The man that was sent to make sure Eiro and the others properly arrived at the mansion and got inside without worries just left together with the last of the cleaners and workers that were there to make sure everything was really spotless. And now, Eiro could finally get started exploring everything in here to find a good place to keep the monsters.
"You three, bring the spiders inside through the back already. I'll let you know when I figure out where to bring them." The Demon said quickly as he looked at Jess, James and Krog, who were still thinking and speaking about the offer that Eiro made to them about moving into the manor as well.
"Gobo, you help them as well." Eiro added as he started looking around in the inside of this room for the proper entrance to the hidden passageways, and the four of them in question slowly made their way outside to do what Eiro asked them to do.
The demon made use of air magic to spread gusts of wind throughout the halls and rooms while using the effect of returning a bit of a 'signal' whenever the air hit anything. Like that, Eiro was hoping to figure out where exactly certain entrances were through things like thin slits in the wall. Of course Eiro would be able to find them immediately when he stood in front of them, but he knew about types of hidden passages or rooms that required visual angles to be found, and Eiro didn't really want to bother trying to find everything that had to do with the secrets of this place in that fashion.
Soon, Eiro found the entrance to the first passage that he was looking for. It seemed like one of the ones that had the highest likelihood of leading to a larger space underneath, since there was at the very least an underground tunnel connected to it. Well, this manor also had a basement of course, so it might just lead down there, but Eiro wanted to make sure anyway. There might be some hidden passages inside of the hidden passages as well that he couldn't notice just like this.
Eiro didn't know what exactly it was, but there were many things inside of this manor that were messing with his perception. They were mostly things like special magic spells meant exactly to do that probably. Usually that wouldn't really have too much of an effect on Eiro due to his high perception, but ever since he started fusing with Nelli and Gondos more often, he also started developing a slight bit of a sense for things like mana and magic in general. It wasn't much, it was just that he could naturally differentiate between spaces that had a lot of mana and spaces that had little mana now.
He could do that before as well, just that this time he was sensing it in different ways. Either way, for now, the demon stepped up to the entrance to the hidden passage that he just found and tried to somehow open it up. It was relatively straightforward for now, probably because it was supposed to be. None of the 'normal' hidden passages were actually that well hidden, especially not compared to some other places that Eiro managed to see. At the very least, they were more obvious than the ones at the Inn that Felix brought them to back then.
And worst of all, this place was actually filled with them to the brim. There were hidden passages basically in every room. This probably helped the rumors that the former owner was a complete nutbag.
Eiro pushed against the wall just so slightly and it already gave in, letting Eiro step into the hidden tunnel, "It just makes him seem like a really paranoid guy." The Demon muttered quietly. The two spirits floating next to him seem to agree, "Yeah, you can say that again. Seems like a real freak, honestly." Nelli pointed out, although Gondos just quietly laughed.
"Do you think so? I wouldn't say 'freak' directly, rather eccentric. And I wouldn't call him paranoid either, otherwise he would have never chosen to live this far out here, would he?" The Golem pointed out, to which Eiro immediately agreed, "That's exactly it. It doesn't make sense. You would think he's paranoid because of the number of hidden passageways that might mean he wants to be prepared for any sort of invader at any time, but he chooses to live in a place like this without any sort of policing? It doesn't really make sense, so it directly feels... off." Eiro suggested as he climbed down the steps inside of this tunnel that immediately brought him into the basement like he figured they would. Although this again made Eiro wonder about something.
"The way these are built is quite weird as well. None actually lead to a place that would be any safer than the one you came from. I don't think I noticed any that were actually leading outside."
"Now that you mention it..." Nelli replied, while Eiro continued looking for hidden passages. Inside of cellar made for alcohol-storage, the library, the individual bedrooms, and so on. Just as he thought, basically all of the rooms here had hidden passages. Eiro wasn't entirely sure what they were for, but at least they might make it more convenient to get around the place if he needed to quickly get from one end to another.
