I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

79. What I didn’t want to know

“So what do we do now?”

“First of all, we should move according to our original purpose. Looking at it now, it doesn’t look like he will wake up anytime soon.”

Everyone was surprised by the sudden appearance of the hero Morian, but given the situation, they hastily acted according to their original purpose.

“Alfred, after all, isn’t there something your grandmother said in this conference room?”

“For now, it seems like that. What we are looking for is not here. If you look at the documents on the desk… Wait, dragon bones were sold at such a low price in the past? “Now, even if I try to get it by paying money, I can’t get it.”

In the end, I only found out one more shocking fact in this conference room, and there was nothing I was really looking for.

Ritual to call God.

Elders who were sacrificed in that ritual and lost their souls.

And then the mysterious girl Morian suddenly appears.

If you ask me if these three things have much to do with how to lift Arcel’s curse, it’s not true.

“…Did you possibly lie? “In fact, there is no way to lift the curse here.”

In the end, Stella, who seemed exhausted, complained.

However, there is some truth to Stella’s words. Shion only said that she was in the tomb and did not tell us her detailed location or appearance.

Isn’t the explanation given to Alfred all about being recognizable just by looking at it?

“But like you said, what does her grandmother have to gain by lying to us?”

“That’s…”

However, as Alfred said, Zion had no reason to do so.

“This is why you shouldn’t be an earl. Your ears are long and your thoughts are short. She said her grandmother would recognize her at a glance. “Then it’s probably our fault that she’s so stupid that she doesn’t even recognize him.”

Stella seemed to be upset by Alfred’s provocation, but she did not object.

She definitely didn’t think Shion would have lied when she looked at the situation.

Then what on earth did Zion say?

“Why not go back to your maternal grandmother and ask her again?”

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’ve thought about it, but I think if we wait too long, we won’t be able to find anything we can.”

Alfred is worried about the unidentified elf.

Although he seemed inexperienced, he ultimately defeated as many as seven users of the holy sword by himself.

You would have to listen to Morian in person to find out the details, but since he was currently asleep and unconscious, it was difficult to wake him up and ask him questions.

Anyway, it seems that the elf is currently planning something, and if his purpose is fulfilled, it is unlikely that anything good will happen.

“Anyway, if this goes on, these are the only two candidates left… I didn’t really want to go here.”

“Where is that place?”

“If you’re a demon, you probably know that it’s the place where your ancestors are buried and the underground area where demons are said to have studied magic.”

“There’s that in the sanctuary where our ancestors sleep?”

“It’s just a guess, but I followed her grandmother’s diary and added my own reasoning.”

“Please give me that diary. Read it too. “Why do you want to keep it to yourself, demon?”

“Then why not read it?”

Alfred smiled as he handed Stella the diary.

“If I read it and my brain melts, I won’t know? “There’s no way her grandmother wouldn’t have put any safeguards in her own diary.”

Stella was about to open her diary, but closed it immediately after hearing Alfred’s words.

This is partly because a warning was clearly written on the first page: ‘If you steal, you will die.’

“…How on earth do you read this?”

“It’s okay to separate the brain and see, you inferior ears can’t even do something as simple as this.”

“It’s not that you’re inferior, it’s that you’re not normal!”

“Leave it to both of you. Besides, if work is urgent, wouldn’t it be better to hurry to the basement?”

“You are right. “Then shall we go straight to the basement?”

Alfred placed his hand on the floor, saying there was no need to walk up the stairs.

Then, with a brief flash of light, a small trapdoor appeared.

When I look down, I vaguely see a very deep and dark hallway.

“You can just go down here. In the end, if it’s underground, all you have to do is drill through the floor.”

“…It’s safe, right?”

“I don’t know about that, so I guess I’ll have to go in and check first.”

Puck!

“Ahh?!”

“Stella?!”

“It might be dangerous, so go and check first!”

“I will never leave you alone, you damn demon!”

Alfred kicked Stella’s butt, who was looking down at the floor.

Stella seemed to have cursed Alfred until the end before landing on her floor.

Luckily, it seems to be not as deep as I thought.

“I don’t think it’s okay to go down since I don’t hear any screams or sounds. “Even if it’s not okay, I’m still okay with it.”

Alfred confirmed that it was safe below and tapped the floor with his foot.

So, a ladder that did not exist before appears in the wall.

“Come on, let’s go down.”

“Of course…”

Arsel looked at Alfred, who was smiling brightly, for a moment, but instead asked if something was wrong.

Has Alfred done that once or twice anyway?

I just decided to go down, thinking Alfred was acting like usual.

“Stella, are you okay?”

“Her butt hurts… But it’s okay, I just have to kick that demon the same way. So why are you clinging to me?!”

Stella clung to Arcel and exposed her teeth to Alfred, who was carrying him on his back.

“That’s because there are dangerous and fierce demons.”

“Who says you’re a dangerous and fierce ogre!”

“You, you are no better than a criminal who wants to inflict violence on a young and innocent child like me.”

“Aren’t you two getting tired of it?”

In the end, Arcel looked around alone holding a torch.

This is a hallway with nothing special.

However, this place, made of stone, had a strangely gloomy feel compared to the upper part, and the not-so-good energy seemed to have become even stronger.

More than anything, it looks like this place hasn’t been maintained for a long time.

“It is said that this is a place where demons study various magic, and some of them are dangerous, so it is probably safe to say that it is the strongest fortress.”

It seems to also serve as a kind of shelter.

As Alfred said, the walls of the hallway were not simply made of stone, but boasted a strength that was incomparable to steel through magical processing.

Even if a significant explosion occurs, there won’t even be a scratch.

From the beginning, the entire inside of the tomb was made like this.

It looks like a very well-made birdcage.

