The Shadow Mine's Golden Trap
It was unfair. Truly, deeply unfair. Where else in the world would you find a merchant as conscientious, benevolent, and scrupulously attentive to his customers as me, yet I was constantly being painted as some swindler or shadowy mastermind? This had to be the fault of that damn family head who’d slathered the Midas brand with every negative image imaginable. I swore I would have my revenge.
Ligret answered my declaration with her usual icy bluntness. “Wasn’t that damn family head you keep whining about supposed to get shoved into the back rooms because of you soon anyway? And you’re out here acting like the victim after plotting on the train again.”
“Hey, if I hadn’t done that I would’ve been in real danger of getting strung up. False accusations or not, you’ve gotta survive first, right?”
The best way to bury a false rumor isn’t to tell the truth. It’s to drown it under an even juicier story. Look at them. The guys who’d been trudging along like cattle headed for the slaughterhouse were now practically sparkling with greed. A rock-solid determination not to let me enjoy this alone. A dark, seething resentment that refused to let anyone else have it easy. It was intense enough to make an onlooker flinch.
Fortunately, unlike the sudden kidnapping incident at the Lake of Wisdom last time, nothing of the sort happened. The exploration party reached the entrance of the Star Land without incident.
A wide wilderness… would be an overstatement. It was a relatively cramped circular clearing with a radius of about fifteen meters. Piles of rocks both large and small lay scattered about as if marking the boundary, and two massive boulders stood like gateposts, but that was it. Despite the grandiose name Shadow Mine, the place looked so plain that the two security checkpoints we’d passed on the way here actually seemed larger and more impressive by comparison.
“This is a Star Land?”
“There’s nothing here, though?”
The combat department students tilted their heads in confusion, but the magic department students—who had learned about Star Lands in class—snickered at them and began to explain.
“Star Lands aren’t places you can just stroll into whenever you feel like it. There are rare cases where unstable mana lets outsiders wander in by accident, but otherwise you absolutely need a specific procedure.”
“You combine several spells, or use a dedicated magic tool to open a ‘door.’ It’s something you’d know if you’d just read the related books.”
Pino, listening nearby, muttered under her breath, “Then why the hell did we have to go through all that back then…” Fortunately only Ligret seemed to catch it.
The combat students were about to flare up at the subtly dismissive tone when Istal spoke first.
“Right! I’ll open the door now!”
Paying no mind to whether the students answered or not, she drew the sword at her waist. A single slash that swept from above her head down to the ground. The very next instant, the empty air split in two. Not as a figure of speech—literally.
Just like peeking through a tear in cloth or paper to see what lay beyond, the space between the two giant boulders ripped open, revealing the “other side.”
An endless stretch of stone and rock. Suspiciously glittering objects scattered carelessly across the floor. And unlike the cloudy sky on this side, a perfectly clear, cloudless sky on that side.
Ligret, arms still crossed, twitched an eyebrow. I let out an impressed “Whoa.” The rest of the students simply stood there with their mouths hanging open.
“…Wait, you guys were talking about precise spell formulas and whatever, but it just opens if you cut it?”
“Huh? I mean, this is my first time coming here too, but… that’s not how it’s supposed to open, is it…?”
At the combat student’s question, a magic student answered in a fluster.
“P-Professor. Did you just… cut through space? Right now?”
Apparently having overheard one of the students, Istal laughed and waved her hands.
“Haha, no, no. I’m still nowhere near that level. At best I only cut the wall of a barrier or a pocket dimension. You’ll all be able to do it soon too! Because I’m going to make sure of it!”
For someone who usually acted like an absolute sovereign, it was an unusually humble remark, but the students focused on the content.
Did she just say “still” not yet? So she’s saying we’ll be able to do it soon?
Wait, what’s the principle? The boundary of another realm only exists conceptually—it has no physical form. How did she even perceive it to cut it with a sword?
She’ll “make sure” we can do it soon. That’s basically a death threat if we can’t, right…?
