“This must be the right place.”
Elaine muttered as she stepped onto the empty air without hesitation. The moment her foot touched the void, the surroundings distorted and the appearance began to change. A wooden bridge appeared, spread out beneath her feet where there was nothing previously. Then a large cave was formed beyond the cliff, where the bridge connected.
It was illusion magic. To prevent others from finding his hiding place, a different appearance was created to mask the reality. It was a magic commonly used by reclusive wizards. However, even of the appearance changed, the actual space remained the same.
One of the stones she had thrown a little while ago had landed on the bridge. Elaine noticed the location of the bridge when she had witnessed the stone floating in midair.
It was clear, the wizard must be in the cave. Elaine immediately crossed the bridge. The cave was quite large, though it would need to be for the monster to be able to enter and exit it.
As she went further inside, a space filled with bright light appeared. Flasks and various books filled the walls. Piles of parchment and other unknown objects rolled around carelessly on the floor. One side of the wall was made of glass that reached up to the ceiling. Beyond the glass wall, there was a magic circle engraved in the dirt and a large form was seen crouching there. It was the monster from before. It seemed as though the wizard had taken him away and locked him in a cage again.
Overall, the space was extremely messy and too large to be considered a room. The ceiling here was higher than the entrance she had passed though earlier.
The wizard was found sitting at a circular desk near the glass wall. He had his back turned and didn’t seem to notice her presence. There was no door, so she used her voice to announce her presence instead of knocking.
“Excuse me.”
There was no response from the wizard. He hadn’t even heard her voice. Aster a short period of thought, she began to navigate the clutter and approach the wizard. As she got closer, the air got warmer. Even though there was no door at the entrance to block the cold wind, it felt warm as if there was a heater nearby. A heating spell must have been applied to the area.
Elaine walked to the wizard, careful not to trip on any of the objects on the ground. As she got closer, she heard him mumbling something.
“…As a result, the correlation between the two becomes closely related… According to the theory of the relationship between humans and monsters…”
She didn’t know what exactly he was talking about, but she suspected it had something to do with his research. He was so focused on his studies, he wasn’t paying any attention to her approach.
“Mr. Nathan?”
Elaine called out to him again, but he just continued to mutter quietly.
“Its almost done now… One last thing… All I need now is Saturan…”
“Mr. Nathan!”
“Ahh!”
Elaine shook Nathan’s shoulder and shouted his name loudly. He was startled and made a strange noise as if screaming. Finally, he turned around and looked in her direction, recognizing who she was.
“You’re that…! How did you get here?!”
Nathan shouted, jumping up from his seat.
“You really came to catch me! I’ve done nothing wrong!”
He thought Elaine had come to detain him because of the events from yesterday and attempted to run away. Elaine quickly grabbed him.
“Calm down! I’m not here to arrest you!”
“If I’m guilty of anything, it’s only my unquenchable thirst for knowledge…What?”
Nathan’s face then contorted in confusion. He foolishly asked back, cautious as if to confirm what he had just heard.
“…You’re not here to take me away? Then why are you here?”
When he stopped resisting, Elaine released her hold on him. She lightly sighed.
“I have not come here as a member of the knights, but for my own personal business.”
“Business?”
When Nathans face again contorted with confusion, Elaine clutched the piece of cloth she kept in her pocket. When Nathan had left the camp last night, she had decided to entrust her request to him.
Investigating the magic circle. Originally, she had been planning to take some time off and find a wizard herself to investigate. The most obvious thing would have been to ask the magic tower where the most outstanding wizards were hiding, but she wanted to avoid that as much as possible.
‘The procedures that must be followed for the magic tower are very strict.’
In contrast, Elaine’s identity was also unclear. Although she belonged to the Knights of Philres, everything else was missing. She did not even have the most basic of information such as a family, acquaintances, hometown or address.
