Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 13 - Chapter 11

11. Never Saw It Coming

It’s not undoable.

Haruhiro had once believed that. Or more like tried to make himself believe it, maybe.

Twenty-three boxes, of varying size, shape, color, and constituent materials.

Seven books, laid out on pedestals.

Five statues, of varying design.

Three shelves, with drawers and stuff.

One door.

One ring of keys laid out on a chair.

One candle stand, likewise laid out on a chair.

Eight other things, not easily categorized.

And two hundred and fifteen empty rooms, each containing only a side table and a lamp.

That was the result of searching two hundred and sixty rooms.

Using the room with the entrance they couldn’t go back out as a point of reference, the party had continued exploring the Leslie Camp. They were in the Entrance Room again now. They had slumped to the ground there, in fact.

In Kejiman’s case, the moment he’d sat down on the carpet, he’d laid back and started snoring.

“How long do you figure it’s been?” Kuzaku was sitting cross-legged, his back hunched, and his head hanging. There was no strength in his voice.

“I feel like... my sense of time has gotten fuzzy...” Shihoru murmured.

Shihoru was sitting back to back with Merry, and they were supporting each other.

Setora seemed relatively energetic. She had a notebook open, and was enthusiastically taking notes on the Leslie Camp. Kiichi was rolled up into a ball next to her, clearly sleepy.

“This is endless,” Setora said briskly. “Is it time we investigated a relic? Or do we try opening that door?”

In fact, Haruhiro had been considering the same idea. After all, the only thing that it seemed like they could go in through or out of was that door. It was human nature to want to try opening it, an impulse that was too strong to resist. It was pretty hard to ignore that urge.

Haruhiro was also fighting the desire to open each of the boxes. The existence of the keyring stood out to him, and he wondered if maybe it was for opening the boxes. But, as far as he could see, none of those boxes had keyholes.

Did they even open? He hadn’t tried yet. For now, maybe it would be okay to check whether they could open one of them or not? Was that no good?

Yeah, it was no good.

Wait, was it?

He didn’t really know. His ability to make decisions was impaired. He was aware of that, so he couldn’t do anything else. For now, he couldn’t help but feel like everything he was thinking was mostly wrong, and the keyring bugged him.

The door. If they opened it, what would be there?

The boxes. Relics...

“We still have water...” Merry was rummaging through a container. “We’re nearly out of food.”

They had all left their large packs at the camp. Haruhiro only had the minimum of equipment he needed. He regretted that now. He’d never expected this to happen, though. He’d been careless.

“One thousand gold,” Kuzaku said suddenly.

“Huh...?” Haruhiro looked over at Kuzaku. For an instant, their eyes met.

Kuzaku looked away. “...No. It’s nothing. Forget it.”

“Forget it...?” For several seconds, Haruhiro was in a daze.

Each platinum coin was thirty grams. There were a hundred of them. Three kilos. It was by no means an amount they couldn’t carry, but that bag with a hundred platinum coins in it was heavier than its physical weight. The bag itself was made to last, and it was pretty bulky, so it wasn’t all that light.

During their trip, Kuzaku had shouldered that impressive bag as they walked, and kept it close at hand as he slept. However, something was up.

Huh? Where’s the bag? I don’t see it, thought Haruhiro.

“Well, you know...” Haruhiro said. “These things happen, I guess?”

They’d just woken up. They weren’t anywhere where it was likely to be stolen. Kuzaku must not have imagined they wouldn’t be able to return.

Kuzaku sniffled, and with a depressed tone, which was so not like him, he mumbled, “...Sorry.”

Haruhiro exchanged looks with Shihoru, who had an, Oh... look on her face.

It seemed Merry had picked up on the situation, and she looked anxiously at Kuzaku.

Setora was staring at her notebook, muttering something in a quiet voice.

Kiichi had apparently gone to sleep.

Kejiman’s loud snoring was an annoyance.

Well, you know, Haruhiro thought with a sigh, it’s just money, right?

It’s a lot of money, though. Like, a ridiculous amount? It’s not like it’s gone. It’s not like he lost it, to be precise. So long as we can get back, the thousand gold is in the place where we were camping. That’s if we can get back.

