The Witch and the Doll Swear

Leto Poresta is getting busier little by little.

More than half a month has passed since the first day I came to this city, and the seasons are from early summer to midsummer. The constellation of the Three Goddesses hangs low in the western part of the night sky on the nights of the last few days of Kanna Moon. On the side, there are six bright stars, just like the eyes of these three goddesses who can see through the past, present and future, watching the earth, gazing reluctantly at the brightly lit city.

Not everyone has the opportunity to witness a city from depression to prosperity in her lifetime. From this point of view, Tina is obviously lucky enough. She saw with her own eyes that starting from the gate on the south side of the temple, the houses on the entire street were dug out of the yellow sand. Immigrants from all over the place moved in with simple luggage. With the warm fire, the bread and beer workshops began to smoke. The potters lived in houses with yards, and put the mud embryos on the large palm leaves to dry in the sun.

Merchants also increased, and spontaneously gathered a small open-air market. From dawn to night, all kinds of goods poured in, injecting new blood into this ancient city.

The number of children on the street also increased, and they wanted to give them something to do. After the citizens requested this, the scholars of the excavation team took turns to hold simple classes throughout the week, teaching them literacy, arithmetic, and nature. knowledge and poetry.

Occasionally, the ancient scriptures will be taught. Only the smartest children can learn this ancient script that was once lost in the hands of the priests and the royal family. Today, there are no noble families in Letopolesta. Learn the scriptures Wen's children will become the priests' reserves, which means they will become the new nobles.

"It seems that the twenty-second pharaoh of the Tomilian dynasty is determined to strip the influence of religion from secular kingship."

After this matter was announced to the whole city by the herald, Alice said these words.

"Eh?"

"In Sinai, education has been monopolized by the priests for a long time. They set up the house of life as a school and library in the temple to teach their offspring, and their offspring will inherit their power and position, Remember these Miss Tina?"

"Well, remember..."

"So although there are schools for civilians, they are often controlled by the priests of the temple. However, here, the children are taught by scholars, who are directly subordinate to the royal family in name and in fact. Education, select bright children to become the new nobles of the city, enter the temple, and did not say which temple it is... tsk tsk tsk."

"But, will this work? Those are just young children..."

"Every great subversion begins with a small encroachment. The power once monopolized by the temple is attributed to the supreme double crown bit by bit. Not much each time, just a little bit, but one day, when that pharaoh finally At the showdown, they will find that they have very little power left."

After the little queen finished speaking, she also praised the king of Sand Sea and Sinai who were far away in Alexandria, just like an elder praising a promising descendant.

It was only then that Tina remembered that Miss Doll’s current attire was that famous Cleopatra in Sinai’s history. If she had to say it, the current Tomil Dynasty is really her descendant... Of course, at some level That's all.

The court struggle was too far away from the pharaoh's calculations, and had nothing to do with the girl's life. What's more, the struggle was still hidden under the water. At least, it hadn't affected the excavation progress of the temple.

In the past half a month, two-thirds of the main body of the Letopolesta Temple has been dug out of the yellow sand. For safety reasons, repair work has begun, so the other third of the excavation work Paused, while excavation of the outbuildings is scheduled.

Especially Liliana came here for the most important purpose - the house of life in the temple.

There is a place where documents are stored, and if Letopolesta really has any clues related to the Magic Emperor, it is the most likely place.

Therefore, on the day the excavation began, Liliana applied to be transferred to the excavation site there.

Since there may be a large number of papyrus scrolls, the excavation of the House of Life must be done with great care, so most of the magicians—that is, the priests of the Temple of Isis were called here, and I don’t know if they got something from it In the face of Liliana, they almost acted obediently, even Hef Canaan was inconceivable.

However, he wisely didn't ask.

The suspension of the excavation work of the temple has allowed workers other than the part of the repair work to participate in the excavation of the city. Many construction sites have appeared on the streets of Letopolesta that are still covered by yellow sand. Visiting these places is just Become a girl's new fun.

After all, although there is a complete city map, when there is only a clear reference like the temple, there are always many deviations in positioning. It is expected to dig out a two-story bakery with ovens to accommodate the new Bakers, but dug out a low bungalow from time to time.

The most outrageous one was that the house of purification was dug out on a construction site close to the desert and far away from the temple. Why did this important facility for making mummies appear in such a far place? The subject of headaches.

Also, occasionally, surprises strike.

On this day, after Tina prepared the cooking ingredients for lunch, the Sun of Saigon had just jumped out of the horizon and the temperature was not yet that high. So, the girl decided to go to a construction site outside the temple wall to see where the digging would be. What comes out.

When Tina arrived at the construction site, the workers were still working, shoveling sand into linen bags with shovels and stacking the bags on carts pulled by donkeys.

The sand will be transported to the edge of the sand sea and dumped, and then a considerable part of it will follow the wind and fall back into the streets, roofs, people's clothes and food in Lietopolesta.

The terrain here is already relatively low. The workers dug a big hole here, and now they have touched the hard ground.

"What will be dug up this time?"

Tina asked curiously.

"According to the map, this place was once the residence of a certain noble. If he could live at the foot of the temple, he might be a great guy. If you dig up good things, you can get a lot of bonuses."

Workers are no longer surprised by problems like Tina's, because if they dig up valuable cultural relics, they will get bonuses, and they always say this when greeting each other.

"Mr. Boffam has won bonuses several times."

"God Seth has blessed me to dig out treasures from these deserts. With such a sum of money, I can bring my wife and children to settle here. New cities will never lack new opportunities. Thank Pharaoh for his mercy.”

This worker leader is one of the few people Tina knows in this city, because she saw him receiving bonuses from the head of the cultural relic appraisal department with a smile several times when delivering lunch to Ai. After chatting with him several times, , it becomes familiar.

The man who was chatting with Tina was also directing the work of the workers. The process of digging out the building was not difficult. What required careful work was that when the excavation progressed indoors, precious cultural relics could be damaged accidentally. When they arrived, Boffam's shouts were to make them be more careful.

"Work harder, work harder. Whoever does more work today, I will treat him to the best wine today! If someone accidentally knocks off these precious things, hey, then I don't need to tell you!"

Hearing his shouts, some workers couldn't help but shrink their necks.

Although there will be bonuses for digging up valuable cultural relics, if you accidentally damage the cultural relics, you will lose several days of wages, and you will be arrested and publicly whipped at night, becoming the target of people's ridicule.

It goes without saying that all the workers coming and going in this small two-story house with a yard are very careful, for fear of breaking the bottles and cans in their hands.

Although there are amulets and miniature statues of gods, for some reason, the most numerous ones here are bottles and jars.

Boom!

Moreover, the earth still shakes from time to time.

Boom!

"Mr. Boffam, what's going on with this vibration..."

"Here."

Standing on the roof, Boffam pointed to the distance. Behind the Temple of Letopolesta, accompanied by the trembling of the earth, a puff of white smoke rose from time to time.

"A small salt mine was discovered behind Leto Polesta. The kingdom's salt merchants from the Eufam Oasis came here a few days ago. They thought they might be able to dig a salt well there. Even if they couldn't dig it out, they could A lot of salt was mined for use in Lietopolesta, and two hours ago they started blasting the mine there with explosives.”

"Explosives?"

"The salt mine is not very big, so they are not willing to spend money to build excavation machines. It is cheaper to use alchemical explosives. Although the shaking has caused a lot of trouble for us to dig, those gentlemen don't care."

Sighing, the man shouted again, and then jumped from the roof to the balcony on the second floor.

This two-story house is filled with exquisite bottles and jars. Although it is tattered, you can still see the luxurious curtains, gold plating and turquoise ornaments when it was intact.

In the basement where most of the sand had just been dug out, there was still a large amount of belongings. These precious artifacts were carefully transported outside the house. The soldiers of the city guard were counting their quantity and value, and sorting them out according to the Bonuses are awarded for the value of these.

Of course, Boffam's face was full of smiles. And Tina, while being dazzled by these luxurious treasures, couldn't help but wonder what happened that made these wealthy families not even bother to take away so many belongings and abandon them. In the house, let the yellow sand submerge?

Boom! ! !

The sand that had not been removed was scattered from the eaves of the second floor and fell on the man's bald head. Boffam shook the sand away indifferently and led Tina from the balcony into the almost empty house. bedroom.

There are only the last batch of these cultural relics left on the second floor. Several exquisite wooden boxes are placed in order from large to small. On the top is a flat wooden jewelry box. When Tina passed by, she looked at it curiously. Opening it, a small scepter of pure gold decorated with turquoise was carefully placed inside.

"That's the Scepter of Vance."

"Vance's Scepter?"

"The chaos of deserts and storms is a symbol of the great god Set with a jackal head. It is said that he used this scepter to command the storms in the desert, sometimes protecting people walking in the desert, and sometimes causing them to get lost and be swallowed up by the yellow sand. .”

Bofam is a true Sinai man, and his expression became serious when he talked about the high gods.

"Those of us who make a living in the desert must fear Set and his scepter. However, this is the first time I have seen an amulet of this shape."

"Is it rare?"

"I have never seen it before. The scepter of Vance is the authority of God. Who is so arrogant and disrespectful that he uses the scepter of God as his own amulet?"

It seems that those scholars have another headache.

Thinking that Ai might be among the people who might have a headache, Tina couldn't help but cover the jewelry box with a slightly dark smile and put it on the top of the pair of boxes.

Then, a worker came upstairs and moved the boxes. He glanced at Boffam and Tina, bowed his head in greeting, then carried the boxes and walked downstairs.

This is just an ordinary day in Letopolesta, where the wealth left behind by the ancient city is being unearthed everywhere. People are used to finding staggering wealth from a dilapidated house that has been buried for a long time. , also accustomed to high-profile excavations but finding nothing but a house.

"Is this the last batch sent down from the second floor?"

"The basement is almost empty. I really envy this guy. He has dug out so many treasures several times in a row."

"Let me see what's there? Well, they're all boxes, a gilded wooden clothes box with Chinese patterns, and a lion-green vulture slate sundry box. What is this box for?"

"What box? This is a chessboard. You can't recognize it after two circles? Shake it and listen. There are chess pieces inside."

Walking out of the two-story hut, where Boffam went to contact her about work matters, Tina raised her head and stretched out in the dazzling sunshine.

Should we go back to the "Lightseeker" to make lunch now, or should we go shopping before the morning market is over? Tina, who was still thinking about this at this time, heard the soldiers' conversation. .

Coincidentally, the two soldiers who were responsible for counting and checking the unearthed cultural relics were listing the last few boxes shipped from the second floor. When they saw Tina, they took a few more glances at the tall girl before continuing to work. .

"What is this smallest one, a jewelry box?"

"Probably, but it's empty inside, so just say empty jujube wood jewelry box. There are quite a lot of these empty boxes. It seems that people in this city don't leave everything behind when they leave. ”

"Isn't this nonsense? If it were me, I would bring the most valuable and easy-to-carry things with me. Only a fool would stay here."

If the girl hadn't stopped because of what she overheard, then this would have been such an ordinary day.

"Wait a minute, did you say there's an empty box here?"

Tina couldn't help but walked up to the soldiers. When they heard the girl's question, they shrugged. Show the empty box to Tina.

It's the jewelry box.

But the Vance scepter inside was missing.

"Where is the worker who moved these boxes? Since he can move so many things, he must be a strong guy."

Tina tried her best to control her expression and asked casually. After the two soldiers listened, one of them said "ha", chuckled and shook his head.

