Chapter 92
The fourth day stranded in the Abyss. A strangely ominous number, but in any case, that much time had passed.
During that time, Momo and I had searched all over for ways to secure food in the Abyss. In the end, though, there was only one conclusion.
'We have to rob somewhere else.'
We didn't know where the Abyssal Ones obtained their food. However, according to what we learned by interrogating the Card Abyssal One, they also received food rations. Most likely, it was food similar to what humans ate on Earth.
Setting aside where cards even had mouths to eat such things with, the important point was that there was somewhere we could obtain food.
If all else failed, I had even considered summoning Tokkaengi, who still wasn't responding, and roasting it, so perhaps this was fortunate.
I didn't know whether mascots contained any nutrients, though.
Anyway, the food we brought back was... canned food.
-Rumble...
"...There are canned foods in the Abyss, too?"
"Alice was surprised, too..."
[Because it is an efficient invention. We have also confirmed that the Abyss contains machines that can only be seen in civilizations with a technological level beyond Earth's, so it is not strange for canned food to exist here, either.]
"That's true, but... I suppose it's a matter of perception."
-Click
We hadn't brought a can opener, but opening it with a magical girl's strength wasn't difficult.
Inside was... some kind of meat that was difficult to identify just by looking at it.
"...Ms. Momo?"
[It appears to be rat meat. It is somewhat different from Earth's, but... it is a valuable source of protein.]
"R-rat? You mean rats?!"
"Well... what else can we do? We have to eat."
"Eek..."
"Before that, let's clean it with magical power..."
In any case, that was more or less how our survival routine in the Abyss went.
Momo and I went around searching for the soldiers' living quarters, then stole small amounts of food from their storerooms without being noticed. With Momo's reconnaissance and various support abilities combined with Alice's mobility, it was easy enough.
Once we had some breathing room, we also spied on them to gather information.
We even succeeded in finding out what their basic duties were... if they could be called that.
Painting roses.
Every day, things that looked like red paint were delivered to the soldiers from somewhere, and each soldier carried out their assigned duties according to rank and role.
The lower a soldier's rank, the more often they directly painted the roses. The higher their rank, the more likely they were to transport the paint or supervise other lower-ranking soldiers. It was a scene that reminded me of somewhere on Earth in many ways.
And the true identity of the substance that looked like paint was... easy to guess, but it was blood.
I didn't know whether it came from a human, an animal, or some other kind of creature, but its distinctive scent was unmistakably blood.
Combining the information we heard while spying with what I had heard from the knight before coming to the Abyss, the Garden's structure was as follows.
1. Separate from the soldier ranks, there is a knight rank, and knights mainly operate outside the Garden. They are primarily mobilized to fight Abyssal Ones from other regions or to hunt in other dimensions.
2. The hearts that knights bring back during hunts are an important resource for the Garden. Besides the rose garden, there is a separate garden where the hearts are gathered. For security purposes, only Heart soldiers above a certain rank may come and go from this place, and the hearts displayed there continue producing blood even though they have already lost their owners.
3. Once this blood is delivered to the soldiers, they paint the roses throughout the rose garden with it and harvest them. The roses dyed a dark red are gathered by the highest-ranking soldiers and delivered to the knights. We still do not know where those roses go.
4. Once the roses are harvested and the stems are left bare, white roses grow back the next morning. The reason for this is unknown as well.
'...What do you think it might be? Roses soaked in blood? Could there be some magical significance to them? Maybe the blood from the hearts isn't ordinary blood, after all.'
[We have far too little information about the ecology of the Abyssal Ones. It could be a snack the queen enjoys, an ingredient with magical significance, a bomb, or something else entirely. It is impossible to predict. The only thing we know is that it is extremely important to the Abyssal Ones of the Garden.]
'...It is difficult, that's for sure.'
Naturally, I was curious about the identity of the roses. But first, I had to consider whether finding that out would help us escape.
There was only one reason Momo and I were working so hard to gather information: to escape the Abyss as soon as possible.
If the roses were an important resource needed to open an Abyss Hole, then investigating them would be meaningful. But if they were merely a snack favored by some Abyssal One, as Momo suggested, it would be a waste of time—worse than not investigating at all. And if we went in too deep and were discovered, we would be in real danger.
'...Damn it. If only Tokkaengi were here, I could at least discuss it.'
For now, I was fairly certain that the being called the queen was Han Serin. If Han Serin wasn't the queen herself, then that person was at least connected to her.
If it wasn't Han Serin, I couldn't imagine anyone else who would make such a crazy garden in the Abyss.
