I Don’t Trust My Twin Sister

Ian cracked the wall with his fingers and looked behind him. Neuer, who came in last, took a look around, inhaled and exhaled, and spoke quietly.

“Fortunately, the air was not rotten.”

“It looks like the air hole is open.”

“It smells a little like mold, but it’s not a problem.”

Ian nodded and looked at the space he had to move forward to. It was wide enough for about 10 people to stretch out.

“This place is bigger than I thought.”

Neuer nodded to my words.

“It is the tomb of the emperor of the time. He must have put a lot of effort into building it because he did not want his royal body to be taken away by the enemy. Since it was built underground, it seems to be quite spacious.”

“It won’t break, right?”

“If it’s going to collapse, it should have collapsed more than a hundred years ago. Don’t worry too much.”

After he finished speaking, he walked to the wall, placed his palms together, and slightly closed his eyes. As I looked at him, wondering what to do, Ian came up to me and tapped his chin.

“I’m clairvoyant.”

“Do you do it like that?”

“I don’t know because it’s been a while since I’ve seen it in person. It’s different each time.”

Are you saying there is no set method? I wanted to ask Neuer, but I waited quietly for fear of being disturbed. Not long after, Neuer let go of the wall, exhaled, and slowly approached. As soon as he came in front of me, he asked right away.

“Hello, are you alive? How are you?!”

“I saw Viscount Ajstain once before. So I looked into it, but I couldn’t find out for sure whether it was fortunate or unfortunate.”

“So does that mean he is alive?”

“That would most likely be the case.”

“Thank Goodness…”

I didn’t find him right away, but I felt relieved by the thought of being fortunate. Still, I thought that now was a much better time than saying that my grandfather might have passed away, so I decided to rescue him quickly and nodded.

“So where should we go now?”

“First of all, it is important to know the current location of the meeting. If you follow the map drawn after listening to Count Jakial’s explanation, if you follow this road, you will come across a large room. It is said to be a place where four passages are connected, so go there and get your bearings. It looks good.”

“Then let’s move.”

Out of motivation, I moved my legs to move first. At that moment, Ian, who was holding my hand, stopped me and shook his head. When I lifted my gaze slightly, Ian moved in front of me and looked at me.

“Follow my back, Lawrence. It can be dangerous to move in the lead.”

Even though it was a safe passage, nothing was certain, so we had to move carefully. I nodded to Ian’s point and moved my legs following his movements. Neuer followed at a distance. It’s a positioning decision to deal with an urgent situation… I’m not sure. I thought it would be better to stick around, but since it was Ian’s insistence, I decided to follow it without saying anything.

After walking along the quiet passage for about two hours without saying anything, we came into a huge space just like I said. There were three more passages in the walls of the huge cavity, even beyond where we came from.

Neuer, who followed behind, knocked on the wall and tilted his head slightly. Then he lifted his chin and looked up at the ceiling.

“This is below the lake.”

“Is that so? How do you know?”

“I can hear the sound of water.”

Sound of water? I listened to his words. In the silence, I closed my eyes and focused my attention on his ears, but I couldn’t hear anything. When he tilted his head, Neuer smiled faintly.

“It’s so small you won’t be able to hear it well.”

“That guy’s five senses are much more developed than the criminal’s. He’s almost like an animal.’

“…This guy?”

“Let’s find it quickly. Shouldn’t we save at least one more person?”

Neuer clicked his tongue at Ian’s blunt reply. He once again placed his hands on the wall and closed his eyes to see through the projection. Neuer removed his hand faster than before and moved with chalk to write numbers on the walls of each passage.

2.3.5

What does it mean? Ian stared at his actions in silence and opened his mouth.

“Number of people who survived.”

They said more than 200 people came in, but ten people… I swallowed my saliva at the number, which was less than I expected. I guess they’re saying that my grandfather is among them, right?

“There are a total of nine moving signs.”

“Which side is Grandpa on?”

“The feel of Viscount Ajstain can be felt in 3.”

Neuer said, tapping the wall with chalk. Ian looked down the aisle with his arms crossed and put down the bag he was holding. He took out some relief supplies from his bag, spread them out on the floor, and then closed the bag again.

“Count Zakial was injured. He was walking with a cracked leg and he didn’t know where the exit was, so it must have taken him well over a day. On the other hand, we are in fine condition. So, why not use this as a base? If we find the wounded. I think we can gather them here.”

“Then, can we send three groups to the direction where there are five people, send one group each to the rest, and leave the rest to guard this place?

Ian nodded at what I said. Neuer, who was standing far away, wrote the number the knights had to move to under each number and then turned around. He looked at us in front of the aisle where he had written ‘3’.

“Let’s leave detailed instructions and move first.”

I moved my legs in sync with the movements of Ian, who held my hand and led me. As before, Neuer followed behind.

Quiet, quiet footsteps echoed. There was no problem moving forward. It was such a peaceful movement that I had no idea what the complicated symbols on the map Duke Sabeldrick gave me meant.

I took the map out of my pocket and looked at it again.

“Hmm.”

I still couldn’t guess what the symbols meant. What on earth does this mean?

“Ian.”

“Huh?”

I said, handing the map to the man who slightly turned his head and answered my call.

“You see here, there’s a square with this arrow painted on it.”

“Maroon square?”

“Yes. What do you think this means??

“Well, are they hieroglyphs? Or does it mean something else?”

