The once radiant green barrier was no more.
What lay before Ezekiel and his companions was merely a massive barrier, on the brink of collapse, with more than half of its puzzle pieces tinged in purple.
Suddenly, as Agnes and Seina coughed, Ophelia handed them each a handkerchief.
“There are quite a few broken pieces, and mana is leaking. We need to be especially careful.”
Perhaps because he’d seen Ezekiel repairing a piece directly, his demeanor was much more docile compared to their first meeting.
Ezekiel carefully scrutinized the scenery before him.
Spirit Trap
True to its name as a veil that cuts off all things related to magic, it was an extremely high-strength barrier.
Thousands of barriers fitting together like puzzle pieces. Unfortunately, a significant number of those pieces had already turned purple.
Ophelia delicately parted her lips.
“I’ll go outside and try to redirect the approaching people as much as possible. It wouldn’t help to stay here anyway.”
“Okay.”
“And if you need a meal, feel free to rummage through my tent. It’s modest, but there are a few things, so help yourselves.”
There was a hint of desperation in Ophelia’s voice now. After numerous failures, she’d been forcibly suppressing her yearning to repair the Spirit Trap.
Thanks to Ezekiel, a spark of hope ignited in her heart anew. Of course, if they failed… well, they could request support as per the original plan.
After she disappeared, Ezekiel began the serious repairs, starting with examining the Spirit Trap.
The repairs were swift yet slow.
It was to be expected. He could almost immediately repair parts he had designed, but the problem lay with the sections designed by the 5th Princess Neo.
Agnes rubbed her temples, examining the puzzle pieces laid out by the 5th Princess.
“What in the world… how many spells are hidden within each puzzle piece?”
“Well, the 5th Princess was a candidate for the Grand Mage,” Ezekiel replied.
However, Agnes’s confusion remained.
“But it seems strange when you think about it. A lot of spells imply quantity, not difficulty, right? Repairs shouldn’t be entirely impossible.”
That was a very astute observation.
If there were simply a thousand very simple math problems, it would take a long time to solve them, but they wouldn’t be considered impossible, would they?
The same applied to magic spells. If it were simply a matter of quantity, it didn’t explain why no one had succeeded in repairs so far.
Soon enough, Ezekiel found the cause.
“This isn’t a problem with the spells.”
“Eh? I still don’t understand….”
“Look.”
Ezekiel placed his hand on a puzzle piece they had just been discussing and unraveled all the spells at once, calculating them all in his head simultaneously.
However…
Even so, the puzzle piece showed no response at all. The eyes of the two women widened.
“What’s going on? Why isn’t there any reaction? The Master shouldn’t have miscalculated!”
“It’s not a matter of calculations. It was initially devoid of the Inspector’s energy.”
Ezekiel nodded.
“Agnes, move your foot for a moment.”
Agnes, puzzled by Ezekiel’s sudden request, quickly moved her foot. The secretary no longer doubted the Inspector’s intentions.
After a moment, Ezekiel placed his palm on the spot where Agnes’s foot had just been.
“I’ll inject the same energy into the ground.”
Hooosh~!
Ezekiel’s controlled energy absorbed into the ground.
Then, something amazing happened.
The purple puzzle piece of the Spirit Trap, which had previously shown no reaction, turned green.
The two women instantly reacted noisily.
“Huh?”
“What in the world…?”
Unlike the women, who seemed delighted to have found a clue, Ezekiel’s expression darkened somewhat.
He recalled the conversation he had with the 5th Princess.
──”Teacher.”
──”This barrier should not be approached by anyone.”
──”So I came up with this method.”
The method the 5th Princess had brought was indeed peculiar.
Even if one touched the barrier directly, there would be no reaction—it was structured in such a way that only connecting key points would elicit a response.
‘No way?’
Ezekiel meticulously checked other parts stained in purple. It was the same. Touching the barrier directly elicited no response at all.
“Hah…”
A sigh slipped out.
“Master? What’s wrong?”
“Inspector?”
Ignoring their questions, Ezekiel began searching the surface once again.
He finally managed to spot an area with a strangely different energy, and when he injected mana there, one of the nearby pieces of the Spirit Trap reacted softly.
He soon realized.
A particular spot was connected to a piece of the Spirit Trap. It appeared that every section designed by Princess Neo had this structure.
The implication was clear.
‘Not everything visible is the barrier.’
A village located in the outskirts.
The entire village functioned as one barrier. The ground throughout the village had parts that reacted to the barrier.
Seina and Agnes were also struck with shock.
