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“Shh! Keep quiet. I heard a sound from the back.”

“What?! But I can’t feel any Mana there. Can you feel anything?”

Merc shook her head at Astard, who inquired quietly.

“No… But something didn’t sound like a home rattling to me. I’ll go check it out, so wait for me.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

Merc walked lightly to the far end of the room, moving quickly so as not to create a sound with her footsteps. She then took a look around and confirmed that nothing was out of the ordinary. She then stopped in front of a shelf with a door that was placed in a corner, where she assumed the noise had originated from.

Merc thought the origin of the noise was within this shelf as there were no other suspicious objects within sight. The shelf appeared to be large enough to hide a little adult. There was also the chance that someone was hidden inside.

Merc cautiously placed one hand on the hilt of her sword and opened the door to the shelf with the other, keeping her guard up.

“…!”

Suddenly someone slipped down from the inside and collapsed. Merc quickly held that person with the hand she had originally placed on the sword.

Merc, thankfully, caught the young girl with silver hair who stumbled towards her before she fell.

“…Urg…”

“W-Why is there a girl here?! Hey! Astard!”

“Yes?!”

Merc called Astard, who was standing outside, whilst holding the girl who appeared to be dazed. Astard quickly came back inside after hearing Merc call out to him.

“Just what hap… Huh? Who’s this girl?”

“No clue. Hey, you! What’s your name?”

“Urgh… I-It’s Te… Tete… m…”

The girl muttered gently as she pushed up her eyelids, which fluttered at the sound of Merc’s voice. Her frail voice was devoid of energy, and it was apparent that she was fatigued.

“Tsk… Heal!”

“What?”

Astard was taken aback by Merc’s use of Heal, but now was not the time to probe. The girl’s health was the top priority.

“… Urgh…”

After receiving Merc’s Heal, the girl opened her eyes wide, revealing her deep blue eyes for a brief moment. But, as if she had fainted, she immediately closed them and tilted her head, resting her entire body in Merc’s arms.

“She passed out. She must have been struggling to keep awake all this time.”

“You just used Healing, didn’t you? And the genuine one at that…”

“Yea. I believe I told you last night that I learned Healing while in the elf village. I’m more of a Healer these days than a swordsman.”

Merc had mentioned her training at the elf village when they were drinking the night before, but Astard had already been wasted by that point. It was no surprise he couldn’t remember anything about it. As such, Merc decided to explain it to him again.

“You learned Healing… I’m so jealous…”

“Leave that for some other time. We should first figure out what Tetem is doing here…”

“Isn’t it self-evident? When the professor realized he was being attacked, he most likely hid her. Here. Look at her neck.”

“What?”

Astard pointed to Tetem, who was wearing a necklace imbued with a red gem around her neck.

“This is most likely a Magic Stone. And a quite a rare one at that. It can conceal the user’s Mana.”

“It can conceal the user’s Mana? I see. So that’s why we can’t feel any Mana coming from her.”

Mana was always present in humans, or any other living species for that matter, regardless of the amount. The Magic Stone inside the pendant was the reason why Merc and Astard didn’t feel the slightest bit of Mana coming from Tetem.

“As you might imagine, this Magic Stone is extremely precious and rare. The professor likely gave it to Tetem and hid her inside the shelf so that he could protect her.”

“I see. It’s true that you can get away with this necklace even if some of the pursuers can detect Mana. Still, I’m surprised that she’s fine considering they searched every corner of the house. She’s quite lucky.”

“You’re right. We would not have visited in this manner if the doctor had not sent the letter. Who knows what might have happened if we hadn’t discovered her…… Anyway, let’s take her back to Logholt.”

“Naturally.”

Merc secured Tetem on her back with Astard’s help, and the three of them left the professor’s house.

It was tempting to ask Tetem, who could have some insight into the situation, but she was now unconscious. They couldn’t force her to wake up, so they’d have to wait until they arrived at a spot where Tetem could calm down before talking to her.

“The documents strewn about the room were all things that could be quickly identified as unrelated to the research. The Count’s men most likely took anything that appeared to be important.”

“Isn’t that bad? Even if the professor doesn’t talk, they could easily find out everything about the Falgaro from those documents…”

“That is definitely feasible if one devotes a significant amount of effort to decipher them, but the information contained in those documents is highly specialized. With only a rudimentary understanding of magic, it would be impossible to decipher them. It would be a problem if the professor and the documents find themselves in the hands of the Empire. Even if the professor doesn’t talk, the Empire will very certainly be able to extract as much information as they need from him, and they will almost certainly be able to decipher the documents.”

“In other words, we don’t have time.”

Merc and Astard rushed to Logholt as quickly as they could, with Merc attempting to avoid causing too many vibrations so as not to disturb Tetem.