Chapter 55: Grade VI Explorer ⓪

I handed over Tall Guy and Fat Guy to the guards who had heard the commotion.
According to the guards, those two were Grade VI Explorers.

Basically, they were stalkers obsessed with Torquetum.
They’d been flagged as suspicious individuals who kept appearing around the girls.

Apparently, the girls were more popular than I thought.
Because of their strength, no one tried anything directly against them.

But it seems they weren’t just being targeted as a party—but as a whole clan.
Tall Guy and Fat Guy were low-ranking members of the clan “Dragon Fang Ro.”

Dragon Fang Ro—Never heard of them. I wonder if Mineha-san knows.
In any case, drawing weapons in the middle of town is a serious crime.

Everyone knows you’ll get arrested if a guard catches you.
If you’re going to draw, at least do it somewhere secluded. Even Coon hunt knows that.
Honestly, being this “popular” is such a pain.

The entire way home, I kept thinking—
How do I convince Mineha-san?

The sweets I received as a thank-you gift are perfect for this. I’ll make use of them.
She’s a girl too, after all. She loves sweets.

Still, that might not be enough, so I stopped by the usual butcher and bought assorted meat and beef.
Not monster beef—100% real beef.

“Hey, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”

I overheard a conversation while buying the meat—probably some explorers.
Two men, chatting over drinks.

“The dungeon investigation team—they’re back, apparently.”
“Seriously? So, the dungeon’s reopening?”
“Idiot, it’s too soon. They still have to submit a report. That takes time.”
“Ah, classic Guild work. Anyone die?”
“No deaths, but there were injuries.”
“Well, that’s not too bad. Anyway, looks like we can finally explore the dungeon again.”
“Yeah. Been a while since we’ve been able to check out the city dungeon.”
“There’s a backlog of harvesting requests on the 6th floor, right?”
“Might be worth tackling those.”

Looks like the lockdown is finally ending.
Not that I’m an explorer—but there are still ways for me to get in.
Maybe I can ask Aks and the others.

I bought the meat and hurried home.

“I’m home.”
“Welcome back.”
“Na!”

Mineha-san and Dagaa greeted me together. Perfect timing.
They both immediately glanced at the meat and bag of sweets in my hands.

“You bought quite a bit.”
“There are sweets too. A gift.”
“Oh?”
“Actually, I have a request…”
“What is it?”

I put down the bags, took a deep breath, and spoke:

“It’s about the watchtower. Something came up, and… I need to check it out.”

“What do you mean?”

At the word “check,” Mineha-san’s eyes sharpened.

“Actually—”

I told her everything honestly and even showed her the Holy Seal.
She listened quietly, nodding while petting Dagaa.

“Haiyaan’s Legacy… and a Holy Seal, huh? Hmm. All right.”
“Really?!”
“Sure. But only if I get to see it too. I’m curious.”
“That’s fine—hey!”
“Na?”
“You’ll get some later, so be patient.”
“Na…”

Dagaa was trying to open the sweets box, so I scolded him and picked him up.
No peace, honestly. Mineha-san laughed too.

The place I live in isn’t technically a house, but a storage building.
So I’ve been dodging taxes—a bit of a cheat.

At first glance, no one would think it’s a residence.
The entrance just looks like a narrow wooden shed door.

That door is wedged between a brick building and a white stone building.

Mineha-san’s first reaction upon seeing it was:
“Where the heck do you live?”

Go in through the front, and there’s another door straight ahead.
Open it, and you’re in a courtyard.

And in the center of that courtyard stands a solitary stone tower.
I call it the Watchtower. It just feels right.

It’s small for a tower, honestly. I’ve even laughed at how tiny it is.

“But when you look at it like this…”

It’s surrounded on all sides, just like Torquetum’s base.
Then I noticed something for the first time—
On the opposite side of the tower… what is that building?

Mineha-san placed a hand on her hip and said:

“When you look at it like this, what?”
“The atmosphere is similar to Torquetum’s tower.”
“I’ve never been there, actually. Bid invited me though.”
“Bid-san?”

