Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 12 - Chapter 1

1. We Ended Up in a Hole Somehow

“...Uwah.” Haruhiro covered his face with the hand in which he held his stiletto with a backhand grip.

There was some sort of swarm of small creatures flying toward him. Bats? No. Bugs, maybe?

In front of Haruhiro, Kuzaku started to make a fuss, swinging around the lamp he was carrying. “Wh-Wh-Wh-Whooooooaaaaaaa, i-i-i-i-isn’t this really bad?!”

The light swayed violently. There was the unceasing sound of little creatures hitting the lamp.

“Fwooooo, what’s goin’ on?” Yume shouted from the back.

“—be eaten?!” Shihoru asked, her first words muffled and leaving room for multiple interpretations.

Immediately, Merry replied, “They can’t be eaten!” apparently having taken the interpretation that it was a question on whether or not they were edible.

Without missing a beat, Setora asked, “You know that?!”

Merry didn’t answer. She probably didn’t have time to. That was how Haruhiro interpreted it.

Kiichi the gray nyaa let out a frightening yowl.

“I-It’s fine. It’ll be fine... probably.” Lowering his posture, Haruhiro offered reassurances that were like uncertainty incarnate, and tried to ascertain the nature of the little creatures.

It really looked like they were bats that lived in the depths of this cave — no, not a cave, it was an artificial hole — and upon the entrance of Haruhiro and the others, they’d gotten surprised and come out.

But they were a bit like cockroaches, too. Whatever they were, he had the sense, somehow, that they weren’t all that dangerous. Having been through hell more times than he’d have liked, his body responded to that sort of danger instantly most of the time.

This had to be fine...

Probably.

For what felt like forty-five seconds, he stayed put. The swarm of little creatures seemed to have flown off, for the most part. Only for the most part, though. Not all of them. There were still one or two beating their wings and flying around.

“They’re like something halfway between a beetle and a flying squirrel...” Kuzaku muttered.

Oh, I see, thought Haruhiro. It’s all in how you say a thing.

A cross between a beetle and a flying squirrel gave off a better impression than a cross between a bat and a cockroach. Kuzaku was the type to see the good side of things, which was the opposite of Haruhiro. That was a matter of inclination, though, so even if Haruhiro wanted to change it, he couldn’t.

“Looks like it’s fine now, so let’s move on,” Haruhiro said.

“Sounds good,” Kuzaku nodded.

“Ah!” Yume raised her voice. “One of them critters, it’s gone and clung to Shihoru’s back.”

“Eek...?! Y-You’re kidding! G-G-G-Get it off, please...”

“Don’t make a fuss over something so little,” Setora chided her, and then tore the little creature from Shihoru’s back, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it. “There.”

Seeing that, Yume let out a little cry of “Unyooo!” and covered her face with her hands. “There wasn’t any need to go and step on it, y’know.” You could’ve let it go...”

“There’s one on your leg, too, hunter.”

“Yikes! Meow, get it off! Ahh!”

“...You just stomped on it real hard there,” Setora said dryly. “Weren’t you going to let it go?”

“Murrgh. Come on, that critter, it was about to bite Yume, y’know?”

“They suck blood, so be careful,” Merry said suddenly. “Not too much, though, I don’t think. But if they’re diseased, I can’t guarantee we won’t catch whatever they have.”

Everyone went silent.

Yeah. Well, who wouldn’t?

That information sounded pretty important to Haruhiro, and he felt like maybe it would have been nice if she had shared it a bit sooner. However, saying that would require confronting his doubts about why Merry knew, and so, though he wanted to ask, it was too hard for him to do it.

Stuff like this happened occasionally. When, as a result, he ended up feeling awkward, he might or might not have found himself wishing they had someone like that idiot, who was willing to bluntly say the things that were hard to say.

“Aren’t we going?” Setora, one of the ones in this group with less social grace, spoke up.

That saved him. Haruhiro and the rest moved on.

The hole was about two meters across, and a little over two meters high. Kuzaku, being as tall as he was, was bent over a bit. Incidentally, the hole had been far narrower and lower at the entrance. Both of the walls and the floor were covered in moss or lichen, and there were mysterious mushroom-like or fern-like plants growing, and what seemed to be the dung of animals of some sort piled up, but it was nearly flat.

