EP.36 The Underground Fortress Tantalos
Leading two trainees and one animal, I arrived at the lecture room on the 4th floor and immediately began the lesson.
"Now, quiet, quiet. Everyone be silent! Today's lesson will begin."
As always, Aji yawned reflexively and went behind the management office to lie down with his belly on the floor. Even so, it's one thing, but he shows not even a will to understand, let alone comprehend. The difference in wisdom and intellect contained in language is so clear; truly, does that mean the human voice heard by a dog is received equally as the dog's bark heard by a human?
However, a gentleman is one who finds points to learn even from the rude. Though a dog may not know manners, a human cannot stoop to the same level. I spoke to the trainees with as much dignified attitude as possible.
"Today I will tell you a kickass story, so be prepared to be amazed. And please prepare to give a round of enthusiastic applause in advance."
"If it's not impressive, a sharp dagger will fly instead of applause. Give it a try."
Still dissatisfied at being dragged here, the Regressor retorted sharply. Can't even take a joke. I'd only explain because I'm scared of the Regressor.
Lamenting over the teaching authority that has fallen not just to the ground but been shoved into an abyss, I began the explanation with one human and one corpse in front of me.
"To check your concentration, today's lesson will be changed to an active participation format. Bottomless Pit. Does anyone know the meaning of this word? Yes, Trainee Tirkanjaka?"
The vampire gently lifted her parasol and answered in a leisurely tone.
"Is it not a term used by the Earth Mother religion with a meaning similar to hell? The fate of a land that has received the Earth Mother's curse and lost her support."
"Correct! I'll give Trainee Tirkanjaka 10 points! This score will be reflected in my mental ranking later, so save it up well!"
Having paid the reward for the answer with a blank check, I continued shouting.
"That's right. The Bottomless Pit is the hell described by many religions, especially that of the Earth Mother religion. When describing the most terrible space for punishing sinners, the mama's boys of the Earth Mother religion first came up with this concept. Typical of mama's boys, a place without a mother is hell, they say. Goodness, how pathetic."
Rather than a purgatory of burning sulfur, rather than the underworld where one must suffer for eons.
Those who believe in the Earth Mother religion feared losing their footing on the ground. They didn't seek fear from afar. Falling, the dizziness felt when one's feet don't touch the ground, and the terrible tragedy it creates—that was the hell of the Earth Mother followers.
"But you see, that land which must exist in the doctrine of the Earth Mother followers. That hell, too simple and lacking impact for a hell they painstakingly conceived, appeared in reality due to some incident. That place is right here, the Abyss Tantalos."
I tapped the floor with my foot to emphasize that the ground we stand on, this whole place, belongs to the Abyss.
"After the military established a plan to use the Abyss, the hell of a fairly major religion, merely as a prison, Tantalos has been regarded somewhat as a prison for serious criminals. But its essence is not a prison. It is land with no footing. A deep pit where one must fall forever, dying in solitude without time or space. That is the Abyss."
However.
Here, you should feel something strange. You must realize the incongruity and point it out in my words.
Why, then, can we stand on our feet within the Abyss?
One-sided knowledge transfer is not true education. The duty of an educator is to help learners think and deduce for themselves.
Having thrown out the topic, I read the trainees' thoughts.
'Ohh. How interesting.'
'A story known up to this point. When will he talk about the structure of Tantalos?'
"Bark..."
I shouldn't expect anything. They have absolutely no motivation to actively figure something out!
Even the last one isn't a thought! It's really barking!
"Everyone, aren't you curious? How can we stand on our feet in such an Abyss?"
"I am curious. Explain it."
What a bunch of guys with no desire for improvement whatsoever. Do I have to spoon-feed them like baby birds screeching in the nest?
I grabbed a white chalk and headed to the blackboard. I drew two long vertical lines in the middle of the green board. It's the Abyss.
"Now, look. The Abyss is basically bottomless land, therefore a deep pit where one falls forever. Thus, if someone falls into the Abyss..."
I twirled the chalk and held it between my fingers, drawing up magical power from my elbow to process it. A faint alchemical glow at the tip of the chalk shimmered in the air like melting proof of containing mystery. With the enchanted chalk, I drew a stylized person between the vertical lines.
The person drawing stretched its limbs out, glanced down once, then looked forward again. It fell comically, like something out of an outdated cartoon.
"Since it will never reach the bottom, it will keep falling, and falling. It will have a rare experience where death comes before collision."
As if it had really entered the Abyss, the person drawing flailed its limbs, fell to the lower corner of the blackboard... and disappeared below.
Through a simple enchantment on the chalk, drawings made with this chalk can move as I will. The magical power consumption is minimal, so even a magical trash like me can use it sufficiently.
