Chereads / The Story of Rhodan / Chapter 120 - The Island full of Purple Hibiscus

Chapter 120 - The Island full of Purple Hibiscus

Amy got off the boat with almost everyone. This time, Kate is on boat watching duty while they all go to the ruins. This is one of the few ruins she wanted to go on because there are actually people living near it.

They are very welcoming and are good hosts. They exchanged gifts and greetings, and the atmosphere is quite festive. Amy even joined them for dinner and a dance.

She was given a hibiscus flower to adorn her hair, their clothes to wear. Everyone is quite attached to her since their arrival, "You are very beautiful, miss." A young girl said. The children and young women especially like her especially her hair. According to an island wives tale, purple hibiscus is a sign of prosperity, so her hair and eye color are quite auspicious. It is rare for someone to be born with hair as purple as hers, so she is sort of like a good luck charm.

At the dead of night, she left her abode and walked out of the straw hut. Some of her traveling companions worried that her noble upbringing might make their whole situation difficult but while she is partly uncomfortable, she didn't make a big deal out of it. 

She continued to look around before getting deeper into the jungle. It will take hours to get to her destination, so she has to hurry before anyone realizes she is gone. As she continued to roam to her destination, she thought of her goal here. She saw the symbol of the Cambion when they all came to greet the chief. No one really knows what the symbol stands for. The chief answered that it is a symbol of unity in their community.

The Cambion's symbol are a set of bordered wavy lines that make up a triangle and each are colored in red and white. Unity, the cambion wants to destroy and start anew on all the realms. They see it as a cycle of rebirth, but total annihilation is not a cycle of death she wants to see and one that they probably didn't expect to be their fate. Symbols have many meanings, many that can contradict depending on the culture. These people are his followers and her eventual enemies, yet she won't kill them. Besides, at this point, the Cambion has not emerged from his bindings. They are necessary to the story after all. Also, they are repentant and regret serving and guiding the Cambion before they all die after realizing the Cambion's tyranny.

There are three parts that make up a whole of the item she is looking for. A piece of a map that makes up a whole. In the manga, there is a part of a map that is shown but not the whole thing. The map also includes detailed instructions on how to enter the ruined realm. She already knew what it partly looks like so if she find the ones she has not seen then she would figure out how to get to the ruined realm herself. 

Her goal is to take pictures of it and analyze it for a bit before heading back to the boat. She has no intention of making trouble. All she wants is pictures.

She found a stone entrance with hemp wrap. There was a danger sign written in bold Kanji as well as the ambiance of making this place look sacred and a sense of danger. Using the strengthening power on herself, she readies herself for a run and ran in as fast as possible. In fact, she is so fast that she is practically running on air and avoiding any traps that could possibly be placed there for intruders like her. After coming to a stop, she felt her legs ache terribly and she stumbled on the ground. She over did it. This is the one part of her power that she cannot control. In fact, it drains her energy almost to the max, so it is basically useless in the long term. If she uses on herself, it's fine but if she uses it on another person, that might not benefit her. Immediately, feeling like she is going to regret this, she took a swig of the rejuvenation potion, and her body wanted to reject it, but the effects are immediate. She got up and sees another stone entrance. She taps on the stone before feeling it. She should've figure this before, but this place doesn't require magic to open as none of the islanders so far use it. She then pushes her strength to push the rock and successfully got inside. She treads lightly as she knows that despite the many traps she probably already got past, this room would have more.

She then saw murals and immediately took pictures of it, checking to see that they are readable then she analyzed it. It depicts the story between the Angels and Demons in which the angels were the bad guys. According to official history on the Grand Continent, the Angels protect humanity while the Demons attempt to use humans to an end and enslave them. Whether that is true or not was debatable even to the readers. Here, the demons have helped the islanders' ancestors create civilization. They even form a kingdom though the name was unreadable. They learn how to farm, hunt, forage from them. They learn language, steelwork, sailing, astronomy and all sorts of things. Amy admits that not all demons are probably bad so to say but that is because they are driven to extinction. There are going to be some benevolent demons. Their first king was a grandson of their demon god and founded a kingdom that is said to match the ones on the mainland. The Cambion's human mother is a part of the royal family. After the war destroyed the Angels and Demons, humanity turned against each other or more specifically to the islanders and as punishment, the remaining Angels brought down their wrath on their land and it broke apart, forming the islands, separating them permanently that they live in today with treacherous storms that make it difficult for them to exist as one again.

She continued walking until she reached another room. It is a stone tablet of a piece of the map. She took many pictures of it under various lighting settings because she cannot even take it home. She touched it, analyzed it and after reading through it, she realized the difficulty of the situation. It is a map of all the island back when it was still its own continent, and it is unreadable. It may only be a small piece of a whole, but she could tell just by the sight of it. Even with the complete map, it will be difficult to pinpoint the accurate location, and the writings and lines are hard to decipher unless they have the full map. Even Alabaster would have trouble with this. There is kanji written everywhere on the walls and she took many pictures of it. She will have the film sent to Alabaster for study. Satisfied, she looked around a bit more and found a lever, pulled it, revealing an trap-free exit. Slightly angry for not finding this first, she then made her way out, realizing there is nothing more to find and return to the village.