Chapter 83

"Looks like you guys are quite capable after all. I take back my previous comments and sincerely apologize. Also, I've decided to join this exploration. Please rest assured, as if you're on a large ship."

The exploration of the unknown ruins discovered by the mentor in the Demon Forest had just begun, but before that, Katariina, whom I had invited to join, was apologizing to Ina and the others for her previous harsh words.

Hearing her words, I couldn't help but think that she could have been a bit softer, but probably this was the only way she knew how to speak.

Still, Ina and the others seemed to acknowledge that she had at least apologized.

"It's still a bit unsettling."

"Ina-chan is serious, but I find such people interesting and quite like them."

"I don't really have anything to add since I can contribute to the team."

While Ina, being serious, found Katariina's harsh words hard to forgive, she seemed to still be struggling to process her emotions since she had at least apologized.

Louise seemed to have found something interesting about Katariina.

El, considering the previous exploration and her combat ability, seemed to think that it was fine as long as she could contribute to the team. She had publicly stated that she was not fond of this type, so it didn't matter to her romantically.

"Lord Ver, is Fluffy joining us too?"

"Just for this time."

Vilma, an adventurer, called Katariina, who wore a leather dress with frills, 'Fluffy.' The dress was made of dragon leather, and the cloak was woven from the down feathers of a young dragon, making it nearly the best armor available. However, to Vilma, it seemed like a peculiar item.

Having obtained such armor in just a year as an adventurer, Katariina was undoubtedly a top-tier adventurer. However, from the pragmatic Vilma's perspective, Katariina seemed a bit out of place.

"Fluffy, you're quite useful, so it's fine."

"This girl is even more sharp-tongued than I am..."

Katariina seemed to be aware that her tone was arrogant. Her face twitched at Vilma's comment.

She didn't get angry because Vilma looked very small and cute, which was a significant advantage for her.

"Vilma, it's not good to call someone you're going to explore with 'Fluffy.'"

"Yes, Elise-sama."

"Let me introduce myself again. I am Katariina Linda von Veiger."

"How polite. I am Elise Katariina von Hohenheim."

Even someone like Vilma, who couldn't look up to me, my future wife, Elise, greeted Katariina politely. Elise, who looked like the 'Saint of the Hohenheim Family,' possessed a gentle beauty and the strength of character befitting a noble lady.

Even Katariina greeted her politely.

Elise, on the other hand, greeted her politely without holding a grudge over her past harsh words. It was clear that there was a difference between a noble lady from a fallen noble family and a genuine noble lady.

Elise's behavior of not pursuing her past harsh words actually put a lot of pressure on Katariina. In the world of nobles, it was like 'now I owe you one,' right?

Katariina seemed to have noticed this and was much more reserved in her usual tone.

However, there were many noble ladies in the capital who were even more like noble ladies, so compared to them, Katariina might have been better off.

"Alright, let's stop with the introductions and enter the ruins."

"Indeed! I couldn't sleep much last night thinking about the new ruins!"

Encouraged by Mr. Blantrach, we decided to enter the ruins immediately. The mentor, who was also an adult and supervisor, seemed to be very excited about the exploration.

However, I couldn't help but think, 'Is he a kid or something?' when he said he couldn't sleep because he was so excited.

"Let's move to the ruins!"

Since I didn't discover the ruins, we had to walk there together. On the way, we encountered very few monsters, but they weren't completely absent.

However, there were so few that Louise took care of them all with her energy-efficient magical martial arts.

"We can't let the mage expend her magic power before we even reach the ruins."

"Sorry, Louise."

"It's fine since there are so few. The mentor must have hunted a lot of them."

"You're right, Miss Louise! We don't know what's inside the ruins, so we need to conserve our magic power as much as possible!"

About an hour later, we arrived at the entrance of the ruins, guided by the mentor. The location was not too deep in the forest, but it was far from the town where the adventurer guild branch was located. The entrance was very small and covered with a lot of ferns, and I was impressed that the mentor had noticed it.

"I just had to urinate, so I thought I'd do it here!"

"Ah, I see..."

It seemed to be a coincidence that he found it. Everyone except the mentor must have thought they had wasted their admiration.

"So, who's going to open this entrance?"

The door at the entrance was closed, and El asked who would open it.

"First, we need to check for traps."

The mentor was right. It wouldn't be good if the door exploded the moment someone touched it. We needed to check for traps.

"It's my turn."

Mr. Blantrach quickly stepped forward and used the 'Trap Detection' spell to check the door. As a former top adventurer, it was impressive that he could use this type of spell.

"There don't seem to be any traps. However, this is troublesome..."

