82 – Cradle of Stars
He and his party headed to the place where Sir Fedor was said to have been attacked.
“Wow….”
Cynthia looked at the vacant lot that had become a mess with a surprised expression.
As long as you have lived as a commoner, you have probably never seen a knight fight to his full potential.
“Are you fighting 3-on-1 against that monster just now?”
Sir Pedro shook his head in response to Bessie’s question.
“It seemed like that guy was a particularly strong individual.”
“Ah~”
Still, it must not have been easy for him to be the one who created such a tragedy.
“Umm… It was clearly a white old tree just a little while ago….”
Sir Pedro crossed his arms in front of the black, dead tree and stroked his chin.
“Cynthia.”
“Yes, student council president.”
“Place your hand on that tree and try using mana.”
As I said that, I pointed to the tree that Sir Pedro was looking at.
“Yes? Ah yes.”
Cynthia stretched out her hand toward her tree with a puzzled expression.
When Cynthia’s mana was activated toward the tree, the black, dead tree regained its pure white appearance, like moonlight.
“Uh, huh?!”
Cynthia was startled and widened her distance.
I turned my head away from Cynthia and looked at Martin, who seemed to be aware of this phenomenon.
“Martin. “Do you know anything?”
Martin adjusted his glasses in front of the tree and frowned.
Judging by the way he was mumbling something, he must have been looking through the botanical dictionary in his brain.
“It is a tree that does not exist, at least not on the continent of Arcradium. If it reacted to the mana of the moon, then it must be similar to Lunaris Flower….”
Martin said this and went to collect a sample of the tree.
“Stop.”
“Yes?”
“Stop that tree.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The place where Priscilla and I were kidnapped was in an empty lot where Lunaris flowers were in bloom.
It was a night with the moon rising that I wandered through the forest as if I had been deluded.
The dead tree responded to the moon’s mana.
The tree has a color as if it were made by cutting the cold moonlight of a midwinter night.
Everything that happened to me and Priscilla is related to the moon.
I couldn’t help but feel ominous.
“Martin. “Can you use mana to check if there is space underground?”
“Are you talking about the underground space? Please wait a moment.”
According to my memory, the underground cavity was very large.
It seemed like no matter where I dug, there would definitely be a response.
“This…” .”
When I scooped up the dirt in the vacant lot, I saw a granite stone inside.
“It’s granite. “It looks like there’s something underground.”
“Sir Pedro.”
“… Majesty. “There is a risk of being buried alive in the basement.”
“I know. Still, there are some things we need to check.”
I had to check whether the memory of the past that came to mind a little while ago was true.
Off!
Sir Pedro cut the granite with a knife to create a space for people to descend.
“Kyle. “Go down first and ensure safety.”
“Yes, Chairman!”
The monster that took Priscilla and mine’s lives may be here.
The tension must not be relaxed.
“These are traces of group residence.”
Martin nodded his head in interest as he looked at the fairly large underground cavity.
After confirming the size of the underground cavity using surveying tools, we began creating a map.
“Sir Pedro.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
I walked down the hallway in the same position as when I walked through the forest.
As I was walking down the hallway, I stepped into a place that gave me a feeling of déjà vu.
“This is a mural. “It seems to be a picture of someone hunting a huge animal.”
The closer you got to what appeared to be a residential area in the underground cavity, the more murals were painted.
The fact that there is a mural here means that it is close.
How far did you walk like that?
It didn’t take long for a place that was quite familiar to me to appear.
I looked around with a casual expression, and then took a quick look at the expression on Priscilla’s face who was nearby.
Priscilla seemed to have not remembered her memories yet, so she was just looking around with a nervous expression.
“Let’s go left from there.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
If you go left, you will see the pantheon where we once died.
It is a place untouched by human hands.
There must be some trace left.
“This is…” “It’s a place called the Pantheon.”
Martin looked around with an interested expression.
“Umm… Isn’t this the land of beginning…? .”
