-Clunk, Clunk-
In the room packed with mage devices created by the ancient demon race, sat Luru, hugging his knees while he waited for Gran.
While he did, he heard echoes resound through the inside of the ruins.
When he listened carefully, he realised that they were the sound of somebody’s footseps.
And as for whose footsteps they were, that was extremely easy to conclude.
You couldn’t easily find people who would come to places like this, meaning that it was none other than Gran who had left Rusty, Mii and Yuuris at the village.
And truly, a burly swordsman appeared in the room after a short while; it was Gran.
Luru felt a little better having seen Gran head towards him with a hearty smile.
Being alone in a ruin created by his comrades long ago with nobody left in in was surprisingly lonely, and painful.
When Gran returned, he felt something warm return inside him.
His blood was finally moving again.
Gran’s smile clouded over a little when he saw Luru’s haggard expression.
“…Oi, you alright?”
He asked.
Luru smiled, and replied,
“I’m fine… It seems that the inside of the ruin is cold, that’s all.”
Now that it was mentioned, Gran surveyed the surroundings once more, and patted his body, seemingly noticing it.
“It really is cold, huh… Well, it’s underground after all. Not cold enough to catch a cold, though.”
“Yeah. …Well then, shall we start exploring?”
“Ahh… It feels kinda weird to have you taking charge, Luru.”
“Isn’t that fine? I’m the one who stopped the Magus Machines… They stopped, right?”
As though thinking back on it, Gran nodded and replied.
“Ohh, you’re right, you’re right. All of the wasp model Magus Machines that attacked the village stopped at once. Good job! They were smashed to pieces on the ground… Yuumis looked a bit like she was gunna cry. She was saying ‘Precious legacies of the past are…!‘ or something like that.”
Spoke Gran, a little jokingly.
It looked like he was picturing Yuumis’ dramatic show of sorrow.
“It isn’t like they can’t be used for research even if they’re broken a little, right?”
“Well, that’s right, but she wanted some that were in a more perfect shape, yanno.”
“I get how she feels, but… it’s too late to do anything about that now, right? If we search the ruins, we might find some more Magus Machines like that. Ahh, speaking of which, where’s Yuumis? Didn’t she come together with you?”
When Luru asked this, Gran frowned and spoke accusingly.
“Oi, oi, did you forget what it was you did?”
“Eh?”
“Didn’t you fiddle with the barrier around the village so that Yuumis couldn’t come out? Yuumis was crying and screaming, ‘I can’t get out! I can’t get out!‘ yanno. Despite that, the kids seemed to go in just fine, though.”
Now that it was mentioned,
‘Come to think of it, something like that did happen, huh.‘
he remembered.
‘But in that case, why wasn’t Gran locked in as well?‘, he wondered.
If he remembered correctly, he set it so that Rusty, Mii, Yuuri, and Gran would be able to enter it.
And so that nobody would be able to leave.
But despite that, Gran was here right now.
When Luru asked about this, Gran replied,
“Before I entered the barrier, Yuumis screamed at me. ‘Don’t enter the barrier’, she said. It was a pretty close call.”
“Ahh… Well that makes sense. So Yuumis is still inside the barrier, huh? Couldn’t she have just rewritten the magic sequence again?”
Muttered Luru.
When he did, Gran tilted his head to the side, and said,