"It's here. This stone statue probably enhances the effectiveness of the seal's center. It is one of the heartbeats of the technique."

Ebelheid points ahead with his finger.

Two gryphon stone statues stand on either side of the great door.

When I set up the wards, I also place the Ortem in the four corners, but it's similar to that one.

It's a different kind of thing if we talk about it in detail, but the principle is probably the same.

Basically, it needs to be placed in the boundary area, so there is room for external interference to do something about it.

The door is the one towards the center.

Once the seal is weakened, this door will probably open and allow us to enter the depths of the Zeshum Ruins.

"It's a quadruple warding, isn't it?""

Multilayered Warding.

A Multilayered Warding is a puzzle-like assembly of multiple wards to protect a ward with a ward.

It does not completely cover a single ward, but things are mainly displayed as partially overlapped things of different properties.

Since the mutual interference must be calculated and built, just one more layer is needed to form and release the amount of knowledge required jumps up.

However, I had heard from the chieftain that even two-layered was almost non-existent.

I thought quadruple was a mere fairy tale realm…… but with the technology of the elves, it could be possible.

"No, my take is that it's probably a fake. One could not find any magical interference with the other. It had to be a triple."

"That's a relief to hear."

"…… Well, so far, though. It was a bit blatant. Either it was the real deal disguised as a fake or it had some other role to play in disguising itself as a fake, there's also a line that says that."

"I see, as expected of Master."

"Stop with the Master. You should have known better than that if you'd taken the time to do this."

"No, I'm all book knowledge and very little practice."

Elves are great, after all.

The fact that they have lived for so long means that they have that much training and practical experience.

By the way, Wegener had been making it difficult from time to time, but in the middle of it, he completely shut down.

Now he looks like he wants to go home.

"If you showed it to me first, is this the right place to start?"

Of course, the basic idea is to release the wards on the most surface part of the body.

There is the option of forceful push, but…

"As far as I'm concerned, you know. Shall we go around the entire area once?"

"Yes, by all means."

We move through the ruins once again.

On the way, we check the note given to us by Ebelheid.

It is well researched.

It's not something that can be made in a year or two.

"You are the one who broke the wards of the Zeshum Ruins, aren't you, Ebelheid-san?"

"Yes, that's right. After many years of researching alone, I finally managed at lifting the outer wards. However, at this rate, my lifespan is going to fail before I could lift the warding of the ruins. That's why I've informed my lord of the progress of my investigation and asked for his cooperation"

"I see…"

"But it was that useless piece of sh*t they sent me."

Ebelheid looked at Wegener in abhorrence.

Wegener looked like he was going to say something back, but he was on the verge of enduring it.

"But that's how the word got around and you came. I'm surprised that there was such a sorcerer among the ruffians gathered here. You never know what the world is like."

"T, thank you for that…"

It's a bit prickly to be praised so straightforwardly.

It's even more so since Ebelheid is acting like he's only speaking out of fact.

"But you didn't think that if you consulted your lord, he would take a share or something like that?"

"…………"

Ebelheid fell silent for a moment and looked at the investigators.

Was it hard to say in front of the lord's men?

"I just want to unlock the secrets of this place. I didn't want wealth or fame. I just want to know what path my ancestors took. I'll give the treasure to the lord."

"I, I see…"

…… I'm starting to feel small.

Wouldn't Ebelheid think I was a snobbish bastard because of the question I just asked?

But I thought that the lord had hired Ebelheid, an elf, but it was the other way around.

Ebelheid was a descendant of Zeshum, and he was examining the remains of his ancestors. I didn't know that it was in the form of a lord taking advantage of it.

I crisply rolled up my notes.

That's because if he was a descendant of Zeshum, he could have been able to do this much research on his own.

Ebelheid looks down at the note in my hand.

"Mm, from those pages, there are many parts that I have omitted and written. A little explanation…"

"Oh, no, the back and forth will give me an idea of what's going on. It's similar in some ways to the way I jot things down."

"That's an excellent thing to do. If there's something you don't understand, don't be afraid to tell me."

"I love reading these things. ─ I like to read these books because they show me what I want to focus on, rather than something that is organized in a way that is easy to understand. I mean……… If we stop in the middle, can I just think about it for a minute?"

"Well, suit yourself."

As I was walking around observing the wall, one of the investigators who seemed to have heard me and Ebelheid talking about it had a stony look on his face.

Maizen also looked sleepy.

It would have been boring to anyone other than sorcerers.

Or so I thought, but Wegener also had a dead look in his eyes.

He is fiddling with the little hair on both sides of his head as if it were handheld. You're not going to get any more hair by doing that.

You should also get into the conversation a little more. What are you here for?

I saw Mea walking around sadly, looking down.

I guess she couldn't get into the conversation because I and Ebelheid had been talking about the technique of the ruins the whole time.

As I was thinking about what I should say to her, our eyes met.

"Ah! Abel, um…"

"You made a mistake on that page."

As if to cover Mea's words, Ebelheid opened his mouth.

"Regarding the conversion of magic power to break the magic formula, as described below… lass, what did you say?"

"…… eh, N-no………… Mea's isn't that much important so it's good."

…… Just like that, Mea pulled back.

"Well. If it's not a big deal, later. Abel, I'll have to ask you to look at the premise I'll be discussing later on before here…"

"Hey, Mea. I thought you wanted to say something…"

"Hey, Abel, are you listening? Turn the page quickly."

Before I could say it, Ebelheid came butting in.

"Ah, ha … yes."

Ebelheid's eyesight gets the better of me and I roll up the page.

I'm still scared of this old man, after all.