Chapter 401 – The Ruined Royal Castle

We landed the Sirius in the courtyard and disembarked, taking another look at the state of Nahalbia’s Royal Castle.

…So this is where the upper floors were said to have been swallowed by darkness and obliterated. The entire castle above what would have been the first floor ceiling was gone, and even the stone floors that must have once been polished to perfection were now covered in thick dust.

There were no signs of any other attacks. Whoever did this had obliterated the upper floors of the royal castle with a single blow.

And it wasn’t a simple explosion either, just as the stories said. There were no traces of debris or fragments scattered around the area.

“I will… go speak with the garrison soldiers of the old capital,” said Princess Elham. Though her expression was stern, she didn’t appear weak. Her reason for leaving wasn’t so much because she didn’t want to see the ruined royal castle, but rather to do what needed to be done.

“Understood.”

“If you’d like, we can serve as your escort.”

“Then please do.”

Mercedes, Elmer, and Lionel joined Princess Elham’s escort. Hmm. I should probably have Caduceus accompany them as well. I want to keep track of their interactions too.

“Then, we’ll be going now.”

After seeing off Princess Elham and the Demon-Slaying Knight Order members, we began carefully searching for things like underground passages and other hidden routes.

Hidden doors and such were Sheila and Seraphina’s specialties. Underground passages were Corulis’s specialty, but… the destroyed portion was simply too large. Had records and documents been lost as well?

As I walked through the ruins creating a three-dimensional model with Earth Magic… the traces of destruction became clearer.

“As I thought. The area affected by the attack is deeper towards the castle’s center and becomes shallower towards the outer edges.”

When I said this, everyone peered at the three-dimensional model. By examining the remaining walls, ceilings, and pillars in various locations… we could understand how much area had been attacked by the spherical explosion that occurred in the upper floors. They said the part covered in darkness had disappeared, meaning areas outside the attack range would have been largely unaffected.

After adjusting the size and placing a spherical model over the castle’s three-dimensional model… it fit perfectly with the destruction pattern.

“If the King of Ignorance came to the royal castle… he would have been near the center of this sphere, wouldn’t he?”

“…I see. That makes it very clear.”

When Grace spoke with admiration, Marlene also nodded repeatedly.

As for the single blow that obliterated the castle… regardless of its nature, we could accurately determine its attack range. We just needed to calculate it based on the scale of the three-dimensional model.

Considering the potential collateral damage if we were to battle the King of Ignorance, this could at least serve as reference for choosing a battlefield. He seems to have excessive attack power, so gathering even minor information can’t hurt. It would be unacceptable to be defeated before we could analyze and prepare countermeasures.

“Corulis has found a space underground… no, probably a passage. Yes. It seems to have discovered an underground passage,” said Princess Stephania.

Corulis, who had been tapping the ground with its fingertips to explore, was waving its hand as a signal. Seeing this, Claudia gave a wry smile.

“Should I say ‘as expected’? I thought the royal castle would have at least one secret escape route prepared.”

“Kahar and the others’ former fortress had the same setup.”

It wouldn’t be strange for the royal castle to have similar mechanisms.

“However, the hidden passage itself has likely already been discovered,” said Valentina.

“Considering how the upper part of the castle was blown away,” Old Sigmund closed his eyes regretfully.

“You mean the passage leading to the underground route has been completely exposed?”

“That’s right. They would have conducted searches for survivors after the incident, so I think the entrance has been found,” Princess Adriana answered Ashley’s question. Indeed. If entry to the ruined castle is currently prohibited, then the exit side of the hidden passage has probably been sealed off as well.

“Still, we should explore it. While we can’t investigate the destroyed upper portion, we might find undiscovered hidden rooms.”

“I agree. If you’re going to hide something important, you’d choose a hidden passage since it’s less noticeable. That’s how it was in Verdgar too,” said Rosemary, hiding her mouth with her feather fan.

Rosemary had also discovered a forgotten hidden passage and obtained magic potions and Familiar creation methods from it. So based on experience, that conclusion makes sense.

