Chapter 101: Resonating Truths

Volume 5 Chapter 101 – Resonating Truths

[Translator – jhei]

[Proofreader – yukitokata]

February 1st, 1796.

Under a dark sky. One man trudged through the Black Sea under the harsh rain. Guardian Knight Khan had another letter in his breastplate. 

“You’re here?”

“Yes, Lord Patriarch.”

Now, Cyron didn’t even need to say anything for Khan to take out the letter.

The guardian knight handed it over with two hands, and Cyron smiled.

“What are your predictions on the results?”

“Do you mean the Young Master’s duel against Dante Hairan?”

“Yeah.”

“Rationally speaking, Dante definitely would’ve won since the Young Master couldn’t use two of his specialties. However, seeing Young Master Jin’s progress… he has a chance.”

Slit.

Opening the letter, Cyron felt his heart flutter.

(Sender: Kashimir

Receiver: Cyron Runcandel

Report: Jin Runcandel defeated Dante Hairan and won in the Cosmos Arena.

Miscellaneous: Jin Runcandel achieved 6-star in swordsmanship.)

Four lines. 

That was Kashimir’s entire letter. Not a single line of banter or greeting.

The epitome of brevity. However, reading the letter, Cyron felt disappointed.

‘…Did he send it like this because I wanted it to be short?’

Of course, he was very proud that the youngest had some sense of awakening.

However, he somewhat felt as if he were scammed…

“Lord Patriarch, did something happen to the youngest?”

Seeing Cyron’s expressionless face, Khan carefully asked.

“No… it’s nothing. He defeated Dante.”

“Then…”

“Don’t worry about it. When you get back, tell Kashimir that I’d like to have a drink. I’m going to have to see his face.”

“Understood!”

* * *

Reaper Scans

* * *

Shiver.

“Was there a cold breeze just now…?”

“Cold breeze, Sir Kashimir? There’s a fire right in front of us.”

Jin pointed at the fireplace. Enya and Euria snickered, and Alisa shrugged.

“Last time, you spoke of a heatstroke in the middle of a January blizzard…”

“Honey, what’s wrong? I think you’re getting old.”

“No, no. Not that. I think it’s just a hallucination.”

“I think I should get you some medication.”

Kashmir lightly shook his head.

They had all gathered in Jin’s room to congregate.

Jin already finished his training, Alisa got off from work, and Kashimir returned after finishing his job. 

Enya and Euria just came to play with Jin, but Murakan and Gilly tried to make them play with puzzles instead.

“Hey, hey, ice cream runt. Go play with this.”

“No. I want cat.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“No. Mmmmm… Alright, I’ll transform into a cat if you finish this puzzle.”

“You promise.”

For a 6-year-old girl, a thousand-piece puzzle was very hard.

However, Euria began to solve the jigsaw puzzle at a ridiculous speed. She didn’t even start at the edges or matched similar pieces. She grabbed random pieces and placed them on the carpet. It was as if she had already memorized the puzzle beforehand.

“Sir Murakan. I don’t think a puzzle is effective for Az Mil’s contractor.”

“Ah! I forgot. Dammit, I lost.”

“What do you mean you lost? You wanted to play with her in the first place. Stop complaining.”

“Shut up, kiddo. Being a cat was boring enough when we were at the Runcandel main house.”

Poof!

Murakan then transformed into a cat and began to meow. Euria meowed back, then giggled.

“Hehe.”

Everyone in the room smiled as they watched the playful sight.

Trying to exhaust her and knock her out, Murakan energetically played with Euria.

‘Playing tag is the best game to get kids tired.’

Swoosh, swoosh!

Murakan jumped from floor to desk, and Euria chased him as if she were hypnotized.

“He’s such a kind man in contrast to his manner of speech. Don’t you think, Young Master?”

Euria stumbled across the room while failing to catch Murakan. On the other hand, Murakan was having fun. He teased Euria by barely escaping her hands each time she tried to catch him. 

“Hmph!”

After five minutes of chasing, Euria tried to jump on top of the desk that Murakan was on.

Hop!

However, the desk was too tall for Euria to jump on.

“Uh-oh!”

“Euria!”

The young girl hit her head on the corner of the desk and fell backwards. The short game of tag quickly ended. Thankfully, she wasn’t severely injured, but it was normal for all eyes to glare at Murakan.

“Stupid black dragon. What were you gonna do if the kid got hurt?”

“Nya…”

Murakan lowered his ears.

Flap…

From the desk’s cabinet, a piece of paper flew out and landed next to Euria like a fallen leaf.

“Hm?”

While everyone checked on her well-being, Euria did not fuss about her bruise. Instead, her eyes were fixed upon the piece of paper.

“Wowie! It’s a treasure map!”

