Chapter 70 - Seventy ... The Temple Beneath the Mountains

Chapter 70: Chapter Seventy ... The Temple Beneath the Mountains

Chapter Seventy ... The Temple Beneath the Mountains

"...It wasn’t the way I wanted it to go, but I suppose it can still be settled well enough."

"Heh heh. Isn’t that what life is? If everything went exactly as we wished, nothing would be more meaningless than our lives."

"Hm..."

There was nothing for it.

Leaving Agphiel’s teasing behind, Jan hurried to regroup his soldiers. Like it or not, now that things had happened, it was time to finish this.

"Gather the soldiers! Treat the wounded, and have everyone who’s unhurt collect the holy objects the Pexi left behind!"

"Understood."

"You don’t mean to go inside the temple, do you, my lord?"

"I do. Why? Would you like to come along, Bishop Graham?"

"Ah, well..."

Bishop Graham quietly turned his head away, as if determined not to meet Jan’s eyes.

"...Stop pretending. I won’t drag you along."

"What? It’s not because of that, my lord!"

"Yes, I understand. I understand your feelings perfectly. So stay here and tend to the wounded soldiers. Understood?"

"Don’t worry, my lord!"

Dragging the bishop along, when he’d be no help in a fight, would only make him a burden. That would be worse.

With that thought, Jan quickly chose his soldiers and headed for the temple the canton councillors had plundered.

The System’s messages appeared before Jan.

[You have discovered the temple of a forgotten deity. A strange yet sacred power wraps itself around your body.]

The heathen temple was not above ground. It was an underground temple, built deep in a valley where two ridges of the Arpen Mountains met.

It must have flourished in the days of the old empire, because even inside the rock cave there were wide corridors lined with all kinds of carvings cut into the stone.

"Hm..."

Feeling the strange power wrapped around his body, Jan looked around. After the Pexi priest and his blood sorcery, the atmosphere of the temple was unexpected. It felt, somehow, reverent and calm.

He wasn’t the only one who thought so.

"It’s a more ordinary temple than I expected."

"Isn’t it, Master Agphiel?"

"It looks like a temple to some forgotten deity from the days of the old empire."

"Oh!"

How had he known that? Jan had the System’s messages to tell him, but Agphiel had no such thing.

"Can you tell which deity?"

"Hm... I’ll have to take a closer look."

With that, Agphiel looked around. As he studied the temple, his face was full of the curiosity of a man in pursuit of truth.

Relics of the old empire had always been coveted. People living now went so far as to call themselves the children of a dark age.

They longed for the flourishing culture of the old empire, the way one longs for a golden past that will never return.

"Hm, hmm."

Agphiel seemed to have found something, because he began examining things eagerly. Considering that they had come to lift the curse on the canton councillors, it wasn’t quite the time for it.

But Jan could spare the old mage that much time after all his hard work so far.

Especially since, only a little while ago, Agphiel had protected him with his magic.

So a little time passed.

"Hmm. There! I understand now."

Agphiel straightened his back and exclaimed with satisfaction.

"Did you learn something?"

"I did. In the days of the old empire, this temple honored the Ruler of Life. For the Pexi, with their blood sorcery, she would have been a perfect fit."

The System’s messages appeared before Jan.

[You have learned the name of a forgotten deity.]

[The temple awakens.]

[The forgotten deity, the Ruler of Life, takes an interest in you.]

Jan froze.

’An interest?’

At that moment...

Rumble!

"Wh-what?"

"Aagh! An earthquake!"

"Heaven help us!"

The temple suddenly shook. The soldiers inside cried out in alarm and trembled.

They were inside a cave.

If it collapsed in an earthquake, they would all die without any way out.

Dying in battle would at least be no cause for regret. Dying like this would be a dog’s death.

"Tsk, tsk."

Agphiel clicked his tongue and tapped the floor with his staff.

Hummmm!

Along with a bluish glow, masses of wood climbed up the temple walls all the way to the ceiling. A moment later, the earthquake stopped as though it had never happened.

"The temple has awakened. We did speak the name of the forgotten deity, after all."

"Oh?"

It was the same thing the System’s messages had said a moment ago. Fascinated, Jan asked.

"What does it mean for a temple to awaken? Nothing terrible is going to happen, is it, Master Agphiel?"

"Hm. I’m not sure myself. Whether this Ruler will be friendly toward us or hostile. However..."

Agphiel broke off and glanced behind them. There stood the cart loaded with the holy objects that had been plundered from this place.

"At the very least, we’ve come to return her holy objects, so she won’t kill us. Heh heh."

"Somehow that only makes me more uneasy, Master Agphiel."

"Now, now. Surely a deity wouldn’t do us harm. And she’s the merciful Ruler of Life, isn’t she? Hm? Come to think of it, perhaps the canton councillors are wasting away because they were cursed in a way that drains their life force. With a little bad luck, we might be cursed the same way. That wouldn’t be good."

"..."

Jan looked at Agphiel with a sour expression as the mage said something so dreadful so calmly.

"Still, don’t worry. I’ll make sure that you, at least, get out of here safely."

"What a truly touching friendship."

"Ha ha! You really are good company."

Clink, clink.

The inner part of the temple was a little narrower. Each of them carrying holy objects, they began to walk carefully deeper into the temple.

According to the dwarf guide, these holy objects had been plundered from a hidden place deep within the temple.

"Hmm."

As he walked, Jan carefully looked around. The closer they got to the place the dwarf guide had described, the stronger that strange power he’d first felt became.

’Some kind of blessing of vigor?’

Vigor seemed to flow through his body, and his weariness vanished. He felt so fresh that it was hard to believe he had just been in a battle.

’Hm. Fortunately, the Ruler doesn’t seem to be hostile to us.’

It was a real relief.

Having been sent back into his own past, something no one would ever believe, Jan could hardly doubt that powers beyond mortal understanding existed.

If such a thing could happen to him, surely there were divine powers in this world as well.

That was why he moved all the more carefully.

There was no need to provoke the wrath of a power that had been quietly slumbering.

"Fortunately, it seems this will be over without any real trouble."

"Doesn’t it, Master Agphiel?"

"The fact that we’ve come this far without any serious trouble must mean the Ruler looks on us favorably. This looks to be the temple’s most important altar of offering."

"That’s a relief."

At Agphiel’s words, Jan let out a sigh of relief and slowly stepped inside the altar chamber.