Chapter 25
The light that popped out of the monument was small, but it was undoubtedly the same feeling of mana they had felt moments ago.
“Oh? This is…”
“It’s rolling towards you, Miss Emily. Stay still.”
Unlike the mana that had flown to and been absorbed by Kira, watching this fist-sized mana earnestly rolling towards them almost evoked a sense of pity. Emily carefully took a step towards the rolling mana, and suddenly the round light that had been rolling with all its might stopped abruptly and threw itself at Emily’s feet.
-Whoosh
At that moment, Emily felt something welling up inside her body. It was a strange sensation, as if the small vessel inside her body had been somewhat filled. Emily looked down at her palm, enveloped by a peculiar feeling.
“What on earth is this…”
“As I thought, what’s written here is in ancient language. I can’t translate all of it, but from the characters I can roughly understand, it seems this stone has the function of slightly filling one’s mana. Perhaps it was placed here for fighting monsters in the shelter?”
Kira slowly examined the writing on the monument base again and shared her speculation. At her words, Emily became curious about why the mana absorbed by Kira was person-sized while hers was only the size of a pebble. She looked at the monument but couldn’t recognize a single character, having never learned ancient language.
“…Miss Kira, do you know ancient language too?”
“No, I haven’t studied it separately, but I’ve seen a few words that were in the textbook during ‘Magic and History’ class.”
At her words, Emily, who takes the same class, quietly closed her mouth. It seemed Kira had memorized the small reference section in the book after seeing it just once.
As Emily, at a loss for words, was looking at Kira’s profile as she gazed down at the monument, suddenly a loud ‘thud’ echoed through the entire space, and a small tremor shook the area where Emily and Kira were standing.
This caused dust to shower down from above, making them squint and cough, when suddenly they heard faint voices of people from afar.
“So, what are you going to do if you break it all like this! I was calculating the formula to open it carefully! This is a precious artifact!”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t try to brush it off by saying you’re sorry with a face that doesn’t look sorry at all!”
“Both of you, stop it and let’s go in first, okay?”
Emily and Kira heard the voices of several people in conversation.
“Miss Kira, it must be people! They must have come to find us!”
As the dust that had hazily risen in the space settled somewhat, Emily, who had managed to suppress her cough, turned to Kira with an excited face. Kira also brightened up and turned her gaze towards the direction of the approaching footsteps. They were getting closer and closer to the two.
“Miss Emily! Miss Kira! Are you there?”
“Here! We’re here!”
Finally, at the sound of someone calling their names, Emily shouted that they were here, waving her hands even though she knew they probably couldn’t see her. Those who had come to find them hurried their steps.
“I heard a sound from this direction.”
“Yes, let’s hurry!”
A weak vibration transmitted through the walls as if the people were passing through the corridor Emily and Kira had come through. And as they reached the open space, Kira’s fire magic revealed the face of the man at the front of the group, and Emily was startled to see his face.
“…Lord Eden?”
“Miss Emily! Are you alright?”
The one approaching hurriedly with a stern expression was Lord Eden. The moment he spotted Emily, he put the sword he was holding back into its scabbard and ran towards her.
“How did Lord Eden…”
“Are you both uninjured?”
“Yes, both Miss Kira and I are fine.”
“Yes, fortunately, we’re not hurt. Thank you so much. But how did you come here?”
Emily nodded with a surprised expression as she looked at Lord Eden, and Miss Kira asked him a question. Then Lord Jake, who was following behind Eden, poked his head out and answered instead.
“Ah, I requested his help. Lord Eden Valenti’s team happened to be passing by nearby, so I asked for their assistance. The teachers are expected to arrive soon, but Lord Valenti broke down the shelter door right on the spot.”
“Lord Jake!”
Only then did Emily greet Jake warmly as his figure was revealed in the firelight.
“Thank you, Lord Jake. We’re alive thanks to you.”
“I didn’t do much. It’s thanks to Lord Valenti who acted immediately.”
As Emily and Kira turned to Jake and thanked him, he patted Eden’s shoulder, saying it was all thanks to Eden.
What caught Jake’s eye when he went out to seek help after hearing from Kira was Eden’s team members who happened to be passing by. Eden’s team had been examining the area after seeing a reaction from their magic orb when they encountered Jake, who apparently told them about Emily’s disappearance and requested help.
“I was quite flustered when I came back and found Miss Kira gone too, but fortunately, one of Lord Valenti’s team members was skilled in tracking magic, so we were able to find you two quickly. They came with us, but… Lord Valenti, where did that person go?”
