The Isekai Police [Books 1 + 2 Complete!]

"However," said Artyom, grabbing one of the pastries on Gula's tray and taking a bite. He tried to move it away, but couldn't without its contents falling over. It was a cherry danish; they all were. "If the site is as dangerous as you say, maybe it'd be a good idea if I could take a look at it first."

"Are you going to take whatever's there for yourself?" asked Cane, crossing her arms.

"If it's a weapon, yeah," Artyom answered honestly.

The others were taken aback, at a complete loss for words.

"You kids don't need ancient weapons," he continued. "But I'll share any clues about the school's history or whatever you need to continue your search."

The three students looked at each other in silence before turning back to Artyom and nodding in unison.

After finishing up their breakfasts, with Gula sharing his own pastries amongst the others after enough pestering, they all headed out of the dining hall. They followed the hallways to the stairs and up to the third floor. From there they went down even more corridors in what felt like circles until they finally came to a wrought-iron fence bolted into the walls and floor. It rose up just past shoulder height, about a third of the way to the ceiling, and held a single gate in its center. It was of course locked, but had a sign tied to the front.

"Warning, entering this hallway is forbidden. Extreme danger, possible death inside. Faculty permission required to enter, trespassers will be expelled," said Artyom, reading its contents in a somewhat bored manner.

"See?" replied Broc. "Nobody's allowed inside, and none of us want to get expelled."

"Or killed," added Gula.

"Yeah, or killed," repeated Broc.

"Something about this feels familiar…" said Artyom before shrugging. "Anyway, what's on the other side?"

"We have no idea," said Cane. "We've heard there's supposed to be some kind of trap that nobody's been able to get through, but nobody seems to know the details."

"Because nobody's been able to get through it," added Broc in a low whisper.

"I never would've guessed!" exclaimed Gula in mock surprise.

"Screw you guys," replied Cane with a roll of her eyes.

The other two laughed, and after a few seconds, she couldn't help but join in with a chortle.

"Sounds like I'll just have to be careful then," said Artyom. "See you in a bit."

"What do you mean by-" said Cane before being interrupted by Artyom jumping over the fence.

"What are you doing?!" exclaimed Broc, grabbing at their hair while staring with wide eyes and gritted teeth. "You're going to get in trouble!"

"Last I checked, I'm not a student," replied Artyom. "And I doubt they'd kick me out of the school for something like this, not when I'm traveling with the hero."

"But there's still the deadly trap," said Gula. "Are you sure you're going to be alright? Don't you want us to help you out?"

"I've seen my fair share of deadly traps, and if I have you three along, I'll have to work even harder to keep you all safe. This way, I'll be able to figure out what's so deadly and find a way for all of us around it next time."

Cane closed her eyes and grunted. It wasn't a happy one. But she soon opened her eyes and looked right at Artyom before giving him a singular nod. "Stay safe."

"I will," he said, before slowly heading down the wide corridor.

Unlike many of the others he'd walked through here, this one was incredibly wide. It could fit a dozen people walking side-by-side with room to spare. Not to mention the height which made the curved ceiling he passed under feel like it could hold up the sky itself.

The walls were adorned with paintings much like the others, but these ones were tall enough to rise from the floor all the way to the ceiling. The paint on many of them was faded and flaked, even more so than any of the others, easily by an order of hundreds of years.

"Can't blame them," whispered Artyom to himself. "I doubt this place pays well enough to risk changing out the paintings in a trapped hallway."

Artyom soon reached the corner. The only way forward was to turn right, which led down another hallway before ending at another turn. He looked behind him and saw the students staring at him with looks of trepidation. He waved at them, and they waved back.

The man from Earth cast a mix of spells on himself, from armor and speed to sensory and stealth.

Artyom had navigated trap-filled corridors before, and he was ready for just about anything. Falling ceiling or arrows? He'd be able to jump out of the way, and anything that still managed to hit would bounce off his skin. Something magical, or even anti-magical in nature? His improved senses would let him hear or feel the mechanisms before the trap even triggered.

But this was a magic school, after all. One that housed a powerful anti-meme. The trap could very well be something more esoteric. He'd just have to be on his toes for something like that.

As he turned down the corridor and began walking, Artyom felt a pang of hunger. He felt it was strange, because he'd just eaten a sizable breakfast, but it was as if he'd missed lunch.

Seeing as he was alone, Artyom took out his phone out of habit and gave the screen on the front a quick look.

Stolen story; please report.

4 pm.

"Well, it looks like I've been caught," he said with a sigh.

Artyom immediately stopped walking and stared at his phone, before lowering it for a second and bringing it back up.

4 pm.

He took a single step and looked at it again.

4:30 pm.

He took one more step forward while staring at his phone this time.

4:30 pm. But when he looked up, he saw that he was at the very beginning of the corridor. He hadn't moved an inch after making the turn.

"Alright, so this trap completely messes up my sense of time, but only when I'm walking. There might also be a spatial aspect to it, or it's also part of the mental effect. I doubt it actually messes with time itself, because no hallway trap in any world is worth the kind of resources it would take to build when there are more efficient ways to kill or keep someone out. Now to actually figure out how this thing works."

