But the Earl must have had some information about the tomb. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have offered such significant sum of money to gather the workers.
“Did he purposefully hold back on us? Damn it… Let’s get out of here fast. This place… it wasn’t something we should have messed with.”
“Alright, Greenham. You lead, I’ll follow you.”
The rogue didn’t seem to have noticed, or perhaps it was better if he didn’t.
The cockroaches weren’t moving at all.
Greenham looked around at the cockroaches that surrounded him. Considering their antennas were moving ever so slightly, they weren’t dead, but they did not move either. It reeked of unknown danger.
“No, you cannot escape.”
The voice of a third person sounded.
“Who’s there?”
Greenham and the rogue looked around everywhere, but there was no sign of movement anywhere.
“Ah, I apologize. This one is Kyouhukou, the one entrusted with this territory from Ainz-sama.
Pleased to meet your acquaintance.”
In the direction where the voice was coming from, they witnessed a strange scene. Pushing away the swarm of cockroaches, something was trying to climb up.
It was not at a range that could be reached with a close combat weapon. The rogue quietly readied his bow and Greenham tried to take out his sling and stones, but decided otherwise. He would rush across the swarm of cockroaches coming up to his waist and cut the opponent immediately.
The one that appeared after pushing through all the cockroaches was another cockroach.
But it was certainly different from rest of its species. This cockroach was about thirty centimeters tall and stood on two legs.
It wore a bright red cape decorated with luxurious golden threads around the edge and a cute little golden crown on its head. Grasped in its front leg was a scepter with a pure white gem embedded at the end.
The strangest thing of them all was despite the fact it stood on two legs, its head was facing Greenham and the rogue. If an ordinary insect stood upright, its head would point towards the sky.
But the strange being in front of them wasn’t like that at all.
Greenham and the rogue exchanged a glance and decided that Greenham would be in charge of the negotiation. After confirming that the rogue had nocked an arrow and had it pointing downwards, he talked to Kyouhukou.
“Who… are you?”
“Hmm… It seems you did not hear me the first time. Would you like me to introduce myself once more?”
“No, that’s not the problem…”
Greenham realized this was not the kind of thing to talk nor ask about.
“…I’ll be honest. Do you want to trade?”
“Oh-ho, you want a trade. Since I am feeling very grateful towards the both of you, there is no reason why I can’t listen to your proposal.”
The mysterious words, “feeling grateful”, made him uneasy about what exactly made it feel grateful, but it wasn’t something they could afford to ask under such disadvantageous circumstance.
“…What we want… is for you to let us go unharmed from this place.”
“Of course, that would be something you wish for. But even if you do leave this room, you are currently on the 2nd Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. I must advise you that it would be extremely difficult to return above ground.”
2nd floor—
Greenham’s eyes opened wide at the word.
“So the door underneath the mausoleum on the surface leads to the 1st Floor?”
“Is that unusual?”
“No, I just wanted to confirm it.”
“Haha, since you were teleported from the 1st Floor, I can understand your confusion.”
Looking at Kyouhukou who was nodding at the structure layout, Greenham felt a chill running down his spine, as if an icicle was stabbing him in the back. It was fear arising from realizing his earlier theory was correct.
In other word, something had somehow used teleportation magic as a trap. What kind of magic would it be and what kind of magical abilities would it require? He was not a magic caster, but he fully realized the implications.
“…Of course, it you could tell us the way out of the tomb as well… Hmmm, no we won’t ask that much. Just let us leave this room.”
“Hmm hmm.”
“We’ll… give you whatever you want.”
“Is that so…”
Kyouhukou nodded and appeared as if he was concentrated on thinking.
Some time passed in absolute silence. Then Kyouhukou nodded as if he understood and started talking.
“This one already has everything one could wish for in its hand. I doubt you would be able to provide what I desire.”
Kyouhukou stopped Greenham, who was about to talk, by raising its front leg and continued.
“But you seem to be confused as to why I was thanking you earlier, so I wish to provide you with an explanation. You see, my subjects are getting tired of cannibalism. To you, who will be the food that will serve as the solution, I give my thanks once again.”
“What!”
The moment the rogue understood what was being said he shot the arrow. The arrow cut across the air but was wrapped around by Kyouhukou’s red cape and fell on the ground.
The room started to tremble.
Countless sounds started coming from every direction and crescendoed.
A tidal wave erupted. It was a swell of a black sea.
“It may be unfortunate for you two, but now it is time to have you for dinner.”
The gigantic tidal wave swallowed Greenham and the rogue. It was truly as if they were being swept away by currents.
While being rolled around in the black whirlpool, Greenham slapped at the cockroaches that had managed to crawl into the openings in his armour. There was no weapon that would work well against a horde of such small insects, nor did they possess a method for area of effect attacks. It was faster to use hands than anything else. Because of that, they had already abandoned their weapons which had long since disappeared.
He tried his best to struggle and wave around wildly, but due to countless cockroaches holding onto him, he could barely move. It was a movement that resembling someone drowning. The only sound Greenham could hear was that of countless cockroaches crawling about.
The rogue had already been swept away and his voice was nowhere to be heard. No, it was only natural that Greenham could not hear his voice. The rogue couldn’t speak with all the cockroaches that had crawled into his mouth, throat and stomach.
Greenham felt painful stinging sensations from everywhere on the body. It was the pain from cockroaches that had slipped inside his armour slowly eating away at him.