Ch.445Cathedral Interior Investigation

Hush, who had gained an opportunity for social advancement, glared at the cathedral with a face overflowing with enthusiasm and determination as if he had become a liberation fighter.

Even though he was just changing from a slave to a paid slave.

I observed the patrol priests’ shift cycles and the duration of the barrier magic from beside him.

They repeated moving positions every twenty minutes, always activating barrier magic right before leaving their original position.

Twenty minutes later, as the barrier magic effect was fading, a new priest would come to take that position and begin guarding.

With a system like this, there doesn’t seem to be any weak point…

It looked like an impenetrable security system.

The only ways to break through seemed to be either sneaking past the watchful eyes of the priests or breaking through the barrier magic. At least from my perspective.

However, Hush’s assessment seemed slightly different.

“…Semi-spherical manifestation range. It definitely weakens over time, so the question is whether the barrier strength or range weakens… Seeing that it’s spherical rather than rectangular magic, it’s not a type that wraps around a certain area from the inside, but rather expands its power outward to its limit. Then the range would shrink first. With a maintenance time of twenty minutes, after about seventeen minutes, the range would decrease by about 30%. If we target that gap…”

Hush was muttering to himself incessantly, and listening carefully, I realized he was analyzing the barrier magic.

And quite professionally at that.

Despite his usual clumsy behavior, he seemed quite competent in his field of expertise.

You could call him an idiot savant.

“So you’re saying we should enter near the edge of the original range about three minutes before the barrier magic turns off?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. That should work without any problems.”

Hush, startled when I spoke to him, nodded and pointed to a corner of the cathedral.

“In five minutes, we should enter through there.”

“Good job. That’s exactly what we’ll do.”

I praised Hush with a smirk.

It was impressive how he was already proving his worth.

Even though it was because I pressured him, he had only trembled whenever I spoke to him before, which wasn’t reassuring at all. But at this rate, I could trust him with infiltration and investigation tasks in the future.

Though I’d need to help him build up his skills first if I wanted to use him properly.

—-

Five minutes later.

Hush and I carefully approached the cathedral, slipping through the gap in the weakened barrier magic to enter.

The fact that there was no reaction even after we got inside confirmed that the barrier magic’s range had indeed decreased as Hush had analyzed.

I had honestly been skeptical.

After that, well, it was a typical infiltration.

The priests only guarded the outside of the cathedral and didn’t patrol the interior, so avoiding their gaze wasn’t particularly difficult.

The garden area beyond the wall was filled with statues of masked mages and leafless trees.

Hiding in their shadows, we moved quickly and penetrated to the vicinity of the cathedral building.

The cathedral was about five stories tall overall, but because the ceiling height was so great, it actually consisted of only three floors.

Except for the towering central circular tower.

Mages seem to have this strange instinctive urge to build towers, and these people were no exception, having built a tall tower that looked to be about ten stories high.

The research rooms of the high priests, they said.

That tower was one of the most suspicious places.

In tower-type structures, usually stronger enemies appear as you go up, and when you reach the top, the boss emerges.

Cardinal Valter Lübitz was probably residing there.

The characteristic of high-ranking individuals preferring physically high places was no different in this world than in my original one.

I was planning to search other places first, but if we couldn’t find anything, we would eventually have to climb that tower.

Whether to climb the outer wall or enter the tower and search inside would require some consideration.

Anyway, investigating the cathedral area came first.

As planned, I circled around the exterior of the cathedral and found a second-floor window that wasn’t covered with stained glass.

An arch-shaped window, wide open, probably for ventilation and lighting.

The inside of the window frame had small pillars arranged like security bars to prevent entry through the gaps.

But they were just thin stone pillars, so passing through wasn’t particularly difficult.

Unlike glass that would break upon impact, stone pillars could be cut and then restored.

I climbed the wall to approach the window, then used Durandal to cut two inner bars to create an entry space.

Afterward, while Hush, who had climbed up after me, held the upper part of the bars to prevent them from collapsing, I crossed the windowsill and entered.