“No, that means…”
“After solving the exponentially difficult spells inscribed in the barrier, we have to search the entire village for the corresponding ground?”
After that, no one could muster a word of reply; they fell into silence.
It was nearly impossible.
The Spirit Trap was composed of thousands of barriers linked in a puzzle-like fashion, and they had to knock on each segment of the village’s surface in search of corresponding points.
No one could predict how long it would take.
But that wasn’t the only problem.
“I’d be surprised if we can hurry and do this within several years, but the real issue is the conditions attached to the Master.”
Seina mumbled with a pale face.
“Even at this very moment, the Spirit Trap is collapsing at twice the normal rate. Can we possibly repair it faster than that…?”
The premise itself was leaning towards impossibility. By the time they repaired one piece, about ten would probably collapse.
However, Agnes looked at Ezekiel intently.
“Perhaps the Inspector can do it. So far, you’ve always done the impossible.”
Seina nodded in agreement.
The gazes of the two women spoke volumes. Even if they failed, if Ezekiel took charge, they would follow him without hesitation to the end.
Yet, Ezekiel shook his head.
“Impossible.”
“Is it an issue on the spell front?”
“Solving the spells themselves is no big deal. The real problem is how vast this village is. Moreover, Princess Neo is making it so people can’t find this place.”
Ezekiel’s expression soured.
“That means she’s making it difficult to find which piece corresponds to which ground. Time is running out.”
It was the first time he felt such a bitter taste in his mouth.
Though he hoped the 5th Princess wouldn’t betray the Empire, his hopes had been dashed, and it seemed almost certain they would fail to repair the Spirit Trap.
Ezekiel snapped the Sunweed he had been chewing.
“…Let’s leave. There’s no chance here.”
Since the repair of the Spirit Trap had effectively failed, it seemed time to go capture the 5th Princess, who had become a traitor to the Empire.
His emotions were indescribably tangled.
.
.
.
.
.
However, he received an unexpected remark from Ophelia.
“Are you saying that resolving the spells is entirely possible?”
“Yeah, but finding the corresponding ground is the problem.”
“Eh…?”
Something strange occurred.
Even though Ezekiel was effectively stating his intention to give up, Ophelia’s expression began to brighten.
Ophelia cautiously asked, “In other words, if we can solve just the positions of the corresponding ground, it sounds like we could repair the Spirit Trap, right? Did I understand correctly?”
“That’s right.”
Ezekiel asked with a glimmer of hope, “Why? Do you perhaps have someone investigated already?”
Then Ophelia shook her head slowly.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t looked into anything. So far, we’ve only dealt with people who couldn’t solve the spells. I’m sorry we couldn’t be more helpful.”
“Ah.”
Ezekiel’s party responded briefly.
Of course.
“But…”
However, Ophelia’s words weren’t finished yet.
“If there’s someone who has only been researching that, I think we could trust them? There’s one person in the village. Maybe they could help…”
“…!”
Just as joy began to flicker across Ezekiel’s group’s faces.
“The problem is, that person isn’t in their right mind.”
Ophelia’s words were truly peculiar.
As they departed with Ophelia’s escort from near the Spirit Trap, yet again the illusion of the 5th Princess appeared.
This time, it was slightly different from before. It was an illusion designed to be visible only to Ezekiel.
“Uh-huh, you’ve come to realize that it can’t be solved by spells alone. You must have also understood that time is short.”
The illusion of the 5th Princess wore a smirk.
“Seeing this illusion means you’re off to find your partner who’s finished researching the ground. Keep your eyes wide open and look carefully. It will be a welcoming person.”
Leaving behind those cryptic words, the illusion vanished. Typical—being a recording, it did what it did best and vanished after saying its piece.
Matching the description Ophelia had given, Ezekiel’s group quickly located the researcher of the ground.
“That’s….”
“…a beggar?”
They couldn’t help but be surprised.
It was the same elderly man they had seen once outside the dining hall, now shouting the same words repeatedly in his deranged state.
“Report─!”
The old man continued to bellow.
“I haven’t completed my mission yet─!”
“…?”
Suddenly, Ezekiel’s brow furrowed.
“What?”
He found himself unable to hold back a question. He felt he recognized the identity of the old man.
An overwhelming shock washed over Ezekiel.
Though he had become extraordinarily shabby, a slight remnant of his past appearance lingered in his movements and face.
“Surely….”
It was the vice-captain from the organization “Equilibrium.”
The shabby-looking old man was undoubtedly him.
He should have been dead, yet he was alive right before Ezekiel’s eyes.
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