Tang Qi felt the noise around him growing louder. The piano music, which had once been pleasant, had become nothing but racket.
He had lost count of how many times Sylvie in Dreams had repeated.
Just as he would never know how many times everything he had seen today—the guards, the red dress, Van Vreene... their lives—had repeated during this sorrowful wedding.
It was as if they were imprisoned in the mist, trapped in an endless cycle.
He said goodbye to Van Vreene, left the dust-covered, rotting banquet hall, and led the group toward the corridor in the center.
There was an entrance to the tomb there, which they had just learned about from Van Vreene—
"At the end of the corridor is a chapel. It once housed a shrine to a god—Grandfather said the god's name had been forgotten. After I die, if an irreversible crisis ever threatens the land, pray devoutly, and perhaps it will grant us a chance to survive.
"Beneath the statue is the family tomb, where my family and I are buried."
A red carpet ran along the corridor. Dozens of suits of armor with no owners stood on either side, interspersed with several gargoyles. Some of the armor bore dents, and dried cobwebs clung to its iron boots.
The ancient castle's guards seemed to recognize Tang Qi as a descendant of the Night Raven Family. As long as he didn't cause trouble, they were no different from statues.
The chapel doors were shut tight. Tang Qi shoved hard, but they felt like a massive stone wall, not budging in the slightest.
"Is it locked?"
Tang Qi's earlier assessment of the situation had made such a deep impression that Arthur and Fide didn't question it. Instead, they asked:
"Where could the key be?"
"..."
Dawn