Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 186
>Chapter Title: Knock, and It Shall Be Opened...
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We waited until the vibrations from the ruins had completely stopped before resuming our steps.
Of course, not before running the bare minimum checks.
“For now, the movements. Madrin says there’s no major issues.”
It felt like some ominous vibration somehow… but anyway, if Senior Mysern says it’s fine, then it’s fine.
Anyway, how long had we been walking like that?
That’s when we realized there was a serious problem with this exploration.
I mean…
“…How long have we been walking?”
“If you’re asking about time… exactly three hours and ten minutes.”
“Three hours and ten minutes…”
Truth be told, three hours wasn’t that long for exploring ruins.
I hadn’t explored any myself, but usually, once ancient ruins were discovered, it took days or even years of excavation at worst.
But what was the problem?
“…”
I sat on a suitable rock amid the debris of the fourth golem cluster we’d encountered… staring into the dim corridor.
A straight, endless passage.
Beyond the reach of the glowstones, pitch-black darkness held sway.
What did that mean?
‘The path… it doesn’t end?’
That’s right.
We’d been walking for a good three hours already, and the path showed no sign of ending.
I stared blankly into the darkness before turning my gaze to Senior Mysern.
“Madrin…”
“I sent him to scout just a bit ago… let’s wait a moment.”
“Got it.”
We decided to take a short break while waiting for Madrin.
Something was definitely off.
Ruins with a corridor that didn’t end after three hours? Well… sure, they could exist.
The world is wide, and there are plenty of madmen.
No law saying there couldn’t be one crazy enough to build absurdly massive ruins.
But that was just ‘no law against it’—no matter how I thought about it, it defied common sense.
‘Maybe we’re trapped in a barrier…?’
I checked with my senses just in case, but no.
Of course, it could be some higher-dimensional barrier I couldn’t detect… but that was jumping to conclusions.
I mulled over other possibilities, but soon Senior Mysern’s voice rang in my ear.
“…Madrin’s back.”
“What’d he say?”
Senior Mysern narrowed his eyes, took a long breath, then let out a sigh.
I could tell at a glance that something wasn’t right, and sure enough, it matched my suspicions.
“I can’t believe we didn’t notice… Madrin followed the path all the way, and it turns out we’ve been going in circles.”
“Going in circles…”
“It means this path is circular.”
“…”
Okay, pause here for a second.
Let me sort out the situation.
“So the path being circular means… we’ve been running around like rats on a wheel?”
“…That’s right. I don’t know how we missed it, but apparently so.”
That raised a question.
“What about these golems?”
We’d encountered golem groups a total of four times.
But if we’d been looping the same spot, did that even make sense?
Even if golems popped up from anywhere, shouldn’t we have at least run into the debris from the ones we smashed once?
As I thought that far, Senior Mysern spoke up.
“I don’t know where they come from, but traces can be easily erased. …Madrin? If you would.”
At those words, the floor vibrated faintly with a low grind—
Soon, the scattered golem debris sank into the ground. Like something being sucked into a swamp.
And when the changes finished.
“…Clean.”
“Yeah, spotless.”
Sure enough, as Senior Mysern said, the golem debris was gone without a trace.
That brought up a second question.
“Fine, say the golems sank into the floor and the traces got wiped clean. What about the entrance?”
“The entrance… well, I wouldn’t know. And Madrin doesn’t either. Nothing beyond the walls.”
“Wh-what…”
It was enough to make ghosts weep.
We’d clearly walked in a straight line, but it turned out we’d been traversing a circular corridor?
And look now.
Even staring with eyes wide open, the passage looked straight. No hint of a ‘circle’ anywhere…
As I pondered that far.
One person raised a hand slightly, asking to speak.
“Master, question.”
“…Mm, go ahead.”
“So, are we trapped?”
Chenbi answered that one.
“Damian, we’ve been trapped from the start. This is just a bit more seriously trapped.”
As expected of the unflappable Chenbi.
Even in a situation like this, he kept his cool and applied a sharp lens.
But Damian’s questions didn’t end there.
“But we came to save the spirits, right?”
“Not ‘we.’ I was dragged here. I’d love if the spirits saved me. Anyway, so?”
“Then isn’t it weird? Why are the spirits messing with us?”
“Damian, why’d you do it to me?”
“That’s not answering my question.”
“Then I won’t answer yours.”
And so, Damian and Chenbi’s conversation veered toward disaster and wrapped up.
Oh, and to reiterate, Chenbi stayed perfectly unflappable. He just calmly voiced his doubt—surely not angry… right?
Anyway, their chat ended in a mess, but listening made me curious too.
“Yeah, why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like Damian said, if anyone could pull this off, it’s gotta be the spirits. No way the ruins themselves have a will and are moving.”
Of course, I’d heard of ruins that shifted mysteriously on their own.
Long ago, ones that responded to intruders per preset protocols?
But those were artifacts infused with ‘magic.’
Remnants of some ancient hyper-advanced magical civilization, from what I heard.
But this space? No trace of ‘magic’ no matter how many times I checked. Utterly ordinary.
If anyone could do this, it had to be the spirits.
So why would they?
“That… might be jumping to conclusions.”
“Jumping?”
“…Yeah, the spirits are hoping for salvation. Something they’ve yearned for thousands of years, no doubt. Why would they obstruct us?”
That… I didn’t know.
No matter how I racked my brain, I couldn’t think of a reason for the spirits to hinder us.
If we were unexpected intruders, maybe, but Senior Mysern heard it clearly.
They’d singled me out as the savior.
No reason to treat us poorly then.
‘No, that’s not the important thing right now.’
As always in situations like this, it wasn’t ‘why’ that mattered, but ‘how.’
How to break through this impasse. How to find the way. And… how to save the spirits.
Having thought that far, I turned to the group and spoke.
“First, since dwelling on questions leads nowhere, let’s list out the facts we have to accept.”
“Mm, yeah.”
First off.
“I don’t know the cause, but our sense of direction—or whatever—is messed up. Definitely not ‘magical’ interference.”
“Right.”
“We’ll figure out why later. Next: whatever it is, we’re trapped in ruins with no entrance or exit. We could see the entrance until the rumbling stopped, right?”
“I remember clearly.”
Yeah, up to then, it was there.
We hadn’t strayed far from the entrance while the rumbling and vibrations continued.
“So here’s one fact we can infer: structural changes come with no warning signs.”
“Mm, right.”
I pointed out a few other minor details like that.
But why did these trifles matter?
It was to accept reality and sharpen our focus.
Frankly, even I could hardly believe it.
‘…Fooled my senses?’
I’d never imagined such a thing.
Maybe that’s why—an endless probe into causes and principles swirled in my head, so wrapping it up like this felt much cleaner for me.
So, what to watch for?
As I said, the rumbling wasn’t a precursor to structural changes.
‘So, structural changes come with zero precursors—we have to keep that in mind always.’
Our senses were warped too.
Meaning, even if the path twisted around without us noticing, we wouldn’t catch it.
Anyway, after sorting those precautions.
“Aster, I summarized what you just said based on that.”
The twisted netherworld’s Chenbi pulled out a notepad and showed me his notes on what I’d said.
“Right?”
“Spot on.”
“Then I’ll copy and hand these out.”
With that, Chenbi used copy magic to transfer the text to other notepads.
He handed copies to me, Senior Mysern, and Damian, then turned to me.
“I get what you said. So now, what do we do?”
He was looking at me, but it wasn’t just for me—surely aimed at Senior Mysern too.
I glanced at Senior Mysern, who spoke first.
“Let’s hear what Aster has in mind first. I have an idea… but I don’t really recommend it.”
“Then…”
I gave Senior Mysern a quick nod before holding up one finger.
“I’ve got two ideas. The first… honestly, I don’t recommend it much either, but it’s the most realistic, so here goes.”
Probably the same as what Senior Mysern had in mind? Whatever.
Anyway, what was the first method?
“Split into two teams and head opposite directions along the path. Question here?”
“Me!”
“You… yeah, go ahead.”
Damian grinned innocently as he asked.
“Why? We know the layout.”
“Good question. Two reasons, first: to grasp the path’s structure more surely. Madrin scouted it, but…”
“Hmm, considering even spirit senses might be disrupted?”
“Yeah, exactly. Slim chance, but Madrin didn’t realize it was circular until scouting the whole thing.”
“Good point, well spotted. So, what’s the other reason?”
“That’s… to gauge whoever’s behind this—spirits or not. If bad intentions, they’ll try something when we split.”
Well, honestly, did we need to probe intentions? They’d already twisted the path—the intent was obvious.
But beyond intentions, their reactions could reveal tons of info.
The hesitation though…
My gaze flicked to Damian and Chenbi.
Yeah, those two were the reason.
If it was just me and Senior Mysern, we’d do it no questions asked, but those two felt unreliable.
Anyway.
“I bet Senior’s idea is similar to mine, right?”
“…Mm, yeah. Pretty close.”
As expected.
“So what’s the other method?”
“The other…”
I scratched my head, organizing my thoughts.
Truth be told, this barely qualified as a method. And frankly… not very appealing.
But what could we do? No other options.
I gathered my thoughts and spoke carefully.
“Ever heard, ‘Knock, and it shall be opened unto you’?”
“I’ve heard it.”
“We knock on the spirits’ hearts with all sincerity. No certainty they’re behind this, but if they are, they’ll see our hearts and open up.”
“Heh… you really…”
Senior Mysern let out an impressed exclamation. But only briefly—curiosity flickered in his eyes.
“But how do you knock on spirits’ hearts?”
“If I’m right, they’re watching this place. Otherwise, they couldn’t rearrange things so sneakily.”
“So?”
“We show them. How sincere we are.”
“…How?”
Senior Mysern’s eyes wavered uneasily.
I stated the obvious to him.
“Senior, what do you knock on a door with?”
“…Hand?”
“No, not just a hand.”
“…Fist?”
“You got it.”
Right, the answer.
People knock on doors with a fist.
Same for spirits’ hearts.
“We knock with this fist.”
“What do you…”
At Senior Mysern’s reaction, I judged showing would be faster than telling.
“Senior, if the corridor’s circular, which side’s toward the center?”
“…This side.”
Ah, right side from my view.
I stood without hesitation in front of the right wall. At the same time, Senior Mysern’s voice came from behind.
“H-hey, what are you planning?”
“Showing you. My sincerity.”
No more explanations.
Life’s about seeing once over hearing a hundred times.
Short deep breath. Left foot forward as pivot, right shoulder naturally pulling back, arm following—
“Hup!”
Breath cut short on exhale.
KABOOM―――――!
With the echoing roar, I expelled my remaining breath.
You watching, spirits?
This is my sincerity.
This is my heart.