And... speaking objectively, understanding that person's psychology was difficult for me alone. I needed Tokkaengi's help.
If I had been able to understand that person's psychology, would I have ended up in that state? There had been a gap in the time I spent with that person. Tokkaengi was the one who had shared that gap with them more closely than anyone.
-Grind...
Even now, thinking about that time made my teeth ache with anger, but it was already in the past. Tokkaengi and I had settled that matter long ago.
Still, it was irritating that Tokkaengi wasn't there when I actually needed it. No, Aia's wand was functioning perfectly, so why couldn't the mascot function? Could a mascot really be inferior to a wand?
If it had at least woken up now and then, I could have told myself that it was trying. But there had been no word at all, as if it were a machine with its power turned off, which left me frustrated and anxious.
And the even more irritating problem was...
'This is so frustrating.'
Since coming to the Abyss, I had been maintaining my transformation twenty-four hours a day.
Momo had been using a great deal of power to help, but she still maintained that de-transforming in the Abyss was dangerous. Thanks to that, Black Rose continued to receive magical power, and because the wand's magic was constantly recharging, I had enough magical power to maintain my transformation even while supporting Black Rose.
However, having enough magical power and continuously wearing this magical-girl outfit were two separate matters.
Leaving aside the outfit that obsessively covered my entire body without exposing a single patch of skin, I was a man wearing a skirted dress, stockings, and extremely girlish shoes. I had even slept in this appearance, and it had been going on for nearly a hundred hours straight. Honestly, I was at the point of suffocation.
Regardless of whether my body could endure the outfit, I felt like I was going to die from how stifling it was.
We hadn't found anything like a body of water, either, so naturally, I hadn't been able to wash. Thanks to Momo, we had somehow managed to obtain drinking water, but washing was a luxury.
'...Damn those card bastards.'
Since they were cards, had they filled in every pond? It was incredibly difficult to find water. I was beginning to wonder how they even grew roses and crops in land like this.
I irritably grabbed my collar and fanned it while continuing to watch the Cards from the thicket made safe by Momo's barrier.
For now... we had to find a way back.
* * *
"T-thankfully, there aren't any beyond the entrance..."
The magic-circle security devices at the entrance had nearly given me a heart attack, but thankfully, I couldn't see any separate devices inside the house.
The spells themselves had been set with ordinary people as the standard for their power. For an ordinary person, devices of that level would have been sufficient.
You probably never imagined that a magical girl would break in and steal things... I suppose.
"S-strictly speaking, this isn't stealing... I-I'm just holding onto them for safekeeping."
It sounded like an excuse actual thieves would make... but it was true! If things stayed this way, a thief might break into Senior's house, or the house might be sold off before he ever came back!
'...Did I just disable that device?!'
If I put it back the way it was before leaving, it should work again... probably...
-Tiptoe...
"U-um... No one's here, right...?"
There shouldn't have been anyone there, but I slowly went farther inside in case someone happened to be there.
I had already visited several times, but without any human warmth, the house had a chilly atmosphere that made it feel eerie.
Now I had to find Mr. Sejin's valuables and move them somewhere safe...
'...Come to think of it, this is a man's house...?'
Once I realized that, I felt something hot rush up into my face.
Even if I had a valid reason, a woman searching for valuables in the house of a man who was away... That sounded far too much like stalking.
And... Mr. Sejin didn't seem like that, but... he was a healthy man in the prime of his life... If I searched through the house for the valuables of someone like that...
'Kyaaa...'
My face grew hot all on its own.
I might even discover adult magazines, comics, a mysterious hard drive filled with all sorts of things, or various objects whose purposes I couldn't identify.
My thoughts suddenly became complicated.
What should I do if I found something like that? They would technically be valuables too, so should I hand them over when Mr. Sejin returned? But if I gave him something like that, wouldn't it mean that I had seen all of Mr. Sejin's secret hobbies?
-Gulp
'I-I am curious, but...'
Even so... an invasion of privacy was an invasion of privacy. If I happened to find anything like that...
'...I'll just keep it in storage and never look at it!'
I swore to myself that I would keep his secret absolutely, for Mr. Sejin's sake.
My conscience was my witness.
I was about to start with the desk where the computer was... when I found something.
-Rustle
"...What's this?"
A medicine packet... maybe...
The name of the medicine was one I had never heard of. If I searched for it, I could find out what kind of medicine it was, but... hmm... It would be rude, so it would be more polite not to search, right? There were plenty of illnesses people didn't want others to know about.