Chapter 178, Section 175: The Eerie Sounds from the Basement
As the Two Suns rose into the sky once more, the people in the territory emerged one after another from the several restored buildings in the Night-Kirin City Royal Palace area, beginning a new day.
Today is March 8th, 997 of the God Emperor. Redbird has been in Night-Kirin City for several days now. She has been following her sister Nila and will only set off from Rothe Castle at the end of the month.
Along the way, Nila kept telling her how vast the future territory would be and how enormous the lord's mansion they would live in would be.
However, when everyone arrived at the Palace Hill in the city, they were still shocked by the hundreds of meters high hill and buildings.
At least Nila hadn't spoken for a long time.
Although they appeared to be staying in a super luxurious castle, their actual living conditions and pace of life remained largely unchanged. They still lived in tents every day and still had morning, noon, and evening classes and skills training.
After waking up, all children aged 6-15 spend half an hour in the Royal Palace area for morning exercises, followed by breakfast and then morning classes.
Although Redbird felt like she had been constantly traveling with the territory since arriving last year, she never changed the fact that she ate with the other children every day, attended classes together, and waited for the Knight brothers to give her some Magic Beast Meat.
"Children, gather around! We're about to start our morning run!" Teacher Nancy was calling to all the children.
The running distance wasn't far; it was just laps around a side courtyard of the Royal Palace.
As the Redbird ran, she looked at her classmates. Since she started attending the territory's courses, several of her friends had stopped attending for various reasons.
For example, Patch awakened his Bloodline and joined the Knight Order. Also, several girls have reached the age of 15 and no longer follow the other children, but instead follow Teacher Nancy exclusively.
It is said that the lord invented a "code" that all girls over the age of 15 who could read needed to learn, so a special class was formed for this purpose.
Redbird will soon be 15 years old, and she looks forward to joining the "Cipher" class and becoming someone useful to the territory and the lord.
However, neither Nancy nor Nila believed that Redbird would be accepted into the class.
" Redbird, just focus on your studies and eat more Magic Beast Meat. Your future will be even brighter than theirs!"
This is what Nancy said; Redbird had no idea what an even more exciting future awaited.
The morning flew by, and it was time for the children to take their chosen courses in the afternoon.
Redbird Redbird had nowhere to go again. It had no interest in any of the skills such as leatherworking, woodworking, weaving, horse breeding, or brewing.
The entire territory has now become a huge construction site, with all the adults repairing buildings under the direction of Archon Lannia (assistant).
Children who choose technology courses will run off to work with the adults every afternoon.
The Redbird couldn't do those technical jobs, so she was left with singing, dancing, and clerical work.
But Nancy, who was in charge of teaching reading and writing, is now focused on the " Cipher Class ".
As for singing and dancing, Redbird gave up on it after watching Qiu Cao's delicate figure and vigorous dance moves every day.
A bored girl wandered aimlessly through the Royal Palace, exploring magnificent halls, exquisite staircases, and tranquil secret rooms filled only with mirrors. The Redbird wandered through the palace as if exploring a maze.
"Such a huge palace, and I'm the only one who can come and repair it bit by bit. I don't know how many centuries it will take to finish," a somewhat familiar voice complained.
"There's no other way. Wendy and Sister Lily have both gone to the Salt Mine, Sister Sophia is in the Magic Workshop, and Firefly and Kaiyi are in the Animal Pen. Only you can repair these Rune," another girl kept encouraging the one in front of her.
"Hey, what's that child here? You... you're Redbird, aren't you?" A familiar voice called out to her.
"You are... Sister Qiongya?" Redbird finally saw Johnny, who was repairing the Magic Array with a magic Engraving Knife and Ink, and her little assistant in the dark corner of the room.
"It's me. What are you doing here? We haven't repaired it yet; it's dangerous. Don't go in."
"Oh, okay," the girl who had been stopped had no choice but to go back to the stairwell.
"Luckily, the lighting Rune here have all been repaired, otherwise this child would have definitely gotten lost." After Redbird left, Johnny kept muttering to herself.
The staircase hall is surrounded by a tall jade sculpture in the center. The Redbird descends the stairs as if circling the sculpture. When it reaches the bottom, it finally sees the hind hooves of the horse under the Knight in the sculpture.
Redbird no longer remembered that when she came in before, she had never seen the horse's hind hooves on the sculpture still covered in gold paint. She simply followed her previous impression and opened a door behind the sculpture, preparing to go through a corridor to the camp in the cellar.
According to her memory, she should have reached the cellar shortly after passing through the corridor, but instead, Redbird now saw a new staircase leading downwards at the end of the corridor.
The girl's childlike curiosity led her to continue downwards. The surrounding light gradually dimmed, and the scene before her was dark and quiet, so that all she could hear was the pounding of her own heart.
With a turn, the last glimmer of light from upstairs was cast onto the walls, while the steps below were completely swallowed by darkness.
"Just one last step, and if it's still a flight of stairs, I'll run up!" The girl looked back at the wall reflecting the light and made up her mind.
"One step, two steps... fifth step... tenth step, time to go back... oh?"
Just as the girl was about to turn around and go upstairs, she saw a faint light on the steps at the last moment.
That eerie light was just like the one Lord Landen had shown them on the armor months ago; according to the lord, it was a sign of the flow of Magic Power.
The " Magic Power " once again piqued the girl's curiosity.
Ten steps, twenty steps, fifty steps.
As the stairs led deeper, the eerie magical light became increasingly pronounced.
Finally, after the Redbird had taken countless steps, the eerie light on the staircase connected to a flat area in front of her. The light formed a complex pattern on the ground and then extended to the wall directly opposite the staircase.
The Redbird had never seen such a magnificent pattern.
"Who are you?"
"Huh?" The Redbird suddenly heard someone calling her, but she looked around and couldn't find anyone.
"Who are you? Who has come to the gates of Night-Kirin City?" A warm voice entered the girl's mind.
"My lord, I am Redbird." Only a great Mage possesses such power, so Redbird dared not lie.
" Redbird? Whose child is this? Are you a descendant of the Gallop Royal Family?" the voice asked.
"My lord is... his ancestors were kings of Gallop, protected by His God Emperor His Majesty." The Redbird sparrow looked around but couldn't find anyone, so it dared not move.
"Tch... even with true protection back then, the country wouldn't have been destroyed." The voice scoffed, showing absolutely no respect for the God Emperor. "Go and call your master down."
"My lord, I am merely his Territory Residents." The Redbird felt a little aggrieved; how could a mere child command his lord?
"Then I'll give you a little gift; he'll come down when he sees you."
The Redbird could no longer hear the sound. Suddenly, she felt her body burning hot, as if all the blood in her body was being boiled. She felt dizzy, had tinnitus, blurred vision, and the world was spinning.
The girl suddenly lay down on the ground, accompanied by a hissing sound.