Third Bath – Trip Through Hades

It had been 36 hours since we left the spring with the self-proclaimed sage/pseudo-goldfish in our bucket, but it hadn’t rained once. The area around the Sage’s Spring was mysteriously untouched by the rain, which was apparently the pseudo-goldfish’s doing. He might have not wanted the spring to be contaminated by rainwater. Or perhaps the spring water was filled with the fish’s MP just like how my Unlimited Bath water was filled with my own, and he didn’t want the rainwater to mix with that. Considering he was planning to brainwash us after we drank the water, my bet was on the latter.

The pseudo-goldfish was now resting in a bucket placed inside a hemp-woven basket, which was hanging beside the driver’s seat. The shaking shouldn’t be so severe compared to if we’d left the bucket on the carriage floor.

“Straaaange... we should be seein’ it by now,” said the pseudo-goldfish as he peered out into the distance from the edge of the bucket, cocking his head to the side. At least, that’s what it looked like he was doing to me.

I called out to Rulitora, who was walking alongside the carriage, from my driver’s seat.

“How much of the gate did the Torano’o tribe destroy, exactly? Was there anything left at all?”

“I wasn’t aware of the gate enough to ask that much, so I can’t say...” Rulitora had a perplexed expression as he mulled my question over.

At least I could understand his expressions. Even more so if I looked at his tail. It slowly undulated whenever he was lost in thought.

Back in the settlement, I had witnessed some of the lizardmen discussing something, all waving their tails up and down as they were wracking their brains. Now that was a sight.

“Hmm, I think the place the Torano’o elder told us about is still a little farther from here.”

“Correct. I saw a bunch of rocks piled up flat ahead.”

As I grumbled from the driver’s seat, Rium came back down from surveying the area on her flying disc.

It must have been hot out there. As soon as she came down, she went inside the carriage to sip the water Clena had given her.

It wasn’t uncommon in this world to follow a map to a village deep in the mountains, only to find that said village had been long abandoned. The maps here were far less accurate than modern Japan’s, so in the end you could only rely on your own eyes.

Besides that, we had Rium, who could scout our surroundings from the sky. The sun may have been harsh on her, but her skills were indispensable.

“Looks like they destroyed it pretty thoroughly. Alright, let’s check it out. Go rest for now, Rium. And Roni, make sure the goldfish doesn’t fall out.”

“Got it! I’ll protect Goldfish!” Roni replied with an energetic voice even though the inside of the carriage was far from cool.

It seemed that goldfish didn’t exist as a species in this world, so everyone started treating “Goldfish” as the fish’s name. I once heard that the goldfish were actually a mutation created from breeding crucian carp for display purposes, and thus weren’t a natural evolution. That would explain why they didn’t exist in this world.

In any case, we should hurry to the place that Rium spotted.

“I’ll go on ahead.” Rulitora said, then assumed his forward-bent stance and sprinted off.

I sped up the carriage so that we wouldn’t get too far separated from him.

We arrived at a giant pile of rubble that was hard to imagine used to be a gate once. They had done a thorough job destroying it, leveling it to just a smidge below my own height. If it weren’t for a piece of rubble that looked like it used to be a man-made pillar, we would have never guessed that this used to be a structure.

“Yeah... we can’t exactly enter through this.” Goldfish looked agape from inside the bucket Roni was holding.

Even if there was a tunnel underneath all this, it’d be an immense amount of work to clear all the debris.

“Well, we have no choice. Leave this to me.”

“I’ll help, too.”

Rulitora stepped forward, followed by Rium. She’d puffed up her chest. Perhaps she was in possession of an item in her crystal magic collection that we could use for this task.

Roni started talking from beside me.

“Sir Touya, there’s a tunnel under here, right? How about we dig a hole above it and enter from there?”

“Oh yeah, we could do that. And we do have some digging tools in our cargo.”

“...Touya, what about your earth spirit summoning? That spell was originally supposed to be used in these situations.”

“...Oh.”

I had completely forgotten. Clena gave me an exasperated look.

“Bwahahah, fools! This ‘ere tunnel was put together usin’ every last one o’ Hades’ magic techniques! As if some measly spell from yer Earth Goddess temple would put a dent in it, hah!” Goldfish laughed heartily, scoffing at our conversation.

Though I didn’t really have a comeback, since it was a stupid conversation, I could, however, say one thing.

“But this gate is still destroyed, isn’t it?”

“Well...” Goldfish’s laugh faded instantly.

That’s right. This tunnel was created using the magic techniques from Hades. The gate should have been part of the tunnel, but the Torano’o tribe destroyed it long ago.

“This is just a bunch of rocks now, so why don’t we try?”

“Grrr... Well maybe the weather just did a number on it over the years?!”

I disregarded the peeved Goldfish, summoned some earth spirits, and started clearing a hole from within the mountain of rubble. More specifically, I used the spirits to change the overall shape and pushed the debris in the center to the sides.

It took a bit of time, but eventually a slope made from a strange material began to show itself from under the dirt and debris. So this was the underground tunnel that was made using the magic of Hades.

I tried changing the shape of the slope using my earth spirits, but it wasn’t quite working. So Goldfish wasn’t all talk, after all.

“Y... Y’ain’t half bad, for a brat...”

Goldfish couldn’t hide his surprise, perhaps from seeing the tunnel open up for the first time in hundreds of years. Or maybe it was from my magic, having cleared such a large hole in the ground.

“I’m glad it’s a slope and not stairs. The carriage could pass though it if it were a bit wider.”

“Hmph, what did’ya expect? The army used this tunnel for transportation.”

“So the demons came out from here as well...” Rulitora muttered as he stared inside.

After hearing that, Clena started looking uneasy.

“That doesn’t mean the demons are still there, right?”

“No idea. I dunno what it’s like these days.”

“Should I take a look by myself first?”

“No, I bet there’s no light in there. I’ll go, too.”

We left the carriage to Clena and the rest, while Rulitora and I took the lead and entered the underground tunnel that supposedly lead to the desert kingdom, Hadesopolis. I summoned five light spirits around us, we equipped our weapons, and made our way inside while staying alert of our surroundings.

Inside was an arch-shaped corridor made from stone. It was wide enough for two of our carriages to pass each other with room to spare. The ground was paved in stone, made from the same material as the slope behind us.

I was afraid of a gas buildup inside, but Rulitora’s nose hadn’t detected anything unusual, so we decided to continue on. We walked for another 100 meters or so but didn’t detect anything living, much less any demons.

“There’s nothing here.”

“What if the tunnel is also blocked up at the other end, making this an enclosed space?”

“...That’s possible.”

It was easy to imagine if Hadesopolis had really been destroyed.

“We should continue with everyone instead of scouting by ourselves from here.”

“I agree. At this rate, it’d be more dangerous to leave Rium and the others by themselves.”

Especially with Goldfish around.

“Alright, let’s go back.”

“Yes. We still need to be on guard, but we should go on as a group.”

We ended our investigation there and returned to get the rest of the gang.

“I was wondering what it’d be like after all the years underground, but...”

“It’s much cleaner than I expected.”

Those were Clena’s and Roni’s first words after seeing the tunnel illuminated by the light spirits.

It was indeed much cleaner than I had imagined, too. I thought it’d at least be covered in moss or something.

“Oh yeah, Clena. Can you use spirit magic to ventilate an area?”

“You mean run air through it? I can keep the spirits around us, but that’s about it.”

“Could you do that for us? We’re fine right now, but if the tunnel is sealed off on the other end, then the air might have stagnated deeper inside and we won’t be able to breathe.”

“There might also be a gas buildup.” Rium responded to my worries in kind.

Even if there wasn’t any gas, if the tunnel wasn’t ventilated, there would be less oxygen the further we went. We couldn’t exactly carry an oxygen tank with us, so we had to ensure some other way of keeping the air flowing. And the other solution I arrived at was Clena’s spirit magic.

Maybe Goldfish could do something about it, but I was too afraid of letting him use magic to ask.

“It would use a lot of my MP, but I’ll try.”

“Sorry about this.”

“Don’t worry. If I do it right, then I might get a crazy amount of MP like you.”

I couldn’t relate, but I knew that it took a lot of stamina to keep using MP. I apologized to Clena, but she gave me a smile in return.

Rulitora took the lead, while Roni and Rium stayed toward the back of the carriage and kept watch behind us. Clena concentrated on maintaining her wind spirits, and I stayed in the driver’s seat as we progressed through the tunnel.

It was chilly inside since the sun didn’t reach, so we all had our cloaks on. I also changed into my metal armor for its higher defensive capabilities.

Naturally, Goldfish would end up my conversation partner as he hung beside the driver’s seat. But since everyone else was working so hard, I was willing to surrender myself to the fish’s ramblings.

“How much do you lot know about the demon lord?”

“I only know what’s been recorded in the first sacred king’s biographies.”

“Well, at least ya done yer homework fer someone who got summoned here.”

“I’ve been researching what I can.”

“I s’pose ya weren’t just gonna submit to the wishes of yer summoners, huh?”

“...I guess not.”

What with information on the desert kingdom having been sealed off and all. And us not knowing anything about the demon lord’s true form, either.

If the desert kingdom had a sacred king like Jupiteropolis did, then this might end up in a war between two kingdoms.

“Oh yeah, the Goddess of Light summons people who’re still alive, right?”

“...What?”

“Hm? Or were you dead?”

“No, I never died...”

It’s not like I had any memories of a truck about to hit me before I got summoned.

