Artpe followed Aria as they walked down the hallway. He came to a stop before she did. His eyes were emitting an iridescent light.
“Ah, it’s here. Right?”
“You are correct. Huh? You knew it before I told you….”
“I also possess an Innate ability.”
He grinned as he gave her an explanation. First, he checked his surrounding. The pope and the other big fishes were asleep. The holy priestess wasn’t asleep yet, but she wasn’t coming out of her room. Unless there was another weirdo like Aria amongst the maids, they wouldn’t be a problem either.
“All right. There should be no problem now.”
“Ah. You won’t be able to open up the pathway without engaging a special mechanism.”
Artpe was going to tell her that it wouldn’t be a problem. However, he stopped himself before he gave that answer. He turned to check with Silpennon.
“Silpennon, can you open it?”
“I can, but it might take a little bit of time. ”
“All right. I’ll leave it to you..”
Of course, Artpe could see through the structure of all spells and traps using his Read All Creation ability. He would have no trouble finding out the secret to this mechanism.
However, he had went through the trouble of supporting Silpennon’s growth. Why did he do that? He wanted Silpennon to grow in his ability, so Artpe wouldn’t have to do anything!
“You thought something unpleasant right now.”
“Ha ha ha. No way.”
“Hmmph. You should step away from there. It’ll be troublesome if you always think of me as a spoiled brat.”
As expected, Silpennon’s skill was undisputed. He was able to play an active role in the hero’s party in his past life.
The identification system wasn’t something that one could solve by raising the level of one’s lock picking skill. However, Silpennon had gained many Artifacts from the Dungeons of Diaz, and he had been provided tools of his trade through Mycenae. He was able to properly send false holy energy into the mechanism, and he was able to induce an error. He used this method to loosen up the defense. He neutralized the trap, and he was successful in opening up the passageway!
“Amazing…. Even the pope spent 5 minutes on that.”
“It means that there is a really complex safety lock placed here. Artpe, you should be careful. There are alot of traps within.”
“I know.”
An odd smell emanated from within the secret tunnel. If one wasn’t sensitive to Mana, it would have been hard to pick out the properties of the Mana…..
[Nyaa-ahhhhhh.]
“As expected, you wake up only when you smell something tasty.”
“C...cat? Where did it come from? It’s so cute.”
[Nyaa nyaa.]
“No. I want you to wait patiently for now.”
[Nyaa-ahhhhh…..]
How come she had to wait everytime she wanted something? Or was the fruit that at the end more sweeter because of the wait? Roa quietly nestled into Artpe’s arms as she had such philosophical thoughts.
Silpennon also became distracted when the cat made her appearance. However, he slapped both his cheeks before he stepped forward.
“Aria, you should be on alert too. You should only place your feet in locations where my feet has tread. Also, you should walk as upright as possible.”
“Ah. Understood.”
“Shit. I don’t think this will end here…...”
If one looked at the layout of the passageway, one could tell that it hadn’t been constructed solely for the purpose of hiding items. The passageway branched out, and it was apparent that this place could be used for other activities. When Silpennon had this thought, he clicked his tongue. Moreover, his expectation wasn’t too far off the mark. They arrived at a fork in the hallway.
When Silpennon hesitated for a moment, Artpe shook his head from side to side.
“It will be a bust if we head down that passageway. It is like the secret entrance we found. It is another path that leads into this place.”
“I see. There are a lot of tunnels here. It is proof that more than one person uses this place.”
“I like that you are quick in picking things up…… You are right. I believe over half of the high rank priests are involved in this….. Their number will steadily grow, and…. There will come a day when everyone will be on their side.”
When such a time arrives, they would no longer need to use the secret tunnels. The leading figures of Paladia, which was the Zero Class, would change hands. This had occurred in his past life.
Ah. Of course, the holy priestess stepped forward to mess everything up for them. She took their power for herself!
“Artpe, I suddenly had a thought.”
Silpennon kept walking forward as he asked the question.
“What if someone enters this place while we are exploring this place?”
“We’ll see what they do.”
