Confirming the direction indicated by the compass needle, Rosha soon began moving.

She didn’t bother disarming the avoidable magical traps, only disarming those clearly set up to be unavoidable on the path ahead.

There were more than just a few traps in this maze, so how long would it take to deal with all of them?

‘Complete mana waste.’

It was around ten minutes later that Rosha suddenly sensed someone silently appearing behind her, someone who hadn’t been there moments ago.

And then, a familiar voice spoke.

“There you are, Rosha.”

In fact, there was only one person she knew of who could transcend space like this without any magic power movement.

Without a hint of surprise, Rosha turned around.

The black-haired man, his clothes not even ruffled, was walking towards her with his gaze fixed on her.

“…Were you looking for me?”

“Of course. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to meet this quickly in such a vast maze.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t I say to meet again unharmed after entering the rift?”

…Was that really the reason?

Rosha looked at Froy with suspicious eyes.

Koko seemed to share her sentiment, giving him a look as if witnessing a frog trying to lure a kind young lady.

“I thought you weren’t one for empty words.”

“It wasn’t empty words… then let’s just say I was curious about your every move.”

The man concluded with a half-hearted excuse and carefully examined the magical traps Rosha had disarmed.

Since the traps were neatly disabled, there was no reason to find it suspicious.

‘But there have been more than just one or two suspicious things about him.’

Rosha had already half-given up.

It was better to seem suspicious than to hold back and end up in danger.

After a while of inspecting the disabled traps, the man muttered in a grumbling tone:

“You have too many secrets.”

“Does that bother you?”

“No. It only makes me more curious.”

“Seems you’re a secret enthusiast.”

Rosha replied lightly.

In fact, even if Froy didn’t admit it, he did seem to have that inclination. Otherwise, why would he insist on uncovering the secrets of the world?

She remembered his statement on the day they had agreed to cooperate: ‘I want to find out who masterminded this situation.’

But the response she received was quite…

“Yes, that’s right. So sincerely, it drives people crazy.”

There was an emotion in his slow voice that made Rosha flinch.

Froy was now staring intently at her.

What did I do wrong?

Feeling a bit aggrieved, she hurriedly replied:

“But you’re hiding a lot too, Froy. Just look at your coachman Lovell, for example.”

Lovell turned out to be a talented mana user and even a fledgling special ability user who could manipulate fire, albeit weakly.

For Froy to have him as a subordinate from early on!

Seeming to follow her line of thought, Froy nodded readily. Then he made a proposal.

“You make a fair point. Since we both have many curiosities, how about we take turns asking questions as we go through the maze?”

“Sure, let’s do that.”

Most of the questions could be attributed to her special ability anyway. It wasn’t for no reason that Rosha had revealed the existence of her ability to him.

‘Froy is sharp but a good partner. It’s not easy to find someone with this level of talent.’

With his versatility, perfect application, and intuition, long-term cooperation with Froy seemed favorable. While not getting too close, they needed to share information to a certain extent.

Rosha gestured for him to ask first, intending to gauge how overt his questions would be before deciding on hers.

But the subject the man brought up was completely beyond her expectations.

“This might be a stretch, but… have you and I met before in the past?”

…What kind of line was this?

‘Isn’t this tactic too cliche?’

Rosha still remembered the advice she had received in the previous world to immediately discard any man who used lines like ‘Have we met before?’

However, Froy didn’t seem to have that intention, so Rosha carefully looked back into her memories.

Although vague, she arrived at one conclusion.

“…I don’t think so?”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. If we had met, I would remember. I couldn’t possibly forget a face like this…”

Recalling the admiring silence that had fallen when he had appeared in the ballroom, she unintentionally trailed off, realizing she had added unnecessary words.

Rosha glanced up at Froy.

Fortunately, the man simply responded calmly with a wry smile.

“I see.”

“…Yes, that just now…”

“It’s fortunate that you find my face appealing.”

Ugh. Hearing Froy’s words, she felt her face flush red.

It was a relief that it was rather dark here, but Froy seemed to have already noticed, given the quiet chuckle he let out.

Normally maintaining a cool, expressionless demeanor, his face with crinkled eyes and a soft upturned smile could make anyone fall for him.

‘I should move on to the next question quickly.’

Placing the back of her hand on her cheek to cool it down, Rosha swiftly opened her mouth.

“When did Froy become a secret enthusiast? I mean, what made you want to uncover the secrets of the world?”

She had asked a light question, partly because he hadn’t gained anything from this round of questions, and partly because she wanted to deflect the situation.

Yet for some reason, the smile left the man’s lips.

With Froy now wearing a somber expression as if deep in thought, she hurriedly added:

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. It was just a casual question.”

“No, rules are rules, so I should answer.”

After being lost in contemplation for as long as it took the maze path to bend three times, he finally spoke, revealing a rather secretive story.

“I had that thought from my early teens, after accidentally learning about my father’s work. My father was one of those in charge of a secret experiment conducted by the imperial family.”

“A secret experiment?”

It didn’t sound good.

Nodding at her questioning tone, Froy continued.

“It was an experiment related to special abilities. The details were disposed of long ago, so I don’t know the specifics, but I’m convinced it’s what led to my father’s death.”

“Ah…”

“Trying to uncover the truth surrounding that experiment is what eventually led me here.”

The sudden influx of sensitive information was overwhelming.

But the most overwhelming part was Froy’s low mutter.

“If I remember correctly, the name of that experiment was ‘The Prophet of the Lantern’…”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s leave this story here for now.”

“No, you can’t just stop at such an important part!”

“Was it important to you?”

The man seemed puzzled, unaware of the meaning of ‘lantern.’ Realizing her slip, Rosha mumbled:

“No, it’s not that…”

Yet her mind was filled with questions.

‘What’s this? Why does a secret experiment have ‘lantern’ in its name?’

Did they just give it a cool-sounding name? But it seemed too much of a coincidence.

She wanted to ask the Guide God, but for the god to communicate within the rift, she would need to build a shrine here.

There was no time for that, so she had no choice but to proceed with the trial for now.

As her thoughts continued, Froy spoke up softly,

“Then it’s my turn to ask a question. In fact, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time.”

He looked intently into her face, as if this was the main point.

“Is all of this truly the first time you’re experiencing it?”