Report
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Max]
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Chapter 14: The Mage's Mansion (1)
Aaaaagh!
Hearing the scream, Hamel quickly turned his head. At the end of Antonio's trembling gaze, there was something out of place.
"That's..."
Hearing the head priest trail off, Hamel slowly walked forward.
As he got closer, his vision became clearer.
It was a human head.
A severed one.
Hamel frowned.
The head priest sighed and walked past Hamel.
Hamel quickly grabbed the priest's shoulder.
"Stop."
"...?"
The priest looked puzzled but stopped walking.
He then looked at Hamel with an inquiring gaze.
"It smells like blood."
Hamel replied dryly.
The thick smell of blood in the hallway was pungent enough to sting his nose. It wasn't just this hallway either.
The smell of blood permeated the entire mansion, strong enough to make one believe it was a slaughterhouse.
Hamel looked around, searching for clues.
And soon, his gaze fixed on one spot.
"The carpet?"
Someone muttered, and the voice echoed softly through the hallway.
Unlike the surroundings, only a part of the carpet had a different color.
The dark red carpet emitted a musty smell of blood, layered and thick.
It seemed clearly out of place and dangerous, but he didn't know why.
Even after applying holy water to his eyes, he couldn't see any trace of demonic energy in the mansion.
As Hamel pondered, David stepped forward.
"Ah, wait a moment."
He scanned the hallway, seemingly noticing something, and said while stroking his chin,
"It's a mechanism. The structure of the building is a bit strange. For example, if I do this..."
Trailing off, David took out a doll from his pocket and threw it onto the carpet.
The doll landed on the red carpet with a thud.
But even after a while, nothing happened.
"..."
As people looked at him questioningly, David scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Th-this can't be right... Give me a moment."
David muttered and chanted spells repeatedly.
As the spells continued, the doll grew to the size of a human, and its body emitted light.
And the moment he cast another spell,
Crash!
With a deafening roar, the floor and ceiling of the hallway merged.
Stone pillars fell from the ceiling.
Everyone was speechless as the pillars blocked their view, as if the hallway had never existed.
Rumble!
Then, as if nothing had happened, the pillars returned to the ceiling.
"The trigger condition was weight."
David finally shrugged and nodded.
The trap, which didn't react to a person's volume or temperature, activated when a certain weight was applied.
'If the head priest had unknowingly stepped on the carpet...'
New blood would have stained the red carpet.
Just as Hamel breathed a sigh of relief,
"Risha."
David, after chanting a spell, looked at the group and said,
"I've cast a weight-reducing spell, so there should be no problem crossing."
"..."
"I said it's safe to cross."
David's words echoed hollowly through the hallway. No one stepped forward; they all avoided his gaze, even the head priest.
A brief silence fell, and David blinked with an incredulous expression.
"...Do you not trust me at all?"
"You're not exactly trustworthy."
Antonio chuckled awkwardly and shrugged.
"Huh..."
David, looking hurt, looked at Hamel as if seeking help.
"..."
But Hamel also quietly shook his head.
Unable to sense mana, Hamel couldn't confirm whether a spell had been cast on him.
Even if it was his brother, he couldn't just jump into danger based on his words alone.
"Oh my, I'm a top graduate of the Magic Tower, you know."
David, with a sad expression, demonstrated first. The demonstration wasn't much.
Step, step!
He simply walked across the red carpet with vigor.
And as he said, the ceiling didn't move.
"It seems safe. Let's cross."
Hamel nodded and crossed the carpet, and only then did the others follow.
They slowly approached the spot where the head had been.
It was the head of a young woman.
The group fell silent for a moment.
Antonio's face was pale, and Daniel calmly scanned their surroundings.
Hamel tilted his head, somehow finding the woman's face familiar.
The head priest spoke first.
He muttered with a troubled expression,
"I know her."
"Who is she?"
Hamel asked, staring at the woman's head, which seemed strangely familiar.
The priest sighed deeply and replied,
"She's one of the exorcist priests who left before us."
Hamel's shoulders slumped at those words.
He remembered.
He had seen her face a few times at the Order.
Her name was Catherine, if he remembered correctly.
Hamel barely managed to swallow a groan that threatened to escape his lips.
He had expected it from the moment they entered the mansion, but it seemed things wouldn't go smoothly.
"First, let's collect the remains..."
"Isn't this strange?"
Daniel, who had been silent until now, pulled his helmet down and stepped forward.
"I've cut off dozens of enemies' heads, but I've never seen such a clean cut."
Hearing those words, Hamel also felt something was off.
This was someone who had been alive just half a day ago.
It was hard to understand how there wasn't a single drop of blood flowing from the head.
Hamel hurriedly approached the severed head, examined it, and let out a groan.
"This is..."
"A mannequin."
A doll made of wax and rubber, shaped like a human.
In other words, a model.
The people, who had been anxious, sighed in relief.
But was this really something to be happy about?
Without knowing who had set up this trap and for what purpose, it was difficult to say the situation had improved.
Hamel, with an uneasy feeling, carefully lifted the model.
As expected of a model, it was light, as if hollow inside.
However, the face was too realistic for a doll.
The tightly closed eyes looked as if they might spring open at any moment.
Above all, the texture of the hair felt no different from that of a real person.
'...No, is this real hair?'
Just as Hamel was examining the hair,
Clatter!
There was a rattling sound from inside the head.
Something was there.
Hamel carefully opened the closed mouth of the model.
A silver key was revealed.
***
"Where is this used?"
Their contemplation was brief.
They all thought of the priority.
To meet the lord, confirm whether he was alive or dead, and ask about the phenomena occurring in the territory.
The strange occurrences in this mansion would also be resolved once they met the lord.
So they headed towards the lord's office on the third floor.