“What if we are found out by someone?”
“We kill that person.”
At Artpe’s unwavering answers, Silpennon gave up on questioning him. Silpennon wouldn’t put it past Artpe to go through with his words. Artpe’s eyes narrowed as he confirmed something with Silpennon. It seemed he had read something from Silpennon’s attitude.
“Are you still hesitating to act? Is it because this place is Paladia?”
“I’m not hesitating…… I’m not. I just think that we can’t be sure that everyone that enters this place has bad intentions….”
“That is a valid thought. You haven’t confirmed their true nature yet…...”
“What about you? Are you saying that you know everything?”
Artpe did not answer his question. Silpennon grumbled, but he had no choice. He had to move forward. Aria followed behind, and she was starting to enjoy the experience a little bit.
“We’ve arrived.”
Even if the tunnel was long, it was still within the Zero Class. It was 15 minutes after they discovered the secret passageway. They arrived at a dead end containing a small bookcase. There was a desk placed near the wall of the bookcase, but there was nothing else.
“What the hell? There’s only bookcases here.”
When he took in Artpe’s words into account, Silpennon had expected to find a Demon summoning circle. Silpennon was disappointed, so he grumbled to himself. Artpe tsked as he spoke.
“If it is a simple bookcase, do you really think they would hide it in a location that is so hard to reach?”
“However, these really are normal books. Look here. There is no sign that these books has anything to do with black magic or the worship of the Demon king..”
When he used the Thief Class’ Observation skill, he immediately made an assessment.. He spoke with an attitude that said, ‘You can check it for yourself!’ However, Artpe let out a deeper sigh as a response.
“Silpennon, are you really a thief?”
“······Ah. Wait a moment.”
Silpennon stopped Artpe, who was about to step forward.
“Wait a moment. I found it. It is so intricate that I was almost fooled..”
“That is fortunate. If you disturbed the bookcase, a spell would have gone off. I’ll leave it at that. You should take some safety measure before you start.”
“······all right. Let’s do this.”
Silpennon took out an Artifact. It was a locket that was emitting a red light. When the cover to the locket was opened, it didn’t contain a picture. It contained an eye that was covered with an eyelid.
“Open your eyes, Observer.”
At Silpennon’s whisper, the eye opened as it let out a red light. Even if he didn’t activate it for long, the Mana consumption was quite high. However, when the light was shone on a subject, it had the power of greatly resisting against a spell being activated. This was especially true for subjects that were immobile. Basically, it was a top-grade Artifact to use against inanimate objects.
“I never knew such an Artifact existed…. You must really be an amazing thief.”
“It is the Observer’s Eye. It is a good Artifact. If it is used against an object instead of a person, I can cancel spells up to level 250 without much difficulty.”
“Of course, it’s great. I acquired it from a Dungeon you told me about.”
“However, it is lacking for this task. Give it to me.”
“What?”
How many people in the human realm could maintain a spell over level 250?
Silpennon was shocked, but Artpe’s eyes were dead serious. He handed his Artifact towards Artpe.
“Hoo-ooh….. Good.”
When Artpe received the Observer’s Eye from Silpennon, he used Reinforcement three times. It was such a high rank Artifact that it required a significant amount of Mana. It was a formidable amount even for Artpe.
“It is complete. This Artifact will suppress spells placed on objects. It’ll do so in most occasions.”
“You…. No. Nevermind. Since you are doing this for me, I want you to use Reinforcement on all my Artifacts.”
“You really are a smart aleck.”
Artpe used Reinforcement on Silpennon’s tools, defensive gears and weapon. While Artpe was doing this, Silpennon placed the Observer’s Eye in a position where the light would shine on the bookcase. At the same time, he activated several Thief skills, and he started solving the secrets of the bookcase.
“Password······ This also requires holy power. This is annoying…..”
“Aht. Clean holy power is being emitted from the silver key….. No, it changed shape!?”
“It would be great if I could trace the magic. All right…. Read it in my stead, Spirit Eye.”
“Another Artifact!”
