Vol 3. Chapter 32: First Steps into the Secret Realm

Behind this red-earth wall should be where the people of Marsmo once lived.

“What are those things?” Vinny stared at the odd, uneven, stele-like square stones jutting up from the yellow sand behind the gate-tower.

“Those are Astrolith Stelae. They were how the people of Marsmo connected with the cosmos. They believed that if stelae made from specific materials were arranged according to the laws of the heavens, they could link with celestial bodies and thus echo one another to commune with their deity,” Isatia said, slipping into instructor mode for Vinny.

“Wow, Isatia, do you seriously know everything? You learned all this from books?” Vinny asked, amazed.

“Not entirely.” Isatia’s reply was a touch vague.

Not entirely??

Vinny couldn’t make sense of that. If it didn’t come from books, then where? From remnants inside ruins?

But isn’t this the only secret-realm site we’ve found that Marsmo left behind??

Then where did Isatia learn all this in such detail? It felt even more specific than what Shicodale knew from actual texts.

Speaking of which, as a fellow Fated Heroine, would Aesphyra—the lead Fated Heroine—know these things?

Vinny shifted his gaze to Aesphyra and found her also watching Isatia’s back, her eyes filled with a meaning he couldn’t read.

...Alright then.

Maybe others wouldn’t catch what Aesphyra was thinking from that look, but Vinny had spent far too much time with her. He could tell she was very curious about the knowledge Isatia was recounting, yet she didn’t find it odd at all that Isatia knew these things in depth—as if it were perfectly normal.

What is even going on??

So you “understand” something too? Could you stop speaking in riddles??

Vinny was completely baffled.

Great. Looks like he’s the only one out of the loop again.

“Hey, Aesphyra, the stuff Isatia knows is obscure, right? Have you ever heard any of this?” Vinny edged up to her and asked cautiously.

“Nope.” Aesphyra answered bluntly.

“And you don’t think that’s strange??” Vinny couldn’t help pressing. “Where did she learn it??”

“What’s so strange about that? Everyone has secrets, don’t they, Vinny?” Aesphyra narrowed her eyes at him like a foxy enchantress, as if hinting at something else.

“I mean, sure, but this is really weird, okay?” Being stared at like that rubbed Vinny the wrong way.

“You’re just making a fuss over nothing, Vinny.” Aesphyra tossed out the line, then walked on ahead.

Vinny stood there in silence. Looking at Aesphyra’s disposable gloves, he suddenly realized something.

Earlier, Aesphyra poked his waist and his shoulder blades with a finger, right??

Ah—so that’s why something had felt off this whole time?

Vinny slapped his forehead as it came back to him.

After poking him, why didn’t Aesphyra change her gloves?!

That’s not like her, is it?? Given this White-Haired Nut (Ball)’s level of fastidiousness, she always swaps out disposable gloves promptly after contact—male or female—let alone after touching a man.

What’s with her? Did her personality change, or has she built up tolerance to him??

Well, who knows? Who can guess what’s going on in Aesphyra’s head??

She’d been acting off ever since she saw him in women’s clothes that day.

Vinny looked up and saw Isatia had already walked up to the stelae and pulled out tools he’d never seen before to take measurements, then recorded details carefully in a handwritten notebook.

What is she doing??

Vinny couldn’t follow. They were here to explore a ruin, not to do actual archaeology. Why was Isatia recording all this in such detail—what for?

Aesphyra followed behind, arms folded, watching Isatia without a word and without interrupting.

“Aesphyra, what are those tools? Did the Academy assign us a task to survey Marsmo civilization? We didn’t get anything like that when we entered, did we?” Vinny asked quietly as he trailed her.

“Those are specialized tools for surveying historical ruins and artifacts. I doubt the Academy would assign that sort of work to untrained students,” Aesphyra answered. “They’re probably items Isatia carries with her.”

“Who carries dedicated archaeology gear around?” Vinny’s puzzlement only deepened.

Then he remembered: Isatia had always been someone deeply interested in history. Any time she had a free moment, she’d be reading historical works.

Is this just her hobby? Even if it is, isn’t this a bit too serious? Does she have to record it that meticulously??

Vinny glanced at Aesphyra beside him—utterly calm, as if none of this was strange at all.

“Hey, White-Haired Nut (Ball), you know something, don’t you?” Vinny asked.

“Hmm? What exactly does Vinny mean?” Aesphyra smiled with crescent eyes.

“Tch, forget it—you do know. Even if I ask, you won’t tell me.” Vinny shot her a look and stepped forward.

Hm? These stelae look a little off.

When he got closer, surprise flickered in Vinny’s eyes. Stepping even nearer, he found densely carved script all over the Astrolith Stelae—writing he didn’t recognize at all. Besides that, the surfaces were covered in scars of every size.

“These were left by blades,” Vinny murmured after recognizing the marks.

That’s odd.

Isn’t this the remnant secret realm of Marsmo civilization? Why would their structures bear sword and knife marks??

Vinny sensed something.

Could it be some kind of custom—leaving blade scratches on the medium that links to celestial bodies and their deity??

No. Besides blade-marks, there were scorch marks. That clearly wasn’t intentional.

Circling to the back of a stele, Vinny found the burns there. A wide swath of blackened scorch had erased a great deal of the script—making it even stranger.

No, this doesn’t look like some ritual at all. It looks more like—

“Traces of war,” Isatia said first, voicing Vinny’s thought.

“But...” Vinny still remembered the general concepts from books about remnant secret realms: some are left deliberately by people; others form by accident after a civilization’s extinction, due to lingering forces.

