The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke - Chapter 124.1

‘Normally, a place like this wouldn’t be guarded by nothing more than a sign saying ‘Restricted Area.’’

If that were the case, they wouldn’t have left Grace alone here so easily. Aside from the plaque on the door reading Authorized Personnel Only, there were no visible security devices at all.

That meant there was likely a magic tool installed to detect intruders.

‘An ordinary person wouldn’t have any way to slip past a magic tool like that, but…’

Grace had recently begun to make use of her divine power. If she could just damage the magic tool slightly or distort its recognition for a moment wouldn’t that be enough?

She flexed her fingers, thinking.

‘But to do that, I’d need to know where the magic tool even is in the first place.’

She scanned her surroundings, but nothing stood out.

“Using divine power blindly feels risky… what do I do…”

Grace let out a deep sigh. She still wasn’t skilled at controlling the output of her divine power. If she released it recklessly, she might end up damaging things outside the door as well.

If a magic tool outside malfunctioned, people worried about her safety would come rushing in.

‘That would ruin everything.’

As she struggled with the problem, her hand brushed against something in her pocket.

‘Wait… the pendulum.’

The pendulum emitted a faint light even without her actively channeling divine power.

Grace had brought it with her on the off chance that its glow might help her locate magic tools. With a flicker of hope, she took it out.

It still emitted a soft, sky-blue light. At a glance, it looked no different from before.

But when Grace took a few steps while holding it, she noticed the change immediately.

‘This feels like before.’

The gentle glow rippled faintly, like it was reacting to something.

The first time she had received the pendulum from Aria, it had reacted in a room containing certain furniture. All of those pieces had been coated with finishing material made from fully depleted mana stones.

Which meant that if the pendulum was reacting now, something related to mana stones—or that finishing material—was nearby.

‘But there’s no black mist here. So it’s probably not the coating.’

The finishing material she’d seen in the underground chamber hadn’t given off any ominous sensation either, so she couldn’t be completely certain. Still, proving even circumstantial suspicion came first.

Grace followed the direction in which the light pulsed more intensely.

“…?”

The reaction peaked at the doorknob.

‘So the detection device is built into the doorknob itself.’

She didn’t understand the mechanism and doubted she would, even if someone explained it. But it seemed clear that if an unregistered person touched the handle, some sort of alert would trigger.

‘An alarm… or incapacitation… or maybe both.’

Naturally, to open a door, one had to grab the handle. Grace knocked lightly on the door; it felt solid and immovable.

‘It’s a push door, so the hinges are inside too. Can’t dismantle it either.’

For an ordinary person, that would be the end of it. Even an artificer would struggle with something like this.

But Grace had divine power.

Anyone with divine power was registered under the Temple as a priest. That was precisely why, whenever a priest visited the Magic Tools Association, artificers were assigned to stay close at all times.

‘Can I break it just a little? Just for a moment?’

To achieve that, she’d need not only fine control over her divine power, but also a proper understanding of how the magic tool worked.

Hoping for a perfectly convenient accident was almost like a miracle.

Crack! As Grace brought the pendulum close to the doorknob, a sharp sound rang out—and the soft blue light vanished instantly.

“Ah—what?”

She stared at the pendulum in shock. She hadn’t intended to use its power at all. Thankfully, unlike the one she’d received from Aria, it hadn’t cracked.

‘What am I supposed to do now…’

She’d been planning to use it thoroughly until she dealt with the unpleasant mist in the annex. Losing its light now was a huge blow. She briefly wondered if she could secretly take another one next time she visited the Temple, then turned her gaze back to the doorknob.

‘Is it… really inactive now?’

Heart pounding, Grace drew up just a trace of divine power and poured it into the handle.

There was no resistance. No backlash.

It seemed the pendulum’s power had completely disabled the device.

“…Well, I probably won’t get caught.”

It wasn’t perfect, but her goal had been achieved. When she opened the door, no magical reaction occurred.

Inside were countless shelves packed with books and documents, many of which were impossible to obtain on the open market. Grace let out a small breath of awe at how vast the space was.

Reading was one of her hobbies, and seeing books she’d never encountered even in the ducal estate made her heart race. Still, she forced herself to remember why she was here.

‘Right. Mana stones. I need to find information on those first.’

Though outsiders were barred, this was knowledge shared internally, so everything was neatly categorized.

After observing how the artificers organized their materials, Grace quickly found her way to the relevant section.

“History of Mana Stones… Mana Stone Experiments I… Mana Stone Experiments I-2…”

As she skimmed through the spines, one particular book caught her eye.