c16 8

It happened one day about three hundred and sixty years ago.
This guy called Enad loudly declared, “Starting today I’m the king.
You got a problem with that? Well, then bring it. I’ll kill the lot of ya!” At the time, hard as this is to imagine with all the human kingdoms gone now, there were apparently a lot of guys like Enad out there. Folks with the charisma to bring the people of an area together, along with connections and strength of arms. They called themselves kings but, well, they were more like gang bosses. The world was so chaotic that you couldn’t sleep at night without the backing of a group of ruffians. That being the case, it’s human nature that those ruffians would side with the toughest and most generous boss they could find.
Enad was the face of a certain town on the lakeside, and was fully established as the leader of a massive gang. Three centuries and a couple decades ago, he was living in an era where people in that sort of position were becoming kings one after another.
The incredible thing about Enad, and maybe he learned this from someone else, was the way that he set out to prove he wasn’t just any old Enad.
Everyone knows the story about the paradise of Arabankia, right? Where George’s son Theodore built a kingdom on the lake. That famous legend. The truth is, this is the town in that legend, and I, Enad, am descended from Theodore. I am Enad George, descendant of George’s son Theodore, and I will name our kingdom Arabakia. How’s that? Pretty sweet, huh?
The truth of the matter is, Enad was a capable man. He brought the nearby villages, towns, gangs, and their bosses under his control. The expansion of the Kingdom of Arabakia knew no limits.
But no matter where you go, you always have to watch out for threats from within. The Kingdom of Arabakia that had so rapidly expanded under Enad was, in some ways, an alliance of gangs. Some people followed him out of adoration, while others swore loyalty only because they couldn’t fight against the big wave that he represented.
However, Enad must never have suspected that of all people, Ishidua Zaemoon, the king’s right hand, the closest of his close associates, would be the one to betray him.
Maybe the king pushed him around too much. Maybe he couldn’t stand to see the king grow more arrogant every time his stature rose. Or maybe he just wished the guy had shown some sympathy for his position, stuck between the king and those beneath him. Ishidua must have had his reasons, but there’s no questioning that he sought to end Enad’s life.
But Enad was no ordinary guy. This was a man who’d clawed his way to the top.
He was like, “Mrrgh! I smell bloodlust!” and detected the creeping assassin. He tried to go on the counterattack. But Ishidua was pretty impressive in his own right, and he reacted immediately. He sent pursuers to finish off Enad, who had fled for his life, but they say every one of them was struck down.
Nice one, Enad. You’re awesome, Enad. You weren’t just acting full of yourself, you were actually super strong, huh?
Now, it was plain as day that this incident was an act of treason by Ishidua Zaemoon. Yet many people had helped him, and there weren’t many who had remained as bystanders. Maybe Enad really was especially bad about pushing his underlings around? Even if the people supported him, the members of his government seemed to hate his guts.
Ishidua and his fellow conspirators wanted Enad dead, no matter what it took. But as much as they wanted it, it seemed Enad had already fled outside the Kingdom of Arabakia. They say that he was on the verge of death, but the guy still had the skill to massacre everyone who’d gone after him. Even if they did manage to find him, how long would that take? With that in mind, Ishidua made a grand proclamation.
“Though it saddens us, our king has gone mad and run away. As his retainers, we have searched with all our power, but no matter what we do, we simply cannot seem to locate him. Because things cannot remain like this forever, I would like to have another ruler in his place. As you are all aware, King Enad George has no wife nor children, and yet he does have a distant relative. She, like King Enad, must be a descendant of the Kingdom of Arabakia’s founder, Theodore George. Let us have her become our queen, and come together to support her.”
Was the young girl, Friau, who ascended the throne truly a relative of Enad? You have to assume that was a fabrication, but Ishidua Zaemoon rapidly instituted a system where he would be supporting a queen who was descended from Theodore George as her regent. Queen Friau was a direct descendant of Theodore of the House of George, so she could carry on the House of the Founder.
Incidentally, Enad had a sworn brother by the name of Steech. Not a brother-in-law, a sworn brother. The two of them swore an oath of brotherhood, despite not being related by blood at all, so they must have been really close. Steech was Enad’s top flunky when he was a gang boss, but Enad had gradually alienated him. As more talented people like Ishidua Zaemoon joined him, Steech’s relative value dropped. Enad started to look at him and think, “You’re not actually that useful, huh?” Ishidua even called out to Steech and got his cooperation, then continued to treat him well after the revolution.