If it were the latter, the remnants shouldn’t show signs of warfare.

“At present, Carillian Academy holds that this is a deliberate-type secret realm left by the people of Marsmo. You can tell from the war damage on many of the structures,” Isatia said—clearly she’d done her homework before coming.

“Even so, that point’s still questionable. After all, there are sixty-four random entrances just upon entry. The resources and manpower required for such a secret realm are absurd. Not even the Tyrelis Empire at its height could have pulled that off—let alone the people of Marsmo,” Aesphyra walked up and added, looking up at the towering stelae.

Right—testimony from the victim’s descendants.

When it came to the Tyrelis Empire, no one knew more than Aesphyra.

“That’s true. Which is why the origin of this secret realm—whether it was made deliberately or formed passively—still has no definitive conclusion,” Isatia said.

“Then what do you think, Isatia?” Aesphyra smiled and tossed the question back.

Isatia didn’t answer. She put away the thick notebook, then looked out over the endless yellow sand.

“At the moment, we can’t be sure.”

“After all, we haven’t reached the central heartland.”

“Uh...” Listening to the two of them, Vinny felt even more like an outsider.

They’d both said so much—should he say something too? But he really didn’t know anything.

So he’s the only clueless one on this team, huh??

Fine. Being clueless has its perks—no thinking required. The two Fated Heroines can do the thinking themselves.

Once Isatia finished her notes, the three pressed deeper into the secret realm.

The endless sand veiled their sight, drastically cutting their visibility.

Soon, a massive black shape surfaced in the storming yellow dust.

Vinny squinted against the grit, a flicker of caution rising—only to relax when Isatia and Aesphyra showed no reaction at all.

Come on. If there were real danger, even if he didn’t sense it, how could the two Fated Heroines miss it?

Since neither of them was making any move to fight, that proved they sensed nothing dangerous ahead.

“What is that?” Vinny still couldn’t make out the huge silhouette hidden in the sand and asked.

“A dead building,” Isatia replied.

“Huh??” As they drew closer, Vinny finally saw what the massive outline was.

A gigantic, square structure of red-bronze bricks, like an underground palace.

Standing before it was a sculpture like a wheel. Looking closely, he realized it was a huge brass Ouroboros—a massive serpent biting its own tail, its whole body joined to itself, visage vicious and fearsome.

Well, maybe this was also because the architectural sculpture style of Marsmo veered abstract.

Its body bristled with many forelimbs, each gripping objects like gems and scepters.

“This is the deity the people of Marsmo revered. Legend says it symbolizes Eternity. They believed the tail-biting, many-limbed serpent represented ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) ‘the infinite,’ which is to say Eternity. However—” Isatia explained, then suddenly shifted tack.

“However what?” Vinny asked.

“One of its claws is missing.” Isatia stopped before the Ouroboros and pointed to the lower right of the giant brass serpent.

“Huh? Really? Let me see—looks like it.” Vinny came over and indeed found a very inconspicuous break on the sculpture’s lower right.

You had to admit—Isatia’s eye for detail was terrifying; she caught that at a glance.

“But what does that prove?” Vinny felt it was normal. After so long, relic statues were bound to lose a hand or a foot.

“Have you two noticed...” Aesphyra spoke up from behind then, looking at the sky.

“Huh? Noticed what?” Vinny asked.

“The sun in the sky—since a while ago, it has barely moved,” Aesphyra said slowly.

Ah. Right.

Vinny only then remembered—being of the Carillian line, Aesphyra was extremely sensitive to the flow of time.

“You mean...?” Vinny and Isatia looked up together.

Isatia’s eyes tightened; Vinny’s expression turned odd.

He hadn’t paid attention to the sun’s position at all, and he had no sense of time—he hadn’t counted how long it had been since they came in.

“Is it possible the flow of time in here is different from outside?” Vinny asked.

“That can’t be ruled out—and it’s common knowledge,” Aesphyra said, shading her eyes to look at the sky. “If so, then the flow of time here is very slow. Unusually slow.”

“The break on this claw isn’t clean,” Isatia observed. “And it looks like there are blade-gouge marks.”

“Blade gouges??” Vinny said in surprise. “The people of Marsmo wouldn’t have done that to their own deity’s statue, right?”

Anyone could follow that logic. Normal people don’t take blades to hack the statue of the god they worship. And places of sacrifice tend to be heavily guarded.

“Come on. Let’s go in and take a look.” After examining the statue several times—almost as if to burn it into her memory—and noting it in her journal, Isatia drew back her gaze and looked toward the red-earth underground palace looming ahead like a behemoth.

Vinny and Aesphyra had no objections. The three moved on.

The deeper they went, the darker the enormous underground palace became. There seemed to be no lighting at all, and the path led straight down.

“Seriously, the people of Marsmo were so unrefined—why live underground like moles? And the buildings above ground are big, sure, but there’s basically no ornamentation. Just giant red blocks flipped upside down. And besides that, the art style is super abstract,” Vinny muttered as he walked.

“The people of Marsmo didn’t value above-ground architecture. They believed those who live on the surface will be erased by Eternity sooner or later. So structures above ground were more like markers—just to indicate there were dwellings below, nothing more. Everything substantive is underground,” Isatia explained evenly from the lead.

So they really were a nest of moles, huh??

Vinny pressed his lips together.

Isatia knew so much. Where had she learned all this about Marsmo civilization??

“And this may not be their dwellings at all, but a temple,” Isatia analyzed.

No sooner had she spoken than, as the steps took them farther down, a glow appeared ahead.