Infinite Mana - Chapter 225: The Trail Below (Thank you for your support, R!) (Patreon)

One hour later, Sieghart was starting to believe the trail had already disappeared. He had crossed half the town, watched guards question frightened civilians, and inspected every damaged district he could reach without looking suspicious, yet nothing useful had appeared.

Most of the red mana left around the destroyed buildings had already faded into ordinary magical residue. Healing spells, Aura disturbances, broken enchantments, and hundreds of moving people made separating anything meaningful from the background increasingly difficult with every passing minute.

Sieghart was considering giving up for the day when Magic Vision caught something faint drifting above a narrow side street. The trace was so weak that he nearly dismissed it, but its red coloration matched the residue embedded inside the exploded supports.

He stopped walking for less than a heartbeat before continuing normally. The red mana was not concentrated inside a building this time. Thin vestiges floated through the air like smoke after a fire, broken into pieces but still forming something resembling a direction.

Sieghart followed immediately. He did not run, because sprinting through a town currently searching for saboteurs would be an impressive way to get arrested, but his pace increased enough that several pedestrians moved aside when he passed.

The trail crossed two streets, disappeared beneath a market awning, then reappeared beside an old stone wall. Every few seconds another fragment faded completely, forcing Sieghart to push Magic Vision harder despite the headache beginning behind his eyes.

Whoever had left the trace understood concealment. There was no continuous magical line leading conveniently toward a hideout, only scattered residue clinging to places where something carrying that foul mana had passed close enough to disturb the surrounding environment.

The vestiges eventually turned into a narrow alley squeezed between two older buildings near the edge of the commercial district. Broken crates, discarded boards, and a pile of rotten cloth made the place look useless enough that most people would never enter. Sieghart stepped around a collapsed barrel and immediately saw where the trail ended. Several wooden boards had been placed across a section of ground beside the wall, covered with enough dirt and rubbish that they resembled ordinary discarded construction material.

Red mana leaked through the gaps. Not much, but enough that Magic Vision painted thin crimson threads between the boards. Sieghart crouched several meters away and used Telekinesis to shift one piece without touching anything directly.

A dark opening appeared underneath. Stone steps descended into a narrow shaft before disappearing beneath the street, and the smell rising from below confirmed what the old drainage markings carved along the surrounding wall already suggested. Sewers. Of course the people planting hidden explosives had escaped through the sewage system. Sieghart supposed asking experienced saboteurs to use a pleasant, well-lit route with convenient signs would have been expecting entirely too much consideration.

More importantly, the red mana below was stronger than the fading trail he had followed. Several distinct concentrations pulsed somewhere beneath the street, separated far enough that Sieghart doubted they all belonged to one person simply standing underground.

His first thought was more explosives. Whoever planned the attack might have left additional charges throughout the sewer system, either as traps for anyone following them or as another stage intended to damage the town later.

Sieghart narrowed his eyes and studied the nearest concentration. The structure was hidden beneath too much stone for Magic Vision to resolve properly, but its rhythm resembled the compact magical charges that had destroyed the support pillars.

He could probably disable them. Earth Magic could expose sections of the tunnel, Water Magic might disrupt poorly protected runes, and Mana Transfusion potentially offered ways to overload magical structures if he understood where their energy pathways were located.

The problem was everything surrounding that decision. His carriage remained parked only several streets away, filled with books, weapons, expensive purchases, the Goblin Champion's equipment, and more personal belongings than Sieghart wanted to abandon in a panicking border town.

Going underground could take minutes or hours. Emerging somewhere else afterward would make retrieving the carriage awkward, while returning covered in sewer filth immediately after several buildings exploded would make him look extraordinarily innocent to absolutely nobody.

He could move the carriage first, but driving it toward this alley would attract attention. Leaving town and sneaking back would waste time, and the red traces below might fade before he returned with a better plan. Sieghart remained crouched near the hidden opening, annoyed that finding the first real lead had somehow created more logistical problems than answers. He was still weighing whether information justified the risk when a woman's voice came from his left.

“What are you looking at? Because everyone else is running toward the damaged district or trying to leave town, while you are crouching beside a pile of trash and staring at the ground like it insulted you.”

Sieghart turned his head slowly. A blonde woman stood near the alley entrance with a spear in one hand, her posture relaxed enough not to threaten him directly but balanced enough that the weapon could move immediately.

Dust covered one side of her face and much of her armor. Several fresh scratches crossed the metal plates around her shoulder, while pale powder clung to her boots and trousers as though she had spent the last hour climbing through collapsed masonry.

She had probably been helping survivors at one of the destroyed buildings. That would explain the exhaustion around her eyes and the thin streak of dried blood across one gauntlet that did not appear to belong to her.

More annoyingly, she wore the same colors and armor pattern as the town guards. Sieghart silently cursed his luck. Out of every possible person wandering through the district, naturally an armed guard had found him beside a concealed sewer entrance.

“None of your business.”

Sieghart stood while speaking and deliberately stepped away from the hole. He did not dismiss Magic Vision, but he reduced its intensity enough that the red traces beneath the street stopped glowing quite so brightly across his sight.

The woman did not move aside. Her gaze shifted from Sieghart to the disturbed boards, then returned to his face with an expression caught somewhere between suspicion and the exhaustion of someone who had already dealt with too many strange things.

She inhaled slowly through her nose. The motion was subtle, but Sieghart noticed mana moving around her head at the same time, followed by a faint disturbance he could not immediately identify through the constant Aura interference.

“Can you smell that foul magical energy too? It was all over the ruins. I thought I was imagining it until I followed the same stench here, and then I found you staring directly at where it becomes strongest.”

Sieghart squinted at her. That changed the situation. Ordinary guards had apparently failed to notice the charges entirely, yet this woman could sense their residue strongly enough to track it through town without relying on Magic Vision.

He briefly considered asking what kind of ability allowed her to smell magic. Enhanced Smell could detect physical scents, but whatever she was doing appeared tied directly to mana, which made the question much more interesting than he wanted it to be.

Unfortunately, interesting did not mean trustworthy. She was still a town guard standing between him and his first real lead, and explaining why he could identify the same energy risked revealing more about himself than the situation justified.

Sieghart glanced toward the alley entrance, calculating whether simply walking past her would end the conversation. She had not accused him of anything yet, and technically crouching beside garbage remained legal even during an emergency.

Then the red mana beneath the sewer pulsed again. Both Sieghart and the woman looked toward the hidden opening at exactly the same moment, which answered one question more clearly than either of them probably wanted. She could definitely sense it. Sieghart slowly looked back at her spear, her guard armor, and the dust covering her from helping people at the collapsed buildings. Ignoring her might still be possible, but it was becoming considerably less practical.