n

n

n“The person who oversaw this place must have been a nice person. There aren’t any weird riddles we need to solve or keys we need to find.”

nLapis, while jogging toward where it seemed to be the control room, was evaluating the person who oversaw the facility.

n“Mean people would make up riddles that would make you want to rip your heart out trying to figure out.”

n“You serious?”

nLoren didn’t really get it, but he wondered what kind of ruins Lapis had explored before this one.

nHe wanted to ask her, but had a feeling that she would start talking about something unspeakably terrifying, so he was scared to ask.

n“I’ve read it in a book.”

n“I’m sure you did.”

nLapis somehow guessed what Loren was thinking, and gave a reply, but to Loren, it sounded like nothing but an excuse.

nHe would believe her even if she said that she explored tens and twenties of ruins already. This is what his image of Lapis was at this point.

n

n

n“I really did read it in a book, you know!?”

n“Okay, let’s say that that’s true, so hurry up and lead us to the control room!”

nSurprisingly, it wasn’t Loren that rushed Lapis, but it was Ritz, who was running right behind them.

nAlthough he chose to follow Loren and Lapis, it didn’t change the fact that half his party couldn’t fight and they didn’t know when more goblins would appear.

nLoren thought that if it were just goblins, Ritz could handle them on his own, but the fight with the mock-goblin seemed to make him want to avoid goblins at all costs.

n“Man, this quests sucks.”

n“Can’t say that I don’t understand that feeling.”

nLoren understood that Ritz couldn’t help but curse.

nHe didn’t know much about exploring ancient ruins, but he didn’t believe that there would be many of them that would take them to one such as the one they were in right now.

nHe thought that Ritz and his party were very unfortunate to have chosen this quest, but Lapis softly whispered to him.

n“We’ve wandered into these ruins, you know? We’re way unluckier than they are.”

n“Can you read minds or something?”

n“Loren, you keep writing your thoughts all over your face. You should really be careful, okay?”

nAt Lapis’ words, Loren reached up and rubbed his face.

nWhen he was a mercenary, he never looked straight at a person’s face and tried to guess what that person was thinking.

nNo one had said that to Loren until Lapis had just now.

nBut since Lapis had accurately guessed what he was thinking so many times already, he decided that his emotions and thoughts must really be easily guessed by looking at his expression.

n“In comparison, I would say that the party that was competing against Ritz’s would be the unluckiest.”

n“Yeah, well…I guess that’s true.”

n“Well, enough chatting for now. We’ve arrived.”

nLapis stopped in front of a pair of large double doors.

nIt didn’t have a keyhole or handles on it, so Loren wondered how Lapis was going to open them. He watched her walk up to them with the manual in hand, and with her other hand, swiftly traced a part of the doors.

nThe parts where Lapis traced started glowing and the doors opened forward without a sound.

n“That’s impressive.”

n“It’s too early for compliments.”

nThe room they walked into was quite large.

nLined up and stacked up across the wall from the entrance were a large number of boxes, and there were words in the Ancient Kingdom language written on them.

nIt was a dreary room with nothing else inside it, but Loren looked at the walls on either side and saw large double doors on both.

n“This is the control panel. This can control the whole facility.”

nLapis walked up to one of the boxes and touched the surface, then started hitting it.

nAs soon as she started doing that, the words on the boxes started to change.

nBut all Loren could tell was that they were changing, and had no idea how they were changing.

n“Can you do this?”

n“Of course. You can count on me. This is a piece of…”

nLapis stopped talking.

nLoren looked at what Lapis was staring at and saw that red words on the surface of the box.

n“Uh, what?”

n“What’s wrong?”

n“This is weird. It keeps kicking me out when I try to operate it. I was able to turn on the control panel and all I need to do is send the shutdown signal…”

nLapis, looking unsatisfied at the result, tried again to gain control, but the red words popped up again.

nLoren didn’t know what they said, but he did know that Lapis failed to gain access yet again.

nWhile Ritz and the others looked on with anxious looks, Lapis knitted her brow and read through the manual again and tilted her head.

n“This is strange. I didn’t mess up operating it.”

n“If that isn’t the problem, do you have any idea what might be?”

n“If there was anything I would’ve fixed it already…I wonder what’s wrong? Maybe the control panel itself became weird after all the time that passed? If that’s the problem, there’s no way to fix it.”

