Chapter 50: Fake Stigmata (13)

As soon as I opened the morgue door, cold air brushed my skin. The morgue, which maintains a low temperature to prevent the bodies from rotting, was colder than I thought.

I was fine, having experienced sleeping outside on the streets as a novice adventurer, but Regina, who was inherently physically weak, was not.

“H…”

As soon as the cool air was released, Regina’s body shrank.

Regina’s appearance, clinging to me as if cold, was really cute, but now was not the time to be looking at that. Regina’s role was the most important.

Regina had researched fake Stigmata countless times in her endless regressions. If she can’t stop the terror of the final exam, at least stop the terror of the midterm exam.

So, the one who knows best about the structure of the fake Stigmata is probably Regina. Regina’s role is to cleanly dismantle only the transfer magic circle from the fake Stigmata.

“Are you very cold?”

“Ah, no! I was just surprised because it was colder than I thought…”

“Then, let’s go further inside.”

Marcus’s body is not here. Because it’s hard to put it together with the bodies of ordinary people, since it’s unknown what the uncontrolled fake Stigmata might do.

If the fake Stigmata suddenly explodes and damages the bodies of other people, there’s no greater nuisance.

[Special Morgue]

As I walked further inside the morgue, I saw a door with a nameplate that said Special Morgue. And next to it, a panel to enter a password.

“Should I… open it…?”

“No. I know the password. Of course, I got the password from Elin-sensei.”

When I put my hand on the panel, a keyboard with dozens of ancient runes written on it appeared in front of my eyes. I slowly pressed the password, recalling the memory of infiltrating this place in the game.

The password is twenty characters consisting of runes and numbers. When I entered all twenty characters and pressed confirm, a warning message appears with red letters.

[Incorrect password]

[You can try again after 5 minutes]

“Oh no…! Sian, step aside!”

“Wait a minute. This is how it’s supposed to be.”

I stopped Regina, who was startled by the message and was raising her mana. The special morgue originally appears like this even if you enter the correct password. It’s a kind of double security.

I also panicked when I saw this in my newbie days. I could only know this evil gimmick after looking at the walkthrough.

When I cleared the warning window and entered the correct password again, the door opened with a chiiii- sound.

[Entered the Special Morgue]

Pushing aside the status window that appeared in front of my eyes, I took in the appearance of the special morgue. Unlike the general morgue, which looked similar to a hospital in my previous life, the special morgue was quite narrow.

“This is…”

“Yes. This is the special morgue. A place where bodies that are difficult to classify as normal bodies pass through.”

As the morgue itself is a place to temporarily store bodies before autopsy or burial, there were only four spaces for bodies to enter.

I closed my eyes and felt the flow of mana. I recall the feeling of mana like a burning, raging flame that I felt at the restaurant.

“I’ll find the body, so can you prepare in advance?”

“Yes!”

Regina answered vigorously and took out six colorful magic stones from her leather pouch. A solution to supplement Regina’s insufficient mana.

Drawing lines with mana on the floor and placing magic stones on each stroke, the magic circle began to operate, emitting a red light.

[Regina Strelechia (Lv.???) casts ‘Highest-level Magic Circle Dismantling Formula’]

[The caster can analyze and dismantle the desired magic circle]

“Maybe, it was this one.”

As I reached for the cabinet where I felt the familiar flame, I touched a multi-layered barrier made of several layers. Only after entering the password again could I touch the handle of the cabinet.

Drrrk- With a soft sound, the cabinet opened and a burned body appeared.

The body, horribly distorted with melted flesh and burnt pieces of wood stuck to it, was making a bizarre expression.

“…Are you ready?”

“Almost…!”

I turned my gaze away from the body and took out my pocket watch with a firm expression. 7:56. Fortunately, there were still about 4 minutes left until the time I promised Yelena.

A faint red light can be seen near the nape of the neck of the charcoal-like body. The fake Stigmata, which was consuming the mana remaining in the body, was barely emitting light.

“It seems like it’s almost time. I think we can start now.”

Marcus didn’t die at exactly 8 o’clock. It would have been a little before 8 o’clock, so maybe the light that is shining now is the last mana remaining due to inertia.

“Then, shall we begin…?”