Before doing anything else, Artyom set an alarm on his phone to chime every fifteen minutes. A single step pushed him forward by half an hour, and having a constant knowledge of the actual time while moving paused the effect, so a reminder of the actual time that had passed would break him out of the mental effect if he got stuck again.

Artyom looked around and saw a piece of the wall that had chipped off into a pebble-sized fragment. It was right next to him, so he was able to pick it up without having to walk. Once it was in his hand, he gave it a toss and he saw it fly through the air and land on the opposite end of the hallway.

He scratched his chin. "Doesn't look like it's spatial magic if that rock doesn't get teleported back, or maybe it only activates while I step on the ground?"

Artyom bent his legs and jumped forward. He felt the wind rush over his face and saw himself flying forwards with considerable speed thanks to his previous spells.

But then his phone rang.

He blinked, and he was right where he started, standing on solid ground.

"Alright, so it's purely mental," he said. "And being reminded of how much time is actually passing snaps you out of it. That's also good to know."

Confident he understood the trap properly now, Artyom began to extend his senses around the room, trying to find its source. He took several minutes scrutinizing every inch of space and even boring his magical senses deep into the walls and paintings.

He got nothing.

"Obviously the magic powering this trap is also protected by a mental effect, making it another anti-meme." He couldn't help but chuckle as he said this. "Wow that sounds overly paranoid, coming up with an overly complicated explanation for the presence of literal nothing. But that's magic for you! Occam's razor and the simplest solution being the most likely doesn't apply when magic is involved."

Artyom soon calmed down and looked at his phone. Only a few minutes had passed, thankfully.

"If there's an anti-meme involved, then maybe I should treat the whole trap as one? Just cut off my senses before trying to progress."

Artyom started by deactivating his sensory spells. Next, he held up both his hands with each index finger pointing towards his head. With one more sigh, he closed his eyes, stuck his fingers in his ears, and began shouting "lalalala!" while running forwards.

It was a risky move, cutting himself off from being able to hear his phone, but the vibration was also on, so he was confident that would be able to snap him out of it if he got caught again.

Instead, after several seconds, he ran face-first into a wall.

If it weren't for the armor spell still on him, he would have broken his nose. Instead, he bounced back a step and blinked.

He was at the other end of the corridor, and one more look at his phone showed less than a minute had passed since he started running.

Artyom couldn't help but smile. "That's why you're the best."

"He still isn't back yet," said Cane, staring intently through the wrought iron fence. "We can't leave him."

"That's exactly why we need to go!" shouted Gula. "To get help!"

"But what if we get him into trouble?" asked Broc, who was brushing their fingers against each other in a sort of fidget. "Or we get into trouble for leading him here in the first place?"

The trio remained silent as they stared down the fenced-off hallway, all hoping Artyom would pop out at any second, safe and sound.

It had been hours, and they'd gone through Gula's entire stash of emergency snacks. Cherry pastries, cherry candy, even some kind of trail mix with dried cherries in it. He was fresh out of food now, and so was their patience.

Eventually, Cane broke the silence.

"Okay fine, let's run off to get some help," she said while hanging her head in defeat. "But quickly! If he comes back and needs our help, we have to be here to do something!"

The other two nodded and they all quickly ran off to find a teacher.

A foreboding quiet once more stilled the third floor corridor, taunting and threatening any student who might pass by the unwelcoming iron grates. None were welcome, death loomed here, witness the consequences of ignoring these warnings. That was what the silence said.

"By the goddess, I thought they'd never leave!" whispered Daisy as she and Ecole slowly approached the fence. She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated motion while doing the same with her shoulders. "I was certain we would have had to camp out here overnight!"

"We already knew where the treasure was," replied Ecole at normal volume. "We could have just come back tomorrow."

"And give them a chance at looting it before us? Fat chance!"

"We could have taken it from them like we did with the map."

"Sure, we could take it from the students, but what about the leech who's been following us around?" asked Daisy while suppressing a groan.

"He's been spending plenty of time in private himself, we could just as well bully it out of him."

"We can't even bully him off of the team! Why does he have to have such a backbone? Heck, why is Neitra still with us even when it's obvious how much it must suck for her?"

"Those two truly are a mystery," replied Ecole in her signature cool voice.

Daisy felt a vein pulsing on her forehead, but only because she couldn't tell if the green haired woman was being sarcastic with her or actually sincere. Most people could never tell, not even her. Daisy had found it easier to trust she was being sincere. They were friends and teammates after all, and that kind of in-fighting would make it harder to complete their mission. The same kind of in-fighting that they were all having with Lensa…

"It's all his fault," said Daisy, her face contorting into a scowl. "I'm going to rip him to shreds and bring Lensa back to the team."

"That won't resolve the issue with our priestess," said Ecole. "You and I both know her actions at Cape Horn weren't solely caused by Artyom."

"I know that!" shouted Daisy. Her voice echoed through the halls, and she reflexively grabbed at her mouth before slowly letting go. "I know that. He's still responsible for her leaving. We can at least stop him from doing it again."

Ecole nodded. "Agreed."

The two walked over to the fence and jumped over it in unison before heading down the hallway.

"You think we can expect the same kind of traps as last time?"

"I hope not, but I believe we both know the answer to that."