Half-Dragon Slave Life Ch. 50

Author: Kaburagi Haruka

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Chapter 50: Investigation

Cohen himself volunteered to lead us to the ravine.
Though previously he was being cautious of his leg, he received Master’s healing and it’s right back to normal.

Following his lead, we head into the forest. Unlike to the east of the village, or outside the north entrance, the vegetation in the western forest is deep.
The paths in the forest appear to be animal trails, and there’s so little sunlight that visibility is poor. With so little sun, it’s also overtaken with moss, making it easy to slip.
Normally delving into a forest like this would be exhausting and time consuming. But since our path is well-beaten from regular use for hunting, the worn ground of the path extends through the area like a winding thread. Following it is relatively easy.
After going around massive rocks and trees, and meandering for about two hours, we arrived at the valley in question.

“This is the place. Look, there’s what’s left of the bridge over there.”

There were indeed metal posts remaining that likely supported a suspension bridge where Cohen pointed.
Master approaches the cliff to inspect the remnants further.
The haze in the area made the wind coming up from below the cliff obvious.
With how carelessly Master gets close the powerfully gusting cliff, isn’t he a bit lacking in his sense of danger?

“Ah, Master Rimuru… Don’t go alone, it’s dangerous.”
“Mm, ahh. Then will you come with me Eir?”
“Wiiill do.”

Near the cliff is a bit misty and hard to see. On top of that, the moisture from it is helping moss propagate to the point where slipping would be easy.
Due to the situation, I clung to Master with my wings ready to carry him at any moment. This way even if he falls, I won’t lose him.
To add on, I’m using my horn to keep a lookout for danger in a wide area. When I did so, there were several magic reactions at the base of the cliff—dozens of small things. They’re not moving.

“Master Rimuru, magic reactions down the cliff. More than ten small ones.”
“Somethings there? Hard to see anything though. We heard it was about twenty meters down, but I can’t see the bottom.”

Master puts his weight on a post, and looks into the valley.
In spite of all the wind blowing up from below, it’s impossible to get a view of the scenery at the bottom.
Rather than a mist, this is more of a dense fog.
But more importantly right now—

“Master Rimuru, that’s dangerous, stop peeking over the edge.”
“Gueh, okay, okay, you don’t need to pull my neck.”

Even if I am holding you, that doesn’t mean falling is okay. I really wish you’d quit that habit of sticking your neck into danger without a second thought.
I tug and pull at Master’s collar to peel him away from the cliff. His neck is probably feeling a little strangled from it, but it’s still better than falling.
However, ignoring my intentions, Master started circling the posts and inspecting them.

“The posts aren’t damaged at all. It looks more like the ropes wore out and it fell naturally.”
“This is dangerous. Let me take care of the close examination.”
“Come on Eir, you might not notice something important.”
“But if you fall, you’ve got no way to deal with it.”

Yig and I can fly. Amy has fall control magic, so she wouldn’t be a big deal.
Frankly, I don’t give a damn about Kevin.
But in the event Master falls, he’s defenseless. If his foot slips while on his own, he’ll have nothing to use, and slam into the bottom of the valley.
Of course I would get reasonably anxious with that in mind.

“So, what’ll we do Boss? Want me to go down and take a look~?”
“… No, you probably wouldn’t know if anything is odd, Yig. Let’s all head down together.”
“Lord Kevin, allow me to join—“
“No, you head back.”

Cohen sought Kevin’s permission to follow along. But Kevin curtly refused.
With him along, Yig wouldn’t be able to use her original form, and our enemy is a thirty meter tall giant. There’s no guarantee we could protect him.
Now that Kevin and Amy gained superhuman power, along with Master; a prodigy, plus the dragons; Yig and myself, trying to keep up might be just a bit difficult.
At this point we’re well into the realm of truly becoming a party of monsters.

“Head back and tell the chief we went to the bottom of the ravine. If we don’t come back, that means there’s something down there. That information alone is important.”
“But…!”

There’s magic coming from the bottom of the ravine, and the adventurers who went down don’t come back. This information would provide a foothold for future explorations into the cause of this.
With how much he adores Kevin though, Cohen seems displeased with the idea of leaving him and returning to the village.
But still, Kevin giving that order… I guess the guy is maturing.
The old Kevin wouldn’t have so much as considered making preparations just in case. I guess this shows he’s built up a fair bit of experience as an adventurer.

~*~

After much convincing with Master’s help, Cohen was persuaded to return to the village.
Which means we can go all out now.
Since the metal pillar mostly resisted corrosion, we tied a rope to it and lowered ourselves into the ravine.
We could get down just fine by riding Yig, or myself, or with Amy’s fall control. But if anything were to happen to us down there, Master and Kevin would have trouble getting back out. The rope is a countermeasure for that.

With me along as support, Kevin uses the rope to drop down.
Naturally I used flight to match his falling speed as I hovered beside him. Of course I was holding the lifeline.
Going out of our way to use the rope to get down the cliff also serves as a chance to find good footing for when we climb back out.
The reason we’re proceeding so carefully is undoubtedly because Master is being careful of the unknown enemy.

