Chapter 138: Underwater ruins (4)

After defeating the giant sea monster and swimming back to the surface, I saw Su and Shu descending with their swords drawn. The sunlight breaking through behind them cast a radiant halo.

Judging by their anxious expressions and how they kept scanning the surroundings, they were clearly wary of the giant sea monster we had just encountered.

Their concern was unnecessary—but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. It warmed a small corner of my heart to know that someone worried about me this much.

Since we couldn’t talk underwater, we had to surface first. I grabbed the kids’ hands and swam toward the surface. Using the Sea God’s authority to manipulate the current, my swimming speed dramatically increased.

“Puhah!”

“Emily!”

As soon as I lifted my head out of the water, the kids called my name in panic. I calmly brushed my wet hair back and replied.

“What is it?”

“Just now…! There was a giant monster…”

“We didn’t imagine it, right?”

They must not have seen me defeat the giant sea monster. That made sense—after all, I’d killed it not in this world, but within my inner world.

When a mage’s inner world manifests externally, that space becomes an invisible domain that cannot be perceived from the outside.

Not just Su and Shu—even the divers who were frantically swimming to the surface wouldn’t have witnessed the monster’s end.

The proof of that lay in how the three divers were now crawling onto the beach, pale and trembling.

“It’s gone now. You don’t need to worry.”

“G-Gone…?”

“Don’t tell me… it ran away?”

Why did it never cross their minds that I might have been the one to defeat the monster? I wrung the water out of my hair and replied.

“It’s dead. I took care of it.”

“You…? That huge thing?”

“It was enormous… it chewed right through the base of a cliff with a single bite…”

As expected, Su and Shu still seemed to doubt my strength. I continued speaking as I led the two toward the beach.

“Didn’t you believe the stories I told you?”

All the stories I had told them before included proof of my strength. If they had truly believed everything, they wouldn’t be doubting me now. It seemed I’d need to retell my adventures before bed tonight.

“No, we know you’re strong, but…”

“Emily, that thing was beyond anything we’ve seen. Even on Monster Island, we’ve never seen a monster that huge.”

“A flying whale…?”

Su and Shu tilted their heads at my response. It seemed their memories of Monster Island were different from mine.

“You didn’t see Radon in the central canyon of Monster Island?”

“Radon? Isn’t that the name of a ship or something?”

What had those two even been doing on that island? Just as I was about to question their response, Bluemet came running over from afar. Beside him was the ever-calm Berssen.

“Miss Seris! Are you hurt? I heard there was a giant monster appearance…”

Apparently, the divers who had fled without looking back had spread the word. I wrung the seawater out of my soaked shirt and answered.

“No problem. I dealt with it.”

Squelch!

As I wrung out my clothes, seawater dripped to the ground. Bluemet stared at me, dumbfounded, while Berssen simply nodded, as if he had expected this outcome.

“If it’s Miss Seris, I figured she would handle it on her own.”

“Wha…? Berssen, what are you talking about? Didn’t they say it was a monster far larger than a sailing ship? How could she defeat such a creature—alone, and in the sea, no less?”

“Of course… hmm?”

Just as he was about to respond, Berssen turned to look at me, blinking as if he’d just realized something.

“Miss Seris. Don’t tell me… you haven’t told them?”

I nodded with a smirk. I hadn’t intended to keep it a secret, but I also didn’t feel the need to announce it. I simply hadn’t spoken because I hadn’t seen the necessity.

“What’s going on here? Berssen, you know something, don’t you?”

“Hmm…”

Berssen stepped back slightly, furrowing his brow as if troubled. Then he looked at me again, as if seeking my permission. I silently nodded.

I could’ve explained myself, but letting someone else introduce me was much cooler than doing it myself.

“Miss Seris is no ordinary swordswoman.”

“What…? Then did the Adventurers’ Guild give us false information? I clearly hired Miss Seris as a Silver-ranked swordswoman…”

“She is a disciple of Lord Haven, sub-tower master of the Tower of Dawn, and one of the most promising young talents for the future…”

“Affiliated with the Tower of Dawn…? Are you saying Miss Seris is a mage?”

