Chapter 284 – Hat Under the Tree (Four)

The moment the CCTV was destroyed, Ray sensed something was wrong.

He immediately grabbed the back of Leon’s neck and flung himself toward the private room they had just exited.

Boom! Craaash!

Deafening roars pierced his ears, and heat washed over his skin.

Explosions were erupting from the ceiling and walls of the corridor where they had been standing just moments before.

“Those bastards are up to something…!”

Crunch! Craaack!

Leon’s words were cut off by the collapsing corridor.

The next moment, his vision tilted.

Beyond the wide-open door, he saw a sky filled with black clouds, and his body, losing its balance, desperately needed to grab onto something.

“Everyone! Hold on tight!”

Craaack! SNAP──!

With the sound of something finally snapping, pressure was applied to his entire body.

Immediately after, he could see the outside scenery rapidly falling past the windows and the doorway.

Due to the collapse of the connecting corridor, the entire private room was falling from a great height.

Thud!

Ray, who had grabbed onto a decorative protrusion on the wall, quickly assessed the situation.

Through the large window forced open by the air pressure, the bodies of the dead were pouring out in droves.

But fortunately, all the survivors seemed unharmed.

Philip, who had received Ray’s Enhancement Magic, was gritting his teeth and clinging to a seat. The iron-barred cage and Obsess were also pushed into a corner and didn’t seem in immediate danger of falling.

The others were all Wizards.

They were somehow managing to hold on and protect themselves.

But the situation couldn’t be called optimistic.

It was obvious what would happen to the people inside when this heavy structure collided with the ground at a tremendous speed.

‘Is this… is this the end?’

Leon gritted his teeth.

The fact that, as the deputy manager of Tenenbaum, he had failed to thwart the enemies’ plot.

The fact that he could only watch as a massive loss of life was about to occur.

It strangled him terribly, filling him with deep self-reproach and despair.

He prided himself on being a skilled individual, but he possessed no Magic capable of responding to such an unprecedented situation.

And that was also true for…

“Look over there!”

“God, damn it!”

…the personnel from various Mage Towers gathered outside Tenenbaum.

They were individuals dispatched to rescue hostages belonging to their respective Schools, and they were skilled individuals of at least the 4th Circle or higher.

Given enough time, they could certainly cast appropriate Magic to stop a structure like the private room.

But the problem was that the situation was changing by the second.

“Everyone, prepare your Magic immediately! Telekinesis! Manipulation! Anything!”

“How much time do you think is left until impact?!”

“Damn it! We have to at least try what we can!”

They too made desperate efforts.

But there was no one present who could perform the miracle of instantly stopping the falling private room.

Even if the School Master of the top-ranked Mage Tower, said to be close to the 6th Circle, were to come, it would be nearly impossible to save everyone completely in the current situation.

And it was then that a voice reached Leon’s ears, lost in frustration.

“It might shake a little.”

“Huh?”

Turning his head, Leon saw Ray letting go of the wall protrusion he was holding and leaping through the air.

Thud!

Ray grabbed and clung to the rattling handle of the wide-open window.

His entire body was exposed to the outside.

A fierce wind wrapped around him.

Staring at the ground’s scenery rapidly expanding below, Ray stretched out his other hand and aimed downward.

And then.

─────!

A tremendous amount of green Mana shot out in the form of a beam.

The green Mana that touched the ground instantly spread in all directions, and soon, thousands of vines piercing through the concrete floor rose up and grabbed the private room.

Rrrrumble!

It didn’t completely negate the falling speed, but it changed its direction.

With its speed further reduced by external magical forces that acted just in time, the private room slammed into Tenenbaum’s wall.

Craaash!

The wall at the point of impact collapsed, revealing the space inside Tenenbaum.

Under his blurred vision, he saw an endless, giant spiral staircase.

At its center, pitch-black darkness was greedily opening its maw.

“P-please save us!”

“Kyaaah! Help!”

There was no room to think about what kind of place this was.

Due to the private room’s sudden severe tilt, everything inside was sliding toward the darkness.

“Grab my hand!”

Leon, using Enhancement Magic, ran along the slope to conduct rescue operations.

In Ray’s eyes, who had come back inside, were the iron-barred cage and Philip, about to fall over the edge of the slope.

For a moment, he felt an illusion.

As if time was flowing slowly.

The two targets were separated, so it was a moment of choice, having to pick one.

For an instant, conflict ensued.

Having made his decision, Ray leaped.

“Hold on tight.”

“I-I’m saved. Thank you…!”

The moment he snatched Philip’s hand and pulled him up with all his might, he could see someone brushing past him, leaping into the void.

It was Obsess.

She chased the falling cage, leaping into the darkness, growing farther away until she was no longer visible.

Afterward, people took refuge in the safe area at the top of the private room’s slope, catching their breath.

“R-Ray-nim. What on earth was that? That Magic? That was absolutely not ordinary growth magic.”

“Imagination.”

“Huh?”

Ray answered nonchalantly and slowly descended the slope, stepping onto the spiral staircase.

The darkness below.

What kind of space is this?

Leon, who had followed, spoke.

“We sent an exploration team to check all the way to the bottom, but there was nothing significant. We’re guessing it might be a space like an underground bunker.”

“……”

Ray raised his head.

He saw Philip nearby, looking down at the darkness with an anxious face.

“The depth?”

