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A chill crept up from below. In the pitch-dark underground, my feet refused to move for some reason, but there was no point hesitating after coming this far.
"Let’s go down."
I tugged hard on Nereus’s clothes. He seemed reluctant to take me all the way down there, but judging by his expression, he’d already learned that if he left me behind, I wouldn’t just sit still.
"There’s a smell of blood coming from below. Be careful."
He’s right… there is a strange smell.
I sniffed. It was the smell of old, rotten blood, but it didn’t seem to be coming from the graves we were heading to.
It had been ages since the fall of the Kingdom of Laos. How could the smell of blood still linger?
Besides, the bodies placed in tombs are always cleaned and prepared. There’s no way they’d smell of blood.
The only likely source of that stench was the Baire Pirates.
After all, they were the ones who held the "key" to access the tombs.
Once we finished descending the stairs, a maze-like passage stretched out before us.
Nereus, who must have brought it along without me noticing, pulled out a glowing stone and lit up the surroundings.
"Hm… I’m not a fan of getting lost."
The glow from the stone illuminated the maze walls, dark, damp, covered in moss and mold, and I saw markings, as if someone had scraped their way through.
"Just as I thought."
"Do you think these are the Baire Pirates’ markings?"
"Most likely. These idiots haven’t changed their signs in years."
A single line meant "passed through."
A cross drawn over the line meant "passed and returned."
A cross with a straight line beneath it meant "this is the right path."
It looked like they’d left them to come back later, meaning, there was still some treasure worth taking on that side.
"Then this way."
Thanks to that, we didn’t have to wander aimlessly in the maze.
Nereus seemed to have the same thought, and though his face looked a bit tired, he hummed cheerfully.
"Dad, are you okay?"
"Me? Of course I’m fine~ Your old man’s not weak enough to collapse over something like this. I bet Gil’s fine too."
Gilbert and Nereus were unusually sturdy, even among the already robust Caelum Pirates.
If it were an ordinary person, they would have collapsed like Ethan long ago.
It wasn’t a mild illness, that’s why I had stopped everyone from moving around unnecessarily.
But judging from the way Gilbert’s talking, he’s probably breathing just fine and cooking himself some sickbed meals.
And he was sick too, mind you.
We should check everything quickly and get back.
It was a disease similar to "Pond Poisoning."
Just checking the island’s water might have been enough, but since the illness had likely originated with the royal family, I couldn’t skip confirming that.
I wished Hyperion’s reply would come faster, but there was nothing I could do about that.
Rumble—!!
Suddenly, the ground shook violently, sending dust swirling through the underground.
"Ah, was it this?"
Nancy, looking sheepish, pointed to a sunken tile. Apparently, she’d stepped on it by accident. It was obviously a trap being triggered, but everyone remained absurdly calm.
"Wow, look how sturdy this place is inside."
Nereus handed me the glowing stone and drew his sword.
Rrrumble, the shaking grew more intense. From deep within the darkness, a massive boulder began rolling toward us.
"If Titan had seen this, he would’ve been crying, saying he wanted to tear it apart and study it."
Whoosh—!
Nereus swung his sword.
A fierce gust of wind blew, and the massive boulder was split clean in half, then shattered into countless fragments.
W-What… was that?
I knew Nereus’s combat skills were well above average, and that his strength was nothing to scoff at. But I had never expected it to be on this level.
He definitely didn’t use aura just now, did he?
Skilled knights could draw upon their inner mana to manifest aura, the mark of someone at the so-called "Sword Master" level.
Even if one couldn’t control it freely, just being able to use aura at all was proof of exceptional skill.
But Nereus gave off no trace of aura. And yet, he had cut through solid rock with a single strike.
There’s no way I’m mistaken about this.
In the navy, there were many who pushed themselves through grueling training to manifest aura. Some even ruined their bodies from the excessive strain.
Aura users were so rare and valuable that the military provided supplements and conducted research to help awaken it.
Come to think of it, I should help Hyperion manifest aura someday… I’ll have to make some kind of supplement for him soon.
Anyway, that wasn’t the point right now.
Experienced doctors could sense the presence of aura with uncanny accuracy.
And I prided myself on being at least decently skilled among those veteran doctors.
And yet… I couldn’t detect a thing?
It wasn’t my imagination. Nereus didn’t have aura, he had some other kind of unique power. It wasn’t magic, nor the divine authority used by Seers, something else entirely.
That man may be my father, but he’s definitely strange.
I was surprised, yes, but I didn’t feel like prying.
Every time I tried to ask him about anything, he’d just laugh it off with a hearty "Wahaha!"
I figured maybe you had to be that peculiar to sail to the ends of the sea, and decided to just leave it be.
