Chapter 113

Would he have known how to escape from this situation if he had studied physics?

When the heavy cart gained acceleration, its power was enormous.

He couldn't even dream of crawling inside the cart like in movies.

Because his back was stuck to the cart and being pushed along.

He desperately tried to think in front of the endlessly racing cart.

He didn't know where the end of this rail was, but if it was blocked by a mine wall, it would only be a matter of time before his entire body was crushed.

He had to do something.

He didn't have Leandros's tremendous force,

Nor the cunning of someone like Yurik.

But he was confident that his tenacity was second to none.

He kept his eyes wide open to avoid fainting and felt the strong wind pressure head-on.

In the pitch-black darkness without a single beam of light, the only thing he could feel was the sensation of the hard iron plate supporting his back.

After much effort, he somehow managed to turn his body and cling to the cart.

This way, even if it suddenly stopped, he could minimize the damage from being thrown off.

Then he guessed the direction of the madly rushing cart.

Leandros had definitely said it.

The paths inside the mine branched off in many directions.

That meant this rail wouldn't continue in a straight line forever.

Strangely, the center of the cart and his body began to lean to one side.

The wheel on the weighted side began to creak, emitting an ominous noise.

Now was the time!

He gritted his teeth and let go.

Fortunately, with good timing, the cart turned direction along a curved rail,

While his body, unable to follow, was thrown off.

Behind him, tumbling like a rag doll, the noise of the cart carrying his torn cloak rapidly faded away.

After rolling on the floor multiple times, he couldn't get up for a while.

Despite curling up his entire body to prepare for the impact, it hurt as if his vision was flashing.

But it was better than having his body crushed.

After enduring for a long time and finally getting up, he looked around.

Of course, looking around was pointless.

It was pitch black without a single point of light.

The fortunate thing was that he had faith that Leandros would somehow find him.

For that, he needed to stay put as much as possible.

He had to, but.

[Grrrrr...]

The thing inside the tunnel.

He didn't know exactly what it was.

Whether it was something he had seen up above that had followed him,

Or a different entity that had nested in the tunnel, he couldn't tell.

The only certainty was that these sounds were gradually increasing.

[Gruk, gruk.]

[Keee...]

[Grrrrrrk.]

A chill ran down his spine at the sound reflected off the walls.

If he stayed here, it would only be a matter of time before his position was discovered.

He needed to move, but where should he go?

When he reached out to feel his surroundings, he touched a solid wall.

He remembered the direction in which the cart had noisily rolled away.

He headed in that direction, taking off one of the gloves he was wearing and placing it on the ground.

When Leandros came here, he would see this and know which way he had gone.

After that, it was just walking.

He walked along the wall, trying not to make any sound, and immediately stopped when he heard strange cries.

He intended to stop when he found a safe place, but it wasn't easy.

Because the cries could be heard from anywhere, anytime.

...They were even being heard more and more frequently.

While seriously wondering if he was walking into a den of demonic beasts of his own accord.

He discovered a faint, flickering light in the distance beyond the long darkness.

"...!"

Was someone there?

If there was light, then there must be an intelligent being living there capable of creating a torch.

Praying that the entity wasn't hostile, he headed in that direction with muffled footsteps.

The end of that path was suddenly open.

The rails were no longer laid on the ground.

A path mimicking rails was intertwined among various structures and supports.

The rails and structures extended all the way down.

Looking up, he could see the wall of a steep cliff.

On the cliff wall, there were holes here and there, like those in a beehive.

Rails were connected to each of these holes as well.

This wasn't just a facility of a mithril mine.

It was a place where multiple tunnels from various mines converged.

A sophisticated logistics system for collecting, sorting, and sending mined ore to where it was needed was here.

The faint light he had seen was coming from luminous artifacts attached to the rail supports and pillars of structures with unknown purposes.

"I thought such things could only be seen in major corporate logistics industries like Cou* or A*ex."

How smart would one have to be to build such a system in this world setting?

While looking around the space boasting its tremendous majesty, he suddenly realized a strange fact.

There would be no people in the north right now.

Yet, occasionally, carts passed by with loud noises on the rails precariously suspended in the air.

Then who was sending those?

Come to think of it, the cart that had brought him here was also a bit strange.

It had been stationary, but after he lightly touched it, it immediately started moving forward.

Seeing that even Leandros couldn't stop the cart, it seemed to have a special mechanism that allowed it to run automatically.

The fact that such a mechanism worked right away suggested that someone had been using this device until recently.

Who was in this mine?

He looked down below.

He could wait for Leandros to come.

But he had no idea what might be down there.

If he went down with Leandros and Leandros entered a state of madness...

'That absolutely can't happen.'

With firm resolve, he began to crawl onto the rails that had nothing to hold onto.

Leandros, he would just take one quick look and come right back.

Did his brother trust him?

* * *

Leandros was walking along the rails.

When his Duke disappeared, pushed by the cart, Leandros tossed aside the torn metal plate, grabbed only the torch, and immediately jumped into the tunnel.

However, he couldn't immediately chase after the runaway cart.

Despite being a knight who diligently trained, it was impossible for a human to keep up with the speed of a wheeled object.

In the end, Leandros could only walk along the rails, praying for His Grace's safety.

But when he heard a faint sound, even that hope gradually faded away.

