“…”

My consciousness awakens from slumber.

When I slowly open my eyes, the room is in total darkness. I cannot even see the ceiling.

Without clarity in my mind, I feel a sense of déjà vu that I have felt somewhere before, and gradually a bad premonition grows louder and louder.

I took my right hand out of the sheet to calm my mind and stroked the weight on my stomach. Then I gathered my courage and looked toward the door.

“…”

White skin. Long hair. A woman dressed like a maid. It was definitely the same ghost that appeared yesterday.

Yeah, well, I guess it’s true, nothing has changed since yesterday! She’s going to show up again, isn’t she?

Thinking about what I should do, I sit up and sit on the bed for the time being.

After thinking about it for a while, I gathered up my courage and decided to ask her.

“Well, is there something you need from me…?”

I believe I had read somewhere in the past that you should never try to talk to ghosts, but I couldn’t do that.

Then she floated back and passed through the door, vanishing through the door and disappearing.

“Eh!?”

I had the courage to talk to her, but she just disappears without a word? No, perhaps he was asking me to follow her? Hmmm… What should I do?

I thought about it, but the answer was obvious. In this case, I have no choice but to go.

“Power that guides magic and controls everything. Sacred World Open [Magi Location].”

The vibrations overflowing from my right hand spread around and permeated the world.

Using light in the middle of the night is too visible, so the spell  [Light Source] is impossible.

When I turned my attention to the back of the door, I saw something that reacted to [Magi Location], albeit faintly and vaguely. I knew she was on the other side of the door. However, the response is too weak to catch it. I reduced the range of [Magi Location] and increased the sensitivity at close range, and I was able to sense her.

I gently placed Shion on the bed, picked up the ring on the desk, and opened the door, she was gliding down the hallway and down the stairs.

“I knew you wanted me to follow you…”

I followed her as I walked carefully, making as little noise as possible.

She goes down the stairs, down the hallway, opens the door, and steps out into the courtyard.

She floats near the center of the courtyard.

The courtyard was beautiful under the moonlight, and there was an atmosphere that made me think that if we came here as a young man and woman, it would surely be a good place to stay. When I think about it… I wonder do young men and women come here. I guess it’s debatable whether the word ‘young’ can be used on me or her.

While I was thinking about this, she went into the pavilion in the middle of the courtyard and stopped at the corner of it—and then disappeared.

“…Seriously?”

She disappeared completely from the place. There was no reaction to [Magi Location]. In the case of the ghosts, I had fought before, they may have lurked within the walls, but their presence never disappeared. But now she has vanished completely.

“What does she want?”

It is difficult to determine because we don’t know what kind of thing her existence is, and we don’t fully understand how [Magi Location] works.

We have no choice but to postpone the matter for later and proceed to the place where she disappeared to examine the floor. The floor is made up of square stone blocks of about 70 centimeters on each side, neatly laid out without any gaps, and the craftsmen who made this place can be seen to have a high level of skill… The block where she disappeared, is the only part that responded to [Magi Location].

“Is there space underneath?”

Maybe it is because the block is thick, or because it fits perfectly, but when I tapped on the block, there was no sound different from the others. But there is a solid spatial response to [Magi Location].

After a while of pushing the block and trying to lift it, it slid about two centimeters the moment I pushed it into the wall side. From there, no matter how hard I pushed it, it did not slide, but when I gave up and stuck my hand in the gap and lifted it up, it lifted up surprisingly easily and the lid opened.

Underneath the block was a staircase. It continued down several meters. Quite deep. As far as I could see in the magi location, the staircase ended in a passageway, apparently leading to the west side of town. But it was too long ahead to see where it led.

“Well… well, I have to go.”

Now that I’ve come this far, I have no choice but to keep going until the end…

I was determined to go down the stairs, one step at a time.

“Wow…”

Apparently, no one had been using it for a long time, and several objects that looked like spider webs were visible in the [Magi Location]. I had no choice but to go back and borrow a small branch from a tree in the courtyard and proceeded to drag the cobwebs out of the way with it.

The passageway was a single path about one meter wide. The entire surface was covered with stones, so there seemed to be no danger of it collapsing.

But what is this passage? From the entrance, it seems to be a hidden passageway, and from the location, I don’t think it is intended to be used on a daily basis. A hidden passageway in the middle of a courtyard would be easily discovered if it were used on a regular basis.

“If that’s the case…”

What is the purpose of this hidden passage? An escape route for emergencies. Or perhaps it is a way out for…

As I walked while thinking about that, the [Magi Location] caught the stairs at the end of the corridor.

I have already walked quite a bit from the Clan House. [Magi Location] can’t pass through the thick wall, so I don’t know anything under the ground, and I’m feeling a little worried, so I’m quite relieved.

I slowly climbed the stairs, and as I fiddled with the tiles that formed the lid, it slid to the side with a muffled rumble.

It seemed to be the same as the entrance.

I slowly lifted the block that served as the lid, trying not to make a sound, and stepped out.

“What is this place?”

What jumped out at me was a huge house. Or should I call it a mansion? It seems that one of the blocks laid out on the ground along the wall of the house was the entrance and exit.

We explored the surroundings while expanding the range of [Magi Location].

On the opposite side of the mansion are trees illuminated by moonlight… or is it a large garden? I sense a lot of people inside the mansion, and there are soldier-like guards patrolling all around. It is a mansion of a rich or powerful person, no matter how I think about it.

“Now what……?”

What should I do? It’s good that she led me here, but I don’t know what to do from here. I don’t really feel like exploring the grounds of this mansion without a reason while people who look like soldiers are patrolling…

I had no choice but to learn the features of this mansion for the time being and then turn back for the day.