Chapter 573 – Gate
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Early dawn.
Fallon prepared to leave to report to the police. There was a small backpack on his back.
Fallon’s friends, including Sarah, went out to see him off, rubbing his eyes with a half-awakened face.
“Are you going already? Can I go without eating?”
“You can’t waste your time. You can eat as you go, so you don’t have to worry.”
When Jenny asked, Fallon answered with a kind smile.
“Well… If that’s you…”
Fallon, whose eyes stopped on Sarah for a moment, soon turned his back and walked away.
There was a voice that stopped Fallon from leaving.
“Fallon, wait! Let’s go together!”
As Unas approached Fallon, a small backpack was slung on his back. He seems to have prepared in advance to follow Fallon.
Seeing Unas like that, Fallon frowned and said.
“Unas, you are here. I told you I was enough on my own.”
Unas approaches Fallon, who is disapproving, and whispers something into his ear.
What did I hear from Unas?
Fallon’s face became scary.
And Fallon allowed Unas to accompany him.
Watching the two disappear into the forest together, Jenny asked Unas’ best friend Ruberne, who was next to her.
“What did Unas say to Fallon?”
“Well…?”
Meanwhile, Ruberne glances at Sarah.
Sarah felt an uneasy feeling in Luverne’s gaze.
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– Plump.
Rhythmic sound of cutting board…
-Bubble.
The smell of savory soybean paste stew…
“Master. Breakfast is ready.”
Soybean paste stew and fried egg. Seaweed. Kimchi.
A simple but typical Korean breakfast table was set out.
As food enters my throat, my listless mind becomes more and more clear.
It’s the start of a diligent day.
I thought that this forest might be under surveillance by the Zephyria army. So, I felt like I conducted my search quite cautiously.
But from what I saw yesterday.
I was about 90% sure that there was no surveillance by them. Today I planned to move a little faster than yesterday and explore the villa.
After eating a hearty breakfast prepared by Suni, I went out of the camping car.
I saw Sarah and her group gathered together and eating breakfast.
4 people.
There were 2 fewer people.
‘Guy Fallon said he was going to report it to the police…’
It seems like we left at dawn. But then I saw that there was one more person missing…
‘I think you said you were going alone… Did you two go? One or two… It’s not something I care about.’
What is more important than that is that before the police investigators arrive, we must search the remaining lakeside villas.
If an investigator comes, there is a high possibility that he will be taken to the Public Safety Office for investigation. If you don’t want to come here twice, you should finish exploring the villas on this lake within today.
When Sarah and her group saw Celestia and I trying to leave the camp to explore, something stirred… And two men ran towards us.
Then he blocked the path between me and Celestia and asked questions as if interrogating me.
“Where are you going?”
“…?”
I thought this was something else.
There is no reason for me to report to these guys where I am going.
“What do you care where I go?”
I looked down at them and asked.
“Well… Since a murder occurred… Wouldn’t it be better not to leave the camp if possible…”
“Haa…”
I sighed, grabbed their heads, and lifted them up. They were over 180 cm tall, but to me, who was much taller than them, they were no different from children.
The two of them, each holding their heads in one of my hands, hung happily together.
When I lightly launched a force, the two of them couldn’t even think of resisting, like herbivores facing a predator, and their bodies became rigid.
The heads of those who are gently grabbing them look like they could break with even the slightest force.
Did they feel that too?
The two guys’ faces turn pale as the pain from having their heads tightened.
It seemed like they finally realized what kind of person they were making fun of.
“Ugh… Sssss…”
“Please…”
I have no intention of killing.
And I thought I knew why I felt that way.
It was embarrassing.
Should I say… It feels like swinging a fist at a child who can’t resist.
I even get that feeling because the grades are so different.
I even felt a light sage moment as I saw myself bickering with guys who seemed like they would get tired of it at any moment.
I just threw them away.
-Wow!!
-Ouch!
Those who flew from the sky fell onto the lake.
-Plop!
These guys… Their hands are slippery as if they haven’t washed their hair in a while. It is hair oil.
