Chapter 139
“Margaret….”
Just then, Enoch quietly opened his mouth, running a hand down his face.
“Isn’t it possible that Margaret might have returned to the cave where we were originally?”
His desperate voice was laced with earnestness and a glimmer of hope.
However, Kaiden and Luzef were somewhat skeptical about the idea that Margaret might return.
The last expression they remembered on Margaret’s face was one filled with betrayal.
“Still, I think it would be good to check the cave one more time. How about we split into groups and move?”
At Luzef’s question, Enoch silently nodded, while Kaiden just stared at the dirty dirt floor.
An uncomfortable silence fell between them once again.
After a long while, Enoch, uncharacteristically, swore and threw the piece of cloth he was holding onto the floor. It was a piece of Margaret’s dress.
It was presumed to have been in her crossbody bag, which was why they had followed this trace all the way to this place, far from the cave.
“Damn it, isn’t this all because of setting up useless plans?”
At Enoch’s rant, which seemed to have lost all reason, Kaiden jumped up from his seat, following suit.
“Are you blaming me now? I believe Your Highness also agreed to it?”
At Kaiden’s words, Enoch irritably unbuttoned his shirt cuffs and rolled them up. Then, he flicked his wrist and glared at Kaiden provocatively, as if he wanted a fight.
“Did it seem like I was blaming you? As Lord said, I also agreed to the plan, so I wasn’t thinking of blaming anyone, but it seems like you have a guilty conscience.”
Enoch gritted his teeth as if suppressing the emotions boiling up from within. Unlike his usual self, he looked very impatient and anxious.
“Fucking hell, how can you say that…!”
The two ended up grabbing each other by the collar and fighting. Fists flew, and they rolled around on the floor without restraint.
Luzef frowned as if looking at uncivilized beasts and moved away.
That’s when Diego stepped in. He rushed over to Enoch and Kaiden, separated them, and nodded to Luzef.
“Hold him, Bishop.”
As if snapping out of it at Diego’s words, Enoch stopped trying to swing his fist, spitting out an annoyed breath, and shook off his hand.
The problem was Kaiden. Luzef hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the thrashing Kaiden along with Diego.
Blood flowed down from his head between his bloodshot eyes. Kaiden, with a terrifying face, struggled wildly before finally being tied securely to a tree.
“Let me go!!”
Enoch, tidying his clothes and roughly wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand, looked at Kaiden with a tired face.
“Are you alright?”
Diego asked Enoch in a nervous voice. He was worried that Enoch might Berserk state after seeing blood.
Enoch sighed with a weary expression.
“I’m fine. I can control the Berserk state now.”
At his words, both Diego and Luzef looked surprised. They seemed curious about how he had gained control, but Enoch didn’t offer any explanation.
“You haven’t found Lady Flone?”
Luzef, watching their expressions, asked quietly.
Enoch ran a hand through his hair with a troubled expression. A deep sense of despair washed over his face. He couldn’t speak, his lips only moving slightly before he finally closed them. Before he knew it, his eyes were bloodshot.
He didn’t know how far or how Margaret had twisted their words, but how scared she must have been, all alone. How difficult it must have been.
Just thinking about it made his chest feel heavy, as if a stone was sitting on it. His throat felt so constricted that it was hard to breathe.
“Give up. We can’t find her.”
At that moment, someone replied.
It wasn’t Enoch who answered. A youthful boy’s voice was heard from somewhere.
All the men looked around, searching for the direction of the voice.
Kaiden, who had been struggling while tied to the tree, shifted his gaze to the tree above with a hardened expression.
“Who are you? Don’t hide up there, come down, you XX.”
“Sorry. I can’t do that.”
Enoch, along with Luzef and Diego, followed Kaiden’s gaze and turned their heads towards the tree.
A boy wearing the same robe as Kaiden was sitting on a thick branch.
He, who looked exactly like Kaiden with his silver hair and red eyes, swung his legs and answered leisurely.
“I can’t use my power here.”
“Then get lost.”
The boy didn’t react much to Kaiden’s rough language.
While Luzef and Diego felt puzzled by his unchanging expression, Enoch realized that the boy in front of him was ‘Zenas Igran Rohade,’ whom Kaiden and Margaret had mentioned before.
“Hello.”
The boy greeted Enoch, Luzef, and Diego. Diego raised his sword and pointed it at the boy.
“Who is he?”
Luzef asked, looking back at Kaiden and Enoch. Kaiden replied without taking his eyes off the boy.
“I told you last night. There’s a Wizard who’s lived on this island for a thousand years.”
Recalling the conversation they had while Margaret was poisoned by the gas and bedridden, Luzef finally looked up at the boy with a surprised expression.
The boy waited for their conversation to end, then shrugged and opened his mouth.
“I was curious, so I came to see.”
And very slowly, and with a leisurely attitude, he scanned the crowd.
That sight poured oil on Kaiden, who was expressing his rage that was going crazy and burning fiercely.
Kaiden cut all the tree trunks that bound his body and looked up at the boy.
“You came because you were curious? You XX, you were watching everything, weren’t you? I’m telling you to come down before I drag you down, you X-like XX.”
“No.”
The boy shrugged and answered nonchalantly. He scanned the group with an indifferent face, then sighed and said slowly.
