Ghost Bride
Ghost Bride
Stone Mountain consisted of only a few massive rock formations.
From afar, they looked like a single mass, but up close, the gaps were quite wide.
Those gaps were the path.
A path wrapped by massive rock walls dozens of meters high.
Milli and Estelle couldn't help but be in awe.
The winding walls reflected different amounts of light at different heights, making it look like a painting in itself.
The floor, lit by starlight, was paved with uniquely shaped tiles that evoked the aesthetics of an ancient empire.
Everything was a curiosity-inducing element, but Estelle couldn't ask questions lightly.
To enter this beautiful place, one had to be qualified.
She didn't yet know when that qualification would be judged.
So, she stood at the beginning of the path, which she assumed was the entrance, very cautiously.
And asked,
"What do I do now?"
Asera smiled brightly, stepped into the path, and held out her hand to Estelle.
"You can just come in."
Estelle's tense expression relaxed out of confusion.
'Is this not the entrance yet?'
As she blankly took her hand, Asera suggested,
"Just in case, try praying as you enter."
It was the moment she took a step, distracted and even more confused by Asera.
She clearly felt it.
The tip of her foot touched a mana barrier, presumably a barrier, and she vividly sensed an impossibly sturdy thread of mana penetrating her body through it.
But nothing happened.
She couldn't even tell what the mana that entered her body had done.
She was startled and tried to ask Asera about it.
But it seemed the answer came before that.
"The bodyguard does not have the qualifications."
Estelle looked back.
She blankly grasped the situation and inadvertently let out a snort of laughter.
Milli was blinking with a stupid look on his face, but his face looked too weird.
His nose and lips were flattened, pressed against a transparent, squishy wall.
Seeing him making a crying face as if he were aggrieved in that state, she couldn't help but laugh.
Thanks to that, Estelle, whose mood had been gloomy, felt refreshed and ordered Milli,
"Use the communication orb to call the escort team and have them take you away."
Milli pulled back, peeling his face off the squashed surface, and replied anxiously,
"Then wait a moment. Maybe one of the escort team members is qualified..."
Estelle pointed out to Milli, who was taking out a coin-sized communication orb from his pocket,
"You saw how much the escort team suffered yesterday and today."
Milli twisted his face in disbelief, but Estelle didn't care.
"Besides, Asera-nim is here. Don't say anything else, just go back and rest."
Then she turned her body and looked at Asera.
Milli had no choice but to change his opinion.
"I'll wait here."
When Estelle looked back, Milli desperately made up an excuse.
"I'm a bit of an archaeologist too, so I want to investigate the surroundings."
Estelle observed Milli's face with narrowed eyes and then snorted.
"Fine. Record it thoroughly."
And she took the first step.
Inside Stone Mountain, it was hard for natural light to enter, like a deep valley.
Because it was her first time, Estelle kept tripping or bumping into walls.
Asera asked with an awkward smile,
"Shall we go a bit slower? Lighting is prohibited until we reach the main hall..."
Flustered, Estelle waved her hands.
"I'm totally fine! It's just that the slow tempo is unfamiliar, so I'm making mistakes!"
It was a bluff.
When Asera, believing it, increased the tempo for just a moment, there was almost a fatality.
In the end, Asera kept slowing down, and it took twice as long as expected.
The destination was the underground of Stone Mountain.
The path, which had been narrowing, suddenly widened, revealing a massive corridor.
At the end of it stood a 15-meter-high stone gate, standing like a fortress wall.
Estelle looked around with wide eyes.
Because the wall was decorated with statues of desert tribe gods emitting light, she could clearly observe all the artifacts.
Ancient hieroglyphs were densely carved into the walls and ceiling.
A falcon-headed mage statue and a wolf-headed warrior statue stood as if guarding both sides of the stone gate.
Almost all the artifacts had suffered large and small damage from enduring the long years, but Estelle, who was interested enough in archaeology to establish a club, could tell.
'These are maintained artifacts?'
And they were artifacts that had received quite professional care for thousands of years.
Even if it were a holy site of an ancient religion, this was strange.
'Does a group that has existed for over a thousand years actually exist?'
As Estelle reviewed the chronology in her head, Asera suggested,
"Since we've come this far, why don't you open it yourself? That door."
Estelle thought this place was a holy site.
That was how valuable the visible artifacts were.
But it wasn't.
Asera walked to the door with a thudding sound.
When she stopped walking, the falcon-headed statue and the wolf-headed statue moved.
