Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

"...Do you want to see more, Lady Luna?"

"I think this does look like a kitchen in here."

"I feel the same way."

"This machine doesn't have much experience in decoration."

"So I figured there might be food or something in there...right?"

"okay."

Is there anything edible left in the kitchen six hundred years ago? Although Ella herself had her doubts, she finally watched Lunisia once again hold up her shield and push open the ice door beside her.

This time, it was the soup spoon, frying pan, barbecue needle and fork that turned around following the noise, swaying and pointing towards the door. However, this time they did not fly over all at once like they did before. It was unclear whether they did not want to repeat the mistakes of the previous group of companions, or whether they were wondering what kind of strange ideas these uninvited guests had in their heads.

"........."

Lunicia remained silent and took the initiative to reach out and close the door.

With a series of ping-pong sounds and a bit of hesitation, some different types of kitchen utensils appeared on the door panel. Although they seemed to be consciously adjusting their firing rate, they still couldn't avoid the fate of being nailed to the door panel with Ding. At least in this way, there were fewer things inside that could be used to kill people, probably.

"I'm serious. I saw the stove, and there was a pot boiling something on it."

"Of course, Lady Luna, I also saw them working inside."

"Don't you think it's incredible?"

"Excuse me, what are you talking about?"

"I thought the wizards of Hyperborean must have used magic to conjure food for three meals a day. Do they still need a kitchen? Or is it that this is not the case, and the wizards of Hyperborean can only use magic to create water and bread?"

"I believe that Hyperborean wizards are not much different from the 'magicians' of the southern continent in this regard."

"Really? Why?"

"Otherwise, Miss Ella will definitely take the initiative to take on the cooking work every day and will not let Luna eat canned food."

"It seems so."

"Well... Actually, the wizard Hyperion should have a way to make more food, but I am not very good at it. And even if there is, it must be an act based on the exchange of magic power. Compared with normal food production, the cost-effectiveness is very low, I think."

"Really? That makes sense."

As Lunicia spoke, she once again placed her shield against the door.

"Are you going to try again, Master Luna?"

"Maybe there are no more kitchen utensils in there."

"If there are any more?"

"Because we can't rule out this possibility, I decided to rush in directly this time. Ella, Ashe, the rear is left to you. If there are any remaining tableware, get rid of them all."

"Yes, Lady Luna."

"Although it's a bit exaggerated, this machine is not annoying."

...Thinking that this high-profile action was just to fight against a pile of ice kitchenware, things inevitably became a little subtle. Of course, Lunicia herself was not so conscious. She just approached the ice door that had been poked like a hedgehog again. This time, she did not hold the shield and approached it. Instead, she held the sword in one hand and the shield in the other, posing a fighting stance. After making sure that her two companions were ready, she kicked the ice door in front of her hard.

boom!

...nothing happened.

The only thing worth mentioning is that the ice door was kicked into pieces by Lunicia, turning into a floor full of broken ice mixed with kitchen utensils, but the people inside the door didn't seem to have any reaction to Lunicia's behavior. The pots, pans, cups, plates, knives and forks, and the rest were all quietly staying where they should be, as if they were completely too lazy to care what these uninvited guests were going to do. This contrast made Lunicia not know how to react for a moment. She could only turn around, give a look that said "nothing happened", and then walked cautiously into the room that she had opened on a whim.

This is definitely a kitchen. The almost completely empty knife rack, cupboard, barbecue grill, garbage dump, stove and sink are all the necessary facilities for a kitchen. But what is incredible is that although this place should have been unattended and uninhabited for hundreds of years, there are sliced ​​vegetables scattered on the chopping board and something is bubbling in the pot on the open fire stove.

"From the taste point of view...there seems to be nothing unusual."

She tentatively sniffed the smell wafting from the pot - it was fragrant, and even though it didn't seem to be anything special, it was still a very attractive smell for Lunicea, who had been eating dried goods, canned foods, and convenience foods for so long. Apart from that, there was nothing else worth noting, such as dizziness, fatigue, and confusion, proving that the smell itself was not toxic, and the things cooked in the pot did not seem to be poisonous.

If I have to say something...even the stove is made of ice, but cooking is done over an open flame. This weird scene really makes me hard to describe.

But... where do the ingredients come from?

What's cooking in that pot?

Thinking of this, Lunisia felt a little weird again - suppressing those rather ominous ideas, Lunisia slowly walked to the pot and looked inside -

The imagined things did not happen. What was cooking in the pot seemed to be just a pot of ordinary vegetable soup. If there was anything special about it, it was that although it was supposed to be food prepared for someone in the tower, and the seasoning seemed to be generous, Lunisia did not see any meat in it, and it smelled like only vegetable oils were used instead of animal fats, and the flavor was enriched by seasonings and vegetable ingredients alone. As a meal for a great wizard, it was inevitable that it would make people feel a little shabby.

