By Zephyria 
“Ugh!”
Zero screamed, grabbed his broken glasses, and threw them to the floor. Then, belatedly regaining his senses, he knelt down and stared at the wreckage with a pale face.
“My glasses!”
“…….”
“H-How precious these are…!”
He was making such a fuss, almost crying, that the people setting up tents nearby looked over with puzzled expressions. I, too, was flustered and looked at Zero before turning to Aska.
I had definitely seen Zero looking at Aska and being surprised before the glasses broke. As soon as my gaze reached him, Aska said,
“I’ll go see Pipi for a bit.”
“Why there all of a sudden?”
“No way! They’re completely shattered!”
“It’s a bit noisy… I’ll be nearby, so call me if anything happens. I’ll be able to hear you.”
Before I could say anything more, Aska disappeared into the bushes. He looked like he was running away to anyone who saw him.
“What do I do, this… Waaah… Sob sob.”
“…….”
I stared blankly at Zero, who was kneeling and weeping, then squatted down and asked,
“They’re broken?”
“Yes, I hope they can be fixed. No, a Magical tool… How can this break down… How can this be happening… How precious are these!”
“What is it?”
At my question, Zero rubbed his eyes roughly with the back of his hand, still sobbing, and said,
“It allows you to see magic circles, formulas of Magical tools, and the overall flow of Mana with the naked eye… I was lucky enough to get it while investigating the Ruins a few years ago. I was already being careful because I didn’t know how to use it properly… I must have done something wrong.”
Zero must have been hurt when the glasses broke, as there was a scorched-looking wound on his temple.
“Why were you so surprised earlier?”
“Huh? Earlier?”
“You were surprised when you saw Aska.”
Zero took out a handkerchief from his pocket and gathered the remains of the glasses.
“Because I couldn’t see anything. I wondered if it was really broken. I had already seen a lot of strange things while looking at the necklace. The Mana circuits and design itself were methods I had never seen before… I just thought I didn’t know, but it seems there was a problem with the glasses from the beginning.”
He couldn’t see anything? Zero was still rambling on and on, but I couldn’t hear a word.
“What do you mean you couldn’t see anything?”
“I mean I literally saw nothing, it just looked empty. Like a hole was punched in the air… Normally, when you wear the glasses and look at people, you can see the flow of blood, organs, and bones.”
“…….”
“Ah, but there were times when it wouldn’t show up depending on what I did. Then it should just look like I’m seeing with my bare eyes without glasses, but earlier it wasn’t like that, it was just pitch black, so I was a little surprised.”
It was clear that he didn’t know how to handle it well. But why did Aska have to look like that? I couldn’t tell if it was really broken or if it was because Aska was a Magical creature.
But judging by the way Aska ran away, it was more likely the latter.
“H-Hopefully, I didn’t make you feel bad because I was too surprised?”
Zero suddenly looked at me with anxious eyes and asked. I stared at him for a moment, then sighed, braced my knees, and stood up.
“Treat the wound on your temple. You’re bleeding.”
“Bleeding? Eek!”
Zero made a fuss and ran off. I clicked my tongue and stared in the direction Aska had disappeared.
Could Aska have broken the glasses?
“…….”
A faint suspicion crossed my mind, and it soon turned into conviction. Was he flustered because he didn’t want his identity to be revealed? No matter how much he hid his power and changed his appearance, it would be dangerous if there was a way to figure it out.
I should take some measures when I get back later…
I lowered my head, thinking such thoughts with a serious expression. The place presumed to be the entrance to the Ruins was so small that it could not be found unless you looked closely.
When it snows like this, there’s still a way to find it because only this place has grass, but in other seasons, it won’t be visible at all.
I bent down and observed if there was anything special, but there was nothing.
Aska said there seemed to be something underground… Could there be a special Magical tool here like the glasses Zero found?
