Chapter 40: Clue (1) (2/2)

”We're here.”

Joan stopped at a shorter than normal latched wooden door. It had almost been impossible to see in the shadows, one might easily miss it if wandering around randomly… almost like how hidden Joan's smile was in this darkness. Leonel could only barely make out the whites of her teeth and the blues of her eyes even with his sharp senses.

”I cannot follow you in, the B — Archbishop has very strict rules. Even I am not allowed to see him freely. Take hold of this opportunity well, it could change your life.”

Joan didn't wait after unlatching the door for Leonel and Aina, bowing slightly to them almost out of an odd habit that didn't seem to fit the situation. Then, sidestepping to go around them, she aimed to leave.

”… I hope I'm wrong.”

Leonel's words were spoken in a striking English. The change was so jarring that Joan froze. She had only just brought her shoulders level with Leonel's, but she didn't dare to turn and face him despite the fact his cheek was barely a meter from her own.

That tone… It held a level of command and conviction to it that Joan couldn't overlap with the Leonel she had come to know.

In her opinion, Leonel was almost perfect in every aspect. His abilities, his loving and caring demeanor, he was even handsome. His only flaw was that he was a bit simple, to put it nicely.

To say it plainly… she liked him far more than she liked Charles.

However, the moment his words entered her ears, despite the fact she couldn't understand what they meant, she felt a sense of loss she couldn't explain. For a long while, she wasn't even certain if she had simply misheard or imagined it all. By the time the beating of her heart had stopped, the latched wooden door had opened and closed.

**

Leonel and Aina appeared in what seemed like a stone-built underground sewer system. There were many semi-circular arches along the sides, branching out into several other tunnels with winding paths of their own. But, there was a distinct lack of the horrid smell or dampness one would expect. In fact, it was oddly spotless.

If the branching archways were ignored, the corridor was at least 20 meters wide. About 200 meters ahead, there was a dead end. Its wall seemed impossibly high, the kind of structure that had no business being underground. But, there it was.

Still, even with this being the case, there was something else that pulled Leonel's attention away. It was a simple wooden desk. It had three draws attached to its two legs on the right side, and two bare legs on the left. It wasn't even two meters across and had nothing but a single candle lighting its entire surface.

Before this desk, a gray-haired old man wearing worn gray robes sat, his back to them, curving as though he was too worn to sit straight.

”So you've come… Tell me, I've always been curious. What is the world like a thousand years from now?”