Either way, after Eiro was done checking out the regular hidden passages, Eiro chose to take a look at the actual ones. Those that were hidden with the use of magic instead of physical means. Even Eiro had a hard time figuring those out at first. He noticed that something was off, but he didn't actually realize what it was until Nelli and Gondos pointed it out to him. Although, that was only the case for the first time. After that he managed to figure out where those special places were by himself, to an extent at least.
The one that Eiro first wanted to explore was the hidden room beyond the library. Eiro took off his mask and extended his hand toward Gondos. Out of the two spirits, Gondos was better at sensing mana, while Nelli was better at using magic, so for this kind of task, Eiro preferred fusing with Gondos.
Eiro looked around the room, soon seeing the flow of the mana inside of here. The library itself was rather big in the first place, having two floors inside of this one room, and at the very back of the second floor was the entrance into the actual hidden room. Eiro stepped up to that wall and placed his hand onto one of the books that was obviously part of the system and pushed his mana into it.
Just a few moments later, Eiro could hear the sound of a lock clicking and something crumbling beyond the bookcase in front of him. Gears were turning and twisting close to silently, and then stopped a few moments later.
With a satisfied expression, Eiro stepped up to the bookshelf again and pulled one of the books out, before stretching his hand to the back of the shelf and pushing his mana into one extra rune. And once Eiro placed the book back onto the bookshelf right where it was before, the bookshelf simply split in half in the center, each half simply dropping into the ground as if the floor disappeared. But as far as Eiro could tell, the parts swallowed be the floor just disappeared instead of now reaching out into the first floor of the library.
Either way, Eiro could now see the actual hidden room of this place and stepped inside of it, and the demon was more than just impressed. The books were all at the very least decades old, and there were different models of monsters or constructs made by people standing all around here. Skulls, cores of artificial beings, claws and eyeballs of monsters! It was more like a museum than a library.
And beyond that, this space seemed much larger than possible, although Eiro should have expected that. Because right beyond the bookshelf that Eiro entered was another guest room. The difference shouldn't have been more than two or three meters. But this room was even larger than the original library that Eiro was in.
"By the queen..." Nelli muttered quietly, "The guy that lived here before must have been a really, really skilled Choromancer! This is amazing!" The Naiad exclaimed.
"Do you think every hidden room is like this?" Gondos asked, and Eiro stayed quiet and in thought for a little while, "Maybe..." He muttered.
"Well, if he was such a great Choromancer, then he wouldn't have needed the 'regular' hidden passages anyway. He could just teleport outside or to town and be good." Nelli pointed out, and Gondos added, "If those passages were just for show anyway, then why didn't he make them a bit more realistic? As Eiro said, there were no passages leading outside." Gondos said, and immediately, Eiro started to realize what exactly was going on. And he couldn't stop grinning broadly.
"I get it." Eiro said with a broad grin, "Of course there's nothing leading outside. Did you ever see a Magic Circle with loose ends like that?"
It took a few moments for them to realize what exactly Eiro was talking about, but soon, Nelli and Gondos looked at each other and the Demon in even more confusion than before, "You can't be serious..." Gondos muttered, and Eiro immediately nodded his head.
He pulled out his notebook and pen out of his treasury and placed the notebook down on one of the desks around here before starting to sketch everything out. Each floor of the manson individually like the plans that Eiro was shown said. And then, he added the hidden passages of each floor.
He marked everything down and with a broad grin once he was done, pulled out his spark snapper and created a flame. A flame that Eiro held up behind the thin pages of the notebook that he sketched the manor in.
And what revealed itself through the thick lines representing the hidden passages wasn't a jumbled mess like one would expect. It wasn't random, but it didn't have the sort of order to it like you would expect either.
Each and every hidden passage led together and formed the image that Eiro was seeing right now. They created a giant magic circle. And not only when seen from above. When seeing the building from the side, from an angle, anywhere. Eiro recreated all the hidden passages with ice next so that he could get a proper look at it, and in the end, he couldn't do anything to make the broad, dumb smile on his face disappear.
He really hit the jackpot with this one.
He was allowed to live in the house of a man that might have had a Master grade Magic skill.