We soon reached the bottom of the cliff. It really was about twenty meters high.
With plentiful water flowing by, we step foot on the thin, scraggly riverside.

“Sure is slippery here… Watch yourself Eir. You can be kind of a klutz.”
“Not enough for you to worry about Kevin.”

But he does have a point. I remove just my right shoe and get a strong grip on the rocks with my dragonized claw.
The riverside is about five meters wide in all directions at most. And if the water level rose just a little bit, we’d be underwater in no time.
Now that we’ve reached to bottom, we can see a little better.
Upon closer inspection, we can see the moss in the rock faces are subtly dyed a dark red in some places.
In the middle of the river was wreckage from the fallen suspension bridge, plus the large carriage which likely caused the collapse.

“Kevin, carriage.”
“Yeah, probably what made the bridge fall.”
“Gonna go look.”
“Hold on a sec!”

I figured my ability to fly made me most apt to inspect the carriage in the river.
But when I tried to get close to it, Kevin grabbed my shoulder to stop me.

“We dunno what the enemy is or what’s waiting for us. Don’t go charging in alone like that. We’ll wait for the others to get here.”
“Hmph, cheeky Kevin.”

It’s been a long time since I last teamed up with him on a real adventure… or rather this is probably the first time for real.
After steadily building up experience in this city, Kevin’s calm words would bring no shame to his reputation.
With no reason to go against him, I obediently listen to his advice.
Kevin shouts loudly up the cliff, signaling the others.
The fog limits visibility, but it’s only twenty meters up. His voice should reach.
For good measure, I fill Agni Blaze with magic and swing it around, using the flames as a signal.
The glowing red flames at the bottom of the valley should be visible even from the top of the cliff.

While Kevin and I secured our surroundings, Master descended the cliff with Yig in a similar manner.
Beside him, using fall control to adjust her speed, was Amy as well.
When all five of us gathered at the riverside, it was cramped enough that we could barely move around.

“So that’s the carriage…”
“Yeah. With the ropes rotting, it’s no surprise trying to force such a huge thing across would make the bridge give out.”
“And the inside?”
“Haven’t checked yet. Never know what could happen.”
“That’s wise.”

Visibility is poor, so Kevin prepares a torch and hands it to Master.
Amy sends an orb of light spell to cover Kevin’s axe, giving the vanguard a better field of view as well.
I suppose this level of coordination is expected.
The brightness of the orb of light seems a little strong though?

“Yeah, kinda still having trouble controlling it, and it’s a bit much. But, well, it’s not like we can’t see.”
“Well, it’s not blinding, so not a problem.”

Sure enough, it’s probably dangerous to have her use attack magic right now. We’ll have to keep her on a support role this time.
Yig and I spread our wings and fly to the carriage.
After confirming there’s nothing lurking in the water, we signal to Kevin, who escorts the remaining two to the carriage.
There are two large carriages. One of them has fencing running around it, built like a cage. Several corpses are visible inside.
The other is a sturdy wood-walled carriage with metal reinforcement at the corners… huh?

“Master Rimuru, I uhh… think I’ve seen this.”
“Yeah, me too.”

This carriage’s ambiance. And the corpses inside the cage with collars still around their necks.

“A slave… merchant…?”
“No mistake. It’s the same one that sold you, Eir.”

Come to think of it, that carriage always took routes that avoided the public eye when traveling across borders or to big cities.
Here in the country of Raum, too, slavery is officially not looked well upon. That being the case they took a back route crossing this bring… about sums it up I suppose?

Just then, my eyes fell upon a certain corpse in the carriage.
Light brown hair. From the hair color, I was reminded of that dead fish-eyed gaze.
That hair color, height… it’s a bit rotted so it’s hard to tell, but I recognize the face too.
It’s the first girl I met when I woke up in the carriage.

“Uug… gueeeh!”

Unable to hold back the sudden wave of nausea, I turn away and vomit.
My stomach convulses several times, continuing to puke until my throat felt like it was burning before eventually settling down.
Thanks to the river sweeping all the vomit away, there’s no smell remaining. It’s a mild relief that Master couldn’t see everything I puked up.
I’ve killed people before. And kill monsters on the regular. Even so, seeing the dead body of someone I know, who’s not my enemy is… I’ll bear it.
We weren’t even particularly close. Hardly even spoke much. But…

“You alright?”
“Master Rimuru… Yeah, I’m… fine.”

I whip my trembling knees, plant my feet firmly in the ground, and stand by his side.
I feel the need to mourn for all of them.
Though I’ve been released, we ate from the same pot; I need to care for them.

“The magic you felt must have been from those collars then.”
“… Hm. Hmm?”

That’s when I felt something was off.
I detected nearly twenty magic responses. There are only ten corpses in the cage at most.
They surely have spare subordination collars, but without magic running through them they shouldn’t respond to magic detection.

“Master Rimuru… the numbers don’t match!”
“Huh?”

The moment I raised my voice, the door of the other carriage burst open from the inside, and moving corpses jumped out.

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