For efficient ‘conquest’, we divided our roles.
Lee Jae-eun with the exploration talent decided to search the village with Lee Hye-won, I decided to search the ice palace, and Yoo Seon-je and the rest of the personnel decided to remain at the main camp (though it’s just temporary tents).
Han Seo-hyeon wanted to go with me, but I shook my head.
“For now, stay at the main camp. If anything strange happens around, send me a signal.”
Now that he can handle sand, there’s no one who can ‘monitor’ this space more perfectly than Han Seo-hyeon. Still, I wanted him to check on Yoo Seon-je’s movements if possible.
There might be a traitor left just in case, and we don’t know what that guy might do.
“Okay.”
While nodding at my explanation, Han Seo-hyeon pouted. If it were his original face, it might have been a bit cute, but with his current hairy middle-aged man look, it was an unbearable sight.
I quickly turned my head and headed for the back door of the ice palace, unlike before. I was planning to quickly skim through parts I hadn’t examined before.
—Why are you examining the palace?
“You said this is a fragment of a destroyed world, right?”
—That’s right.
“That means people really lived here, not that it’s a fake created by someone, right?”
I had been thinking of the world beyond the Gate as a concept like an ‘instant dungeon’. I thought it was a kind of ‘fake’ world that only appears in games.
That thought solidified more and more as killing dropped loot, and sometimes even provided opportunities for growth.
“No one thought this was a real world. No communicable humans have ever been found inside Gates so far. Even things that looked human were all something inhuman called humanoid monsters.”
But that’s not incomprehensible if you think it’s someone’s measure to prevent interference with the world.
Anyway, the important thing is that this place isn’t an illusion.
—This world has long since been destroyed.
“Until it was destroyed, this was probably an ordinary world. Where numerous people lived.”
Evidence supporting my thoughts was found one after another. Things like laundry rooms, toilets, kitchens. Evidence that people, not monsters, were living in this castle.
In the kitchen, cut ingredients remained as if they were in the middle of making food. Inside the pot on the hearth, soup was preserved in the state it was boiling. If everything hadn’t frozen, delicious smells would have been vibrating here.
Examining that place, I could understand one more thing.
Whatever froze this castle, it was instantaneous without any time for any reaction.
“It’s like looking at the ruins of Pompeii.”
—What’s that?
“There was an incident where an entire city was covered in ash due to a sudden volcanic eruption. The people were also covered in volcanic ash without time to escape. When they excavated that place later, they say it looked just like this.”
I looked at someone’s single shoe fallen on the floor. What happened to the person who fled from here without even knowing their shoe had come off?
“In Pompeii too, no traces of people remained. There were no corpses left due to high temperatures and long years. But later, when scientists poured plaster into the empty spaces in the volcanic ash, they were able to see the forms of people from that day.”
I said while moving my steps over the shoe:
“Perhaps we could revive the forms of people here too with special methods?”
—Well, it would probably be difficult. The people here would have disappeared due to the laws of the world.
“The laws of the world?”
—Like not being allowed to contact beings from other dimensions carelessly?
“But didn’t I meet Ray?”
—Strictly speaking, I’m not a living being.
Certainly, if there’s such a rule, it’s understandable why we haven’t met any people so far… But is it okay to say you’re not a person yourself? I glanced inwardly at Ray, but there was no sign of him being hurt.
I slowly moved my steps again.
The servants who would have been working here disappeared without leaving a trace.
All that remained in this castle was one woman quietly closing her eyes in the spire.
We were calling her ‘Serena’.
The woman Han Seo-hyeon described was a beautiful woman in her early 20s. He said she had pale skin so transparent you could see the veins, and blue hair.
Although she was trapped in the spire, her treatment didn’t seem too bad.
From the canopied bed to luxurious furniture. All the furniture decorated in the room was top quality.
He said it wasn’t that inferior in quality compared to things in the main castle. It means that although she was confined, at least a minimal life was guaranteed.
We don’t know if she, quietly lying in the spire, is really the boss, or a trigger to call the true boss.
—You said those guys called the second conquest team conquered this place? What did they do?
“Well, they probably did it the orthodox way.”
Since there was no mention of using any special method, they must have done it the way conquests have been done so far.
“Realizing there’s a monster in the spire with detection magic, waking up ‘Serena’ and killing her.”
There’s no simpler ‘conquest’ method than that.
It’s not for nothing that I’m searching every corner of this castle.
Perhaps if we investigate this castle and learn its secrets, we might find a way.
—What if you can’t find it?
“Then we’ll have to do it the orthodox way. Although I don’t see a way to win in a head-on battle.”
That’s why Yoo Seon-je is staying still even though he doesn’t really trust my words. Because it was impossible to break through an S-rank Gate head-on with our forces.
“If we don’t want to die, we’ll have to somehow get information from here.”
