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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: bchen3
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“First, I’ll go look for Kinoshita-san.”
“Eh? Huh? Right now?”
“It’s party training, so we can’t have even one person missing. In the meantime, why don’t you all build some rapport by chatting or sharing your specialties?”
I found it quite sad that these teachers probably didn’t have anything they could really call a specialty.
At my words, they looked at each other, making eye contact, and showed signs of awkwardness.
But for now, I left my seat to find Kinoshita.
This was already a party seriously lacking in manpower.
No matter how highly rated I might be, thinking about other parties, this user named Kinoshita was likely to be B-rank or higher.
‘…Even if there are some personality issues, we’ll have to use them.’
That is, if we weren’t going to completely give up on the competition.
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“Pamela? Earlier, some hero was looking for someone and headed towards the Rose Palace beyond the central garden in the south.”
“Thank you.”
‘…Wonder how far they’ve gone.’
I quickly moved my feet following Pamela’s whereabouts that I’d heard from the group of maids.
‘It’s too big.’
This was my first time coming out to the outer areas of the main palace where we lived.
The one fortunate thing was that, perhaps because we were heroes, most areas were accessible.
Even so, I hadn’t wandered around to places that took over 20 minutes at a quick pace from our lodgings.
“Hero?”
Still, my wandering proved worthwhile as I found Pamela talking with another maid at the place called the Rose Palace.
“So you were looking for me. I apologize. I was asking around about Hero Kinoshita’s whereabouts, but…”
“No, it’s not Pamela’s fault. Not much time has passed, and I didn’t think they would come this far. But how is it? How far did you get in your search?”
“Well, Hero Kinoshita has been visiting this Rose Palace area daily for some time now, but they always disappear suddenly. And I’m told they return to their room when it gets somewhat dark.”
“The source of this information?”
“It’s Gemma here.”
“I am Gemma, Hero. I humbly serve Hero Kinoshita.”
Gemma, not knowing the whereabouts of the hero she was in charge of, seemed at a loss, apparently embarrassed.
“Are you certain they’re in this Rose Palace?”
Gemma nodded at those words.
“Yes, they head this way every morning. But when I take my eyes off them for a moment, they disappear…”
“Then I’ll look around here as well.”
“However, we maids cannot freely open doors without permission, as there are many distinguished guests in the palace…”
“I see. Pamela, thank you for helping me this far. You can go back first. I’ll search here.”
Though she made a troubled expression at the thought of leaving her master alone and returning by herself, I ignored it and entered the Rose Palace.
The Flower Turtle or whatever that tortoise was, there were only four of them, and considering the recovery time for the fruit, only two matches with four teams each could be held every hour.
Thinking about the waiting order, I needed to bring them back as quickly as possible.
At first, the guards tried to stop me, but once I confirmed I was a hero, it wasn’t difficult to move around the palace.
However, while it seemed confirmed that Kinoshita had entered the Rose Palace, no NPC knew where they had disappeared to.
‘…Is there something here?’
It seemed true that Kinoshita had been frequently coming and going, but evading the eyes of all palace staff NPCs was a different story.
Even within the palace, the population density was quite high, and not only servants but guards and knights with specs higher than current users patrolled everywhere.
Could a user who had skipped everything after the first training, complaining it was troublesome and painful, hide their movements and avoid all these elements in such a crowded place?
“Do you know where Hero Kinoshita usually headed when they entered here?”
“They usually went upstairs.”
The guards at the entrance said they didn’t know much beyond that.
‘Let’s start checking from the third floor.’
The Rose Palace had three floors.
It took 30 minutes from the training grounds to here.
Considering the time needed to return, I had to find them as quickly as possible.
“…Holy.”
Though I thought it would be fine since it appeared smaller than the main palace from the outside, at a glance there seemed to be at least 40 doors spread across the left and right corridors.
With the first and second floors as well, that meant there were over 100 rooms in this palace alone.
‘Do I have to search all of this?’
It seemed like it would take over two hours even if I spent just one minute checking each room.
‘If I really have to search each and every room, I might as well go back.’
At that point, it would be better to just come out early in the morning and wait to catch them.
Having decided to make only minimal effort, I called over a servant passing by and asked about Kinoshita’s whereabouts.
“Ah… that hero with the peculiar attire.”
‘Peculiar attire?’
Weren’t all users wearing the same provided uniforms with only gender differences?
“Yes, they come every day. Every day they come up to this floor and… well… I’m not sure. They must be somewhere around here, right?”
For just a moment.
The light briefly disappeared from the speaking maid’s eyes.
