The passage was so narrow that a person passing through would rub along the sides as they continued on endlessly.
There doesn't seem to be any lighting at all.
... An invasion through here shouldn't have entered anyone's mind.
We used the summoning scroll's light spirits for illumination.
They are just as convenient as always.
The passage was empty and dark.
It was a path that appeared to have been made only for the sake of moving through it.
We marched down the path with Zanoba in the lead, followed by myself, and then Roxy.
A rear guard is unnecessary.
Enemies will not come from behind in this place.
"Being in this narrow passage, it makes me remember some unpleasant things."
Roxy whispered this from behind me.
I went to respond but couldn't find the words.
All I ended up saying was, "Is that so?"
And so we continued moving silently down the passage.
We continued to walk for about an hour.
Then, ahead of us and down the passage, appeared a door.
It is a door made from a single sheet of metal.
There is no doorknob. There is, however, a small fixed window.
It is very similar to what was in the watermill.
It seems it is another door that is designed to only open from the other side.
"Muuhn!"
By inserting his fingertips between the wall and the door, Zanoba is able to pull it open.
It was a good idea to place him in the front.
"Ah... this is..."
However, after opening the door, Zanoba said something baffling.
When I looked around him I could see that the passage ahead had been blocked by earth and sand.
It was a dead end.
And there was nothing like a fork in the road.
With this, could the watermill have been a mistake... ?
"Perhaps this collapsed during an earthquake... or the warlord Jade knew about it and closed it up in advance."
This was Roxy's assessment.
Well, this is probably the place.
It's still possible that Pax was crushed at the time of the coup.
Anyway, one of the reasons Pax was unable to escape has been revealed.
"Shishou, this debris, could you somehow take care of it?"
"... Yeah, I'll give it a try."
Zanoba and I swapped places.
I didn't just dig out our office's basement for show.
This kind of sediment clearing is something I'm used to.
Fortunately, in this passage, there is nothing setup to inhibit my magic.
With magic I compress the soil to reduce the quantity while hardening the walls and ceilings.
It feels like making a pipe through stone.
It's an impromtu method this time, but it should reinforce the strength to the degree that it won't collapse.
It's something I'm used to dealing with.
We eventually come out the other side with a crash after an hour.
The distance was something along the lines of five meters.
So short, and yet so long.
However, that kind of thing doesn't matter.
A surprising scene awaited us upon our exit.
"What the hell."
There was a lateral tunnel.
It seems like it's a cave.
Its height is about 2 meters, its width 3.
A similarly sized passage ran right beside it.
Water is flowing through the ground, reinforced by masonary stones; it's a tricklying stream but it doesn't feel like it's sewage.
The passage we just came through simply ends in this cave.
We are in a slightly higher position, there is about a one meter drop to the cave floor.
"Zanoba, do you know which way we should be going?"
"Well... I never heard anything about a fork in the road but... "