"Does this lady think these things are heavy? Even if you add them all together, you don't need to be very strong to move them. The guy who moved these things is not that strong. It just so happened that he went to the basement and hasn't come out yet. It’s the one with a red line on the loincloth.”

After speaking, the soldier added another sentence.

"But really only the strongest man can be worthy of you, miss."

"Thank you so much for the compliment..."

Tina has heard this type of words countless times since she was a child. She had no choice but to smile politely as if she hadn't heard, and walked back to the house, just passing by a few workers coming out of the basement.

The worker I saw on the second floor was not among them.

Just like traditional houses in Sinai today, the entrance to the basement of this house is set in a corner of a room on the first floor, and can only be accessed by a ladder. When Tina came here, the ladder had not been removed. In the basement, There is only one person left.

Although the dark and sturdy Sinai man could not be said to be particularly strong, his bulging muscles were still stronger than many men Tina had seen in Yansha City.

After thinking about it, Tina pressed the ring on her hand, and the Mosuo white jade finger wheel climbed down after the magic shield was erected.

Hearing the sound, the man who was groping for something by the wall turned his head and saw Tina walking down. The eyes under her thick eyebrows were obviously startled.

"Miss, please don't come down casually. There are snakes and venomous scorpions in the sand, which are very dangerous."

"Why do I feel like you are seeing snakes and scorpions when you see me?"

The sand in the basement had not been completely cleared, and it was indeed not impossible that there were dangerous insects and snakes lurking there. However, Tina was not in the mood to beat around the bush with him. She climbed down the ladder and walked without hesitation to the man who was only one meter away. A little more space.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"No matter what your reasons are, you can't commit theft. Now you can pretend that nothing happened and hand over the Vance Scepter."

"What's the Scepter of Vance?"

"No need to act stupid."

Tina sighed, although the man's face didn't waver at all and just looked at her in confusion.

"Mr. Bowham and I have seen that you were responsible for carrying the last boxes on the second floor, but the gold and emerald scepter in the flat jewelry box is missing. Whether it is theft or If you accidentally leave it, the responsibility is on you. If it is stolen, please hand it over immediately. If it is lost, you can still find it now. I don’t think you want to be buried in hot sand and baked by the sun. Become a mummy."

Whether it is theft or loss, the responsibility must be on him, there is no need to question this.

Of course there are guys who want to sneakily take the dug up treasures for themselves, or rather, how could they not exist.

But before the population of Letopolesta gradually increased, the city guards specially dispatched some magicians to the edge of the city, using sentries, patrols and magic eyes to stare at everyone who entered and exited. The gem-encrusted ring was swallowed into the stomach, and it was detected by magic.

Those who were caught by them by luck had been dried very well in the desert on the edge of the city. According to the punishment learned from the Seven Hills Empire, their mummies were crucified and lined up on both sides of the street. Well, the magicians of the Temple of Isis also made a few gadgets to record their howls before they died, and after a while, they echoed beside their mummies.

Although Tingna thinks this is too cruel, she cannot deny that this almost cruel punishment has prevented the large-scale "disappearance" of cultural relics.

The man fell silent.

Probably, he also thought of those horrible corpses standing on the street.

"Now you can pretend that nothing happened, and hand over the Vance scepter."

In the silence, the earth trembled slightly.

Tina continued to persuade.

"As expected, Miss Ting Na is really a kind person."

But the man laughed.

"But please don't assume that there must be some reason for stealing things."

"……Eh?"

The sudden change in his expression made Tingna take half a step back subconsciously, looking at his face vigilantly—so, when the man spread his hands out with emotion, the girl waited for a few seconds before hearing the click. One sound.

It's like the sound of what fits perfectly with what.

"What are you doing?!"

"What are you doing, maybe, just being a seeker looking for the truth of something... hmm?"

The man lowered his hand, and in the darkness, Tina could clearly see where his palm moved away, the gold and turquoise colors were embedded in the grooves of the wall.

That's the Wand of Vance.

But why can the scepter be placed somewhere on the wall?