Can we, or not? That’s the problem now. This isn’t the time to worry about money. If we can get back, that solves everything. It all comes after that.

The money doesn’t matter. Forget it. Just forget it. No, the more I try to forget it, the harder it is to forget. I’m getting fixated on it.

Okay. Let’s think about it this way. There was no money. We never had a thousand gold to begin with. It never existed.

Let’s go with that. Yeah. I feel better... What a waste, damn it.

No, no. We’ll go back. No matter what, we’ll go back. Not for the money, but because we have to go back. We’ll get out of the Leslie Camp. That’s all that matters for now.

It was just making the best of a bad situation, but he managed to get himself fired up. Still, his head remained cool. He had to think calmly. Moving forward on momentum alone wasn’t Haruhiro’s style.

Even then, there was no question they had hit a dead end. If they just continued on as they were, it was plain to see that none of them would have the willpower to keep going.

Haruhiro stood up. “Let’s investigate the door. It’s right over there, thankfully.”

It was in the next room, so it was really close.

Kejiman, who was still snoring loudly, didn’t wake up when they called his name or when Setora kicked him, so they left him there.

The party moved over to the Door Room, and started scrutinizing the exterior of the door.

“The key...” Haruhiro crouched down and brought his face close to the doorknob. The door itself was wooden, but the knob and backplate were made of metal. The holes above and below the knob looked like nothing if not keyholes. “Never seen a door with two keyholes before...”

“Yeah. For sure.” Kuzaku crouched next to Haruhiro. “Dunno if it’s locked or not, though...”

It looked like he’d gotten back on his feet. Kuzaku wasn’t the type to drag things with him, which was good because it meant he wasn’t a pain to deal with.

“Yeah...” Haruhiro agreed. “I wonder. There’s no way to tell, just from looking at it.”

“Can you see the other side through the keyhole?”

“Why don’t you try?”

“Can I?”

“It’s all right. Just don’t touch it.”

“Okay. Just don’t push me, all right?”

“I’d never do that...”

“It’s just a cliche, you know.” Kuzaku closed his left eye, and brought his right eye up close to the keyhole.

It was just for a moment, but Haruhiro felt a little like pushing him. Well, not that he would.

“How is it?” asked Setora.

“Nah. Can’t see a thing.” Kuzaku moved away from the door.

Of course he couldn’t see anything. Keyholes and peepholes were two separate things.

Suddenly, Shihoru gulped. “The keys...”

“Yeah, I thought that, too.” Haruhiro licked his lip.

There had been no keyholes on the boxes, or on the drawers of the shelves, either. But there were keyholes on this door. If it was locked, where were the keys?

There had been a ring of keys left out on a chair.

“I’ve got my tools, so I could use Picking on it,” Haruhiro said. “Maybe it’s not even locked, though...”

As he said that, he checked Merry’s expression. Merry was looking at Haruhiro, but her mouth was slightly open, and she seemed a bit out of it. She must have been pretty exhausted. That had to be why.

Setora picked up Kiichi, who was rubbing against her leg.

The door. The keys. It feels like they we’re being led into it, and I don’t like that. Is that overthinking things? I think being overcautious is best, but this is going nowhere. No matter what, we’re going to have to take a risk.

“Everyone, back away,” he said.

He waited until his comrades retreated, then grabbed the doorknob.

He narrowed his eyes. He was relying on the sense of touch in his fingers and his hearing.

Once he decided to do it, there must be no hesitation. Indecision would play havoc with his senses.

The knob didn’t turn.

No matter how much strength he put into it, it didn’t budge.

This feeling. Sound. It was locked. No doubt about it.

Haruhiro let go of the knob. He looked down, and sighed. He was sweating profusely. It was an awfully chilly sweat.

“It won’t open,” he said. “Let’s go get the keys.”

The Keyring Room was close. That didn’t feel entirely unintentional.

Regardless, when they went to the Keyring Room, the ring of keys was obviously still on top of the chair. The metal ring was blackish with hardly any luster, and there were keys in a variety of shapes, nine in total.

Picking it up and looking at it, it wasn’t especially heavy. It was a normal keyring.

