The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 630: Ruin exploration was a triathlon

How long should we go through this?

I wanted to sigh as we kept walking like a crab, but I didn’t want to waste the air. Fortunately, I could still breathe some air, which means this path wasn’t a dead end. Not that I didn’t believe Shiny, but I failed to factor in the fact that Shiny was a little mole and probably never used a human-sized path.

Anyway, I tried to ask the mole how far we needed to walk, but of course, Shiny did not know the measurement of time and length that we used, and I had no idea how far ten thousand mole steps were. Didn’t even know if Shiny could count to ten thousand.

And so we just walked and walked and walked in silence--since we had no idea if our voice might get carried outside. I still held Renna’s hand, and Jade was casually perching on our connected hands. There was no sign of presence or footsteps, but Heraz let us know he was there when the collapsed ceiling completely covered the gap.

He had sealed any way for people to come through this path. A good decision, since we wouldn’t be using that path anymore. Also, we couldn’t afford the smoke to come into the path. Not only would it endanger us, but someone with a sharp vision might find out about the path from the flow of the smoke.

Anyway, back to crab walking.

We continued for a hundred steps, and then a hundred more, and after about two dozen more after that, Shiny let out a soft screech. It was, however, not fast enough to warn me that my back would no longer have a wall to lean into.

I bit my lips to prevent myself from making a noise as I fell backward. I let go of Renna too late, and she still got pulled by the force, falling onto me. Thankfully, it wasn’t a chasm or anything, just a fork road, and wide enough for Heraz to go and grab both of us, preventing us from colliding.

Phew. I let out a sigh of relief as I was suspended mid-falling by an invisible hand that gradually appeared on my sigh.

"Papa!"

"Sush!" I straightened myself and pressed my finger on my lips, prompting the surprised bird to cover its beak with a pair of colorful wings.

Lifting my fingers, I wrote in the air with light magic and whispered to Jade through telepathy. [We don’t know if our voice could get carried somewhere, so let’s keep quiet]

I recalled seeing a show--or perhaps a movie?--where a conversation happening in a room somewhere could be heard on the other side of the building, carried through the airflow system or something. Anyway, I didn’t want to risk that after going through the worst spelunking I ever did.

Renna, who also didn’t let out a peep when she got pulled earlier, nodded firmly. Our stealth got canceled when we were falling earlier, by the way, but it was fine since we finally arrived at the real secret tunnel--not whatever gap Shiny pulled us through earlier. This one looked like a proper secret corridor made for humans instead of petite creatures.

I looked around, and, after making sure there was no way we would be seen, I created five floating lights around us. I sent two of them to Shiny, and nodded at the mole.

[Go, Shiny!] Jade pointed forward with its wing, and Shiny made a...salute? What did you teach the mole, little bird? Anyway, the mole dashed forward, followed by two of the floating lights.

The path, unlike the one paved outside, felt more rugged here--just like how a secret path should be. While I said it was considerably wider than claustrophobia-inducing space back then, it could only allow one big adult to stand comfortably. Two, probably, if they were as petite as Renna and Aina. No space to get out a sword, definitely, which was good since none of us used it.

But then again, there was no need.

We had followed Shiny for a while, and there was no beast, golem, or traps hindering our progress. This felt like we found a bug in a game and exploited it. At any rate, that Goddess should help us if she wanted to be freed anyway.

As I wandered about how long we should go through this path, Shiny suddenly stopped and the two floating lights showed me a hole in the floor. I remembered that the mole said it fell into a hole in the corner, so...was this it?

What a ’corner’ this was.

[We go down]

Shiny nodded enthusiastically. It seemed like the mole regained its confidence after going back to its home. I sent one of the floating lights down the hole, and peeked around. It seemed to be another path, not a chamber, so our journey hadn’t ended yet.

Phew--it was the right decision to have that teleportation scroll. It would be such a chore to backtrack our path.

