Chapter 313: Pure Gold (III)
"ROOM" A transparent blue force field appeared in Law's hand, quickly expanding to wrap around Orga, who was trying to escape.
He extended two fingers. "Slaughterhouse."
"Huh?" In a flash, Orga, who had been running in the distance, swapped places with Shaki and appeared beside Law.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt," Law's vicious gaze paired with his cold words made Orga feel a deep sense of fear in her heart. He pushed the piston on the syringe, and a thin stream of medication sprayed out from the large needle, gleaming with a cold light.
"Extend your arm."
Law's body blocked the bright light, and dark shadows gradually enveloped Orga. "Just one shot, bear with it."
"One shot will take your life." This was the phrase Orga heard in her ears.
Her eyes, full of energy, began to spin in large circles. "I'm going to die—Dad, save me!"
"Ah~ Ah~ Ah—!"
It was supposed to be just a simple medical injection, but Orga let out a loud, tragic scream, Gin to a pig being slaughtered.
The dinosaurs and other animals below lifted their heads, looking up at the steel battleship that had made the loud sound.
"What a terrifying voice, Orga-chan, you should go sing soprano," Miku , covering her ears, offered her valuable opinion.
A white bandage was stuck on Orga's skinny arm, and she stood next to her father with tears in her eyes.
"That's great, Orga..." Asie smiled with contentment, then turned to look at Eric and said, "Pure gold is of no use to me anymore. You can take all of it if you want."
Kakuzu leaned forward and blurted, "Really?!"
The others replied in unison, "Shut up."
Eric asked in confusion, "Why?"
Gently patting Orga's head, his eyes filled with fatherly love, Asie explained, "I created pure gold to cure my daughter's disease. Since her illness is cured, I no longer need the pure gold."
"Can you give me that ring?" Kakuzu asked, pointing to the ring on Orga's hand.
"That's a father's heavy love." Eric apologized for Kakuzu, "Sorry, my subordinate speaks without thinking."
Kakuzu asked, "Fatherly love? Then..."
The others responded, "Shut up!"
"And holding pure gold isn't a good thing either. My wife..." Asie paused here.
"Dad..." Orga sympathetically grasped Asie's large hand.
"As the books say: 'The one who holds pure gold will bring misfortune upon themselves.'" Asie instead warned the group, "Pure gold will bring disaster to everyone here. Pirates will come knocking, and there will be endless trouble."
Esdeath, however, seemed pleased and said, "That's perfect, we can attract all the pirates."
Kakuzu, his entire body frozen in ice with only his neck exposed, added, "The pirates' bodies can be sold for money."
Eric rolled his eyes. "And the Navy and CP0."
"…Most importantly, Lantern Lord loves pure gold. When pure gold appears, Lantern Lord will show up and swallow anyone who holds it."
Robin had a look of realization. "'The one who holds pure gold will bring misfortune upon themselves.' So the disaster is Lantern Lord's appetite."
Kakuzu eagerly asked, "What about the pure gold that was swallowed by Lantern Lord? Did it melt?"
Asie finally realized that this man, wearing a black mask, was someone who would risk his life for money, and after a brief hesitation, he answered, "The pure gold that melted in Lantern Lord's stomach is concentrated in Lantern Lord's lantern."
"Then if we knock the lantern off its head, we can get all the pure gold?!" The next question came rapidly.
Asie widened his eyes in shock. "Have you seen the enormous size of Lantern Lord and still say such things?!"
Asie continued his explanation: "Lantern Lord will not appear in front of those without pure gold. It poses no danger to ordinary people."
Eric retorted, "That sounds like the phrase, 'The goddess would never agree to a poor boy's proposal.'"
"…" Eric 's words, like a cold front in June, instantly cooled the atmosphere to freezing point.
"Let me change the analogy—how about this: a rich and beautiful woman would never smile kindly at a short, ugly, poor man?"
"…" The temperature in the room dropped again.
Eric scratched his cheek, embarrassed. "Eh? Wasn't that joke funny?"
"It was too cold to be funny." Kurumi sighed. "Eric -, I suggest you read more joke collections."
