She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

THE COIN-PILFERING security guard’s light eventually disappeared behind another building. Mira went to retrieve a second silver coin from her pouch with shaking hands.

Scorpion gently pushed her hand away. “Umm, here, I’ll cover this one. Okay?”

The summoner did not refuse.

After confirming that there were no more guards about, Scorpion swiftly set the silver coin under the streetlight and returned.

Now they just needed to draw someone out before another guard walked by. Once they did that, they would use the opportunity to charge inside. At least now they knew the silver coin was more than enticing enough.

Scorpion stood before the door again and searched her surroundings. She listened carefully, catching snatches of conversation from within. She couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but it seemed they were in high spirits.

“I’m gonna do it…okay?” The cat girl raised her hand while Mira gazed motionlessly at the coin. It seemed she had yet to recover. “Miraaa? Hey! I’m about to knock!” Scorpion shook Mira’s shoulder and spoke directly into her ear.

The summoner seemed to finally notice her; she turned slowly and nodded, still utterly inconsolable.

There were no signs of guards approaching. Scorpion temporarily left the concealment and knocked twice on the door. The response was immediate: the voices inside stopped. Noting that, Scorpion knocked louder and slower this time.

“Who’s there?” a guard called out from inside.

The first step of their plan had succeeded. Scorpion dashed back into the concealment radius and stood with Mira and Wasranvel.

Four people began arguing inside.

“Well, go look.”

“Hell no, you do it.”

Just then, another faint light appeared from behind another storehouse. It was the light of a patrolling guard—a sign that they were coming this way.

For guards, they’re awfully lazy!

Lazy guards were traditionally ideal for infiltrators, but their laziness was a problem for Mira’s gang at the moment. It was beginning to look like they’d waste another coin. Mira panicked.

Just then, someone cut through the squabbling. “Hell, you’re the closest one. You do it.”

Finally, a security guard moved. But the patrol was fast approaching. Soon, they would turn another corner and step onto the path where the coin lay.

The door opened.

“Huh. No one’s out here.” A guard’s face poked out; now, all he had to do was notice the coin and get out of the way. But the patrolman was still approaching, and the coin would be conspicuous to both of them.

The suspense was awful.

The man poking his head out of the half-open door looked around in confusion. Meanwhile, Mira and Scorpion faced him head-on—although he naturally could not see them.

“Oh, hey?”

He flung the door open before scampering toward the streetlight. It seemed their plan had worked.

“There, now’s our chance. Let’s go.”

“Yeah!”

Mira and Scorpion seized the opportunity with Wasranvel close on their heels. Success—they were in.

“Whoa. Too bright…” Scorpion groaned.

Inside was a stone floor with a squared-off staircase that led deep underground. As they’d seen from outside, it was too empty to be a storehouse. Yet, excluding the man who’d gone to snatch the coin, there were three security guards inside.

And despite the late hour, the stone-walled space was brightly lit.

“Hey, what’re you doing out here? What’ve you got?”

Suddenly, there was a voice outside. They turned around and saw that the patrolman had accosted their guard.

In response, the guard replied honestly that he’d found it on the ground. But the patrolman pretended to fish around his pants pockets.

“I dropped that. Thanks for finding it, bud.” He snatched it away from the guard and began walking again, muttering, “Heh heh, free money.”

“Don’t you lie, punk! That was mine!” Mira shouted at the patrolman, fortunately protected by the concealment.

Next to her, Scorpion said quietly, “Er, it was actually mine…”

The guard glared hatefully at the patrolman as he left. It wasn’t impossible that maybe he’d dropped it; this path was on his route. But the guard knew that this man had just gambled away all of his money earlier that day. He didn’t have a hundred ducats, let alone a silver coin.

But he couldn’t push too hard; the patrolman was his senior, after all.

“Ugh, good grief. Must’ve been the wind or the birds.” The guard returned and clicked his tongue as he slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Hey, it happens. Sucks, though,” one of the guards tried to console him, having heard the exchange. The others simply teased him.

“I hope that damn gambling addict loses everything,” the man said, irritated, as he plopped down in a seat in the corner.

The other three guards mumbled in agreement before returning to their own posts.

A chair was positioned at each corner of the room. The guards were generally unbusy, each having brought books to pass the time.

Most importantly, they hadn’t noticed the intruders at all. Satisfied, Mira looked around until her eyes caught on an orb hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room. It looked like some kind of a shimmering ball.

I’d bet that has the power of a light spirit in it.

Light filled the area around them without casting shadows. As someone familiar with the sight, Mira was certain she knew the source. At the same time, she thought to herself, How can I so clearly perceive the power of the spirit?

Her senses had screamed that it was a spirit the moment she’d laid eyes on it, as if it was the light spirit itself. It was like a stroke of intuition instead of any sort of logical thought.

This was a sudden new sense beyond her five existing ones. What if…

Could this be…the effect of the Spirit King’s blessing?