She was a member of Zan Brave.
A black-haired rabbitkin girl—if I recall, a Holland Lop.

That base originally belonged to Zan Brave.

“They broke up, but Torquetum let her keep living there, apparently.”
“Huh, I wonder if she’ll eventually join Torquetum.”
“Maybe. She said she isn’t thinking about that for now.”

If I remember right, the party disbanded due to romance between members. Figures.

Mineha-san on my shoulder, Dagaa on my head (this guy…), we entered the Watchtower together.

It felt unusually clean for some reason.

Mineha-san, seeing my reaction, puffed out her chest proudly as if to say “I cleaned it!”

“I was the one who cleaned it.”

“Thank you very much.”

“It was a pain, let me tell you. So, the second floor, right? But there aren’t any rooms up there.”

“Still, I need to check.”

“Fine by me.”

As we climbed the spiral staircase, I noticed something—
The other tower spirals to the right, but this one to the left.

There were no doors on the second-floor wall.

“As expected, there’s nothing here.”

“No—look at the wall. It’s white.”

Why hadn’t I noticed it before?

In the first tower, where there had been a door, here it was just a plain white wall.
The rest was made of stone blocks. When I pointed this out, Mineha-san gasped.

“I—I totally didn’t notice!”
“Na!”
“All right, then…”

I activated Wheel of Fortune.

The wall glowed yellow, and… there it was—a green glow on the lower left.

I pressed one block’s worth of space, and it slid open, revealing a hollow area.
Exactly the same as the other tower. Inside, there was a switch down low—I pressed it.

Then: kachakacha-kachakacha—the white wall began flipping over in blocky segments.

“W-What the heck is this?!”
“Na!?”

From the top left, diagonally, like a wave, an image appeared on the white wall.

And this picture—no doubt about it. I recognized it immediately.

“It’s the garbage dump.”
“The garbage dump? But there’s no trash in the picture.”
“No, I’m sure of it. That place. Probably that place.”

What was depicted were pillars and a floor—clearly a dungeon scene.
And at the center, nine rings in a circular formation.

Each of the nine rings had a different pattern carved into it.

Only the center was empty—just a neatly drawn ring with nothing inside.

These nine rings—I’d seen something just like them on the wall of the garbage dump.

And then, more text. Ancient script again. Good thing I studied it with the witch.

“Let’s see… ‘Offer the Holy Seal to the Second Tower, and present the Prayer of the Sacred Tree to the Sanctum. I make my wish unto the Ark. Haiyaan’s legacy slumbers in the dream.’”

“That’s totally incomprehensible.”

“Ah—there’s something else below that. Looks like it was carved later. ‘I could not reach Haiyaan. My wish remains unfulfilled. Yet I continue to dream of a journey never complete. Alhazard = Abramelin’—Wait, what?”

A name I never expected.

Alhazard = Abramelin—a Grade I Explorer.

He’s also the Guildmaster of the Grand Guild, the central headquarters of the Explorer’s Guild.

That means… he’s the top of all explorers.

I don’t have any direct connection to him, but… we’ve got a strange thread of fate tying us together.

“Now that’s a hell of a name to show up.”

“Na?”

“Yeah. He’s the one at the top of the explorer world.”

This obviously isn’t the end.

The Holy Seal… and the Second Tower… I look over the image again.

Ah—this central ring. There’s a socket for something. Round in shape—no doubt.

I take out the Holy Seal and place it in the socket. It fits perfectly.

That section clicks, sinks in, and slides open, revealing a hollow space.

Something’s inside. I reach in, grab it.

What I pull out is a blue, perfectly square plate.

On its surface, in raised relief, is the image of a white sacred tree.

So this is… the Sacred Tree? The Prayer of the Sacred Tree.

Wait—I’ve seen this before. Somewhere. Where was it…?

“This must be what we’re supposed to offer to the Sanctum.”

“The Sanctum… that’s the garbage dump, right?”

“Right. I’ll head there now.”

“I’m coming too.”

“Na!”

I figured they’d say that.

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter