Chapter 81 : Chapter 81

Chapter 81. The Makoto of Another World

Eli’s gaze was drawn just as firmly to that mysterious box.

Bardel’s legacy?

He took a deep breath, reached out, and accepted it with the utmost care.

It felt icy and heavy in his hands, with a strange texture, like some kind of warm-toned jade, yet also carrying the feel of metal.

He tried prying the lid open with force, but it did not budge in the slightest.

Then he tried searching for a hidden clasp or seam, his fingers slowly tracing the intricate patterns across its surface, but he found nothing.

The box was a seamless whole, as though it had been born in that form.

“Your Highness?” Eli looked up at Irene with a questioning expression.

Irene’s gaze fell on the box. She extended a slender finger and lightly brushed across the lid.

A faint crease appeared between her brows, and in the end, she gently shook her head.

“It cannot be opened. It has been locked by an... ancient seal. The method is very unusual.”

Her voice remained as calm as ever. “Keep it safe for now.”

“It... it won’t open?!” Gulu exploded at once.

Pointing at the box with one tiny paw, it shrieked at Irene in grief and outrage. “Your Highness!

You made the great Lord Gulu soak in that freezing water for half the day!

Just to fish up a broken box that won’t even open?!

Th-this is outright animal abuse!”

Eli frowned as well, his heart full of disappointment and confusion.

Something was wrong.

They had gone to so much trouble, only to end up with a box they could not open?

He swept his eyes across the empty underground cavern around them. All that remained were cold stone walls.

Could it be that Bardel’s mausoleum was not here?

Was the intelligence wrong?

Unwilling to give up, he raised the torch and walked to the rock wall.

He carefully felt across the cold, slick stone surface inch by inch, trying to find any possible mechanism or hidden door.

“I’m furious! Absolutely furious!” Gulu, seeing that no one was paying it any attention, became even more indignant.

“Where’s my treasure?! What happened to the treasure we were promised?! Liars! All of you are liars!”

The more it thought about it, the angrier it became. It kicked a pebble the size of a pigeon’s egg from beside its foot.

With a sharp clack, the stone flew out, bounced several times across the slippery ground, and rolled forward.

Perfectly by chance, it struck an inconspicuous cobblestone near the edge of the pool with a dull thud.

Click.

An extremely faint sound of interlocking gears meshing together rang out in the silent cavern.

All three froze at the same time.

Then—

RUMBLE—!!!

A tremendous roar and a powerful suction force suddenly erupted from the center of the pool.

The clear water began spinning wildly downward at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In just a few breaths, the pool bottom was exposed, covered in pebbles and silt.

And there, at the center of the drained pool, a pitch-black circular opening roughly two meters across appeared.

A crude stone staircase wound downward along the wall of the shaft.

“Huh?!” Gulu’s mouth dropped open, its black bead-like eyes going perfectly round.

The next second, it puffed out its soaked little chest.

Planting its tiny paws on its waist, it loudly declared with overwhelming pride,

“Ha! Hahaha! See that? I knew the mechanism was here all along!

That kick just now was deliberate! I did it on purpose to open the secret passage!

Well? Impressive, right? Why aren’t you thanking the great Lord Gulu yet?!”

Eli stared at the bottomless opening, and the corner of his eye twitched violently.

A coincidence? Or... did this marmot really have some absurd stroke of luck?

“Let’s go.” Irene’s voice broke the silence as she walked toward the opening first.

Eli shook his head helplessly, then carefully stuffed the unopened box into his pack.

Lighting another torch, he stepped onto the spiral stone staircase that led into the unknown.

The stairs were steep and slick, coiling downward as though they had no end.

They descended far deeper than Eli had expected. He could even feel the change in air pressure.

At last, the steps beneath his feet gave way to flat, solid ground.

The space before them suddenly opened up.

Eli raised his torch high. Its orange-red light struggled to pierce the heavy darkness, barely illuminating the scene ahead.

Even with his hardened nerves, he could not help but suck in a sharp breath as his scalp prickled.

They were standing in an underground space so vast it was almost beyond imagination.

As far as the eye could see, there were dense, neatly ordered formations of... clay soldiers.

Thousands upon thousands of them!

These clay figures were the same height as real people and wore ancient-looking armor.

In their hands they held spears, swords, and shields, all molded from clay as well.

They stood in different poses. Some stood rigidly upright, some knelt on one knee, and some looked as though they were charging into battle.

Their hollow eye sockets seemed to stare at the intruders.

“Wow...” Gulu poked its head out from Eli’s pocket, its black eyes full of horror.

“So... so many mud people! This is terrifying!

A-Are they going to come alive?”

Irene’s gaze swept over the silent army. She tilted her head slightly, as though carefully identifying the style and details of the figures.

After a moment, she spoke softly. “This is indeed... the style of an early mausoleum belonging to a high noble of the Western Federation.

Terracotta or stone figures were used to guard the tomb’s master, symbolizing the authority they wielded in life and the underworld army they would command in death.”

Eli stared at the shocking sight before him.

In an instant, a famous term from his previous life flashed through his mind—the Terracotta Army!

This was practically the otherworld version of Qin Shi Huang’s underground mausoleum.

At the center of this clay army, guarding the very heart of the tomb, stood a square palace built from massive blocks of obsidian, ancient and weighty in design.

“Move.” Irene’s voice broke the stunned silence.

Eli steadied himself, tightened his grip on the torch and the hilt of Silver,

and carefully stepped into the sea of clay figures.

The three of them cautiously moved through the gaps in the formations.

But just as they had gone deep into the ranks, when they were only a few dozen paces away from the palace gates—

“Ahhh—!!!” Gulu suddenly let out a shriek so sharp it nearly warped. It frantically slapped at Eli with its tiny paws.