“If you mean Miss Sarina, she’s over there.”
No sooner had Eden finished speaking than a gray-haired female student walked in from the inner part, looking around and exclaiming in admiration.
“My goodness! Amazing! Isn’t this one of only two remaining weapons for monster extermination? Oh my!”
She was wearing glasses, and even in the darkness, her eyes seemed to shine with excitement.
“Ah, that’s the person currently sticking to the wall over there. She’s too preoccupied to greet us right now.”
Jake briefly introduced Sarina, who was almost glued to the wall examining the interior of the shelter. Emily and Kira nodded and looked at the dark gray-haired female student with a frenzied expression. It was only after quite some time that she approached them to exchange brief greetings before becoming engrossed again, almost pressing her face against the monument.
“By the way, the air inside this place is quite stale. How about we leave now?”
Eden looked around and suggested. The three agreed with his words and decided to leave the shelter. Lord Jake took the lead, and Miss Kira, who could use fire magic, lit a flame and floated it in the air right behind him. Then Sarina, Emily, and Lord Eden followed in that order.
They had to stop several times as Sarina kept deviating from the path to examine the interior of the shelter, but they finally reached the corridor leading to the entrance. However, strangely, there was no sunlight that had been visible when they broke in through the door, only a dark cave continuing endlessly.
“…This is strange.”
Suddenly, Lord Eden, who had been walking at the very back, stopped in his tracks. He reached out and felt along the stone wall that was barely visible in the darkness. His hand felt the cold, hard surface of the stone wall.
The others, who had been walking to the left after turning around the blocked path, stopped together and turned to look at him.
“What’s strange?”
As Kira approached with the floating flame and illuminated the stone wall where he was standing, Eden touched the wall for a moment before speaking.
“This was the direction we came in. But now there’s a wall here. I thought this wall might be an illusion magic, but I can feel its texture. I don’t know much about magic, but I understand that you can’t feel texture from something created by illusion magic, is that correct?”
“If it’s illusion magic, Miss Emily would know well. But Lord Valenti, is it possible you might have mistaken the direction? It seems possible in such a dark cave.”
“No. Just in case, I’ve been remembering the direction since we entered. There was definitely no wall here.”
At Eden’s firm words, Emily, who had been standing at the entrance of the left corridor, walked towards the wall where they were standing, somewhat surprised but hesitant. Jake and Sarina followed her steps.
“Hearing Lord Valenti’s words, it seems there’s a wall where we’ve already passed, and a corridor where it was blocked. I didn’t notice because it’s dark.”
Jake looked around again and muttered softly, as if he had just realized it. At his words, Sarina, who had been focused only on the ancient artifacts in the shelter, seemed to come to her senses and spoke with a somewhat tense expression as she approached the people.
“…Come to think of it, wasn’t this mist not here before?”
At Sarina’s words, the others also noticed the thin mist that had been surrounding them for some time. They hadn’t recognized the mist in the darkness because it was such a dusty place. Eden, with a hardened expression, brushed off his hand that had been touching the wall and straightened his posture.
“Something seems to be wrong.”
At Eden’s words, everyone swallowed dryly. A cold tension was slowly flowing between them in the pitch-black darkness.
“I can handle a bit of illusion magic, so I’ll take a look. Lord Eden, is this the wall?”
“Yes, Miss Emily. This is the wall.”
Emily approached his side and, like Eden had done, reached out to touch the wall. Emily, who could handle illusion magic, though not as well as sound magic, closed her eyes and concentrated while mentally calculating a familiar formula.
The others also stopped talking and watched her, allowing Emily to concentrate.
After touching the wall and concentrating for a moment, Emily opened her eyes and made a strange expression.
“It does seem to be illusion magic. But I’ve never seen illusion magic with this kind of mana movement before. Usually, it’s light like the flow of wind, but this feels heavy like water. Could it be ancient magic? It’s definitely a magic I’m not familiar with.”
“Ancient magic…”
Jake let out a low murmur at Emily’s words. Ancient magic… even if it wasn’t, it was clearly an unexpected situation.
“Then it’s certain that this wall was created by illusion magic.”
Eden looked at the wall again at Emily’s words. Such a realistic wall… ancient magic was certainly operating on a different level from current common sense. This was a feeling shared by the others looking at the wall. The students, who were looking at the wall with a mix of admiration and fear of the unknown, finally realized that they had been trapped in a magical maze.