"Ella, the diet of Hyperborean wizards is so... um... 'healthy', is that right?"

"No, that's not the case." Ella looked into the pot, took a spoon and stirred it, then she understood the meaning of Lunicia's words. "As residents of an extremely cold land, Hyperboreans traditionally consume a lot of animal meat, protein and fat. For a great wizard, a dish made purely of vegetables is... a bit unconventional."

"Yeah, I think so too."

Lunicia nodded.

“But where do these vegetables come from?”

"This tower should also have levels or rooms like farms and pastures, which can produce crops automatically, so it can continue to operate even after a long time. The ingredients are produced there and then sent here, and these magic-controlled kitchen utensils will automatically cook on time... It should be like this."

Although I don't know why, these kitchen utensils that supposedly only have cooking functions would actually launch attacks like a defense system. Perhaps too much time has passed, causing the magic controlling these kitchen utensils to become abnormal?

"...I see, I understand."

"Luna's wonderful idea today."

"Although crop planting is still going on automatically, livestock breeding has stopped because no one is managing it. As a result, the kitchen cannot obtain animal ingredients and can only rely on self-grown vegetables for cooking. No one has ordered a change in the recipe, so the kitchen utensils here are just muddled like this... That's how I judged it."

"That may be so."

Although she didn't know if it was true, Lunisia still treated it as if she had solved the puzzle of the kitchen. However, it seemed that the purpose of collecting food could not be achieved - the vegetable planting area was not here, and there seemed to be no equipment for storing food. As for the food in the pot? After the three people looked at each other, no one dared to taste it.

“It’s not that there is no gain at all.”

"Ok?"

Following Ashetherin's fingertips, Lunicia understood what she meant by "harvest".

A door. It looks similar to the main entrance of this kitchen, but it leads to the other side - that is, to the inner part of this kitchen.

"A door? It can't be the door leading to the treasure house of this tower..."

"I don't think that's possible, Lady Luna. After all, the slaves here should also work in the kitchen. Opening the door of the treasure house here or something..."

"I was just kidding. Maybe it's a food storage room."

There is no visible refrigerator inside the kitchen - although there seems to be no need for a refrigerator here - but it is not impossible. Whether it is excess vegetables or unused meat, they all need space to be placed.

While thinking about what to do if she found the food, Lunicia placed her hand on the door handle and pushed it inwards.

"------!"

...The things that appeared inside were not the ingredients or spare kitchen utensils she expected.

At the corner opposite the door, a figure was slumped there.

There are still people here - before the words came out, they were chewed up by the teeth and swallowed back. A closer look revealed that it was not a living person, but a dried corpse. It maintained the posture of the last moment of life, and did not collapse like a skeleton, but dried up the last trace of moisture in this cold and dry secret room, turning into a natural mummy and being preserved here.

"There is a dead body here..."

Ella was also surprised. She squatted down with Lunicia and looked at the mummy carefully.

The corpse itself is not something worthy of surprise, even if it is a hideous-looking mummy. This is the same not only for adventurers who are active in dangerous areas all year round, but even for most people existing in this world, everyone has basically seen dead bodies, so it is difficult for them to be scared by such things.

The reason why the group had such a big reaction... after all, this was the first and only corpse they had seen on this continent so far.

No one had ever imagined that something that could not be found on the ancient battlefield would be found inside this wizard tower.

"…Judging from his attire, this should be a wizard of low status."

After a quick look, Ella quickly determined the other person's identity based on his clothes.

"He may not be a wizard, but a capable and favored slave. Look, Lady Luna, what he wears is not the old fur coat that slaves often wear, but a simple robe, which is the clothing that the two types of Hyperboreans mentioned above may wear."

"And the cause of his death—"

Lunicia involuntarily laid the body flat on the ice, then tore off the robe that was stuck to its back.

There was a striking puncture wound right behind his heart.

Chapter 28 The Latecomers

"Will he be the owner of this wizard tower?"

While frowning and throwing out hypotheses to her companions, Lunicia cast her eyes on the obvious puncture wound. It was undoubtedly a fatal wound. Judging from the width of the wound, as expected, the heart of the corpse had been split in half.

From the clues, it can be seen that the murderer acted very cleanly and efficiently: there was not much blood spilled around due to the struggle, the ancient dark red ice crystals were distributed strictly according to the spray trajectory of a broken heart, and the wound was blurred by the frozen blood, so that Lunicia had to squat down and began to clean up the traces in order to analyze the body.

Ella did not squat down with Lunicia to analyze the body, but carefully walked to the side leading to the depths of the room, drew her swords, and remained alert. Ashethelin stood guard at the door. Although she did not seem to think that the threat would come from this direction, she had to ensure a way out.

