by Terasu Senoo
Surely the only one who could cast a sleep spell powerful enough to incapacitate all of them was Claus, considering his extraordinary talent.
But how long ago did he do it?
Erika took another look around. It bothered her that Claus wasn’t alone—that Anne had disappeared as well. She was almost entirely sure Claus was headed to the Seafarer’s Ruins. If luck was on her side, perhaps Anne had gone to her parents instead.
I should hurry and report this to my father and Duke Hafan, shouldn’t I?
It would be terrible if she allowed the situation to become gossip and cause panic in the palace. Erika closed the door behind her and walked down the corridor toward her father’s room.
After fifteen minutes of walking, Erika should’ve long since reached her father’s room, and yet, here she found herself at the same door as before. By this point, Erika had realized she was completely lost in the palace she was oh-so-familiar with.
A spell had been cast to turn the place into a labyrinth.
However, even Claus shouldn’t have been skilled enough to distort space.
This must be a phantasmal maze, she surmised.
This spell messed with the sense of direction of whomever passed through, trapping them in an illusion and forcing them to wander about as if they were in an endless labyrinth.
Thanks to the magic, it seemed the Spring Palace had been divided into districts. Erika couldn’t reach the adults’ rooms, and the adults likely couldn’t reach the children’s rooms either. Erika could hardly conceal her surprise at Claus being able to use such complex magic at the age of ten.
You’re way too scrupulous, kid! Talk about a waste of talent!
The missing kids were already an emergency, and now she had this maze to deal with. Still, knowing that this sort of situation required that she keep a cool head, Erika sucked in a deep breath.
“My apologies, Eduard, it looks like I’ll be putting this to use right away.”
Erika’s eyes shot to the key she had received from him. She braced herself, inserted the key into the nearest keyhole, and turned. The key itself was simply a tool to connect any door in the Spring Palace to her brother’s repository.
The next moment, the door swung open to reveal the Wunderkammer of Alchemist Eduard Aurelia.
5
This was the first time Erika had ever set foot in her brother’s Wunderkammer. This was both the workshop of an alchemist and a showcase of magical artifacts gathered from all over the world.
In the center was a large table, presumably a workbench. It was splattered here and there with burn marks and distinct chemical stains. The surface was covered with various pieces of experimental and processing apparatuses. Glass test tubes, stills, burners, oil lamps, and more were meticulously arranged in an orderly fashion.
A cabinet to her right was stuffed with the body parts of various beasts. Out of all of them, the ones that stood out the most were the unicorn horn he’d procured from Hafan and the basilisk fossil he’d ordered from the southern continent. A majority were fossils, but there were also a considerable number of specimens suspended in alcohol.
To her left, another cabinet was packed tight with Aurelian ores. These weren’t just any ordinary ores; he had gathered special minerals with innate magical properties. Every item was carefully stored in a dedicated box or jar, each with a label indicating its properties and where it was found. Eduard’s penchant for organization was clearly on display.
These materials were, of course, used to create spells. The wands in which such magic had been stored ahead of time could all be found in a cabinet at the front of the room. It was piled top to bottom with countless small boxes, each containing its own wand.
Every small box was labeled with the details of the magic stored within and the materials used to make it. Two wands containing the same spell could differ in their output and effects depending on their components. Perhaps Eduard had been studying their differences, researching day and night which combination would draw out the most power.
Erika did her best to look through the myriad of wands, but there weren’t any that would dispel Claus’ maze. Having confirmed this, she decided on her next objective. It would be too difficult to seek help from her father and the other adults.
At the very least, I have to go after Claus and Anne myself.
She investigated the wardrobe in the corner. As was to be expected, it was also organized and labeled with care. It contained the clothes Eduard had used as a child. They were all imbued with defensive magic and hoarded by the man who had a bad habit of keeping anything and everything close at hand.
Using the labels, she searched out the box from when her brother was eight years old and threw it open. She practically turned it inside out as she yanked out an outfit.
Erika stripped off her dress and immediately donned the clothing. She tied her hair back with a ribbon, stuffed a crystal-powered, silver pocket watch into the breast pocket of her outer coat, and shoved her hands into leather alchemists’ gloves.
She changed into black leather boots and draped the largest leather bag she could find over her shoulder. They had both been waterproofed with oil. After that, she tossed two star crystal lanterns into the bag; they were guaranteed not to rust.
The most important part was to select which wands she would bring with her.
First, she chose a Glámr-Sight wand. This one was the same as the one Eduard had used. Its effect would last around thirty seconds.
Next, she picked out a Paralyze wand. It was made of amber, its end containing a Cockatrice fossil coated in plant resin. The handle was silver, engraved with a cross between a rooster and a snake. The wick was a dried Basilisk tail, and it had an effective time of three seconds.
She searched out whichever other wands might be useful, stuffing two to three of each into her leather sack.
Gust wand. Urðr-Sight wand. Levitate wand. Castling wand. Feather Fall wand. Lock wand. Grease wand. Mage Hand wand. Water-Walk wand.
