Chapter 177 - Chapter 5: Church Underground Passage Exploration ③
"S-Someone is there!"
When I looked at the Headmistress, she was tilting her head.
"Jeanne. Can you stop illuminating the wall for a moment?"
When I weakened the light intensity and illuminated the ceiling as the Headmistress said, the wall gradually restored from the top.
"Then, let's pretend this never happened and go home."
No, Headmistress. Isn't that bad? The other person is angry.
"The Royal Capital Church's instruction was to confirm the release of the barrier, right? This much is enough for this time. We'll be coming back for the main investigation anyway, so there's no problem going home today."
She was saying that since it's a hassle, let's just go home today.
That was true, but...
"They're approaching. It's a spirit. They might be running."
The crouching Archbishop caught a reaction.
It seemed they had come to complain.
"Jeanne. Can you illuminate it one more time? Keep the light intensity modest, just enough to illuminate us from above."
While I was illuminating as the Archbishop said, the other person ducked under the wall that was about half-restored.
"What the hell are you lot! Just where the hell did you come from!"
It was a line I had heard somewhere before.
Surely a mountain bandit hadn't come out here.
When I illuminated the direction of the voice, there was an old man about the height of a human child wearing brown clothes.
"Just as I expected."
The Headmistress seemed to know the old man's true identity.
"You are a Dwarf, aren't you?"
The Archbishop also knew.
Speaking of Dwarves, aren't they drunkards who are always drunk and jealous of the elegant and tall Elves?
"Hoho. It seems you're looking for a fight with me, girl."
I was poked in the buttocks with the staff by the Headmistress.
"▽×〇＆＄？＠――――――!"
It was my first time experiencing being unable to make a sound due to pain.
It wasn't just painful. Why did it hurt so much just being poked in the buttocks?
Roberts-sama had said he was beaten. How did he even survive?
"Sorry about that. She's a good girl, but she doesn't know the ways of the world very well."
Dwarves are friendly spirits who live underground. They are usually in mines, digging for ore with humans.
That Dwarf stood beside me as I crouched down holding my painful buttocks, smirking.
"Well, girl. That's quite a sight. Shall I rub the painful spot for you?"
Thump!
The staff hit his solar plexus.
"She's not a girl. Call her a priest."
"A-Are you okay?"
The spirit, who had become unable to breathe, was writhing in front of me.
"Both of you, reflect for a while," she said, and we were left alone.
Everyone sat in a circle in front of the door and shared wine.
The Archbishop seemed concerned and was glancing over here, but he seemed unable to speak up in front of the Headmistress.
In the meantime, they started a heated discussion about how to spread correct knowledge about spirits, involving Dune, Mel, and even Flora.
For now, I recovered my painful buttocks with [Heal].
Since it has no effect on spirits, I took a water bottle from my bag and gave him a drink.
"O-Oh. Sorry about that. Gir... no, Priest. Just who on earth is that woman?"
As expected of the Headmistress. He had become completely quiet.
"She is one of the seven who defeated the previous Demon Lord."
"The Demon Lord? Is that so. No wonder she's strong."
"Umm, and you are?"
"A Dwarf, as you can see. I'm the gatekeeper of this gate."
Apparently, he was the gatekeeper mentioned in King Griffith's journal.
However, there didn't seem to be any magical beasts.
"Umm, I'm sorry for attacking you all of a sudden earlier."
"Seriously. What the hell are you guys anyway?"
"I'm sorry. Since there are magical beasts, we launched a preemptive strike so we wouldn't be suddenly attacked."
"There's no way they'd just jump out. The magical beasts are a little further ahead. I survived because I have wonderful reflexes, but even so, that arrow was dangerous."
He had apparently been peeking out from a hole he dug in the ground to see what was happening.
The arrow Bonnie fired apparently grazed his head.
"So, what did you come here for? There doesn't seem to be a Priestess, but you came to receive an oracle, right?"
An oracle?
"Umm, it's a preliminary investigation to check beyond this wall."
"A preliminary investigation? Why do you humans investigate this place?"
"I don't know the details, but I think the important people want to know."
"Want to know what?"
"There's an altar beyond here, right? What can be done there? I think that's it."
The Dwarf stopped drinking water and tilted his head.
