041-060 · 051-ch45
Chapter 45: The Secret of the Frozen City
The woman opened her eyes while blinking rapidly, and our gazes met—mine and hers, as I held her in a princess carry.
After a brief silence, the woman reached a hand toward my face and opened her mouth.
"A... person."
Her words caught me completely off guard.
I had expected questions like "Who are you?" or "What happened?" Instead, she was simply confirming the fact that I was a "person."
I couldn't help but relax at that.
"Well, yeah. I'm a person."
The palm that had been reaching to touch my cheek was pulled back just before making contact, as if frightened by something.
Instead, the woman clutched her chest and asked:
"Have people returned to the city?"
"Ah..."
She was probably asking whether people, residents, had returned to this city—the castle town below this castle. Deciding to reveal my identity, I answered:
"No, I just traveled here alone from far away."
"I see... So that's how it is."
At my words, the woman murmured softly, looking somewhat lonely yet somehow resigned.
And then—to my surprise—droplets began to gather in her beautiful eyes, soon spilling over.
In other words, she started crying while in my arms.
"Nn, hueh, sniff"
She let out faint sounds as she began sobbing quietly.
Both I and the comment section panicked at this.
>>Oh wow! John made her cry!
>>Hey John, don't make women cry!
>>More importantly, I'm jealous of that position
>>I would definitely never make her cry
>>The men are showing their ugly sides...
>>Wait a minute, does the language work?
It's not like I wanted to make her cry.
She just started crying on her own—what do you expect me to do about it?
"Ah, hey. Can you stop crying for now? We came from far away and found this frozen city, so we're pretty confused ourselves."
Even so, she wouldn't stop crying.
There, there, it's okay, it's okay. I'm right here with you.
I had no choice but to walk around the room while comforting her like a baby, and finally she stopped crying and looked up.
During this time, she remained in my arms the whole while.
Robo, who had been climbing up along the castle's outer wall, watched this scene from outside the window with a look of exasperation.
Then, just as suddenly, the woman's face turned bright red, and she hid it with her small hands.
Wondering what was wrong, I listened carefully and heard her speaking in a small voice.
When I strained my ears, I could make out what she was saying more clearly.
"P-please... put me down..."
Spoken in such a vanishingly small voice, I had no choice but to comply.
Besides, I was starting to think that carrying a woman around indefinitely wasn't very good for streaming purposes.
The stream was actually filled with the resentful voices of men, but well, I had enough mental bandwidth to think about such things.
She probably hadn't stood on her own in a long time, so I thought I'd support her if she stumbled.
But before me, despite swaying slightly, she managed to stand on her own feet without any real danger of falling.
Then, after stepping back a few paces, she turned back to face me, lightly lifted her skirt, and performed a beautiful curtsey.
"Welcome to Rockbone, the City of Pure Water. I am Selene, the Queen of this city—now the only person left in it."
"I go by the name John Doe, a traveler from distant lands. Please call me John."
I had momentarily hesitated between using casual speech or polite honorifics when speaking to a queen, resulting in this awkward middle ground.
"Fufu, you may speak as you normally would."
"Then I'll take you up on that."
>>So that's not even his real name
>>He's really committed to it
>>Did he forget his real name or something?
The comment section is noisy.
I'll ignore the comments for now and focus on my conversation with the Queen.
By the way, as for why we can understand each other—
Well, my bad premonitions tend to be accurate.
The Queen's words sound like Japanese to me, but if I look at her mouth, I can tell the sounds she's making are completely different from what I'm hearing.
『The common point of "humanity" connects the world beyond the dungeon to our world. To you as well, and to me. Therefore conversation is possible, and therefore we share the same fate. Hahaha. How fascinating—for us, and for you as well.』
The words of the old knight I had once met flashed through my mind.
Yet another hypothesis I had about the dungeon was being confirmed.
"I assume you found this frozen city during your travels, wondered what happened here, and came to investigate this castle?"
Queen Selene asked this with such conviction that it sounded like a statement rather than a question.
"Yeah, that's right. I found this frozen city during my journey and got curious, so I came to investigate. Sorry if I'm intruding."
As I said this and tried to bow my head, she stopped me with a "no."
Still looking as if she might start crying again.
"Nothing would have changed even if I continued waiting longer. I am glad that you woke me."
This was probably one of the scenarios she had anticipated before being trapped in the ice—before falling asleep.
She showed no signs of confusion or uncertainty about what to do; she was simply talking with me normally.
And that meant that the freezing phenomenon wasn't caused by a magical disaster or some monster attack. Rather, it was something predictable—or something she had caused herself from the very beginning.
