Reincarnated as a Genius Prodigy of a Prestigious Family - Chapter 126
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Reincarnated as a Legendary Talent Genius of a Noble Family Episode 126
79. This Is an Amazing Discovery
The Academy guards were exhausted to death from their recently doubled workload.
Every guard would think the same thing.
If the bastards who caused trouble at Saint Aimar’s Hall were right in front of them, they would have beaten them to a pulp.
“I’m dying, seriously.”
“Let’s just hang in there a little longer. About 20 minutes left now.”
“The 2 to 4 AM shift seems to be the hardest. We can barely get any sleep before coming out.”
“Tell me about it. Damn it. That bastard captain makes the duty roster however he wants. Do we have some kind of grudge against us or something?”
Guard duty is ultimately a battle against boredom. No matter how wide you keep your eyes open, you’re bound to relax unless you have an incredibly strong sense of mission.
Especially after the Imperial Investigation Team’s visit increased the intensity of their duties, the guards were now complaining of chronic fatigue.
Thanks to that, nodding off was commonplace.
The unique silence of the restricted zone also played a part.
“It really feels like ghosts might appear.”
“You know that feeling when you’re on duty sometimes and feel like you’re going crazy, right?”
And the mana barriers installed everywhere by Saul Hanston, as well as the Academy’s own mana barriers, added a strange sense of stuffiness.
Truly a damn awful working environment.
So all they could do was chat like this.
“But did you hear that story?”
“What story?”
“About that building in B District. You know, the place that mage fellow used as his research lab.”
“Ah. Saul Hanston?”
At his fellow guard’s words, the other guard nodded.
“Yeah. They say some sounds have been coming from there lately.”
“Sounds? But there’s nobody there.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“He must have heard things. In quiet places like this, even the sound of clothes rustling sounds like thunder. Who said that?”
“Who else? Davos.”
“Ugh. You believe what that guy says? When he drinks, he claims he killed a wyvern with his bare hands back in the day.”
“Is that so? Well, I guess.”
“Tell him to stop talking nonsense and just humor him a bit. It’s because there are guys like you who listen to him that he keeps doing it.”
As the two chatted away, the shift change time approached.
A pair of relief guards walking from the distance.
“Ugh, I thought I was going to die of boredom.”
“Hey guys. Give us the password first.”
And just as they were changing shifts—
“Now.”
The Magic Summoning Exploration Swordsmanship (Romance for short) club moved.
While the relief guards were distracted by each other, they moved stealthily and infiltrated behind the building in an instant.
“Huh?”
For a moment, one of them turned around and tilted his head.
“What is it?”
“Maybe a rabbit moved. It’s nothing.”
“Come on, we’re not waiting for you even if you do that. We’re exhausted to death.”
“Right. Go get some sleep. Ugh, this is so tiresome. When will this shift ever end?”
So the original guards left, and the new relief guards took their positions.
Of course, they didn’t notice at all.
That four students had just passed behind them and safely reached the building that was once Saul Hanston’s research laboratory.
We made it through safely for now.
Getting to the restricted zone wasn’t difficult.
The infiltration afterward wasn’t difficult either.
Thanks to Ernest scouting the route beforehand.
So we safely arrived in front of the building now—
“Karnas.”
“Kirik.”
Even Karnas was instinctively making low crying sounds in the silence as he prepared to melt the mana barrier.
“Wow, my heart is pounding.”
“This is no joke…”
Even whispers that didn’t sound like exclamations seemed as loud as a carriage rolling at dawn.
“Shh.”
Now it was Karnas’s turn.
I surrounded us with a simply colored mana barrier to block the light from the flames from leaking out in advance.
“You know what to do?”
“Kirik.”
Karnas immediately breathed out flames.
Whoooosh!
As the flames touched the mana barrier, it melted away without fail.
No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t make sense.
A dragon is a dragon indeed.
Not only mana barriers, but even the arcanium that Bulbark said couldn’t be done.
“Kirik!”
Karnas let out a low cry with a proud expression, and I patted the fellow’s head before gesturing.
“Let’s move.”
