Chapter 213: 113. Monsters of the Sewer -2 (Part Two)
**
That place was, when judged from the standards of humans, a disgusting and truly horrid location. It was where rotting food thrown away by humans and excrements would end up. Even the corpses gnawed on by rats could be found in there.
For the Ratmen, however, it was where some of the finest meals – all sorts of filth – would gather up.
The ‘queen’ borrowed the human language and started calling this place its royal palace.
The queen of the Ratmen possessed an eight metre-tall physique with red fur covering its entire body. It outwardly resembled a feral rat and spent most of its time giving birth to new Ratmen in order to proliferate its kind.
Its abilities had become so much greater than regular Ratmen all thanks to the ‘magicians’ that performed experiments on the monster, giving it incredible physical strength in the process.
The Ratman Queen continued to breed nonstop. It gave birth to more cubs and devoured all the ‘food’ that washed in along with the filthy sewer water.
It also worked hard to create the most optimal environment where its offspring could flourish.
Suddenly, numerous Ratmen rushed into the royal palace from all directions.
-Screech!
-Screeeech!
-Screech!
All these Ratmen were trembling in fear. The queen also got to see something else at the same time. It saw the maimed corpses of its Ratmen kin and their blood floating down on the sewer water’s surface.
The queen’s fury grew explosively and it angrily raised its head.
It was at that moment that an army marched into the ‘palace’ using the central tunnel. The undead soldiers tried to communicate to the Ratman Queen by clattering their teeth rhythmically.
But what were they even trying to say?
The queen had no way of understanding these undead. However, it could not stand by and watch its queendom get trampled on by these invaders.
The queen rose up and got ready to roar out, but right at that moment, the undead pounced on the creature.
The eyes of the undead that wielded spears were arching like bright crescent moons.
Countless weapons ruthlessly hacked the queen apart.
Only a tragic screaming echoed within the sewer tunnels.
**
(TL: In 1st person POV.)
I left the underground waterways while carrying Yuria on my back. Kids rushed up to us once we arrived back on the church’s grounds.
Even though our bodies must’ve stank to the high heavens, the kids didn’t care and were only worried about Yuria’s condition. The orphanage’s director, the old nun, Sister Evelyn, emotionally embraced the young girl tightly.
After their reunion was over, she then entrusted Yuria over to Hans and Alice’s care before leading me into the church building.
When we got inside, she knelt down and bowed her head, gathered her hands, and began praying. “I’m greatly indebted to you, your highness.”
“You know who I am?”
Well, that’s surprising.
How did she even figure it out?
Was it because of my name, Allen? No, that couldn’t be. I mean, it’s a reasonably common name. It’d be difficult to make a guess with that alone.
Evelyn soon resolved my curiosity. “Yuria told me that you used a musket rifle in the sewers, your highness. This church used to enjoy close ties to none other than the Theocratic Empire. I’ve heard about all the rumours that have come from the empire.”
“…Does anyone else know?”
“No, sir. Musket rifles are an unfamiliar weapon to most commoners. In Yuria’s case, she knew what a musket was because she heard about it from a passing peddler in the past.”
“What about a shovel?”
“I beg your pardon? A shovel?”
Oh, it seems that the stories about me being familiar with a shovel and using it often haven’t reached this far yet.
Then again, I hadn’t used a shovel all that much ever since leaving the northern territory, so there’s that to take into consideration.
I never planned to fully hide my real identity, but in order to avoid anything too annoying, it seemed that I now needed to be more mindful about using my guns in public.
“Allow me to express my gratitude to you. Thank you for watching over the final moments of his highness the Third Imperial Prince,” said Evelyn.
Only Charlotte, Harman, and I knew about Ruppel’s survival. Not even the Holy Emperor, Kelt Olfolse, or the other members of the Imperial Family knew about the truth.
Well, it was a seriously dangerous act to let a traitor live, after all.
“I do not know what brought you here, your highness, but I have no doubt that you are here to do something important.”
Uhm, actually, I was just working as an adventurer for fun during my vacation. However, I got the feeling that such a thing shouldn’t just be blurted out in the open, so I didn’t.
Evelyn offered to reward me with the request fee, but I naturally declined. I’d just get the reward from brother Ruppel later on. Although, I wasn’t sure whether we’d get to meet again in the future.
In any case, even a meeting like this was fate.
I pushed forward a bottle of holy water to the old nun. “Once every year, dilute a small portion of this in drinking water and distribute it to the kids. When you do, they will remain healthy for the whole year without falling ill.”
“B-but, another wonderful gift like this…”
Evelyn bowed her head to thank me.
