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Pieces of plaster, wood chips, and dust drifted down.

“Ouch… If it had been any higher, I might have been seriously injured.”

I brushed away the broken wooden pieces that had once been the wooden floor and slowly sat up.

“Woof! (Master, are you okay?)”

The soft cushion I had felt under me turned out to be Vier, the Sirius, who had grown to the size of a bull and cushioned my fall.

“Thank you, Vier. Is Eren okay?”
“Woof!”

Vier barked proudly and rose, revealing Eren, who had been guarded by the wolf’s protective stance. Eren groaned softly, “Ugh… where are we?” as she opened her eyes.

“Are you alright, Eren? Any injuries or pain?”

I asked while preparing to use healing magic. Eren sat up lightly, brushed off the dirt from her clothes, patted her body to check for injuries, and nodded, “I’m fine,” before standing up energetically as usual.

From the way she moved, she seemed uninjured, and she wasn’t unconsciously protecting any part of her body, so she was probably okay.

“Still, just to be safe… 「I shall heal thee, of thy wounds」” A soft golden light enveloped Eren from the tip of my magic staff. “「Heal」”

Even if there were no visible injuries, there could be internal damage, so I healed her just in case.

Then I took another look at our surroundings. Judging by the scattered square boards and pieces of broken tables or chairs, it seemed like a two-meter-by-two-meter section of the floor had collapsed. There wasn’t much debris like stones or dirt from the foundation below.

Honestly, I couldn’t fully grasp the situation immediately. Based on my memory, it seemed that right after Eren, Vier, and I passed through the entrance of Saint Campbell Church, the floor suddenly gave way beneath us. I felt a momentary sensation of floating before we landed here.

— Was it my weight that caused this?! Did I break the church floor with my weight?!

We were only stepping on the floor just inside the main entrance, which many people pass through daily, and yet it broke under us — how heavy am I? Could I have gained weight without noticing?

As I thought about it, cold sweat started dripping from my forehead.

Though I was quietly breaking down, Eren’s question brought me back to my senses. “—This isn’t under the church floor, is it? Where are we…?”

I regained some composure and replied, “…It seems like the floor was designed to give way from the start.”

Looking up, all I saw was a solid rock ceiling with no visible trapdoor or mechanism. If there was a trap, it must have been magical, which would be beyond my ability to detect.

“Lady Jill, what is this place?”

Eren, having calmed down, looked around with a wary expression and moved closer to me. Her lack of panic, despite the eerie surroundings, was likely due to her naturally positive nature and the reassurance that she wasn’t alone.

“It doesn’t seem like we simply fell into a pitfall. Most likely, we were forcefully transported here by some kind of teleportation magic.”

From what I can see, we are in a completely enclosed space about three mertes high and five mertes wide. The walls are embedded with glowing stones at regular intervals — phosphorescent rocks that react to ambient magic and are commonly seen in underground labyrinths. Thanks to these stones, we have some visibility.

However, unless you are a beastman accustomed to darkness, it’s hard to see everything clearly. Being in an unfamiliar place surrounded by shadows naturally makes one feel uneasy.

“Light, illuminate my path.” With that, I raised my magic staff again to create some illumination. “「Light 」.”

Since creating a strong light suddenly wouldn’t be kind to the eyes, I gradually increased the brightness until it lit up every corner of the room. Then, I detached the light from my staff and let it float above my head. This way, we can see while moving.

“…This isn’t a natural cave. It looks like it was dug by someone.”

Under the bright light, I could see the smooth, carved surfaces of the cave walls, unlike the irregular shapes of stalactites or lava tubes. The ground was also level, making it easy to walk. Unfortunately, there were no teleportation magic circles in sight. It seems we were caught in a one-way teleportation trap.

“What does this mean?” Eren tilted her head.

“In simple terms, we were caught in a teleportation trap set by someone and forcibly transported to this unknown location for some unknown purpose. The situation is fairly straightforward, except for the unknowns: who did this, why, and where we are.”

Yes, it’s an annoyingly straightforward situation.

“What should we do now?”

Eren’s next question had me pondering for about five seconds. Ideally, we should stay put and wait for a rescue. However, given that quite some time has passed without anyone coming, it seems likely that the trap was a single-use, consumable type. Alternatively, those on the other side might not have the manpower to spare for a rescue — though knowing Luke, he’d probably jump in after us without thinking. They might be waiting until it’s safe to come after us. Worst case scenario, they decided to abandon us then and there.

Luckily, thanks to my Storage magic art, we have enough food and supplies to last through a winter if we ration them carefully. While we have plenty of food, we might run short on water eventually (we only have about three barrels), so we can’t stay holed up here indefinitely.

I directed my gaze to the one passage leading out of this small room, a horizontal tunnel just over two meters high that I noticed when I first lit the room.

The safe option would be to stay put. But there’s no guarantee that staying here is safe, or how long we’d have to wait. Considering that, it might be better to take some risks to understand our current situation.

Well, to be honest, I might just prefer taking action over staying defensive. As my martial arts mentor used to say:

“How to defend? Forget it. Attack before you need to defend. Martial art is an art of self-defense? That’s just a pretext. Who learns martial arts to become graceful?”