CH ss - 27

[Alfine: Mysterious Facility, Latter Part]

“Maribel wasn’t supposed to be here originally, so father told her to hide, but no one has returned since then.”

In other words, Maribel’s father and his co, who came two months ago, and the other people left three weeks ago, disappearing from this place…

Even so, to live in such a place alone for three weeks, Maribel is truly an amazing child.

Seeing Maribel talking about his father who doesn’t come back yet with down-hearted face, I feel sorry for her and my tears are about to spill out.

I wonder if I was always this easily moved to tears…

I wonder if my tear glands became loose as I cried more often after Finn disappeared.

“Al Onii-chan, what’s wrong?”

Maribel is worried about me who had become tearful, peeking with her jewel-like bright red eyes.

“No, there’s nothing wrong. So, you’ve been waiting for your father to return alone all this time.”

“Un, I thought of going out, but the door wouldn’t open. I was eating and drinking the leftover food and water, but it ran out the day before yesterday… I thought I won’t make it. But big brother and big sister came to help me.”

“In other words, is the hidden Maribel the only one in this facility now?”

Maribel talked about the two days when she ran out of food and water as if it was nothing at all, but I think that if I was the one in her position, it wouldn’t be weird if I had gone crazy.

The reason I’m not good with dark and narrow places is because of my childhood trauma. When I was playing hide-and-seek, I was hiding in a small cave behind the orphanage, and the entrance to the cave collapsed and I was trapped. I was traumatized by it.

At that time, Finn immediately called the adults, so I survived without problems, but even now after I’ve become an adult, when I enter a dark and narrow place, I feel a pain as if my heart is being crushed.

The entrance door is open and the lantern is on, so I can talk calmly with Maribel now, otherwise, it’s highly possible that I would lose self-control.

In contrast to such weakness of mine, Maribel was responding firmly even though she is still very young.

“As far as Maribel know this is the only entrance. If you give Maribel a meal, she will guide you through the facility you know.”

“Guide you say… You haven’t eaten for two days, so don’t push yourself.”

I immediately take out some light food from my waist pouch and hand it before Maribel.

Maribel picks up the light food I have in my hand as if snatching it, and begin to chew it vigorously.

“You see. Eben though Mariher didhn’t eat hor two days, she’s hine nano-”

“Maribel, it’s not good to talk while eating you know. Look, your mouth is so stuffed that you’re choking, here, drink this.”

“Huuh——”

I give water to Maribel who got herself choked and gently rub her back.

At that time, Meila pokes my back and whispers to my ear,

[Al, I think we should investigate in detail and report it to the guild. And if there are people other than Maribel, we have to rescue them.]

Maribel said that everyone was gone, but it seemed that quite a lot of people were doing repair work at this facility; there’s some truth in what Meila said, but——

[I don’t want to, it’s dark——]

I feel hesitant to enter the dark and narrow place which is my trauma.

Seeing my state, Maribel stands up and walks toward the corner of the room.

“Al Onii-chan, if you want light, you just have to press this.”

When Maribel pushes the protrusion on the wall, the pitch-black room suddenly become dazzlingly bright.

“L-light!? Maribel can use magic?”

“You got it wrong~. It seems that it’s because something called ‘electricity’ you know. Father and the others were surprised too, but the people speaking strange words said it works based on the ‘science’ thingy.”

‘Electricity’… ‘Science’… they’re not magic, hm.

However, like magic, it can make the room bright instantly.

What a mysterious device.

Seeing the brightened room, I’m impressed.

It seems that Meila next to me is impressed as well.

“I-I’ve never seen such mechanism even in ancient ruins… I wonder if it’s from another civilization… And looking closely at the walls, they look like made of metal.”

Meila investigates various things in the brightened room, and mutters sounds that sounded neither ah nor oh.

Apparently, it looks different from the facilities of the ancient civilization that Meila is good at.

Even so, for what purpose did they repair such facility…

“The back of this door is a passage, and it is made by digging through the circumference of this huge hole~.”

Having said that, Maribel approaches the door; the door opens on its own and the lights of the place that seemed to be a passage turned on one after another.

“To think a facility of a foreign civilization was built on the side wall of the Abyss Hole… Al, this may be a great discovery of the century.”

Having seen the situation, Meila is so surprised that her legs shivering.

Honestly, I can’t understand at all what is this facility and how such a thing was built.

Though perhaps like magic, it works on a principle that I don’t understand.

I can’t but be creeped out by it.

When I arrive at the passage where the lights were on, I find a gentle curve that ran along the Abyss Hole.

“Al, if this passage goes around the entire Abyss Hole, I think it would be quite long. To think there’s such a large facility.”

“Meila, look. This floor moves on its own!?”

When I get on a black rug-like spot laid out in the center of the passage, there is some operating noise. When I think – Huh? – the rug begins to move on its own.

“Al, wait! Don’t leave me. I’ll get on too.”

“Maribel will guide you, ‘kay?”

