Chapter 183

#183 Chapter: The Tin Knight and the World Inside the Library (3)

“I don’t usually have any use for it, but I might as well make use of it now.”

At Dorothea’s words, Adelheid looked a bit anxious and asked, “Um, is it really okay? What if something goes wrong…?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ cheerfully states that the original third option is always fun and supports it!]

“Well, I must say, how this will unfold is quite interesting. I’m on board too.”

“…I’ll just agree too,” the Little Lion quickly conceded, bringing the group to unanimous agreement as they lightly ignored the boxes and drinks on the table and opened the door with Opium’s key.

Then, a voice echoed through the air.

《-You opened the door with the key you possessed. The key fit perfectly as if it had been one with the lock all along.》

“Did that voice just stutter a little?”

“Maybe it took some time to process an unexpected choice?”

What lay beyond the door was a large hallway.

The width was so ample that several wagons could race alongside each other, and the height was staggering.

The doorway the group had exited felt like a tiny back door.

“Which way should we go, left or right?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that when in doubt, left is the way to go!]

“So where’s this baseless confidence coming from?”

Kugugugugugugu.

“Hey, do you hear that strange sound?”

As Adelheid turned her gaze down the corridor, the other group members also looked that way.

And they saw it.

A massive torrent rushing toward them from the far end of the hallway.

The judgment of the two martial artists was swift.

Adelheid immediately attempted to open the door they had just come through, while the Tin Knight prepared to toss the others through the door.

Clang! Rattle rattle rattle!

However, the door that had opened so easily moments ago was now tightly shut and wouldn’t budge an inch.

Considering that Adelheid, wielding Amaryllis’ belt, could easily crush iron bars, the door’s durability was unsettlingly impressive.

Dorothea tried to use Opium’s key to open it again, but before she could, the torrent enveloped the group.

After being swept away in a frenzy for a moment, the Tin Knight shouted.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to grab onto him!]

Sofia and Dorothea were already held tightly by the Tin Knight’s grip, so only Adelheid needed to respond.

As the Little Lion managed to grasp the Tin Knight’s legs even in the torrent, the Knight began to channel magical power downward.

His body, which was close to the ground, floated upward towards the surface.

Whoosh!

Holding onto the instant surfboard or armor raft that was the Tin Knight, Adelheid was the first to regain her balance and get on top.

As she pulled the other two up with her, the trio found themselves aboard the Tin Knight.

As Dorothea fueled the Tin Knight with magical power, she expressed her irritation.

“What is this?! First, there was a hole that suddenly got bigger, and now a water deluge!?”

“Um, Dorothea?”

“What?!”

“I get how you feel, but it seems like this isn’t the end of it yet?”

“What?”

Following Sofia’s gesture, Dorothea looked to the side.

There stood a giant mouse, swimming alongside them and splashing around.

A voice suddenly echoed from above.

《As you opened the door and stepped into the hallway, a sudden torrent swept you away.》

《Having somehow succeeded in staying afloat, you discovered the giant mouse swimming next to you.》

《The mouse doesn’t seem to have realized your presence yet.》

Plong!

《You can either speak to the mouse, or try to hide your presence so it won’t notice you─》

The voice abruptly cut off.

Adel and Sofia exchanged glances between the giant mouse, now sinking with a loud explosion, and Dorothea, who was caught in the act of throwing something.

After struggling to stuff an unthrown grenade—no, a corpse bomb learned from Shylock—back into Hyden’s glove, they locked eyes.

“What, what, why?”

The Tin Knight couldn’t fight properly, and since they were on a flowing surface, there was little stable ground for Adel to fight on.

It seemed a given that they should first subdue a clearly dangerous creature nearby.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ praises Dorothea’s judgment!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asserts that in a fight, striking first is crucial!]

“Right?”

The friendly banter between the Tin Knight playing boat and the witch perched upon him was oddly comforting.

Adelheid felt thoughts of cliques creep into her mind, but she quickly dismissed them for fear of being caught.

In fact, she wasn’t in a position to judge others. The Tin Knight’s contamination was quite serious.

After a slight delay, the voice from the air continued.

