The Chief of the Snow Woman Village - 2
After my bout with the Snow Woman, I stepped into the mansion with her slung over my shoulder.
Unlike the frozen exterior, the interior was perfectly normal. The temperature was moderate—quite comfortable for living, actually.
"It's cleaner inside than I expected."
Do not chant the summoning spell of the Blue Demon so anxiously.
What kind of ridiculous summoning spell is that even supposed to be?
I shook my head at this incomprehensible world and began surveying the mansion. Spotting a room that looked like a parlor, I laid the Snow Woman down on the sofa.
So, my hopelessly perverted Contractor, what do you intend to do with her now?
Pervert?! I was merely an adventurer eager to explore the unknown. Look—I'm only tying her up so she doesn't go wild again. I'm not doing anything else!
……Then would you care to explain why the ropes are digging into her cleavage and running between her legs?
Better to bind her thoroughly so she can't resist, right?
Damn sword was far too sharp-eyed. With no choice left, I finished the rough restraints and stepped out of the parlor.
Waiting for her to regain consciousness would have been fine, but time was precious. Besides, even if I asked how she had become an 8th-Class Mage, she probably wouldn't answer.
While the homeowner lay comatose, I decided to poke around the mansion and dig up whatever information I could.
This time you look more like a petty thief.
Tsk! I have absolutely no intention of stealing a single thing inside this place. I'm just taking a little tour of the mansion.
And maybe, while I was at it, checking for something like a hard drive a friend might have hidden inside his computer. Not that anyone in this world except Kang Junhyuk would understand that reference.
I cast a mana-detection spell and peered into the mansion's internal structure. Two places responded.
One, packed with bookshelves and books, was clearly a study. The other seemed to be a private office. The study repelled my probe before I could map its inner layout; the office, however, resonated strongly with the detection magic.
I headed for the closer office first. It sat at the far end of the corridor that held the parlor. When I pulled the doorknob, a snowman the size of a brown bear greeted me.
No—more precisely, a snowman-shaped doll.
I thought she was just a standoffish little brat, but she does have a proper cute side after all.
The real problem is that we still don't know whether her actual age is in the teens or the hundreds.
I should have asked the elder for the number of digits instead of the first digit.
If I had, I wouldn't be fretting like this now. Setting the regret aside, I shoved the doll to one side and stepped into the office.
A spacious executive desk, a modest bookshelf behind it. Aside from the snowman doll, it was a textbook chairman's office. I had hoped for something more fantastical in another world, yet it looked little different from the one I had known back home.
Let's see… the object that resonated with my detection magic—is this it?
At a glance it looks like an ordinary key.
Inside a drawer beneath the desk, buried among assorted magical tools, lay a blue key. An ice-flower gem was set into it. When I gave it a light squeeze and poured in mana, a clear, pure tone rang out and the air around me grew pleasantly cool.
Since it had been mixed in with the magical odds and ends, the key itself was clearly some sort of magic tool.
A key-type magic tool… does that mean it can open anything?
This body thinks not. Universal keys generally produce only faint mana reactions. Tools meant for stealthy use must respond weakly to mana, after all.
Then it has some other purpose?
On a hunch I spun the key through the empty air. In fantasy worlds, keys that open dimensional gates were hardly rare, right? I waved it around for a while, but nothing happened.
"Tsk. Nothing special after all. Just a slightly unusual key."
Still, it might prove useful later. Would it not be wiser to keep it for now?
Forget it. What use could a magic tool stuffed carelessly in a drawer possibly have?
I dropped the key back into the drawer and left the office. Next destination: the study on the second floor. I stopped by the parlor on the way; the Snow Woman was still unconscious. A little more exploration wouldn't hurt.
Creeeak—!
I opened the door of the study that had earlier repelled my magic and stepped inside. Dark, musty, closer to a storeroom than a library.
"Ignite."
I formed a magic circle at my fingertip and conjured a flame to light the room. Countless bookshelves and books filled the spacious chamber, yet dust lay thick over everything.
