Chapter 10: Ruins of Visitor (part four)

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“Erica, is there a painful place somewhere?” “I’m alright, Klaus-sama.” “I see……Then, do you feel sluggish, cold, or something like that?” “I’m alright!” “I see……If you feel somewhat bad, don’t overdo it and say it quickly.” “Yes, yes. I will tell you.”   We were organizing and sorting the items that were stored in the storage boxes of Edward-oniisama. I mainly focused on the wands, while Klaus on the scrolls and spell cards.   ……It was supposed to be a time for preparations, but Klaus’ hands were stopping frequently. Every time he stopped, he asked me about my condition.   “Erica, you, are you really…” “Klaus-sama, I will get angry, you know?”   On his face, a big sign of ‘Worried!’ was written. He resembled Edward-oniisama when I caught a cold. Both of them had the same eldest son’s color on their soul’s aura. Onii-sama who had a black-belly dark smile was a good person, similarly, maybe Klaus who would grow up to be a Do-S was also a good person.   “Klaus-sama, how is it?” “There is no curse in the range of my Glam Sight. These spell cards can be diverted to Harvan’s magic without problem. Wait a little more for the analysis of these scrolls.” “That’s fortunate. Please don’t forget to restore your magical power by drinking the potion.” “Ah, I know. What about you, Erica?”   I read the parchment notes about the classified wands.   Wand of the Death¹. Wand of Fire Bolt. Wand of Lightning Bolt. Wand of Magic Missiles.   They all came from the trapped box of death. Although the remaining amount of usage was few, all of them were powerful offensive wands. It was not unreasonable for Edward-oniisama to be vigilant about thieves.   “You mean they were Edward’s leftovers?” “The fact that the offensive wands were used is probably because a fairly large battle had happened.” “Well, it was strange that there were no monsters that would protect the ruins at all, but maybe they were already wiped out?” “Probably so.”   Yes, the Ruins of Visitor had already been conquered. In this regard, I would like to thank Onii-sama obediently. Even though the mechanism of this labyrinth alone was sufficiently troublesome, I shuddered when I thought that a monster would also come out.   “Ooh! I can use this!”   Klaus raised a shout of joy as he was analysing the scrolls while making constant reference to the personal notebook. He seemed to be in a good form ever since his magical power was recovered. I also stopped my hands that were packing items into my bag and looked into the scroll.   “Have you found magic that seems useful?” “Far better from being useful, it’s not an exaggeration to say that this is a trump card. What is described here is a Pass Wall.”   Klaus showed me the page of the notebook and scrolls, pointing alternatingly with excitement. Yup, but you see, I couldn’t read the magic language of the eastern Harvan.   The result of a magical research was written carefully in the notebook. This was nostalgic, Klaus (older) of the game also carried magical research notes that was as big as a Japanese dictionary². With this, he would grow up as a hardworking genius.   “Is it a magic that let you freely passing through the wall? It is also a magical way for labyrinth searchers to cheat.” “I don’t feel even a bit ashamed, because right now we don’t have enough time anyway.”   Certainly, in the situation that mine and Ann’s life were on the line, we didn’t have time to keep track of the maze of the labyrinth. But if I thought about this carefully, Onii-sama had always prepared this cheat spell when searching inside a labyrinth. As expected, Onii-sama……somehow immature.   “So it’s like this, let’s use the large, hateful mechanical labyrinth as an example. If it was an ordinary labyrinth, we would just have to walk through the walls and walk from one end to the other end.” “But we don’t understand the laws of the labyrinth, it won’t be strange even if a fatal incidence occurs because we failed to confirm everything.”   In addition to the passage of time, the Ruins of Visitor detected the weight of its intruder and changed its shape. The message of Edward-oniisama, who explored the ruins first, was not left in every room. Because there weren’t many hints, it would be unreasonable if we didn’t try to decipher the laws of the changing labyrinth from now on.   “If we don’t understand the rule, at least we should be able to supress the change of the labyrinth.” “Time passage, weight…, huh…” “The manipulation of time is the highest-ranking magic. I memorized about the chants and the magic circle configuration as much as I could, but they place a heavy burden on someone as immature as I am. I have never succeeded even once in casting it.” “You memorized it, huh. The highest-ranking magic.” “If it was only memorizing spells, everyone can do it if they try. Once I matured, I would finally be able to practice it.”   No, but even though he was only 10-years-old, he had memorized the highest-ranking magic, I believed that not everyone could do it, you know? Because this was a genius who had not noticed that he was actually a genius!   Well, but time was impossible anyhow. Then, the remaining was weight. Weight, weight, weight……ah!   “Klaus-sama, there is a Wand of Levitation. With this Pass Wall, combined with—” “I see, a flying-based magic! Then, it’s as good as no mechanical labyrinth!”   Wand of Levitation was made from fossils of a large wyvern. On the stick head was an amber, and the handle part had yellow brass in a pattern of a feather. The core material was fossil of the wing of an archaeopteryx. Incidentally, this was also very expensive, but in this situation I couldn’t afford to be frugal.   Unlike flying, it was impossible to finely adjust the height of Levitation. However, since we only wanted to avoid a mechanical labyrinth, we only needed to float a little from the ground. Levitation had a weak effect, but it was useful enough.   “Then the next step is decided. Using Levitation in combination with Pass Wall, we will search each layer one by one.” “If we also combine them with Urd Sight, it seems we will be able to significantly shorten the time.” “There are two Pass Wall scrolls. I think one piece is for returning, we will return temporarily if we cannot join with Ann before the first piece effect timeout.” “It can’t be helped. In the case that Ann-sama is in a safe place – let’s leave a note in various places so that we can guide her to this simple base camp.”   