It was so well made that the bird couldn’t even think of wanting to fly in the sky.

“Is that a prison?”

“Maybe? “Prisons for magical experiments are common in places like this.”

“We elves don’t do such barbaric things, right? “Doing experiments on living people…”

Stella walked up to the bars and couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Oh my, that’s pitiful.”

Alfred laughed heartily, covering his mouth.

Inside the bars, there was a white skeleton with only very old bones remaining.

A chain was fastened around the white skeleton’s neck, and it looked like it may have been trapped here and died for unknown reasons.

If you look at his size, he might be around the size of a child.

“Dae, what on earth are you doing here…”

Stella ran down the hallway with an expression of disbelief.

The bars were stretched out.

There were all big and small white bones there, and if you add up all of them, it seemed like there would be well over 50 people.

“It’s not uncommon, those who are said to be able to touch magic often use young children for experiments. “Especially those who think they are superior and great.”

Alfred said, looking at the skeleton inside the bars.

“At least it’s not a demon’s bone, but a human bone. Maybe they kidnapped some children?”

I was used to things like that anyway.

Using a child as a magical experiment may sound cruel, but it was an everyday occurrence.

Something unfortunate or something terrible that should never happen? Things like that were already happening more commonly than this.

“It’s actually not that important that these kids were used for experiments. What’s important is what kind of magic test subjects they were used as.”

Alfred picked up a book nearby.

This time too, it seemed to be a book related to how to summon a god that I had seen before.

Were all these children also used as test subjects or sacrifices?

There was no way to know exactly what it was for, and since it died so long ago, it doesn’t seem easy to revive it as an undead.

He was brought in without knowing anything in the first place and died while being used as a test subject, so there was no way he would have known.

“Hmm, where did they use these young children to learn how to call God? And why are they all dead? “I don’t think he just died of starvation.”

“…I’m not sure. “Children will not have enough magical power to use them as wealth to summon gods.”

Arsel looked through the bars with sad eyes.

Stella must have been shocked and sighed as she crossed her eyebrows.

This tomb was like a helping hand that could provide support when the elves were in crisis, and I knew it to be a sanctuary where the elves’ most glorious days rested.

But now?

From Noble mtl dot com

In fact, all of the most necessary ancient magic was cursed with an unknown meaning and could not be read, and only the dark side that an elf would never commit was left behind.

In this case, it would have been better not to come into the tomb.

I didn’t want to know the truth.

“So, after looking at my grandmother’s diary, I can see that perhaps these children were used as bodies to contain God.”

“In other words, it’s a vessel?”

“Yes. “I don’t know exactly what a god is, but maybe we could save magic power by doing it this way?”

It is said that it is more efficient to make a separate vessel to contain the god’s body than to materialize it with magical power.

I don’t know what they were trying to do by summoning God, but if they had succeeded in putting God in the body of a child like this, they would have been lucky enough to be able to control it.

“…What on earth did the elves want from the gods?”

Arcel closed her eyes and swallowed the bitter feeling.

†††

“It’s terrible, I never thought elves would do something like that in the past. “I thought they were self-absorbed idiots drinking the dew in the forest.”

Clen frowned as she looked at her drink.

The stories of Zion that I heard while drinking together were full of atrocities that even the demons themselves would consider terrible.

“It must have been like that after the Queen of Vampires was born. Funnily enough, the elves have been declining rather than developing since that day. Tsk tsk…”

Shion clicked her tongue as she looked at the dried fruit that was served as a snack.

It was a deliciously ripe fruit, but instead of falling to the ground and taking root, it rotted and withered away.

“Then wouldn’t it have been better if he had led the elves himself? “Even if it doesn’t develop, it would have been better to not have it rotted and thrown away.”

“I wasn’t confident or qualified to lead them. “If this old man had stayed there in the first place, not much would have changed.”

Shion shakes his head.

It was something Clen could not understand.

I know that demons are difficult to deal with because they are violent and short-tempered, but in my own way, I taught them how to obey them and form a community.

As a result, although it took time, they succeeded in building a fairly prosperous city.

In fact, it seemed like it would be much easier for an elf.

“And for an old person like me, it’s best to quickly leave this world and live alone and quietly. If I were to become senile for no reason, I might have ended up just like them.”

“…I can’t even believe that story, what on earth does that mean? Elves are a species that lives longer than us demons. If so, my mental lifespan would be much longer.”

Elves were the race with the longest life expectancy, excluding dragons, which went extinct in the past.

Of course, there are races like the Clen that have unusually long lifespans among demons, but in the case of the Clen, they are closer to extending their lifespan on their own rather than having an innate long lifespan.

“Do you think I maintain this young body for no reason? “It’s a surprisingly sad story that it hasn’t grown for over 1,000 years?”

Shion chuckled and laughed.

However, after hearing the story about the lifespan of elves and their spirit, Clen could not bear to laugh.

To be honest, it was like being born cursed.

“…You mean you have stopped becoming ugly?”

“I just barely hold on to the rope because I don’t want to get ugly. Originally, those elders weren’t the worst either. As I got older, things started getting weirder. “I was so needlessly obsessed with things like eternal life that I ended up touching a taboo.”

“Are you talking about summoning that famous god? So, how does it feel to see God in person?”

Clen asked about God.

In the end, various terrible things happened, but anyway, the elves summoned the god and Zion faced the god directly.

I didn’t believe there was a god anyway, but I was curious to hear that he had met him in person.

However.

“There is no God, you star-gazing demon.”

Shion drew a line with a serious expression.

There is no such thing as a god, and what they summoned was never a god.

“…It just summoned a life that existed somewhere other than our territory, and it happened to have god-like power, but it was by no means a god.”

What I saw in the past was definitely not God.

The elves committed sins that should not have been committed, and this is like paying the price for them.