I sat in the room of airship Ifrit as Sigil, the leader of the Scarlet Wind, pathetically prostrated in front of me. The other three men awkwardly watched on as they stood in the corner of the room. Whatever their names were, I don’t remember. Lilka, dejected that I declined her offer of tea, had already left the room.
But the numbers aren’t adding up... Sigil, the other three men, and Lilka made five, but as far as I knew from my dream, there was another woman in this group. Was she acting separately from them, or was she lurking within the ship? If memory served, she didn’t possess any mana either, so she wouldn’t show up on my perception field.
If she was hiding somewhere, I wouldn’t have been able to find her. Or maybe she hasn’t joined them yet... My dream didn’t really have that many details on the internal affairs of this group, and I had no means of knowing. I doubt she’s hiding somewhere to ambush me, but... It was best that I remained vigilant.
One thing was certain: Had I not saved this group in that tumulus, they would’ve all been killed. Which means, in my dream, they didn’t trespass into the founder’s tumulus. I doubt I would have gone out of my way to save them anyway, and my father most certainly would’ve relished in their deaths. My grandfather might do so on a whim to kill some time, but he was retired and unlikely to personally head straight into danger. Why did the Scarlet Wind act differently from my dream?
The only conclusion I could reach was that someone other than myself had seen the same dream and decided to interfere. That had to be it. But who? And why did they send the Scarlet Wind off to the founder’s tumulus? The questions kept coming with no answer. And so, I decided to ask Sigil, the leader of the group, to tell me what exactly led him to this precise location.
“Talk,” I commanded. “If I catch you hiding something, you’re dead.”
“I-I don’t care what happens to me, um, Your...Excellency,” he stammered. “But please, you gotta— I mean, I beg of you, please let my comrades go. Please, Your Highness.”
He raised his head, only to lower it again as he implored for my forgiveness, but I felt a vein pop on my forehead. What? You think adding a formal title makes you sound more proper and polite? You can’t even keep it consistent. Adding a bit more flair doesn’t make you sound better, peon. I’d asked him for information, but for some inexplicable reason, he responded with an entreaty for lives to be spared. This was hardly a conversation.
“Just speak normally,” I sighed. “And if you talk, I won’t kill you. So tell me everything, and spare no detail. Do I make myself clear? I’ll ask again: How did you learn of that place? Why did you decide to head there? Speak.”
“All right,” Sigil said after a few moments of silence.
From there, he slowly managed to get his story out, a little at a time. First, he learned of this place through a Treasure Guild, albeit an unofficial one, formed by a group of treasure hunters to exchange information about ancient ruins and dungeons.
I’d never heard of a Treasure Guild before. Even in my dream, I hadn’t learned of it, but thinking back, there were extremely subtle hints that the Scarlet Wind belonged to one. In the first arc, when Lilka joined the main character’s forces, she was able to use her airship and travel all over the kingdom. Through Sigil, she was able to receive all sorts of information about ruins and dungeons that dotted the land, but in hindsight, it was far too much information for a single man to gather by himself. Even with their airship, there were numerous ruins and dungeons across the kingdom; it seemed a bit ridiculous that the Scarlet Wind would know every characteristic of these dungeons, the monsters they contained, and the traps that were set. It would have required an extensive network.
However, if they were able to gather all this intel thanks to help of this Treasure Guild, everything made sense. Furthermore, it seemed the founder’s tumulus had been known for quite a while now, though of course, it went by a different name. As there was almost no information about this place, and it was near the Lightless fief, no one dared approach and it was classified as S-Rank, placing it among the world’s most dangerous dungeons and ruins. This was known for so long that the paper on the bulletin listing the founder’s tumulus had collected a fair bit of dust.
“So...people have known about this place for that long?” I muttered to myself.
I couldn’t believe that my ancestor’s grace had been labeled an S-Rank dungeon without me ever knowing. It was such a well-kept secret—or so I’d thought—that even the royal family didn’t know of this burial ground. If my father learned that the location was practically making its rounds among the populace, I imagined he would faint on the spot.
“Er, is House Lightless tasked with protecting the temple of the God of Darkness or something?” Sigil asked, tilting his head to one side.
“Huh? I keep telling you that it’s not—no, never mind,” I replied. “Why is that place considered a temple for the God of Darkness anyway? I thought nobody had any details on the place.”
Lilka mentioned something about the God of Darkness before as well... Seems like House Lightless being seen as the noble house of darkness has gotten them mixed up with something else.
Sigil averted his gaze awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I really couldn’t tell you why either... It just always has been assumed to be a temple. According to rumors, though, there was a stone slate in a temple revering a different deity of the six, which noted that the God of Darkness is worshipped in your fief. Obviously, take that with a grain of salt.”
“I thought the ancient text couldn’t be fully deciphered yet,” I replied.
“The Treasure Guild’s got a team of specialists. I heard that they’ve deciphered a great deal of the language, but I’ve no idea what their process is. I’m not good at stuff like that.”
How in the world could an unofficial guild make more progress than the kingdom’s team of elite researchers? That sounds suspicious... But I don’t know much about it either.
Sigil went on to state that he originally didn’t intend to visit the founder’s tumulus. After all, there was very little information on the place other than being notoriously dangerous. But for some reason, no matter what other ruins and dungeons they visited, someone had beat them to the punch and taken all the items. They were short on cash and needed it as soon as possible. With no other choice, they reluctantly agreed to enter the founder’s tumulus in a desperate attempt to score some loot.
“Is it common for items to be taken before you?” I asked.
“It’s not uncommon, since we aren’t the only treasure hunters around, but I can only say that we had rotten luck,” Sigil replied. “We went to, like, ten sites before this one, and we came back with goose eggs each time.”
He scratched his head with a grimace. So, all the items were scooped up wherever he went... Can that really just be called bad luck? If all of these events led them to enter the founder’s tumulus, I can only suspect human intervention somehow, not simply an odd twist of fate. And while ruins are one and done when it comes to loot, dungeons regenerate items after some time. Why did they push their limits to search for items? Why are they in such a rush? Is someone pushing them to do so?
“Why didn’t you wait for the dungeons to regenerate their items?” I asked. “Why act with so much haste?”
“Ah, well...” Sigil muttered awkwardly, turning away from me once more.
“What? Out with it. Or I’ll kill you.”
A man with round sunglasses, who had quietly stood in the corner until now, stepped forward to interject.