The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System-Chapter 128 - The old arena (2)
As the big gate bursts open, a pungent smell comes from within.
"Ugh... what is this?"
"Well, you wouldn’t expect a place that has been closed off for so long to be clean, would you?"
"That place where I was closed off..."
"It did have those timed cleaning magic things, didn’t it?"
"I suppose you’re right."
"Let’s go in, then."
Passing the gate, there is a staircase leading below, but we couldn’t take two steps in before noticing something weird.
Skeletons. Humanoid skeletons, several of them, scattered on the ground.
"What?"
Lovelace kneels beside one of them and examines it, then another, and another.
"None of them are humans. They are all beastkin."
"..."
We keep going down the staircase. The place has no source of light besides the one that comes from the open gate above, but I have got a darkvision skill in the system. And Lovelace... well, she’s a scorpion.
After the staircase ends, there’s a hall, which was probably used by the slaves to wait before their time of entering the arena.
The thing is... the place is also packed with skeletons. Some are forming a circle in the center of the room, as if they were sitting there, holding hands together before dying.
All of them have features that clearly mark them as beastkin, elves, and dwarves.
And all of them have the same collar on their neck. One that looks like a rudimentary version of the one I’m so familiar with.
"Don’t tell me..."
"Yes. They abandoned them to die here."
Well, where could all the fighters of the arena go when fighting in the arena was outlawed?
Fuck.
"FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Aurea, calm down..."
"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN I HAVE THIS IN FRONT OF MY EYES???"
I’m so angry I feel like I could explode.
"And what will you do about it? Who will you strike down as punishment? Are the ones who did this even alive today? Would punishing their descendants do these people any good?"
"I KNOW THAT!!! I KNOW!!! I just... just... why??? Why can people be so cruel?"
"Let’s head out for now. You need to breathe."
"I... I can’t... I can’t leave them—"
"I’ll take you, then."
Lovelace easily takes me in her arms, bride-like, and carries me outside. We meet one of the knights that was rushing to see what happened after hearing my screams.
"Your Highness! Is she hurt?"
"No, she is ok. Just her emotions are jumbled up. Please, bring her some water."
"You heard the Court Wizard, bring water to the princess!"
"Aye, captain!"
"What happened down there?"
"There are corpses of at least a hundred people who died sealed in that place."
"Oh... I see. Yeah, I don’t think that I would be alright after seeing that, either."
Lovelace didn’t mention that those people weren’t humans, but it doesn’t matter. People are people, no matter the race. None deserve that fate.
Well, some do. I would gladly put the goddess through that right now, if it were possible.
She’s the main culprit. Of course, the humans who reproduce the structural racism are also at fault. But still, she’s the main one, the enabler of everything else.
And I will start with bringing down her fucking church.
"I know what’s going on in your head, Aurea, and I don’t think that they are good things."
"I’m not thinking anythi—"
"Don’t come with that. It’s all over your face. You were just thinking about the suffering you were going to put that woman through, weren’t you?"
"It was actually some people of the Church... but am I so easy to read?"
"Yes."
"Your Highness..."
Shit, I’ve talked too much in front of this knight.
What was his name again? It was something with S...
"Your Highness?"
"Oh. Yes?"
"Does the recent raid in your house have something to do with us coming to secure this place? I heard that it was the Church that ordered that raid."
"Yes and no... we had already decided on this course of action before the raid, but the raid did hasten our hand. Don’t worry, we’ll explain it all in due time, to everyone at the same time."
Another knight brought a leather jug full of water for me to drink.
"Thank you kindly."
I take the jug and take some large gulps out of it. The feeling of cool water going down our throat really has the power to calm us down. Water is so amazing.
"It’s okay, Your Highness. I understand the necessity of secrecy, so I won’t pry more. I only want you to know that no matter the circumstances or the enemy, we’ll always fight at your side."
Oh, I remember his name now. Seufroy.
"Thank you, Seufroy. And that’s one of the reasons you were one of the chosen for today’s mission. Have you learned anything more about the families that were living here?"
"It seems that the bandits at this place are actually a group of refugees from the domains of Marquess Otbert. The men fell to banditry as a last resort to be able to feed their families."
"Marquess Otbert... that’s the one whose farmers are revolting, right?"
"Yes. Before the uprising, these families fled because the Marquess was threatening to burn down their little village as punishment for them refusing him the Primae Noctis on the newlywed couple."
"I see..."
Primae Noctis is an old feudal ’right’ of the lord to have the first night with the wife of a servant when any marriage within his domain happens.
It is outlawed in the kingdom, but not in other kingdoms, and from time to time one of the lords here decides to enforce it nonetheless.
In this case, he even went all the way to threaten to punish a whole village for denying him that. How utterly disgusting.
Ugh, this is getting so much more complicated than I thought it would be. I thought that I had one mission here, which was securing this location.
Now I have to deal with these families and with the remains of at least a hundred people who died four hundred years ago.
Honestly, what a headache.
