Digging Three Feet Deep

After quickly disposing of the corpse, the two continued down the passage.

This time, Hilde did not need to say anything. Rudeus consciously stayed very close to her, no longer feeling the slightest shame at being an older brother protected by his younger sister.

In truth, up to now, he had accumulated a fair amount of experience fighting people. Paul's lessons and his sparring sessions with Hilde were both intense, since both of them were highly skilled swordsmen. The problem was that, in the end, those had only been training sessions, not battles fought with the goal of taking the other person's life.

At this moment, Rudeus realized just how fragile he was as a magician.

Even in an open environment with a clear field of vision, he might not necessarily survive, let alone in a special environment like this. If the other party wanted to kill him, it would practically only take a single thought.

Assuming Hilde was not there to protect him.

"Mm, dead end."

Hilde suddenly spoke.

Rudeus followed Hilde's gaze forward. At the end of the pitch-black, narrow passage, a faint, indistinct light showed through. Compared to the darkness of the passage, however, it was especially eye-catching.

When the two walked closer, they discovered it was a tightly shut metal door.

"Hey, Rudeus, use the lockpicking item."

"Just call it a key. What's with 'lockpicking item'? Are you playing an RPG here?"

"Quit yapping and hurry up."

"What's the rush..."

Rudeus muttered as he lit a flame at his fingertip.

By the faint light, he inserted the key he had found on the assassin earlier into the keyhole.

He tried turning it, but it would not move.

"Is it rusted?"

Rudeus frowned slightly.

"Let me."

Hilde pushed Rudeus aside. As the saying went, great strength could work miracles. Whether it was rusted or lacked lubrication, it would not be a problem as long as enough force was used.

She gripped the key and twisted hard...

Crack—

The key snapped off inside the keyhole.

"..."

"I see. I understand now."

"What do you understand this time?"

"This key isn't meant to open this door."

Hilde nodded with a perfectly serious expression.

"Think about it carefully. Although that assassin just now was the only enemy we've encountered, calling someone of that level the stage boss would be a stretch. He was probably just a regular elite mob. And the key we found on him is most likely used to open some other hidden stage."

"...Maybe don't apply your gaming experience to reality. Anyway, what do we do about this door? At this point, even if we had the real key, it wouldn't open, would it?"

Rudeus could not help retorting.

Hilde fell silent.

She carefully examined the door and felt its hardness should not be that high.

She wondered if they could forcefully tear the door down...

Seeming to read Hilde's thoughts, Rudeus sighed helplessly.

"We can't use violent methods like just now. The enemy's base might be right behind this door, so we still need to make as little noise as possible. Maybe we can consider going around it."

"How?" Hilde asked.

"Dig under it."

As Rudeus spoke, he aimed his palm at the ground below.

When earth magic was used, it drew from the surrounding environment a kind of mana similar to the concept of "earth." The visible effect was that soil would silently disappear, and the extent of that disappearance was extremely small. If it was used on flat ground, it would be almost impossible to notice.

Of course, in a labyrinth, a structure supported by subtle balances, that was another matter. It might cause a serious collapse.

That was also why it was best not to use earth magic in a labyrinth.

Conversely.

By using this technique, one could also dig through the ground.

Even an ordinary magician would not find that too difficult, let alone Rudeus.

"How much time will it take?" Hilde asked.

"For this distance... ten minutes should be enough."

Rudeus immediately got to work.

Although it wasted some time, this was the only way.

Meanwhile, as Rudeus tried digging a tunnel.

Elsewhere.

The black-robed man who had taken the young lady of House Boreas from the kidnappers pushed the cart through a long passage and arrived at the entrance to an underground space beneath a building located somewhere inside the wall. After confirming his identity with the guards, he entered without trouble.

The space was not very large. Four or five swordsmen with blades at their waists patrolled the corridor.

When they saw the black-robed man enter, their gazes lightly swept over the box in front of him, but they raised no real questions and merely nodded.

Perhaps because it was underground, the air here was not exactly fresh.

This was one of the dark sides of the Asura Kingdom.

A very small number of people knew such a place existed in the royal capital, though they did not know its exact location.

And the purpose of such a place was not to conduct some unknown human experiments, nor to plot some grand conspiracy capable of overturning the world. It existed merely to satisfy the unspeakable personal desires of that lord.

It was a secret tacitly understood among those in power, yet because of the other party's overwhelming authority, they had all chosen to pretend they did not see it.

One hand covering the sky.

This was exactly what it meant to stand above ten thousand, beneath only one.

The black-robed man pushed the box into the room at the end of the corridor.

The door to the room was not locked. Or rather, if someone could infiltrate all the way here, it would make no difference whether there was a lock or not.

The only reason such a door existed was to make soundproofing easier.

He casually shut the door.

The black-robed man opened the box and took out the red-haired girl, who was still unconscious.

Then he placed her on the stone platform in the center of the room.

The cold stone platform made the unconscious girl's brows knit slightly, but she still did not wake. The black-robed man did not care. Training this child into a finished product fit to be offered to that lord was not his responsibility. He only needed to complete the handoff and transport, and imprison the girl here.

He pulled up shackles from beneath the stone platform and fastened them around the girl's wrists and ankles.

Then he took out an iron collar.

Strange patterns were engraved across the surface of the collar. They were the runes of a magic circle.

He injected a trace amount of mana into the collar, and it opened. Immediately after, he fastened it around the girl's fair, slender neck.

With a faint click, the collar locked shut.

The bizarre runes across its surface then lit with a faint glow, signifying that the magic circle inside the collar had begun to take effect.

After finishing all this, the black-robed man nodded in satisfaction.

Then he turned and left the room.

The room fell quiet, leaving only the girl's slightly uneasy breathing.