Chapter 171

After we had finished reorganizing ourselves in the massive underground square, we arrived back at the place where we had first gathered—thanks to Kara’s teleportation spell.

“Uugh, urgh…”

“Teacher, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Ugh… I already threw up earlier, so there’s nothing left to throw up. I can never get used to this.”

Kara gagged and dropped to the ground.

Of course, Roy was the same.

Together, we looked down at Oslo, who lay flat on the floor.

“As I said earlier, everyone go do what you need to do. Roy and I will stay here to analyze that Dragon Tongue Magic.”

At Kara’s words, I turned my head toward Luke.

“Teacher, you’ll stay here, right?”

“Yeah. I’ll stay, contact Lord Andrew, and protect Lady Kara and Roy just in case.”

“Understood. Then… Jason, you’ll come with me, and Lisa Noona…”

“I’ll go with you too.”

Lisa spoke without a hint of hesitation.

I couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

“Even if I said no, you’d still follow me, wouldn’t you?”

“I’m not about to leave you alone.”

“Alright. Let’s go together then. Jason, you don’t mind, do you?”

“I don’t, really. Though… I’m not sure if Lisa Noona can move quietly while carrying that giant greatsword.”

“I’ll give it a try.”

As always, Lisa said it with her usual blank expression.

“But if I get caught, I’ll just make sure there aren’t any witnesses, so don’t worry.”

“Uh… Noona, if you’re going to beat up all the witnesses, what’s the point of sneaking in—no, never mind. It’ll work out somehow.”

Jason gave a dry laugh and looked back at me.

“Then let’s move right away. Follow me.”

“Is there a separate path to sneak in through?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I never imagined there’d be a passage like this in the Isrinbloom Mansion…”

“Very few people in the Isrinbloom Family even know it exists.”

Through the dim underground passage, Lisa and I followed Jason.

The hidden passage extended from the outskirts of the Isrinbloom Mansion.

“It’s a secret passage built when the mansion was first constructed—meant for a discreet escape if it were ever captured.”

“Well, I did hear that when the Isrinbloom Family first settled here, they often clashed with the nomads.”

“Exactly. The mansion was actually captured by the nomads several times. They used this secret passage every time.”

The tunnel was so dark that it was hard to see ahead.

But Jason guided us as though he knew the path by heart, continuing to speak as we walked.

“Once the Isrinbloom Family grew powerful enough to easily drive out the nomads, they stopped using it. I heard it hasn’t been used for a few hundred years.”

“So that’s why barely anyone knows about it.”

“Right. It’s natural that people don’t—no one’s used it for ages. The only ones who know are the Head of the House and a few long-serving staff members.”

His words made me curious.

“But how do you know about it, Jason?”

“Because I’m from the Hawkbat Family.”

“…That’s a very convincing answer.”

There wasn’t a better explanation than that, and I easily accepted it.

It wasn’t strange at all if the Hawkbat Family had the blueprints of the Isrinbloom Mansion.

“Anyway, we’re almost there now… It should be around here somewhere… Ah, found it. If we climb up this ladder…”

Jason climbed an old ladder and carefully pushed against the ceiling—then it slid open with a soft creak.

Following him, we climbed up and out of the underground passage.

“Is this… a prison?”

“Yeah. A dungeon deep beneath the mansion. It’s where countless nomads were once imprisoned and bled out.”

“…I see.”

I looked around.

When I had played the game, I had been here before.

So this underground prison was familiar, in a way.

But to think there was a secret passage beneath it…

“This place has been abandoned for ages, so there shouldn’t be any guards around. The way up to the surface is that way. I’m heading to Rage’s room now—weren’t you going to the basement?”

“Yes. I’ll have to check, but it’s also deep within the mansion. The one where outsiders are forbidden to enter.”

“Ah, that place? Funny you mention it—I actually went there when I searched through this mansion a few days ago. But there wasn’t anything special.”

“You’re right. There probably isn’t anything valuable. But… there’s something I have to confirm myself.”

When I said that firmly, Jason nodded.

“You know how to get there, right?”

“Yes, I do. It’s fine if we move separately.”

“Good. Then let’s split up here. Lisa Noona, you’re following Gideon, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Lisa answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Jason chuckled lightly.

Then he looked back at me once more.

“If anything happens, contact me through the Crystal Sphere.”

“Understood. Then, Jason—see you later.”

“Yeah. Whatever it is you’re checking, I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

Finally, we arrived at the basement entrance.

Just like before, there were no guards in sight.

“This is the entrance to that basement?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

When Jason asked earlier, I had brushed it off vaguely, but there was no way I could ever forget where it was.

After all, the reason I had been transmigrated into this world was because I had entered this basement and discovered that ancient manuscript.

