The inn room was brightly lit, and Shade could clearly see that at the center of the emblem was a rectangle.
Above the rectangle was a pointed hat, with three lines outlining a face beneath it:
"What is this?"
Miss Annette explained rapidly:
"A new lead from Doctor. Hadn't he been gathering intelligence all last week? Since someone could know the ruins' location, someone must have entered them before. This symbol was found in the ruins. I could never figure out what it was, but Iluna actually recognized it."
Miss Bayes smiled reservedly and explained to Shade:
"I only just remembered it while waiting for you. This is the holy emblem of the fallen Old God, Innocent Creator. Identifying the holy emblems of Old Gods is an important examination subject in the Orthodox Church's basic training for Ring Arcanists. This deity is not well known, so even though I scored ninety-one out of a hundred, I only just remembered it."
The young woman's final sentence seemed to be praising herself.
"Old God... Innocent Creator?"
Shade looked at the holy emblem, imagining the god suddenly jumping out and saying, "Surprise."
"Not unexpected. So, those underground ruins were..."
"Left behind by His believers."
Miss Annette spoke with certainty, gesturing for Shade to pull over a chair and sit down.
"This Old God fell in the early Fifth Epoch, but His believers did not completely disappear until the Sixth Epoch. They firmly believed that their god would return. Just as Iluna said, there are very few records concerning this god. He was not powerful, and His believers were not enthusiastic about proselytizing. Judging by the timeline, Iluna and I both believe that the underground ruins in Tobesk were very likely left behind by the last group of believers of Innocent Creator."
Shade nodded,