225

I tilted my head at the photograph I had unconsciously taken, and once I asked my question, before I knew it, a discussion about beautiful women had begun.

While half-listening to Klaze-kun’s tale of all the hardships he had gone through before completing this technology, I gathered information here and there about the beauties who had served as his subjects.

He could capture landscapes without any problem, but moving objects were still difficult. As I watched Klaze-kun with warm eyes while he enthusiastically declared that future improvements would overcome that issue as well, I asked about the beautiful woman in the photograph whose clothing covered far too little.

Apparently, this woman was the “Isuirimia Zesat” he had mentioned before.

When I fought the mercenary band in Canaan, the elves of Zesat had intervened, so there was no harm in having information about his clan.

Just as Klaze-kun had said, “She wears nothing but cursed implements,” she truly had very little fabric on her body.

And since she also had a good figure, the men around her must have had a hard time.

The subject was a little too far away, so I could not see the details, but perhaps someday this would evolve into a tool with all sorts of functions.

I praised Klaze-kun honestly.

Wishing that he would become a great inventor spoken of in later generations, and representing roughly half of humanity, I lauded this great step forward with applause.

“Well, when you praise me that much, it’s surprisingly… embarrassing.”

The way he smiled bashfully and scratched the back of his head was heartwarming.

“The development of technology is something that should be praised. If it is something others desire, then surely people will not withhold their praise.”

His motive had been impure.

However, even if it was impure, once taken to its extreme, it was a pure feeling.

Having once again been made aware that eroticism was a great driving force that moved men, I tried to praise him once more with applause.

I looked up at the heavens, weeping inwardly that I was someone who would never get to see the achievements of the comrades who would surely follow him, and when I closed my eyes—there came a wet, crushing sound.

When I lowered my gaze, Klaze was there, crushed in my hand, and I witnessed his severed lower half collapse to the ground with a heavy thud.

“…Huh?”

Unable to understand what had happened, a stupid sound escaped my mouth.

When I opened my hand, a lump of flesh fell into a pool of blood.

I had been conscious.

I had also felt the sensation of crushing him.

Before I even had time to panic, my emotions were suppressed, and I calmly considered what had happened to my body.

After standing there for a while, turning what little brain I had at full speed, I quietly muttered the conclusion I had reached.

“I see. I didn’t make it in time.”

After that, I looked up at the sky in a daze, but my reason showed no sign of disappearing.

Apparently, the conclusion I had reached was wrong.

Then had the monster genes inside me begun surfacing?

I tried attaching some plausible reason to it, but it did not seem as if this had triggered any mutation, and I touched my body, which did not move independently of my will.

It was a phenomenon that had not appeared in any of the materials I had read until now.

But at the very least, I could tell that it was not something good.

Perhaps I no longer had any grace period left.

I buried Klaze’s remains and spoke words of apology.

Then I pulled the spirit sword out from under the rubble, untied the vines, exposed the blade, and fixed it in place with the grip facing down.

(If there’s no time left…)

I should settle things here.

Since I was using the spirit sword as the means to do so, I found myself belatedly wondering how I had intended to kill myself when I had let it go.

I bowed my head to the stone placed atop the mound of earth that could barely be called a grave.

I had no intention of asking him to forgive me.

Even my death was ultimately for my own convenience.

I exhaled, closed my eyes, and all that remained was to fall toward the upright blade.

But I could not do it.

Precisely because I knew I would die, I could not take that step.

Even though my fear was being suppressed, I found myself pathetic for being unable to move.

I thought of my family, now gone, and told myself that this was to save them. Only then was I finally able to fall… but closing my eyes became my undoing. Unable to correct my mistaken aim, the spirit sword failed to pierce my offered throat and merely cut it slightly.

And I felt relieved at that result.

That couldn’t be right, I thought, but my second suicide attempt also ended in failure when the spirit sword I had fixed in place moved.

