Juno went to the far wall and pressed the formation. Kyon heard the familiar squeak of the sliding passage.
«It’s always the same.» – Kyon muttered under his breath. He hoped to find an even more luxurious treasury with unique bodies of high rank in the depths of the passage. He would have found this passage, anyway. He had plans to ask Juno about all the secrets of her family. He wouldn’t have missed this place.
Juno looked at him with disdain and proudly walked inside.
This time there were no lights on the walls of the passage. They were plunging into the darkness of the unknown. Kyon could see perfectly well in the dark, but Juno had to pull a flashlight out of her spatial ring.
With each step, the damp cold tunnel got scarier, plain spooky.
Another three hundred meters and they approached the dark steps. The spiral staircase descended deep down. There was no end to it.
«Are you scared, master?» – Juno asked slyly, looking at Kyon.
«I am not. But you should be scared to go with me into the deep dark place.» – Kyon grinned ominously.
«No, no… That’s not what I meant.» - She shook her head with a smile.
«Then what is it?»
«You tremble like a beaten weak-kneed dog.» – Juno teased him and went carelessly downstairs.
Kyon hastened his step, grabbed her by the hand and gave her a slap with the back of his hand.
«The fact that I made you my student does not mean that I will easily forgive your being rude. Wind your neck in, little piece of trash.»
Juno gave him a sullen look, rubbing her cheek still red after the blow.
«I am sorry… Master.» – The slave girl could barely squeeze the words out.
Kyon walked on. He had just noticed how cold he was. He was really trembling. But how did she dare she to take his trembling for cowardice? It’s so stupid of her! It was time for his body to enter the heating mode. He needed to increase the number of mitochondria in his body.
Juno took out her jacket and wrapped herself in it. How thoughtful of her.
They went about half a kilometer down the spiral staircase. The way was not easy. Both of them were out of breath. And the way back was going to be even harder.
The staircase finally ended. As they took the last steps down, they could see the passage into the hall. A strange bluish glow was shimmering there. Kyon was astonished when he entered the hall: the huge cave was strewn with numerous light crystals of azure color. There were as many of them as the stars in the sky. The beautiful sight impressed him to the core.
A pleasant soft light fell on a matte black castle of twenty meters high and fifty meters wide. It was made of some unusual stuff. The mysterious castle suggested an idea of untold secrets hidden inside. It looked intact, but its surface was uneven, bumpy.
Kyon admired it for a while, fascinated until he felt a jab in the back and heard a sarcastic voice:
«Lift your jaw off the floor, master.»
Kyon could hardly smother an urge to slap her one more time. He just walked on.
«The Stones can’t have built it... Tell me everything you know about this place.»
Juno approached the locked entrance. It was an almost perfectly smooth wall, only a tiny cut-out slit that denoted a two-by-three-meter rectangular outline indicated that the monolithic slab was actually the entrance. There were no windows, no balconies, or ventilation to be seen.
Juno ran her hand over the doorway and began her story:
«This ancient castle was most likely built by great creatures of the past era. My ancestors discovered it many hundreds of years ago and decided to discover its secrets. That’s why they had built their estate here. The information about its existence was passed from one patriarch to another. If the strangers had known about it, our entire estate would have been turned upside down. Something valuable must be stored in there, but you need a special formation to get inside. Or maybe, you need to perform a special action or meet some special conditions... It still remains unknown. My ancestors tried to get inside in every possible way. My father couldn’t chip off even the smallest piece, and he had unparalleled strength.» - She looked at Kyon, tired, and yawned widely, covering her mouth with her hand.
«I hope you like the secret that I have revealed to you as promised?»
Kyon grunted thoughtfully, running his fingers over the walls of the castle. They were neither warm nor cold.
Juno didn’t get any answer. She wrapped her arms around herself to stop from shivering. Her jacket didn’t offer enough protection from the cold. She had to wait till her servant lost all interest in the castle. She wanted to believe this time he wouldn’t carry her to her room in his arms.
Kyon’s upgraded eyes carefully studied the outline of the closed passage. He used different spectra of electromagnetic waves reception, as well as night vision. He studied every slight difference in shades, breathed on the surface to leave condensation. He even applied the eye microscope.
«It’s getting late, master. I am sleepy, and it’s cold in here. I’m sure you feel the same. Let's go back.» - Juno asked plaintively, shuddering now and then. «I would also be grateful if you purified my key for taking you here.» - She added, but this time she sounded demanding.
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But Kyon did not pay any attention to her. His eye microscope noticed the smallest grooves on the surface of the wall. They made up a pattern... No, it was not a pattern. It was a zero, tiny like the tip of a flea leg. Here's another zero... One... Three... A fraction…
Kyon raised his eyebrows in surprise. The whole wall turned out to be dotted with mathematical symbols. A long advanced mathematics equation left him speechless. It looked like only a worthy person could enter there, the one could solve math problems. A moment later, he was caught up in the excitement. The genius, recognized back home, enthusiastically tackled the task.
Half an hour later, Juno was trembling all over, shivering from the chill in the room. It was a long shot to wait till the servant froze first. He wasn’t cold at all!