“The Goddess of Darkness doesn’t forcibly summon beings that’re still alive. Her summoning gives new life to already deceased souls.”

“Huh? Wait, so you’re saying... that there’s such a thing as heroes of the Goddess of Darkness?” I asked, dumbfounded, but Goldfish looked at me like I was a fool.

“This brat, I swear... What d’ya think the demon lord is?”

“...Huh? What do you mean? So, the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord was a battle between two summoned heroes?”

“That’s right. And here you say ya studied up? You don’t know jack.”

In my defense, the temple had covered all of this up.

I turned to Clena, but she only looked back and shook her head in silence. It seemed she didn’t know this, either.

“Don’t tell me you lot don’t know about the 16 demon generals, either?”

“I know that the living ones took the sealed demon lord and fled.”

“Sayin’ they fled... Why, it’s an insult to their greatness.” Goldfish took offense as he continued talking.

This was all information on the demon lord that no one else knew. I perked my ears to his story.

“The Hadesopolis army—or the demon lord army, as those Jupiter wretches would call ’em. Among ’em were 16 generals who’d managed to achieve great feats.”

“So they were called the 16 demon generals? Huh, so you guys called them demons, too.”

“No matter how ya feel about it, that title was a highly honorable one to followers of the Goddess of Darkness. ’Twas proof of havin’ received the blessing of the Goddess.”

Another one of those culture gaps.

“Anyways. There were 16 demon generals working under the demon lord. The Dragon General. The Storm General. The Silver Sword. The Golden Armor. The Guardian. The Enchanting Jester. The Tyrant Saint. The Queen of Night. The Laughing Lion. ...Well, all of ’em shoulda died 500 years ago.”

“What, they’re all dead?”

“Some were attacked on expeditions by those Jupiter bastards. Others were caught in the crossfire during the battle between the demon lord and the first sacred king. Well, a lot happened.”

So those were all nicknames. Some of those names piqued my interest, but I kept any questions to myself.

“Aside from the ones who died, the Beast King, the Masked Cleric, and the Five Great Demon Generals should all still be alive. ”

“Five Great Demon Generals?”

“They were all summoned from another world like the demon lord. Along with the other eleven generals that used to be part of the Hadesopolis army, they formed the honorable 16 Demon Generals of Hades.”

Goldfish looked proud. Every other nation, including Jupiter, only spoke ill of the demon lord, but to a resident of Hadesopolis he must have been someone they looked up to and revered.

“Speaking of which, I got a visit from the Beast King soon after the battle. It was then that I learned of the demon lord’s defeat at the hand of the first sacred king, and how many of the generals had their lives taken.”

“......”

The Goldfish stared distantly. He must have been through a lot.

“Um, did the five great demon generals have nicknames as well?”

“Hm? ’Course they did. The Dark Prince. The White-Faced Ogre. The Dark Giant. The Demon Dog. The Flame Devil. All of them were summoned from another world like the demon lord and given new life.”

They all had pretty strong-sounding names.

“When you say they were given new life, does that mean they were raised from the dead?”

“No, they became a part of the demon race thanks to the blessing from the Goddess of Darkness.”

“The demon race...”

Though it had been 500 years, I wanted to know if they were fellow humans from my world—but it seemed like they had given up their humanity. That was the only way they’d still be alive now, 500 years later

Besides the five great demon generals that were summoned, the other generals had also been blessed by the Goddess of Darkness and achieved power surpassing that of any ordinary human. It was the same basic concept as the Goddess of Light granting us our gifts. I wonder if there was a general who could summon baths?

“By the way, that Prince, is it who I think it is?”

“Aye, he was the demon lord’s kid.”

“So they were summoned as parent and child, huh.”

“I believe one o’ the generals even died by takin’ up the role of the demon lord’s rear guard, givin’ him the chance to escape unharmed...”

If that was true, then the demon lord sure had a loyal army. I mean, it’s not like I suddenly thought the demon lord’s army was full of good people, but it did change my impression of them somewhat.

Nonetheless, Goldfish’s stories were packed with new information. He really was alive 500 years ago. Or maybe he had even been blessed by the Goddess of Darkness? That would explain how he had stayed alive for 500 years.

This tunnel was so devoid of life it was almost unsettling. It wasn’t the worst thing having to listen to Goldfish reminisce while we made our way.

“Oh, and the demon lord...”

It had been three days since we entered the underground tunnel. Goldfish had continued telling his stories whenever we weren’t sleeping or eating. The only times we were freed of it were when we were inside the Unlimited Bath.

We hadn’t encountered any other living beings, so Rulitora kept watch on Goldfish during the night. I apologized to him, but he laughed it off, saying it was a good way to kill time. Though he probably couldn’t stand listening to Goldfish all day long, so during the day he’d stray a short distance ahead of us to scout out the area.

The majority of Goldfish’s stories were just bragging. Almost none of it contained any notable information. All we’d learned could be summarized by saying that the demon lord army was a bunch of gallant, determined warriors.

The battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord took place about 500 years ago. More accurately, it was somewhere between 400 and 500 years ago. At the time, Japan was nearing the end of the Muromachi period and entering the Sengoku period. People summoned then would have had plenty of battle experience.

“By the way, what was the demon lord’s name?”

“That would be Lord Amann Naga.”

If I remembered correctly, Naga was the name of an Indian deity whose upper half was human and lower half serpent. The demon lord had been blessed by the Goddess of Darkness and granted superhuman powers, but maybe he also had given up his humanity and become half-serpent as well.

There was a “Demon Dog” among the Five Great Demon Generals as well, but maybe they were literally a dog, or a demi-human with the head of a dog.

Rulitora suddenly came back holding his glaive, which had a light spirit attached to the tip. We’d applied this technique to create a portable light source for him.

“Sir Touya, the path ahead is blocked.”

“I knew it.”

Apparently there was rubble blocking the road.

The tunnel was being ventilated thanks to Clena’s wind spirits, but without that, the stagnant air would have had us gasping for breath by now.

“Alright, let me open up a hole.”

There was no choice but for me to remove the rubble blocking our path. I stepped down from the carriage and approached the rubble. It looked like it was an accumulation of sediment and the materials used to build the tunnel. It should be a piece of cake with my earth summoning. I summoned the spirits as I placed my hand on the rubble.

“Follow behind me.” I said, and Rulitora, Clena, Roni, and Rium all nodded.

I used the spell to burrow our way through the rubble, but no matter how much I dug, we were only met with more rubble. I figured just one portion of the tunnel had collapsed, but that might not have been the case.

Come to think of it, there was the story that Hadesopolis had sunk underground. Maybe the road leading to it had also completely collapsed and was gone now.

Even if we kept going like this, we might not be able to reach Hadesopolis. I was doubtful, but we kept progressing through the tunnel as I dug.

After a while, my hand suddenly lost contact with the dirt and I lost balance as I hit an air socket. I pulled my arm back, and light shone through the hole it had left behind. I thought we were underground this entire time, but it looked like we had connected back to the outside world.

My spell had cut off since losing my balance. I summoned the earth spirits again and widened the hole so our carriage could pass through.

“What in the world...?”

After I opened the hole, an unbelievable sight leaped into my vision. A city... no, more like a castle?

The ground was sloping downward like we were inside a vortex, and the hole had led us to the outer edge of it. The buildings on the outer edge had collapsed and were slanted downward, but from what I could see in the distance, the buildings near the center were still fine.

“Ah, yes... that there building is the demon lord’s castle.”

“So this is definitely Hadesopolis?”

“Aye, aye. This here’s Hadesopolis’ city center. It’s all still here...”

“By city center, you mean that there are other parts of the city outside of this?”

“Sad to say, but this seems to be the only part that survived,” Goldfish answered Clena’s question. He seemed so occupied with the sight, though, that his reply felt only halfhearted.

Looking up, I saw something like a dome made of stone, streams of sand seeping from its cracks. Somehow a tall tower had fallen from the outer edges toward the castle in the city center, and now both of them were keeping each other in place, creating a space shielding everything under it from the sand.

“The tower of the 16 demon generals. That tower had a barrier that protected the city center. Huh, it continued protecting the demon lord’s castle even after it withered...” Goldfish muttered in earnest.

I had thought it was an awfully tall tower, but now I knew why.

After the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord, the center of Hadesopolis—the demon lord’s castle—sunk into the earth, and the desert in the void enveloped it all. The collapsed tower had formed a dome, protecting everything under it from the sand above. It was still fulfilling its original purpose.

No wonder no one had been able to find it from above ground. The streams of sand probably looked like quicksand from the other side.

Sunlight was filtering down from the spots where the sand fell. The demon lord’s castle, faintly visible from that light, felt unreal to me, like a dream or an illusion.

I instinctively pinched my cheek, but it just hurt. I wasn’t dreaming. The reality of it all started seeping in.

We had finally reached it— The demon lord’s kingdom, Hadesopolis.

“Hey, brat! Move it!”

Stupid fish, just let me bask in this for a while longer.

Though I described it as a vortex, the slant wasn’t too harsh, so we were able to continue in our carriage without too much trouble. I let Roni take charge of the driver’s seat, while Rulitora and I walked outside the carriage, armed to the teeth. Rium was hovering above us on her flying disc.

“Clena, is your MP alright?”

“I should be fine... but don’t expect me to use any more spells.”

