Chapter 36
When he opened his eyes again.
What appeared in his vision was darkness without even a point of light.
He rolled his eyes for a moment.
Nothing could be seen.
Only shadows that couldn't sleep were stickily flowing down around him.
It was truly a background soaked in pitch blackness.
He snapped his fingers behind a short nasal sound.
"Hmm."
Tak-!
A light bursting sound rang out.
The faint resonance soon formed into a handful of echoes, filling the empty spaces around that had been full of silence.
A streak of noise breaking the quietness.
Right after.
Whoosh-!
Flames bloomed here and there.
As if they had been waiting for the sound to ring, torches hanging on the walls began to burn.
The light that had been growing one by one soon spread enough to fill the space.
The scenery had become sufficiently bright before he knew it.
"Ugh... Y-Young Master?"
"...What's going on here?"
Two girls were positioned beside him.
The expressions of the children looking around showed clear signs of bewilderment.
Their gazes shook finely.
"C-Certainly, it seemed like the magic circle shone strangely..."
"At least the teleportation seems to have activated."
"D-Did we arrive properly...?"
"That's... unknown."
The runaway phenomenon that occurred right before teleportation.
Perhaps remembering the ominous flow of mana, the two didn't carelessly relax their tension.
Perhaps judging that grasping the situation came first.
Emilia calmly examined the space where they were standing.
"It's an alien place."
The air touching her cheeks was especially chilly.
A corridor stretching out in front of them. However, no windows showing the outside could be found even on the long-extending walls.
Only torches attached here and there were illuminating the darkness.
Emilia fell into thought for a moment.
She soon threw a word at him as if asking for an opinion.
"It seems like an underground space, doesn't it?"
"I think so too."
"The fact that torches are arranged so thoroughly means that light doesn't enter even during the day."
"It's also strange that no windows can be seen."
"At least we can be sure this isn't the academy."
The characteristic pungent smell of a basement brushed by.
It was a scene full of dust, as if untouched by human hands for a long time.
Amidst all this, a corridor with no end in sight.
"...It feels unpleasant."
The girl muttered softly.
As he was quietly looking around the path, Regia standing behind grabbed his sleeve.
It was a fingertip tinged with a faint trembling.
"Y-Young Master."
"Miss Regia?"
"The emergency calling magic tool we received... The s-signal is dead."
"Pardon?"
He checked the bracelet worn on his wrist.
Just before entering the exam.
The calling magic tool they had each received from Selena.
Originally, it should have been blinking blue light connected to the supervising professor's mana, but now it was just turned off without any signal.
It seemed to have stopped working altogether.
"I-It's been like this since earlier."
"Hmm."
He checked Emilia's as well, but it was the same.
In a situation where they didn't know where this place was or if they had arrived properly, even the connection with the academy had been cut off.
In short, it was an isolated situation.
"Wh-What should we do now...?"
"The academy must have confirmed that something went wrong with the exam. Don't make such a fuss."
"B-But, Lady."
"I said it's fine."
The villainess retorted as if annoyed.
Though she was frowning nonchalantly, she was biting her nails as if inwardly anxious.
A confused air lingered.
He quietly observed the situation.
'For now... is it flowing according to the original work?'
He glanced sideways.
What appeared in his vision was the scenery of an old basement. The deeply laid darkness emphasized the ominousness.
The damp air resembled the breath of some monster.
Though it wasn't the exam site... strictly speaking, they had arrived correctly.
Because it was the stage for this episode.
He quietly retraced his memories.
[EP5. Midterm Exam]
-Abandoned Laboratory, Monsters That Can't Laugh-
In the original work, the midterm exam had a similar flow.
It starts with Regia's group getting caught in a teleportation accident and waking up in a basement.
If they stay like this, 'those things' will soon come looking for them.
There was a need to move before that.
He spoke to the two people standing with serious expressions.
"Shall we look around for now?"
"Y-Yes?"
"...Are you in your right mind?"
The two immediately looked at him.
He continued his opinion nonchalantly while receiving their gazes.
"I'm perfectly sane."
"We don't even know exactly where this is. You're saying you'll move recklessly in this situation?"
"We can't just wait like this forever."