Esdeath chimed in teasingly, "Oh? The noble Kurumi-sama also reads those lowbrow jokes?"
Kurumi elegantly flicked her hair back, ignoring Esdeath's slightly sarcastic comment.
"So, if someone carries pure gold and accidentally leaks even a bit of the golden light from it, there's a constant danger of being swallowed by Lantern Lord?"
"In other words, to safely wear pure gold in the future, we need to kill Lantern Lord here." Esdeath flexed her wrists.
Asie was shocked. "How did you come to this conclusion?!"
"From your conversation just now," Esdeath revealed a pleased expression, "Such a big fish, it's worth hunting."
Eric agreed with Esdeath's decision. "Let's settle on that."
"…" Asie gave up on persuading them.
◇
The battleship, which should have been sailing on water, was now flying through the air, smoothly reaching the skies above Alchemy.
The group ascended the stairs and entered the vine-covered building.
The cracks on the stone bricks told the age of the building, and unknown animals howled in the dense forest.
Miku suddenly jumped to Eric 's side, tightly clutching his arm, looking around fearfully.
"Darling, this place is so eerie."
"After all, we're inside Lanternfish's stomach," Eric said, feeling the soft pressure and pretending not to notice. Unfortunately, his increasingly tight pants had something to say.
"Miku -chan, are you that scared?" Even the youngest, Wendy, didn't seem frightened.
"Huh?" Miku acted like a street vendor trying to attract customers, talking non-stop. "Wendy-chan is scared too? Come, you can borrow my left hand." She extended her left hand a smile .
"No, I'm not scared…" Wendy looked at Miku 's outstretched soft hand, confused. "And Eric 's right side is still empty."
"Huh?" Miku tilted her head, "I hold Darling's arm, and then Wendy and I can hold hands with Darling, it's just like Wendy and Darling holding hands, right?"
Wendy blushed, shaking her head in refusal. "N-No, it's fine..."
Kurome mimicked Miku 's motion and tilted her head, "What could lead Miku to reach that conclusion?"
Scáthach sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Such an imaginative mind… the gravity of this world seems to be a bit too much for your unfettered brain."
Kurumi continued, "Perhaps an abstract artist would be more suitable for Miku . We're all artists, so I guess all art is connected?"
Da Vinci frowned, "If you keep devaluing art, I'll get angry."
Akame nodded. "No need to say anything more, Da Vinci's self-portrait is really quite good..."
"Shut up!!"
"I think Miku is right. If Wendy is scared, she should hold Miku 's hand." (Eric 's voice)
Wendy gasped. "Eric -nii?!"
Eric shook his head. "No, I didn't say anything!"
"That's a scary voice imitation…" Akame pointed out the key point, "In the future, just listening to voices might lead you into Miku 's traps."
Miku puffed up her cheeks in frustration. "I'm not setting any traps for you!"
Hearing this, Baby-5 blushed and shrank to the back of the group.
Kurome continued her neck tilting motion, and with a soft "click", she adjusted her neck.
Law sighed, "Your neck tilt was a bit too intense, it caused a misalignment." He stepped forward to fix Kurome's neck.
Unexpectedly, Kurome corrected her neck with her bare hands, and easily twisted it, showing no signs of the previous misalignment. "Didn't expect Miku would come to that conclusion."
Law: "…"
"What's wrong?" Kurome asked.
Law, still concerned, asked, "Is your neck okay?"
"Thanks to your surgery, the physical burden and dependence from the medication are gone."
"No, I meant the 'click' just now…"
"Oh." Kurome nonchalantly replied, "Although the side effects of the medication are gone, the enhanced abilities remain. As long as my head isn't chopped off, I'm fine."
"This is a big problem." Law truly felt a headache coming on.
Amid the surreal conversation and slightly off-topic discussions, the group reached the top of the stairs.
"We're here..." Asie stepped off the back of Geno and said, "I really appreciate this… brother's help. Otherwise, I couldn't have climbed these stairs."
Geno, with his cool and handsome face, spoke in a calm tone, not angering anyone, "No need to thank me. You should really lose some weight and work on your lower body exercises."
With a forced smile, Asie replied, "Haha, I'll definitely lose weight."
