Chapter 165: Knock! Knock!
Denzel stopped an arm’s length away from the wall.
Nothing about it looked unusual.
The stone was old, uneven from years of weathering, with patches of moss growing between the cracks. If someone had dragged him here blindfolded and asked what he was looking at, he would’ve answered without hesitation.
A wall.
Just a wall.
Yet the faint disturbance in the mana refused to disappear.
It continued flowing around the same point, subtle enough that he would’ve dismissed it as imagination only a few hours ago. Now, after spending an entire day learning to quiet his mind and feel mana instead of forcing it, the difference stood out like a ripple disturbing perfectly still water.
"..."
He didn’t move immediately.
The urge to simply reach forward was there, but another voice surfaced before his body could act.
’Thinking keeps you alive.’
The Knight’s expression flashed through his mind—the same calm look she’d worn every time she’d watched him make a reckless decision.
Denzel let out a quiet breath.
"...Right."
If Sophia had gone through whatever this was, that didn’t automatically mean it was safe.
She clearly knew something he didn’t.
Which meant blindly copying her would be the fastest way to get himself killed.
His eyes swept across the narrow alley.
Nothing.
Just broken barrels, discarded crates, and loose stones scattered across the ground.
He bent down, picked up a pebble no larger than his thumb, then weighed it once in his palm before looking back at the strange distortion.
"...Let’s see."
With a gentle flick of his fingers, he tossed it toward the point where the mana bent unnaturally.
The pebble crossed half the distance.
Then...
It vanished.
No impact.
No sound.
No bounce against stone.
One moment it existed.
The next...
Nothing.
Denzel’s eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.
"...Well."
"That’s not normal."
He waited.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Nothing came back out.
His gaze lingered on the empty space where the pebble had disappeared before he slowly walked closer, stopping just in front of the distortion.
The mana shifted more clearly now.
It wasn’t merely gathering there.
It was flowing around something hidden from sight, almost as though an invisible object occupied the space where the wall should’ve been.
His heartbeat slowed instead of quickening.
Not because he was calm.
Because his mind had already begun working.
’A concealment spell?’
’A barrier?’
’Or...’
He frowned.
’I don’t even know enough to guess.’
For someone who’d lived his entire life believing the world made sense, the past few days had become strangely efficient at proving otherwise.
Mana.
The Knight.
Training that ignored common sense.
And now...
Invisible doorways hidden inside stone walls.
"..."
He lifted his hand.
Slowly.
Carefully.
His fingers stopped barely an inch away.
He couldn’t feel wind.
Couldn’t feel heat.
Nothing.
Just that faint, unnatural pull within the flow of mana.
He hesitated for another second before finally making up his mind.
’If Sophia walked through here...’
’She came willingly.’
She hadn’t looked frightened.
She hadn’t looked like someone running for her life.
Whatever lay beyond this wall...
She had intended to reach it.
Denzel drew one slow breath, steadying himself exactly as the Knight had taught him.
"...No point turning back now."
The moment his fingertips touched the distortion, the sensation caught him completely off guard.
It wasn’t solid.
Nor was it empty.
It felt like pushing his hand through the surface of a perfectly still lake.
Cool.
Weightless.
The strange resistance lasted only a heartbeat before it gave way completely, swallowing his hand without a ripple.
His eyes narrowed.
"...So that’s how you disappeared."
There was no turning back now.
Taking one final breath, Denzel stepped forward and let the rest of his body pass through the hidden barrier.
Denzel’s footing faltered for the briefest moment.
Not because the ground had changed.
Because the world had.
The cool sensation surrounding his body vanished as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by a gentle warmth carried by the night air.
He blinked.
"..."
The alley...
Was gone.
In its place stretched a street unlike anything he’d expected.
Stone buildings lined both sides of the road, far larger and better maintained than the ones in the village above. Warm amber lanterns hung from wrought-iron brackets, yet none of them burned with fire. Instead, each contained a pale blue light that shimmered softly from within, casting an almost dreamlike glow over the street.
People walked calmly beneath them.
Not many.
But enough.
Some wore simple traveling clothes.
Others were dressed in dark robes with unfamiliar patterns stitched into the sleeves.
A man carrying a spear walked past without so much as glancing at Denzel, while a woman stood outside a nearby stall examining what looked like a crystal no larger than her palm.
The quiet murmur of conversation drifted through the air.
Coins clinked somewhere farther ahead.
A merchant laughed.
For a long moment...
Denzel simply stood there.
"...You’ve got to be kidding me."
His eyes swept across the street again.
There wasn’t a trace of the village.