The outside air was flowing in along with the sand, so we didn’t need the wind spirits for ventilation anymore. But Clena had been keeping those spirits around the entire time until we arrived here, so she had drained her MP to the point of exhaustion. We’d decided to let her rest inside the carriage for now.

Our first order of business should be finding a place to rest ourselves. I asked Goldfish, who was still inside the basket by the driver’s seat,

“Hey, Goldfish. Do you know any large buildings we could enter with our carriage?”

“The demon lord’s castle.”

“Besides that.”

That was our final destination, so we wanted to take a breather before that.

“The temple, then. It’s got a wide gate and there’s a courtyard within.”

“You don’t mean... The temple of the Goddess of Darkness?”

“I don’t see any other ones around, do you?”

“Ceresopolis had temples for both the Goddess of Light and Goddess of Earth.”

“This kingdom ain’t that blasphemous.”

“...Is blasphemy the issue here?”

“You tell me...”

I looked at Rulitora, confused, but he just cocked his head at me. I mean, I didn’t think Ceres was blasphemous.

“Anyway, just lead us to the temple.”

“...Fine, fine.”

We proceeded through the ruined city, led by Goldfish.

“It’s not as run down as I thought it would be.”

Once we entered the city, I was surprised by the good state most of the buildings were left in. The area under the dome must have been pretty well shielded from the weather over the years. Though that also meant human bones hadn’t eroded either, and were scattered all over the place.

I glanced behind me to see if the girls were doing alright. Clena noticed me and sat up straight, hiding any apprehension. Roni over in the driver’s seat, however, looked nervous. Rium was stoically drifting above us, but looking closely, I noticed that she was avoiding looking down. I couldn’t blame her for being scared.

Another thing that caught me by surprise was the aqueduct running beside the street—or rather, what used to be one. I looked inside to find sand running through it instead of water.

According to Goldfish, magic had been used to circulate water throughout the city. That spell was still active today, and it was now circulating the falling sand instead of water. Goldfish theorized that this might have been preventing the streets from being buried under sand.

Roni asked timidly from the driver’s seat, “Do you think the temple might be buried in sand?”

“The temple’s completely roofed, including the courtyard, so it’s probably fine.”

“It’s an indoor courtyard?”

“Do ye think the temple of the Goddess of Darkness would allow sunshine into its gardens?”

“...I guess not.”

So that was how they showed their faith. When I thought about it, it made sense.

Rulitora, who had taken the vanguard, called out to Goldfish without turning around.

“With the state of these buildings, I can’t tell which is which... Are we on the right path to the temple?”

“Dunno.”

“What?!” Rulitora spun around, his voice in disarray.

Rium came back down on her flying disc, and I impulsively faced his direction as well.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“All’s I know is the way these streets were before everything came crashin’ down.

I couldn’t tell ya where we are with the city like this.”

“......”

Rium was speechless. Though when I thought about it, we should have expected as much.

I approached the carriage and asked Goldfish, “Then where are we headed now?”

“If we head down the main street toward the demon lord’s castle, we should reach the city plaza. I should be able to remember how to get to the temple from there.”

“Does the plaza have some sort of landmark?”

“There’s a statue of the demon lord.”

“I see.”

In other words, if we didn’t know where we were right now, we just needed to get to a place we did know. I was uncertain whether the statue was still in one piece or not, but as long as the pedestal was still there, it should work as a landmark for the plaza.

We advanced down the road for a while, but then a number of figures appeared before us.

“...Residents?”

“Of course not.” Clena took a jab at my inane question.

Those figures weren’t humans, but human bones. They were armed with rusty hatchets and moss-covered clubs.

“It’s my first time seeing something like this. Are they skeletons?”

“Maybe they’re ghosts?”

“There are spells to reanimate skeletons, but nobody’s around to do that here, so they must be ghosts.”

So they were ghosts. I tried convincing myself that this was at least better than encountering zombies.

As a Japanese person who believed that the deceased became “buddhas,” these guys would be tough opponents, but of course they wouldn’t be going easy on me.

About a dozen skeletons slowly approached us, their jaws rattling. They were staring at us through their vacant eye sockets.

Well, they probably couldn’t see us. But either way, they were definitely heading for us.

I was worried about Clena. I had to take charge here.

“Clena, stay inside the carriage. Rulitora and I can take care of this!”

“...I understand. I heard that skeletons are pretty tough to beat, so be careful.” She knew she was in no condition to fight, and reluctantly nodded.

“Let’s go, Rulitora!”

“Understood!”

At my words, Rulitora took up his glaive and sprinted forward. He closed the distance between him and the skeletons in no time, then smashed his glaive into several of them with the same vigor and blasted them to bits.

Our opponents weren’t that strong. The only problem was their numbers.

I, on the other hand, couldn’t bring myself to slice through human bone with my broadaxe, so I opted to use magic instead. It was time to summon some light spirits.

I released the spirits of light, praying that they would guide the ghosts along the path to the Goddess. I may have just been meddling from the perspective of these former Hades residents, but I didn’t care.

I launched a light spirit in an arc over Rulitora’s head and it circled around the skeleton, then attacked the skeleton’s skull. Of course, that wasn’t enough to beat it. I launched another five light spirits in its direction.

The skeletons had their strength in numbers at first, but now they were trapped between my light spirits and Rulitora.

“Yaarrgh!”

Rulitora waved his glaive once more and sliced several more skeletons in half. They weren’t down yet, though, and their upper halves started crawling toward Rulitora.

Meanwhile, the skeleton whose skull I had cracked from behind remained on the ground, only twitching. I immediately shouted to Rulitora after seeing that.

“Aim for their heads!”

Instead of replying to me, Rulitora used his fist to slam into a nearby skeleton’s face. The skeleton’s skull met his fist with little resistance and broke into several pieces. The rest of its bones fell to the ground, clattering. It lay there completely still.

So the skull was their core. I couldn’t even begin to figure out how it worked, but whatever controlled their movements was inside their skulls. Maybe it was the will of its former inhabitant, but they had attacked us without a warning, so I decided not to think too hard about it right now.

“Let’s finish the rest of them off!”

“Alright!”

Rulitora flipped his glaive around so as to attack with the butt instead of the blade. I matched him by launching my remaining light spirits at the skeletons’ skulls. But then, perhaps lured by the sounds of battle, more skeletons appeared from behind the carriage.

“Leave this to me...!”

“Don’t step out of the carriage, Clena! I’ll go!”

I couldn’t push Clena to fight while she was still recovering, but she probably wouldn’t have let herself stay put.

I left the remaining skeletons in the front to Rulitora and dashed behind the carriage, broadaxe in hand. Fortunately, this broadaxe was built for smashing things. I swiftly crushed the skulls of the skeletons with surprisingly little recoil.

The two of us kept fighting them off, and in the end we defeated about 30 skeletons. Once they were all gone, Clena jumped out of the carriage and called out to us in a worried voice.

“...Are you alright?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

In reality, I felt pretty sick. I was still in shock from having to destroy so many human bones with my own hands. But I wouldn’t let it get to me since they had attacked us when we were simply walking down the street.

They were monsters. I felt relieved thinking of them that way. Still, I decided to say my post-battle prayers more thoroughly than usual.

“Rium, come down and ride inside the carriage. You too, Clena.”

We needed to change our approach a little. I had Rium descend from her flying disc and sit beside Clena in the carriage.

“Clena and Roni, you two watch the front. Rium, watch our back. You won’t be able to see enemies hiding in the shadows of the buildings from up in the air.”

“I understand.”

“Rulitora and I will walk on the left and right.”

“Roger that.”

We were now stationed in all directions. Roni needed to pay attention to driving and Clena was still exhausted, but we should be fine as long as Rulitora and I stayed alert.

We proceeded in our new positions and encountered more skeletons. Fortunately, there were only five this time. Rulitora wiped all of them out with one roar and a swing through their skulls. We then slipped past the attacks of a few monsters and reached an open area at the end of the road. This was the plaza that Goldfish had talked about. This area hadn’t deteriorated, nor was any sand falling down from above, so the large statue in the center was still standing straight and tall.

“So this is the statue of the demon lord you were talking about?”

“Ah, yes... I know the road from here. Look up there to the right, there’s a shop with a display shelf outside it. Well, the remains of one, anyway.”

“Oh yeah, I think I see it.”

“That shop sold offerings, donated by worshipers. The street to the left of it leads directly to the temple.”

“The earth temple in Ceresopolis had a shop like that, too. I guess it’s pretty common for temples to have a shop like that nearby?”

“Anything wrong with that? It beats havin’ to offer that half-rotten food you brought.”

“Well, you have a point.”

We kept the conversation going as we proceeded according to Goldfish’s directions.

We passed by the demon lord’s statue. The girls peered out from the carriage and looked up at the giant sculpture. It depicted a dignified man, well into his years and clad in armor.

“...He has two legs, huh.”

The first thing I looked for was whether he had a serpent’s lower half, but all I saw was two normal human legs. Maybe he was like those enemies in games who looked normal at the beginning, but changed into their true form in the middle of battle. Like, maybe his name would change from “Amann Naga” to “Something Naga.” Or perhaps Naga meant something entirely unrelated to the serpent deity.

I didn’t know if I was going to get a meaningful answer out of him, but I tried asking Goldfish about it anyway.

“Hey, what does Amann Naga mean?”

“Hm? Well I don’t know every last detail, but apparently the demon lord’s family all used a certain word as part of their names. The ‘Amann’ part is that particular word, translated to the Hades language.”

