The Bastard First Prince Doesn't Want to Die

[Translator - Jjescus ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]

Chapter: 184

"Umm. You mean that way?"

Aro groaned and pondered. After a while, I could hear her answer.

"Grandma said there's a door where the river ends."

"A door?"

Aro nodded her head.

"What kind of door?"

"Not like this kind of door."

She reached out and pointed to the door of the room we were in.

"It's called a door, but there's no actual door."

“Does it still serve the role of a door? A device to move between two different spaces?”

When I asked that, Aro nodded her head.

"That's right. That's what Grandma said."

"Where does it lead to?"

The conversation soon stopped. It was because she didn't answer anything and just stared blankly at me.

"You don't know?"

"You should go to the library."

"Then I can find out?"

But there was no good way to enter the library. Breaking down the library wall to steal the book was too much of a hassle.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I don't know if there's anything written in the library about what's at the end of the river. I really don't know."

"You haven't even heard anything from the village chief?"

"I've never heard anything."

After saying that, she added one more word.

"Maybe even Grandma didn't know."

Even the village chief didn't know... Then that means she had never been there. Considering the village chief's age, it didn't make sense that she had never been to the source of the river where the waterway started for so many years.

But aren't the people living in this village extremely wary of going beyond a certain point outside the village?

I couldn't find out anything about the identity of that "door," but I could tell that the villagers' wariness of the outside was more serious than I thought.

"Then you're... a really strange girl."

Growing up among people who act as if they'll die immediately if they go outside the village, yet being curious about the outside. To the eyes of other villagers like Sannyeong, this girl would be the strangest of the strange.

"I also wonder how someone like you appeared in this kind of village."

Such a strong rebellious spirit would have been noticeable even in the capital. I scoffed.

* * *

In fact, if necessary, I could probably just grab Aro and run away. If I carry her under my arm and fight with a sword in the other hand, wouldn't I be able to handle most things?

But I didn't want to give her any false hope. So I didn't say anything about the future with certainty. I was planning to do my best in the things that were unfolding right in front of me, within reach of my hand.

"Cleaning?"

Sannyeong raised her eyebrows and asked. I nodded my head.

"I want to clean up some of the dust."

Previously, I saw that the shrine suddenly looked as old as if a very long time had passed. Since then, the dust piled up in various places in the shrine had become two, no, three times thicker. Every time I walked around, dust flew up and I couldn't breathe.

"......Do as you please,” Sannyeong replied, somewhat reluctantly. "You don't have to ask about that."

After giving permission, she turned to leave, but left one more word behind.

"But don't touch the room with the ancestral table."

......Come to think of it, what happened to that room? It was a question, but before I could ask, Sannyeong hurriedly left me. I couldn't help it.

I started cleaning up the shrine. The old fixtures were covered in dust, and the sacred rope with the pieces of cloth attached to it was worn out.

As I examined those things, Aro followed me around and grumbled, "Is there any need to clean?"

Then she pouted her lips.

"You're leaving anyway."

"Even so, it should be decent while we're here."

Aro helped me figure out whether I could move the old sacred rope or not. Actually, rather than helping... it's something only she can do in the first place.

As I was engrossed in cleaning, she pouted her lips. But soon, she started helping by sweeping the floor with her small hands. The two of them wiped the floor with a dry cloth and gathered the scattered things together. As time passed, the inside of the shrine became quite clean. She nodded her head, looking satisfied.

While we were cleaning, Sannyeong occasionally came out, glanced at me and Aro, and then disappeared again. It was obvious that she was monitoring me to see if I was doing anything strange.

But by the time the cleaning was almost finished, she didn't come out even once, which made me think that she had judged that my intention was purely to have a clean space. Dust was dust, but actually making the boundary clearer was closer to my original purpose.

After finishing the cleaning, I went out to the front yard of the shrine. I turned around, but Sannyeong's presence was not felt at all. I approached the pillars that were deeply embedded in the ground of the yard.

"Uncle."

"Shh."

"Are you going to clean the pillars too?"

"Why would I clean this?"

I began to examine the unknown letters and patterns engraved on the surface of the pillars.

While examining the patterns, I noticed a very subtle flow of energy. Previously, after passing through the fog surrounding the shrine for the first time, I was embarrassed to realize that I couldn't feel any presence in the space inside the fog. That was still the case. However, now, Sannyeong's presence inside the building was eliminating the strangeness caused by the excessive stillness.@@novelbin@@

Of course, in this space, I still couldn't feel even half of the surrounding presence that I could normally feel.

