The Price of Complacency

That's stingy!

Finding a discarded setting was all well and good, but the reward was pitiful. X muttered a complaint to Seri under his breath.

"Why is the reward so small…?"

"Come on, still…! A hundred points is ridiculous…!"

In other words: keep finding rooms like this, and the points would follow.

Nothing ever comes easy.

X let out a long, weary sigh. At least they had brought camping supplies. Without them, even this chance to farm points would have been smaller than it already was.

"Why the long sigh? The Goddess steals your luck if you do that."

"…I don't have any luck left to steal, so it's fine."

"You and your weird comments…. Hey. You used Auror just now, didn't you?"

Sure enough, Lola cracked one eye open and squinted at him. Last time she had been too out of it to notice, but using it out in the open was bound to get him caught. Not that it mattered if she knew.

X held up Rung's Sword with theatrical pride.

"As a matter of fact, this sword, which I received from my benefactor…"

"Forget it. It's you, so you probably figured something out again. At this point, even if the you of right now started throwing around divine power, I wouldn't be surprised or impressed."

"…The me of right now?"

"Anyway. Can we go through there or not?"

The remark had an odd weight to it, but he decided it probably didn't mean anything. Exploring the ruins came first.

X tossed a spare boot through the doorway. Nothing happened.

So nothing's really changed, then?

Now that he thought about it, the job itself was the same as before. Explore the Ancient Ruins. Reach the final vault. Along the way, keep hunting rooms of discarded settings — and, while they were at it, pocket whatever treasure those abandoned rooms had left behind.

"Since we're here anyway, we might as well sweep up every treasure we can find."

They had time to spare, and nobody was chasing them.

"It'll work out somehow."

Everything was going to be fine.

While X and Lola were deep in their exploration of the Ancient Ruins, a new group arrived outside.

"About a hundred years, is it? This place hasn't changed at all."

The five-member reincarnated Hero party. Leon looked over the spectacle before him with a faintly wondering air. Coming back to a place he had already explored was a stranger experience than he had expected.

"Oh, right."

A question occurred to him as he stared at the ruins, and he turned to look over his shoulder.

"Circe, why were you in such a rush to get here? We don't even have the compass we used last time."

Circe answered without looking at him, her eyes still sweeping the surroundings.

"I'll reconstruct the compass's magic myself. And we're here because of the mess you made recently."

"Ah. That…. I already said that was my fault."

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to her."

"…I will. As soon as we get back."

Circe knew perfectly well that Leon's apology was just a way to get through the moment. She didn't particularly feel like calling him on it.

It's not as if that personality of his is purely a bad thing.

In their previous life, they had needed someone with an unshakable conviction. That conviction was exactly why the party had trusted him and followed him.

The era just doesn't fit him, that's all.

She let it go. Exploring the Ancient Ruins was the priority now.

"Rosaria. Diana. Anything off?"

The two of them happened to be in the middle of a serious discussion. They had found something while scanning the area.

"Ah, Circe. Last I knew, the most recent expedition here was a year ago, right? There's been no record of anyone since."

"That's what I remember too. Why?"

"Look at this."

Rosaria pointed at a mark on the ground. It looked like a human footprint.

"This is relatively fresh. Diana, if you would."

Diana laid a hand on the trace and focused. A moment later she pulled back.

"…Less than thirty minutes old. From the traces, a man and a woman. The man's a bit smaller than Leon. The woman's smaller than Circe."

That was all Circe needed.

That guy — don't tell me it was today…?!

It had to be X and Lola. She had no idea why he had brought Lola along, but at this point in time, the only person who would walk into the Ancient Ruins was X.

The thought that the treasure might be snatched out from under them sent a spike of urgency through her. She forced herself to stay calm.

He doesn't know anything about the Ancient Ruins. If we just clear it the way we did before, steadily, then…

The thought died on the spot.

"Aaaagh! He'll know all of it, won't he…! That damn prophet bastard!!"

"Whoa, Circe, why are you so mad? Prophet?"

"No time to explain! Everyone, hur—"

That was when it hit.

KUUUUUUUUUNG—!!!!!

A massive shockwave rolled out of the Ancient Ruins. Whether it was a powerful explosion or the sound ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the structure itself collapsing, there was no way to tell.

What are you doing in there, X…!

The one thing Circe knew for certain was that her mind had just filled with dread.

"My lady, can you tell whether these are prime or not?"

