The Secret Room (3)
A low hum… then a heavy thud.
The descending elevator settled against the floor. Taking a light hop down into the basement, we were met by a corridor that opened wide before us.
"…I can hardly believe it."
Isolet's whisper. I felt the same.
A breeze drifted through the broad hallway, cool against our cheeks. Windows were set at intervals along the walls, framing the night sky outside. Through them, a full moon cast a pale, hazy light across the space.
It was a sight no one would ever take for an underground chamber.
This was the backdrop that greeted anyone who entered the Secret Room beneath the Olympia Academy library.
Reminds me of the original.
The elegant illustrations, the vivid sound design—seeing it all made real stirred something unexpectedly nostalgic. But there was no time to linger in the scenery.
"We should get moving."
Enemies were waiting ahead.
"Do you know the way?"
"Just keep going straight. Past this corridor, we'll hit the archive."
A vault packed with martial arts manuals. A boss monster was waiting there. Of course, there would be trash mobs to clear before that.
Step. Step.
I strode forward with confidence. Making noise in a field crawling with monsters wasn't the smartest idea—but Isolet had no experience yet. She'd only just enrolled at the academy; she hadn't even seen real combat. Her first fight was coming any moment now, so I needed to take the lead and put her at ease.
"It's truly remarkable. I never imagined Olympia had a place like this… When I heard 'Secret Room,' I wondered what it might be, but it's so mysterious. How can we even see the night sky down here?"
"This academy's got quite a long history. Structures woven together with magic like this turn up more often than you'd think if you go looking."
"I see."
As I walked ahead without hesitation, Isolet seemed to relax and fell in right behind me. We had gone some distance down the corridor when—
"Shh."
I threw an arm back and stopped her mid-step. The sensory training from a few hours ago in the library kicked in—I pushed my sight and hearing to their limits. From the darkness the faint moonlight couldn't reach came the sound of something striking the floor.
Click. Click. Click…
A noise like bare bone grinding against bare bone. Skeletons. Three of them.
"Monsters up ahead."
"We'll have to break through, then."
"Right."
The layout was simple: a single corridor leading to a circular archive. There was no way around. We would have to encounter the skeletons head-on.
With a soft rasp of steel, Isolet drew her blade from its scabbard. The sword caught the moonlight and gleamed white. She had merely drawn her weapon, yet her stance already looked like a painting.
"I'll take two. You handle the last one. On three."
"Yes."
Ordinarily the protagonist would mop these up alone for the experience. But I needed real combat practice myself.
Think of it as a warm-up before the inter-year exchange tournament.
And it was a kindness to my underclassman Isolet. Yeah. That tracked.
All right. Time to move in. To save strength for the boss waiting in the archive, these had to go down with as little effort as possible. One-hit kills.
"Three, two, one—go."
We synced our timing over those three seconds. The instant the word left my mouth, I drove my sole hard into the ground and launched forward.
Bang—!
The world shoved backward. The windowed corridor whipped past, and I was standing in front of the skeletons beyond the dark.
—Krrk, krr-krrk?
They noticed me and gripped their bone blades. Arms rose, swords about to swing—
Crack!
"One down."
I drove a straight punch into the nearest one and pulverized its joints. Crunch… The skeleton's remains shattered in a single blow, bone fragments scattering across the floor.
—Krrk!
But it wasn't alone. Another skeleton's bone blade came whipping around—an arc from my right shoulder down to my left hip. Dodging would be hard. Twist my stance too hard here and I'd just eat a follow-up anyway. Which meant taking the hit was inevitable—
Indestructible Body.
Indestructible Body
Hardens the body to steel-like durability
The physical cheat that turned flesh to iron. I offered my arm to a bone blade that would have flayed ordinary skin clean off. Scrape… The edge sliced through my sleeve and stopped dead against skin like steel.
—Krrk?
The skeleton's empty sockets somehow managed to look startled.
"Too bad."
Boom! I knocked the bone blade aside and drove another straight punch. The skull burst; the skeleton's remains crumpled. I kicked the pieces aside and looked the other way.
There stood Isolet, her sword lowered as if she meant to score the floor with it. Roughly ten paces between her and the remaining skeleton.
Would she trade blows and settle into an exchange? What would the protagonist Isolet decide?
She answered with action.
Taah!
Isolet dashed forward in a blur—closing into combat the same way I had. But the essence was entirely different.
Whish—her blade swept up from the floor in a rising half-circle. The sword, heavy with momentum, knocked the skeleton's bone blade aside and shattered its frame outright.
A rising half-circle cut that shatters bone and steel alike
Isolet's technique: Upper Slash.
"…"
A clean first real fight. I offered a simple word of praise to the girl who had dropped a skeleton in a single stroke.
"Nice work. That was clean."
"Heh. Thank you."
She smiled faintly and sheathed her blade, looking thoroughly satisfied. My situation, on the other hand, was a little different.
Yeah. I'm going to need technique.
We had both finished our enemies in one hit, but the nature of those hits wasn't the same. Isolet's attack was built on skill and craft—not raw stats crushing the opponent flat. Mine was pure weight class. The monstrous ability scores I'd gained from the physical cheat were my foundation. That wasn't a demerit, of course, but carving through a battlefield on bulk alone still felt lacking. Learning real technique would prepare me for what came later.
I'll pick something up from this hidden piece.
