Maruyama Kugane - The Invaders of the Large Tomb

"Ah—"

"That’s right."

Thus Greenham’s proposal was accepted by both Hekkeran and Parupatra.

"In that case, let’s use the arrival order to determine the turns."

"What do we do with Uzruth’s 'Tenmu'?"

"It doesn’t matter even if we skip that guy’s turn. After all, he isn’t capable of leading in the first place."

"I can only agree, elder. In that case, the first one to take leadership will be me, 'Heavy Masher', the one who proposed this system."

"We’ll be in your care then, Greenham."

"I’ll be relying on you, young one."

"Understood. However, the likelihood of us encountering dangerous monsters inside the Empire’s territory is almost zero. It’s only when we are in the Kingdom, near the Great Forest, that problems may occur."

"Ah, we should have reversed the order."

The two of them quietly laughed as Hekkeran face palmed himself when he stated that. However, they laughter quickly stopped when they noticed a man was walking towards them.

Light finally started to shine within the Earl’s courtyard when his butler made his appearance.

Walking with his back straight and tightened, the butler walked in a manner which reflected the standing of those who served the Earl.

Arriving in front of the workers, the butler stopped and bowed. Although no-one returned his bow, the butler didn’t seem to mind and started speaking.

"Time is up. On behalf of the earl, I would like to express his gratitude to everyone here who accepted our House’s request. There will be two representatives from our House who will be coming along for this trip. Including the adventurers hired for the security of the carriages and a few other things, all together there will be six additional people. The destination is the unexplored ruins located near the border of the Kingdom—from the structure it appears to be a tomb. The designated period for investigation is three days. Additional bonuses will be given out after the Master has confirmed the received goods discovered from the ruin. Are there any questions?"

The details that were given by the butler were almost the same as the initial request. The only new information was that adventurers would be guarding the carriages.

Many were interested in the details about the chosen travel route, but as workers, one quickly learned to differentiate between which questions were allowed to be asked and which weren’t. It was clear that this was something the Earl did not plan to reveal, otherwise it would have already been made public.

If it was a clean request, they would have hired adventurers instead. Since it was dirty work, the requestor obviously wouldn’t reveal everything. Some things were simply safer not to know.

"…Well then, I will be leading everyone to the carriages we have prepared."

Without saying any words, the entire group followed the butler.

Hekkeran’s 'Foresight' was at the very back of the group.

"That eru-shit, he’s much better off dead. How about it? Should we do it?"

Unable to tolerate Eruya any further, Imina whispered this to Hekkeran.

"Although I’ve heard plenty of rumors before, but seeing it really shows just how despicable that man is."

"—Absolutely the worst."

The remaining two members also couldn’t hide their disdain.

To 'Foresight', this type of opinion came naturally. Since they’ve already made the woman Imina into their comrade, the things that Eruya did were unforgivable.

In Eruya’s team, except for himself, every other member was female. They were also elves.

If it was just that, then Imina and the others wouldn’t be expressing as much contempt. However, they did have their reasons as to why they considered Eruya as the lowest of the lowest lowlife.

The female elf members only possessed the bare minimum of equipment, their clothes were made from the plainest fabrics available, without any defensive capabilities. Furthermore, their short-cut hair revealed the stumps which showed the remains of what had been the distinctive long ears that elves normally possessed.

The reason why they, Eruya’s team members, were in this state, was because they were slaves bought from the Slane Theocracy.

Slavery also once existed within the Empire, but during the previous Emperor’s rule, many things were changed. Although they were still referred to as slaves, the meaning became completely different. However, nothing had changed for the demi-human slaves such as the ones fighting inside the arena.

The elf slaves that belonged to Eruya also fell under this category.

The Baharuth Empire, Re-Estize Kingdom, and Slane Theocracy, the percentage of human citizens living in these three countries could almost be calculated as 100%. Compared to other countries, these three clearly displayed more disdain towards non-human races. Because of this, even those who were half human—like Imina—had experienced difficulties.

The only exception were the dwarves. The Azellerisia mountains spanned the border between the Baharuth Empire and the Kingdom of Re-Estize, and inside these mountains existed the Dwarven Kingdom. As long as the Empire still maintained trade relations with the Dwarven Kingdom, the rights of Dwarves were protected.

"I do feel sorry for these elves, but right now isn’t the time to save them."

Imina sighed deeply, deep inside she was aware of that, but her feelings simply couldn’t be let go so easily.

"Let’s go."

As Imina began to walk ahead, Hekkeran and others hastened their pace to catch up. What they saw once they caught up to the main group made their eyes widen in surprise.

Two carriages had been prepared for the journey to the ruins. There was also a group of people surrounding the carriages. They must be the adventurers that had been mentioned before. The plates hanging from their necks were all brimming with a golden radiance.

However, what had surprised them wasn’t the carriages nor the adventurers, but rather the horses.

"—Sleipnirs."

The sound of surprise could also be heard from amongst the other workers.

With four pairs of legs, Sleipnirs were much larger in size compared to normal horses. Due to their superior muscle strength, endurance and mobility, Sleipnirs were regarded as the most versatile type of magical beast for travelling across lands.

Of course, the cost for one was also astronomical, enough to match the price for five or more battle horses. Even for aristocrats, it was uncommon for one to possess them.

Each carriage was pulled by two Sleipnirs. When taking into account the possibility of losing these horses during the adventure, the people that were aware of their worth couldn’t help but appreciate the generosity of the Earl. Or maybe he simply feared that normal horses wouldn’t have enough strength to pull all the treasures that would be found sleeping inside the ruins.

The others must have thought of this as well. The sound of people swallowing their saliva could be heard.

"Please make use of the carriages provided. Provisions have already been placed inside. For the safety of the carriages, as well as the security of the camp sites, we especially hired adventurers.

Also, please be aware that they’ve signed an agreement stating that they will not enter the ruins."

Suddenly thinking ahead, Hekkeran left his comrades and headed towards Greenham.

"My bad, Greenham. There’s something that I wish to discuss."

"What’s wrong? What do you wish to talk about?"

"It’s about the pairing for the carriages, can you help me not being in the same carriage as 'Tenmu'?"

"En? Ah, I see. Thou unease is understood. It’s reasons to do with your companion right? In that case our team will pair with 'Tenmu' instead."

"Sorry about this, you’ve helped me a lot."