Chapter 117: Seven Wonders of the Academy (part seven)
After taking a nap, I slipped out from the dorm with Tirnanog and headed to the school building.
I feel that my lack of sleep has mostly disappeared, but it may be better not to overdo it tomorrow.
Well, the Seven Wonders we’re going to investigate tonight is the 「Infinite Corridor」.
It is a mysterious story that says if one pa.s.ses through the corridor of the school building at 02:00 am, they won’t be able to get out forever.
I met Klaus and Auguste near the school building.
“Sorry I kept you waiting, Klaus-sama, Auguste-sama. Are you both sleeping well?”
“You have time to worry about others? This more likely to have an impact on your academic work.”
“Sorry, Erica. It got leaked because Klaus hounded me hard.”
Auguste smiled shamelessly behind Klaus, who was glaring angrily at me.
It seems the fact that I was late has been leaked to Klaus.
Having a watchdog is scary.
“Yes, I’m going to sleep properly without exploring tomorrow.”
I reflected on it and responded obediently.
In fact, the three-days consecutive midnight search has been a bit tough for me, so the search would be about once in a couple of days from now on.
“Now then, tonight we will try to attack one of the Seven Wonders where it says the corridor of the school building will become a part of a labyrinth.”
“It’s some kind of spatial magic. That’s it. Now that you know, go back and sleep.”
“Eeeh……Klaus-sama, to return back before experiencing it firsthand is a bit……”
Klaus sighed deeply when I refused to back down.
“Just for a bit then. This time, we will escape the labyrinth before it gets too late.”
“Can one escape the labyrinth that easily?”
“I have already encountered it. I also know how to escape it.”
“The Seven Wonders of our academy are actually boring, huh~ well, this time, it seems it will be a bit interesting though.”
As a matter of fact, I can hardly imagine how such a simple-made corridor becomes a labyrinth.
At the border with the courtyard there are only pillars, so it’s easy to escape.
Just as I was thinking about that, Auguste patted my shoulder and warned me with a low voice.
“There are two people coming from the west……they’re the prefects. Let’s get in before they notice us.”
Klaus nodded, shortened the chant and quickly cast Pa.s.swall.
Through the wall beside the front entrance, we moved to the corridor.
“So, how do we trigger that ghost story, Klaus?”
“Do you know that there is a 〈Foresight Well〉 in the courtyard? If we go to the cla.s.sroom near that well, it will probably happen.”
〈Foresight Well〉 is a small round well on the far right of the courtyard.
We left the corridor and stepped into the courtyard, crossed the well and entered the corridor again.
It was also the cla.s.sroom where I have my Elementary Alchemy cla.s.s.
“It says the occurrence time is 02:00 am, that is correct, right, Klaus-sama?”
“Aah, from 02:00 am to 03:00 am when certain conditions overlap.”
I confirmed it while watching the clock.
It seems that we’ll be waiting for about 10 minutes.
I sat in the front seat with Tirnanog.
Klaus was standing with his back to the door, and Auguste sat at the table on the platform.
“Speaking of which, Klaus. What were you doing here at this time?”
“On that day, after a long visit to the library, I trained at the 〈Foresight Well〉.”
“Training until 02:00 am, huh……that’s just like you, Klaus-sama.”
〈Foresight Well〉 is a training facility for mages with rare apt.i.tude such as future vision and past vision.
Although Klaus has the apt.i.tude, it seems that he doesn’t succeed in future vision and past vision because there is a lack of longing for the past and the future.
“When I had been training for a while, I felt someone’s presence. So I followed the presence to this cla.s.s, but it was deserted.”
Klaus predicted that they probably also used the Pa.s.swall magic.
A mage, huh, so it must have been someone who at least has enough mastery of magic to use scrolls.
Klaus didn’t chase them any further, as it was likely that they had already fled far.
“Later, when I left this cla.s.sroom, I encountered the wonder of this corridor.”
After listening to the story up to that point, it was 02:00 am on the dot.
“Now then, let’s go.”
Klaus opened the cla.s.sroom door while I activated the Historio Electrum.
I tried to follow after Klaus and Auguste, but someone held me back.
Tirnanog seemed to be having trouble in lifting my leather bag.
When I put my hand on the bag to help him out, my strength left me.
I just couldn’t lift the bag.
“Why……?”
“Place your s.p.a.ce-expanded magic tools in this room. I will tell you the reason later.”
“Y-yes……I’m sorry, but you will have to stand guard here, okay?”
Following Klaus’ advice, I decided to leave behind my precious mobile-style Wunderkammer bag here.
For safety’s sake, I asked Tirnanog to be on guard.
When I went through the entrance of the cla.s.sroom to the corridor, I felt that the air was somewhat different from the corridor we came from before.