Doubts arose in Tina's mind. She looked at the problematic worker in front of her vigilantly, and clenched her finger with the ring tightly.

"..."

"..."

But nothing happens.

"……so what?"

"..."

A few minutes passed, and the man who still maintained the posture of opening his hands put his hands down awkwardly under Tingna's gaze.

"Probably in disrepair for a long time, the mechanism is stuck. The ancient book I worked so hard to get should be correct. The last blood of one of the six sages did live in Letopolesta. This There is also his coat of arms and the key of the Vance scepter in the house..."

He looked around and couldn't help stamping his feet.

"There should be a door leading to the secret place...but why is there no movement at all?"

His footprints were printed on the yellow sand, and there was still no movement in the entire basement, except for some clusters of sand falling down.

In the distance, the sound of the explosion of the salt mine caused the ground to tremble, and then shook down a pile of sand that did not know where, and the sound of the clusters sliding down became more obvious.

And what does that mean?

After a moment of weightlessness, the girl got the answer.

At first, it was just a slight clustering sound, which became obvious because of the man's anxious stomping, and it was more obvious in the distant explosion of the salt mine. When the grains of sand under his feet were sliding towards a crack that appeared at some point.

It's too late.

"What--??????"

Her scream was dragged on for a long, long time during the fall, with a scream that she never thought of anyway, and there was a man's triumphant laughter in the wind of the fall-but he couldn't laugh right away.

There is no light in the dark, but the man obviously has night vision ability, at least enough to clearly see that there is a puddle of water under the trap door with a diameter of more than one meter in the basement, which is at least ten meters away.

Only, a puddle.

"Cang Cheng Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi——!!!!"

The falling time was actually only a dozen seconds.

Almost when the man yelled, they were already very close to the shallow water surface. At this time, the man who originally planned to perform a high diving performance was still maintaining his head-down posture. Stay on the clear gem representing the sky on the "Crown of Elements", this time.

"That's why I said don't trust these institutions thousands of years ago. It's been thousands of years, so there's nothing that won't break."

The wind picked up.

A strong airflow rose from below, and in the dark and lightless cave, the stale smell became a lift, decelerating the rapidly falling girl, and then.

"Oh!"

"hiss--"

Fell into the water that even the waist could not submerge.

Splashes of water, to be honest, this experience of emergency deceleration was not good at all. When Tingna hurriedly climbed out of the water, her heart, which she thought was about to stop beating, began beating violently, and she half-kneeled on the sand. , gasping for life.

"I-I thought I was going to die!"

"It's not dead."

A hand was placed on her shoulder, and was slapped away by the girl. In the darkness, the owner of the hand turned on a magic lamp helplessly, and shrugged helplessly in the cold light.

"Be grateful to your savior."

"First of all, you put my life in danger. Secondly, even if I want to thank you, I should also thank Ms. Cang Chengshi, not you, a dishonest thief."

After panting for breath, the cold water and cold sweat had mixed together and wet the snow-white Qiunik on the girl's body. Tingna almost uttered the last few words through grinding her teeth.

"Mr. Nobody."

"As I said at the Alexandria Library, we are meant to be, aren't we, Miss Tina?"

"This fate is not happy at all!"

"Well, don't say that, it's always a pleasure to meet familiar people in a foreign land."

Ting Na, with limp hands and feet, sat on the ground and stared fiercely at the man, but the man ignored her gaze. He stood up and looked around with the light of the magic lamp.

"A long and narrow cave seems to be formed naturally. We really fell very deep, and fell directly into the rock formation under the desert. If the side with water is the exit... our goal is there."

He looked up.

"Well, that's right, the door of the mechanism above has been closed. After all, it came from the sage's family line. The things left behind are not so fragile, and they are much stronger than those in the pyramid."

"What are you going to steal again?"

"Please don't make it so harsh. There is no law in any kingdom on the mainland that defines taking something that has no owner as stealing. What's more, I'm just here to admire the ancient traces of history."

"Didn't you steal that Vance scepter?"

