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Most of the buildings looked the same, but there were two which were prominently different, even at night. One of them was a medicine and tools store. The other one was slightly bigger, built entirely out of sturdy stone. That was where Sasori was headed.

That building held both a warehouse and offices, and the interior design was rather simple. There was no grandiose entrance hall, instead there was a front desk right next to the main door. Past them was a set of stairs leading up, and there were other corridors going to the sides as well, lined with doors to each office.

The lights were still on, even though it was so late at night, and some workers were still there.

「Good evening, Lenoce.」

Sasori greeted the receptionist behind the front desk, a pragmatic-looking man, even though there were obvious signs of sleepiness on him.

「Welcome back, lady Sasori!」

However, it seemed his sleepiness had been caused by boredom, as he quickly rose to his feet and greeted Sasori with an enthusiastic voice, his eyes then going to Mira.

「We’ll use the room for a bit again. Also, this is Mira, one of our friends.」

First Sasori showed her medal, then briefly introduced Mira.

「I’ll assume that means there’s progress fighting that great evil then, how wonderful! But ah, regulations are regulations, so may I check your identification first?」

His exalted voice changed in an instant, demonstrating a feat of self-control to sound calm as he asked with an apologetic look. Figuring her adventurer’s certificate would suffice, Mira took out her cutesy card case and took it out before showing it.

「Oh my, you’re rank C already? You’re still in the prime of your youth, but how wonderful to see you’re a skilled fighter as well. Anyone trying to stand up against evil is truly built differently!」

He looked very enthusiastic as he stood up and half-forcefully took Mira’s hand and shook it, and said 「I’ll always be cheering you on」 with a bright smile.

「I just think fighting evil is the normal thing to do.」

Mira was feeling slightly troubled by Lenoce’s pushiness, but she was more than glad to hear his praises and her usual prideful self took over. After shaking hands for a while, Lenoce looked satisfied and let go. When Mira looked at her hand, she noticed a medal similar to Sasori’s on it.

「That’s your entry pass to the Eabates Trading Corporation buildings, please be mindful not to lose it. Though even if you were to lose it and someone else found it, it’ll be of little use as it has a concept spell tying it to you.」

Lenoce spoke in a carefree manner as he jotted down Mira’s name on a registry book on the desk. He had tied the medal’s concept spell to Mira while they were shaking hands.

「That sounds useful.」

Mira decided to test it a bit and handed the medal to Sasori, and as soon as she touched it the medal changed from a silvery look to a bright red. When Mira took it back, it turned back to silver. This was yet another advancement in Concept Magic that had impressed Mira since her arrival in this world.

The secret place granted to Sasori and Hebi was below that building, which was a place meant to be an emergency shelter.

Once the paperwork was done, Sasori led them up the stairs and into a corridor. While they walked, Sasori spoke more about Lenoce. His last name was Eabates, and he was the grandson of the corporation’s current chairman.

He had always admired heroes, like the Three Divine Generals that fought in the Defense of the Three Gods’ Countries, the Eighteen Nameless Captains from Atlantis, the Twenty Apostles of the Empire of Nirvana, and the Nine Wisemen of Arkite too.

Now Chimera Clauzen had appeared, a group set on harming the spirits who had always helped humanity, and Lenoce believed that Sasori and everyone else who stood up to valiantly fight against them would also be known as heroes in the future, so he was more than happy to interact with them.

Hearing the name of the Nine Wisemen in the same sentence as all those other distinguished names gave Mira a nice feeling, but when she looked to the side and saw a beautiful girl in her reflection, completely different from how she looked before, she could not help but sigh at her helpless situation.

They kept conversing and walking through the building, and after climbing another set of stairs they were now on the third floor. There Mira noticed something and asked with a puzzled voice.

「Why are we on the third floor? I thought you said the place was underground?」

Sasori still walked ahead, moving through the corridor and passing by employees every so often.

「It is underground, but the way to get there is a bit unique. The only way of entering is through an isolated staircase on the third floor, it’s quite concealed. Getting there might be a chore, but at least that makes it all the more secure.」
「I see, that does sound like a secure place.」

Mira nodded in understanding while looking around her, wondering about the history of the building.

Eventually they reached the stairs and began descending. The building was made entirely of stone, which had a warm feeling to it, and the interior design was thoughtfully designed.

Currently Melville was next in line to rule over the country, but that was only because of Chimera Clauzen’s support from the shadows, as well as rather inhumane methods. From what Mira had seen, Eabates was clearly more suitable for that seat.

Once they reached the end of the stairs on the first floor, they were stopped by a door. Walking through it they entered a room with many shelves packed with Magic Wares and chemicals. It was hard to understand what was going on at first glance, but then Sasori explained that it was a storeroom for failed prototypes.

The room had a similar feeling to sneaking into a school’s science class storeroom at night. Angelique felt especially uneasy, getting closer to Worthramble who was carrying Anne.

The shelves seemed to form a maze they slowly waded through, and when they got closer to the center of the room Sasori walked up to a particular shelf, inviting Mira to get closer.

「Watch carefully Mira.」

Once Mira was standing next to her, Sasori opened a box placed amongst failed prototypes. Then she turned it around so the front side was facing away from them, closed the lid, and turned it around once again.

Once that mysterious routine was over, a dull sound was heard and one of the shelves moved to the side, revealing a door that was hidden behind it.

「Ohh!」

Seeing a proper hidden room, Mira was elated. Be it by tapestry or gates, anything hidden that was revealed always caused an excited reaction in boys.

Past the door was another set of stairs leading underground. Mira rushed past Sasori and took the lead, and once everyone was on the stairs Sasori closed the door, which was followed by the same dull sound from earlier. That meant the shelf had moved back to covering the door.

The air felt chilly, indicating they were indeed underground, and the cold stone steps continued far below, illuminated by soft lights placed every few steps so it was not too dark. Still, their footing felt somewhat unreliable, probably because the steps all seemed to vary in height. According to Sasori, that was made on purpose to deter intruders.

Once they had descended about a hundred meters, the stairs stopped as they reached a tunnel.