Hone To Issho No Isekai Seikatsu Chapter 41

– Adventurer’s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Noon – Comnes Town – West – Abandoned Mine

With the bodies of the thugs nearby, I explained the situation to Philips.

“It’s possible these guys had given information of this place to other people. This place would obviously need to be sealed again, but then do you reckon moving everything to a different place just in case?”

“… You may be right about that…”

Ah yeah.

There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask…

“I almost forgot. Why are you here in the first place anyways? Is this a tomb or something?”

“… It’s a long story, so I’ll summarize it a bit.”

Long ago, Philips had the t.i.tle of General in his home country Comnia.

At that, he had been a.s.signed an important a.s.signment by his master, Comnia’s reigning King, in secluding himself inside the festival room inside the mountain, to which he would pray to the G.o.ds of the earth for the country’s blessing… It was an a.s.signment that held great importance to the country of that time.

That day, when knowing about a plan of the king’s a.s.sa.s.sination by taking advantage of the lack of guards, Philips took it upon himself to remain as the king’s escort for the festival.

However, for some reason the a.s.sa.s.sins broke down the entrance to the cave instead, trapping Philips, his king, and the rest of those accompanying… and no matter how long they waited, no help came.

… It’s a wonder how those thug guys managed to find this place in the first place.

From what it sounds like, this place would have at least had the appearance of a sacred room, but I wasn’t able to notice that, which goes to show just how long ago that incident happened…

Eventually, the air inside ran out, and everyone, including the king, all died one after another. However for some reason, only Philips managed to remain conscious even after death.

“Looking back however, I don’t believe I had been able to retain my sanity from then…”

As Philips’ final thoughts of ‘protecting the king’ was still going strong even when he lingered on as a spirit, he immediately attacks anything indiscriminately, like the thugs and us from earlier… Indeed, I didn’t think there was any chance to even talk things out in that situation…

“Then, should we help in setting up graves for everyone here in the abandoned mine?”

“What was that? What do you mean this place here is an abandoned mine!?”

“Sorry, but I’ll give you the details after this.”

The confusion from his part should be from how this mine used to be very lively during his time.

… It’s probably best to keep the king’s treasures hidden here in the mines, otherwise people are going to notice if we take these out.

In the worst case, these guy’s companions may be just outside the entrance on a lookout, making things troublesome.

Repeating the same explanation to the dumbfounded Philips, we’ve been dragging the thugs out of the room in the meantime.

After that, I noticed Benedetta standing absentmindedly further away, she’s normally pretty proactive so this is a little unusual.

I had the skeletons with the least damage on them take over my work as I walked up to her.

But before I spoke, Benedetta muttered so with her head low and eyes averted.

“Um… I’m sorry.”

“Hm?”

“It’s because of my carelessness… because of me you got put into danger… and I wasn’t even able to help with it in the end… once again…”

“…”

Where those last words really referring to just now…?

With her head hanging low, I approached her and reached out to pat her her head by instinct…

Surprised, Benedetta looked up.

“… Um… Nemo… what’s this. Weren’t you… well…”

“You know… the two of us, we’re a party aren’t we? It’s natural to want to help each other out. I’m sure you’d wish the same if our roles were reversed.”

“… Wishing to help, and being capable to help… they’re two different things…”

“Don’t you know? I’m practically useless once I’m in close combat. Even when putting aside your magic eye and Miko skills, you’re already plenty strong yourself, and are already more reliable than my skeletons… So don’t look so down, have more confidence in yourself.”

“…”

She glanced my way, and gave a slight smile.

Did I manage to say it right…? Hopefully, I managed to convey my thoughts more properly this time…

Fan Art Alert

– Adventurer’s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Afternoon – Comnes Town – West – Abandoned Mine

Now then, I used the nearby rubble from the entrance to recover my stone golem, and returned it back to its coin… this guy wouldn’t be able to leave this room with its size anyways.

