Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 38

Chapter 38

When the prison door was pushed open, the room was as deathly silent as ever.

This was a prison the Dark Elves used specifically to confine foreign races. Its walls, forged from Black Magic Crystal harder than black iron, could suppress all fluctuations of magic. Aside from spells cast by those at the level of archmage or Golden Knight and above still having a faint effect, even light magic, which was naturally opposed to darkness, was utterly helpless here.

Over the past century, no one knew how many bones had been buried in this place. Every foreigner brought here had struggled once, but in the end, all their struggles had turned into powerless whimpers.

When Xiluo’er pushed open the door, the four sacrifices inside were as quiet as always. He looked at the four creatures before him, one unconscious, two asleep, and one resting with her eyes closed, then let out a melancholy sigh.

“Tomorrow is the day of the Dark Moon Festival.” His melancholy face took on a compassionate, sorrow-for-the-world expression.

Silence.

“…Ahem! Cough, cough!” Xiluo’er coughed hard, doing his best to assert his presence. A long while later, Ruiyin, who had been resting with her eyes closed, finally opened them and gave him an extremely impatient look that said, permission granted, continue.

Only then was he able to happily resume reciting his lines. “Why are you unhappy? Lady Tio is so very proud, so elegant, so kind… To be indirectly sent here by such a Lady Tio, and to be able to offer up your lives to her successor, what an honor this is! And yet why are you unhappy? Why? Why…”

Xiluo’er spoke with fervent passion for a very long time, then gazed eagerly at Ruiyin, who had already closed her eyes again. “Tomorrow is the Dark Moon Festival. Do you have any unfulfilled wishes?”

Ruiyin opened her eyes and looked at him expressionlessly. “Tell them to send a normal person to deliver the food tomorrow.”

“…” Xiluo’er, the only proper person there who had not learned how to have a poisonous tongue, quietly left while clutching his wounded, fragile young man’s heart.

The instant the door closed, Galahad almost immediately broke free of the ropes that had only been pretending to bind him. He sprang up impatiently and grabbed Vigia by the neck. “Where’s the stuff? Hurry up and take it out so we can keep going! Ha, that one of the Dark Elves really is an idiot. We’re about to escape, and he’s still threatening us!”

“Only he would fall for it. If it were that fellow called Landatini, we’d never fool him.” Ruiyin picked through the pile of things Vigia spat out for a while, then tossed something from afar at the back of Juvina’s head. “Hey, Baozi-face over there, get up and work!”

Juvina shifted his body, revealing the corner his face had been blocking. There, in the hard, pitch-black magic-suppressing crystal, a hole thirty centimeters across had shockingly appeared.

“Dwarven work.” The exquisite tool spun once between his fair fingertips as Juvina said with a smile, “Adamantine from Urd, Chrysoberyl empowered by the Holy Archmage, and the finest craftsmanship… This treasure should be one of the few surviving works of several Dwarven masters. I never thought I would see it in a place like this.”

He raised his head, his unfathomable gaze turning toward Ruiyin and the others, who had already started digging again. “No wonder you weren’t the slightest bit interested in my proposal. So… that stupid dragon actually has a Dragon’s Hoard.”

Unlike magic, opening the Dragon’s Hoard possessed by the Dragon Clan did not require any magical power. Earlier, when they had left the treasury where Vigia had been sealed, the Dragon Clan’s unique greed had made Vigia stuff every single gold coin inside. Among that batch of treasures, as luck would have it, were mining tools made by the Dwarves.

“It’s all right.” Ruiyin found a moment to turn back and glance at him coolly. “No matter how precious a treasure is, it still isn’t as valuable as your face. I didn’t expect your face could even block a hole thirty centimeters wide. It really is an artifact-level existence.”

Juvina stared at her with an ashen expression. “…My lady, I have told you many times before. This is only a curse! Once I finish this stage of my facial mask treatment, I will absolutely recover seventy percent of my former beauty!”

He snorted coldly and narcissistically stroked his Baozi-face, which was covered in a black, muddy substance. “Although it will only be seventy percent, my lady, please do not fall in love with me so easily. I fear I would disappoint your tender heart.”

Ruiyin’s escape plan was roughly as follows: use Vigia’s senses, which far surpassed a human’s, to detect whether any guards were nearby; use the Dwarven tools from the Dragon’s Hoard to dig a tunnel; and finally, when guards came, use Juvina’s face to quickly plug the hole and keep the secret from leaking.

“Then what happens after we get out?” Galahad asked, raising his hand. “The Dark Elves are the most outstanding assassins. Do the few of us have any way to avoid their pursuit in the forest at night?”

