Chapter 114

The booming sound didn't stop.

A rumbling sound, urureung, echoed through the dark, narrow passage.

Pneuve and I ran, without a word.

Following the sound, we found Meh and Onseu Om.

Brass Arm was furious, grabbing Meh by the collar and shaking him.

Pneuve shouted in surprise.

“Mr. Onseu! What are you doing!”

“What am I doing!”

Onseu Om bellowed.

“This guy trapped us!”

The passage we came through was blocked.

The sluice gate had come down.

Even in the darkness, it looked incredibly thick.

Seeing its massive weight, it was no wonder it made such a loud, rumbling sound.

It seemed impossible for human strength to do anything.

Then again, a sluice gate meant to hold back a torrent would be a problem if it could be opened by a person's strength.

“……”

The sluice gate had closed.

We were trapped.

I didn't know how far we had gone underground, but our path out of this dark, damp sewer was cut off.

Pneuve's face went pale.

“…Did Mr. Meh really close the gate?”

“It wasn't intentional.”

His voice was calm, but Meh's face was also stiff.

The fact that he wasn't resisting being held by the collar by Onseu Om proved that he felt a sense of responsibility.

He opened his heavy lips.

“It's an old device, so some of the wiring must have gotten tangled. I should have been more careful…”

“Listen, you Horm-man!”

Onseu Om tightened his grip on Meh's collar.

Meh's body lifted into the air.

Onseu Om lifted a sturdy man as lightly as a doll.

“None of that is important!”

He growled.

“Can you open that door, yes or no. Just tell me that!”

“…I can't.”

Meh let out a small sigh.

“I've already checked, and the opening and closing mechanism was already old, but it crumbled when the gate closed so suddenly.”

“Then we have to break the door?”

“We can't do that either. The door isn't thin enough for a person to break, and the nearby ground is very weak. Even if we broke the door, it would immediately be crushed by the earth.”

“This bastard, after causing all this…!”

Brass Arm looked ready to punch Meh.

The way he calmly laid out the facts only fueled his anger.

“Then what are we supposed to do!”

Meh shut his eyes tight.

“Mr. Onseu-!” Pneuve shouted in a near-scream.

Onseu Om swung his fist.

But he couldn't hit Meh.

Something had grabbed his arm.

“Calm down, Brass Arm.”

It was as if there was an invisible hand.

Of course, it was ‘Fantasy Finger.’ I stepped between the two men, having blocked Onseu Om's fist.

“No matter what, let's not cross the line.”

“Move, kid.”

Onseu Om's two eyes blazed.

“You said I was going to cut you up too.”

Indigo mana flared up.

As the three 16-port Mana Reactors on Brass Arm's body spat out indigo flames, a sizzling sound was heard.

It was because the incredibly dense mana instantly burned the air.

“Mr. Onseu, please!”

At Onseu Om’s ominous aura, Pneuve Freira hastily got to his feet.

He immediately clung to his colleague.

Although Pneuve was much bigger, he couldn’t overcome Onseu Om’s strength and was dragged around.

“It's a job! Just for once, just for once, let’s be patient!”

“…A job, that damn job!”

Brass Arm roared in anger.

For a man with not an ounce of patience, anger was a difficult emotion.

But what could he do? It was a situation where he had no choice but to endure.

Still, once the anger flared up, what could he do about it?

Brass Arm looked around, seeking a place to unleash his blazing indigo mana.

He saw the sluice gate that trapped them.

“That damn door-!”

Whether it breaks or not!

He poured all his strength and released the indigo mana.

The power that had burned thousands of cockroach magical beasts poured onto the sluice gate.

Light dust scattered everywhere and the sound was deafening.

But the sluice gate was intact.

Its surface was slightly dented and scorched, but it still boasted its thickness.

It was like peeling only one layer of an onion.

It was disgustingly sturdy. Onseu Om clicked his tongue in added frustration.

“Trapped deep underground, what kind of job are you talking about!”

“…There is a way out.”

All eyes turned to Meh.

He carefully took out an oilskin from his pocket.

“Could you look at this? It's a map of the lower sewer. I copied it from the device just now.”

“What about it?”

“Please look here.”

Meh pointed his finger at the very bottom of the map.

Several long lines extended from there to the surface.

“It's an old well site. The entrance is blocked and it won't be easy to find, but it connects to the surface.”

“…Is there no other way?”

“This is the only one I know of. We didn’t come down here with the intention of staying, so we have almost no food.”

“…Damn it, so we have to go even deeper.”

Onseu Om looked at Pneuve.

Pneuve Freira nodded to his colleague.

Their intentions were exchanged without words.

“Alright, I'll fall for it!”

Onseu Om shouted in annoyance.

“Let’s go!”

***

They went even deeper.

Down, down, along the twisted, dark and narrow paths.

It wasn't a difficult journey.

