Atrocities Committed in the Ruins

Made it, somehow......!

I really don't know whether I can post tomorrow!

Let us turn back the clock a little. This is a room a few flights of stairs below the one where Mitran and the others are carrying out their investigation.

It is commonly known as the “Giant's Room.”

The name comes from a large mural painted on the wall of this room.

Yes...... unlike the previous rooms, the wall of this room features a mural of a giant.

If I were to somehow describe that mural in detail, it would go: ‘A giant clad in armor, with six arms and any number of thorn-like things jutting from its body, breathing out smoke’...... well, something like that.

Why did I say “somehow”? Because the mural is not, even by the kindest standard, well drawn.

You can just about make out that something like that is depicted.

That is the kind of mural it is.

“Ugh, guh...... uuugh......”

Now, Korenuzhinu, a solo rank-7 scout adventurer, was standing before that mural of the giant.

His body was in pain, and his consciousness was hazy.

Why?

“Come on! Quit standin' around spacin' out!!”

“That's right! Hurry it up!”

“Hehehe! Hehehehe!”

It was because he had been subjected to terrible torture by the group currently making a racket behind him.

A bearded giant of a man with a big machete hanging from his waist, Megzam.

A man with a long face and an eyepatch, Ander.

A man with a square face and an eyepatch as well, Tappa.

And one more.

A man who never personally participated in the torture, but who seemed to be the one giving orders to the aforementioned Megzam gang and pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

A man in well-tailored clothes, clearly a cut above the trio's, his hat pulled low, his sharp eyes now and then glinting frighteningly...... Ibrabarleg.

Korenuzhinu had been kidnapped and tortured by these atrocious villains...... and the secrets of these ruins that he had obtained had been completely stripped away from him.

Korenuzhinu bitterly regretted his own thoughtless behavior, far too late.

He was one of the adventurers working to survey and conquer these ruins.

From the middle levels onward, these ruins became a complex maze, and Korenuzhinu was the first to break through that maze.

Furthermore, it was Korenuzhinu who reported to the Adventurers' Guild that a hellish path filled with numerous terrifying traps began from the lower levels.

The layout of these ruins' lower levels was truly vicious.

Fatal traps were set in abundance on every floor, and there was no telling how far those trap-filled floors continued.

No matter how many lives one had, it simply wouldn't be enough.

Hence the conquest of these ruins had stalled at the entrance to the lower levels, and as things stood, it had not advanced one step further.

But, still, Korenuzhinu.

The one adventurer able to blow a hole through this impasse.

Because, while he was re-exploring the maze of the middle levels.

He had found it.

The existence of a detour that could bypass the dangerous paths of the lower levels and reach the deepest part safely!

And the key necessary to use that detour!

The key had been laid away in a hidden room in the maze, and, how very considerate, instructions for its use had even been written out in super-ancient magecraft script.

“Insert this key into the hole in the center of the giant's picture. Then, the path to my treasure shall be opened.” So ran the words inscribed on the stone wall of the hidden room.

As you might expect from someone who had volunteered to survey the ruins, Korenuzhinu was an amateur archaeologist, and reading super-ancient magecraft script was child's play to him.

Korenuzhinu was thrilled by this new discovery!

But by that point, three days had already passed since he began his exploration.

Since the Giant's Room was in the upper levels, he decided to return to the town of Nebo for now, take a break, and then find the detour.

Having decided so, Korenuzhinu left the ruins.

The judgment itself was by no means wrong.

But what he did after getting back to town was a mistake.

In high spirits over drinks at a tavern, he carelessly let it slip.

The secret he had discovered.

And it was overheard, every word, by sharp-eared villains...... the worst crowd imaginable: the Megzam gang and Ibrabarleg.

On his way back to his inn, pleasantly tipsy, he was swiftly abducted by this crowd and put through torture too horrible even to put into words.

And the secret passed into the hands of the villains.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Nngh, uuugh......”

The torture had completely broken Korenuzhinu's will to resist the villains.

Hence, just as the villains behind him demanded, he pushed the secret key into the hole in the center of the giant's picture.

Then, in the next moment!

“Ooh!?”

“Whoa!”

“Awesooome! Hehehe!”

“............”

The lines outlining the giant's picture began to give off an unearthly light!

“Hmm, I see. So that's how it works.”

