Getting to the Ancient Ruins had been anything but easy.
First, Ex had to convince both the Chairman and Darius.
He told the Chairman that this was an opportunity to raise the academy's prestige, while he persuaded Darius by saying it was necessary to break the Emperor's curse.
Both reasons were reasonable enough, so the two of them accepted his proposal.
The problem was that there was a condition attached to bringing Lola along.
‘We cannot send the Young Lady of House Lemercier into such a dangerous place. At the very least, obtain permission from the head of her family.’
It wasn't exactly an unreasonable demand, so Ex couldn't argue with it.
After agonizing over how he was supposed to convince Count Lemercier, he eventually asked Lola for help and managed to arrange a call with the Count.
Lola was brimming with completely unfounded confidence, insisting that there wouldn't be any problem considering her father's usual personality, but Ex doubted it would be quite that simple.
To his surprise, however, Lola's father gave his permission without the slightest hesitation.
‘Something like the Ancient Ruins could never pose a danger to my daughter.’
That was his reasoning.
Ex couldn't tell whether all nobles were like this or if House Lemercier was simply exceptional.
Either way, Lola ended up joining him on this expedition.
There were two reasons Ex wanted to bring her.
The first was that Lola was one of the academy's very few Tier 4 mages.
The second was to do something about the depression that had been growing worse and worse lately.
“So this is the Ancient Ruins…! Commoner, it's the Ancient Ruins!”
Thanks to that, Lola was currently bursting with excitement and a sense of adventure.
Most of the gloomy expression she'd been wearing lately had vanished.
Seeing that alone made all the trouble he'd gone through to bring her here worthwhile.
“My Lady, let's check our equipment first.”
Ex went through all the luggage he and Lola had brought.
Not a single piece of the equipment he'd ordered from Roxwell was missing.
“You memorized all the equipment names and what they're used for, right?”
“Who do you think I am?”
“It's expensive equipment, so be careful not to lose anything.”
“Stop treating me like a child!”
Because he'd ordered a full set for Lola as well, his funds had ended up being split roughly eight to two, but Ex decided to consider it a worthwhile expense.
After all, nothing was more expensive than one's life.
“Hmm. Looks like we're fully prepared. Then let's get moving.”
“Good! Make sure you escort me properly!”
Ex and Lola headed toward the main entrance of the Ancient Ruins.
The entrance alone towered higher than the walls of most castles.
It didn't look like something human strength could move in the first place.
“Can this thing even be opened?”
“Apparently, no one's ever managed it.”
Looking around, there were plenty of old traces left behind by previous visitors.
Remains of campsites and places where people had lit fires.
Old trash and filth were scattered across the ground.
“I heard they kept researching it until about a year ago, then finally gave up.”
“They spent years and still couldn't get beyond the entrance area. I can see why they quit.”
That was the established state of research into the Ancient Ruins.
Even the entrance area had only become accessible because the Hero Party from a hundred years ago had punched a hole through it.
“We came because you said this was a mission, but do you actually have a way inside?”
Ex had fed Lola a convenient lie about this being a mission from their secret society.
After all, it would be strange if he suddenly decided to explore the Ancient Ruins and then breezed through them without explanation.
“Headquarters provided us with the information necessary to clear it.”
“…Do you think I'll ever get to visit headquarters too?”
“Of course.”
That was a lie.
Ex already knew how to open the main entrance of the Ancient Ruins.
He simply had no intention of using that method.
There was no reason to make such a huge spectacle of himself.
“Let's use the breach near the entrance.”
He intended to follow the same route Leon had taken in the original story.
“My Lady, don't touch anything inside without permission.”
“I know that! But why?”
“If you mess with the wrong thing, the entire structure of the ruins can change.”
The layout of these Ancient Ruins constantly shifted depending on certain conditions.
Without knowing the exact rules, it was easy to wander around for an extremely long time.
That was because the original setting had been inspired by the horror movie ‘Q-Block’.
Once Lola understood what he meant, all the color drained from her face.
“Then how are we supposed to get back out?”
“Magic and magic devices don't work from outside the ruins, but they can be used once we're inside. So if something goes wrong, we'll use these.”