We stripped out the thug’s equipment where the skeletons would be taking hold of them. We try to collect at least as much of the leftover bone shields, as they use up the most resources.

Because of that, all of the skeletons would have trouble fighting with the amount they’re carrying… but I suppose that can’t be helped…

There doesn’t seem to be anything else to take along with us so we were about to start moving out, but there was one skeleton standing still.

It’s the skeleton Philips is currently taking over.

He had his back faced towards me, and stood silent as he continued to watch the room… I wonder what he’s thinking about.

Not minding too much, we continued on leaving the room.

Not long after, Philips joined up with us…

“Are you still hesitating in killing them? Should I be the one to do it?”

“… No… it’s fine.”

Only half of the group was still alive… I was really hesitant in killing them. The battle is already over,and I didn’t really want to make any more needless bloodshed… But they’re going to receive the death penalty in Comnes anyways, and bringing them along the way as we are now is extremely risky.

In the end, I took out my bone dagger, and swiftly ended them through the throat, making sure not to look at their faces.

There was a time when ‘Nemo’ had killed a night thief back when ‘he’ was a guard, so it’s not like this had been the first time, but even then, this isn’t something I could get used to… I hope.

We dumped the bodies into a nearby pit, where the skeletons then covered it up with stones.

… Hiding bodies is a lot easier than I imagined.

I’ve only noticed it now, but it really feels uncomfortable not being surrounded by an army of skeletons all of a sudden.

Right now, we’re on our way up from the mine.

Hyu-!

Within the darkness, the sound of a spear piercing through air rang out.

Philips, who had taken himself into the forefront, had been single handedly dealing with the various monsters along the way… Though we’ve been ignoring those wolf bats that did not attack us.

We don’t really have much room left for collecting anymore materials, wolf bat wings included.

We even have the equipment from those thugs with us, and not to mention the reduced number of skeletons to carry them all.

In addition, there’s the bone round shields, some treasured relics, and even the two rusted spears Philips’ summons had… honestly, I want to get rid of some of them if possible.

Not to mention, if all possible, I’d like to avoid meeting with any adventurers here, so speed is the current priority.

(… This one here doesn’t seem too smart…)

Even with Philips’ overwhelming power, monsters still continue to attack… not that it’s much of a problem for him.

Even so, the person in question would say,

“The body becomes stiff if it doesn’t move around much…”

… So we’re just strolling about as a morning exercise huh…

(He doesn’t even look remotely tired either… Would that have something to do with it…)

It seemed like Philips’ spear had some traces of magic to it since long ago.

Even though it’s been in there for so long, it still looked like it’s brand new… then again, I’m not sure how it looked like back then either.

Speaking of which, the spears Phillips’ minions were using had been rusted and dirtied, but it still could be quite useful anyways so we brought it with us.

Since I’ve been wanting to replenish my skeleton army back to how it was before as fast as possible, I’ve been summoning more and more from all the monsters we’ve been taking down. Though I can’t summon through the skeleton warriors for some reason… 

Similarly, the old skeletons from that room before weren’t possible to summon through either.

It’s not all too bad though, at least we got some additional skeletons to carry more of the baggage for us. They can even have a bone shield equipped.

“You’re quite quick in dismantling.”

“That PORTION, hurry and PROCEED.”

The monsters here have much more valuable materials, and are generally easier to dismantle.

It’s a strong merit of this place.

Though, I’m still somewhat disappointed on how we only managed to get a small portion of those brownish gems from those skeletons warriors.

“Isn’t it GOOD around HERE?”

Centurion’s team, that had been keeping in formation surrounding me and Benedetta, raised his voice.

Once we reached all the way to a tunnel, we encountered a smaller tunnel. Small enough for a normal adult to be unable to stand there properly.

“It’s okay here?”

“Adventurers rarely ever reach this high into the mines, this would probably be a good spot for making a grave.”

Reason for that is, the higher you reach into the mines, the encounter rate of monsters decreases… The reason for this isn’t really known, but as we had been climbing up from here, this does seem to be the case.

