LIGHTNOVELWORLD Episode 8: Unseen Keys and Hidden Paths
Chapter 8: Unseen Keys and Hidden Paths
We picked up the rope that had been left on the floor, thinking it might come in handy, and stepped onto the staircase.
“Wait a moment, I’ll close the entrance” Alshade said.
Alshade placed her ring on a magic circle etched on the staircase wall. Suddenly, a thick stone slab emerged, silently, from the wall near the entrance and perfectly fit into the hole, making it look as the hole never existed.
Only for the magic circle on the back of the closed slab, it could be recognised, otherwise it would be indistinguishable from the ceiling.
“It’s amazing, how you can’t even tell the difference from the ceiling,” I said.
“They must have used some kind of advanced magic. ….Probably using earth magic to join the slab with the surrounding stones. Once it’s joined, it can be left alone, and it doesn’t consume any mana unless activated. It’s mana-efficient and has excellent concealment, making it hard to be discovered,” Alshade explained.
“Wow, why was something so incredible installed in a building of such a small trading company?” I asked.
“…You really have no idea, do you? This old trading company has been around since before the Baltzfeld family ruled this city. Maybe they had connections with skilled alchemists or artifact specialists,” Alshade replied, looking at me with a somewhat difficult expression.
Alshade must have been holding back from explaining in detail because I was from the slums and she thought I probably won’t understand.
In reality, I understood that it used earth magic for man efficiency and excellent stealth, but I had no idea why such advanced technology was necessary here.
To understand that, one would need knowledge of alchemy or magical artifacts, but unfortunately, the original work didn’t provide detailed explanations about either of those two fields.
“Well, just going down the stairs will be boring. How about I tell you about this necklace? You don’t need specialized knowledge for this, and we made a promise too,” Alshade suggested.
“Oh, then please do.”
I was curious about how the ring necklace ended up in Alshade’s possession, so I definitely wanted to hear the story, to curb my mind from constantly guessing about it.
It’s not that I wanted to escape from reality just because I couldn’t see the end of the spiral staircase.
“First of all, this necklace is a memento from my mother. I received it as a gift from my father on my tenth birthday. Since then, I’ve worn it at all times.”
“Why would something like that act as a key to this secret passage?”
“Well, let’s not jump to conclusions. I’ll explain it properly.”
Without answering my question, Alshade chuckled and tried to calm me down. I guess she had a point, and my lack of patience wasn’t doing any good.
It wasn’t a good idea to abruptly cut off the conversation and ask questions. …I want to believe that it’s just my imagination that Alshade seems more mature than me.
Actually, after hearing the recent conversation, I couldn’t help but think. From Alshade’s perspective in the original work, the protagonist, who not only killed her but also took away and used her mother’s memento, would be considered scum, wouldn’t he…?
No, let’s stop thinking about it any further. I also as a player controlled the protagonist and had him do those things, so it would be too much of a boomerang effect.
“*Cough*…In addition to it being a memento of my mother, there’s another reason why I kept it close. The ring threaded through this chain is a magical artifact. It reacts to any unauthorized touch or attempt to steal the necklace, as well as any attacks against me, by activating a magic called ‘Guardian Protection.’ By the way, ‘Guardian Protection’ creates an invisible wall as a defense.”
“So, it’s a self-defense magical artifact.”
“That’s right. Besides, usually magical artifacts require mana stored in special stones called ‘mana stones’ to function. But as I am a noble, I can replenish mana myself, so there’s no worry about running out of mana when it’s needed.”
It’s just like its performance in the game. In the game, as long as there’s enough mana, it can mitigate the opponent’s attacks, so it was a useful item as long as you managed your magic power properly.
“Now, there is the information you wanted to know. As you can see, this originally was a ring, which my father gave to my mother as a gift for her self-defense. As it was too much work to remove the internal engraving, the magic formula, and to deactivate the magic. So, they reluctantly turned it into a necklace.”
“Wait, does that mean the ring was confiscated when they captured the head of the trading company?”
“It seems like you already figured out the answer. Yes, it was something that was stored in our house, and my father found a way to reuse it.”
However, that brings up a question. One of the entrances to the secret passage should be in the head of the trading company’s residence, and if they had obtained the key ring, why couldn’t they find the entrance?
“Perhaps you’re wondering why my grandfather couldn’t find the entrance??” Alshade asked.
“Well, normally, wouldn’t be really strange if they couldn’t find it, right?”
“Well the reason they couldn’t find it is simple. My grandfather and the others didn’t think this ring was the key. After all, the magic formula engraved inside the ring, as well as the ‘Guardian’ function, were all related to self-defense.”
“Then, how did the person who made the ring give it the functionality of a key?”
One question leads to another. Is this the nature of questions?
Alshade must have anticipated this question as well. She smiled slyly and continued her explanation.
“Yes, so how did they give it the functionality of a key… Well, it’s a simple answer. They just needed to engrave the magic formula in a place that not visible.”
“…Because there is no visible place where it can be carved, Miss’s grandfather didn’t think it was a key”
“There is a place, right under this gem.”
“Can you really engrave it in a place like that?”
What Alshade was referring to is the base part that supports the gemstone of the ring. Even engraving something manually on the inside of the ring would be a stretch.
Without seeing it in person, it’s hard to believe. Or perhaps, is there some kind of machinery in this world that can make it possible, something that I’m still unaware of?
“…If we’re talking about just giving it the functionality of a key, I think it’s theoretically possible as it requires only a small amount of magic formula. But in my knowledge, there is no one, who can do it similarly, as the person who made this ring. I believe it was made by a master craftsman, or someone of that level,” Alshade explained.
“…What kind of connections did the head of the trading company’s ancestor have?”
“I wish I knew enough to ask that myself.”
The story I was casually listening to turned out to be of a bigger scale than I expected, and I can’t help but be curious about the creator.
It was an intriguing story, but it left a somewhat unsatisfying feeling, like it wasn’t fully digested.
After a while, we silently continued descending the stairs, and suddenly, Alshade exclaimed.
“Oh, I can see the end of the stairs! Well, I’ll go ahead then!”
Without wasting any time, Alshade left me behind and hurriedly descended the stairs.
It was unclear whether it was because of the silence or simply getting bored of just descending the stairs, but more than that, I couldn’t help but be curious about the creator of the ring.
“(If they’re at that level as an alchemist or artifact specialist, they might have created important items for the story as well.)”
Lost in thought as I descended the stairs, I accidentally missed the feeling of the stone steps beneath my foot was now in the air. With a startled “Ah,” I lost my balance.
“Oops, ah, whoa!?”
“Are you okay? What are you doing? You need to be careful when going down the stairs.”
Though I didn’t fall down the stairs, I ended up face-planting on the floor, letting out a pathetic sound. Alshade, with an exasperated expression, helped me up.
And then, as Alshade pushed aside my bangs to check if I had injured my head, her eyes widened.
“Huh! Raios, your eye color…!”
“…I know it’s important to me too, but could you please use a healing spell first? I think I might have a bump.”
Lamdo was surprised too, and I understand that it’s something important, but I wanted to address the immediate pain in my hand before anything else.
—
If you like this novel, Please leave ratings and review in NovelUpdates.>>HERE
If you’d like to make a one-time donation to support our translations or subscribe to read up to 5 chapters or more (depending on the novel) ahead, you can do so via Ko-fi: