answered by reflex, but now I was unsure how much I should tell her…

“No need to worry about leaking any secrets. I can’t leave this armor after all.”

That helped me take one step forward, and who knew, maybe the fact I couldn’t see her face also played a part in rea.s.suring me.

“My father… disappeared ten years ago inside of the «Sword Labyrinth»---”

I proceeded to summarize the events of ten years ago. That my father had been chosen for the «Imperial Exploration Squad», that he had betrayed his companions. I spoke of the slow, painful like the jabs of a needle days I had gone through with was left of our family. And, finally, of the pa.s.sing away of my mother three months ago. Narrating all that felt almost like confessing in a church.

“…He betrayed them? Someone like Gilbert betrayed them?”

It must have been a very strange concept for her. This was the only even she had commented on while I had been narrating the story. Honestly, I was surprised with myself. Once I started talking, the rest of the story followed like a torrent. Maybe, since the very start, I always had wanted to talk about those ten years with someone else…

When I was finally done, the queen again said the same thing in a resolute voice:

“Take the sword! Once you do, everything shall become clear to you!”

“We already went over that, why even say it again…”

“It’s obvious, kid. For the truth.”

“Why should I pull out that sword for you?”

“You dolt. It’s not for me, you will do that for your own sake.”

“…Mine?”

“Don’t you wish to know?”

“What?”

“What happened in the «Sword Labyrinth» ten years ago.”

“So it’s come to that…”

I finally understood. She was telling me to challenge the «Sword Labyrinth» myself.

I started to feel a sort of dull pain creeping in from the back of my head and clouding my thoughts. I found it hard to think straight.

“Answer me, kid! Are you satisfied with the way things are now? Do you enjoy living like this, having everyone trample over you without knowing what caused things to develop like this?”

“Well…”