Kingdom's Bloodline, page 386
Then, he heard the sound of footsteps.
"Hey, you're afraid of the dark?"
Thales squinted as his eyes adjusted to the sudden ray of light. He recovered from his shock due to the abrupt appearance of Kurtz's voice. Thales stared at Kurtz, who was holding an Everlasting Lamp and looking at him with an amused expression.
He was surrounded by darkness and the cold.
Their Everlasting Lamps could only light up a small area around them.
"Follow me." In the darkness, the seamstress helped Thales to light up his Everlasting Lamp, sighing. She only had half her face illuminated by her lamp. "The Black Track is just like life, though some roads are not that easy to tread, you still have to catch up."
Kurtz's words had a somewhat desolate tone to them, "Because once you're left behind...
"You'll never be able to go back."
Thales climbed to his feet in a very disheveled manner.
Kurtz turned around. She placed both her hands and feet on the pitch-black walls, as though she was about to climb up.
"I have to climb this wretched place again...
"At least I got three hundred gold coins the last time…"
Kurtz grumbled to herself sarcastically, "The client this time? He's giving us an opportunity to be hanged from the gallows, hah!
"Prince? Hmph."
Thales just acted like he did not just hear her words.
The Black Track was narrower than Thales had imagined. Just as he tried to reach out to grab the Everlasting Lamp by his side, his arm knocked against the rock wall.
*Thud.*
Thales hissed in pain and rubbed the spot where it hurt. He picked up his Everlasting Lamp carefully this time, not daring to be careless again. Then, he chased after Kurtz with great difficulty.
Kurtz was obviously used to the place, and Thales could only barely see Kurtz's trouser legs and boots through the faint glimmer of his Everlasting Lamp.
Very soon, Thales experienced just how treacherous the Black Track was.
It was obvious that there was no flat road there. They either climbed up or down, and the walls were even full of potholes. A good few areas were even as steep as ridges, requiring Kurtz to climb up with an iron hook to throw down a rope and pull him up.
"Is the Black Track really made for people to travel about?" after the eighth time Thales fell down, he complained in pain.
"It wasn't this hard last time." Kurtz chuckled gently up ahead. "But you know… the calamities had nothing to do so they played around with stones in Dragon Clouds City, then for no reason, made half this place collapse.
"Blame them."
Thales practically knocked into something with every step he took in his journey in the darkness. He often fell or slipped because of his lack of experience walking through these sort of places. If it was not for his ample experience with being hit or thrown to the ground during his childhood, Thales believed he would have been badly battered by now.
"Be careful, stop falling."
Kurtz's voice came from the area in front of him.
Thales blushed immediately and fumbled about the surrounding rock strata even more carefully. "Thank you."
Kurtz snorted.
"I'm not talking about you, but that pitiful Everlasting Lamp. Who cares if you fall?"
Thales raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes in the darkness, where no one could see.
"The ventilation here is awful. We'll suffocate if we use torches."
Kurtz, who was leading the way in front chuckled.
"And it's also too dark in here. If your Everlasting Lamp is broken... Well, you won't be able to get back without light."
'Speaking of which…'
A thought appeared in Thales' head. 'I actually have a way.'
He cackled mischievously in his heart.
The Sin of Hell's River responded to his calling and surged into both of his eyes.
As the blood in the veins around his eyes boiled, Thales discovered to his satisfaction that the pitch-black area before him slowly turned bright.
He could also hear the sounds in the cave now, even though they were just the faint moans of the wind as they moved about in the cave.
Thales found that his field of vision had become much brighter. He could now avoid plenty of the obstructions that could not be illuminated in the darkness.
Hence, he quickly caught up to Kurtz. This caused the seamstress to see some value in him.
"You're catching on quite quickly!"
Thales could not help but feel somewhat pleased with himself. He began to pay attention to the environment around him.
"Oh, there are even words here?"
Thales climbed up a relatively flat rock. He could see some strange words on the rock wall with the help of the Sin of Hell's River.
"Huh?"
Kurtz, who was searching for the path ahead asked in confusion, "How is it that I never noticed them?"
Thales paused. The Sin of Hell's River continued to surge in his body.
He squinted and touched the words engraved into the rock wall.
"August, twentieth… Livestock, foodstuff…" he read the words on it in a soft voice.
Thales' expression turned serious.
"The Ancient Empire."
Kurtz climbed up a protruding rock and curiously asked, "What?"
"Words. The words on the stones are of the national language of the Ancient Empire. This writing style… isn't from the Final Empire. It's from the Ancient Empire, from an earlier time." Thales blinked. In his bewilderment, he remembered Gilbert teaching him the Ancient Empire alphabet a long time ago. "This tunnel must be at least one thousand years old, and it may even be from an earlier period of time. At least, at that time, Northland was still under the Ancient Empire's rule… No."
Thales saw a new sentence, the rejected his own theory. His curiosity had been sparked, and he said excitedly, "There are some words that aren't that old. I noticed that there are some words and grammatical structures from the common language fused into this. It seems to be a record of restocking military supplies and reserves. This is indeed the language used by the Empire during the final stage of the Empire's era.
