After a brief exchange of greetings, Xia You leaned back in his wicker chair and looked at Ash. "What brought you here?"
Ash scratched his head. "We heard on the road that there was a Harvest Festival here. We figured we didn't have anything else to do anyway, so we came to take a look."
Just as expected.
Xia You nodded to himself.
He was about to speak when Ash seemed to remember something. He leaned forward, his eyes lighting up:
The boy had always had a keen nose for excitement. Wherever there was an event, there he would be.
"Oh, right! When I was coming up from the foot of the mountain just now, I accidentally wandered into a cave and ended up inside the mountain. It was full of glowing stones, like crystals, and they were huge! It felt like the whole mountain was hollow!"
"This mountain is hollow?" Xia You gave it some thought. "Probably only part of it. In an ancient city like this, it's perfectly normal to have secret passages dug through the mountain, or hidden chambers carved out."
Dawn listened beside him, her head tilted curiously.
"And then?"
"Then I followed the cave upward, and after walking for a while, I ended up inside the castle on the mountaintop." Ash gestured expansively. "That castle is huge too! There are lots of rooms, and a big terrace where you can see the whole town! You should go take a look too!"
As Xia You listened, his gaze swept discreetly over the distant Sword of the Vale, visible only as an outline in the darkness, but he said nothing.
Just then, the inn's wooden door was pushed open.
They all turned.
Cogita walked out.
Unlike before, she had now changed her clothes.
Instead of the simply