Kuurrrrrr—
The vibration felt much stronger because it was underground.
The falcon-headed statue crossed its staff, and the wolf-headed statue crossed its spear to block the door.
At the same time, Asera turned to look at Estelle.
Her question, and,
"Can you hear me?"
The voice of a thought-form ringing directly in her mind overlapped.
[Access Permission Confirmed]
Immediately after, the vibration became even more intense as the statues and the door moved, sweeping through the corridor.
The reason a lush forest could exist behind a cliff made of solid bedrock was because of the thick layer of volcanic ash.
The rocks protruding throughout the forest were a kind of antenna.
These rocks were the form of the harbor facility's automatic walking antennas that had come up by piercing through the lava to find mana wavelengths and then just settled there.
It was an interesting fact, but unfortunately, that was it.
Just as a crashed airplane leaves only a black box, the harbor facility, crumbled by long years, had only one crude crystal orb left that could send and receive emergency communications.
Pop!
Like a corpse resurrected from a grave, a hand reached out of the ground.
Helsi, who was waiting outside, ran over and grabbed the hand.
"Soi-nim!"
And when she pulled, it popped out like a radish.
"Ugh..."
I complained while brushing the dirt off my face.
"Is it because it's an old communication orb? It consumes so much mana."
Thanks to that, the liquefaction suddenly released while I was underground.
It was fortunate that it was near the surface; it would have been a big deal if it had released in the ruins where I found the communication orb.
"Communication orb?"
I handed the communication orb I obtained from the ruins to Helsi, who asked with a bewildered face.
"This. The operating method was so strange that I was just mindlessly fiddling with it."
Helsi held the communication orb up to the sunlight after receiving it.
It didn't really bother me when I saw it in the dark underground, but looking at it now, the color was quite unique.
A clear yet dull green background.
Black patterns that looked like spilled ink.
If that was also a characteristic to distinguish magic stones, it seemed worth knowing.
But for now, first...
"Did you find out where we are?"
At my question, Helsi, who let out an "Ah," took out a map.
"It's not accurate."
The map she handed over was densely filled with traces of lines and numbers drawn and erased.
The effort was commendable, but unfortunately, the calculations were almost all wrong.
'She really can only do addition and subtraction...'
I felt troubled, but what could I do?
At least the formulas were visible, so it was easy for me to recalculate.
The direction was also roughly correct...
"Let's go."
As I said that while returning the map, Helsi took the lead with a proud face.
I considered correcting the slightly off direction, but I just followed.
Even if we go this way, the time loss is less than two days.
If you think of it as an investment to boost the worker's morale, that's cheap.
Perhaps excited to finally use her major, Helsi pushed through the mountain path even more vigorously than Hati.
Thanks to that, the time loss was less than expected.
One week.
We, who survived on herbs and freshwater fish and maintained hygiene in rivers and ponds, finally arrived.
A wide-open wheat field.
A windmill and silo larger than most buildings.
A massive airship crossing the low mountain foothills.
We, who were met with that scenery halfway up the mountain, had no choice but to take a moment to appreciate it.
So, when we entered the village, the sun had set.
Owls hooted,
Hoo—
The fire inside the lamp hanging on the perch flickered.
Tadak tadak
The country night was much quieter than the city night.
Moreover, this place was private land owned by a noble whose family register had been abroad for a very long time.
A village left neglected while retaining the appearance of the old era because it was scary to offend the nobles by developing it at will, and the eyes of the royals were on it if one tried to invest.
Naturally, the residents' lifestyle also followed the customs of the old era.
An inn with the lights out.
I stopped Helsi, who was about to knock on the door.
"We're almost there. Let's just go."
I grabbed the back of Hati's neck, who was staggering from sleepiness, and pushed her toward Helsi.
"Carry her."
While Helsi was carrying Hati, I unfolded the map to check the location of the mansion.
And just as I was about to move,
"Who is it."
The building behind us.
It was a man who had been peeking at us through a slightly open window since earlier.
Why is he speaking only now?
I was about to leave it to Helsi, but remembering that I was a free person now, I turned around boldly.
"We are from the Adel family, the owners of this land."
The man examined our faces with wide eyes and then asked,
"Are you going to the Demon Castle?"
I also examined the man's face with wide eyes and asked back,
"The Demon Castle, you say?"
The man let out a groan,
"Wait a moment."
He opened the door of the inn and explained.
Why the Adel family mansion came to be called the Demon Castle.