Chapter 197

We finally arrived in front of an enormous building.

“This... is a temple?”

It didn’t seem quite right to me. The rectangular, dark gray building with no windows looked more like a prison made of concrete.

“I’m told that’s what they call it,” the crown prince said with a shrug. “Let’s go inside.”

He vaulted up onto the high set of stairs and held his hand out to me. Behind him was a rectangular hole in the side of the building that served as an entrance.

I could see nothing but darkness inside—it gave me the chills. After a moment’s hesitation, I took his hand and he pulled me up easily. We entered the building and hadn’t been walking down the narrow corridor for very long before we found a set of stone stairs that led underground.

These bastards seem to love lurking underground. Considering they’d set up a mysterious altar deep under Solael before, I supposed this was a penchant their nefarious group had.

“Careful,” Callisto called quietly, unsheathing his sword as he walked cautiously ahead.

I followed silently. The stairway, initially so narrow that only one person could fit at a time, slowly widened as we made our way down. It wasn’t as dark inside as I’d expected, since there were lanterns mounted everywhere. It was strange that there was no trap or locked door designed to keep intruders out. I’d expected to see Laila followers guarding the place or at the very least a few monsters.

I suppose just getting here is a challenge most wouldn’t manage to overcome. Maybe traps aren’t necessary. Not only had the island been protected by a giant squid, but the building was also located smack in the middle of a desert. I would have been hopelessly lost without the magical map.

As we descended further, nothing lunged out at us from the darkness, but we remained on our guard regardless. The staircase at first seemed never-ending, but finally, we reached the bottom, finding a vast underground space.

“Wait...”

We stopped upon seeing what waited for us at the bottom of the stairs. There were piles of gold, jewels, and other treasures glittering in the torchlight. Scattered amongst the riches were hundreds and thousands of bones. I gasped, backing away. They were human.

“Those cursed followers of the Laila, is this where they’ve been hiding the bodies of the people they kidnapped and performed experiments on? There’s no end to the bones.” Callisto sneered in distaste, seemingly equally disgusted as I was.

“No,” I said.

“What?”

“This is the tomb of the ancient Laila.”

“Tomb?” Callisto asked, but I didn’t clarify any further.

There were so many bones here like there had been a great slaughter, just as he had suggested. The sight alone made me dizzy. I’d assumed the tomb I was supposed to visit was to be symbolic, not an actual grave.

This f*cking game. I looked around with a deep frown and my eyes widened when I made out something gleaming in the distance.

“A mirror.”

It was much bigger than the one I’d seen in Winter’s hideout, so big that it took up an entire wall of the vast underground space we found ourselves standing in. I might have mistaken it for just part of the wall, it was so rusty and foggy from age, if I hadn’t already known what it looked like in advance.

I hurried down the few remaining steps without hesitation.

“Hey!” Callisto called after me, shocked.

I ignored him, shoving aside anything in my path without hesitation. I’d also seen the same mirror in my dreams. I’d seen myself sleeping in it. An odd feeling of elation washed over me.

Maybe there will be some sort of clue as to how I can get back to my world. I could hear gems and bones alike crunching under my feet and tumbling over noisily as I waded through the mess of things, but I didn’t care.

I’d almost reached the mirror when I heard a bone-chilling growl. I stopped and turned, seeing something slowly prowling out of the darkness, its eyes glowing. It resembled a hyena with its spotted coat and face which resembled that of a canine. However, it had extremely long teeth and a tongue that split into three.

It was a monster. The drooling beast barked and charged toward me, kicking up golden coins in its wake.

“Oh no...”

There was no quest window. I stood there frozen like an idiot. The monster yelped as something slammed into its side.

Callisto had kicked it mid-leap, then pinned it to the ground with his foot. “This one’s a bit different from the monsters we’ve encountered before. Seems it’s been starving for quite a while.”

Sure enough, the monster struggled sluggishly against the crown prince’s booted foot. He easily ran the creature through with his sword and turned to me.

“Don’t look. You shouldn’t watch.”

I was about to snap back that he’d killed it right in front of me, not giving me much of a choice, when I heard another growl. A second monster slowly slunk into view, and the crown prince pursed his lips.

“It’s the same type of beast. You go on ahead. I’ll kill them and follow.”

I’d have offered to help, but strangely enough, there was still no quest prompt to be seen.

Would I have had to fight those monsters by myself if I’d come alone? That’s hardly fair. I spent a long moment burning with resentment for the game, before thanking him casually and turning away.

“Thank you.”

Getting to the Mirror of Truth was my first priority for the moment. Behind me, I could hear Callisto dispatching them with ease.

Picking up the pace, before long I arrived in front of the gigantic, grimy mirror. It looked as old as time and was shattered in so many places it seemed as if it might just crumble apart at any moment. I couldn’t even see my reflection on the dusty surface.

Does this thing even work? Confused, I rubbed at the mirror with my hand. This cleared away some of the dust, revealing the surface underneath. As expected, the glass was shattered, leaving my reflection uneven and disjointed.

A window appeared.

<SYSTEM>

~Main Quest: The Other Side of Truth~

[Find the Mirror of Truth]

Quest successful!

<SYSTEM>

Since you’ve come this far, you now have the right to learn the [Truth].

The window was floating in the foggy mirror.

<SYSTEM>

Use the [Mirror of Truth] to view the hidden storyline?

[Accept / Decline]

I didn’t really care, nor did I feel like seeing anything, but the game’s hidden route seemed to require it, so I had no choice. I glanced back at the crown prince before pressing [Accept]. He was dancing among the monsters creeping into view one by one, sword cutting through them like butter.

Why am I worrying about him? Relieved, I turned back to the mirror and pressed [Accept]. A blinding light burst immediately from within the mirror.

“Ugh!” I shielded my eyes with my arms.

“Lady Penelope!” I heard Callisto call—as if from a distance it was so faint.

At the same time, my vision completely whited out.

Dum. Dum. Thud.

The pounding of loud drums filled the air, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself suspended inside a dark space.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a majestic melody began to play.

“Huh?” I cast my gaze about, confused. The music was familiar to me from somewhere.

Wait, it’s the game’s soundtrack!

White letters floated into view.

“In the beginning, the continent enjoyed peace under the rule of the Golden Dragon.”

“What—” I stammered. Then I realized what this must be. Scenes like this were common in game prologues, which explained the darkness.

“The dragon drove the darkness deep underground, forcing it down with its wings. Its wise eyes looked out over the world, casting a golden glow, and ripe crops came into being—”

“Skip! Skip!”

Frantically searching for a skip button but failing to find it, I tried yelling the command out loud.

“...”

“The Golden Dragon, having lived out its life, bestowed a single tooth to the humans and vanished from the world.”

The narration paused for a short while, quickly skimming over a huge chunk of boring plot.

“Then the darkness began to creep forth from the underground. These beings of the dark called themselves gods when they arrived on the surface. Founding a kingdom by the name of Valta, they massacred the humans in their cruelty.”

“But a group came together to resist them... the ancient mages!”

Now this part of the story I was more familiar with. I sighed in a mixture of relief and irritation that was no doubt reflected on my face.

“A terrible war ensued between the mages and the Laila.

The Laila, however, feeding upon the life force of humans, grew stronger with each passing day—”

“Skip! I know this stuff. Can you try not to be so repetitive?” I grumbled.

Another large chunk of text was skipped over.

“...in order to survive, the Laila attacked the mirror with a furious onslaught. A corner of the [Mirror of Truth] fell away, splitting into fifteen fragments. In hopes of being able to use them in the future, some of these fragments were hidden by the Laila in the tomb of the Golden Dragon.”