1181  Ghost of Love

The temporal fissure etched its cracks across s.p.a.ce, threatening to break the very world at any given point. Like shattered gla.s.s, it revealed something distant on the other world from where Oriole stood. His curly hair fluttered in the sharp winds howling past him, testing his resolve to send the signal that would change the world.

After learning about the other world through Gala, and the forces that they could utilize to aid them, Oriole had the plan to work with Mistletoe and use their resources to spread the message across time.

The message was a prophecy of the Seika"s return, the man who changed the world forever by giving humans epiphanies. Many remembered him, and no one dared forget the man who turned the world upside down, the master of runes.

But Oriole had to spread his messages across time, ensuring that they would be received at different times as prophecies and relics. There was just one more letter missing that would reveal the location of this temporal fissure. After that, the armies he has fostered could come to aid them.

***

Although Arthur has asked for carriage, the rebellion had something a lot more sophisticated. He asked for carriage because it was easier to hide than a car, but the rebellion offered him a high-end car with invisibility runes built into it.

Furthermore, this car also had s.p.a.ce-expansion runes in its interior, making it as big as a bus. There were eighteen seats inside, some that could be turned to beds for longer travels. This beautiful piece of machinery was built inside the Yalveran Union and called Veiled Princess.

"How did you obtain such a vehicle?" asked Mister White with his arms crossed, eyeing it with greed and envy. "I tried to steal a couple of them, but never managed to find any."

"A friend of mine let me borrow it," said Arthur with a smile, looking at Sarohan and Koby looking round with gaping mouths. The scenery outside changed, but the inside of the vehicle was as steady as a mountain.

"That"s a good friend. I was agonizing over how to traverse the wilderness before we reach the dungeon that connected to the tower. However, the dungeon is filled with awakeners, so we have to blend in."

"There would not be…"

"WOAH THE WINDOW OPENED! SIR, THE WINDOW IS…!" shouted Sarohan while pointing at the window, only to find the eighteen men staring at him with confusion. Then, he coughed and sat back down like nothing happened. "What a beautiful day, right?"

"…like I said, that would not be a problem, I think," said Arthur after having lost his conviction. Sarohan and Koby were both ticking time bombs, but they could be concealed as foreigners. "Tell me about your team."

"These are the best smugglers I have. There is not a thing that they cannot smuggle, and their loyalty is without question," said Mister White as he nodded toward his team. The team bowed to Arthur at the same time, without a single person missing. "And all of them worship you."

"…that"s rea.s.suring?" muttered Arthur with a smile. "I need to enter Yalenia before the war begins, so I will rely on everyone here to get me there. I don"t know the routes nor the methods of infiltrating the capital, so I will depend on you."

"That"s the greatest honor thugs like us can receive," said one of the men, middle-aged, with biceps as big as heads. His bald head gave him a menacing look, but he acted well-mannered. "Mister White made everyone sign spiritual contracts. If anyone of us opens their mouths, they would die on the spot!"

"…that"s extreme, White," said Arthur as he turned toward the old man with a spotless suit. In response, he just waved his hand in dismissal as if that was natural. "What"s the dungeon that is connected to the tower? I never heard of such a thing."

"Because we are the ones to uncover such a secret," said Mister White with a grin. "Do you know the reason our headquarters is in Kera?"

"Lack of watchful eyes?" asked Arthur with confusion, and Mister White just chuckled.

"In addition to that, my favorite place as a child was the mountain range close to us, Mountain Range Rovero. Have you ever gone there?"

"…more than I would like," said Arthur with a frown. "Is that our destination?"

"The dungeon is hidden inside the mountain range, and the reason that it connects is not through a pa.s.sage, but a memory."

"A memory?"

"A memory left behind by someone for the man who created the Magic Tower, which allows us to enter the tower from here. It acts as a mark of hospitality, letting us enter the tower from wherever we wanted."

"How did you learn about this?" asked Arthur with curiosity.

"Dungeons were scarce back in the day, making them more valuable than the treasures they offer. I wanted to grow strong, but I had no money or influence to enter the dungeons. Thus, I relied on the wilderness of the mountain range."

"That makes sense. Did you find the dungeon all that time ago?"

"The dungeon is no secret from the world, but I found a secret path inside the dungeon. It was a challenge from someone who died inside the dungeon to test a man"s character and trust them with a message."

"A message?"

"I don"t know what it contains, but I was asked to carry it to the highest point in the Tower of Yalen and hand it to the man waiting at the tower"s summit."

"That sounds too poetic to be a reality," said Arthur with raised brows. He never heard of such a story, but if it exists, then it sounded like a fairytale.

"Most love stories are too poetic for this world, so the world fights them," said the old man as he rubbed a ring on his wedding finger. "I too have been brushed by love, and the hole it left refuses to heal."

"Once we find what completes us, we can never be fine without it."

"Well said," said Mister White with a sigh. "In any case, the dungeon is deep inside the mountain range. Taking the train and traveling on foot would have been both eye-catching and time-consuming, so this vehicle came at the best time."

"My friend is glad to help," said Arthur as he turned to Joe. "I also took care of the issue with the extremist groups. Most of them have relocated from Kera, letting its inhabitants live in peace for the time being."

"Thank you, sir," said Joe with grat.i.tude. Then, he looked out from the window, seeming to be in deep thoughts. Arthur noticed a mist of nostalgia clouding his eyes, so he had to ask.

"Is it because of the mountain range?" asked Arthur, catching the bartender off guard. Then, he smiled with embarra.s.sment as he lowered his head.

"Your talk about longing reminded me of my wife," said Joe with his head bowed in a dejected manner. "Mister White is right. The moment love brushed past me, it never left, like a nagging ghost carving a hole in my chest."

"How did she die?" asked Koby as he turned away from the window, a threatening tone in his voice. "If someone killed her, I will dissect their brain as they watch."

"…thank you, Koby," said Joe with a little surprise and shock at his violent promise, and the mage nodded at him with a smile of comradeship. "But she died at the hands of monsters. I was in the city when a monster horde ravaged the mountain range, and she was one of the victims."

Arthur looked at the bartender, and saw tears glistening in his eyes as he narrated his wife"s death. He knew that what hurt the most about the incident was that Joe could do nothing about it because even if he was there, a monster horde was not something he could fight off.

The bartender just had to accept the death of his wife, the same way that Arthur was expected to accept the death of Diana because of the Isotox. As he imagined what that would have been like, Arthur trembled with rage.

He would never let anything harm Diana.

No matter the cost he has to pay.

"I will sacrifice anything to keep her by my side," thought Arthur as he looked out from the window. The vehicle was coming to a stop inside a grove of trees, hiding itself from sight.

"We reached our destination," said Mister White as he slapped his legs and rose. "From now on, we are a small-time guild called Dragonfish. In order to ensure that no one notices our action, everyone needs to use their tricks of distraction, stalling, and smuggling. Is that clear?"

"Yessir!" shouted the smugglers as they wore their armor. Arthur left the vehicle and looked out from within the trees and saw the dungeon that they reached.

The dungeon was a giant gate in a mountain. What uneased Arthur was that the other side of the mountain was none other than the hidden Second Trial of the Holy Crown.