The Wanderer

CHAPTER 12-THE SIMILAR ONE

They were quite confused about how those two girls were missing, since there’s only one door, which is the main door of the tower. Later, they found out that those two girls had been transported from a secret underground tunnel beneath the tower, one they had never known existed. The constable's team split into two. The first team went to interrogate the monks in the temple. Since they didn’t mention anything about the secret tunnel on the constable's side. So they suspected that among those monks must be someone working with those mysterious masked men to take those two girls away. On the other hand, the other team, including Haruto, went to investigate the tunnel. Indeed, the tunnel led to the other side of the temple, which is surrounded by hills. However, before reaching out of the tunnel, there was a small cave there. And they also found scattered female clothing on the floor. They noticed the clothes must belong to those two girls. Those mysterious men must have changed their clothes to prevent anyone from recognizing those two girls' identities when they transported them to another place. Haruto also found carriage tracks along the road. It must lead somewhere else. Soon, the constable got some horses and chased the track. However, the tracks went missing when the road was separated into two. Now the constable is getting confused as they don't know which one of the roads they should take, left or right. Then Haruto activated his field-sense to predict which road they would take, and he found it was the left one. Since his friends are unsure about his choice and prefer the right, they split up: Haruto and some of his friends take the left, while the others take the right. Whoever finds the masked men must fire the signal smoke into the sky, then the other side will come to aid. Actually, the right-hand road led to another town. Haruto and some of his friends arrive at the end of the road, where they find a huge abandoned mansion. One of his fellows said there was nothing inside the abandoned mansion and suggested they leave immediately to catch up with the other team. However, Haruto, with his field-sense, can feel that something is not right. He can sense there was an activity inside the mansion, so he insists on taking a look by himself, but his fellows seem to trust his senses, and they also follow him. When they reached the mansion gate, they heard a noisy sound coming from inside the mansion. It seemed like people were talking. His friends immediately realized that Haruto's senses were right. However, they knew they couldn't just walk in like that because they didn't know how many masked men were guarding the place. Some of them are trying to circle outside the mansion to see if there is any entrance to get inside. The rest of the constables still stayed on guard at the gate. A moment later, one of the constables who went to check around the mansion came back and told the fellows at the main gate that there was a broken wall fence behind the mansion. The constables can get through there. However, there were 2 guards on watch. The constables had to take down those 2 guards if they wanted to get further inside. Haruto and some of his friends went to the broken wall to continue their mission. Meanwhile, the remaining constables were still guarding the main gate for caution. Upon arriving, Haruto saw the 2 guards his fellow had mentioned earlier. Slowly, they took those 2 guards down silently and went inside. Even though this mansion was abandoned, it's very large. They didn't even know where those young girls were kept. Since the mansion was very large, they needed to search it all around. They split into 2 teams to speed things up. One to the right side of the mansion and the other one to the left side. Haruto was in the team that went to the right wing side until they reached the middle yard of the mansion. Across the middle yard were 3 large rooms: one in the middle and the other 2 on the left and right. Haruto activated his field-sense to check whether the 3 rooms were empty. Turns out, the left and right were occupied and quite noisy, with people talking. However, the middle one was eventually quieter than the other rooms, but something was not right, as Haruto could sense any activity tracking from the door. It seemed like people were walking in and out of that room. Then Haruto decided to take a look, and his fellows followed him. One of them was asked to wait there, not far from the middle yard, until the other team arrived. When they get close, one of his friends accidentally steps on one of the tile floors with a trick mechanism.