While looking at the numerous doors along the room walls, Rei recalled the shape of the Marschel family residence.

It was a large U-shaped mansion, which Rei and the others had sneaked into from one side, searched a room, and found a set of stairs, leading them to the room they were currently in.

「In other words……does that mean every room has a set of stairs leading down to this basement?」

「……I guess so.」

Nakuto agreed with Rei’s mutters.

If that was the case, it was understandable why they would have found a hidden set of stairs in the first room they searched.

It’s not like they had randomly entered a room with a hidden staircase, if all the rooms had stairs, it was only natural for them to find one.

And……

「Mm.」

Hearing Byune’s voice, they turned their gazes to the opposite side from where they had entered.

There was only a wall on that side, there were no doors like the one Rei and the others had come through.

This 65 square meter room only had doors on one side.

It wasn’t hard to understand what that meant.

「So there’s another room on the other side of this where you can enter from the other side of the mansion. ……That means.」

Instead of looking at the wall they came through, or the opposite wall, they looked to the wall on the right.

There was a single door there.

It was clear what door represented.

「Is that door the only way out of this basement? So it’s quite possible that Tivia is behind that door.」

「Mm.」

Byune nodded with a single sound at Rei’s words and Nakuto’s expression tightened.

「I hope there’s a strong opponent.」

As for Vihera, as usual, she shrugged her shoulders as she murmured to herself, imagining a fight with a formidable enemy.

「Then, do we want to go to the door? Or……」

While muttering to himself, Rei’s gaze turned to several tables and chairs placed in the corner of the large room. To put it mildly, he couldn’t help feeling that something wasn’t right about the room.

However, as far as he could tell, there’s was nothing really suspicious. Every seemed to be used by the Marschel family, so there were high quality goods, but even so, he felt that there had to be a trick.

At Rei’s question, Nakuto hesitated for a few seconds before giving a small nod and speaking.

「Well, let’s investigate. Even if we don’t investigate it now and move on, it will continue to bug us later. Even if there’s strange with them, it would be better to find out now.」

In the end, everyone chose to go with Nakuto’s plan and they started walking over to the table and chairs in the corner of the room.

Vihera seemed bored because it didn’t look like there would be anyone strong to fight.

Stuffed animals and vases were lined up on the table with flowers arranged in the vases.

「The flowers are still fresh. In that case, it’s probably safe to assume that this room is used quite often.」

Nakuto quietly examined the flowers as he spoke. When Rei and the others heard that, their expressions tightened slightly as they carefully looked around.

If someone frequented this room, then it was impossible to say that this was a safe space.

Of course, as a secret room in the Marschel residence, their enemy’s home base, it was never safe to being with, but it was only natural that the degree of danger in a room would change based on how often it was used.

Leaving Rei and Vihera to watch the surroundings, Nakuto and Byune continued to search the table and its surroundings for anything of note.

However, they didn’t find anything in particular and there wasn’t a lot to investigate, so it took them less than a minute.

「……No good. There’s nothing of note. I think it would be better to quietly head for the door.」

「Mm.」

Nakuto muttered regretfully and Byune nodded in agreement.

Since they hadn’t thought they would find anything anyway, they didn’t have any real regrets for taking a look. ……No, rather, Rei nodded with satisfaction as he turned to look over at the lone door on one side of the room.

At that moment, a doll that had been placed on the table twitched, before leaping off it towards Rei as it pulled out a thin long needle that was hidden within its body, suddenly attacking.

「Woah-!」

It was only pure coincidence that Rei saw that.

As a doll, they didn’t have any signs of presence and they had no murderous intent.

For Rei, who commonly sensed and deal with enemies that had murderous intent, it was a sort of natural counter.

However, luckily for him in this unfortunate situation……really by coincidence, Rei had just been turning his head past the doll that was on the table, and thanks to that, realised that something was speeding straight for his head.

The doll flew straight past Rei’s face, who dodged it immediately, and it seemed like it would hit the ceiling……but it flipped itself around as it landed on the ceiling.

Rei didn’t recognise what kind of magic was used in the doll, but as soon as he recognised it as a type of magic item, he took out the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring and entered a fighting stance.

Fortunately, Rei and the others were inside a large room, so unlike the room where they had found the stairs, there was plenty of space to swing the Death Scythe around.

A momentary stalemate.

The doll was the first to break it.

Just like before, it jumped off the ceiling without any murderous intent as it flew towards Rei with needle in hand.

「If I can see it, then it’s not a problem!」

Rei swung the Death Scythe at the doll flying straight for his face.

A brief connection.

The next moment, the doll hit the floor, the impact splitting its body in half as it rolled over.

「……A doll?」

Nakuto quietly approached the doll that had been killed……no, stopped functioning, after Rei’s strike.

Nakuto had seen a lot of unusual things as a thief of the fairly well known party Sonic Blades, but the sight of a doll attacking them was unexpected.

Of course, Golem like monsters, known as Puppets, sometimes appeared in the dungeon. But, they weren’t as small as this doll.

The doll, which was about 20cm tall, was cut into 10cm halves by the Death Scythe.

As Nakuto reached for the upper body……

「Mm!」

「Die!」

Byune threw out a needle that nailed the doll to the ground, stopping it from moving.