"Impossible - perhaps Hyperborean is very wealthy, and the wealth and abilities of Hyperborean wizards are far beyond imagination, but it is impossible for them to be so wealthy that any wizard can own a wizard tower of this scale."

"I think so." After all, generally speaking, magicians or wizards are the main builders of wizard towers. Those who are too young or too weak cannot have such ability. "So, this is probably a... survivor?"

This sounds strange. After all, this is not a living person, but just a dried corpse - but it is quite appropriate. After all, he did not disappear without a trace like the others... like the other corpses. Perhaps it proves that he did not die in that mysterious war, but was killed by someone here for some unknown reason after the war.

"That may be close to the truth, Lady Luna, but why would a...survivor die here?"

Could it be that there is not just one person, or one corpse, in this tower?

The discovery before them was undoubtedly an exciting thing for Lunicia and her group, who had been wandering in the land of ice for so long without seeing even an arm, a leg, or a head. Even though they themselves didn't know what was so exciting about it, after all, they didn't really care about the truth or any hidden mysteries. But this discovery also brought about another worrying problem, which was...

"I guess he may not have come here alone to seek refuge, but was betrayed by his companions here and killed on the spot?"

"If that's the case, it means there should be another person in this tower."

"Question, Miss Ella, what is the main racial composition of the population of Hyperborean?"

"How should I know that? Probably human, in the narrow sense."

"In that case, if he were an ordinary wizard or slave, he would not live more than 600 years."

The longest-lived elf can only live for 800 years, and that is with the help of various magic and divine arts. No one would believe that a random wizard or slave here could easily live for 600 years in such a situation of shortage of supplies and lurking dangers.

"Well, even if the other person didn't die in the accident, he should have died of old age by now... Even if he didn't die, at least he was too old to move."

Lunicia still felt a little uneasy - but fortunately, the wounds on the mummy in front of her had been cleaned and analysis could begin.

It looked like the wound was pierced by some wide and straight blade. Lunicia gestured and thought it might be some kind of two-handed sword, longer and wider than an ordinary longsword, like a greatsword, but not a super-great sword. This made her look up in confusion and look around her. Obviously, the environment here didn't look suitable for the weapons mentioned just now, let alone doing something like "stabbing the wizard to death with one blow without any struggle". This didn't sound like a restoration of the facts, but just like some fantasy story.

At least they should have resisted for a while, right? If the power gap was so big, then what caused the murderer to choose to kill instead of other more maneuverable actions?

However, the more she looked at the wound, the more she felt that she had overlooked some very important details. She took the long sword in her hand and gestured at the only wound on the mummy.

"what."

I see. Lunicia finally figured out what the problem was.

Although it was difficult to see at first glance, with her years of experience in using weapons and the actual combat she had encountered during this period, she could almost tell that the wound was caused by a stab from behind and then from the front, taking his life with a single sword, so that he didn't even use a single spell until he died. If this was a long-planned sneak attack, the murder of another companion, it was simply impossible - the length of this passage was simply not enough for two people and a two-handed sword to stand in line.

So, what factors led to his death?

In a moment of slight surprise, Lunicia's eyes drifted to a place she had not paid attention to before: the door leading here. At first glance, the ice-carved door panel was no different from other places, but when you look closely, you will find that in the place where the mechanism structure door lock should be on the general door panel, there is a small and inconspicuous magic circle carved. In addition, what you need to pay attention to is that the magic circle looks like it has some traces of "violent destruction".

It was like someone had shot it with a "flaming arrow" or something like that...

Lunicia raised her head and looked further back, at the door that led to the kitchen.

Of course she didn't see anything, after all, she had kicked the door into pieces of ice.

This gave her a bad feeling.

call out----

A long sword then slashed towards her.

Heavy, steady, swift and fierce, the words used to describe superb swordsmanship can often be used to describe this simple chopped move. If nothing unexpected happened, the enemy in front of him would be like the mummy lying on the ground, except that one was chopped in half and the other was pierced through the chest by a sword.

----when!!!

And accidents do happen, of course, and the accident is the person being attacked.

Lunicia had indeed not expected this attack. She was just following that bad premonition in her mind and began to think about the connection between the marks on the door and the corpse. The next second, she had raised her sword with her backhand and used a beautiful parry to sway the blade that was chopping towards the back of her head.

"...?!"

"Varied--"

call out----

Lunicia was surprised only after she parried the attack, and Ella had just turned around when the next attack came down diagonally at Lunicia again, as if it had not affected her at all. This time, there was no room for parrying, and Lunicia had no choice but to lunge forward, trying to dodge the attack by rolling, but it seemed that the giant sword must have been faster than her speed of lunging forward.

"That's hard to say."