Episode 51 – The Secret Room

*

Holy prayer and blessings flowed through my hands and permeated Dena’s body.

That was it.

It was so instantaneous that the curse of undeath tormenting Dena vanished cleanly, making my telling Edward to stay outside seem pointless.

Of course, there was a need to buy time.

Because there was something I had to do now.

I quietly opened the window.

This room where Dena was sleeping was on the first floor of the mansion.

Jennifer’s room, where Banata was presumed to be, was on the second floor of the mansion.

I went out the window, found Jennifer’s room as Mena had told me, and extended my right hand towards the outer wall.

A jet-black chain instantly shot out from my palm and flew towards the high wall, embedding itself.

“Ugh, shit, I guess this is my calling. Even in death, I’m stuck with a thief’s fate.”

I briefly lamented and grabbed the chain, climbing the wall.

Carefully placing my feet so as not to make any noise, I arrived at the second-floor window and peered inside while hanging on the wall. 

Fortunately, no one was visible, and I didn’t sense anyone’s presence.

Where could Jennifer be at this early hour, not in her room?

Maintaining my tension, I carefully opened the window and went inside.

“… It’s true.”

As soon as I entered the room, I definitely felt a strange sensation different from the outside.

A subtle sense of incongruity, which someone not sensitive might not notice, filled the room.

As Mena said, there was no smell in the room.

Even though a bookshelf filled with thick books occupied one wall, there was no smell of paper or ink, and even though magical reagents were laid out on the desk, there was no sour smell characteristic of the reagents used when making magic potions.

I slowly looked around.

The blanket on the bed was neatly folded, looking like it was set up as if I had just entered a luxury hotel for the first time.

And a very thin layer of dust had accumulated on the blanket and pillow.

‘This bed hasn’t been used for days. Then where has Jennifer been sleeping?’

I looked around again, but there was no trace of Banata or Jennifer in the room, nor did it seem like anyone had lived there for days.

I lifted the goggles of my plague doctor mask, which were obstructing my vision. 

 Looking with my bare eyes, I could see the thin layer of dust in the room even better.

At that moment, I noticed that there was less dust in front of the bookshelf.

I slowly approached the bookshelf. 

Certainly, there was less dust on the bookshelf and the floor in front of it than in other places, but it didn’t seem like there was anything special.

I reached out to the bookshelf and tried to pull out any book.

“Hmm…?”

The book didn’t come out.

Not only that book, but all the books on one bookshelf in the middle of the three bookshelves lined up against the wall didn’t come out.

This bookshelf was a single sculpture with the books and the bookshelf attached.

“Ha, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a secret passage like this.”

I finally noticed.

Back when I was a thief, I had seen magical secret doors like this a few times in the rooms of magicians or the hideouts of criminal organizations.

‘No wonder Mena couldn’t find it. This operates with magic power.’

[There were several such devices in my castle as well.]

‘What? I didn’t see them? Then does that mean there are still hidden treasures in the Demon King’s castle besides the ones I know about?’

[Not things that would be worth sacrificing for, but there are hidden things.]

‘Like what?’

[Magical tools that contaminate divine power or torture devices that steal souls.]

[Oh my, those are truly terrible things!]

‘Huh, I wonder how we caught you.’

[A cowardly thief cut my throat from behind, I couldn’t be more resentful.]

[It wasn’t cowardly, Ed just planned the strategy well!]

‘It was Robin’s plan.’

[Ah…ah, I’m sorry.]

[Kikikiki]

While having trivial conversations in my head, I began to thoroughly examine the surroundings.

This type of secret passage usually has a medium to inject magic power, so there must be a magical tool somewhere in this room to activate the door.

As I was contemplating whether to take out all the books on the bookshelves on both sides, I saw a red book placed next to the reagents on the desk.

It was a thick, high-quality hardcover book with nothing written on the red leather cover.

I tried to open the book, but it wouldn’t open.

Turning my head and looking back at the bookshelf that was the entrance to the secret passage, there was definitely a gap where this book could be placed.

“This is it.”

I picked up the book.

Since the thick book couldn’t be opened, it felt practically like a brick.

I generated magic power in both hands.

I had already learned how to convert magic energy into magic power when I was in Plavis.

Come to think of it, I had been thinking of learning some magic someday, but since coming to Sioland, events had been happening one after another, so I hadn’t had time to learn.

I poured a lot of magic power into the book in my hand and inserted it into the gap in the bookshelf.

Hwiing,

Then, wind blew through the gaps in the bookshelf.

There was a reason why dust hadn’t accumulated only around the bookshelf.