"Sh-shut up! Be quiet for a second! I'm calculating!"

X and Lola's exploration was not going smoothly. An unexpected problem had presented itself.

Front: 956987. Right: 395117. Left: 599303.

The numbers written on each door were in a league of their own.

How is anyone supposed to check whether a six-digit number is prime…?

Even X had no idea how to factor numbers this large. He had a lot of knowledge — that did not make him good at math. Distinguishing primes at this scale would take someone on Circe's level.

"Ugh, this number is…. Ugh…. Aagh! I forgot again!!"

Lola, who had been grinding through the primes from the middle digits, finally collapsed.

"I can't do this…. Let's just throw something."

"About that…"

X opened the door in front of them and tossed a boot through. Nothing happened.

"Then this one's a safe room, right?"

"Watch the rest, if you would."

He opened the remaining doors and threw boots through those as well. Nothing happened in any of them.

There was only one thing that could mean.

"I don't think throwing objects is going to reveal the traps."

"…"

It looked like a trap rule from a discarded setting — the kind that didn't react to boots or other objects. Once Lola understood the situation, she beamed at him with sunny, radiant cheer.

"Then let's go back!"

It was the smile of someone declaring surrender. X's face darkened.

"My lady, I hate to put it this way, but if I don't come back with something, Professor Roxwell is going to beat me to death."

"Why would he?"

"I borrowed money from him. About forty million El…"

"What, that's all? Just pay him back later."

"…"

Yes. Lola was a noble, all right. Her sense of money occupied an entirely different dimension.

"It's not as if we have no options."

Lola watched him pull something out.

"What are you doing? Collapsing another room?"

"If the modern method is blocked, we go classic."

"Classic? Suddenly?"

What he had produced was climbing gear — exploration rope, fixed anchors — and a trap-disarming kit.

"I'm going to disarm the traps the old-fashioned way."

Lola squinted at the boast.

"You know how to disarm traps?"

"Everyone seems to forget this, but I am enrolled in Introduction to Scarlet Covert Arts. I know the theory of trap disarmament, at least. And this time I actually brought a kit."

"Huh. You're surprisingly versatile."

"You are welcome to praise me more."

X finished preparing at once. He intended to copy what Rosaria had done in the original story.

The trap-activation formula is on the ceiling of each room.

The formulas were cunningly concealed and hard to spot. The mana mediums sat behind the walls, so there was no finding those either. Shooting them with an arrow from a distance wouldn't disarm anything. There was only one method: climb up and disable them by hand.

Kang!

X opened the door in front of them and drove an anchor into the wall just beside it. The Auror-charged spike sank deep and locked in solid.

"If I get into trouble, come in and cast a barrier. Trap magic always strikes the center first, so you should be relatively safe at a distance, my lady."

"Got it. Be careful."

X looped a knot around the anchor and clipped it to himself. One spike after another bit into the wall as he worked his way toward the ceiling. Nothing happened on the way up.

So the traps only trigger when you're on the floor. Could also be because this is a safe room, but…

When he reached his target, the trap-magic formula was clearly visible. This was definitely a trap room.

"My lady! Step back a little, please! I'm about to disarm it!"

"Okay!"

X opened the kit he had brought. The moment he held it to the formula, the kit's magic crystal flashed in rapid succession. When the flashing stopped, the magical response in the formula faded away. The trap had been neutralized.

"Done! You can come in now!"

He adjusted the knots and lowered himself to the floor. Even with his feet on the ground, the trap did not fire.

"Did it actually disarm?"

Lola edged into the room, cautious.

"If it hadn't, we would already be dead."

"…Okay, that's a little impressive."

"You are welcome to look up to me a little more."

"Shameless…"

He recovered the anchors and the rope, and as he looked around, the status window kept feeding him rewards for discovering discarded settings.

That's about five thousand earned, give or take.

Five thousand points in a little over an hour was a considerable haul. And points were not the only reward.

"C-commoner…. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠There's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more of those over here…"

In the corner of the trap room lay the remains of explorers, reduced to bleached bone. They were so thoroughly desiccated that not a scrap of flesh remained; a touch would have crumbled them to dust.

No idea why there are corpses in a discarded-setting room…. Maybe they drifted in when the structure shifted.

"Let's say a prayer for them first."

"Yeah…"

After a brief prayer, they collected the explorers' equipment. The bodies held expensive magic tools, jewels, and gold coins. Now and then there was even an artifact of a kind rarely seen.

