BBYW Vol. 3 Chapter 56 (WN)
Chapter 56 – The Abandoned City
“Mngh…bwaah!”
During our dive towards the city, I felt like we broke through a sort of thin film.
I crash-landed on the ground, drawing deep breaths to finally fill my lungs with air.
“Haah..haah…there’s…air…?”
“Haha, yes! Rest easy my boy, you can breathe here!”
“Air…at the bottom of the sea? How the hell…?”
“It’s thanks to a kind of barrier! Basically we’re in a different world from the outside!”
“You’re screwing with me…what kind of technology is this…?”
I looked around: the city was formed by rows of rectangular buildings.
The unusual shape was very similar to the buildings in the underground area of Alexandrite island, which is probably why I felt a strange sense of nostalgia.
Above our heads, the deep sea scenery enveloped us like a night sky: the hermit crab’s dangling light even acted like a moon.
The chain wrapped around me stretched through the dark water, like a bridge soaring towards the sky.
“This is the seafloor city of Atlantis, resting on the back of the back of the ancient living magic tool “Poseidon”! Amazing, isn’t it!?”
“Amazing!? Hell! It’s too damn amazing for words…!”
I was completely honest.
I was floored enough by Zeus, the unreal magic tool in the Baal empire, but this city gave it a run for its money.
“The world’s damn huge, huh…there are still so many things I have no idea of. The Lamperouge kingdom, the Maxwell province…this makes me feel like the places I lived in are so damn small.”
My ambition of bringing prosperity to the Maxwell province was still the same.
Once I had achieved that, however, it wouldn’t be bad to go on a journey around the world.
Witnessing a town moving along the seafloor, a scenery made of pure fantasy, had thus changed my worldview.
“Gahaha!! In that case, you gotta kill that bastard Drake first!”
Grace laughed heartily and slapped my back.
“If you let him live, he’s going to come after you anywhere, again and again! He’s never let go of his prey, not even once!”
“…Having a man chasing me around sounds like a nightmare. Now that I’ve come all the way here, the only thing to do is to put an end to all this.”
Finally freed from the chains, I rotated my arms two, three times, to make sure they moved properly.
My body was bruised here and there, but there wasn’t any real damage. I could fight without problems.
“He’s probably in the cathedral, in the middle of town. Hurry up and end this, once and for all!”
“What? You’re not coming?”
“If he has chosen you as his killer, there’s no point in me showing up too. We said our goodbyes 20 years ago, anyway. Off you go!”
“…as selfish as usual…whatever.”
First she drags me down to the bottom of the sea, then she pushes everything on me.
I thought I knew how selfish the hag could be, but I was still stupefied.
I shook my head in disbelief, then headed to the place Grace mentioned.
“If you’ve got a message for him, I can relay it, though?”
“Shut up, boy. Brats like you have no business in the world of adults.”
“All right, all right, I’m going.”
I waved as I walked away, using the faint light floating overhead to make my way through the city.
Not a single silhouette could be found in the once populous city: it had completely changed to a desolate ghost town.
“…a city’s purpose is to shelter people…if no one lives in it, even the most gorgeous city just looks dead.”
Why did the people that lived here even decide to build a city at the bottom of the sea?
And what made them leave?
As such thoughts went through my head, I walked up a stone staircase.
At the top of the long stairs there was a plateau, overlooking the whole city.
The view was pretty astonishing, but the emptiness of the city still gave me the chills.
“A city living on, even without its inhabitants…is it waiting for someone to return? Or does it want to be destroyed?”
“You’re kinder than you look, aren’t you? You’re going to make me cry.”
“………”
I turned around, towards the voice, and found a man standing near the entrance of a church-like building.
“Captain Drake…so you were really alive.”
“Yeah, a shame, but I still am…just like this place.”
The man, his chest marked by a deep wound, welcomed me with a bright smile.