Ch.151Chapter 151 – Secret Workshop (1)

Do humans have wings?

The answer to this question was very simple.

No, they don’t.

Because the golem collapsed while trying to rise, my body was thrown into empty space, and naturally, being wingless, I plummeted straight toward the ground.

-THUD!

“Cough!”

I started coughing, expelling air from my lungs from the impact of the fall.

Fortunately, it seems I wasn’t at a very high position, as I could tell I hadn’t died from the fall.

“Hack, ugh…”

Even while coughing violently, I instinctively placed my hand over my heart.

Thankfully, my heart, which would normally hurt terribly when I overexerted myself, was beating well without any pain.

‘So I didn’t overdo it, fortunately.’

Thanks to everyone fighting together, the strain on my body must have been greatly reduced.

Still, I felt it had been a close call.

“If I’d fought alone, I would’ve been done for—cough!”

The pain from the fall still lingered, causing me to continue coughing.

As I kept coughing, my companions all approached me.

“Kay!”

“Mr. Kay, are you alright?!”

“Benefactor, first let’s check where you fell…”

The three of them gathered around me with concerned expressions.

And a step away, Beatrice was calmly smoking a cigarette while looking down at me.

Though her expression was slightly dark, suggesting she was worried too.

“Mr. Kay, can you see my finger? How many do you see?”

“Cough, one… I’m fine, so stop shouting…”

“Thank goodness, you’re okay!”

Sera said that and started shaking me vigorously to express her joy.

Thanks to that, I felt more breathless and the pain intensified.

“S-stop…”

“Ah!”

Realizing that she was nearly killing someone who wasn’t dying, Sera put me down in surprise.

‘I survived…’

My whole body ached as if I’d been beaten up, thanks to Sera’s extra shaking.

I groaned in pain for a while, and after a moment, as the pain subsided a bit, I was able to move my body.

“Mr. Kay, are you sure you can move?”

“I don’t think anything’s broken.”

At least I don’t think anything is broken.

Moving my body caused pain, but it didn’t feel like there was any particular hindrance to movement itself.

“Just in case, please take this.”

Sera said that and roughly pushed up my helmet, then forced a potion into my mouth.

“Urgh!!”

A bitter taste spread in my mouth.

After barely managing to swallow it, I curled up for a moment, and soon the pain that felt like my body had been beaten subsided.

“Phew, I feel better now.”

“It’s a rather strong painkiller. Get a proper examination from Chris when we get back.”

Sera said that and extended her hand to me, which I grabbed to stand up.

“By the way, that should be the end of it, right?”

“I hope so.”

Beatrice said that while kicking the stone that had been a golem earlier.

She seemed to have built up resentment from being chased around so much.

“Anyway, since we’ve cleared them out, let’s continue searching.”

“Yeah, but we ran so much that I don’t even know where we are now.”

At my words, Beatrice smiled and said:

“Let’s go back in the direction we came from.”

As we backtracked, we could see that the already ruined village was almost completely destroyed, probably because the golems had been running around breaking things everywhere.

“It’s fortunate no one’s asking for compensation.”

At my casual remark, Sera and Christina nodded in agreement.

“But where are we going now?”

“The direction from which the golems were particularly concentrated when they swarmed us.”

Beatrice said that and looked back at us.

“If I were a golem mage, I would have placed golems as much as possible near the area I wanted to protect, so we’re going in the direction those creatures likely came from.”

“So we’re tracing them back to their source.”

“That’s—right!”

Beatrice said that while stomping hard on the ground.

Soon, along with the impact sound, something exploded.

“It seems some weaker ones, like scouts that appeared first, are still around. Let’s be careful.”

“I’m counting on you.”

Beatrice smiled and took the lead, and we followed right behind her.

As we continued along the street, more intact houses began to appear compared to where we were before.

While looking around at those buildings, Ive quietly said:

“It seems this area was less affected by the landslide.”

“That’s a silver lining.”

If our destination is somewhere around here, there’s a high chance it’s still intact.

We continued walking, with Beatrice taking care of the occasional golems that appeared.

We looked at each house one by one, searching for our destination.

“…No matter how I look, I don’t see any house growing a bent-backed tree.”

“Did we come to the wrong place?”

There was nothing that could be called a tree around.

‘Old man Rudger definitely said it was a house where a bent-backed tree grows.’

Fortunately, that old man didn’t seem to have dementia, so there must be a house with a growing tree.

After searching around for a while, Christina spoke up:

“There’s nothing but rotten, crumbling old trees…”

Christina said that while tapping one tree.