He handled the situation nicely. Never missed a beat, you know? Ishidua Zaemoon. He was a man who could get things done.
Steech’s family held power in the north of the Kingdom, and at some point succeeded in suggesting that they, too, had some hint of the founder Theodore’s blood in their veins. They came to be called the House of the North. This was despite the fact that, obviously, since Steech was only Enad’s sworn brother, they had no connection to Theodore George whatsoever.
After that chaotic beginning, the Kingdom of Arabakia saw more cruel scheming, feuding, bloody power struggles, and internecine violence as they rose to become the greatest power in all of Grimgar.
There’s the House of the Founder and the House of the North repeatedly assassinating each other’s members; forbidden love between a young prince of the House of Ishidua and the daughter of its rival, the House of Mogis; the fall of the House of Mogis; the crisis caused by the scandalous deviancy of the head of the House of Vedoy; the House of Water, which was always receiving some windfall or another; and more. The history of the Kingdom of Arabakia has any number of amusing topics to discuss, but let’s turn to the year 503 in the kingdom’s calendar. That would be 157 years ago now, wouldn’t it? In the Kingdom of Arabakia, and other states all over, there was a rash of bizarre incidents where hordes of moving corpses appeared and ran rampant. You see where we’re going with this. That’s right.
The infamous No-Life King appeared.
The dead rising and attacking the living was a crisis in itself. It really stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble, but it was the outrageous incident which followed in the year 505 that truly sent shock waves through the Kingdom of Arabakia.
Ishidua Rohro was a descendant of Ishidua Zaemoon, and an important vassal of the Kingdom of Arabakia. Because he was young and still unmarried, not a day passed without the ladies seeking his affection. However, this incredibly famous person vanished all of a sudden.
Or so people thought, then he popped back up at the palace, looking awfully pale.
“I am not who I was until yesterday. I urge you all to surrender. To he who was forsaken by death, and rules it. To he who is the King of Death, and the Undying King. Submit to my master, the No-Life King.
Accept death, and I will guarantee you will live forever. Just like me.”
Well, that caused quite the uproar. Things got out of hand. It was a real mess. In the chaos, the elite guards skewered and stabbed Ishidua Rohro with a whole 27 spears and swords, and yet he still didn’t die.
“I take it that’s your answer, is it? I will pass it on to my master.”
Ishidua Rohro left the palace, dragging along the many swords and spears that were still stuck in him and bleeding dark blood. The very next day, the moving corpses that would come to be called the undead began a major offensive.
The undead didn’t just attack the Kingdom of Arabakia. The other smaller human nations were affected, too. It’s not like nobody tried to bring the kingdoms together to overcome the great crisis they all faced, but everyone had their hands full with their own problems, and they didn’t like each other much to begin with, so it was kind of impossible. The elf and dwarf kingdoms, which had built up relatively good relations with the human race, were struggling with the undead attacks, too.
In the year 513 of the kingdom’s calendar, responding to the call of the No-Life King, the orcs, goblins, and kobolds that had long been oppressed by the humans came together with the gray elves who had been estranged from the elves of the Shadow Forest, as well as the undead, obviously, to form the Alliance of Kings.
Setting the gray elves and orcs aside for the moment, the goblins and kobolds had never had a king before. When the No-Life King suggested that they might be better off with a king, that it would help to unite them as a race and increase their power, the goblins and kobolds accepted it.
As the leader of the Alliance of Kings, the No-Life King had five close associates, including Ishidua Rohro, called the five princes, but it is said that those five would kneel before the other kings as if they were their vassals, too. Though he was the head of the alliance, he took the position that the kings were equal. He was trying to lead by example and show that the undead, orcs, goblins, kobolds, and gray elves were all different, and all wonderful, so they should work to be the best they could be together.
The human kingdoms were at a total disadvantage. Powerful nations like Ishmar and Nananka, and small but robust states like Kuzen were destroyed one after another. The elves mostly shut themselves inside the Shadow Forest, hoping the calamity would pass them by. The bearded, barrel-like dwarves fought valiantly, but faced a series of defeats against superior numbers. It was all they could do to gather their strength in the Ironblood Kingdom of the Kurogane Mountains and harden their defenses.
The Kingdom of Arabakia had superior military and economic power to all of these countries. However, the reason that the Kingdom of Arabakia became the last bastion of the human race was not because of their vast domain, large population, or powerful soldiers. It was simply that they were the farthest south. The No-Life King came from the north. The undead traveled southward, attacking humans, elves, and dwarves, constantly adding to their ranks. The King of Arabakia, the government officials, the generals, and the people all fled farther and farther south.
