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There was a faded magic circle of about three meters in diameter drawn in the middle of the room.

Only the vicinity of that circle was devoid of garbage and was neatly tidied up. The floor was bare ground, and the circle was drawn on it with special paint.

Maxwell promptly walked over to the magic circle and touched it with his hand.

“This was a close call. It has been weathered to the point that a little longer and it would have been indistinguishable.”
“How is it then, can you make out its destination?”
“Yes. This here is the direction… And this is the range, I suppose? In that case… It’s southeast… and the distance is…”

Maxwell started deciphering the magic circle. In the meantime, I stood near the entrance and stayed alert for the surroundings.

Since they left such a piece of evidence behind, it was possible that they left someone on the lookout.

Before long, Maxwell finally removed his eyes from the circle and approached me to tell me the result of his analyses.

“It seems that Klein has gone to either Qaum or Lilith.”
“Mateus’ hometown, huh? You can’t narrow it down any further between them?”
“The detailed coordinates have already gotten erased. I could only roughly measure the direction and the distance.”
“What about magic power? Setting you aside, it would need one or two magicians normally. Can’t you measure the distance based on the overall size of the circle as well?”
“About that… This place just happens to be situated above a Ley Line. As such, I can not measure the distance based on magic power. Or rather, I suppose the presence of the Ley Line was the reason why they stole this place for themselves. They could draw as much magic power as they wished from the Ley Line.”

Ley lines were akin to wellsprings of magic power. There were a few such power spots in the world.

In some parts of the world, it was believed that the World Tree’s roots, which were spread all over the continent, leaked the creation energy from the spots we called Ley Lines. How true that was, however, was up for debate.

“Is that so?”
“Perhaps the fact that Den is strangely wise for an Ogre is also due to absorbing the magic power of the Ley Line and undergoing some abnormal evolution.”
“Huh…”

As he pointed out, this was the first time I had encountered an Ogre that could hold a conversation. Den had a gentle and timid nature yet was highly intelligent by Ogre standards, so Maxwell’s claim about abnormal evolution was probably correct.

“They drove out Den, the previous owner of this pace, by force to obtain this Ley Line, and then used it for the teleportation magic. The only information that can be extracted from the leftover magic circle is that the destination is either Qaum or Lilith. This much is certain.”
“So we narrowed it down from the entire continent two these two, huh. I guess what’s left is to check which of them are fishy…”
“We can only know that by actually visiting these places. Before that… It would be better for us to seal this place off so it does not get abused in the future.”

The fact that you could extract magic power infinitely meant that it could be abused in many ways.

In particular, it could be used to freely teleport a large army anywhere, so Raum would be viewed as dangerous by other kingdoms.

If they knew about this place back during the Mountain Serpent incident, they would’ve been able to immediately dispatch an army. But at the same time, that also meant that it was also possible to send that same army to other kingdoms’ doorsteps too.

I could see why Maxwell wanted to seal this place off and pretend that it never existed. It was one thing if it could only be used to go to the Kevin domain, but a singularity that could dispatch armies to other kingdoms was nothing but a nuisance.

“Um… Me troubled if no live here.”
“Listen, Den, the enemy already knows this place so returning here would be dangerous anyway.”
“Then me go where?”
“Let’s see…”

This place was known by both Klein and Mateus. If Den stayed here, next time they could just subjugate him instead. That said, it would be too pitiful if we left him on its own so irresponsibly.

Still, a safety zone that could accept an Ogre wasn’t so easily—

“Oh, there is one.”

I suddenly remembered about one such place. Maxwell looked puzzled at my statement. He probably had not realized it yet.

“I’m talking about that mountain, the one where Aste lives. An Ogre would probably be nothing more than an insect for him, not to mention, people don’t visit it so it should be safe.”
“Well, that is true… There is already a Huge Crawler living in those mountains.”
“Then what difference does one more Ogre make?”
“Is it that simple, I wonder?”

If nothing, I could have him live in my hideout and also act as a gatekeeper. If he stays on the lookout, even Aste wouldn’t carelessly approach it.

Of course, Den would be no match for Aste, but he should abstain from doing it if he knows there would be witnesses.

“Well, there would be no problems if it is there, but we should get Sir Aste’s permission first.”
“That shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes. Just teleport there and done.”

Maxwell could easily teleport to Aste’s cave. He could just go there, ask for permission and if he got it, come back and take Den with him.

We were in the vicinity of a Ley Line, so it would even ease the burden on him.

“Good grief. Pushing this old man around so much. Fine, then, I will go and see so wait here.”

He answered it listlessly and nimbly drew the magic circle in the air with used movements. And after chanting the aria he disappeared in the blink of an eye. This all took about 10 seconds.

It took Maria over a minute to cast this spell despite getting more familiar with it as of late, so Maxwell’s speed was truly a wonder to behold.

While I waited for Maxwell to return, I took the opportunity to explain to Den about the place he would be moving to.

“Good for you. There is no better place than the one we just found for you.”
“Really? Me no longer need to be scared?”
“Well… You are probably gonna start fearing something else…”

There was a Huge Crawler from the middle floors of the World Tree Labyrinth residing there. Not to mention, there was also a warrior there that could one-shot such a monster. Den’s standing on that mountain would clearly be at the bottom.

He would be living with beings that could instantly trample it down, so I imagined it would cause him quite a bit of a headache.

“Well, he’s not some hard-headed guy, so you don’t have to worry about it. In the first place, he wouldn’t give Maxwell permission for you to stay if he planned to drive you out the next moment.”
“I see! New dwelling, me happy!”

He warped his atrocious Ogrish face into an expression of joy. Uh, sorry, Den… But your face looks a bit scary. It looked like the expression of a monster staring down on its prey. Well, Den was a monster.

Before long, Maxwell returned back.

“I have kept you waiting. Sir Aste readily gave us permission.”
“Then, please take it to my hideout. Let’s have Den live there.”
“In your hideout? Well, it would have a roof to defend against rain… But are you fine with that?”
“I don’t mind. I’d rather have him become the administrator of my assets there.”
“So that is what you were planning. I understand.”

As such, one peculiar Ogre had settled to live on the mountain near Maleva.

Well, it wasn’t the one to attack people, so there should be no problems.