"What do you mean 'what,' you. If you're human, you should know. Since you guys were the ones who made it originally."
"Was that so? I'm sorry. I'm ignorant of such things."
"Is it a generation gap? Come to think of it, you guys haven't come lately. Honestly, at least do the handover properly."
He was rough-mannered but seemed kind at heart. While saying this and that, he first told me various things about Dwarves.
Dwarves, of course, are not hostile to humans.
They are highly intelligent and can use magic. They also trade with humans. Occasionally, they take on some work and receive rewards in return.
Perhaps the Headmistress had met a Dwarf who was a gatekeeper somewhere else, or had heard such stories and knew about them.
The job of the Dwarf in front of me was apparently to test whether those who broke the barrier of the wall truly had the power to reach the altar by setting magical beasts on them.
"...So that's how it is. I've made a contract with you humans to protect this gate."
"Even though you're usually in a hole, did you know we were coming?"
"You moved one altar, didn't you? That's how I can tell. It's like, zap, it comes to my head."
"Then, the magical beasts are already prepared..."
"That's right. You won't break through so easily."
I heard that the Dwarf was also the one who prepared the insects. It seems the brothers are all sharing the work. The one in front of me is the eldest son, and he apparently has six younger brothers.
"Where do you usually breed the monsters?"
No matter how I thought about it, it was impossible inside the cave.
"We don't breed them. We're smart. We can use [Teleport] and [Subordination] magic. We just go poof, grab them firmly, and bring them back zip."
That's amazing. They can freely manipulate magical beasts.
"Of course. Don't lump us in with the monsters and spirits around here."
Suddenly, water was splashed on him.
Dune and Mel were glaring.
"W-Why are there water and wind spirits here?"
"I asked them to come with me."
When the Dwarf apologized, saying, "Sorry about that, ladies," the two of them seemed satisfied. He looked like an old man, but he was apparently young.
"Are they your companions?"
"Yes. They're my friends. Also, there's a flower spirit too."
"An Alraune?"
When I pointed, Flora was peeking out from her main body, absorbed in the discussion.
"You're quite something for a human. No, I've reconsidered you."
I was praised by the young old man.
"By the way, I heard that if you go beyond here, you'll come out under the lake, is that true?"
"If you want to know what's beyond here, you'll just have to go and see for yourself."
As expected of a gatekeeper, he wouldn't open his mouth so easily.
Left with no choice, I offered him some of Owen's special jerky, and it was highly praised.
He really is a drinker. He has a weakness for this kind of thing.
Usually it's made into a stew, but he was gnawing on it directly after shaving it with a knife.
"Can't be helped. Just this once."
While saying that, he gave me a hint.
He's quite understanding.
"From the entrance of the cave you entered to here, how much did you walk?"
It's about two hours from the church. Since we rested midway, it would be about an hour and a half.
"Try walking north for an hour and a half from the entrance. Up and down doesn't matter. Where would you get to?"
Come to think of it, even where we are now, we've approached the lake quite a bit.
"Beyond here is a maze where magical beasts appear. The height doesn't change that much. If so... you understand the rest, right?"
Does that mean... that? The lake and this cave are unrelated?
"Of course. Imagine if the lake and the cave were connected. It would be like the bottom fell out, and all the water would flow out."
Come to think of it, that's true. I hadn't noticed it until now, carelessly.
When I thanked him and tried to hand him the water bottle, a bottle of wine was offered. It was a high-quality product from the continent.
It was the Archbishop. He had left the circle of discussion and come to reinforce us.
When I secretly looked at Beatrix, she was winking.
I see. So that's how it is.
"Oh? You're quite thoughtful. You're a priest too."
He was using the jerky as a snack. Beer might be better, but it's high-quality wine. Let's have him bear with it.
As expected, he was drinking it with a gulping sound.
"This is delicious. It's been this delicious since that man came alone before."
"A man came alone?"
"Yeah. He was a hunter. About two hundred years ago. Come to think of it, no humans have come since then."
A hunter who came two hundred years ago...
"Umm, could that hunter be..."
When I spoke of his appearance and manner, it was the First King.
Two hundred years ago was before the town of Nakanohara moved up to the plateau where it is now.
