บท 16: Ch 15: The decision is yours
“Get away from me!”
Baron Luke yelled with all his might and he waved his staff on top of his head. At first, nothing happened and it seemed like this was the end for Baron Luke. Nothing could save his life.
But then the staff decided to work. Intense magic flowed out of the wand and hit the boss beast. The beast cried out in pain before it disappeared.
The boss room had been cleared and the centre stone lightened up with a successful sigh.
“W-What happened? The beast boss disappeared? Does that mean we are safe now? What about Baron Luke? Did he, do it?”
Ashura asked these questions in quick succession. None of the slaves could make head or toe of what was going on in front of them anymore.
On the other hand, Baron Luke was shaking in his place as he clutched the staff for dear life. He knew that this magic staff had saved his life right now. If it had not been activated, then Baron Luke would have died.
At first, Baron Luke was in disbelief over what happened, but then he cracked a laugh and accepted his situation. He was just that lucky and talented.
“Baron, are you alright?”
Ashura’s voice snapped the Baron out of his thoughts and he flinched. He was thankful to be called out since the human voice grounded him back to reality. But at the same time, he had to keep up appearances.
“How dare a slave like you call out to your master? I should punish you for this.” Ashura flinched, “But since I am in a good mood, I will let you go. This is a joyous occasion after all.”
Baron Luke came down and looked around the boss's room. The only thing he could see was the shining stone in the middle of the room that indicated that the boss had been cleared. There was no reward left behind.
“Now let’s see. Huh? Where is all the treasure and loot? Did you all take it already? How dare you steal from your master like this.”
Baron Luke was angry now. He had been expecting a great deal of gold and other precious things to drop once the boss was killed. But nothing of that sort happened.
Only a small black ball had been dropped and even that looked worthless. Baron Luke did not need such a thing so he threw it away and directly at Alex.
“T-There was no loot when the boss died. Only that small black ball and this shiny tablet dropped. What do we do now?”
Baron Luke had to think over this situation now. What should he do now?
The plan thus far had been simple for him. He needed to kill the boss, confirm the loot, and then kill these slaves. But the loss of the loot complicated things.
What was worse? The Baron could not read that shiny stone tablet so he did not know where to go from here. He was totally at a loss now.
‘It is not too late for me. I can just kill these slaves and then blame the loss of loot on these fools. Since the slaves would be dead anyway, no one would be able to call my bluff.’
Baron Luke tightened his hold on the cursed magic he had been given. A single command would be enough to make everyone in his party collapse.
‘But not right now. First, I should get to know the situation more. I might need these people as my meat shield soon.’
That was what made Baron Luke calm down and put the cursed magic down. He could not afford to be reckless after coming this far.
…………………..
‘Ah, looks like the Baron wants to use the curse now. Are you sure you do not want to kill him?’
The female voice inside Alex’s ear spoke softly and teasingly inside his mind. She distracted him from finding out what the real situation was.
The shiny stone tablet was the first thing that caught Alex’s attention in the room, followed by that small black ball-like thing. And somehow, Alex recognized that small black ball.
‘A monster core. The boss we faced was powerful enough to drop a monster core? We were lucky that it was killed by the activation of that ancient magic in the staff.’
Baron Luke had no idea how lucky he had gotten back then. The boss would have killed him for sure. But things turned out to be lucky for Alex as well since he now had a monster core with him.
A shame that it belonged to the destruction class and he would not be able to absorb it. But he might be able to use it for a deal later.
“Ugh, this tablet is worthless. What do we do with this-”
Baron Luke threw the tablet in front of Mahiru and it startled it. The force of that throw had caused the tablet to get chipped away and some of its words had cracks in them.
It was still very legible to Alex. That foreign knowledge inside his head helped him decipher the contents in front of him.
But this was far from the biggest surprise of the day.
“U-Ugh, the tablet says that this boss room was the first trial and we passed it. The real treasure will only be found if we chose to clear the second trial. I-I am sorry.”
For the first time since this expedition started, Mahiru opened her mouth to speak. Her voice was soft but unused. It was so soft that it was difficult to hear her properly.
But despite that, everyone turned toward her in shock. They had not expected Mahiru to be able to read this tablet.
‘Oh, this is interesting now. This child might not be fully human. I can sense the essence of the tower in her being but it is being suppressed right now.’
The feminine voice in Alex’s head giggled. Once more, it did not give him any answer and Alex knew that demanding an answer would be a fool’s errand. He would have to find out more about the situation on his own.
“Mahiru, can you read this language? How and why? Since when?”
Ashura asked while shaking Mahiru’s shoulder. He looked shaken at the new development but he was pushed aside by an annoyed and desperate Baron Luke.
“You! You are serious about being able to read this tablet, right? In that case, hurry up and tell us how to get the treasure.”
Baron Luke forced Mahiru to follow his will. His force over Mahiru was assertive and that made Mahiru cough and wheeze. The pressure of magic made her feel light-hearted and she almost passed out.
“M-Master, you need to calm down. Mahiru is sick and she would die if you continue like this. L-Let me handle her and get the information out of her. I promise you that you will get your treasure.”
Ashura begged Baron Luke to lighten his hold on Mahiru and Baron Luke seemed to consider his words before backing down.
“What the hell is going on here? Since when did Mahiru become so important? Did she receive the power to read the tower’s language during the trial? Why her and why not me?”
Alex heard Kurina’s mutters. He was sure that Kurina was speaking softly so that no one else could understand her words. But these words were still loud enough to be understood by Alex.
‘Ah, this is another troublesome one. She is someone who will fall to her temptation and jealousy soon.’
The female voice did not sound sorry for Kurina at all. But Alex was not concerned about Kurina now. He was more interested in Mahiru and her ability.
After all, what she had said was what was written on the tablet. It seemed like Mahiru really could read the tablet and she would be able to help their group out.
“Mahiru, can you tell us where we need to go from here? Where is the sight of our next trial?”
Ashura coaxed Mahiru to speak up and the younger slowly opened her mouth to tell the group what she knew. Mahiru was still hesitant but she was also determined to help Ashura out.
“T-The tablet says to touch it and enter the trail. It does not say what would happen after we do that. It just says that this is what we need to do.”
Baron Luke was the first one to speak up this time and he sounded shocked and scared.
“E-Enter the tablet? We cannot do that. Entering the tablet would mean that we will reach the first floor of the tower. It is dangerous there and we will be killed. We will not be able to return until we kill the boss in there and get its stone tablet.”
Baron Luke seemed really against going in. The slaves looked back at him with blank expressions on their faces.
They were all on a timer anyway, so going on or not did not matter to them. Only the Baron could decide what they needed to do from there.
But the Baron was in a pinch now. Did he want to risk his life by going inside the tower? Or, did he want to live a safe but shame-filled life?
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