The shrine directly opposite the castle on the 43rd floor was the entrance to the next floor down.
But it only led to the 45th floor.
The 44th floor was off-limits to all but a select few.
And its entrance was located in the castle's basement.
"This door."
At the far end of the second basement level's corridor stood an iron door.
When Agaro inserted that key into the lock, the door groaned open with a heavy sound.
I sent a light orb into the dark corridor to brighten things up.
I activated [Danger Discernment]. No enemies.
"Apparently it's not a very long corridor."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. And once you get down to the 44th floor, apparently you arrive right at the control room—the heart of the ruins."
"It's that close?"
"Hey. Do you know what a lift is?"
"An elevator?"
"Elev—? It's a lift."
"Oh, ah, yes. I know what it is. So that's how you get down."
"That's right. Apparently there are buttons and whatnot."
"There are."
"I'm no good with this sort of thing."
"If you'd like, I can handle the controls for you."
"Really? Sorry about that."
"I'm actually quite good at this sort of thing."
I glance behind me.
"Hey. You've been staring at that the whole time, haven't you?"
"Nah?"
"The blue ribbon? Come to think of it, you weren't wearing it yesterday."
"Th-that, that-that, that, wof!"
"Why did you just bark?"
"Wof?"
Dagaa and Narcissus have been fussing over Jucie-san for a while now.
Jucie-san seems to be glowing somehow, even more energetic than usual.
Maybe the bracelet really is that rare. Well, it's certainly suspicious in various ways.
Once we get back to the surface, I've decided to check whether that street vendor is still around.
Every time I hand over the bracelet, I always end up getting kissed.
Even if they say it's a thank-you, there's no way they'd go that far.
Whether the bracelet is a Legacy or legendary... there's definitely something more to it.
I'm sure of that, but it's not like there's any harm in it.
If there were any danger, my Danger Discernment would have kicked in right away.
But the bracelet didn't turn red or black.
So it should be safe to hand them over as tokens of gratitude.
Just a kiss in return.
Originally I thought about giving them to Ensu and others, but it turns out I can only give them to women.
Since I bought way more than I needed, I was thinking of just giving them to every woman I know.
A kiss in return isn't bad either. Not bad at all.
And we arrived in front of the elevator.
Yep, definitely an elevator. I pressed the open button.
"Whoa, it opened."
"It's cramped inside."
"Is everyone on?"
"Uh, woof."
"Why'd you bark just now?"
"Wafu?"
"Na?"
"Tight squeeze."
Everyone's on. Good. I closed the door and pressed 44.
There are other floors too, but it probably only responds to floor 44.
The door closed and the elevator started moving.
It came right away. The peculiar dizziness from descending.
I felt a strange sense of nostalgia.
"Ngh, this queasy, churning feeling is awful…"
"Um, I'm getting dizzy."
The women seemed pretty fragile.
"Na?"
"Hey, hey. You two okay?"
"Agaro, you're handling this fine, huh?"
"Yeah, more or less. You look like you're doing all right too."
"Well."
With a quaint little chime, like an old-fashioned bell, we arrived at floor forty-four.
Floor forty-four.
I could hear the sound of water. Right beside us was a white wall with a black glass door.
This had to be the control room. When I opened the door, there was a pedestal in the center of a spacious room.
I stood at the pedestal and operated the console.
"How is it?"
"No errors… doesn't look like anything's wrong."
With that, Hydrangea's water was protected.
"Now for those guys, huh."
"Hey, the treasure's location—let's go check it out!"
"Yeah, I suppose…"
"Wof. You copied it down, right?"
"I have it."
I take the memo out of my pouch.
Oh, right. I set the memory stick on the pedestal.
A different window appeared, displaying a map.
I could tell it was a map, but... it was hard to make out.
More like, I couldn't even tell where it was supposed to be.
I operated the console. I could read the text.
"Items"... "Settings"... no, there was "Search."
I typed in "Map" and "Avstrakdru Ruins"... oh, it came up.
