"That's me alright."
The soldier breathed out a sigh of relief and produced a sealed letter from one of his saddlebags.
"This is for you. As compensation for making you play along with our plan. Princess Sella sends her regards."
I took the letter and thanked the soldier. After he rode off into the distance, Priya and I headed into a quiet alley nearby to take a look at the contents of the letter.
"Oh! Looks like Cyrus did our work for us, hehe!"
"That's more like it." I grinned. "Let's head back to Lucrezia and Antenora!"
The two of us made our way out of the city pretty easily. The guards only inspected people who were entering, so they didn't even spare us a glance when we left.
Part of me was worried that Lucrezia and Antenora would be missing when we returned to the campsite, but my worries were completely unfounded. They'd already lit the campfire and begun cooking dinner by the time we arrived.
I nearly breathed out a sigh of relief before I realized just how unrealistic my worries actually were. I mean, the Black Constellation was prowling around these parts, but the campsite was close enough to Juryez that they wouldn't act openly and sortie into the woods.
Plus, Lucrezia and Antenora's skill levels had risen a lot since we started our journey and I even sparred against them from time to time.
They really weren't in much danger, and I realized the source of my worries stemmed from the fact that this was the first time I'd actually been apart from Lucrezia for an extended period of time ever since we met.
Well, there was the fight, but that doesn't count. Either way, I was quickly realizing that I was being oversensitive when it came to Lucrezia.
Looks like I really needed that conversation with Priya last night, huh?
"Well, that's one way to hide an underground library."
Lucrezia nodded at Antenora's remark. "Indeed. I doubt anyone would question an idrite mine, especially if it was meeting its quotas."
When I asked, Lucrezia explained that idrite was a rare and sometimes volatile stone that could produce various effects and interactions when infused with mana, making it a vital source for all the nations on the continent.
Apparently, nobles in the Zaltsel clan used it to power devices that were reminiscent of air conditioning back on Earth.
I assumed that it had similar uses in the Kingdom of Ardene.
Based on the information that we received from Cyrus, it would appear that the Black Constellation had hidden their underground library inside of a nearby mountain range to the west of Juryez, using the facade of running a mining operation to hide its existence.
Since the mine was actually producing results, the regional lord and their representatives had little incentive to actually inspect the internal structure of the mine and risk disturbing operations.
However, this raised quite an annoying issue even though we now had the location of their hideout.
I could probably use [Complete Analysis] to get a layout of the mine, but that'd probably raise questions. After what Priya said to me, maybe I should be a little more cautious.
"So, how the hell are we supposed to navigate this place?"
"They should have a mining camp nearby, right? If we can find the foreman's office, they probably have a rough map of the tunnels!" Priya said.
Lucrezia and Antenora agreed with Priya's suggestion and we set off to the mountain range.
When we arrived at the mountain range, we spotted a mining camp not too far from the foot of its tallest mountain. There were a few more camps spread out across the range, but they were much smaller than the one that we'd first spotted.
Priya pointed out a few moving torchlights in the distance, singling them out as sentries as we approached.
"Do you think you can hit them from this distance, Lucrezia?" I asked.
She nodded and began forming shards of ice that hovered in front of her palm.
It looked like she was going to attempt to snipe all of them at once. Honestly, I wasn't sure how well that'd turn out, but her skill levels were pretty high now and a few of the practice drills that we had helped raise her accuracy, so I was pretty sure it'd be fine.
The tip of Lucrezia's tongue protruded slightly from her lips as she focused on aiming her shots, the ice shards now spread out in a fan in front of her fingertips.
A second later and they all flew into the night, glittering beautifully in the moonlight before they found their targets. We saw the torchlights drop and slowly dim.
"Nice shots."
"It's all thanks to your help, Ryuuko!"
Though Lucrezia replied humbly, I could sense a hint of pride and excitement in her voice, putting a smile on my face. Although I didn't do much but sit there and get shot at, I was pretty happy that she was getting stronger and enjoying the fruits of her labor.
