Help, I'm in Another World and All the Men Are So Hot! [BL]-Chapter 313: The Mansion’s Hidden Mysteries

"No, the spirits in their non-manifested form are not physically affected, so even if they were stepped on, there would be no problem... It wouldn’t be an issue. But... it’s surprising that such a large number of them has gathered. Is this because of the spirit priestess?"

Damien felt relieved when he heard there was no problem even if they got stepped on.

Sure, the Gnomes at the entrance had gathered around him, but does that mean they’ve been gathering more and more?

Is it really okay?

"Elyon, are the spirits really fine with all of them gathering here like this?"

What if they explode or merge together because there are too many?

"No, like I said before, the spirits themselves are not harmed, so there’s no problem... Not that it’s a problem..."

Elyon hesitated, and Damien felt uneasy. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Elyon, if something’s going to happen, I’d like to know."

"Well... there’s a chance they might play pranks on you, depending on the numbers..."

P-play pranks?

8,000 pranksters... Can Damien handle that?

"And...?"

"Huh? Is there something else?"

"...If the Gnomes increase too much, and the earth mana becomes too dense over a long period, a World Tree sprout might appear."

That sounds terrifying.

For now, it seems that in the Elf village, there are hundreds, possibly even thousands of times more Gnomes than here, so this amount shouldn’t cause the World Tree to sprout.

...Probably.

Elyon seemed uncertain since it was his first time dealing with this, but Damien decided to trust his words for now.

It wasn’t something Damien could fix anyway.

"Well then... let’s finish the setup... by the way, don’t we need to set up the Gnomes as well?"

Would the vines be a problem?

"As long as they remain invisible, even the traps set by the elders won’t be able to catch the spirits. So, there’s no problem. ...To put it another way, there’s nothing we can do to stop them... so we’ll just have to accept it."

Oh... now that he thinks about it, the elders had mentioned that the Gnomes’ pranks were causing trouble, and even the Elves couldn’t handle them.

Well, they said their pranks aren’t harmful, so Damien decided he’d just have to tolerate it.

For now, he decided to forget about the Gnomes.

The Gnome in his pocket was tugging at him, as if saying, "Don’t forget me!" but he decided he’d deal with it later.

This one was the first Gnome to climb up to him, wasn’t it?

Maybe it had grown attached to him?

It was cute, like a little doll, and Damien was happy it had become fond of him, but he hoped the pranks would be kept to a minimum.

The Gnome gave a thumbs-up, as if saying it was all under control, but Damien wasn’t sure how much of his intentions had actually gotten through.

"Well then, let’s finish the setup now. Delyric, I want to exclude the four people from the security system. How should we do that?"

"Understood. Would these four people be acceptable?"

As Delyric spoke, a faintly translucent monitor-like screen appeared above his head, around Damien’s face.

On the screen, the entrance to the private area they had just passed through appeared, slowly zooming in.

It eventually split into four sections, showing Yor, Augusto, Isaac, and Miria.

...They say science and magic are interchangeable once science is developed enough, but it seems the reverse is true as well.

A transparent floating monitor in the air was straight out of a sci-fi world.

"Uh, yeah, I want the security system to ignore these four."

"Understood. Adding these four to the list of excluded people from the defense system... addition complete."

"Does this mean the vines won’t show up anymore?"

"Yes, as long as the settings remain, the defense mechanisms in the private area and the office will not react."

Damien let out a relieved sigh.

That was one thing off his mind.

Now, there was the issue of the master key settings, but that could wait for later.

For now, it would be better to walk around the mansion, finish up the room assignments, and then deal with the rest.

"Is there anything else I should do?"

He asked the others, but it seemed like everyone wanted to wait until they had a chance to settle down before dealing with the small details.

Damien was about to stand up and leave when he suddenly had a thought.

...It felt a little scary to ask, but he probably had to ask it at some point.

He wasn’t sure if it was the right time, but maybe it was better to ask the people here now rather than later.

Well, he decided to just ask.

"Hey, Delyric."

"Yes, Master. Please feel free to ask for anything."

Delyric, still smiling, moved in closer.

Wait, wasn’t he usually a little bit more reserved?

Well, whatever.

"Um... what kind of security measures does this mansion have?"

"First, there’s the long-range cannon system using magic crystals from across the entire mansion..."

"Ah, that’s enough."

By the time "first" was mentioned, Damien was already full.

What exactly were the Elves planning to do in this mansion?

He dismissed Delyric to give him a break and left the office.

Getting Delyric to leave had been more difficult than he expected.

When Damien asked Elyon, Elyon said that it was enough to simply communicate the intent for him to disappear, but when Damien asked him to rest, Delyric stubbornly kept asking, "Is there anything else you’d like me to do?" for a while.

Eventually, he even said, "There must still be something I can do."

Certainly, there were still things that Damien wanted to ask him to do, but there were other more urgent matters, so he insisted that Delyric rest.

"Hey, Elyon, if Delyric goes away... um, will he... forget everything or anything like that?"

He almost said, "Will he die?" but quickly rephrased it and thinking that sounded too dramatic.