According to the founding myth that tells the story of the first emperor, His Majesty Arun, His Majesty Arun led mankind to Akradium.
Then, since there must have been a place to live before, future generations decided to call that land ‘the land of the beginning.’
Martin thought this was the land of its beginning, but he seemed confused by the contradiction between the doctrine of the monotheistic empire and the existence of the pantheon.
To be honest, I don’t know if this is the land of beginning.
Almost all of the trees planted in the forest seemed to be of the same variety, but they did not look like they would bear fruit.
Above all, even though it was a forest, we could not find a single trace of an animal.
Then what on earth is that monster that attacked me and Priscilla?
Thinking like that, I headed towards the foundation where I was hiding from the monster.
“This is blood.”
Sir Pedro squatted in his seat and frowned as he touched the dried black liquid with his hand.
“Looking at this torn piece of cloth, it looks like someone was attacked here.”
Priscilla and I were attacked here and died.
‘Okay then….’
I was so distracted at the time that I couldn’t check it.
But I think there must be traces left somewhere now.
It was a moment when I was thinking about that and looking around.
“Aye!”
Cynthia must have been inspired by the change that occurred when she used magic on a dead tree a while ago, so she moved around using mana in all directions, touching stone statues and walls.
Then, when he touched the stone slab with a picture depicting worshiping the sun, the stone slab fell back and a hidden space was revealed.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, thank you.”
Cynthia, who was supported by Miles, looked around her with a puzzled expression.
“Please wait here for a moment, Miles.”
“I am an escort driver.”
“This is an order from the guard. “Can’t you hear?”
“… All right. But don’t go too far.”
Cynthia, who ordered Miles to wait, approached me at a brisk pace.
She seemed to have a lot of things she wanted to say.
“What is it?”
I headed to the corner with Cynthia and asked that question.
Then Cynthia looked around her and raised the edge of her hand to cover her mouth.
“Isn’t this place strange?”
“It’s strange.”
“It wasn’t like this in the game, right?”
“I guess so.”
“There was an encounter that was too creepy to be a monster….”
That’s probably because it’s not a game.
“The student council president seems to know where this place is….”
I know.
However, she doesn’t know how to explain it, and she doesn’t completely trust Cynthia yet.
There is no need to say it.
“Well…. “It’s like something I saw at first glance in the Garden of Thorns.”
“Ah, Maximili─ Wow. Chairman, is this the route?”
I didn’t bother to answer Cynthia’s words.
Perhaps because she often spoke this way, Cynthia did not think it was too suspicious and just moved on.
She was a simple girl.
‘Is it because it brought back memories of her when she was young?’
Because the soul itself has not changed, it does not follow the instinctive habits of humans.
However, before her ego was formed, the memories of others seeped into her, and it seemed like she was greatly influenced by them.
For example, a child imitates the words and actions of her parents, siblings, or cousins.
“Anyway, that monster from earlier is really scary. “It wasn’t clear, but he fought like a knight, right?”
“Yes.”
“If it’s a monster that can change its body, it can make several hands like this, uh… Did you say ‘Asura’? Then I would be able to do Sado-ryu on my own.”
How can thoughts be so simple?
“The sword that the monster used was made by modifying its own body. If the body could be hardened freely, it would have been more threatening if the entire body was covered in armor. I don’t know why they insist on the human form in the first place. “If it can be hardened so that it doesn’t get cut by a sword, wouldn’t it be okay if it swoops in on people like a net?”
“Ah… !”
“Can I only change into human form? It’s strange even to think about it that way. If your identity has already been discovered, it is better to survive by imitating Sir Pedro in plate armor. But she insisted on her light armor, Kyle, until the end.”
“Maybe I didn’t have the spirit to change?”
“Okay. “There may be some restrictions.”
“Pharmaceutical….”
“Your Majesty, there is no reaction of poison inside.”
As we were having a conversation that was almost like small talk, Martin, who had completed a poison test using a magic tool, approached me.
“Okay, then let’s search inside.”