From here it said... what is this... should I take notes?
"Still, Wof. You can really move that thing around, huh."
"I learned from the witch."
"I see."
"That witch. She can even do that, huh."
I don't know. But maybe she can.
"Um, um, the witch is amazing!"
"Na!"
"It's frustrating, but the witch is impressive."
"That's true. Oh—"
What's wrong?
"The water level had dropped in one spot, so I adjusted it."
"Adjusted… sorry about that."
"That should do it."
I checked again. Everything else looked fine.
I closed all the windows and stepped away from the pedestal.
Agaro scratched lightly at his eyepatch and spoke.
"I'm thinking we should explore this ruins too, just to be thorough."
"Sure, fine by me."
"Y-yes, I'll explore it!"
"Got it."
We left the control room and headed down the stairs at the end of the hall.
As soon as we reached the bottom, I used Danger Discernment.
Three red dots appeared.
"There are enemies ahead."
We readied our weapons.
The area at the bottom of the stairs was a maze of corridors with small rooms scattered between them.
They all had black glass doors, and some of the corridors and rooms had collapsed.
In the room at the bend ahead, there were three red dots. They were wandering around.
The door to the room with the enemies was tightly shut.
It might have been fine to leave them alone, but Agaro said that someone could be beyond this point.
There was that possibility, so we decided to go in.
The door could be destroyed. Agaro would break it, and we would all rush in at once.
What we found inside were zombie delvers.
All three of them were zombies.
"Are you kidding me…"
Agaro muttered, as though struck by a blow.
From that, we understood.
The zombies were the delvers who had been searching.
Narses asked.
"The Doom Sword… what are you going to do?"
"I'll do it. Can't leave them like this."
"Right."
Agaro drew Flametongue.
"Sorry. Could you let me handle this alone?"
None of us had any objection.
Agaro set black flames alight on Flametongue.
He dispatched each one carefully.
From each, he obtained what would become their remains and a delver tag.
Agaro murmured.
"Not enough."
"Huh?"
"The Lid of Tartaros was five. Plus the inspector, that makes six."
"Three short."
"Um, um, those three might still be alive!"
"Or they could be... somewhere else... by now."
"Agaro. Let's go."
"Yeah..."
Agaro was dejected.
Can't blame him. Finding out his acquaintances had turned into zombies.
Agaro was probably more used to this sort of thing than I was.
Still, it hit him. Sometimes you just can't make peace with it.
My memories from my past life had plenty of that kind of thing too.
If someone close to me turned into a zombie... could I handle it the way Agaro did?
There was no reaction from my Danger Discernment here, so I moved on to the next floor.
The next floor had a similar layout.
I used Danger Discernment, but got no reaction.
Down the stairs I went.
The next floor would probably be the same too, I thought.
"It's flooded down here."
"Oh, oh, it stinks!"
"There's a weird smell."
"Hey!"
"Is this fish?"
"..."
I use Danger Discernment. Countless red dots.
"Gyob-gyob-pah!"
"Gyob-rah-pa-gyob-pah!"
"Gyob-gyob-raah!!"
"Gyoh-poo-gyob-gyob-poh!!"
Sahuagin. They must have noticed us, because they kept coming one after another.
But weak mobs are still weak mobs.
Dozens — no, even if hundreds gathered, I didn't feel like we'd lose.
Besides, Agaro was invincible right now.
In the blink of an eye, she'd wipe out every last Sahuagin and we'd leave these ruins.
The view outside was dark blue.
First, a waterfall. A cascade like Niagara, and it was spectacular.
Near the base of the waterfall, I could see something resembling a town.
Probably ruins.
Beyond that, there was nothing — just blue rock walls stretching all around.
The 44th floor was just that.
I used <Danger Discernment> and <Wheel of Fortune> in tandem.
I used <Wheel of Fortune> because I'd felt something when I saw that town.
First, there were no enemies nearby.
The other thing was — I held my breath.
"Huh!?"
A chill ran through me.
From the ruined town, a dark purple light was rising.