Chapter 23: 23

Chapter 23 – A Bad Dog

Yesterday, when I threw the pot at the regressor, the pot that was supposed to be full of stew came out empty. Someone had eaten its contents even before I had arrived.

There were only two possible culprits: Azzy or something that was hiding in the cafeteria.

But that ‘something in the cafeteria’ was a golem, and golems don’t eat.

By process of elimination, it was painfully obvious who it was.

Azzy shouted with eyes wide open after my interrogation.

How’s that? You shocked?

“You, eat everything?! By yourself?!”

“You’re the one who ate everything!”

“No! Woof! I not eat! Hungry but wait! Eat together!”

Even through the forceful interrogation, Azzy denied it to the bitter end. Her adamant pleading of innocence was enough to shake my cold heart.

‘Was it really not her? Or is she just being a dog? I can’t tell because her mind is that of a dog. If she were fully human, I would have been able to decipher the truth. But all the other quack-mind-readers get on with their stingy lives without knowing the truth. When someone lies, they go press on for “clues” or “proof” and whatnot then make a “correct” decision on their own. Let’s just try that for today.’

“We’ll know when we check the evidence. Captain Avey! Was there someone in the cafeteria last night?”

[Affirmative. This unit was collecting information from 0400 yesterday.]

“Then did you see who stole and ate the stew from the pot yesterday?”

[Affirmative.]

I gleefully lifted the golem by the sides. It felt like some air came out of it.

As if it had let out a long sigh or something.

After lifting the golem carefully from behind, I looked around before speaking.

“Captain Avey. Now, pick from the crowd. Show us the criminal who came out of the dark like a rat and stole the stew last night!”

‘Let’s see. Which direction will the golem point? Well, there aren’t many directions it can point to begin with. Surely at least one, though. Right?’

The golem slowly lifted its finger. I waited in anticipation of the future-revealing cold steel.

The finger pointed in my direction.

…Huh?

“It was me?!”

‘No way. The twist that should never happen in a detective story! Is it really me? Had I really done it unconsciously?’

[False. The finger is not pointed at you.]

The golem shook its head and pointed again. Upon re-examination, it was slightly off of me. It didn’t chase me as I tilted and moved my head around.

I slowly walked towards the spot with the golem in hand, moving around as if I were following divinations for water. Every so often, the finger’s direction adjusts ever so slightly. As it adjusted its position more and more, a sewer drain beyond a hole in a steel cover could be seen in its direction. It was the drain that was used to dispose of leftovers.

It looked a little too small for a person to fit in there. I looked down at the golem in doubt.

“…In here? The thing that stole the food is in here?”

[That is correct.]

“Is there a rat or something in there?”

[That is a dumb question. Not even bugs exist in Tantalus.]

“True. There aren’t even bacteria in here. Fuck…”

A land cursed by Mother Earth. So much so that all earthly beings couldn’t infiltrate it. Because of this, I was sure that it was Azzy who stole the food. The only living beings in the abyss were me, Azzy, and the regressor. Amongst us, Azzy was a stupid dog who was the weakest against temptation that anyone else would have also doubted her as the number one suspect.

And, with the fact that I could read minds, I knew that the regressor didn’t do it. Every process of elimination and estimations based on experience pointed to Azzy.

However, for a third person to be the suspect was just way too unexpected.

‘Now that I think about it, wasn’t there a mind that could be heard faintly in the cafeteria? At the time, I just dismissed it. But now, the answer was right there. It’s right to think that a different being is living in Tantalus. Anyway, the past is gone. What’s important now is making decisions about the future. I don’t want to poke at a beehive, but it’s probably better to do it now when I have Azzy present. If it’s a monster, I wouldn’t be able to do anything on my own.’

In the face of danger, the dog was the man’s best friend.

“Hey, Azzy.”

“Woof!”

“Apparently, the guy who stole our food is in there.”

“Woof, woof! Bad!”

“Bad, right? So let’s go punish it for that. Can you pull it out?”

It was too scary for me to do it, so I got Azzy instead.

Because a dog is a man’s best friend.

Azzy came to my side. However, instead of digging out the drain, she looked up at me with a displeased face.

“But you, more bad! I didn’t eat! I waited good, but you, angry I ate!”

‘Ah, she remembers all of that. I was hoping she forgot about it already, but it seems that she isn’t that stupid. Well, I did hear something about the dog having better memory than a goldfish.’

But Azzy is the Dog King. Something I can convince with words. You literal dog, I’ll roast you in the heat of my silver tongue.

“Azzy, is that really important right now? We have a mon enemy. The real criminal behind our stolen food.”

“Woof! Azzy didn’t eat!”

“Yeah. I’m sorry I doubted you. For now.”

“Woof! Didn’t eat!”

“Yeah, yeah. I said I’m sorry. Let’s get along from now on.”

“Woof-woof! Didn’t eat! But you yell I ate! I angry! We not get along!”

“Sure, Azzy.”

“Bad! Woof! Bad!”

“…”

Sigh. I can’t do anything about it can I?

It’s a self-inflicted calamity. I should pay the price.

I went back to my room and pulled out the leather ball from a while back. The ball was already flat from just a couple days of negligence.

