Chapter 86 : Hidden Passage

TL:SummerPeanut

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“I'll take the lead with Ellie. Ellie will be slightly in front of me just like in the past. Following behind us will be Galar, Ett(East), and Misha. Behind them will be Karen, Ede, Minerva, Yuri, and then Baron and Dominic. Mars and Clarice are in the rear. We'll go in this formation! Alright!"

The members of ‘Red Lotus’ were surprised at this formation.

They couldn't believe that he had entrusted us with the most dangerous positions, the front, and the rear.

“Glenn, as expected, wouldn’t it be pitiful for the first years in this formation? It’s fine to let ‘ol me stand beside you as usual”.

When a dwarf called Galar(Garl) said this, Ike replied.

“Don't get me wrong and listen to me. This is neither me overestimating nor underestimating you all. The strongest amongst us is definitely Mars. Even if we ‘Red Lotus’ party fights him, it’s doubtful whether we can win or not. Next in strength should be me and Clarice. Clarice is better in terms of overall strength, and she is almost even with me in terms of solo combat. I think Ellie is the next strongest. To be honest, I don't know about the other first-year students, but looking at the ranking, I'd say it's probably like this. I think the rest are pretty evenly matched, but trust me, the four of us have the power!”

The members of ‘Red Lotus’ all showed expressions of disbelief.

But since it was Ike who claimed so.

“Understood. ‘Ol me will do as what Glenn says for now. We have to prove our power later.”

When Garl said this, Ede(Edean), the bespectacled beauty who is also the vice president of the student council, also chimed in.

“I'm kind of jealous but Garl’s right.”

“Thank you. This formation is just for this time. Don’t let your guard down just because we have more numbers than usual. Let's go!”

"Wait a minute. Brother Ike. Why don't we close this door and check if we can open it from the inside to make sure we can come back? When we all go together, we close this door first, right? We don't want to be locked in here when we come back just because we can't open the door. Can Ike and the others go inside to make sure it is safe and then come back here first? I and Clarice will stay here and keep the door open.”

“I see. I completely overlooked this. Then we'll go underground and come back after we've gone a little further inside. After that, we’ll close the door and confirm if we can open the entrance from inside. As always, I can’t help but praise Mars's discretion."

With that, Ike and Ellie went down the hidden staircase leading to the basement.

The others followed Ike and Ellie, leaving only me and Clarice.

Ike and the others returned after checking the safety of the basement to some extent.

"Seems to be no problem. I'll close the door and then open it. If it doesn't open after 10 minutes since the closing, use the switch from outside to open it."

After exactly 10 minutes, the passageway to the basement opened a little.

After it opened a little, it didn't take long for it to open completely.

“There are no switches or anything in the basement. It seems to be a completely one-way road. However, it is not impossible to open it by force as it is now. In fact, if Mars came downstairs, it would be much easier to open it. But nevertheless, it’s good to know this. Thanks, Mars.”

Ike said and went underground again.

This time, Clarice followed behind the others but I didn't go down.

Clarice, perhaps suspicious, held out her hand and asked, ‘What's wrong?’.

I took Clarice's hand without saying anything and we went down to the basement together.

As soon as we got downstairs, I closed the door where we had entered.

It closed easily. Right......so easily......

When we got down to the basement, there was a passage about 4 meters wide that went straight to the south. The passage itself is quite wide.

And the walls were reinforced with Earth magic, and lamps were hung at regular intervals so there was quite a lot of light even in the underground passage.

Because of the lights, I could see quite far ahead.

The matter of lighting doesn’t bother me especially since I have night vision.

After about a kilometer, Ellie suddenly stopped and got everyone to stop. It didn't look like there was anyone in particular.

Then Ellie called me to the front of the line.

"......That thing...... appraise......."

She whispered in a low voice as she pointed in a direction.

It’s rotten but it was definitely a human arm.

I appraised it while feeling fearful. It turned out to be Cyrus’s arm.

I was informed that parts of Cyrus's corpse had been found in a slum. But the fact that the arm was found here might mean that...... Ike read my expression and called the vice president, the bespectacled Ede, and had her evaluate it.

“That's Teacher Cyrus’s arm......”

Ede said shakily.

Ike had someone else do the appraisal so that I wouldn't be found out. As expected of Ike......

“Did Teacher Cyrus die here? Or was he damaged here and died in the slums...... or did someone take all but his left arm to the slums...... This much is clear, however. Teacher Cyrus was murdered."

When Cyrus's burnt skeletal remains were discovered, there was considerable controversy over whether it was an accident or an incident ......

In the end, it was ruled as an accident but once this was found…or rather, the fact they considered a body with traces of having been burned as an accident is unnatural to begin with......

