The Black Sky Pirate Laughs Beneath the Moon. The Crimson Mage Howls at the Stars (9)

Still, I wonder how the Empire's Leff people managed to fight an Automaton like that. Apparently, Leff people can't use Gifts, so they must rely quite heavily on weapons.

I'd like to see it at least once.

"Dantes-san, it looks like there's nothing up ahead."

"Good. Then let's move on."

We had passed through the great cavern and moved into the passage beyond. The path curved sharply to the right.

Where had that Automaton appeared from? Had the Labyrinth Strategy Division ahead of us missed it? Cat-chan's cargo bed held the Automaton's parts, which Muge-san had dismantled—the steel plates and such had been left behind, with only the magical-tool components inside removed. That meant there was only about a bucketful of loot. Honestly, I thought that wasn't much... but Muge-san looked delighted. Maybe there had been some rare parts in it?

"...Huh?"

At that moment, Zelly-san let out a small sound.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm... It feels like the air changed somehow. Maybe it's just me."

"...Let's proceed carefully."

"Sounds good."

Dantes-san nodded too, and we became even more cautious, but nothing happened. About a hundred meters farther on, we found the next room.

"Whoa, whoa, what's this?"

Beside Dantes-san, I raised my light... and found a wide, straight passage.

"Same as the entrance... A downhill slope lined with statues."

On either side stood statues holding weapons, and the slope looked exactly the same as the one at the entrance.

"They look the same, but the weapons they're holding are different."

"...What?"

"At the entrance, the order was sword, shield, staff, axe, spear, and hammer, and that pattern repeated. But here it's sword, curved sword, axe, knife, spear, and large shears."

"You remember all that!"

I hadn't told Dantes-san and the others about 【All Creation】's perfect memory yet, had I?

"Zelly-san, do you smell anything? Or hear anything strange?"

When I prompted her, Zelly-san wore an unusually focused expression and sniffed.

"...I smell oil."

"Is this oil?"

Indeed, even my nose could faintly detect a slightly rancid smell. Very faintly.

"It's awfully old, though..."

"A trap?"

Neither Zelly-san nor I could answer Dantes-san immediately. Honestly, we had no idea.

"Dantes-san, should I fire 【Fire Magic】 just in case?"

"Hmm? To check for gas, you mean?"

On Earth, there was a story called "the canary in the coal mine."

It was based on a real practice in which miners advanced with a canary in a cage. Mines that had not been used for a long time could be low on oxygen or filled with carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases. Since canaries died from poisonous gas before humans did, they served as detectors.

In fact, even in the "Six Heavens Mine," adventurers who ventured deep sometimes carried small birds with them.

"I think it should be fine; oxygen circulates through dungeons... Besides, there's the Labyrinth Strategy Division ahead of us, right?"

"Yeah..."

That was true. With people ahead of us, there was very little point in doing it.

But I somehow felt that I really ought to do it. What was this feeling? It wasn't 【All Creation】 or anything, just a bad feeling—an unpleasant premonition.

"If you've got magic to spare, give it a try. We can't see the far end; it's pretty dark."

Since Mimino-san said so, I nodded and cast 【Fire Magic】.

It was a fireball about the size of a baseball, flying deeper and deeper with a whirring spin. Only the area around it brightened as it passed.

The statues continued... The weapon pattern was the same... Their stances were slightly different...? The weapons' colors too...?

Finally, it struck the wall at the exit on the far side and vanished.

"They look the same all the way through."

Dantes-san said that, and Mimino-san nodded too.

They weren't the same. Not perfectly the same. There had definitely been slight changes.

But what did that mean?

I used 【All Creation】 to recall what I'd just seen. The stances and weapon colors differed. The statues nearest us were simply standing there, while those farther away were about to bring their weapons down. As for the weapon colors, they seemed to have a smooth sheen to them...

(This is the 'Labyrinth of Awe'... Awe... weapons... statues... Ah, I don't get it.)

If my mind worked as quickly as Count Suilies's, I might have noticed something, but unfortunately I couldn't think of anything.

"All right, let's go."

Dantes-san took the lead, and we stepped into the passage.

We proceeded down the passage under the statues' gazes. The gentle downhill slope made it feel unpleasantly sinister. Going downhill meant we had to brake as we went, yet it also made me feel pressured, as if something were urging us onward: Go farther. Keep going.

Zelly-san walked with an expression that seemed both unconvinced and resigned. Maybe because Zelly-san and I were on edge, no one said a word—and the only sound was the soft hiss of steam from Cat-chan.

(...Awe... weapons... statues... The weapons were different from those in the entrance passage. Why?)

At first: sword, shield, staff, axe, spear, hammer.

Here: sword, curved sword, axe, knife, spear, large shears.

Even the large shears seemed questionable as a weapon. Three were shared, and three were different. Why were they different...?

(That's it. Blades.)

Every one of the six weapon types in this passage had a blade.

But so what...?

(Blades, blades, blades—and oil. Does that mean there's a trap...?)

This was a gently sloping passage.

"Ah—"

I realized something and looked back.

There had been no sound. It must have been because the blades had been oiled.

But—the sound of something cutting through the air couldn't be eliminated.

Zelly-san turned around immediately after me. Her keen ears had caught the sound too.

In other words, the sound of a blade slicing through the air.

"Get down!!"

We had been looking only upward. Since the only difference from the entrance was the statues, that was natural.

That's why we didn't notice until it had already passed us.

A firing port hidden in the downhill slope.

A circular blade more than a meter across came flying toward us, spinning.

"Tch!"

Muge-san, however, was staring blankly and reacted too slowly. I immediately dashed over and dragged Muge-san out of Cat-chan's driver's seat.

"Whoa!?"

It was a close call.

The blade flew past, slicing off several strands of my hair. Even after cutting off Cat-chan's chimney, it didn't lose momentum.

Seeing that, Dantes-san lowered the shield he had been raising and hurriedly ducked. A direct hit would have gouged even the shield.

The blade passed us and vanished as if being sucked into a notch in the upper part of the wall at the exit.

Seriously...? They even planned for where it would be stored...?

"Phew..."

Sweat broke out all over my body.

"...Wait. This..."

Once the danger had passed, I realized something. We were all flattened against the ground as if crawling—the way one would upon meeting someone far above them in status, or as though we had come before something like a god.

Yes, we had prostrated ourselves out of sheer awe.