07-13 The Secret of the Ancient Ruins
“Jin, what’s wrong?”
Then, while a single drop of sweat trickled down his forehead,
He said.
“This, is a Warp Gate?”
“W-w-wha-what! Di-did you call this a Warp Gate? H-how could you tell!?”
“Why you ask…Well, there’s no other answer than because I recognize it.”
“Uh, mm, I, uh …It took me ten years of investigation before grasping that and you say you saw it at a single glance!? That’s ridiculous!”
Jin apologized to the agitatedly yelling Rucall without really understanding why.
Jin tried telling him, but Rucall became more deranged.
It looked like saying anything would be pointless by now, so,
Elsa pulled Jin’s sleeve. Jin also thought that it’d be better to leave him like that for now, and left the spot.
“So, you say this is a Warp Gate… It’s huge, isn’t it.”
“Yeah. Even I didn’t know a Warp Gate could be this big. Well, it looks to be no longer functional though.”
While Jin was thinking about things like that, Reinhardt turned to ask him.
“From its size I would say probably transmitting large quantities of goods or crowds of people.”
“I think so too. Isn’t this most likely one of the fortresses from the Great Magic War?”
“I see, that possibility is very likely…”
“You people! You really think so! That’s the same conclusion I came to after ten years! There’s no mistaking that this is a region’s fortress from the time of the Great Magic War!”
The excited Rucall continued chattering.
Rucall asked Jin. Jin replied with a guess.
That appeared to be the correct answer.
When Jin heard that he felt a chill down his spine. Supposing another Ether Stampede happened not Jin, Reinhardt, nor Elsa would likely survive. And Reiko too would probably become unable to operate.
Jin then tried throwing a question like that at him.
Jin was relieved for now. There didn’t seem to be an immediate danger. However,
Jin thought in his heart.
“Hey, Jin, if this is a fortress, do you think there’s something other than a Warp Gate?”
Jin spoke out while thinking, and eventually little hesitantly,
He said.
“I think so too. Somewhere in these ruins, I thought, shouldn’t there be hidden weapons from the past.
“If they were to fall into the hands of the ‘Unifilers’, I think that…”
“That’s certain. It’s fine if there’s none, but if there are any we have to do something about them.”
“If this is the chamber for the Warp Gate, it’s something like an entrance hall. There must be a basement floor just like this aboveground one. In that case, if there’s a storeroom it must be underground on the same floor or deeper, don’t you think?”
“No no. There’s no other floor or anything like that. Even though I may look like this, I can use a little bit of magic, and I investigated at least that much. But it was useless. There are no other rooms other than this one.”
“In that case, it’s fine, isn’t it. Well then, if there’s nothing more to see here, let us go.”
Jin and Elsa were of the same mind, and so the group left the still muttering Rucall behind in the ruins and went out.
Outside, the sunlight was dazzling. The elder who had guided them was not there either.
Reinhardt asked. Hearing the question, Elsa looked puzzled.
Jin allayed her worries.
And so the group lazily walked, and returned to Jin’s carriage. It was the early afternoon, and the spring winds felt pleasant.
After returning to the carriage, they sat in the cabin and closed the door.
“Yes, Father.”
“Alright. Elsa, earlier, you heard about the Unifilers, right?”
First was the explanation to Elsa.
“Mm, I understand.”
“If those ancient ruins are the remnants of an old fortress, there’s no way it’s just that room. I can guarantee that.”
“Right. An armory surely exists. And past technologies too.”
“By all rights our course of action ought to be to get in touch with the appropriate agencies of Egelia Kingdom and have them investigate, but looking at the present state and how it’s been left as-is for dozens of years, at the very least the lot in Uremlin are entirely incompetent.”
“In addition, that Rucall fellow is suspicious. Way too suspicious. Why would one room like that take ten years?”
“I thought that for now, we should take measures so that Unifilers can’t benefit from this.”
“Yeah. They’re people who would manipulate Reiko and golems made by others. We don’t know what kind of dirty tricks they have. We must go ahead before them on this one, I think.”
“Moreover, the so-called ancient technologies are also interesting!”
He brought the explanation to an end. After hearing that Elsa felt her shoulders lose strength.
—