[Grrrrruk.]

"...It would be strange if there weren't demonic beasts in a place like this."

Leandros drew his sword.

The blade, which had been soaked in the blood of many monsters on the way here, was gradually being corroded by the potent bodily fluids.

Still, he couldn't retreat here.

Another sound overlapped the cries.

The sounds of numerous demonic beasts that were heard gradually grew louder.

What Leandros saw beyond the flickering torch,

Were humans staggering through the narrow tunnel.

No, they were things that had once been human.

Their foreheads had collapsed backward, but their mouths protruded lengthily forward, resembling wolves or wild dogs.

Some walked on two legs, while others exhibited a bizarre appearance, walking on four.

On the bloodless skin, clothes that were no better than rags were barely draped.

Leandros noted that these scraps of clothes were not of high quality.

The people, whose very life was uncertain, were either panting, scratching the ground with goat-like hooves, or drooling viscous saliva.

At least six, at most ten.

Leandros thought for a moment, then lightly tossed the torch to the ground.

The small torch bounced on the floor, rolled away, and went out.

Only a few pairs of eyes, glowing like a cat's, remained in the darkness.

Hearing the sound of human-like demonic beasts grinding their teeth in excitement, Leandros readied his sword.

A moment later, when the torch regained its flame and blazed brightly.

The floor of the tunnel was strewn with heads and bodies along with viscous bodily fluids.

Leandros furrowed his brow at the not-so-pleasant sight.

He momentarily suppressed his disgust and examined the closest corpse.

Although it was a monster with almost no human form left, including hair, there were still some aspects that allowed for conjecture.

Poor quality northern-style clothing.

An emaciated physique.

Blackened, frozen fingertips.

Leandros thought that this person had been a civilian residing in the north and had probably not eaten well for a long time.

During that time, Crown Prince Yurik had likely gotten hold of the north.

But, why were so many people in the mine?

Surely this couldn't be all of them.

The mine was far too large to be occupied by just ten demonic beasts.

There would certainly be other creatures positioned here and there along the tunnels.

Then, what about His Grace?

Leandros became even more anxious.

In the end, without even taking time to clean up the horrific scene, he hurried along the path.

Arenheit's glove was found at a fork in the rails, and from then on, Leandros began to run.

Running continuously until he was out of breath, Leandros caught sight of a faint light.

At the end of that path, Leandros discovered the same landscape that Arenheit had seen.

But His Grace was nowhere to be found.

With no path left, where on earth had he been taken from here?

As Leandros was thinking this, he noticed a precarious rail.

The rail crossed the air, using the structures or supports in the middle as footings.

Surely not.

Surely, His Grace wouldn't have been crazy enough to go this way.

But what if he had no chance to escape as he was pushed by the cart?

What if he had crossed this rail together with the cart...?

"Damn it."

Leandros, rarely using rough language, unfastened his scabbard and hung it behind his waist.

It seemed today's fortune dictated that he would continue to perform acts no different from suicide.

Following the rails that stood alone in the air, with no equipment or anything to hold onto, was not something a sane person would do.

Leandros crossed the rails almost like an acrobat, precariously making his way to the enormous structure.

It was similar in form to a high lookout post, but it was several times larger than a regular post and had only a spiral staircase that descended endlessly.

Besides the stairs, there were no landings or anything else where one could rest.

It seemed as if the structure itself was built solely for the staircase.

However, using the infinitely extending spiral staircase was safer than risking one's life crossing the rail suspended in the air.

Leandros, with his gaze fixed on the rail extending from the tunnel he had come from, began to descend endlessly.

As he descended, the stairs grew increasingly larger, and so did the structure.

The destinations of the rails also began to appear.

Several lines seemed to lead out to different tunnels below.

But as he descended, most of the tunnel entrances were blocked.

Some tunnels had just their entrances blocked intact, but others had carts piled up in front of the blocked entrances.

As he went further down, even the aerial rails disappeared one by one, leaving only the rail His Grace had ridden on.

The end of that rail was simply a wall.

Not a blocked tunnel, not leading somewhere else, just a wall of the mine.

The cart was embedded there, its front completely crumpled.

Upon seeing this, Leandros hurriedly looked down at the bottom of the staircase, the depths of which were unknown.

There were no bloodstains on the wall. Could he have fallen?

If it were higher up, there might have been something to break his fall, but at this point, there was nothing below.

Leandros ran down the stairs, ready to throw himself off if necessary.

Please, please, let that not have happened.

After inwardly praying dozens of times, he finally stopped his descent, which had been almost like tumbling down.

A small sneeze was heard from below.

Creak, creak.

It was a very slow and laborious sound.

It was the first time he had heard footsteps that were so powerless and pitiful, as if the person had never exercised even once since birth.

And Leandros instinctively recognized the owner of those footsteps.

"...Your Grace?"

As if in response to the voice mixed with confusion and expectation,

Familiar red hair began to appear from below, little by little.

His Grace was safe.

Of course he would be. If he had been thinking clearly, he would have chosen to jump off in the middle!

Reproaching himself for momentarily not believing in His Grace, Leandros immediately went down to greet the Duke.

But the moment he barely saw the Duke, Leandros froze.

White frost and rime were covering Arenheit Hartmann's entire body, making him snow-white.