The wind blowing from between the bookshelves gradually intensified, and the bookshelf slid back as if it were opening like a door, revealing a dark passage from which a pungent smell rushed out.

Perhaps because I had been in a room with no smell, or because the smell itself was strong, the stimulus was more intense than I had expected.

Logically, there should be a wall behind the bookshelf, but since this was a door made with magic, this passage was clearly in a different location far from this mansion.

[…Ed, do you feel it?]

‘Feel what.’

[Magic energy. I feel very intense magic energy.]

‘What?’

[It’s true. It’s not as much as the Demon King’s castle, but it’s full of very unpleasant magic energy…]

Magic energy.

What on earth is Jennifer up to?

As you can see from my case of becoming an undead due to the Demon King’s magic energy, living people are also at risk of becoming undead if exposed to high concentrations of magic energy for a long time.

Of course, it would take more than 20 years for this level of magic energy to turn a person into an undead, but it would be enough to affect the human body.

Moreover, handling or researching magic energy is strictly prohibited among magicians, 

Did Jennifer want some forbidden knowledge?

I thought carefully to figure out what was going on here.

Then, the reason why I was doing this came to my mind.

Oh my god. 

Is Banata still alive?

I carefully stepped into the passage.

*

The pungent and unpleasant smell of unknown origin became stronger as I went deeper into the passage.

At the end of the passage was a large space without a door.

I hid myself in the darkness and slowly approached the space.

And what I saw.

It was a sight that even I, who prided myself on being accustomed to horrific scenes, was forced to shake my head at.

The floor was covered in blood and guts scattered everywhere, and bizarre magic circles that I had never seen before were drawn here and there.

The colors of the bricks, splattered with various wastes from human bodies and stuck together, were unpleasantly mottled.

I thought that even a butcher shop where cows and pigs were slaughtered would be cleaner than this.

A large hole in the middle of this large room was roughly blocked with iron bars, and it seemed to be a place where corpses or something were thrown away.

Whether it was just a pit below, an unbearable stench was rising chaotically from the pitch-black, deep pit where nothing could be seen.

Several torture devices, such as large planks with gears attached, on which a person could lie, were leaning against the wall, and there were several corpses with their limbs restrained on them.

A nervous handwriting was scribbled on the planks above the heads of the corpses.

Experiment Failed

At the very end of the row of planks, a woman who was still alive and moving was tied up and twitching.

At a glance, I could tell that she was an undead.

The words ‘Experiment Failed’ were written at her head, just like the other corpses.

“…Ugh,”

Disgust and revulsion. An instinctive rejection enveloped my whole body and ran down my spine.

[Crude magic energy.]

[Ed… I feel so sick.]

‘Where do you have a stomach? Are you going to throw up in my head?’

I raised my head and carefully examined the still-alive, or rather, not alive, but still moving undead.

With her familiar appearance, I could immediately recognize who she was.

“…Oh my god, she didn’t go back to her hometown.”

The former headmaster of Aureo Academy, whom I met in Plavis.

It was ‘Magier’.

‘What on earth are you doing, Jennifer?’

[…It seems like she’s experimenting on trying to revive the dead.]

‘What?’

[Oh my…]

[She must have gotten inspiration from seeing Daniel resurrected as an undead.]

‘…No, judging from the state of decay of the corpses, it seems like she’s been doing this for a while. She probably started right after Daniel died.’

[Could it be…has Banata-yang already…? Ed, find her quickly!]

I forcibly took my eyes off her and moved to find Jennifer or Banata.

Jennifer wouldn’t be able to find me hiding in the dark, but still, an instinctive fear grabbed my ankles.

“Crazy bitch.”

I spat out an expletive and began to search this disgusting place.

In one corner of the large room, there was a staircase leading to a deeper place.

Slowly, being careful not to make any noise, I entered and saw a wooden door tightly blocking the end of the stairs.

As I got closer, I could hear the presence of someone inside the door.

The Demon King spoke to me in a serious voice that he had never used before.

[Ed, it seems like that door is where the magic energy is flowing out from.]

‘…Okay.’

Since it was already a place full of magic energy, I took out magic energy and pulled out a sharp blade from my palm. 

The blade was sucked into the wooden door as smoothly as a hot kitchen knife cuts butter.

I carefully moved the blade to make a small gap in the door and looked inside.

I saw Jennifer standing in front of a large chalkboard, correcting magic circles and magic formulas, and Banata next to her, sleeping in a large glass tube.

The following was written above Banata’s glass tube.

Possession Experiment

Experiment Successful

.