I confirmed that time flows differently here and outside.
However, not only is it not yet certain, but there is also a dangerous entity wandering around that threatens the knight Sir Pedro.
Camping here is cancelled.
I thought I should just check here and then go back to Soleil.
“It’s quite dark inside, so I think I’ll have to use a lantern.”
“Let’s do that.”
Dior, who had been quiet so far, worked hard to light the lantern and torch as if it was his turn.
Then, for a moment, he looked at me and Cynthia with a complicated expression.
“Dior.”
“Yes, brother.”
“I don’t know what you’re misunderstanding, but that’s what a saint of the Holy Kingdom is.”
“… Yes?”
“It feels like a red sunset synth.”
After hearing what I said, Dior narrowed his eyes, then nodded his head with a slightly complicated but noticeably bright expression.
Some people, including Cynthia, looked like they were asking what they were talking about, but if the words made sense to Dior, that was enough.
‘This should be the last time.’
Thoughts like that were the moment I stepped inside.
“I feel very frustrated.”
As Martin said, my heart feels tight.
From Noble mtl dot com
He felt a tremendous sense of pressure, as if something heavy was pressing down on his shoulders.
Someone with a weak spirit said, “Huh…” “It was making strange noises, to the point where it was sobbing and clinging to Martin, who was walking next to it.
Jaw.
I arrived at the end of the stairs.
We started looking around using lanterns and torches.
It was then.
Stick.
Something heavy, slimy, and ominous liquid touched her feet.
“Your Majesty!”
Sir Pedro was so startled that he jumped back, wrapping his arms around me.
But nothing happened.
“… Crude oil?”
Cynthia squatted on the floor and touched the black liquid with her hand while saying this.
“Saint!”
The escort driver was embarrassed and wiped the liquid on Cynthia’s hand with her handkerchief.
‘… Was this it?’
I couldn’t feel any force right now, but I had a feeling that the liquid that had seeped into Priscilla’s body was somehow similar to this.
What on earth is this?
“Your Highness. This is really dangerous. “Something unexpected may happen.”
Sir Pedro tried to dissuade me with a very serious expression, but I absolutely had to know the identity of something that had seeped into Priscilla’s body.
“Since I’ve come this far, I have to check it out.”
“Your Highness….”
“You are causing trouble, Sir Pedro.”
“Oh, no….”
There is something here.
It was impossible to back down at a moment of such certainty.
So we headed towards the place where the liquid was presumed to have flowed—
“This is the corpse of a living creature… Umm….”
We were able to find something that appears to be the corpse of a strange-looking creature.
It looks slippery like an eel, and has what appears to be wings on its back.
There was a large hole in the body of the corpse, and what appeared to be leaking from the hole was this pitch-black liquid.
“It’s the blood of this corpse. But this….”
The reason Martin keeps blurting his words is probably because of the grotesqueness of the corpse in front of us.
It is a body that appears to have died quite a long time ago.
However, there were no signs of decomposition, and the liquid that appeared to be blood flowing from the corpse did not harden.
The most embarrassing thing of all is─
“Why are you doing this, Cynthia?”
“Ah… Your Majesty Dior. That is… Ah, what should I say…. “I felt like I was worshiping in a cathedral in the Holy Kingdom.”
Yes, that would be the perfect expression.
It was just as Cynthia said.
I felt a fragment of something indescribably great from this corpse.
It was a feeling close to awe.
I, the future supreme ruler of the empire, have a sense of awe.
That is─
‘God?’
Is this corpse in front of me really a divine being?
What is this strange-looking creature?
“It is blasphemy. This is just the corpse of a monster. God is immortal, saint.”
“Yeah, right?”
It is absurd to say that this corpse crawled all the way here.
It would be more correct to think that someone hid it here.
Why?
‘God is…’ imperishability….’
To hide the death of God… ?
Thinking like that, I carefully stretched out my hand toward the corpse.
That moment─
The surrounding scenery collapsed and an unknown scene unfolded before my eyes.