Then, when I took the spirit sword in hand to cut my own throat, it rejected me. I forced myself to keep holding it, which only made the rejection grow stronger, and just when I thought it had slipped smoothly out of my hand and flown away, it vanished as if fleeing into a gap in the rubble ahead.

“What the hell is that…?”

Did it want me to applaud after showing off a miraculous hole-in-one?

I walked toward the rubble the spirit sword had flown into and began carelessly tearing the pile apart to search for it.

But for some reason, I could not find the spirit sword.

“It should have fallen here!”

Even after I cleaned up the area around it, the spirit sword was nowhere to be found.

In fact, I kept searching until the sun went down and still could not find it.

I had always thought it was a strange and mysterious sword, but apparently it had no intention of letting someone like me use it.

“Fine, if that’s how you want to be! You’re telling me to strangle myself to death, aren’t you?”

I wrapped both hands around my own neck.

My breathing began to grow painful, but I kept choking myself regardless, and when I lost consciousness and came to, it was morning.

There was nothing special about it.

I had simply knocked myself unconscious and then slept soundly until morning.

All I could do at that result was laugh, and at my own stupidity, I finally ended up clutching my head.

Then, when I casually found a large piece of rubble, I smashed it with my head.

“…I can’t even hurt myself properly?”

This body, which would not suffer even a single scratch from material of this level, now felt hateful.

If it were one of the alloys from underground, that might have been different, but unfortunately, this was the aboveground section.

Just as I was growing utterly disgusted with myself, I remembered.

“That’s right. I can have someone kill me.”

There had been an old man in the elven settlement who could wield the spirit sword.

If it was him, he would surely cut me down cleanly in a single stroke.

With that, I could also apologize for the Klaze I had killed.

“…Yes, let’s do that.”

I nodded, thinking that was best, and stood up.

My destination was that settlement where the Forshna Clan lived.

I still remembered the location, so I should not get lost.

As long as I did not approach more than necessary and did not let them approach me, there should be no victims.

I ran through the forest, and when I arrived at the river, I first washed my body.

There was the blood on me, yes, but I also thought it would be better to clean myself before I died.

Then I ran to shake the water from my body, but it was colder than I had expected.

Could I perhaps have aimed to freeze to death too?

But there was still a little time before winter arrived.

With the current temperature being a step below true cold, even lowering it a little probably would not be enough after all.

At the very least, though it was late to realize it, I now knew I did not seem to have anything like a hibernation mode.

In any case, since I had approached the elven settlement, they should have noticed my approach as well.

An escort would come right away… just as I thought that, I sensed the presence of a group.

If I approached any farther from my side, I would make them needlessly wary, so I stopped there.

After waiting for a while, what came into view was that man from the Forshna Clan whom I had seen several times—come to think of it, I felt like something had been said to me.

As I tilted my head, trying to remember what it was, that man stopped the group and came over to me.

“It has been a while. Did you hear the message?”

At those words, I remembered what Klaze-kun had said and nodded.

“I see. Then this will be quick. Follow me.”

So saying, the often-seen man whose name I still did not know started walking.

The group followed as well, but the problem was what they were carrying.

I had seen those somewhere before.

(No, those are…)

When I recognized the men carrying large objects on their backs, I unconsciously spoke aloud.

“Has an Imperial research facility been found?”

“That’s right. In accordance with the agreement, I’ll let you accompany us for its destruction.”

At last, I was able to remember.

As one of the conditions for destroying the research facility I had made my dwelling, I had indeed told Number Six this.

To be precise, we had been communicating in writing at the time, but there had been two conditions.

One was that if the elves discovered any similar facilities in the future, they were to inform me of their location.

The other was that I must always be allowed to accompany them when they destroyed such a facility.

“Where is it?”

No, if that place was to the south, then there was a high chance it was a Chimera Project test subject I had already devoured before.

It would probably be false hope anyway—so I thought, but the answer that came back was different from what I had expected.

“It is farther east than the place we destroyed before. I hear it is a cleverly hidden underground facility.”

At that answer, I felt as though a single thread of hope appeared before me.

I nodded and followed after them.

