The first room we entered after choosing the Magic Route was... well, it was more of a "Rest Room," according to the sign, and it was furnished with benches and the like.
True to its name, the room was intended for taking breaks. I noticed a display on the wall that looked like a map—or rather, a route map.
"This looks like the route map. It’s not very detailed, but if this is where we are now... and that’s the goal, I’d say there are about five rooms left."
"It appears there is only one more branch in the path ahead."
The map in the rest room didn't show much detail, but it provided a rough layout of the number of rooms and where the routes diverged.
As I expected, the paths branched off quite intricately; two rooms ahead, the map showed another split leading to two different destinations.
"You know, I was thinking..." Fate-san began. "We're on the route for magic users, but what kind of level are they expecting? That last problem was as basic as it gets, but people's mastery levels vary wildly. I wonder if it’s possible to get stuck in a room depending on the challenge..."
"That is a concern," I agreed. "It would be pretty stressful to take a high-difficulty route only to hit a dead end."
"...Since this is ultimately an attraction in a theme park, I think they’re keeping the difficulty in check. At the very least, it shouldn't involve advanced magic theory. Oh, I see. Maybe the key is whether or not you can cloak yourself in magic? The previous problem wasn't really about the Magic Formula itself; it was about whether you could consciously cloak your hand in magic. That means there might be gimmicks ahead that only trigger if you touch them while cloaked in magic~"
Fate-san had a point. Even among people who could use magic, there were massive gaps in mastery, and since the Magic Power Amount varied between individuals, tasks that required a heavy barrage of spells were unlikely.
In that sense, Fate-san’s intuition felt spot on. The previous formula puzzle required us to use magic to manipulate the interface, meaning anyone who cleared it was capable of cloaking their body in magic. Simply maintaining a cloak of magic didn't require a high degree of mastery.
"Fate-san, you're actually quite sharp when you want to be."
"I told you, didn't I? I can do anything if I put my mind to it... I just usually don't."
It was the truth. For all her laziness, Fate-san was incredibly clever and possessed a high degree of situational awareness and adaptability. She had a knack for seeing through to the essence of things, but as she said herself, she lacked motivation. She often understood things but kept quiet, or simply chose not to expend the mental effort to think about them.
On the other hand, while she was prone to laziness, she had the good quality of not complaining once she actually committed to a task.
She was only participating in this attraction because Alice had asked her and because she got to go around with me, but once she decided to join, she was surprisingly proactive. Of course, when it came to choosing paths, she still tried to steer us toward whatever looked like the easiest or fastest way to reach the end...
『However, it is a remarkably well-designed facility. Perhaps the focus on puzzles is intended to emphasize flexibility of thought and inspiration rather than competing through Physical Ability or knowledge? If so, even participants with vastly different levels of power can enjoy it together...』
"That’s just like Shaltan, isn't it?" Fate-san remarked. "The goal was to reach the Throne, right? Assuming the other groups who were split up randomly are following similar branches... would the final room on this map be the Throne?"
"That would be the logical conclusion, but there might be a trick to it," Cornelia-san added.
Hearing Lilliwood-san, Fate-san, and Cornelia-san speak, I felt a slight nagging sensation. I’d been thinking about what Fate-san said earlier—about "what to do if we get stuck." As far as I recalled, there were no rules saying we couldn't go back the way we came.
If we could return to a previous room to pick a different path when stuck, did that mean we could clear every single room? No, that would probably take too much time, so there was likely some kind of restriction or penalty.
And if Alice was involved in the development, then as Cornelia-san suggested, there was bound to be some kind of weird gimmick...
"..."
"Hmm? Kai-chan, what’s wrong?"
"No, um... what is this upward-pointing arrow at the bottom of the route map for?"
"Doesn't it just indicate that this is the map?"
"...I thought so too at first, but the arrow seems a bit small for that..."
The tiny upward arrow at the bottom of the map display caught my eye. It felt out of place, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Following my gut, I tried to touch the map. However, it was an image projected by Phantom Magic; my hand simply passed right through it.
I thought there might be a physical mechanism in the map, but that wasn't it.
—There might be gimmicks ahead that only trigger if you touch them while cloaked in magic.
Fate-san's words from moments ago flashed through my mind. I cloaked my hand in magic and reached out once more. This time, I felt a solid sensation.
It was likely a very sophisticated Magic Formula—designed so that it could only be interacted with physically when the user was cloaked in magic. Even so, simply touching it did nothing. An upward arrow... I tried sliding my hand upward, the same way I would operate a Tablet Terminal.
The route map slid away, and new words appeared in its place.
『Extinguish all Light』
...Is this a Hidden Route?
Sugar (Serious-senpai): "Alice certainly seems like the type who’d love hidden routes like that, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she tucked one away."