A doll-like stiffness.
“I see. Thank you.”
“Well then.”
I watched the maid as she nodded and entered one of the rooms carrying a teacup and tea leaves container.
‘Isn’t this a bit too obviously suspicious?’
As if under some hypnosis or restriction magic.
It’s like she was walking around with a sign on her head saying ‘I am suspicious.’
‘…But is it even possible to learn mind control magic this early?’
That was questionable.
Moreover, thinking about the maid just now, it seemed like it wasn’t just a renamed crowd control skill like Stun, but something that could specify detailed conditions.
Hypnosis and brainwashing, this isn’t an adult game after all.
‘…If this could be used on real people and not just NPCs, it might be somewhat problematic.’
While it wouldn’t be possible in a normal game, given the situation, there was a need to be careful.
I summoned my staff and as I chanted a spell, a pure white light enveloped my body before seeming to melt away.
Then the white light wrapped around my wrist like three bands of light in the form of a bracelet.
‘…Just in case.’
[Adapting] was one of the skills that unlocked at A-rank holy magic.
Rather than recovering from status effects, it was a skill like a one-time immunity system that blocked crowd control skills attempted on me in advance.
Of course, in my case, since I had unlocked it up to EX, it could block up to three times, so even if the first layer was stripped away instantly, there would be enough time to react before the remaining layers were peeled off.
‘Considering other users’ growth rate at this point, it’s unlikely Kinoshita has many options. This should be enough.’
Still, to be ready to respond at any time, I kept holding the hero’s staff as I began to look around the third floor.
First, checking all rooms was a lower priority.
It was troublesome and time-consuming, plus someone who was just slacking off probably wouldn’t diligently search through rooms one by one.
Well, while the probability was low, it wasn’t exactly zero.
I examined the walls for magic lamps, potted plants, or any unnatural protrusions.
‘…Was I wrong in my thinking?’
Even after checking the corridor from end to end, I had thought there might be some tricky mechanism, but there was nothing particularly unusual.
‘Should I just head back?’
Honestly, I didn’t want to search through all the rooms.
I could just wake up early and wait here for Kinoshita.
I was about to leave after checking just one more magic lamp mount at the last room when-
-Ching.
“…”
One of the bands of light on my right wrist, representing the [Adapting] stacks, shattered.
When I took another step, another band broke.
“…So there really is something?”
As I chanted, the single remaining band increased back to three.
And each time I took steps toward the direction of the last lamp, the bands would break, and each time I would chant again to maintain the stack of bands.
After roughly 10 bands had shattered, when I reached the area with the magic lamp.
“Haha…”
What had been the corridor’s end wall had disappeared, and in its place was a slightly extended corridor with a door at its end.
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“Now this is starting to look interesting.”
[Adapting][Revitalization][Goddess’s Blessing][Goddess’s Protection][Light’s Revenge] plus 3 others.
I wrapped myself in all the continuous buff skills I could use.
Then, after taking a deep breath, I opened the door to the room.
Whatever it was, it seemed only the illusory wall from before was treated as a crowd control effect.
Seeing that the bands of light around my wrist weren’t decreasing, I carefully entered the room.
“…! …! …!”
“…”
The room was quite spacious.
And as if there were several rooms divided within the room, conversation sounds could be heard from deeper inside.
“So then they did that… I was seriously surprised!”
“Is that so… Is that so… Would you like more snacks?”
“I want to eat more, but I’m getting too fat.”
“Oh my… You look like you’re nothing but bones.”
“Ahaha! Grandpa! That’s too much of an exaggeration!”
“O…ver? What does that mean?”
After entering the room all tensed up, what I found was a scene where a gyaru in somewhat inappropriate attire was sitting and giggling while receiving tea and snacks from a trembling elderly man who could barely open his eyes while holding a staff.
“…?”
“Hm? Someone I haven’t seen before. Hi?”
She waved her hand exaggeratedly at me with an innocent expression.
…So it was her.
I seemed to have seen her at the beginning.
I definitely hadn’t properly seen her since then.
With 108 people, it was hard to remember who was missing anyway.
“Who… who might you be…”
The elderly man, who seemed to barely be able to open his eyes, turned toward me with difficulty.
“Ah, I… I came to take this Kinoshita-san with me.”
“Is… that so…? So you’ve come to fetch the young miss.”
“Eh~ Suddenly hunting in a place like this? Isn’t this totally lacking in mood? And honestly, your face isn’t my type.”
Kinoshita rested her chin on her hand and looked this way while giggling with a ‘shishi’ sound.
…This girl?
