33 – Underground (2)
“Ahhh… ….”
With a tired-looking complexion, she started to trudge to the other side of us with a weeping sigh.
At this point, I was relieved that Professor Chloe was a wizard.
Unless we maintain a separate detection magic at all times, there’s no way they’ll notice us even though we’re hiding at such close range.
It is fortunate that it is not an article with excellent senses.
‘Hmm.’
Still, I didn’t let my guard down.
After confirming that Professor Chloe had completely passed the corner and out of sight, I let out the breath I was holding.
“Whoa… ….”
“Puha!”
In addition to that, Beatrice also let go right away.
She seemed to be choking her breath more than she thought, she let out a little excited breath.
“… ….”
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Then, she glared at me resentfully once, and then she quietly stepped back.
I obediently raised my hand.
“Sorry.”
I briefly handed over my apology, but Beatrice’s eyes began to glare at me even more repugnantly.
“Do you think that as long as you apologize, everything will be forgiven?”
Ugh.
‘Wasn’t it?’
As she blinked in surprise, a tendon sprouted from Beatrice’s forehead.
“This person is really… ….”
It seemed like he was about to say something more, but he let out a sigh of resignation, probably thinking that there would be no meaning.
“Whoa… ….”
Beatrice glanced to the side with a crumpled expression.
This was the direction where Professor Chloe disappeared a while ago.
After a brief interval, she parted her lips.
“So, what is it?”
“Huh?”
I tilted her head, and Beatrice immediately followed her further.
“Did you suddenly need to hide? If you go underground, you’ll run into a researcher or a professor anyway.”
“Ah.”
Are you talking about that?
I briefly explained the reason, scratching the back of my head.
“Of course, since there is a brooch, even if you go underground, most researchers will only glance at you and not talk to you…….”
“You mean the girl from a moment ago is different?”
“Mmm, that’s right.”
I nodded.
As long as there is definitely a brooch, there won’t be any excuses that I have prepared.
But Professor Chloe, that.
The situation is slightly different.
After thinking about how to explain this for a while, I first announced one fact with a slight frown.
“That professor, his name is Chloe Jane.”
“Yes?”
At that sudden word, Beatrice narrowed her eyes for a moment as if she didn’t understand, but she opened her eyes wide as if she had remembered something.
“…… Ah, that lab then.”
“Yes. You are the owner of it.”
I smiled bitterly and continued talking again.
“First of all, you must have heard that his lab was robbed. I wondered if I would have checked it out at least once, even if I had no interest in the lab on the ground.”
“Mmm.”
After a short silence, Beatrice carefully spoke out and listened.
“You mean, you might have noticed that the brooch was stolen?”
‘Well, then this is pointless, too,’ said Beatrice, looking around with a slightly nervous look. Professor Chloe had already left.
I smiled at her and reassured her first.
“Probably not. Even when it was first planned, she entered because she was well aware of Professor Chloe’s lax parts…….”
She was originally a woman with that kind of personality.
She’s not meticulous by nature, so she wouldn’t have looked deeply into the robbed laboratory at all.
“Not only that, but you saw that too, didn’t you? Stacked brooches. There could be dozens of them.”
At my words, Beatrice narrowed her eyes.
“It means that there is a high probability that you will not know even if two disappear.”
“Yes.”
I nodded her head.
Of course, I don’t know if Professor Chloe has memorized the exact number of brooches assigned to her, and if she’s searched through my lab after the break-in (?) Incident…….
That won’t happen.
Because she is ‘that’ Chloe Jane, who doesn’t show any enthusiasm, even in regular classes, except for her favorite field of study.
That wasn’t the only problem.
The reason why I hurriedly disappeared at Professor Chloe’s surprise appearance was for another reason, to be precise, it was difficult to face her while wearing her ‘Professor Chloe’s brooch’.
It’s highly likely that Professor Chloe doesn’t even know what was stolen in her lab at this point, but if she sees it with her own eyes, that’s another story.
I took out the brooch from her bosom and showed it to her.
“If you look closely, your name is written here, right? Say Chloe.”
“…… Ah.”
Beatrice’s eyes widened slightly.
“Because we are sending students who are still in school down to the basement. In a way, giving this brooch is proof that the professor directly ‘guarantees’ the student.”
I stopped talking, and while I took it out, I put the brooch roughly on my chest.
“So in summary, it doesn’t matter if we run into the other researchers wearing Professor Chloe’s brooch… …. The moment you run into Professor Chloe herself, things are bound to get complicated. Even if she may not know that the brooch is gone, she will know that the brooch is hers the moment she sees it with her eyes.”
“Oh, I understand.”
Beatrice shook her head with a slightly embarrassed expression.
As I said, it seemed that he was convinced by my explanation, but after hearing more details, it seems that his head started to hurt all over again.
Well, it wasn’t strange.
No matter how well you try to wrap it up, stealing is stealing, and at this point it’s safe to say that you’ve gone beyond simple impersonation and entered the fraudulent level.
No matter what, she was a saint, and when it came to her morals and ethics, it was the tendency of her girl, Beatrice, to be like a useless sword.
I took her words out again to cheer her up even as she let her bitter smile go away.
“Still, that’s good. I don’t know what’s going on, but now that Professor Chloe is out, she won’t have to move more carefully once inside. No one will recognize it, and if they do, it will be easier to make excuses.”
At those words, Beatrice glanced at me with slightly disapproving eyes, and I tried to let out a meaningless laugh.
