Chapter 99: Return

“Hey, Ron. Come here, quick.”

“You’re too fast, Mirian. Are we even allowed here?”

It was empty land with destroyed traces on the ground.

It was a barren part of a mountain that didn’t seem dangerous, but Ron felt disturbed.

Then Mirian became annoyed.

“Hey! Don’t be such a coward. The teachers didn’t say we couldn’t come here. They just said people avoid this place.”

“…They did. They warned about the possible danger due to the weakened ground.”

Ron heard that Instructor Khutil said this land became unstable after the incident five years ago, but Mirian didn’t seem to mind.

“You can go home then. I need to see it with my own eyes.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Follow me if you want to know.”

Mirian then began jumping up the rocks to climb up, and Ron followed after shaking his head. It was after the sun began to go down that they arrived at the destination.

“Is it here?”

“Yeah. I saw this from far away last time. I couldn’t even sleep because I wanted to see this.”

“Hm… It does look weird.”

There was nothing special around here. Except for one thing.

The place Mirian pointed to had a human-sized pillar in the ground, and the pillar had various compartments.

“There might be an owner to this.”

“Huh?”

“Look… each drawer has a name.”

It was locked, but each compartment had names written on top. There weren’t that many that had names.

“Really? Oh… that’s unfortunate.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I thought it had some kind of hidden treasure or something. I thought that was why the teachers didn’t want us to come here!” Mirian exclaimed. Ron grew curious about the names and began to look more closely. After looking about, Ron became shocked.

“Hey… Mirian. It might have the treasures that you wanted.”

“Huh?”

Mirian turned back to Ron with a disappointed look.

“Look at these names.”

Mirian realized she had not read the names and began examining it.

<Narasha Qun Tian>

<Rian von Roman>

<Kain von Roman>

<Stiel>

<Celine de Kiraine>

“Wow…!”

Mirian brightened up instantly. She didn’t know who ‘Stiel’ was, but she recognized all the other names. The King who brought the age of peace to Tian, Narasha Qun Tian the First, the Kingdom’s greatest general, Grand Bander Kain von Roman, and the leaders of the most powerful special force <Dragona>, Rian von Roman and Celine de Kiraine. They were all the most important figures of Tian.

“Maybe it has secret teachings in there! Maybe something that can make you a Grand Bander instantly.”

“I don’t think so. Besides, all teachings are shared in Gron-Pilah.”

“How do you know if that’s everything?”

“Oh…”

It didn’t make much sense, but Mirian didn’t care. She was too excited already. She began unlocking the compartments.

“Hey, Mirian, what are you doing?”

“I want to take a look.”

“We shouldn’t touch it! There must be an owner!”

“Who’s the owner?”

“Huh?”

“I saw this months ago already. The owner must’ve taken it if there was one. Even if there was, the owner wouldn’t really care if it was left alone here like this.”

“But…”

“Hey, I’m not taking anything. I’m just taking a look. Aren’t you curious too?”

“…”

Ron couldn’t say anything. He was, in fact, curious about what secret this mysterious pillar contained.

“You stay there. Hehe… Let me see.”

Mirian took out a hairpin from her pocket and began to pick the lock before she finally opened the drawer. She was most curious about Count Roman’s drawer as she was a warrior herself, so she checked to see what it had, but she was disappointed.

“What is this!”

“Huh? What?”

“No… wait. Let me try the other ones.”

Mirian then moved onto the other compartments, but she was still disappointed.

“Ahh…”

Ron curiously walked up to see what was inside each of the compartments.

‘…a letter?’

There was nothing else but a handful of letters.

‘So the name was the sender.’

Ron then became curious.

‘Then who’s the receiver?’

He would’ve known if he had read the letters, but he thought it was too much so he decided not to. Mirian had a different idea.

“The letter… it can be a way to deceive us. There should be some secret inside!”

She then stood up and walked toward the compartment.

“Move out.”

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m going to read it.”

“No! It’s a private letter! What are you going to do if those senders find out?”

It would be a problem if those letters contained private matters. There was a possibility that their lives could be in danger if it really contained such matters. Ron explained this to Mirian and she understood.

But she couldn’t resist the temptation.

“Then let’s read those with the name ‘Stiel’ on it. I’ve never heard of the name so there won’t be any secrets in there.”

“That doesn’t make any sense…!”

Mirian quickly moved closer. Then a voice came from the back.

“You don’t want to do that. You might die.”

“!!”

Ron and Mirian flinched and turned back quickly. There was a weird man talking to them. He was weird because he was buried in the ground up until his head.

“W-who are you? Since when-?”

“Uh… I was probably here before you started pick-locking those drawers.”

“Ugh… so what are you doing there? Why are you buried like that?”

Ron tried to change the subject.

“Oh… I don’t have any clothes, and since you guys are there, I can’t come out right now. Haha.”

The man laughed.

“But why are we going to die if we read that letter? Is there some hidden secret?”

“Oh, no. It’s probably not like that. But…”

Mirian looked at the man as he continued, “The owner might get embarrassed. She’ll kill anyone who reads that letter other than me.”

“…”

Mirian couldn’t understand. What kind of person was that violent? However, she realized there was something important according to what he just said.

“So, you are the receiver.”

“Yeah, probably. Can I ask you a favor?”

“Yes.”

“If I’m correct… there should be clothing in the pillar. Can you toss me those?”

Mirian searched around the pillar. Sure enough, she found some clothing.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

The man then began moving about underground and came out after putting on the clothes.

“WHOA!”

He then let out a yawn and began stretching.

“Ha… sorry about that. So, why are you guys here?”

The man looked at them with a weird look after noticing that there was nothing around other than the pillar.

“Oh… we are…”

“We were just here on a walk. But what are YOU doing here? Buried up to your neck.”

“Hmm… I… oh. What year is it right now?”

“…”

“Don’t look at me like that. Please, tell me.”

“It’s 1017.”

“Oh… I see.”

He then moved past Ron and Mirian and began opening the compartments. It was locked, but the man opened it effortlessly.

“Wow, brother, you sure know what to do. Perfect.”

He then found money from within, took the bag from the pillar, and collected all letters into it. After he was done packing, he then started walking down toward the city.

Mirian decided to follow him. They were going in the same direction and she was curious about the man.

“Hey!”

The man turned back to Mirian.”What is it?”

“Let’s go together.”

“Hm? You have something more to say?”

“No, we have to go back to the city too, so we can go together.”

The man nodded.

“Sure. I was bored too. You can tell me about any news in the world.”

“Hehe, okay. Hey Ron! Let’s go!”

Mirian yelled at Ron to follow and the three of them began walking down to the city.

“Oh, by the way. I’m Mirian and this is Ron.”

“Hello. I’m Ron.”

The man smiled.

“I am… Sian.”

They began walking toward the city of Lagran.