“And what about ‘Naga’?”

“That was just his actual name.”

So his name was really Naga?!

“In the language of Hades, ‘amann’ means... ‘to believe,’ right?”

“Ya know yer stuff, missy.”

Clena had picked up a few things on the ancient Hades language from all her investigations on the desert kingdom.

“It’s a word they used in rituals for the Goddess of Darkness.”

“Mhmm. In the demon lord’s old world, one word could have multiple readings. So even if it weren’t pronounced as ‘believe,’ it still meant the same thing.”

“Huh, what a complicated language.”

“......” I was at a complete loss for words as I listened to their exchange.

This was a man who was summoned to this world after his death, 400 to 500 years ago, and with the name “Believing Naga.” The man who was once feared as the “Demon Lord of the Sixth Heavenly Realm” had actually become a demon lord in another world.

We left the plaza with the demon lord’s statue behind, while I was still overwhelmed at learning that the demon lord was actually Oda Nobunaga.

On that note, the Five Great Demon Generals had all been summoned from the same time period, but unfortunately Goldfish didn’t know any of their real names. It seemed that after Nobunaga took the name of the demon lord Amann Naga, the rest of them took up nicknames such as the Dark Prince. The reason the rest of the 16 demon generals had nicknames was because of them as well. The thought of a Sengoku samurai calling himself the “Dark Prince” was a strange one indeed.

He was Nobunaga’s son, but since he had so many of them, I couldn’t guess which one. The most famous three would be Nobutada, Nobukatsu, and Nobutaka.

Putting that aside, we had finally reached the temple of the Goddess of Darkness—a mere shadow of its former self.

“So this is the Goddess of Darkness’ temple...”

“Choose yer words, mister hero.”

The only temple in this city was the head temple for the Goddess of Darkness. I could picture it once being picturesque, but the light spirits revealed a layer of grime covering its walls and roof. The front gate was standing strong, but the windows were broken and the insides demolished. The windows weren’t glass, but wooden shutters.

“Did the first sacred king do all this?”

“This is the temple of the Goddess of Darkness. Of course he wouldn’t just leave it be.”

“I can’t believe they had the time for that after coming here to fight the demon lord.”

The temple was two stories tall, but oddly enough, only the windows on the first floor were broken. If the windows had shattered from the impact of the city sinking underground, then the second floor ones shouldn’t have remained unharmed. So someone must have done this on purpose... so they could break in.

“Is it possible that people survived after the city sunk, and looted the place?”

The temple must have been storing emergency rations, so it made sense.

“Yer talkin’ rubbish! It’s a temple, ain’t it?!”

“That wouldn’t matter in times of crisis. Not to mention it was after the demon lord was defeated.”

“Bah...”

In other words, the Goddess of Darkness lost her authority after the demon lord’s defeat. Goldfish couldn’t think of a comeback, and grumbled at me in an agitated tone.

“Well, we should take a look to see if we can camp inside instead of arguing. So let’s head in for now.”

“No can do, gate won’t open.”

Rulitora tried pushing the doors, but they wouldn’t budge. Well, if the gate could be opened so easily, then the windows would still be intact.

“Guess we need to go through a window and open it from the inside. If it were just us then the windows would work, but we need to get the carriage inside, too.”

Normally, Rium would be able to cross over on her flying disc, but everything in this temple, including the courtyard, was under a roof.

“Roni and I will go, so wait out here.”

“Y-yessir! Allow me to assist!”

Just in case monsters were inside, I armed myself and chose Roni to come along, since she was the most agile. The desolate air around the temple was making her frightened, but she was still the most suited.

“Don’t worry, Roni. Just hide behind me and let me know if you see anything suspicious.”

“O-okay...”

I patted her on the shoulder in encouragement, and then we crawled our way inside the temple. Rulitora should be able to handle protecting everyone else outside.

The room we entered really looked like it was ransacked. I was reminded of the deserted houses I snuck into as a kid.

Roni clung to my back in fear. But she was still surveying her surroundings carefully, so I trusted her to watch my back.

“Looks like there are no monsters wandering around in here.”

“P-please don’t say that, Sir Touya.”

“Isn’t that a good thing, though? Come on, don’t be scared.”

Her voice, on the brink of tears, sounded out from behind me. Maybe she’d scared herself into thinking there were monsters. I kept giving her words of encouragement as I opened the door to the hallway.

I briefly looked around and noticed that the building was built like an enclosure. There was a large courtyard, encompassed by the rest of the building. Several doors faced the courtyard, with a stone-paved corridor in between. It looked like the temple ran deeper across the front gate, probably housing important rooms such as the elder’s office, but that had to wait. We needed to reconvene with everyone outside, so we headed for the front gate first.

“A latch, huh? It looks pretty sturdy.”

“With this latch and this gate, we wouldn’t have been able to break in unless we had a battering ram.”

The gate we arrived at was barricaded shut with a latch. I surmised that the trespassers hadn’t been able to break down this gate, so they were forced to destroy the windows instead. We needed to get our carriage in, though, so Roni and I removed the barricade and opened the doors.

“Okay! All clear!”

Rulitora immediately took over the reins of the horse-drawn carriage, leading it inside. Fortunately, it looked like no monsters attacked while we were gone.

“What a gloomy courtyard...”

I responded to Rulitora by scouting the area, realizing the dreariness of our surroundings.

“And it used to be such a splendid garden, too...” Goldfish mumbled nostalgically.

“Were there flowers here, even though it’s all indoors?”

“There are spells ye can use to bring in the light of the moon or the stars. Wanna see?”

“Oh no. We’re not letting you use any magic.”

“Dirty rotten...”

I bet a moonlit garden would have been quite the sight, but right now not a single blade of grass was growing in the barren dirt. There was a pungent smell in the air with the place having been blocked from the sunlight for so long.

I sent light spirits to illuminate our surroundings and saw an altar made of marble in the center of the courtyard. Between the altar and walls opposite the main gate was a pond. I took a closer look at it, but the water was awfully murky. This was probably the source of the smell.

“What was this pond used for?”

“...Decoration I reckon? The altar’s the only thing of use here anyway.” Goldfish answered bluntly.

So it was just something to gussy up the garden. There wasn’t a trace of it left now, but I bet the garden and pond used to be stunning.

“Looks like I need to ventilate this place.” Clena stepped down from the carriage after noticing the smell. She would probably be using wind spirits to replace the air inside with fresh, outside air.

“Will you be okay?”

“There’s air flowing from outside right now thanks to the sand, so it’ll be easier than when we were in the tunnel.”

Her complexion had improved after resting in the carriage for a bit. She looked like she could handle it now.

We parked the carriage in the courtyard, closed the gates, and replaced the latch. Considering how the windows were destroyed, the sturdiest thing in this temple was likely these gates. It would offer us protection, while we needed windows for ventilation.

“Rulitora and I are gonna size up the temple. The gate won’t serve much of a purpose if all the windows are open.”

“Are you going to restore all the windows?”

“I’ll seal them off.” I raised my palm toward Rulitora. It was doable with the help of my earth spirit summoning.

We needed to leave a window open for ventilation, even a small one would do the job. And even if there wasn’t, we should be okay leaving just one window open.

“We’ll be checking out the rooms farther inside too, so we’re bringing Goldfish.”

“We’d better replace his water soon.”

I nodded in response to Rium. He couldn’t make any moves right now because he was in water made using my MP. The magic faded as time passed, so the time had come to switch out the water. I quickly changed the water, left ten light spirits in the courtyard, and summoned five more for Rulitora, Goldfish, and I to survey the inside of the temple.

Every window on the first floor had been demolished, so I summoned earth spirits to alter the shape of the holes left behind and seal off all the gaps. While doing that, we found a hole we could use for ventilation. Only a few of the windows on the second floor were broken, so it really did seem like it was done deliberately.

“Phew...” I breathed a sigh of relief. Seems like I used too much MP.

“Are you alright, Sir Touya?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” I wasn’t at my limit just yet. There weren’t many windows that needed sealing on the second floor, so we should be able to finish this up.

“Hey, d’you think they’ve got food reserves stored here?”

“If there are they’d probably be in the storage room.”

“I bet all the windows were broken from people trying to get to those reserves.”

“...Blast their hides.”

I had picked up on it some time ago, but this self-proclaimed sage seemed particularly devoted to the Goddess of Darkness. It became even more obvious now that we had entered the desert kingdom.

As we explored the temple, we picked up every book or document that seemed important. Goldfish sneered at me like he wanted to say it was useless since I couldn’t read them anyway, but the joke was on him. The Goddess of Light let me read pretty much any language from this world.

I picked up one book, flipped through it, and was able to figure out what it was about immediately. I had no intentions of letting Goldfish on about this, though, so I ignored his looks and continued collecting books. I thought for sure Goldfish would be cursing at us for taking things from the temple, but he didn’t say a word. Maybe he thought it was better than leaving them here to rot.

“There’s nothing here but books.”

We had entered what looked like a private room, but there was only a dresser with all of its drawers emptied out. Some of the rooms didn’t even have dressers.

“I think we were right in thinking that the survivors of the battle between the sacred king and the demon lord looted everything.”

“So those skeletons... Were they what remained of those people?” I asked, to which Rulitora gently nodded. It was the only explanation that made sense. Goldfish, however, spoke up in a sour tone.

“Infidels... So ya honestly believe the sacred king wasn’t behind this? Sure, sure, the people of Hades pillaged their own temple... Bah!”

