Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~-Chapter 164: Qtar Prison

◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

Qtar Palace was located at the base of Elios Mountain, the tallest mountain in the world.

It was originally the basement of the Palace of Nargol, the God of Destruction, alas it was currently under the management of the Gods of Elios.

The three-level prison in this palace was used to imprison those who dared to rebel against the Gods of Elios.

Some weren't sentenced to the death penalty, others were simply just too difficult to kill.

The majority of the latter category were subordinates of Nargol, the God of Destruction.

And the most ferocious among those wicked Gods was the Wicked Beast, Ferion.

Ferion who was hailed as a bloodthirsty berserker God seemed to know nothing but destruction, a wild beast who rampaged until he died.

It’s said that his power is so great that if he’s released from this prison, he will cause a literal bloodbath in his wake.

For this reason, the Gods of Elios sealed Ferion with the most powerful seal called Gleipnir.

But, this Gleipnir seal would be weakened once every seven years.

It’s said that when that happens, Ferion's roar could be heard all the way to the surface.

Kuna and I were coming down from the upper part of Volundr and arriving before the majestic gate of Qtar Palace.

The reason why I wasn't entering the palace right away was because it was filled with the spirit of darkness, weak creatures would die the moment they stepped in.

Though those with darkness attribute affinity like me could enter the palace, we still had to be very careful.

In front of the gate was the dwarven colony that managed the prison.

The dwarves living in this place were the jailers, they made golems on their own to manage the inside of the prison.

Those golems didn't just do the manufacturing process, they were also for defence. They were the watchers of the prisoners to prevent the prisoners from escaping the prison.

And since many of those golems were stationed at the gate of the prison, those who came to raid the prison wouldn't have an easy time either.

The golems were divided into stone golems, iron golems, and the strongest of the three, the orichalcum golems.

Aside from golems, there were also numerous artificial, metal lifeforms called Talos with their burning blood stationed within the perimeter of the prison.

The Talos Knight Order was the greatest combat force of the dwarves.

That arrangement alone had explained just how much importance they placed on guarding this place.

Moreover, they also built a rampart in front of the gate to prevent most intruders from coming in. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Looking from the outside, it looked more like a fortress than a colony.

And then, a party was held in the said dwarven colony right at this moment.

It was a welcome party for me.

The dwarves gathered at the centre of the colony and formed a ring as they drank booze-like water.

The youth of Fon played the flute as they danced before me.

The light melody of their playing enlivened the atmosphere of the party, the people were dancing along with the tone.

Fon was a tribe that lived in this forest, they had the legs of deer and antlers growing from their heads.

Different from goblins and orcs, they were graceful by nature and didn't antagonize elves and humans either.

In the first place, the Gods of Elios wouldn't blindly kill all Nargolians, some creatures like fairies or mermaids were acknowledged by them.

The Fon species was another one of these examples, they could freely commute in and out of the dwarven colony to play their flutes.

The dwarves sang to match the sound of the flute.

They seem to be enjoying this.

Maybe the welcome party for me was just an excuse, their real reason was for them to drink booze.

「What do you think, Kuroki? Does this look good on me?」

Kuna had cat ears on her head and struck a really adorable pose before me.

Honestly, all of that made her adorableness shoot through the roof.

I had to do my best to hold back from leering at her.

I mean, not in front of the dwarves.

Thus, I ended it with just a pat on the head.

「Yes, you look really adorable, Kuna.」

Kuna was really happy when I petted her head.

As for the reason why Kuna had cat ears on her head, it was simply because many dwarves who lived in this place had catfolk wives.

That's why even if some of them weren't catfolk, they wore cat ears headbands, and the same went for Kuna.

To begin with, catfolk were the citizens of Gypseal and the kin of Nelfriti, the princess of Gypseal and Sekhmetra, the queen of lions.

And Sekhmetra's husband was Heibos, the God of the dwarves, Nelfriti was their daughter.

Was it due to the influence of their God that the catfolk had no problem with marrying the dwarves who were by no means handsome in accordance with human standards?

In that way, the catfolk was a great help to the dwarves who had a hard time finding wives.

The Fon and the catfolk dancers were dancing together.

The dance of Gypseal was similar to belly dance, it was one of the oldest dances in this world.

Honestly, I wanted to enjoy it a while longer but I had to hold back since Kuna was by my side.

「How's the drink, Dark Knight-dono?」

One of the dwarves asked me with a bottle of booze in his hand.

His name was Arberon.

He was appointed by God Heibos as a mediator for the dwarves who lived above ground.

Since he was quite big for a dwarf, he was called a dwarf lord.

He was also the leader of the dwarves in the Kauf region in the northwest and the chief of the dwarf jailers in Qtar.

「Yes, Arberon-dono. Thank you for the welcome party.」

Arberon poured the booze as soon as I raised my cup as I replied to him.

It wasn't ale, it was cider.

I heard that it was brewed in Arseidia, the kingdom of elves.

The dwarven, the people of craft, were actually really bad at processing food. Thus almost all of their food was imported.

Must be because they were the neighbours of the kingdom of elves, Arseidia right?

