Chapter 705: 551 inexplicable intimacy
At this time, Britannia naturally had no Camelot.
Camelot was built as the capital after Queen Morgan came to power, so Morgan’s coronation ceremony was held in the Great Cathedral of Ash in Salisbury, not in Camelot.
Thanks to this, during the 400-year era of the fairies, the area around the location of the great cave was just a barren open space.
Here, there was no Camelot built against it, no upper-level fairies coming and going in Camelot, and not even Morrs or magical beasts appeared here, which made the place eerily peaceful.
"Speaking of which, it is really strange, isn’t it?"
Upon reaching the great cave, Tettelot, who couldn’t stand the silence, suddenly said this.
"Before coming to the great cave, we encountered many Morrs and magical beasts. After arriving here, we haven’t encountered any Morrs or magical beasts at all. Why is that?"
Indeed, when approaching the vicinity of the great cave, whether it was Morrs or magical beasts, they all seemed to be in a frenzied state, constantly attacking.
Reiger had experienced this during his journeys in future Britannia as well.
Yet, after arriving at the great cave, there were no Morrs or magical beasts here, which was truly perplexing.
After pondering for a while, Lotte offered this explanation.
"Solving all these mysteries, including this one, is our purpose for coming to the great cave, isn’t it?"
This time, the reason Lotte brought everyone to the great cave was to investigate it.
Over the past half-month, they roamed the entire Britannia, investigating a variety of ruins, ancient sites, ancient books, and remnants of ancient murals left in the world, trying to reconstruct the earliest history of Britannia.
That period, even in later generations, was shrouded in mystery, not understood by many fairies, or rather, not many fairies cared about such matters, and similarly, in this era, only sporadic descriptions remained, with no real historical records left.
Lotte believed that the reason Britannia looked this way had to be related to what happened after the original six Yalings left the Inner Sea of the Star and came to the surface.
It is a common understanding in this world that the original six Yalings left the Inner Sea of the Star and came to the surface, and then Britannia was formed under their influence.
However, the records about this affair are incredibly sparse; at least, the details of it are almost unknown to anyone.
Lotte had raised several questions during the journey.
"Why did the originals leave the Inner Sea of the Star and come to the surface?"
"Why didn’t they return to the Inner Sea of the Star, but instead built Britannia here?"
"What exactly did they do during the construction of Britannia that caused a ’calamity’ to occur?"
These were the issues Lotte wanted to thoroughly investigate.
Reiger, however, felt that the savior actually knew some of the answers.
Because when she posed these questions, her expression wasn’t one of eagerness to get the answers but was instead very calm, serene, and sometimes even indifferent.
But what she knew was probably not much, or maybe it was incomplete.
That’s why she wanted to investigate all the reasons thoroughly, to see if there was a way to bring true peace to Britannia.
As for Reiger, he was rather indifferent.
What was in the great cave, he could claim to be the clearest person in the world.
But precisely because he was clear, he didn’t stop Lotte’s investigation.
The secrets here were bound to be discovered sooner or later; otherwise, Camelot wouldn’t have been built in later generations, Morgan wouldn’t have chosen to stay here, and even went so far as to tear down one wall of the Jade Throne Hall to keep an eye on the movements here all the time from the throne, observing all changes in the great cave.
Thus, Reiger continued in a leisurely state along with Lotte and the others, finally arriving at the entrance to the great cave.
This great cave compared to the one more than two thousand years later, was no different.
It was still like a bottomless abyss, just sitting atop the earth.
It still looked like a bottomless void, as if it were a wound that Britannia itself had cracked open.
"How deep is it really?"
Tettelot glanced at the bottomless great cave, then a rare look of fear appeared on his face, as if he was repelled or wary of the existence of the great cave itself, unconsciously stepping back continuously.
"No one knows the answer to that question." The Knight also stopped in his tracks early on and said in a deep voice, "Britannia’s fairies naturally dislike this place, and almost no fairy is willing to approach here, both physically and psychologically rejecting being near this spot, including us."
In fact, both Tettelot and the Knight felt much worse than usual after getting close to the great cave.
They looked unwell and their bodies instinctively wanted to flee the area. If it weren’t for both of them persisting, and Lotte ignoring their condition and plunging in, they might have stopped walking a while ago.
In contrast, both Reiger and Lotte were not affected at all.
"Indeed, Britannia’s fairies aren’t suited to come here," Lotte calmly concluded after observing the performance of Tettelot and the Knight.