That's right. There's no need to worry about her anymore.
I nodded to myself in an effort to reinforce that thought before moving into the camp. We all spread out in an effort to locate the foreman's office quicker.
Thanks to my [Eagle Eye] skill, I was able to find the office rather easily thanks to the penetrative vision and magnified sight that it granted me.
The building was little more than a shack that could be quickly assembled and disassembled, and its interior was just as unimpressive.
There was a small desk made of a few logs stacked on top of one another and a chair with uneven legs. Documents were strewn all over the desk and a few of them littered the floor around it as well.
It wasn't too difficult to find the map of the mine despite the pile of papers that laid before me. It was the largest document of them all and placed smack dab in the middle of the desk.
I rolled it up and headed outside, reconvening with the others.
"The map looks somewhat incomplete, doesn't it?" Antenora mused.
"Actually, the missing sections are probably what we should be checking. I doubt those cultists let the miners anywhere near the library's entrance."
The four of us moved into the mine and were instantly greeted with a blast of stale air mixed with the smell of explosives. It seemed that gunpowder existed in this world after all.
The map was rather accurate, and thanks to that we were making good progress maneuvering to the first area that we thought was suspicious. The tunnels were completely empty, and our footsteps even echoed slightly in the silence.
It was pretty obvious that they hadn't bothered assigning any security other than the sentries we took down earlier.
"You know, this is strangely relaxing, isn't it?" Lucrezia said.
I looked at her with an inquisitive glance. Wandering into caves in the dead of night certainly wasn't my definition of relaxing.
"I mean, this is the first time we're not dealing with monsters inside of a cave!"
"Yeah, but I'd rather us not have to go into caves in the first place."
Lucrezia laughed. "Yeah, that's true. I hope this whole thing is over soon, too..."
With that, we fell silent again. I kept my eye out for anything out of the ordinary as we walked to our destination.
Earlier, I'd tried to use [Eagle Eye]'s penetrative vision in order to see through the cave walls, but my attempts were immediately blocked. Instead of seeing through the tunnels, all I could see was a black sphere of mana similar to the black dome that surrounded Count Oswald's castle.
Instead, I used [Complete Analysis] to obtain the layout of the tunnels. I had to pause for a moment due to the incredible overload of information. There was so much to know about this mine and tunnel system that I could understand what it felt like to lag in real life.
It really didn't help when the skill decided to show me the exact location and statuses of every living creature inside of the mine which included all of the insects and small animals. I couldn't even process this information, much less make use of it.
Thanks to my high wisdom stat, I was able to recover after only a few seconds of being stunned and quickly dismiss all of the information other than the layout allowing me to locate the entrance of the underground library.
Now that we had a map, there wouldn't be any issue with me "coincidentally" knowing the path to the entrance. If anyone asked, I could just say that I was simply lucky enough to have randomly picked the right tunnel to go.
"Give me a moment." I said, stepping in front of the others.
We'd stopped in front of a set of iron bars which blocked the way into one of the tunnels. Even if I hadn't used [Complete Analysis] it would've been pretty obvious that this was the way into the library.
I stopped myself before gripping the bars, using [Complete Analysis] on them first to ensure that they weren't enchanted before tearing them apart.
The library just a little further beyond those bars was nothing short of incredible. Even on Earth, I'd never seen anything like it.
The ceiling was high and vaulted, taking advantage of the large mountain that it was built within. The floor was finished with smooth white marble and lined with exquisite carpets. The bookcases reached to the ceiling and each of them were filled completely with tomes on a vast amount of subjects. The room was palatial to say the least.
Thanks to [Eagle Eye] I could pick out a few of the titles. Although most of the books I could see were treatises on magic and magical theory, there were also history and geography books.
I nearly caught myself sighing as I wished I had enough time to read all of these books and truly familiarize myself with the world. The rulebook was useful, but it wasn't a lorebook.
It was then that I realized the real problem.
How the hell are we going to find the book we need inside of this massive library!?