We immediately entered safely inside the mana barrier.
Whirrrrr…
And as soon as I passed through last, the barrier regenerated.
Seeing it regenerate even after being hit by dragon flames, that side is also quite impressive. What exactly was Saul Hanston doing?
The first and last 9-Chain mage after the fall of the Magic Kingdom Arcana. And the countless spells he created and theories he established.
I wonder if he knew something about Arcana.
Anyway, that’s something to find out gradually.
Rustle rustle.
I turned around and made hand signals.
Ernest immediately sent a confirmation sign and stopped in front of the door leading to the basement right ahead.
“Now we just need to go inside.”
Since the mana barrier also blocks physical sounds, almost no sound should leak outside from now on.
But just as Ernest was reaching for the door.
“Wait a minute.”
I briefly stopped Ernest.
“Why?”
“There’s a barrier on the outer wall too.”
“Well of course… huh?”
A mana barrier flows along the outer wall as well.
But something’s different.
Karnas poked his head out asking if he needed to melt it again, but I shook my head.
“This… isn’t a mana barrier installed by Saul Hanston.”
The feeling is different.
Unlike Saul Hanston’s old mana barrier we just passed through, this one smells new.
And quite recently new at that.
Others might not know, but I can tell.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’m certain.”
“That means…”
The Academy wouldn’t have any reason to add an additional barrier to the outer wall when Saul Hanston’s mana barrier is already in place.
Mana barriers have two purposes.
One. To block intruders.
Two. To block outside observation so they don’t know what’s happening inside.
“It seems like someone else artificially installed this. To hide what’s happening inside.”
“…!”
This…
The type of tension is changing?
The previous tension was excitement and nervousness from anticipation about treasure.
But this exploration is slightly different.
How should I put it.
More artificial… similar to the emotions I felt when going on dangerous operations in my previous life.
“There might be people inside.”
Something is happening inside this building that was used as Saul Hanston’s Research Laboratory.
I had speculated, but this was the moment that speculation became reality, and it also explained the mana fluctuations Ernest had detected.
“Hmm.”
We haven’t been discovered yet.
“We can still go back now.”
So if we want to give up, now is the right time.
Of course, the other guys reacted intensely.
“How can we leave after coming this far?”
“Wouldn’t it be a shame to just go back?”
“What if the guys inside are bad guys? Then we’d have justification too, right?”
Right.
There’s no way you guys would do that.
“I think so too.”
And that last thing Leila said.
Justification.
“Bad guys, huh.”
The building that was used as Saul Hanston’s Research Laboratory.
The recently installed mana barrier on that research lab’s outer wall.
Something containing powerful mana.
“It smells fishy. Right?”
I curled up the corners of my mouth.
This is a place where there’s no reason for any of this to begin with.
Therefore, we now have a reason too.
“…But is it just me or has the scale gotten bigger than I expected?”
I chuckled at Ernest’s belatedly somewhat panicked expression.
“When was it ever not like that?”
Ernest had also uncovered the secret of Saint Aimar’s Hall. We all went exploring together, but who would have known such things would happen there?
“It’s okay. This time will end safely too.”
“Right? When you say it, Dane, it sounds so reassuring.”
Ernest brushed away his anxiety and got excited again like himself.
Good.
“Let’s do it.”
I tapped my chest, and immediately Karnas popped out again and aimed straight at the outer wall’s mana barrier as if he’d been waiting.
“Ki…reuk!”
Whoooosh!
Intense flames covered the basement door—
“Kireuk!”
The mana barrier melted much faster than Saul Hanston’s, and Karnas stopped the flames a bit quicker too.
“Going in.”
The target is the underground where the source of the fluctuations was detected.
This time I took the lead.
Because we’re entering the interior.
And as expected.
“It’s a trap.”
The path going down was full of traps.
From simple ones that detect when stepped on and sound alarms, to traps where arrows fly and floors collapse when you enter the area.
Plus gas dispensers.
Most importantly—
“They were installed not long ago.”
“Then…”
“It becomes more certain that there are people inside.”
I can’t stand the curiosity.
