Chapter 138
Franz arrived at the 5th basement floor.
Although it was well past the time he should have finished his duties, he decided to prioritize his tasks over such things for now.
Wasn’t that how everyone lived?
People talked about leisure and respite, but in reality, it was rarely found.
“…”
Zeni-ah, who was sitting leaning against one wall, was silently looking at Franz.
The fact that she kept her mouth shut despite having an expression that looked like she had a lot to say revealed her personality.
She was cautious and absolutely unwilling to do anything that would cause her a loss.
Anyway, he didn’t know why mages were all so alike.
Franz approached her without even considering the fact that he was the same way.
“Zeni-ah.”
“…What.”
He had felt it when he spoke with her earlier, but she was quite curt.
He was definitely her superior, and in a way, her benefactor too.
But pointing out such things didn’t seem like it would have much meaning.
It felt like a passive trait that cultist bastards inherently possessed.
“Are you hungry? What I left you probably wasn’t enough.”
Since it seemed necessary to lower her guard first, he started with trivial small talk.
“Not really, I don’t usually eat that much anyway…”
“That’s a relief then.”
Saying so, Franz sat down next to her.
The touch of the freezing floor transmitted through his pants to his skin.
A brief silence followed, and then Zeni-ah opened her mouth first.
“I thought about it after you left, but I still don’t get it. Why did you save us? There’s no benefit in it for you, is there? Surely a mage like you wouldn’t have saved us out of a simple whim.”
Just how did the image of a mage end up like that?
Setting that issue aside for a moment, he decided to answer Zeni-ah’s words.
“There is a benefit: first, that I can find out information about the cult from you, and that I can obtain the magical knowledge you possess.”
“What if we don’t answer? Or what if we can’t answer for some reason?”
“Well, I’ll have to think about that when the time comes.”
In truth, it was already a decided matter.
If they didn’t act amicably, they were no different from enemies, and if they were enemies, there was no reason to keep them alive.
He just didn’t want to say it out loud.
Seeing as she didn’t pry any further, Zeni-ah seemed to have understood well enough.
“Then it’s my turn to ask. How did you guys end up like that? Especially…”
Franz trailed off and shifted his gaze to the massive magical engineering device.
Inside it, Seri-ah was still floating with her eyes closed.
“That’s…”
Zeni-ah opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again and lowered her gaze.
Perhaps there were circumstances that were hard to talk about.
No, it would definitely be hard to talk about.
Because no matter how you looked at it, it was hard to call their situation normal.
After a brief silence, Zeni-ah carefully began her story.
“Do you see this?”
Zeni-ah swept back her long, drooping hair and showed him her ear.
Her ear had a slightly awkward shape, with scars running along the edge.
Franz could understand the meaning of that without difficulty.
“…Were you an elf?”
“Half right. I’m a half-elf.”
Half-elf.
A child born to a human and an elf.
It was a rare case to begin with, as there was almost no interaction between Elves and Humans.
It was Franz’s first time seeing a half-elf as well, but rather than surprise, pity came first.
She must have lived a life that was far from easy.
“The mother who gave birth to us was a slave. Naturally, the lot of us weren’t much different. I lived as a slave like that, little by little stealing glances at things about magic in the mansion’s library. Of course, every time I got caught, I was beaten within an inch of my life.”
There was nothing in particular he could say to that.
Clumsy consolation would only be a discourtesy to her.
Perhaps not expecting anything either, she subtly checked his reaction and continued speaking.
“But it seems I had a talent for magic. From a certain day, I became able to use magic and even break the slave contract placed on my body.”
It was truly a talent close to that of a genius.
Contract Magic was especially complex in structure and tightly intertwined.
It was absolutely not something that could be dispelled just by reading a few books.
“So you ran away.”
“Right. I dispelled the slave contract and ran away with Seri-ah. Mom tried to stop us, saying we’d be killed if we got caught, but I didn’t believe her…”
Zeni-ah trailed off and stared blankly at the magical engineering device.
To be exact, she was looking at Seri-ah inside it.