This hole didn’t go straight, either. It would go down, and then turn.

“There’s something here.” Kuzaku came to a stop, tapping his hand on the right wall.

He brought the lamp closer. It looked like there was something resembling a door there.

Haruhiro moved up and investigated. It was, indeed, a door. Not made of wood. Or of metal. It was a stone door. Even the handles and keyhole were made of stone.

Haruhiro was a thief, even if he wasn’t a great one. He could at least tell that this was an unusual door. It wasn’t ostentatious in the slightest, but its entire surface was smooth, and of careful construction.

“Wow, dwarves are awesome...” Haruhiro got out his thieving tools and started Picking. Carefully probing the inside of the lock, he came to understand its design. If he tried to unlock it, it wouldn’t be impossible for it to spring a trap, so he had to be cautious. Though, if the lock was metal, it might have rusted to the point he couldn’t do anything with it.

Well, it took some time, but he managed to unlock it somehow.

“It’s not locked anymore, but getting it open is still going to be a pain,” he said. “It’s made of stone and pretty heavy, after all.”

“Me, I’ll do it. Haruhiro, you get back.” Kuzaku started to force open the stone door.

Setora muttered something about, “Pure idiot strength...”

“I’m built for this stuff. It’s my one strong suit,” Kuzaku said with a smile.

Beyond the door was a four-meter-square room. There were shelves installed in it, and two large boxes left in the corners. These were also of stone construction.

The equipment left out on the shelves was badly rusted, and it wouldn’t be of any use in its current state.

The issue was what was in the boxes that were close to one meter tall and wide, with a depth of about eighty centimeters. Haruhiro closely inspected them.

“I don’t see any locks, and no traps that’d spring upon opening them... I think, but honestly I can’t be that confident. Most likely, I can’t lift up the lids myself. I’m sure a dwarf could manage it easy, though.”

“That’s my cue, huh.” Kuzaku passed the lamp to Yume, and went to put his hands on the lid.

Haruhiro hurriedly stopped him. “No, listen, I’m telling you I don’t know if it’s safe or not.”

“It doesn’t seem trapped, right? As far as you can see.”

“Only as far as I can see, though. Even if it’s not trapped, there could be something weird inside.”

“How do you feel about it, Haruhiro? In your gut, I mean.”

“Hmm. I dunno if my gut can be trusted here to begin with...”

“I trust it. If you think we’re good to go, I’m gonna go ahead and do it. If you say to stop, I’ll do that. Oh, and if something bad happens, I won’t have any regrets, okay?”

Yume nodded. “That’s love, all right,” she said, though it was total nonsense.

That made Shihoru burst out laughing, choke and sputter, and then Merry cleared her throat loudly for some reason.

“Love?” Setora tilted her head to the side. The gray nyaa Kiichi was fondly rubbing his face against her feet. “Paladin, are you what they would call a homosexual?”

“Nah, I like Haruhiro, but not that way. I dunno. Basically, I trust him.”

“I’m amazed that you can say that so unabashedly.”

“Huh? Is it embarrassing? Ohh. Maybe? I might be starting to feel a bit embarrassed now. But it’s how I really feel. I don’t want to lie, you know, and I don’t tend to. Well, shucks.”

Haruhiro was starting to get embarrassed himself, so he wished Kuzaku would stop it.

Kuzaku saying, “Aww, damn, this is really embarrassing. Whatever. I’m opening it!” then throwing open the stone lid was something he wished Kuzaku’d have stopped even more.

“Ah! Kuzaku, wai—”

“Whoa! Sorry, Haruhiro, but it looks like nothing happened?”

In the box were a number of short swords, a shield, a helmet, and a small number of accessories. They were practically like new. From the look of them, they were good quality, too. The dwarves must have poured their souls into making these.

