Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

「Idiot.」

Reiji voiced out the thought we all had but did not dare to speak.

「YOU BASTARD!! HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME!!」

The prince with the short fuse got riled up.

I really wish Reiji would be careful with his remarks since it could become a troublesome matter later on.

Harsesh pointed his sword at Reiji. His was a one handed sword with a warped blade, it was a generic sword in Gypseal called khopesh (Sickle sword).

Its curved blade had the might of an axe.

「Calm down, prince. We should focus on retrieving the pyramid.」

Just as Harsesh was about to charge forward, Totona stopped him and entered in between the two of them.

It was obvious that Harsesh wanted to show his good side to Totona.

「You’re right Totona… Be thankful “hero”, you were just saved by the skin of your neck.」

Harsesh returned his sword into its sheath.

「Sure, feel free to interpret it in that way…」

Reiji seemed to be fed up with Harsesh too. He was definitely too lazy to even mock Harsesh.

「Isdes-dono, may I hear your plan?」

Isdes nodded after hearing Totona's question.

「Yes, Totona-dono. Our enemy outnumbers us, but they're mostly undead. They're weak to light magic. Reiji-dono, Harsesh-sama, I request that the both of you use light magic. In addition, since the mummies have resistance against light magic, they won't get annihilated by Harsesh-sama and co's magic. That's why we're going to break-in from the front.」

So according to Isdes' explanation, we were going to break-in from the front. But, it might be because there was no other choice.

「What are we going to do about the captured people?」

When Totona asked this, Isdes tilted his head in puzzlement.

「What do you mean, Totona-dono?」

「The culprits for the large scale disappearance case are most probably those Apophis folk. Some people might have fallen victim to them and been caught. Not to mention that some cat scouts are among them.」

We had also heard about the disappearance cases. The culprits might indeed be the Evil Gods of Apophis. Meaning that they might have hostages to use at their advantage.

「We're going to abandon them. Our utmost priority is taking back the pyramid, or destroy it.」

Harsesh nodded hearing Isdes' remark.

「Totona, those captives will only become a hindrance for us. We really have no other choice.」

Harsesh and Isdes' opinion was right.

But, Totona didn't seem to accept that.

「If possible, I want to save them.」

「But the problem is, we have no idea where they were taken as captives, or whether they're still alive or not.」

Totona shook her head hearing Isdes' remark.

「It'll be alright. I can get in-depth information in my own way. Prepare the pyramid map for me.」

「Ha~h, I understand Totona-dono. Nephthys, bring me the interior map of the pyramid.」

「As you wish, Our God.」

After Nephthys nodded, one of his subordinates returned with a map.

「Thanks.」

Totona took out a book after expressing her gratitude to Nephthys and co.

It looked like a grimoire.

「I summon thee O unique spirit. O book of wind and earth. Open.」

The grimoire started to float in the air.

When the pages of the grimoire opened up in the air, the letters written inside of it started to shine.

The shining letters flew out from the book and started to fly around Totona.

「Tiny spirits who exist from nadir to the zenith of the world. Heed my call. Teach, teach, Ratatosk.」

Suddenly, a lot of tiny horned squirrels, casting a pale green green light, appeared to answer Totona's call.

After those squirrels circled around Totona, they spread out immediately.

The ones summoned by Totona were the tiny spirits, Ratatosk. They were hailed as the tellers of tales, known for their protruding teeth.

They had no special attributes, yet, these tiny spirits could go into places with the help of the spirit of wind and earth, and were expert at gathering information.

They could infiltrate into barriers flawlessly.

However, those abilities came with restrictions. Namely the fact that the information retrieved by these spirits wasn't that accurate. That's why the user had to master mind reading abilities.

Even Rino had never summoned these spirits again since the information they gathered was way too inaccurate.

On the other hand, they would become an extremely useful information provider if the user masters mind reading.

「I understand. I will try to gather as much information as possible with these 42 ratatosk, but I think they might be imprisoned inside that pyramid.」

Totona pointed at the pyramid.

「Hou, duamutef gate, eh. Those captives might be kept in there.」

Totona nodded.

「Considering the fact that the information came from ratatosk, the information about their number might be a bit inaccurate.」

I almost raised my voice in awe since she did a really good job.

I mean, she could actually gather so much information from the ratatosks.

Though she did it with the aid of a grimoire, it was still amazing.

「Good job, Totona-chan!! Now we only need to break into that pyramid and free those captives right?!!」

Reiji praised Totona.

And yet, Totona's expression was as still as ever.

I started to feel bad for Reiji since this might be the first time a woman treated him like this.

「Not so fast, Reiji-dono. The matter of captives aside, we still have more pressing matters. According to our information, the serpent queen might be waiting for us inside the pyramid. We have to do something about her.」

「That woman? No problem, leave her to me. Now let's go.」

Reiji spoke with an extremely confident tone.

「WAIT A MINYUTEE!!」

Suddenly, Nel, who kept her silence until now, raised her voice for the first time.

「Is something the matter, Nel?」

「Totonyan. There's the smell of rats from that place.」

The cats who came with Nel nodded at once.

「What are you talking about, Nel? It's normal for rats to be there right?」

「Harsesh-sama is right, Young Lady. There's the smell of rats indeed, but this place isn't Arnak, so it's possible for those rats to enter the pyramid.」

Both Harsesh and Isdes didn't seem to care about that fact.

If my memory serves me right, the catsith and catfolk did have an innate ability called rat detector.

That's why they were far keener when it came to rats compared to the other races.

「No, wait a minute, that mummy over there, can you come forward?」

Reiji pointed at one particular mummy in the back.

The mummy who got called by him came forward.

「Tch!! We got found out, eh!! EVERYONE DO IT!」

The voice didn't come from the mummy’s mouth, it came from his abdomen.

Suddenly, the mummy’s abdomen burst apart, and a small shadow leapt out from within.

「ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! A RATMAN?!?」

Yes, they were ratmen.

And there were more of them.

More ratmen came out from the belly of a few other mummies.

「THOSE F*CKING CATS SAW THROUGH OUR DISGUISE!!」

Those ratmen closed in quickly toward the cats.

「EVERYONE PREPARE FOR BATTLE!!」

「「「NYA~~~!!!」」」

All of the cats unsheathed their rapier at once.

The ones who replied to Nel's call, the cats in boots, were the ones hailed as Nyanko Fencers (catsith swordsmen).

Each of them was so adorable that I wanted to kidnap one of them and bring them with me back home for some fluffing.

The Nyanko Fencers executed the ratmen in succession with ease.

As one would expect from the royal guards of the princess. We didn't have to make a move.

「No way, they spied on us…」

Nephthys was the one who was shocked the most.

The same goes for Isdes.

「Maybe they have the ability to erase their presence till its utmost limit. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to infiltrate.」

Totona started her explanation.

In fact, Isdes had already been aware about the existence of the rats inside this place.

But, he failed to notice that they were not normal rats.

That made those rats even more troublesome.

「Indeed, meaning that the information has probably leaked to our enemy. Now those guys will be waiting to ambush us.」

Reiji let out a daring smile as he spoke.

Yeah, there was no point in launching a surprise attack anymore since they were already aware of our plan.

But then, we still had to take back the pyramid to save Shirone.

And this was the risk I took for that.

=== (~’.’)~Advance Chapter Available in Fox18 too!~(‘.’~) === THE NEW PROJECT: Journey of The Childhood Friend Who Got Betrayed by Sword Saint

The Protagonist of Isekaied Story With Cheat And Harem Has No Idea That All Of The Heroines Has Already Been Stolen By Me~Urgh, My Stomach Is Killing Me~

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