#34 How to Conquer a Gate (2)
For an efficient conquest, we divided up our roles.
Lee Jae-eun, who had the scouting talent, would search the village alongside Lee Hyewon. I would scour the ice palace, while Yuseonje and the rest stayed behind at base (which was little more than a cluster of temporary tents).
Han Seohyun wanted to stick with me, but I shook my head.
"Stay at base for now. If anything weird happens nearby, signal me."
Now that he could manipulate sand, no one could monitor this space more perfectly than Han Seohyun. That said, I hoped he'd keep tabs on Yuseonje's movements if possible.
There could be a traitor lurking among the leftovers—or who knew what that guy might pull.
"Got it, Boss."
He nodded at my explanation but still stuck out his lower lip in a pout. It might've been a little cute on his real face, but right now, with his hairy middle-aged-man disguise, it was utterly unwatchable.
I whipped my head away and headed for the ice palace's back entrance this time—unlike before—intending to quickly sweep through the unchecked areas.
—Why bother searching the palace?
"You said this is a fragment of a destroyed world, right?"
—That's right.
"Which means real people actually lived here. Not some fake slapped together by somebody."
Until now, I'd thought of the worlds beyond gates as something like instant dungeons from games—a kind of fake realm.
Monsters dropped loot when killed, and sometimes they even handed you growth opportunities on a platter. That line of thinking had only solidified over time.
"No one ever imagined these places were real worlds. Not a single communicable human has ever been found inside a gate. Anything that looked human was just a humanoid monster—something not human."
But if you figured it was some measure to block interference from our world, it wasn't hard to swallow.
Either way, the important part was that this place wasn't an illusion.
—This world perished ages ago.
"Before it fell, it must've been an ordinary world. One where countless people lived their lives."
Evidence backing my hunch turned up one after another: a laundry room here, a bathroom there, a kitchen over yonder. Proof that non-monsters—actual people—had lived in this castle.
In the kitchen, ingredients lay half-chopped, as if mid-prep. A pot in the hearth held soup frozen solid in the midst of boiling. Had it not all been flash-frozen, the air would've been thick with mouthwatering aromas.
From examining the place, one thing became clear: whatever had encased this castle in ice had done so in an instant. No time for any reaction whatsoever.
"It's just like the Pompeii ruins."
—And what's that?
"A volcano erupted without warning and buried an entire city under ash. People got smothered before they could flee. When they dug it up later, everything looked exactly like this."
I stared at a single shoe abandoned on the floor. What became of the person who fled without even noticing it had come off?
"Pompeii left no bodies behind—high heat and endless years saw to that. But scientists later poured plaster into the empty voids in the ash and revealed the shapes of the people from that day."
Stepping over the shoe, I continued.
"Maybe we could do something similar here. Preserve the shapes of the people somehow."
—Doubt it. Probably impossible. The people here vanished due to the world's laws.
"The world's laws?"
—You know, rules like "don't casually mingle with other dimensions' inhabitants"?
"But I met you, didn't I?"
—Strictly speaking, I'm not a living being.
If that was the rule, it explained why we'd never encountered anyone before... but was it really okay for him to call himself inhuman like that? I glanced at Ray, but he showed no sign of offense.
I resumed walking slowly.
The servants who'd worked here had vanished without a trace.
The only one left in the castle was a single woman, lying in the spire with eyes peacefully closed.
We'd taken to calling her Serena.
According to Han Seohyun's description, she was a beauty in her early twenties, with skin so pale her veins showed through and locks of blue hair.
Though confined to the spire, she hadn't been treated poorly, it seemed.
A canopy-draped bed, opulent furniture—all top-tier pieces. The room's furnishings rivaled those in the real castle; quality-wise, they didn't fall short. Imprisoned she may have been, but her basic quality of life had been assured.
Whether she was the true boss or merely the trigger to summon one... that remained to be seen.
—Didn't that second conquest team clear this place? How'd they do it?
"Standard procedure, I guess."
No mentions of any special tricks, so they'd probably stuck to the usual playbook.
"Detection magic picks up a monster in the spire, they wake up Serena and take her down."
Couldn't get much simpler than that.
