Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

When Ruiyin landed, Lars caught her. The boy flipped over and managed to get beneath her in time, so Ruiyin slammed hard into him instead.

“Lars!” Seeing the boy’s face go a little white with pain, Ruiyin cried out in anger. But as always, all she got in return was his unchanging smile.

“It’s all right. I promised I wouldn’t let Ruiyin get hurt at all.” He insisted, “I… I can protect you. I’m a knight. I’m not a child anymore!”

Honestly… hopeless. Completely unreasonable! Ruiyin closed her eyes, then took a deep breath and shouted viciously at the thing still pressing down on her back… no, the person. “Get off me! Galahad, you idiot!”

“Uuuu… Sorry, I got a little dizzy from the fall…” The tall young man clumsily climbed down from the top layer of the human sandwich, bracing himself against the wall with spiral eyes and sobbing. “I really didn’t mean to. Who could’ve guessed that snake had dug a trap and was waiting for us?”

You couldn’t argue with someone who had Lucky T… Ruiyin pressed a hand to her temple. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. In the end, she forcibly suppressed the urge to start fighting among themselves and silently swore that the moment they got out of here, she would kick Galahad off the team.

They were in a straight, cylindrical cavern. Looking up from here, the opening above was only a bright speck the size of a gold coin. As they fell, they had smashed into the cave walls several times and grabbed at some vines to slow their descent, which was the only reason no one had been seriously hurt.

“What is this place?” Lars endured the pain and stood up, checking himself over. Fortunately, he had no injuries that would affect his movements.

“This is a serpent’s cavern made to entrap righteous knights!” Galahad drew his sword and said hatefully, “Once I get out… once I get out of here, I will slaughter every last one of those cunning creatures!”

Ruiyin did not answer. She narrowed her eyes and looked ahead. The place they were in looked very much like the bottom of a dried-up well. On the stone wall beside them were the corpses of vines that had withered who knew how long ago. Ruiyin reached out and gently brushed the dead branches aside, revealing the hard stone beneath.

“Huh? What’s this?” Galahad hopped over. He raised his head and helped Ruiyin tear away more of the plants. Gradually, the circular stone wall was exposed. There were no traces of brickwork on it. Instead, shallow grooves stretched across its surface in an unbroken meander, lines connecting and snapping apart, ultimately forming an unfathomable pattern that words could hardly describe.

“This looks… like a magic array.” Galahad stared blankly for a moment, then again.

Of the three of them, although Galahad was extraordinarily unreliable, he truly did have the most experience when it came to getting lost. Years of losing his way in the wilderness had given him far broader knowledge than the other two. He traced the lines on the stone wall with his fingertip, closed his eyes to sense it for a moment, then said with certainty, “That’s right. Although its aura is very ancient, the magical fluctuations here show that this is still an active magic array.”

Ruiyin had remained silent the entire time. She lifted her head and stared at the wall of the well, following the curve from its starting point all the way to the winding end. Then she suddenly said, “This line… looks familiar.”

She took out the mirror that had once summoned a certain brainless moron, turned it over, and carefully compared the pattern behind the azure mirror surface with the one on the well wall. To her shock, aside from some minor details in the carved rose branches, the two patterns were exactly the same!

“How is that possible!” Lars shouted. “This mirror… isn’t it a relic of Dark God Seres? If its pattern is exactly the same as this magic array, doesn’t that mean this magic array was created by the God of Darkness?”

“No, we can’t be certain yet.” Galahad’s expression was very serious. He reached out. “Ruiyin, give me the mirror.”

He searched the stone wall again and again, and finally found a broken section within the tangled mess of lines. After comparing it several times, he pressed the raised and sunken pattern on the back of the mirror against it.

“Do you still remember what that mage said when he summoned the God of Darkness?”

Ruiyin hesitated. “I remember, but… I don’t think you’ll be able to use it.”

Galahad flushed, then bristled. “I… I’m a Silver Knight! I’m the only person here who might be able to activate this magic array! Can’t you trust me once in a while?”

I’ve trusted you plenty of times. But right now, the only thing I trust is that I can never trust you again.

Ruiyin sighed. “Fine. If you insist, don’t regret it.”

She told Galahad the string of incantation. The young man listened while repeating after her. “O great Dark God Seres, please hear the prayers of your servant. With slaughter, blood, and souls as offerings to open the path, descend once more upon the mortal world…”

Only after Galahad finished did he realize something was wrong. He opened his eyes with the remnants of his earlier smile still on his face, and saw Ruiyin’s gloating expression beside him, and also… blood trickling out from the spot where his fingers touched the mirror.