“I guess we can’t completely dismiss the notion that the sacred king’s party did it, but...”

“No, I don’t think so.” Rulitora entertained Goldfish’s idea, but I interrupted him.

“Oh? So yer on the sacred king’s side, ey?”

“Not exactly. As far as I can tell, the battle between the sacred king and the demon lord was partly religious, right?”

“...I’m not sayin’ it ain’t.”

“If the sacred king wanted to destroy this temple, then he wouldn’t have done it so halfheartedly like this. He probably would have blown it all to smithereens.”

“Hmm...” Goldfish sank into silence, unable to deny my suggestion.

If the remaining citizens broke into the temple looking for things that would help them survive, then that would explain why only books were left. In a life-or-death situation, books would only be useful to build a fire. The only explanation in support of Goldfish’s theory would be that the looters couldn’t bring themselves to use the temple’s books for fuel, and thus left them behind.

“The survivors wouldn’t have had a way to get out, since the underground tunnel got blocked off. They were completely trapped.”

“......”

Going along with Goldfish’s argument wouldn’t sit right with me, so I tried arguing in favor of the residents of Hades instead, but Goldfish remained silent.

We had completed our round on the second floor, and came across a room directly above the front gate. It gave us a view on the outside of the temple. I asked Goldfish about it, and sure enough, this used to be a lookout station for temple knights.

“If we stay here we can keep an eye on the outside. Let’s sleep here for tonight and take turns on guard duty.”

“What should we do about the carriage?”

“The courtyard is no different from a stable right now. We should be fine leaving it there for tonight.”

“I understand.”

We would need to leave food and water for the horse, but other than that, it should be fine for one night. Rulitora found no issues with my suggestion.

Clena had finished ventilating the area by the time we returned to the courtyard, and the smell was nearly gone. She had overexerted herself again though, and was sitting down due to fatigue.

“Clena, are you alright?”

“You’re not looking so hot yourself, Touya...”

We gave each other a wry smile. Seems like she wasn’t the only one who looked worn out right now.

“We found a room upstairs that the temple knights used as a lookout. Let’s rest there for the night.”

“Oh okay, let me take out the horse feed then. Could you open the Unlimited Bath?”

“I’ll take care of that! Please sit down and rest, Lady Clena, Sir Touya.” Clena attempted to stand up, but Roni pushed her back down.

Rulitora had his arms crossed, looking like he had something to tell me, too. He probably wanted me to take a break as well. Looks like I had no say in the matter here. I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath, then sat myself down next to Clena.

“Rium, you come help too!”

“Okay.” Rium shuffled into the Unlimited Bath behind Roni.

Roni looked like an older sister now, even though we always saw her as a little sister. Clena and I watched over this peaceful scene with a smile. The two girls were spent as well, but I could tell that they were smiling.

As for dinner, since the smell from the pond hadn’t completely subsided, we made a fire in what used to be a kitchen to cook our food. Of course, we used our own pots and pans. There was still a table left in the kitchen, so we ate our dinner there.

As I bit down on a piece of roasted meat, I asked Roni about something that was on my mind.

“How much longer do you think our food supply will sustain us for?”

Even though we had found a place to rest inside this temple, we couldn’t stay here forever without any food. We were able to carry a lot more cargo thanks to my Unlimited Bath, but our supply was still limited.

“Considering the time it would take to get back to Ceres... We have enough to stay here for another ten days.”

“Actually make that one week, just to stay on the safe side... That might not be enough time to explore the city.”

The Hadesopolis city center was smaller than Jupiteropolis or Ceresopolis, but from what I could tell since we emerged from the tunnel, it was still comparable in size to a neighborhood in a large city.

“We’ll just need to limit ourselves to whatever seems important.”

“So mainly the demon lord’s castle, then?”

Rulitora and Clena voiced their opinions, then took quick glances at Goldfish.

“...Well, I’d say there ain’t no places more important here than this temple or the demon lord’s castle,” Goldfish replied to them curtly.

I wanted to ask him if there were any other important locations here, but he was never our ally in the first place. He wouldn’t just reveal everything he knew to us.

We could split up and explore, but considering how often we ran into those skeletons, that wasn’t a favorable option. We had no choice but to slowly make our way through.

That evening, I tried suggesting that we take turns keeping watch, but Rulitora wouldn’t have any of it. He said that Clena and I should rest, since we exhausted our MP. I had no choice but to comply, since he included Clena in his argument as well. Rulitora and Roni would rotate guard duty tonight.

We took a quick bath, replaced Goldfish’s water, and spread out our futons. I lay down between Clena and Rium. This wasn’t the case anymore, but when we first started traveling together, our cargo left us little room to sleep and we were forced to snuggle up together. Even though we had some more space now, we still continued sleeping like that.

It was still a little early for bed time, so I flipped over onto my stomach and started reading some of the books we had collected. According to Clena, everything was written in the ancient language of Hades, but thanks to all her research on the desert kingdom she was able to read it, too.

Rium plopped herself down on top of me and was peering into my book. We probably looked like a parent turtle with its kid riding on top of it right now. She couldn’t read the Hades language, so she was probably just playing around.

“There’s a cleric’s diary.”

“This one looks like a history book on Hades. These are really valuable, aren’t they?”

“What’s this one? There’s pictures of food in it.”

“...It’s a cookbook.”

The books we had gathered covered subjects from A to Z. Whether the cookbook itself had any value or not, it was a sign that people once lived here.

I was pretty interested in the cookbook, personally. I wanted to keep reading it because it seemed important, but our time here was limited. We’d have to save the real studying for after we returned to civilization.

“Touya, you use MP to keep the lights on, don’t you? Why don’t we go to bed early tonight?”

“Hmm... you’re right. We can just wake up early tomorrow.”

I usually left them on without giving it much thought, but it’s true that the lights in the Unlimited Bath were consuming my MP. We should head to bed early today, or else it’d be rude to Rulitora and Roni keeping watch.

“Alright. It’s a little early, but I’ll turn the lights off.”

“Oh, let me.”

Rium got off my back and stood up to turn the lights into a nightlight. She came back, lay down, and wriggled herself close to me again. She kept herself proper and respectable while we were traveling during the day, but she acted like a baby at night. Apparently it was the same when she slept with Haruno’s party. Basically, she was using me as a body pillow right now.

“You two sure are friendly.”

“Wanna join, Clena?”

“I’m fine. I’m not so childish that I need a pillow to hug in order to fall asleep,” she said as she was holding my hand under the sheets. I decided not to embarrass her by mentioning it.

“Alright then, goodnight.”

We all gave each other a goodnight kiss on the cheek, and went to bed. I must have been more exhausted than I thought, because it took no time at all for me to fall asleep.

The first thing I did the next morning was fill a bucket with water and exit the Unlimited Bath.

I had filled the bucket to replace Goldfish’s water. The MP in the water would keep for about half a day, but changing it out first thing every morning would make keeping track of it much easier.

I looked at Rulitora, keeping watch beside the window, while Roni lay on the ground wrapped in a blanket. Rulitora immediately noticed that I had woken up and turned around.

“Good morning, Sir Touya.”

“Good morning to you too. Were there any attacks during the night?”

“No, none.”

“Good.”

I made my way to the bucket as we conversed. I took a look inside, expecting another one of Goldfish’s tiresome rants, but instead I came to a shocking realization.

“What the—! Where’d Goldfish go?!”

“Huh?!”

“Wh-what?!”

Rulitora turned around at the sound of my yell and Roni jumped up, still half-asleep.

“Goldfish isn’t in the bucket!”

“What?!”

Rulitora rushed over and looked inside the empty bucket as well. We had changed the water before sleeping last night, so... the MP inside should still be plenty strong. But nevertheless, Goldfish had suddenly disappeared from the bucket.

Clena and Rium also woke up upon hearing my voice. We wandered around, looking for Goldfish together, but couldn’t find a trace of the self-proclaimed sage anywhere. The prime suspect was the muddy pond in the courtyard. I found a pole and tried churning through the water, putting up with the rotten smell, but all I could feel was the rugged ground underneath.

“Should we try filtering the pond with clean water?”

“Do you think we’ll find him that way?” I folded my arms, contemplating Clena’s suggestion.

Even though his fins were relatively big, he was still about the size of a goldfish. It was a pretty small pond, but I could tell from swishing the pole around that the bottom was uneven. If he was hiding underneath something, we’d have a hard time finding him even if the water was clear. Not to mention if he was swept away along with the water, there’s no telling where he would end up. Also, I’d rather not deal with rotten water everywhere if we were to clean it out. And so I suggested another plan.

“Alright, let’s block it up.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll put a lid on the pond.”

Why hadn’t I thought of this yesterday? If done right, you could literally say our problem was “water under the bridge,” and it would keep the smell from spreading, too.

I went ahead and summoned earth spirits to form a dome. In no time, a semicircle made of dirt covered the pond. It came up to my knees. Was this what they called a burial mound? If Goldfish was really in here, then this would literally become his grave. I kind of wanted to mark it “Rest In Pieces,” though.

“What was that guy trying to achieve, in the end?”

“According to legend, that self-proclaimed sage lead the first sacred king to the demon lord’s castle, right?”

“That’s a famous story. They say that the sage was an ally of the first sacred king.”

“And yet he was yapping about the demon lord day in and day out.”

Come to think of it, his behavior was pretty inconsistent. He reacted oddly when we were in front of the demon lord’s statue, too. Sure it was just a statue, but he should have reacted more strongly after seeing the demon lord for the first time in several hundred years.