“They moved! They moved, Eli!

Behind us! The mud people behind us! They moved! They blocked the way!!”

Eli whirled around, and his heart instantly sank to the bottom.

The path they had just taken was now, at some unknown point, completely sealed off by rows upon rows of clay figures that had silently shifted into place.

Those hollow eye sockets seemed to be staring coldly at them.

It was utterly horrifying.

A fine sheen of cold sweat appeared on his forehead. This place... was far too eerie.

“Your Highness!” Eli’s voice had never sounded more grave.

“Something is wrong. Let’s retreat. This place... is too sinister.”

There was nothing more terrifying than an unknown threat.

“Yes, yes, yes! Retreat! Let’s retreat!” Gulu nodded frantically from inside the pocket, its voice already tinged with tears.

But Irene stopped walking.

She merely turned her face slightly, and that look in her eyes made it seem as though she were watching a child throwing a tantrum.

“With me here,” she said in a tone of quiet certainty that allowed no doubt,

“what are you afraid of?”

After saying that, she paid no further attention to Eli or Gulu’s reaction.

She simply turned around and continued forward toward the tightly shut obsidian palace doors.

Eli pressed his lips together and frowned, but in the end, he could only grit his teeth and follow after her.

At last, the three of them arrived before the obsidian palace, which radiated an ancient and oppressive aura.

The massive stone doors were tightly closed, and their surface was carved with intricate, unfamiliar patterns, as though telling the story of some lost age.

Eli took a deep breath, planted both hands against the doors, and pushed with all his strength.

Creeeak—creeeak—creeeak—

The stone doors slowly opened inward, and a blast of ancient, decayed air rushed out to meet them.

The inside of the palace was much smaller than it had appeared from the outside, but it was still spacious enough.

Torchlight flickered weakly, barely illuminating the central area.

The first thing that came into view was a rectangular stone coffin, also carved from a single massive block of obsidian.

Its surface was smooth, with no unnecessary decoration.

At the front of the coffin stood a black stone stele more than twice the height of a man.

Its surface was covered in strange writing that looked like clusters of tadpoles, and Eli’s heartbeat could not help but quicken.

Holding the torch warily, he swept his gaze across every corner of the palace like a searchlight...

Judging from all those “archaeology” novels he had read in his previous life,

a place like this usually hid the deadliest kind of... tomb guardian beast.

And yet the entire interior of the palace was completely empty. Aside from the stone coffin and the stele in the center, there seemed to be nothing else.

Irene, however, appeared to have developed a strong interest in the stele.

Ignoring Eli’s vigilance, she walked straight up to it.

Tilting her head slightly upward, she silently studied the ancient, twisted script engraved upon it.

After confirming that there was no immediate danger, Eli relaxed a little and slowly moved to her side.

Looking at the incomprehensible writing on the stele, he could not help asking in a low voice,

“Your Highness, what... does it say?”

Irene kept her eyes on the inscription, and her ethereal voice drifted softly through the empty palace.

“It is the story of... a man who longed for immortality.”

“Bardel, the ruler of the Federation known as ‘Iron Hand,’

believed that the harmonization of yin and yang was the ultimate secret to obtaining eternal life and supreme power.”

“And so, over the course of his life, he searched for and gathered... many different kinds of ‘partners.’”

“Human women, elves, beastfolk, demi-humans, goblins, even... fishfolk from the deep sea.”

“He sought to blend the life-source of different races, harmonize yin and yang, and thereby pierce the boundary between life and death.”

Eli listened in utter disbelief, and the corner of his mouth twitched despite himself.

This “Iron Hand” ruler really was... something else.

His way of thinking was truly extraordinary.

Unable to stop himself, Eli asked, “Judging by the look of things... he failed?”

Irene shook her head slightly, and her fingertip slid over a line of text. “No.”

“He succeeded.”

“He truly did obtain a lifespan far beyond that of ordinary men, as well as great power.”

“But...”

Her voice paused for a moment.

“Because he took too many lovers, he eventually provoked the boundless fury of all his partners.”

“...And on a certain night under the full moon, the many companions he had gathered joined forces... and stabbed him to death in his bedchamber.”

Eli: “...”

He sucked in a sharp breath, feeling as though he had suffered a shock unlike any before.

That was actually possible?!

What a bizarre way to die... yet somehow, it made perfect sense.

From “Iron Hand” to a jealous-lovers bloodbath?

This was basically the otherworld version of Makoto’s downfall!

His eyes drifted instinctively toward the massive obsidian coffin in the center of the hall, and his emotions became indescribably complicated.

A peerless ruler of his age had ended in such a way...

He had just begun walking toward the coffin, wanting to see the final resting place of this amorous monarch—

BOOM—!!!

A deafening crash, heavy as a mountain collapsing, suddenly rang out behind them.

The enormous obsidian doors they had pushed open with such effort slammed shut on their own without warning.

Then—

HISSS—!!!

A strange pinkish-white gas suddenly sprayed out from all sides of the palace.

“Cough! Cough!” The pungent smell made Eli choke violently, and alarm bells instantly blared in his mind.

Poison? Or a trap?!

He immediately held his breath, and battle aura instinctively surged through his body as he tried to resist whatever corrosion might follow.

He looked toward Irene without thinking.

As long as Her Highness was here, no poisonous gas or trap should have been enough to trouble them.

But the moment he saw Irene’s condition, a chill unlike anything he had ever felt instantly froze his blood.

The face of Irene, who had always remained calm and composed, now showed clear shock for the very first time, even beneath her disguise.

Within those star-filled eyes was a bewilderment so intense it was hard to believe, and...

a trace of panic he had never seen before.

“Mana... can no longer be guided...”