It looked like Kuzaku could use the shield and helmet. The swords included a broad, heavy knife and a short sword, two daggers, and a strange knife with a wavy flame-like blade. The women could put on the accessories if they wanted to, and they could sell the rest. The question of where they’d sell them, and who would buy them, could be set aside for now. Thinking about it would just make things harder.

Setora took the short sword and a normal dagger, while Haruhiro took the other dagger and the weird knife with the flame-like blade.

Truthfully, the stiletto he had gotten so used to holding in his dominant right hand, as well as the knife with the hand guard he used in his left, had gotten damaged to the point where a little sharpening wasn’t going to be enough. It was a shame to do it, but he decided to throw them away in the name of keeping things light.

For convenience’s sake, he named the dagger with the fire-like blade the flame dagger. Kuzaku could carry the wide, heavy dagger as a backup weapon.

Other than that, there were spear tips and ax heads inside the box. If they attached shafts to them, they could likely be used as spears or axes, but they were bulky, so they’d have to leave them behind.

“It’s a double harvest,” Yume grinned. “This went divingly.”

“I think you mean a rich harvest, not a double one,” Haruhiro said. “How about a haul instead? Also, it’s swimmingly, not divingly...”

While driven by a sense of duty to correct the way Yume talked, he saw Kuzaku about to open the second box out of the corner of his eye.

“Whuh...” He was at a loss for words.

“Huh?” Kuzaku opened the lid, then turned to look at Haruhiro. “Is something up? Oh...”

“Now, listen, don’t just open it up because that feels like the thing to do...”

“Something’s—” Merry looked up to the ceiling.

Noise.

There was a low sound.

“Out of here, hurry!” Haruhiro shouted.

Yume practically dragged Shihoru as she flew out of the room. Merry, Setora, and Kiichi followed. Haruhiro whacked Kuzaku on the back.

“Come on, hurry!”

“Haruhiro, I’ll be fine! Go on ahead!”

“Listen, we don’t need to take turns! Come on already, we don’t have time for—Oh, crap!”

The noise got louder. The whole room was trembling. The ceiling. The ceiling was coming down. Was that the kind of trap it was?

“Wahhhhhh!”

Haruhiro and Kuzaku rolled out of the room in unison. Immediately afterwards, the room came down all at once.

“That was close! We nearly got crushed!” Kuzaku cried.

“Kuzaku, it’s because you recklessly opened that box. This happened because you weren’t cautious...”

“Hey, hey, Haru-kun, it’s still kinda weird, y’know. Like it’s rumble, rumble, rumblin’.”

“Huh?! It’s rumble, rumble, rumblin’...?” Haruhiro was talkin’ like Yume despite himself.

That ain’t the way I talk, he thought to himself. Ain’t isn’t something I say, either.

“From deeper in...?” Merry furrowed her brow.

That was right. This cave, no, this dwarven mine, this dwarf hole, which was like a natural hole that the dwarves had reworked to suit their needs, still went deeper. There were likely rooms other than the one they’d just been in, and there might be yet more treasure sleeping inside. However, like Yume said, there was an ominous rumbling coming from those depths. There was definitely something coming. Was it something big?

“Run!” Haruhiro shouted.

It was heartbreaking, but they’d have to give up on the treasure.

Haruhiro sent his comrades on ahead, while he stayed behind.

Kuzaku was shouting his name or something, but he just thought, It’s fine, you get going already. This isn’t the time to worry about other people. Run as fast as you can. Yeah, it’s definitely deeper inside. It’s coming from inside. It’s like, I dunno, a mass of rock? Like a huge rock ball is going to come rolling? I feel like I’ve seen that somewhere, or maybe I haven’t, but whatever. If we don’t run, it’s going to crush us flat.

Naturally, Haruhiro ran, too, bringing up the rear.

How close was the rock ball? Was there really a rock ball to begin with? Was it something else, maybe?

Even if he turned back, it was pitch black, so he couldn’t see.

It felt like the sound was getting closer. Yeah, that would make him feel rushed. If he were to claim otherwise, he’d be lying.

That said, Haruhiro still had a little bit of his composure. But he couldn’t run any faster. Shihoru was in front of him, after all. He couldn’t exactly pass her.

What was he going to do now?

It was a quandary.