It’s raining.
It was raining in the courtyard.
Because of the force of the rain, the scenery was so dark that we couldn’t see the other side of the corridor.
The corridor had a distinctive smell of wet soil and damp cold air.
Although it looks exactly the same except for the weather, there is a peculiar feeling of strangeness.
Speaking of which, I can’t hear the rain.
Does that mean the rain is also part of the wonder?
“Klaus, is this an illusory magic?”
“No, that’s not it. It’s an old spatial magic phenomenon. To put it in a nutsh.e.l.l, it duplicates the real corridors and connects them so one cannot see the joining points. It stretches on forever.”
Even in this situation, Klaus began to explain in a calm and indifferent manner as always.
“What made you unable to bring in your leather bag earlier, Erica, is the defense mechanism that was put into the s.p.a.ce. When another expanded s.p.a.ce is put into the infinitely expanded s.p.a.ce, the collapse of s.p.a.ce occurs centered around the latter. If there were no such thing like Barrier to prevent that, the collapse would expand everywhere rapidly, and everything would be swallowed up and disappear.”
I felt cold sweat flowing on my back.
Huh? Is infinite expansion that dangerous?
“It’s fine. The defense mechanism is functioning, so even if it is old, a safety device to prevent the s.p.a.ce from collapsing was built-in.”
“So there are those that don’t have safety devices, huh……”
“There isn’t anything like that now. Everything has been destroyed long before Aurelia’s arrival. If you’re worried, do you want to escape from this place immediately?”
At that question, Auguste and I looked at each other with a complicated expression.
Klaus said that the s.p.a.ce is safe for sure, but there is a possibility that something else has been set up in the other parts.
“I want to elucidate this phenomenon, so I would like to continue the investigation for a little longer.”
“Haha, I thought you would say so, Erica.”
“Let’s go then. It’s simple if you only want to destroy it or withdraw from this place, but elucidating this place would take a considerable time.”
We walked in a file with me in the center, Klaus at the front and Auguste at the end.
We didn’t know which way to go, so we decided to go clockwise.
Strange thing happened twice around the corner of the corridor.
Although originally we were supposed to have arrived at the other side of the corridor, there was the nameplate for the Elementary Alchemy cla.s.sroom.
When I looked closely, the view of the courtyard was also the one with the 〈Foresight Well〉.
“We returned to the same place.”
“Oh……this is definitely the Infinite Corridor.”
Auguste murmured in admiration.
This confirmed the fact that this phenomenon is the Infinite Corridor, one of the Seven Wonders.
I took out a chalk from my satchel and marked the door.
Klaus seems busy a.n.a.lyzing using Glam Sight.
Auguste, who was examining the door of the cla.s.sroom where we started from, opened his mouth.
“This cla.s.sroom door, it won’t open……”
Silence fell between the three of us.
“……perhaps, we can’t go back anymore?”
“It’s only due to the Barrier. It’s impossible to open and close the door, but if we destroy it we can return to the original s.p.a.ce. It seems that the Infinite Corridor will disappear and come back at 02:00 am the next day.”
“I want to avoid getting scolded for breaking the door~”
“We can escape if we go out to the courtyard side instead of the door side. In that case, the Infinite Corridor will continue without being broken, but those who escaped cannot enter again. Traveling via Pa.s.swall is a high-risk and should be avoided. I can’t guarantee the safety of the walls.”
“If it’s just escaping, it’s strangely simple……”
And so we went through the dark corridor again.
Also, when I checked the cla.s.sroom where I made a half-lap again, the mark on the door disappeared.
I wrote the number 2 on the door, but again the number disappeared when the same door appeared next time.
Then I wrote the number 3.
I increased the number each time I pa.s.sed by the door.
Move forward.
Bend at the corner.
Move forward.
Bend at the corner.
The same cycle repeated over and over again.
Occasionally, I marked the doors and corners, but when I pa.s.sed them next time they all disappeared.
I put other things like pebbl., but they disappeared as well.
“This, how long will this last?”
“I told you at the beginning that it goes on for eternity.”
“……I wonder how many laps we have made.”
“Would you like to go back a bit to confirm it?”
We returned to the cla.s.sroom where we started.
Even though we shouldn’t have made a turn at the corner, the chalk number had disappeared.
“Huh……just when exactly did it change……?”
“That means this is not the same way back, huh.”
“Say, weren’t there some bushes near that 〈Foresight Well〉?”
When Auguste said that, Klaus and I looked at the courtyard.
Certainly, the bushes were gone before we knew it.
Huh? How many laps have me made?
“Speaking of which, was the doork.n.o.b of the next cla.s.sroom rusted?”
“That cannot be. It’s supposed to have been replaced two months ago.”
