"Well... I thought there was something in it, but nothing in particular."

　Ray muttered to himself as he walked around the house.
　I had always expected to be attacked by people as strong as the old man I had just mentioned, but it was completely unexpected that no one would attack me.

"Is there no one else in the house?" -- "No, it's a stronghold, isn't it?"

　The sight of a door ahead of her eyes makes Ray walk a little faster.
　It's a fairly large mansion, but it's not as large as it is in the aristocratic quarter.
　...though there are exceptions like Marina's.
　That's why Ray thought there weren't so many rooms, and that's why he might be able to find some clues.
　When I arrived at the door, I reached out gently... but stopped moving before touching the doorknob.

(You don't have a trap, do you? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

　While thinking so, he gently reaches for the doorknob, determining that the trap was probably not set.
　It was an act of trying to deal with anything immediately, but fortunately, the door does not open as soon as the needle pops out of the doorknob or the moment you touch the doorknob.
　I'm relieved about it, but before I go into the room... I'll check for anything suspicious.
　As was the case with doorknobs, the reason why they handled it so cautiously this time alone was that the people behind Cobold's case were undoubtedly very cautious.
　Otherwise, it would be impossible to find such a clue.
　There were some clues, exactly, but they were cut off halfway before reaching the mastermind.
　With all that caution, it's safe to have some sort of trap in place if it's a real base, rather than a disposable one as Grange knew it.
　Fortunately, there was no trap this time, so Ray goes into the room.

"Study...? What a bothersome."

　There is an office desk and a small but bookshelf around.
　Books are essentially expensive things, so the books here alone are not worth a fortune, but they will be worth some money.

(At the very least, people using this base aren't worried about money. ... No, it's decided when they have this base ready.)

　Ray doesn't know if he rents this house, if he buys it... or if he uses it without permission.
　However, there is no doubt that there will be a lot of necessary expenses for using a house in such a place.
　If you're going to live for a very short time, that's a must if you're going to live for a very long time.
　...but that's not why I envy you.

(If you want to decorate and enjoy magic items, you may need a place like this, but for now I don't need such a large house.)

　Looking at his office desk, Ray thinks so and begins to look for something to help.
　But the desk was clean and tidy, and there were no clues at a glance... like documents.
　When I thought about it in the drawer of my office desk, I found some papers, but they didn't seem to be particularly important.

"I have no doubt that this study is the sort of place that the owner of the house uses, but there is no evidence of it, what do you think? Well, it may be because it is the enemy's base, but not the base."

　Ray didn't expect to find the magic items he was looking for anytime soon.
　However, it's a complete embarrassment because I thought there could be a clue to the magic item.
　...the presence of magic items is just Ray's wishful observation.

"I don't think it's a magic item, but I think there could be something else like that... what do you think?"
"What!"

　Ray's words take my breath away when I find out that someone outside the room has spoken to me.
　But, perhaps determined immediately, kick through the door and come in, where Ray is in less than a few seconds, and rush.
　The fact that it takes a few seconds to identify Ray is probably why the person is still described as immature.
　More than a certain amount of... that would be a moment for an elderly man to make a surprise attack on a guard at the door and be easily knocked down by Ray to enter the room and see him.
　a few seconds and moments
　From an objective point of view, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two, and that's true.
　However, in the act of battle, the difference is enormous.
　And in fact, the slight difference in this battle has resulted in fatal consequences.
　Ray's blow, which was waiting for the rushing opponent, easily fills the opponent's pit and passes out.
　However, it was impossible to kill the force that had come running, and the opponent fell to the floor and bumped into his office desk.

"Do you mean that others are being attacked by me, too?"

　Ray concentrated on hearing, but could not hear the sound of battle.
　Ray's hearing is not as sharp as Seto's.
　If you're fighting loudly, you'll hear the sound.
　But the battle begins quietly and ends quietly... ...if a surprise attack unilaterally knocks down a guard, you can't imitate the sound of him falling to the floor.
　As a countermeasure, there are two or three guards working in pairs, but that is far from safe.
　If this were an ordinary criminal, it wouldn't be a problem...

(For now, if you can't hear the sound of a fuss, you don't mean you were attacked. Then why did he attack me...)

