Chapter 42

“Whew… Whew…”

Near the western mountain peak of Akerandir.

Roan let out a rough breath as he found the place he was looking for just in time.

‘How is it that climbing the mountain takes longer than listening to lectures?’

An absurd situation where he couldn’t tell if he had come to the Holy Academy or enrolled in a mountaineering school!

Now that he thought about it, let’s weigh it.

Did climbing take longer than class time?

Yes.

Was climbing more beneficial than listening to classes?

Yes.

‘Thinking about it this way, it really is a mountaineering school.’

Roan lightly accepted this and moved his feet again.

Before him lay the ruins of an old tower, mostly collapsed, leaving only the remains of the first floor and half of the second floor.

The name of the tower was the ‘Watchman’s Nest’.

It was a vestige of the past, from the days before Akerandir was established, when magic beasts and enemies swarmed this place.

Perhaps almost no one knew of it, except for Harden and a few professors.

Screeech—

Roan opened the door and stepped inside.

With every step he took, thick dust fluttered in the air.

Cobwebs swayed, and the gathered bugs vanished in an instant.

Inside, iron utensils used in the past were still rolling around, but none of them seemed usable now.

‘No need to bother looking at the first and second floors.’

Roan moved his feet quickly.

Here and there on the first floor were graves of similar-looking junk.

However, Roan didn’t even spare a glance at the others and headed straight toward a grave in the corner.

Thud— Clatter—

He then began to clear away the debris with his feet without hesitation.

Before long, the floor beneath was revealed.

Screeech—

Fumbling around the wooden planks of the floor, he succeeded in finding the handle of the secret door.

Below, a rickety wooden staircase that looked as if it would collapse at any moment stretched down into the dark.

‘In the game, it didn’t really collapse…’

Roan carefully placed his foot on it.

Creaaak—

As he put all his weight on it, the staircase wobbled precariously, but it did not break easily.

The staircase leading to the basement was quite long and dark.

An ordinary person would have needed a torch or a light-emitting stone to illuminate the way.

‘This is where being a black mage comes in handy.’

Roan was a black mage who made the darkness his home!

To him, who possessed eyes imbued with black mana, darkness could not be much of an obstacle.

How far did he go down?

Thud—

The stairs surprisingly led to a natural cave.

Following the cave a little further inside, a stone gate appeared, carved with a goddess on each side.

Although the outlines and protrusions had worn down significantly with the passage of time, Roan knew their divine names.

‘Goddess of the Sunset, Jay; Goddess of the Dawn, Day.’

Though not very famous now, they were twin goddesses whose influence was quite strong among watchmen before the Holy Empire and for a few hundred years after its founding.

Even now, they remained standing at the feet of Hiloa, who symbolized the sun.

Roan grabbed the door handle and infused it with mana.

In “God and Devil,” unless there was a special case, there was no distinction between mana and divine power when resolving gimmicks.

This was especially true for such ancient relics.

Moreover, judging by Ulli’s class, Roan’s black mana was practically treated as divine power.

As Roan’s mana flowed along the door handle and through the gate.

Swoosh—

The letters of ‘Ashparun’, the ancient magical language used before modern Hilonian and magic circles, shook off the dust and glowed.

Hummmm—

At the same time, the False Divinity vibrated slightly.

Letters that he was seeing after a truly long time, which he had forgotten while asleep!

The sentiment of authority was transmitted to Roan.

‘…You’re trying to do something weird again, aren’t you?’

However, Roan coldly dismissed the authority’s emotion.

Hummm—!

Whether the authority shuddered slightly or not.

Roan chanted the activation phrase to open the door.

“What vanishes behind the sunset is not the sun, but the shadow; what revives at dawn is the watchman’s claw.”

A maxim and a battle cry passed down among the watchmen.

The mana spreading along the gate finally completed its shape by forming the patterns of the sun and the moon.

Rumbleeee—

At the same time, the heavy stone gate opened to the left and right.

However, the inside was not some space, but just a cave wall like any other place.

Roan nodded as if he had expected this.

“I guess it’s still a bit early.”

The secret door in the Watchman’s Nest was activated exactly at the end of sunset, the moment the sun slipped below the horizon.

Roan stood for a moment, waiting for the door to activate.

Since he had come in after roughly checking the sun’s position, he didn’t think he would have to wait very long.

Just as he had anticipated.

The moment the sun illuminating Akerandir vanished from the horizon.

Swoosh—

An orange light resembling the sunset gently filled the inside of the cave and soon rushed into the door frame.

Before long, the inside turned into a bizarre portal brightly lit with a warm glow.

“I should get in quickly.”

Since it was a portal created exactly at the end of the sunset, it would close quickly as well.

Roan quickly moved his steps with his eyes closed.

***

When Roan opened his eyes again.

“Hmm…”

His surroundings were completely covered in an orange fog.

A world of thick fog, so dense that he couldn’t see even a step ahead, let alone right under his feet.

This place was the illusion dimension, the ‘Sunset Hill’.

It was the dimension where the ancient watchmen and the priests who served Jay and Day slept.

Roan did not bother to gauge the direction and started walking straight ahead.

When finding the path on the Sunset Hill, there was no need for a map.

Even if one walked randomly.

“Found it.”

Because in the end, there was only one place to arrive at.

The orange fog seemed to gradually thin, and soon, a low hill and the tower on top of it revealed themselves.

