Briar's brows creased when the girl suddenly stopped talking.
He turned towards her and asked. "What's wrong?"
Atropa frowned and motioned towards the slab. "I could no longer read the other text."
The prince moved closer and inspected the area she pointed at. The length of the missing scripts spans to almost a meter.
"Most likely, the inscriptions were eroded since this place existed for almost a millennium." He whispered while he traced the roughened surface with his hand.
"Do you think you can restore it?" he asked.
He moved away while the girl took his place.
Atropa closed her eyes and allowed her mana to flow.
A pentagram appeared and she cast the spell. The slab glowed brightly but the words which were erased by time did not resurface.
She tried to cast restoration magic a few times, but her efforts were for naught.
"I got a feeling that Kreuz had left more clues but the epitaph could no longer be restored." She gave up after Briar told her to take a breather.
He noticed that her complexion had turned a bit pale. It seemed as though she already felt the spell's backlash. But she acted as if she was still feeling fine.
The prince asked for the information that she managed to jot down. While the girl was resting, Briar had scrutinized some of the information that the epitaph revealed.
"Say, Atropa, are you the one the text is referring to?" the prince asked while eyeing the girl with interest.
The girl's face had turned a bit white for a few seconds. She must have been taken aback.
But instead of affirming his suspicion, the girl laughed with disbelief. "Your highness, please don't be ridiculous."
Furthermore, the girl brushed it off. "It was pure coincidence that we have stumbled upon the place, there is no way for me to be the destined descendant that the great forefather had written here."
But Briar could not simply let the topic go.
He stared at her and said. "You are a caster. Though not from a direct descent, you still carry the blood of Kreuz."
She was quiet for a while but she opened her mouth to reason out. "I may be a caster but I am not a royal blood of Marjoram, your highness."
"Form the epitaph, it sounded that the one destined for this is from the royal house of Marjoram. So, it should be someone from the royal bloodline…" she trailed off while looking a bit lethargic.
He would have wanted to talk about her lineage and about the epitaph but seeing that the girl was reluctant, he chose to give up.
To change the topic, Briar asked. "In any case, what should we do?"
It seemed that the prince had dismissed the epitaph's message, however, he added. "We are the only ones here. Should we accept this mission?"
The witch looked at him dubiously. "That is very risky, my lord. Besides we do not know the entirety of the message."
She reasoned out further. "It will be bad if we accepted such a mission while remaining ignorant of the other details that the forefather had stated."
"That makes sense but…" Briar was not able to finish what he was about to say, Lumina glowed bright as if she was having a conversation with the witch.
Atropa looked blank at first but then looked at him with worry etched on her face.
"It seemed like we do not have a choice." She scrunched up her brows while looking at the slab. "Lumina said that the only way out is to accept the mission given by the forefather."
Frowning, she continued. "She said that since I am a caster, and even though I may not be a direct descendant, the spell will still acknowledge me."
Briar lifted the corner of his mouth. "Now that is an adventure." He muttered to himself.
Since he had been cooped inside the castle working on the problems of Marjoram, he felt suffocated.
The investigations regarding the serial deaths had been gruesome but he welcomed most of the cases since he would rather work outside than deal with things behind the desk.
But now that he had stumbled into these ruins with Atropa, and with the message on the epitaph, his spirit of adventure had been reignited.
He was quite happy that he will get to go on another thrilling escapade with the one he fancies.
He is not of Marjoram blood so he knew that the message is not referring to him. So it meant that Atropa, the only one, who was here with him is most likely the one in the epitaph.
The scent of mystery and the adventure was making him giddy with anticipation. He was looking forward for the secrets that will be uncovered.
"How are we going to do that?" he asked while trying to hide his eagerness. "How are we going to get out of here?"
Atropa held her hand out and Lumina turned into her dagger form.
Drawing a huge breath, Atropa held the dagger and sliced her palm open. Blood oozed out of her wound and fell on the floor.
As soon as her blood hit the surface, a huge pentagram formed and light engulfed the area.
Since Briar was expecting the bright light, he was prepared to shield his eyes, but the dull pain on his chest caught him by surprise.
"It felt like something broke. It was like a shackle that had been severed. But at the same time, it felt more of a presage…" He muttered as he felt himself being engulfed by the spell.
By the time he came to, he and Atropa were both lying on the same spot where Atropa had reconstructed the pentagram. They were finally transported back to Hopley.
"Your highness!" Someone called out to Briar. When he turned towards the voice, he felt relieved.
Unlike the usual knight's uniform from the two knight orders, this man wore a uniform of the shadow guards.
"I am alright, Ashton." He looked to the side and noticed that Atropa was still unconscious.
He checked her pulse and did a once over. "She seemed fine. The backlash from the spell must have been too much for her."
"Your highness, where have you been?" Ashton asked. "We've been searching for almost a week for you."
"A week?" Briar blurted out in surprise.
"It felt like only a few days." The prince muttered while thinking about their whole adventure in Mageram.
"We were surprise when the two of you disappeared in that magic circle. We could not trace your whereabout." The shadow provided. "we tried to reconstruct the circle but since we are not mages, we could not activate the spell."
"We got transported into another realm. The time was a bit different, so I want to know that events that had happened in my absence." The prince said. "Give me the report once we get back to the castle."