"Cough! Cough! Doesn't this house even have a single servant? How has a room gotten this dusty?!"
A bone-chilling blizzard rages right outside the mansion. Of course there would be no servants…
Fair point.
Opening a window and blowing the dust out with wind magic was an option, but there were no windows. Seal the entrance and the place became a completely closed space. I had no choice but to wrap a handkerchief over my mouth and nose and wander the study.
It looks as though this study has gone unused for years. Is there truly any need to poke around such a place?
"My detection magic was bounced by anti-magic. That means something important is hidden in here."
Hmm……
After roaming the vast study for quite some time, I finally located the offending bookshelf. Every time I cast detection magic, a repulsive force flung it back. No magic circle was visible on the surface. The spell was almost certainly inscribed on the wall behind the shelf.
"Okay, bingo!"
What is it?
"I found the only book in here that doesn't have dust on it."
If the study had truly been unused, every volume should have been coated. Yet the one I had spotted was suspiciously clean.
Grrrind—!
The moment I tried to pull the book free without hesitation, the entire bookshelf began sliding sideways with a noisy rumble. Reaching for the book had been the trigger for the mechanism.
"Heh! Feels like I've become a detective uncovering a mansion's hidden secrets!"
When the shelf finished sliding, a door marked with a purple magic circle came into view. Beyond the bookshelf there had been a door, not a wall. It felt exactly like a scene from Harry Potter I had watched in my prime, and my heart pounded. A secret door was pure romance no matter how many times you saw one.
So a secret space truly was concealed here.
"Well then, shall we take a look inside?"
Click—! Click—!
I boldly twisted the doorknob, but the door was firmly locked. Looking closer, I spotted a keyhole sitting plainly on the outer side of the handle.
"Ah……"
No key, no entry. I could smash it open with Frach, of course, but that would only earn the homeowner's hatred. As someone seeking her cooperation, I could not afford to sour our relationship. I had to make it look as though nothing had ever happened.
Somehow that keyhole does not look unfamiliar.
Not unfamiliar?
Indeed. Its shape is rather similar to the key we left behind in the office earlier.
Don't tell me that was the key to this door?
Which is why this body told you to keep it for the time being, is it not?
No choice, then.
No time for regrets—I had to fetch the key at once. I left the study and sprinted back toward the office. The moment I safely pocketed the key, Frach suddenly said something completely off-topic.
Contractor, when we first entered, did we not shove that doll aside?
"Why are you bringing up something so random all of a sudden?"
No. The snowman doll we pushed aside has changed position.
You're saying the Snow Woman woke up and moved it? Then you're imagining things. Her presence is still sitting in the parlor. She'll be out for at least another hour or so……
I slipped the key into my pocket and was about to leave the office when—
KABOOM—!
An explosion roared from somewhere quite close, shaking the ground. Only one person in this place could produce that kind of firepower. The village chief had definitely regained consciousness.
Shit, of all the fucking timing…!
I still hadn't learned a thing, yet time was up. If the Snow Woman caught me inside her private office, our relationship would sour even further. Was there anywhere good to hide?
"Huh…?"
While I was frantically glancing around, the snowman doll I had seen earlier was suddenly right in front of my nose. Just as Frach had said, the doll was alive and moving.
"Uwaaah…! Mmph?!"
A soft plush hand clamped over my mouth. With its free hand the snowman yanked me forward, then shoved my entire body into the open zipper of its own torso. Before I could even grasp what was happening I was being dragged inside the doll, and at the same instant I heard the office door slam open.
"……Until just a moment ago I sensed a human presence in here."
The Snow Woman's icy voice drifted from nearby. I had managed to hide inside the doll's body a split second before being discovered.
"Was it my imagination?"
I thought I had barely survived—until a pair of arms suddenly hugged the doll tightly. From the cold aura seeping into the plush interior, it was unmistakably the Snow Woman.
So I got caught after all.
That thought had barely formed when—
"Papa~! Listen to me! Today some suspicious outsider came to our village! The outsider hit Yukiko thwack-thwack and……!"
……Had I hit her head a little too hard?