　Look around the study for something that might be the reason.
　I think they attacked this room because they didn't want to find anything in it that didn't taste good to see.
　I thought so, but this study is quite large.
　It doesn't feel very spacious because there are so many bookshelves.

"Is there something in the book?"

　a muttering ray
　Cartoons, anime, novels, and so on I saw while I was in Japan often had some sort of device on my bookshelf.
　Ray remembers taking a particular book in turn and opening the hidden door.
　However, given the number of bookshelves and books in this room, it is not easy to do so.
　I don't have time to do that in the first place, so if there's a device in the bookshelf, I can only leave it to the guards.

"Then..."

　I immediately give up looking at the bookshelves and look around the surrounding around me.
　However, there is no denying the possibility of another attack as soon as you notice the person who attacked you.
　In order to prevent it from happening, tie it up with a rope taken out of the mistling.
　...however, since he is not as professional as a security guard, he may be able to get out of bounds.
　At any rate, after tying the hands and feet of the attacking person, look around again.

"Well... like this?"

　What happened to me was a figurative on my office desk.
　a small wooden statue carved from a tree
　Ray picked up the palm-sized wooden statue, but it was only natural that nothing would happen.

"Do you want to put it somewhere, or do you want it so that it's such a key?"

　Eventually, that's the case, and you put the wooden statue back on your desk.

"I feel it would be quicker to ask this man in person... whether he will answer it or not."

　At the very least, the elderly man who fought earlier showed no sign of responding to Ray or the guards' attempts to extract information.
　The attacking man is definitely less skilled than the old man, but there's a good chance he'll be a tight‐lipped man.

(Well, it would be better to leave the interrogation to a special guard.)

　Looking around the study thinking that way.
　Ray is not a regular job like a guard, nor is he a real thief in any other sense.
　That's why Ray doesn't know where to look into the study and that's why he looks around the room according to his intuition, not according to his theory.
　Is there anything wrong with you?
　With that in mind, I looked around the room... and suddenly stopped moving.
　There is a painting at the end of my eyes.
　Ray was mortally unsure of the art class, but I still understand that he was good at painting.
　a painting depicting the sandy beach and the sea, not the scene of guillem
　At first glance it looked like just a painting, but Ray still felt something was wrong with the painting.

(What? What are you curious about?)Even so, he gently approaches the wall, determining that in the end he would not understand the reason until he examined the painting.
　Then, standing in front of the painting, Ray finally realized what he had felt uncomfortable about.

"Is this... a strange distance?"

　As the mutter said, it seemed a step or two farther to the wall on which the painting was hung than it had been seen from near the centre of Ray's study.
　The distance is not that great, but if you take one or two steps, there is a difference of nearly a meter.
　If that's the case, I wonder why this is happening.

(This painting itself is a magic item? Oh, but I've seen it on TV when I was in Japan, if there's a way to mislead people with visual effects.)

　It's what we call trickery or trick art.
　It's not a magic item, it's a painting drawn purely by skill.
　I was impressed that it was that kind of thing, and knowing that, I looked around...

"Huh?"

　Suddenly, I notice something in front of my eyes.
　a wall different from the one on which the painting hung
　There was something like a switch on the wall that had not been seen before.
　It's not particularly noticeable, but it's a switch that looks like a wall color.
　It's like a protective colour, something only Ray's eyes in front of the painting would have found.

"What in the world do you think of doing this? No, I suppose you didn't want to find it because it had been so cleverly hidden."

　Whispering, he approaches the wall with the switch.

"Yes, definitely a switch,"

　a so-called button‐type switch
　It's natural to hide it in a way that's naturally easy to hide, since it's been hidden in a kind of protective color.
　For example, a lever-type switch can be easily found even if it is hidden in the same way as the color of the wall like this switch.

"... and the biggest question is, can I press this switch? ... I don't know. I think it'll be all right."

　These are hidden switches, not ostensibly, in places like this.
　It's highly likely that if you push this, a hidden passage will be opened.
　At the same time, however, even if such a cautious person hid it in a protective color, if he had been asked to prepare a switch that led to the hidden passageway... Ray could not nod.
　Some kind of attack may be carried out on those who carelessly press the switch.
　Or, by pressing the switch, you may find out what the secret of this mansion is.
　Both seem to be the case, so I don't know what to do... Ray ended up quietly calling in a full-time guard.