In any case, it was too late for those thoughts now—Goldfish had disappeared from under our eyes. To be honest, I didn’t believe he was in the pond. We had no options but to keep searching for him while staying on guard, assuming he was still hiding somewhere.

“Roni, let’s make breakfast a quick one today. We’ll search through the temple after that, and then head to the demon lord’s castle.”

“Understood. I’ll make crepes, then.”

I would describe the crepes as thin, unsweetened pancakes. In this world, pancakes were a desert while crepes were a breakfast food. The ingredients were pretty similar, though. A good substitute for bread, it was a popular meal among travelers, since all you needed was a frying pan and a few basic ingredients. You’d usually eat it wrapped around a sausage, or a thick slice of ham. Pickled vegetables worked as a filling as well. This morning we had it with ham and cheese, like a pizza. I folded it in half and started digging in.

After we finished our quick breakfast, we went searching through the temple, when Clena noticed something.

“This temple... It’s been constructed to reject anything that isn’t the Goddess of Darkness’ magic.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Magic from other goddesses is weaker here. Take a look over there.” Clena was pointing at one of the pillars in the temple. On it hung an elegant relief.

“Wait, so you mean this....?”

“Yeah, that relief is creating the effect.”

I faced Clena, and she gave me a solemn nod in response. I had completely overlooked it yesterday, assuming it was just decoration, but this was canceling out powers from any goddess other than the Goddess of Darkness.

“We can use cleric magic here, so I think it’s only weakening the effectiveness.”

“But that’s still a pretty big deal.”

“The MP in the water was probably affected, too...” Clena mumbled.

So my MP had drained more quickly than usual, including the MP in my water. Goldfish took the opportunity when the magic ran out to cast his own magic to escape. Maybe he had been planning this ever since he started leading us toward the temple.

“Let me reinforce that grave a little more.”

“...Good idea.”

Just in case, I made the pond’s cover thicker and stronger. The burial mound, which didn’t reach higher than my knees, sprung up in size to about my height, enveloping the walls and dirt around it.

We then gathered our luggage and rode our carriage directly to the demon lord’s castle. It was such a quiet city. Not only was it dim, everything felt gray and desolate. The only thing that gave the landscape color was the sand.

The color of sand could be described as “golden,” which sounded fancier than it was in reality. Needless to say it was lifeless, and the only sounds we could hear were from the sand falling from the dome above. The term “ghost town” came to mind. We’d start feeling depressed if we kept silent for too long, so... everyone deliberately made small talk as we advanced. Of course, we made sure to stay on guard as well.

A few groups of skeletons tried to attack us along the way, but they were individually pretty weak, and Rulitora was able to make quick work of them. We didn’t have Goldfish around to guide us anymore, but that wouldn’t be an issue if we were heading to the demon lord’s castle. The castle was one part of the overhead dome that maintained this underground city, after all. We could spot the castle in the distance as long as we had an open view.

On the way, we found a mansion and used their yard to have lunch. There was the remains of a flower bed that must have once been filled with colorful blossoms, but now was just a barren plot of soil. The mansion had a fence, but it wasn’t completely sealed from the outside, so we couldn’t let our guards down. We had a light lunch and headed out again immediately.

About an hour later, we reached the demon lord’s castle.

“It looks so normal.” Rium was the first to speak up. She didn’t mince words.

She was right, though. The castle before our eyes was an exceedingly normal-looking one, far from the grand image that the term “demon lord’s castle” might imply.

The outside showed some signs of fragmentation. Maybe it suffered some damage when the other tower came falling down, or maybe it was collateral damage from the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord. In either case, it looked like a mere shadow of its former self.

“So the castle was surrounded by a moat,” Roni mumbled, kneeling next to the moat.

She was using past tense because you couldn’t quite call it a moat anymore. The moat was overflowing with sand. The city’s circulation magic couldn’t take care of everything, it seemed.

“This serves no purpose as a moat anymore.”

“I guess it’s useless against sand lizardmen.”

“Even if it was a normal moat, it’d still be useless against swamp lizardmen.”

I didn’t know if swamp lizardmen actually existed, but I guess a moat in Japan would be useless against kappa, too.

In any case, the drawbridge was still down, so we’d be able to cross over in our carriage without trouble. We carefully crossed the bridge and made our way into the castle.

After we passed the gate, we were greeted by the sight of yet another barren garden. A deteriorated stone pathway, barely visible under all the sand, led the way to the castle doors.

The only things decorating the garden were the streams of sand falling from the sky. The circulation magic could only handle so much. At least more light was filtering down from above, making the sand glisten and giving it a true golden hue.

“Now then, where should we go first?”

“We should find their library.”

“I guess that’s the obvious choice, if we want to learn more about the demon lord.”

Rium and Roni offered their ideas.

We should definitely start from there if we wanted to collect documents. Hopefully they were in better condition than the ones in the temple. There was one other thing I felt was important, though.

“We have a real world problem, though—if we don’t find anything here, then we’ll be in the red, money-wise.”

It had cost us a pretty penny to fund this whole trip. If we didn’t find something of value here, then we’d have a hard time planning our future travels. It went without saying that we needed to gather information on the demon lord, but we had to fulfill our roles as treasure hunters, too.

“Do you think there’s anything like an armory or a treasure safe left?”

“The demon lord isn’t here anymore, so let’s search every last corner while we still have time.”

“Good plan. But we need someone to watch the horse, and I don’t want to split into two groups.”

The carriage couldn’t pass through the front doors, so we had no choice but to park it here. After some discussion, we decided that Rulitora would be on horse-watching duty. If we had to split ourselves up based on pure fighting power, then it would be Rulitora and everyone else. Even though it was a big castle, it shouldn’t take us a whole week to explore. The question was how much was left in here, and how much we could find.

We took only the bare essentials and armed ourselves to the teeth. I started making my way to the door, but then Rium tugged at my sleeve.

“Touya.”

“What is it?”

“I bet there’s a golem here. Those can easily survive 500 years.”

“I see, so they’d be like security guards for the treasure?”

Rium nodded in response.

Manmade monsters, golems, often showed up in my video games. Since crystal magic involved creating magic items, she must have had some knowledge on the subject.

“Would you be able to identify them?”

“As long as I can detect the magic that’s making them move, yes.”

“What if they don’t move?”

“If I could detect those, then they’d be worthless as golems,” Rium said, quite matter-of-factly.

So they might be disguising themselves as pieces of furniture, even though they were actually monsters. If the castle really employed those things, then we just needed to proceed with caution.

We kept walking along the garden until we reached a wall. I saw a giant set of doors door before me. They looked like incredibly heavy doors made of metal. Since some people had given up their humanity after being blessed by the Goddess of Darkness, they must have had to accommodate sizes surpassing a normal human’s.

Could we open this thing by ourselves? I approached it, a little doubtful.

“Sir Touya, watch out!”

As I reached for the door, Roni pulled me back and onto the ground. When I looked back in surprise, I saw a shadow blocking my view. I couldn’t tell what it was in that instant, since the shadow retreated as fast as it had appeared. I looked over, still on the ground, and saw where it had come from.

“Th-the door...?”

Yes, it was the door. It was currently opened horizontally, not vertically like a set of doors should be. The opening was contorting itself like clay, and soon formed the shape of a smile.

That shadow just now must have been the door extending its mouth to bite down on me. If Roni hadn’t saved me, I’d probably be stuck inside that giant mouth right now.

“Sir Touya!”

Rulitora rushed over to Roni and I, pulling us up and out of the reach of the door. I saw Clena holding Rium, also making their way away from the door. They seemed unharmed.

“Thanks for the help, Rulitora.”

“Do not mention it, I’m just glad you’re safe.”

“Are you alright, Roni?”

“No sweat!”

Roni was holding her arm, so I was worried that the door had bitten her, but it was just a scratch from when she’d pulled me down.

Fortunately, the door monster couldn’t move from its position.

“What in the world is that thing?”

“It’s a door golem. Instead of locks, it needs a special amulet to open.”

“So if you don’t have that amulet, it attacks you?”

Rium nodded in response.

I see. Since you had to go through the door to enter the castle, it was an effective trap against intruders. Though it made me wonder what would happen to a person who just happened to forget their amulet.

“Let me handle this!”

Rulitora said, and in the same moment waved his glaive above his head and struck the door golem. The clash of metal against metal rang in the air. Despite the way it was contorting earlier, the door was still as hard as metal.

Rium also got out one of her pencil-sized spears and transformed into a giant one. This must have been standard practice for crystal magic.

The metallic clangs continued resounding through the air. Rulitora kept striking the door golem as he dodged its attacks, but it was so dense that he wasn’t able to deliver any significant blows. That said, he was doing an exceptional job of handling it. If it were me, I’d have my hands full just trying to keep myself together.

“Do you think earth spirits could interfere with that?”

“It depends.”

I tried asking Rium, and she gave me a curt reply. It probably depended on the skills of the spell caster. It was a little too risky to approach the door without knowing if I could handle it. So I tried another method.

“Rulitora, don’t get caught!”

“Right! ...Wait, what?!”

I ran past the confused Rulitora toward the door—or rather, the place immediately to the right of it.

“Summon spirit!”

I pressed my hand against it to summon spirits of the earth. I wasn’t doing it on the door golem itself, though. Instead I used the door’s frame, or in other words: the castle walls.