“Huh? Huhhh?!” Galahad’s expression changed instantly. “Why? Why is it…”
“You told me once while we were chatting,” Ruiyin said unhurriedly. “Activating a magic circle requires two things: an incantation and an offering. You recited the incantation, and as for the offerings needed to summon the God of Darkness, namely slaughter, blood, and souls, we just massacred a Jungle Giant Python up above, so we’re not short on those. As for the blood…”

Ruiyin looked at Galahad’s face, which had gone deathly pale. “As expected of the mighty Silver Knight. To think you would insist on shouldering all the blood needed to activate the magic circle by yourself. In that case, Lars and I can only respectfully accept your generosity.”

“Eh? Huh? No, don’t-”

Smiling, Ruiyin tugged Lars back just as he was about to go help. “Leave him. Did you ever observe how much blood disappeared from the ground after that Undead necromancer summoned the idiot knight? It won’t endanger his life. Besides, fools have plenty of blood. At most, his intelligence will drop for a little while, but I believe it can’t get much worse than it already is.”

Lars hesitated, glancing at Galahad, who was struggling like a frog pinned to a wall, then at Ruiyin, who was smiling so wickedly… No, no, how could that be wicked? Ruiyin was clearly achieving the greatest effect with the smallest cost! Yes, listening to Ruiyin was definitely the right choice!

The boy clenched his fists and peacefully joined the ranks of those watching the frog knight.

Galahad struggled in a posture that looked like he was tap-dancing in midair. He did not want to do this, but the moment he stopped even slightly, the suction from his fingertips increased severalfold, almost as if someone were deliberately messing with him. So he had no choice but to keep glaring at the two of them with furious hatred while continuing to disgrace the name of the Silver Knight. Then, after roughly five minutes, the suction from the stone wall loosened, and Galahad was finally able to escape.

The bottom of the dry well shook violently. Every line carved into the stone wall emitted a purple glow. The stone wall spun and vanished, and smoke filled the space around them. When the smoke finally cleared, the mirror hovering in midair dropped to the ground with a clatter. What appeared before them was a deep cave passage.

“You…” Galahad’s face shifted between green and white. It was true that the stone wall had not absorbed much of his blood. He had not even felt dizzy. It was just that being watched like that had been so humiliating that even Galahad felt ashamed. He angrily shook out his arm, gave a very haughty “hmph,” turned his head away, and refused to acknowledge either of them.

“It seems you really did open this magic circle.” Ruiyin slowly walked over and gazed at the faint point of light at the end of the cave. She closed her eyes. In a daze, she seemed to hear the sound of waves.

“Is that… the sound of the sea?” Lars’s voice sounded beside her ear. She opened her eyes and found the boy wearing a rare, slightly dazed expression. Ruiyin seemed to think of something. She turned and asked Galahad, “Galahad?”

“Hmph!”

“…” Ruiyin rubbed her forehead. “Sir Knight? The almighty, infallible Lord Silver Knight?”

“Ahem… I didn’t seem to hear you just now. What is it?”

“I wanted to ask.” Ruiyin raised her head and stared at the small patch of light above them, no bigger than a gold coin. “Do you know the name of the jungle we fell into earlier?”

Galahad immediately puffed out his chest like an overinflated balloon. “Ha! You don’t know, do you? I asked about it before we came. This forest is the southernmost end of the Aode Empire, the Black Forest that guards the Sea of Roses! It’s the only jungle that extends into the seawater. Follow me and you can’t go wrong!”

The treasure I left you is at the border between the Sea of Roses and the Black Forest…

Ruiyin pondered for a moment, then suddenly raised her head and asked, “Lars, Galahad, have either of you ever considered that the so-called border between the Sea of Roses and the Black Forest might not mean we have to go out to sea and search for the edge of the forest? Maybe it means a place that is inside the forest, yet where you can hear the sound of the sea?”

Her question was answered very quickly. It seemed that the instant her words fell, a resounding roar came from the far end of the cave. It was like the most primordial bellow from deep underground at the birth of the continent, making one think of erupting volcanoes, falling magma, and planets capable of destroying an entire landmass. That blazing, scorching aura, carried by that single roar alone, was enough to make them feel a burning heat like midsummer.

“It’s a dragon!” Lars and Galahad’s faces changed at the same time. “Damn it, there’s actually a dragon underground here! Didn’t they say all the dragons on the continent returned to Dragon Island two hundred years ago?”

The Sea of Roses, the Black Forest, a dragon, the Sword of Shadow.

It could not be any clearer. There was no need to go out to sea at all. The thing they were searching for had, by sheer coincidence, been buried underground here. And the most ironic part was that the divine artifact of War God Xisaluo was actually inside a magic circle that required an artifact of Dark God Seres to open.

“Let’s go.” Ruiyin took a deep breath. “It’s fine. Even if it’s a dragon, we still have divine artifacts and Galahad.”

Author’s Note: A certain cute little thing appears next chapter~