And I know only two people who could win a proper fight with Cyrus in this Regan.

One is me. But it’ll be hard to beat him from pure swordsmanship alone.

And the other one is, needless to say, Ryner......

And here's where I noticed something strange.

When was Cyrus killed? And how long has this arm been here? If Joseph and Johan passed through here, they would surely have seen this...... Did those guys know that Cyrus had been killed? I have another case to discuss with Ike later.

After that, we went straight for a while with caution as the road narrowed and the surrounding walls started to look a little different.....The road from here on must have been built recently.

But after a short walk, there was a staircase and then a dead end.

Ike went up the stairs and lightly opened the ceiling part of the stairs while looking me in the eye ......it should be as heavy as the previous entrance but he opened it easily.

Earlier, it took 10 minutes...... is that what he wanted to say?

I had no idea where we are after opening the ceiling.

Then I make sure to close the floor that leads to the basement we just came out of.

It looks like we are in a big house...... but there were two people noticing something right away.

Ellie and Misha.

Ellie immediately started checking out the house.

Then Misha whispered to us.

“This is that haunted house in the slums.”

I went next to Karen and held her hand gently, and she seemed a little relieved and regained her composure.

"Thank you."

Karen's eyes were moist as she looked up at me.

Is she slyly acting cute? No. The height difference between us is so much that when I hold her hand, there’s no choice but to look at her from up down.

Is there a need to make her own eyes moisten though? She must have been quite scared because of the incident with Cyrus. And then the unexpected haunted house ......

Then the other hand is held by Clarice.

This girl is still scared too... Ellie returned after finishing her search around the haunted house.

It seems that no one was there.

When Ellie and Misha returned, Ike said to them

"Why do you two know about this place?

I told them about the previous quest and they were convinced.

"So this is what happened...... The ghost ruckus was caused by someone coming up from this hidden passageway in a house that was supposed to be unoccupied, and the slum people thought it was a ghost and sent out a quest."

It hit me when Ike said below.

“How long had that quest been posted up? We haven't taken any proper guild quest since the beginning of the year because I was helping out the teaching of first-year students martial arts until the Freshman Combat Tournament, and when that was over I received a nominated quest."

“The quest is probably put up since the day we first registered for the party which was February 15. There are a lot of females in my party so we thought we'd let the ‘Red Lotus’ do these quests but some of them were still there so we had no choice but to accept the quest on March 1.”

Before Ryner came to Lister Imperial School, the ghost ruckus had already happened.

So Ryner had nothing to do with the ghost ruckus? No, he might have been in Regan before he was assigned to Lister Imperial School.

On the other hand, he could sneak into Lister Imperial School from here at any time.

“What should we do, Brother Ike? If we leave this passageway unattended, it means that the culprit can sneak into our Lister Imperial School from here at any time. I know it's a pretty dangerous passage...... and I'd like to end today’s search without using this underground passage anymore."

Most of the members looked surprised when I said that.

I see. I guess they all had no idea that the culprit was entering Lister Imperial School through this haunted house......

“That's a scary development to consider. If Duke of Regan hadn't told us to live with several people together for a while, I would have lost myself from fear. That's the principal for you."

Ike, after hearing Clarice's words.

“Yes, I suppose so. This passage is quite dangerous. But I am sure this passage is used for some kind of crime. Perhaps Joseph and Johan also passed through here. And two of them must have seen Cyrus's arm. Unfortunately, I don't think they are not involved anymore."

Ike spoke everything in one breath and looked over at us before continuing again.

After all, Ike was aware of the possibility of the meaning that Joseph and Johan saw at Cyrus's arm, too.

“I trust only the 13 names here. I would like these 13 to do voting.”

Ike said so while looking for a reaction from the others.

When everyone nodded, Ike began to speak.

"Do you want to tell the Duke of Regan about this or not? If the result is to not tell her, we'll have to consider monitoring the entrances and exits at the Lister Imperial School for safety reason."

All the women raised their hands to tell Duke of Regan, except Ellie.

Or rather, it was only me, Ike, and Ellie who agreed to monitor both entrances without telling Duke of Regan.

“Then it's decided. Let’s tell Duke of Regan."

Ike said and slowly approached me.

I knew what Ike was going to do so I nodded in silence.

Ike patted me on the shoulder and I gave up my spot to him.

Ike suddenly opened the floor that I had just closed tightly and found two shadows trying desperately to escape from the underground passage without being seen by us.

"Duke of Regan! Sasha! Could you please come this way instead of running away?"

Ike shouted angrily, and Duke of Regan and Sasha came out of the underground passage, looking embarrassed.

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