"Didn't it stay on it? I didn't take it away, I just moved it to a place."

"...Don't you have any sense of shame?"

Ting Na didn't know what to say, she just moved things to a different place, how could anyone say such things confidently.

Even the little puppet floating beside her master, who had been using magic to hide her figure before, couldn't help but hold her forehead. Tingna could almost imagine how hard this little puppet had been in normal times.

"Shame only works when it's useful, and—"

The shameless Phantom Thief spoke a completely shameless line, and then he dragged out the end of the sentence, encouraging Tina.

"Even if Miss Tingna said so, don't you have a little bit of curiosity? Why is there such a structure in the basement of this house, and what is there in the cave? Do you really want to see it?"

Of course it is impossible not to be curious.

The sense of crisis passed, and curiosity welled up. This is not the first time Tina has experienced this kind of thing.

To be honest, she felt as if there were a hundred Alices in her heart showing that intriguing and inexplicable smile, full of purpose in the mouth of this monster thief who could not be connected with the image of the last appearance every time. curious.

"Not at all!"

But she still held back her curiosity, and replied angrily with this sentence, to show that there was a clear distinction between them.

Then.

"Oh, forget it."

Wuming scratched his bald head, stood up with an oh, and left on his own.

After a while, the light of the magic lamp disappeared into the distance where the cave spread, leaving Tingna sitting on the sand alone, speechless.

"you this--"

The disappearance of the light caused the darkness to submerge the place again. Although Ting Na could see clearly in the darkness, without the light, human instincts were always a little uneasy.

That's right, this result was indeed due to my own stubbornness, but that man just left himself in the dark without any gentlemanly demeanor, without leaving even a light source?

Well, maybe I am an idiot who thinks that a shameless phantom thief who doesn't even obey the notice letter has such a thing as a gentleman.

The girl gritted her teeth and snuffed out the second half of the swear words from her throat. After her hands and feet regained her strength, she stood up unsteadily and chased in the direction where Wuming left.

The long and narrow cave, as Wuming said, should have been formed naturally, and was opened up by the owner of the house above with a cave, and became a secret crypt in the mansion.

The cave is not long, there are several turns, and finally, at the end of the cave separated by a door, the narrowness suddenly becomes spacious.

In the darkness, the square stones were piled up straight, supporting the dome of the rock.

Wooden bookshelves are placed close to each other on the four sides of the square stone pillars. The space of each bookshelf is divided into four triangular spaces by two intersecting boards, and the papyrus rolls placed inside are covered with thick dust and cobwebs. Silence, I don't know how long it has been covered in dust.

Compared with the cave at that time, there are more artificial traces here. On the long table next to the stone wall, there is also a god statue full of dust and spider silk, surrounded by extinguished candles and golden candlesticks. It's as if you can see how much this hidden cave has been valued in the past.

Maybe the puppet used the magic of "elemental door" to ventilate the cave. The stale smell is lighter, and the air is not so dull. It's just the tranquility that has passed through the years, and it has not been disturbed by someone's intrusion. .

Affected by the quiet atmosphere, Tingna stepped lightly, and the thin-soled sandals made a slight sound on the ground. Paper rolls and clay pots were scattered everywhere, and the strange thief and the little puppet were holding the lamp , squatting in front of the statue.

A distance away from him, Tingna stood behind him. There were gold ornaments on the wooden bookshelf, and some pure gold ornaments and bracelets inlaid with precious stones on the table, but Wuming seemed to completely ignore these things. On the long table against the wall, under the statue of the god with the head of a jackal, and in front of the stone tablet standing in front of the statue, he held a notebook, illuminated by a magic lamp, and kept looking at the patterns on the stone tablet and the notebook.

The black rock was engraved with white paint, all of which were patterns, some looked like sitting people, some looked like squatting jackals, and there were semicircles with horizontal lines all over them. These abstract characters are completely independent of the language family of the common language of the mainland, and are only passed down secretly among monks and priests in the name of holy scriptures in this desert country.

