35 – The Great and Beautiful Tower (8)
“There’s one peculiar thing, something you really need to know.”
“What is it?”
Keita hesitated at the window once again.
What could possibly be outside the window that made them keep glancing like that?
“If you go outside the cabin and close the door, it appears.”
“What is it?”
“Well, um… Eek?!”
Keita suddenly made a strange noise and threw themselves under the table.
“What’s wrong?”
“Gasp! Eruga-sama! Outside the window!”
When Rianna turned around at Rianna’s scream, she saw something peering into the room from outside the window.
“What is that?”
“Quick, hide! If you keep standing, it’ll notice us!”
Keita shouted from under the table.
Rianna wrapped her arms around her waist and pressed herself tightly against the wall just below the window.
“Ugh… Eruga-sama… Did you see what it was…?”
“I did.”
It was a giant ‘dog’ with a grayish color.
To be precise, it resembled something like a dog.
Ordinary dogs wouldn’t have eyes burning bright red or emit steam from their mouths like that.
Moreover, it was so big that just its snout alone would cover most of the window.
By comparison, it was much larger than the cabin.
What on earth is that?
The dog, as if trying to find us, pressed its nose against the window and let out a rough snort.
“Heuk… Please go away…”
I heard Kaita sobbing under the table.
“Eruga-nim… What if it breaks the window and comes in…?”
Riana, who was clinging to me, trembled and whispered.
“Don’t worry. If that happens, I’ll pull out all its teeth.”
Normally, I would either use a dragon’s roar or knock it down, but it’s dangerous right now.
I don’t know what strange changes might occur if I interact with that dog.
The sound of the sniffling snout soon disappeared.
I cautiously raised my head, and the dog was nowhere to be seen.
The view outside is still the top of a peak in some northern mountain range…
Why on earth is there such a huge dog here?
“It’s gone… I was really surprised…”
Kaita crawled out from under the table and sighed.
“It must have been because of that sign that said ‘Beware of Dogs’ on the outer wall.”
“Yeah… Unbelievable… How can a dog be that big…?”
“It doesn’t seem like a dog, more like a monster. I’ve never seen such a monster before.”
Kaita wiped off cold sweat and hesitated to close the window.
“Um… I’m sorry, Eruga. Could you please open and close the door a little?”
“That’s right.”
As I opened the door, the scenery outside changed.
This time, it was a desert.
“So, the dog won’t appear anymore?”
“No. It will appear. Actually, I don’t know either. It’s so unpredictable…”
Hmm… Even if the outside space changes, the dog keeps appearing…?
So, does that mean there’s a dog in every landscape, or does the dog move with the cabin…?
Well, there are places like this, huh…?
But now, there’s a more important issue than what this tower is.
“If we don’t go back to that forest, we’ll be trapped in this tower forever?”
“Ugh… Er, what should we do…?”
Liana clung to me and cried.
Now, let’s forget about the artifacts and the request inside the tower and focus on finding a way to escape right away.
“Miss Kaita, have you ever used magic before?”
“Magic? What kind of magic?”
“For example, scouting magic or detection magic. If you use that, you can roughly guess where we are.”
“I’ve tried. But there was no response from anything coming back.”
It’s strange that there’s no response wave. Whether it’s blocked or forever moving forward, there should be a response wave to sense.
The fact that there isn’t one means that magic was absorbed somewhere along the way…?
Absorbing magic is impossible without a stronger magical power.
Judging from the fact that she couldn’t disable the dimensional trap in the corridor, Kaita’s magical abilities are not exceptional.
In that case, I might be able to nullify Kaita’s magic with just a little trick.
“Erga-nim! Where are you going?”
As they approached the door, Rianna shouted.
“We’re both here. I have something to confirm.”
When the door opened, the hot wind and sand of the desert rushed in.
Narrowing her eyes, she cast a powerful detection spell towards the horizon.
The detection spell swiftly crossed the desert at an incredible speed, leaving no trace behind.
“Hmm…”
This time, she adjusted the angle and cast the detection spell in multiple directions.
The results were just as she expected.
Yeah… Based on the last detected magical wave…
There’s a wall of magic with a radius of several kilometers surrounding the hut…
The detection spell of the Black Dragon is a very powerful magic.
It’s difficult to counteract it with ordinary magical power.
That’s why I can’t use my full strength and have to wander around in a polymorphed state to avoid the detection spells of the bloodline.
If it can absorb such detection spells, it means it’s an unbelievably strong wall of magic…
Could it be that this magic wall…
When she closed the door, an endless sea spread outside the window.
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“Mr. Erga…? Did you just use detection magic…?”
