Franz, who stumbled upon the light spreading from the ground, instinctively sensed it was a secret entrance to somewhere underground.
Without waiting for Stilikov to return, he rushed to the spot and began to dig into the earth with his hands.
He had no time to think about noble bloodlines or the stature of the high Prince.
Although he was a half-blooded royal, Franz proudly believed himself a noble being bearing the Emperor’s blood.
Yet, the sight of him digging with his hands, disregarding all dignity and honor, seemed almost mad.
But Franz didn’t care. What did it matter since no one was watching? He couldn’t miss a glimmer of hope for survival discovered in the abyss of despair.
“Ugh.”
He didn’t even think to pick up a branch nearby. As he dug frantically, he felt a sharp pain in his bare hands. A piece of glass was embedded in the soil.
Quickly raising his right hand in shock, Franz noticed red beads flowing down his knuckles.
“…How foolish I am.”
In his haste, he hadn’t even thought to gather stones or branches, realizing how foolish it was to have left everything to his subordinates while he passively observed.
“There’s no time for this.”
Nostalgia was a luxury. Reflecting on the past, regretting it, and indulging in sentimentality could wait until his life was secured.
Taking out a handkerchief from his pocket, he roughly wrapped it around the wound on his palm and continued digging with his remaining hand.
Kneeling on the bare ground, he moved his hands tirelessly, and soon beads of sweat poured down his forehead.
Aside from his sword and gun training, this was nearly the first time he had exerted himself to this extent.
The increasingly potent smell of death urged even him to move.
Just a little more, just a bit deeper; the soil he was digging was crumbling down. Franz realized there was a hole somewhere deeper underground.
“Here it is.”
As he moved his hands a few more times, the soil supporting the pit collapsed into the deep hole below. His instincts were correct.
Whether it was an underground warehouse or a cave, he had found the entrance leading to it. Franz felt elated.
***
The cave was exactly as I had seen it the last time I entered. Not a single thing had changed.
“…Of course, this is a place only members of the Louisette family can enter.”
“Momma? Boo, Abu.”
Despite the dark, eerie interior, Valerie waved her arms with a curious expression.
Valerie loved to go outside and welcomed unfamiliar people and environments—she was truly a child full of adventure and curiosity. I wondered who she took after. One thing was certain: it wasn’t me.
I walked carefully on the damp earthen floor. The sound of soil being crushed beneath my feet felt oddly chilling.
“Valerie, this is a place only those with the blood of the Louisette family can enter.”
“Puuu, boo. Blood?”
Valerie, who could only mimic simple words and titles, earnestly watched my lips.
Curious about the sounds from her mother’s mouth, she wriggled her tiny fingers and touched my lips. It was adorable, but I knew I needed to be careful.
“Ouch, Valerie!”
“Heehee, Mama.”
Her fingers brushed over my lips, then suddenly grabbed my lower lip. This was why I had to be cautious when holding Valerie.
With her surprisingly strong grip, Valerie had a talent for pulling my face and pulling my hair.
“Let go! Mommy’s hurt!”
We tussled for a bit while I held her. To distract her, I took out a golden pendant hanging around my neck and waved it outside my dress. Only then did Valerie lose interest in my face.
“Bubuu.”
“Sure, play with that.”
Taking advantage of her distracted attention, I needed to finish my tasks. I carefully searched through the cave. There didn’t seem to be much change from before.
As I scanned the surroundings, I found a lamp in a corner of the wall and picked it up. Click. I pressed a button, and a faint light came on.
With Valerie in one arm and the lamp in the other, I continued my steps.
“The cave, the cave…”
Could it be? Looking around, I felt that the cave connected to the Grand Hall didn’t seem to exist. Still, you never know, so I moved my feet with more determination.
“I came this far last time.”
The old desk, faded and worn, still stood in its place. It was the desk where I found the necklace, said to belong to Purcellia, or was it her daughter’s?
An inexplicable nostalgia washed over me as I placed the lamp down on the desk and ran my fingers over its surface.
“Ugh, dust.”
Sweeping the desk made only more dust rise. I shook off my hands to rid them of the dust and picked the lamp back up.
Next was the wall, untouched for what seemed like decades. A dirt wall, hastily built from clay.
“Nothing particularly strange…”
Just as I was thinking of leaving after looking around, I heard a sound.
“Ka-kaah.”
Valerie was waving her hand from the other side.
“Val, Valerie. What’s wrong? We’re going back now.”
“Kaah! Babbah.”
“What’s up? There’s nothing there, just a wall.”
“Yaaah!”
“Why are you so strong… ugh.”
Who does she take after with such stubbornness? I had no way to resist Valerie, who insisted on touching the dirt wall and was yelling in defiance.
When Valerie was this persistent, there was no other option. I had to pretend to indulge her stubbornness to distract her attention elsewhere.
So this is why parenting is tough. Reflecting on Cecilia’s words, who said it was much easier when she was still in the womb, I moved closer to the wall as Valerie wanted.
“Okay, see? There’s nothing here.”
I stepped aside from the desk and got close to the dirt wall. Valerie seemed eager to touch it and moved her hand holding the necklace to touch the wall with both hands.
“Ugh, dust. I guess I’ll have to wash my hands as soon as we get out.”
As I was watching Valerie’s hands while grumbling, a tremendous roar echoed, as if the entire wall was shaking.
“Mommy.”
What’s going on? What’s that noise? Startled, I pulled Valerie closer into my arms and scanned the surroundings. But it seemed quiet, as if there had been no loud noise moments ago.
“I can’t have misheard…”
I looked back at the dirt wall. Valerie, trapped in my arms, squirmed and groaned in frustration.
“Stay still, Valerie.”
Was that sound really from the wall?
“No way…”
Even though I thought it couldn’t be true, my hand naturally reached toward the wall. When my fingertips touched the rough surface, the loud noise I had dismissed as an illusion echoed again.
Rumble.
“It wasn’t an illusion.”
I hadn’t misheard. I confirmed that the sound truly came from the dirt wall and moved my hand a few more times. Each time my hand touched the wall, there was a rumble; when I pulled away, the sound stopped. That meant,
“Could there really be a secret cave connected here?”
If I had doubts, I needed to check. I tightened my grip around Valerie to keep her still, then used my free hand to sweep the dirt wall vigorously.
With a roar, a tremendous sound filled my ears as I moved my arm about half a dozen times, akin to the entire cave collapsing.
***
As the pit collapsed, hidden stairs were revealed.
Slowly descending the stairs, Franz was speechless at the unexpectedly well-maintained underground entrance. The interior was much larger than he had anticipated, and he busied himself taking in his surroundings.
“A basement of this scale?”
They had said that the secret storage of Urentum contained the most magic stones throughout the southern region.
Franz had secretly scoffed at Stiliko’s words, wondering what kind of secret storage could exist in such a backward rural town.
But the storage he discovered first-hand boasted an immense size that seemed more than capable of hiding the largest quantity of magic stones in the south, just as Stiliko had said.
“Was the end of despair the beginning of hope?”
To find this underground storage at the moment he realized his life had become steeped in despair sent chills through Franz. He felt that the divine was helping him.
He had always thought that the divine had abandoned him. Yet, this coincidence unfolding before him could hardly be dismissed as mere chance.
This was a blessing from the gods. He was truly someone chosen by the divine. Franz embraced his head with both hands.
“The divine hasn’t abandoned me! Truly, the gods have chosen me!”
Unaware that he was echoing the same delusion Marina had incessantly prattled about in her lifetime, Franz wept for a long time.