It took quite a while to get here… 

(… Hm?)

“Wind?”

“What’s the matter?”

Looking up into the ceiling in this cave, I can see a little bit of light peeking through a gap.

“… Philips. Since we already came all this way, why not have the grave just outside? I’m sure the king would probably also like to see the sky…”

“… Hm? What do you mean?”

… To demonstrate, I used ‘Modelling’…

And with that, I gradually began opening up the hole in the ceiling.

“Ohh! It’s light!”

As the ceiling wasn’t that thick to begin with, it wasn’t too difficult opening up the hole from here… though it still did take some time. In the end, I managed to expand the hole large enough for us to fit through.

“Alright, let’s go up then shall we!”

… Like that, the entirety of our group reached above the abandoned mine.

Since the mine was dug on the face of the cliff, this would mean we are on top of that cliff…

This place is quite isolated given that we took a deviated path, so there really shouldn’t be anyone visiting this place… It’s not a bad area.

I looked around for a bit, and found a rock with a size I wanted to look for.

“Philips… how about this.”

“… It is good.”

I used ‘Modelling’ to create a large hole into the rock to which Philips placed the bag inside and the crown on top of that… once that was done, the rock was sealed off.

“… I leave it to you…”

“I know.”

Prompted by his resolution, I had the hole sealed off tightly as possible.

“Oh my King… May you rest in peace now…”

For an instant, I felt some sort of will coming through the rock as I was pouring mana into sealing it. I didn’t mind it at first but…

… Not shortly after, a human shaped figure appeared.

It was hazy, but the figure stood up right with dignity. Wearing the crown that had just been buried, along with a splendid cloak and a rich beard… Needless to say, this is definitely the king Philips had served under.

“Borrowing that man’s power, I was glad to have been able to meet you once again, Philips.”

… Philips became speechless.

“Even when in death, I was aware of how you were trying to protect me all this time… If I could just ask for your forgiveness…”

“There was no need for forgiveness! Such a thing is not needed as it was all through my own volition…”

Philips knelt down on his knees and bows… Would this be a custom of theirs?

“You there, your name?”

“I- it’s Nemo, sir.”

I got surprised and stuttered a bit.

… This person sure is emitting an amazing aura, as expected of a king.

“I would like to express my thanks to you. For me to have been finally able to meet my most trusted va.s.sal, I have no more regrets… And so Philips, let us be on our way.”

“… Please if you could wait!”

“… What is the matter?”

The king asks as he leans over to Philips.

“My king. I owe a large debt to this person. I deeply apologize, but I would like to stay here for a little longer.”

“So you wish to follow that man is it. Very well… I permit.”

“Thank you my Liege!”

Eh… Say what?

Before I could voice an opinion, the king had already set off…

Philips, who had still been taking control of my skeleton, faced towards me and stood his spear upright.

“Master! If you would accept the loyalty of this Philips of Comnia! With this spear of mine, I will protect Master from all opposition and defeat his enemies!”

“… Sure…?”

It’s no good, I don’t think I could even have an option to say no in the matter…

At that moment, a surge of mana escaped from my body, and leaked towards Philips.

(… Wh!)

Philips’ body had absorbed all the mana I leaked out and had been engulfed in a strange light… It’s difficult to look at directly…

… Once the light faded, what appeared before me was a skeleton about 30% bigger than normal. It’s bones thickened quite impressively… though the armor he had been wearing had shattered and scattered around the floor.

He placed the spear back to its resting position and gave, from what I perceive to be, a smile.

“Master, I leave myself in your care.”

… Y, yeah. Sure.

—- Summoning Memo —-

Centurion Team:

Members: Centurion, Skeleton 1, 2

Equipment: Hatchet, Shield, Armor and helmet

Phillips: Spear

Other Skeletons:

3 – 14: Club, Round shield, Armor and helmet

15 – 18: Round shield

Stone Golem: 1