The room Jin and Reinhard stepped into was shrouded in total darkness.
"Light."
Jin cast a light spell, and the illumination finally revealed their surroundings.
"What is this place...?" Reinhard murmured.
It was a medium-sized room, sparsely furnished with a few old-fashioned desks and chairs. The design of the furniture reminded Jin of the items his predecessor had used.
"Perhaps an office or a command room," Jin speculated, though he couldn't be certain.
"Still, there might be more rooms further in. Let's keep looking."
They began inspecting the floor, the ceiling, and the three walls that hadn't been breached. It didn't take long to find a passage; a door was set into the far wall, though it had been camouflaged to make it difficult to spot at a glance.
"Shall we?"
"Yeah."
With that brief exchange, Jin and Reinhard ventured deeper into the facility.
After following a relatively wide corridor for about five meters, they encountered another door.
"I'll handle the door. Jin, stay on guard," Reinhard said. Jin prepared himself to release magic at a moment's notice.
Reinhard pushed the door open.
"Ugh!?"
The moment it opened, lights flickered to life inside. The magi-lamps in this room were evidently still functional.
"This is..."
Before them stood rows of empty bookshelves.
"It looks like a repository," Reinhard concluded, scanning the shelves.
"Wait, something was left behind."
Tucked into a corner of one shelf were two books—simple parchment pages bound together.
"What do they say?"
Jin decided to read them. In this era, the Old Magi Script from a thousand years ago was considered an ancient script, but Jin was perfectly capable of reading it. He feigned a halting cadence while reading, however, knowing that explaining his fluency would be an exhausting ordeal.
"May... 23rd... The demon race... invasion... Decision made... to abandon... the fort..."
It appeared to be a diary or a logbook. Reinhard assumed it dated back to the Great Magic War.
"Records... weapons... food... to be moved... out... as much as... possible."
Reinhard nodded as Jin read, analyzing the contents. "I see. So the fort was abandoned because they could no longer repel the demon race's advance. They evacuated everything of importance at the time."
"Just... in case... the... Warp Gate... hall... will be... buried."
"Hoh, so they were the ones who buried it? Quite ironic, considering how much trouble we had trying to find it from the other side."
As Reinhard noted, it was a twist of fate that the very section they had buried for security was the first part to be unearthed by future generations.
Jin closed the log. "Well, there isn't much else of importance here."
Reinhard shook his head. "On the contrary, this is a record that brings us closer to the truth of the Great Magic War. I'm taking it with us."
He told himself that while taking materials from another country's ruins without permission was technically a crime, it was a far better alternative than letting them fall into the hands of Unifilar.
I can always send a translation to the King of Egerea later, Reinhard thought as he tucked the records into his coat.
"Now then, that leaves the armory. It's likely empty, but let's take a look anyway."
The area beyond the repository appeared to be the armory; they knew this because the word was written on the far door. Whether because it was old or locked from the inside, the door refused to budge no matter how hard they pushed or pulled.
Failing to open it themselves, Jin called for Reiko.
"Reiko!"
Hearing Jin's voice, Reiko appeared instantly.
"Yes, Father."
"See if you can open this door."
"Understood."
Reiko placed her hands on the door and shoved with a burst of strength. The hinges shrieked, but they held together as the door swung open.
"This is..."
The door had been blocked by several immobile golems lying in a heap. Dust swirled through the air, forcing both Jin and Reinhard to cover their faces with handkerchiefs.
"Combat golems? No, these are just utility golems."
After examining the dormant machines, Jin determined they were designed for chores rather than battle.
"Five of them, hm? They don't look particularly damaged."
Reinhard knelt to inspect them. The magi-lamps in this area were dim, making it hard to see the finer details.
"It seems their magic simply ran out."
Jin disagreed. "No... that's not it. Look at this."
Jin pried open a golem's chest plate to show him. The cavity where a vital component should have been was empty.
"The control core... is missing?"
Once he saw it, Reinhard quickly moved to check the other golems.
"This one doesn't have one either."
"Neither does this one."
After checking all five golems, Jin and Reinhard confirmed that every single control core was gone.
"The control cores wouldn't just disappear on their own. Does that mean someone intentionally disabled them?"
"I wonder. That seems the most likely explanation." Jin couldn't be certain of the truth.
"These golems weren't vital enough to take during the retreat, but they were worth more than nothing. So, they stripped the most important parts and took those instead... That's my guess, anyway," Reinhard suggested.
Jin nodded. "There might be more clues in those records. Let's examine them thoroughly once we're back."
At that moment, Reiko spoke up.
"Father, there is one more in the back."
"What?"
Jin looked toward the back of the room where Reiko was pointing. In the shadows, he could make out a humanoid shape.
"Light."
With the spell's glow, the figure became clear. It was an automata dressed in an old maid's uniform, left slumped on the floor. It was covered in just as much dust as the golems.
"An automata..."
Jin knelt down to inspect it, using a bit of magic to clear away the dust. It was an adult female model. The magical skin that covered its body still barely retained its elasticity. Its hair was a dull blue—perhaps a deliberate choice to distinguish it from a human.
"This one still has its control core!" Jin exclaimed in surprise.
"If it's not moving... I don't think it's because of ether depletion."
This particular automata was equipped with an ether converter.
"Ah, I see. It must have taken some kind of impact that severed the internal magic link."
Jin's sharp eyes finally pinpointed the malfunction.
"Alright, I can fix this."
Once the problem was identified, there was no failure Jin couldn't repair.
"Joint. Fusion."
He reconnected the severed magic circuits and repaired the magi-device that had begun to suffer from decomposition.
"There. Wake up."
He provided the necessary activation magic, and the automata began to stir.
With a series of slight creaks, the automata opened its eyes and stood up.
"W-was... it... y-you... who... a-awakened... m-me...?"
Whether because its vocal mechanisms were damaged or simply old, the automata spoke with a faint, mechanical stutter.