“She left something here,” Lian murmured quietly. Something was laying on the couch.
It was the empress’… necklace?
Lian’s eyes opened wide and she quickly picked it up.
“…There’s a rune on here but it’s only drawn halfway.” Like a vine coiling around a branch, the runic pattern coiled around the gold necklace from the gem on the bottom, to halfway to the back. It was tiny but Lian could see it clearly. She recognized the last symbol which was a basic connector to form patterns in a runic formation but it was missing its other piece.
It seems another piece is needed to complete the formation. She could understand this even with her inexperienced eyes.
‘This means we need the daughter’s necklace as well…’ her excitement had come and gone as quick as a blink, ‘But I haven’t found the secret rooms yet so I should keep looking.’
Lian looked at the door, thinking back to Zhoming’s sad expression. Deep down, she wanted to tell Zhoming the truth—about what Ko ordered her to do after the war.
“Hopefully she doesn’t know she dropped it here,” Lian put the necklace inside her kimono and quickly left the living room.
She walked down the hallway, looking around if she could see Suesei.
She spotted Suesei outside when she walked by double sliding doors leading to the courtyard in the middle of the palace grounds. Despite being in the middle of four walls, the garden was quite large and had a greenhouse and even many blindspots.
Suesei was sitting at the small table inside the greenhouse, writing something down. Noticing Lian approach, she stopped her scribbling and quickly addressed her.
“I trust she didn’t suspect anything about your being here?” Lian shook her head, “Good. I’d like to know the truth about why you want to take the book, Lian. If you can be honest and give a good reason then I will continue to help you if there’s a chance Ko and Funiji will be stopped.”
There was no reason to hold any information back since Suesei is a trustworthy person.
“Are you thinking of making Prince Rasuke learn the cursed martial arts in that book?”
“No. Even if I wanted to, his sister would not allow such a thing after what happened to her grandfather. I’m sure even her late father would be against it since he watched his own father succumb to the power.”
Every attempt of mortals trying to transcend to godhood will be met with forceful judgment. That was their grandfather’s fate.
Corruption was just the first punishment of many.
“Hmm, I see. She always was protective of her little brother. I miss those two immensely… If Rasuke is not the one who wants to use the martial arts contained within that book, who is it?”
“Well, you see—”
Lian explained everything that happened so far and how she met Arnold. She couldn’t leave out the attack in the village so she didn’t choose her words. Of course, this led to her having to tell Suesei about her being attacked by the “Blue Fire Serpants”.
With a frowning brow, Suesei spoke, “Does His Majesty know about them?”
“Yes, I told him earlier this morning actually. But he said it’s best to wait until after the tournament to act. I think he’ll dispatch guards throughout the city for now.”
“Getting attacked on two occasions isn’t just some coincidence.”
“…I’ve had a feeling for quite some time that I’ve been getting tailed whenever I travel to and from the city. These past few days confirmed I’m the target. And before you ask, no, I do not know the reason.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“It would be best for you to stay here tonight. It should give you enough time to investigate.” Suesei shifted the focus of the conversation, sliding the book she was scribbling in, towards Lian, “I made a small map to show you where all the rooms are with runic letters on them. This should narrow down your search. Keep in mind that this palace has 1400 rooms so there could be more.”
“Thank you, Suesei. Now I don’t have to request a map from the family that built the palace.”
They don’t just hand that kind of thing to anyone, though so Lian would’ve failed anyway.
“There’s something I’d like to show you as well but I need you to trust me in how I’ll use it.”
Suesei merely sighed, “If you’re looking for secret rooms then it should mean you’d want to obtain the keys to these rooms. Show me what you’ve found.”
Lian nodded and passed the necklace under the table. While they were comfortably hidden from people on the ground floor, there could be someone watching them from up above.
“Hmm….” The elf examined the item, “This is definitely the necklace that Her Majesty wears but this runic pattern isn’t here when she wears it. So, it goes invisible once it leaves her neck.”
She gave it back to Lian, who quickly pocketed it.
“There’s one other problem.” Lian smiled wryly, “We’ll need to get the princess’ necklace as well.”
Another sigh came out of the elf, “I’m already on board to help you, Lian. Whatever you need, tell me then I’ll try to get it done.”
“Thank you.”
“Mm. Onto the next issue. We still need to look for the duplicated runes. Finding out which rooms are being swapped could lead us to the hidden room where we can find information on the book. There is a magic item that can detect duplicate runes by sensing their unique mana wavelengths. By inputting a rune into the item, it would allow us to easily track other instances of that same rune, pinpointing their locations with precision. The search would be infinitely easier with it, as we could narrow down our options.”
“I don’t understand…? How will that help us?”
“Ko Johun had certain individuals install traps inside the rooms that have the runes listed in this book of mine. Either that or they’re empty rooms meant to stall whoever is looking through them.”
“Ah, so not all of them are drawn using powdered magic stones which exude mana. People like us wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
“Exactly. I suspect that—just like the necklace—the rooms we’re looking for have some magic mechanism that turns the runes invisible and only show themselves when their handles are turned. On top of swapping places through mysterious intervals, we need to find these invisible runes.”
‘I need to tell Arnold about this.’
The previous emperor didn’t use the same methods to prevent intruders from accessing secret rooms. Everything valuable to the imperial family was kept in the treasury vaults. Going this far just shows how careful Ko is in preventing knowledge of the “deal” and book from falling into other people’s hands.
“Now that you understand, let’s move on as this is the most important part. The only problem with getting the magic item I mentioned is that it's locked up in the Craftmaster’s workshop, heavily secured and nearly impossible to access without his master key.”
“It’s often crowded during the day even when the Masters are out on commission deliveries.” Lian tapped her finger on the table, “If we asked for the key, they would provide it for us but if something goes missing the next day, we would be the primary suspects.”
“On top of that worry, the magic item is very valuable and must only be used by the imperial family or craftsmen for building machines that operate on magic stones.” Even if they get inside the workshop, they wouldn’t be able to use the magic item.
While magic was scarce in this world, magic stones were aplenty. Of course, not everyone can use it, just like magic-powered machines that were used in the latecomer exam. As mentioned, with exception to the imperial family, only special professions like Blacksmiths, armorsmiths and craftsmen could use these magic items if they can prove it’s for good reason.
Suesei raised another point, “Even if we go at night, avoiding all the guards that patrol the palace grounds will be an impossibly difficult task. It’s a situation I would not even be able to handle with the help of spirits. You wouldn’t happen to have any talismans that can help with this…?”
“Even if I knew how to use shadow ability runes, only assassin clans and thief guilds use those. If I’m caught using those talismans, my reputation with the nobles will worsen even further. They might even suspect I’m trying to use the abilities to assassinate the emperor while he sleeps.”
“…That doesn’t make any sense. They should know someone as powerful as him can sense you even if you use shadow abilities. Only someone on his level can mask their presence.”
Someone on his level, huh…
She thought for a moment if leaving this to Arnold will be the best course of action. However, he had his own role in this plan. He might be disappointed in Lian that she can’t even do something as simple as this while expecting him to take her to where the High Elves are so that she can redeem herself for her sins.
“This means we need a thief.”
Both Suesei and Lian sighed at the same time. Where could they find a thief skilled enough to get past even Earthly Ascendents?