I moved my steps following traces of someone fleeing in a hurry. Perhaps because it was where servants gathered, unlike upstairs, things were quite scattered. Following those traces, I came across accommodations where servants would have stayed. In the small rooms packed tightly together, nothing special was visible. Just small beds, and things like small nightstands and wardrobes were all.
—It doesn’t seem like there would be anything important in a place like this.
“But you never know, right?”
—Most servants in this era were illiterate. Only those at the level of attendants would know how to write.
As Ray said, the people here must have been illiterate, as there were almost no cases of possessing books or writing instruments.
I barely found something that looked like a book, but the book that had already frozen transparent was just an ice lump in the shape of a book, not functioning as a book.
Wondering if something would change if I melted this ice, I floated a fireball nearby, but the ice remained the same. Thinking maybe the magic power was insufficient, I raised the firepower, but the ice that had been a book just melted and turned into water.
“I was hoping since it wasn’t transparent all the way through.”
This was already ice. Even if melted, it couldn’t return to its original state.
“Ugh.”
—Even if you find a book, you can’t read it like that, can you?
“Maybe there might be a book with pages open.”
Saying that, I smiled bitterly. The castle was large, but I’m not sure if it’s large enough to find a book in the exact ‘open’ state I need.
I eventually left the servants’ area without much gain. From the upper floor I reached by climbing stairs, it was all spaces that definitely felt like nobles used them. Because everything visible was splendid.
While passing by cabinets with decorations stuck on to a sickening degree, Ray’s voice was heard.
—Come to think of it, there’s one more strange thing.
“What is it?”
—Usually, those who build such large castles tend to have outstanding self-love. But there’s not a single portrait in this huge castle, is there?
“Ah.”
Now that you mention it, it’s certainly strange. As Ray said, there wasn’t any portrait in this castle.
“Perhaps the portraits disappeared like all the people who were here?”
—Gates only blow away living beings. They don’t touch objects. Think about it. Were there no paintings at all like this in the Gates you’ve entered so far?
“I don’t know, this is my first Gate.”
—Good heavens. You came to an S-rank Gate from the start?
I continued my thoughts, pushing aside Ray’s astonishment. It was certainly a reasonable point.
Louis XIV, who built the Palace of Versailles, was so addicted to portraits that he left about 700 portraits in his lifetime. Even if not to that extent, castles of this scale usually had portraits hanging here and there. Whether of the castle’s owner or their ancestors.
And it was no different in the world of Gates.
Even at the last auction, a vampire portrait discovered in a vampire’s old castle sold for 120 million won.
Certainly, it seems cases where there are no portraits to this extent were rare.
Not a single portrait.
As if someone artificially removed them all.
“I’ll have to keep searching for now.”
While searching rooms like that, I found a huge office where the lord of this castle would have stayed. An expensive desk and messy documents spread out. And bookshelves lined up around it. It was the perfect image of an office.
I first turned my gaze to the bookshelf near the entrance.
The bookshelf was full of books, but like books found elsewhere, they were frozen as one with the bookshelf, making it impossible to take them out.
I had no choice but to give up on the books stuck in the bookshelf and move on. Fortunately, there were plenty of open pages here as I had mentioned.
I threw my gaze at documents scattered on top of the bookshelf. Fortunately, the letters written on the open documents were barely distinguishable.
Of course, the language here wasn’t Korean, but I had something to rely on.
The 3-stroke talent ‘Translation’.
As I stimulated the mana circuit, the letters written in the book began to appear translated before my eyes.
“Eastern district relief… request…”
Although a few letters weren’t properly visible because they were written on transparent glass, I could roughly interpret it. But the content was disappointing. It was literally a kind of request asking for help because there was a drought in the eastern district and things had become difficult.
After finishing interpreting the document, I slowly opened my mouth.
“It’s a document requesting help because there’s a drought in the surrounding area. The recipient is ‘Count Hermann’. We at least learned the name of the lord who lived here.”
There were various other documents laid out next to this document, but they were also made of ice and didn’t budge at all.
“Hmm.”
It seems like we could find the answer if we could just somehow read the books here.
But we can’t peel off documents that don’t budge at all. I sighed and raised my head.
—There seems to be something over there.
“I saw it too.”
Behind the fancy chair was a huge curtain drawn. And that curtain was frozen in a form as if someone had hastily pulled it back. Through the gap in the pulled-back curtain, a door that had been ‘hidden’ was visible.
I approached the door and grabbed the handle, but the door didn’t move.
I thought it might be frozen like other things, but no.
This is locked. The handle clearly turned with a rattling sound.
Hmm, I focused on my eyes.
If it’s an artifact, it should be possible to unlock it somehow.
I drew up mana and infiltrated it into the handle.
Click.
The door opened lightly.
“Alright, shall we go in?”
There must be something different inside here. I instinctively sensed it.