Ch.294Beyond the Veil: The Coastal City

With Jessica’s help, Phyllis escaped from the “Black Stone Room” and followed Shun while hiding among the trees.

Though Phyllis normally had a strong image as a “fixed gun emplacement” due to her position as the team’s sniper and firepower specialist, before traveling with Will, she had been the captain of the Guardian unit protecting the Willow Sanctuary.

For someone with excellent tracking skills, the ability to hide using natural surroundings, and combat capabilities effective at all ranges, secretly following a child was easier than eating cold porridge.

“My pants got torn on that sharp rock.”

“Clothes can be fixed, but I should tell the ‘Stonemason’ to take care of that rock too.”

Occasionally, she encountered Third Eye tribe members going about their daily work.

However, those who weren’t combat specialists failed to notice Phyllis’s carefully concealed presence, and even if they had been combat specialists, none would have had the ability or experience to detect an ‘Elf’ hiding in the ‘forest.’

Thanks to this, Phyllis was able to continue tracking steadily without being discovered by anyone, following Shun with her eyes while keeping her ears alert for the approach of other Third Eye tribe members.

After about 10 minutes of moving through the forest…

‘Hmm?’

The elven senses, more sensitive to magical power than anyone else’s, detected the presence of a special magical energy surrounding the area.

It was a form commonly found in defensive barriers or magical boundaries.

To continue following Shun, she would need to somehow deal with this magical energy.

‘A barrier has been set up over a wide area. Is it to prevent monsters or wild animals from entering?’

Since it was a barrier created by another race, she couldn’t understand it precisely, but the reason for surrounding a populated area with a barrier was obvious.

However, one puzzling point was that Phyllis hadn’t seen any dangerous wild animals or monsters since arriving on this island.

In fact, unlike the dungeon outside teeming with poisonous insects, this island was truly optimal for the purpose of ‘hiding safely.’

No dangerous wild animals or poisonous creatures lived here, and monsters only inhabited the deep sea far from the coastline.

Seagulls flew in the sky, and only edible fish swam leisurely in the shallow waters—it was the very picture of a peaceful resort island.

If so, what was this barrier meant to protect the residents from?

A safety measure against dungeon monsters or outside intruders?

But wouldn’t it be impossible for those without any clues to reach this island in the first place?

‘……’

After confirming once more that no one else was around, Phyllis gathered a small amount of magical power at her fingertip and touched what she presumed to be the boundary of the barrier.

This method of touching with just a droplet of magic without direct skin contact was the simplest way to test a barrier’s harmfulness.

Of course, this method would be impossible without the keen eye and magical talent to accurately perceive the thin magical boundary spread through space.

‘No signs of repulsive force or magical formulas activating. It doesn’t seem to directly respond to biological contact… probably an illusion or blessing-type barrier with continuous effect.’

If that was the case, simply touching the barrier or putting part of her body through it would likely cause no problems.

Having reached this conclusion, Phyllis pushed her body inside the barrier while making sure not to lose sight of Shun.

‘Th-this is!?’

The moment she passed through the barrier, the scenery before Phyllis’s eyes changed.

This itself wasn’t particularly surprising, as it was similar to barriers using Arachne’s Knot commonly installed around elven sanctuaries.

What surprised Phyllis was the scenery itself that appeared inside the barrier.

‘A city… and one with scale and development comparable to the Western City!’

Neatly built stone buildings, cleanly paved roads, and streetlights lined up on both sides of those roads.

Distracted by the splendid and sophisticated appearance of the city, Phyllis momentarily lost sight of Shun, but soon climbed up a nearby palm tree to survey the city from a higher vantage point.

‘Hmm?’

There was something subtly off about the cityscape that Phyllis observed.

The streets were eerily empty despite the city being large enough to accommodate hundreds of people.

Through open windows, she could see no traces of furniture or decorations that would indicate habitation, and there were strange aspects to the behavior of the Third Eye tribe members walking outside.

A woman hanging laundry on a post meant for tethering horses.

Torch holders installed throughout the city despite the abundance of streetlights.

Buckets placed at the ends of drainage pipes extending from rooftops.

And small wreaths hung as decorations on the ring-shaped door knockers.

Even Phyllis, who hadn’t been an adventurer for long since leaving the sanctuary, could easily tell that these were not the intended uses for such facilities.