The reason was that there were almost no magical beasts in the lower sewer.

With our mana lamps lit without worry of being discovered by magical beasts, there was no chance of getting lost.

But fatigue built up.

The stench, in particular, was difficult.

With my nose numbed, it felt like my other senses were also getting weird.

The air got humid the deeper we went, making it easy to get out of breath.

I couldn't help but feel grateful for the protective suit, which had protective magic and purification magic cast on it.

“Let's rest here for today,” Meh said, looking at the map.

He added that there would be no space for four grown men to rest for at least the next four hours.

No one complained.

Not because they had no complaints, but because they didn't want to start an unnecessary fight by voicing them.

No one wanted to waste energy in a place where it was hard to even breathe.

A sewer full of filth and stench, a swarm of thousands of cockroach magical beasts, a building-sized cockroach Magical Beast and finally being trapped deep underground… Musing on it, only profanity would come to mind.

“Damn it.”

Onseu Om suddenly stood up.

He felt like he would go crazy if he didn't do something.

I was warming myself by the flame that Pneuve had created with magic and lifted my head.

“Where are you going, Brass Arm?”

“To smoke, got a problem with that?”

Brass Arm showed me his cigarette and snapped.

It was a type of cigarette where you cut off the end after you smoked, and he had smoked so much that it was less than half the length it had been when we entered the sewer.

“You need to know when to stop being so obvious!”

He purposely made a coughing sound every time he exhaled, so I couldn't bear it!

Tsk, this will be gone after a few more puffs… Brass Arm stomped his feet and disappeared into the darkness.

Soon, silence fell.

I, Meh and Pneuve Freira glanced at each other.

I was usually a talkative person, but after the sluice gate closed, I had been strangely quiet.

Meh, guessing that I was angry, slowly began to speak.

“I'm sorry, Shion.”

“I'm fine.”

I smiled.

It didn't seem feigned, so he was relieved.

Meh turned his gaze.

“I'm sorry, Pneuve.”

“I'm fine too.”

Pneuve Freira also answered in a voice that didn't sound resentful.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't angry about the sudden crisis.

But watching Onseu Om loudly express his anger made him feel as if his own anger was being expressed for him, which gave him a sense of relief.

“We were going to go down anyway, Mr. Meh.”

“…I'm very grateful that you said that.”

Meh's face was troubled.

People with a strong sense of responsibility tend to feel their mistakes more deeply.

“It was working perfectly, so I was relieved, but I didn't know the wiring would be so tangled…”

“Stop worrying.”

I waved my hand.

I was half-leaning against the wall, looking very relaxed.

“What's going to change if you worry? Let's get some good rest, even if it's just for a moment.”

“You seem very composed, Shion.”

“There’s no reason not to be.”

I took out a metal tin from my pocket.

It was a lozenge-type candy with a peppermint scent.

I carefully tilted the metal tin toward my mouth so no dirt would get on the candy.

One candy popped right in.

The way I chewed on the candy made me look just like a boy.

“Want candy?”

***

Pneuve Freira realized he had dozed off.

The lozenge candy had hardened in his mouth with his saliva, giving him an unpleasant stickiness.

He spat out the candy and looked around.

It was still dark and damp.

‘…How long have I been asleep?’

He had no idea.

He looked around and saw that both Shion and Meh had their eyes closed.

‘Is Mr. Onseu still not back…?’

Only Brass Arm was not there.

If he had gone to smoke and still hadn't returned, maybe it hadn't been that long.

He felt a strange vibration at his feet.

As a practitioner of the acceleration magic ‘Woodpecker's Step,’ which focuses on leg vibrations, he was more sensitive to what he felt through the ground than others.

Pneuve's eyes widened. He knew it was time to get up, and then a piercing shout rang out.

“Hey, you bastards, wake up-!!!”

It was Onseu Om's voice.

The indigo frock coat and tricorne hat of Brass Arm, who had rushed in, were completely soaked.

“Wake up!”

“…W-what is it?”

“It's water, water!”

“…Water!?”

“Yes, water!”

Pneuve and Onseu Om exchanged words.

Onseu Om wildly gestured with his hands, explaining the situation.

“Damn it, there's a flood! I don't know where it's coming from, but it's pouring in!”

“…Why?”

“I don't know, you idiot! Somewhere must have burst!”

I and Meh were already standing.

Since we had no luggage, we all jumped to our feet.

Onseu Om shouted.

“It's coming from the left! Go right!”

The sound of water was getting closer.

We could even see the spray of water approaching from the end of the long path.

The four of us began to run in unison.

“Three blocks!”

Meh took out the map. The structure was a maze, but he could read it quickly.

“If we go three blocks to the side, there's an emergency sluice gate!”

With a goal in sight, our steps became faster.

We all started running with all our might.

Deep underground, a torrent that was difficult to describe.

We had no choice but to quicken our pace.

“Run!”

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