Chapter 12
She made her way to the library. This place was usually visited by Karpel.
The room was lined with a few bookcases that had conservation magic poured over them, which made the calm essence of new books linger in all corners. It was the first time that she felt so relaxed while looking around the library.
Most of the books were based on theology, while some of the others contained classical literature, history, and essays and poems written by the family of Krenberia.
She felt sleepy just by scurrying through those titles.
‘I don’t even want romantic novels. How can there be no folktales or myths?’
Theological or classical literature was not written in the Imperial language.
The theological sciences were written in the neologism of the now-defunct Holy Kingdom, while the classical literature used the early Imperial language. So, in her past life, they were like Chinese characters.
She frowned as she looked at an encyclopedia whose title was unreadable for her.
Her eyes searched through the index to see if it could point out any information about the species. It said that the human species had different names for other intelligent creatures.
Since she was a little confused, she reread the brief explanation a couple more times.
“Who doesn’t know this?”
Suppressing the desire to throw away the book, she put it back in its original place.
“Phew.”
It would be better if she could at least do that one thing she had been wanting to do.
Since she had a lot of time before the sun kissed the horizon, she thought of visiting the bookstore.
She called in her maid of honor to prepare for the necessities.
“Before the meal, I’d like to…..”
She was going to ask the maid, but something told her she’d be accompanied by guards and maids in her ride if she were to continue with what she wanted to say.
“I’ll go to bed. I’m feeling very tired after reading. Wake me up around dinner time. I’ll inform my father when he gets home.”
“Yes, understood, miss.”
After changing into comfortable clothes, she lied down on her bed.
Just after the maid closed the curtains around her bed and walked out of the room, she got up and locked the door quietly.
‘It’s been a long time since I went through that secret passage, hasn’t it?’
The shopping district in the capital city was safe enough for young aristocrats to wander alone.
Many royal knights walk past the place when they join or return from their duty, and there were quite a few aristocrats who visited that place with knights accompanying them to show off their wealth and power.
Even if it was safe for her to wander off alone, her father would surely question the employees. So, it was better to just sneak out of the palace.
She stealthily opened the safe behind a decorative frame.
Most of the things there were junk and were related to her memories with Karpel, but it also had a few expensive magical items.
Apparently, those magical items were not noticeable, and most of them were used in case of emergencies.
A necklace she used to wear was enchanted to change its color. It was passed down to the heirs of the Krenberia from the very first. The head of the house had to wear it whenever he stepped out of the house.
These magical items were moved to her room by her father when he stopped grieving for his wife.
Of course, there were many dangerous kinds of magical items that would flame or freeze the person who would touch her.
She did not want to imagine the situation if she wore it in a crowded place.
Finally, she picked up a ring case. She opened it and found a beautiful platinum ring with amber jewels sitting on the velvety soft cushion.
It reminded her of when she ordered a pair of couple rings, which were kind of a location tracker, on the occasion of Karpel’s birthday.
Only the beholder of the ring who’d enchant “begin” could see the light flashing up from a direction where his or her opponent would be.
But, clearly, Karpel didn’t wear the other pair, so no matter how many times she shouted “begin”, there was no light that flashed up in front of her.
She remembered feeling very empty at being ignored repeatedly.
She had tested it for about two months before dumping it in the safe.
After all, it wasn’t something she could wear alone.
Perhaps, Karpel was sneaking away from the castle. He wouldn’t think of even wearing it since it was a location tracker.
She shook her head.
After putting away the ring, she picked up a healing ring before turning to her engagement ring on her hand.
Even though it was just with an engagement ring, she had promised to stay beside Karpel for the rest of her life, she thought.
When she took it out, not only her fingers, but also her heart felt empty. So, to drive away that feeling, she put on the location ring.
‘Well, this is also a couple ring.’
She closed the safe with a rough thud.
When she changed into a dark, ordinary dress and wrapped herself in a robe, she was a little worried if she could cross through such a narrow passage with such a high volume dress.
As she crawled under the dressing table, she finally emerged into the underground passage entrance.
Fortunately, the passage was empty.
She began walking through the passage.
It was said that this was a waterway that used to supply water to the city even before the empire was established. Karpel had told her when they were kids.
‘He’s clever.’
Now that the place was dried magically, it was like a deserted narrow cave.
The way the glow moss gleamed softly and illuminated the path made her recall the hours she spent walking through these tunnels with Karpel.
The old city was now much smaller than the capital.
Most of the tunnels underground were either blocked or were only left with small holes on where water used to pass through.
‘I think it was a square where I went with Karpel. I remember seeing many people up there.’
She was walking absent-mindedly when it suddenly occurred to her that she was all alone in a dark place.
She cautiously glanced behind.
The moss’s gleaming light illuminated the path only a meter after her, but she couldn’t lie that she didn’t get the feeling that someone was standing beyond that point, dissolved in the darkness. Cold shivers ran down her little body.
‘I’m scared.’
After she stared at nothingness for quite a while, she started walking again and turned her head back to the direction she was headed.
This time, her pace was faster than before. She was terrified as she stepped on the moss and made a crunching sound.
She felt as if something was going to crawl out of it.
Not only the floor, but also the dark ceiling, where the moss’s light could not reach, seemed scary. She let her eyes roll around her surroundings before she took each step.
‘I should’ve brought the lighting stone.’
She repented. She hurried down the path, determined to finish the walk.
From what she felt, the path slowly changed into stairs, but she couldn’t see them.
The moment she increased her speed, her right foot slipped on the smooth surface of the moss.
“Ah!”
Her hands quickly touched the floor, safeguarding herself from receiving any serious injuries. Wet moss was smeared on her hand.
She stretched out her arms, taking support of the floor before lifting up her hips.
The pain along her inner thighs and wrists was so high that she thought it might have been better to just let herself fall down.
Gathering up her legs together, her trembling palms gave force on the floor and lifted herself up.
As she looked at the path before her, she found a staircase. If she had fallen two steps ahead, she would have hit her head on the stairs.
A thought that she survived luckily made a smile appear on her horror-stricken face.
“Thank goodness.”
She climbed up the not-so-short stairs and emerged out into a well. It was only about a meter deep, so she had no difficulties in stepping on the broken stones along its walls to climb it.
Eventually, she crawled out of the hole. When she turned back to take a look, she thought there would be no person who could suspect there was an underground passage behind the small hole.
Leaving the well behind, she came out of the bushes to find a central square of downtown.
‘This is not the square that contained the fountain I used to visit, is it?’