Bluemet didn’t get an answer—Berssen hadn’t finished his explanation.

“At only fourteen years old, she’s known by the title ‘Starlight of Dawn.’ And…”

“There’s more…?”

“She’s also the runner-up of the Mage Tower Tournament. An exceptionally gifted mage.”

I crossed my arms and frowned. That part I didn’t like. Runner-up at the Mage Tower Tournament. Back then, I had no choice but to lose—but if I faced that opponent again now, I was confident I wouldn’t lose.

“Heh… Is this true?”

“Why would I lie to a friend? I’ve said nothing but the truth.”

“Huh… I see. If she’s a mage, then certainly…”

Bluemet gawked, then slowly nodded. After regaining his composure, he shook his head and asked me:

“But then… why take on this commission as a Silver-ranked swordswoman?”

“I was curious.”

“Curious…?”

“Yes. I wanted to know if the ruins were real. And if they were, what era they came from. That’s all.”

Bluemet let out a series of admiring noises before asking:

“Was that truly your only reason?”

“Yes.”

“If you wish to renew the employment contract—”

“No, I don’t plan to.”

“H-Huh…”

What good would renewing the contract do now? At most, it might slightly raise my pay. But I felt that I had long since moved beyond human limits. My desire for money had greatly diminished.

What I needed wasn’t money—but something that could satisfy my immediate curiosity.

“Let’s resume the ruin exploration. We found something massive down there, after all.”

Thus, the exploration of the ruins resumed after being temporarily halted.

That evening marked the end of the second day of exploration. All six team members had been busy traveling between the ocean floor and the land, retrieving numerous materials.

But they still didn’t know anything for sure. None of the information Bluemet had gathered contained anything about the ruins they had just discovered.

“Hmm… Strange…”

Berssen also tilted his head in confusion. I dried my hair with a towel and walked over to him.

“What’s so strange?”

“Ah, Miss Seris. I was actually looking for you.”

“For me?”

“Yes. You must’ve sensed it. Even if someone weren’t a mage, they would’ve realized it. Those ruins are clearly the product of a magical civilization. Just look at the stone tablets retrieved from the seabed, or the traces of magic circles and mana stones connecting the whole city.”

“Well, yes.”

I nodded in agreement.

“Don’t you find it strange?”

“What part?”

“You’ve read the historical texts in the Mage Tower, right? But nowhere in those books is there even a single mention of these ruins. Even though those books supposedly contain all known magical history.”

I nodded seriously, though in truth I had never read those books. Apparently, most new mages studied them—but I never had.

“Hmm… So what are you saying?”

“I think…”

“Yes?”

“I think these ruins weren’t made by mages from the Mage Tower.”

“You mean there’s another group of mages outside the Tower?”

“I don’t know…”

Berssen clutched his head in confusion. I was just as puzzled. A magical civilization not recorded even in the Mage Tower’s archives?

In that moment, a possibility came to mind.

“Berssen.”

“Yes…?”

“What if… this continent rose up from below?”

“Pardon…?”

“Sounds plausible, right?”

“No… That can’t be… The sky is below us…”

“What if there’s another land below it? One that also supports life like this one? A second civilization, founded by humans?”

“That’s…”

“Why are you so sure it isn’t true? Because no one’s ever returned from going down? Because there’s only sky beneath us? Because we can’t see it with our own eyes?”

“Well…”

“I believe it. That if we go beyond the blue sky beneath this continent, past the white clouds, another world will be waiting.”

I wasn’t just saying it to Berssen—I was also saying it to myself. I was convinced that another unknown world lay beneath.

“This continent is just a chunk of land. And it’s floating. Haven’t you thought it strange? That there’s sky beneath the earth?”

I crouched down and scooped up a handful of soft soil, then opened my hand in front of Berssen’s eyes.

Shhh—

The dirt slipped through my fingers and fell down, unable to resist gravity.

“Let’s contact the Mage Tower, Berssen. Tell them we’ve found a clue to a new world.”