"Troublesome?"

"Yes, look at this lock."

Mr. Blantrach pointed to the lock on the door. It didn't seem to need a key, but it had four dials that could be set to numbers from 0 to 9.

The easiest way to describe it would be that it was similar to a bicycle lock with a numeric code.

"If you set the wrong number, will it go 'BOOM!'?"

"I can't detect that kind of trap. It should just be a matter of setting the correct numbers."

It was a subtle and annoying trap that could buy time. The person who set this lock on the door must have had a pretty bad personality.

"We could blow it up!"

"We don't know what's behind it. Blowing up the door is out of the question."

If we used magic to blow up the door and found something dangerous inside that needed to be sealed, it would be difficult to do so if the door was already destroyed.

"We'll have to try each combination one by one."

"Is there a penalty if we get it wrong?"

"I didn't detect any such trap. Besides, such a sophisticated trap would be inefficient."

A trap that triggered something every time a dial was set incorrectly would be impractical due to the cost. Moreover, most ancient magical civilization ruins tended to have time-consuming traps inside.

For example, I recalled the 'forced teleportation magic array' and the 'inverted binding death trap' that were inside the previous ruins.

"Whaaat! One by one?"

We would have to try every combination from 0000 to 9999 to find the correct one. It was a tedious and time-consuming task.

"Whaaat..."

When I looked at everyone else, they all avoided my gaze. Even Elise, so no one wanted to do it. Naturally, I didn't want to do it either.

"In such cases, isn't it common to leave it to the newcomer?"

At El's suggestion, everyone's eyes turned to Katariina.

"Is that fair? We should decide by drawing lots!"

Katariina naturally objected, but she came up with a good idea. Drawing lots would be fair and prevent any complaints later.

"Lord Ver, let's decide by rock-paper-scissors."

Vilma tugged at my robe and suggested deciding by rock-paper-scissors. This game didn't exist in this world, but when I taught it to Vilma during a spare moment, she really liked it.

Since then, Vilma always suggested deciding things by rock-paper-scissors. Ina and the others, who didn't need to prepare anything and could easily determine a winner, now mostly participated in rock-paper-scissors.

In this world, such decisions were usually made by drawing lots or flipping a coin, but rock-paper-scissors was more convenient.

"Whaaat! Rock-paper-scissors!"

The only exception was El, who seemed quite dissatisfied with the idea of rock-paper-scissors. The reason was that El was incredibly weak at it. In fact, I had never seen El win at rock-paper-scissors.

I often saw her lose to Vilma and have her snacks taken away.

"It's because El tries to cheat and take snacks from Vilma."

However, as Ina said, El lost every time and ended up having her snacks taken away.

"Anyway, time is precious. Let's decide by rock-paper-scissors."

"Fine, since there's a newcomer, I won't lose..."

El reluctantly agreed, and the rock-paper-scissors to decide who would turn the dials began.

"9995! 9996! It won't open!"

About two hours later, El, who had lost the rock-paper-scissors, was frantically turning the numeric dials on the door.

Meanwhile, the rest of us, except for the lookout, were taking a break. After two hours of tension, everyone except the lookout was enjoying tea and snacks that Elise had prepared.

"This chocolate confection is not too sweet and delicious."

"That's a prototype sent by Arteorio."

"He really goes all out, doesn't he?"

Ina was impressed by Arteorio's business acumen. Since he had hardly ever failed at anything, he would probably continue like this for a while.

"But it's not fair to El, is it?"

"It can't be helped since she lost."

"Vilma is so straightforward. I don't even think about taking her place."

"As an adventurer, you should accept defeat gracefully."

"Here, Katariina's deep or not-so-deep comment."

"I'm not aiming for that."

"You guys, while someone is working hard..."

El complained to the women who were enjoying snacks and tea, but it was just the whining of a loser who had lost at rock-paper-scissors, so no one paid attention to her.

"9997! This one doesn't work either!"

She had started from 0000, thinking there might be a twist with 9999, but that didn't work, so she started again from 0001, and the result was 9998.

Naturally, El was furious and threw the dials that had fallen off the door to the ground.

"The person who made this has a twisted personality!"

"Is it a time-wasting trap?"

"Probably."

In response to my question, Mr. Blantrach answered with a low tone.

"You don't seem very enthusiastic."

"Because ruins with this kind of entrance are almost always a bust."

There were various types of ancient ruins, but those with a lock that could be easily opened usually didn't contain valuable treasures.

"Sometimes there are exceptions, but they are very rare."

He had once opened a similar lock and entered a ruin, which turned out to be an old food storage.

"It's been over ten thousand years. There was nothing left."