As she was choosing wands, she spotted one that was sealed and tightly locked away: the Sailor’s Song wand.
This wand was special. If the wand were to be waved to a certain melody, it was said that the Alchemist’s Star would fall from the sky. In reality, the spell imbued in this wand could generate a meteor in the distant sky and send it plummeting to the ground. It was thanks to this magic that the Seafaring Tribe was also called the Aurelia of the Stars. Powerful as it was, this wand’s recoil was incomparable to all others. Should a mediocre alchemist go above his standing and attempt to use it, he would lose his life by bringing but a single stone down from the heavens.
Even if it weren’t sealed, it’s way too dangerous to use.
With that in mind, she returned the box containing the Sailor’s Song wand to its shelf. This wand was probably a memento of their dilettante mother. She could see no other reason why Eduard would have it here.
Erika then grabbed one animated rope. This rope, which had been processed in the same way as the wands, could be freely manipulated a set number of times.
She deftly packed away one bottle of obscuring mist, then one bottle of moon-gallnut ink, which was made from a special mineral found in Hafan. Any letters written with this ink would emit moonlight only so long as the moon was out. She couldn’t find any normal ink, so she settled for this one.
Finally, she gathered up the rest of her supplies: a fragment of chalk, a pen and as many scraps of parchment paper as she could squeeze in her bag, a bottle of distilled alcohol, a small box of chocolate just in case, and a single athame.
With her tools in order, Erika stepped out of the workshop, closing and locking the door behind her.
Let’s start by using Glámr-Sight.
When she waved the relevant wand, a pale-green magic circle manifested and then closed in around her eyes. The moment Glámr-Sight went into effect, the detailed information of the illusionary maze appeared right before her.
Creator unkn
own, practitioner Claus Hafan, and the magic had been activated around thirty minutes prior—right around the time Erika was seeing off Eduard.
She must have just missed him. Looking into the amount of mana Claus had used, she could tell that the spell would remain active for around three to four hours from when it had been cast.
It’s just as I feared.
Would it be too late if she just waited for it to run out and went to the Dukes for help?
Normally, when a magician chanted a spell, both the creator and practitioner would be the same individual. This time, the fact that they were different meant he had chanted from a spell scroll. Conversely, if the spell were cast from a wand, it would be possible to tell the creator but not the practitioner.
The magic was being maintained by both Claus’ mana and his spell cards. Several small cards had been set in all sorts of places throughout the palace.
Both spell scrolls and spell cards were common tools in Hafan. They served as blueprints and amplifiers for spells, respectively. The cards, laid out like a barrier, boosted the end result, which allowed for the sheer size of the maze.
Erika next determined she would have to investigate the transfer gate in the cellar. She burst into a sprint, only to recall what had happened when Edward headed off to Lindis.
Huh? Don’t you need a one-way key to use it?
It was only now that Erika began to question it. How did Anne go to the Seafarer’s Ruins in the original storyline? If she didn’t have a key, how was she able to use the gate?
6
Erika hurried down the palace stairs in the dark.
Yep, changing was the right answer. I feel so much lighter compared to running in a dress. Now that her memories from her past life were back, Erika found dresses a little suffocating. Maybe I’m just lacking in femininity, she chuckled to herself.
A while later, she was at the gate.
“They’re not here anymore.”
She’d had a faint hope that they might’ve given up in front of the transfer gate, but evidently, things would not be that easy.
The area was lined with rows upon rows of stone arches. These were the gates connecting to vital locations all around the country. Each gate was given a design to signify where it connected to.
A faintly glowing insignia was suspended in the center of each arch, slowly spinning in place. These were the seals, and they wouldn’t open without a one-way key.
Without hesitation, Erika made way for the gate farthest in the back. This one was the oldest, the gate to the Seafarer’s Ruins. Upon reaching it, she was in for yet another surprise.
“It’s... still locked.”
Not only was the seal still present, it even had a physical locking mechanism. Even if someone somehow managed to deceive the key system, it would be impossible to use the gate.
How anticlimactic.
But this surprise was a welcome one. Erika breathed a sigh of relief. There was no need to raid Eduard’s workshop to prepare for war.
I’d much rather be let down than horrified.
Just as she was on the verge of feeling completely at ease, a single question niggled at the back of her mind: then where did Claus go?
Just in case, she used Glámr-Sight to investigate the area... and immediately noticed the disaster.
Wait. This lock’s just an illusion!
Erika’s eyes went wide. Someone—or something—had destroyed the real lock. What’s more, the seal was also just an illusion.
The practitioner who’d made it so the lock appeared intact was Claus Hafan. The spell had been created and activated thirty minutes prior.
As for the illusion of the seal, it had been cast ten years ago by Duke Aurelia. The gate to the Seafarer’s Ruins was far older than any of the others. As one-way keys were a newer form of magic, Erika surmised he had been unable to install it on the antiquated facility.