“There’s a big lock on it. Gideon, want me to break it?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

I reached toward the left wall, ran my hand along it, and after feeling around a bit, pulled out one of the bricks.

Behind the empty spot, there was a single key.

“So the key was hidden here.”

“People who hide keys near the door exist everywhere.”

I unlocked the padlock with the key and opened the door.

Behind it, a staircase leading deeper underground appeared.

“…Let’s go.”

Lisa and I headed down into the basement.

After descending a bit, we arrived in a basement filled with countless books.

It was the very same study I had explored right before I was transmigrated.

“There are so many books. But it’s too dark. Can you see anything?”

“Wait a sec. There should be some candles around here…”

Recalling the memory from the game, I placed my hand on the wall and felt my way forward.

After a short moment, I found a pile of very old candles.

I cast a Fire Spell to light them all at once, and the basement instantly brightened.

As the candles illuminated the room, I could finally see the massive number of books that filled the basement.

Lisa asked, her expression showing curiosity.

“Have you… been here before? This place looks oddly familiar.”

“Well, I can’t exactly say I haven’t.”

Even if it was in the game, I had indeed been here.

“I wonder how you managed to come here. Anyway, these books… there must be over a thousand of them. Some of them look really ancient.”

“Yeah. Many of them were written more than a hundred years ago.”

Stacks upon stacks of old books and documents.

They were so aged that even brushing against them could probably turn them to dust.

‘Just like I saw in the game.’

But one question arose.

That ancient manuscript I had seen before…

Was it still in the same place?

Before I transmigrated into the game, I had discovered that ancient manuscript through a bug.

‘Was it a map-glitch bug? Yeah… I remember exploring when suddenly my character clipped through a wall into a hidden space.’

And in that hidden space beyond the wall, I had found and read the manuscript.

I turned my head toward the large bookshelf on the left side of the basement.

“…Noona. Keep an eye out and make sure no one comes down here.”

“Got it. But what are you doing right now?”

“I’m looking for a hidden space behind here.”

I replied as I pushed the massive bookshelf aside.

If my memory was right, I had been looking at this shelf in the game when my character slipped into the space behind it.

If things were identical to the game, there had to be something hidden behind it.

“Ugh, this thing’s ridiculously heavy.”

I strained to shove the shelf aside.

It wouldn’t move easily, likely because it had been fixed in place for centuries.

But when I infused strength through my Aura, the bookshelf began to shift little by little.

Soon, I realized there truly was a hidden space behind it.

“…Huh?”

And I couldn’t help but be startled.

Behind the bookshelf was a narrow space barely big enough for a person to fit—

and inside it… was a skeleton.

A human skeleton.

In other words, the remains of a corpse.

Judging from the completely decomposed bones, it seemed this person had died here long ago.

“Gideon, what’s wrong? What’s in there—oh?”

“…Looks like a very old corpse.”

“Yeah. From the clothes and the condition of the bones, it’s at least two hundred years old.”

“At least two hundred years, huh.”

I looked at the skeleton once more.

Then I noticed a bundle of papers clutched in its arms.

It was a small stack—less than ten sheets.

‘It looks different from what I saw in the game… but could that be the same ancient manuscript?’

I reached out and pulled the papers from the dead person’s arms.

Each sheet was old and fragile.

There were even faint traces of bloodstains scattered across them.

“That skeleton… looking closely, a lot of the bones are broken—even vital ones. It seems they didn’t last long after reaching this place.”

At Lisa’s words, I pieced the situation together.

“Wounded fatally, they fled with these papers… made it down to this basement… hid behind the bookshelf, and then died right there?”

“That’s the most reasonable explanation. Though we can’t know for sure what really happened.”

“If my guess is right, then why did this person risk their life just to protect these papers?”

With that thought, I carefully examined the writing on the sheets.

Fortunately, the language was one I could read.

The first line read—

“Leaving a record about the family sentenced to Record Erasure… Jayward Mainac? Wait, Mainac?”

Mainac… I remembered that name. Suiroti had called me that once…

“Gideon, didn’t that Evil Dragon call you a descendant of the Pure-White Mainac?”

“Yeah, that’s right. He did call me a descendant of Mainac. Then… could this person who died here be… my ancestor?”

I began reading the words written on the paper again.

[I am the younger brother of Nawiwo Mainac, current Head of the Mainac Family. The Head has lost his life, and our family stands on the brink of being erased from history. I am wounded and have hidden myself in this underground place after fleeing the battlefield. Before I die, I leave behind this final record—of the truth that will be erased. To whoever in the unknown future finds me and this record:

If you are not an evil being, please, I beg you, reveal this truth—the forgotten history—to the world.]

That was all that was written on the first page.

When I turned to the next one, dense lines of text greeted me.

And the first sentence of the second page read—

[It may not be known after my death, but the Empire originally had four ducal families.]

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