It was the year 521 of the kingdom’s calendar, 139 years ago.
The southernmost city of the Kingdom of Arabakia, Damuro, fell.
King Gary, who ruled the Kingdom of Arabakia at the time, had snuck out of Damuro long before then. He evacuated south of the Tenryu Mountains through the Earth Dragon’s Aorta Road.
They say that the head of the House of the North, Giske, who bore the blood of Enad George’s sworn brother Steech, fought to the end, trying to let as many people escape as possible. There’s theories that because King Gary was from the House of the Founder, and he had an intensely antagonistic relationship with Giske of the House of the North, he may have deliberately left him there, though.
Having brilliantly run for his life, and made it to the new lands to the south, King Gary and his people decided to take advantage of the fact that the House of the North had died out as an opportunity to rewrite history. As far as they were concerned, the story of how Enad George, who built the Kingdom of Arabakia, vanished after Ishidua Zaemoon sought his life, and the traitor put some girl named Friau, a total nobody, on the throne so that he could control her... never happened.
The one who established the kingdom was the legendary Theodore George. He was the true founder and George I. The foundational myth of the kingdom became official history.
If you think about it, you could kind of say that it was that bloody first act of betrayal which turned the Kingdom of Arabakia into the scheming hell it became. We should let go of the past here, they probably thought. In these savage new lands, we need to come together.
Well, they must have been desperate in their own way.
If we interpret their actions in a positive light, that is.


11. Someday, That Debt Will Be Repaid with Interest
“Okay. That story’s gone on quite long enough. It’s about time we steeled ourselves and got down to business, wouldn’t you say?”
As Hiyo spoke, looking down at Haruhiro, she had a cloth wrapped around the lower half of her face. Thanks to that, it was hard to tell her expression. But he was pretty confident she was smirking.
“Well... I’d say I’m as steely as I’m going to get... I guess.”
Bright sunlight shone in through a hole in the ceiling just above the table where Haruhiro was lying down on his back. It made him feel weird.
He was naked from the waist up, for one thing.
The table was one that Kuzaku had found in the ruins and brought here. It had a clean sheet thrown over it, and now Haruhiro was halfnaked on top of it. He didn’t know how to describe how strange this felt.
“Okay.”
There was another table, or a chair rather, next to where Hiyo was standing. The chair had a white cloth over it, too. Sitting on that was a knife that had been sterilized with boiling water, and an object that looked like a flower bud that was maybe three centimeters across.
“Let’s get this show on the road, then.”
Hiyo grabbed the knife with her right hand, holding it up to look at the end of the blade. She tested its edge with her left index finger.
“Nyeheheheheh...”
She wasn’t just smirking, she was laughing out loud.
He was tempted to say, Oh, come on, but Hiyo quickly withdrew her finger.
“Whoopsie. I shouldn’t touch it after going to all the trouble of disinfecting it.”
“...If we’re doing this, can you just get it over with? I’m getting tired here.”
“Any final words?”
Hiyo was clearly enjoying this. He wasn’t going to give her any more satisfaction.
“Nope.”
“Is that a fact?”
Hiyo looked unamused.
“Then, please roll over onto your side.”
Haruhiro did as he was told and turned over so that his right side was facing up. When he did, he saw Kuzaku by the wall, looking at him worriedly. Merry and Setora were close by the warrior’s side. Kiichi and Neal were outside the ruin, standing guard in case anything happened.
“...Hold on,” Kuzaku said through quivering lips. “I just can’t... I can’t accept this, you know? Does Haruhiro really have to be the one to do this? Can’t someone else? Like the old man, maybe?” The “old man” was Neal, of course.
“No one else will do,” Hiyo said with a nasal laugh. “Neal-san does seem like a capable scout, sure. And Hiyo can do thief-y stuff, too. Not to overstate this and make him think I’m trying to butter him up or something, but Haru-kun is head and shoulders above both of us.”
“...Um, could you not call me Haru-kun?”
Haruhiro tried objecting, just to see if it would work.
“Haru-kun,” Hiyo deliberately emphasized his name, “is quite the thief, you know? Oh, yes, Haru-kun is.” I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.
“Oh, a thief with Haru-kun’s skills is just what we need. Haru-kun is the one. It has to be Haru-kun. Therefore, we’ll have Haru-kun do it. All right, you’re ready now, aren’t you, Haru-kun?”