The fact that he had a lot of Artifacts weren’t the surprising part. It was the fact that he understood which Artifacts he had to use in which situations. He was using multiple Artifacts at the same time as he steadily analyzed the bookcase. Slilpennon really looked like a thief that appeared in the old stories.
“Amazing······.”
Aria, who had been watching all of this, felt her heart beat faster. She really was watching the hero’s party in action! Maybe, her faith in her religion wasn’t as deep as she thought Aria had that general thought.
“This is all thanks to the power of my gifted and talented education program. …...take this, Silpennon. I finished Reinforcing everything.”
“You are just in time. I need that.”
It was an Artifact that looked like a plain chalk. Silpennon pulled out a book. It looked like any other book one could find in any bookcase. He opened to the first page of the book, and he started scribbling on the page with the chalk.
At a glance, it looked like a pretty useless gesture. However, the bookcase started to shake, and the light coming from the Observer’s Eye had to settle it back down. It wasn’t a useless gesture.
“What the hell? Some amazing spell must have been placed here. It is trying to resist against the Observer’s Eye, which had been Reinforced by you…..·.”
“I told you that already.”
“You did, but your words were about the Zero Class…,.. Ah, whatever.”
The invisible words from the chalk were absorbed, and the book started letting out a bleak light. Then it started to turn its pages by itself. The book opened itself fully when it went through about one-fourth of its pages. An elated smile appeared on Silpennon’s lips when he saw this.
“I found it.”
“Excellent.”
Artpe gave Silpennon a compliment with good grace. Of course, Artpe could have done all of this by himself from the beginning. It was a trap he could dismantle using any book he pulled out from the bookcase. It was all thanks to his Read All Creation ability.
On the other hand, there was someone other than him in the human realm that was capable of disabling a safety mechanism of this caliber. It was a blow to the Demon King’s army.
That’ right.
It was obvious, but the safety mechanism placed on the bookcase wasn’t done by a human. It was done by a Demon.
“In other words…. There is a Demon within the Zero Class area?”
“That’s right. I bet you’ll be surprised when I point what which one is the Demon.”
Artpe’s expression and tone of voice held a mischievousness. Silpennon had been a bit mesmerized by Artpe, but in a flash, he regained his right mind. His body shook. Artpe’s appearance had the power to lure even those of the same sex.
“Hmmph. If you aren’t going to tell me, you should just shut up.”
He tried hard to calm himself down as he focused on the book in his hands. At a glance, the content of the book looked normal.
“Yes, it’s just a normal diary….. Ah, it’s not. It is an exchange diary.”
“It means this group resides within the Zero Class, and obviously, they hold important positions within the temple. Since they cannot gather and discuss unsavory subjects out in the open, they leave words for each other.”
“T….there is something written here from today. ‘Two heroes have entered into the Zero Class. We need the heroes alive for the long range plan of the Demon King’s army. However, do we really need both of them…..?’”
Silpennon stopped reading at this point. He couldn’t hide the shock from his face.
“Did I really just read the temple’s exchange diary? It sounds like an observation log from the Demon king’s army…..”
“P...please show it to me. There is no way it says that!”
Aria couldn’t contain herself, so she ran forward to snatch the book away. Her eyes read the next portion.
“‘Both were confirmed as being heroes. As a result of the parade, we found out that the people overwhelming favor the male hero. It is my assessment that there wouldn’t be much of a setback if the female hero is killed or if she went missing. The Demonic god will be happy if she is used as a sacrifice…..’ ......”
“‘This is why I request permission to modify a portion of the magic circle made by our forebears. In my assessment, we will be able to summon a level 250 Demonic beast.”
Both Silpennon and Aria nodded their heads at the same time. Artpe faced them with a kindly face, and he nodded his head.
“Do you understand now?”
“Yes······.”
“There are penmanship that looks familiar to me. I’m sure it was written by a friend of my father…..”
Silpennon weakly nodded his head. As expected of a high rank priest’s child, Aria spoke words that increased the credibility of the evidence.
At the heart of Paladia, the followers of the Demonic god was wriggling within the Zero Class area.
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