After so long, the food had rotted away completely.

"I was hoping it would be deep in the forest."

"It was a food storage?"

"There are such underground ruins."

For example, there were ancient ruins that were actually the secret bases of famous figures, as well as ordinary cultural buildings, personal basements, and old public facilities.

Treasures and magical items were left behind because they were the property of the people or organizations that built the underground ruins.

They were concentrated in areas inhabited by monsters because most other ruins had already been excavated. Ironically, they remained because they were hard to access.

"Was it a wine cellar?"

"Such a thing."

There were also ruins found in unexplored remote areas, but they were very rare nowadays.

"It would be nice if it was a wine cellar."

"Again, just because you like it."

"There's still a possibility with wine."

Once, a wine cellar owned by an ancient noble was found, and the wine stored there was still in good condition.

"Vintage wine from the ancient magical civilization. It was worth a fortune."

Nobles and wealthy merchants bid for it at auctions.

"Let's start the exploration with that possibility in mind."

"For safety, I'll go first."

The mentor would go first in case they were suddenly attacked by monsters. The mentor led the way, followed by Mr. Blantrach and me, who opened the door and entered.

We used detection spells as we moved forward in the long, narrow corridor, but there were no signs of monsters.

"It's just a storage room, isn't it?"

Mr. Blantrach looked disappointed. If the person who built the underground ruin had wealth, they would have set up many traps or monsters to protect the contents.

Sometimes, golems were also common.

"Sometimes they break down over time, allowing monsters to enter. But, mentor, you're shining brightly."

"I can't use the Light spell without it covering my body!"

"Well, it's bright, so that's good."

As we moved deeper into the corridor, it became darker, so the mentor used the Light spell. This spell was popular for exploring ruins. Normally, it was used to make a glowing orb at the fingertips, but the mentor made his entire body glow unnecessarily.

If Elise were to do it, she might be called the 'Shining Goddess,' but the mentor looked more like a 'glowing giant sent to deliver divine punishment.'

Moreover, being constantly glowing seemed to be inefficient in terms of magic power. However, since the mentor had a lot of magic power, it probably didn't matter much.

"Another locked door."

The mentor, who was leading, found another locked door. This time, it had a regular lock.

"I have to break it!"

"Maybe we have to break it this time?"

He couldn't detect any traps, and there was no key to be found. The lock itself was a simple padlock-like mechanism, and Mr. Blantrach judged that breaking it wouldn't be a problem.

"Wait. I can use a lock-opening spell."

"Wow, you can use a rare spell."

It was understandable that Mr. Blantrach was impressed. The lock-opening spell was one of the most difficult to master. It involved solidifying one's magic power into a shape that fits the lock and opening it without breaking it.

It required an incredibly delicate control of magic power, and the results were often underwhelming, so very few people continued to learn it.

"With this, I can explore ruins alone."

"Even the best mage should not explore ruins alone."

"I know. That's why I haven't used it much."

Katariina listened to Mr. Blantrach's warning sincerely. She knew he was a top-tier adventurer with a distinguished record.

Moreover, she felt good to be praised by such a person.

"I have connections with the guild headquarters. I've heard of 'Storm.'"

She graduated top of her class from the adventurer preparatory school in the Holmia border region and became known as the best mage in the western region in just over a year.

"I didn't know."

"You really don't care about other adventurers, do you..."

Basically, he wasn't interested, which he attributed to his previous life's work experience. He had seen senior and peers being scolded by superiors due to poor sales performance, and thought it was pointless to care about other adventurers' performance, even if they were in the same company.

Adventurers were like self-employed individuals.

"As long as I can earn, it's fine, right?"

"That's true, but..."

On the other hand, as a noble, he had faced many obstacles and suffered a lot.

"Oh, but Katariina has only been an adventurer for a little over a year?"

"Do you have a complaint?"

"Then, you're not much older than us."

She looked around eighteen, but she was actually only sixteen.

"I have a goal! To restore the Veiger family as a noble family! That sense of responsibility is reflected in my face!"

In other words, she wasn't old, but mature.

To achieve this, she had practiced magic diligently since she learned she could use it, and earned money through hunting until she entered the adventurer preparatory school at twelve. During her time at the preparatory school, she continued to earn money through hunting and never neglected her magic practice, and her magic power continued to grow.

"Hearing your story, you remind me of the old Ver..."

El muttered this after listening to Katariina's proud recounting of her past, which reminded her of my old life.

"(I see... Katariina was also a loner like me...)"

No, she was definitely still a loner now. After all, she was an adventurer who worked alone without forming a party.

"You learned lock-opening in