I wanted to go to see the Kingdom of elves since I was a bit curious. Alas, I might have a hard time visiting the kingdom due to my identity as a Nargolian.

I drank the booze in my cup.

I never drink on normal occasions. But, I really couldn't refuse a drink offered by a friend.

For example, one might be regarded as an enemy if they refuses to drink the horse milk liquor offered by the Centaurs tribe.

That's why I had to at least drink first even if it was just mere formality.

There was no stipulated law for the legal drinking age in this world.

That was the reason why most people in this world drank liquor at an earlier age compared to Japan. There was a case where they had no choice but to drink liquor since they couldn't drink water, but that was only in the minority, it didn't affect the overall drinking age.

Lately, even I have had no choice but to drink liquor.

However, since I knew that liquor affected my combat capabilities, I tried to drink liquor as little as possible.

There seems to be magic that invalidates the alcohol in someone’s system but, since I rarely drink, I've never used that magic before.

Maybe I should refuse the next cup if they offer a second helping.

「It has traces of sweetness and is easy to drink.」

Arberon smiled wryly when I said so.

「Surely it's easy to drink but it's too weak for dwarves like us. Though I wish they made it as strong as possible, the elves only make this kind of liquor. And ever since strange things happened in the forest, the humans who make liquor stopped visiting the forest. The spicy booze has already been running out since a few days ago. My apologies for this, Dark Knight-dono.」

「Don't worry about it. This welcome party is enough for me.」

I mean it. Sorry, but I really am a noob when it comes to the taste of liquor.

The elves prefer sweet liquor while the dwarves prefer spicy ones that burn your throat.

Though the spicy liquor was imported from human countries, the importers didn't come as of late after Dahark and co came to this forest. That was the reason why despite not being very fond of its taste, the dwarves had no choice but to import the liquor from their neighbors, the elven kingdom.

Though the elves' liquor was to my liking, the same couldn't be said for the dwarves who were known for their fondness of booze.

「By the way, Arberon-dono. What are the elves going to do? They should be responsible for the defence above ground and the forest right?」

Strong enemies such as Dahark would be handled by the angels and Alphos.

But, the soldiers that came with Dahark and co had to be handled by the elves in the forest.

So, what was happening here?

「Dunno. Nor did those elves want to tell us about this matter too.」

Arberon replied while heaving a sigh.

Though both the elves and the dwarves are the kin of the Gods of Elios, I heard that they didn't get along with each other.

Though they communicated with each other, they didn't exchange the necessary information.

「Arberon-dono. The Serpent Prince came this time. Don't you think that it's better to confirm the situation on the elven side, just to be safe? Well, they might be unwilling to tell us about the real situation, but…」

Arberon pondered seriously upon hearing my remark.

「Surely, I'm also worrying about this situation. But, Do you have a way to make them tell us the real situation? If you have, then let's go ask them. It's about time for us to send an envoy to purchase ingredients from Arseidia. Let's see the situation at that time.」

Arberon nodded as he spoke.

Well, that couldn't be helped I guess. But, his side might not be able to get that much information.

I wanted to follow the envoy too. Alas, I might be too conspicuous among the dwarves. Nor could I hide my identity either.

But, Dahark and co's trend didn't allow me to leave this place. Was there a way to somehow know about the situation on the elves' side?

When I was pondering about that, Kuna pulled my sleeve.

「What's the matter, Kuna?」

「Kuroki. How about Kuna go to your place to see the situation from the elves' side? If it's Kuna, Kuna might be able to know the situation on the elves' side right away.」

「Eh? But, Kuna will be conspicuous if you go with the envoy.」

Kuna's beauty was really conspicuous.

And someone in there might know about Kuna.

Even if she changed her appearance with magic, the elves were adept at seeing through such magic.

Kuna's magical power was strong but transformation magic wasn't her forte.

Someone might see through her disguise.

「It might be possible. Hey, are the catfolk participating as envoys too? If I change my hair, no one is going to mistake me for someone other than a catfolk right? And even if by some chance someone sees through my disguise, I can use my butterflies immediately.」

Glowing butterflies appeared around Kuna as soon as she spoke.

Kuna was the user of dream butterflies.

Though she couldn't teleport for long distances, short-distance teleportation was possible.

It had high detection ability and enabled its users to gather a lot of information.

Surely, she might be the most suitable person for this job.

「Yes, Milady. Since they're more capable of choosing food ingredients than us, the dwarves, we always bring them along.」

Kuna nodded upon hearing Arberon's remark.

「It's decided then. There's no problem as long as I masquerade myself as one of them. So Kuroki and Kuna will be gone for a bit.」

「Thanks Kuna. But, are you sure about this?」

「Kuna is more than happy to do this as long as it's useful for Kuroki. And there is no problem since those elves are no match for me.」

Kuna said as she sat on my lap, leaning her head on my chest.

Sure enough, Kuna was way stronger than the elves. Even if Alphos came, that guy wouldn't be able to hurt a beauty thanks to his philandering nature. So Kuna was pretty much safe.

「I see, it does sound safe. But please be very careful, Kuna.」

「Leave it to me, Kuroki.」

Kuna replied with a smile.

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