Before responding, Haruhiro looked at Kuzaku. Why were his eyes a little misty?
I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that.
Kuzaku’s brow was furrowed, his lips drawn taut, and he had the most pathetic look on his face.
I really wish he’d cut it out.
“Ultimately, I decided for myself that I’d do this. I can’t say, ‘Believe in me,’ or anything bigheaded like that, but it’s kind of unnerving when you guys look that worried.”
“...It is, isn’t it?” Kuzaku’s shoulders slumped. “Sorry, man. I know this goes without saying, but I believe in you. I just can’t help feeling like we’re falling for her plan, and I don’t like it.” Hiyo got miffed, and spun the knife around.
“You make it sound like Hiyo’s some kind of evil strategist. Hiyo’s just brainy, you know? Deep down, she’s a good person, okay?” “...A good person?” Merry muttered.
Setora sighed.
“How about you stop running your mouth, and get this over with quickly?”
“Oh, I’ll do it. You don’t have to tell me. I already said I would, you little bitch.”
Hiyo placed her left hand on Haruhiro’s hip. The knife in her right hand flashed dully. It couldn’t possibly do that on its own. Was it reflecting the sunlight from the hole in the ceiling?
What am I supposed to do at a time like this? Haruhiro wondered. Was it better to watch? Or should he look away? Could he shut his eyes until it was over?
His heart was racing like mad. His breathing was shallow, too.
Hiyo took a deep breath.
Well, this is just a vague feeling I have, but I should probably watch.
“Here it comes.”
“Go ahead, whenever you’re ready.”
Even he thought that was kind of an awkward response. Hiyo laughed a little, then smoothly inserted the knife into Haruhiro’s right flank.
There was a small slicing sound, but it felt more hot than painful.
No. Wait. Yeah, it hurts. It does hurt. Ow.
Haruhiro gritted his teeth.
Ohhhh. Damn, this hurts.
He was sweating. Buckets. He wanted to thrash around. But he wouldn’t. He had to stay put. “I’m gonna cut a little more.”
This time, it was all he could do to nod. Hiyo’s knife entered through the wound, and jerked around. Okay, maybe she wasn’t jerking it around, but he had to imagine it was about that bad.
It hurts. But I can take it, I guess. I can handle this.
“Sorry, it’s gonna be another centimeter... Two centimeters.”
Yeah, no, I didn’t need that. Don’t explain it to me. I don’t need the rundown, just get it over with. I don’t care anymore. Cut whatever skin, or meat, or whatever else, you want.
“I’m trying not to damage the muscle, see? I think there’s subcutaneous fat here. Probably, at least. So, it’s fine, juuust fine.”
Like I said, I don’t need that. You don’t have to say it. I don’t want the running commentary.
“There!”
“...Guh!” “Whoo!”
“...Ohhhh!”
“Nyan, nyan, nyah!”
“...Nnnngh!”
“Almost there! Almost there! Hah!”
“...Y-You’re doing this intentionally, aren’t you?”
“Oh, heavens no. Gosh. I think you’re projecting a bit. Alrighty then, we’re almost done. It’s tiiiime to implant the relic. Merry-chan, are you ready?”
“Yes. Any time. Hurry up.”
“Then here it coooomes!”
Hiyo set down the knife, and picked up the bud-like object instead. He was getting used to the pain from having been opened up with a knife, but this was going to be something else. Haruhiro clenched his teeth in advance, and braced himself.
“And in it gooooes!”
Hiyo twisted the bud-like object inside Haruhiro.
This is it.
“Afuh...!”
Haruhiro let out a weird gasp.
It sounded sad, heart-wrenching. Like he wanted to cry. This was a pretty nasty kind of pain.
“It’s in! It’s inside him now! Have at it, Merry-chan!”
“O light! May Lumiaris’ divine protection be upon you...”
Merry rushed over, and shoved Hiyo aside. He just had to endure a little longer.
Merry. Merry-sama.
He felt like worshiping her now.
“Sacrament!”
It was like a miracle. As the blinding light enveloped him in an instant, the pain faded, and he felt the tension slip away as his body relaxed.
“Haru...!”
By the time he noticed her moving closer, Merry had practically leapt onto him.
“Are you okay? It doesn’t hurt anymore? Haru? How are you?”
“...Oh, uh, s-sure... I’m good.”
“Thank goodness...”