“Yes.”

As soon as Regina’s words ended, a magic circle consisting of dozens of strokes was drawn in the air. Regina finely adjusted the mana of the magic circle with one hand and touched the fake Stigmata.

Then, the fake Stigmata shone, and the shape of the magic circle that made up the fake Stigmata appeared in the air.

Wooong-

With a faint vibration, Regina, who fixed the magic circle in the air, put both hands on the magic circle and enlarged it. An elaborate orange magic circle made of hundreds and thousands of strokes filled my vision.

Regina’s tone became serious.

“How much time, do we have?”

“3 minutes. Is it enough?”

“Yes.”

Regina’s expression was unusually full of confidence.

The time it took to touch the strokes of the magic circle, cut off the useless parts, and clear away the cumbersome parts was only about 1 minute.

As expected of a regressor who has touched the fake Stigmata hundreds of times. Regina quickly dismantled the fake Stigmata and extracted the formula of the spatial transfer magic circle hidden beneath it.

The magic circle that appeared in Regina’s left hand had an ominous purple color. Quickly reassembling the magic circle of the fake Stigmata and floating the transfer magic circle in the air, she slowly finished the work.

With a light flick of her finger, the magic circle that would completely fill one wall is reduced to the size of a coin. Regina handed the spatial transfer magic circle to me.

The magic circle was floating about 3cm away from my hand. An invisible ball-like thing can be felt around the magic circle.

“Here, here you go.”

“Is this the spatial transfer magic circle?”

“Yes. Maybe it’s because of the influence of the ‘seed’ that Sian mentioned, but the composition of the magic circle has become more complicated. Originally, it’s not a task that takes this long.”

Pshhh. With a sound, the six magic stones that were supplying mana to Regina exploded all at once.

Regina recompressed the magic circle of the fake Stigmata and engraved it on the neck of the body, and took out a glass bottle and handed it to me.

“You can put it in here.”

“Yes.”

This is enough. The evidence was obtained.

All that’s left is to persuade Elin-sensei.

If a girl who was thought to be an ordinary first-year student appears with this evidence, she will probably be suspicious.

But it was okay. Because I had the [token] I received for helping the elf girl. I can say that I found out using the information power of the elves.

It’s not like there are no elves mixed in human society, and [Arcana], the information organization of the academy, was aware of the existence of the secret information organization of the elves.

“Huu.”

Putting the compressed sphere in the glass bottle, we put on our cloaks and hoods again. The minute hand of the pocket watch was pointing to 58.

The process of leaving the morgue is not that difficult. Unlike the complicated entrance, there is a spatial transfer magic circle installed at the exit.

The exit location of the spatial transfer magic circle is a secret, but I know it because I’ve played the game many times. The spatial transfer magic circle leads to the 1st basement floor.

So, the return is over in 10 seconds. Because I can transfer to the 1st basement floor and use Blink to go back up to the ground.

“We finished with plenty of time. Now we can go back.”

“Th, then let’s clean this up and go…!”

“Yes.”

When the situation was completely solved, Regina returned to her usual stuttering self. Seeing the cute appearance of a small animal with its eyes fluttering, I unknowingly stroked Regina.

Regina, who was picking up the broken magic stone fragments, flinched and let out a cute moan as if hissing.

“Hyaaaak?!”

“Ugh, Regina? I’m sorry…”

I urgently took my hand away from Regina and took a step back. Perhaps it’s because things went so smoothly, I was too careless.

Struggling to organize her disheveled hair, Regina continued to speak in a tearful voice.

“Ugh, here…!”

“Ugh, I’m really sorry if I offended you.”

“No…! It’s not that I’m offended, it’s just…I’m embarrassed…”

Regina muttered that and put all the magic stone fragments in her pocket. When I pushed one wall of the special morgue, a magic circle that could fit about two people appeared.

We stepped into the magic circle with a much lighter heart. With a strange floating sensation different from when using Blink, our bodies were surrounded by particles.

When I opened my eyes again, we were on the 1st basement floor. A body staggering because the aftereffects of spatial movement have not yet disappeared.

“Ugh…?!”

I took a step beyond the corner without thinking, and I ran into someone who was also covered in a black cloak like me.