So when we reached the archive, I would find it: a martial arts manual that could forge technique from the body alone.
"Will that be all? I don't see any more enemies."
"Probably. My guess is the boss is at the end of this corridor."
I gestured for her to follow and pressed on. Isolet trailed diligently behind.
We walked the dim corridor a while longer. At last, we arrived at the boss room.
The moment we stepped out of the corridor's end, a circular archive opened before us. Bookshelves rose all the way to the ceiling, packed with countless martial arts manuals. Part of me wanted to sprint over and pull them down one by one right then and there.
That was impossible. Something stood in the way of the stairs leading up to the shelves.
"That is…"
Isolet's voice trailed off. A single monster filled her blue eyes.
A body bristling with coarse, stiff fur. For a monster, it walked on two legs like a person. Its snout was pure beast, and wolf's ears crowned its head.
The boss of the Secret Room: a werewolf. It stood guard over the archive, fast asleep.
It was pure chance that Irina witnessed the scene.
"…Mmnh."
She rubbed her puffy eyes and sat up. Looking around, she found herself in the attic room of the library.
"Yaaawn."
Had she studied too hard? The trouble had started yesterday, when that senior asked if she wanted to become his disciple. She'd gotten a little full of herself thinking, See? I really am a talented mage—and decided she would score well in the upcoming inter-year exchange tournament because of it.
She had no idea how long she'd been in the attic. She'd come straight up after lectures ended and stayed. Never once stepping outside, just reading and reading, until exhaustion finally pulled her under. Outside the window, the sky was already dark. She needed to get back to the dorms.
Irina roughly straightened her clothes and was about to leave the attic when—
Rumble…
A tremendous noise shook the entire library. It was so loud it traveled up through the attic walls around her.
"…What was that?"
She blinked. There was no reason for a sound that big at this hour. Closing time had long since passed; no one should even be here.
"Don't tell me it's a ghost?"
A chill ran through her. Sudden, crushing regret. Why had she fallen asleep? Why stay behind in the library only to run into a ghost?
Clinging to that worry, she stepped out of the attic on trembling legs—and then she heard them.
"I believed in you, Senior."
"Yeah, yeah."
One familiar voice. One unfamiliar.
"…That's him, isn't it?"
The senior she'd met at the entrance exam. Heracle, was it? Why was his voice here? And the other one—a girl's voice she'd never heard before.
Something was going on. Certain of it, Irina crept forward carefully. Softly, softly, making sure not a single footfall gave her away, she edged toward the source. And then she found them.
"How do we get in?"
"Just step inside and stand still for a moment."
A man with brilliant golden hair. Across from him, a woman with bright silver.
That girl…
Irina knew her. How could she not? As the top student of the Mage Department, she had been told over and over that this was the rival she absolutely had to defeat.
Isolet.
The first-year top student of the Knight Department. Standing close to Heracle.
…Why?
What are they to each other?
She slipped behind a bookshelf and peeked out. Irina's sharp mind raced.
Isolet, the rising star of the Knight Department. And Heracle—known as a Mage Department reserve, but in truth a mage whose power rivaled the headmaster's. Why were the two of them here, together, at this hour?
Tens of thousands of possibilities unfurled in her head. She cut them down one by one, starting from the most likely. The process was swift, seamless. And the conclusion she reached at the end was this:
"A disciple…!"
She clapped both hands over her mouth. She remembered it clearly.
Well, it's hard to explain exactly. Just think of it as a way to gain powerful strength.
Heracle had said that. That he would give her great power. That he would take her as his disciple! Which meant—!
Has he lost his mind…?! That girl's from the Knight Department!
Heracle was trying to take Isolet as his disciple! A Mage Department student taking a Knight Department underclassman!
That's impossible. How could this happen…
Why would a mage as exceptional as Heracle do something like that? The thought chased its own tail until, at last, it produced an answer.
But I, Irina—the rightful heir of the Magic Tower—am nowhere near weak enough to need your teaching.
"Ah."
Heracle's first disciple contact. That had been Irina herself. And she had kicked the offer away with her own two feet. That golden opportunity.
And so Heracle had turned traitor—settling on the outrageous idea of training the Knight Department's rising star with his own power…!
"I can't believe this…"
To think this shocking reality was the fault of her own bold declaration. If she had accepted the offer then and there, would things have turned out differently? But regret was useless. Spilled water couldn't be gathered back up.
"Here."
"…Thank you."
Look. Off in the distance, Heracle was holding out his hand. Isolet was taking it with a shy smile!
"…"
She watched the scene with hollow eyes. The two of them stood in silence for several minutes. Then, with a low hum, they descended and vanished from sight.
What had they talked about in those brief moments? What understanding had passed between them as they held hands? And once they went down there—what on earth were they planning to do?!
"…W-what am I supposed to do?"
Irina's eyes spun. An unexpected turn of events. Confronted for the first time with such a secretive display of affection, her mind went completely blank. She may have walked the elite track at the Magic Tower, but she was still barely an adult. In the face of a scene this romantic, she became nothing more than a flustered girl.
"I-I'll just follow them for now."
She stood frozen for a long while. Then, step by hesitant step, Irina approached the spot. She stopped before a space filled with pitch-black darkness, thinking of the two who had gone down into that hidden underground.
Gulp. She swallowed hard.