By the way, the trap design is a mess.
Setting up traps haphazardly in such a narrow passage.
It’s completely inefficient.
Well, should I see it as the will to block at all costs?
“Wait a moment.”
Thanks to that, it was convenient for me.
Ting. Piing!
Since they were installed haphazardly, I could dismantle multiple traps with each step.
“What is Dane doing?”
“Looks like he’s dismantling traps?”
“That simply?”
I could hear Priscilla and Leila’s amazed voices from behind, and Ernest was impressed too.
“I’ve never seen anyone dismantle traps that easily.”
Since Ernest is also from the Exploration Department, he would have learned enough about traps. For him to say that, it seems I learned properly from Mother.
Anyway.
“Done.”
I instantly dismantled all the traps in the passage. Cutting wires, retrieving machine cores, and completely destroying them with mana.
“Let’s go.”
As I strode forward, the other three quickly followed.
The stairs weren’t very long.
Finally reaching the end, I held my breath and concentrated before opening the door.
“This is it.”
I can feel it.
The intense mana energy transmitted from beneath the floor.
The energy feels similar to the mana barrier that Saul Hanston had set up.
And….
“There’s no one here for now.”
“Th-thank goodness.”
“Of course, we don’t know. Whether there’s no one here right now.”
It’s too early to let our guard down.
The important thing is to quickly sweep the 1st and 2nd floors to check for traces and head to the basement.
“We can’t split up. Leila. Take the rear guard.”
Now that we’ve confirmed there are no people, it’s time to move quickly.
Creak.
The moment I opened the basement door, it became even more certain.
“What is… all this?”
Traces of people having been inside.
Various items scattered here and there.
Bedding and all kinds of food ingredients.
Anyone could see that someone had been ‘staying’ here.
“Look at this.”
Things are getting interesting.
I quickly examined the items.
Convenience food, bedding, and even personal belongings.
It feels like they stayed here for quite a long time.
“Did they really come from the Academy for investigation?”
“It doesn’t seem like it.”
For that to be the case, the designs of the items are too varied.
If they really came for investigation, the Academy would have provided the necessary items for staying….
Most importantly, they wouldn’t have investigated so secretly like this.
“We need to investigate a bit more.”
There are no people here right now.
But they might return someday.
So we need to finish our investigation before then.
“Let’s go downstairs.”
The mana energy I can feel right below.
That’s where we start.
First, we quickly checked the 1st and 2nd floors and came back.
Fortunately, there was nothing special on the upper floors.
It seems people only stay here.
“Let’s find out what kind of fellows they are.”
We now headed to basement level 2, and the moment we opened the door, we could see it.
“This is… incredibly huge?”
A massive mana stone much larger than a person.
And a magic circle filling the floor around it.
“It’s a mana stone.”
A mana stone of tremendous size.
And Saul Hanston’s energy felt from within it.
To be precise, it’s an energy similar to a mana barrier.
And it was emitting tremendous mana.
Enough for not just me, but the other three to feel it too.
“Ah, I feel dizzy.”
Priscilla, who possessed divine power, even felt dizzy.
“Are you okay? I’ll support you.”
While Leila supported Priscilla, I approached the mana stone. It’s truly an incredible object.
To think something like this was in the restricted zone.
Why wasn’t this discovered?
“This is an incredible discovery, Ernest.”
“Y-yeah….”
Ernest seemed quite flustered by the scale that exceeded his imagination.
Saul Hanston.
The legendary mage.
A mana stone from which his energy pours out like crazy.
And….
The magic circle visible beneath it.
“It seems like they were trying to do something with this?”
At Ernest’s speculation, I nodded and asked a new question.
Then, who exactly?
For what purpose?
But before that.
“So that was it.”
I can see a passage where people come and go.
They had been using that route.
And that’s when it happened.
“Dane. Someone is approaching.”
Ernest mentioned the detection equipment he had scattered to avoid the guards’ patrol routes before entering this place.
He had scattered them in places that weren’t patrol routes, but something was detected.
That means other fellows are approaching.
I looked at the passage.
Good.
“It’s time to set up traps.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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