The students froze for various reasons. Istal declared to them,
“All right, let’s move in!”
“……”
“Hm? Why isn’t anyone going in?”
The students, by some unspoken agreement, all turned their eyes toward me. Even Istal followed their gaze.
“Chrome Midas?”
Why is everyone always looking at me? I grumbled internally before speaking up.
“Um, Professor. Could you give us more concrete details? Like what exactly we’re supposed to do once we’re inside, or how we’re supposed to get back? Otherwise we might get confused.”
“Ah, that’s simple. Just wander around, take a look, and investigate as much as you can. The time limit is until the hourglass I gave you earlier runs out. Once you’re done investigating, return to the starting point. Oh, and if you obtain anything inside, you may keep it. If you can carry it out, that is.”
It was still a rather half-hearted explanation, but just learning the general direction and exit conditions was harvest enough. I didn’t bother asking something like Professor, aren’t you coming with us? The answer would obviously be something like If I stay with you, you won’t be able to properly sense danger, will you?
The students behind me, having read the atmosphere, seemed to reach roughly the same conclusion. They silently stepped through the “entrance” Istal had opened.
It wasn’t that they felt no fear about stepping into an unknown space, but right now that was a trivial concern. Once they crossed over, at least Istal wouldn’t be with them.
“I had a feeling when I saw it from outside, but…”
Inside the Shadow Mine. Pino stared at the sight before her and muttered in disbelief.
“Wow. This is the first time since coming to this damned academy that I’ve actually felt grateful.”
There’s a saying: see gold as no more than stone. It’s a proverb warning against excessive greed for wealth, but here the meaning seemed completely twisted. Because real gold was literally rolling around on the floor instead of stones.
“Is this all actually gold…?”
“If you look closely, there are gems here and there too.”
“Wait, is that what ‘Shadow Mine’ meant? And we don’t even need to mine or smelt any of it?”
Gold, gold, more gold, jewels, and mysterious ores that gave off an obviously extraordinary glow at first glance. Thankfully, many of the students here came from backgrounds that didn’t leave them desperate for money, so the scene only inspired shock and admiration rather than immediate bloodshed. Given the group’s makeup, it wouldn’t have been strange if knives had already come out.
I want it. I really want it, but…
Professor Istal’s wording earlier was suspicious too. “You may keep it if you can take it.” It definitely sounded like there’s no way we can just take it normally.
There’s absolutely some kind of trap here.
Watching the students instinctively grow wary and restrain themselves without anyone telling them to, I felt genuine admiration. It really seemed like they had grown.
“Everyone, pay attention.”
At my single sentence, all eyes turned toward me at once.
“Some of you have probably already realized this, but let’s organize our thoughts together. The academy suddenly handed us a jar of honey. Does anyone here think that jar is just ordinary honey?”
The students all shook their heads without exception.
“Getting fooled once or twice is one thing. There’s no way.”
“Like they did in the combat class last time, maybe they fed us poison first and now we have to find the antidote within the time limit?”
“The moment we touch anything it might explode. A delayed spell wouldn’t even be that hard to set up.”
“And we’d be the ones dealing with the aftermath. Sometimes I can’t tell if we’re the support division or the student emergency ward.”
Listening to their unified chorus of complaints, I nodded.
“Exactly. And the current situation is the same. The sight in front of us is honestly incredibly tempting, which makes it even more suspicious. To be frank, I’m tempted to just turn around without touching anything. But then Professor Istal would call us lazy, incompetent pigs and roast us alive, wouldn’t she?”
At the painfully realistic prediction, the students shuddered.
“So let’s set two rules and move accordingly. First, we stick together even if it lowers efficiency. Second, we don’t touch anything without group consensus. Anyone have a different opinion?”
No one raised their hand. A few students looked slightly uncomfortable with the way I was naturally taking the lead, but my words weren’t wrong, and my track record so far spoke for itself.
“Good. Then let’s begin the exploration. I wonder what exactly is hidden in this dazzling place.”