Chapter 139: The Diary of Secrets

Not just the book shelf… but the whole wall was moving.

To be precise… it was rotating around. the entire structure was mounted on some central axis, designed to swing open like a door rather than stand fixed against the wall. Ishiki’s momentum carried him backward as the shelf completed a full rotation.

The wall where the shelf used to be was now just a normal wall that matched the simple color of all the other walls.

The skeleton stood there facing the wall and then dismissed the jian. The sword dispersed into motes of light, then it moved leisurely and slumped on one of the couches.

Ishiki straightened his body… though he was feeling a little dizzy and then there was the pain in his unhealed wound. For some reason… even his minor regeneration attribute was not enough to heal it completely.

He winced and looked around… just a moment ago this place was writhed in darkness… but now it was filled with orange, warm glow.

Ishiki looked around and found that it was not too big of a room, just as large as the fourth room he had found in the cathedral.

There were four lamps in each corner of the room and they were burning bright and illuminating the surroundings. They had ignited on their own without any fire, the moment the secret door sealed.

Ishiki struggled to his feet to get a better look at the things.

The ceiling was lower here and the walls were closer together. It felt less like a cathedral space and more like someone’s private study. A sanctuary within a sanctuary.

At the center stood a large table. The table’s surface was covered with objects arranged in what might have been careful organization or might have been the chaos of someone’s final moments.

There were papers scattered across one corner and a quill lying at an angle, its tip was still stained with ink. There was an hourglass filled with sand, which was almost halfway through and a compass whose needle was pointing north.

And at the table’s center, casting its own faint illumination, was a ring.

It was not a normal ring… it had perhaps fifteen centimeters large diameter, like it was made for giants. The body was slender and elegant, made of metal that glowed with soft golden light.

The surface was covered in those same ancient characters Ishiki couldn’t read, spiraling from one end of the ring to the other in an unbroken line of text, that made a loop.

’What the hell is that?’ Ishiki thought, drawn toward it despite every instinct screaming that glowing objects in secret rooms were universally bad news.

As he reached the table… there was something else that caught his attention and made him forget about the goddamned ring.

It was a diary that was lying open on the table, the pages were filled with recent handwritings and wonderfully… Ishiki was able to read them.

He stepped closer and pulled the chair closer to the table. He sat down on the chair… his shadow casting over the pages and started reading.

***

18th of December, Year 1127 of Divine Protection

A strange occurrence happened today. The 3rd and 5th Ministers came out from the Inner Ring together—which is unusual enough in itself, as they typically maintain separate schedules, and selected two of the captains as Inner Guards.

This is the first time I have witnessed them selecting two people simultaneously. Always before, the selection has been singular with one captain elevated to the Inner Guard.

There is another complication that troubles me, both selected captains are foreigners. I have heard that many people recently came to our capital after crossing the Corrupted Kingdoms, seeking safety behind Aethelburg’s golden walls.

Why would the Ministers choose foreigners for such sacred positions? What purpose does it serve to place outsiders so close to the Emperor himself?

I have a few…

***

The entry ended just there as if it had been forced stop or the person writing it had vanished in the middle of everything.

Reading this Ishiki entered deep thoughts. ’From what it looks like, this entry was made on the day Aethelburg fell. So the minsters had come out and chosen Yuki’s brother and Kenji as inner guards.’

’And what does it mean by Corrupted kingdoms? Is that referring to the five regions of death that surrounded the island.’

It made a lot of questions arise in Ishiki’s mind and with that he also seemed to get closer to the truth.

He looked at the diary once more, it was very bulky and had myriads of pages upon pages.

Curious Ishiki opened the first page of the bulky diary and started reading.

***

3rd of June, Year 524 of Divine Protection

I, Aldric of House Mandel, have been appointed as the Sixth High Priest of the Cathedral of Mandecium in the Secondary Ring, selected personally by the Emperor himself for this sacred duty.

It is an honor beyond measure. To serve Mandecium—even in this diminished cathedral far from the golden glory of the Inner Ring—is to serve the foundation upon which Aethelburg stands.

The Emperor commanded me to keep this diary in the common tongue rather than the sacred script. When I questioned this choice, He said something that chilled me to my core:

“What you will witness must be understood by those who come after. The sacred script preserves knowledge, but it also hides truth. This diary must hide nothing as its purpose is to guide.”

I do not know what He meant. I do not know what I will witness that requires such measures.

But I am His servant, and I will obey.

May the great God Mandecium, grant us the peace of ignorance and protect our happiness from the ravages of reality.

***

Ishiki stared at the date with a wide mouth. Never in his wildest imaginations did he imagine that this diary was being kept for more than six centuries.

This diary had been maintained for six hundred years, passed down from High Priest to High Priest, each one adding their observations to this accumulated record of… what?

He had no idea… yet.

The other thing he noticed was that this Aldric was the sixth High Priest of this Cathedral. That meant that there should be another diary too.

But what made him chill to the bone was the fact that that the Emperor of Aethelburg was indeed, either immortal or a being that has lived for hundreds… maybe even thousands of years.

Just thinking about that made his skin crawl.

He flicked the last page of the diary and tried to look for something and as he did… his eyes widened in horror.

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