Maribel and Meila also get on the floor that began to move on its own, and then I decide to let the floor move and proceed along the passage.

The passage is long and the speed of the moving floor is even somewhat faster than fast walking, so we don’t need to walk with our own feet.

“They said this is also the power of ‘electricity and science’. The repair is only half-done, so it can only get to the middle though. To the room where father and others were assigned to repair.”

Eventually, the moving floor stopped, then just like the previous room, the door on the wall before us opens on its own and the light inside lit.

The inside of the room is dozens of times larger than the entrance room; unknown equipments and devices are spread out narrowly.

For now, there aren’t any sign of people, but…

We can’t let our guard down.

Meila is letting out a strange voice while looking around every corner at such equipments and devices with her eyes glittering.

Although it is not an ancient ruin, the unknown equipments before her is probably like a pile of treasures for her.

“The characters look different from the characters of the ancient ruins. As I thought, it seems that it’s not a facility made by the predecessor of this continent. There are a lot of technology that even I don’t know of are used after all. The technology of a completely different civilization from the Magic Vessel Civilization was used.”

Meila who had finished investigating to some extent reports to me with her cheeks flushed.

As I thought, it’s a technology of a different civilization, hm.

Meila said her specialty is in Magic Vessel Civilization, the top magic civilization.

It seems that their system is different from the technology here.

While Meila was investigating the equipments, I was searching all over the large room under the guidance of Maribel, but there’s no one remained.

“It seems that there’s no one here, as Maribel said… I wonder if everyone abandoned the repairs here and went home after all?”

From the look of things, everyone is really gone suddenly three weeks ago, as Maribel said.

I wonder if they go away in the middle of working.

“The timing coincides with the time when Abyss Walker was discovered.”

As expected, it makes you think so, right…

Hearing Meila’s words, I have the same feeling as well.

I heard that the Abyss Walker found on the ground was subjugated by the Knight Order about three weeks ago.

“I wonder if we should find out if the people here have something to do with Abyss Walker. Al, what do you think?”

“But in that case, that means that the lord of Inbahanes who put out the order to transport luggage here have a relation with them, right? In other words, Gile is involved?”

I received a question from Meila, but I can’t organize my own thought either, so I return it with a question.

If Gile directly instructed this matter, what was his aim for creating such facility in such remote area?

Is it in order to restrain the Frontier Count of Youg Hannotes who was said to be on bad terms with him?

I feel it’s too big for that though.

“I don’t know. Maribel’s father said that it was his vassal who employed them after all; we can’t rule out the possibility it was an imposter taking advantage of the name of the lord Commander of the Royal Guard Knight who stayed in the Royal Capital without a care, right?”

It does seem that the scale is too large for Gile’s subordinates to build it without permission.

When it comes to building such facility, the amount of money and resources required should be considerable.

I feel like it is not a facility that can be built by a subordinate alone.

But I surely don’t think that sex maniac bocchan Royal Guard Knight Commander would take out his money for something like this.

The image of Gile who lived a luxurious life in the Royal Capital as if to show that he was a rich spoiled noble kid and the image of the person who created this facility didn’t connect well in me.

“But I think it’s a good idea to report this to the Adventurer’s Guild right away. It would take a lot of manpower and time to explore this facility. As expected, it’s impossible if it’s only with my hands.”

Even Meila who was enthusiastic to investigate on her own seemed to be willing to report the problem to the Adventurer’s Guild because it turned out to be a huge facility of a different civilization.

I also felt that something terrible would happen if it was left as it is, so I decided to report it to the Adventurer’s Guild immediately.

“Got it. Maribel, we will take care of you for the time being, so will you come with us? We will also help you look for your father and his co whose whereabouts is unknown.”

“Father told me to wait here, but since I ran out of food and water, I decided to follow Al Onii-chan and Meila Onee-chan, you know. For now, I’ll left a note in case father comes back so he’ll know where to find me.”

Maribel who agreed to leave this facility picks up a piece of paper and a brush nearby, and writes a note with beautiful characters addressed to her father.

“Maribel can write?”

“Maribel has been studying properly you know~. Look~. Father said that there is no loss in studying. Maribel secretly watched and learned how to use the equipment here. Maribel is amazing, right~!”

Maribel puffs out her chest while showing me the note she wrote.

Courage, ability to take action, and intelligence; Maribel before me is a child so reliable that I couldn’t think of her as just a normal child.

“That means that cleverness saved Maribel’s life, right? Then, I’ll carry you.”

“It seems we’ll be back again though. Let’s end it here today, shall we?”

Having returned to the entrance, I tied both of us with a rope so that Maribel wouldn’t fall from my arms, and then I turned the handle of the winding device borrowed from Meila and climbed the wall.

After that, we returned to the camp site and reported, and the city of Youg Hannotes became tumultuous.

It was decided that not only the Knight Order but also the lord, Lloyd, himself would on board the investigation of the discovered facility and it was also decided that we would participate in the investigation as well.

Magic vs sci-fi, huh.

And here is a sketch of Alfine.