That’s right, doll had been about to throw its needle at Nakuto with just its upper body.

「……I’m sorry.」

「Mm.」

In response to Nakuto’s word’s of gratitude, as he gulped, Byune responded to tell him it wasn’t a problem. This time, he reached out for the doll that had definitely stopped moving.

When he touched it, it didn’t seem like there was a magic stone inside that could be used as a power source. It was just a normal doll stuffed with cotton.

At the very least, Nakuto didn’t think it was capable of jumping off a table and leaping towards someone with that speed, let alone stick to the ceiling.

「……Anything?」

「Mm.」

Byune shook her head at Vihera’s question.

Still, she brought the two halves of the doll over to Rei to see if they could find anything out from it.

「Mm.」

Rei, who was still holding his Death Scythe, looked at the remains of the doll that Byune held out before turning to Vihera.

「She’s telling you to store it into your item box.」

「Mm!」

Byune nodded as she handed the doll to Rei and, although he had a slight expression of distaste, he knew that they couldn’t just leave it here and reluctantly stored it into the Misty Ring.

From Rei’s perspective, it had never leaked any murderous intent……and, at first glance, it seemed nothing more than a doll.

(Pree Marschel……I had heard from Elena that she was researching a technique to infuse magic into gems……but, she turned out to be a trickster.)

He thought bitterly in his heart as he turned his eyes to back to the door.

The door they had entered from was line up against a wall with more doors at equally spaced intervals, which would all lead to the mansion above. In that case, this other door was the only way to keep going in the basement.

「……Let’s go.」

Everyone nodded at Rei’s words.

When they finally arrived at the door, Byune and Nakuto checked to see if there were any traps.

Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any traps and Nakuto opened the door while everyone else was on guard. And what they saw inside was……

「Again?」

Nakuto muttered involuntarily.

It was no wonder. After opening the door, there was a passage with many more doors along it.

At the end of the passageway, there was similar door to the one Nakuto had just opened.

Considering that the building was U-shaped, it was obvious that the door at the other end would lead them to a similar room as the one they had just been in.

Even so, they had to be careful as they made their way down the passage.

It was a fairly long passage and if each door led to a separate room, it was probably too much space to fit in just the Marschel family’s ground.

「Now then, what should we do? Since we don’t know where Tivia is, it would be better to check each door……」

「As expected, that would be troublesome and take too much time.」

At Rei’s words, Vihera shrugged her shoulders, as if to apologise.

Luckily, the passage was equipped with a number of magic lights, so darkness wasn’t an issue. No matter how good their night vision was, it was better to have light.

「But, without any other clues……」

From Nakuto’s point of view, it would be fine if they opened a door randomly and found Tivia. But, if they missed Tivia’s room, they would have to keep on searching.

「Well, seeing as we need to look for evidence that they are also involved with the matter of abnormal species, isn’t it better to adopt Nakuto’s plan here?」

「Mm!」

Byune nodded at Rei’s words.

As far as Byune was concerned, she had some history with the Marschel family, and she was hoping to have some vengeance in this situation, even if just a little.

As the only descendant of the Fraut family, there was no doubt that she had a strong attachment to Exil. Abnormal species were currently in danger of leading Exil to ruin. Knowing that the Marschel family and the Church of Holy Light had manipulated the Levisor family, who had been researching abnormal species, she couldn’t just ignore it.

「Haah, I understand. ……No enemies have appeared, and even if they do, Rei can easily defeat them. Honestly, I wonder why I’m even here.」

Vihera muttered as she shrugged her shoulders, causing her large breasts to sway.

There was no way Rei or Nakuto would tell her that she was there to interpret for Byune, so they just kept quite as they thought about whether to open the left or right door.

「……It’s the same either way, isn’t it?」

「We know.」

Vihera seemed a little dissatisfied with Rei’s response, but Rei and the others didn’t seem to pay any attention to her as the opened a door……the next moment, a smell drifted out from the room.

The smell that wafted out was pungent, stimulating their noses.

There were several potted plants in the room. There were also various magic formations drawn around the potted plants and things that appeared to be magic items. The potted plants themselves had vines that wriggled like tentacles. It was a strange lot of plants in many ways and as they grew, they emitted a green glow alongside the pungent smell that spread throughout the room.

Rei, who knew some of the plants from Zepairu’s knowledge and other information he had read, spoke up.

「They’re turning specific plants into magic plants using magic power. ……I see.」

For now, Rei prompted Nakuto to close the door as there didn’t seem to be any particular clues.

「Rei?」

Seeing that, Vihera asked Rei curiously as she looked at the next door……the one opposite the door they had just closed.

「No, I just thought that room was probably one of the reasons why the Marschel family was collecting magic stones like the Levisor family. Turning those plants into magic plants and maintaining them would require a considerable number of magic stones.」

「There were certainly quite a few magic stones inside that room.」

「Mm.」

Nakuto muttered his thoughts as he had looked around quickly after opening the door. Byune nodded as well.

Spotting and identifying things were definitely a thief’s strong point.

「Anyway, that room didn’t have what we need. Next.」

Everyone nodded at those words and Nakuto gently reached out to the door Rei was looking at.

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