As Liv’s sword aura shattered the hidden door, a staircase leading deeper into the building was revealed.
It seemed that something was indeed sleeping within the underground of this structure.
The designers of this place must have been exceptionally meticulous.
What on earth were they trying to hide with such thoroughness?
I’ve never seen security this thorough before.
That’s why concern takes precedence.
I don’t know what lies beyond this point, but is it truly a secret I can resolve without getting my hands dirty?
I don’t want to break my promise to Yerna over something like this.
However, finding a hidden staircase means I can’t just refrain from exploring out of baseless worry.
Luke shook off his hesitation and began to step forward.
—–
The staircase was extremely dark without any light source.
However, Luke’s eyes could discern the outlines of the stairs even in the darkness, so he didn’t feel the need to use a light or lantern.
After all, this was one of the advantages of his body.
One might say it allowed him to conserve magic in trivial matters.
Yet, walking down an unlit corridor was not exactly a thrilling experience.
– Clack, clack.
With visual information drastically reduced, Luke could only hear the echo of his footsteps in the narrow, circular staircase.
He felt like he had descended quite a bit, but the staircase continued longer than he expected.
“This place seems to have existed for quite some time.”
Unlike the building above, the architectural style of this staircase was decidedly not modern.
Perhaps a modern structure was built to connect to a staircase that had been there first, or the older building had only been remodeled to fit contemporary standards visibly.
Regardless of which it was, it was indeed a staircase that felt out of place.
Fortunately, despite its antiquated appearance, the stairs were surprisingly clean.
It seemed they had been maintained until relatively recently.
Worried that Liv, whose small stature made her bounce down the steps, might get covered in dust or stone debris, he felt a bit relieved.
“However, there are quite a few suspicious points. A secret passage of this scale… It feels almost like a prison.”
“…”
At Luke’s mumble, Liv nodded.
The reason for constructing a closed circular staircase is usually to disrupt the spatial awareness and block the vision of those using it.
Thus, it was only natural for Luke to be reminded of an underground prison.
“Such thorough security can’t possibly just be to hide something from someone, could it? Or is it really meant to contain someone completely…?”
Which of the two it was, would only be revealed if they continued forward.
——
Upon reaching the bottom of the extremely narrow staircase, they unexpectedly entered a vast space.
What was peculiar was that, unlike the corridor, this space was surprisingly decorated in a modern style.
With ventilation ducts and pipes crossing the high ceiling, and lighting fixtures that unmistakably resembled a contemporary warehouse.
And within that warehouse-like space were various cages of different sizes and kinds.
“I’ve seen this scenery before.”
Luke felt a sense of déjà vu from the landscape.
Once, he had seen such a sight at Dylan’s facility.
The various animals stacked in narrow cages as if they were merchandise.
At that time, he had thought it was natural since it was a pharmaceutical facility, but later learned that it wasn’t a proper pharmaceutical facility at all; it had just been a place where rare animals were kept for illicit trade.
Given the situation that occurred afterward, leading him to confront Sigarmata, he felt no pleasure in making such a connection.
Thanks to that situation, he had to cut off his cherished long hair and rely on a cane for a while, not being able to properly utilize magic sight, which had given him quite a headache.
His ignorance of modern business structures, combined with the vague expectation that Third, who claimed to be his former boss, would be a proper individual, had led to a fatal misunderstanding.
Even now, he sometimes regrets why he tried so hard to view them positively.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t entirely fruitless, as he had gained something from that incident.
In that place, he was able to meet the golden eagle for the first time, and the feather he received from it was made into a pen that he still used very effectively.
Moreover, he became friendly enough to sometimes spot it sitting on a nearby branch when he opened the windows of his mansion.
Although they had yet to reach the point where it would eat the food he offered.
Well, that couldn’t be helped since golden eagles are inherently cautious and independent creatures.
Furthermore, it became an opportunity for him to learn more about Third, and he had deep conversations with Yerna that cleared up most of the misunderstandings that had accumulated.
In fact, some of the stories Yerna speculated (mainly related to misconceptions about human experimentation) could be classified not strictly as misunderstandings, but still.
“By the way, this place is filled with cages.”
Luke felt suspicion that most of the cages occupying this space were empty.
Surely, they hadn’t gone to the lengths of burying so many cages in such a deep underground just to hide them?