Once inside, I supported the top of the bars, and Hush quickly followed.

After entering, Hush carefully inserted the cut stone pillars back into their original positions, and as soon as I let go, the upper structure of the bars pressed down on the pillars, securing them firmly.

The perfectly restored window.

The only trace of our entry was a minute cutting mark that would be difficult to distinguish unless viewed up close.

—-

After entering the second floor of the cathedral, we immediately climbed up the inner pillars and settled on the crossbeams above.

Viewed from the ceiling, the second floor was a rectangular space consisting of narrow corridors, a large central prayer room, and about eight rooms arranged in rows on both sides.

Unlike the first floor, which was open to outsiders for business purposes, the second floor and above were restricted areas for authorized personnel only.

Only members of the Church of Grimnir would know what purpose this place served.

I suspected it was the dormitory for the ordinary priests.

The structure itself resembled military barracks, and I could hear faint sounds of breathing and snoring from sleeping individuals.

Still, we needed to investigate.

Hush and I carefully moved around the second floor, taking care not to wake the priests.

We walked stealthily on the crossbeams when moving through corridors, and when we found a room with no signs of life, we carefully descended to open it.

As I had expected, six of the eight rooms were definitely being used as bedrooms, and the remaining two were a storage room and what looked like an office.

Inside the office was a personal desk and chair, and the wooden bookshelf behind the chair was filled with magic books, prayer books, novels, and more.

I skimmed through them, but they were all ordinary books with no particular clues.

In the corner opposite was a low table and a long sofa, with an ashtray on the table full of burned-out Mana Herbs.

Befitting a dormitory space, there seemed to be someone in charge who had to spend nights here reading books or smoking Mana Herbs… but at least now, no one was around.

Perhaps they went to the bathroom?

The room opposite the office was used as a storage space, but looking at the stored supplies, it didn’t seem to be a place for storing magic-related items.

It was just full of clothing, bedding, and cleaning tools.

“…Nothing special on this floor. Let’s go up.”

I took Hush and headed toward the third floor.

—-

Unlike the second floor, the third floor of the cathedral gave off a strong impression of being a mages’ domain just by looking at it.

With each breath, I could smell strange reagents, and my Mana Resistance was slightly stirring, perhaps detecting magical residue lingering in the air.

The third floor was divided into three main sections, with the front area filled with all kinds of plants, mushrooms, and flowers like some botanical garden.

There were also plants I had seen in Ophelia’s research room.

Lamps hanging from the ceiling flickered with crimson flames, illuminating the plants, and the temperature and humidity seemed to be artificially controlled, making it a bit hot and humid despite it being midwinter.

We discreetly collected samples of several plants with narcotic properties and put them in our pockets.

While they were supposedly used for magical reagents… it was unclear whether these people were using them for magical purposes or just as drugs.

“This plant here, if you dig up the roots and dry them, they can be used as a deadly poison.”

“A deadly poison… Let’s cut off some of the roots and take them with us too.”

Not just narcotic plants but poisonous ones too? Even if it’s for magical research, it’s a bit suspicious.

—-

Moving beyond the botanical garden further inside, this time a massive research laboratory-like space greeted us.

It felt like Ophelia’s personal research room multiplied by ten.

Desks placed all around were filled with flasks containing strange reagents and books with incomprehensible contents, and the walls were inscribed with unknown equations and symbols.

Strangely, in the center of the laboratory was a large glass tube filled with jewels emitting blue light.

Jewels that pulsated continuously, emitting mana.

They were undoubtedly magic stones, the proud invention of the Imperial Magic Tower.

So much for not using mana.

They’ve clearly gathered magic stones here.

Having seen it with my own eyes, it was certain that they were manifesting magic through holy power, but… they didn’t seem to be completely excluding the use of mana.

Quite different from what’s known. Didn’t they promise other denominations that they wouldn’t use mana?

Since the only way to extract the magic stones would be to break the glass tube, I left them alone for now.