How to Conquer a Gate (3)

The sight that greeted me upon opening the door and stepping inside was a staircase leading underground. Crafted from brown bricks, the steps plunged into darkness so profound that the path below was utterly invisible.

But I wasn't surprised by the existence of a secret underground space hidden in the office.

Brown bricks.

"Not ice?"

As Ray said, ice was slowly creeping inward along the doorframe I'd opened. I slammed the door shut. The light spilling in from outside vanished, and darkness swallowed me whole.

I hurriedly conjured a light. Thankfully, the brown bricks right in front of me remained unchanged.

Just as Ray suggested, this door had been serving as a barrier against the ice.

"Looks like whatever's in here didn't freeze."

The bottom of the descending stairs was a complete mystery. The dank, musty underground odor assaulted my nose, paired with pitch blackness that hid even a step ahead. Even for someone as fearless as me, it was hard to take that first step. But turning back after coming this far? No way.

I swallowed hard.

"Going down."

Just in case, I wrapped myself in two layers of shields. One stroke for light, two for shields. No spare mana circuits left for immediate use made me uneasy, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but with the shields up, I felt secure enough.

The deeper I went, the heavier the humid, stale underground stench became.

The stairs led to a vast basement chamber. There, I spotted an old torch mounted on the wall. I extinguished my light, lit the torch, and scanned the room while holding it aloft.

Shelves crammed with books, a desk buried under stacks of papers, drawers stuffed with what looked like assorted magical ingredients—it was packed to the brim, no room to spare.

Not exactly a shelter, but a hideaway for something illicit. Research that couldn't see the light of day.

"Jackpot."

This was exactly the kind of intel I'd been after.

I slotted the torch back into its wall bracket and moved carefully. Everything here had escaped the curse of ice that ravaged the castle above. Meaning I could actually read those books lining the shelves.

The catch? I'd have to drop my shields to do it...

"Eh, no monsters are gonna pop out of nowhere, right?"

I activated Translation right away.

First pass: skim all the titles.

My gaze lingered on the last book. I pulled out the Research Journal and held it in my hands. Worn from heavy use, it was handwritten in meticulous quill script, letter by letter.

The name on the first page made my eyebrow twitch.

"Rodi Herman."

The lord of this castle—or former lord, at least.

"Yeah. Probably him—the guy handling paperwork upstairs—or one of his ancestors."

This diary would reveal exactly what went down in this castle.

Yuseonje slipped outside to avoid the scowling brute glaring at him. The mute man said nothing, not even asking where he was going.

Once out, Yuseonje linked up with Team Leader Lee Hyewon, who was combing the village.

"Anything?"

"No. Everything's frozen solid—barely anything we can touch."

Lee Jae-eun, gifted with detection talents, shook her head at Yuseonje's glance too. With no living beings around, her abilities were useless.

Yuseonje turned to Lee Hyewon.

"You really planning to trust that shady bastard?"

John and Agent Smith. With their blatantly fake names, even Lee Hyewon shared his distrust. But...

"We can't ditch them right now."

That was the problem. They had no choice but to team up with these sketchy amateurs for the moment.

"With you here, subduing them wouldn't be hard. Squeeze 'em, interrogate 'em—we might even pry out their real motives. But even then..."

Lee Hyewon trailed off. The rest was easy to guess. Yuseonje finished for her.

"You think we're not getting out of here anyway."

"...The situation's dire."

She didn't flat-out say it was impossible, but her gloomy expression spoke volumes.

Always so proud and head-high before, she'd lost her spark ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠since that incident. She was just holding on, convinced her collapse would doom the raid team.

The pressure was real. Tackling a raid-style gate with this crew? Insanity.

Their lives were already forfeit. They were just delaying the inevitable.

"You think that guy will figure something out?"

"He was weirdly confident."

"He's an idiot. That's why."

"Hm."

Lee Hyewon figured Smith wasn't that dumb, but she didn't argue. Yuseonje took her vague hum as agreement and pressed on.

"Better to cut out untrustworthy trash than drag them along."

"Every hunter counts right now."

"Real hunters, maybe."

Yuseonje snorted. John and Smith had decent skills, sure. But trust them? No chance.

"I'll handle Serena somehow. When they get here, we hit 'em from behind and—"

That's when it happened.

"Oh! There you all are."

Yuseonje whipped around ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the sudden voice. It was Smith, the one who'd gone hunting clues in the ice palace.

"When did you get here?"

No presence at all. Definitely untrustworthy, Yuseonje thought—until Smith flashed a bright smile.

"I think I found a clue."

Of everyone, Yuseonje—who'd just been plotting to exclude him—was the most shocked.

"A clue? What kind?"

"Better to gather everyone first. Let's grab the folks back at base."

And so, the remaining seven raiders headed to the underground chamber Smith claimed to have discovered.

A secret space untouched by ice, unlike everywhere else.

Finding something like this so quickly? Lee Hyewon thought maybe he did have the chops to talk "conquest."

Smith even translated the otherworldly script for them.

(Or so Smith insisted.) It detailed the castle's events in striking detail.

"The lord here was a man named Count Herman."

Smith began unraveling the castle's truth from the journal, step by step.

Rodi Herman, heir to the countship, was ordered to slay monsters—magi-beasts—appearing in the nearby forest. He succeeded, and deep in those woods, he encountered a profoundly mysterious girl.

A beauty with white hair and white eyes, inhuman in her allure.

Rodi fell for her at first sight.

But she wasn't human. By local terms, she was a demon.

"Not the demons I know, right?"

All eyes turned to Smith at Yuseonje's question.

No actual "demons" in the modern world, but gates often spawned high-tier monsters like demonkin or devils. Contracts with them birthed demons empowered by dark pacts.

"More precisely, not demon-turned-via-devil, but magic-user-labeled-a-demon."

Smith continued.

"No evidence ties them to devils. I checked all the books here—their claims lacked proof. Just superstitious nonsense."

"You read every book here in that short time?"

"I'm a fast reader."

A murmur rippled through. Thousands of volumes, easy. Finishing in hours? Physically impossible.

Unless speed-reading talent, but...

But Smith already said his gift is natural-element manipulation. Which is dubious too.

Lee Hyewon shoved the thought aside. Not the priority.

"Anyway, Count Herman fell for this demon. He believed—or convinced himself—she was human. She, a commoner, improbably became countess. Stunning, wise; despite murky origins, wildly loved."

Up to here, a fairy-tale romance.

But trouble brewed when the countess got pregnant.

Conception should be a blessing. Hers? A curse.

"Demon-human hybrids are wildly unstable. Unlike full demons who control their power, hybrids can't."

Lee Jae-eun caught on.

"Don't tell me that hybrid is..."

"The woman slumbering in that spire."

"No way. So she lost control and caused all this?"

"Might've been better if she had."

Smith spoke slowly again.

"The child wreaked havoc in the womb. So unstable, it destabilized even the countess's transformation magic. To protect her, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Herman hid her away, claiming illness."

Flight proved futile. The fetus's chaotic mana tormented her relentlessly.

Fetal yet ferocious; as it grew, the demon mother withered.

At birth, the countess couldn't endure and perished.

"That's when Herman started hating the child. He told the world a jealous 'evil demon' had envied their love and planted a seed of malice in the babe. 'Kill this seed of evil,' he declared."

Smith lifted the weathered tome.

"This is Rodi Herman's murder journal—methods to slay his own daughter."