Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Hauzen Underground

Eris, who was still puffing her chest up arrogantly, spoke as she recalled something .

[Ah, right! Mimir tried to follow me earlier, but I left her back at the castle . I suppose it’s for the best, right?]

[That is indeed for the best . ]

Mimir did have holy knight skills . However, she’s prohibited from using it by law of the kingdom .

Even in a terrible emergency like the goblin shaman incident, she was still judged harshly for breaking the rules .

Fortunately she was exempted from the punishment by the authority of the queen herself .

But there wouldn’t be a second time .

Therefore, I’d rather not put her in a situation where she had to wield a holy sword again in the future .

[That’s why I ordered her to a.s.sist Seto instead . ]

[That really helps . ]

[Ehehehe . I was praised by Fate . That’s got to be a lot of points for me!]

Anyway, we should track and follow Snow through this underground sewer…

What an easy going woman, she was .

[Good grief…can we really act this easy going especially at times like this?]

By the way, our only source of light at the moment was the magic fireball I casted .

I had the night vision skill, so I could see just fine in pitch dark conditions . But that’s probably not the case with Eris and Roxy .

Right then, Eris moved in and embraced me .

[Not bad . It’s nice for a change . I don’t like using Night Vision anyway . ]

[Indeed . The flickering light also looks beautiful . ]

Nn? From their reaction, it seemed that they had their own methods to see in the dark .

With a meek smile, Roxy showed me a magic tool she kept in her breast pocket . The tool was palm-sized, with magic inscription on its surface .

[This has a similar effect to night vision skill . It is quite rare though . ]

Looks like an item unearthed from Gallia .

[Does Eris also have that kind of item too?]

[Nope . In my case, I have various kinds of magic eyes transplanted on me . One of them has a similar effect to the Night Vision skill . ]

[Magic Eyes?]

[To say the least, it’s not l.u.s.t skill’s power . Monsters that lived in the ancient period had magic eyes with varying function . He transplanted many kinds of them into me . ]

He… when she said that, a certain man’s face immediately came to mind . The man who showed up before us earlier today .

And this same man shared a history with Eris as well .

[Libra?]

[…… . yes, it was him . As I’ve told you back on Tetra, he was originally my owner . ]

Roxy hadn’t heard any of that of course . She unintentionally raised her voice .

[Original owner…?]

[Ahaha, don’t give me that kind of look . For those people back then, we humans were no more precious than pebbles in the dirt . ]

[But…]

[I…and the white knights back at the capital shared the same situation . We were the only survivors . Those people, even if they looked like humans, what was inside was…something else . Anyway, that Libra had a particular interest in Mortal Sin skills . ]

In my understanding, Libra had conducted various kinds of experiments on Eris in the name of research . Maybe during those so called ‘researches’, he transplanted the magic eyes on her .

[It’s not all that bad . I’m fine with having them . Some of the magic eyes are useful after all . ]

[I see… But why didn’t you tell me before this?]

[The reason is simple . I don’t want to rely on the magic eyes too often… . or more like I can’t use them . ]

I wondered if there was something wrong with Eris .

[Nn? But you used magic eyes with night vision capability before this, right?]

[I did . It’s the easiest to use actually . ]

[What do you mean?]

[For example, it’s like Fate’s Gluttony skill . ]

Like Gluttony skill? Where is the similarity…?

[So there is a risk in using it?]

[Correct! The eyes weren’t originally mine after all . Therefore, the more powerful the magic eyes are, the greater the burden they imposed on my body . ]

[What’s the worst of it?]

[I might become blind . Worse comes to worst, I might also die from overusing it . ]

Eris chuckled as she said so . I couldn’t really tell if she’s serious or not .

[Then please don’t overdo it . ]

[You’re not one to talk . Am I right, Roxy?]

[Exactly! Whenever he got away from our sight, Fate always stormed off to do something dangerous!]

[That’s… . . ]

I couldn’t refute that .

So I chose to steer the conversation back on topic .

[So Libra captured Eris, and conducted various kinds of experiments on you?]

