The Price is Everything of Yours (76 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 138

At his lord’s rare visit, Lord Draycum was determined to show off every fine thing this land had to offer. Consequently, the group once again found themselves touring the region’s most famous landmark and ruins.

Four hundred years ago this, squatters that… Diane, her siblings, and Neris had already heard the explanation once and thus showed no interest, and Cledwin already knew the details anyway. Still, strolling outdoors beneath the clear sky while listening to a local’s narration felt quite pleasant.

“Liz! Look at this!”

Diane, arm in arm with Neris, wandered around curiously. To her, everything here was fascinating and delightful—the plants common here but relatively scarce in the south, the clear water still flowing through the channels carved into the ruins, the local birds darting about cheerfully.

Neris, on the other hand, was more interested in the structure of the ruins themselves. The delicate architectural style was one she hadn’t encountered in any of her academy textbooks, and now that her mind was at ease, such details caught her eye.

As Neris followed Diane’s lead aimlessly, her gaze suddenly fell upon a pillar whose carvings remained relatively clear.

The top of the pillar—likely once entirely covered in intricate carvings—was broken off just a couple of spans above Neris’s height. Though the upper portion had been worn smooth by time, the carvings grew sharper and clearer toward the base. Still, to an untrained eye, they were nothing more than indistinct contours whose meaning was impossible to decipher.

What caught her attention, however, was an inscription nestled between those contours, as if someone had deliberately carved it in later.

“It probably wasn’t part of the original plan—someone must have inscribed this after construction.”

It didn’t look like a tourist’s graffiti; the inscription appeared extremely ancient. Perhaps because it faced away from the wind, even an amateur like her could make out the shapes of the letters.

And Neris could read a few words among them.

“Wildcat. Forget. No?”

She had absentmindedly read them aloud, but the words weren’t in Imperial tongue, let alone Sacred Script. Which language was this?

“You there.”

Frowning, Neris called out to someone. The junior Draycum official, who had been enthusiastically explaining the economic benefits generated by the ruins, blinked wide-eyed.

Read full content of this chapter on r e d c a t t y . c o m