However, I thought I heard someone telling me not to, and so I pulled away.
I had a feeling that pressing just one thing could lead to a horrible chain reaction.
“…I won’t do that now.”
I shook my head and moved away. I would look at the rest of the room first.
“Still, I wonder what this liquid is?”
I said as I looked at the reddish-purple liquid on the other side of the glass.
There was something about the color that made me think of poison, but it also looked like wine.
Besides, I thought I could smell a hint of grape in the air.
That being said, that smell wasn’t coming from the glass, but the very neatly stacked barrels on the shelves.
These golden barrels had bungholes just like the wine barrels I was familiar with.
Surely it would be obvious if I just licked a little…hmm?
I saw that there were some very out of place rocks between the barrels.
They vaguely created the shape of a person, and I saw that there was a Heart Stone.
In other words, this had been a doll.
But there was nothing else of note outside of the rocks and the Heart Stone.
After a little more searching, I found the remains of another doll close by.
“This place must have been abandoned for a very long time.”
As for me…being able to make more dolls…I mean, golems, was great.
It strengthened our defenses and they were useful for transportation.
And so I gathered them up…
As I was gathering the Heart Stones, Ril started touching my ear as she clung to my shoulder.
“What is it? Ril? Huh…that…”
What Ril was looking at, was a square glass jar that was placed far back on the right side of the shelf.
And I could hardly believe what was inside of it.
The glass contained beautiful, deep purple grapes.
It was inside of a liquid that was clear like water. And there were grapes of other colors too, including yellow and red.
And in front of that glass jar, there was a smaller jar that appeared to contain seeds.
It was at that point that I decided that this place must be a winery.
“Ah. What an unusual place this is.”
I turned around to see Baris standing there.
And an angel with white wings was also there…it was Kamyu, a former orc.
“Oh, my. I do love gorgeous rooms like this!”
“Baris, Kamyu. You came.”
Baris nodded.
“Yes. But what a strange ruin… No, can we even call this a ruin?”
“It’s much too pretty to be a ruin… But it seems to be devoid of any life as well.”
Baris and Kamyu said as they looked around.
Indeed, it was hard to believe that there was no life down here. Everything looked clean and organized.
After a while, I saw goblins and orcs appear behind Baris and Kamyu as well.
Apparently, they were all coming down here.
Just then, Kamyu seemed to notice something as she looked up in surprise.
“…This smell. Could it be wine?!”
“Oh, you think so too?”
“Of course! I do love wine! And this smell suggests it is of very high quality!”
“I see. I don’t know much about wine… But I thought there might be wine inside of these barrels…”
“There must be! …Wine! Ahh, it has such a wonderful ring to it! We must taste it at once!”
Kamyu rolled her tongue as she repeated the words. Then she picked up a golden goblet that was sitting on the table.
“Wait, wait. Well, there doesn’t seem to be any magic cast on it… But I should still check for poison.”
I said as I took the goblet away from her.
“Oh… How kind of you, Lord Heal!”
It was a lot easier to accept compliments from her these days.
After all, she now had the kind of face that would have noblemen all over the country on their knees and asking for her hand in marriage.
It made me feel a little embarrassed.
Kamyu teased me when she saw this.
But then I realized something else.
…This really wasn’t something that I should be doing.
Well, it’s not like I really didn’t want to. But it was still unsettling.
But ‘that guy’ who was always wandering around was not here this time.
I mean, where was he?
We had discovered such an interesting place. Shouldn’t he be here by now?
Well, maybe he was so busy with teaching people at the smithy these days…
And so I held the goblet and was about to open the bunghole.
But before I could…
“Aaaaahhh!!!”
Rienna’s scream echoed near the entrance.
“Rienna?!”
I headed towards the entrance with Baris and the others.
And then, I saw that Rienna was looking very pale as she stared at the glass in the wall.
It wasn’t just Rienna.
Everyone present. The goblins, kobolds, even the Cave Spiders… Everyone had the same expression as they looked towards the glass.
And so I too, looked at the purple liquid behind the glass.
And…
“…Ma…Mappa?”
There he was, mouth agape and with his eyes rolled into his head. He floated limply in the liquid.
“…Ma-ma-mama-ma! MAAAAAPAAAAAAAAA!!!”
My scream echoed in the golden room.