The walls warped so that the frame surrounding the door expanded. The door golem, however, wasn’t expanding to fit the shape of its new frame.

“I see!” Rulitora exclaimed as he parried an attack with his glaive.

The door golem tried going after him, but having lost its means of support, fell flat on the ground with a deafening roar. There was no way something capable of warping itself so much to attack would be able to balance on its own. Unsurprisingly, without a building for support, it couldn’t make any attacks from its back, which left it flailing around on the ground like a caught fish.

It was honestly pretty off-putting seeing a solid metal set of doors thrashing about on the ground like that. This wasn’t exactly the type of fantastical experience I was hoping to have when I came to this fantasy world.

Rium hopped on top of one door with a hammer and chisel.

“Leave the rest to me.”

She crawled to the center of the door and tried to kneel down, but since it was still stubbornly writhing around, she fell on her behind.

“Rulitora, let’s help push it down as well.”

“Understood.”

I used my Healing Light to heal Roni’s scratch, then rushed over to Rium. Fully clad in metal armor, and aided by the towering Rulitora... who was now sitting on top of the door golem, it wasn’t going to budge anytime soon. Total domination.

What was Rium trying to do, though? As I stared at her in curiosity, she used the chisel to try and detach a gem-like object that was inlaid on the back of the door.

“What’s that?”

“The golem’s power source.” Rium said as she swung her hammer down. With a light clang, the gem-like object dislodged itself from the door, and at the same time the door golem stopped moving completely. We repeated the process on the other door, dislodging the gem and stopping the door from moving.

I see, so this must have been a type of crystal that crystal mages used. When I asked her about it later, she told me that crystals that could be infused with magic were simply called “magic crystals.” They could be reused if dislodged properly, and fetched a high price.

Rium had managed to retrieve the two crystals from the golems without a scratch, looking rather proud of herself. She was so cute I patted her head.

“Looks like it’s full steam ahead from the get-go, huh?”

“I’m not too surprised, this is a castle after all.”

“It makes sense that they’d heighten their security, assuming there are valuables inside.”

“At least I hope there are...”

“Should I accompany you inside?”

We were conversing in a half-eager, half-apprehensive tone, but Rulitora, who would be guarding the carriage outside, was at least 90 percent apprehensive.

“No, if something happens to the horse, then we won’t be able to get ourselves back, much less anything we find inside.”

“Mmm...”

That’s right. No matter how convenient my Unlimited Bath was, we’d never be able to leave the void without our carriage. It was absolutely vital that we protect our horse and carriage.

“Will you be alright though, Rulitora? Something might attack while you’re waiting outside. Shall I stay as well?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine by myself.”

Roni worried for Rulitora in turn, but he softly declined. From his perspective, he’d be even more worried if we lessened our battle strength inside the castle.

Normally the carriage was convenient, but now it definitely felt like a burden. We needed to think of a way to deal with this in the future. But now wasn’t the time to be mulling over that. We had to concentrate on exploring the castle.

“Let’s make sure to let each other know if anything happens. It’ll be pretty quiet in there, so... just shout and we’ll hear you.”

“Not like we have any other options.”

“Don’t try to handle it on your own. Call for help, okay?”

“That goes for you too, Sir Touya.”

“Don’t worry about me. I won’t be the only one in danger, the girls will be too. I won’t push myself.”

“That’s fine, then...”

Rulitora was still uneasy, though. Maybe he was worried that I’d push myself too hard and expose the girls to danger. This wasn’t something we would ever settle by talking about it, though. I’d have to prove it to him by making sure we explored vigilantly and returned unharmed.

“It’s okay, I won’t do something dumb in this situation. While we’re gone, try bringing the carriage around the area and see if there’s any place you can stay. There might be a barn or something.”

“Understood.”

He still wasn’t agreeing with me, but he could also tell that we had nothing to gain by debating more about the issue.

I made sure all my armor was in order and equipped my broadaxe again.

“Are you ready, everyone?”

“Yep, ready to go.”

“Ready.”

“It’ll be a piece of cake, since we won’t even need to carry anything!” Roni exclaimed, smiling. Indeed, we could just shove everything we found inside my Unlimited Bath, which would be a huge advantage for us.

“Alright, we’ll be off now.”

“Please be careful, Sir Touya.”

We entered the castle as Rulitora saw us off.

Ogre or lore, who knew what was in store? Come to think of it, there was a “White-Faced Ogre” among the Five Great Demon Generals. I’d prefer it if we didn’t come across an ogre, though. I thought to myself as we entered the demon lord’s castle and began our hunt.

We first went to the throne room. It was something we were all curious about. Nothing but a pile of rubble remained, signifying a fierce battle, but we didn’t see any golems and continued on our way.

I wondered how the door golem survived all of that. Maybe there was another way of getting inside without having to deal with it.

When we investigated other places, knight-shaped golems that had been hidden among statues of knights attacked us, swords in hand. It seemed like the first sacred king’s party didn’t even give these guys a passing glance when they made their way to the demon lord. They must have been in a real hurry.

All the better for us, though. The chances that treasures remained untouched in this castle grew higher.

“Take this!” I swung my broadaxe—or rather, a hammer that I had formed with sand around the blade of the axe—down and crushed a golem knight. It fell onto the sand-covered carpet floor. We had already fought several golems, but blades did little against their tough bodies. It was easier to smash them down using a blunt weapon.

“Some heavy security, huh...”

Clena grumbled as Rium retrieved the magic crystal from the remains of the knight golem. So far, we had encountered one hidden golem for every five knight statues, but there were no precedents for me to judge if that was a high ratio or not.

“Isn’t this pretty normal for a castle?”

“Well, it’s true that castles have really strict defense systems. But it’s not normal to have this many golems.”

“Hm, so you’d say there are too many considering they had soldiers stationed in the castle as well?”

“Normally the purpose of golems is to spot and detain intruders,” Rium said, having just finished collecting the magic crystal.

So in other words, golems didn’t have to be strong enough to defeat someone. The way they pre-emptively attacked approaching intruders was similar to how a burglar alarm worked back in my world. I could understand what the girls had meant just now.

That still didn’t explain why so many golems had been set up here, but I was hopeful that this just meant they were guarding valuable treasures. Or perhaps Nobunaga was much more on guard about surprise attacks ever since the Honnouji Incident, but we had no way of ever finding out.

So far we had found some home furnishings, decorations, and other paraphernalia. They hadn’t been damaged from the battle, but were still plenty worn down from 500 years’ worth of erosion. I didn’t want to be too greedy, but after all our effort in having come this far, I was hoping to find more valuable spoils.

“Sir Touya! I found a big door!” Roni, who had been using her agility to scout out the area around the corner, came back to me in a frenzy.

“How many statues?”

“Five on either side, so ten total!”

“So a few of them must be golems, huh?”

“If it’s someplace important, then they might all be.”

“Alright, let’s destroy them all before we get too close.”

We didn’t have to worry about making a sound here. No matter how much of a ruckus we made, there were no longer any guards around to stop us.

According to Rium, in the past decade or so, they had started developing golems that would explode once an intruder got close, rather than outright attack them. That sounded less like a golem and more like a land mine, though.

The four of us bunched up close and peered around the corner. We saw ten knight statues lined up along two walls, and a large set of doors farther in. The knight statues looked exactly like the one I had just destroyed.

“Okay, I’ll take the right.”

“I’ll take the left.”

Clena took up her sword and Rium grabbed her silver spear. Clena was probably intending to use magic, instead of fighting head-on with her sword. Rium would be using the same spell she had used to fight the sandworm a while back.

“Alright, Roni and I will handle the leftovers.”

The two of them nodded in reply and started chanting their spells.

“O Wind Blade, cut them to pieces!” Clena launched a piercing wind from her sword and tore through the statues along the right wall all at once.

“...Go forth, o spear.” Rium moved to the left wall and threw her silver spear at the statues like a dart.

The spear was pencil sized when she threw it, but grew to the size of large lance in the blink of an eye, skewered the heads of the statues, then broke apart.

The statues on the right all roared as their heads rolled off. The ones on the left remained silent, their heads destroyed.

Shoot, the farthest statue on the right only had the top part of its head sliced off. The head of the one down on the left also hadn’t been fully skewered. There were cracks in the armor, but it was still fully functional.

“Roni, take the left!”

“Got it!”

Not a moment later, I started to form sand around my broadaxe and rushed in.

The two statues brandished their swords and started moving. The second to last one on the right also tried to move but lost its balance, falling to the floor. That one also hadn’t been properly sliced.

I ignored the golem that just fell and used my shield to block a strike from the other. A metallic clash resounded, grating on my ears, and at the same time Roni smashed the left golem’s head with a dropkick. It was a death blow on the part that had already been cracked, and the golem fell to the ground as its head was smashed into pieces.

The left side was now taken care of. All that remained was the golem in front of me.

I pushed against it with my shield, then struck its sword-wielding arm while it was caught off balance. The golem tried throwing a punch with its other hand, but I absorbed the impact with my shield and slammed my makeshift hammer against its leg. Its thigh was too sturdy to break from a single hit, but I had managed to crack it nonetheless, stripping it from the ability to support its own weight. As it tried to brace itself to stand up straight again, the leg I had just delivered a hit onto broke apart and sent the golem tumbling to the ground. I drew myself away so that it wouldn’t land on top of me.

All I had to do now was finish it off. It couldn’t get up again with only one arm and a leg. I smashed down on both this golem and the one that I had felled earlier with my hammer.

