“Ngh….”
It was late.
Having returned from night training, Natasha flinched at the soft groan drifting from inside the room.
In the dim darkness, a figure lay curled on the bed.
Her frame was so slight that she looked like a small beast huddled into a ball.
‘Mona Bellose… was it?’
The woman had spent the entire trip inside that cramped carriage worrying about Natasha’s mood.
Recalling how she had clung desperately to the window frame just to steady herself stirred a twinge of guilt.
‘Is my face really that transparent?’
In truth, Natasha had struggled to conceal the prickling revulsion that flared each time Mona’s knee brushed against hers.
‘Damned Khaos….’
It was all because her sense of touch had been ruined when she was dragged into that place.
At times, she would touch something soft only for a sharp sting to jerk her hand away; at others, she would grasp a hard object only for it to feel squishy, forcing her to look down and verify she was actually holding it.
As those unpleasant experiences piled up, Natasha came to abhor physical contact altogether.
‘I never intended to make it obvious, though….’
Remembering Lewis’s teasing remark, Natasha rubbed the bridge of her nose with a heavy sigh.
***
“…Gah!”
The instant sunlight slipping past the curtains touched her eyelids, Mona gasped and snapped her eyes open.
A cold sweat clung thick to the back of her neck after the awful nightmare.
In the dream, Rihart’s razor-sharp blade had plunged into her throat without hesitation.
‘Mona Bellose. I will remember it.’
Having the words she heard in waking life neatly woven into her recurring nightmare made Mona clutch her head in exasperation.
Why on earth did she have to tail that wretched professor that day, only to stumble upon the grand heir’s secret…?
Had it not been for that, she could have thrown herself into the expedition’s duties with an easy mind.
Sighing heavily at her miserable luck, Mona hastily shoved her thick glasses onto her face and dragged her aching body out of bed.
The room was silent; Natasha seemed to have stepped out already.
On the shelf in the shared washroom, however, sat a small medicine vial alongside a note.
Had she noticed Mona wracked with muscle aches the moment they stepped down from the carriage?
‘How unexpected.’
A faint smile touched Mona’s lips as she looked down at the cute drawing of a cat and the rounded, neat handwriting.
Neatly folding the note and tucking it into her pocket, Mona drank down the restorative draught Natasha had left and checked the time.
They were supposed to gather by seven o’clock.
Squeezing in breakfast would make things uncomfortably tight.
Tidying her clothes in a rush, Mona hurried through a quick meal and made her way to the main castle.
***
Inside the conference room.
Several expedition members who had already arrived were deep in serious debate over a topic Mona knew nothing about.
During the past week of preparations, some of the members had grown close, trading the information each had gathered.
Having done nothing but shuttle relentlessly between the monastery and the library, Mona could only scratch her head before slipping into a seat at the edge of the table.
‘What are the flags for?’
Her gaze soon settled on the large map spread across the rectangular table.
Marked upon it were the regions where rampaging monsters had recently appeared, with small flagpins planted at their starting point and the highest peak of the mountain range.
‘So the final destination really is the summit of the Kirki Mountains.’
Dragons were beasts that relished looking down on the world to flaunt their dominion, so the objective itself made sense.
The route was the problem.
To push into the center of the Kirki Mountains, establishing a base camp along the upper western border offered far better distance than this location.
Advancing in a straight line was inherently faster than cutting across at an angle.
October 13, Imperial Year 664.
An unprecedented outbreak of spore-type monsters had erupted throughout the western forests.
Just as the imperial report she read had stated, the upper reaches were cordoned off due to the infestation, forcing them to settle on this area as their second-best alternative.
‘Still, could the spores have spread this far…?’
Mona was jotting down the infested areas in her notebook with a doubtful frown when the doors opened.
Rihart, a sword belted at his hip, entered the conference room side by side with Noel, who carried a magic staff.
The entrance of the two towering figures silenced the room as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over the gathering.
Rather than opening the meeting right away, Rihart exchanged thoughts with Noel, wearing his characteristic indifferent expression.
Someone whispered in an excited voice.
One of the researchers added in jest.
‘They truly belong to a realm out of reach.’
Listening to the whispers nearby, Mona gave a subtle nod.
Even completely detached from high society as she was, Mona knew full well how rare it was to see Rihart Cronel or the direct heir of Ducal House Lotus up close.
‘In fact, it’s not just the young lord of Lotus.’
Setting aside herself, the roster of this expedition was exceptionally illustrious.
There were two double majors, an imperial alchemist, and even an elementalist….
It was an assembly one could not easily find anywhere.
‘Worrying that Rihart might single me out among this crowd is pure self-importance.’
Feeling slightly relieved, Mona lifted her bowed head.
Just then, having concluded his brief discussion with Noel, Rihart walked toward the center of the table.
At Rihart’s prompt, Noel Lotus chanted a brief incantation: “Relocate.”
With a crisp thud, a blue flagpin lying across the table flew like a dart and stuck into the map.
“In the clearing of the marked base camp, we plan to install a long-distance teleportation magic circle roughly thirty-three feet wide.”
The moment Noel revealed the plan, Mona’s eyes widened.
Operating a magic circle of that scale demanded an immense output of mana all at once.
…Could that even be done?
Even as Mona harbored doubts, Noel continued his calm explanation.
One after another, flagpins struck into the map at regular intervals along a diagonal line.
Linking teleportation circles to traverse long distances followed the exact same principle as the Empire’s massive teleportation gates.
‘Except the gates rely on mana amplification facilities.’
A remote wilderness like this would never possess such exorbitant infrastructure.
Of course, if it could actually be implemented, the plan was nothing short of brilliant.
Traveling back and forth between the outside world and the demonic realm through teleportation circles?
The immediate benefits were obvious.
In an emergency, they could withdraw to an outpost and escape straight to base camp.
Rations, medicine, and research gear could be stockpiled at each station, and the field survey teams could rotate to keep casualties to a minimum.
‘…The issue is whether it’s feasible.’
To Mona’s common sense and instincts, the plan was difficult to accept.
Yet the speaker was the direct heir of the Lotus family—a premier lineage of mages—and a candidate to become the next Master of the Magic Tower.
His grasp of magical knowledge and theory had to be leagues ahead of hers.
Deciding it was an overstep to question its feasibility, Mona held her tongue.
In the ensuing silence, Noel added with a faint, self-conscious look,
At Noel’s explanation, Palmin chimed in eagerly.
Thanks to Rihart frequenting the Magic Tower over the past week, most of the members had already heard of the teleportation circle plan.
Several researchers had even agreed among themselves beforehand to help construct it.
Palmin deliberately glanced toward Mona as he asked.
Carving a stone slab magic circle at pace fundamentally required mana manipulation.
And anyone talented enough to wield mana properly would never have enrolled in the Department of Monster Studies, an outfit not even marked on the Academy map.
At her placid response, Palmin scoffed inwardly.
Just as expected.
Driven purely by petty spite, this scholar of monster studies had blindly agreed to pitch in.
‘Walked right into it.’
She probably thought it was trivial because she had never carved a stone slab circle in her life. Let her make a fool of herself.
