Chapter 48
“I think something happened to my friend!”
Luciel tightly held his hand while biting her lips.
“For now, let’s go together. Just the two of us. If the Duke finds out about this, I would be scolded for taking you outside.”
“Should we leave a note?”
“That’d be nice, otherwise everyone will be concerned.”
[I’m going to go see the stars with Grandpa. Don’t worry.]
After Luciel left a note on the table in her room, she wrapped her bag around her and put on a cloak.
“Luciel, let’s go.”
“Yes!”
Gillard reached out to Luciel. The two decided to go into his study and move out from there.
“It is quite far from the academy, so I will use the mobile portal I made.”
Gillard said so and pulled out a long green staff from the air.
It was a staff studded with emeralds in the shape of laurel leaves. Gillard gathered mana and created a vertical green magic circle that floated in the air next to him.
Paah!
A subtle light emanated from the magic circle, and it gradually became bigger, turning into a mobile portal. It looked like it could be passed through like a door. The spatial magic engraved on the ring from last time was cool, but the mobile portal felt more magnificent.
“Luciel, I’ll go in first and look around, so you follow me slowly.”
“Yes!”
Luciel also summoned her wand with a nervous expression on her face. Holding the wand tightly in her hand, Luciel watched as Gillard entered the green mobile portal.
Soon his back seemed to be completely submerged in a green wave, then disappeared. Holding a beating heart, Luciel closed her eyes and stepped into the mobile portal.
It felt soft against the skin as if she had entered a shimmering lake.
“Luciel, the teleportation is over. Were you nervous?”
Gillard leaned down and lightly shook Luciel’s shoulder. The little girl with her eyes tightly closed was so cute that she put a smile on his lips. Luciel opened her eyes and looked around.
The academy building was visible in front of her. They arrived at a nearby street. It was late at night, and there was no one on the street.
“We have arrived safely.”
Gillard nodded his head, then looked at Luciel and asked,
“Now, I think it’s time to be honest, Luciel. Is that secret friend Kizef?”
“Oh…… How did you know?”
Luciel’s cheeks turned red. He tapped Luciel’s small, soft nose with his finger.
“How could I not know? By the way, first, let’s go to the dorm room and find Kizef. Put the wand back in.”
“Yes. I wish nothing happened.”
“I hope so too”.
He asked the dormitory manager and went to find his grandson, but all he got back was that Kizef was not in the dormitory. A darker shadow was cast on Luciel and Gillard’s faces.
“I am the child’s grandfather. Let me see the child’s room.”
When they went to Kizef’s room, there was no owl.
“Did he send you a letter?”
“Perhaps not.”
Luciel took out the flute, which the zookeeper had given her when she picked up Bell, from the carrot bag. Then went to the window and blew hard.
Pwii!!
The clear sound of the flute spread outside the window.
Somewhere a hoot-like cry from an owl rang. It was Bell’s cry.
“Oh! This is Bell’s cry! I’m sure she’s close. Bell! Bell!”
“Is she outside?”
Luciel, who had been looking around while Gillard opened the window to listen better, turned her head and inadvertently saw Kizef’s desk.
There was a piece of paper with something written on it, and the word “Forbidden Zone Forest” had been circled several times.
“Look. He must have already gone there.”
“I see. We’ll have to go to the forbidden area before it’s too late.”
As the two of them came down to the entrance, the dormitory manager approached and said,
“Four other children in the dormitory have also disappeared.”
“A student named Maximus?”
At Luciel’s question, the supervisor nodded his head.
When they all went to Maximus’s room, pitiful Bell had her legs tied to the bed and buried her head in her wings. When Luciel came in, Bell lifted her head and cried a sad hoot.
“Bell!”
“Where have all these kids gone?”
The supervisor muttered in confusion.
“Luciel, how long has it been since you last communicated with Kizef?”
“I think at least a day has passed.”
“Then, after today, two days passed, and you didn’t know that there were no children during that time?”
“I’ve never seen them go out. I didn’t know they were not in the room because it was a holiday without classes.”
The supervisor could not continue to answer Gillard’s questions. Besides, he had a personal appointment yesterday and was away. He rolled his feet, the academy was going to hold him accountable if it was found out that children were missing.
Luciel took a step closer to such a supervisor and met his eyes.
“Oh, my god, what am I going to do…..” (Supervisor)
“If you answer one question, I won’t tell the Academy about it.” (Luciel)
The man held his breath, and asked back,
“Question?”
