At the end of the stairs leading to the observatory's upper level, a door stood silently before Gawain and the others. The gate, forged from some unknown alloy, had long since lost much of its coating, leaving it mottled and peeling. These inevitable marks of age seemed to wordlessly recount the changes of the past seven centuries to those who beheld them.
"As soon as you touch the door, it activates an authentication system," Philip said from beside them. "A failed authentication won't trigger any alarms or security measures. The door simply remains locked. We couldn't determine where its energy source comes from. Most likely, the entire system is on the other side of the door. To be safe, we didn't continue provoking it."
Diana stood before the door, staring somewhat dazedly at its worn surface. Then she frowned slightly. "I... do remember this door. The director and the archmagister normally didn't allow ordinary guards into the observatory, but I had additional analytical functions, so I sometimes helped organize materials here..."
"Do you remember how to open it?" Amber glanced at Diana. Apparently finding this ancient machine girl with fragmented memories a little unreliable, she could not help muttering, "If you can't figure it out either, I can think of something..."
"I only remember that the observatory's human staff needed to use a card to open this door, while authorized guards like me only needed to..." Diana murmured as if speaking to herself. Guided by some instinct within, she reached out and pressed her hand against the center of the door. The next second, everyone present heard a faint buzzing from both sides of the gate. Then flowing light streamed across the door panels, swiftly gathering into a green mark, while a heavily distorted voice filled with static came from