"I'm against it."
"I don't understand what you're afraid of."
He shrugged lightly. As if asking what the problem was.
"If we walk around, won't we be able to find an exit? Moreover, seeing that we're underground, it seems like an artificially made facility... We might be able to meet people here and get help."
"But it looks like no one has set foot here for a long time."
"Then we should move all the more. If there's no place to get help, I think it's better for us to go out and grasp the surrounding terrain ourselves."
"...Hmm."
Emilia let out a sigh as if pondering.
Others might have said to wait in place, but for him who had business here, he needed to look around a bit.
Because there was someone he needed to find here.
'Because of how unclear their whereabouts were, it was an issue that couldn't be resolved even with knowledge of the original work...'
The opportunity had finally come today.
This was the reason he had willingly fallen for the trap despite knowing this midterm exam was a trap.
Of course, if he said this.
One might think he could just use his ability to rummage through the entire basement without needing to walk around, but searching such a deep and wide space would consume quite a lot of output.
It was a scale comparable to the Astro headquarters.
Structurally, it was also much more complexly tangled.
'I need to be careful.'
He wouldn't create any unnecessary waste of output.
As he had prepared for a long time, he intended to conclude it firmly.
Employee welfare is really such a bad thing to do.
Where in the world is there someone who asks the boss to find their missing family?
As he was ruminating on some lamentation.
"...Alright. You must have your own thoughts."
The villainess's answer he had missed came back.
Had she finally fallen for the snake's silver tongue?
Or perhaps she had decided to follow him inevitably while recalling the contents of their deal.
Either way, thank you.
"Huhu."
He stroked her head in praise.
Blue hair being neatly arranged. Emilia silently accepted that touch while furrowing her brow.
The point was that she was exuding an air of disgust.
"Then, shall we walk straight ahead like this?"
"Do as you please."
"I-I'll come along too...!"
They moved their steps.
Towards the corridor with no end in sight.
***
Meanwhile, on the lowest floor of the basement.
A hidden room that could only be reached by going down seven times through stairs tangled like a maze.
A man was sitting there.
"They've finally come."
A figure wearing a pitch-black robe.
Behind his back was a tree pattern that looked like roots. It was a picture symbolizing heretics.
The man rolled his eyes secretly.
Tap tap-.
His twitching finger tapped the desk.
Unlike the basement outside that seemed to have been abandoned for a long time, it was a neatly organized scene.
In the direction the man's eyes were staring was a screen.
"They're responding more calmly than I thought."
The large-scale basement.
Hundreds of pre-installed magic tools were constantly turning and reflecting the situation.
The man smiled ominously.
"The Beniti wench, the top student of the year, even a summoner handling a wyvern... It seems that fellow handled things well. To think such high-quality sacrifices would fall into my hands."
It was madness spreading with a wicked energy.
After touching his hideously torn mouth corners, he soon began recording something in the booklet he was holding.
Dark red droplets fell from the ceiling.
As the paper turned red, the man's laughter spread murkily.
"Let's watch for now."
It was a process of testing how excellent qualities those sacrifices had.
He recalled the 'creations' he had released in the basement.
Due to lack of resources.
Most were low-level failures, but.
"Among them, I planted just one... 'work of art'."
He stared at the screen located in the most corner.
The center of the basement was in complete disarray. Only a strange shadow was rippling there.
The man felt a thrilling pleasure running down his spine.
The finest work of art created in Belzen.
How much blood and flesh of living beings had been added to make that?
His lips muttered blankly.
"...Beautiful."
If only the sacrifices would enhance the completeness of the 'work'.
His mouth corners twisted disgustingly.
The sight of students dyed in blood was already flickering before the man's eyes.
His pupils hidden by darkness glistened with corruption.
A tree taking ugly root.
The man wiped his reddened eyes and put his hands together.
"All for the origin of all things and our master... Him."
He closed his eyelids behind a moment of meditation.
The prayer of a believer covered in blood, it was a piece of holiness stained with adulthood.
His vision went dark for a moment.
Thanks to that, the man didn't see.
[......]
The slit eyes secretly staring at the screen.
The golden snake was watching its prey while flicking its tongue.