I’ve been getting my hands dirty with useless things since morning.
It was very embarrassing to have to deal with these guys at my level.
Leaving the small commotion behind, we began an unprecedented search with Celestia.
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3 hours of exploring the villa.
For I don’t know how many times, I was looking around the half-collapsed villa.
‘I think there are only a few left…’
Thanks to the noticeably faster movement than yesterday, the search for the villa was slowly coming to an end.
The thought that I made a mistake arises.
Coming to Trancon itself may have been a failure.
While I was thinking about that, I felt something strange coming from the basement. And that feeling disappeared in an instant.
‘It seems like there was some subtle distortion of space, or maybe not…’
“Celestia, didn’t you feel something?”
“Well… I didn’t feel it.”
Celestia tilts her head.
She didn’t seem to feel anything.
She focused her attention towards her basement once again, but felt nothing.
‘Was it a mistake?’
〈It’s not an illusion.〉
I can trust the words of Cosmos, who shares the same feelings as me.
I think the subtle distortion of space that I briefly felt was not an illusion.
I thought I would know more clearly if I went and looked at it in person.
After looking around the second floor, we found the door to the basement and opened it. Behind the door, I could see a staircase heading down, and at the end of it was another door.
It looked no different from the basement of the villa I had seen so far.
When I went down the stairs, I could feel the tiny distortion of space.
The basement door was opened.
The vague distortion of space that had caught my senses disappeared, and a musty smell filled my nose.
“…”
A dark basement where you can’t see anything.
Darkness is not an obstacle to me or Celestia.
I don’t know if there was anything in the basement about 20 pyeong to begin with, but it was empty.
There was a lot of mold on the wall.
I entered the basement, but for some reason I couldn’t feel the distortion of the alien space that I felt a moment ago.
I tense up every nerve in my body.
Not only the physical senses were activated, but also powerful cognitive abilities were activated through expansion of consciousness. I also can’t feel anything.
Feeling puzzled, Celestia and I searched through the unremarkable basement, but we couldn’t find anything.
“…”
It certainly wasn’t an illusion… Since Cosmos recognized it too.
‘Why can’t I feel the distortion of space that I felt? Since when?’
I look back on my memories.
‘… Door?’
The twisting disappeared when I opened the basement door.
I looked at the basement door again.
The material appeared to be wood. Although it was a bit mossy, it was quite fine.
Considering that thousands of years have passed, this is a strange phenomenon. Suspicious.
I closed the half-open basement door.
-Clap.
As expected.
When I closed the basement door, I could finally feel the distortion of the space.
It was not inside the basement, but at the door.
But that was it.
I knocked and rubbed, but there was no change in the basement door.
“Celestia, I can feel the distortion of space here. Why don’t you take a look too?”
Celestia comes closer at my invitation and takes a closer look at the basement door.
“Definitely… Unho, just like you said, there seems to be something there.”
Celestia seems to have noticed something now, but she doesn’t seem to have any idea what to do next.
Isn’t this a wizard’s specialty?
But I can’t bring Berna or Liliana here right now.
Suddenly, I remembered what happened at the secret research institute in Selby.
Helena called Celestia Rudel, not me. In that case, she must have arranged something that only Celestia can do…
“Celestia. How about using the method of opening subspace in Selby’s lab on this basement door?”
“It sure seems like a good idea.”
Celestia touches the basement door and injects the magic pattern that opened the lab’s subspace.
Then, the basement door itself turned silver and began to sway like waves.
Subspace?
… No, it’s different from the lab time.
It looked closer to a gate than a subspace.
The inside of the swaying silver waves cannot be seen.
Considering that it was activated using a magic pattern that only Celestia knew, I thought it wasn’t a trap… But I was reluctant to go in.
Unlike me, who hesitated due to suspicion, Celestia put her body into the gate without me having to stop her.
“…”
〈 Jjol? 〉
“It’s not about being scared, it’s about being careful.”
Celestia is a raid member.
I opened the system’s raid status window.
After seeing that Celestia was in good condition through the raid system, I felt relieved and entered the gate.
