novelraw Chapter 145: Tavros
Chapter 145: Tavros
Tavros suddenly snapped his fingers. Well, I say snap, but that would be a generous way to describe the sound that was made. It sounded more like two boulders clacking together.
"Ah," he said, "this is poor hospitality on my part. My apologies."
"...Hospitality?" I repeated, confused about what he meant.
"You are my guest. A precious guest," he stated. "And I have yet to offer you a proper place to sit and relax after taking time out of your day to make it all the way over here."
Looking around the room, there was no chair or table.
Where was I supposed to sit?
Before I could question what exactly he meant by a "proper place to sit", Tavros extended one massive hand toward me, palm facing up. That completely interrupted whatever thought that was in my mind or word that was about to be uttered.
As he had kept his distance, the distance from where I was to where the hand was was a bit of a walk.
"Here. You may stand on my palm," he offered.
Staring at his hand, one of his fingers was taller than me and his pinky alone was thicker than my entire torso.
I was able to count each line on his skin individually.
If he were to twitch the wrong way, I was fairly certain that I would go from "guest" to "meat paste" in less than a second.
"...You want me to stand on that? Are… are you sure?"
"Yeah. Don't be shy. I don't mind."
Well, I do!
"Don't worry too much. I'll just be bringing you to a comfortable spot to sit while we speak."
'This is either him being generous or a trap to squash you to death,' Kimi said.
If he wanted to kill me, I think he could've done it long ago. This… I don't think it is a trap.
Tavros didn't move even as I stared at it in silence. His hand remained perfectly still, and there was no awkwardness on his face as if he understood exactly how much trust that he was asking for.
After hesitating for a few more seconds, I let out an exhale and muttered, "Well, if you plan on killing me, at least it'll be quick. Make it painless if possible, please."
"You won't die. I'm very gentle," he smiled.
With that stellar response, I took steps forward until I was right in front of the tip of his middle finger. Then, I climbed onto his palm.
For a split second, my body tensed but Tavros didn't move abruptly.
Slowly and carefully, he lifted me like I weighed nothing more than a feather. To him, I probably did weigh the same as a feather.
For someone his size, he moved with quite a bit of gracefulness.
"Thank you for trusting me," he said.
Define trust.
"Hahahaha," I awkwardly laughed.
His hand kept rising higher and higher until it was up to my shoulder.
"There's your seat. Take it."
"...Your shoulder?"
"Yeah."
"I was thinking a chair, a couch, or maybe even a block of stone. I wasn't exactly…"
A low rumble left his chest. He seemed amused by my words.
Seeing that I wasn't moving, he tilted his palm and I slid down, gently landing on his shoulder. It was surprisingly stable and there was so little curvature that I was basically sitting on a flat plane.
"Sorry about the lack of furniture. People don't really bring them along when they venture into the cave."
Adjusting my body slightly, I uttered, "I was expecting more wobbling. This is surprisingly… comfortable."
"I try to be mindful," Tavros replied as he began walking. Each step of his still carried that heavy booming sound that echoed in the ground, but up here, it felt more like a steady rhythm than an earthquake.
He walked all the way to the furthest wall from where I had been previously standing.
From where I was sitting, I could see that in the wall, to my disbelief, an entire bookshelf had been carved into the surface. Not only that, but it was full of books of all sizes and lengths.
They were stacked neatly, some worn, some in pristine condition, and some looked so old that one powerful sneeze from me would probably rip off a few pages.
Tavros carefully slid the book he had been reading back into place.
"How did you get all these books?" I asked.
"When curious or treasure-hunting fools die in the labyrinth, did you know that their bodies get teleported into this room if they're left untouched for a few days? Most of the time, demons are the ones dying, so all I get is their ash and core rather than their intact corpse. But their belongings are also teleported here. Over the years, dead visitors will leave me a new book now and then."
His explanation enlightened me on what he meant earlier with the "lack of furniture".
"That's… that's a shame to hear. Years passed and yet, no one brought a chair with them," I said in a jesting manner.