A peculiarly bent tree, like a water stream…

“Christina, wait. That one.”

“Yes?”

Everyone’s gaze gathered at Christina’s feet.

And Christina looked down at the old tree and quietly said:

“It’s bent-backed, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

It was a bent-backed tree.

It seemed to have died long ago and withered, but it was definitely bent-backed.

Ive knelt down to examine the tree closely.

“It seems the tree was broken by a landslide or something else and left abandoned.”

Saying that, she lightly placed her hand on the tree.

After applying a little pressure, she spoke again:

“It has considerable weight, so it probably hasn’t moved far from where it originally was.”

“So we’re in the right area!”

Sera shouted loudly, excited that we were near our destination.

Thanks to that, everyone’s morale rose, and we began searching more actively.

After about 30 minutes of searching the surrounding houses:

“Ah, I think it’s here!”

Going toward Christina’s voice, we indeed found a house where a tree seemed to have rotted and broken.

“We’ve finally arrived.”

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t just me—everyone shared a moment of joy, laughing or cheering, before I handed over the honor of opening the door to Sera.

“…Oh, should I open it?”

“Yes.”

At my words, Sera briefly looked at us nervously.

“Is that okay? We all found it together…”

“Of course it is.”

At my words, Sera looked at the other companions.

After briefly checking our reactions, Sera seemed to make up her mind, clenched her hand once, turned around, and placed her hand on the doorknob.

“Then, I’ll open it.”

And she turned the doorknob.

-Click click

“It’s locked.”

“So it is.”

Whether the door was warped by something or someone had blocked it before leaving, the door wouldn’t open.

But if it’s Sera.

She can open it.

“Sera.”

“Yes?”

I pointed at the door with my finger.

“Break it.”

“……”

The light in Sera’s pupils briefly disappeared.

+

With a splintering sound, the door broke.

“Fortunately, it opened easily.”

“Sera. Normal people would say they tore it off.”

“It opened easily.”

“…Yes, it opened.”

As Sera glared at Christina, Christina turned her gaze away and responded.

Watching this, Ive cleared her throat once and said:

“Let’s search inside.”

“Let’s do that.”

I answered while slightly shaking my forearm.

‘That hurts.’

It was slightly sore because Sera had hit my arm hard with her palm instead of patting my back.

At least she seemed to have held back a bit, considering I was injured from falling from a height.

“Helmets can be unnecessarily mischievous sometimes.”

Beatrice said that as she entered.

“Mr. Kay, you think your grandmother left something here, right?”

“That’s right.”

Sera approached and spoke to me, perhaps feeling a bit sorry for hitting me.

I answered while she gently rubbed the spot she had hit, trying to reduce the pain.

“According to what old man Rudger said before, she suddenly asked about his hometown in a letter.”

From what I heard, the first letter was about the joy of creating what was presumed to be the Philosopher’s Stone, the second was regret for doing something unnecessary.

And the third was a question about his hometown.

‘And the fourth was… news of Sera’s grandfather’s death and that she needed to hide with Sera.’

It was something I had forgotten until now due to the chaos.

I briefly looked at Sera and quietly turned my head away.

“So grandmother hid something here…”

“Do you have any idea what it might be?”

Sera thought for a moment and then said with a slightly troubled expression:

“I don’t have any idea…”

Sera fell into thought, and I left her alone and searched the house.

Everyone took charge of a different area, and we searched here and there.

The furniture was surprisingly sparse, and there was nothing on the bookshelves, so the search progressed faster than expected.

After a while, we gathered again.

“I found nothing. Anyone have any luck?”

No one answered Beatrice’s question.

“Where could it be hidden?”

“Beatrice, can’t you find it with magic?”

At my question, Beatrice shook her head.

“There’s no response to detection. There doesn’t seem to be any empty space either…”

Beatrice said with a troubled expression.

In the end, it seemed we had no choice but to search more carefully.

I saw Christina poking around with her staff.

“What are you doing, Chris?”

“Oh, well… In novels and such, there are often secret basement doors or hiding places in the floor.”

Christina explained that she was tapping here and there, and hearing this, Beatrice sighed and said:

“Listen, I told you there’s no empty space detected by magic, right? That means there isn’t one.”

“I see…”

Christina tapped the floor one more time with her staff, looking disappointed.

And something flashed slightly.

‘What was that?’

It was momentary, so I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw light from Christina’s staff.

-Thump thump clang thump

“Huh?”

Something was strange.

“I guess there’s really nothing here.”

