Chương 337: Chapter 320. Discoveries And A Map

" Hyaaahhh!"" You didn't sleep well, did you, Marquess Matthew?"" No, Gwaid, I didn't really get any decent sleep."" Why is that, Matthew?"" I was excited to hang out with you guys, Gordon."" But we just decided to tag along this morning?"" No one ever taught you how to roll with something did they?"" What do you mean? My Instructor taught me how to roll with punches, kicks, even sword strikes. My Brother even knows how to shift his internal organs to dodge life threatening blows.""

Sounds like a good skill to have." I was with Gordon and his son Gwaid today. It was the afternoon of our 5th day here in Zana. All of the Count Families had been invited by Phil to stop by for dinner. Word got out that I was working on the fields and looking for Patrick and Victor's corpses and for some reason, Gordon asked if he could come along with Gwaid.

This only happened after Phil had spilled the beans that the Sarks had spent the rest of the day with us as we worked on the fields and looking around the mansion grounds for the bodies. With the work that was finished, I could safely say that the Northern Lands of Zana were back to being 100% after Lily and I got finished with them yesterday and the Northern part of the Mansion's grounds were cleared out thanks to Rex's nose.

Today, Lily had fixed up the Southern Lands of Zana and now we were in the Southern grounds of the mansion. The reason I was tired had nothing to do with excitement about today... It was more about my Wives' personal excitement as they realized that by the time we returned to the townhouse, the Fracks siblings pretty much ran to their rooms and the Night Staff was headed up by our Guards.

With a quick order from Sarah and Anna about not disturbing us unless an emergency happened, my Wives finally were able to work out all of the stress of not being able to flirt with me yesterday... I'm sore and tired now. Thankfully, Paladin's Recovery is slowly making everything better for me. As for the culprits of why I'm like this, they and Lady Diana and Gasha are joining up with Lady Kina and Tana for a tea party during this sunny but cold afternoon." Hey, Boss!

The smell isn't right, but I did find a trap door, should we check it out?" Rex approached us after looking around and sniffing for any scent that he could smell." Sure, if it's not Patrick and Victor, it could be one of the other victims, their families deserve some peace as well."" Alright! follow me!"" His voice is so... Energetic, considering his size." Gordon commented on Rex's voice. It was surprising to hear for the first time, Phil was also spooked by it.

You wouldn't think it from how energetic and happy he sounds, but Rex is already the size of a full-grown horse and apparently, his parents are about 3x bigger than he is right now. He's still young, so he is still going to grow, time will tell if he matches his parents though. Even with his size though, he made quick friends with Tana and Max yesterday.

Today, Gwaid even wanted to ride on Rex, but we decided against it, since Rex would be running around the forest-like area of the Southern part of the mansion grounds. He's already jumped above the trees to avoid walking through muddy streams that around the property." Rex is young by Courier Wolf years, he's only 8 after all."" But don't they only begin working at age 7? You Contracted an inexperienced Wolf?" Gordon seemed confused by my Contracting of Rex.

I answered his question with my honest thoughts as we began to follow Rex to the trap door he found." Well, Rex chose me, I think it'd be rude to slap away the hand that someone reaches out to me. Besides, I'm of the opinion that no Spiritkin is useless or any other such nonsense I've heard. Paula has been a Great Friend to me and an even better Summon to use during battle. The stories I've heard from all around about Dark Pixies and how people just stopped trying to Contract them sickens me.

Some people are just ungrateful."" Hm..."" What?"" Nothing, I just didn't think that you'd have thoughts like that. I mean, you've been so forgiving of us for the way we acted when we first met you, I just assumed you didn't have a mean bone in your body. I see I was wrong now."" Everyone has limits, Gordon. Besides, you guys didn't like me because of how Promethia has treated Diablos and Demons in the past. It's hard to break an outlook like that by just getting angry at someone."" You really are a Paladin.""

It's right here!" Rex laid his nose right at what looked like a tiny crack in the ground. Gordon, Gwaid and I got off of our horses then tied them to trees and walked over to Rex. I quickly began to pet his head on a job well done." Hey! Boss! If something's down there, can I get a reward!?"" Sure, what do you want?"" Do you have any more of that honey fish that I had before we left for here?" Rex was talking about the feast that we had before leaving for Zana.

It was a fish that Charlotte and Delcan had brought from Darkheim. When we tried eating it, Rex quickly asked for some, and I gave in quickly, like feeding a dog who's sitting under the table looking up at you.... I couldn't help it. As for the fish now however... Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings." I'd need to check and see if Sarah has any, but if she does, consider it yours."" Yes!" Rex seemed ready to cry tears of joy.

Well, maybe I'll slide him some even if we don't find anything down this hole he found?" There's a cover, let me get it!" Gwaid took to the ground quickly and picked up and threw a thin metal sheet that was painted to blend in with the ground around it. What we found when the top was gone, was a staircase. I quickly used my Holy Flames and had it float around me to act as a light source." Are you sure Gwaid should come with us?""

To be honest, I'd rather he stays, but he's already seen terrible things from that night, so some corpses shouldn't be an issue... At least I hope so." With Gordon's answer, we begin to walk down the stairs into what would be a dark basement, if not for my flames lighting the way." What the hell?" Gordon was shocked by what he saw, 3 corpses chained to the Northern wall of the room. They were all dressed in black and green ceremonial robes with random symbols drawn on them.

