Chapter 467

Chapter 467: The Guard’s Secret

The Tomb Guardian’s manner was even more courteous than last time—almost respectful.

Vanna could clearly feel the change in the air around her and the puzzled looks from her fellow Saints. Yet even she had no idea how to explain this strange change. Even if vague guesses rose in her mind, she had no way to put them into words.

She could only lower her head and look at the parchment sheet the giant guardian held out to her. After hesitating for two seconds, she reached out to take it and drew a quiet breath.

“I’ll be right back.” She turned her head and said this quickly to Bishop Valentine, then followed the giant guardian of the tomb, walking toward the pale building not far away.

The heavy stone gate slowly closed behind them, sealing the ancient and mysterious tomb once more. The giant guardian of the tomb did not vanish. Instead, like a proper guide, he walked beside Vanna and led her toward the deeper layers of the tomb. In the long, shadowy corridor, the steady sound of their footsteps only made the silence around them seem deeper.

Vanna silently recited all the taboos she had to remember after entering Vision 004, while carefully watching the Tomb Guardian’s movements. She recalled how this guardian had acted the last time before she entered the tomb chamber, and thoughts churned restlessly in her mind.

Because of the limits of Vision 004, she could no longer remember what had happened after she entered the tomb last time. But she still remembered that even before she had gone in, the guardian’s attitude had already changed in a subtle way. Back then, she had not thought about it too deeply. This time, however, all kinds of connections spread through her mind against her will.

While Vanna’s thoughts rose and fell, a low, hoarse voice suddenly reached her ears—the giant guardian had broken the silence.

“Do you have anything you wish to ask?”

Vanna’s heart gave a jolt. This silent and terrifying guardian was actively speaking to the Listener entering the tomb?!

In her mind, she quickly ran through all the information about Vision 004 again, checking the various taboos to see how she should deal with this situation. Then she forced herself to calm down and, choosing her words carefully, asked: “You treat me very kindly. Why?”

“Because you are an Envoy,” the Tomb Guardian answered at once. “Envoys are those who have transcended and ascended. They deserve courtesy.”

“Envoy?” Vanna was stunned, not quite understanding. “What does that mean? Do you mean I’m the Saint of the Storm Goddess Gamona? But everyone out there on the plaza is…”

“The Leviathan Queen has no Envoy. All of her Envoys died before the first Long Night,” the Tomb Guardian cut in before Vanna could finish. His voice held almost no trace of emotion. Even when he spoke of a deity, there was neither reverence nor fear. “You are the Envoy of the Flame Usurper.”

Her heart tightened all at once. Her head rang with a sudden roar, and even her breath stopped without her noticing. Vanna halted in shock. The answer to her casual question went far beyond anything she had imagined. It felt as if a storm had swept through her mind, and in its wake came crashing waves of guesses, realizations, and shifting understanding.

The Leviathan Queen—she remembered that title. Not long ago, Captain Duncan had mentioned that name in front of her and Morris!

Long Night—she remembered that term too. After reading The Blasphemous Tome, Mr. Morris had said that it used “Long Night” several times to describe the Elder Kings’ attempts to create the world in the Age of Antiquity. She remembered that in those heretical descriptions there were three Long Nights, and three Genesis Protocols as well!

As for the Flame Usurper…

“The Flame Usurper… does that mean Captain Duncan?” A thought flashed through Vanna’s mind, and she spoke without thinking.

Inside Vision 004, one could not casually speak of the master of the tomb or the secrets within it. But the taboos said nothing about talking about the outside world. Vanna gathered her courage and questioned the Tomb Guardian in front of her. Some inner instinct also told her that even if she asked this guardian a few more questions, it would not bring her danger.

Yet this time the guardian did not answer at once. After several seconds of silence, he slowly turned his head and looked into Vanna’s eyes.

“After you leave, you will still forget the secrets you learn here. Asking too much is pointless.”

Vanna froze. It felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over the curiosity blazing in her heart.

Of course. Most of the information inside Vision 004 could not be taken outside. No matter how much she learned here, she would still forget it once she left.

Even if she wrote it on the parchment sheet, anything that should not be revealed would still be torn away in the end.

She did not dare ask the guardian what the “forgetting mechanism” of Vision 004 actually was. That already pointed to the tomb itself, and asking it would bring trouble.

She could only sigh, step forward in regret, and keep walking toward the deepest chamber.

But just then, she heard the guardian’s voice again in her ears—

“The Flame Usurper’s name is not Duncan.”

Vanna’s eyes opened wider. She did not have time to wonder why the Tomb Guardian was suddenly willing to answer her earlier question. She blurted out: “Then what about the Leviathan Queen? From what you said, she’s the storm…”

But the Tomb Guardian suddenly stopped walking and cut her off in a low voice: “We are here.”

