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History’s Hidden Architects

Huge gray buildings stood in a row, their smooth surfaces looking like gravestones to Hikaru.

“I’ve seen this before,” he thought, “but back then, people with black hair and black eyes were walking around in white jinbei. Now, there’s no one here.”

His thoughts were jumbled. He couldn’t remember clearly. Some sort of significant encounter. He had helped a young man who was being attacked. Wait, did he actually help him? It felt like he received something in return.

And then there was a boy, bleeding from his stomach, who said, “I will now perform the spell for crossing worlds.”

“We’ve arrived.”

As soon as he heard that voice, air rushed into his lungs.

With the sensation of oxygen traveling through his blood vessels to his brain, Hikaru felt life returning to every corner of his body.

“…”

He looked at his hands. He clenched and opened them tightly, confirming that he had feeling in them.

When he turned around, he saw a gate with a pitch-black frame that absorbed all light. It was just wide enough for a person to pass through, about the size of a metal detector gate at an airport. But strangely, the space outlined by the gate was faintly blurry, with shimmering light. He was sure he had just passed through it, yet the temperature was distinctly different now than before. It was clearly warm.

Winter had arrived in the capital of the Kingdom of Ponsonia, where Hikaru had been, and it seemed like it might snow any day now. But here it was warm. It wasn’t exactly summer, but the temperature was pleasant, and his breath wasn’t visible in the air.

“Are you okay, Flower Face?”

“Y-Yes.”

Paula, wearing a mask, was touching her forehead, facing slightly downward. She, too, was breathing heavily, just like Hikaru had been moments ago.

“Even we are not used to the Black Wedge Gate despite using it many times. It’s impressive that you didn’t throw up on your first try,” said an elderly man with dull blond hair slicked back and trimmed at the neck. His eyes were bleary, and his hooked nose drooped.

This diminutive old man had passed through the Black Wedge Gate before Hikaru. He looked about 60 to 70 years old, but Hikaru knew his actual age was around 200. He was a Man Gnome, a race with three times the lifespan of humans.

The Man Gnomes had arrived at the Four Eastern Stars’ apartment in the capital of G. Ponsonia about an hour ago. Though the place had just been cleaned, Serika and Sara had messed it up again, almost making Hikaru lose his temper.

It was located in a high-end residential area, not a place where suspicious people could easily intrude. But they had arrived.

Because they sensed Hikaru performing the spell for crossing worlds—although to be precise, it was more of a failed attempt.

The spell for crossing worlds was sorcery that bridged this world of monsters and magic to Japan.

A boy named Roland N. Zaracia had brought this flawed magic close to completion, and Hikaru had placed the final piece.

The thought of Roland allowed Hikaru to make sense of what he saw earlier.

Ah, right… the scene I just saw was the afterlife where I first met Roland.

Hikaru had previously died in a traffic accident, met Roland’s soul, and Hikaru’s soul had come to this world. This body was borrowed from Roland, but now Hikaru’s soul had completely settled in, adopting his own body features when he was still alive.

Hikaru had been traveling between this world and Japan using the spell for crossing worlds, and the Man Gnomes had sensed his attempts. They claimed they even knew why it failed. Hikaru was still worried about Lavia, who remained in Japan, and had no choice but to follow the Man Gnomes.

I never imagined there would be such a place under the capital.

When Hikaru looked at the Black Wedge Gate again, two more Man Gnomes passed through and entered the small room. At first, he thought they both looked like elderly people, but upon closer inspection, one appeared to be in his forties if he were human. Like everyone else, they didn’t look too well.

The Black Wedge Gate was located underground in a mansion in the capital of G. Ponsonia. It seemed to belong to the Man Gnomes.

To Hikaru, it felt like he had just moved from the Four Eastern Stars’ apartment to the mansion’s underground through the Black Wedge Gate. But what was with this change in temperature?

“Come now. There’s no point in staying here. Let’s go.”

The Man Gnome opened the door to the small room.

“Another door? Wait, what’s with all the doors?”

They entered a circular room lined with identical doors, except for one spot where a corridor extended. The only light source was the magic lamp the Man Gnome carried, so while everything wasn’t perfectly clear, it was obvious there were only doors.

“Don’t worry about it, and just follow me.”

“…”

Hikaru had so many questions. What happened to the spell for crossing worlds? What was the Black Wedge Gate? And most importantly, where were they?

The Man Gnome led them through the corridor. The smooth walls, floor, and ceiling looked like they had been designed by someone who had never heard of interior design. They soon found a spiral staircase and climbed it.

“It’s damp,” Hikaru said.

“It feels like we’re inside a cave,” Paula remarked.

Water droplets trickled down the walls, and the air felt like it had a 100% humidity.

It was strange. Could there be such a natural cave beneath a mansion? The length of the stairs also seemed odd. They were supposed to be in the mansion’s basement, but by now they had climbed about five floors.

“We’re almost there,” the Man Gnome said.

Hikaru looked up to see the staircase ending, leading into a small room with a double door. Hikaru was a bit out of breath, but his body had warmed up. After making sure Hikaru and Paula were there, the Man Gnome used both hands to push open the door.

“Ugh!”

A wave of warm air flowed in.

“…”

Hikaru was quite literally speechless.

Paula’s observation was accurate. It was like a cave. But it was too vast to simply call it a cave. The ceiling formed a massive dome, with numerous beams of intense light illuminating the space.

Hikaru and the others emerged from a room embedded in the far edge of this vast space.

The area stretched out far and wide, with no end in sight. Below them were numerous buildings.

This definitely wasn’t the capital of Ponsonia. This enormous space contained a settlement.

“You experienced it firsthand, so you should know,” the Man Gnome said. “This is the hidden village of the Man Gnomes. It’s located in the mountains far to the north of the Chole Mountains, between the Quinbrand Empire and the United Nations of Forestia. The Black Wedge Gate shortened the distance from Ponsonia’s capital to this village.”

Hikaru got it now. The Black Wedge Gate—that gate owned by the Man Gnomes—was a warp device.

So this is… technology using souls.

He had seen many magical technologies before, but hardly any that used souls. The only ones he knew were the soul cards and guild cards provided by temples and guilds.

The Soul Rank that increased by killing monsters. The phenomenon where souls were drawn together through the spell for crossing worlds. And Hikaru’s Soul Board.

He understood that souls were a different kind of power from magic, but seeing this technology firsthand was astonishing.

The Man Gnome had said, “Once you know, you’ll have to choose a side. Either align with us Man Gnomes, who pursue the truth of souls, or those like the Saak family, who seek to control the world through magic and sorcery.”

His words compelled Hikaru to come to this Man Gnome village. With their history and amount of knowledge, he might be able to find out why the spell for crossing worlds had failed to work.

Hikaru thought back to what he was told.