But that Jabi, somehow letting her gaze wander aimlessly beneath her hood, was giving off a slightly displeased vibe?! Manic...pixie dream girl? Was I saying that right? Either way, it couldn’t be a compliment. Still, I couldn’t help but feel Lady Robur possessed a strange and pointless talent for drawing Jabi into her own rhythm.
“Hey, Pope. This is the spot, right?” she said, pointing at a rock that, at first glance, seemed perfectly ordinary. “Something must be hidden beyond this rock wall, right? Forcing our way through would trigger an explosion inside to destroy evidence, which would be troublesome. I’ve been waiting here, hoping someone would appear. It’s a shame I’m better at solving mysteries with physics than with intellectual puzzles. Is it a password? Like ‘Open Sesame’ or something? Could I open it myself?”
She was supposed to be utterly incompetent, yet she knew about the traps I’d set at the entrance and inside?!
“How do you know that?” I sputtered.
“Oh my, so it was you after all! Well, a faint breeze is gently wafting from that rock wall, and there was that spell cast on that greenhouse in the inner courtyard... I judged you to be a meticulous, scheming, trap-loving mastermind, and it seems my assessment was spot-on!”
Meticulous, I got. Scheming and plotting too—well, devising schemes did make one scheming, I supposed. But a trap-loving mastermind? No, not really?
“Heh heh heh, look at these bare, dimly lit rock walls! This should be quite the dungeon adventure! So, what’s the password? If you tell me, I’ll recite it for you!”
No, she just absolutely wanted to recite it herself...
“No, there isn’t a password to begin with,” I told her. This was the type that opened when it recognized my magic.
“I see. A bit disappointing.”
If seeing her looking somewhat disheartened made me consider creating a password for it right now, that was my own secret to keep...