Anyway, it seemed to be the second floor that those mercenaries talking about, and the floor looked like it was about five meters down. Pretty high, but fortunately, none of us had any problem with that. We carefully jumped down and listened to our surroundings.

"I don’t think anyone had come down, Young Master," Heraz told me quietly.

The fact that he decided to talk already told me. Among us, of course his detection skill was the best, so I trusted him. Besides, with that smoky chaos, I didn’t think the group would find the second floor that quickly--or even at all.

"Yeah; we can talk again--not," I raised my finger at the slightly opening beak, "--loudly. Stay quiet, okay?"

chiirp~

Jade nodded and landed on my shoulder, nuzzling my cheek. [Can Jade stay with Papa now?]

"Pfft--yeah, you can. We’ll stay together from now on," I looked at Shiny, who was standing beside my feet and tugging on my pants, staring at me with sparkling eyes. I pressed my lips and picked up the mole, patting it gently. "Yes, yes--you did a good job so far. Let’s continue to that small ball’s place, okay?"

Chii! The mole pointed forward and we moved again. Once more, I was in the lead with Shiny’s guidance, while Heraz and Renna followed me right behind.

"Wait, Sir!"

"Young Master--"

Suddenly, Renna shot forward and barred me from going forward. Heraz did the same, but the girl was faster, and I could see his brow raised in pleasant surprise.

"What? Enemy or trap?"

"Trap," she looked up, and the mole in my hand hiccuped. A mole could hiccup?

"It’s okay," I patted the poor creature, who was feeling guilty about not knowing it. "Traps activated by a trigger, Shiny. You were probably just too small or too light for it to react."

Renna nodded in agreement. "Yes, Sir. In this case...probably too short," she said while pointing at an almost invisible plaque on the wall with an old tongue rune carved on it in black. If it wasn’t for the floating lights, I wouldn’t know of its existence.

"Oh--in that case, can we get past without triggering it?" I asked. "Actually, if we can...it would be better to leave the trap alone without destroying it."

"Ah, so if someone comes through this path in the future, they would think no one had ever come before?" Renna clasped her hands.

I shot her a finger gun. "You know it. After all, we want to make it as if no one had found the relic later. It would be best if they think there’s no relic in the first place."

"Alright, I’ll try," she nodded. "Then, I shall take the lead."

With that, the formation changed. I placed Shiny on Renna’s shoulder so the mole could point the way to her. We passed the first trap by crouching, and anything Renna did going forward, we followed. It included pressing ourselves against the wall again, jumping over several meters, actually flying close to the ceiling, and several other acrobatic movements.

They really wanted us to exercise here.

But it was honestly amazing how she managed to spot all the traps and even found a way to go around them, keeping the traps intact for whoever came later. Heraz, following us, was also busy getting rid of any traces like footsteps and stuff.

I knew Heraz could do it too, but I wanted him to concentrate on detecting people or monsters instead--and I was glad I did, because he detected some beasts deeper in, especially when we encountered fork roads.

Naturally, we opted not to kill them because it would leave a trace if we did. I would be able to influence them if they were just normal animals, but corrupted beasts were a druid’s natural enemy. Fortunately, we had our master spy with us.

"Renna, everything you see is a secret--you know that, right?"

"Yes, Sir."

I nodded at Heraz, and he would shapeshift into the beast, telling them to go back and let us pass. Renna was watching everything with widened eyes and clasped mouth, but she was a good girl, so she wouldn’t tell anyone about it--not even Jin, I reckoned. After all, her eyes sparkled even more in admiration each time Heraz transformed.

Mm, mm--we had a pretty good composition, don’t you think? I couldn’t say we went through the path quickly, but things done in secret always needed more time. Gradually, just like that, we arrived at the end of the path.

No--not a chamber where the relic should be. It was the end of the ’ground’ path, because in front of us lay a river...or was it a lake?

Haa...did you want me to swim too?