nAs she said that, Lapis traced her fingers on the box once again.

nThis time the whole surface flashed red and black words started flowing across the surface.

nThe sudden change made Ritz and the others back off, and Loren, who was surprised as well, continued to watch over Lapis. Lapis put her hand on her chin and started thinking, and after a moment clapped her hands together.

n“That’s right. This is a laboratory.”

n“What about it? Anyways, what’s with the red box and the words on them?”

n“There are always researchers inside laboratories.”

n‘That’s…I guess there is.”

n“Researchers are usually registered into the laboratory’s system.”

n“So, what? What are you trying to say here?”

nLoren couldn’t understand what Lapis was talking about and began to get irritated, but she took no notice of it and traced her finger on the box’s surface once again.

nMeanwhile, the words that were flowing across the surface of the box sped up, and the light that was being emitted from the walls became disgusting shade of red as well.

nThen the three doors on each wall fully opened.

n“H-hey. What’s going on?”

nRitz asked Lapis nervously, but she replied without even looking up, with her hands still moving furiously.

n“I’ve failed the biometric authentication.”

n“Biometric…What?”

n“This control panel is only supposed to be operated by researchers registered into the system. Since someone that isn’t registered, in this case that would be me, tried to operate it, it kicked me out.”

n“What?”

nRitz and the others started panicking as they finally understood what was happening, but Lapis paid no attention to them and kept working.

n“Since I failed to send the shutdown command three times, it locked me out. I can’t operate it.”

n“Is that what the red and black words are talking about?”

nAlthough Loren asked Lapis, a part of him knew that he was wrong.

nHe felt himself becoming more pessimistic by the minute, but after all the bad things that kept happening to him, he started to think it might be okay to have pessimistic thoughts.

n“That’s incorrect. The red words in the beginning were warnings, but these black words aren’t.”

n“Then what does it say?”

n“To put it simply, the system recognized us as intruders.”

nAlthough Lapis said it like it was nothing, the reality that they were facing wasn’t something that should’ve been said so lightly. At Lapis’ words, Loren smiled weakly, and the rest of them turned pale.

nDuring all that, Lapis continued to work.

n“What are you doing!? This is really bad!”

nRitz tried to grab Lapis, but Nim and Jack, who managed to stay calm, held him back.

nThey did so because they knew lashing out at Lapis wouldn’t do anything, but their worry and anxiousness could be seen on their faces.

n“The facility’s defense mechanism just activated.”

n“Can you be more specific?”

nIt may have been obvious for some people, but Loren had no idea what was going to happen.

nAfter Loren had asked for an explanation, Lapis put her thoughts together and explained their current situation.

n“The ruins have recognized us as foreign existences, and will eliminate us using goblins.”

n“What are we going to do?”

n“I believe that all the goblins that are already produced will all rush towards this room, so for the time being, please keep them away.”

nRitz and his party’s faces were filled with despair.

nLoren grabbed the handle of his great sword and prepared for battle.

nIf the mock-goblins came it would be quite a hard fight, but there was a chance that they wouldn’t show up.

nThere were three entrances, but he didn’t think that many of them would swarm in at once. As Loren thought that if it were a few of them at once they still had a good chance, he heard Lapis’ voice.

n“I’ll try to fool the system. Once I get in, it won’t matter how many goblins are here.”

n“I just have to buy you some time, right?”

n“I’m sorry. I’ll be defenseless while operating this, so.”

n

n

n“How do you even know how to do that, anyway.”

nAlthough he felt hopeless, Ritz must have realized that fighting was the only choice they had right now. Ritz asked Lapis as he readied his sword and shield.

n“I’m a priest of the Knowledge god, after all!”

n“You can’t say that every time, you know that?”

nLoren snapped at her convenient excuse.

nPart of him was trying to warn Lapis that it won’t work for everything, but the other part was trying to save the reputations of other priests of the Knowledge god that were out there. He also didn’t want Ritz and the others to get a mistaken image of them, either.

n“I haven’t said anything that isn’t true you know?”

n“I guess you haven’t, but…Never mind, just keep doing what you’re doing.”

nAs much as Loren wanted to defend the priests’ reputations, he reminded Lapis that there were other things they had to do right now. Lapis nodded and went back to focusing on the control panel.

nーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

n