There was just one problem.
He felt uneasy about leaving his ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) spot on his own.
Everyone was already on edge, tension running high. If he acted independently now?
That would be as good as confessing he was the culprit.
“I can’t take this anymore!”
Just as Ludger’s group was about to move, a furious roar erupted from the other side.
Turning toward the sound, they saw a group of Truth School mages, their faces twisted with anger.
“We’ll move separately!”
A grizzled old man with a long beard declared this boldly.
As soon as he made this sudden, unilateral announcement, a middle-aged mage stepped forward to object.
“What do you think you’re doing? Don’t you realize it’s more dangerous to split up in a situation like this?”
“And what, are we supposed to just sit here and wait around not knowing when we’ll be allowed to leave?”
“We should all be putting our heads together to find a solution.”
The door wouldn’t open, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a way out.
That was what the mages here believed.
So when the Truth School declared their intent to act alone, of course others tried to stop them.
Knowledge shines brighter when it’s shared.
But the mages of the Truth School thought differently.
“Why should we?”
“...What? What do you mean by that?”
“Why should we put our heads together with the likes of you? You can only collaborate when you’re on the same level.”
“......”
The middle-aged mage’s face went rigid.
What the Truth School mage had just said was no different from insulting not just him but every other mage present.
“Don’t you think that was a bit much?”
“Why? Did I say something wrong?”
“No matter how senior you are, there are still lines that shouldn’t be crossed.”
There was no denying that the Truth School mages were more intelligent than others here.
But saying that out loud in a public setting was a completely different matter.
Watching from a distance, Rimle clicked her tongue and shook her head.
“Tch. Geez. Useless old geezers. What good is knowledge if you have no wisdom?”
“......”
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s nothing.”
Ludger turned his gaze away from Rimle and looked back at the Truth School mages, who were still seething with irritation.
Their opponents were just as provoked by their arrogance, and tensions were rising fast.
At this rate, they’d be whipping out their staffs and going at each other any minute now.
As everyone nervously watched the confrontation unfold, Ludger quietly observed the Truth School mages.
‘That group has twenty people. The maximum number allowed to roam the mansion.’
Were their combat mages waiting outside?
If so, they likely had nothing to do with the murderers.
Even at their most, the killers couldn’t exceed ten people. And considering some had already escaped the mansion, there were probably only five left.
That meant the Truth School probably had little connection to the Black Dawn Society.
Even so, their insistence on acting separately likely stemmed from their characteristic arrogance.
‘Actually, this works out. Instead of sitting around here chatting about ways to escape, it’s better that everyone splits up.’
He had already been thinking about how to return to the archive.
And now, thanks to the Truth School, he had a perfect excuse to move.
Just as Ludger predicted, the Truth School mages left the hall, determined to act on their own.
No one tried to stop them.
There was no point holding back a bunch of arrogant blowhards when everyone else could work together more effectively without them.
Still, their actions left cracks in the unity of the survivors.
“We’re moving on our own, too.”
“Same here.”
“Too many people in one place just makes things worse anyway.”
One by one, others who had been hesitant began to leave.
“Everyone’s starting to go their own way,” Arfa said.
Ludger gave a small nod.
That was how most mages were.
Very few were willing to cooperate.
Especially in a situation like this, where no one trusted each other.
Ludger glanced around the hall as mages filed out into the corridor.
“We should get moving too.”
Given how everyone was splitting up already, no one objected to his suggestion.
Their group left the hall and walked down the corridor once more.
As expected, Arfa took the lead.
“Um... we are going the right way, right?” Loina asked hesitantly.
Though she tried to sound casual, her voice was laced with concern.
“What if we get lost or something...”
“You saw it yourself. Arfa knows how to locate the archive.”
“Yes, but the mansion’s mysteries—”
“Being a mystery doesn’t make something omnipotent. If you understand its patterns and flow, that mystery can be turned into an advantage.”
Those who had visited this mansion long ago claimed they’d learned to control certain functions of the place in order to protect their records.
The fact that they had used the mansion’s mysteries meant they had created some of the rules that governed it.
And that was significant.
Just as even poison could become medicine if used properly, so too could the mansion’s mysteries be turned to one’s favor—if handled correctly.
No matter how unknown something might be, if you could understand its principles and how it worked, you could respond to it.
Just as humanity had once taken the unknown force of mana and turned it into magic.
“Here it is!”
Arfa exclaimed, flinging open the door.
“We made it.”
“To think you found the archive this easily...”
Loina couldn’t hide her astonishment at how effortlessly Arfa had located the archive again.
Even though he’d done it once already, doing it twice in a row was something else entirely.
She had been skeptical about his claim of analyzing the moving patterns of the rooms—but this proved it.
Arfa really did possess the keen intellect necessary to analyze the shifting layout of the mansion.
‘Is that even possible? This goes way beyond just being smart.’
The first time Arfa had shown off his abilities was during the Cheshire Tiger attack.
Back then, he’d displayed immense strength, single-handedly defeating the beast.
How many kids his age could’ve pulled that off?
Even just that made it clear Arfa was going to be an extraordinary talent when he grew up.
But now it turned out he had perfect recall, too?
‘Is he even human?’
Loina wanted to ask, but the situation wasn’t right.
Sempas and Rimle clearly felt the same.
“Damn...”
Ludger looked around the archive and clicked his tongue at how clean everything was.
“All the books we stacked before we left have been tidied up.”
