Episode 100. Dipel (2)

‘Staff only’

While Professor Ian was escorted by Mel to his private room.

Dana, who was going to look around the nearby research facilities, found a sign attached to the terrifying iron door while wearing advanced invisibility and presence block magic, and her eyes lit up.

“Yes, there is no way that only dragons can be studied in a place like this. It’s far from the imperial family, but the facilities are so state-of-the-art. He must have hidden something suspicious somewhere!”

I have to spend the next week or so with Kegar here at the Caldera Research Complex.

This was the facility of the Imperial Academy, and as a Rubedo-level scholar, he had authority right below the imperial family, so in fact, she was no different from what she was now in the enemy camp.

Ordinary people would be intimidated by this situation itself, or would go back to their rooms and calmly plan their future… .

Dana, who has a good acting ability to the point of being told by Ian that she can’t stay still, did not miss this opportunity when everyone was excited.

“Now is the best time to scout this place, with the newly arrived professors taking their scholars and roaming all over the place, attracting attention.”

After deliberately searching for only the controlled areas, we arrived at the first basement floor of the Caldera Breath Analysis Laboratory.

After making sure that no one was around, she cast an anti-noise enchantment on the door.

He opened the iron door three times taller than her with brute force.

“Five… . This chill… ? ah.”

The icy wind made her face sparkle.

“… .”

She looked at the pure white ice piled up in front of her eyes and the food stored in them with empty eyes and kicked the door.

“Why is the freezer a controlled area! damn… . There is nothing suspicious about this building. The building next door is smaller than here, so what do you want?”

With a bite of the ice cream bar she had brought just before the door closed, she came out and stuck close to the entrance of the building next door, peeking inside.

‘great. There is no him. Well, even if there was, it wouldn’t have been noticed.’

It wasn’t that she, a dragon, was bored and didn’t use wide-area detection magic and was playing hide-and-seek with Kegar.

‘No matter how long he’s lived, he won’t be able to easily detect the stealth function built into my polymorph.’

I couldn’t help but think so. It was at a level that even the developer himself couldn’t recognize, so the concealment performance was trustworthy.

If she doesn’t move mana, it would be difficult for Kegar to locate her as she hides around the lab.

‘Of course, it’s difficult for me to figure out the other person’s position, but… .’

Being a much lower weight class than Kegar, she had to make the most of this advantage.

Dana sneaked inside the building again.

‘Here… . Is it a bit older than the other facilities?’

Unlike the respiratory analysis laboratory, this place had no signboard, and the lights were dim, giving off a slightly dark atmosphere.

It is a place that even professors visiting research facilities would not bother looking for if they had no work.

Two Albedo-class scholars sitting in that suspicious place were talking while laying out unknown photos on the table.

“Recently, Mr. Kegar has been of great help in the progress of observing the caldera. He must be busy with his research, but he is such an amazing person.”

“Thanks to him handing over all the research results, wouldn’t we be able to continue the mana reduction theory experiment during this extra time?”

‘Yes, because I knew this would happen… !’

Dana went closer to the scholars who were conspiring, calling out a splendid achievement in her mind.

They openly symbolize Eclipse… . He wore a black sun badge on his robe.

“But this hypothesis is really hard to come up with unless he is a dragon. I wonder if we can really release this under our names.”

“This man. Isn’t this thesis we received as a condition to enter Eclipse and focus on research? It’s just a mutual transaction. You’re not going to tell me that you feel remorse now, are you?”

“It’s not… .”

‘What is that about?’

Dana came closer to the pictures and paintings on the table… . For a moment, he doubted his own eyes.

“No way, dragons lay eggs. No matter how young the objects are, they resemble reptiles… !”

“Look, isn’t there a detailed explanation added to the picture you drew here? If reviewed by witchcraft scholars, this hypothesis will greatly contribute to revealing the secret of the dragon-”

“This crazy… . A perverted bastard… !!”

bang-

Tables were broken, pictures floating in the air.

The scholars fell to the floor, being hit by dust and photographs that slowly descended like snow.

“Take a picture like this with the person’s permission!”

Dana, who was blushing and huffing, felt the silence for a few seconds before grasping the situation and covering her mouth with both hands.

“Well, it worked… !”

With a large hump on her head, she looked at the fainting scholars and stomped her feet.

“uh? for a moment.”

When I placed the half-removed white robe and black sun badge in front of me, I smiled.

“This, maybe… ?”

* * *

Me and Mel got out of the hotel and, pretending to be looking around the domed facilities and laboratories, reached the shade of the green forest under the white caldera nest.

Mel, who stole sweat from the heat or nervousness, told me that the inside of the cabin and this forest were places to meet vampires.

“Looks like Leuwen is explaining the strategy to the platoon members. You should be back soon.”

“I am a little nervous at the thought of going into hiding. Mr. Mel, have you seen the things the vampires found?”