Instead, he’d locked it by physical means and used an illusion to make it seem as though it had been sealed magically as well. It was valid camouflage in Aurelia, where simply casting Glámr-Sight would cost a small fortune. But against Claus, a magician skilled in concealment and illusion, it was completely meaningless. Claus had seen it and immediately noticed the seal was a fake.
After he had destroyed the lock, Claus took inspiration from Duke Aurelia. He hid his handiwork with yet another illusion. As a result, both physically and magically, the stoppers were all merely for show.
“Looks like I really do have to march in there and drag him out.”
Erika was genuinely terrified. Past life included, she had never been good with ghosts or scary stories. She dreaded going to the ruins where she knew such monsters actually existed.
Still...
She stared at the gate to the Seafarer’s Ruins.
“Just you wait.”
If the Hafan siblings were in such a place, she couldn’t just forget all about it. If they’d gone in without knowing who or what lurked in those ruins, she had to save them.
Erika took a step forward and entered the gate. The words to activate the warp magic were always a poem in praise of the destination. The poem was simply titled, “To Tír na nÓg.” She closed her eyes and read it out loud, as its words had been carved deep into the gate.
“My dear friend, won’t you come with me? Far, far beyond the distant sea?
For when we step upon new sand, a new name for our promised land.”
☆
Erika opened her eyes after a pang of dizziness. She was currently at the ruins’ ground level.
As was common practice in olden days, this transfer gate’s spell had simply been carved into the bare floor where she stood.
In contrast to the sturdy white stone that made up the Spring Palace, the ruins had been thrown together from piles of regular rock. It lay near the coast in the westernmost reaches of Aurelian territory.
Erika could smell the faint scent of salt.
It was quite late at night, but the area wasn’t in complete darkness. There were lamps of processed star crystal embedded in the walls, faintly illuminating the space with a weak, gentle, yellow-tinted light.
The clan who had developed Aurelia had come here, once upon a time. They were the last group of people to settle on the continent. Those who lived here before them called them the Seafaring Tribe. They were skilled sailors and adept alchemists. They were the men and women of a ruined country who had lost a land to call home.
Perhaps their fatherland had fallen to the extremes of alchemy. Some legends seemed to suggest this, but the details were unclear. Where had they come from? What was their origin? The answers to these questions had all been swallowed by the darkness of history.
There must have been some kernel of truth to the legend, as the people of Aurelia had expunged a number of techniques they once used, deeming them forbidden. This included the art of creating homunculi—artificial humans—which was only passed down in folklore. Now, only techniques to reproduce certain body parts remained.
It was thought that ancient alchemical arts still remained in the ruins, long forgotten.
Just to be sure, Erika used the Glámr-Sight wand to look around. At present, there weren’t any traces of magic apart from the transfer gate. She could breathe easy for now.
I’d be banging my head against the wall if he cast his illusions on the ruins as well.
Erika then went on to use her Urðr-Sight wand. This wand allowed her to witness past events, and she waved it five times to rewind a sufficient amount. The circle formed from its five points of white light enveloped the room whole before coming back like a reflected ripple to gather in her eyes.
Through her newly gained hindsight, she could see Claus’ back as he exited through the passage to her left.
“Claus came here alone.”
Erika continued to watch. A little while later, Anne used the gate to reach this room. She must have noticed something, as she inspected a specific point before going left as well.
>
With that, the magic concluded. Now Erika had a general grasp of the situation. After Claus came to the ruins alone, Anne noticed he was gone and chased after him. If only Claus had come here, Erika would’ve still felt a little optimistic, but now the situation looked grave.
Erika searched where Anne seemed to have found something and spotted a spell card. Its magic hadn’t been activated yet.
The card hasn’t had any mana put into it; that’s why Glámr-Sight can’t detect it, Erika thought as she picked it up. The card was made of parchment and seemed to be scrawled over with ancient letters of Hafan.
Erika was not the most proficient with languages, and she gave up on translating. Perhaps she would have gotten many more hints if she could read, but as she was now, she still had plenty of leads to follow. She could follow the unused spell cards Claus had left behind like the breadcrumbs of Hansel and Gretel.
After passing through the left corridor, Erika could see down a series of rooms made of the same depressing stone, topped off by a narrow corridor at the very end. There were a number of lamps stationed all over the place, so there was never any complete darkness.
Still, this place is ridiculously scary!
The Seafarer’s Ruins descended downward, almost like an underground dungeon. Erika could feel ceaseless chills running down her spine.
“Just tell yourself ghosts aren’t scary! And they’re not, they’re not... They’re definitely not!”
Erika spoke up in order to brush away her fear. She wrung out an insignificant drop of courage, using the Glámr-Sight and Urðr-Sight wands one after the other to follow the past specters of Claus and Anne.
Once she got around 200 meters from the entrance and climbed down her fourth staircase, her sense of direction was growing hazy. As she ran down the dark path, she was suddenly reminded of her past life.
She remembered the incident in high school, during which she was hit from behind in the darkness of the night. This wasn’t the sort of fear that caused her to freeze up; it was a gloomier emotion that clung to her with an unpleasant viscousness.