If there was a Magical tool with a similar principle, like a barrier that blocks sound or hides the original appearance, like the one I saw at the inn, it would be easier to hide Aska’s identity.
But the necessary Magical tool wouldn’t appear at the exact moment it was needed. It could be a completely empty Ruins with nothing at all.
I gently rubbed the boundary between the white snow and the grassy area with my fingertips. I wondered if only this place was generating heat.
But I didn’t feel any geothermal heat, and there was nothing special about the grass. Just as I was about to sigh inwardly and take my hand away, the scenery in front of me changed.
“……?”
It really happened in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t feel the cold wind or the snow under my feet. All I could see was a dark, long corridor.
What is it?
Is it a hallucination? I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them, and rubbed them, but what I saw was the same. Suddenly, I felt a chill and all the nerves in my body were on edge.
I closed my mouth so that I wouldn’t even make a sound of breathing and calmly looked around.
The back is a dead end. The ceiling and both sides were also blocked, so it was a long corridor-shaped space where I could only move forward. The corners and walls were smooth, so I could tell it was an artificial structure made by humans.
There were no magic circles or special patterns on the outer wall. I carefully touched the stone wall. It felt a little cool and gritty with stone powder.
“…….”
It was so narrow that I couldn’t stretch out both arms completely, and if I straightened my back, my palm would reach the ceiling. I smelled the dust and racked my brain, then took a step forward.
Then, at regular intervals, the stones in the wall flipped backward and small beads that emitted light popped out.
Click, click, click…
The sequentially lit lights stretched far into the distance. It was like a sign telling me to walk this way.
Is it okay to go? I was suspicious, but there was no other way to get out of here. I had no choice but to slowly take one step at a time.
Where the heck is this? Did I suddenly move? Could it be the Ruins? I just touched it, and it happened so suddenly?
Zero and Abyss had definitely touched the grassy floor when they first arrived. They stepped on it and even jumped on it, but there was no reaction then, so why now?
As I moved forward, I glanced upward. If this is an underground Ruins, would there be people above me? I don’t know how deep it is, but no matter how much I listened, I couldn’t hear any sound other than my footsteps.
I lightly touched the glowing bead near my face with my fingertip. It felt like touching warm glass. There was nothing special about it, so I just kept walking.
After walking about 900 steps, I finally saw something. I stood at the end of the corridor and looked at the inner space that appeared. It was a fairly large room, with a total of six doors, three on each side, centered around the center.
In the very center, a rectangular stone the size of an adult lying down protruded. Other than that, the only noticeable thing was the black stains here and there on the floor.
I hesitated and then opened my mouth, just in case.
“Aska.”
My voice echoed in the quiet space.
“Aska.”
I called his name a little louder the second time and waited 60 seconds. But I couldn’t hear any sound or sign of life.
Since there was no other way, I moved into the wide space. I was worried that a trap or something would be activated the moment I stepped inside, but fortunately, there was nothing like that.
I avoided the unidentified black stains that I felt like I shouldn’t step on and went to the stone. It looked like a shelf or altar for raising something, and it also looked like a bed.
I stared at it for a long time, then reached out and placed my hand on the center of the stone. I felt the cool, rough texture of stone powder, like when I touched the wall. It also felt a little smoother.
I kept moving without taking my hand off, wondering if there might be a device that was not visible to the naked eye.
I slowly swept every corner from the center of the surface, and the moment my fingertip touched the edge, I felt a stinging pain. I quickly took my hand away, but the wound was so deep that the flesh at the tip of my middle finger was torn.
Blood oozed out of the torn gap a beat later and dripped down. I tried to wrap my clothes around it to compress it, but the pain suddenly disappeared without any warning.
“……?”
The blood on my middle finger was still there, but it no longer dripped down. I wiped the blood on my clothes with a bewildered expression and looked at my finger again.
“What.”
I clearly saw with my own eyes that the flesh was torn and blood was flowing through the gap, but the wound had disappeared without a trace.