EP.23 Bad Dog
When I threw the pot at the regressor yesterday, the inside of that pot, which should have been full of stew, was completely empty. Someone had eaten all the stew in the pot before I even arrived.
There were two likely suspects. Either Aji, or some existence hiding in the dining hall.
But the existence hiding in the dining hall was a golem, and golems don't eat food. Naturally, one suspect disappeared, so who the culprit was could now be called obvious.
Aji, subjected to my interrogation, opened his eyes wide and shouted. How about that. Surprised, weren't you?
"You ate all the food?! By yourself?!"
"You ate it!"
"No! Woof! I didn't eat! I'm hungry but I wait! We eat together!"
Despite my fierce interrogation, Aji denied it to the end. Even in this situation where the culprit seemed certain, his insistence on claiming innocence almost shook my cold rationality.
Is he really not? Or is it because he's a dog that he just forgets inconvenient facts and acts stubborn? Telepathy doesn't work on him, so I really don't know. If it were a person, I would have immediately grasped whether it was truth or a lie.
But other non-telepaths besides me live stubbornly even without knowing the truth. When someone lies, they find evidence and witnesses and reach their own reasonably accurate conclusions. Just for today, let me follow their method.
"Anyway, we'll know once we check. Captain ABI! Were you in the dining hall all of last night?"
[Affirmative. This unit connected to this entity around 4 o'clock yesterday and has been collecting information.]
"Then did you also see the person who stole and ate the stew in the pot yesterday?"
[Affirmative.]
"Good. Let's check. Ta-da, ta-da-dan."
I hummed a tune and lifted the golem by its armpits. For some reason, it seemed like a deflating "haah" sound came from the golem's microphone.
Carrying the golem preciously from behind, I looked around once and said.
"Captain ABI. Now, please choose from here. The culprit who crawled out like a rat in the darkness last night and secretly ate the stew in the pot!"
Now, indeed. Who will the golem's finger point to. Well, there aren't that many directions it could point. About one or so?
The golem slowly raised its finger. I watched with anticipation for the future that cold steel would reveal.
The golem's hand pointed toward me.
Huh?
"It was me?!"
Good heavens. A twist that mystery stories should never make! It's really me? Something my unconscious did?
[Negative. It was not pointing at you.]
The golem shook its head and raised its finger again. Looking now, the golem's finger was slightly off to the side from me. Even when I tilted my head to avoid it, it didn't follow.
Wondering what it was, I walked little by little following the golem's finger like finding a water vein. Each time, the direction the golem pointed changed slightly. As I fumblingly searched, correcting the direction each time, eventually at the end appeared an iron lid densely pierced with holes and the drain beyond it. It was a drain for sending water when disposing of leftover food.
It looks a bit narrow for a person to enter. Looking down at the golem with a feeling of doubt.
"...Inside here. There's an existence that stole and ate the food?"
[That is correct.]
"Is there at least a rat inside?"
[That is a foolish question. In Tantalus, no underground beasts or insects exist.]
"Right. There's not even mold here. Damn it..."
Land cursed by the Earth Mother where the Earth Mother's workers cannot invade. Because of that, I was certain that Aji had stolen the food. The only living beings in the Abyss were me, Aji, and maybe the regressor. Among them, if there was a dog most weak to desire and stupid, anyone other than me would have suspected them first.
Moreover, I can read thoughts, so I also knew the fact that the regressor hadn't eaten it. Process of elimination, empirical estimation, all clues pointed to Aji.
But a third party being the culprit. It was a completely unexpected result.
Come to think of it, didn't I faintly hear thoughts from the dining hall last time too? I passed it off carelessly then, but the clue had already been given. It's right to think there's some other existence in Tantalus.
Anyway, the past is the past. What's important now is deciding what to do going forward. I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest, but if I'm going to deal with it anyway, it's better to handle it now while Aji is here. If this is a monster, it would be too much for me alone.
When danger lies ahead, a dog has been humanity's old friend.
"Aji."
"Woof!"
"They say the guy who stole our food is down here."
"Woof woof! Bad!"
"Bad, right? So let's take him out and punish him. Could you take him out for me?"
I'm too scared to take it out myself, so I'll have Aji do it. Dogs are humanity's greatest friends, after all.
Aji came to my side. But instead of immediately digging into the drain, he looked up at me with a still dissatisfied expression.
"But, you, more bad! I, didn't eat! I waited good, but you got mad saying I ate!"
Ah. He remembers that. I hoped he'd forget, but it seems he's not that stupid. It seems dogs have better memory than goldfish after all.
Still, Aji is the king of dogs. A being that can be persuaded with words. A mere dog, I'll talk circles around him.
"Aji. Is that important right now? We have a public enemy. The real thief who stole our food."
"Woof! I, didn't eat!"
"Right. Sorry for doubting you. For now."
"Woof! I, didn't eat!"
"Yeah yeah. I said I'm sorry. Let's be friends from now on."
"Woof woof! Didn't eat! But you shouted I ate! Got mad! Not friends!"
"That's, Aji."
"Bad! Woof! Bad!"
"...."
Phew. Can't be helped.
It's a disaster I brought upon myself. I must pay the price.
I returned to my room and took out the leather ball for the first time in a while. The leather ball had already lost all its air and become flabby after not being maintained for a few days.
Hoo. Sighing deeply, I raised my left arm straight. With my right hand fingers, I rhythmically tapped from elbow to wrist. As I fulfilled the promised somatic, my shabby body squeezed out mana and pushed it up to my left arm.
"I never thought the day would come when I'd be the first to suggest playing ball. It's humanity's shame. But remember, you mutt. I lost, not humanity."
Mana gathers. The mana spread throughout my body flows through my veins toward my left hand fingers. A sense of omnipotence, as if I could achieve anything, is felt at my fingertips. At the same time, I see the limits of this omnipotence. The regret is keenly felt that if I use up all this meager mana that can barely fill one finger, the omnipotence will also end.
Why is my mana so little. Grumbling, I inserted my finger into the ball and chanted the spell of a 0th level formulaic magic.
A 0th level sorcery that causes the phenomenon of bursting air itself.
"Pascal."
With a pop sound, the leather was pulled taut and the ball inflated large. The ball made by sewing small pieces on the inside and large pieces on the outside doesn't let air escape through the gaps even when it inflates suddenly. I pulled out my finger, sealed the hole with alchemy, and carried it back to the dining hall.
There, with eyes sparkling more than ever, Aji had his front paws up on the desk and was wagging his tail furiously. He was excited seeing the leather ball.
I held up the leather ball and said.
"Is playing ball enough?"
"Woof woof! Also tasty food!"
"Alright. I'll make it tasty."
"Awooooo! Good! Good! You, good! Now good!"
"Now then, take out what's inside."
Nodding, Aji ran straight to the drain and dug in with his front paws like a dog digging at the ground. After scratching the floor a few times, Aji stuck his butt out and shoved his head halfway into the drain, finally managing to grab something.
One arm severed below the elbow.
One leg.
This time, a large hand.
And what Aji whined as he pulled out last, was a large torso with only one arm and one leg attached.
A muscular body that looked even harder than a golem, with short beard and hair. It looked like a renowned martial arts master, but its appearance with one arm and one leg torn off was utterly miserable. Vivid muscles stand out on the cross-section.
"Ugh."
I feel nauseous. That's not human, it's a monster.
The cross-section is neat. Just from the traces of twisting, it looks like a giant grabbed and broke off the limbs like playing with a toy, but no blood seeps out and the bones are still intact, making me wonder if it's a well-made human body model. Despite the miserable appearance with limbs torn off, there's not a single bloodstain on the bronze skin, making me tilt my head wondering if it's really dead. But seeing as not a single grain of thought can be heard, it seems certain it's dead.
It seems someone attacked and shattered its entire body, then threw it into the drain. It probably held on for a few days with tenacious vitality, but eventually died lonely in a place no one would find it.
"Oh my. How did you end up losing your life in a place like this..."
The thought I heard then must have been the final death throes. It's sad but can't be helped. I lifted the severed right arm with the intention of burying this fragmented corpse. Even though it's land cursed by the Earth Mother, still it's better to bury it...
When I grabbed the right arm, the right arm also grabbed me back.
Uh.
Huh?
"Kuaaaagh!"
I was so surprised I tried to throw the right arm away. However, the right hand that grabbed me contained tremendous strength, so it only shook along with my hand without letting go.
Crazy, this much strength even with a severed arm? If it had been in perfect condition, it could have crushed my arm with just its grip strength alone.
This isn't the time for this. I flipped my other palm and took out the hidden card. Diamond 1, a trump card made by densely compressing metal with alchemy, sturdy and elastic.
I insert that thin card between the fingers that grabbed me. With a slight twist, the fingers slip and release. After shaking off each finger from the index to the middle one, I barely managed to peel off the right arm and throw it.
"Ha, huh. Hah. What is that?"
The right arm that fell on the floor tried to crawl on the floor with just its fingers, but eventually stopped, perhaps having run out of strength. Before this gore that surpassed horror, I breathed heavily.
As if it already knew, I asked the golem who was looking at the right arm indifferently.
"Captain ABI. What is that?"
[A right arm that moves even when severed. It is presumed to belong to an immortal species.]
"Was that also a trainee?"
[That is correct. When the prison break incident occurred, it was witnessed being killed by another trainee, but it seems it didn't die due to its immortal nature. To think it can revive even from that level of injury, I should raise its evaluation by one level.]
"If something like that existed, you should have told me earlier! You surprised me!"
Aji was curiously tapping the right arm. Every time the right arm twitched, he would startledly back away, and when it became still again, he would return, repeating this pattern. I pushed Aji away and carefully picked up the right arm and tried placing it below the corpse's elbow.
The cross-section fit perfectly, but it didn't attach. The right arm was separated as if it were a completely separate entity and acting independently.
Good heavens. A right arm that moves on its own.
"So you're saying that right arm ate the stew?"
[Affirmative. To heal its body that fell into a state of suspended animation, it instinctively went out searching for food.]
"What. Is that. Scary."
Now a severed hand moves on its own. Tantalus really has all sorts of monsters.
The golem looked at me and asked.
[What will you do?]
"About what?"
[I mean the immortal species.]
"That thing? What am I supposed to do with that?"
At my irritated retort, the golem turned its head and stared into my eyes. From the mineral-like—no, the crystal orb that was mineral itself—a cold light lingered.
[This unit proposes to you, how about eliminating the immortal species before it revives.]
Excuse me?