They reminded me of the written language that ancient Egyptians used back in my world, only the letters seemed to feel...

"Corrupted", might be the word? It's like my mana is telling me that the symbols are bad news... I can feel the desire to destroy the symbols begin to creep into my mind. I looked away since destroying the symbols could set off a trap down here for all that I know. As I thought about that, I focused my eyes on the floor in front of the Western wall. A dark-green line ran from each of the feet of the corpses and met in the middle of the floor to form one long line that travelled into the Western wall."

What is that?" Gwaid asked a question, he was behind me, so I turned to look at him for a split second before I returned to my discovery on the floor. My plan of going back to the floor backfired as I saw something familiar." Is it a mummy?"" What's a mummy?" Gwaid didn't know what the word meant. It seems Gordon doesn't either. What Gwaid saw was a person... A Demon wrapped in white cloth. However, his limbs were twisted and contorted into unnatural positions.

Both of the Gorses looked at me for an answer to Gwaid's question." A mummy is a body that's been dried out and wrapped in cloth to preserve it. But I've never heard of it being a practice here in Diablos." I turned to look at Gordon before asking the next question I needed an answer to." Do you know of any Ancient Demon Tribes that practiced that, Gordon?"" I've never heard of something like that before... So, no..."" Well then, I guess we can lay that on the feet of the God Of The Blackwoods.

But I have another question... Why that and why there?"" What do you mean, Matthew?" Gwaid seemed confused again." If it's a sacrifice for the God your father and I fought, Gwaid, then why isn't it chained to the wall with the others?"" I- I don't know?"" Yeah... I think I do." I started to walk towards the mummy sitting on the floor of the dark basement that we were in." What are you doing!?" Gordon didn't like what I was doing."

Confirming who it is, if it's too much for you, look at the chained ones and see if you recognize any of them because I don't, Okay?"" O-Okay. Gwaid, come with me." Gordon and Gwaid walked back to the wall with the chained victims on it. I split my flame into 2 and sent it to hover over the Northern wall. I walked to the mummy and summoned Scarlet to cut the bandages off of the face of it... I was right." This one is Patrick Harvey." I called to let them know who it was."

These are commoners that I've seen around before, but... Why?"" They're sacrifices. If I had to guess, it's part of a ritual to either empower or summon the God Of The Blackwoods. There are certain criteria that need to be met of the victims for them to be used as sacrifices, Patrick didn't fit them, so instead, they wrapped and hid him down here." /RUMBLE! /" Calm down, Matthew!"

"!!!" My anger was reaching a boiling point... I thought I was handling this better... My mana began to leak out of me and effect my surroundings... I need more training." Sorry... It's just difficult to see him like that. Victor's body isn't here. Is he where that line leads?"" Line?" I split my flame again and sent the newly formed flame over to where the dark-green line on the floor meets the wall."

Look at the floor, the corpses all have a line that eventually combine to that dark-green line and it goes into the wall and probably leads elsewhere... Wait? You've got to be kidding me."" What!?"" Come look at this wall!" I looked up as I explained about the lines and I was nearly speechless at what I was seeing." What is that, Father?" Gordon and Gwaid looked at the same thing I was looking at." It... it looks like-"" A map..." The Southern wall had a giant map drawn on it, along with strange symbols on it.

multiple squares and triangles were thrown around at different angles, but the points all seemed to meet up at certain locations, one of them being circled down on the bottom of the wall, where it begins to meet the floor." Anyone recognize the map?"" No?" Gwaid answered, but Gordon didn't. I looked at him and it looked like my suspicion was right." It's the mansion's grounds, isn't it?" Gordon didn't answer me, he just looked at me for a moment and nodded his head."

That circle down there, you think we're in that?"" Yes... We're exactly there if my mental map is right."" We wasted a day then."" What?" From Gordon's answer, I realized something, Gwaid didn't know about the answer I came to, so I looked at him and began to explain." Gwaid, look at the map, you notice how there's 4 places where the corner points of the shapes all meet?"" Y-Yeah?"" One of those places is here, that means there's 3 other spots. But none of them touch anywhere in the North.

I wasted a day yesterday looking in the wrong place. The places are the East, Southeast, Southwest and West. Why it's like that I don't know, but this is good for us."" Why is it good for us?"" We know where to go now, and if I'm right, all of the victims will be like those 3 over there. We can't save any of them, but we can give their families peace of mind and a funeral, that's more than a lot of other people can have." Gordon nodded to my words and Gwaid understood what I wanted to do."

I'll let Byron know and form the search teams for the places on the map."" No, it's fine I'll-"" Matthew, go see your wives. Your mana shaking the room should be a good enough sign to tell that you need to spend some time with them, it's important to know when to take a break. I know we couldn't do much against him during the fight, but us Counts can organize a search party and transport the victims' bodies. An important part of being a Leader is knowing when you need to rest. It's your turn to rest."

Gordon seemed steadfast in what he said... I guess my emotions are showing on my face. I don't know why, but even though I didn't know any of the victims except for Patrick, something just didn't sit right with me about all of this... It's just so wrong......... I miss Sarah and Anna." Okay." I nodded my head and we left the basement. All I knew walking forward was that I was glad to be in the light again.

I was even happier when I was finally able to hug Sarah and Anna when I arrived back at the Fracks's townhouse. People were surprised at my actions when I hugged them, but Sarah and Anna just wrapped their hands around me. Their arms were so warm, and I just wanted to keep myself wrapped in them for a long time.