The military's blackboard is double-sided. The person drawing that went behind the board now climbed up the back of the board upside down. Shortly after, the person drawing reappeared at the top of the board and repeated the same falling motion as before.
Now, how about that? My technique.
'It seems moving drawings are common these days. It's fascinating, but... seeing that no one is surprised, it must not be that great.'
'The delicacy in handling magical power is quite good. Hmph, yes. This much is basic, right?'
I showed off a trick worthy of a top-tier instructor, but the reactions are really underwhelming. There's no return compared to the effort I put in. Even the stock market, notorious for its volatility, would be more honest than you guys.
Tch. Now let's stop showing off and just explain.
"But the Abyss merely lacks a bottom; it does have walls. There's nowhere to stand, but there are cliffs surrounding you, aren't there? And if, somewhere on these walls, there's even a small ledge. Or if you make a ledge."
I drew a protruding bump on one of the vertical lines with chalk. The person drawing, which had been falling continuously, finally bumped into the bump and bounced up. The person drawing, flailing its short arms compared to its head, barely managed to set its feet on the bump and stand.
"Like this, you can hold on and stand for a moment, right? Even though this is the Abyss, you won't fall anymore."
Of course, it's insufficient land to eat, sleep, and live on. Because human life demands a minimum amount of space.
However, the vampire, being a corpse that only needs space to lie in its coffin, looked at the drawing and wondered.
"Huh? With that much space, can't one live normally?"
I shook my head at the vampire's question.
"The Earth Mother's curse isn't that lenient. This is merely a workaround. If it's soil you can step on, that too is ground. In the Abyss, even that ground will eventually erode and disappear down below."
As soon as I finished speaking, the bump drawn with chalk melted and slowly flowed downward, and the person drawing standing on it hopped anxiously and pressed against the wall. But it's unavoidable. The Abyss is cursed land. The Mother of All does not permit anyone to stand on this place.
Eventually, the space to stand disappeared, and the person drawing, having lost its small refuge the size of a hand span, continued its endless fall again...
"Now, thus, numerous adventurers threw themselves into the Abyss to find the legacies sleeping below, but instead their own remaining possessions became legacies. They drove nails into the wall and tied ropes around their bodies, but with the entire land subsiding, they too became prey of the Abyss. Stepping upon the lives of fools who only learn if it's poison or food by tasting, people finally gained the wisdom not to approach the Abyss. However, our proud military decided to use even these characteristics of the Abyss."
I drew a large circular plate over the Abyss drawn on the board. On it, I depicted a large five-story building and a tall lamppost. Unless you're an idiot, you'll immediately recognize what that building is.
The vampire let out a small sigh.
"This place."
"Yes. The military built a massive structure. So massive that it's a circular structure covering this Abyss like a manhole cover."
"Manhole?"
"You're a person from a thousand years ago, so you don't know what a manhole is. Just think of it as a well cover. Anyway."
I waved my fingers as if conducting. Then the chalk drawing of Tantalos slowly fell over the Abyss. With a slow but heavy movement like a giant meteorite.
It felt like a 'thud' echoed in my ears. Though it's just a chalk drawing settling down, so there's no way a sound is heard, but the heavy movement and the detail of chalk dust scattering down created the illusion of a sound that wasn't there.
Satisfied with my own presentation, I continued the explanation.
"For the Army Corps of Engineers, concrete was a miracle stone. Using it, they shaped the ground and erected pillars to create a massive structure, and placed it over the Abyss. They released prisoners onto it. In a space cursed by the Earth Mother, all those standing on anything should have sunk below."
However.
The land can sink. But concrete does not. Because it is not a collection of soil and sand, but a separate, single object.
"But this concrete structure that humans extracted, processed, poured into molds with iron frameworks as bones, and designed piece by piece—though made from earth's products, can never be 'land.' It is, after all, a massive structure 'made' by 'humans,' an object. As an object, it should have fallen into the Abyss, but since it is wider than the Abyss's width, both edges are hooked onto the walls. As a result, this Tantalos does not fall but merely sinks. Like this."
The walls of the Abyss flow down like sticky mud. Simultaneously, the massive structure covering the Abyss also gradually sinks downward.
Yet it never falls. A manhole cover may flip, but it doesn't fall through. It slides down slowly, caught on both walls, precariously balancing as it subsides.
"We are living on such sinking ground. Like a piece of bread stuck in the throat."
Let's thank Gamma.
If he hadn't thought of going down to the bottom through the underground of the management office, we wouldn't have discovered this fact. Thanks to him, my knowledge has expanded.
The last knowledge you left behind. I'll put it to good use.
'This land, all of it is an artificial object... I thought it was strange for a rock, but it's astonishing.'
The vampire looked alternately at the blackboard and the ground with an excited face. She even perched her bottom on the coffin and tapped the floor with her toes.
No, don't just be amazed; feel something more.