When I looked at the doork.n.o.b pointed out by Klaus, it was surely rusty.
It was as if several years have pa.s.sed, much less two months.
“Have years pa.s.sed while we were going around?”
“No, that’s not the case. Is it duplicating the corridor that’s right before the replacement? Or is it perhaps not replacing the corridors but looping them……?”
We were troubled for a while, but we got no answer, so we started marching clockwise again.
Is it a sign of anxiety that the distance between me and the two of them is closer than when we first started?
Move forward.
Bend at the corner.
Move forward.
Bend at the corner.
“Klaus, did you find out anything?”
“No, I still can’t decipher it completely. If we reach the source, I may be able to do it.”
Move forward. Move forward.
Bend at the corner.
Move forward.
Bend at the corner.
Bend at the corner.
Move forward. Move forward. Move forward. Move forward. Move forward.
While we still weren’t able to clarify it, the s.p.a.ce connection became strange somehow.
The length of the corridor changed and the number of the cla.s.srooms also changed.
I feel like the landscape of the courtyard and the color ratio of the stones used in the corridor are also changing slightly.
Since I don’t remember the initial state completely, it may be just my imagination.
However, sometimes a sudden change occurs and stirs our anxiety.
“If any of us disappears, we will all escape using the courtyard.”
“Klaus-sama, please don’t say such a scary thing.”
“No, it may be better to make such arrangement just in case. If it seems dangerous, let’s give up investigating.”
While coming up with some countermeasures in case of emergency, we continued to march on.
Turning around at the corner once again for the umpteenth time, Klaus who was walking in front stopped his feet abruptly.
Following Klaus’ gaze, there was a slightly open door at just one place.
From the gap of the door, I saw something sparkling in gold coming into the room.
I don’t know exactly what it was, but I think it was something like a b.u.t.terfly or a petal.
“Is that room our place of destination?”
“No, maybe this is a trap to make us enter the room.”
“Even so, there is no other clue. Let’s examine it cautiously.”
Klaus performed preliminary inspections with various magic such as Glam Sight, while Auguste checked for the existence of living beings.
Having judged that there was no imminent danger, we looked into the room.
It was a deserted, barren room.
It was of the same size as a small cla.s.sroom, but it felt a little larger, probably because the desk and chairs were not placed.
There was nothing inside the room except a mirror that was on the opposite wall.
The mirror is large enough to show the upper body and the oval frame has a complex decoration.
Nothing was reflected in the mirror, probably because the surface was fogged up.
No matter how I see it, isn’t this mirror some kind of magic item?
The decoration is also suspicious, but I can’t make out the details from this distance.
Starting with Klaus who put up Protective Circle, we entered the room and slowly approached the mirror.
“Kuh……”
Klaus suddenly knelt at a distance of about three steps from the mirror.
The Protective Circle was also released and the deployed spellcards scattered on the floor.
Auguste and I put ourselves on guard, but Klaus stopped our movement with his hand.
“Are you okay, Klaus-sama?”
“My magical power was just drained. If I leave it as is, it will recover before long.”
“Now that you said it, it seems that my magic has also been drained……”
After Auguste said so, I also noticed that my internal magical power has disappeared.
I don’t consume much internal magical power like Klaus, so it may have had little impact on me.
The scene in the mirror swayed.
The magic that was applied on the mirror was activated by sucking the magical power of the three of us.
Klaus stood up and readied his staff, and Auguste was accompanied by Goldberry, standing in a position to protect me.
I also pulled out a wand immediately and gazed inside the mirror.
The fog disappeared, except for a quarter from the top part of the mirror.
It was a blonde girl who was wearing school uniforms.
It was foggy, so I couldn’t see the area around her eyes, but she looked like a rather beautiful girl.
Behind her was not this room, but a room with a more luxurious interior instead.
“Oya, it actually activated somehow……hmm, this mirror is the real deal, huh.”
The girl in the mirror muttered such words and let out a chuckle.
“By the way, what year is it there?”
“The year is 1886.”
“Thank you. I see, so you’re probably my juniors 30 years from now. Great. That means the world of mankind will still be going on in thirty years.”
When Auguste answered her question, the girl in the mirror said that with a dramatic appearance.
Does that mean on the other side of the mirror is somewhere around 1856?
Speaking of which, if I look closely, the design of the uniform is slightly different from the current one.
“I shall welcome you, strange friends from the enchanting future. Welcome, to the 〈a.s.sociation of the Mysterious Story Collectors〉.”
〈a.s.sociation of the Mysterious Story Collectors〉.
Those are the words that were written on the ex-libris of the red leather book Chloe’s older brother had.
It seems that this Seven Wonders investigation was not in vain.