When I asked the Archbishop, the church already existed.
According to the records, even at that time, this cave was already a secret.
In other words, the First King had snuck into the church and come all the way here alone.
"But why is everyone keeping this place a secret? Only a handful of people know about this place."
"Well, I wonder why."
Since he was smirking, I offered him more wine.
"Didn't they want to hide the place where they receive oracles? They wanted it all to themselves. Some people did."
When I looked at the Archbishop, he was tilting his head.
He didn't seem to have any recollection.
"Just who would do such a thing..."
When asked, the Dwarf said while gnawing on the jerky.
"It was you guys. Your ancestors who crossed over from the continent, stole the land, and slaughtered the humans who had lived on this island since ancient times."
That was apparently more than three thousand years ago.
In other words, it was around the time our ancestors crossed over to this island from the continent.
In the traditions I know, it is said that the people living on the island at that time accepted them with a spirit of coexistence and co-prosperity, but according to the Dwarf, that was a big lie.
They weren't accepted; they stole it.
"It seems they were quiet when they first came to this island. After all, their numbers were small. However, at that time, they could use magic even on the continent, and they had new weapons... steel... and what they call tactics."
Once they had enough people, they immediately began their invasion.
It's exactly the same as the current Engrio. Since they could use magic from the start, they were apparently more powerful than Engrio, and in no time they had carved out the plains spreading across the southern part of the island. It's exactly the same place as the current Kingdom of Engrio.
"Among them, there were tribes that managed to negotiate well and maintain their land. There seem to have been several, but the ones who first concluded negotiations apparently wielded quite a bit of influence, but now they're destroyed and called the Lost Capital."
It came up again. Just what kind of history does the Ruined Town have?
"Well, whether it was through marriage or whatever, they either smooth-talked them or were smooth-talked. They were separated by mountains and the Demon Lord appeared, so the advance of the people from the continent stopped once at the border with those tribes. Since then, they joined hands and killed off anyone who defied them. At that time, priests were apparently in charge of the war. In short, before talking about coexistence and co-prosperity, there were people who were killing off humans, and didn't they want to keep the truth from being known?"
Those people would be the priests. In other words, what would later become the church.
The original inhabitants of this island who resisted were all made into slaves, different from what we now call serfs. Some apparently even fled to the wastelands of the continent.
The people on the attacking side didn't create a large country, but somehow shared the territory they had conquered, becoming a collection of small lords, and each created a village and called themselves a tribe. The people who advanced to the west created the foundations of the later Regnentes and Primordia, and the people who advanced to the north created the foundations of Medioland and Septanaquila.
In the meantime, those invaders stole the lands that the indigenous people held as sacred places, and even encountered the Goddess. As a result, Goddess worship became the most prosperous religion on this island.
There were apparently several large-scale rebellions, but in the name of the Goddess's teaching of coexistence and co-prosperity, the invaders also changed their policy toward reconciliation, and a temporary peace arrived.
On the other hand, the indigenous people who negotiated well attacked and captured the survivors around them, made them slaves, and called themselves a kingdom.
Later, large churches were built in the south and north.
The southern church is the current Ruined Town, and the northern church is apparently the current Medioland Royal Capital Great Church.
To summarize, the ancestors of the nobility came later, and the serfs and commoner classes are the indigenous people.
Of course, priests are of the privileged class.
If it were found out by the commoners...
They surely thought so and hid it.
"Why were the people on the side that managed things well destroyed?"
I tried asking, but I was brushed off.
"If you want to know, move forward. Then you'll understand."
He just said that and smirked.
After a slight silence, the Archbishop finally opened his mouth.
His face was pale.
The shock seemed too great.
"W-Why do you know such things?"
He barely managed to say.
The Dwarf tapped his head with his index finger.
"We Dwarves and the haughty Elves aren't as high-ranking as the Four Great Spirits, but we're just as smart. We have writing. What you guys call ancient characters. We record what we call history with those characters. Those records are kept beyond here. What would happen if those records were to come out?"
The church might lose its authority.
No, regardless of what would actually happen, there would have been people who feared it.
"In other words, they tried to bury it in darkness."
A voice fell from above my head, so I was startled and looked back to find the Headmistress and the others standing behind us before I knew it.