Ch.37As Expected… There’s Nothing Inside

The next morning, I reunited with Asha in the special wing’s dining hall.

“Ah, it’s been a while, Haschal!”

Asha waved while munching on salad and well-cooked bacon that came as breakfast.

A slight smile crept onto my face at the familiar sight. I walked over and sat beside her.

Nigel went to order breakfast.

“It’s been a week. Was the adventurer work fun?”

“It was fun, but my nose suffered. Dungeons smell terrible.”

Maybe underground dungeons are particularly bad, but it was truly horrific air with all kinds of foul odors mixed together.

If I ever take on requests again, I’d prefer forests over dungeons.

Am I being too sensitive? Nigel and Minea seemed unfazed, so maybe that’s normal.

No, they probably don’t have a sensitive sense of smell like I do.

I shook my head involuntarily.

Considering what I need to do in the future, I can’t escape dungeons anyway.

I’d like to leave everything to Demian, but his skills aren’t quite reliable enough.

Even in games, one wrong move means instant death, and reality would be worse.

I need to be extra careful since there’s no restart option in reality.

“Is that so? Should I make you a portable purification device later?”

Huh? Dwarves can make such things…?

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Since it’s us, I’ll only charge 10 gold!”

…10 gold?

“…It’s not a gift but a sale?”

“I need to make a living too. After material costs, there’s barely any profit!”

Asha made a circle with her thumb and index finger, waving it in front of me with a bright smile.

…That’s a very familiar line. Swindling merchants always say things like that.

Well, for something made with dwarven technology, that price is actually ridiculously cheap.

Even a simple longsword costs dozens of gold from their kind.

“Alright. Make one for me later then.”

If it’s just the smell, there shouldn’t be any major issues.

As for gruesome sights, the things I did in my excitement were even more brutal, so unlike the nauseating smells, I got used to them quickly.

Is this the difference between psychological and physical aversion?

At least my former self wasn’t tough enough to remain unfazed by such things.

…Initially in the dungeon, I felt disgusting nausea seeing human corpses, but after hunting two or three trolls, even those feelings disappeared.

My fighting style, thinking about it now, was like a madman running wild with joy.

Yet I hadn’t completely lost my reason.

Reflecting on my past actions, I suddenly felt a chill in my chest.

I’ve heard it somewhere before. Human psychology follows hormonal actions; the mind ultimately follows the body.

Even if my soul has changed to someone else’s, this body is still Hersella’s.

With each fight, my mind is gradually… but definitely being altered.

I forcibly calm my mind as it begins to shudder with rejection.

Stay calm. Think of it the other way around. It’s actually a good thing.

If I hadn’t been influenced by the body’s aggression and violence, could I have cleared the dungeon without issues?

No way.

With physical abilities exceeding a troll’s, I might have won, but not so overwhelmingly.

It will be the same going forward.

Enemies incomparably stronger than trolls will continue to appear, and I definitely wouldn’t survive with my old mentality.

So let’s accept this change not as corruption, but as adaptation.

It’s me becoming accustomed to this world.

As breakfast arrived, I stopped my thoughts and focused on eating.

The combination of savory bacon, crisp lettuce, and juicy tomatoes was quite satisfying.

Enough to lighten my troubled mind about self-identity.

—-

“So, anything special happen during the week?”

“Not really? The injured students finished their treatment and returned, and after that, it was mostly theory lectures. Though I didn’t attend every day.”

Well, Asha wouldn’t need to attend cavalry combat or faith classes.

She can’t ride horses, and dwarven religion differs from the Empire’s.

“Yesterday should have been the aptitude lecture, how did that go? I think they mentioned field practice next week. Has the destination been decided?”

“No? They didn’t tell us the destination. But since the lecture was about kobolds and trolls, it’s probably somewhere those creatures appear. Are you planning to go, Haschal?”

“I’m thinking about it, but I guess you’re not interested?”

“I’ve hunted trolls a few times back home. Though I didn’t use a lance then.”

Well, Asha’s insistence on charging with a lance is unusual; dwarves typically fight with ranged firepower.

Without using a lance, it probably wasn’t that difficult for her to hunt them.

After finishing breakfast, I returned to my quarters.

Since I’d decided to only attend aptitude and combat lectures from now on, there was no need to go to class today.

The gauntlets I ordered had arrived at my quarters.

Steel gauntlets modeled after Frosting.

Judging by the durability of academy swords, these would probably break after five or six uses.