[I think it’s more like I was born to serve that purpose . ]

[Nn? Say again?]

[Look, you remember what Envy was trying to do back at Gallia?]

As we kept walking, Eris gave a regretful look on Roxy .

[Could it be, when it tried to kill me back then?]

[Un, I’m truly sorry for that . Envy is also reflecting on it . ]

While saying so, Eris tapped on the black bayonet on her waist .

Is Envy really reflecting on it? Honestly I don’t know . I hadn’t heard its voice again ever since our battle on Gallia .

It’s always been Eris who said that .

Probably realizing what I was thinking about, Eris chuckled .

[Envy is prideful in nature . It had the upper hand, yet still got beaten by you in the end . It’s already doing its best by not complaining while being around you . ]

[Humph, and I still haven’t forgiven it for that incident yet . ]

[Now now, I survived in the end . Rather than me, think about the other people who suffered from the Tenryu’s attack instead . ]

Roxy might say that… But she also lost her father, Mason-san to Tenryu’s attack .

He’s back alive now, thanks to the Door to His land opening… When I talked to Mason-san, his reply was similar to Roxy .

Quoting what Mason-san said, when the entire situation forced us, there’s nothing we can do about it .

[Then, what does it have to do with the attempt to kill Roxy?]

[Fate, you are leaking killing intent now . When it comes to Roxy, you always get easily riled up . ]

[Just get on with it already!]

Since I urged her to, Eris relented and continued her story .

[Good grief, how impatient . Envy deliberately overlooked the tyranny of the Holy knights . Even when the hatred of the people kept acc.u.mulating, it pretended to not be aware of that . Do you know why?]

[Indeed…when I talked to it back then, it mentioned something about producing a Crown-tier human . ]

[You remember well! Good, good!]

I brushed away Eris’ hand when she tried to pet my head .

She’s playing around again . However, her expression turned serious again as she turned to Roxy .

[When Mason died, Roxy had to take his place as a guard against the Tenryu . It was pretty much sending her to death, and the hatred of the commoners would’ve reached the peak . ]

[If, hypothetically, I was killed back then, what kind of person would be born from it?]

Eris took a deep breath before slowly answering Roxy’s question .

[Our kind . ]

[Don’t tell me…]

[Yes, the Mortal Sin skill holders . We were born out of people’s hatred . ]

Hearing that for the first time took me off guard .

Born out of hatred… . At the same time, I found that everything made sense now .

Eris’ expression changed when she noticed the look on my face . Roxy also looked at me anxiously .

[I thought you’d be more upset than that . ]

[Looking back again, I understand now . Eris also told me before, didn’t you? That Envy did everything to find a replacement for you . ]

[Yup… . . you are right . I guess I did give you a hint back then . ]

[But seriously, thanks for telling me all this . ]

Eris was stunned wide eyed .

[I never thought you’d thank me . Knowing your past, I honestly thought that such words would never escape your mouth…]

[If it was the old me, maybe I would take it badly . But now, I know that I’m not alone . ]

I put my hand over Greed, and glanced at Roxy .

Then I recalled each person I met during my journey .

[Moreover, I have stopped living in my past . Thanks to Roxy . ]

How I was born is something I couldn’t do anything about .

In the past, these kind of thoughts always crossed my mind . I wish I did that instead…If only I did this at that time . There were always some regrets after knowing the result . But time cannot be rewound back .

After fighting Rafal, I was made aware of this by Roxy .

The importance of living in the present, rather than staying in the past . I would never forget that warmth .

[That’s why, I don’t know if I can do it as good as Roxy did to me, but I intend to teach Myne the same thing . ]

[I see…hopefully you’ll get through her . That feeling of yours… But it will be an uphill fight . Myne is strong, much more than you know . Can you really defeat her?]

[I know . In order for her to listen to me, I need to defeat her first . Otherwise whatever I say will amount to nothing . ]

As we proceeded through the dark underground, we finally arrived on an opening .

It’s obvious an artifact of the past . I recognized the markings . It’s similar to those structures I saw in the capital’s military district .