Princess Cher reached out and grabbed a handle next to the door. She pulled it and there was a "click" sound. The mechanisms inside the wall made several consecutive rotating sounds, and then the stone door slowly opened from the middle.

"Who knew there would be such an old-fashioned mechanical door."

While the door was opening, I approached the entrance and carefully looked inside.

Unfortunately, I couldn't see anything from the cracks. It was too dark, and I could barely make out anything.

"This kind of mechanical structure... doesn't seem like something from the era of magic."

"Could it be before the appearance of magic? How long ago could that be?"

I shook my head upon hearing Bai Yueguang's words.

"Impossible. The magical world has a recorded history of over ten thousand years, and there are even ancient ruins. If we conservatively estimate the existence of magical history, it would be at least a hundred thousand years."

"That long... So this thing..."

"Of course, what you said is not impossible. If it is true, then the history of this entrance mechanism can be traced back to hundreds of thousands or even longer years."

"Maybe..."

Suddenly, Hill muttered to herself.

"What's wrong, Hill?"

Speaking of which, one of the reasons she was created was to allow her to record everything that happened for endless years... Perhaps she had already recorded some important information.

"Although it was originally classified information, it might be helpful for us to escape from here, so I'll tell you. According to incomplete records, the magical era precisely began eleven thousand three hundred and thirty-four years ago. Although this world had magical elements right from the beginning, the creatures that appeared at first did not know about it. They started by using simple natural forces and gradually mastered nature, developing their own abilities. At that time, the creatures mainly used two forces: machinery and alchemy, and that era was called the 'Black Iron Age.'"

"Black Iron... probably refers to various metals in machinery... Wait a minute!"

Suddenly, I remembered something and quickly turned around to the door, stabbing the stone door with a dagger!

Ding!

The sound that came out was indeed the sound of metal colliding!

"This isn't stone, it's oxidized metal!"

Almost fooled by the rough outer surface, it turned out that this thing was made of metal!

In other words... the underground ruins of the academy were made of metal!?

However, the ancient ruins we had previously entered were filled with magic... which means... this land has two ruins, representing two bygone eras?

And they overlapped with each other. According to history, it was very likely that the ancient ruins were established on the basis of the metal ruins, and the entrance to the metal ruins was not scattered like the ancient ruins but only existed in places like the academy...

Now, I want to see how many years the Gray Academy has been around... It seems that the people who initially established it were not ordinary.

And...

I always feel that the age of that metal and our world... have some similarities.

I looked at Bai Yueguang, and his expression was also tense. When he saw me looking at him, he came over and whispered.

"Hey, you've noticed it too, right? That 'Black Iron Age' feels off somehow."

"It's similar to our world, isn't it?"

"That's right, maybe..."

"No, this is definitely not our world, because we have expanded in other directions."

"Other directions?"

"The information network. According to the concept of the so-called 'Black Gold Era', I think it is closer to the steampunk worldview, while ours is different..."

"Well..."

"But for now, let's focus on solving the immediate problem. Let's not think about the worldview level issues."

"You're right."

However, even though we said that, the worries in our hearts grew heavier.

Because, if this is the case, if we appeared in this world... No, it shouldn't be, that would be too horrible.

Anyway, let's figure out a way to get out first. After all, now is not the time to fool around.

"What are you whispering about?"

Princess Cher asked displeasedly.

"We are speculating that there might be other exits in this ruin, because it's very ancient."

"Oh, what do you think?"

"I think... it's highly possible that there are passages controlled by elemental spirits, orcs, or even dwarves."

"Huh?"

Everyone's faces showed a panicked expression.

"Why... would you say that?"

"Because, you see, this kind of ruin looks like a warehouse of past civilization. Elves who like to study and dwarves who like to create have a lot of information like this, maybe they found it from various ruins. Although orcs are not good at either of those aspects, some of them are quite fond of digging tunnels."

"This... might be possible."

Hill closed his eyes and after thinking for a moment, he said without hesitation.

"But on our human side, there are also quite a few exits."

"Huh?"

"The Wigo Empire, the Ais Empire, the Chelfa Kingdom, and the Witte Empire have all discovered entrances to underground ruins, which are probably connected to each other."

So people already know the locations of the underground entrances? But...

"Chelfa Kingdom's underground tunnels are entrances that connect to ancient ruins after the start of the magical era, not the entrance here."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, I took a stroll down there."

"Then we should be able to leave this ruin soon too!"

"They are not from the same era anymore... but going through a maze, it shouldn't be too different, right? Well, since we can't find answers here, let's continue ahead. Maybe, after talking so much, the exit is actually very close."

"Yeah!"

Everyone nodded.

"Flash!"

I pointed forward, and a ball of light appeared in the air, slowly drifting into the interior.

"Let's go, I don't think anyone has been maintaining these lights down here."