But before her interest in these incongruous sights could deepen, Phyllis remembered why she was here and hurriedly began looking around.

She needed to find Shun, whom she had lost sight of while distracted by the city’s appearance.

‘…Ah, there he is.’

Fortunately, even while Phyllis wasn’t watching, Shun had continued straight ahead, and she quickly spotted him about to enter a building in the center of the city.

Like the place where Will’s group was imprisoned, this building was made of black stone, and the ominous magical energy emanating from the entire structure suggested it was an extremely important location.

‘It doesn’t look like a place where a child would stay, so why is Shun going to that building…Whoa!?’

As Phyllis was trying to guess the building’s purpose, she nearly fell from the tree when Shun suddenly turned his head and looked directly at her.

She hadn’t expected Shun to spot her hiding in a tree from a distance of at least 150 meters.

However, despite unmistakably making eye contact with Phyllis, Shun maintained his expressionless face as if he’d seen something insignificant, and entered the black building.

His demeanor seemed to ask, ‘What can you do even if you’re watching me?’

“…I’d like to keep watching until Shun comes out of the building, but I have a bad feeling about this. I should go back and tell everyone about this city.”

Having discontinued her surveillance of Shun, Phyllis began retracing her steps to rejoin Will’s group, taking care not to be detected by other Third Eye tribe members.

~ ~ ~ Black Stone Room ~ ~ ~

Phyllis safely completed her reconnaissance and entered the prison after removing the iron bars that Mina had processed.

She explained in detail what she had seen while following Shun and apologized for having to abandon the pursuit after being detected by him.

“I’m sorry. If I had been more careful, I might have discovered why Shun’s condition changed so suddenly… or at least learned the purpose of that building.”

“It’s not your fault, Phyllis. The fact that such a young child detected you from so far away isn’t normal to begin with.”

“Considering how he acted just before you hurriedly returned, it seems the Third Eye tribe has secrets beyond what we imagined.”

“Hmm… I agree with that assessment.”

Indeed, there are many incomprehensible aspects to the Third Eye tribe’s way of life as we’ve learned through Shun.

Not only the mysterious mechanism of transferring ‘talents’ through ‘masks,’ but it’s also unnatural that they’ve become so accustomed to this convenience that they’re completely unable to act outside their assigned roles.

And what about the lifestyle of the Third Eye tribe that Phyllis observed?

A blessed living environment with no monsters or dangerous animals, plentiful food supplies, and a city equipped with modern infrastructure.

There’s no reason for a group that doesn’t even have enough people to fill such a city to send people outside the dungeon to make contact with the outside world, especially in ways that would increase their enemies.

“I don’t feel right about just going back like this.”

“But we’ve already been delayed too long. I don’t think waiting another day will change anything.”

“What if we sneak into the city?”

“What?”

“The Third Eye tribe is small in number and the city has many empty buildings. If we do it right, we might be able to sneak in and investigate that black building Phyllis saw.”

Everyone holds their breath and watches the guards’ reactions as Seti speaks in a low voice with this bold suggestion.

The guards still seem completely uninterested in what’s happening inside the prison.

“Infiltrating the Third Eye tribe’s city… Indeed, there seemed to be plenty of places to hide.”

“But they might have means to detect intruders, just like how Shun immediately spotted Phyllis.”

“Hmm~ Isn’t it too late then? You already went halfway through the barrier and came back.”

“Yet there’s been no response, and it’s still quiet… it might be possible.”

The current Third Eye tribe can’t make major decisions because they have no ‘leader.’

The fact that no action was taken even after Shun discovered Phyllis might be an extension of that situation.

If so, there’s a good chance we could infiltrate their city with similar results.

“…Alright. Let’s escape from this prison tonight and go to that city. We’ll avoid contact with the Third Eye tribe as much as possible, and our goal will be to investigate that building Phyllis saw and learn about Shun. OK?”

“Got it. Even if we’re discovered and an alarm is raised, escape shouldn’t be difficult if we can just make it to the gate.”

“Then I think I’ll get some sleep to prepare~”

“Yes. Me too.”

We decided to take a nap to prepare for tonight’s prison break and city infiltration.

The operation will commence at midnight.

Our top priority is to investigate the black building that was emitting ominous magical energy.