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CHAPTER 201: THE BOMB DISMANTLING

CHAPTER 201: THE BOMB DISMANTLING

~ Ruzarc’s Point of View ~

As the view before my eyes switched, Cinque-san was already waiting for me, just as Kinu had said. This means that this must be the core room of the Alline Dungeon.

I have teleported back to the dungeon a few times before, but I did not fully understand how exactly it was supposed to work. I think the title “Subordinate” was probably a kind of “key” that allowed me to use dungeon-related Skills.

Aun and the others probably used it without thinking about such things at all, but those of us who make a living by creating Magical Tools, including myself, couldn’t really help it but to wonder how this phenomenon worked.

「I have been waiting for you, Your Highness Ruzarc. I will guide you to the basement of the arena where the bomb was planted right away.」

「Yes. Thank you very much.」

「No matter what happens, I will also protect you, so please follow me without worry. However, we will be in a bit of a hurry, so I would appreciate it if you could overlook some rough scenes on the way.」

「Yes, I understand. This is an emergency situation after all, so I have accepted that it is unfortunately inevitable.」

It was safe to assume here that my brother Fernando’s goal was either to capture or kill me. If that was the case, then if the enemy soldiers find me in Alline, the situation would become greatly disadvantageous for us.

So what should we do about the enemy soldiers who would come across us……? Well, we did not have all that many options available to us.

「Now then, please put this on for the time being. Unfortunately, it does not have any special effects like preventing you from being recognized by the enemy, but it’s still better than not taking any precautions at all.」

「Oh, thank you very much. I wonder if Aun prepared this for me in advance, too?」

「Yes, that’s right. This is the equipment piece that Aun instructed Urus-sama, the core of the Alline Dungeon, to prepare in advance.」

With that, he handed me a hooded cloak that covered my entire body. It was true that if I pulled the hood down, it would be harder for the enemy to find out who I really was. Although it was normal for such equipment to be prepared in advance, it was not something that could usually be done in such a short amount of time. It really made you realize just how extraordinary the existence of the “Dungeon Master” really was.

After traveling with Cinque-san for about twenty minutes or so, I was able to safely arrive at the first basement floor of the arena where Kinu and the others were already waiting for me.

On the way, we came across several enemy patrols, but Cinque had knocked them all out before they were able to recognize me. It seemed there was no need to worry about my identity being found out after all.

Speaking of Cinque, I had a strong impression of him massacring enemy soldiers during the invasion of the Ibuldia Empire, but the main factors at the time were that Drake-kun had been heavily injured and it was a war scene, and normally he was probably more of a rational type, like this time around. However, he was still mighty terrifying when he was angry……

But, that was not the issue now, as we had to focus our efforts onto the bomb.

「Welcome back, Cinque. And you too, Prince Ruzarc, we have been waiting for you.」

“Yeah. I’m sorry it is going to be so fast and abrupt, but I want to know what kind of information we know about the bomb so far.」

「Of course. I will explain that for you now: first, as you can see, the bomb is installed in a huge water tank. I think its shape is made by combining a few Magical Tools together, but I don’t know the details. I do know, however, that it is not a time-bomb. I did not go near it for the time being, leaving it like it was initially installed, thinking that I would refrain from removing it or messing with its shape until you arrive at the scene, Your Majesty.」

「Yeah, I can see that. And I am glad that you left it installed instead of trying to mess with it. Well, I will check it out for the time being. From what I can see, it does not look like it’s going to explode right away, so I don’t think there’s any need for us to worry about that.」

I then checked the type and combination of the Magical Tools one by one.

First, the ignition Magical Tool. This was not that much different from the ones used in ordinary households. I did not find anything particularly strange about it, either…… No, this one was actually a dummy. The other ignition Magical Tool was visible in the back and it was the real thing. It would activate when you would try to remove the dummy. Nelfie was right not to touch it carelessly, otherwise it would not have been strange if it had exploded by now.

Next was the main body of the bomb. This was not a simple Magical Tool, but a hybrid type that also used real gunpowder. Even if we were to dismantle the Magical Tool itself, if the gunpowder would ignite, it should have enough firepower to destroy this water tank in its entirety.

Hmm, that’s quite interesting…… My brother was really talented, to be able to create such a difficult to deactivate device by combining such simple mechanisms…… Still, it really was shaped like a piece of a puzzle. It would probably take quite a while to dismantle it all in a neat and clean fashion.

「I have figured out the general shape of the bomb. We will start dismantling it from here on out.」

「Nnh. Let me know if anything happens. I will keep an eye on the surroundings so you can concentrate properly on your job, Ruzarc.」

「That would be great. But I would like someone to help me out here……」

「In that case, I will help you out. I am probably more experienced than the others at dismantling traps like this one.」

「Yeah. I think I can trust you with this thing a whole lot, Nelfie-san.」

So we started dismantling the bomb right away, but it was indeed quite difficult to do so. There were parts of it where two Magical Tools had to be removed at the same time, and there were mechanisms set up everywhere that would turn on if the order of deactivating the Magical Tools turned out to be incorrect.

It took us about an hour to finish dismantling about half of it, but then I suddenly noticed something was clearly off.

「This is…… This has many mechanisms attached to it that make it more difficult to dismantle, rather than increasing the power of the explosion……?」

「What do you mean?」

「Well, how can I put it……? It seems like this bomb’s purpose is not to explode, but to keep you occupied with dismantling it and to delay the time it takes you to do so……! What is this……?! Damn it! Is that what you wanted to do from the start!?」

After removing the unnecessarily large Ignition Magic Tool, I found another small Magic Tool hidden right behind it. At the same time, my sense of incongruity turned to certainty. I then removed the small Magic Tool from the bomb itself and immediately stepped on it, destroying it.

「Your Majesty Ruzarc, I would appreciate it if you could explain what you meant by what you said just now.」

「This thing is the Magic Tool used for eavesdropping! Fernando’s purpose was to lure me to the royal capital and get more accurate information about us and our movements this way!」