Chapter 189: (2/22): Sandstone Relief

“The way he’s looking at us isn’t very friendly, is it?” Camilla asked. She was walking closely together with Kagriss, a way apart from the rest of the Trista team. There was no need to try and be friendly when they clearly weren’t welcome. Perhaps the only person who didn’t openly display their dislike was Cadaelia, who was ranked high enough to not be subject to Beitra’s whims.

“It’s fine. He won’t openly act against us, if at all.” Kagriss didn’t look worried at all, not even looking at Beitra as if she had let her guard down entirely. Camilla knew that was just on the surface, but she wasn’t worried either.

As a captain in an A-rank party, Beitra should be savvy enough to know that having Camilla and Kagriss die here was not a good idea. Even letting them get seriously hurt was a bad idea, because there was nothing stopping Ismelda from pinning all the blame on him. After all, he had the means, no alibi, no impartial witness, and all the motives.

Simply put, unless Camilla and Kagriss really provoked him, he won’t act.

“This kind of immunity really does feel nice, doesn’t it?”

After coming out from under a short arc, Camilla stopped behind the piled-up hunters standing at the entrance of the first room behind the black iron gate. She looked around her and forgot to breathe, and her eyes grew wide.

No wonder there was so much earth mana.

She couldn’t help but turn in place, looking around. The room was like the inside of a large cathedral, but instead of stained-glass windows and statues, there were reliefs carved into the walls wherever she looked. The walls were made of a kind of golden sandstone that glowed from the source-less light that permeated the whole hall. On the other side of the huge hall was an already-open door made of a dull golden metal. The door showed no sign of closing and seemed to have the same images carved into it as was on the reliefs. The—wait…

…wait… source-less light. Camilla froze as she realized that her skin was prickling. She made eye contact with Kagriss and this time, even Kagriss realized that something was wrong. Except, Kagriss realized it way faster. Because Camilla had been engulfed in holy mana the whole way here, she was desensitized to it, so she didn’t even notice when the mana had become so dense that it was actively burning her.

It’s just that the burning was so light that it was just a small irritation to a higher undead like her. “This is definitely the right place,” she whispered.

Kagriss nodded. “This feels exactly like that consecrated zone in the city. Makes me feel uncomfortable.” She shivered, rubbing her bare shoulders. “It doesn’t seem like the others are noticing anything.”

“None of them has the holy affinity, so I’m not surprised.” Camilla followed her gaze and saw Beitra break rank and charge ahead. Alarmed by the sudden movement, she summoned her sword, expecting him to engage some kind of hidden enemy that even she could not detect, only to see him spin in circles, going this way and that. It was as if he could not decide which way to go, and every time he chose a direction, another object of interest pulled him back.

Finally, he broke out of the loop and ran to one of the walls.

“What is he doing?”

“Shh!”

Beitra skidded to a stop and placed his hands on the wall. His eyes lit up. “This…stone…!”

“What?”

“Just keep watching.”

Camilla jumped and she saw an elf pop up next to her. She was so busy watching Beitra that she hadn’t noticed Cadaelia walk up next to her without even trying to hide herself. No wait, perhaps that was exactly why she didn’t notice, because Cadaelia had acted so natural.

“When did you get here?” Camilla edged away from her, backing up closer to Kagriss.

“Just now, of course. I don’t bite.”

“Well, I would hope not. I’m the vampire here, not you.” Camilla scowled at her.

“A vampire, huh? You hide it well.” Cadaelia broke into a small smile before turning to watch Beitra. Camilla followed her gaze and saw Beitra kneeling down with his eyes closed, still touching the wall. She felt a faint flow of mana coming from him. Cadaelia spoke. “You… don’t seem to dislike me. I didn’t expect that.”

“Why would we dislike you?”

“Well, I am from Trista and I’m usually by Beitra’s side. Is that not enough reason?”

Camilla shrugged. “Normally, yes. They say you can judge a person by the company they keep, but in this case the people I see with you are part of your job. I don’t know who you are around in your free time. Plus, you don’t seem that bad. Reasonable.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” Camilla said. She squinted at Beitra, trying to work out what he was doing. If she were Kagriss and had the same level of mastery over spell work, perhaps she’d be able to figure it out or get somewhere close by analyzing the flow of Beitra’s mana, but she didn’t. “By the way, what’s your boss doing? He looks…uh, excited.”

“Well, he is excited,” Cadaelia peered at her and Kagriss. “You have hobbies, don’t you? Beitra’s hobby isn’t very common outside of his race, as you can see.” She swept her hand over the room and Camilla noticed that around half of the other elements in the room was doing the same thing that Beitra was. “He’s not very easily satisfied, unfortunately.”

“…So?”

“Well, things might take a while, so why don’t we pass time with a game? With these hints, can you figure out what his hobbies are?”

Camilla crossed her arms, thinking about the question for a split second before she turned and pulled on Kagriss’s arm, tossing it over to her. “Kagriss, what do you think they’re doing?”