“As a result, we were never caught. The problem was what came after. It wasn’t easy to find food. But we couldn’t secure work either, since we couldn’t show our faces to anyone.”
She must have cut her ears during that process.
Half-elves had relatively long ears, even if not to the extent of an elf.
She must have tried to blend in by taking on the appearance of a human.
“It was one day when we were barely surviving day by day. Seri-ah was stabbed in the stomach by a dagger swung by some back-alley vagrant. I could only use simple magic, and I didn’t know how to heal wounds.”
It wasn’t a very rare story.
Such tales were not uncommon. Here, people dying in back alleys were a common occurrence.
“Then the rest of the story is…”
How they obtained the armament, and who saved Seri-ah in the process.
He didn’t know the exact details, but it would definitely be the story he had been waiting for.
“That’s when some man approached us and said he would save Seri-ah in exchange for our working under him. As you called him, he’d be someone like the leader of the cult.”
The leader of the cult.
He was the head of the people Franz was chasing.
If he captured him, he could greatly weaken the cult’s forces, not to mention find the whereabouts of the Seven Great Evils, so this was truly crucial information from this point forward.
“What kind of person was that man?”
“All I know for sure is that he had red eyes and silver hair. I only ever met him that one time anyway.”
Red eyes and silver hair.
A skilled individual capable of handling the divine power of a sealed armament.
Someone with knowledge of magic outstanding enough to pass down unique magic to Zeni-ah.
“I have no idea.”
Regrettably, no one in particular came to mind.
No, he should rather say it was a relief.
If the leader of the cult was someone he knew, that would be a shock in its own right.
Well, he would gradually find out later as he dug into the cult.
It was while he was thinking that.
“You’re the one who erased the contract on my body, right…?”
“Indeed.”
In fact, there had been a contract on Seri-ah and Zeni-ah’s bodies.
Judging from the story he just heard, the man who was called the leader of the cult must have placed it.
Before a new contract was made, the one who erased that contract was none other than Franz.
“No wonder that unpleasant feeling was completely gone…”
She said so and burst into a laugh, pfft-.
For some reason, her expression felt a little relieved.
“But since there’s a new contract, isn’t it the same thing?”
“Aye, that is true, but at least this one doesn’t feel particularly bad.”
Just what was the difference…?
Franz was in the middle of thinking that.
“Because I don’t think there are any bad people among those who provide meals.”
It seemed she was heavily influenced by the times she had lived through.
Verily, everyone had their own standards for judging, so there was no need to say she was wrong.
“Could you explain what condition Seri-ah is in?”
“I implanted an Artificial Mana Core in place of the object that was originally in her body. Her magic power seems quite stable too, and if matters proceed thus, I don’t think there will be any major problems.”
“I see. Then Seri-ah’s stomach returning to normal must be all thanks to that too…”
Just as she said, Seri-ah’s abdomen, which had been wide open to see inside, was being covered with flesh and skin.
It was a bit slow, but if it continued thus, she would eventually regain her original appearance.
Of course, that too was something akin to Franz’s consideration.
If it was simply repairing bodily damage, it was an area that was possible with magic to some extent.
Although the efficiency was terribly low compared to divine power…
That was the same as having no problem at all if you just poured in a massive amount of magic power.
'I’m a saint in my own right, so why can’t I use divine power?'
Was it because the Goddess was incompetent, or was there some other reason?
He even had two holy relics in his pocket, which only made it feel all the more unfair.
“So what are you planning to demand from us?”
“Demand…?”
At Zeni-ah’s words, Franz expressed his own doubt.
Just getting information about the cult like he had done earlier was enough, so he had no intention of demanding anything more than this.
“Really? I thought you were going to demand our bodies or something, but I suppose not.”
“Just what do you take me for?”
“A noble…? a mage…?”
There was a hint of playfulness mixed into Zeni-ah’s voice, even if only a little.
She seemed to have relaxed to some extent at the fact that Seri-ah was safe and that Franz wasn’t such a bad person.
Such a slightly awkward but somewhat comfortable atmosphere continued.
Inside the magical engineering device, the unconscious Seri-ah opened her eyes.