Walpurgis Royal Academy of Machinart, Underground Space.
This was a vast hollow devoid of any light source—silent and expansive.
The air was damp.
Pathways stretched out in all directions like a spiderweb.
This space was labyrinthine and complex, making it difficult to imagine that anyone could navigate or even operate in such a place.
Rozen had been here before.
Back then, during an intense battle with the threatened Charlotte at the Night Party's battlefield, Sigmund's Gram went berserk, breaking through the surface. Rozen, along with Charlotte and Henri, had fallen underground and eventually ended up here.
It was then that Rozen learned of certain hidden truths.
Such as—the Sanctuary of Fools.
About half an hour before the Academy was taken over by the Golden Rose, spatial fluctuations appeared in a certain corner of this place.
From the distortion, a young man cloaked in an ornate, pitch-black feathered coat stepped out, followed by three stunningly beautiful young women.
"Order."
As soon as he appeared, the youth immediately threw a talisman, which ignited at the utterance of a brief incantation, transforming into a floating orb of flame that illuminated the surroundings.
He glanced around and clicked his tongue.
"Still the same suspicious atmosphere as before."
That youth—was Rozen.
Rozen had arrived here with Irori, Yaya, and Komurasaki.
"Wow, it's so dark in here."
Komurasaki looked around curiously, like a child who had stumbled into a haunted house.
"So this is the place where you secretly cuddled up with Miss Charlotte and Miss Henri, huh?"
Yaya was scanning the surroundings with sharp eyes, like someone catching their partner cheating—making it impossible not to retort.
"Master did mention this place before, but I never imagined that such a secret area existed beneath the Academy."
Irori maintained a vigilant and serious gaze as she observed their surroundings.
"Be careful. Don't wander off. The layout here is incredibly complicated. Last time, I had the Academy Headmaster and Magnus leading the way to get out. Now, though we don't have that concern, getting separated would still be a major hassle."
Rozen offered this warning as a precaution.
The three girls nodded at once.
Then, Komurasaki spoke up first.
"Are the two big brothers from the Akabane clan really here?"
She asked this with a questioning look.
"Yes. They're here."
Rozen stared in a certain direction, a glint of light flashing in his eyes, allowing him to clearly see the presence of two distinct spiritual auras.
Those two auras—one belonged to Magnus, the other to Raishin.
Magnus remained still in one spot, accompanied by all six of his Automatons.
Raishin, on the other hand, was dashing about at high speed, seemingly trying to navigate the maze. But he was about to reach Magnus's location, and the two were on the verge of confrontation.
Seeing this, Rozen recalled his recent phone call with Shouko.
…
That had happened just a few minutes ago.
At the time, Rozen, Irori, Yaya, and Komurasaki were enjoying their afternoon tea in a room.
Irori stood off to the side, focused on brewing and pouring tea with a ladylike grace.
Yaya and Komurasaki were quarreling—an everyday affair caused by Komurasaki's habitual clinging to Rozen. Yaya, emitting a dark aura, was issuing warnings, and things escalated from there.
Seeing her sisters bicker, Irori occasionally scolded them.
Meanwhile, Rozen sipped his tea leisurely, seemingly used to it all.
The scene was peaceful.
Even though the Night Party was still stirring up chaos outside, and its participants were frantically pursuing their goals, Rozen's side remained serene and unaffected, carrying on as usual.
Perhaps only Rozen could maintain such leisure in the entire Academy.
Unfortunately, this moment didn't last long.
Soon after, the dorm warden from the Raphael Men's Dorm came in and called out:
"Rorelei, you've got a call. Come out and answer it!"
Upon hearing that, Rozen immediately knew who was calling.
Who else could it be but Shouko?
"Is it Master?"
"Is it Shouko?"
"Definitely Shouko!"
Irori, Yaya, and Komurasaki all stopped what they were doing and said in unison, recognizing the caller instantly.
"Looks like we've got some news," Rozen said with a faint smile and told the trio, "I'll go listen in. You three stay here."
With that, he left the room and went to the dorm lobby to take the call.
Rozen assumed the reason for the call was to share information about the Izanagi faction.
To his surprise, what Shouko told him was something completely different.
"Those two Akabane brats are going to fight to the death."
Upon hearing this, even Rozen couldn't stop his expression from shifting.
He immediately focused and activated Wise Eye to its highest sensitivity, scanning the Academy.
More precisely, scanning the underground of the Academy.
And that's when he saw the spiritual auras of Raishin and Magnus.
For some reason, Raishin had infiltrated the Academy's underground and was running around inside. Magnus, meanwhile, remained motionless, as though guarding the location, appearing in the same area as Raishin.
That confirmed Shouko wasn't being alarmist.
"What's going on?"
Rozen didn't waste any time and demanded an explanation.
Shouko, sensing the urgency, gave a crisp response.
"You already know about the Sanctuary of Fools, right?"
That was something Alice had told Rozen about earlier.
"There's a facility beneath the Academy that plays a key role in the birth of the Machine Doll," Shouko said. "Because you and that little Belew girl blew a hole in the ground and fell in there last time, the place was exposed. Now, the world powers all know that the Academy is researching Machine Doll. And according to the Father's foresight, a Machine Doll will be born during the Night Party. That means the Sanctuary of Fools is indeed the main reason for the birth of such a doll."
Otherwise, why would a Machine Doll only be born at the Night Party?
The reason was simple—the Academy hosting the Night Party was secretly researching the Machine Doll.
And the facility it relied on for this research lay in the Academy's underground—the Sanctuary of Fools.
Knowing this, of course the nations of the world were tempted by the potential results hidden in that facility.
But the Academy wasn't to be underestimated either. Infiltrating the place was no easy feat.
Edward Rutherford was a sly old fox with extraordinary power. An unprepared assault would only end in annihilation.
But now, the opportunity had come.
"The Japanese military got word that the Academy will soon fall into utter chaos," said Shouko. "They saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime chance and ordered the Akabane family's second son to infiltrate and seize the research data."
"Chaos?" Rozen frowned immediately.