Well… Mother’s house was like that too.

“It might be better to wait for Princess Elham to return. It’s possible that only someone connected to the Nahalbia royal family can open it.”

Beyond that, destroying the structure itself… feels somewhat wrong. True, the royal castle has been destroyed, but that doesn’t mean we should damage it further.

Checking on Princess Elham through Caduceus—it showed a scene where several garrison soldiers, including their captain who had received a letter from Fatima, were saluting as they saw off Princess Elham without any major trouble. Apparently, they were people who knew Princess Elham. Probably individuals connected to Nahalbia.

The old capital was… quite a lively place, it seemed. There were traveling merchants, street vendors, food stalls, and even taverns, with a fair amount of foot traffic. People seemed to gather here for trading materials gathered from the forest or doing business with adventurers. There’s a water source too. When people gather, it’s natural for a place to develop into a proper base. The original houses and such probably remained intact too.

Regardless of the town’s appearance… let’s have Corulis trace the path to what appears to be the underground passage entrance before Princess Elham returns.

And—when Princess Elham returned from town and we immediately told her about it, she nodded quietly.

“I’m not sure if I can be of help, but…”

…And so began the underground passage exploration. Descending the spiral staircase, we were able to reach the underground passage directly.

The stone underground passage was pitch black and completely silent. We released magical light orbs to lead the way, with Sheila and Seraphina following behind them as they advanced through the passage.

We had progressed fairly deep while checking every corner from the dark passage’s ceiling to floor when—

“Wait.”

As we moved forward, Sheila stopped. Raising her arm to halt everyone’s progress, she carefully checked the surrounding walls, floor, and ceiling to confirm there were no traps, then turned back to us.

“I found something. This.”

Below the wall Sheila indicated, there was a small carved relief. In response, Princess Stephania closed her eyes and spoke while using her Five Senses Link.

“Right now… Corulis is examining the space beyond this wall from above, but… it doesn’t seem to understand. Even when it shoots magical power, there’s no response.”

…In other words, like sonar reflections not returning. When I looked carefully through my monocle, I could faintly see it was imbued with magical power. Perhaps… some kind of concealment sorcery has been applied. Is this… a hit?

“I don’t think there are any physical traps or such,” said Sheila while examining the area around the relief.

“May I take a look?” asked Princess Elham as she stepped forward.

“Understood. If we see any signs of magical traps activating, we’ll deploy defenses.”

I stood ready beside Princess Elham with Ouroboros in stance, prepared to immediately deploy a Shield if any ominous reactions occurred.

“Thank you.”

Princess Elham bowed slightly and tried waving her hand over the relief, but… that didn’t seem to cause any changes. No… wait, the relief’s magical power wavered slightly.

“May I try?”

“Please.”

I also waved my hand over it, but… there was no reaction like when Princess Elham did it. So it definitely responds to her magical power.

When I explained what I saw through the monocle, Princess Elham nodded and said, “Would it be safe to touch it?”

“Well… I think so. Judging from the reaction, it doesn’t seem to be a trap.”

Those who would use this underground passage would be Nahalbia’s royal family. So it’s unlikely to be a trap meant to harm Nahalbia’s royalty.

There’s no doubt the relief’s magical power was reacting in sync with Princess Elham’s fingertips as she touched it… but no dramatic changes occurred.

“In my case, it reacted to blood…” said Rosemary.

“Is that so? Then let’s try that,” said Princess Elham.

She drew the short sword from her waist and made a slight cut on her fingertip. She touched the relief with the blood that welled up.

At that moment. Light ran from the relief across the wall surface. A square flash of light cut across the wall, and the stone wall that should have been there faded, revealing stairs leading further underground.

“It seems that was the correct answer,” said Princess Elham with a happy smile as she returned her short sword to its sheath.

“Your Highness Elham. Your hand, please.”

“Thank you.”

Ashley healed the wound on Princess Elham’s fingertip.

“Shall we proceed?” I said, looking at everyone.

They all nodded. Well then… I wonder what we’ll find.