She probably had some idea of why I came.
“That’s not my intention in looking for Kinoshita-san. There’s something I need to discuss regarding the party.”
“Aren’t you being too serious? You should relax a bit.”
“Elder, may I take this person with me?”
“Go ahead…”
“Eh~”
“Young ones… should play with… young ones…”
Kinoshita puffed out her lips, but eventually stretched and sighed before standing up.
“And here I was enjoying being able to rest without anyone bothering me. I guess I’ll have to find another place.”
“…Kinoshita-san. Let’s go outside first.”
“I seriously don’t like forceful men. I prefer the polite and gentle type.”
“…Young miss… please be careful…”
“Yeaaah-! Grandpa, stay healthy until I see you next time!”
I grabbed Kinoshita’s wrist and left the room, leaving behind the elderly man who was waving goodbye with his trembling hands.
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The room, now empty of the noisy but granddaughter-like young hero girl and the man who had broken through the illusion barrier, was quiet.
“Aizak.”
“Yes.”
The elderly man, who until moments ago had appeared stooped and frail, called out a name in a straight posture and clear voice, and a man dressed entirely in black emerged from the shadows and prostrated himself before the elder.
“Who was that one just now? I hadn’t expected there would be another besides Yui who could break through my barrier.”
“If you mean the one who came to fetch Hero Kinoshita, that was Hero Yun Sihu.”
“A hero? That one?”
The elder laughed as if dumbfounded.
“It seems those fools at the Divine Temple have finally gone senile.”
The elder’s eyes opened.
Black eyes without any whites. And the appearance of his pupils contained lights like stars and smaller lights orbiting like planets, making them appear as if they held the night sky within them.
“To my eyes, rather than a hero, they appear more like the seed of a demon lord.”
Agroday val Ingrid, one of the Ten Sages and hero of humanity who had been the Court Magician of the Nadium Kingdom for eighty years, whispered quietly.
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The [Adapting] band stacks remained at 3 without any particular changes until we had sufficiently left the Rose Palace and entered the central garden.
“Hey~ Where are we going without saying a word? Maybe somewhere secluded? Kyaa! Pervert!”
“Kinoshita-san.”
“Eh? Huh? I’m just kidding~ Why such a serious expression suddenly?”
“Just a moment.”
I quietly chanted [Cure] so that Kinoshita couldn’t hear.
“Eh? What’s this?”
When the pure white light suddenly clung to her, Kinoshita jumped back in surprise, creating distance.
But the white light eventually seeped into Kinoshita and disappeared.
“What is it! What did you do to me!”
“It’s [Cure]. A skill that recovers status effects.”
“… Why use that on me?”
“Do you feel any differences before and after [Cure]?”
“…I don’t think so.”
I carefully observed Kinoshita as she kept her distance with a wary expression.
‘…It doesn’t seem like there’s anything unusual, but.’
From the presence of 10 layers of barrier before entering the hidden room, I had thought that Kinoshita might not be the source of the mental manipulation.
Even in the current early stage, not only would learning mental magic be an issue, but it would be hard to believe that a current user could perform enchanted-type magic capable of 10 layers.
And after entering the room and observing Kinoshita’s reactions, I thought my guess was right.
If so, then the old man facing Kinoshita.
Extremely suspicious.
A dying old man in a room hidden by an illusion barrier?
There was no way this could be normal.
Moreover, it was estimated that he used mental or illusion magic on the third floor, and it didn’t seem likely that Kinoshita had broken through there with [Adapting] like I had.
If that was the case, unless that old man had let Kinoshita in, things didn’t add up.
So I thought she might have been subjected to some kind of mental manipulation.
‘…Was I overthinking it?’
Kinoshita showed no particular changes before and after [Cure].
Either she wasn’t affected by status effects from the beginning, or they were beyond the level my [Cure] could dispel.
The former wasn’t a concern, but the latter would need to be watched.
Still, there was definitely something hidden about the third floor’s secret room and the old man there.
From a cliché perspective, after Kinoshita and I left the room, he might be opening his hazy eyes and saying something meaningful.
In any case, I needed to remember this.
There was definitely something there.
“It would be better if you didn’t visit that place frequently.”
“Huh? That’s my choice. Seriously, unnecessary meddling is so annoying.”
“If you must go, try to take me with you when possible.”
Because it’s dangerous. If he was an ally that would be fine, but if an enemy, going by the feel of things he was clearly a hidden boss-level monster. It would be better not to get close until information gathered or we were confident in our specs.
Kinoshita looked at me with an expression of disbelief at my words.
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Haha, I love this MC