There was a possibility that it might not be noticed at all depending on the weather, if it was only written on the wall with Moonlight Gallnut Ink. Just by dropping scraps of parchments that squeezed out the instructions on the conspicuous points such as the entrance, the discovery rate would rise significantly.   “Erica, I said this many times, but we will return home as soon as you feel unusual about your condition. No matter how much effect time the Pass Wall scroll has left.” “Klaus-sama…” “I am worried about Ann, but if you have any chance to be saved, I will not forgive myself for the rest of my life if you die. If only I looked at the magic trace a bit more carefully, that trap could have been prevented.” “Klaus-sama has a quite stubborn personality, aren’t you?” “You……”   I appreciated him for being worried about me. But it was due to my carelessness that I was caught on a trap. Because it was burdensome to be taken care of too much, I diverted the topic to miscellaneous things.   Nonetheless, to be honest, I felt glad that Klaus was actively seeking to withdraw. Was it because I received a sentence of death? It was a good thing. —No, no, that was not good at all.   After the confirmation of items was finished, we prepared for our departure. Klaus wore a belt with a potion holder found from Onii-sama’s storage box around his waist from above his robe. He hooked the magical recovery potions to all of its special shaped metal fittings. He drank three potions that couldn’t be fitted on the holder to restore his magical power, the rest would be put into the cloth bag that Klaus had brought with him. Three potions……he was only 10-years-old, but the maximum value of his magical power was high. If it was an average adult mage, I heard that their magical power would be fully restored after drinking two and a half potions.   “Wh-what is it? Why are you staring at me like that?” “No, never mind. If I must say, I’m worried whether your magical power has completely restored or not.” “I see…… Ah, if wide area magic is not hindered, I have enough magical power to run exploration magic on all the layers so far.” “Klaus-sama, if I look closely your face is red, how is your physical condition?” “Oh, aah……why is this? Was there also sake in the ingredients of the potion…?”   When Klaus turned toward the other way, he gathered spell cards with great vigour. He was like a banker who counted bills or a magician who shuffled cards! He bundled about 20 sheets of spell cards, and put them into hidden pockets in various parts of his robe. Hmm? Wait a moment, did he bring hundreds of them? Even just by glancing at him, it seemed like he had put over 300 sheets in just one sleeve.   “Klaus-sama, no way, are you going to bring all of the spell cards? There are about 2000 sheets, you know?” “If we go to the deepest layer, there is a possibility that we will come across an unknown monster. By the way, there are less than 2000.” “Being the mage of the East is a hard work too, huh.” “We also put an importance in preparation. It is the same as the fundamental of you western alchemists. Unlike the northern swordsmen who can fight with each other, or the southern dragon knights who are unbeatable as long as they have dragons.” “Considering all that, you still came to this ruins without preparation……” “Because, at that time I was weird. No, I reflect on it. I will never do something like this without preparation again.”   It was harsh that he was feeling ashamed about it. His behavior was due to the curse of the vampire (?)³, so I didn’t mean to blame him.   I fastened the lamp that tends to block my hand on the bag, and wrapped the belt that had the wand holder around my waist. It only barely caught around my waist, as expected it was truly a belt for Onii-sama. I picked up the two wands of Magic Missiles and Lightning Bolt from the offensive wands, and the three wands of Levitation, Feather Falling, and Urd Sight among the wands for convenience, and put them in the holder. Too many would just bring confusion and couldn’t be used. It was the theory of alchemists’ way of fighting, to insert a reasonable number of wands into the belt and exchanged them alternatingly with the wands inside the bag as occasion demands. ……Edward-oniisama was selling out.   “Ah, right. Klaus-sama take these too, please. These are the Wand of Levitation and Feather Falling…In other words, they are for flying and falling. Because these two have a short range, please do self-management to the best of your ability during the move.” “I understand the Levitation, but when would we use the Wand of Feather Falling?” “This is important. We can’t say that there would be no such thing like pitfall, and it can also be used when we float too high. Because Levitation has a high altitude rise, it often happens if you swing it too many times by mistake.” “How high is it specifically?” “Usually around 5 cm. 25 cm when you swing it once more. And 125 cm if you swing it again. The altitude will rise exponentially with each swing.” “Huh. That’s interesting.”   Ah, 10-years-old and he already understood the exponential function. As expected, he was the hardworking genius, Klaus Harvan. Although there was also a possibility that he would float away appropriately. Let’s take care that he wouldn’t overswing the Wand of Levitation.   “Let’s go, Erica. From here it’s a race against time.” “Yes, Klaus-sama. Let’s help Ann-sama as soon as possible.”   Klaus read aloud the scroll of Pass Wall. White light spread out from his staff and spread a magic circle over us. From the magic circle overhead, drops of light came down like raindrops. The drops of light which passed through us, spread like a ripple when it fell to the ground and formed another magic circle. The two magic circles intersected slowly so as to sandwich us and the trajectory of white light enveloped us.   After confirming the invocation of Pass Wall, I swung the Wand of Levitation which was made of amber, bone, and brass, twice. Feathers made of golden lights fell to our feet. Light touched our shoes, and when it touched our shoes, it changed into a golden magic circle. The magic circle of Levitation spread as if covering our shoes, pushing our body up in the air.   As we held hands so that none of us would get stuck in the wall, we kicked in the air and jumped into the wall.

¹ The literal translation is actually Wand of the Armor of Death. ² It actually said 広○苑, but I know that it refers to 広辞苑 (Koujien) or a Japanese dictionary written by Shinmura Izuru. For reference, it is this size. So, Klaus (older)’s research journal is very thick. ³ This question mark is in the raw. This is because Erica still wasn’t sure that the magic spelled on the stone was from the vampires. It was still pure speculation.