"Indeed," he chuckled. "Bell, do you enjoy reading?"
"Uh… yeah," I answered. That's how I got into this situation in the very first place. Reading a stupid novel. "I mean, I'm not exactly a scholar, but I read when I feel like it and enjoy what I enjoy."
"Good man."
"Thank… you?"
"What's your favorite book?" he asked.
My mind immediately pictured the novel that the shitty god had written but I quickly shook that off. That novel was NOT my favorite. It was the worst thing I had ever read, if anything.
"I'm not sure. My answer probably changes from day to day. Depends on my mood, I guess."
"We're alike in that way," Tavros stated.
"...Can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead," Tavros answered while licking the tip of his pinky finger and using the moistened skin to clean the bookshelf.
"If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been here?"
Tavros became still for a fraction of a second before resuming his cleaning while answering, "A long time. Long enough that counting the years has become meaningless for me. I don't know if it is a hundred years or a thousand."
I pulled out the scroll, the map that had led me here.
"On this map, it states that this labyrinth serves as a prison built long ago to contain a creature that demons didn't want to deal with. Is that… creature you?" I asked.
"Can I see that map?" he asked as his index and thumb made their way in front of me.
I handed him the map, and he carefully pinched it, bringing it to his face.
"Oh? What's this language? I can't even read it. How were you able to read it?" he asked.
"...I had someone translate it for me," I told the truth.
"Was it that demon you killed earlier?"
"..."
"Don't be scared. I don't care that you killed him. I was just wondering. I'm assuming he did since I could hear him reading things out to you in the human tongue."
"...Yes. He had translated and read it for me."
"I see. Don't you think it was a waste to kill him then? There probably aren't many people capable of reading this ancient language, let alone understanding what it means."
"I… I acquired his ability to read it when I sacrificed him."
"Mm, I see."
He handed the map back to me. I took it and rolled it up, placing it back into my pocket.
"The map is partially true."
"?"
"I was confined here by the demons, but they were not the ones who built the labyrinth."
"...Considering that it contained a language that most demons don't know, that does make sense."
Tavros nodded. "Although I'm not sure why that map of yours is written in the same language, I think that while the labyrinth comes from that era, the map is more modern and is an attempt to tie the map and labyrinth together."
"Why would they do that?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe for fun. To send foolish people on a wild goose chase."
"...I see."
"The demons who imprisoned me here merely claimed it for themselves. I believe that this labyrinth even existed long before me. Like… long long before me."
Glancing around the massive room again, I uttered, "That's not creepy at all."
"It's a very mysterious place. Even after all these years, there are many things I don't know about it. Well, not like I have the opportunity to learn more as I am confined to this room."
"May I ask how? You seem absurdly powerful. How is it possible that… you're trapped here?"
"I… I'm not sure. My best guess is that this very room I'm in was never meant to be a prison, but a place of sanctuary meant to keep others from entering the room. That's probably why it is so spacious. It was likely decorated with plenty of furniture and plenty of food before someone emptied the room and managed to reverse the purpose to keep me in rather than keep others out."
"Does that mean… I'm trapped here?"
"...Yes."
"Wait! What?!" My heart began pounding loudly against my chest as if it were trying to shatter my ribs and escape. "Wait just a minute here." I gulped loudly. "Are you telling me that I walked all the way here and killed Gary just to get stuck in this room with you?"
Is this where my story ends?
"No offense, Tavros, you seem great, but I have places to be and things to achieve. I can't rot here and die."
My mind began racing, trying to formulate a way to escape. My heart had already settled and now, it was as calm as possible. There was no need to be worried about things out of my control now. I simply needed to adapt.
That was when a low rumbling sound interrupted my thoughts.
It took me a second to realize that the sound was coming from Tavros. He was… laughing?
Based on the tone of his laughter, he seemed amused, like he was genuinely entertained by my reaction.
"Are you perhaps messing with me?" I asked slowly.