In front of the reception counter at the Bobre Guild,

  a short silence settled in.

  The receptionist spoke carefully.

  “An E-rank request. Surveying potential hazards around the temple outskirts……

  the temple has granted permission.”

  “Faster than I expected.”

  Rynel tilted his head, genuinely surprised.

  The receptionist handed over the document and added,

  “Normally it takes at least three days.

  This time, we got the reply in less than half a day.”

  Ivela skimmed the paper and muttered under her breath.

  “Too fast. Are they confident… or just brazen.”

  “The temple is a sacred space.”

  The receptionist let out a small, uneasy sigh.

  “Please be especially careful about what you say and do inside.”

  Rynel nodded, and Ivela signed without a word.

  The moment they stepped out of the guild—

  someone emerged from the shadowed mouth of a back alley.

  A man leaning one leg against the wall, arms folded, wearing a strange expression.

  Raken.

  He watched them for a long moment, then murmured low.

  “…So you’re going in openly.

  That’s practically a declaration of war.”

  Rynel spotted him and walked over.

  “Thanks for filing the request. Either way, it went through.”

  Raken gave a short, crooked smile.

  “Clever. Using an official request as a way in……

  You’re bolder than you look.”

  Ivela stared at him, expressionless.

  “If we want certainty, we go see the site.”

  “…Fair.”

  Raken turned his head.

  “I’ll move my way. The temple’s already noticed you. They had to.”

  “Got it.”

  Rynel answered briefly and hurried on.

  Raken’s gaze drifted back toward the temple.

  ‘What are you scheming, you bastards….’

  He slipped into the shadows without a sound.

  Not long after, Rynel’s group arrived at the temple entrance.

  A quiet tension sat on the grand stone steps like weight.

  “Welcome.”

  A young man in a white robe greeted them with a gentle voice.

  A familiar face. Soft eyes. A kind, warm-looking temple clerk.

  Zeke.

  Officially, a temple scribe—an assistant to the altar.

  But Ivela knew.

  He was an undercover agent the Shadow Organization had placed inside the temple.

  Information gathering. Monitoring internal movements. Intervention if needed.

  The mission was clear, but Zeke wasn’t a simple errand-runner.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Inside a structure as sensitive as a temple,

  he had authority to judge and act on his own.

  Even within the organization, he wasn’t fully trusted.

  A double duty—or the possibility of moving by his own standards.

  Ivela kept that in mind.

  She asked immediately.

  “I heard the approval came through unusually fast.

  Was there any prior coordination?”

  Zeke hesitated, then answered.

  “To be honest…… I don’t know the reason either.

  Normally these surveys take days of adjustment.

  But this time, permission was granted almost immediately.”

  Aira narrowed her eyes.

  “Someone wants to let us in.”

  Zeke forced a small smile and gestured.

  “Either way, please stay within the permitted range.

  As the scribe, I’ll accompany you and guide you.”

  He pointed up the steps.

  “Then—this way.”

  The moment the temple doors opened,

  cold air pressed against their skin.

  The interior was far larger than its exterior suggested,

  and sound felt… muted.

  The main hall.

  Morning light seeped through a massive skylight.

  But the light was strangely thin.

  Rynel murmured, feeling the current of the space.

  “Something’s off.

  The light doesn’t spread right…”

  Zeke looked back.

  “The inside of the temple is regulated by specific warding.

  Visitor movement is recorded as well.”

  Ivela reacted at once.

  “Recorded?”

  “Yes. Entry times. Movement routes.

  Even parts of spoken conversation.”

  “So we’re being watched.”

  Rynel said, and Zeke fell silent.

  A library. A ritual storage wing.

  They moved carefully, mapping structure and layout in their heads, one section at a time.

  Then Rynel stopped in front of a wall.

  “…This wall.”

  Ivela stepped up at once.

  “Too thick.

  There could be something hidden behind it.”

  Zeke shrugged awkwardly.

  “That area is an old repair section…… there are no records.”

  Then—

  a strange light bloomed at the end of the corridor.

  Blue.

  A statue seemed to drink it in, swaying softly with it.

  “…What is that?”

  Rynel lifted his head.

  It was clear.

  The light was reacting to his movement.

  Zeke swallowed.

  “I’ve never…… seen a response like this.”

  Aira took a step back.

  “It reacted to us?”

  Zeke broke the silence.

  “I don’t know the cause…… but approaching it isn’t within the permitted range.

  I’ll report it separately to the upper clergy.”

  Ivela didn’t answer.

  Instead, she wrote a single line on the memo sheet in her hand.

  [Blue light reacting to someone among us]

  The temple interior was quiet,

  yet something like a presence moved through it.

  Leaving the ritual storage wing, they walked the corridor—

  and Aira suddenly stopped.

  “…There’s something.”

  She muttered like a whisper, then turned into a side passage without looking back.

  The corridor narrowed,

  the stone walls heavy with old damp.

  The presence was faint, but unmistakable.

  Not simple mana—closer to a conscious aftertaste.

  “…Hardly anyone comes through here.”

  A small door, slightly ajar.

  Aira took a breath, and pushed it.

  “…!”

  A massive statue filled her view.

