Aila pulled out her map of the fortress once again, spreading it on the floor to examine it closely.
“The worst-case scenario is that they’ve all been killed... but looking on the bright side, they might have just been kidnapped. Still, if you wanted to hide everyone from the Duke’s Manor, where would you put them? It won’t be easy to find a handful of people in a fortress this size.”
“Under the current circumstances, with guards patrolling every corner of the fortress, there shouldn't be any place where people could be hidden away so quietly, right?”
Midir frowned as he spoke, recalling the numerous sentry posts he had seen throughout the fortress earlier.
“Um... Sister Aila, what is this mark here? An escape passage?” Rosal, leaning in beside Aila, suddenly pointed at a tiny symbol on the map.
“Hmm? An escape passage! Of course!”
Prompted by the observation, Aila seemed to realize something. She stood up abruptly, her eyes meeting Midir’s.
“If that’s the case... then the information on this old map might not be entirely accurate. Is it possible the Lord’s Manor has an independent escape passage or a shelter? If it’s a place no one else knows about, then... it would make sense.”
Midir rubbed his chin, speaking slowly and thoughtfully.
“Then let’s go. We’ll head back to the Lord’s Manor and see if we can find anything new!” Aila nodded to the other two and immediately stowed the map away.
A moment later, the group reappeared inside the Lord’s Manor. This time, Midir took the two women directly back to Duke Rowena’s cluttered study.
Upon landing, Aila immediately began searching the room, inspecting it inch by inch.
The guards in the fortress seemed to have been drawn away by the commotion caused by the fake Blake earlier. The area around the Duke’s Manor was eerily quiet, which gave the trio plenty of time to search for clues inside.
After searching for a while, Aila finally discovered something suspicious. On a tall bookshelf, there was an inconspicuous thick book that could not be pulled out.
“If I’m not mistaken, this must be the mechanism. You two stand back a bit; there might be traps... let me try.” Aila motioned for them to retreat while she reached out to feel the book.
Once the two had moved to the edge of the room, Aila reached into the interior of the bookshelf. Sure enough, she found a small handle behind the book.
Without hesitation, she pulled the seemingly ordinary handle. With a crisp click, a low, powerful rumbling sound echoed from behind the bookshelf—the distinct sound of metal scraping against the floor. Something was moving within the walls.
As the bookshelf slowly slid to the side, a hidden mechanism was gradually revealed to the three of them.
It was a heavy metal door. Although it was covered in rust, it still exuded a sense of being indestructible.
“Hmm... this door is quite thick. Step aside; I’ll just blast it open and see what’s inside.”
Midir stepped forward and knocked on the metal door. It produced a dull thud, making it impossible to gauge its actual thickness.
“Wait! Blasting it open like that will definitely make a lot of noise. Wouldn’t that make our sneaking back here pointless? Besides, you don’t know if there are any traps on this door. Let me try instead.”
Just as Midir reached out his right hand, preparing to condense elemental energy to force the door open, Aila pressed his hand down.
Aila carefully felt around the door with her hands, muttering to herself.
“There aren’t any traps, but... this lock style... I didn't realize Duke Rowena was such a nostalgic type. Let's see how this works.”
As she spoke, she used her Arms Crafter to create several thin metal picks of various shapes. She crouched down and inserted them into the door’s keyhole.
As Aila’s hands manipulated the metal picks into different positions, her brow furrowed slightly. Her long, slender ears twitched as she listened intently to the faint sounds coming from inside the lock.
“I didn’t know Sister Aila could pick locks?” Rosal leaned over slightly and whispered to Midir.
Midir nodded but didn't say anything, simply watching Aila as she focused on the lock with a serious expression.
For the next few minutes, none of them spoke. Duke Rowena’s study was silent, save for Aila’s soft breathing and the tiny clicks from within the lock.
“Phew... that should do it!”
As Aila let out a long breath, the sound of sliding gears finally echoed from deep within the wall. The heavy metal door slowly popped open, revealing a dark passage. A long stone staircase led down into the unknown.
The three of them exchanged glances, preparing to enter the pitch-black passage. Suddenly, Aila looked toward the depths of the stairs in surprise.
Soon, hurried footsteps echoed from the staircase. A small figure rushed out from within, slamming headfirst into Midir at the entrance.
The force of the impact caused the figure to stumble and fall to the side, and the metal case he was carrying clattered to the floor.
“Ow, that hurts! Midir? Aila?! What are you doing here?!” Ronald Ironheart rubbed his head as he scrambled up from the floor, his face full of shock when he saw the three of them.
“I was about to ask you the same thing. Why are you running out of this secret passage?” Aila asked, looking down at Ronald’s short stature.
After taking a careful look at the three of them, Ronald began to explain.
“I’ll keep it short. I was taken by Duke Rowena’s attendants to a remote laboratory. I didn’t think much of it at first; I just wanted to finish building the prototype, so I started my experiments in that room.”
“By the time I came to my senses, several hours had passed. I thought I’d go out to get some food and then continue, only to find that the door had been locked from the outside. I tried calling out, but no one responded.”
“Then I realized something was wrong. However, I couldn't remotely control Iron Man No. 23, and the goggles I use to contact you were left in the cockpit. I had no choice but to search the room thoroughly, and I found a narrow ventilation duct that I could just barely squeeze through.”
“I followed the duct all the way until I dropped into a dark passage. I’ve been walking in the dark for about an hour. I just heard the sound of the mechanism opening above, so I rushed over. Ow! Aila, what are you doing?!”
As he reached that part of his story, Ronald suddenly jumped like a startled rabbit, clutching his neck as he looked at Aila, who had appeared beside him at some point.
Aila was holding a small metal needle between her fingers. A drop of Ronald’s blood clung to its tip, the red bead shimmering under the study’s lights like a sparkling ruby.
“Test complete~ It looks like you’re the real deal. Now I can relax.”
Aila patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. She then began to explain the situation with the fake Blake and everything else they had encountered.
After hearing Aila’s explanation, Ronald pulled a disk-shaped mechanical device from the metal case on the floor and handed it over.
“If that’s the case, doesn't it mean the entire Azure Fortress is at risk of being infiltrated? Could it be related to the appearance of the Void Demons? This is a detection device I just finished. It can trace surrounding Void Energy. Shall we give it a try?”
Aila took the device from him. Midir and Rosal leaned in as well, looking at the circular device, which was about the size of a dinner plate.
“I have to say, you’re certainly fast. How do we use this?”
Aila turned the metal disk over and over, studying it, but no matter how she manipulated it, the disk remained unchanged.
“It’s not that hard to make if the materials are available. Oh! Right! My apologies, this thing requires mana to activate. I should have given it to Mr. Midir.”
Realizing his mistake, Ronald quickly took the device back from her and shoved it into Midir’s arms.
“This device is called a Mana-Resonance Void Energy Tracer. You just need to pour your mana into it. The machine will convert the mana into a fluctuation similar to Void Energy, and then the direction will be displayed on the disk,” Ronald explained to Midir.
Taking the metal disk from Ronald, Midir nodded and began channeling his mana into it.
Upon coming into contact with Midir’s mana, a silver light glowed in the center of the metal disk. On the edge of the plate, a smear of black—identical to the color of Void Energy—appeared.
Soon, the silver light transformed into a small, shining arrow, pointing directly into the secret passage Ronald had just run out of.
Rate on N.U.