“Christina, tap that area again.”

At my words, Christina tilted her head once and tapped around the area again with her staff.

-Thump clang thump

“Huh?”

Taking my eyes off Christina, I quietly looked at Beatrice.

“Seems like there’s an empty space after all?”

I immediately touched the floor around Christina one by one.

And I found one piece of wood in the floor that lifted up.

When I lifted it, something like a small magic circle was visible.

“What could this be?”

“Beatrice, can you interpret it?”

“I’m already doing that.”

Magic circles had appeared in Beatrice’s eyes again.

Those magic circles rotated in various ways, and soon her expression hardened slightly.

“What’s wrong?”

“…This is a teleportation magic circle.”

After saying that, Beatrice examined the magic circle again and quietly said:

“Can you tell where it leads?”

“Below this place.”

“What?”

As I was about to ask what she meant, Beatrice looked at me.

“I’ll go check it out.”

“What?”

While I was confused and trying to ask more, she placed her hand on the magic circle.

Light emanated from the magic circle, and Beatrice’s figure disappeared.

“Wait, hold on?!”

“Beatrice?!”

Everyone’s surprised voices echoed.

I immediately pondered what to do.

‘What should I do?’

Should one or two of us follow her?

As I was contemplating this, a voice echoed in my head.

[Helmet, if you can hear my voice, go outside the house for a moment.]

“What?”

Along with that voice, the floor rumbled once.

[I’m going to break through and come up, so step back.]

Simultaneously with those words, an explosion occurred in the floor.

I quickly grabbed my companions and jumped backward.

“Kyaah?!”

With Christina’s scream, dust rose up.

We quickly rushed out the door, and another explosion occurred, with dust spreading even outside the house.

And after a moment, Beatrice walked out of the wrecked house.

She was covered in dust from head to toe.

“Cough! Look at all this dust.”

“Are you okay?”

As I quickly approached her, Beatrice smiled and touched her body.

Then something like wind arose and began gathering the dust in one place.

“Of course I’m fine. That’s why I told you to go outside.”

“When did you…”

Beatrice waved her hand at Ive’s question.

She seemed too lazy to explain.

“More importantly, come inside.”

“Why?”

“It’s better to see for yourself than for me to explain.”

We followed Beatrice into the wrecked house.

The floor was deeply punctured, and below it, a floor was visible.

A well-arranged stone floor, that is.

“What’s this?”

“What else? It’s a secret space.”

Beatrice said with a slightly frustrated tone.

+

After getting down to the underground floor with Beatrice’s help, she said:

“It was designed to avoid detection of empty space.”

“How?”

“Most people think something would be right below when they detect, not that there would be a teleportation magic circle with almost a person’s height of normal earth blocking the way.”

It was a relatively simple structure.

But because of that, it couldn’t be easily detected with ordinary detection methods.

Still, Beatrice seemed frustrated that she hadn’t noticed it herself and started grumbling.

“You haven’t looked around here completely yet, right?”

“No. But I saw something interesting right in front.”

I looked where Beatrice was pointing.

Seeing it, everyone’s expressions hardened.

“A golem… I see.”

As Ive said, it was true.

There was a golem here that looked exactly like the ones outside.

However, it seemed incomplete, as if it was being assembled, with some parts missing.

“Could it be that the master of the golems is…”

Everyone quietly exchanged glances.

“Grandmother…”

Sera said that while gently stroking the wall.

Looking at the cleanly cut wall, it was clear that this space was definitely created by human hands.

‘And it’s quite spacious.’

A large underground space with a teleportation magic circle.

Assuming it was created in secret, it was hard to think that another mage had been hired.

“It seems Sera’s grandmother had some skill in magic as well.”

She must have created this space herself and even made golems to establish a defense system.

Sera nodded and quietly said:

“At this point, it would be harder to think that grandmother didn’t hide something…”

Saying that, she looked around.

Similarly, the companions looked around, exchanged glances once, and began exploring in pairs of two or three.

After a while, Christina, who had entered a room alone, shouted again:

“Um, come look at this!”

Everyone gathered again, and Christina pointed at something.

“This is…”

Where Christina was pointing, there was what appeared to be an enlarged version of what seemed to be the golem’s core.

No, it would be more accurate to say it had been improved.

“It’s a golem’s core.”

“No, I mean inside it…”

At the mention of inside, I looked at the core again.

Something, a rectangular object inside…

“It’s… a book?”

After hearing Sera’s words, I looked more carefully.

A very old-looking book was floating in the center of the golem’s core.