CH 185

Lloyd stared into space for a moment with a displeased look.

He held Aria tightly in one arm, and waved his hand to squeeze something. Like catching bugs.

And he spread his bare hands with a more puzzled look.

“What’s the matter?”

Aria, feeling suspicious, carefully observed where he was looking.

“What is that… is it a ghost?”

“Ghost? Can you see the shape?”

Lloyd asked in surprise. She replied, blinking her half-closed eyes, dazed by the heat.

“I can’t see it well, but there’s something moving like smoke. It’s a bad feeling.”

Like smoke……. Lloyd narrowed his eyes as he muttered back Aria’s words.

He only felt the energy, but somehow it seemed to follow Aria.

‘From Valentine’s Castle.’

From when Aria’s condition deteriorated rapidly without knowing exactly why. He thought he knew what Aria was talking about, this bad feeling.

‘Like being observed.’

It’s not outright malicious intent chasing her for life or death, but it feels like she’s being observed, like a test subject in a laboratory.

Rather, it was more annoying.

He was lost in thought for a moment, then reached out to Aria, who seemed unable to even keep her eyes open.

And he said, covering her hot eyes with his hand.

“Rest.”

Inside the cave, there were not even common traps. There was no figure standing guard.

Even though it was a place where a miraculous herb that can detoxify all toxins grows.

The reason was obvious.

‘It’s probably because there hasn’t been anyone who can set traps yet.’

In the legend of the ice flower, it seems that there is a person who protects the flower.

Without hesitation, Lloyd headed to the location he had seen earlier. Thorn vines were so tightly packed that it appeared to block the passage.

And the ice flower that bloomed in the gap.

‘The flowers are blooming.’

Lloyd was relieved in his heart. Even though it was still early winter, the ice flowers were in full bloom.

He carefully placed Aria on his lap and plucked the flowers.

“Put on a glove and touch it!”

Surprised as Aria let out a gasping breath, he tried to examine his hand.

Actually, she would have to eat the flowers herself, but what’s the big deal about touching them briefly with his hand?

Lloyd, unlike usual, lightly ignored her, and he brought the flower to her lips.

Aria looked at the flower pushed in front of her dissatisfied, but she chewed on it because she couldn’t distinguish anything.

“Lloyd is reckless with your own body…”

After she managed to swallow the flower, she pursed her lips in an arguing way. But Lloyd asked about her condition first.

“Are you okay?”

Ah.

Aria also knew the importance of this moment, so she would have to postpone her questioning until later.

She pondered Lloyd’s question for a moment, then she answered puzzledly.

“Hmm, it seems like nothing big is happening?”

She doesn’t know if it hasn’t worked out yet. There was no change in her body except for a slight shiver from the chill.

At that, Lloyd checked his hand, which was fine.

‘I didn’t even get frostbite.’

It was a different result from the reputation of the ice flower that would freeze everything it touched.

He thought it was because his body that accepted God’s malice was exceptionally strong, but that’s not the case, if it had no effect in the first place…….

“Then it’s not the ice flower?”

“It can’t be. It definitely looks the same as the ice flowers we’ve been researching in this town.”

Blue petals resembling roses, stems extending endlessly from inside the cave like vines, and leaves blooming profusely as if reminiscent of trees in the forest.

“……wait.”

It was still the beginning of the cave.

Lloyd broke off another ice flower and held it in his hand.

It would have been normal if his hands were frozen and damaged to the point of being unusable, but he was still fine.

He said, crushing the flower petals in his hand.

“This is not the ice flower.”

“No way…….”

Aria didn’t study alone. The talents of Valentine and Angelo, including Vincent and Winter, were willing to step out and join them.

In the process, they found ample evidence that the ice flower was not just a legend. They found a phrase in an old document that seemed to imply where ice flowers were found.

“Obviously this cave is correct.”

Aria spoke confidently. Lloyd didn’t disagree with her.

“Yes. It doesn’t change that the ice flowers are here. It’s just that there are real flowers.”

“Real flowers…”

Aria looked up at the vine with a stunned gaze for a moment. Countless blue roses that looked like ice flowers were in full bloom.

“Then, everything here must be fake.”

Somehow, it was too easy. In the first place, the legendary herb could easily be obtained.

After staring at the thorns for a moment, Lloyd drew the sword from his waistband. Then, with one hand holding Aria in his arms, he began deftly removing the vines with his other hand.

Aria asked shyly.

“Lloyd, have you ever trimmed a tree or something?”

“Do you think I have?”

No, it doesn’t seem like it. But how skillfully the cutting was done, not a single stem with sharp thorns stuck out towards Aria. Even though the vines are thick and lush like trees in the forest.

Thanks to this, they were able to enter deeper places very easily.

“The cave is quite deep.”

Lloyd murmured softly. As he said, it looked deeper than she had vaguely expected from the outside.

‘It goes on endlessly.’

Aria stared up at the wall of the cave.

The vines no longer blocked the passage, but continued endlessly inward along the walls. Like guiding them.

“Ah!”

Then. Aria was suddenly startled and she touched her forehead.

“I just remembered…”

“What’s going on?”

She continued her words in a cold sweat from the sudden rush of déjà vu.

“I must have seen it somewhere here.”

If they go on like this, surely…….

Before Aria could finish her words, thanks to Lloyd’s quick steps, they had reached the end of the cave before she knew it.

“…there was a door.”

And there was a big door there.

“Where did you see it?”

“I don’t know. I think it was a dream…”

Aria muttered.

A door. There were signs of human touch. As expected, it was not just a naturally formed cave.

“Hmm.”

Lloyd, who had been tapping lightly with his fist on the door of the cave for a moment, put Aria down for a moment.

“Wait, Lloyd. You’re not trying to do what I’m thinking, are you?”

Lloyd, who had raised his fist toward the door, gently put it down again. And he went silent for a moment. Then, with his back turned, he replied nonchalantly.

“No.”

No? What, no? He was going to break the stone gate with force.

“This is a place where you can feel God’s power.”

As Aria said that, she examined the patterns densely engraved on the stone gate. Of course, she knew it would be engraved with characters she couldn’t read.

But…….

‘I can read it.’

Aria finally realized why she felt a sense of déjà vu when she had seen it for the first time.

“It’s Juan’s memory.”

The memory of the ‘first Siren’ she had forgotten because she hadn’t used it for a while. The information that remained in Juan’s memory quickly entered Aria’s head.

‘This is the language of Atlantis.’

An ancient text that is now extinct.

Previously, even Vincent was barely able to interpret the text, but now she was able to read it on the spot through Juan’s memory.

Aria fumbled her hand on the stone gate, and she read the ancient Atlantian script.

“I will give all my heart to the children who have awakened happiness in me. When the day comes when the balance of the world is at stake, wake me from sleep.”

“What?”

“It says so.”

Lloyd listened to her, and she muttered after a moment lost in thoughts.

“Isn’t God the only being in this world who can talk about the balance of the world?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

It was like a word spoken by God to the people of ancient Atlantis.

However, it was not the ambiguous and rigid way of speaking that was conveyed in an indirect manner like oracles heard in a temple.

It felt like a letter of love from God to those who are really dear.

‘Come to think of it, even the children of Atlantis used to call God Shadra, like a friend’s name.’

Aria read the other characters inscribed just below God’s words.

[Prove your last conscience.]