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The one who brought the message was a woman, clearly in a weakened state.
However, despite being weakened, she was by no means a foe that could be dealt with merely through the petty tricks of diminished fairies.
A few fearless fairies even attacked recklessly without recognizing their enemy. All such fairies had their wings torn and their bodies burst as they faced death. It was fortunate that their numbers were not large.
'Who are you?'
Even in the face of Sheila's question, the woman did not reveal her name.
Only her eyes hidden within the hood were shining lonely. It seemed as if she had just finished a battle because she smelled like blood and ashes.
'I've come to deliver Solderet's message.'
'The shadow has a message for us?'
The woman gazed quietly at Sheila. It implied that the other fairies should step back.
When the fairies retreated, the woman spoke again.
'Do not forget your duty. And promise that you will leave behind a story that you must never forget.'
That was Solderet's message left for Sheila and the fairies who followed her.
'Is that all?'
'That's all.'
'Why should I follow it?'
'It will likely be the only hope for you to restore your honor and regain your original form. That's what he said.'
Sheila's pupils widened.
Solderet knew everything that had happened to Sheila and the fairies. He knew even about how they had turned into pitiful forms after meeting Helluram.
The woman turned around. Having delivered the message, she seemed ready to leave immediately.
'Where are you going?'
Sheila asked. Naturally, she felt intense curiosity toward the woman, and for some reason, she could only ask where she was going.
The woman paused her steps for a moment.
'To a place that I didn't destroy.'
With those words, the woman left the Wantaramo Forest.
Since then.
Fairies, no, the descendants of the fairies started making the Drink of Regal Hymn.
***
As if awakening from a stupor, Jin and Valeria simultaneously swallowed a breath and got to their feet.
The two of them reflexively grabbed their weapons and scanned their surroundings as soon as they opened their eyes.
An entirely unfamiliar landscape lay before them. A subspace made of shadow force. Jin immediately realized that this was the fourth tomb of Temar.
"We are inside the tomb."
As Jin said, Valeria lowered her staff. Cold sweat was running down both their foreheads.
"Inside the tomb? Then everything we've seen until now was just records contained within the Drink of Regal Hymn."
"It seems so. With the records in the Drink of Regal Hymn concluded, the seal on the tomb must have been released."
A straight path stretched out in front of Jin and Valeria. After examining it for a moment, the two quickly arrived at the same conclusion.
"Someone had attacked this tomb."
"The previous tombs were like this too. Starting with this being the fourth tomb, it means there have been at least four burials. It also shows how Zipfel persistently sought out and defiled Temar's tombs. It could also have been the work of the Vermont Imperial family, not Zipfel."
They began to move again.
It was a long path. However, even after walking for a while, they couldn't sense the hostility or presence unique to the guardians protecting the tomb from the darkness beyond.
"It seems there are no guardians."
While Jin was relieved at the thought of potentially avoiding another difficult battle against guardians, he also felt a bit disappointed.
The absence of guardians meant that it was likely that there was nothing important left inside the tomb.
Thud, thud...
Eventually, the two reached the end of the path.
There was a huge tombstone where Temar should have been lying.
The interior was completely empty, pristine without a speck of dust. The lid was shattered, with fragments scattered nearby.
Jin first conjured a flower of shadow force onto the tombstone.
"There's nothing here."
Valeria spoke as she inspected the interior of the tombstone.
As she said, the only thing left in the fourth tomb was the empty tombstone. There was nothing remaining like Solderet's recording device or the legacy of the ancient Runcandel.
A moment of disappointment surged through them.
"I guess there's truly nothing to gain from this tomb. Even though we've seen the ancient secrets through the Drink of Regal Hymn, to gain absolutely nothing... Ah!"
As if something had occurred to him, Jin cut off his own words.
"Come to think of it, you're a record mage, right? This tomb is practically a chunk of records in itself, isn't it?"
That's right.
To Valeria, this tomb was a treasure trove of records. In some aspects, it was even easier to analyze than a recording device like a shadow force marble.
"Exactly."
"Can you check the records right away?"
"I can't read events from a thousand years ago with my current level of record magic."
Valeria took out a neatly folded leather pouch from her robe.
"Instead, let's gather these fragments and return. When the level of my record magic has improved, I can investigate them thoroughly."
Like an archaeologist discovering an ancient artifact, Valeria carefully placed the fragments into the pouch. Jin helped her gather the fragments.
"There's no need to gather them all. After all, it was just one object."
She picked up fragments of stone from the tombstone and corridor, and also carefully collected a few spots of bloodstains that were becoming visible. She placed the bloodstains into an empty glass bottle.
"Bringing you along was a good decision."
If he hadn't met Valeria before reaching the fourth tomb, Jin would have had to return without gaining anything from here.
Valeria shrugged her shoulders.
"I think this should be sufficient. Let's head back now."
Jin nodded.
However, there was a problem.
'How will we go out…?'
The other tombs of Temar that Jin had visited until now had been different from this fourth tomb.