“Yeah. You can’t even take anything out. And no matter how much of a mess you make, once you leave and come back, it all resets.”
Ludger ran a hand along the bookshelf.
Even the positions of the books on the shelves had all changed.
‘Going through all these books again is going to be a pain, but luckily we’ve got a seasoned book-hunter with us.’
He opened his mouth to ask Rimle to start searching... then closed it again.
Instead, he offered a different suggestion from his original plan.
“For now, let’s all spread out and search separately.”
“What, you want to split up?”
Rimle seemed to sense something as she asked the question.
“We all know how to search for books, don’t we? That makes it more efficient to divide the task. Especially since time is tight.”
“...Even so, I’m not going to teach you my [Book Picker] spell.”
“I’ll teach them the version I modified. Besides, you don’t need to. Miss Loina here already seems to have figured it out on her own.”
At that, Rimle’s sharp eyes turned toward Loina.
Eep!
Loina flinched instinctively.
But she didn’t deny it.
“...Well, she is Lexuror-class, so I suppose that makes sense.”
“I’ll teach Sempas myself.”
“Do as you like.”
Rimle gave a curt reply and disappeared behind a bookshelf.
Ludger began explaining the spell formula to Sempas.
“It’s not hard to imitate. It’s a simpler version than Rimle’s [Book Picker], but it’s still better than blindly grabbing random books.”
“...This is weird. I didn’t expect you to actually teach me magic like this. Sharing a technique you developed isn’t a small thing.”
“We’re short on time.”
“...”
Even in an urgent situation, most mages wouldn’t pass along spells they created.
But Sempas didn’t argue.
He already knew not to expect normal behavior from this man.
This was the guy who had seen Rimle’s spell and instantly developed his own version on the spot.
With talent like that, it wasn’t surprising that he treated this kind of search magic as something trivial.
“Thanks for teaching me. I’ll give it my all.”
“I—I’ll help too!”
With that, Sempas and Loina headed to their respective search areas.
Now only Ludger and Arfa remained.
That’s when Arfa, who had been quietly watching, spoke up.
“Leader.”
“What is it?”
“You changed your mind just now, didn’t you? Weren’t you going to say something to Grandpa Rimle?”
“I was. Up until a moment ago.”
“Huh? Then why...”
“Arfa. When we left the hall and came all the way here, did anyone follow us?”
Arfa paused for a moment before shaking his head.
“No one.”
“I thought so.”
Arfa looked puzzled at Ludger’s strange demeanor.
But Ludger couldn’t explain—not yet.
He had something else he needed to deal with.
‘Right?’
Ludger turned to look at the “man” standing behind him.
Pale complexion. Glazed, unfocused eyes.
And a semi-transparent body.
He had encountered this man the moment they entered the archive.
But Arfa couldn’t see him.
Neither could Loina, Rimle, or Sempas.
This man was visible only to Ludger.
Like one of the mansion’s mysterious invisible frames.
‘Judging by his clothing, he looks like a scholar from long ago.’
Why had this ghost—if that’s what he was—suddenly appeared?
Ludger recalled something he had read in a book inside this very archive.
‘So it was you. The one who came to this mystical place five hundred years ago and stayed in this mansion.’
He asked inwardly, but the ghost gave no reply.
Even so, Ludger was certain.
This man was the author of the book he had read.
He had thought this mansion seemed like a haunted house with all its strange phenomena—but to think there were actual ghosts.
Why had this spirit appeared before him?
What did he want?
Ludger silently met the ghost’s gaze.
Swoosh.
The man slowly raised his hand and pointed somewhere.
Was something there?
Ludger followed his gesture.
Whenever he reached the spot the man pointed to, the ghost would reappear ahead and point again.
As if guiding him somewhere.
Was it a trap? Or something else?
Ludger planned to find out with his own eyes.
Eventually, he reached the far end of the archive, where the man faded into a bookshelf like a mirage.
‘Here?’
Ludger approached the shelf and inspected the books closely.
If the ghost had led him here, there had to be a hidden space.
He was right.
‘Found it.’
Between the cracks in the bookshelf, he felt a faint air current.
So faint you’d never notice unless you were right up close.
Ludger ran his hand along the shelf, feeling the flow, until he came upon one book with an unusual texture.
This was it.
He gave the fake book a light tug, and the bookshelf slid aside with a quiet shhk.
A hidden room was revealed.
“Whoa. How did you even find that?” Arfa asked in awe.
But Ludger had no answer he could give.
He couldn’t exactly say a ghost that only he could see had shown him.
Ludger stepped inside, and Arfa followed close behind.
“Leader, should we tell the others—”
“Shh.”
Ludger raised a hand, and Arfa immediately fell silent.
Even someone as clueless as Arfa could tell: Ludger didn’t want the others to know about this place.
The hidden space wasn’t very large.
It was about the size of a personal office, with a work desk and various scattered items.
Unlike the rest of the mansion, it was completely unkempt.
Dust had settled thickly over everything, making the air stale and musty.
Ludger looked at the skeleton sitting at the desk.
The ghost stood silently beside it.
“So... that was you.”
At Ludger’s words, the ghost nodded once and faded away like a mirage.
Ludger stepped toward the long-dead body.
A few books were laid out on the desk.
Books hidden in a secret room.
He had to read them to find out just how important they were.
He reached out for one—
And suddenly stopped.
‘There’s no dust on this book.’