Ian tilted his head and said his thoughts, then suddenly turned his head. Ian stretched out his palm and pulled me into his arms, making a low hissing sound and looking around with narrowed eyes. When I looked at Neuer, who was following me, he had stopped walking and was standing there looking up at the ceiling.

He followed Neuer’s gaze and raised his head. It was a high ceiling with nothing in it. what?

“I didn’t know before, but the oxygen concentration here is thicker than I thought.”

Neuer frowned.

“It feels as if someone intentionally made it thicker.”

“…What does it mean?”

As soon as I finished speaking, something moved quickly from the ceiling. Ian slowly drew his sword, and he also drew his sword. The two people exhaled at the same time.

“…The size of an animal or insect is proportional to the oxygen concentration. I think the reason the oxygen concentration was raised is probably because the animals and insects located here are abnormally large.”

“Yes?”

“It’s coming.”

At the same time as his last words, an object the size of a human body flew from the sky. I was surprised and grabbed Ian, and his sword split the sky.

“Don’t use fire, Ian. If you do something wrong, the whole place could explode again!”

“…That’s tricky.”

Ian muttered lowly and swung his sword, slashing the flying object and striking it down. thud! I turned my eyes to the sound and the figure falling to the bottom.

“… a bat?”

I muttered absentmindedly. It was a large bat. It was a bigger bat than I thought, the size of a child’s body.

“Are bats really that big?”

“It’s a mutation.”

“A mutantion?”

“It was probably for someone’s experimental research. I don’t know who it was, but it’s a perverted hobby.”

Neuer cut down the bat flying at him and growled lowly.

“It is known that bats only live up to their size.”

Among mammals, they tend to live quite long. However, since the size has increased by more than ten times, the lifespan has also increased ten times… Neuer, who clicked his tongue low, cut off the flying bat once again and turned his head towards the ceiling. I also looked away.

Yellow dots flashed on the black ceiling that had not been visible before. At first glance, there are about a hundred. A cold sweat broke out.

“…It looks like you’re excited about seeing food for the first time in a long time.”

As soon as the ominous and unlucky words ended, a fluttering sound echoed in the air. Ian, who was looking at the flock of bats that flew up in an instant, smiled lowly and hugged me tightly.

“I need to fuck that guy in the mouth or something.”

When the sword was lowered, a strong scraping sound was made, scraping the floor, and pieces of the ball bounced out. Neuer looked at him with a startled expression.

“And then it catches fire!”

“Just absorb it and that’s it.”

As if to say that this was a world different from his own, Ian picked up a fragment of a stone that had fallen from the floor with his sword. The bats that were flying were hit by the stones he threw and screeched and turned. Even though he looked quite urgent, I looked at his relaxed side face. I enjoyed the leisurely moment as Ian glanced down at me.

“Ian…!”

“Close your eyes for a moment.

I blinked as if to ask what he meant, and he grinned. The hand that was holding me came up and gently covered my eyes.

The moment he felt that the world was suddenly immersed in darkness, he lifted his head slightly at the sound of a burning fire. Even if I couldn’t see it, I could feel it. The temperature was such that the warmth covering my entire body felt warm rather than hot.

As I lowered my gaze slightly, hearing the sound of something burning, Ian’s hand slowly moved away. He slightly rubbed his eyes and turned his head to look around. He vaguely thought there would be bat corpses scattered everywhere, but he spoke of the surrounding area. There were no bat corpses that had fallen until just now.

There was no trace of bats anywhere. When I turned my eyes around the surroundings to Ian, he grinned.

“What a monster.”

I heard Neuer refer to Ian.

Ian chuckled, put away his sword, and lightly picked me up.

“Yes…?!”

I was so startled that I couldn’t scream and just opened my eyes wide. Ian skillfully wrapped his arms around Neuer’s neck with his own hands.

“Ian?”

“I think I should run. These strange creatures can survive for a while. Now that I’ve seen it, I can’t assume other people are safe. If you happen to pass by, you might come across worse guys than these.”

I let out a low exclamation and gave strength to the arms wrapped around his neck. When Ian saw that my hand had gained strength, he pulled me closer and hugged me, then moved his body quickly. Even though he was running while holding me, he moved calmly, as if it wasn’t that hard. Moreover, I barely felt like my body was shaking. Feeling more comfortable than a carriage? I was curious and looked at him quietly, and Ian looked down at me slightly and then turned his eyes towards my room.

“I still remember seeing a picture of a bat on a map earlier.”

“A bat?”

“Huh.”

Following his eyes, I moved my hand and pulled out a map from my bag. It’s quite comfortable. Even when he released his hand, the shaking did not increase.

“How is it?”

“Wait a minute.”

I opened the map halfway and looked inside. It’s hard to see it as a bat, but I saw a few pictures with bat wings attached to circles.

“This one?”

Ian glanced down and looked, then nodded his head.

“That’s right, tell me what rooms are nearby.”

“I see wolves, and I also see moths.” hmm,

“And?”

“Hmm.”

A total of three pictures of bats were drawn, and I rolled my eyes. It’s hard to say because I don’t know exactly where this is.

“One place has an arrow right in front of it.”

“An arrow? Is it a signpost?”

“No. It’s literally a picture of an arrow?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he said, ‘Rumbling!’ A sound was heard along with the sound.

 

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Translator Note: