Chapter 32
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Baum Territory's Mine (4)
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All of the group wandering through the mine were walking with furrowed brows.
It was truly the kind of candy Blanc had proposed as a solution to turn the situation around. It was strong enough to keep them perfectly sane without needing to wrap themselves in aura.
"Back when I was young, I once stabbed a knife into my thigh to snap out of a black magician's curse and regain my senses. This is almost on that level."
Sir Hansen was dredging up old memories to describe the potency of the candy currently lingering in his mouth.
"This damn candy just won't dissolve no matter how much I roll it around!"
"Not sure if that's a blessing or a curse."
The knights were puffing out their cheeks and grimacing. It probably would have looked pretty hilarious to anyone watching from outside.
'Well, it ends up being useful after all.'
It wasn't something Blanc had brought expecting they'd actually use it. He'd just packed it as a precaution, in case.
His original plan had been to retreat first and regroup.
"Rakshar, open the backpack."
"Y-yes, young master."
Blanc pulled a small pouch Billy had prepared from the backpack and tied it to his waist.
Thank goodness he'd at least brought the mint candy. It was something that only had a cult following among a select few right now, but once its brutally intense flavor became known for effects that outdid even awakening agents, mercenaries started using it regularly.
Still, even with the mint candy sparing them the constant effort of maintaining their aura, the group's problem remained unsolved.
They simply couldn't find the way.
"This damned...!"
Even the ever-patient Noel had reached his limit and hurled the map he was holding to the ground.
"Nothing lines up right!"
Noel was spot on.
No matter how hard they stared at the map, they couldn't figure out where they were. It was enough to make anyone furious.
A path would look promising, only for another to branch off unexpectedly, or a tunnel not even marked on the map would suddenly appear. Directions were impossible to pin down.
While Noel had given up on navigating, Blanc was mentally recalling the map he'd memorized in his previous life and trying to pinpoint their location.
Blanc wasn't some once-in-a-generation genius who could memorize everything at a glance, but even after nearly thirty years, the map was vividly etched in his mind.
Like carving words into stone to last a millennium, Batay had scarred young Blanc's soul with violence and fear, imprinting the Baum Mine's map into it.
The boy had no choice but to desperately memorize it if he didn't want a beating or to starve that night.
And so, the Baum Mine map embedded in Blanc's soul like trauma resurfaced crystal clear in his mind.
'There it is—the reference point.'
In the end, it played a decisive role in breaking through their current predicament.
Blanc realized that every time they passed a certain reference point, their position shifted instantly.
He wasn't sure how, but he suspected some magical ritual was teleporting them around in circles.
That made sense—comparing it to the map in his head, they hadn't entered the central black magician's dungeon at all. They'd just been looping around the outskirts.
If the mine had been smaller, the knights ahead might have noticed too. But its massive scale and the repetitive scenery typical of mines meant Blanc was the only one who'd caught on.
'This is the spot.'
Blanc located what he suspected was the trigger for the magical ritual and quietly called over Noel and Obert.
"Brothers."
"What is it?"
"Something wrong?"
"I think I've found something."
Good news from Blanc brought a spark of hope to the whole group.
"Really? Did you find the way?"
"Not quite the path, but I spotted something off."
Blanc explained his deductions to the knights.
"The paths here are all tangled up haphazardly."
He drew a line on the ground with his foot.
"This isn't a natural continuation. Look at the surrounding walls—the rock grain is subtly disrupted."
The knights rushed to the spot Blanc indicated and examined the rock face. Sure enough, the grain was slightly misaligned, just as he said.
"How did you even notice that...?"
But it was so subtle that it only seemed obvious now that Blanc had pointed it out. Without expertise in mines or geology, the knights couldn't spot the difference themselves.
"As expected of a knight acknowledged by Aselheit himself."
"It does look different now that you mention it."
All they could do was praise Blanc's talent once more.
"So, what do we do?"
Noel naturally turned to Blanc for a solution.
With no ideas of his own, he decided to place his hopes on Blanc's sharp wits.
"It seems like the magical ritual activates along this line. If we had a mage, I'd suggest trying to dismantle it, but as it stands..."
Blanc glanced at Bauer, who had smashed through the wall blocking their path two days ago.
Bauer met his eyes and blinked with the clear gaze of an ox.
"How about we just smash it all?"
If they couldn't dismantle it, they'd destroy everything.
Blanc smiled and suggested to Sir Bauer that they smash up the whole area.
Noel and Obert, out of options, agreed.
"That's exactly why I'm here! Sir Blanc!"
Bauer thumped his chest as if to say leave it to me and grinned fiercely.
In the end, Blanc's judgment was correct.
If you couldn't unravel it, cutting it off entirely was a valid approach.
Since the knights couldn't dispel the magic, smashing everything in sight was as good a method as any.
"The scenery ahead definitely changed."
"It's still the same mine, but yeah. I can tell it's a different area from before."
While Bauer and his squires mercilessly demolished everything around them, the other knights kept their eyes peeled straight ahead.
As Blanc had said, if the ritual broke, the real path—not the tangled illusions—would emerge. They were watching intently for that shift.
And sure enough, it happened just as Blanc predicted.
As Bauer wildly smashed away, the knights felt the scenery before them subtly alter when he hit something important.
It was such a minute change they might not have noticed without constant vigilance.
"The mine's repetitive views must have hidden it."
"Damn that black magician. Playing dirty right at our level."
After that, things progressed smoothly.
The knights walked while scanning the rock faces beside them, reporting anything subtly off to Blanc.
"Doesn't seem like it."
"Damn it. I can't tell even looking at it?!"
Obert fumed when Blanc rejected the 17th rock face he'd flagged.
"Blanc, how do you spot these so easily? Were you a miner in a past life or something?"
'Beats me, brother.'
Even combining his past life's experiences, Blanc had no business noticing the subtle breaks in rock faces that only miners would catch.
During their two days of wandering, Blanc had fixed their position, then overlaid it onto the map in his head.
After that, it was simple. Comparing the path ahead to his mental map, if it didn't match, he'd scan around for the discrepancy.
Whenever a suspicious spot appeared, they'd smash it open, and the group pressed on until a dubious passage finally emerged before them.
"I'm no mage, but this path ahead looks suspicious, no doubt."
Obert was right.
The tunnel before them differed from the rough mine paths they'd traversed so far.
Mine tunnels had dirt floors and jagged walls from forced excavation, but this one was a well-crafted passageway.
Its floor was paved flat with stones for easy walking, and the walls and ceiling—clearly man-made—formed a perfect arch.
'We're here.'
Blanc could sense they'd reached the black magician's dungeon.
From now on, they'd need to stay on high alert for threats. In his previous life, Tolome's search party had cleared everything out, leaving no real traps, but this time, they were all still active.
"We advance."
Noel drew his sword and declared.
The knights straightened their blades and stared down the passage ahead.
It was narrow enough for three men abreast at most.
Maybe it was just the mood, but the darkness there felt different from the mine's—a deeper, more ominous shade lurking within.
Torches barely pierced it.
It was the kind of darkness that seemed sticky to the touch.
With Noel taking point, the knights maintained formation and moved toward the entrance yawning like a massive maw.
At first, it seemed like an ordinary passage with just an eerie atmosphere, but as they delved deeper, ornate decorations like those in a noble mansion adorned the walls and ceiling.
"We can get a read on that black magician's taste. These styles went out of fashion ages ago."
Obert sneered at the unidentified black magician, trying to lighten the tension.
Blanc, too, moved cautiously, eyes fixed on the walls.
The walls started with simple patterns, but as they progressed, the designs grew more elaborate until now, with full ornate carvings.
"I agree, brother—his taste is trash."
Further in, the flashy decorations faded, replaced by grotesque statues lining the walls.
"Feels like they're trapped in the walls."
The carvings depicted people, rendered so lifelike it seemed they'd poured plaster over real humans embedded in the stone.
Screaming faces captured in vivid agony, finely etched wrinkles around the eyes, desperately outstretched hands begging for release.
The statues protruded as if ready to burst free and attack at any moment.
"If I had the time, I'd want to pry one off as a souvenir."
Sir Hansen, admiring the wall while they walked, couldn't hide his awe. As a knight with an artistic eye, he could appraise their value.
But the horrific depictions made it impossible not to feel a chill, weighing on the group.
Only Hansen, seriously evaluating the artistry, and the thick-skinned Bauer gazed on with mere curiosity.
As Blanc and the others walked flanked by the endless row of statues, Hansen and Bauer's conversation drifted over.
"Huh? This statue... it kinda looks like someone."
"Hm. Yeah, it does. Resembles Sir Chelman."
Sir Chelman was one of the first knights to go missing.
The group naturally turned toward the statue they'd mentioned, curiosity piqued by a familiar name.
Blanc wasn't particularly interested in their talk, but like the others, his gaze shifted to the statue in question.
"Damn it..."
And at the end of that gaze.
His eyes met the statue said to resemble Sir Chelman.