Let out a deep breath and lifted my left arm up straight into the air. I rhythmically tapped up from the elbow to the wrist with my right finger. As I performed the promised somatics, my body squeezed some mana out and into my left arm.

“To think the day I initiate the ball game would e. It’s a human’s disgrace, but remember it well, you mutt. Humanity hasn’t lost. It’s only me.”

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The mana gathered. What was once spread throughout my body rode up my bloodstream and towards my left finger. I could feel a sense of near-omnipotence at the tip of my finger. At the same time, I could feel its limits. I could also feel the disappointment in realizing that, upon using the mana pool that could only fill my finger, I would lose this feeling of power.

Why is my mana pool so small?

I put my finger in the ball as I chanted a 0 level spell while plaining about it.

The event of exploding the air, the 0 level magic that called it.

“Pascal.”

With a bang, the ball tensed up as the leather stretched out. A ball made of a small piece on the inside and a large piece on the outside didn’t leak air when blown up in an instant. I pulled my finger out of the ball, closed the hole with alchemy, then headed to the cafeteria with it in hand.

There, an Azzy—who was more excited than ever before with her front paws on the table and tail wagging—was there.

I spoke as I lifted the ball.

“Will a ball game be enough?”

“Woof, woof! Yummy food too!”

“Sure. I’ll make yummy food.”

“Awoooo! Good! Good! You, good! Now good!”

“Now, get that thing out of there.”

After nodding, Azzy headed straight for the drain and stuffed her hands in as if she were digging up the ground. After scraping the end of it a couple times, she put her head halfway in with her butt pointing to the sky and finally started pulling something out.

An arm that was severed below the elbow.

One leg.

A large hand.

And the last thing she pulled out struggling was a large body with only one arm and one leg attached.

A muscular body—that almost looked harder than the golem—with a short mustache and hair. It looked like a noble monk’s body, but its severed appearance was gruesome to no end. Its cross section showed very toned muscles.

“Uwegh—”

I can feel a gag reflex ing.

That’s not a human, that’s a ‘human’.

The cut itself was clean. If you only looked at the disjoint, it looked twisted off, as if a giant twists a toy’s arm and leg off while playing with it. However, there were no signs of blood, and the bones were intact like it was a perfectly made anatomical figure. The disconnected arm and leg made it look gruesome, but the fact that there were no blood stains on its brownish skin would make you wonder if it was actually killed.

But seeing how I couldn’t hear a single thought, it must be dead.

‘Someone probably attacked it, chopped it up, then chucked it into the drain. It might have survived for a couple days through sheer will power but ended up slowly dying away since no one found it.’

“Dang. To meet its fate in a place like this…”

‘The thought I heard before must be its very last thoughts. It’s unfortunate, but nothing can be done about it.’

I picked up its right arm, thinking of at least burying its cut-up body.

This might be a cursed land, but surely it’s better to be buried…

As I grabbed the arm, it also grabbed me.

Huh.

…

Huh?

“UWAAAAGH!”

I tried to throw the arm away in freight, but it had incredible strength that it only shook along with my arm and didn’t fall off.

What the fuck? A severed arm has this much strength??? If it were still an intact arm, it would have crushed my arm with its grip!

This is not the time to panic.

I flipped my other wrist around and pulled out a hidden card. An ace of diamonds, a trump card posed of fine and dense metal made by alchemy that was strong and tensile.

I put the thin card between me and the fingers that were grabbing me. By twisting it slightly, the fingers slid off. By this method, I pried off the fingers from the pinky to the middle finger. Eventually, I was able to barely throw the arm off.

“H-Huff. Huff… What is that?”

The arm that had fallen to the ground tried to crawl up using its fingers but stopped as if it had lost all strength. I gathered my breath after the horror and gore in front of me.

I asked the golem that had an unimpressed air, as if it had already known.

“Captain Avey, what is that?”

[A severed hand that moves. It can be concluded to belong to that of an Undying.]

“That used to also be a trainee?”

[Correct. When the prison break happened, trainees were killing each other. But it seems that it is still alive due to it being an Undying. To be able to revive from such a wound, I should raise its evaluation level.]

“You should have told me about it earlier! It scared me!”

Azzy poked at the arm with curiosity. She jumped back every time the arm twitched, then came back every time it calmed down. I pushed Azzy out of the way then lifted the right arm carefully, trying to stick it onto the corpse’s elbow.

The arm itself fit perfectly, but it didn’t stick. It moved and acted as if it were a pletely separate being from the body.

Holy… An arm that moves by itself.

“So you’re telling me that right arm took the stew?”

[Affirmative. It had sought out food in an effort to regenerate the muscular mass it had lost being in a state of suspended animation.]

“What. The fuck. That’s scary.”

Now there’s an arm that moves on its own. There really are a whole lot of different monsters in Tantalus.

The golem looked at me to ask.

[What are you going to do?]

“About what?”

[The Undying.]

“That? What am I gonna do with that?”

At my temperamental response, the golem glared. From its inorganic-esque, no, inorganic eyes came a cold light.

[I suggest that you dispose of this Undying before it revives.]

Huh?

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