"What does this say?" Esdeath looked at the strange symbols on the walls. "Is this Alchemy's writing?"
Robin started interpreting, "Seek the shining gold, and those who enter will pay the price with their lives. My name — Miskea Asie."
The group turned to look at Asie.
Asie explained, "To protect the pure gold I created, I had to use this method to try and scare off the pirates that came."
"You think words alone can scare off those desperate criminals?" Kurumi said, "You even used writing that most people can't understand."
"Huh?"
"This is pure gold, worth enough to buy the entire world. There's nothing that could make pirates give up such treasure."
"Let's go." Eric said, walking ahead, with Miku following closely, and the others trailing behind.
The group followed a simple corridor and arrived at the entrance of a grand hall.
The vast hall was surrounded by a ring of molten lava, and at the center stood a peacock-shaped instrument, reflecting a soft yellow metallic glow.
Robin continued to decipher the writing on the stone slab, "Only those who play the correct melody and have a pure heart can approach the shining gold."
"Pure-hearted?" Scáthach asked, "Is that referring to your 'young' daughter?"
"Hahaha..." Asie dryly laughed.
"Uncle, you're quite childish."
"Childish..."
"The words above are a bit cliché."
"Too much..."
The sequence of criticisms slowly wore down Asie's spirit.
"So what does this actually mean?" Miku , seemingly missing the point, asked.
Robin explained, "Just play the melody as written, and success will follow. If you fail, there might be traps."
"Traps?"
Asie reminded them, "That's right. If you play it wrong, arrows will shoot out."
"Tch, I thought there would be something more," Esdeath sneered. "The world-class scientist who created pure gold, and he could only come up with such a childish trap?"
"Childish..." Esdeath's words struck Asie's heart like a sword.
"He's been studying science, not torture like you," Eric glanced at Miku . "Miku , would you like to try playing the instrument?"
"Wait!" Asie, too late to lick his wounds, interrupted. "The arrows from the trap are dangerous!"
"Don't worry, I won't let you get hurt."
"Mm, I believe in Darling!" Miku nodded enthusiastically, walking up to the instrument, pulling her skirt down as she sat down.
Eric approached her.
The unique orchestral sound echoed in the hall, the waves of sound bouncing from the peacock-shaped instrument.
Orga widened her eyes. "This song is—"
["A kind smile, a bright smile, your lovely smile, I give you both the hearts of silver and gold."]
A scene of a blonde beauty holding hands with a little girl appeared in Orga's mind.
Orga clenched her father's large hand.
Until the last part, "Ah!" Miku screamed, "The sheet music at the end is missing—!"
"Don't mess it up, the arrows will really shoot out!"
"Play it as you understand, I'll handle the rest," Eric gave Miku a sunny smile.
"Watch me!" Miku continued playing, but made a mistake. The hollow spot on the wall reflected bright light, and dozens of arrows shot toward Miku and Eric .
Orga and Asie cried out, "Not good!"
"Beep!" Eric shot lightning toward the arrows, burning them in the air.
During Miku 's repeated mistakes, Eric 's lightning clashed with the arrows again and again.
Unable to hold it anymore, Orga finally started singing: "…Alkami, Alkima, enter the dream, enter the dream—"
The mechanism began to shake, and the hole that had been flowing with lava closed, while the surrounding lava began to recede, revealing steps below.
"Tch..." Miku muttered quietly.
Orga sighed in relief and asked Miku , "You were purposely playing wrong, weren't you?"
"Ah, you figured it out?" Miku playfully stuck her tongue out.
"Clearly, I figured out the correct music 17 times earlier, but you intentionally messed it up..." Orga angrily said, "Even the most loved song, after hearing it a hundred times a day, I'd get tired of it!"
Miku tapped her own index finger. "But I wanted to play more under Darling's protection~"
"Miku , I'll protect you no matter how long it takes, so you don't need to do any extra little tricks..."
"Darling..."
[Miku 's favorability increased, bond level unchanged.]
The group observed coldly.
"Quick, let's go find the pure gold," Kakuzu led the way down the stairs.
(END CHAPTER)
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