The ruins on Akerandir’s hill had also looked like that in the past.

Someone in the direction of the tower shouted upon noticing Roan’s approach.

It was a solemn voice that echoed as if it were reverberating, even though there was nothing around.

“O living one! Why have you come here?”

“I, Roan Darc, pay my respects to the watchman of Jay who looks down upon the world even as the sunset fades.”

Roan first bowed politely to greet them.

There were several ways to enter the tower, but building a friendly relationship made it easier both when entering and after going inside.

This voice did not belong to a single watchman.

It was the collective sum of the souls of countless watchmen sleeping in this dimension.

Soon, it was the tower itself and the will of the dimension.

A polite greeting of respect was of great help.

‘I had a hard time finding the greetings of the ancient religion, but it all helps.’

It sounded a bit complicated, but considering the meaning, it wasn’t that difficult.

For example, the greeting Roan gave could be interpreted as follows:

I’m Roan Darc, so don’t bother me and open the door, will you?

Soon, the tower’s voice returned, significantly softened.

“A polite visitor indeed! Darc, state your business!”

“I have come to take the fragment of a god that is no longer needed by the watchmen. For Jay and Day must look upon the world even outside the sunset and dawn.”

I’m thinking of taking a useless item, so cooperate a little.

“A fragment of a god… Darc. To obtain that, you must pass a difficult trial. Are you prepared?”

We won’t just give it to you, so go back if you’re scared.

“Naturally, I am prepared to uphold the sun.”

I’ll handle it myself, so just open up.

“Very well. Visitor, enter!”

Screeech—

The small door at the bottom of the tower opened with the sound of hinges.

Although the inside of the tower belonged to the Sunset Hill, it could be considered a different space.

Jay and Day, who were in charge of the sunset and dawn, also had a deep connection with time.

The inside of the tower was a place where the future, past, and present were mixed together.

Unlike the outside where one would arrive at the tower no matter how they walked.

This interior was a dangerous place where one could easily get lost in time forever.

The inside was wider and cleaner than expected.

The colors of the corridor leading deep inside were different in three parts: left, center, and right.

Also, besides the voice from the outside, numerous voices murmured around Roan.

— Look at that… it’s a living person…

— They say it’s a Darc…

— Darc…? Who is that…?

The voices of the souls sleeping here.

“The left is the past, the center is the present, and the right is the future. Keep that in mind.”

“Understood.”

Roan nodded at the tower’s voice.

It was a fact he already knew.

Furthermore, the deeper one went into the tower, the concepts of left, center, and right would swap without them realizing it.

If one did not stay sharp, they would end up as a lost child trapped in the gaps of time.

Roan slowly began to walk along the center corridor.

“The fragment of the god is in the Garden of Dawn.”

Once again, the tower’s voice.

At the same time, Roan felt a slight sense of mismatch.

‘It changed.’

He clearly thought he was walking in the center.

To do so, he had to walk close to the wall of the center, on the opposite side of the left.

This was what it meant for the concepts of the center, left, and right to swap.

As Roan felt the mismatch and focused his mind again.

His steps stopped just before falling into the left corridor.

— Oh, you managed not to fall into the past…

— At least you have the basics down…

Murmuring voices.

He almost had his concepts shaken a few more times after that, but Roan corrected them familiarly.

‘This kind of thing is more inconvenient than in the game.’

In the game, it was a convenient stage where one just had to follow the colors well.

Soon, the clean corridor ended, and vegetation began to grow thick around them.

It was the path leading to the Garden of Dawn.

While making his way through the bushes, a knight on a horse and two squires suddenly appeared from the opposite side.

“Excuse me, traveler. I am looking for my bride, the most beautiful in the world. Do you know which way I should go?”

He was the bride seeker, Geopold van Esteria.

He was a figure from about 1,500 years ago.

“I told you we have to go left, Sir Knight.”

“No, it’s right!”

His two squires bickered and argued.

Roan said calmly.

“Turn back.”

“Oh, indeed! Thank you, traveler! Let’s go!”

The knight immediately turned his horse and headed back the way they came.

Geopold saves his home estate which was under attack by enemies and falls in love with the lord’s daughter.

It was the anecdote of ‘Geopold and the Wise Traveler’.

— Oh, what a wise friend…

— Did he know the old tale…

To reach the Garden of Dawn, one had to reenact several famous events from the past like this.

If one answered incorrectly or ignored them, they would wander in this forest for longer and longer.

“My lord tries to kill me! What should I do!”

“A king’s power is given by his vassals and people, not heaven. A lord who kills a loyal vassal is not fit to rule.”

“…As expected…”

Hero King Krosodin.

“Oh, how fascinating. How does this torch burn for so long?”

“I ground the yellow rock from the open field and the white rock from that cave, then mixed them.”

“Oh! Thank you!”

Inventor King Elo, and so on.

As he reenacted a few historical scenes exactly, the tower’s voices also began to change little by little.

— Is… is he really a living person…?

— Even I don’t know that event very well…

To begin with, a much larger number of voices than in the beginning was hovering around Roan.

Of course, Roan couldn’t really empathize with the words of those voices.

‘Aren’t these things basic knowledge?’

But secretly, he was also happy.

Unlike playing the game where he just picked choices beyond the monitor, he could witness the figures of history in person and reenact them directly.

‘This is the true pleasure of possession!’

Moreover, hearing the reactions of the voices made Roan’s shoulders lift slightly.