The Forgotten (Arifureta x original character)

Chapter 73: To the Sunken Ruins

Upon getting in the submarine, Hajime takes the controls and begins to drive it away from the area. They then start to make their way in the direction of the Sunken Ruins of Melusine. Remia and Myu stand on the docks and wave goodbye to them as they are going off.

As they are traveling Shea walks up to Zane and says, "I am sorry that we got you into trouble back there. I honestly never thought that just the mention of a pactmaster would cause so much trouble."

"Just imagine if they had found out I was a pactmaster," Zane comments. He then says, "It doesn't matter though. Everything has been resolved at least for now."

"Still, I am surprised that the soldiers would take the accusation of someone being a pactmaster so seriously," Shizuku states.

Kaori adds, "I know. I had not even heard about pactmasters until we found out that Zane was one. Based on how big of a deal they are making about it in Erisen, you would like that it would be a bigger deal in the Capital."

"I am not so sure about that," Tio comments. She then says, "Around the center of the Kingdom it would be difficult for a pactmaster to escape notice by a member of the church. Because of that there is less reason in the center of the Kingdom to get civilians involved in the search for pactmasters. However, out in Erisen, it would be easy for a pactmaster to go unnoticed. Thus, the reason for having civilians acting as informants for the military."

Zane says, "I am not sure if that is why the guards acted like that or not. My guess is that the Holy Church has announced my existence to the Kingdom. This has made the whole kingdom be on high alert like that."

"While that is possible. They didn't seem to have any idea what the pactmaster they were looking for looked like," Shizuku says.

"Yeah, that was weird, "Shea comments.

Zane replies, "It is possible that news of my appearance has not made it this far. It is also possible they never assumed I would come all the way to Erisen so they didn't bother telling the people what I look like."

"Either way, it is a good thing that Nagumo was there to get the soldiers to let us through," Kaori comments.

"I guess that is true," Zane says. He then adds, "However, it will make going back to Erisen more challenging for all of us in the future."

"We can worry about that later," Shea states.

The group continues to talk amongst themselves for a short time. This eventually comes to an end when Hajime announces to the group, "We are nearing the location that the labyrinth is supposed to be in. We will be stopping for the night. Then when the sun comes up in the morning we will begin our search for the labyrinth."

At this point the submarine comes to a stop. Now that they are just floating in the water, the group all heads out onto the deck. Hajime then says to them, "We are going to be here for a while, so you can all do whatever you want. We will start looking for the labyrinth in the morning"

Zane comments, "I am not sure that is a good idea."

"Why do you say that?" Hajime asks.

"I found a passage in the journal of one of the liberators that mentioned this labyrinth. From what I read in order to get to the Sunken Ruins of Melusine you need to use the medallion that you get from the Grand Gruen Volcano," Zane states as he pulls out the medallion.

Zane then continues by saying, "Supposedly to find the Sunken Ruins you need to hold up the medallion to the moon. Then it is supposed to guide the way forward."

"That sounds like something out of a video game," Hajime comments. He then says, "Although I guess we will follow that plan."

Hajime then says, "Well we have some time until the sun sets. You can do whatever you want until then. Since we will be traveling through the labyrinth at night, it might not hurt to get some sleep now."