Which was exactly why I was combing every nook and cranny of this castle.
Uncover its secrets, and maybe—just maybe—a new path would open.
—And if you don't find anything?
"Then we go standard. Though a straight-up fight doesn't look winnable."
That was why Yuseonje was sitting tight despite his skepticism. With our current forces, brute-forcing an S-rank gate was flat-out impossible.
"If we don't wanna die, we'll squeeze every scrap of info out of this place somehow."
I followed traces of frantic flight. This servants' area was far messier than the upper floors, cluttered with scattered belongings. The trail led to their cramped dorms—tiny rooms jammed side by side, furnished with nothing special: narrow beds, small nightstands, plain wardrobes.
—Hard to imagine anything important in a dump like this.
"You never know."
—Most servants back then were illiterate. Only higher-ups like squires could read.
As Ray said, few owned books or writing tools—likely due to illiteracy.
I did find one book-shaped lump, but it was frozen into an opaque ice block, useless as reading material.
Curious if melting might change things, I summoned a fireball nearby. Nothing. Upped the heat, and the "book" simply liquefied into a puddle.
"Wasn't fully transparent inside, so I got hopeful."
It was ice through and through. No reverting to its original form.
"Ugh."
—Even if you find books, you can't read 'em like that.
"Maybe there's one left open to a page."
I gave a wry smile as I said it. The castle was vast, but vast enough to guarantee an "open book" with the exact info I needed? Doubtful.
I left the servants' quarters empty-handed. From the stairs upward, the vibe screamed nobility—everything screamed opulence, dripping with lavish decoration.
As I passed yet another cabinet encrusted with gaudy ornaments, Ray spoke up.
—Come to think of it, there's one more weird thing.
"What?"
—Guys who build castles this massive are usually raging narcissists. But there's not a single portrait in the whole place.
"Oh."
Now that he mentioned it, that was odd. Just as Ray said—no character portraits anywhere.
"Maybe they vanished along with the people?"
—Gates only wipe out living things. Objects stay put. Think about it: any other gate you've been in missing every last painting?
"Dunno. This is my first gate."
—Lord almighty. Straight to an S-rank on your debut?
I brushed off his shock and mulled it over. He had a point.
Louis XIV, builder of Versailles, was portrait-obsessed—commissioned over 700 in his lifetime. Even if not that extreme, castles this size invariably featured owner or ancestor portraits.
And gate worlds were no different. At that last auction, a vampire portrait from some ancient keep had fetched 120 million won.
A total absence like this? Unheard of.
As if someone had deliberately scrubbed them all.
"Gotta keep searching."
Rifling through rooms, I found what had to be the lord's grand study. An ornate desk piled with chaotic papers, flanked by towering bookshelves. The picture of a perfect office.
I eyed the nearest shelf first.
Books crammed in tight—but like everywhere else, frozen solid into the wood. No prying them loose.
Abandoning the shelves, I scanned the desk. Jackpot: papers splayed open everywhere.
Thankfully, the text on the exposed ones was legible enough.
The language wasn't Korean, of course, but I had my ace.
My three-stroke talent: Translation.
I stimulated my mana circuits, and the writing shimmered into readable English before my eyes.
「Eastern drought... request...」
Some letters obscured like smudged glass, but I got the gist. Disappointing, though: a plea for aid due to drought in the east. Addressed to Count Herman.
Finishing the translation, I murmured slowly.
"A request for help with a drought nearby. Recipient's Count Herman—the castle lord's name, looks like."
More papers lay beneath, but frozen immobile.
"Hmm."
If only I could access these books, the answers might be right here.
But no dice on peeling them free. With a sigh, I looked up.
—Something back there.
"I see it."
Behind the lavish chair hung a massive curtain, hastily yanked aside and frozen mid-motion. Through the gap peeked a hidden door.
I gripped the handle. It turned with a click—but the door wouldn't budge.
Frozen like the rest? No.
Locked.
Hm. I focused my gaze.
Artifacts? I could crack it.
Mana surged, infiltrating the handle.
Click.
The door swung open easily.
"Alright. Shall we?"
Something else waited inside. My instincts screamed it.