"Please, this way." Veylin ignored Marquis Golden Ear's expression, as though he had seen a ghost, and turned toward a passage beside the square.
An iron gate rose with the grinding of a winch, revealing an entrance leading underground.
Unlike the dark, damp insect nest the Marquis had imagined, this tunnel was wide enough for two carriages to travel abreast. Its walls were not rough earth and stone, but a ceramic-like hard surface sintered by some high-temperature method. Every ten meters, an Alchemical Light Orb was set into the wall, casting a soft white glow.
There was even a breeze flowing through the air.
"Underground?" Marquis Golden Ear covered his nose and mouth with a silk handkerchief and hesitated at the entrance. "I dislike places that resemble tombs. Besides, it must be full of..."
"Full of possibilities for restoring everything to 'cleanliness,'" Caroline interjected at just the right moment.
Instead of speaking with her earlier barbs, she folded her fan and stepped aside, smiling with genuine warmth.
"Your Excellency, aren't the Jade Greenhouse's greatest troubles precisely that uncontrollable 'excess' and 'buildup'? What lies inside is the ultimate solution, one that can draw away your burdens and restore your domain to a pristine state. Don't you want to see for yourself how a problem that has plagued your family for a century can be solved?"
For an elf plagued by his domain's ecological problems and an extreme obsession with cleanliness, the temptation was irresistible.
"Restore my domain... to a pristine state?" Something shifted in the Marquis's eyes.
He lowered the hand covering his nose and mouth. Though his brow remained slightly furrowed as he looked into the deep tunnel, his steps no longer faltered. He stepped forward of his own accord. "I hope it is as you say. Lead the way.