DanmachiMC - Chapter 501: The Important Documents Taken Away

Although it was nighttime, Hermes Familia's special relationship with the Guild meant they were granted a discreet reception.

“Royman, sorry to trouble you at such a late hour.”

“It’s nothing. It’s an important matter after all.”

The one receiving Asfi was Royman, the Guild’s front-facing representative. With strong skills in management and finance, he had been entrusted with the highest authority. He was also the person directly responsible for classified and covert missions.

Being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night left him with plenty of complaints, but once he heard that Asfi was investigating the hidden base of Evilus—and that there might be a connection between the hideout and the construction work in the Dungeon—he could no longer sit still.

After all, people did carry out work in the Dungeon. The Guild itself had several ongoing projects there.

For instance, while the upper levels of the Dungeon originally had no lighting, the Guild had implemented illumination infrastructure, installing numerous Magic Stone lamps on those early floors.

Much of the construction within the Dungeon was handled by the Guild internally.

If Evilus had somehow exploited that infrastructure, the consequences could be dire.

Royman understood that, as head of the Guild, he couldn’t wash his hands of such a disaster.

At this moment, he hoped that Perseus could uncover whatever was hidden as soon as possible. He didn’t want a major incident to occur due to his own oversight.

At the very least, before it was too late to avoid blame, he needed to find a way to shield himself.

And even if things turned so bad that there was no way to distance himself, he still needed a sliver of hope to survive.

Royman quickly sifted through a pile of documents and located the complete records of construction work from Orario’s founding to the present day.

They filled the entire long table in the document room, making Asfi a little dizzy just looking at them.

“This is everything?”

“No, part of it dates back to before Orario was even built—those are records of infrastructure created by adventurers and gods together during battles against monsters.

The middle section contains Orario’s construction documents, including some of the original sketches.”

“The final portion includes records of construction projects carried out in the Dungeon over the past century under the Guild’s name.”

“No wonder.”

After a millennium, it was only natural for the accumulated records to be so overwhelming. In fact, Asfi felt that even a thousand years’ worth seemed rather lacking.

“Looking at it now, it does feel a bit sparse.”

“Yeah. While there are quite a few sketches left from Orario’s founding, they fall far short of the full construction data.”

“Those documents weren’t preserved?”

“They were originally kept by the blacksmith Daedalus, the architect and builder of Orario, the labyrinth city. He was in charge of safeguarding many of the plans. He had requested to retain the detailed data himself, as it represented the most valuable experience of his life.”

“I believe Ouranos-sama agreed because Daedalus played a vital role in building Orario.”

At first, Royman had thought Ouranos’ decision was biased. But when he considered Daedalus’ achievements, he understood that this was the reward Daedalus had hoped for.

Daedalus had spent decades tirelessly building Orario, and his final wish was simply to keep the construction blueprints and some of the related documents he had worked on.

From any angle, Daedalus’ request wasn’t unreasonable. What he wanted to keep were the diagrams he had drawn himself and the data he had personally recorded. Granting this as a reward was really just a way to let him hold onto a few mementos.

However, Asfi noticed a critical issue.

‘Those blueprints and data may have been Daedalus’s life’s work, which is why he wanted to keep them. Or maybe… he left something important behind for his descendants.’

If Hermes hadn’t assigned her to investigate this information, she wouldn’t have even considered the possibility.

After all, Daedalus had spent decades laboring over the city of Orario. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to ask to keep some construction plans for himself.

But now, with what she knew about the connection between the Dungeon’s hidden figures and Evilus, it was hard not to suspect that Daedalus’s preserved blueprints contained something crucial.

There was even a chance they were linked to the areas currently concealed by Evilus.

After thanking Royman, Asfi began her own search.

There was a wealth of information, but most of it dealt with architectural details or circumstances from a thousand years ago.

She had no reason to examine records from before Orario’s construction. The real issue lay in what happened during and after the city’s founding.

‘The real question now is whether Daedalus hid something—perhaps secret passageways in Orario—within the materials he requested to keep.’

This was something she hadn’t found in the documents from a thousand years ago.

But Asfi knew full well—just because she hadn’t found it didn’t mean it didn’t exist.

It only meant that whatever it was hadn’t been recorded in the documents available here.

If anything, it only strengthened her suspicion that Daedalus had deliberately taken those particular materials with him.

He had led the entire construction of Orario. If he had created special secret routes himself, no one would have noticed before the actual building began.

Still, Asfi couldn’t be certain until she reviewed the remaining documents.

She quickly skimmed through the records from a millennium ago.

Most described the original vision for building Orario and the materials used. Mixed in were some architectural sketches of the city.

Among them were blueprints of the Tower of Babel and the Dungeon’s entrance.

It was a section that clearly warranted close attention, yet yielded almost nothing. Even after finishing the entire batch, she couldn’t find a single suspicious clue.

‘Definitely suspicious.’

‘Only basic information was preserved here. The more detailed materials must’ve been taken by Daedalus.’

Orario’s construction dated back a thousand years, and these documents were the only surviving records of its foundational secrets.

The gods hadn’t intervened in the building of the labyrinth city—it had been a purely human endeavor.

Which was precisely why even the gods didn’t know about Orario’s secret passages. Only the builders and craftsmen who had worked on it at the time knew.

And now, with a millennium passed, Daedalus’s preserved records were the last remaining proof. No one else would know that secret routes had been embedded into the city from the very beginning.

‘Looks like Hermes-sama was right—Evilus really is connected to Daedalus’s descendants.’

‘Which means the hidden locations in the Dungeon may have started construction a thousand years ago… and might still be under development even now.’