“I came to tell you an interesting story….”
He paused again, like a slow-walking turtle, then tilted his head and looked down at them, as if a god was looking down on humans.
“…Aren’t you going to listen?”
Enoch stood with his arms crossed, looking up at the boy. His eyebrows were raised disapprovingly.
“An interesting story?”
The boy nodded at Enoch’s question.
“Yeah. It’ll be very interesting.”
The boy spoke slowly, one word at a time, then stopped talking. Then, he looked up at the sky and paused for a moment before slowly continuing.
“It’s about our Margaret.”
Luzef felt puzzled at the boy’s words. ‘Our.’ The boy’s possessiveness of Margaret, which was revealed at a glance, was unusual.
“The Margaret you know isn’t Margaret.”
Everyone froze in surprise at the shocking statement that followed. The boy smiled as if he wanted that reaction.
“It seems like another Soul has entered Margaret Rose Flone.”
A smile as bright as a flower appeared on the face of the indifferent boy, who had shown no expression until now.
\ \ *
I don’t know how much time has passed. It was even more difficult to check the time because it was dark underground.
When I made a rustling sound, Eunji, who was next to me, crawled over and put her face on my arm.
I picked her up and put her on my shoulder, then calmly surveyed the surroundings again.
There didn’t seem to be anything special to find in the underground tomb anymore.
Maybe the reason these skeletons dragged me here was because of this.
To let me know of their deaths.
I prayed for the skeletons with a heavy heart, then carefully scanned the walls. There was a place where light was leaking through.
After touching the wall and checking the gaps, I was able to find a place where the wind was blowing. It was clearly the outer wall.
‘The problem is that I have to break the wall.’
It’s difficult to use Flares. If the ceiling collapses along with it, I’ll be buried in the ground as well.
‘What should I do?’
I was worrying about that for a while.
Rattle, rattle, rattle.
I heard the sound of skeletons moving behind me. Too scared to turn around, I froze.
I heard the sound of skeletons moving and approaching quickly. Soon, they passed me and slammed into the wall with a thud.
“Wh, what.”
I stared blankly at the skeleton that had fallen apart on the floor.
The skeletons that followed also rammed into the wall one after another.
In an instant, dozens of skeletons rushed in and crashed into the wall, and I heard the sound of crumbling rubble along with the rustling sound.
Thud, thud.
The skeletons sacrificed their bodies to the stone wall without rest. After a long time of repeated actions, a corner of the wall was finally broken through.
“Goodness.”
Light leaked through the broken wall. The path was wide enough to pass through by bending down.
The skeletons lost their strength and collapsed to the floor, as if they had fulfilled their duty.
“Th, thank you.”
I thanked the skeletons. I don’t know if they could hear me.
Maybe they helped me to avoid creating the same victims as them?
I quietly escaped the dark underground space through the hole.
When I came out along the outer wall, a staircase with torches lit up was revealed. It was a narrow staircase that only one person could barely pass through.
The sides of the staircase were blocked by stone walls, and there was only a path leading down and a path leading up.
I decided to check the upper floor first.
I thought that this might be the Bunker.
The only place on Alea Island where such a space could exist was the Bunker. The location was definitely around here as well.
So I slowly climbed the straight, narrow staircase. And soon I reached the upper floor.
There was a hallway to the left of the stairs, and there was a door at the end of the hallway. I stopped on the stairs and looked at the hallway, then looked at the stairs above again. It seemed like I could go up one more floor.
‘Should I go all the way up and then come back down?’
In the end, I couldn’t open the door and went up to the upper floor. There might be a passage to the outside. I climbed to the end of the stairs with a faint hope.
As expected, there was a door at the end of the stairs that seemed to lead to the outside.
The problem was that it was tightly locked. It was a structure that couldn’t be opened from the inside, which was frustrating.
Then Yuanna’s Key suddenly came to mind. Was it a door that had to be opened from the outside with that? I came in through a side path, so this might be the formal door.
‘Then, am I trapped?’
My heart was pounding violently. Tension and fear washed over me, but I tried to stay calm and assess the situation.
‘First, there was a room on the lower floor. Let’s check there.’
I went back down the stairs and stood in front of the door on the lower floor that I had seen earlier. I wasn’t sure if there was a room behind the door, but for some reason, I thought there would be.
I grabbed the doorknob and turned it. The doorknob turned smoothly, as if it wasn’t locked. I slowly pulled the door open.
The room was dark, so I couldn’t see anything. That made it seem even more eerie, so I opened the door and took a deep breath for a moment.
‘What should I do? I need to light a fire.’
The moment I thought that, a light flared up in the room.
“Ah, damn it, you scared me!”
I was startled and stuck close to the door. It seemed that the torches on the walls had been lit. Being on this island, there’s really no time for my heart to rest.
“I knew Mana was right.”
It was clear that this Bunker (presumably) had powerful Magic cast on it.
I slowly looked around the room.
Just like I had read in novels, the room was full of modern objects. I was speechless for a moment.
There was a bed, a sofa, and a desk in the room, as well as a hanger full of clothes and shelves full of food and necessities.
It was said to be for one person, but it was a size that could comfortably accommodate Enoch, Kaiden, and Luzef.
Who made this room, and why?