"Why don’t we just smash everything here and go straight through?"
"I don’t think that’s a good idea. The structure looks too intricate for that."
While Nereus and Nancy were talking, I glanced over to see what Dahlia was doing, and found her prying up the tile Nancy had stepped on earlier, dismantling the mechanism beneath.
Clink, click, clink…
After a few small noises, Dahlia gave a hand signal.
"Captain, Dahlia says she’s analyzed the trap locations."
"Is that so?"
That’s honestly amazing…
Dahlia was the most skilled trap analyst on our ship.
There were many different kinds of traps, but human creativity was more or less the same everywhere, and certain traps simply couldn’t be used depending on the structure.
You couldn’t exactly install a fire-breathing mechanism inside a wooden mansion, after all.
Of course, that was just the basics.
According to expert Dahlia, you could roughly figure out the entire trap pattern just by identifying the position of the very first trigger button.
It was a world I couldn’t begin to understand.
Not every trap expert could have instincts as sharp as Dahlia’s.
If they did, a lot more trap handlers in the navy would still be alive.
Nancy had claimed she stepped on the trap earlier by accident, but she’d probably been deliberately testing the floors and walls here and there.
Even if Dahlia couldn’t be 100% accurate just from that first trap, the fact that she’d signaled she’d finished her analysis meant her accuracy was at least sixty percent, trustworthy enough.
And besides, the Baire Pirates had already marked the traps they triggered before us.
She’d probably factored that information in when pinpointing the trap locations.
"Dahlia, so where do you think the area with the most traps is?"
"Why would you want to go where there are more traps?"
I looked at Nereus, puzzled.
He grinned.
"The more traps there are, the more likely it’s the right path."
Dahlia drew her twin blades and took the lead. After deliberately setting off a few more traps, she began guiding us in earnest.
Even if a trap slipped past Dahlia’s detection, Nereus and Nancy destroyed them all without fail, making our route as comfortable as could be.
So this is what they mean by ‘If your body’s strong, your brain doesn’t have to work as hard.’
Though… I was pretty sure Dahlia was smart and strong.
Well, whatever. As long as I wasn’t the one suffering, that was fine by me.
"Achoo."
"Lala? What’s wrong?"
Maybe it was a little chilly inside, but a small sneeze escaped me.
"It must be cold since we’re underground. Your face is practically blue, no, more like purple."
"I don’t think it’s that bad."
"I’m the one looking at your face, kid."
…It really wasn’t that bad.
Honestly, Nereus was just overly protective.
"Yeah, look, there’s no color in your lips. This is a rough environment for our Lala."
"……"
Nancy added in a concerned tone, and Dahlia nodded repeatedly with a worried expression.
Correction, overprotective tendencies weren’t just Nereus’s thing; the entire Caelum crew got like this, especially in situations like these.
It was probably a side effect of how absurdly sturdy they all were.
Since they were in perfect health, they had no problem dragging me along into any environment, but the moment I showed even the slightest physical reaction, they got flustered.
I wonder how long it’ll take for them to just shrug it off.
Probably within the next ten years.
I sighed and tapped Nereus.
"Put me down."
We had arrived at the tomb. Anyone with a shred of sense wouldn’t install traps in a place housing royal corpses, so this was definitely a safe zone.
The coffin’s open…
The Baire Pirates might be pirates, sure, but I hadn’t expected them to be so brazen as to desecrate the dead.
If they were going to loot the place, they could have at least closed the coffin lid afterward.
Utterly shameless.
"Is there any kind of record here? Anything at all?"
As I had suspected, the tomb still contained piles of gold and jewels.
The reason the Baire Pirates hadn’t taken it all was probably so they could come back prepared next time.
Their ship could carry less weight than Caelum’s, after all.
Since we already took the goblet, they must have assumed no one else could get in here.
Either way, we had no reason to take treasure right now.
We didn’t have a large crew with us, and with this much loot, it would be better to cure all of Caelum first and come back later.
What I really want is a record of some kind.
A diary or something similar.
I didn’t expect there to be an exhibit in the castle displaying royal belongings, Aracely Laos was famous for her looks, not for any great achievements.
Still, if she had a diary, it would have been buried with the coffin.
But since her necklace had ended up in the Baire Pirates’ hands, it was probably lying somewhere on the floor near the coffin.
Sure enough, it didn’t take long to find a weathered book on the ground. It was so old that the edges crumbled, but still legible.
"Oh, is that the record you were looking for?"
"Dad, wait! Be careful. This is really fragile."
There was no need to start from the very first page. I skimmed over the contents and flipped toward the back...
"……"
And then...
"What is it?"
Ancient script.
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