"...Sounds like there's quite a story here."
"Yes. I would very much like you to hear it, traveler. Please, follow me."
When I probed for more information, she responded straightforwardly.
The Queen, who had told me to follow her, left the room and began moving.
I followed her, and eventually we arrived at a balcony with a view of the city I had been exploring.
It was a location with an excellent view—a high vantage point from the castle, slightly elevated above the city, allowing one to see the entire urban area at a glance.
As she stepped out there, I followed.
"This was a small city built around springs flowing from the mountains and the mountain's bounty harvested from the surrounding peaks."
Looking at the city, the ice that had covered it had completely melted away.
Though calling it "small" seemed a bit of a stretch.
It seemed like a fairly substantial city, at least.
It was probably more developed than the average city on Earth before the invention of electricity.
"It was truly a small city sustained by trade with other cities via canals and fishing in the rivers. Though it seems the rivers have been lost now."
So it started as a small town.
No wonder I had thought the city's scale didn't match the castle's size.
The city's expansion, spilling out from the mountain basin and encroaching into the mountains, seemed too extensive for such a modest castle.
But if the city had been expanded later, that made sense.
"However, at some point, a new dungeon appeared near this city. Dungeons attract many people. As the closest city to it, people gathered here in large numbers, and it became the city overflowing with houses throughout the valley that you see now."
"After the dungeon appeared, huh."
"Yes."
Saying this, she turned her gaze from the city to me and continued speaking.
>>A dungeon appearing?
>>Is it similar to what happened on the surface?
>>Is a dungeon appearing the same as what happened on the surface?
"After that, the city continued to prosper thanks to the dungeon's blessings. I saw the smiles of many people. I believe it was a very happy time."
The same is true on Earth.
Near dungeons, there are no residential areas due to the danger of monster overflows, but shops catering to adventurers are abundant.
And beyond those, there are residential areas for ordinary people, and even more dungeon-related facilities.
I remember reading when I researched the surface before that while Tokyo was already a densely populated area, places like Kumamoto, Yamagata, and Hokkaido had seen particularly significant changes in regional population distribution before and after dungeon appearances.
Come to think of it, my hometown had been a rural town that seemed even more desolate.
But here, it seems that prosperity didn't last forever.
"But it ended."
At my words, she continued without turning her gaze back.
"Yes. The cause is unknown. One day, suddenly, a person stopped waking up."
I see, so the "sleep" mentioned in the diary fragments I occasionally found was an unexplained sleep.
It certainly would have been alarming if something like that suddenly started happening.
But this is the world beyond the dungeon.
Unlike Earth, there are things like magic power and magic here.
So it wouldn't be strange for there to be magic or curses that cause eternal sleep, just like in the story of "Sleeping Beauty."
Not strange, but at the very least, this city must have done everything possible and still been unable to do anything about it.
"After that, the number of people who wouldn't wake up increased, and over several years, only myself and a few others remained awake in this city."
"I'll ask anyway—you investigated but couldn't find a solution, right?"
"Yes. We called famous mages from distant lands and tried various medicines and magic, but nothing worked."
>>Not waking up from sleep
>>What kind of state is that? Wouldn't they die of starvation?
>>What kind of sleep is it? Nightmares?
>>That'd be genuinely terrifying if it happened nearby
I can imagine it must have been a difficult time.
Being tormented by a mysterious illness where people suddenly fell asleep, yet unable to do anything about it herself.
No, or perhaps—
"Pardon me for asking, but..."
"Yes?"
It might be a somewhat intrusive question, but considering her apparent age, I couldn't help but think it.
"Were your parents also... trapped in sleep?"
At my words, she looked slightly confused for a moment, then laughed as if amused.
"My mother was of the Wind People. I am over fifty years old, you know."
>>Wind People!
>>Does that mean long-lived races? Are there elves?
>>If you look closely, Selene-san's ears are a bit pointed?
>>She has a good figure too
>>This might be a chance
"My apologies. I had assumed you ascended the throne because your parents were trapped in sleep."
"Both my father and mother had already passed away before the abnormality occurred. I have been the king who witnessed everything from the beginning."
With that, she continued her story.
"At first, when people fell asleep, the mages in the castle tried to use magic to sustain their vitality, since they couldn't eat while sleeping and would weaken. However, this sleep was one where they wouldn't weaken while asleep—simply sleeping endlessly. Once we understood that, we transported those who fell asleep back to their respective homes."
"From the way you say that, did people fall asleep suddenly? Not like once they fell asleep they never woke up?"
When I asked what was on my mind, she nodded.