"Look at this! This is an artifact, right?!"

"It is. The formula on it is strange, too…"

Artifacts were highly concentrated magical constructs — magic tools that could not be deciphered at the current level of magical understanding. They had been created as items to fill out a convenient setting, so of course they were indecipherable. One thing was certain: artifacts were extremely expensive.

"At least ten million El each…. We found four, so…"

Even split in half with Lola, that was twenty million El. In a single hour they had recovered half of what he owed. No wonder explorers all over the world were willing to bet their lives on places like this.

"This is pretty decent pocket money."

For a noble like Lola, of course, that was all it was — pocket money.

"Oh, right. I think I've got it."

Lola called X over as if she had just realized something.

"Got what, my lady?"

"I think I can find the trap rooms."

That was an abrupt thing to say.

"You figured out how to calculate primes?"

"No, not that! I can feel them."

Lola opened the door in front of them — the number on it was 901841 — and focused for a moment. Then she turned back to X.

"This one's a trap."

"…Just like that?"

"The flow of mana is wrong. Look at the center of the ceiling."

X looked up at the middle of the room's ceiling. He felt nothing.

"I don't understand. Any hints?"

"You can't feel how off the mana flow is?"

"Not at all."

"That's weird. If you just concentrate a little, it's really obvious…"

X genuinely felt nothing. Watching Lola's reaction, he had the unpleasant sensation of having become an idiot. Then, in a flash, several scenes slid through his mind.

The mana concentration is dense…

A place like the Ancient Ruins could never be a danger to my daughter.

The way Lola had reacted. The way her father had spoken with such certainty. The speed with which she had reached the 4th Circle in so short a time.

Don't tell me…

He pulled up Lola's character information, which he had checked any number of times before.

But contrary to his expectations, Lola's information was ordinary.

Nothing's changed from the first time I looked…

High intelligence was only natural for a mage. The rest of her stats were average for her age. Neither her talents nor her titles were anything unusual.

Just my imagination, then.

He was about to bury the disappointment and move on when—

Snap.

The ring on X's finger flashed once. At the same time, the sound of someone flicking their fingers rang out.

Fzzzzzt—!!

The system in front of his eyes crackled with static, and the information changed.

What is this…?

The rewritten information was shocking enough to make him briefly forget the unidentified voice.

Magic 7.3. Luck 6.7…?!

Her Magic and Luck stats were abnormally high. Until now, numbers like these had belonged to the Hero party and no one else. Even the Hero party's luck didn't reach this level.

The talents were just as staggering.

Beloved of Mana…

It was the first SSS-rank talent he had ever seen. It meant exactly what it said: she was loved by mana itself. That was why she was so sensitive to it.

X asked Lola in a daze.

"My lady. The flow of mana, things like that — how long have you been able to feel them?"

"What, did my arms and legs sprout overnight? Obviously since I was born."

Which meant she had lived her entire life beloved by mana, from the moment she came into the world.

No — more importantly, 'disguised'…?

Not sealed. Not locked. Disguised. What that meant was obvious.

Someone tried to hide this…. Hide it from me…?

And if that was the case, the culprit was equally obvious.

Elysia pulled something. But why…?

Everything Elysia did had intent behind it. How long she had been watching. Why she had placed a restriction like this. Why she hadn't attached a timestamp. There was definitely a purpose, and there was definitely a reason.

I don't have enough information yet.

Unfortunately, there was no way to know the reason right now. One thing, however, was clear.

If it's a disguise, then her actual stats are the ones applying right now. That's why she's this sensitive to mana.

Which only made the next question harder to understand.

"My lady, this may be a somewhat rude question."

"What is it?"

"Why are you in Class F?"

If she had been sensitive to mana since childhood, she would have learned magic quickly. As the daughter of a count's house, with every resource in the world behind her, she might well have been 5th Circle by now. And yet as a first-year, Lola had been a mere 3rd Circle.

3rd Circle is by no means low, but…

In every sense that mattered, Lola being in Class F made no sense. The Academy, in particular, could not possibly have failed to notice a talent like this.

"…I'll tell you later."

Lola's face had gone abruptly dark, and she refused to answer. From that alone, he understood that the reasons were complicated. X nodded and changed the subject.

"In that case, may I leave finding the safe rooms to you?"

"Sure. Leave it to the talented one!"