“A single-use teleportation magic device?”
“Correct. Each one costs ten million El. Be careful with it.”
“What? That's not very expensive. I guess it's because they're disposable.”
“…”
Ex had originally wanted to harass Maria into giving him some more, but lately she'd been avoiding him so thoroughly that it was almost pitiful.
No matter how young she was, he had no desire to earn a dragon's suspicion and anger, so he'd decided to simply pay for them this time.
“So that hole is this way?”
“Yes. That's right.”
Before long, the two reached the breach in the ruins.
A colossal sword mark had been carved into one corner of the main entrance.
“Who did something like this?”
“Who knows? Probably some ridiculously strong idiot.”
Judging by the gap that continued all the way through, the door itself was thicker than a person was tall.
That alone showed just how monstrous Leon had been a hundred years ago.
Ex entered first, checked that it was safe, then helped Lola squeeze through.
The air inside was surprisingly cool, and the interior was brighter than expected.
The ruins had detected the presence of people and automatically lit the torches.
The moment Lola entered, however, her expression darkened.
“The mana concentration is really high…”
“…You can tell?”
“It feels awful… Like the air on a humid night during a torrential downpour…”
“That's oddly specific, but I actually know what you mean.”
Come to think of it, Lola's growth had always been unusually fast compared to her stats.
Her mage-related abilities were only around the average level for a first-year student.
‘Lola's already a Tier 4 mage.’
She spent most of class dozing off, and the way she usually behaved made her seem like a child, but Lola was actually quite a capable mage.
The fact that she'd cast a Tier 4 explosion spell chantlessly last time was proof enough.
‘If she's this talented at magic… why is she in Class F?’
Ex decided to look into that later and continued forward for now.
At last, they reached the first room.
A stone door about the height of a person blocked their way.
“My Lady, you need to follow my instructions exactly.”
Lola nodded silently, visibly tense.
Ex channeled mana into the stone door.
The magic formula engraved into its surface flashed once, then the door opened as though it had simply vanished.
“Normally, you should throw something in first to test the room.”
Ex immediately tossed in one of the spare boots he'd brought.
The boot landed inside, rolled across the floor, and nothing happened.
“It's safe. Let's go in.”
“…What was that? Some kind of ritual?”
“Checking for traps.”
Ex already knew there was nothing in this room.
He was only doing this for Lola's benefit.
It would be suspicious if he casually revealed every secret of the ruins all at once.
Lola tilted her head in confusion but followed him inside.
The moment both of them entered the room, the door closed on its own.
“This is less impressive than I expected.”
“We're only in the first room. Oh, right. Take a look behind you.”
“What could possibly be behind… Eek! The door's gone!”
Lola frantically examined the wall they'd entered through.
But no matter how thoroughly she searched, there was no longer any door there.
“That's how this place works. You can't go back to the room you came from. That's why you have to be careful every time you move forward.”
Lola tensed up even more after hearing that.
Only now did it truly sink in that she'd entered the Ancient Ruins.
There were three possible paths to the next area.
One stone door stood on the wall directly ahead, with another on each side.
Ex already knew which one was safe, but he asked Lola anyway.
“My Lady, you choose the direction.”
“M-Me? Th-Then… r-right…”
Ex knew exactly what awaited them in that direction, but kept it to himself.
When he opened the stone door, surprisingly fresh air flowed out.
At a glance, there didn't appear to be any danger at all.
“See?! I told you! This one's safe!”
“Don't rush ahead.”
Ex stopped Lola before she could enter and tossed the boot inside.
The moment it landed in the center of the room.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzt-!!!
Bolts of electricity erupted from every direction, incinerating the boot and reducing it to ash.
Lola's face went deathly pale.
“My Lady, you just died once.”
“I-I want to go home…!!”
“My Lady, calm down. It was a joke.”
Ex barely managed to stop Lola from activating her teleportation magic device before continuing his explanation.
“There are rules for finding the safe rooms in these Ancient Ruins. Once you understand them, avoiding the trap rooms is easy.”
“…You knew that room was a trap, didn't you?”
“Now, I'll explain the rule.”
“Hey!!”
Ex endured Lola's angry smacks as he began explaining.