"What is written on it?"

Her voice echoed in the cave.

Every time she goes to deliver food to Liliana, Tina sees these texts the most. The civilization of Sinai has different origins from all other places in the mainland, and the holy scriptures are the best evidence.

But even in this land, this kind of writing is gradually being lost, because the priests today have only a small part of the war that raged across the mainland three hundred years ago.

Even Miss Witch had to compare a lot of documents to be able to half-guess and half-certainly translate the translated text. Ting Na didn't think that only a thief full of ghost ideas could understand it.

"There may be some deviations, but I can barely understand 70% to 80% of the word-for-word translation."

"...Do you actually understand it?"

"Of course I can't read it, but with the help of this—didn't you watch me copy this down? The curator's research results, he sorted out the basic words and grammatical rules of the holy book, as long as there are not too many uncommon words."

Wuming raised the notebook in Yang's hand.

"Probably the meaning can still be understood."

"...It's that notebook... Wait a minute, have you deciphered the research?"

Tina remembered that when she was in the Alexandria Library, it seemed that the curator had indeed said that it was the result of his research on the holy scriptures that were stolen by Nameless—or transcribed.

At that time, the curator still said with disdain that his research results were all written in an encrypted method that only he knew, and there was a big difference between the apparent meaning and the actual meaning.

"Ah, that's right, because after I got it, I found that I couldn't read it and many places contradicted myself, so I went to the curator's house again, and hid in the closet in his study for two days, and learned about the editorial directly from him. The way of decoding, it can only be said that talking to oneself is not a good habit.”

Nameless answered casually, using a torch to compare the words on the slate one by one, his expression gradually became a little disappointed.

Ting Na, who hadn't moved after watching him for a long time, came to the bookshelf and wanted to take a scroll of papyrus, but.

"Don't look at those. Sinai's stone resources are not rich, so only important things, the ancient Sinai people would use stone to write. In other words, the most important thing in this place is this stone tablet, and other things on the papyrus scrolls , are secondary."

"Besides, those are also written in holy script, Miss Tingna probably can't understand."

"...Of course I know..."

Tingna looked at Wuming with some dissatisfaction. When she spoke, the man had already stood up from the stone tablet.

Under the light, the girl noticed that his expression was a bit dignified, Wuming stared closely at the stele, repeatedly looked at the notebook in her hand, but did not say a word.

"What's wrong?"

The girl couldn't help but ask.

"What is written on the stele? Is it something you want to know?"

"no."

He answered concisely, and then let out a long breath, the brows on his dark forehead were tightened, and the words he uttered from those thick lips seemed a little uncertain.

"I am chasing the remains of the six sages, but what is mentioned on this slate is about this city. I translated word by word without caring about grammar, so I can't be sure whether it is correct or not , will there be some negation, reverse negation and other syntax that I ignore, but."

But he said it anyway, looking at Tina.

"Letopolesta was buried for Sinai, dedicated to Seth, the god of the desert, and bore all the wrath of the desert because he was buried in the yellow sand, so that once the city was seen again, it broke its oath with Seth, The wrath of God will sweep across Sinai."

"……what does that mean?"

Tina blinked her eyes. This sounded like a prophecy that often appeared in knight novels, and she was not very familiar with the myths of Sinai, so she didn't understand what it meant.

"I don't know, although I don't know, but I have a bad feeling. In history, this city was once the capital of Sinai. The entire capital disappeared into the yellow sand..."

Wuming shook his head and looked at the quiet puppet.

"I don't have any information about this city in my memory."

Cang Chengshi shook his head.

Like this, Tina seems to have heard it somewhere.

But before she could think about it, Wuming turned his gaze back to her face again, and spoke seriously.

"We have to get out of here. Then, you need to tell that witch, as well as the people and scholars in the temple. I just ignore the grammar and translate the meaning. Maybe they will have different opinions."

"Hey, well, then, we just wait for someone to come to the rescue?"

