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“Hmm… Could it be that Yuli really went back first?”

From the first to the fifth floor, with no sign of her, the only theory left to consider was that Yuli had returned to the dormitory ahead of us.

Yet there were two points in this hypothesis that seemed hard to accept.

Firstly, I questioned whether Yuli, with her courage, could have navigated the forest path between the dormitory and the Old School alone. Of course, it was possible that the fear of staying behind drove her to push through.

Secondly, would it really be in line with Yuli’s character to leave us behind and head back, even if she noticed something was off? Surely, she could have returned to ask for help or accurately assess the situation.

But did she really manage to hold back her fear and head back without checking on her friends?

That scenario was simply unimaginable.

“But I clearly searched all the floors.”

“No. There’s still one place we haven’t checked.”

Frecia contradicted me. She unfolded the map she was holding to show us.

However, the map in Frecia’s hands only displayed the layout of the first floor.

?

“I checked while wandering around, and there was exactly one place that didn’t match the map.”

She pointed to a small room next to the stairs leading up.

“At first, I thought it was just a mistake, but now I’m sure.”

She indicated a portion of the room depicted on the map with her finger.

“It’s much smaller.”

We immediately made our way to the small room next to the stairs. Comparing it to the map, it indeed appeared narrower.

The cleverly stacked furniture made the room seem cramped, hiding a small space behind.

“Yuli? Are you there?”

I called out, wondering if Yuli might be hiding in the space concealed by the furniture, but there was no response.

“What should we do? There seems to be too much to clear away one by one…”

“Elysia, Selian! Come back here for a moment!”

At Anne’s call, I gently pulled Selian back, and Anne swung her great sword at the furniture.

While the massive great sword was cumbersome to carry usually, when combined with Anne’s strength and aura, the obstructing furniture shattered into pieces.

Yet, Yuli was nowhere to be found beyond the furniture. Only the stairs leading down remained.

“Downstairs…”

“Well, with a building this size, it makes sense there would be a basement.”

“So, these pieces of furniture must be the work of evil spirits messing around.”

“But why isn’t there a path to the basement on the map?”

“This map… It doesn’t appear to be an original, considering the paper isn’t old. Someone probably visited the Old School like us and created it later. They likely passed this place without noticing.”

Compared to the original room’s size, there was a slight difference reflected on the map, but it wasn’t significant enough to warrant concern.

“Anyway, shall we head down there? We have to find Yuli quickly.”

“Wait a moment.”

Frecia stopped my hurried attempts and lightly flicked her fingers in the air, causing four bright orbs of light to appear, illuminating the surroundings.

Each light orb moved to surround each of us.

“Since there’s no moonlight, be careful not to trip while going down…”

As expected of a basement, there were no windows, and the hallway was much darker than outside.

If Frecia hadn’t been here, we would have struggled significantly with the search.

“Hmm… how about we all just wander around together?”

Since we didn’t have a map, it seemed safer to move together rather than waste time wandering separately without knowing the layout.

– Grrrr…

But just a few steps in, an evil spirit appeared and grabbed my ankle.

I mean, it literally grabbed my ankle. The unsettling sounds were just a bonus.

The evil spirit seemed to want to scare us, but Selian, who had been caught, merely looked down at the spirit holding her ankle with a blank expression.

As Selian’s gaze lingered, as if asking what it was doing, the spirit awkwardly released Selian’s ankle and began to slink away.

…What kind of game was this?

However, the spirit couldn’t resist trying to scare us again; as we searched the room, it executed yet another foolish move.

-Grrrrr!

With a loud voice, the spirit suddenly appeared again.

“Wah!”

This time, to scare the youngest among us, it popped up right in front of Anne, who was even shorter than Frecia.

It seemed the spirit’s effort paid off as Anne let out a loud scream, letting everyone know she had been startled.

But I doubt the evil spirit knew what a big mistake it had made by choosing Anne as its target.

Puff!

Startled, Anne swung out her fist and knocked the spirit to the ground.

Watching the spirit become increasingly translucent made me wonder if it was achieving its goal of startling us or if it was perishing from Anne’s hit. In any case, it seemed to be dying as a ghost.

“Wow, that startled me…”

At this rate, the spirit would actually end up catching a real person instead.

…By the way, I also learned not to scare Anne after having been hit myself while trying to startle her.

“Hmm… this room has a different structure, doesn’t it?”

While we all moved together but checked different rooms, Frecia called us over as if she had found something.

“What’s up, Boss?”

I was closest to her, so I followed Frecia into the room.

Creeeak, thud. Click.

However, as soon as I entered, I heard the sound of the door closing behind me. The clicking sound was likely the door locking.

Clunk, clunk.

Surely, the locking mechanism must have been on the inside, but no matter how much I turned the doorknob, it wouldn’t budge.

Thud, thud, thud.

“Selian? Anne?”

I called out to Selian and Anne beyond the old door, but there was no response. Even banging loudly with enough force to break it down didn’t elicit a reaction from the old door.

“Hmm… this feels like the spirits are playing a trick on us…”

“For spirits, this door is exceptionally sturdy, don’t you think?”

“Maybe it’s because we’re in the basement that the negative energy is stronger. There’s no sunlight even during the day, and it hasn’t been cleaned in ages.”

The chill I felt going down the stairs was not just a sensation, it seemed.

In this sealed-off room with no windows, the only door to the outside was utterly unyielding.

I was contemplating asking Frecia to use magic to break down the door when a sentence slowly began to appear above it.

『 A room you can only exit after hugging for 10 minutes.』

“Hmm? Boss, do you want to see this?”

“…I saw it.”

No matter how strong the negative energy had become, it seemed like the essence of playful spirits.

What they had trapped us for was not to harm us but simply to hug.

“Well then, come on, Boss.”

It wasn’t anything difficult; instead of annoying the spirits unnecessarily, it was better to comply and get out.

So I spread my arms wide and called out to Frecia.

“Uh…? That is… okay…”

Frecia hesitated for a moment but eventually agreed to my suggestion and came into my embrace.

Although she wasn’t as bulky as Yuli or Selian, who had more body volume, Frecia was still small for her age. It would have been awkward if it had been Yuli or Selian, but Frecia was still comfortably manageable.

“Are you feeling cramped or anything?”

A few minutes passed, and I wondered if I was squeezing too tightly, loosening my grip slightly to check. Fortunately, Frecia seemed fine.

“…If the spirits pick on us, it could get troublesome, so you can hold me tighter.”

Thinking about it, that was a possibility. If the spirits decided not to acknowledge us and we wasted another 10 minutes, that wouldn’t be great.

“Well then, bear with it a little longer.”

“You can hold me tighter….”

Of course, squeezing Frecia too tightly with my trained body could lead to complications.

“Tighter. More… Yes, good….”

As I slowly tightened my embrace around Frecia, she responded with the limits she could endure.

Clunk.

After holding her firmly for a full 10 minutes within reasonable limits, the spirits seemed to have nothing to criticize and calmly unlocked the door.

Once I released Frecia and turned the doorknob, it opened smoothly as if nothing had happened.

And as soon as the door swung open, Frecia, face flushed from how cramped it had been, bolted out of the room.

Even though she said she was fine, I figured a delicate body like hers must have felt a strain. Maybe I should have let her hug me instead.

By the way, where on earth is Yuli?

 

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