  A lion’s head. A gorilla’s body. An eagle’s lower half. Bat wings.

  A shape that couldn’t exist in reality.

  Oppressive—yet strangely hard to look away from.

  Aira drew a silent breath.

  “…It’s grotesque.

  But I can’t stop staring.”

  Then, behind her, a low, firm voice.

  “Are you adventurers?”

  A high-ranking priest stood there.

  Even in the darkness where the light didn’t reach, his eyes were cold.

  “This area is restricted.”

  Aira fixed her face instantly and smiled, a little too smoothly.

  “Ah—sorry. I was following the corridor and just…”

  The priest didn’t change expression as he stepped in and closed the door.

  “There are many sensitive areas within the temple.

  From now on, refrain from moving alone without your guide.”

  “Yes. Understood.”

  Aira bowed politely, but something felt wrong in her gut.

  Inside the ritual storage wing—

  “…Aira’s gone.”

  Ivela’s eyes sharpened.

  Rynel turned immediately.

  “I’ll find her.”

  He moved down the corridor and found Aira with the priest.

  “…What happened?”

  Aira waved briefly.

  “I’m fine. Took a wrong turn.”

  The priest looked between them.

  “Please move with your guide whenever possible.”

  Rynel’s gaze slid past the priest’s shoulder,

  to the door that had just been shut.

  Cold.

  Then Zeke arrived.

  His smile was the same—

  but his tone wasn’t.

  “That concludes the areas I can guide you through.

  Visitor access time will end soon. Please prepare to leave.”

  Ivela caught the shift instantly.

  But she didn’t press him.

  She only nodded, and wrote one last line.

  [Zeke—sudden change in attitude]

  The temple doors opened again.

  They stepped outside without speaking.

  No words—same feeling.

  Rynel looked back at the temple, slowly, and said,

  “They’re hiding something. No doubt.”

  Ivela muttered beside him.

  “The problem is… how we get in again.”

  Under pale sunlight, the temple tower stood without a sound.

  Whatever lived inside it hadn’t fully revealed itself.

  But the presence was still alive.

  ◇

  By the time they reached the inn,

  the sun was already leaning west.

  It had been a guided survey—yet fatigue sat on all their faces.

  Aira dropped onto the bed and grabbed her head with both hands.

  “…I feel drained.

  All we did was walk.”

  Ivela sat and unfolded her memo sheet again.

  She skimmed the lines, then looked at Rynel.

  “You remember the layout.”

  “Roughly. Main hall center. Library east. Ritual storage south.”

  “And the rest?”

  Rynel narrowed his eyes.

  “Several sealed passages. And one closed door.”

  “Right. There’s clearly space we weren’t allowed to see.”

  Aira, still pressing her forehead, muttered,

  “That statue… it was really strange. But… now that we’re back, it’s blurry.

  My memory.”

  Ivela’s gaze snapped.

  “What did you say?”

  “When I saw it, it was vivid—

  but now it’s like it’s smudged out.”

  Rynel closed his eyes, then opened them.

  “Memory sealing. Or mana-induced confusion. Possible.”

  “The statue itself could be part of surveillance or a seal.”

  Aira nodded slowly.

  “And that high-ranking priest… weird too. He talked politely, but his eyes were cold.”

  Then a message arrived from the organization.

  A short encrypted line.

  ‘That temple is already under our observation.

  Your team’s cover assignment is also part of that framework.

  Direct intervention is premature. Maintain surveillance.’

  Ivela let out a short breath.

  “…So it really was a watch target.”

  Rynel leaned against the doorway, arms folded.

  “So the reason they sent us to this village… was to gather information on the temple.”

  Ivela unfolded the lower part of the message.

  There was one more sentence.

  ‘Recent intel suggests crying can be heard from deep inside the temple each evening.

  Possibility of an unknown ritual or lifeform.’

  And the last line.

  ‘For reference: the charity temple and the Shadow Organization are effectively hostile.

  Information sharing must be encrypted and restricted.

  Additionally, both sides are assessed to have planted spies within the other.’

  The room’s air sank.

  Rynel murmured.

  “…Then Zeke?”

  “He’s ours on paper,”

  Ivela said, firm.

  “But his stance isn’t stable.”

  Outside the window, darkness thickened.

  In that dark, the temple tower rose in silence.

  Rynel pulled his gaze away.

  “…Isn’t there any way for us to get back in?”

  Ivela nodded once.

  “There’s one way.”

  “In the end, we make the temple give *us* a request.”

  ◇

  Evening in Bobre.

  As the sun fully tipped, Rynel’s group gathered in a meeting room the guild provided.

  Survey records and layout notes were scattered across the table,

  and Ivela stood quietly with her back to the wall.

  Raken, who’d been moving separately outside, appeared as well.

  “We covered the public areas… and a statue giving off blue energy, about that?”

  At Rynel’s words, Raken nodded.

  “And we couldn’t enter,”

  Rynel continued.

  “But behind that hidden door… it didn’t feel like a simple room.

  There was a sense of space leading down. I can’t swear to it, but… a descent.”

  Then—

  through the window crack, an owl glided in without a sound.

  Ivela held out her arm, and the owl settled there like it belonged.

  Raken asked low.

  “Another message from the organization?”