“You need to pay close attention to the numbers on the stone doors. Each one has something like a room number written on it, and those numbers are the clue.”
Just as Ex said, a number was carved into the center of each stone door.
The door directly ahead was 2505.
The door on the left was 751.
And the door on the right, which they'd just opened, was 1013.
“If the number is a ‘prime number’, then it's a trap.”
“A prime number is a number that's only divisible by one and itself, right?”
This method of clearing the ruins had also been borrowed from the movie that inspired them.
In the original story, the Hero Party wandered through the Ancient Ruins for an entire week.
When Ex's was alive, there had been a compass-like magic device that could identify safe rooms inside the Ancient Ruins, but this time, they didn't have it.
Circe had attempted to reproduce the magic used by that device, but she couldn't get it to work properly, forcing the party to explore without the compass.
Then, just as they were on the verge of being wiped out after running out of food, Circe discovered the prime-number rule and successfully found a path through the ruins.
Ex intended to use that same rule now.
“The door in front of us isn't prime. It's divisible by five. According to the rule, that means the next room is safe.”
Ex boldly opened the stone door directly ahead.
For no particular reason, Lola suddenly thought the room beyond looked extremely dangerous.
“Wait, what if it's a trap…? E-Ex! Hey!!”
“Don't be scared. We don't even need to throw a boot this time.”
Ex casually walked straight into the room, leaving Lola staring after him in horror.
“Aaaah! Ex, I'm sorry!! If you die, I promise I'll at least have you buried in our territory…”
“My Lady, I'm still alive.”
Sure enough, Ex was perfectly fine.
Lola stared at him with wide eyes.
“Why are you alive?”
“…Unfortunately, death continues to elude me. Anyway, hurry up and come over. If you take too long, the door will close and the layout will change.”
“O-Okay!”
As soon as Lola crossed through the stone doorway, it closed behind her and disappeared.
Nothing happened even after she made it all the way to Ex's side, finally convincing her that the room really was safe.
“I-It really is? It's actually safe?”
“This is how we'll move from room to room. We'll keep going through the different sections until we find Room 1.”
“Room 1?”
“That's our final destination.”
In the original story, Circe found Room 1 a day after figuring out the rule.
Ex expected he could clear the ruins in about two days as well.
‘Of course, that's assuming we use the intended route…’
“Then let's begin the real exploration.”
“The real exploration? What do you mean?”
Ex set down the luggage he'd brought and began searching through it.
He pulled out several long blasting charges, a pickaxe, and a drill.
Lola furrowed her brow as she stared at the equipment he was taking out.
“Bombs, a pickaxe, and a drill…? Why did you bring those?”
“Why do you think?”
Ex pointed toward the now-empty wall where the door they'd entered through had disappeared.
“To break something.”
Lola thought about that for a moment before her eyes widened in horror.
“What?! Hey! If those things go off in here, we'll both die!!”
Ex had brought a considerable number of explosives.
Even in a world where gunpowder was largely ignored in favor of magic, Lola still understood that detonating this much of it at once in an enclosed space would be dangerous.
“I'm not planning to just toss them on the floor and set them off. Watch.”
Ex struck the empty wall with the pickaxe.
It was incredibly hard, but once he coated the pickaxe in aura, he was able to crack the surface.
He continued until he'd created several cracks at regular intervals.
Lola watched the completely unexpected manual labor with growing confusion.
“Are you trying to break through the wall? If you remember how thick that entrance was, that should be impossible…”
“You're right. This isn't a wall you can break through with a pickaxe. But things change once you use explosives.”
If a bomb exploded against a flat surface, most of its force would simply scorch and chip away at the outside.
No matter how many bombs he had, using them like that wouldn't accomplish much.
“That's why we're drilling holes like this and detonating them inside the wall.”
Ex pressed the drill into the cracked sections and bored deep holes into them.
Each hole was deep enough to swallow an entire blasting charge with room to spare.
“Now, here's a question. What happens if multiple identical explosives detonate simultaneously under the same conditions?”
Before long, dozens of holes dotted the wall, each one packed with a blasting charge.
Lola stared at Ex as though he'd gone insane before answering.