"From the Ancient Empire to the Final Empire." Thales stared at the wall with a myriad of emotions in him. "Looks like the Black Track has quite the complicated history."
Kurtz laughed dryly.
The seamstress appeared to be doing something that required a lot of her strength. She was probably climbing the walls, which was why she answered him dismissively, "Yeah, it's really… really com-complicated. Now, move your a** and continue walking, Mr. Scholar Thales!"
Kurtz finally climbed up a huge rock above them and panted, then she poked her head out of the edge and extended her arm to Thales, who was still below her. She said impatiently, "Now give me your hand, I'll pull you up."
Thales cocked an eyebrow, then cast a glance at the figure above him before he continued to move forward. But he immediately froze.
'Wait.'
Thales raised his head again. He looked at Kurtz in incredulity.
The Everlasting Lamp only lit up a small area of the wall around her. The remaining parts were swathed in darkness.
'But…'
When he saw the sight before him clearly, Thales was shocked!
He blinked in a daze. With the vision granted to him by the Sin of Hell's River, everything was as bright as day to him even if most parts of the area were dark. In his line of vision, he saw… a person suddenly appearing on the wall above Kurtz's head.
It was a man.
He was dressed in an armor from ancient times. He had complicated braids in his hair, and his face was thin. He had his mouth open, and his eyes bulged out. He had no pupils. There were only whites in his eyes.
He was just like a corpse.
As a faint chill ran up his spine, Thales noticed that there was only darkness, and the golden light from the fire in this dark Black Track. However, the man was filled with color. He had on him a dark green pauldron, a brilliant silver gorget, a dark red belt, and even his weapons were easily distinguished by their color.
But that was not the most bizarre thing. The man, who seemed like he was embedded into the wall above them, had his face facing the wall. It looked as if he was going against gravity. He lay there with his face up above Kurtz's head.
During that moment, Thales felt his entire body become rigid. He suddenly remembered the other illusory world. In the dorms of his school, his dorm mate who slept in the bunk above him had fed him stories about another 'person' sleeping back-to-back with him while he slept.
'Why now… They know… that I'm afraid of such things the most…'
"Hey!"
Kurtz shook her arm impatiently and said, "Have you lost your mind or something?"
The next second, the man moved.
He slowly bent his neck down, little by little in a very rigid manner. It was as if his neck had become rusty.
Thales began to feel his skin crawl, and he felt another chill creep up his spine.
Supposedly having bent his neck as much as he could, he began to turn his white and pupil-less eyes the next moment. He gazed at Kurtz beneath him, all while showing no signs of life.
He gradually moved the muscles on his thin face and curled his lips into a cold, rigid smile, revealing sharp as well as abnormal, rusty-colored teeth. With a hoarse voice, which sounded like his voice box had been torn, he hissed a string of words.
When he heard these very much dragged out words, Thales froze.
It was the Ancient Empire's national language.
"Aaa… liiiiviingg... peeersoooonn…"
But Kurtz only had that same look of impatience on her. She was completely unaware of the thing only a few inches above her head. "Are you coming up or what?"
It was as if she did not hear those words.
Thales took a deep breath and lowered his head to stop himself from shuddering.
'Now, how am I supposed to tell Kurtz about this? You have a… a… Above you...'
Thales took a few deep breaths, and with every ounce of his power, he chased away the fear.
He made his decision.
'There's nothing scary about this. It… It's just… It's just a… It's just a ghost!'
Feeling indignant, Thales gritted his teeth, opened his eyes, and raised his head!
But he was taken aback again.
There was only a layer of black rock above Kurtz now. It was completely empty.
That man lying on the ceiling, that colorful ghost was gone, like it was never there in the first place.
"Hey! Heeeeeey!"
Kurtz looked at the dumbstruck Thales with a displeased expression. The light illuminated her side profile and the walls in the tunnel.
"What are you daydreaming about?"
Chapter 345: Join us |
'What… What was that?'
Thales looked at the rock formation above Kurtz fearfully.
He tried blinking, but he still could not see a thing. There was only darkness above Kurtz.
The Sin of Hell's River did not show him anything else.
"Hey, kid!"
The seamstress' displeasure had practically filled the entire small cave. "Are you f*cking around with me?"
Her voice reverberated throughout the rocky cave, and the echoes bounced off the walls repeatedly.
Thales was startled by her enraged roar.
"Nothing…"
The teenager took a deep breath, looked above Kurtz while fear still lingered in him. "I-I let my mind wander...
"I'm coming now."
This time, Thales straightened his arm with all his might as he brought the Everlasting Lamp to the front, looking to the left and right in trepidation. He then moved forward step by step, seized Kurtz' palm with much effort, and climbed up.
This naturally caused the seamstress to poke fun at him.
But Thales already did not mind her teases.
When Kurtz continued to explore the path before her, Thales lifted his lamp and passed by the spot where he originally saw the face.