《-After brutally annihilating the mouse, you proceeded as guided by the torrent.》

《After moving for a while, the water, once high enough to swim in, gradually receded to the point where you could touch the bottom.》

《As you emerged from the water puddle, an unusual scene caught your eye.》

《Various birds, including parakeets, freshwater crabs, and beavers, were gathered together, shivering.》

《To your surprise, you could understand the language they spoke, and it seemed they were looking for a way to dry their wet bodies.》

《A giant parakeet approached you and spoke.》

《“Have you seen a mouse? Our most distinguished member isn’t resolving the situation, and our discussions are stalling.”》

《You can either confess to the crime or pretend you don’t know.》

“Didn’t things just get a bit chatty?”

“Well, maybe they’re just making an effort to patch together their story?”

The parakeet chimed in.

“Can you not hear my question? Have you seen the mouse or not?”

Other animals joined in.

“But hasn’t there been a strange smell since earlier?”

“Yeah, it seems like there’s a stench of blood coming from somewhere!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ raises a reasonable question, wondering if these creatures know what happened to the mouse!]

Faced with the animals’ accusations, Dorothea responded.

“There it is over there.”

“What are you talking about? Where’s the mouse, huh, um.”

The parakeet, who was about to roll its eyes in disbelief, went quiet upon seeing where Dorothea pointed.

Just then, the mouse approached the parakeet and the other animals.

“Hello, friends. I’ve arrived.”

The mouse spoke in a strangely stiff and lifeless tone.

Its eyes were equally dull and lackluster.

The parakeet replied, bewildered, “Ah, uh, mouse. You’re safe!”

“Yup. Safe and sound.”

“We’re trying to find a way to dry off. You must be wet too, so hurry up and suggest a good method, okay?”

The parakeet’s eyes scanned over the mouse’s body.

There was something peculiar about the mouse’s appearance.

“…Why are you not wet?”

To the parakeet’s question, the mouse replied.

“What do you mean? I’m completely drenched.”

Saying so, the mouse raised its front paw.

Its gray fur was definitely soaked through.

But the upper part, from around the shoulder to the head, was strangely fluffy dry.

As if that particular spot had just been newly created.

The eyes of the parakeet and the other animals trembled with uncertainty, but the mouse remained impassive.

“Now, let’s go. I said we’re trying to find a way to dry off, right? I’ll tell you a good method. If you listen to my utterly dry speech without any laugh, your clothes are guaranteed to dry too.”

The mouse grabbed onto the parakeet’s wing and led it toward the other animals, beginning a long, monotonous speech in an unchanging tone and expression.

The animals listened with faces that seemed to grow pale, feeling a chill separate from being wet.

As the animals experienced a real-time horror show, Adelheid asked, “Is that okay?”

“That’s not proper necromancy. There’s definitely a soul in there, but something feels off. It feels as if they stuffed a lot of information into a balloon merely to mimic reality. It doesn’t seem like something totally new like what the West Witch did.”

No, that wasn’t the question she had asked.

Adelheid’s simple rebuttal quickly faded when Dorothea pulled out a special wagon from Hyden’s glove.

She too was feeling uncomfortable with the wet sensation.

The group dried themselves off in the portable hub that was the wagon, changed their clothes, and then stowed the wagon away again.

As the freshly cleaned group stepped outside, they found the animals had somehow formed a round track to race on.

Dorothea, now back in her Black Witch outfit, asked the Tin Knight, who had been observing from outside, “What are they doing?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ suggests they seem to be trying to dry off by racing!]

“Hmmm.”

Just as Dorothea let out a light snicker, a dodo and the mouse collided lightly on the spinning track.

In that instant, the mouse burst like a balloon and toppled over.

“Hmm, I told you that if you only filled it with magical energy and no other materials, it won’t last long.”

A commotion erupted among the animals.

The parakeet screamed, and the freshwater crab shouted, “It’s the ‘Kill the Mouse’ incident!” while the dodo protested, “No! I’m innocent!” But Dorothea turned away, uninterested.

“So what’s next?”

《-As you presented the resurrected mouse to the animals, they were startled but accepted it. However, when the mouse returned to its original form, a loud scream and chaos erupted among the animals.》

It was a strangely trembling voice.