In the first and second tombs, he fought against guardians, inspected records and record devices, then naturally the subspace crumbled and they left the tomb. Luet guided him out in the third tomb.
But what about the fourth tomb?
As they opened their eyes after drinking the wine, all that was visible was a desolate shadow force subspace. There were no guardians or other information, phenomena—nothing.
As Jin pondered in silence, Valeria got worried and asked.
"Jin Runcandel, could it be... you don't know how to get back?"
"Well, you see. I've never been in a situation like this before. Until now, I have always encountered guardians or, after checking the records, the subspace would automatically crumble."
A moment of silence passed.
Jin felt a bit embarrassed for no reason, but surprisingly, Valeria didn't seem scornful or mocking him.
"Well, that could happen. This place isn't an ordinary subspace. Let's think about it together."
First, they went back the way they had come.
They had already glanced around before reaching the tombstone. Even then, no exit-like structure was visible, and the result was the same upon a second inspection.
"Should we try breaking the subspace itself?"
This time, Jin shook his head at Valeria's words.
"It might be best to leave that as a last resort. If the subspace collapses, the fragments you've gathered could be affected and disappear. I can feel that the shadow force composing the subspace is interconnected with samples."
"Oh, that actually seems quite likely."
"Let's just wait for a while, Valeria. The power that sealed this tomb within the Drink of Regal Hymn won't last forever anyway. Once its effects expire, we'll naturally be able to return."
***
For Jin, it was a stroke of luck that Yona was following him.
Furthermore, it was a peculiarly strange fact that the place where she was waiting for him was the entrance to the Wantaramo Forest and the sky in the forest was overcast and it was raining heavily.
Hoodook, hoodook...! Krrrr!
Early morning with heavy rain and thunder.
Time passes differently outside and inside the tomb. Three more hours had passed outside since Jin entered the fourth tomb of Temar.
This meant that the added reinforcements of Zipfel, the "Spectre corps," had arrived at the Wantaramo Forest.
A total of three Spectres came to the forest.
However, they didn't enter the forest recklessly even after receiving the report that there is a pure-blood Runcandel inside the forest.
"Seems like it was a mistake for just the three of us to come."
"The mana response of the 3rd Magic Tower mages who went to the Wantaramo Forest had been cut off, and... there seems to be something going inside. Especially since Yona Runcandel is there."
Yona Runcandel.
Among the members of the Spectre corps, she was renowned as a very dangerous person. This wasn't just within the Spectre corps; it applied to all the top-ranking mages of Zipfel.
She was someone you should never engage with lightly.
The members of the Spectre corps hadn't anticipated encountering Yona while they came to the Wantaramo Forest.
"Moreover, with the rain pouring down like this, it's impossible for the three of us to handle that woman."
Even for the Spectre corps, facing the "the assassin named Yona Runcandel" in a downpour like this would be suicidal.
"Even the captain seemed shaken by the name of Yona Runcandel. Now that I've faced her directly, I understand the reason. Even though she's just standing there, it feels like her blade is already at my throat."
Yona was still sitting where she'd killed the 3rd Magic Tower mages, humming a tune to herself. Even though she was an assassin, she didn't bother hiding; she openly guarded the entrance like a gatekeeper.
Yet, the members of the Spectre corps still felt it intuitively. There was no hope of victory unless they burned Yona Runcandel along with the entire Wantaramo Forest. It didn't seem like they could kill Yona even if they burned the forest along with her.
In the end, if they just ended up burning the public forest, Zipfel would suffer significant losses dealing with the aftermath.
"It's possible there might not be anything particularly important inside the forest. It might be possible that Yona Runcandel was wandering through Wantaramo forest just for fun, Myla requested assistance, and the mages from the 3rd Magic Tower were annihilated as a result."
"If it's Yona Runcandel, she's fully capable of that. Was there even one report about that woman that didn't include the expression 'completely insane human'?"
"Should we just retreat?"
The members of the Spectre corps remained fixated on Yona, not knowing what to do.
Originally, they should have received information about the presence of 'Jin Runcandel and the Record Mage' inside the forest.
In that case, instead of just three, the entire Spectre corps on standby would have gathered here. Even if only three came, they would have engaged Yona in battle, prepared to face death.
However, the 3rd Magic Towers mages who should have conveyed the information contained in the letter about this matter were turned into lifeless corpses three hours ago by Yona's hand.
As a result, the Spectre corps was in the dark about what was happening inside the forest, who was there, and what was going on.
"Darn, I can't make a judgment."
Amid the hesitation of the Spectre corps, Yona pondered to herself.
'Are they perhaps here to kill the youngest? No, that's not possible; the letter those dead meat had, didn't reach them. Did they just coincidentally come across me while passing by? I'm not sure. Should I Kill them? Spare them? Kill them? Spare them?'
Hehe.
Yona smirked and directed her gaze towards the trees where the members of the Spectre corps were hiding.
And at that moment, the Spectre corps had no choice but to come to a conclusion.
Perhaps, it would be best to simply retreat.