Still, being armor, they should last longer than swords.

I decided to go out for a change.

Now that I had money, I wanted to buy some cigarettes and investigate the underground waterways.

…I’d been saying I’d investigate for a while but never had the time to start.

There’s still plenty of time left, so it should be fine.

—-

I stopped by a general store and bought a lot of cigarettes. Worth a whole 10 gold.

The shopkeeper bowed so deeply his head nearly touched his knees.

Nigel’s gaze was a bit sharp, but I ignored it. It’s my money to spend as I please.

I asked Nigel if we could visit the underground waterways.

“You want to see the underground waterways? Why there of all places…?”

Nigel asked suspiciously.

Well, it would be unusual for someone to come all the way to the capital just to see the sewers.

Especially since it’s not a place where monsters or magical beasts appear yet.

“I heard the capital’s underground waterways are like a massive labyrinth. Some say it’s an ancient ruin. Since Ka’har doesn’t have such underground ruins, I wanted to see it once. Is that not possible?”

“If you’re talking about massive underground ruins, perhaps what you saw in Baron Hevel’s territory…”

“That was just a smelly ruin. I want to see something proper.”

I made up a reasonable excuse.

Nigel didn’t seem convinced but eventually nodded in agreement.

Thanks to Nigel’s status, entering the underground waterways wasn’t a problem.

—-

The underground waterways.

A massive subterranean space that has existed beneath Extrashafel since it was an ordinary city.

Though no one knows who built it or for what purpose, Carlos the Great, who explored this underground space, made it the capital of the Empire.

After extensive construction work, it finally became the massive waterway system supporting the island’s daily life.

The underground waterways I visited were cleaner and more magnificent than expected.

Between countless pillars supporting the city, long and wide waterways spread like rivers.

Magic lamps hung on each pillar beneath the 4-meter-high ceiling, and the floor was so regularly cleaned that not even a single bug was visible.

The abundant flowing groundwater provides more than enough water for the entire island and purifies the polluted water that’s discharged.

Maze-like roads ran alongside the waterways for people to pass through.

“Surprisingly, there’s no smell?”

“I heard mages from the Magic Tower installed large-scale purification magic.”

As Nigel said, thanks to the purification magic, the water flowing through the vast waterways looked quite clear and clean.

I didn’t feel the need to scoop it up to check.

I heightened my senses as much as possible, but apart from fish swimming in the waterways, there was no notable presence.

No fur or anything had fallen onto the waterways either. So, they haven’t infiltrated the island yet?

After wandering around for about two hours with no results, I decided to give up and go back up.

Though the underground ruins supposedly continue below the waterways, that area was restricted, so we couldn’t enter.

I might have to wait until such restrictions become meaningless.

I gave up and returned to my quarters.

I’ll need to visit again, but the same excuse won’t work twice, and it’s difficult to go without Nigel.

It’s troublesome.

Still, it should be fine for now.

There’s still two and a half months left.

=======[Underground Waterways]========

“…The scent is gone.”

Beyond the walls of the now-quiet underground waterways, a soft voice echoed.

It was a rough, unstable voice mixed with growling breaths.

“They seemed to be searching for something. Has our existence been discovered? The perception interference magic should be perfect.”

Another person answered. Similarly with a growling voice.

There was a hint of anxiety in the tone.

“If that were the case, they would have mobilized all knights to comb through the waterways. There were only two scents, so that’s unlikely.”

“…I see. Well, it doesn’t matter since we don’t have much time left. We received word from the mainland to move up the operation to next month.”

The two voices conversed with each other.

In the empty waterways, only the fish were listening to their conversation.

“Move it up? Why…? It’s still too early for all forces to gather.”

“The Ka’har finally bowed to the Empire… I guess the mainland is getting anxious.”

The first voice fell silent for a moment, growling.

“Ka’har… as expected, they’re still human. They chose to side with their fellow humans… I heard even their princess is here.”

“She’s one of our top priority targets. We’re ordered to capture her alive or kill her without fail. To sever the connection between the Empire and Ka’har.”

“…This will be an interesting hunt.”

Silence followed once more.

=======================

For three days, I spent time sparring with Nigel or chatting with Kalix.

In between, I went to the library once to learn about Imelia de Median, but didn’t find much.

For the Great’s Twelve Knights, mostly only their names were passed down, with no records of their descendants.

…As if deliberately erased.

The next day, it was time for the human combat lecture again.