“Thank goodness you didn’t get lost,” the girl said with a faint smile. “A lot of people do even when we give them a map.”

“An impressive bounded field. I use similar methods myself, but it's nowhere near as refined.”

I turned to my mentor. “A bounded field, like the one you have around your apartment?”

“Yes. This one keeps unrelated people away without using magecraft. It hasn’t been maintained for a while, but it remains quite effective… unlike mine, which collapses if I don’t check on it every week.”

He sounded quite disgruntled near the end.

Rin cocked her head, curious. “It caught my attention as well. It’s rare to see you praise non-magecraft techniques so highly.”

“It can’t be helped. I recognized the creator at a glance. It’s a touch too eccentric, excessively perfect, neither conforming to the rules nor defying them, yet functions impeccably. No doubt Lord Valualeta enjoyed teaching her,” my mentor said with a sigh. “This is Aozaki Touko’s handiwork.”

The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II, Volume 2, Chapter 4, Part 1