“Give me the location of the Academy’s forbidden zone.”
“Th……that.”
“We are trying to find the missing students.”
The supervisor was worried because there was an instruction from his superiors to not answer anyone’s questions about the prohibited area. However, since several students have disappeared, now was not the time to think about the fine details.
“Go to the west gate of the academy and follow the road, there is a barrier. Beyond that wall is the forbidden zone.”
“Thank you. Luciel, let’s go.”
“Yes, Grandpa.”
When they went as the supervisor had told, there was indeed a temporary wall erected in a gloomy place.
Is there a reason to put up a wall to block a place where a fire broke out?
While Luciel was puzzled, Gillard took out the wand covered in laurels once more. His fluttering dark green cloak also suited him well.
Gillard said with a frown on one eyebrow,
“Should I break this wall or go over it?”
Luciel, who had been walking around the wall while observing the surroundings said,
“Grandpa, there is a more peaceful way than that.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Here, there is a dog hole. Apparently the children came in and out often.”
“They are troublemakers for going in and out of dangerous places.”
Gillard clicked his tongue, and Luciel thought to herself.
‘If it’s Maximus, that’s understandable. Then, did they all go in there? Kizef doesn’t usually hang out with them.….’
All questions will be solved when they go through that wall.
“Grandpa, come in.”
Luciel went into the hole first, beckoning Gillard to follow her.
“Luciel, that hole is too narrow for me to go through. I will cross over with magic.”
Having said that, Gillard used spatial magic to teleport over the wall. He waited for Luciel to come out of the hole and she was startled.
“Grandpa, you moved first…”
Luciel, too, was startled by the sight unfolding in front of her, and widened her eyes.
It was a mysterious and dreamy forest. It was strange, as if the entire forest was enveloped in light.
Familiar looking children were lying on the floor. The last time she went to the academy, they were right there with Maximus. However, Kizef and Maximus were nowhere to be seen.
‘Where have you two gone?’
“How did this happen?”
“I don’t know either. But… I can feel a strong enough energy to affect the entire forest. With this level of energy, there must be something here, Luciel.”
Gillard also moistened his lips with his tongue in tension. Luciel quietly pondered his words. A powerful energy…. so maybe there are even traces of that legendary animal, the Phoenix?
“Luciel, let’s see if the kids are okay first.”
“Yes.”
Luciel nodded her head and walked up to a child. She put her hand on his nose and checked his pulse, and luckily it was beating.
“They are alive. I think they just passed out.”
“Looks like that. Luciel, what are you going to do? Will you keep these children here? Or shall we hang up the shield and move together?”
Gillard, who was looking around, seemed to have read Luciel’s curious eyes.
“Looking into your eyes, it’s the latter.”
Luciel smiled shyly and nodded her head. Gillard carefully gathered the children together and laid them down. Then he shouted a trigger word to the floor. The ground began to be dyed with a green magic circle.
“Tree Shield.”
A large green tree trunk grew and took on a round shape like a hut to protect children.
“Wow.”
Gillard shrugged his shoulders at Luciel, who was admiring with an open mouth.
“Amazing.”
“They will be safe now.”
The two went into the forest a little deeper through the bushes. They went inside for a long time and found an old and faded building that looked like ruins.
Luciel seemed to know what it was. It was the botanical garden that had been burned down in the fire. But strangely, there was no soot or black burn marks. Inside, countless flowerpots, sculptures, flower beds, and plant name tags were scattered around, suggesting that this place was a botanical garden in the past.
Maximus was passed out nearby.
“Here, this is the child named Maximus, but only Kizef…… I can’t see him.”
Luciel’s face, who was looking around, darkened even more. It was because she thought that Kizef might be in danger.
“……Where is Kizef?”
“He would be nearby. I’ll look for him with detection magic.”
Gileat sprayed mana nearby with detection magic to find something. There was something that caught his eye at once.
“Luciel, wait a minute, there is something painted on the floor.”
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She paused and looked down.
A round pattern reminiscent of flower petals was drawn on the stone floor. It wasn’t only one. At least dozens of stones had the pattern all over them.
‘What is this?’
Luciel carefully rolled her feet over the stones to make sure the floor was safe. Then the light began to shine from the pattern.
“Huh? Grandpa, if you step on it twice, it shines.”