Vanna lifted her head and saw that the long, deep corridor had somehow already reached its end. The door to the central chamber now stood right in front of her. Pale firelight flickered inside the tomb, as if urging her to hurry in.

A second later, she understood: she could no longer ask more questions.

Even with this strange, inexplicable identity of “Envoy” on her, the Tomb Guardian’s courtesy toward her had its limits—or rather, the questions the guardian himself could answer were limited.

She did not know whether those limits lay in the number of questions or in the scope of what he could answer. Sadly, once she left Vision 004, all her memories would be wiped clean. She would probably never have a chance to test this with repeated experiments.

A few messy thoughts flashed through Vanna’s mind. In the end, she just let out a quiet breath and thanked the guardian softly: “Thank you for your patience.”

“Please go in. Afterward, I will send you back out—though you will not remember.”

Vanna nodded and stepped into the chamber. As she crossed the doorway, the bandage-wrapped guardian, caught between life and death, vanished silently from the corridor.

On the ancient and solemn throne, the headless Nameless King sat in silence as if he had never moved since ancient times. A pale brazier burned steadily in the corner of the tomb, and the air was filled with a quiet, grave presence.

Vanna came to stand before the throne and saw that the place set aside for the Listener now held a very comfortable-looking chair with a back. There was also a table in front of the chair.

On the table sat a fruit plate and pastries, and even a cup of black tea—still steaming.

Vanna: “…”

She forced herself to keep her expression in check and sat down in the chair as calmly as she could.

Though a Listener could not carry memories of the tomb to the outside world, she was sure that under normal circumstances no one who entered this chamber received such treatment!

In the bits of information that sometimes came out with the parchment sheets, there had been descriptions of the Listening Rite. Not one of them mentioned fruit plates and pastries!

After a brief daze and a strong urge to complain, Vanna quickly calmed down, and her eyes grew serious.

She looked around.

Inside Vision 004, there was only pale, cold stone. In theory, there was no place to store food and no way to have a kitchen. The Tomb Guardian might know how to brew tea, but she simply could not imagine that giant baking pastries.

She studied the items on the table.

The fruit was fresh, the tea was steaming, and the pastries sat on a fine silver-inlaid wooden tray. The patterns on it faintly carried the style of the southern city-states, very much like the crafts of Elven city-states such as Lightwind Harbor or Southport.

Vanna picked up a biscuit and felt the warmth still lingering in it.

Perhaps an hour ago, it had still been in the oven of some pastry shop in some city-state.

So… had the Tomb Guardian brought these things directly from some southern city-state? Could he enter the Mortal Realm in person? Or were there secret worshippers in the Mortal Realm who followed the Tomb Guardian’s orders and offered “sacrificial rites” to Vision 004?

The fruit and the tray holding the pastries both looked like southern specialties. That region was Elven territory. The Elves… this mysterious, long-lived race did indeed keep many unique faith practices. Some of those beliefs were completely different from the Four Gods Church of today and had become systems of their own…

Could there be explanations of Vision 004 hidden in the Elves’ ancient texts?

Thoughts rose and fell in Vanna’s mind. Her professional habits pushed her to dig into every “unusual” thing she saw.

But her thoughts did not last long.

A soft scraping sound suddenly rang out in the tomb and cut off Vanna’s train of thought.

She turned toward the sound and saw that the headless king was slowly lifting his arm, as if he were about to rise from the throne—

Vanna opened her eyes.

The ancient, solemn pillars of the assembly ground came into view. Dim, chaotic streams of light swept across the sky above the plaza. The Saints’ spirit projections were gathering from afar, and in the corner of her eye she saw the pale, mysterious building slowly sinking back into the earth amid distant rumbling.

Had she already finished her task?

Vanna felt a little dazed. She shook her head. Her memories seemed to stop at the moment she followed the polite Tomb Guardian through the door. This feeling of a broken memory was not unfamiliar. It was not her first time entering Vision 004 as a Listener. But for some reason… this time she felt there was something odd clinging to her memory, as if…

Some discordant impressions had still left shallow traces in her wiped memory.

But soon she had no time to examine that faint sense of wrongness.

Her fellow Saints had already gathered. Bishop Valentine’s projection was among them. A little farther away, she could also see the late-arriving Pope Helena standing at the edge of the plaza, quietly watching this side.

“Vanna,” Valentine spoke first. “How do you feel? This was your third time entering the tomb. Has it affected you?”

“I…” Vanna frowned, as if she wanted to check her own mental state. But before she could sense anything clearly, she could not help letting out a burp. “Hic—”

The Saints who had gathered in concern around her fell silent all at once.

Even Bishop Valentine was stunned. The old priest, who had watched Vanna grow up, stared for a long moment before finally saying: “Did you go in there and chew on rocks?”