As a Treasure Hunter, night vision was a given, but Saya's eyes pierced through the darkness as though it were broad daylight.
Saya carefully observed the classroom door — the space she had passed through to reach the Ghost Classroom.
The rift she had forced open to break in was nowhere to be found. The girl-type Phantom had probably sealed it shut.
*'I'm trapped... I need to find an exit.'* This was undoubtedly a Treasure Hall — the kind that existed in a dimension separate from the real world.
Treasure Halls frequently turned out to be far larger on the inside than they appeared from without. The scale varied, but it wasn't unheard of.
Exploring a Treasure Hall was simply like that.
At the very least, she now understood how the disappearances were happening.
Intelligent Phantoms were generally considered dangerous. That girl-type Phantom was probably the ruler of this space.
Just then, Lucia, who had been taking deep, steadying breaths, stepped forward and asked in a slightly hushed voice, "Hah... hah... Saya. Where are we?"
"...The Ghost Classroom. I think it's a Treasure Hall. I forced the entrance open to get in, but we can't get out... I'm sorry."
She had dragged Lucia into this. At the very least, she should have said something before prying it open.
She didn't know why she had been able to force open the entrance in the first place.
But perhaps the nature of this Treasure Hall was similar to something her mystic eyes could perceive.
That was likely why she had been able to interfere with the Ghost Classroom's entrance — a place that normally only appeared when trapping prey — and deal damage to that incomprehensible Phantom.
And Thousand Transformations had surely sent her to resolve this incident precisely because they had noticed that.
How far ahead did they see? The rumored ability of divine foresight and supernatural strategy might not have been an empty boast after all.
But the immediate problem was Lucia. She had just started to think they could become friends, and in her eagerness to show off, she had gotten her tangled up in this.
There was probably an exit. A place that connected to the outside — because if it didn't, the supply of Mana Materials would be cut off and the Treasure Hall would lose its form. But that was mere speculation.
How should she explain herself? Her palms were starting to sweat.
At that moment, Lucia, who had been silent until now, suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Aaaahhhh, come on!! Come ON! Come ooooon!!"
"!?"
"I got fooled again... I can't believe even you, Saya, would pull something like this the moment you showed up!!"
Lucia stomped her feet like a petulant child. Saya stood there, dumbfounded, when Lucia looked at her and said, "I'm sorry, Saya. Our leader does this all the time — targeting people's weak spots... I've gotten into trouble because of that so many times..."
She was apologizing in return? It was a first for Saya, who momentarily lost for words.
Lucia Roje did not think for a single instant that being trapped in this Treasure Hall was Saya's fault. On the contrary, she considered Saya the victim.
She thought of the Night Banquet Temple, feared throughout the city and treated as a pariah, as a victim. What a kind-hearted girl.
"Lucia, it's fine. I don't have any weak spots."
Saya put force behind her words to keep Lucia from worrying any further, and Lucia nodded over and over as if convincing herself.
"...Right. I see, I see..."
"Lucia, you're not going to blame me? Even though we're trapped in here..."
"It's fine. It's fine, Saya, calm down. This is a Treasure Hall — it's impossible for there to be no exit. Absolutely impossible. The Mana Material supply can't be cut off, you know, so calm down."
Lucia patted her own cheeks as she spoke. She was clearly the one who needed to calm down, but... oh well.
Even if there was no exit, they could just track down the Phantom they had encountered earlier and take it down.
That Phantom had definitely been manipulating the entrance they had come through. It seemed to understand language too, so if they captured it, they might learn what had happened to the victims of the disappearances. They were probably already dead, though.
The question was whether they could beat that Phantom — it was certainly no ordinary being, but the way it desperately dodged Saya's attacks suggested it wasn't the fighting type.
It was different from the Monsters and Phantoms she had fought before in that it could see visitors, but if Lucia provided cover and they managed a surprise attack, they should be able to capture it.
In the code, she had slipped up and shown a pathetic side to Klein. She couldn't let her little brother see the same thing.
If anything, since they were about to become friends, she wanted Lucia to see her strengths.
But Lucia had her own commission to fulfill — investigating the cause of the disappearances and tracking down the vanished people.
Normally, when a victim was already deceased, evidence of their death was required.
"Lucia, Klein and I split up during the code, but—"
"We'll stay together! This is an unknown Treasure Hall, after all."
"...Alright. Got it."
She had been about to suggest splitting up for a more efficient search, but she was shot down in a flash.
Well, avoiding solo exploration in an unknown Treasure Hall was common sense, but... a mage of Lucia's caliber should be capable of operating alone. She was remarkably cautious. Perhaps it was Saya, who had always been active solo, whose behavior was out of the ordinary— "Got it. Who goes in front?"
"Saya, you take the front... no, wait. Should I be in front? But..."
"...?"
Lucia mumbled to herself, words tumbling out one after another. The way she muttered, lost in thought, didn't look at all like a supremely skilled mage. Well, the vast mana contained within her was certainly impressive to behold— Lucia mumbled for a while before nodding firmly and saying to Saya, "Let's walk side by side."
"Side by side... that works."
Side by side was unusual for a Treasure Hall exploration. Normally, people divided into front and back positions. Was this standard practice in the Imperial Capital, perhaps?
But it might not be bad. It would be easier to talk than standing one behind the other, and she could read Lucia's expressions too.
Lucia took her place at Saya's side. The more she looked, the more put-together the girl's features appeared.
She didn't much resemble her brother, though perhaps the odd things she said were a little similar.