Juno growled, visibly displeased:
«You are wasting your time, master. My ancestors had tried to enter this damned castle thousands of times, and they didn’t get even close! Do you really think you stand a chance?»
There was no response.
«What are you hoping to achieve?! Why don’t you just return to your room and go to bed?»
She got nothing again.
«I'm not going to freeze here just because you’re so pigheaded! Are you coming with me or not?!» – Juno could not stand it anymore. She wished she had known the idiot would get so interested in the boring castle.
«Stay here, then. I am going to bed.» – Juno stuck her tongue out behind his back and briskly went to the exit. As she was approaching the steps, she glanced at the servant once again. He didn’t look cold at all...
Kyon had just solved the equation and got the number “42”.
«…»
Following the instinct of the experienced gamer, Kyon put his hand to the circle that was invisible to the ordinary eyes. It was the only figure that had nothing to do with the equation. He infused it with pure energy with the same interval 42 times in a row.
Five seconds later, he heard a muffled rattle. The gate to the castle parted to the sides, opening the passage inside.
Kyon laughed loudly. He loved playing The Tombs of Egyptian Emperors. Now the task was way easier than in the game but no less exciting!
Juno had already climbed a step when she heard an incomprehensible rattle. She darted back at once and stood dumbfounded and shocked.
«Ho-o-o-ow?!»
The gates to the sealed ancient castle were open. Her ancestors had been racking their brains how to get inside for hundreds of years, and then her servant came and set it all in motion?! It was impossible!
«Well, well, well. I’ll give you that one. My inner geek is pleased.» – Kyon muttered cheerfully and stepped into the hall. His experience was telling him that he should be cautious. It was a place where strangers were not expected. He carefully studied the whole area without losing vigilance.
The hall was a spacious empty room with a lone staircase in the center leading to the next floor.
With his modified vision, Kyon noticed a circle drawn on the floor that was covered with a thick layer of dust.
Juno cautiously stuck in the door her adorable little head, loudly exclaiming all the time:
«Мamma… Mamma mia! Ho-o-o-ow?! How did you get so lucky?!»
«Baby, if it came down only to luck, your family would have done it already. Or wouldn't. Get the wind here. Let's see what's under this carpet of dust.»
Juno looked at Kyon in disbelief. He used to surprise her when he survived her beatings or parried almost all of her attacks. Then it came as a shock to find out that he had enslaved her. Not so long ago, she nearly gave up the ghost when she found out he could purify the keys. And this time, he had opened the cursed castle that everyone stopped trying to enter!
«You can’t be human.» – She stepped away so that the monster wouldn’t gobble up her.
«Nom, nom!» – Kyon clacked his teeth ominously.
Juno nearly jumped out of her skin and ran behind the wall, timidly peeking around the corner like a startled little animal that had wandered into the lair of predators.
Kyon could not help laughing at such a funny reaction from the arrogant little lady.
«Silly lovely creature, sweep away all the dust. Don’t make me repeat.» – He ordered in a stern voice.
Juno swallowed before she walked warily into the hall. Her heart pounded in her chest with anticipation and excitement. If there were any valuable objects inside, her family would rise to a new level, and she would... Right, she was just a slave. This parasite was going to claim everything that should belong to her by right.
*whoosh*
A gust of wind blew all the dust out of the door.
A large circle appeared on the floor, a trigram. The beautiful meandering pattern was symmetrically drawn in six sections, creating a bewitching mesmerizing sight.
«Hm... This teleportation trigram seems to be of high rank. I have never seen this pattern in the books.» – Kyon muttered thoughtfully under his breath.
However, Juno was eager to know something else.
«How did you open it? Tell me, please! My father had struggled to do it for a long time, all in vain. But you did it! How?»
Kyon sighed wearily in response. «I am not telling you.»
Juno stamped her foot. «You are the worst... person... You can’t do this! I’ll die of curiosity!»
«Okay.» – Kyon nodded indifferently and looked around the hall once again. There was absolutely nothing interesting except the trigram. Some strange aura was coming from the upper floor, but downstairs, there was only an unremarkable hall.
Juno bared her teeth, overwhelmed by an urge to bite her servant to death.
Kyon took her flashlight and carefully climbed the steps. He knew that there existed various invisible barriers-traps but he doubted that any more tests awaited him after the riddle at the entrance. In any case, his curiosity had overpowered caution.
He saw a hall of exactly the same size, in the same style as the one downstairs. There were no windows or doors, either. There was no trigram this time. Instead, he found a dark stone coffin dotted with ornate patterns. A mysterious, gloomy, suspicious coffin.
«A sarcophagus!» – Juno exclaimed from behind. – «It’s no castle but a tomb! Something valuable must be in the sarcophagus! The old traditions say the one who rests in peace shall take with them the most valuable things. They put nephrites with ancient heritage inside the sarcophagus!»
Kyon knew the tombs in this world were of extraordinary value. If the information about one of them leaked, it would bring all the empires around in search of personal gain. It’s great that the Stones can keep their secrets. Thanks to them, Kyon would skim all the cream off the top and spare them the headache from unraveling the mysteries of the ancient castle.