"Are you sure?"
Shade nearly rose to ask that question. Kin-slaying and human sacrifice represented many things in ritual studies. Such cruel acts also once again confirmed Megan and Audrey's long-held fears—their ancestor definitely bore ill will toward all his descendants.
"But why?"
Professor Manning, an ordinary person, could not understand.
"She doesn't know either. She didn't know while she was alive, and she doesn't know now that she's dead. I can sense that she is also afraid of that place and wants to escape from it. She was not very old when she died, yet the memories of her life made even a soul that had lost its humanity instinctively afraid."
"What else does she know?"
Shade asked again. Durut Giles nodded.
"At first, she could only repeat very simple sentences, telling me to collect some strange things. I originally thought they were items that could restore her soul to normal, but after I gathered them all, the materials merely turned into a useless key."
He undid his buttons, removed the pendant hanging around his neck, and handed it to Shade.
It was a key made of white crystal. Both its size and the shape of its Key Pillar resembled the two Megan had already obtained. Sapphire and obsidian were set into the front and back of the key's handle. Held up to the light, it revealed the phantom image of a little girl swinging on a swing.
"The hardest material to find was White Stone Crystal with natural black spots. It took me great effort to learn that someone in Tobesk's black market had such material. That was why I traveled all the way from Wilundell to seek refuge with my distant relative, Viscount Chris Rendall. I should call him Uncle, but the curse I received from tomb-robbing