“Hmmm…something to do with rocks?” Kagriss maintained a straight face as she answered.

Camilla stared at her, processing the answer, instinctively knowing that something was wrong with it. It was both a right answer and not the one she was looking for. “Oh, come on!” she groaned. “Really!”

“Okay, okay.” Kagriss finally smiled for a brief moment before she began stared at Beitra, never blinking.

Her gaze was so intense that Camilla thought for sure that Beitra would notice, but the stone elemental was so absorbed in his hobby that he didn’t even look up. Instead, he just continued rubbing his hand over the stone. Sometimes, he tapped his head as if stressed out, but in most other times, he was completely focused on the stone.

His fingers traced over the marks, feeling out the shapes. Occasionally he’ll use his mana for something that Camilla could not identify.

A full minute passed, and Camilla still hadn’t managed to make heads or tails of Beitra’s hobby. Kagriss tapped her shoulder for her attention. “Hmm? Ah, did you figure something out?”

“Yes. His hobby is closely related to archeology,” she said. “He is using his innate mana as a kind of tool for appraisal regarding things related to stone. That’s as far as I got.” After a brief pause, she sighed. “He’s very careful with the stone, as if he’s not willing to scratch it. His touch is as delicate as the brush of a falling feather. So, how much did I get right?”

Cadaelia raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh my, that’s more than I expected. You have most of it correct. Specifically, he’s interested in the composition of the stone that makes up the piece, the age of the piece, and the techniques used to create it.

“As an earth elemental, he has a near total mastery over stone, so he’s always been obsessed with the creation of stonework without the usage of magic. It seems that these walls are such an example.”

“If you put it like that, it is quite a specific and rare hobby…”

“So can you blame him for finding something like this?” Cadaelia asked.

Camilla shook her head. Then again, it’s not like she was judging him for it. She was just confused and a little surprised at the contrast between Beitra’s actions normally and him when engaged in his hobby.

“He does have a surprisingly cute side.”

Cadaelia didn’t make a direct reply to her comment and changed the subject with complete bluntness. “Are you interested in knowing more?” Cadaelia asked. “I know you’re not in very nice terms and this could be a good chance to perhaps make up and perhaps clean away some animosity. As long as you’re sincere, Beitra is always happy to share his hobby, no matter who the other party is.”

Camilla looked at her out of the side of her eyes, a bit impressed that Cadaelia managed to hide her intentions so deeply and only showing her cards right at the very end. Although Camilla couldn't be sure if she was just not that good at reading people, or if Kagriss already knew.

“Was this your goal all along?”

“Would you believe me if I said that it came to mind just now?” Cadaelia countered.

“…Yes. Well then, let’s go. Kagriss, would you like to come?”

Kagriss thought for a moment and then nodded. Camilla suspected that Kagriss was coming more because Camilla was going and not because Kagriss wanted to, though.

In the end, one lich, one zombie vampire, and one elf made their way over to Beitra’s side. The stone elemental didn’t even look up at them, even though he paused for a moment when he heard footsteps. “Cadaelia… and what do you want?”

Although he said Cadaelia’s name, the last part was directed at Camilla and Kagriss. It was clear as day from the tone and attitude. Cadaelia shrugged helplessly, though she still tried to salvage the situation.

“Beitra, what did you find this time?”

While Cadaelia tried to get a conversation going, Camilla’s eyes wandered over to the reliefs on the wall. For the second time in a few short minutes, she froze and for a moment, she doubted her mind. “Are we still in the vampires’ territory?” she whispered.

Kagriss nodded. “Yes.”

“Then why do I see…these?” she stared at the bipedal creatures carved meticulously into the stone. But one thing differentiated these people from others like Kagriss and Cadaelia was their wings. Wider than the person was tall when spread out, the wings were covered with feathers. These images on the relief depicted the messengers of the Gods from human religion.

Beitra’s gravelly voice broke her from her stupor and she immediately focused on what the elemental had to say.

“This place is full of treasures,” Beitra said. “These sculptures are ancient! They’ve been around for at least a millennium and yet, thanks to the earth magic that protects them, they don’t look much more than a few decades. If it wasn’t for my magic, I might’ve been fooled…” He paused and winced for a second, holding his head, his eyes unfocused.

A split second later, he was normal again, but instead of continuing with his previous topic about the age of the relief sculpture, he began to ramble on about the genius in the techniques used.

Camilla glanced at him with furrowed brows, not sure why he winced. Was something dangerous nearby? She scanned the hall but found nothing but the mana of the Trista team, who had begun to admire the reliefs.

Beitra’s voice faded into the background as Camilla lost interest and she turned her attention back to the sculptures.

“A thousand years old…”

Angels, the messenger of the human Gods, on a massive thousand-year-old sculpture that took up an entire hall. Or perhaps the hall’s purpose was to be the medium for the piece of artwork.

There was something that was just a bit beyond her grasp and the answer to that elusive something was somewhere in the sculpture. Camilla had a feeling.