With glistening eyes, Euria shouted.

It was the treasure map that Jin received at the Cosmos Arena.

He had placed the trophy on his desk and the meaningless treasure map in his cabinet, being forgotten.

He thought that receiving a treasure map as a prize from a pirate gang was worthless. 

In reality, Cosmos wanted the victor to take the treasure chest instead of the 1,000 gold coins. He had also determined that the treasure map he stole from one of his plundering conquests was worthless.

Essentially, it was a scam.

However, thanks to Jin taking both prizes, Cosmos couldn’t make much of a profit that day.

“Anyways, be more careful when playing. Are you gonna take responsibility when the kid gets hurt?”

“That’s right, Sir Murakan. Still, Miss Euria is strong. I’m pretty she fell pretty hard…”

“There’s something important there!”

Euria stood up and raised the map into the air.

“There’s! There’s something important here!”

Euria’s eyes were filled with certainty and hope.

If it were a random child who was shouting, then they’d laugh off the child’s imagination.

However, as Az Mil’s contractor, Euria could easily match thousand-piece or ten-thousand-piece puzzles and see all objects and phenomena ‘as they should be’ with her Absolute Eye. 

Hence, the map was a real treasure map.

On the shoddy drawings, there was an ‘X’ on one side and ancient scripts in the empty space.

‘I thought those characters were a joke because even Murakan and Quikantel couldn’t read it.’

There weren’t many ancient languages that Murakan couldn’t read. Even though he couldn’t read some, he could still deduce its era by looking at the characters.

“What do you mean by something important? Euria, can you tell us more?”

As soon as Jin threw a question.

Euria’s glimmering eyes of curiosity proceeded to glisten with tears. 

She slumped down and began to wail.

“Waaaah! I’m… very sad!”

With Az Mil’s ability activated, Euria was seeing something different than the others.

A treasure hidden somewhere deep.

And the tragedies that occured because of said treasure.

“…Az Mil’s ability must be activated right now. First, we have to calm her. Runt! Bring Lathry, quick!”

The activation of a divine ability against the young contractor’s will was not good. Especially for Az Mil’s contractors due to the fact that they could lose their sense of reality.

At these times, she needed her guardian dragon.

“Y-Yes!”

Kashimir rushed outside, and Alisa cradled the little girl in her arms.

“This happened many times before. It seems our daughter isn’t normal at all.”

A few seconds later, Lathry arrived.

“Where’s Euria?!”

“Here!”

Lathry ran over to Euria and sat next to her. His eyes closed, and a blue energy wrapped around them. 

‘Resonance.’

Among the scenes that Euria saw with her ability, Lathry took the sad and depressing parts and suffered them instead. 

The child soon began to calm down.

However, Lathry—in his human form—flinched every now and then. He was clearly seeing shocking sights.

After ten minutes of Resonance, Euria was fast asleep, and Lathry took a deep breath as he sweated rivers.

“Phew…!”

Lathry stood and bowed. Even though he wasn’t born yet during Murakan’s prime, he gave the shadow dragon the utmost respect.

“Oh, Sir Murakan. I couldn’t greet you due to the lack of time.”

“Don’t worry about it. What did ice cream runt see?”

“That… wasn’t the future, but the past.”

“Past? Az Mil’s contractor can only see the past in certain cases.”

“Yes. Deeply rooted desires or resentment… Only when she touches an object or visits a location associated with such emotions does she see the past. Whew, if I were a little late, it would’ve been fatal. It was awfully grotesque…”

No matter how young, the Dragon of Verity had lived for over five hundred years.

Lathry shuddered. He knew how horrifying it would be for Euria to witness such visions.

“Hm, I didn’t think it’d be anything important because I couldn’t interpret it. However, it must be a very important map. So, what did you see?”

“Some ancient lands… A tribe of natives worshipping some temple…”

Lathry breathed slowly, remembering what he just saw.

“Other humans… came to them. They seemed to be magicians. About ten of them. The magicians initially joined their religious practice.”

“And then?”

“One magician killed a native’s child. A very young person. Younger than Euria… While alive…”

As the horrifying explanation continued, the listeners began to breathe heavily.

Lathry shed a tear as he looked at Euria’s innocent face.

“…And they kept on killing the children. Constantly. They wanted something. It’s… the divine object that the natives worshipped.”

After listening up to that point, Jin thought of a tale that he knew. 

“Sir Lathry, would you please draw what that divine object looked like?”

“Oh, wait.”

Lathry received the pen and paper and quickly drew the object that he saw.

A round disk.

“The object was emitting light, but it looked like a normal silver mirror when it didn’t.”

Kollon Ruins.

The treasure map was pointing to the Kollon Ruins’ mirror artifact.

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