City of Pearls (7)
That fleeting fascination was shattered when the servant brought out dessert.
The two Angeliums opened the bamboo steamer with a commotion and ate the dessert while [strengthening] their hands because it was so hot.
The twins, who were at an age where rice cakes were better than flowers, were grateful to Kleio.
“I am glad to see you,” said Melchior, sitting down on a silk-covered chair at one end of the drawing room.
“Don’t worry about me and just talk. I’m trying to find a way to destroy this remembered world.”
“…Thank you for your consideration.”
First, Clayo opened the circle and used [Soundproofing][Shielding] magic.
While the twins munched on lard-wrapped steamed rice cakes with dates and walnuts, served with rice and sugared lotus seeds, Cleo explained why the old man had welcomed them so warmly.
After hearing the whole story, Chel said.
“I would definitely grant the request of a peerless singer to find her missing lover if circumstances permitted, but this time it would be difficult.”
It was indeed a Chelsea Down reaction.
Even a ghost from a past world that had already disappeared seemed to want to grant the beauty’s request.
Clayo calmed the relaxed mood.
Chel was their first dungeon since Queen’s Garden, and for the twins, it was their first adventure ever.
I had to be vigilant, but I had to take what I could get.
Cleo continued his briefing, trying to ignore Melchior, who was sitting on a silk-covered chair, his hands clasped together and holding a teacup.
“I appreciate your hospitality, but we have other things to do. According to my stigmata, the master clock here is the clock tower of the customs building. I don’t know if that’s true, but…”
Clio hesitated to share the information he knew, because he was not sure.
“Usually it’s pretty accurate, but Ray is strangely unsure of his predictions.”
“You can tell if it’s long or short by breaking the watch.”
“But isn’t that the customs building you saw on your way from the river to the mansion?”
“Just as you said, the pillars were built closely together and there was a tall clock tower on top.”
“Ray, does that prediction include the clock striking every 15 minutes?”
“Oh, that’s right.”
“Then that’s it.”
“It’s a famous landmark of this city.”
Clio was speechless.
‘It was so easy to find the master clock.’
But if you think about it, the original ‘City of Pearls’ wasn’t a dungeon with any great magical tools or great adversity.
‘A chance to level up.’
Isn’t that the true role of this place?
The twins were also the infamous masters of dawn training.
Since I had already trained hard, if I just pushed myself a little more in the dungeon, I might be able to advance to the next level without much difficulty.
‘Then, rather than running over there and breaking the clock right away, I’d rather let him swing his sword a bit in the remaining time.’
I thought I should make use of the time until the Japanese artillery bombardment began.
Clayo’s expression suddenly brightened as he thought that he could develop the children’s skills in this way.
And then, as if oil had been applied to his tongue, his speech became fluent.
“The streets here are crowded and there are a lot of people everywhere. Rather than making a fuss and destroying the Master Clock, why don’t we wait a bit and deal with it at night?”
“What if Ray says that?”
“Then what are you going to do until then? I’ve already filled my stomach.”
“So, what do you think about practicing swordsmanship?”
“What? You came all the way here?”
In front of the children who looked at him with distrust, Clayo diligently sold the medicine.
The twins were excellent swordsmen, a fact Melchior had known for many lifetimes.
Since the dungeon’s experience point increase function was also roughly known, Cleo didn’t pay any special attention to his words in front of Melchior.
Skills are gained whether Melchior sees or not. It was not the time to pay attention to his mood.
‘Anyway, I guess he’s not even interested in practicing swordsmanship right now.’
“If you practice here, it’ll be completely different from outside. You’ll quickly become much more proficient at everything. Your sword will also become much stronger.”
Lippi and Leticia reacted immediately to the words, “Becoming stronger.” If they were puppies, their ears would have perked up.
“okay?”
“really?”
Slurp.
Iron griddle.
“You’ll know once you try it!”
In an instant, the twins drew their swords and shot out into the garden like comets.
.
.
.
In the garden where the afternoon was waning, the twins’ four swords crossed.
When I moved around, I saw that Clayo’s words were not so much an exaggeration, and both Lipido and Leticia became silent and focused on their training.
The sisters, who had been fighting as rivals their entire lives, knew each other’s every move, so the flow of their sword fights was like water and their footwork looked like a dance.
However, the killing intent carried by the sword was not for practice, so if he let his guard down even for a moment, the tips of his hair fluttering in the wind would be cut off, and the sleeve he was holding the sword would be cut off.
Chel, who was watching the twins’ duel, turned her head to Kleio and whispered.
It was a small sound that Melchior, sitting far away from the twins who were absorbed in their duel, could not have heard.
“As you can see, they’re not really kids. Sir Clio tends to be overprotective of everyone.”
It seemed like Clayo had found out what was really going on.
I had to respond with a joke so that he wouldn’t tease me, but I couldn’t open my mouth easily.
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Like the two guards standing at the gate of the Shie Mansion, these men who were protecting the peace of this city were armed with guns, but they all appeared to be ordinary people with no apparent etheric sensitivity.
It would not be difficult for an inspector using a sword to subdue them, but if surrounded by the police or military, it would be difficult to fight without taking any lives.
A confrontation between multiple twins who were still immature in controlling their strength had a high chance of turning into a one-sided massacre.
That kind of use of force irrevocably changes the minds of those involved.
After all, a great knight is a great weapon.
Someday the twins will also be mass murdering people, but Kleio hopes that today isn’t the day they start.
Chell’s silver gaze, which seemed to pierce through people without even attempting to see through them, slowly softened.