Reiger, on the other hand, left everyone behind and went by himself to the edge of the great cave, standing at a very close distance where just one more step forward would result in falling down, looking downward.
Even with Reiger’s good eyesight, looking down from here all he could see was pitch-black.
Even using magic that allowed night vision and enhanced his field of view, Reiger still couldn’t see the bottom.
But looking down from such a close distance, Reiger still noticed something.
"Ash..."
Yes.
From the bottom of the great cave, some faint ash kept rising up, continuously floating out of the great cave, mixing into the atmosphere, and spreading across all of Britannia.
This ash still carried a faint heat, as if something at the bottom of the great cave was burning.
"...Is it your rage?"
Reiger murmured softly.
"What’s wrong?"
Lotte’s voice just happened to rise nearby, making Reiger realize that Lotte had come to his side unknowingly.
"It’s nothing." Reiger’s expression returned to normal and he said, "Where are Tettelot and the Black Knight?"
"They are behind us, and even if they come over, it might be hard for them to help, right?" Morgan replied truthfully. "The only ones who can approach this place unaffected are you and me. Luckily you’re here, otherwise, just by myself, even if I wanted to investigate, I probably couldn’t handle it."
"So, what do you want?" Reiger asked indifferently. "Do you want me to go down?"
Morgan did not answer the question.
"Do you want to go down?"
She counter-questioned, seemingly giving Reiger the choice.
In response, Reiger stroked his chin.
"Personally, I do want to go down," Reiger stated. "But if I do, it could very likely evolve into a massive war that would involve the whole of Britain."
In a nutshell, Reiger was worried about getting too involved.
After all, no one knew better than Reiger how dangerous the things below were.
And if anything were to happen that required combat, Reiger felt he might end up fighting the other party to the death, regardless of anything else.
If it really came to that, things would be serious.
At the least, if the things below were to awaken because of him, Britain would definitely face its end-days.
"... Do you know what’s down there?"
Morgan was silent for a while, then she posed the question.
"Sort of," Reiger said noncommittally. "So, I don’t recommend you go down."
"But if you don’t go, and I don’t go, wouldn’t this trip have been in vain?" Morgan shook her head, objecting. "Someone has to go down."
"Or alternatively, we could go down together."
Reiger immediately looked at Morgan.
Morgan was also looking at Reiger.
The two exchanged gazes for a moment, and then they smiled simultaneously.
"In that case, let’s go down together."
Reiger made a decisive decision.
"The question is how to go down?" Morgan spoke rationally. "Just by estimating, the deep cavern is at least several thousand meters deep. It won’t be easy to go down there."
"I’ve already tried it; using ’Merge Mirror’ won’t work."
"The cavern is filled with a mystical force that interferes with spatial movement techniques."
Upon hearing this, Reiger also felt it, finding that he indeed couldn’t use teleportation magic to enter the great cavern.
Given that...
"Then let’s fly down," Reiger reached out his hand towards Morgan, saying, "Give me your hand."
Morgan stared at Reiger’s outstretched hand, unable to avoid recalling the scene half a month ago when that hand had grabbed hers.
"What’s the matter?"
Reiger looked at Morgan curiously.
"It’s nothing," Morgan pursed her lips, whispering softly. "It just feels strange, that’s all."
As she spoke, Morgan did not elaborate on what exactly felt strange, simply reaching out her hand and clasping it with Reiger’s.
With that clasp, both of their hearts surged with an inexplicable impulse, causing their lightly touching hands to tighten into a firm grip, almost reflexively entwining their fingers tightly together.
"......"
At this moment, both Reiger and Morgan fell silent.
Their emotions seemed very complex.
Especially Morgan, who couldn’t understand why she had acted so spontaneously.
(Was it because of this inexplicable feeling of closeness?)
Morgan’s mind was filled with myriad thoughts.
(This damned ’stake’...)
Reiger internally sighed.
The same thing had been happening frequently in the past half month.
Sometimes, without being cautious, Reiger and Morgan would suddenly become very close, close enough to make Tettelot and the Black Knight feel strange.
Both of them had a notion as to why this was happening, yet neither broached the subject.
"Let’s go."
Reiger diverted his attention and spoke.
"Okay."
Morgan also focused her mind.
"Then let’s get ready."
Reiger made a decisive statement.
"[All Flight]."
The next second, a glow of magic power simultaneously burst around their bodies.