Chapter 7
The underground passage had been built from carefully fitted stones.
Fortunately, perhaps because no one had entered it for a very long time, the tunnel was remarkably well preserved.
"This almost feels like a marble floor."
Jake wiped some dust from the wall.
The polished surface reflected his face under the torchlight.
Unfortunately, that allowed him to see just how terrible he looked.
Still, there was no way to treat his injuries here.
"The Ancient Magic Empire really was far more advanced than the current era."
There were the ruins that allowed people to experience the future.
And now there was this underground passage.
Both seemed to surpass anything the current Palatino Empire could produce.
Either way, I should be grateful.
Thanks to the ancient people who built this place, Jake now had a way to escape.
He could only silently thank those ancient craftsmen.
Fortunately, the underground passage beneath the Imperial Palace was not some dangerous dungeon.
It was simply a normal underground tunnel.
Jake had already heard that in his future memories.
Still, once nothing actually appeared to attack him, some of his tension finally disappeared.
After walking for a long time, Jake discovered several suits of armor and old weapons halfway through the tunnel.
The discolored armor and rusted weapons had been neatly lined up against one side.
Ancient people had apparently died here.
Only the metal equipment remained.
Enough time had passed that even their bones had vanished.
According to Jake's memories, the imperial family members who later escaped through this passage simply ignored these objects.
The person who told Jake about the secret passage had never mentioned the armor or weapons either.
It made sense.
When desperately escaping for their lives, old armor and rusted weapons would have been useless.
Jake, however, was in a different situation.
Once he left this place...
He could not return to the scribe's office.
He could not return home either.
If he was lucky, the empire might believe he had died.
Even so, Jake could no longer reveal his real name anywhere.
Fortunately, he had no remaining family.
His guardian had never liked him much either.
So losing the name Jake Valentino did not bother him greatly.
The problem is surviving.
At the moment, Jake possessed only his clothes, a torch, and the knight's sword.
And apparently, a considerable amount of time had passed.
His stomach had started growling.
If things continued like this, he might be forced to become either a robber or a beggar after reaching the surface.
Jake began examining the scattered armor and weapons.
Unfortunately, unlike the stories he remembered from Earth, ancient relics in this world were not automatically worth enormous amounts of money.
The ancient civilization had been highly advanced in magic.
Ironically, its ordinary weapons and armor were often inferior to modern versions.
And even if some had once been enchanted...
After thousands of years, any magic would have disappeared.
Sure enough, the armor and weapons here were so badly corroded that they crumbled when touched.
They were completely useless.
"Of course there had to be some."
But Jake had never been interested in the ruined equipment.
Ignoring the armor falling apart beneath his hands, Jake searched through the ancient remains.
Soon...
He found coins scattered across the floor.
Most were copper.
But several gave off the unmistakable gleam of gold.
"Looks like heaven really doesn't want me to die yet."
Covered in dust, Jake smiled widely.
Even judging by his future memories, Jake had always been unusually resistant to bad luck.
After all...
An ordinary scribe had survived long enough to become one of the last humans on the entire continent.
That was no ordinary luck.
Please help me again this time.
Jake briefly prayed to every god and angel he could remember.
Then he continued walking.
Twelve hours later...
Jake finally returned to the surface.
Fortunately, the secret passage itself was not particularly long.
He escaped from it not long after finding the relics.
The real problem was where the passage exited.
It connected directly to the Imperial Capital's sewer system.
Jake had known that already.
However...
Unlike the imperial family members in his future memories, Jake had absolutely no knowledge of the sewer layout.
The system had been expanded for hundreds of years.
And unlike the crude drainage systems of other countries, the empire had constructed something so enormous that it almost resembled an underground city.
Because of that...
Jake wandered through the sewers until he was completely exhausted.
In the end...
Fourteen hours after waking up...
And twenty hours after entering the underground passage...
Jake finally found a way out.
He had gone nearly an entire day without food, and his stomach felt glued to his spine.
Still, there was one good thing.
By the time he emerged, night had already fallen.
That made secretly leaving the sewer much easier.
Whether through good or bad luck, the outlet Jake found connected to the slums.
Then again...
It was not really luck.
Where else would the Imperial Capital's sewers empty if not somewhere near the slums?
The sewage leaving the slums continued through narrow waterways covered by dense iron grates before eventually flowing beyond the outer wall.
Jake, however, could not pass through the grates like water.
So he left the sewer near the city wall instead.
A few drunkards were slumped along the streets of the slums.
None bothered looking at Jake as he passed while smelling horribly.
His torn clothes and foul odor fit perfectly with the neighborhood.
Fortunately, Jake knew this area very well.
Of course...
The slums he remembered were from several decades in the future.
But unlike Earth, where buildings were constantly demolished and rebuilt, neighborhoods here changed very little even over decades or centuries.
Jake moved without hesitation.
After walking along a large road for some time, he peered into a dark alley.
The narrow alley was lined with stores carrying old, worn signs.
Jake studied them.
When he recognized one particular sign, his eyes brightened.
It's still here.
Then he paused.
No... I suppose it's more accurate to say it already exists.
The shop from his future memories was present even in this era.
After confirming it, Jake did not immediately enter the alley.
Instead, he turned away and walked somewhere else.
A long while later...
Jake returned.
This time, he entered the alley.
[Rubert Pawnshop]
[Imperial Capital General Goods]
[Balance Weight Relics]
...
The names were all different.
But the shops in this alley essentially did the same business.