Yeah. Let’s go with “good” for now.
Haruhiro was as glad as she was, but it wasn’t good for her to hug him like this. He was half-naked for one thing. And, oh yeah, that’s right...
“...You’ll get blood on you, Merry.”
“Ohh.”
For a moment, Merry looked concerned by that. But she apparently didn’t care about her own clothing getting dirty. She grabbed the corner of the cloth that was covering the table, and used it to start wiping down Haruhiro’s body.
“The wounds have all closed up properly. Does anything feel wrong? That’s a pretty big object inside you.”
“...Not really. As long as I don’t touch it, I barely notice it’s there.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Hey, noooow!” Hiyo interrupted them. Her voice was filled with malice. It was like she was trying to fill it with every negative emotion possible at the same time. Not only was she squinting, her whole face was scrunched up.
“Enough with the public display of affection, okay? Also, we’re not in a rush here. Cure would have done just fine, but no, you had to go and bust out Sacrament. Are you trying to show off?”
“Th-That’s not what I...!”
Merry slowly moved away from Haruhiro.
Thanks to that, he was able to catch his breath. When someone of the opposite sex was that close to him, it wasn’t unpleasant, it was the opposite, actually, but it still made it hard to calm down. Maybe this varied from person to person, but even if it was someone of the same gender, like Kuzaku, Haruhiro would have a hard time relaxing when they had their hands all over him.
When Haruhiro sat up, Kuzaku brought him his clothes.
“Here!”
Look at him.
Why is he grinning like that?
But if Haruhiro told him he didn’t like it, Kuzaku would get depressed again.
I know he doesn’t mean any harm. I’ll put up with it. It’s not hard.
Before taking the clothes and getting dressed, Haruhiro tried touching his right flank. The area around the relic was slightly swollen, but it felt more irritating than painful. It made him want to cut it out as soon as possible.
“Well, if this is as bad as it gets...”
Obviously, this had been Hiyo’s idea. The plan made use of a relic, so the rest of them never could have thought of it.
Though, even if they’d had the relic in their possession, it was questionable whether it would have occurred to him. Even if it had crossed his mind, he still might have thought, No way. Not a chance. I couldn’t do that, and dismissed it outright.
Haruhiro put on his clothes and got down from the table.
“Well, give it your best shot, okay?” Hiyo clapped him on the shoulder. He wanted to punch her, but decided to hold off for now, and ignored it.
For the moment, they were working together. Out of necessity. This relationship wouldn’t go on forever.
When the time came, he was going to make Hiyo pay.
The more she hurt them and made them suffer, the higher the price was going to be.


12. At the End of That Gaze
Kuzaku put his back against the wall of the New City, bending his knees and putting his hands together. Kiichi used Kuzaku’s shoulders and head as stepping stones as he clambered up the wall. Haruhiro put his right foot in Kuzaku’s hands. Kuzaku rapidly boosted him up.
They crossed the wall into the New City by night, and proceeded along the ceilings of the tunnel roads. Kiichi was in his element. He easily bounded over the holes in the roofs as he led the way, sometimes speedily climbing a building to look around, and at other times trailing behind to watch the rear. Haruhiro didn’t even have to give orders. Kiichi was a really clever nyaa. It helped that Haruhiro didn’t have to talk to him. Haruhiro preferred to keep quiet as much as possible. Not that he hated people, or anything like that.
They were heading to Ahsvasin.
They tried getting down onto the street they believed led there, but as one might expect, there was a lot of goblin traffic there. Even if he used Stealth, it wasn’t clear he could make it through.
Haruhiro and Kiichi returned to the ceiling of the tunnel road. The buildings around Ahsvasin towered over them like cliffs when they approached. Every one of them was full of holes, which was to say windows, and they were all shaped differently. That limited the number of walls it was possible to scale.
He took a risk, and tried going in one of the windows. The layout was pretty complex. Some of the rooms had a door, while others didn’t. Sometimes, there were gobs sleeping in beds that looked like piles of dirt in the middle of a corridor.
Kiichi took off at some point, but Haruhiro didn’t worry about him.
While he was exploring the building, the nyaa came back. Kiichi turned back towards the direction he had come from, and wagged his tail slightly. Haruhiro interpreted that as a request to follow.
Following Kiichi, he came to a room that felt like a cellar despite not being underground. There were pots, large and small, arranged in lines and piles within. What’s this? he wondered. There was a not quite pungent, but unique, stench filling the room. It smelled both moldy and sweet.