This meant that something that had been here had been removed for some reason.
So why did the owner of this facility remove whatever had been in these cages?
With each step he took, questions only multiplied.
Yerna had visited this facility just a day prior.
And recalling Gordon’s injuries, he had not been targeted by small magic but had many stab wounds from a relatively large area attack.
Possibly caught up in a significant explosion a few times, yet the weapons of those he dealt with today did not seem capable of using such lethal magic.
This meant that the guarding personnel from yesterday and today must have been different.
Could it be that he might find the reason for the change in armament status here?
Were all these cages emptied out just yesterday?
If so, who and for what reason had emptied the contents of all these cages in just one day?
Luke pondered, stroking his chin.
‘…What on earth happened in this facility yesterday?’
Just a day apart.
What on earth could have occurred in this place in just one day?
Luke moved cautiously, checking each cage for any remaining clues.
“Hmm?”
In the meantime, Luke noticed something unusual.
“Oh, this one’s a rather large cage.”
It looked like a prison that had once contained some colossal creature.
It was large enough to occupy nearly half of this vast space.
Moreover, the bars of that cage had an unreasonable level of magical resistance and strength.
Of course, the inside was empty.
“What kind of branches of the World Tree were cut to make these bars? What in the world was contained here…?”
Given how solid this prison was, he wondered if there might be some clue inside.
As expected, the door of the cage was closed, but Luke decided to make use of the relatively wide bars and Liv’s small size to pass through.
“Liv!”
“…”
Upon Luke’s call, Liv understood what he wanted from her and shook her head as she approached.
At that moment, just as she was focusing to load her sword aura into her knife, Luke stopped her.
“Don’t use your sword aura. You have very little magic left, don’t you?”
The only strong aspect was the magical resistance.
Thus, it might open by using the sword aura, but that would be wasteful.
All she needed to do was squeeze her body through; there was no need to waste Liv’s magic.
“…”
Liv nodded while looking up at Luke.
Indeed, she had used too much mana today.
It was true that her mana core had been equipped with a function to accumulate mana, allowing her to move for a considerable amount of time, but it had not been designed with the expectation of using this much sword aura.
Moreover, even though it was a forest, compared to the past with Arinseia, it was difficult for Liv to sustain her maximum output with a weak level of magic for an extended time.
Therefore, Luke’s reasoning was sound.
Thus, Liv took advantage of the gap and entered the prison.
As it appeared from outside, the interior of the prison was quite spacious.
It was as large as a small academy’s playground.
However, since there wasn’t anything substantial to search for inside the prison, Liv did not take long to find “something.”
“…!”
At Liv’s gesture pointing inside, Luke nodded and asked, “Ah, so Liv, you mean there’s something inside?”
Luke sighed.
The cage looked dirty and he didn’t want to touch it, but since it seemed Liv had found something, he needed to pass through that cage as well.
However, using his sword aura to cut through would be a complete waste, as he could fit through if he tried.
Not knowing what danger might still remain, he wanted to reserve the use of his sword aura for something essential.
“Phew…”
Luke stepped one foot closer to pass through the bars of the cage.
Then, to avoid getting the dirt from the cage on his body, he cast a cleaning spell several times and wiped it with a handkerchief.
Still feeling uneasy, he didn’t forget to increase the strength of the shield wrapped around him.
After preparing, Luke put his head through the gap in the bars.
And usually, if his head could fit, he would pass through comfortably.
Moreover, with his body being much more flexible than before, he thought it would be significantly easier now…
“Ugh?”
…But it seemed his waist was slightly stuck.
‘Huh? Did I gain a bit of weight…?’
He had certainly eaten a lot of desserts while preparing for the café recently…
If that was the case, it would be quite embarrassing for a mage.
Of course, if he used polymorph to change his skeletal structure for just a moment, he could quickly resolve it, but hiding his negligence with magic would be equally embarrassing, so he tried to wriggle through in that state.
“Phew!”
Just to be safe, he held his breath, but no matter what he did, he ended up stuck in the same spot, ultimately giving up and deciding to use polymorph.
Surely, he wasn’t going to waste magic in a place like this.
‘…If only I didn’t have a tail, I would have passed right through.’
Right, there was absolutely no way he had gained weight.