"Yes, some fell asleep as if losing consciousness during a hunt. Others fell unconscious while walking through the city. One day they would suddenly lose consciousness and not wake up. It was terrifying, and some left the city. Some even fell asleep before my very eyes while we were talking..."
Saying this, she closed her eyes for a moment as if recalling that time, then opened them and began drawing a magic circle in the air.
"We transported everyone who fell asleep to their respective homes in the city. And after the last person fell asleep and was transported home, I performed the magic I had previously arranged with the people."
Saying this, she finished drawing the magic circle with a somewhat nostalgic expression.
Though only partially, I could read it enough to understand what kind of magic it was aiming for.
"A spell to seal the city until someone wakes up, while you yourself sleep in an unstable gap between time, huh? That's quite a clever concept."
I didn't know what exactly was meant by "gap between time," but I could read that much.
"I was desperate to somehow restore the city to what it once was. But it was no use."
The Queen looked sorrowful.
I felt sorry for her—it would have made her happier if her people had woken her up rather than me waking her.
Or perhaps, she could have remained in eternal sleep where there was still hope, if I hadn't woken her.
Yet for some reason, she alone had been left behind.
"Wouldn't it have been better if I hadn't woken you? Wouldn't there still have been hope?"
When I asked this, she shook her head.
"I drifted in the gap between time for a long period. More than a hundred years have passed since this city froze. For all that time, no one woke up. Perhaps... they are already..."
"I see."
What came after her "already," I wondered.
Already not going to wake up?
Already dead?
Either way, it certainly wasn't something that would make her happy.
Then, I suddenly thought of something and asked her.
"So, the others are still asleep? I didn't see anyone like that in the rooms of the castle workers, though."
"Those people were also transported to homes that residents had vacated so they could be included within the magic's range. I should have been the only one in the castle."
In that case, she doesn't know about that black mass, then.
There's no particular need to keep silent about it, but it would derail the conversation for now, so I'll set it aside.
"So even now, many people are sleeping in that city?"
As I said this, I also looked away from her toward the houses.
The sensory net I had been spreading since earlier hadn't detected any reactions other than myself, Robo, and the Queen.
"Yes, they should be sleeping."
But the Queen said this as if it were obvious.
Then she asked me:
"Since we're here, would you like to see what being "trapped in sleep" actually looks like?"
Of course I wanted to see, but—
More concerning was that despite my thorough search, I couldn't sense any signs of living beings.
It was doubtful whether they were really sleeping as she claimed.
After all, the same had been true in the other cities I knew of.
"Will you be going?"
"The only thing I can do now is visit my people."
In the end, since she was going, I decided to accompany her, and we descended from the castle through the proper route as she guided me.
You may have noticed, everyone, but I have posted a new work.
【Dungeon Streaming × Death Game】A Prepared Explorer's Dungeon Capture 【Sad News】An explorer gets exposed playing a death game with his clone skill and goes viral in subsequent streams
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16818093075426242643
Synopsis
The protagonist, Narutada Ikami, utilizes a defective skill called 《Clone》 that has the fatal flaw of transferring pain to the main body despite being a clone.
He continued challenging dungeons of difficulty levels that would normally be impossible to clear, almost daily.
No matter how many times he died, no matter how much pain he experienced, each time he memorized enemy movements and optimized his own.
He honed himself, aiming for the depths of the dungeon far beyond the deep layers, the abyss beyond the deep world.
His appearance was exactly like a death game—that is, like playing the type of game where you die and learn to clear it.
Then one day, Narutada encountered an unexpected situation.
"We need to run quickly!"
"It's fine, I'll be okay."
It was an Irregular Monster.
A disaster that occasionally occurs in dungeons where monsters move ignoring floor boundaries.
In the midst of it, shaking off the hands of girls who tried to stop him, he challenged the horde of Irregular Monsters simply for his own training, and again scattered his clones while taking several with him.
To him, it was merely an extension of his usual training.
However, the situation changed completely when it was caught on the girls' stream.
"Who's that suicide attack dude?"
"LOL charging at Irregular Monsters"
The girls were famous dungeon streamers with 800,000 subscribers and tens of thousands of concurrent viewers—a Dtuber group.
"I think I'm being exposed online."
"Bro, let's start streaming with this opportunity!"
As a result of being exposed to the sea of the internet, Narutada began his streaming career at his sister's recommendation.
Through his streams, the world would come to know Narutada's true strength and abnormality.
And that the deep layers they called were merely a tutorial.
This is the story of a man who made the pain and terror of death his friend, diving deeper into the dungeon than anyone else and shocking the world.
Or rather, it is the story of one madman dragging the world into the far depths of the dungeon.
Please give it a read!!