"Something..."

After examining several pillars in order, I figured out that the subtle energy flowing around the pillars was heading somewhere. And that energy didn't seem to be related to the pillars.

"Do you know what this is?"

Eventually, I stopped paying attention to the energy and turned my eyes to the patterns on the surface of the pillars. When I asked Aro, she quietly said from behind.

"It's very old."

I nodded my head. Even if all the villagers were mobilized, they wouldn't be able to move even one of these pillars. The fact that several such large and heavy stone pillars were erected in such a remote place must have been something that happened a long time ago. I muttered to myself.

"Was the village bigger in the past?"

"......Uncle, can you read that?" Aro asked with her eyes wide open.

I smiled and shook my head.

"I just guessed."

"Ah."

But judging from her reaction, it seemed that what was engraved on the pillars was a readable script. I looked at the pillars again in detail. On the surface, there were letters mixed between the patterns engraved at regular intervals. The letters were in a language that I was not familiar with... but, strangely, it felt vaguely familiar.

"How old is it?"

Fifty years? A hundred years? No, that amount of time wouldn't be enough. I recalled the words left by the village chief. The words that she was very concerned about, that I and they were the same race.

"And why does this village stay at this village size? Even though there are so many people with abilities."

If they went to any royal family in any country and told them, the royal family who wanted the legitimacy of the abilities would surely try to recruit them. Even if it was actually useless.

But the abilities that the village chief and Aro have are not insignificant. There would be no ruler who would not drool over seeing their abilities.

However, before I could find an answer to the question, Sannyeong appeared.

"You can't come here right now!"

When Sannyeong shouted, Aro shrank her shoulders as if she was intimidated and turned around. But she didn't immediately approach Sannyeong. I stared at her, then lightly grabbed her shoulder and walked towards Sannyeong together.

"Weren't you putting strange nonsense into her head?" Sannyeong glared at me and said in an angry tone. "If you're going to keep saying useless things to the child, you might as well go back to the village!"

Then Aro shook her head.

"Uncle was just looking for edible grass on the ground, so don't be angry."

Is she defending me? I'm not sure if she's defending me. But anyway, I nodded my head.

"That's right. I was just looking to see if there were any edible plants... It's unfair to get angry like that."

"......Is that so?"

Sannyeong, who had become a bit calmer thanks to Aro's defense, looked around. There were no signs of me touching any of the fixtures, so there was no clue to be suspicious of. But she still seemed to think that I was putting strange ideas into Aro's head, and she turned around abruptly, taking Aro with her.

"No, that won't do. Stay where I can see you."

Aro didn't seem to want to be with Sannyeong, but there was no way. It wouldn't make sense for me to steal her either. Aro headed towards one side of the building with Sannyeong, constantly glancing back at me.

After the two disappeared and I was left alone, I examined the pillars further.

I felt sorry for Aro, but it was true that I was able to examine the pillars leisurely thanks to her disappearing with Sannyeong. However, it wasn't like I was happy about Sannyeong taking Aro away.

I also have feelings.

I wasn't planning on suddenly picking her up and running away to the capital, but I wanted to find a good way for everyone if possible.

I examined the pillars a bit more, and after a long time, I went to find Sannyeong again.

Sannyeong was with Aro, and Aro was sobbing with a face as if she had lost everything in the world. Did she get scolded? I carefully observed their atmosphere.

"What are you looking at?"

Sannyeong suddenly got angry. Was she originally such a bad-tempered person...? No, it could be that she had become sensitive because of the bad things that had happened one after another, so I couldn't jump to conclusions.

"Get out of here. It would be better if you went back to the village."

...As soon as I decided to think positively, she told me to leave, so I felt a little hurt as a human being.

"I'm just looking to see if my preparations are going well, and I'm looking around. I'm bored waiting without doing anything."

"That's why I'm telling you to go back to the village,” Sannyeong said again.

I glanced at Aro. She shook her head, saying no. It meant she didn't want me to go. Then I shouldn't go. I vaguely mumbled and turned around.

"No, well. There's no need to go that far."

I had no choice but to head to an empty room in the building. I didn't really need to rest, but I was in a situation where I couldn't do anything else.

As I lay down on the floor and looked at the ceiling, the strange reaction I felt from the pillars didn't leave my mind. It was clear that this shrine, the fog, and the "door" at the upper reaches of the river were all connected. The problem was that I had no idea what would come out if that door opened, or what it would lead to.

[Translator - Jjescus ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]