SHIRO
"So, to make it short, the caster of this barrier—who is most likely a Dark Order member—is in the city now along with us?" Mister Arano deduced.
Mister Riku nodded, telling Mister Arano that his statement was correct.
"How sure are we that they are really here? What are the chances that they're not?" Mister Keiro asked.
"Majority of the magic spells, when cast, are irreversible. It can only be destroyed when other magic strikes it, and not even the caster themselves can cancel the spell. Following this principle, casters are no exceptions to their magic. They are not immune to their own magic.
"Conjuring a dome-type barrier requires the caster to be inside it. Unlike wall-type barriers which can be summoned close or distant from the caster, dome-type barriers such as this use the caster's location as its epicenter, unlike the other type.
"Since what we have here is a dome-type barrier, then we can safely assume that the caster was inside it when it was conjured. And following the first principle I mentioned earlier, we can also assume that the caster is trapped inside it just like all of us here," Mister Riku explained and guessed.
"That's good news, right?" Mister Glancis clarified, earning a questioning look from the three adventurers. "I mean, we just have to find and fight a single person, so I thought it's good news."
"I doubt that the caster is alone, Mister Glancis. Mages like us require protection from other classes, especially when we are in the middle of casting. In line with that, I bet there are others who are also trapped here just to protect the caster."
"But it's still good news, Riku," said Mister Keiro.
"How so?"
"Because we only have to kill one person. That's easier than having to kill two or more," Mister Keiro explained, and Mister Arano and Mister Riku nodded in agreement.
"You do have a point," Mister Riku seconded.
"Now that there's a high chance for those people to be here within the city, our next goal is to locate where they could be hiding," Mister Arano suggested.
Following Mister Arano's suggestion, we all went back to finishing our food until all of us were done eating. I volunteered to wash the dishes since it was the least that I could do.
"We'll wait for you to finish, Shiro," Mister Arano announced, confusing me.
"Why wait for me, Mister Arano? You can start planning without me around. It's not like I can do something to be part of it," I reasoned out.
"Don't underestimate the power of knowledge, Shiro," Mister Riku stated. "The more people know about the plan, the higher the chances for the plan to work. Life is full of uncertainties. Things might suddenly not go according to plan. Who knows—we might need your help, and you could help us because you knew the plan. Did you get what I was trying to say?"
I nodded.
"You're a part of the team, Shiro. And no teammate should be left behind," Mister Arano said with a comforting smile.
I smiled back faintly. "Alright. I'll join when I'm done."
"Okay! We'll just be in the living room—or is it a living? It's too big to be a living room. A lobby, perhaps?" I let out a chuckle. "You get what I mean."
"I do, Mister Arano."
"Alright then!"
Mister Riku and Mister Arano left the dining room while I got the dishes to wash them. After stacking all of the plates in my hands, I carefully went to the kitchen where we cooked our food earlier.
Thankfully, there was still water running through the pipeline, so I could wash the dishes without troubling myself with fetching some water in a bucket and doing it over and over again if the water ran out.
And just like that, I was finished. After placing the recently washed dishware on the drying rack, I wiped my hands dry and proceeded to my next agenda: to join the others to plan.
It really pleased me that they wanted me included in the planning, even knowing that I was just a mere and powerless boy who couldn't even defend himself.
But I still didn't quite understand Mister Riku's words. I did get the "knowledge is power" part, but the part where I would help them just in case—I couldn't seem to process what it really meant. Because what can a child like me do to help in such a dire situation?
Thinking about it would only cause my head to ache, so I brushed it out of my mind and focused on walking. In just a minute, I reached the others.
"Where's Mister Glancis?" I asked as I noticed his absence.
"Mister Glancis happens to be one of the royal architects in this city. He went to grab a map of this kingdom," Mister Arano replied.
Talking about luck.
Just as Mister Arano finished explaining, Mister Glancis arrived, holding a metal tube. When he reached us, he held both ends of the tube and pulled them apart, revealing the rolled papers inside it. That was when I realized that the metal tube was actually a canister intended to securely preserve papers.
Mister Glancis took out all of the rolled documents and placed them on the table that they had prepared. Mister Riku and Mister Arano held the corners of the papers to spread them open, while Mister Riku's ball of light hovered on top of us, illuminating the diagrams drawn on the parchment.
"This is the schematics of the entire kingdom. In line with Mister Riku's explanation about the caster as the epicenter of dome-type barriers—and knowing that the whole kingdom is covered by the barrier—I'm certain that the caster is here at the city center."
"What's in it?" Mister Keiro asked.
"What else? A fountain, just like any other kingdom has," Mister Glancis answered.
"But casting and constantly supplying magic on top of a fountain doesn't look comfortable," Mister Arano commented, and I understood it. Who would, in their right mind, cast their magic on top of a fountain?
"Not unless the caster wasn't really on the fountain," Mister Riku guessed. "Can I see the schematics of the drainage and sewer system, Mister Glancis?"
"Sure! It's right here." Mister Glancis took the paper under the kingdom's map and placed it on top.
It showed different drawings, mostly consisting of lines and certain symbols. The only thing that really caught my eyes was the large square at the center where all the peripheral lines converged.
"Is this place viable to be a hideout?" Mister Riku asked Mister Glancis while pointing at the large square at the center.
"If it's not flooding, then yes. That's where all the rain, flood, and garbage water converge before they are redirected to the nearby lake. That's also the source of the fountain water above it. Do you think that's where they are hiding?"
"Not sure, but most likely," Mister Riku responded. "Aside from the sewers and drainages, is there another way to reach it?"
Mister Glancis nodded. He then grabbed another paper underneath the others and placed it on the very top. A different drawing was shown again and only the large square remained. However, this time the lines were fewer, and not all of them met at the large square.
Three lines—which I suspected as routes—led toward the edge of the drawings, entailing that these are escape routes out of the city. Two led to the center of the city. And the others led to either a dead end or a loop.
"This should be highly classified and confidential, but it doesn't matter now. Only a few and trusted individuals knew about this catacombs, and this can only be used if circumstance requires it. As you can see, there are dead ends and loops—this is to trap pursuers of His Highness.
"Aside from these, trigger-driven traps and contraptions are also installed. This is to make sure that those who accidentally enter this maze would never get out alive," Mister Glancis explained.
"Now that you mentioned him, how is your King?" Mister Arano inquired.
"I don't know. When my daughter fell ill, I stopped going to the royal palace and started working at home to take care of my daughter. When the day the Dark Order decided to trap us came, I never heard anything about His Highness again. Now, I have long believed that he died... or was killed."
"Or escaped via the tunnels?" Mister Keiro hunched.
"Just because the barrier can only be seen on the surface doesn't mean it does not exist underground. Dome-type barriers aren't really domes but spheres. What we see on the surface is just the other half of what's under the ground. So, using the catacombs still leads to death," Mister Riku explained.
The longer I was with these people, the more I learned about stuff. Is this what Mister Riku was trying to say about the power of knowledge? I thought so.