episode_0530

A ragtag party using whispering leaves to search for Mirif’s location.

… In fact, if you just look at the members, it was quite a splendid gathering. It was a gathering that included a princess, a prince, and even the only son of the Duke of Blackwood.

I think maybe because I only hang out with the kids in the warrior party, my standards have gotten too high.

Even when I think about how the crises we’ve experienced so far were only overcome with the full force of the brave party members, I can’t help but feel nervous.

“… First of all, it seems like the direction the whispering leaf is pointing is this way.”

“It’s probably the basement of a nearby building. The question is which building’s basement it is… .”

It was the center of the building where the pharmacy, production, and magic department laboratories were located.

In terms of location, it wouldn’t have been strange if they had continued from any building. Considering the level of crisis in the ‘incidents’ that usually occur at the academy, it wasn’t a good idea to search in a scattered manner.

For now, we have no choice but to search the most suspicious areas one by one.

“What do you think, Lady Rosewood? Do you have any intuition or something?”

“Release, how about it?”

“… Just last week, Mirif mentioned something. He said he was recently receiving private tutoring from a professor in the pharmacy department.”

“That story sounds a little suspicious. What is that professor’s name?”

“I don’t know much about it, Prince Antonio, except that it starts with a bell…”

“If it’s the pension department… it’s probably Professor Belus. She’s also a professor who regularly brings potions to the Academy Church, so it wouldn’t be strange for her to be friends with the priestess.”

… Still, since he was one of the fellow characters in the original work, he was quite helpful.

In fact, Mezlen, who was a comrade of the original work like Antonio and was also the heroine, was not of much help, but that part was passed over.

“Professor Bellus’s lab can probably be found in the pharmacy office. Follow me.”

In the absence of a warrior, Prince Antonio demonstrates his leadership as a prince and leads us.

Using the appropriate information and authority, he obtained the key to the lab and entered Professor Bellus’ lab with him.

“The inside is cleaner than I thought.”

“I think it’s because it’s a lab, so they clean it often. But it’s noticeably cleaner than other labs.”

Looking at the fact that there is no dust even under narrow gaps or on top of bookshelves, you can see how obsessed they are with cleanliness.

We were moving desks and chairs around the lab, which was as clean as if it had been cleaned in a few days, and searching for a passage leading to the basement.

-Knock knock.

“I checked everything under the table, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a passage leading down.”

-Bam!

“There doesn’t seem to be any magical device on the window.”

-Tang, tang, tang!!

“Gyaaak?! What, what is it?!”

“Ah, no… . T, that… . I, I did nothing wrong… .”

“… Sorry, I was moving the display case and accidentally knocked it over.”

“… Don’t worry, Kate, I’ll compensate you later. ”

“… Thank you.”

I also tried moving a large study table, and I tried pushing and moving things like display cases and bookcases to find places that might lead to secret passages.

As I searched the space leading to the basement, I felt something fishy coming from a bookshelf tucked away in one corner.

“This bookshelf won’t budge at all… ?”

“Is it a little heavy for Rosewood Youngae?”

“That’s not what I meant, it’s like it’s really stuck to the floor and doesn’t move at all. It’s not just physically fixed, it seems like there’s a magical device involved.”

“… Certainly, as the release says, I feel like I can feel traces of magic.”

“Can you dismantle it, Ethan?”

“Well, most of the dismantling magic I learned was related to combat magic, so I don’t think I can guarantee this kind of security magic… .”

“It might be better not to mess with it. There are quite a few imperial security spells that naturally change into permanent locking spells when you try to dismantle them, so if you do something wrong, you might not be able to use the passage leading to the real underground.”

… We’ve already wasted a lot of time searching, and if the passage gets locked here, then it’s really over… .

Since he was dragged underground and not to another place, the chances of safely rescuing Mirif were only about 50/50.

The reason why he went through the trouble of taking her underground is because he didn’t want to be noticed by anyone else.

