Chapter 9

Klaus handed over the partially used past-seeing staff and one of the alchemist's leather gloves, which were designed to reduce the recoil of a short staff. Then, he cut the seal on a new short staff for himself.

"Is this Aurelia's staff? How do you activate it?"

"You can use it just by focusing and swinging it."

"It seems surprisingly easy. Can I try it out?"

"Yes, please do."

Klaus carefully swung the short staff. The past-seeing magic activated successfully, and a white magic circle converged in his eyes.

Klaus blinked several times and looked around. His long eyelashes fluttered as if they were making a rustling sound.

"…This is convenient. I didn't use any of my own magic power, yet I could see you a few minutes ago."

"Past-seeing can't trace events that have happened too long ago. If you focus on the subject you want to know about when you activate it, it should prioritize events related to that person."

"So, I should think about Anne while searching?"

"Exactly. Let's go."

The lamps inside the facility seemed to be dim because the star crystals had oxidized. This could make it easy to miss important clues. He rummaged through his bag and took out a lamp.

"Sir Klaus, please take this lamp as well."

"Alright."

Klaus attached the lamp to his long staff. When I wondered what he was going to do, he demonstrated by raising the staff to illuminate high places. Wow, that's smart.

…But, Anne wouldn't be up there, right? You still have some lingering hope, don't you? That's not good.

We moved forward, occasionally swinging our staffs and carefully illuminating our way back with the two lamps.

"I can see you muttering in the past."

"Stop teasing me."

"Erika… Are you afraid of ghosts or spirits?"

"Sir Klaus, focus on searching for your sister."

Klaus gave me a mischievous look. Oh, this is embarrassing.

After all, I'm just an innocent eight-year-old, right? It's okay to be afraid of scary things.

Ah, but if we consider my real age from my previous life, it's a bit embarrassing to be acting like this… ahaha.

"You look so gloomy and dark… Can't you make a more eight-year-old-like expression?"

"More! Seriously! Search harder!"

"You sometimes look like you've given up on life…"

Hey, I don't want to hear that from you!!

Klaus's still image in the game was almost always a "rape look" until his affection level went up!

I held back the urge to say that.

Klaus, who sometimes acts like a small animal, can also be quite mean when he finds someone's weakness… Is this a glimpse of his future sadistic character!?

No, no, I need to focus on searching for Anne!

"Sir Klaus, did you see Anne's back?"

"No, I haven't seen any events related to Anne yet. So far, only you keep appearing in the past-seeing."

"Are you focusing on your sister when you activate it?"

"Yes, I am. But it's only showing me you, which is quite annoying."

This guy…!!

No, no, no, I shouldn't waste time on this.

"Is Anne really here? There's not a single trace of her having been here."

– Ah, that?

I suddenly had a bad feeling.

"…Sir Klaus, can you tell me where you placed the spell tags for the automatic map creation?"

"Spell tags? Yes, I remember. In this room, the spell tags are…"

Klaus ran to the corner of the room and searched along the wall. He seemed to be having trouble. After walking around and illuminating the wall several times, he returned with a puzzled look.

"They're not there."

"Are you sure?"

"What's going on? I clearly placed them there… This is strange, this is–"

He wasn't wrong. I don't remember it clearly, but I do remember seeing unused spell tags in the area he was searching. However, they are not there now. – My bad feeling was right.

"This 'Arriver's Ruin' seems to be moving, both the rooms and the corridors. Probably not by magic, but mechanically."

At that moment, an ominous sound echoed from somewhere far in the ruins.

"A mechanical labyrinth…!"

"I've heard from my father that the ancient Aurelians used a mechanism to deter thieves, but I never imagined such a large-scale mechanical labyrinth existed."

The sound of an enormous mechanism moving was accompanied by an unnatural tremor under our feet. It wasn't an earthquake. The room we were in was moving.

"…You saw me and Anne come out of the transfer gate room, right?"

"Yes."

"Did you see Anne only once, in the first room?"

"Yes."

Klaus furrowed his brow. His sharp eyes fixed on me.

"The corridor I went through and the one you followed was probably the same. But when Anne went through, it led to a different place."

"That makes sense."

"And now, the labyrinth's mechanism has activated again, and we've lost our position… Erika, is that right?"

"Yes. In this situation, there's no guarantee we can return to the transfer gate."

We've lost the clue to find Anne and the way back to the 'Spring Palace'. We've become lost while searching for a lost person. Realizing this now means everything is too late.

"You're quite calm, aren't you?"

"Am I? I'd make a fuss if it would help."

"Hmph, cheeky."

The most worrying thing right now is Anne. It's good that we're still together. But a little girl is wandering alone in this dim 'Arriver's Ruin'. Just thinking about it makes my heart tighten.

And if, by any chance, she has already come into contact with an ancient evil spirit–

No, I shouldn't think pessimistically now. I need to focus on finding Anne and getting back to our original location.

However, I feel stuck in this search. If we wait until morning, will my father or Duke Halfan notice and send a search party?

– No.

If that happens, Anne will die as she did in the original game. Although our relationship has changed, I don't know if she will come to kill me six years later. But even if the death flag is broken, I don't want that. I don't want to give up on the life of a little girl who was attached to me.

"Moving recklessly now might make the situation worse."

"There must be a way. Let's think about it together, Sir Klaus."

I spread out the leather bag on the floor. We need to check what we can do with what we have.

"You really brought a lot of things."

"Anything could happen, and it's better to be prepared."

Is there any magic that can help us out of this situation? I turned over the box of staffs and checked the labels.

"…A grease staff. It casts a spell to make things slippery. If you apply it to someone's hands, they can't hold anything, and if you apply it to their feet, they'll fall easily. But what would you use it for in this labyrinth? Such a niche spell."

"I packed them hastily!"

Klaus also peered into the bag curiously and started looking through the items with me.

"Is there a convenient staff that can instantly improve this situation? It's a tough one. At least a wide-area search spell would be useful."

"I'll blame our cautious ancestors."

Klaus was carefully reading the labels, but no good ideas seemed to come to mind. But I couldn't give up. As I diligently searched through the leather bag, a weak light different from the star crystal lamp overflowed from the back.

"This is moonlight gall ink, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's often used in Halfan."

There is a mineral called moonlight ore in the eastern Halfan territory. It starts to glow faintly when the moon rises and loses its glow when the moon sets. When the moon is obscured by clouds, the light from the moonlight ore also dims. It's a mysterious stone.

For generations, eastern mages have used the properties of moonlight ore to create a special gall ink that glows in response to the moon.

"The moon must be rising… It's probably around 8 PM."

The ink bottle contained a faint, bluish-yellow light that shimmered quietly. It was much weaker than the star crystal lamp, suggesting that the night sky was cloudy.

"Sir Klaus, this…"

When we covered the star crystal lamp and focused on the moonlight ore, I noticed something. The walls of the room were glowing with the same pale light as the ink, and they were flickering in sync with the ink.

"Did you notice it too?"

"Yes, it's flickering just like the ink."

The intensity of the light was probably synchronized with the movement of the thin clouds covering the moon. This weather allowed us to notice it.

I put the lamp back in the leather bag, and Klaus covered the tip of his staff with his robe sleeve. With the strong light blocked, the faint light of the writing on the wall became more prominent and visible.

The wall was marked with a crescent moon symbol. Below the symbol, there was familiar handwriting–

It was a message left by senior explorers who had challenged this labyrinth. The golden moonlight revealed a ray of hope.