Lola began reading the traps so quickly it made X's painstaking disarmament look almost quaint. Where they had been clearing about twenty rooms an hour, they were now moving through something like fifty. No matter how enormous the primes written on the doors became, Lola picked out the traps without the slightest hesitation.

She really is remarkable.

A mage's sensitivity to mana was a measure of how freely they could move within magic itself. If you could manipulate mana with a gesture, you didn't even need to construct a formula. The more freely you handled mana, the closer you came to becoming something like magic given form.

But that voice, and the finger snap — what was that…?

This was the second time. The first, he had written off as a trick of the ear. This time he had heard it clearly, and the information had changed because of it. The suspicion ran deeper.

If it was something whose identity he couldn't pin down, then he had to—

Snap.

With that sound, X's thoughts stopped.

"Commoner, exploring the Ancient Ruins is actually pretty fun!"

"Hm? Ah — yes, I'm enjoying it too. Making money, earning points."

"What points?"

"Ah, I meant extra credit. Academy extra credit."

"The Academy…"

At that word, Lola's expression turned gloomy almost at once.

"Elia…. Why is she ignoring me? She hasn't said a single word to me since that day…"

Of all things, the Academy had been the trigger.

"I must have done something she hated, right…?"

For her rank and her age, Lola was quite emotionally open. Most nobles learned to suppress their feelings for the sake of power struggles. Lola had apparently never been taught any such thing; her emotions came through unfiltered. That was probably part of why he found himself looking after her more than he meant to.

"My lady, I don't think that's it. Try to remember what Elia said to you at the end."

The last thing Elia had said to Lola was this.

"She said… 'I'm sorry.'"

"You don't say you're sorry to someone you hate. You say it because you care about them — because you don't want to be hated."

"…Then why is she ignoring me?"

The reason was obvious.

"Because of me. Because I've been going around with you."

"Because of you? Why?"

"I lied to Elia."

X's eyes closed, as if the guilt were pressing them shut.

"A lie that's hard to be forgiven for."

"…So it wasn't a misunderstanding?"

"Calling it a misunderstanding is a lie too, really. I steered her into thinking that."

Lola fell into a deep silence at that. It was true that X lied a lot. But he had never told her a truly vicious lie — nothing worse than teasing, or trying to get a rise out of her. That hadn't changed even after her hair had turned white. X had always been X. Which made it hard to imagine what kind of lie could have made someone as kind as Elia that furious.

"What did you say to her?"

"That…. It's a little frightening to talk about, honestly…"

Lola was startled by the sincerity in his voice. She had not expected the word frightening to come out of X's mouth. This was someone who didn't so much as blink with a demon standing in front of him. She decided not to press any further.

"Apologize later. When you do, I'll be right there with you."

He was unexpectedly grateful for that. When everything was over, he would have to go to Elia and say he was sorry. If Elia and Lola were going to stay friends, it was the least he owed them.

"Of course. I will."

So X made the promise too. He would earn Elia's forgiveness. He had to.

"Then let's keep going! Leave the trap-reading to me!"

Lola opened the door in front of them at once. The number on it, glimpsed in passing, was 1000003.

It finally went over seven digits.

At least the number itself was simple. Checking whether it was prime looked easy enough. Not that they needed to calculate it.

"This isn't a trap! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'm going first!"

Lola felt nothing wrong and stepped through. Her senses were accurate, without a doubt. There was no magical trap in that room.

But the two of them had grown careless.

If they had been exploring a room from the original setting rather than a discarded one, clearing the ruins Lola's way would have been no problem at all. If they had kept checking traps with boots, or disarming them with the kit, that too would have been fine.

They had done neither. And more than that — this was a place of discarded settings. Even X could not know everything about it. The assumption that the old methods and the old rules would still work here was itself a vast mistake, and a vast complacency.

Traps aren't only magical, are they?

Another trap setting from the discarded material surfaced in his mind. Traps were not exclusively magical. There were older, more traditional methods.

Physical mechanism traps…!

And the seven-digit number on the door: 1000003. Weak as X was at mathematics, that particular arrangement of digits had a high chance of being prime.

Which meant this room might be a trap after all.

"Wait, my lady—!!!!!!"

"Huh?"

Clunk.

Faster than X could reach out. Faster than Lola could turn around.

DRDRDRDRDRDRDRK—!!!

The room moved.

In that brief interval while X's thoughts had been stopped, the room Lola had entered was replaced with another.

"…X?"

And standing there in front of him was Circe.

The price of complacency was far greater than they had imagined.