He opened one pot, and it was filled with what he could only assume was a mass of mold, stinking a hundred times worse than what he’d already been exposed to. He hurriedly closed the lid, but his sense of smell wasn’t going to recover for quite a while.
There were a number of windows at the top of the cellar room. It would be daybreak soon.
This was likely a storehouse. Was the stuff inside of the pot food? Did they eat it? If it was fermented, that seemed possible.
Haruhiro decided to hide in the back of the storehouse and wait for night. He sensed gobs occasionally, but though they passed by the storehouse, they never entered. Kiichi slept curled into a ball at Haruhiro’s feet. If Kiichi, who had senses many times more sensitive than a human’s, could sleep here, then it had to be safe. But Haruhiro couldn’t let his guard down. Still, if he strained himself too much, he wouldn’t last. He needed to maintain his focus while resting. Turn his attention to the things that mattered. He had his back to the wall, and was halfway to nodding off, but he didn’t miss the slightest noise.
Kiichi occasionally woke up, and left the storehouse.
Haruhiro stood up once in a while to stretch. He ate his portable rations twice, sharing with Kiichi.
The sun set, and the gobs went to bed. Haruhiro and Kiichi left the storehouse.
Kiichi had been walking around the building during the day, so he had a good grasp of the layout. With the nyaa guiding him, Haruhiro was able to find the exit, but there were gobs there so he didn’t approach. He also figured out why the design felt complex to him. Maybe it was a unique feature of this building, but it had no stairs. Because of that, there was no clear distinction between the first floor, second floor, third floor, and so on. Each room varied in size and ceiling height, and most of the corridors were sloped. No stairs anywhere to be seen. Higher rooms were connected to lower rooms with holes, and there were sometimes ropes hanging through them.
Haruhiro decided to keep moving higher and higher. He had to be careful of gobs as he went, so there was no shortage of cases where he had to detour around them. It took time. But slowly, without rushing, he worked his way upward. Ever upward.
 
 

He couldn’t seem to go any higher. He searched for a window, and went out through it.
He was maybe fourteen to fifteen meters up. The wind was pretty strong. That made his legs feel a little weak. Kiichi smoothly climbed the wall. Had they made it to the top? The spot where Kiichi was now would probably be the highest point on this building.
Oh. It looked like Kiichi had been showing Haruhiro a route he could use, too. Haruhiro gave it a try, and though it didn’t work quite as well for him as it had for Kiichi, he managed to get up on the roof too.
The roof wasn’t flat. It was sort of like the shape you’d get if you tried to flatten a dumpling. There weren’t any outcroppings at the edge, so if he slipped that would be the end of him. Haruhiro cautiously knelt as he looked up at Ahsvasin, the Highest Heaven. It towered over this building. Had to be over thirty meters tall. One of the five arm-like structures growing out of it extended over the building Haruhiro and Kiichi now stood on.
“It’s huge...!”
He spoke aloud for the first time in a while. Kiichi nuzzled his head against Haruhiro’s knee. Haruhiro gave him a pat, and he narrowed his eyes happily.
“Sorry to make you come along. I think I’d have felt pretty hopeless by myself. You really helped me by being here.”
As if to say “Don’t worry about it,” Kiichi let out a short meow.
Haruhiro took several deep breaths.
Okay. Let’s go.
Haruhiro started descending from the roof. On the opposite side from the direction he’d come. The side facing Ahsvasin. Just as when he had climbed up, there weren’t many places he could climb down, either. He was forced to drop from window to window. If he couldn’t get down from where he was, he would go in through the window temporarily.
He’d have felt hopeless by himself. No, it would have been far worse than that. Without Kiichi’s assistance, this would have taken many times longer. And even then, he still might not have been able to make as much progress.
When the sky started to brighten, he was almost down to ground level. Kiichi had checked that the coast was clear, so Haruhiro went in through the window. He squinted in the direction of Ahsvasin.
I didn’t expect it to look like that.
The area surrounded by massive structures must have been the grounds of Ahsvasin. It was flat land with fences, walls, and a tunnel road leading into the structure. Or at least, that was what Haruhiro thought it would be like, but it wasn’t.
A deep trench had been gouged into the land.
Was that a moat? It didn’t seem to be filled with water. A dry moat? Or maybe they had dug a massive hole, and built Ahsvasin in the bottom of it?
The moat was maybe ten meters deep. Its width was even greater than that.

Chapter end