Haruhiro stood in front of the door, holding the keyring, while Kuzaku and the rest stood back.

“...Okay, let’s test it,” Haruhiro said.

There were nine keys. Two keyholes, one above and one below the knob.

Haruhiro picked a key at random, testing it in the upper keyhole first.

It slid in, without a sound.

The smoothness of it was bizarre. What was more, the key was tightly meshed within the locking mechanism. He probably couldn’t pull it out.

He tried pulling on the key. It went as expected. Didn’t budge an inch.

“...What is this?” he whispered despite himself.

It seemed his comrades didn’t hear him.

Don’t get agitated, Haruhiro told himself, breathing in, then out.

It wasn’t just a keyring. Was that what this meant? Maybe the keyring was a relic, too. If so, what power did it harbor?

Haruhiro turned the key. It unlocked. He could tell from the noise it made.

That was when it happened.

The key went hazy, as if it was turning to smoke. While he was busy thinking that was impossible, it vanished without a trace.

Haruhiro had been holding the key. As it vanished, the keyring fell to the carpet with a clatter.

“Haru?” Setora called his name.

Haruhiro picked up the keyring, then gave a meaningless response. “...Uh, yeah.”

He tried counting the keys.

Eight. There really were just eight of them. He was short one.

Haruhiro turned around and showed everyone the keyring. “When I opened the lock, it vanished.”

“Huh?” Kuzaku asked. “Wait, but the keys are there...”

“No, it was just the key I used that vanished, and...” While he was explaining to Kuzaku, he was able to calm down a little. “Well, this is a relic. It’s like, I dunno... the universal key? But one use only.”

“Gimme!” Kejiman extended both hands like a bowl. “No! I demand it as your employer! I hired you, so ownership of that relic should belong to me! Now, give!”

“We refuse.”

With that one short line from Setora, Kejiman started acting a lot more meekly. “I-It was a joke. Oh, gosh. You know I wasn’t serious. Hee hee...”

Okay, maybe not meekly. Regardless, if things were as Haruhiro suspected, they could open any door eight more times. His Picking was influenced by experience, and he wasn’t guaranteed to succeed. It took a fair amount of time, too. Furthermore, depending on the type of lock, there were times Picking was ineffective. Besides, anyone could use a universal key.

It was an exceptionally useful, but frightening, toll, depending on how you looked at it.

Haruhiro unlocked the lower lock with another one of the keys. The universal key he used vanished, as expected, leaving him with seven left.

Now the door ought to open.

“Would you let me open it?” Kuzaku volunteered.

He was probably concerned for Haruhiro’s safety, but if there were traps or other mechanisms, Kuzaku would never notice them.

Haruhiro was about to refuse, but then Setora offered a counter proposal.

“Let’s have our employer, Kejiman, open it. He is our employer, after all.”

“Me?! N-No, but that’s...”

“What? Was it all just bravado, then? What a boring man.”

“I’m not a boring man, not me! No way! If anything, I’m so interesting that it’s hard to keep up with me! I try to be a good customer, but so many serving girls at the tavern have rejected me! Okay, I’ll do it!”

As soon as Kejiman finished rambling, he pushed Haruhiro aside, grabbed the knob, and gave it a good hard turn.

“Hey, whoa, not so fast!” Haruhiro cried.

“Will it be a demon lord?! Will it be an evil god?! Bring ’em on!” Kejiman opened the door.

Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be, Haruhiro reflected.

“Wh-Wh-Wha...!” Kejiman bent backward in surprise. He practically did a bridge. In a way, it was impressive. “What is thiiiiiiiis?!”

Well, as galling as it was to agree with Kejiman, it wasn’t hard to see why he wanted to shout out loud.

Beyond the door was a deep purple curtain.

What did this mean?

Nothing. The door had seemed to be positioned so meaningfully, so Haruhiro had been sure it was no ordinary fixture, but rather a special door.

And it wasn’t. It was a plain door, like any other.

“Don’t lock it, then.” Kuzaku crouched down, and let out a sigh.

Setora put a hand on Kuzaku’s shoulder. Then she stared at the hand, as if unsure it was in fact her own. She yanked it back at once.

