Index and Orsola were running about in an aisle of the flagship 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'.
From the outside, the flagship looked more than 2 times larger than the other escort ships, yet the width of the pathways didn't seem different…but that wasn't the case. There were ordinary statues of angels on both sides of the path, and even a door was intricately carved in the form of a fairy tale scene. The huge number of art pieces suppressed the originally wide aisle.
Not even a deluxe palace and majestic palace were enough to describe this scene. Only an exaggerated comparison like a palace made of gold or a diamond pyramid would be suitable in describing it. In reality, this scene made one feel really uncomfortable.
Orsola held onto the silver Lotus Wand with both hands as she ran down the path, looking around as she said to Index,
"…This place is so quiet it's frightening me."
"That's because their work was already assigned."
Index softly replied,
"Nobody expected the enemy to get inside the flagship in the first place. Before that—the enemy had removed all the enemies, thus the enemy ship has to specialise for the escort fleet to work smoothly…or something like that."
"If that's the case…"
Orsola continued to make sounds of footsteps while she continued to run.
"The other nuns aren't here because even though they're of the same kind; they're not allowed to step onto the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'. This is to prevent the nuns from defecting."
After running for a while, they reached the entrance to a staircase.
The staircase led both up and down, yet Index ran downstairs without any hesitation. Orsola seemed rather panicky as she followed her.
"Wait, do you know where Agnese is?"
"Of course!"
Index immediately replied,
"I roughly know the functions of this 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' ship. Though I don't know what kind of thing the 'Appointed Time of the Rosary' is, the place most suitable for the spell in the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' is fixed. Thus there's only that place!!"
The stairs were extremely long, as if they were surrounding a large tower.
After running down the stairs for a long while, both of them finally reached the bottom of the stairs.
"This is…"
Orsola lowered her voice.
The place was like a hall. In this overly spacious place, ahead of them were double doors that were twice the size of Orsola. It was unknown how thick the doors were, maybe even thicker than Orsola's body.
The entrance to the hall didn't just link to the staircase Index's group came from. There were numerous staircases linking here, as if all of them were linked here.
What an intriguing design.
Someone completely ignored the basics in shipbuilding. Assuming that to even barely get past this design, one had to swim around all the pillars and beams, if they really had to do this—
"Instead of saying that they prepared a room in the ship…"
"It's more like they decorated the surroundings of this room in the shape of a ship."
Index got near the main door.
She placed her face near the door, and wanted to touch it, only to stop midway.
"The door here…has a defensive spell placed on it. Most likely, it's based on the legend of St. Blaise. When the pagan army chased after the Saint who crossed the lake, they weren't able to walk on water, and sank into the water."
"This means…you're saying that those without entry permit will be dragged into the water once they touch the door?"
Even on the flagship, Index and Orsola hadn't met anyone.
Looking at the entire situation, the only ones who could open this door were Agnese and Biagio.
Index glanced at Orsola.
"Hm, if it's a direct method."
"That should be the case."
Index was the keeper of 103,000 grimoires, while Orsola was a grimoires and spells analyst. Facing this difficult scenario, both of them first thought of the same thing.
Index brought her nose close to the door and reinvestigated it. She was analyzing the components of the thick ice wall. Orsola continued to stand aside, holding the Lotus Wand, wary that Index may be taken down by the defensive mechanism.
But,
On the floor around them, there were ice pillars that were larger than humans. There weren't just one or two, but 10–20 of them. The ice pillars started to form shapes as if an invisible blade was carving them out.
"This…"
"They're here to replace those nuns!?"
Besides the ice golems, there were two carriages with cannons on them. The golems and even the cannons were slowly aiming at them.
"!"
Orsola immediately raised the Lotus Wand in front of her.
Though she was not used to combat, Index didn't have a weapon with her, and couldn't use magic. Thus, Orsola felt that she had to fight against the golems.
"Aim at the centre!!"
Index shouted before leaping sideways.
The golems and cannons turned towards her. It was more like they were forcefully pulled by magnetism rather than it being a defensive mechanism.
Index jumped into a lane, and said,
"Go and save Agnese! I'll divert their attention here!! Don't worry, these guards can sense a person's will, so I can use my Spell Intercept on them!!"
According to Index's hypothesis, these ice guards were made from the 'keeper' of the 'Queen's Fleet'. Thus, they couldn't let their guard down completely. Approximately after every few minutes, the keeper would prepare a 'battle report' and 'point of intervention' to see whether there was a need to correct it.
Just like Sherry Cromwell and the stone golem that she controlled, Ellis.
If it was not completely automatic, she could intervene.
No matter how advanced the magic was, the one operating it was still human.
"But!!"
Before Orsola could rebut, a strong wind blew.
All the guards passed by Orsola and rushed after Index, who had disappeared in the lane. Like a gravel truck rapidly moving past, the air was compressed to form wind.
With a *BOOM!!* sound, Orsola instinctively closed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, she couldn't see Index, the golems, or the cannons.
"INDEX!!"
Orsola, who was holding onto the Lotus Wand with one hand, shouted.
But no matter how much time passed, there was no reply.