“It’s not that deep. At a jogging pace, you could reach the bottom in about 15 minutes. And if you go up a bit more, there’s a door that leads back into the auction hall corridor.”

“15 minutes, that’s a bit tight. In case the bomb goes off before then.”

Having said that, Ray strode over to Philip.

“Philip.”

“……”

“I can’t fully understand your feelings. No matter how close we are, I’m ultimately an outsider.”

“……”

“And because I have no memories of my mother, it’s hard for me to easily empathize with the longing you hold. I can only guess. But I know this.”

Philip raised his bowed head and looked at him with uneasy eyes.

Ray continued in a low voice.

“You’re afraid Obsess might be your real mother, aren’t you? You probably know the probability is high, and you know the expectations you’ve held will crumble. That’s why, even when you had the chance earlier, you couldn’t approach and only watched from afar.”

“I…”

“Go, Philip.”

“……”

“If you can’t overcome your fear, you can’t move forward.”

Ray took out Orea’s Tears from his embrace and handed it to Philip.

“Take it. With this, nothing dangerous should happen down there.”

One of the memories Ray recalled about the crimson gem.

That it had no limit in purifying any kind of Magic that bound the mind.

‘There are no exceptions.’

Even if it were the Emotional Curse Seal the Doctor engraved on the Executives’ bodies.

“I… I…”

Philip fidgeted with Orea’s Tears, at a loss.

Ray nodded and showed the utmost consideration for his friend.

“Departure.”

“Waaaah──!”

Pushed by the sudden surprise attack, Philip fell into the darkness with a scream.

“I-Is that okay?”

“It’s fine. He’s the type who acts when he has to.”

“N-no, not that. Is it okay to push him like that…?”

“He’ll probably be fine. Let’s depart now too. We need to hurry if we want to get back to the top.”

Before heading upward, Ray glanced down at the darkness below.

Well, he probably wouldn’t die.

He had made some preparations, after all.

“Waaaah! This damn emotional chain!”

Philip swallowed his tears as he fell into the darkness.

A life full of hardship, ending like this.

I haven’t even experienced love once.

I haven’t even disposed of the magazines in the office.

Steeped in regret, emptiness, anger, resignation, and all sorts of emotions, Philip suddenly felt something strange.

“Waaaah…? Huh…?”

His body had stopped.

Realizing a gentle wind was now wrapping around his entire body, he swam through the air and stepped onto the staircase.

“Huff… huff… Finally made it. I thought he was trying to get rid of me for secretly stealing and eating the jerky, but that wasn’t it.”

Catching his breath, Philip looked around. It seemed to be quite deep underground, as the outlines of the scenery were only blurry.

Fwoosh!

He summoned the sphere of light, the only Magic he knew how to use.

But compared to the darkness filling the surroundings, it was extremely small.

“…I can’t see anything properly.”

Swallowing hard, Philip mustered his courage and began to move.

Tap— tap—

In the quiet space, his timid footsteps bloomed faintly like dust.

The darkness kept rushing in to swallow the small light.

“……”

No more talking to himself.

The boy was simply scared, terrified.

The house where the lights were always off.

The darkness that assaulted him like a monster every night.

The further down he went, the more he felt consumed by the hated memories from his childhood.

But he couldn’t stop walking because there might be someone precious down there.

‘I have to check. Ray pushed me from behind, so I have to be brave…’

But as he went down, what tormented the boy wasn’t just the deepening darkness.

The staircase and walls also began to show increasing signs of collapse.

Thump!

Sometimes he had to leap large gaps, nearly missing his footing and falling.

Squeak— squeeeak—

Sometimes he had to crawl through narrow crevices, getting scratches all over his body.

“Haa… haa…”

Ragged breaths escaped.

Although he had exercised regularly, he couldn’t move his body at Ray’s level.

Philip had already pushed himself to his limit, and his stamina and mental strength were nearly depleted.

He felt like he would collapse any moment.

But he absolutely didn’t give up.

In his dazed mind, the longing for his mother bloomed like a lighthouse beacon.

That distant emotion kept the boy moving.

How much time had passed like that?

Thud!

Finally reaching the end of the staircase, the boy staggered and collapsed onto the floor.

With great effort, he got up from the spot and summoned a sphere of light to check ahead.

“The cage…”

The manticore had died, vomiting blood, likely due to the impact from the fall.

The children were asleep, seemingly without any injuries.

And, beside the cage.

There, a brown-haired woman was leaning against the iron bars, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

‘She’s not dead, she’s alive.’

Hearing her faint breathing, the boy felt a heart-thumping relief.

She seemed to have simply lost consciousness.

Perhaps she hadn’t been able to take care of herself properly while protecting the children during the fall.

Tap, tap.

The boy squeezed out his last strength and approached the woman.

He knelt beside her and slowly reached a hand behind her neck.

And he could feel it.

How could he ever forget it?

That scar he used to fidget with all the time when held in her arms as a child.

“Mom…”

Tears glistened at the corners of the boy’s eyes as he collapsed onto the woman and lost consciousness.

And a short while later.

An orange Light Cluster erupted from the boy’s embrace, enveloped the woman, and then disappeared.

Twitch.

The woman’s body, with her eyes closed, trembled, and then her expression became peaceful.

Unconsciously, she moved her arms and pulled the being in her embrace closer.

The surroundings were quiet.

Beside the two, a small light resembling a bug floated gently.

Beneath it, in the broken, open pendant, was a photo of a certain brown-haired woman and a child.