Meanwhile, Alice and Hans walked up to us to report that Yuria had fallen asleep now.
“Yuria expressed her wish to speak to you. Aren’t you going to meet her?”
Alice asked me that, but I just shook my head. “Well, if we’re destined to meet again, then we will. If not, we won’t.”
Anyways, I was going to stay in this city for two months. We should run into each other sooner or later.
I was done with confirming that the girl was fine, so that left me with only one other thing to take care of – and that was to see if the rat extermination had concluded successfully.
We headed back to the entrance of the sewers near the church.
Thud!
A huge toe and a claw attached to it landed with a thud in front of the entrance. Blood continued to trickle from the torn part as if it had been forcibly ripped off.
The undead knelt down and bowed before gradually disappearing from this world in their kneeling position.
I smiled while grabbing the rat queen’s rather humongous toe.
And so, my first job as an adventurer was complete.
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
Everyone’s attention was focused on this one group.
Blood was still dripping out from the Ratman Queen’s toe around one metre long. When the trio entered the adventurer guild while dragging that thing in, every adventurer inside froze up stiff in their spots.
The mercenaries that mocked the group earlier silently stood up from their chair, their lips firmly clamped shut.
This trio of adventurers, mere hatchlings who got their ranks only on the day before yesterday…
Everyone thought that they were simply a trainee knight from a noble family, a Priestess, and a peddler working together. But now, they were placing a huge ‘toe’ one metre in length on the counter.
The burly receptionist of the adventurer guild hurriedly swallowed up his dry saliva, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. He then quickly looked back at the knight who had become a Wood-rank adventurer not too long ago
The knight asked, “So, what will our reward fee be like with this thing?”
The receptionist sneaked a glance at the request form the feudal lord of Elusha had personally put up. The contents in it were…
-Form a party of fifty that consists of adventurers and mercenaries. They will be dispatched as an investigation party to the underground waterways along with fifty soldiers and four magicians under the contract of the city. Their role will be to defeat the monsters.
A party of over one hundred combatants was scheduled to go on an expedition of discovery in the sewers. That’s how dangerous the situation in the sewers was deemed to be.
Yet, here was a man and his companions standing right before the receptionist who had managed to clear out said sewer system.
The burly receptionist kept his gaze locked on to the knight in white armour. “My apologies for asking this again, but can you tell me your name once more?”
His tone of speech had noticeably changed.
The knight was still wearing his helm, so it was impossible to see his face, but for some reason, it kind of felt like he was smiling right now.
The knight opened his mouth.
“My name is…”
**
“Allen Rufus, was it?”
The sewers investigation party consisting of fifty soldiers of the fiefdom was currently walking along the underground waterways with masks covering their faces.
They were in the middle of investigating the central area where dozens of the sewer tunnels converged into one.
Among them was an adventurer who had been assigned as the leader of this investigation party. His name was ‘Adolf’ and his adventurer rank was ‘Iron’. At the moment, he was reading the report with widened eyes.
He muttered in disbelief, “A Wood-ranked rookie really did this?!”
“Yes, sir. It looks like he registered only recently.”
Adolf listened to the soldier’s follow-up report, and then cast his gaze down below.
The sewer tunnels should’ve been filled to the brim with all sorts of filth and excrement. Yet… clean water was streaming down the waterways right now.
All those filthy substances had settled down on the bottom.
Since there were hundreds of thousands of people living in the city, the sewers being filthy was an inevitability. However, it was the complete opposite of ‘filth’ in this place.
No, it was simply too clean here and that made Adolf somewhat freaked out. On top of that, he could even detect a sacred aura coming from the water as well, although it was quite faint.
Adventurer Adolf used to be one of the ‘convicts’ who served his sentence up in the northern region, so it wasn’t all that hard for him to figure out that the sewer water had somehow turned into holy water.
Besides, he became able to use divinity from about a year ago as well, which was another reason why he didn’t have any trouble sensing this change.
He shifted his gaze back to the central location of the underground waterways.
“Well, no doubt it would’ve been too easy for that guy. If he’s the same guy as the one I’m thinking about, that is.”
The corpse of a massive rat at least eight metres in length that had been ripped to pieces, could be found there. Here was a monster that a dozen-plus Ogres wouldn’t be able to win in a fight even if they worked together.
It was a demonic monster that even a party of one hundred combatants would’ve had a really tough time trying to fight it. Yet, a trio of newbie adventurers managed to do exactly that?
Adolf could only chuckle wryly.
“I’ll find out whether he’s the same guy or not when I meet him.”
He cast his gaze on the portrait of a knight in full-body armour contained in the report.
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