“Yes, I did.”
“What on earth is that magic…? Who on earth are you to wield such powerful magic…?”
“We’ll talk about that later. There’s something more important right now.”
I explained to Liana and Kaita what I had just discovered.
Kaita shook her head vigorously.
“So, what you’re saying, Mr. Erga, is that there is a barrier of magic surrounding this cabin?”
“That’s correct.”
“Hmm… What could it be…?”
“This is what I think, Kaita.”
“What is it?”
“I believe that barrier of magic is actually the outer wall of the tower.”
A shock passed over Kaita’s face.
“W-What…? If that’s true, then…”
“We’re still in the same place, and only the space around the cabin is changing. In other words, the environment inside the tower is randomly altering. That’s what I think.”
“But wait, something doesn’t quite add up. If that’s the case, shouldn’t the black entrance that leads to the corridor remain in the same place even if the location keeps changing?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure about that either. But from what I’ve discovered so far, there is a barrier of magic that surrounds it, and it has the same circular shape as the tower.”
“Hmm…”
Kaita continued to shake her head, then lowered it as if feeling dizzy.
“I really don’t know. Every time we open and close the door, the surrounding scenery changes, right? But the only exit is the forest we started in. So, I thought this cabin was constantly moving around the world, but it turns out it stays in the same place while the inside of the tower keeps changing. Hmm. If that’s the case, I can understand why the dog keeps appearing. But why would it do such a thing? However, I’ve opened and closed the door more than a hundred times before you all arrived, and the forest didn’t appear. Ah, what could it be…? What on earth is going on?”
Liana, who had started muttering to herself, turned her gaze to Kaita and asked,
“Eruga, what should we do then?”
“Well, maybe if we break through the barrier of that magic, everything will return to normal. It seems like this cabin is malfunctioning because of the magic inside the tower.”
“How do we break it? With magic?”
“No, magic won’t break it. It’s not a problem that a few wizards can solve.”
“Hmm… Then what do we do?”
Everything was just speculation.
In times like these, pondering over it won’t give us any answers.
Directly confronting it is the answer.
“Liana, I’ll give it a try. Open the door and wait.”
“What are you going to check?”
“I need to see if I can break through the barrier of magic.”
“What?!” “What did you say?!”
Both women exclaimed at the same time.
“Do you really plan on continuing to walk outside?!”
“Yes. So keep the door open and wait. If it closes, we might never see each other again.”
“Eruga… That’s too dangerous…”
Kaita objected.
“Eruga, even with your powerful detection magic, how do you plan on breaking through a barrier that not even physical force can break? If it’s that strong, there’s no way to break it.”
“I know. That’s why I’m trying a different method.”
Let’s go towards the door, with Rihanna following closely behind me.
“Erga. If it’s something you say, I believe it all. I’ll hold the door.”
“Thank you. It’ll be over soon.”
As I opened the door, seawater splashed and soaked my ankles.
“Oh, not here.”
When I opened the door again, a vast meadow and black-tinted rolling hills came into view.
“This place seems good.”
When I tried using detection magic, just like before, the magic was absorbed in the same form from the same distance.
To not even notice something this simple…
This mage named Ketara seems like a complete novice.
“Hold onto the door tightly.”
“Yes, Erga.”
“Be careful!”
Ketara, who couldn’t even dare approach the door, shouted from behind the table.
I slowly stepped onto the meadow.
The ground beneath my feet was real soil.
The grass was real, and the warm breeze blowing was real.
Who on earth built this tower?
What kind of lunatic set it up to work like this?
What connection does opening and closing the door have with the tower appearing in midair and then dropping to the ground?
I don’t understand anything.
In the worst case, the time inside the tower may not match the time outside.
It could be thousands of years outside while only a few hours have passed.
Perhaps that magician named Kaita could actually be someone from a long time ago.
For now, the priority is to escape from this strange place.
Being far away from the cabin, I glanced down at my hands and feet for a moment.
If the detection magic from the inside cannot go out, then it is also impossible for anything to come in from the outside.
That means at least within this place, I am free from the detection magic of the bloodline.
I released the polymorph that was suppressing my body.
“aaahhhhh!!!!”
A scream echoed from behind.
I turned my head and saw Kaita, who was screaming with all her might inside the small cabin below.
“aaahhhhh! It’s a monster!!!”
“Kaita! That person is not a monster, it’s Erga! He’s a Black Dragon!”
“aaahhhhh! It’s a Black Dragon!!!!”
Noisy, inexperienced magician.
As I spread my six wings wide, a toxic steam rose and my three tails condensed a powerful force as I struck the ground once.