Secret Entrance

Despite our discovery, we decided to stop right there for the night. We were simply too exhausted and wounded to do anything else. It was awesome I had all these magic powers, but it always sucked I was the only healer of the party.

“What do you think is on the other side?” asked Kai as we set a small camp. I created a small pit and a fire within it, mostly burning the torn dress and some ruined arrows as fuel. We had no food, though.

“If I had to guess, based on our supposed proximity to it… this would probably be some secret entrance to the castle,” I said. “Or the other way around. You know, a way to flee if the mobs come for you. Probably connected to some basement or something.”

The door itself was locked—we’d checked—but I doubted it would hold against my magic.

“So we may be able to sneak up on Three,” said Saga. She was especially quiet since our escape; maybe she was depressed the fight went so poorly?

“Maybe,” I said. “They might realize we’d be coming from here… and I doubt he’d be any less guarded in there than he was outside, anyway. But who knows, we might be able to do something.”

I hated that our entire plan hinged on the unknown like that, but that was par for the course.

During each and every step of our journey we stumbled into trouble, somehow got out of it and emerged victorious. So I hoped it would turn out this way, too.

This might sound odd, but I… found myself liking this place.

Not this stupid cavern, obviously. But the more I saw of the city itself, the more I liked its general vibe. If I took down Three, would they be willing to crown me the emperor instead? Now wasn’t that a nice thought to serve as a comfort in the darkness?

“Hah, fine,” said Saga. “I’ll leave the planning to you, then, C.”

Having said that, she wrapped the makeshift blanket made from a torn dress tighter around her and curled up on the spot with her back to us.

I directed a questioning gaze to Kai, who looked just as confused as me.

Was that as good as an admission she actually trusted me? When she usually acted so prickly?

That actually made me smile. Perhaps I scored some points on her relationship chart without me even noticing.

“Go ahead and sleep,” Kai told me. “You need that to recover your MP or whatever, right? Don’t worry about me, I’ll keep watch.”

Oh? And now even Kai was appreciating me?

Despite how much it sucked at the start, and frankly even now, perhaps the day was ending on a positive note after all.

I lay down on the hard ground but fell asleep surprisingly easily.

There was no way to know the time of day, but when we assumed it was morning I began treating the most serious wounds all of us possessed. There was no breakfast, which was an issue. My stomach was rumbling so much I wouldn’t say no even to the slop we had to eat back in Harko Forest.

“I’ve been thinking about something,” I said.

“Is it some plan?” asked Kai, but then frowned. “No, knowing you it’s probably something ridiculous.”

I frowned back at him and continued talking. “It’s just that… thus far we faced One, Two, and now Three. But what’s up with the naming scheme?”

“I knew it was something like that again…”

“Shut up! Think about it. Three’s the actual Emperor of this place, so why isn’t he ‘One’? That’s odd. Why would he call himself after the lowest number?”

Especially if he really was the tyrant and megalomaniac that people implied he was.

“…Or maybe there’s a Zero who’s the one actually pulling the strings?” I suddenly realized.

“No way,” said Kai.

“…Hah, shouldn’t we get going already?” Saga interjected at that point.

Well, she was right. Maybe we can just ask Three about this whole thing while we kick his butt.

Following this, Kai spent some time putting his ear against the door. It was built straight into the rock, but there was no keyhole or a way to see anywhere within.

“Can’t hear a thing,” he reported after a short while. “But that could be because it’s soundproof… or there’s no one on the other side. How do we open this up, though?”

In response, Saga made a surprising move.

Sword in hand, she rushed and slashed straight at the door itself.

I almost expected it to be cut in half, but apparently even Tarisha wasn’t as ridiculous as that. I was more surprised about the fact the sword remained intact after that slash that kept my ears ringing.

“Ugh,” complained Kai. “I really hope they couldn’t hear it on the other side.”

“Hah. Stupid door,” grumbled Saga, lowering her sword.

We were apparently going to need to be smarter about this. If only it had a keyhole, I might have been able to fashion a key out of dirt or something cool like that…

I stood there thinking for a while. “Hmm… maybe if I applied a certain amount of heat, I could melt that?”

“Sounds way too dangerous for us here,” said Kai.

“Oh, relax. It’s just an idea.”

I tried to experimentally launch a light shot at the door, just to further test its durability.

What happened was beyond any of our expectations.

With a gentle creak, the door suddenly swung open toward us.

“Eh?”

“What?” added Kai.

And Saga, calm as always even in the face of the unexpected, simply walked to the door. She grabbed its side and swung it even further open.

But… how?

Considering what happened, there was only one conclusion. “It detected my usage of magic… maybe?” I suggested.

“Hmm. I guess a door being opened by magic makes sense in a place like this, but…” started Kai. “There are a lotta people here who can use magic, right? Wouldn’t that not make it very safe?”

“Depends on the door’s purpose and its location. Let’s enter and find out—but very carefully.”

With Saga at the front, we snuck into the doorway inside what appeared to be a stone chamber. A chamber that ended in a bare wall of stone.

“A dead end…” mumbled Kai. “Maybe it used to be some secret passage but got blocked?”

“No.” It was just a hunch, but I was convinced that Kai was wrong. “It’s probably another hidden wall.”

I readied another light cantrip and shot it.

As expected, my guess was right on the mark. The very moment the magic hit there was a soft grind and the wall started moving away.

“Whoa,” mumbled Kai in appreciation.

It was a double-sealed escape path—and clearly keyed for magic users. That was a very interesting mechanism, I wonder how this worked? Perhaps it somehow incorporated mogage or something?

More importantly, we headed beyond the sliding wall, where I hoped there wouldn’t be yet another obstacle to block us.

The answer was no. We found ourselves in a much larger space than expected, surrounded by tall wooden shelves filled with books.

An underground library.