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Amongst idle chatter the group reached a very sturdy-looking iron gate at the end of the tunnel. According to Sasori those were the living quarters of the emergency shelter, which had been built in case another tragedy like the devil attack from ten years prior happened again. It was well protected against physical and magical threats, multiple magic circles placed everywhere to ward off attacks.

「Mira, look closely again.」

Just like with the door hidden behind a shelf, Sasori told Mira to watch as she put her finger inside what looked like a keyhole. A moment later the entire gate began glowing and strange patterns appeared on it. Sasori slowly began manipulating them, making sure Mira could see everything, and a few seconds later the gate opened.

「And that’s about it. You’ll have to repeat that or the gate won’t open, so don’t forget it.」
「Ah… err…how do I say this…」

Even though Sasori made sure she explained everything as well as possible, the patterns were too complicated and halfway through Mira was unable to keep track and now could only grimace at her failure.

Hebi stepped in and explained that Sasori had a natural affinity for things like that, so it was normal for someone to struggle memorizing it.

In a way, there was no real key for that gate, except for the few people who were able to memorize the way of unlocking it. Hebi had written down the exact method, so she told Mira she would let her make a copy of her notes later.

In reality there was only one other person alive who had memorized the entry code. The current chairman of the Eabates Trading Corporation and second in line to the throne of Roseline, Ulysses Telles Eabates.

「This place is quite big as well…」

There was a short corridor past the gate, and then a large living room with a wooden floor opened up. It was large enough to fit thirty tatami mats, and there were four simple but sturdy tables placed on it, with spherical lamps hanging from the ceiling illuminating each of them.

「This was designed to be lived in for years if necessary. So everything was arranged to not cause issues with uhh… claustrophobia I think? Or the thing that makes people go crazy in cramped spaces.」

With vague explanations, Sasori slowly showed them the place and all of its installations.

Given the corporation was in a position to fight for the throne of the country, they obviously had the necessary funds to build a resilient shelter. The underground place had everything necessary to sustain life.

There was a full set of cookware in the kitchen, and there were Magic Wares that helped produce water and fire effortlessly. There were three doors in the kitchen as well, two of them led to a toilet and bathroom, giving easy access to both places.

The last door led to a field larger than the living room. There was nothing planted there yet and the lights were off, but if used that would easily provide food for many years of comfortable living.

To top it all off, all the Magic Wares there had been specifically designed to be Refillable, meaning a spellcaster or any person with a sizable amount of mana could transfer it into the Magic Ware and recharge it, extending their usable lifetime nearly endlessly.

(So almost anyone can live endlessly down here. It only needs a command center and it’ll be perfect.)

While Sasori still showed the different rooms to them, Mira compared the place to the secret bases she yearned for as a child.

They returned to the living room and walked down a corridor on the other end of the room, which was lined with five doors. Each door led to a room around a third the size of the living room, with a similarly wooden floor. They were mostly empty, except for two of them which had beds in them. Mylene was sound asleep on one of the beds, looking rather happy.

Angelique looked at her with a nostalgic look for a few seconds, then placed Anne on the bed next to Mylene’s.

Once everyone was familiar with the layout of the shelter, they all returned to the living room and sat around one of the tables. They had to catch up on what happened on each of their sides.

First Hebi reported the findings of her interrogation.

The two pursuers had been part of the group of guards watching over Johann’s mansion. They were mercenaries employed by Melville, so they were pretty much outsiders who knew nothing of internal information.

Their orders were to make sure Johann never left the mansion, and to track down his assistant Mylene if she made any irregular movements, and depending on what happened, capture her.

They knew nothing of any ties to Chimera Clauzen, and Hebi assured the group their body language indicated they were telling the truth. In conclusion, all the guards there, not only the two they captured, were unrelated to Chimera Clauzen.

「I see, that’s a shame.」

Hearing they had obtained no leads, Sasori sighed and drooped her shoulders. Mercenaries were perfect for a job like that. Guards and lookouts were always placed in specific unmoving places, and knowing Chimera Clauzen they would never assign one of their members for such a role.

Even if Johann were to contact someone from the outside, as long as Chimera Clauzen kept control over him, their secret was safe. They could simply discard and renounce as many ignorant mercenaries as they wanted.

「Hmm, I guess obtaining information will prove to be harder than this.」
「They were mere pawns.」

Mira muttered in dismay, while Hebi uttered the harsh truth in a flat voice. She seemed unbothered about the fact they had been unable to extract valuable information.

That concluded Hebi’s report. At the same time, Mira yawned widely, drank a cup of tea, and kept blinking uncontrollably.

「Mira, it’s pretty late so you can go to sleep ahead of us. I can tell her everything we went through alone.」

Sasori gently shook Mira’s shoulder, whose eyes were half closed already. The two had been together the entire time, so only one of them needed to report their findings, and Mira had heard Hebi’s side already, so there was no real harm if Mira left now.

「No, no can do. I can’t just sleep ahead…」

This was one of the rare times Mira was taking something seriously, so she wanted to participate, but she had little control over her body and yawned again right after.

「No worries, seriously. I’ll just tell her what we went through, and we’ll sleep as well. We’ll discuss future plans tomorrow.」
「Mm… I see. Alright then, I’ll go sleep ahead of you then…」

Mira realized it was impossible to resist her drowsiness any longer, so she stood up on wobbly feet. Then with as much care as she could muster she pushed her chair back to its place, muttered a 「good night」 and waddled towards the entrance. She was too sleepy to think straight.

「Your bed is on the other side, Mira.」

In the end, Sasori had to go pick her up and carried Mira to the other room with beds than the one where Angelique and Mylene were sleeping in. Sasori gently tucked Mira in one of the beds, letting her peacefully travel to dreamland.