She patted Clayo’s shoulder lightly.
“Of course, I agree with Ray’s idea of not making a fuss and taking care of it quietly during the night. What do you think, Your Majesty?”
Melchior, who had been quietly emptying his teacup without joining in the conversation, responded to Chel, who had been noisily inviting him into the conversation, in an unusually quiet manner.
“Let us follow your plan.”
“Thank you for your generosity.”
“No problem.”
While Chel and Melchior exchanged diplomatic smiles and empty words of no information value, the twins’ fight was also decided.
Lippi’s shortsword got caught in Leticia’s Estok Guard and was thrown to the floor.
Chaenggrang!
Leticia cheered, raising both her sword-wielding hands. The golden ether that was less withdrawn swirled around her like a blast.
“Hahaha! I won this time.”
“Tch! Did you do any special training at the center?”
“No. I just did a lot of digging.”
Leticia, who had been sticking with Arthur for a month, strangely began to speak like the prince.
Lippi grumbled and picked up the sword with the golden grass shards on it.
“No. Don’t say that. Let’s play one more game.”
“However much!”
Ss …
Boom!
Now, the fight between the twins, who were aiming at each other step by step with the momentum of shaking up all directions, was no easy feat.
Clayo quickly performed a magic ritual, worried that the servants would come out again.
It was a form that eliminated light by adding [reduction] to [soundproofing] and [shielding].
Without “perception”, it was difficult to follow the twin swordsmanship with the eyes, and in the second duel, it was Leticia who fell to the floor with her knees broken.
It was only a few dozen minutes of practice, but the two children, panting for breath, looked like they had realized something.
“If you practice here… .”
“What wasn’t possible is now possible?”
Chel barged in between the twins, who were now holding their swords again, their snarling arguments now forgotten.
It was a way to kill two birds with one stone, as it allowed him to cool down the children’s excitement while also making his body feel tense.
“Are you guys just having fun among yourselves?”
“Chel, if you wanted to join, you should have told me sooner!”
“You guys looked so happy that I didn’t bother you. Haha.”
Phew!
Finally, Chel’s bastard sword was pulled out of its scabbard, scattering bright golden aura.
The twins, who had formed a large formation on the same side, began to attack Chell.
The black energy popped out.
The branches of the old zinnias planted around the pond broke off, and the star-like petals of the thyme fell all at once, spreading their fragrance far and wide.
As Cleo was pushing ether into the magic formula once more, he saw a hand reaching out from under his long sleeves and absentmindedly picking up a branch of camellia flowers buried in the white petals of thyme.
The intense realization that came at that moment cooled down Clayo’s slightly excited mood.
Originally, the rose of Sharon was a summer flower, the chrysanthemum was a spring flower, and the camellia was a flower that bloomed while enduring the cold.
When he was born into the world of history, he was a boy from the southern provinces.
I would look up southern flowers that grew in the sea breeze in the library’s encyclopedia, and I would repeat their names one by one as I held my mother’s rough hand as she returned home from work at the oyster factory.
My mother’s faint smile, her face like a pink rose flower.
This place and that place are not the same, and the space where flowers of all seasons bloom together is just a gap left by confused memories.
The faint familiarity I had felt in the Far Eastern city was shed in a gloomy realization.
The only reason he came here was to ensure that this space and time would not be completely forgotten.
But no one can know what this garden really looked like in August 1937. Myths tend to omit facts like that.
We ultimately do not know how long the Great Flood lasted or how the people and animals aboard the large ships survived.
The editing of memory is merciless, and what is handed down is only a fraction of what actually happened.
Melchior covered the wound on the back of his hand with his sleeves down, caressing the camellia branch with only his fingertips, and spoke softly.
“Winter flowers bloom here in summer.”
“This space is infinitely close to reality, but it is not reality.”
“Even while saying that, he tries to save the goblins who stay here. This wizard acts inconsistently.”
“Even if it is only a shadow, I did not want to cut down the figure of a human being who speaks and moves like a human being for the sake of convenience.”
“So that’s why you tricked the children of the Angelium family into having a swordsmanship match?”
Clio let out a faint sigh.
‘There’s a tiger behind the fox. My friend and my enemy. Why are all these people around me?’
The author is always unpredictable and arbitrary, but I felt that he was even more so in this dungeon.
Instead of pushing the helpless wizard any further, Melchior sniffs the scent of camellia.
Unlike the flowers of the southern islands that Cleo knew, the camellias of the continent have a fragrance.
A beautiful woman in a white robe is standing there holding a camellia branch, just like a painting.
He is not Isolt. Yet, Cleo cannot help but think of Isolt, who died while saving the young daughter of a warehouse keeper at the port of Serica where camellias bloomed.
‘Serica is different from China in many ways, but it is also a country that was created with an awareness of the world of history… So, perhaps the city of pearls reminds the author of another past that he has forgotten.’
Not only Melchior, but even the memories of Tasseton.
The fearsome Swordmaster, the Duke of the North, knelt and wept before the children, Vesna, and Vesna’s men.
As if trying to stop someone from going to see where they will die.
Rather than this dungeon being dangerous, wasn’t it an action influenced by the incident in Serika where Isolt died?
The truth is unknown, and Clayo’s goal is not to explore the inside story, but to destroy the dungeon.
Arthur, who was left alone to shoulder the mantle of the King’s deputy, was also worried, and he was also worried that the Duke of Armoric was running wild in places where his lord could not see.
No matter what anyone says, he is the one who left a scar on Arthur’s forehead.
‘If possible, it would be best to break the Master Clock today and return as quickly as possible.’
