246 We don’t want him to explode!
Kairen pointed at the paper in his hand.
“Look. The ancient ruins are in a row with the temples.”
Just as he said, each one of the ancient ruins was in the line that would be created if you connected two temples to each other.
“And this triangle!”
The three locations created a triangle with all three sides of it having the same length, an
equilateral.
“They have the same center!”
Kairen exclaimed.
Just as he said, the triangle and the heptagon had the same central point, which was the location of the Temple of Dawn.
.....
“Hey Alan, do you also know about these three ancient ruins?”
Alan was also looking at the paper with a puzzled face.
“I’m not sure... They are some old and mysterious places, but I’ve never heard of them being connected or having anything to do with the temples...”
Said Alan as he tilted his head.
“But one of those places was your home?”
“Yeah, but I still don’t know much about them. The place I used as my house was a total ruin once I stumbled upon it. There were indeed some strange things there.”
“What kind of strange things?”
Once again, the attention of the two men was focused on the gold-haired gold-eyed old man.
“Hmm...”
Alan thought for a little bit before answering their gazes.
“First, the place was completely buried under snow and ice, and it was really hard to clean up them all. After that... Ah! There was a broken platform-like structure in the middle of it, though it was too damaged by the time I found it that it was hard to say what that actually was.”
“A platform-like something? Was it about half the height of a man and was also heptagon shaped?”
Alan tilted his head.
“That... I don’t know. It was almost completely broken by the time I found it so...”
“What about an underground path?”
Alan raised one eyebrow at the mention of an underground path.
“There... Was something like that...”
He nodded his head.
“There was a small and narrow path under the whole structure. After going inside a little bit, there was a gate blocking the path, so I couldn’t look further.”
Kairen and team leader Dains looked at each other before nodding their heads. They had seen the exact same thing when they visited the first ruin.
“Ah! But there was something about that path!”
Alan said as if he just remembered it.
“I felt a strange power once I entered. It was a familiar, yet unknown power. Back then I just labeled it as ‘another fucking stupid thing in this freaking world’ and forgot about it.”
“....”
“....”
Alan shrugged his shoulder at their gazes.
“What? I wanted a home for myself, why would I care about something that would probably cause me another headache if I thought about it?”
Alan said as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Well, Kairen didn’t think he would act any different if he was in Alan’s situation either. Why would he care about some freaking strange power? Nah. Thank you.
“Wasn’t there anything inside the path?”
Kairen asked as he remembered how he had found a notebook in a small room inside the path. Alan thought for a moment before nodding again.
“A doll.”
“Huh?”
But that answer wasn’t what Kairen and the team leader were expecting.
“There was a small, old doll. From the looks of it, it must’ve belonged to the times when the structure was built but it was oddly intact as if it was bought from a store just yesterday.”
“Did you take the... doll out of that path?”
Alan frowned.
“No. Why would I do that?”
“So it’s still there?”
“Yes.”
After exchanging those words, there was a brief silence in the room until the team leader broke it.
“So, what should we do about the last temple?”
Alan’s answer came immediately.
“We should first find it.
He folded his arms.
“We know the location where it was seen the last time, but there is no guarantee that the temple would still be in that place. Also, we can’t be sure that what Phliomns wants to do is also related to that. It’s only a guess, you see. Also, we must find a way to make that place appear. That man had a strange power... We also have a strange power here...”
Alan peeked at Kairen for a moment when his words reached that part.
“Though I’m not sure if the origin of their powers is the same or if the powers have any similarities at all, it won’t hurt to try for once... And there is also that ritual and the thing that appeared as a result of it... I just know a little bit about the ritual... Ah! I remember hiding some of the religion books somewhere a long time ago. I’ll look if I can find them, but you guys must do the thinking and the solving questions part.”
Alan then proceeded to explain the ritual and the temple. How it looked, where it was, how it appeared, and all of the other stuff he remembered.
The team leader and Kairen both listened and even took some notes from his words.
Soon after Alan’s explanations were over, the team leader ordered a secret investigation unit to search the location that Alan said was the location of the temple. They would use magic and modern devices so it mustn’t be so hard to know if such a place exists or not.
Alan left to search for the books he had hidden somewhere, saying that they must’ve rotten and turned to dust by now.
Kairen also searched for anything useful about the ritual and the events of the last battle between the empire’s forces and the religion all day. He wondered if he had to inform the commander about the things Alan had said, but he decided not to do it. After all, it was the team leader’s job to report to his superior, not Kairen’s.
“Hey!”
Kairen plopped down on a chair beside a bed.
“Don’t listen to what he said!”
Poke Poke
He poked Kain’s unmoving hand with a finger.
“He said you were dead! Such lies!”
He huffed angrily as he remembered Alan’s words.
They had talked a lot and also learned a lot, but Kairen still didn’t accept Alan’s words about Kain.
“He said I had to find the first emperor who was the original owner of the artifacts! Hah! Mocking me like that! Alright! I’ll find that bastard!”
An annoyed smile formed on his lips as he said that out loud.
“I’ll find a way, no matter what! I’ll bring you back, okay?”
Poke Poke
“So don’t worry about anything!”
POFF
Kairen put his head on the mattress, just beside Kain’s hand. His head hurt since earlier but resting it like this made the pain lesser.
“And I’ll beat the shit out of you once you wake up.”
He threatened the man sleeping on the bed with a low and tired voice.
“....”
Kairen then closed his mouth.
“You don’t belive me, do you?”
.....
He mumbled.
“I don’t either.”
His voice was now hard to hear even for himself.
“I’m too powerless to do such things... And too useless...”
He kept muttering to himself while caressing the hand that was beside his head.
“I can’t do anything alone... I’m nothing like a strong-willed person who can achieve anything as long as they only want it...”
No. Maybe he once was, but not anymore. He struggled a lot, but he didn’t seem to achieve anything in the end.
“But I’ll bring you back... I’m not just saying it! I mean it!”
Kairen buried his face in the mattress, the top of his head leaning against Kain’s side.
“I’m sorry...”
Mumbling those last words, Kairen grasped Kain’s hand as he put his head on the man’s stomach. Kairen stayed like that for who knows how long. His head no longer throbbed. He wanted to stay like this for at least a few hours.
“I’ve got to go pick up Ariyan...”
He said with disappointment as he raised his head.
“Hey, do you know how happy your kid gets when I pick him up on time? You must see his face.”
Kairen said with a smile as he stood up from his seat.
“The face he has when he walks towards his uncle who had been waiting outside to pick him up, that’s just too cute... And too funny to tell the truth. It’s so hard for me to hold my laughter every day.”
Kairen picked up his coat that was hanging from the back of the seat and approached the door of the room.
“Once you wake up, you should always go pick him up on time. The kid will explode from happiness.”
Kairen paused just when he was about to open the door.
“No, forget it. We don’t want your kid exploding. Nah. Anyway, I’m leaving.”
Waving goodbye, Kairen opened the door and left the sleeping man.
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