SWNOVELXO Chapter 421
Following Charl’s guidance, Kurt and his party ventured deeper into the ruins, increasingly overwhelmed by the remnants of the Ancient Empire’s grandeur.
Though smaller and less grand than the ruins in Astram, the ruins Charl had discovered were still massive, far from insignificant.
No, in fact, the ruins in Astram were absurdly large, and objectively speaking, the ruins Charl found were still quite impressive in scale.
After walking for some time under Charl’s guidance, Kurt’s party finally entered the main part of the ruins, passing through a mix of natural caves and ancient artificial corridors.
There, they found a vast cavern.
“Ugh… Haa…”
But Kurt’s party had no time to marvel at the ruins.
Liche’s faint, almost fading breaths from behind reminded them why they were there, leaving no room for distraction.
Hoping to find something to improve Liche’s condition, they scattered to investigate.
“Wait, Daria! I found something strange, come here!”
Shortly after starting their search, Kurt called Daria over to a large oval object covered in intricate magical patterns.
It was a massive magical artifact found in a room resembling a hospital or laboratory.
While others passed by without understanding the capsule’s purpose, Kurt recognized its similarity to something from human-era creations and immediately called Daria.
Daria nodded upon seeing it.
“This is a healing bed from the Ancient Empire era. I’ve never seen one so well-preserved…”
“A healing bed?”
“Yes. As you know, Wizards, due to the aftereffects of body modifications, have congenital physical defects. During the Ancient Empire, medical tools to regulate their bodies were widespread. This healing bed is one such artifact, inscribed with life magic circuits now completely lost in modern times. Good find.”
“Indeed, it looks just like it.”
“Huh? Doesn’t this artifact look quite different from a bed?”
“Huh?”
“?”
“Still, it’s fortunate. Such a rare artifact here in these ruins.”
“True. It’s quite worn but doesn’t seem broken.”
“That’s great news. I’ll bring Liche over right away.”
Fortunately, though aged, the healing bed activated once filled with mana, and Liche, lying inside the capsule, began to breathe peacefully. The party sighed in relief.
With Liche stabilized, Kurt’s party finally had the leisure to explore the ruins.
“It’s like they hollowed out the entire mountain.”
“To create such a massive space inside a mountain… What was the Ancient Empire’s purpose?”
The cavern was large enough to comfortably fit several dragons.
The walls and ceiling were built in an unknown Ancient Empire style, with dense magical circuits scattered throughout, making the entire space feel like one giant artifact. The overwhelming scale left Kurt’s party in awe.
Moreover, the numerous rooms branching off from the cavern were filled with magical tools, contrasting with the vastness of the central space.
“…What a coincidence. To find ruins like this. Though not as grand as Astram’s, the scale here is still magnificent.”
“Astram’s ruins are an exception, even among those the Holy Kingdom has identified. These ruins are among the top in terms of preservation and scale.”
Daria answered Kurt’s musings, then looked at the ruins with a puzzled expression.
“Still, I’ve never seen ruins like this. I’ve studied and visited many types, but this form doesn’t match any I know. It looks like a research facility, but also like a residential area… Yet, it doesn’t explain the central cavern…”
With Liche’s condition improving, Kurt’s party finally relaxed and took in their surroundings.
Daria and the others began to cautiously explore, curiosity evident.
After some time, they began to understand the ruins’ nature.
The search didn’t take long.
“This place seems to have been both a shelter and a hospital.”
Near the capsule, or healing bed, they found documents that appeared to be treatment logs.
Though too old for complete restoration without Seiri, the party managed to decipher much of the logs.
The worn documents were both treatment logs and the personal notes of the Wizard who managed the shelter.
As they read, the party learned that these ruins were built not during the Ancient Empire’s prosperity but after its fall.
The ruins were a shelter or hospital for Wizards, or perhaps both, established shortly after the Dragnity Empire’s collapse.
After the empire’s fall, people blamed the Wizards, the nobility and royalty, for the chaos.
“…They weren’t entirely innocent.”
But the resentment escalated into irrational torture and witch hunts, targeting not just the high-ranking Wizards but even innocent children.
Leading the hunts were the Beastkin, oppressed by the Dragnity Empire, and the Black Tentacle Cult, precursors to the Holy Kingdom.
“Now, the Holy Kingdom reflects on those dogmatic past actions and no longer engages in indiscriminate slaughter.”
“We didn’t say anything.”
“Ahem! Let’s continue reading.”
The logs were filled with the author’s bitterness and anger towards the people who once supported the empire’s invasions but later blamed the leadership when things went wrong.
But isn’t that how war goes? Everyone cheers for invasion when victory seems likely, but when things go south, they blame the leaders and claim they wanted peace all along.
Amidst the witch hunts, the mid-to-low-ranking Wizards, taking advantage of the chaos targeting the high nobility and royalty, gathered in remote areas, dug into mountains, and created shelters to hide from the hunts. This ruin was one such place, home to refugees fleeing persecution.
But the Wizards’ troubles didn’t end there.
Hiding in the mountains spared them from the witch hunts, but it didn’t solve their inherent issues.
The Wizards’ congenital physical defects worsened over time, becoming more severe with each generation.
The shelter’s Wizards seemed to be slowly committing suicide, as the logs described.
To address their defects, they mobilized all resources, conducting numerous experiments.
They tried to recreate the empire’s medical infrastructure, experimented with animal genetics to heal their own bodies, and even tested the results of animal experiments on themselves.
Despite their efforts, the limited resources and manpower in the shelter made it impossible to replicate the empire’s medical infrastructure. Genetic solutions, which even the empire couldn’t achieve, remained out of reach.
Ultimately, their attempts to recreate ancient medical tools only resulted in temporary symptom relief, and their body modification experiments, while somewhat successful, led to grotesque side effects.
The party read on, engrossed in the vivid account of the Wizards’ struggles.
Though they lived in different times and never met the author, Kurt’s party found themselves empathizing with the log’s writer.
As they turned the pages, the story grew increasingly bleak.
Betrayal by a fellow Wizard conducting animal experiments.
Despair over their increasingly twisted bodies from the experiments.
Dwindling resources and population.
Yet, the desperate attempts to find a cure carried a weight that sobered the readers.
Finally, the logs reached their last page.
And the final entry was something none of the party expected.
“…A demon appeared?”
The last page held just one line.
“That one line was all, and the old treatment log ended.”
“What? A demon? Surely it’s not the demon I’m thinking of?”
“Mari, calm down. It might just be a metaphor.”
“Let’s see if there are more logs.”
Why would a demon appear here?
That question lingered in everyone’s minds, but no one in the ruins could answer it.
As the party, shocked by the log’s ending, prepared to search for more, something caught their eye.
No, not something—someone.
“Ah!”
Mari’s shout startled a figure that quickly fled deeper into the ruins.
Though the figure disappeared, the party clearly saw it.
Distinctly non-human blue skin.
Eyes with inverted sclera and irises.
Horns on either side of its head.
And small, bat-like wings.
The figure resembled the demons from the western continent, a race once at war with humans, nearly driving them to extinction.