“Well, you know...” Haruhiro sighed.

“It’s a letdown... but nothing bad happened, so...” Shihoru let out a weak, awkward laugh.

Haruhiro hadn’t done anything wrong, but he felt kind of sorry. Still, like Shihoru said, it was better to look at it positively. Even if that was awfully hard.

Merry was still looking past the door. Was she in a daze? That didn’t seem to be it. Her expression was stiff. Sharp, even. There was a look in her eyes as if she was suspicious of something.

Haruhiro looked to the door, too. That was when it happened.

“Damn it alllllllllll!” Kejiman shouted.

Was he blowing off steam? It looked like he was going to tackle the curtain on the other side of the door.

Let him. Haruhiro didn’t stop him.

And then...

Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be.

“He...”

Haruhiro probably tried to say something. “He”? “He” what? What came next? What had happened?

That was unclear.

“...He’s gone?” Kuzaku said.

That was it. He’s gone.

That was what Haruhiro had been trying to say.

“Where did he go...?” Setora whispered. She meant Kejiman, of course.

“He vanished.” Merry seemed surprised. Her face was twitching.

Haruhiro, for some reason, felt a little relieved. No, now wasn’t the time for relief.

He’d vanished. Kejiman had.

Shihoru’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head repeatedly.

The door was still open. The curtain on the other side wasn’t moving in the slightest. Kejiman had charged towards the curtain. But he hadn’t just made contact. Just in front of it—he’d vanished?

“That’s weird... right?” Kuzaku approached the door and stuck his right hand out.

“Hold on, wait!” Merry put forth, sounding a little worried.

But everything past Kuzaku’s right elbow had vanished. “...Huh?”

“Wha—”

This time, Haruhiro knew what he had been trying to say. “What’s going on?” But before he could, Haruhiro jumped and grabbed Kuzaku’s right arm. He wrapped his arm around it, and tried to pull him back to this side.

“Owowowowow?! Ha-Haruhiro, I feel it on the other side, too...”

“Whaa?!” Haruhiro cried.

This was no good. He had his heels dug in, and he was pulling with all his might, but he couldn’t pull him free.

Kuzaku was in pain, and panicking on top of that. “Oh, crap! Oh, crap! I feel something pulling on the other side, too!”

“H-Hang in there!”

“No, I am! It’s just, if I end up in there, I think...”

It was unclear what Kuzaku was thinking, but he stuck his left hand into the door. It vanished. Everything past Kuzaku’s left wrist did.

It made no sense. But was this it? Looking at the situation, if he went inside the door, he’d vanish. Was that how it worked?

“I-It looks like I won’t cease to exist! I-I can still feel! My right hand, it’s being pulled from the other side, I mean! But once I go in, there may be no coming back here...”

“No way!” Haruhiro was speechless. Despite that, he kept pulling on Kuzaku.

“Dammit! Sorry, Haruhiro, everyone, looks like I’ve gotta go to the other side. You don’t have to come with me. There’s no knowing where it goes... I’m really sorry!”

Kuzaku’s left arm, his left leg, and his right leg moved through the door. He was vanishing. Gradually. Kuzaku was. This was extremely bizarre.

“Uwah...!” Kuzaku cried.

He was being sucked in. Or rather, he was being pulled from the other side. Haruhiro was still holding on to him. Not to his right arm anymore. He had both arms around his torso from behind, and was holding on tight.

“Ha-Haruhiro, let go. I’ll be fine. I’ll manage somehow. This is pretty painful, too...”

“What’re you smiling for, man?” Haruhiro cried.

“I mean, this is nothing to cry about.”

“Yeah...” Haruhiro loosened his grip.

Kuzaku slipped through Haruhiro’s arms.

It was over in an instant.

Kuzaku was swallowed up by the door.

“Haruhiro-kun...” Shihoru whispered.

Haruhiro didn’t turn to look. “Sorry. I know we haven’t talked it over... but I’ve already decided what to do.”

Shihoru and Merry surely wouldn’t object.

Nyaa, Kiichi meowed.

“Honestly...” Setora seemed exasperated, but also amused. “Being with you people is never boring.”