After the battle, Rium went to collect the magic crystals while we stayed alert of our surroundings. Clena had sliced through two of the magic crystals inside the golems with her wind blade, but the rest were still intact.

In the end, all ten of them were golems.

“Sorry, I messed up the angle a bit.”

“Don’t worry about it. That was the best way for you to attack without risking harm.”

The golems’ sensors were usually inside their heads. Their source of power, the magic crystals, were located in the center of their torso so that power could flow evenly through the rest of their body. That didn’t exactly mean they represented the brain and heart of a person—the sensors were their eyes and the power source was simply at the body’s center. Rather, all golems needed “eyes” regardless of their shape, and it was up to a crystal mage’s individual skill to properly conceal them.

“Huh? Sir Touya, the door is unlocked,” Roni, who had gone one step ahead of us to investigate the door, called out to me in a bewildered voice.

“What?” I responded, as baffled as she was.

“Is it really unlocked, Roni?” Clena turned to her to reaffirm.

“That wouldn’t make sense,” Rium said, puzzled, having just finished retrieving the magic crystals.

Those two had every right to be confused. Having ten golems lined up to block the path, yet not locking the door, was far too lopsided in terms of security measures.

“B-But it really is open!”

“Any traps?”

“Not as far as I can tell! Honest!”

Roni started getting teary-eyed while our gazes collected on her. I wanted to pat her on the head, but I was wearing gauntlets, so I held back and left it to Clena. There I stood, in front of the door, alongside Rium.

“Is it possible to take anything out of here without disturbing the golems at all?”

“It’s possible for the golem’s master, or someone who already has permission.”

“So basically, there was someone who had permission.”

There was a chance that, 500 years ago, someone took the treasures out of this room.

Since there were no traps to be wary of, I went ahead and cracked open the door—then noticed something.

“Roni...” I beckoned her over and whispered something into her ear. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly regained her composure and gave me a serious nod.

I opened the door and looked around the room. It was pretty spacious inside. There was one small window high up on a wall, so the room was only dimly lit. I set out light spirits to illuminate the room.

To the left and right of us were shelves. The bottom of each shelf was lined with large treasure boxes, while the top shelves held many small boxes, weapons, and armor. There were three full sets of armor on the wall facing us. They weren’t knight statues, though. The armor gave off a metallic luster, bathed in the light of the spirits. Looks like this was an armory.

“Sir Touya...” Roni whispered into my ear.

“I see... so that’s where Goldfish is.” I pointed my axe at the black set of armor on the left.

The armor didn’t move or speak a word, though. Maybe he thought we wouldn’t find out if he remained silent. That was naive, though. When I had cracked the door open, I noticed a faint but distinct smell.

“If you want to hide, do something about that smell first.”

Yes, it was the same rotten smell from the pond in the temple. Upon closer inspection, the left shelf was lined with helmets and armor parts. Maybe he had taken apart his original armor and set it on the shelf, then sat himself down wherever there was space.

“Heheheh... I thought I’d gotten rid of all the moss.”

I heard Goldfish’s voice. It was indeed coming from the black armor set.

“Moss? Were you hiding that armor inside the pond?”

“Hiding? That pond used to be my home.”

“So you were from the temple, after all.”

I had suspected as much. Despite all that rambling about the demon lord, his behavior indicated a much stronger loyalty to the Goddess of Darkness.

The jet-black armor used its gauntlet to raise its visor. The sound of clanging metal filled the otherwise silent room. Behind the visor was something that looked like a fish bowl, and there was Goldfish, gently flapping his big fins inside.

Judging by how the gauntlet just moved, I would guess that Goldfish had the power to control the armor like it was his own body. He had somehow escaped into the pond last night, retrieved his armor, and snuck out of the temple. And since he knew that our destination was the demon lord’s castle, he hid himself among the furnishings in this armory.

Goldfish picked up a tall, two-handed broadsword that was next to him. We knew then that he wasn’t intent on letting us out alive. We assumed our battle stances, readying ourselves against his attack.

However, there was one thing I didn’t understand about Goldfish’s behavior.

“Answer me one thing. Why did you lead the first sacred king to Hadesopolis?”

“What are ye getting at?”

“I understand your allegiance being with the Goddess of Darkness, rather than the demon lord. But the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord was also a battle between Jupiteropolis and Hadesopolis.”

“More specifically, it was Hadesopolis against the alliance of other nations, with Jupiteropolis at its center.”

“Then wouldn’t you have been committing treachery against the Goddess of Darkness, leading the first sacred king to her head temple?”

“...I may have made some miscalculations.”

“Miscalculations?” I couldn’t see him clearly behind the visor, but he appeared a bit downcast, and likely wasn’t lying.

“Did you ever think it was strange? A hero of the darkness, summoned from another world, was the demon lord. Then who was the lord before he was summoned?”

I looked at the other girls after that question. They didn’t have any answers, though, and only shook their heads.

Goldfish continued to tell his story, maybe feeling a sense of superiority over us now. This was just a part of his raw personality.

“...It wasn’t you, was it?”

“Would that it were, but the citizens of Hades never woulda conceded to that. There was a king before. And the Hades royal family.”

“The Hades royal family...”

So basically, when the demon lord was summoned, the royal family was absent for whatever reason. No, I bet that they had all passed away.

“So a hero who had been blessed by the Goddess of Darkness was eligible to become king?”

“Bingo. And you better believe he was capable. He put policies into play that none of us even considered before, and really spurred the development of Hadesopolis... All was good and well up to that point.”

Goldfish pierced his sword into the ground. He was angry. The anger seeping out of him was almost palpable.

“But the bastard started getting full of himself! Even though the Goddess of Darkness had given him new life, he acted like he was god himself and started disrespecting the temple!!”

Oda Nobunaga had gone through years of struggle when he fought against the Ikko-ikki, a religious group, at Ishiyama Hongan-ji. Goddesses aside, I wondered if he just disliked the temple or even religion in general. I read the atmosphere and kept my mouth shut, however, and continued listening.

“So I started thinkin’—if that bastard died, then a new hero of darkness could be summoned to this world.”

A switch flipped inside Clena at that point.

“Wait a second! So just because you wanted to eliminate the demon lord, you invited the enemy in?! And risk damage to your country?! Go fight him yourself!!”

“Calm down, Clena.”

I held Clena back with my arm, as it seemed like she was about to jump Goldfish any second.

He probably would have had trouble commanding political authority if he attacked the demon lord himself. Akechi Mitsuhide had defeated Nobunaga during the Honnouji Incident, but he ruled for a mere 13 days due to his inability to gather allies. There was also the chance that Goldfish was simply not strong enough to take him on.

“So you took refuge in the spring to avoid getting caught in the battle, huh.”

“That’s right.”

“And your miscalculation was that the demon lord hadn’t been completely defeated.”

Goldfish gave no reply. Bullseye. If he could have had any facial expressions, then he must have looked incredibly frustrated right now.

I understood the gist of it now. He had guided the first sacred king, but by no means was he his ally. He hadn’t exactly betrayed the demon lord, either. He was simply on the Goddess of Darkness’ side.

But in the end, Goldfish’s plans fell through. The demon lord wasn’t killed, only sealed, so they were unable to summon a new demon lord. Hadesopolis sunk under the earth, and Goldfish, having retreated to the spring, could go back no longer.

Well, the first sacred king had also been summoned as well. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that he knew another demon lord would be summoned if he killed the current one.

After hearing all this, I could make a guess at who Goldfish really was.

“A devoted follower would be ashamed of you right now.”

“What’s that?” Goldfish pulled his sword out from the floor and pointed it at me. I didn’t back down, though.

“Why didn’t you protect the temple when the first sacred king attacked? You’d have plenty of fighting power with that body.”

“I absolutely mustn’t risk death. Not in a million years!”

“See, that’s what I’m wondering about!”

Right, that statement was a big hint to uncovering his real identity. I myself had been summoned by the princess of the royal family and the Goddess of Light’s temple elder. Then who was it that summoned the hero of darkness?

“The one who summoned the demon lord from my world—it must have been you.”

Goldfish remained silent. It didn’t feel like he was trying to feign ignorance, though. He seemed like he was playing along.

“The reason why you lead the first sacred king here, and why you retreated to the safety of the spring, was that you were the one who could summon the next demon lord.”

“Uh-huh... and?”

Goldfish wasn’t denying it. He was definitely stringing us along.

I might as well ride this out now after having come this far. I came at him with my final theory.

“One of generals you had mentioned before... One who was still alive, the Masked Cleric.”

Clena, recognizing the name, looked to Goldfish in shock. Yes, to the full-face helmet that completely enveloped the fish tank.

“You could call that a mask, right?”

“Heheheh... haaahahahah!” Goldfish suddenly burst out laughing. “Good job, I say! I’m impressed you managed to arrive to that! Even the citizens of Hades often mistook me for the Guardian.”

I had considered that possibility as well. If one of those sets of armor had been gold, I might have guessed that he was Golden Armor as well. However, temple knights existed in this world. It wouldn’t be strange for them to be clad in heavy armor like this.

“Heheheh... It’s too bad, though. If only I had been summoned, I woulda made a damn fine demon lord.” He drew back the sword he had been pointing at me, then changed his posture to an experienced battle stance. It seemed the time for talk was over.

The Masked Cleric, one of the remaining 16 demon generals of Hades. One of the leaders of the demon lord army was standing before us.