There were stairs leading upstairs at both ends of the mansion's hallway.
Or rather, there had been.
"...What's this?"
At the end of the hallway,
Instead of stairs leading upwards, there was only a solid stone wall.
The stairs had disappeared.
And there was only one person who could explain this phenomenon.
"This is a workshop."
David scratched his head and felt the wall where the stairs had been.
Hamel immediately understood what David was trying to say.
He, too, had been a member of a magic family until the age of twelve.
For those who wanted further explanation, Hamel recalled his memories and spoke.
"A mage's workshop is another world, different from the laws of the outside world. The workshop assists the mage's research, protects the mage, and operates according to the laws the mage desires."
The mage's workshop.
It was like a living organism.
A vast space imbued with the mage's will and intent, that was the true nature of a workshop.
But no matter how he thought about it, it wasn't something one would create within a mansion.
"Countless devices and magic circuits are layered on top of each other, creating a typhoon with a single breath."
David tapped the wall with amusement.
"This workshop is unique. A peculiar power flows through it instead of mana. It's not a mechanical device, but... it's certainly designed with traps in mind. As if protecting something."
"What do you mean?"
At Hamel's question, David smirked.
"Who knows? Maybe it's just my imagination, but it feels like it was waiting for intruders."
"..."
There was only one person who could create a workshop of this scale and complexity in the mansion.
Dennis Gilmore.
The head of the Gilmore clan, and Hamel and David's father.
'What in the world is going on...?'
The closer they got to the secrets of Heidern, the more Hamel felt a headache coming on.
But what could he do?
There was no turning back now. They could only move forward and uncover the secrets.
"Is there a way to go upstairs?"
David hesitated at Hamel's question, then nodded.
"There are two standard ways to overcome a workshop. One is to decipher the purpose and intent of the workshop and proceed accordingly. In a workshop like this, filled with traps, that would be suicidal."
"What's the other way?"
"The other way is... to eliminate the owner of the workshop."
Everyone flinched at David's words. Only Hamel nodded calmly.
"I understand."
Surprised by his response, the head priest asked cautiously,
"Are you alright with that? He's your father, isn't he?"
"It's alright."
Hamel nodded.
Trying to overcome all the traps in the workshop the conventional way was madness.
Their goal was the lord on the third floor.
He would either have to explain this situation or die.
"Let's take the shortest route."
To begin with, Hamel didn't have a particularly affectionate relationship with his father.
David was silent for a moment, but then he nodded in agreement.
There were things one couldn't avoid, even if they wanted to. David also seemed to think that the lord was unlikely to be safe.
"Let's try to disable some of the traps first."
Even if it wasn't a workshop, traps usually had mechanisms to disable them.
Just as every magic had a countermeasure.
If they met the conditions, they would be able to go upstairs.
"Let's start by looking around the left side."
The group began searching the rooms on the left side of the mansion, the closest ones.
There were three rooms on the first floor.
From the left, there was a kitchen, a dining room, and a parlor.
Click, click!
Hamel turned the doorknob and shook his head.
The kitchen was locked.
He tried the silver key he had obtained earlier in the brass keyhole, but it didn't fit.
"Let's move on to the next room."
"Can't we just break down the door?"
David answered instead of Hamel at Daniel's question.
"That would be dangerous. We could get trapped in the workshop forever, or the magic circuits could overload and explode. If a workshop of this scale goes haywire, no one in the mansion will survive. To disable the workshop's magic, it's best to follow the designated strategy and disable the devices."
This mansion was like a prison made of bombs.
Trying to force their way through would be nothing short of self-destruction.
Hamel and his companions moved on to the next room, the dining room, without hesitation.
But as expected,
Click, click!
The dining room door was also locked.
Hamel once again took out the key and tried it in the silver keyhole.
The silver key slid in smoothly as if it had found its match.
Click!
He turned the key, and the lock disengaged.
The door creaked open.
Hamel drew his sword and cautiously stepped into the dining room.
Silence.
Light streamed in through the windows, making the interior unexpectedly bright.
He approached the windows, wondering if they could escape through them, but they were locked.
Also, the scenery outside the windows was completely still, like a painting.
The leaves, the butterflies, the clouds.
"..."
Hamel felt overwhelmed by the stillness and slowly surveyed his surroundings.
He soon noticed something out of place.
"The chairs are pulled out from the table."
Five in total.
The same number as Hamel's group.
"Are we... supposed to sit?"
Hamel nodded at Antonio's question.
It was best to follow the rules of the mansion for now.
The moment everyone was seated,
Whoosh!
As if by magic, the candles on the dining table lit up, and
A feast appeared on the empty table.
A glistening roast turkey.
A crispy roasted suckling pig.
Creamy pasta and white bread.
And fried fish dishes and sweet desserts.
The dazzling array of food captivated everyone's attention.
Gulp!
The sound of Antonio swallowing echoed across the table.
He violently shook his head, seemingly berating himself for being swayed by mere food in such a tense moment, but it wasn't just his problem.
Even Hamel, an ascetic exorcist priest, couldn't help but flinch at the sight and smell of the delicious food.
However, unlike Antonio, Hamel had accumulated knowledge and experience.
He had seen this before.
This wasn't ordinary food, but a kind of trap that fueled greed.
The moment they put even a piece of meat or a breadcrumb in their mouths, they would be unable to stop and would crave more.
"Don't touch it."
Naturally, everyone slowly nodded at Hamel's words.
Fortunately, everyone here had exceptional mental fortitude, even by the Empire's standards.
A knight, a mage, and a priest.
The group carefully examined the food without touching it.
There was probably some sort of mechanism they needed to trigger to proceed.
Hamel's eyes darted around, searching for clues.
And finally,
"Found it."
He was able to find something out of place.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Max]
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