Had she acclimated to the blessing already? She did not know whether it was a matter of time or if there was some condition, but Mira decided to accept it for now.

Mira pointed at the orb and asked, “Scorpion, that orb has a light spirit’s power sealed within. Are such objects common?” She’d only known spirit equipment to contain the power of spirits, but perhaps in modern times it was usual to see them in more mundane items.

But Scorpion shook her head. “Using light spirits as a…light source? We’d never use spirits like that.” It seemed an incredibly wasteful and disrespectful idea to her.

“Hrmm. Is that so?”

“Oh, but I heard this one person used to travel with someone born of a light spirit and an elf. He kept them around to use as a light source in dungeons or something. Uzume told me about it one time,” Scorpion continued.

“I-I see…” Mira said shortly and turned her attention away from the light source.

Apparently, Kagura had been telling tales about Danblf and Cleos. When she heard the story that way, it made her feel bad for her former assistant.

Maybe I should try being nicer to him from now on…

“So, if this really is the power of a light spirit, then this place is even more suspicious,” Scorpion said. “They’re already under suspicion of having ties to Chimera, so if they have captive spirits, then it’s basically confirmed.”

Scorpion grinned fiercely at the light. As far as she was concerned this was undeniable proof of the connection between Melville Commerce and Chimera Clausen.

“It seems there’s no doubt of their connection. I’d say we’ve struck gold early.” Mira peered into the dark staircase in the center of the room with a smirk.

Scorpion looked as well and replied excitedly, “Oh, you’re right! This is totally the way in.”

An empty warehouse, a hole in the center, a staircase leading underground. The War-Torn Burial Ground was an underground catacomb, and given what they’d learned so far, it was incredibly likely that this staircase was the entrance.

Now certain, the two exchanged a nod and stepped forth.

***

Perhaps thanks to the spirit light up above, the stone stairs were well-lit even hundreds of meters down. Now the landing was visible about a hundred meters ahead. When they finally reached the bottom, a tunnel stretched before them. It was so long that the end was lost in the darkness. 

Scorpion sighed. “There’s still more…”

They continued walking for twenty more minutes until they stopped in front of a black wall…or at least it looked that way.

“What’s the deal with this?” Scorpion furrowed her brow and peered into the black before timidly pushing against it—only to watch her hand pass directly through. “Maybe…this is just the end of the light source, or something?”

It was a surprise that the light could reach this far, but perhaps even light spirits’ powers had their limits. When she pulled her hand back, it seemed fine. 

Despite the abundant light behind them, darkness filled the area up ahead. Mira stood before the boundary and tried using her Ethereal Arts to create light. It immediately brushed away the darkness and revealed the outline of what lay ahead. The group gasped in unison.

The path covered by darkness was black. While the tunnel to this point had been gray with the stone reinforcing it, the ground, walls, and ceiling ahead were all pitch black.

“They say the War-Torn Burial Ground is a catacomb far underground,” Mira noted. “Perhaps it begins up ahead?”

“Seems like it…”

The black tunnel exuded an ominous air. Mira and Scorpion sensed that and grinned at one another; they were drawing closer and closer to Chimera Clausen’s secrets.

“There may be some other reason why the light cuts off here,” Mira suggested, gazing at the boundary on the ground. Rather than this just happening to be the edge of the light spirit’s range, perhaps something was blocking it.

As they gazed into the dark, Wasranvel finally spoke up. “Pardon me, girls?”

“Hm? What’s the matter?” Mira turned to him.

“My apologies, but it seems I will be unable to go any further.” His brow furrowed in frustration.

“What…?”

It was clear from Wasranvel’s words and attitude that his inability to go on was not due to cowardice. Suddenly she understood. “I see,” she murmured. “This area is full of that curse, isn’t it?”

“It is. I’ve been familiar with that curse for years now, and there’s no mistaking it.” The stark line where the spirit light stopped was because the curse simply erased it. Not only could Wasranvel not enter, Mira would also be unable to summon any spirits from this point on.

“Huh? So, does that mean we won’t get the concealment anymore?” asked Scorpion. It was late at night, but that didn’t mean nobody would be there.

“I’m afraid not.”

“Dang…” Scorpion slumped over sadly; they’d been on the easy road up to here, but this was as far as it would take them.

Now was the time to show off her own skills…but after experiencing Wasranvel’s awe-inspiring total concealment, it was tough going back.

“Well, we’ve no choice. I’ll call on you again when it is time to go.” Mira dismissed Wasranvel and strode forward, unbothered. If anyone was up ahead, she would have plenty of warning from her Biometric Scan. Magic-detecting sensors were large and conspicuous as well, so they would be easy to spot.

She just needed to be mindful of her light being seen. Mira set her ethereal light to the minimum brightness and walked onward into the War-Torn Burial Ground. Scorpion followed close behind, dialing her senses to high alert as she went.