“No, I only received related materials from them. It’s the first time we’ve met in person… . Well? Professor, do you see it over there?”

“Looks like something happened.”

As I watched the two scholars with head injuries being carried away from a distance, seven vampires appeared in the shade of the trees as if they were originally there.

One of the youngest-looking men came up to me and bowed his head.

“… Sorry about that earlier, professor. It was presumptuous.”

As if Meriel’s overpowering had been effective, the other members of the vampire platoon also shook hands with me with a relaxed attitude.

When I finished talking to them, Lewen took off her coat and slung it over my shoulder.

“A garment that has been blessed by Esca. Down here, even the professor will be able to move transparently and quickly in the dark.”

“thank you. So, where are we going now?”

“It will lead you to the real purpose of this laboratory, underground.”

Afterwards, the place she headed to was covered with bushes and thorough invisibility magic… . It was a small vent.

Lewen is quite tall, so I looked back and forth between her and the little hole before asking.

“Are you going in here?”

“Yeah. Darkness is another space for us. take my hand We will guide you.”

Her words were not metaphors.

She really put her whole body, from her legs, into that narrow vent in an instant, and I, guided by her hand, was able to pass through it very easily.

She could only explain that the space was distorted when she entered the darkness.

It wouldn’t be strange since they were riding the shadows, but the sensations they felt while actually experiencing it together were truly heterogeneous and mysterious.

After everyone managed to get into the ventilation shaft, the woman in the lead turned around and said to me.

“This infiltration route was valid until this morning, but a variable may arise at any moment. I will personally protect Professor Ian, so please ask the commander next to you to sense the danger.”

Meriel met my eyes and nodded.

Let’s tell Lewen her intention to accept… . A quiet run began.

“It might be a bit fast for humans… !”

As Lewen said, it was the first time in my life that I felt the sense of speed.

Should I say the feeling of sliding through the veins? I felt no air resistance at all, as if my whole body had melted into darkness, and I felt resentful of the ventilation fan that occasionally stopped us by shining light into the jet-black aisle.

For a while, when your head is about to get hot with a new thrill.

“Wait, stop.”

At Meriel’s stop sign I gave, everyone immediately stopped and looked at my face.

Meriel pointed to one of the vents that emitted light sparsely below.

“Hey, if I don’t get it wrong… .”

I carefully looked down at the vent she pointed to.

A woman in a white robe and a man in a black robe were walking side by side in a long white corridor.

“I didn’t know there was another Albedo scholar who applied for this presentation, other than Mel! Again, congratulations on joining Eclipse.”

“thanks. May I ask for guidance?”

“Sure.”

The white robe must have been a first-time encounter, but somehow it felt familiar.

I wonder how she felt my gaze hiding under Esca’s protection, and she and I soon met eyes through the ventilation shaft.

She is wearing glasses that she seems to have seen many times… .

‘… Dana? Why are you doing that here?’

As Dana put on a puzzled look on her face, the Nigredo-class scholar, who had been chatting about this underground laboratory to herself, asked her.

“Why is that? What are you doing?”

“Nope.”

The agitation was fleeting.

Dana was naturally being introduced to the facility as if she had roughly grasped my situation, and Lewen nodded as she watched.

“You have a good eye for capturing the moment a newcomer enters Eclipse. Let’s eavesdrop on their conversations, maybe we can get some new information.”

Although the reason Meriel and I stopped was different, everyone agreed with her decision and pursued Dana, who had a perception-disabling spell.

“I thought it was a dragon research institute. I had no idea that such a huge research facility could be hidden underground.”

“Isn’t it really on a grand scale? All research institutes on the ground are connected to this place. This underground lab is the same size as the entire area of this lab complex!”

“All the labs are connected? I heard that this is a top-secret facility that does not allow anyone except Eclipse members to enter, but it seems there is a secret passage somewhere in the laboratory?”

“Yeah. When you were here earlier, you saw me clearing the bookshelf and opening the door, right? You can only go in and out of this place that way.”

“… Is there a secret passage in the Caldera Respiration Lab?”

“You can see it if you clear the ice under the freezer, but no one wants to use that passage because the door is heavy and the inside is cold. … Why are you like that?”

“Oh, nothing. Ahahahaha… .”

Behind Dana, who began disassembling it alone for no reason, Lewen started taking notes saying she had gained new information.

And… . Meriel, who had been watching her from behind, narrowed her eyes and warned her as she approached the blue door.

“Uncle, over there.”

“Now, we have to show you the core of our lab first!”

When the blue door opened and the smell leaked in, the vampires showed their teeth and went on alert.

Looking over their trembling shoulders, I peered inside… . I desperately had to put up with the nausea.

In a trembling voice, Meriel dismissed any hopes that I might have seen something false.

“each other… . Are you eating it?”

Beyond the blue door, Langs and vampires were trapped in transparent cages and biting each other.