Chapter 103: A Blooming Flower of Sin (16)
“Hmm.”
Sword Demon Miss carefully bent down, squatting in the darkness as if she was meticulously searching for something among the thick, entangled vines below.
“When we came in, I saw the last few people… being dragged underground… they’re right here.”
I walked over to her side, waving a floating ice sphere closer. Then, together with Sword Demon, I crouched down and looked at her feet. In a heartbeat, nestled between the tangled vines, I spotted a buried human head, wide-eyed with shock. The pale eyes were staring blankly back at us, as if they were making direct eye contact with me.
!
Seriously…
I felt goosebumps crawling up my arms, immediately standing tall and taking two steps back.
That’s way too creepy…
A strange atmosphere seemed to envelop the dark space around us once again. My gaze darted around, somewhat worried that those vines might suddenly come to life — the knights clearly didn’t have Infernal Fire abilities, nor did Sword Demon.
“Stop looking, keep your distance.”
I couldn’t help but remind her.
Though I said that, there were vines everywhere…
“The presence has stopped,” Sword Demon Miss stood up, peering into the darkness for a moment before walking toward another side.
“…Huh?”
I looked at her in confusion.
“These plants… they’re very weak, getting weaker by the minute. I can hear their voices, their breath… they’re wilting. Even if they were to eat humans, their movements are slow. Unless we stay still, they pose no threat.”
?
How did she figure that out…
Ah, so we’re supposed to let someone enter a dream realm and stand there slowly being eaten, huh?
Even if I wasn’t sure what was going on, I felt Sword Demon was probably right…
Thinking this way, I relaxed a bit.
If all these things started moving, it would definitely be a disgusting sight…
“You say they’re wilting?”
I casually said to Sword Demon, noticing she seemed to be checking something not far away, likely trying to identify where we were, so I didn’t bother her and started searching nearby myself.
“They are getting weaker… find the roots, and you’ll know why.”
The two of us fumbled around in the dark, doing a quick reconnaissance of the area.
In the dim space, a foul odor filled the air. I dared not remove my hand from my mouth and nose, keeping a moderate level of vigilance while glancing around in the weak light.
It didn’t take long, since the place was relatively small, and we quickly figured out our location — we were on the upper level of the domed building.
Looking back, the top of this building had a half-egg-shaped attic… I didn’t know if I should call it an attic, but it was a space separate from the structure itself. We were right here.
In the cramped but open space, sturdy stone pillars stood everywhere, and other than that, there was nothing else — no other rooms. Those pillars were, of course, overgrown with vines. The path I came in from wasn’t the only way to get here; directly opposite was another passage leading to a semi-open nook, with a faintly visible stained glass window at the end.
But neither of those passages were proper roads; they were just narrow corridors leading to the windows. The actual route was quickly discovered — no need to search hard; walking a bit revealed two spiral staircases on either side, symmetrically positioned. Earlier, Sword Demon had chased someone up one of those stairs, and of course, the darkness below was the corridor where we’d entered, cluttered with white sheets and beds, the stench of medicine filling the experimental area.
The entire exploration process took less than five minutes, and we were done.
While rummaging through the walls covered in vines, I discovered a few more knight corpses.
These bodies had only just recently perished—they barely had any visible wounds; their armor was mostly intact aside from some deformation. They had just been dragged into the vines, some with eyes wide open, some closed, seemingly peacefully asleep as if lost in a sweet dream, unable to awaken.
Apart from the knights, I also spotted some much older corpses. Like the knights, they had been pulled deep into the vines, as if their bl**d had been drained, their flesh dried and rotten, resembling rags… however, more often, there were just skeletons.
In the darkness, I couldn’t discern their identities by their appearances, nor could I determine their genders from their clothing—they had long since lost their garments. Due to the dense growth of the vines and the oppressive darkness, I couldn’t even tell how long their hair had grown, let alone see those who had sunk even deeper, completely out of sight.
So after glancing at a few of them, I didn’t want to look anymore; the scene was truly hair-raising, enough to make my hair stand on end. I even suspected that beneath the thick layers of vines beneath my feet, there were, in fact, more bodies like these… or rather, skeletons.
Even that passage I came through…
It really sent shivers down my spine.
These corpses…
Must be the reason why this place smells so awful.
One thing I could confirm is that they didn’t seem to have decayed naturally… this place didn’t seem to host any maggots or flies, and even if there were, they had long been consumed by the vines… I hadn’t seen a single living bug.
These people had somehow become fertilizer for these plants in some bizarre and terrifying way.
And what kind of “nutrients” there were here, I couldn’t even imagine…
“Hey.”
Suddenly, just as I was lost in contemplating the vines, Sword Demon called out from a distance: “Over here.”
“…What?”
I shook myself awake and walked toward her.
Clink—
Under the faint glow of the ice sphere, a short swordsman turned around from the corner, flipping a shiny little object with his thumb before tossing it toward me… huh?
A coin?
Instinctively, I reached out to catch it, opening my palm to inspect it closely.
“An emerald coin…”
It was indeed a gold coin.
“There’s a whole bag of coins here.”
As I played with the coin, I walked over after hearing Sword Demon’s words, looking toward the corner she pointed to. I waved the ice sphere, sending it gliding quickly toward that area to illuminate the view.
There, a large bag of gold coins was scattered on the ground.
The bag filled with coins leaned against the surrounding vines, slightly open, spilling out golden coins, with some already fallen into the crevices of the vines, but at least a hundred coins remained unharmed, and many more inside; the coins shimmered in the blue light with a dazzling halo…
I noticed a severed hand near the opening of the bag, belonging to a knight, clenching tightly, unwilling to let go even in d*ath.
No, that wasn’t a severed hand…
The hand was still attached to the body; it’s just that the body had been dragged down by the vines, leaving only half an arm sticking out.
“This is the tax money they brought earlier.”
But for some reason, all that remained were these coins…
Was there more nearby?
It seemed like not anymore…
I walked past Sword Demon and squatted down by the bag, unhesitatingly grabbing a large handful and preparing to stuff it into my waist pouch.
“…You plan to take these?”
Sword Demon’s voice came from behind.
“These coins were extorted from the common folk of Silgaya, and even from some ship merchants from the Eastern Continent.” I kept stuffing coins without even glancing back, “And they are mainly used for those inhumane experiments. If the Church finds out their experiments have failed, they’ll send someone to deal with it, reclaim these coins… and head to the next place to continue experimenting.”
“…Oh.”
She replied, as if she somewhat understood.
There were too many coins…
The pouch wouldn’t fit them all.
“Hey.”
Feeling I’d stuffed the pouch enough, I turned around, pointing at the remaining heap of gold coins, and said to Sword Demon, “You should pack these up and carry the bag; it’ll come in handy.”
At least now we didn’t have to worry about money… and might even help a lot of people.
Feeling a bit better all of a sudden, I couldn’t help but pat my swollen pouch. Just as I straightened up, suddenly, the eerie breathing returned.
“Huff huff…”
And along with the breathing, there was an ethereal singing mixed in: “Deep gray… solid rock… silver moonlight…”
…This time, I heard it very clearly.
That voice was right above me.
