054 Merrill Ancient Labyrinth, Resting Place ~The Secret Key~

Author: Kaeruda Ameko (蛙田あめこ)
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n1082gh/54/
Translator: Lilia v3.0
Editor: AYA Translation

Fire dragons screaming in satisfaction after eating fried rice.
Emilia yawned while looking at them.
Abigail stretched  her body after she put the cooking utensil “Yummy Fairy” into the pochette.

“Well, starting tomorrow, let’s search for the fourth and subsequent layers.”
“Well, let’s go to bed soon … Today is a field inn in the nest of fire dragons.”
“Use my fluffy hair”
“Wow, thank you John! I miss the futon, but … oh, I can’t beat my drowsiness.”
“Oh, that’s about it… Hey, Fire Dragon”

Abigail pulls up something like a necklace hanging from her neck.
There was a key there.

“What is it, the child of man?”
“Is there a door with a keyhole around here? At worst, it could be something like a treasure chest.”
“Hmm? A keyhole… I think there was a key in that room–”
“Okay, let’s sleep there”
“Oh, even if we attack you?”
“That’s fine”

The key shines brightly.

“This is a secret weapon”

***

They had a fire dragon guide them to a door with a keyhole.
Emilia strokes the head of a relatively small fire dragon as a guide.

“Thank you, Dragon”
“Gau Cau ♪”
“Well… I minimized the space transfer magic and maximized the scope of application… I wonder if it will work.”
“…?”

Abigail inserts the key into the keyhole.
Of course, the keys don’t match — but the keys turned with a clicking noise.
There is the magic of “lock picking”, but it seems to be a little different.

“Now, let’s open.”

When she opened the door — it was the bedroom of Abigail’s house.

“Wow, that’s amazing!”
“Oh… isn’t this a forest house !?”
“It worked! It’s a space transfer magic tool that allows you to connect a pass to your bedroom from any door by using this key!”
“Wow, awesome!”
“But we can’t get out of the bedroom.”
“That’s enough… Wow, it’s a fluffy futon!”

Emilia smiled with a big smile while wrapped in the futon of Abigail’s house, which had already become a “nostalgic house”.
Both “rice” and “sleeping place”, which were the biggest concerns in the dungeon capture, are clear.

Peace of mind, peace of mind.

“… Hey, Emilia”
“What is it… Abigail-san…”
“I’ve wanted to ask you …”

Abigail talks sloppily while lying side by side in a big bed.
Emilia already has heavy eyes. I’m sleepy.
John curled up by the bed while snoring, which made her even more drowsy.

“–What kind of child was Emilia?”
“Me?”
“Ah. Family, old memories … I talked about me the other day. Tell me about you too.”
“…….Yeah”

Emilia remembers in a mellow consciousness.
Growing up in the Serenade Convent, and before that.

“Emilia, you’re… too obsessed with ‘helping others’. It’s not normal to give you bread when you’re about to starve to death. You’re in debt of 500 million. Because it’s unusual to get close to an advanced monster that you care about just because the fire dragon is suffering. ”
“…”
“You should take good care of yourself. Emilia.”
“…Abigail-san always says that.”

It is not unrelated to Abigail’s loss of her mother.
Raising Abigail without looking back on herself —- her mother who died in bed.
Abigail is devoting himself to researching magical tools to enrich the lives of people so there won’t be anyone else who becomes like her.

That’s why it hurts her heart when Emilia acts without thinking about the future.
But-it’s not just about her mother.
It’s also about Emilia — she likes Emilia, who laughs like the sun and enjoys her life.

She doesn’t want to lose Emilia.

“Well … I don’t know … parents.”

Emilia lays next to Abigail and feels calm and warm-speaks sloppily.

“When I noticed, the one in front of me was the “Saint” of the Tenka Church. It was shining, warm, and smelled good … that person reached out to me.”
“Saint …?”
“Yes. That’s my first memory. Somewhere cold, I was alone. Maybe I was abandoned.”

Next to Abigail, Emilia laughs and talks as if nothing were happening.

“From there, the saint took me to the monastery and lived as an ‘apprentice saint’. So I don’t know any other way of life. All the older sisters said, didn’t tell me anything, just saying “I don’t have to know anything”. I don’t even know who the saint who picked me up was. She was just like Abigail-san with a long beautiful blonde, but … ”
“Such–”
“So it’s refreshing to see the outside world like this. There really is a world I’ve been listening to from time to time. What a wonderful place to hear the apprentices talking about the bazaar in Merrill City. I’ve always admired it. ”

Huaaa, yawning.
Emilia’s voice slowly slowed down.

“The rules of those who live in the monastery of Tenka are clean, poor, and diligent. They have a minimal diet, and without saying a word, they stuffed their stomachs with boiled vegetables, dry bread, and a little cheese. I felt that the rice was delicious. When I slept, I just slept on a thin blanket and a hard wood or stone bed for a really short time … so … ”
“……nnn”
“Thus, I ate a lot with Abigail-san and slept a lot … I didn’t know that this was “happiness”…”

Suu, a gentle sleep.
The words did not come out from Emilia anymore.
Abigail sighed and gently stroked Emilia’s silver hair.

“I’m someone who lost the happiness of surrounding the table with someone — and you who didn’t know about it. Which one was unhappy?”

There is no answer to the muttering words.
Abigail closes her eyes.
Listen to the faint sleep next to her and let go of her consciousness.

The only thing she could understand was that the warmth in Abigail’s heart now is called happiness.