Somehow, Thales could not resist lifting the lamp and raising his head repeatedly to make sure that the creepy face had truly not appeared above Kurtz's head just moments ago.
There was nothing at all, only stones lying quietly in the wall.
'Did my eyes play tricks on me?
'Did they?'
Thales took a deep breath and pressed down on his limbs to stop them from shivering. He tried hard to discard all thoughts he found unbeneficial to the atmosphere, holding the Everlasting Lamp in his arms tightly. Shortly after, he steeled his resolve and moved forward in the completely dark area while he followed the light in front of Kurtz.
They once again went forward for half an hour.
During that period of time, Thales carefully moved forward, and with every step he took, he was filled with uneasiness.
"Very good, we've walked past half of the Black Track. Right now, the spot above our heads is..." the seamstress' voice rang, and she sounded quite pleased. "We're not too far away from our destination now!"
Thales felt relieved.
Kurtz held on to the wall with her left hand while she was ahead of him, then she turned right.
But at that moment, Kurtz's left hand pressed against an empty wall… and a human face appeared!
Thales felt goosebumps break out on his skin. He did not manage to catch his breath as he shuddered.
*Thud!*
His Everlasting Lamp fell down next to his leg. The light flickered, casting Thales' shadow on the rocky wall. However, it was still unable to cover the outline of the face.
It was the face of a man with prominent features, and there was blue paint on his forehead as well as his cheeks.
He appeared to be the same man from before. His muscles were shrunken, his eyes were white, and his lips were shrivelled and pulled back to reveal his teeth. The man's skin was as pale as a dead man's.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Kurtz turned back in exasperation. "I told you not to drop the Everlasting Lamp!
"Do you intend to fumble your way out of this place without the lamp?"
The seamstress was just a palm away from the face on the rocky wall, but she did not seem to notice that there was anything off.
"We must…"
The man in the rocky wall used his pupiless eyes to glare at Thales. His neck turned slowly like a rusty clock; his black mouth opened and closed; and his teeth, which resembled withered bark, let out grating sounds. They sounded like they were right beside his ears.
"Elves… Kill them all…
"Centaurs… Kill them too…
"Enemies… Kill them as well…
"We… Why can't… we kill them all..."
Kurtz was still reprimanding the teenager in displeasure, as though she was in a completely different world. She could not hear him.
'This is…
'The common language of the Western Peninsula… with a dash of grammar from the Ancient Empire's national language mixed into it?'
Thales felt his skin crawl. Near tears, he pointed at the spot right next to Kurtz with a stiff expression. "But…
"Over there…"
Yet, when he moved his gaze to the spot, Thales found that the man was gone, much to his horror.
Kurzt turned her head around in puzzlement. There was only a pitch-black wall behind her.
There was no human face on it.
The wall was just as still as it was before while light and shadow repeatedly switched places on its surface.
Thales was dumbfounded.
He began to shiver lightly.
Kurtz watched him, frowning. "Hey!
"What's that 'over there' you mentioned?"
The teenager shook his head violently.
Thales took a deep breath, then jumped up like an agile rabbit!
He picked up his Everlasting Lamp, then used both his legs and hands to flee from that particular wall. He ran ahead of Kurtz, practically tumbling along the way.
The terrified prince passed by that bizzare rock wall, only to find another patch of darkness before him. He could faintly see a steep path going downwards.
"No, Kurtz." While running, Thales gulped. His fingers were numb and his voice quivered.
"There was something wrong."
Kurzt was a little shocked. "What?"
Thales resisted the urge to turn his head around and shook his head violently. "The Black Track… This place is very evil."
"I saw some… things."
Kurtz looked like she was immersed in her thoughts as she stared at the disheveled Thales. Then, she suddenly giggled.
"You're really afraid of the dark?"
The scared Thales bit down on his lower lip hard and tried his best not to think of what he saw. "It's not the dark—"
He was interrupted.
"Just be quiet!" The seamstress rushed ahead of him with a ferocious expression and poked him in the chest. "I promised that cripple, so I'll definitely bring you out…
"Follow me!
"You're not allowed to be afraid of the dark!"
Almost in tears, the terrified Thales found himself unable to retort.
Before him, Kurtz cursed while she jumped down a slope, bringing the air current with her and causing a chill to come crashing into the area around her.
Thales could only put on a long face. He hung the Everlasting Lamp in front of his chest and put one foot before him while he placed his hands on the wall behind him to slide down the slope after Kurtz.
At some point in time, the prince's palm had gotten wet with cold sweat.
Even his heart was racing so quickly that it felt like the organ was about to leap out of his chest.
This time, he opened his eyes wide. The flow of the Sin of Hell's River surged faster in him.
"Based on my memory, we just need to walk past this place…"
Thales listened absentmindedly, but when he was about to reach the bottom of the slope.
Three figures suddenly appeared right on top of the wall across him!
An old man, a woman, and a man.
Thales shivered as he moved down!