“You're putting them inside the wall, spreading them out like that, and then setting them off? Aren't you just wasting explosives?”
“Wasting them? Why?”
“Because bombs are only somewhat useful when you pile them all together in one place and detonate them at once.”
That was one of the blind spots created by this world's setting.
Because magic existed, gunpowder had been largely neglected.
And the techniques for properly using explosives had been neglected right along with it.
“Then why don't we find out? Come over here.”
Ex located a safe door and positioned himself beside it.
When Lola approached, he put a protective helmet over her head, then lay flat on his stomach.
“We're about to detonate the explosives, so get down like I am.”
“What?! How dare you tell the Young Lady of a Count's family to crawl around on the floor! And what's with this ridiculous helmet…?!”
“You could get hurt if you don't lie flat. Put a barrier around us too… Oh, have you learned soundproofing magic yet?”
“I have… Making a noble do something like this…”
Lola grumbled endlessly, but eventually lay down and cast the spells.
Ex checked the barrier, then gripped the detonator in his hand.
Everything was ready.
If something went wrong, they could open the safe door and run.
If the ruins started collapsing, they could escape with the teleportation devices.
“Then I'm setting them off.”
With that, Ex pressed the detonator without hesitation.
BOOOOOOOOOOM-!!!!!
The instant the charges detonated, fire and dust violently erupted from dozens of holes across the wall at once.
The sound itself had been blocked, but the enormous shockwave traveling through the structure slammed into Ex and Lola.
Only after the explosions went off did Lola fully realize just how much force had been unleashed, and her entire body instinctively stiffened.
“B-Bombs are this powerful…?”
It was Lola's first time seeing an explosive detonate in person.
She'd never imagined that such small sticks could produce this kind of force.
Ex was also fairly satisfied with the result in front of him.
“I eyeballed everything since it was my first time doing this, but it looks like it worked pretty well.”
“Y-Your first time?! You… You…!”
“Now then, here's the answer to the question I asked you earlier.”
As the dust from the explosion began to settle, the sight revealed before them was spectacular.
The enormous, impossibly thick wall had cracked apart and collapsed.
A wall that could have endured a barrage of explosion magic without a scratch had been demolished with nothing more than a few swings of a pickaxe, a drill, and several dozen blasting charges.
“The answer is, ‘They shatter even a thick wall into pieces.’”
This was the concept of ‘Drill-and-Blast’, a technique that had never been developed in this world precisely because gunpowder had been so thoroughly neglected.
“How did you…”
“That isn't particularly important. What's important is what lies beyond that empty wall.”
“How is that not important…?”
As the daughter of a noble family that governed an entire county, Lola couldn't even begin to estimate the consequences of the technique she'd just witnessed.
The efficiency of mining and quarrying throughout their territory could increase severalfold.
It meant there would no longer be any reason to waste Mana Crystals on mining and quarrying operations.
“You… What exactly are you…”
But Ex strode toward the collapsed wall without the slightest concern for any of that.
He couldn't afford to think about anything else right now.
He had every reason to be at his most tense.
‘Breaking through an empty wall to keep moving forward. This wasn't how it happened in the original story. If this were a game, what I'm doing would basically be exploiting a bug.’
The fundamental rule governing progression through the Ancient Ruins was simple.
‘Choose one of three doors and move forward.’
The Hero Party had attempted to destroy the walls in the original story, but it had accomplished nothing.
The walls were simply too hard and too thick.
But Ex had managed to bring one down anyway.
And not just any wall.
An empty wall with no door.
‘If I want to find it, I can't follow the intended route.’
As the dust cleared, another room came into view beyond the broken wall.
It had the same three stone doors, one directly ahead and one on each side, with numbers carved into them.
The first thing Ex did was check those numbers.
‘The highest number that ever appeared in the original story was somewhere in the 9000s.’
He'd gone over it countless times in his head, but there had never been a number higher than that.
‘If one of these numbers is higher…’
The door directly ahead was 5001.
The door on the right was 1920.
Both were lower than 9000.
That wasn't what he was looking for.
Then he looked at the number on the left.
969139.
“Finally found it.”
It was the room containing the ‘Discarded Setting’.
–TL Notes–
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