Let this be the last time, I thought as I continued walking while keeping a suitable distance.

We passed by the ruins of the research facility where I had been only a short while ago, which I could see in the distance, and around dusk, we arrived at our destination.

However, there was nothing there.

Even when I looked around, it did not seem as if there had ever been any artificial structure.

Then one elf began chanting.

Apparently, it had been concealed with magic, and just as I thought the soil had moved, a large door appeared there.

“What about inside?”

“Not yet. When we opened it, we heard a sound from underground. After confirming, they said, ‘There is a high possibility this place is still alive.’”

I could hear what the elven men were saying.

I had not intended to eavesdrop, but my ears were good, so it could not be helped.

But with this, perhaps one more concern had disappeared.

Maybe… With that expectation, I clenched my fist in front of my chest.

That made me irritated at the way they were still investigating around the entrance.

“I will go ahead. I have at least some knowledge of facilities like this. Even if something happens, I should be fine.”

Just as I said that and reached toward the door, that man stepped in to block me.

“I do not trust you. I allowed you to accompany us, but I do not remember permitting you to act on your own.”

“…I have a concern. I want to confirm it.”

“No.”

Well, the only elf who could be called friendly toward me in the first place was Number Six.

In a sense, this reaction was natural, so I reluctantly tried to see if I could talk him around… but before that, I asked one question.

“Come to think of it, I never asked your name.”

“Azure.”

“Then, Azure. I will tell you the concern I have.”

I told him that the “Forest’s Nightmare,” which had caused them so many casualties, was a monster that had escaped from an Old Imperial research facility. I also told him that, just like the facility I had used as a den, there was a high chance this place contained a similar monster.

“You said there is a high possibility this facility is alive, didn’t you? By opening the door, you may have revived the research facility. Perhaps preparations have already begun to awaken the monster created in this place.”

When I implicitly threatened him by suggesting that if we did not hurry, we might not make it in time, Azure seemed to think something over.

“We also want to eliminate such things. If even I cannot defeat the opponent, I imagine it would become troublesome for your side as well, no?”

After thinking for a while, Azure sighed as if to say he had no choice.

He opened the door, put his foot on the ladder leading underground, glanced at me, and jerked his chin to tell me to follow.

I threw myself into the vertical shaft illuminated by light magic and smoothly descended by using the protrusions on the outer wall as footholds.

Apparently, this was the place where an elevator had been… but if so, that made the aboveground section strange.

However, now was not the time to think about that.

I forced open the elevator door and entered. Beyond it was a corridor lit by lights.

This facility was alive.

Without waiting for Azure, I touched a nearby terminal.

“No dust?”

It was clearly strange.

The powered terminal slowly started up.

“Do not go ahead. What are you—”

“Look at this.”

I interrupted Azure and showed him the terminal that had started up.

“This facility is alive in perfect condition. Can elves maintain a place unmanned for two hundred years without even dust gathering?”

“I will only say that it is not impossible.”

I understood from that nuance.

This place had probably only awakened very recently.

And some sort of device had started up, along with something that cleaned the inside of the facility.

“If I told you to withdraw, would you listen?”

“I would not.”

As Azure snorted, I thought, “At worst, I’ll knock this guy out,” while obtaining information about the facility’s interior from the terminal.

I had grasped the destination.

Azure followed behind me as I advanced without hesitation.

I proceeded down a corridor that even I could walk through without issue, and when I reached the room, I destroyed the door.

Inside the room, a familiar cryosleep device sat in the center.

Countless pipes extended from the surroundings toward the central device, and I approached while being careful not to step on them.

“No way, it can’t be…”

As I drew closer, I could see the contents of the cryosleep device.

Impossible—no, that was wrong.

The possibility should have existed.

But what I was looking at now clearly differed from “me” in one respect.

“Type: Goliath…”

The one sleeping inside the cryosleep device was undoubtedly the same model—with only one difference: the figure visible through the glass was dyed black. Apart from that, there was no mistaking that it was the same Type: Goliath as me.