"Unfortunately, I'm not interested in going to the city guards in Sinai to drink tea. Their date tea is really unspeakable, and I don't know when it will come. Let's go out by water."

After finishing speaking, Wuming turned his head and left, and Ting Na hurriedly followed behind him while asking doubtfully.

"waterway?"

"The puddle of water below when we fell, although it has been too long to cause silt, but since it has not dried up, the water veins should not be completely blocked, and all the water veins around Niroklei come from Sinai, the great mother river."

When I returned to the lower part of the cave, I raised my head, but there was still no light above.

Occasionally accompanied by a thunderous sound, some grains of sand slide down.

Beside the pool, Wuming commanded Cang Chengshi to dig out the silted sand with the magic of the atmosphere. After spending some time, the pool, which was originally only up to the waist, was dug several meters deep.

Under the water, there is a cave more than two meters wide and one meter high.

"Can you swim?"

"I grew up by the sea."

"What a coincidence, me too. But cave diving is not the same as diving in the sea. If I remember correctly, this house is quite far from the river. Even people who grew up by the sea are useless. If there is no Cangcheng Stone Now, I will obediently wait for rescue."

"Since there is the Cangcheng Stone?"

For Tina, snorkeling was also a memory from a long time ago. The girl adjusted her breathing according to the faded memory, while tightening the wide Qiunik a little.

But after thinking about it, I still took off this breathable, comfortable, and spacious linen clothing that would become heavy after absorbing water, and only wore plain underwear.

Anyway, there is no essential difference between underwear and swimsuits, and besides, she doesn't want to have accidents because the clothes are caught by something underwater.

"...I can make a large number of air bubbles that provide breathing, and I can also open the elemental door leading to the top of the breathless storm to provide air, so Wuming and Miss Tingna, hold on to me, the underground waterway may be very complicated."

Maintaining an indifferent expression, Cang Chengshi spoke calmly. Wuming, who finished the warm-up exercise, saw Tingna who was only wearing underwear, whistled flirtatiously, and was hit on the head by the little puppet with a lance for a moment.

"Let's go when you're ready."

……………………………………………………………………………

In hindsight, Tina's first cave dive was nothing memorable.

Under the dark water, the dark stone walls and stone pillars should have been the greatest danger, but there was nothing to hide in Knight's blessed eyes.

As for another dangerous factor, the coldness of the underground water veins, the girl didn't feel it at all. Undine's blessing even calmed the undercurrent that couldn't be captured visually.

Not to mention the continuous supply of air from the Cangcheng Stone, Tingna felt that maybe even if the landlubber Ai came, she would be able to spend these 20 minutes safely and float up from the depths of Nerocle.

"Girl, are you swimming? I haven't seen you in the water yet, where did you swim from?"

"Ah, eh, that... ah, ah ha ha ha..."

Her sudden appearance startled the woman who was doing laundry by the river. After staring at each other awkwardly for a moment, Tingna looked around.

Not far away are the riverside fields outside the city of Letopolesta.

—Miss Tina.

However, I didn't see the dark figure of the man anywhere, rather I got out of the narrow water vein and saw the river bed of fine sand and water plants, and the doll and the nameless disappeared. , It must have covered the figure with atmospheric magic again.

Only Cang Chengshi's voice echoed in the girl's mind.

——We don't want to be caught, so please go and inform that witch and others, please be sure to convey, this may be related to everyone's safety.

Immediately, the sound disappeared.

"..."

This means that the strange thief and the puppet have fled again.

Probably, even my little thoughts have been seen through, but forget it.

The most important thing now is to tell Liliana what was found on the stele.

Sighing, Tina took her finger off the ring she was holding and swam towards the river.

……………………………………………………………………………

Postscript of a certain day:

"Hey, hey, girl, are you going to leave like this?"

"Eh? Well, I have something important to report to the temple..."

"Didn't I say this, clothes, clothes, are you going to walk to the temple in that?"

"……ah."