It implied that they could kill and bury as much as they wanted, and even commit even more horrible acts.

‘Please, I hope it’s not too late… .’

Everyone stands in front of the bookshelf, struggling to figure out how to clear it and get to the basement.

If you touch it wrong and it gets locked like Prince Antonio said, you have to find another way or use physical means to break through, so you have to make a careful decision.

“Hmm, huh… ?”

“Princess Mezlen, I think it would be best not to get too close to the bookshelf.”

“That’s right… Why did you end up cleaning this bookshelf…?”

“… Yes?”

“Huh?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Here, there are traces of cleaning up to the second level from the top, but the third level has dust on the books and bookshelves… . I wonder why they left it like this instead of cleaning it… .”

“Hmm, that’s definitely true.”

……ah.

Yeah, come to think of it, there was a similar puzzle in the ‘Mad Scientist’ episode, the second event of ‘Luminor Academy’.

A puzzle where you touch a book on the bookshelf to open the stairs leading to the basement and go down.

If the architect who designed this academy had hidden a similar gimmicky secret passage in the pharmacy building as well as the production building, then this secret passage could also operate in a similar manner.

In the original, it was a puzzle where you had to collect clues from other places and then choose a book at the end, but if you look closely at the hint from Princess Mezlen’s statement just now… .

‘… found it.’

The second step from the top that Mezlen mentioned, a faint water stain that is presumed to have been caused by moving the book shortly after mopping.

As soon as I grabbed one of the thick, untitled books there, the door that had been firmly fixed to the floor slid aside with a creaking sound.

-Drrr!

“… … Wow.”

“How did you know, Lilith?”

“… I checked the bookshelf that Princess Mezlen mentioned, and there was evidence of a single book being moved. I tried it out, wondering if it might be the condition for opening the door that moves the book, and it seems my intuition worked.”

“Huh, hmm, then it looks like I opened it for you… . Ah, there’s no need to thank me… ?”

“… Thanks to Princess Mezlen. Thank you.”

“Ah, kid, right… . Even if you say it’s not necessary, if you insist on saying it like that, I’ll feel even more embarrassed… ?”

… Regardless of the fact that your tone is annoying, I am grateful.

We hurriedly walked downstairs, reflecting that Mezlen can sometimes be useful.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“Ugh, uh… ?”

When Mirif opened his eyes again, he was somewhere in the pitch-black darkness.

I looked around, but all I could see was complete darkness.

At first, I thought it was because I had just woken up, but after opening my eyes and seeing that I couldn’t see even a vague shape for several minutes, I could easily figure out that the space I was in was truly dark.

-Charuk.

“Oh, huh… .”

… and the pressure of the metal restraints on his arms and legs from the moment he came to his senses.

She quickly recalled the scene she had seen just before she collapsed, realizing with intuition that the situation she was in was not very good.

Monsters that looked exactly like human skin. A flesh-colored ogre that warned me to run away in human language. And the moment I was about to climb up the stairs to where I came from, I felt a strong pain in the back of my head.

After gathering all that information, Mirif had a gut feeling that maybe he wasn’t just in danger of death.

“… … !”

-Clang, clang!

We need to escape from here as soon as possible.

If you’re late, you’ll become like those monsters… no, like those people.

However, the tightly bound chains would not let go of her limbs, so it was only natural that a sense of crisis would arise in Mirif’s mind.

‘Well, first of all, we need to secure the field of vision.’

Even if you somehow manage to break the handcuffs in a situation where you can’t see anything, you can’t be sure whether you’ll be able to escape properly.

Since he had been lying down for almost a day, his divine power was sufficient. As soon as Mirif lit the small sphere of light in his right hand, the first thing he saw was the solid iron restraints that were binding his limbs.

And then the next thing she saw was….

‘pole….’

‘… … geez.’

-Wriggle, wiggle.

“… … !!!”

There were several ‘flesh-colored monsters’ on the experimental table or on the floor, just like himself, groaning faintly.