Saya immediately opened the door and checked the hallway.
The building she had thought quite impressive on the way here — the Zebuldea Magic Academy — looked entirely different shrouded in darkness.
It was dim, quiet enough for their footsteps to echo, and a chilly, bone-cold air flowed through.
There were no signs of life so far, but if this was a Treasure Hall, Phantoms were almost certainly present. Whether they counted as living beings, she wasn't sure— Shortly after they began walking, Lucia called out softly to Saya.
"Saya... would it be okay to light a light?"
"Hm? ...Can't you see?"
"...I can. But I thought it might be easier for you to see with some light."
Lucia's expression was earnest. But for a Hunter who could see through the pitch of night, there was no benefit to lighting a lamp.
If anything, it might draw the Phantoms' attention.
"Thanks. But I'm fine seeing in the dark as it is. Besides, I think having a light would make us more likely to get attacked."
"...Understood. I suppose that can't be helped."
Lucia looked down and gave a small nod.
A mage was the linchpin for most Parties. Using the right magic for the situation and maintaining composure at all times to support the battle — that was what was required. Guarding, scouting — those jobs belonged to a full-Pty mage's, not a solo one.
Lucia right now seemed overly concerned with her surroundings. Perhaps she was still in the process of gauging Saya's abilities.
She walked idly over to a window. Outside was pitch black — nothing visible at all. Not so much dense darkness as simply emptiness.
When she touched the windowsill, she could feel a layer of accumulated dust. Lucia spoke while cautiously scanning the dim hallway.
"This space is a little different from the real academy."
"How so?"
"Well, how should I put it... it's old. The building outside was recently rebuilt after my brother made a huge mess—"
"...Does Klein always do stuff like that?"
When she had heard he was suspended, she hadn't understood why. But maybe it made sense after all.
Pulling herself together, she said to Lucia, "At any rate, getting into this Treasure Hall might have been a stroke of luck. Let's find the victims and the exit and get out quickly. We probably can't sneak back in after this."
Once the Phantom learned that Saya could force open an invisible door, it would surely take some kind of countermeasure. They couldn't afford to waste time.
If this incident got resolved quickly, they might even have time to hang out.
"I'll use my ability to search for victims. Let's focus on finding the exit."
If any victims were alive, they needed to secure an escape route.
At the word "exit," Lucia's eyebrow twitched.
"An exit... Saya, I want to confirm something. Before the Ghost Classroom, could you see another door with your eyes?"
"Yes."
She had only stated the situation plainly, but Lucia understood immediately. Lucia pressed a finger to her lips and thought for a moment before asking, "Could you see a door in front of the Confession Magic Tree as well?"
The Confession Magic Tree. After the visitors were sent into the academy grounds to investigate, it was one of the things they had flagged.
The absurd rumor that if you confessed your love under that tree and failed, the tree would eat both of you — something no one would ever dare test.
The visitors had called Saya over because a strange, mist-like haze was floating in front of the tree.
It had dissipated quickly in the end, but come to think of it, that could indeed have been a door as well.
"Now that you mention it, it did look similar to what was in front of the Ghost Classroom. It disappeared quickly, though..."
She didn't know why it had vanished, but it had seemed more like it disappeared naturally rather than being deliberately erased.
And once the door was gone, even Saya's abilities couldn't do anything about it.
"So that means the Magic Tree rumor was also connected to the disappearances?"
"There's a possibility. No victims have been reported, but still."
She had been shown the compiled documents on disappearance-related rumors, and there were indeed all sorts of stories circulating. On their own, it would just be "there are lots of rumors" — end of story. But once a Treasure Hall and an intelligent Phantom were involved, the situation became entirely different.
If that Phantom had been spreading those rumors, the quality gap between them was absurd.
That Phantom might not have cared about quality at all — it was flooding the area with rumors and luring anyone who took the bait into the Treasure Hall.
Just like a spider spinning its web and waiting for prey.
Lucia took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a few seconds, and then spoke as if she had made up her mind.
"Saya, Zebuldea Magic Academy has... many other rumors as well."
"!! I see..."
Other rumors. The door in front of the Magic Tree had disappeared, and the Ghost Classroom's door had been sealed, but the doors at the locations of other rumors might still be there.
Doors that could enable travel between the real world and this space.
The problem was that the Phantom might try to erase the remaining doors. The reason Lucia hadn't finished her sentence was probably because she was thinking the Phantom might be listening.
But it was worth a try. Saya signaled to the Shadow Beings nearby with a glance.
*'Find that Phantom from before and attack it. Be relentless enough that it can't spare a moment for us.'* It seemed that new visitors couldn't be summoned here. The only usable ones were the ones that had followed Saya in when she had entered the Ghost Classroom.
But few as they were, it should be enough. Even though her ability could now activate during the day as well, the true power of the Night Banquet Temple was still best displayed in the dark.
The three Shadow Beings exchanged glances and then, from the ground up, shattered into pieces right where they stood. Each fragment became a smaller Shadow Being and scattered throughout the hallway.
No matter how large the Zebuldea Magic Academy was, they would find and pin down that Phantom in no time.
As if sensing something, Lucia shuddered, her shoulders trembling.
Saya stared intently, searing the sight of the Shadow Beings' dispersal into her eyes, then turned to Lucia, whose expression held a trace of unease, and said, "There. That should do it. Lucia, let's check the places one by one. Don't worry — if we combine our strength, we'll definitely make it work."