The Megzam gang were surprised and flustered by this sudden change, but Ibrabarleg alone remained calm.

He took a notebook from his breast pocket, leafed through it, and then gave Korenuzhinu his next instruction in a cold voice.

“Next, Mr. Korenuzhinu. While this picture of the giant is shining, touch its six fists in the order I indicate.”

“Y, yesss......”

“As you face it: top right, middle right, bottom left, middle left, bottom right, top left.”

“T, top right, middle right, bottom left, middle left, bottom right, top left......”

Korenuzhinu did not know on what basis these instructions were being given.

In other words, these instructions were based on information that this man, Ibrabarleg, had collected independently.

This Ibrabarleg was not a mere thug like the Megzam gang.

He harbored an extraordinary obsession with conquering these ruins...... or rather, with whatever relic surely lay hidden in their deepest part.

Even before these ruins were discovered.

To the point where he would not hesitate to commit any atrocity to obtain them.

Gagaga!

Now, when Korenuzhinu moved exactly as instructed, the floor in front of the giant's picture split with a small sound, and a stone vessel like a bucket rose up from below.

“Ooh? Mister Ibrabarleg, what the heck's this?”

Megzam pointed at the vessel while picking his nose.

“Hmm...... Kukuku, I see, I see. How very tasteful.”

Ibrabarleg stroked his neatly trimmed goatee, deciphered the super-ancient magecraft script written on the stone vessel, and smiled.

And he directed that cruel smile...... toward Korenuzhinu, who was trembling on his backside.

“My, my, Mr. Korenuzhinu. I am so very glad I brought you along. I had guessed there might be a mechanism of this sort. It was easy enough to infer from the ancient documents I have collected, you see.”

Ibrabarleg was a man of gentlemanly speech and deep intellect, but beneath it his body was thoroughly trained.

Ibrabarleg grabbed the slender Korenuzhinu by the collar, lifted him up effortlessly, and tossed him toward Megzam.

“This is what was written on that vessel...... ‘Fill it with the blood of the same kind’...... it said.”

“Eep......!”

Realizing his fate, Korenuzhinu struggled desperately, trying to escape from Megzam!

But still, in his current state, weakened by torture, he could not shake off Megzam's thick arms......!

“Hey, you lot.”

““Yes, sir!!””

Megzam gave instructions to his two underlings to pin Korenuzhinu's body down.

Then he drew the big machete from his belt, raised it high overhead, and......!

......No further description is necessary.

Korenuzhinu died.

The vessel was filled with blood.

Then.

GAGON!!

Zuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzu......!

With that sound, the giant's picture split to the left and right...... and what should appear beyond it but a staircase leading further underground!

“Oooooh!”

“Hehehe! Awesome! Awesooome!”

Ander and Tappa rejoiced at the sight, clapping their hands and laughing.

“Now then, mister. I guess the thing you're after is back there, huh.”

Megzam sent a menacing glance toward Ibrabarleg while fiddling with his bushy beard.

“Exactly, Mr. Megzam. But we cannot simply head straight there. In all likelihood, a battle with a Guardian awaits us. And a few mechanisms besides. I am counting on you, my business partner.”

“Oh, sure thing. You paid us a fat advance, after all! And you're sayin' there's even more where that came from, so ain't no way we'd betray ya, right? Right, you lot!?”

““YES SIR! We won't betray you!!””

Ibrabarleg and Megzam glared at each other for a brief moment.

A tense air settled over the room.

“......Kukuku.”

Then Ibrabarleg laughed softly, turned his back on Megzam and the big machete in his hand, and started toward the newly revealed stairs.

Seeing that, Megzam hung the big machete back on his belt and followed.

The two underlings followed suit.

But still, it was at that very moment!

“Hey, wait, you people! This...... what on earth have you done!?”

A shout like that brought the villains to a halt!

When Ibrabarleg and the others turned around, there stood an archaeologist who looked like a gentle young man, with silver hair tied in a braid, breathing hard.

And, having come hurrying after, a beautiful girl in a boy's adventurer outfit.

【Megzam】

Appears in Arcs 2 and 5.

The boss of Tappa and Ander.

In 【The Story of the Red-Haired Hero】, he gets treated as mere small fry—a “thief defeated by the hero at the very beginning”—but that's only because the hero is so strong; Megzam is plenty strong in his own right.

Quite the villain.