It was a bonus to send a glance that meant ‘so let’s go quickly’.
“…… Ha.”
And in the end, Beatrice shook off her momentary reluctance and put on the brooch.
“Okay. Go, go Going back now doesn’t seem like a very good option…….”
Even so, there was a hint of displeasure on his face, so I smiled and made a joke to lighten the burden.
“If it weren’t for me anyway, wouldn’t you have tried to break through the basement somehow? Stealing a brooch and trying to sneak into an unsanctioned area are, in a way, the same thing, aren’t they?”
“…… That.”
At that, Beatrice also flinched and avoided my gaze as if slightly stabbed.
Because he was smiling, Beatrice hurriedly added a comment.
“Yeah, that’s that and this is this. It’s a little different.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Oh, really pissed off.”
I turned around and Beatrice followed, losing her temper once more.
“Are you going right in? Underground.”
As he continued to ask, I shrugged my shoulders to mean that I would not go then.
Then he pointed to the front with his chin.
“Let’s go then. Let’s finish it as soon as possible and go back.”
Professor Chloe must have disappeared too.
I know the basic structure of the underground, so I won’t get lost.
Standing right in front of the wall that Professor Chloe came out of, I checked the brooch one last time and reached out his hand.
Ugh-
“…… Oh.”
With a small shimmering sound, the wall began to flow like a liquid.
Even where it should have been blocked, the outstretched hand moved unwaveringly beyond it.
I turned to Beatrice and said.
“As I said before, don’t go in and do anything stupid. I trust you won’t look around too much or do anything stupid like that.”
It was said to relieve tension, but Beatrice grumbled a little, as if she didn’t like it again.
“Of course. What do you see me as?”
Then he hesitates for a moment, then takes a short deep breath and takes a step forward in the same way.
The brooch is well filled, and unlike the way he speaks, his expression is quite calm. There will be no problem.
“Okay then… ….”
After a nod of my head, I immediately walked towards the crack in the wall.
“Demon sword. Let’s go deal with it.”
As if being sucked into a slightly sticky lake, my body started moving across the wall and into the ‘basement’ of the academy… ….
“… ….”
At the last moment, suddenly, without much thought, I turned my head and looked at it.
Why?
Beatrice, for some reason, was making an expression as if she had something troubling her.
…… The feeling was quite different from a little while ago.
*****
Even after Dante disappeared behind the wall, Beatrice did not move for a while.
The feeling of the crack in the wall swallowing his hand was certainly not pleasant, but nonetheless.
“… ….”
– A demonic sword. Let’s go deal with it.
That’s what Dante said right before.
It was also a word that Beatrice was repeating over and over again at this moment.
Her expression sank slightly meaningfully.
Of course, even that was only for a short time, and it quickly returned to normal…….
What is clear is that it is an expression that he did not make in front of Dante, whom he was moving with until just a moment ago.
Beatrice tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows.
“…… Hmm…….”
With an unusually long salivation, she hurriedly organized her thoughts.
It is true that many thoughts come to mind.
But right now, I’m not in a situation where I can stand still while immersed in such thoughts…….
“…… What is it?”
Biting her lips briefly, Beatrice leaned her body forward once more.
The crack in the wall began sucking in Beatrice as if it had waited.
“I hope it is an illusion.”
No one listened.
However, Beatrice apparently muttered that.
“Even if it wasn’t an illusion, I hope you don’t use extreme force.”
The expression was calm, but those eyes were unexpectedly recalling many complex emotions.
Tak-
Before long Beatrice set her foot in her basement.
Looking around, the sight of the ‘research center’, which is definitely not common, came into sight.
Occasionally wandering researchers.
Is it because it’s morning time? Not many people were noticed.
I didn’t know the purpose of the machines or magical devices scattered here and there, but it seemed like I’d seen something similar in the magic tower of the system I had visited before.
With that thought in mind, Beatrice looked around her with a curious gaze.
“Why did you come in so late?”
And that’s when Dante, who had arrived earlier, finally spoke to me.
He was blinking as if he was puzzled by the blank space immediately before.
Because Beatrice, whom I thought I had moved with, arrived a little late.
It wasn’t a particularly strange reaction.
‘…… Liar.’
Beatrice stared at Dante for a while with a nasty look.
“Ah, that… ….”
Within, it was not too late to draw a natural expression and return the answer.
“I was preparing my mind for a while. Stay blank and stop.”
Beatrice scratches her cheeks and blurts out her words.
Dante laughed at her words.
“Until a while ago, you pretended not to be nervous.”
“…… No, that doesn’t mean you were nervous, right?”
Beatrice lowered her voice and grumbled, conscious of the researchers around her, and Dante smiled and pointed his hand behind her.
“Okay, okay, let’s go now. As I said, just follow me.”
“Yes, yes, please take the lead.”
At Beatrice’s urging, Dante turned her body and started moving.
As far as possible, move quietly and unobtrusively.
Because if you look around too much, you can be considered suspicious.
“… ….”
Beatrice calmly followed Dante as he moved.
However, the expression had a strangely hard look, which soon resulted in her stabbing Dante’s side with her hand.
Cook!
“…… !”
Dante shuddered at her and hurriedly turned her head away.
“…… It’s a surprise. What?”
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“No, what.”
Beatrice paid no heed to Dante’s embarrassed question.
I just glance at him with meaningful eyes.
“I just suddenly got annoyed.”
“??”
Dante raised a question mark.