Chapter 7

I hurriedly ran down the stairs of the night palace.

(Oh, I’m glad I changed clothes –)

Compared to running in a dress, this feels so much lighter.

Well, from a modern perspective, dresses are just uncomfortable.

Maybe it’s just that my feminine skills are low, though.

After a while, I arrived at the transfer gate in the basement.

There, the place was partially illuminated by the warm light of star crystal lamps, even at night.

"Hmm, it seems they’re not here anymore..."

I had hoped they would be stuck in front of the transfer gate, but it wasn’t that easy.

There were many arch-shaped stone transfer gates lined up around me.

These were the transfer gates to important locations throughout the country.

Each transfer gate had designs representing the destination land.

All the transfer gates had faintly glowing, rotating magic arrays floating above them, sealed with powerful magic that required a one-time key to open.

I headed without hesitation to the transfer gate at the very back.

That was the transfer gate to the oldest <Arrival Ruins>.

When I reached the transfer gate I was looking for, I felt a bit let down.

"The key is still locked...”

In addition to the one-time key magic array, there was a physical lock.

Even if I could somehow trick the one-time key, I wouldn’t be able to use the transfer gate.

What a disappointing end.

I had prepared for battle, borrowing supplies from my brother’s storage, but it all seemed for nothing.

But, it’s much better that nothing happened than something.

I can finally relax... right?

But then, where did Klaus go?

I used the spirit vision magic eye staff just to be safe.

Huh? This – this lock is an illusion!

The real lock has been destroyed by someone.

Moreover, the one-time key seal magic array is also an illusion.

The illusion that shows the broken lock in its original state was created by Klaus Harfarn.

It was created about thirty minutes ago.

The one-time key illusion was cast by my father, Duke Aurelia, ten years ago.

The <Arrival Ruins> transfer gate is exceptionally old.

Perhaps it was too old to install a one-time key.

Instead, a physical lock was used, and the illusion made it look like there was a one-time key seal.

For the people of West Aurelia, who have to pay a fortune to use the spirit vision magic eye, this is an effective disguise.

However, for Klaus, an excellent mage from the East, it’s completely meaningless.

Klaus must have immediately realized the seal was a fake when he saw the disguise.

After breaking the physical lock, he disguised it with an illusion of the lock, just like my father did.

As a result, it’s a fake key both magically and physically.

"I guess I have to go to the ruins and bring them back."

Honestly, I’m scared.

In my past life, I was afraid of ghosts and ghost stories.

Going to the <Arrival Ruins>, where such things really exist, is very scary.

But –

"Wait for me, Klaus, Ann."

If the Harfarn siblings are there –

If they wandered into the ruins without knowing what’s there, I have to help them.

I took a step forward and entered the transfer gate to the <Arrival Ruins>.

I remember that the command word to activate the magic is a phrase praising the destination.

I read the command word inscribed on the transfer gate.

"Come, my friend, across this sea, to our promised land, to be given a new name."

☆

I felt a slight dizziness.

When I opened my eyes, I was in the shallowest level of the <Arrival Ruins>.

The transfer gate was in an exposed state, with ancient runes carved into the floor.

In contrast to the <Spring Palace>, made of white, sturdy stone, the ruins were constructed from ordinary stones cut and stacked together.

The ruins are located near the western coast of the Aurelia territory.

Thinking about it, I can faintly smell the sea.

It was well past midnight, but it wasn’t completely dark.

Star crystal lamps were embedded in the walls, casting a faint, soft, yellowish light that illuminated the room.

A long time ago, the family that founded West Aurelia was the last to arrive on this continent.

The people who lived here before called them the <Arrival Family>.

They were excellent navigators, alchemists, and exiles from a lost homeland.

There is a legend that they destroyed their homeland through excessive alchemy, but the details are uncertain.

Where they came from and what their past was like are all lost to history.

Perhaps because there is some truth to these legends, the people of Aurelia have banned several technologies.

The creation of artificial humans, for example, is one of these banned techniques.

It is said that this <Arrival Ruins> contains ancient alchemical rituals that have yet to be deciphered.

I used the spirit vision magic eye staff to look around, just to be safe.

At this point, there are no magical traces other than the transfer gate.

I can breathe a sigh of relief for now.

(If there were illusions in the ruins, I’d be in trouble.)

I used the past vision staff five more times.

The magic array composed of five white lights from the staff spread throughout the room, and the ripples reflected back to my eyes.

Through the past vision, I saw Klaus’s back leaving through the left exit.

"Klaus... you came alone, didn’t you?"

As I continued to look around the room, I saw Ann arrive through the transfer gate.

She seemed to have noticed something and was searching a specific spot in the room.

After that, she also headed towards the left exit.

The past vision ended there.

It seems that after Klaus came to the ruins alone, Ann noticed and followed him.

If only Klaus, who is skilled, had entered the ruins, it would have been better.

I searched the spot where Ann seemed to have found something.

There was a spell scroll.

It hadn’t been activated yet, so it didn’t contain any magic power, which is why the spirit vision magic eye didn’t detect it!

The spell scroll, made of parchment, had incantations written in the ancient language of East Harfarn.

I’m not particularly skilled in linguistics, though.

If I could read the text, I might have gotten more clues, but this is enough to track them.

I’ll follow the unused spell scroll like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs.

When I passed through the left exit of the room, I saw several more rooms with similar structures.

I can see a narrow corridor in the distance.

There are lamps in the corridor, so it’s not completely dark.

But, it’s really scary?

It’s an old building, and the <Arrival Ruins> have more underground parts, giving it a dungeon-like atmosphere.

"If I think that ghosts aren’t scary, they won’t be scary, not scary...!"

I’m shouting mysterious words to myself to boost my courage.

I mustered my remaining courage and alternated between using the spirit vision magic eye staff and the past vision staff to follow the backs of Klaus and Ann from the past.

I must have moved about two hundred meters from the entrance. I’ve descended four sets of stairs, so my sense of direction is a bit fuzzy.

I was thinking that ghosts and spirits are scary, but then I suddenly remembered something from my past life.

It was a memory from high school, when I was hit from behind on a night road.

It wasn’t a spine-chilling fear, but a dark, sticky emotion.

(No, humans are much scarier. ...Ah, I feel like ghosts are a piece of cake now.)

Yes, humans are very scary.

The grudges, envy, and hatred of living humans.

Those are truly terrifying things.

Just as I was thinking about these memories, I encountered a human.

"Are you Erika...!?"

There, a completely exhausted Eastern mage was standing.