No weathered wooden homes.
No dirt roads.
No familiar landmarks.
It was as though he’d stepped into an entirely different settlement hidden behind a single stone wall.
’No...’
His gaze shifted toward where he’d entered.
The wall wasn’t there anymore.
Behind him stood what looked like the rear entrance of an ordinary stone building.
The narrow alley he’d come through had vanished completely.
"..."
He stared for another second before letting out a quiet breath.
’So it wasn’t a teleportation spell.’
The air felt the same.
The temperature hadn’t changed much.
Even the direction of the breeze felt familiar.
’It’s hidden...’
’Not somewhere else.’
The realization settled over him slowly.
There had been another part of the village this entire time.
Hidden in plain sight.
And he hadn’t noticed a thing.
A dry laugh escaped him.
"...I really don’t know this world at all."
His attention shifted back to the people moving through the street.
Something felt...
Different.
No one seemed hurried.
No one appeared nervous.
Everyone carried themselves with quiet confidence, as though this hidden place had existed for years and there was nothing unusual about it.
Then his eyes caught a familiar figure.
Sophia.
She was already halfway down the street.
She hadn’t changed her pace after passing through the barrier.
Didn’t stop.
Didn’t look around.
She walked with the ease of someone returning somewhere familiar.
Denzel immediately stepped forward.
Not too quickly.
Just enough to keep her within sight.
The crowd was thin enough that losing her would be difficult, but he still kept several paces between them.
His gaze never left her back.
As they moved deeper into the hidden district, he began noticing things he’d missed at first.
People greeted one another with quiet nods.
A pair of men in dark uniforms stepped aside to allow an elderly woman to pass.
Near the entrance of one building, a young boy practiced controlling a small stream of water that floated above his palm while an older man watched with folded arms.
No one reacted.
It was treated as casually as someone sweeping their front porch.
Denzel felt his eyebrows twitch.
’So this is normal here...’
His attention returned to Sophia just as she passed a small fruit stall.
The elderly vendor looked up from arranging his wares.
A warm smile spread across the man’s face.
"You’re back."
Sophia slowed just enough to return the smile.
"I am."
"Working late again?"
She gave a small nod.
"It couldn’t be helped."
The old man chuckled knowingly.
"Don’t overwork yourself."
"I’ll try."
She offered a polite wave before continuing on her way.
Denzel watched the brief exchange in silence.
It lasted only a few seconds.
Yet it told him more than he’d learned over the past several days.
She wasn’t sneaking into some forbidden place.
She belonged here.
These people knew her.
And judging by the ease in her expression...
She had been coming here for a very long time.
Without realizing it, Denzel’s curiosity only deepened.
’Just who are you, Sophia?’
Sophia continued deeper into the hidden district without slowing.
Denzel followed from a distance, careful not to let his attention wander for too long.
The farther they walked, the more the place revealed itself.
What he’d first taken for a simple hidden street gradually unfolded into something much larger.
A blacksmith’s forge rang with the sharp rhythm of hammer striking metal, though the flames burning beneath the anvil shimmered an unnatural blue instead of orange.
Across the road, a woman stood behind a counter displaying neatly arranged herbs. Several emitted faint glows of their own, while others gave off fragrances strong enough for Denzel to catch even from where he walked.
People came and went as though this were an ordinary marketplace.
No one looked over their shoulder.
No one whispered.
No one behaved like they were hiding from the outside world.
If anything...
This place felt more alive than the village above.
’How...’
’How does something this big stay hidden?’
The question lingered in his mind.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine the amount of mana—or whatever else it took—to conceal an entire district.
His eyes drifted upward.
Even the sky looked the same.
The same moon.
The same stars.
Yet somehow, everything below existed beyond the knowledge of the villagers living only a few hundred meters away.
His thoughts were interrupted as Sophia slowed.
She turned down a quieter street, leaving the marketplace behind.
The sounds of merchants and customers gradually faded until only the occasional footstep echoed through the stone-paved road.
The buildings here were different.
Less commercial.
Larger.
More reserved.
Each one stood behind low stone walls with polished wooden gates and softly glowing lanterns hanging beside the entrances.
Sophia stopped before one of them.
It wasn’t the grandest building on the street.
If anything, it appeared surprisingly modest.
Two stories tall.
Dark wooden beams supporting pale stone walls.
A simple wooden sign hung beside the entrance, though Denzel was too far away to make out the writing in the dim light.
No guards stood outside.
No obvious security.
Sophia climbed the short set of steps.
Then...
Knock.
Knock.
The door opened.