“For that, we’ll have to rely on that dragon.” Juvina raised his head, his pitch-black face looking at the little dragon, who was watching tearfully as his treasures were used. “Vigia, if I remember correctly, you were locked up only after finding the seal in the temple, right?”

“Only the first layer of the seal. But under the restrictions of the Black Magic Crystal, I still can’t use it.” Vigia pouted, looking as though he disdained speaking to an ugly Baozi-faced man.

“That’s enough.” Juvina nodded calmly, the movements of his hands not slowing in the slightest. “The magic capable of sealing a dragon is very powerful ancient magic, but as long as the first layer of the seal is undone, this young dragon will regain the ability to transform. Relying on a flying dragon, we can charge straight out of Antik’s borders.”

Given their current circumstances, this was indeed the most suitable plan. Yet the person who proposed it showed not the slightest pride. He continued the work in his hands with neither servility nor arrogance, calm and poised enough to inspire admiration.

Of course, if the work in his hands had not been applying a facial mask, it probably would have been even more admirable…

“Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask this for a while.” Galahad rubbed his stomach, his stiff gaze fixed on the area below Juvina’s neck. “That thing on your face. Where exactly did it come from?”

Juvina felt around under the stone behind him for a moment, then swiftly dragged out a black, fuzzy thing. The instant it reached his hand, the thing began struggling desperately, flapping its wings while letting out panicked squeaking cries.
If they were seeing it right, that thing was probably a bat.

“Bat guano,” Juvina announced with a smile, as though presenting treasure. “It’s a closely guarded sacred beauty product. Would you like to try it? Stimulating this gland can induce a bowel movement very quickly.”

Some things were disgusting when you didn’t know what they were, but once you did know, they were obviously even more disgusting. People were often the same way…

“Half an hour left.” Juvina snapped his pocket watch shut. “Perfect timing.”

In the Black Magic Crystal wall that had once been as hard as iron, the group had already dug out a hole large enough for Galahad to crawl through. Through the winding passage, they could see starlight outside. The purple moon in the sky was nearly full. In another half hour, the Dark Elves’ Dark Moon Festival would begin.

Ruiyin wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned to Juvina. “The positioning is precise. There’s forest right outside. As long as we make it before the festival starts, we can escape immediately.”

To her surprise, Juvina shook his head. “No. I can’t run away. I still have something to do.”

Seeing the wary look in Ruiyin’s eyes, Juvina spread his hands helplessly. “Please don’t misunderstand me, my lady. Remember? I was locked up here because I stole a treasure from the Dark Elves, and I hid that treasure. Before I leave, I have to retrieve it no matter what.”

“So what you’re saying is that we have to risk our lives and wait for you to get your stolen goods back?”

“No… What I mean is…”

Juvina had only gotten halfway through his explanation when Vigia, who had been stationed at the door as lookout, suddenly shrieked, “Quick! Someone’s coming outside!”

It rushed over at once, skillfully wrapping rope around itself as it ran. Ruiyin also stopped what she was doing. She pressed a hand to Juvina’s shoulder and expertly shoved his face toward the hole they had dug, just as they had been doing for the past few days. But when Juvina’s face touched the opening, she abruptly discovered an enormous problem.

“What’s going on?” Ruiyin’s eyes widened. “Why did your face suddenly stop working?”

“My apologies. The facial mask has taken effect. I’m afraid I can no longer be of service to you.” At some point, Juvina’s Baozi face had shrunk down into a tiny soup dumpling. He looked at Ruiyin without expression.

“…” There was no time for banter. Even Ruiyin could hear the footsteps stopping at the door. In her haste, she grabbed something from beside her and stuffed it into the opening. At any rate, the one who brought their food was only Xiluo’er, that brainless Tio fanboy. With that level of intelligence, fooling him might not be impossible…

With a creak, the door slowly opened, and a flawless, exquisite face appeared before them. Landatini walked in with a tray in one hand, expressionless as he swept his gaze around the room before it settled on Vigia, who was standing stiffly by the wall.

Vigia: “…Meow QAQ?”

Ruiyin: “…Why is it you?!”

Landatini lowered his head and looked at Ruiyin’s disbelieving face, then slowly smiled. “I remember you were the one who requested a normal person to deliver your meals.”

Ruiyin looked utterly broken. “That’s exactly why I’m asking why it’s you! Are all the normal people among the Dark Elves dead?!”

“Obviously not.” Landatini set down the tray, walked to Ruiyin’s side, and bent over. His smooth, long silver hair fell beside Ruiyin’s face as he leaned ambiguously closer. “Perhaps the answer is… I missed you.”

“…”

“I keep thinking about what way of killing you would excite me the most. Foolish, self-righteous, weak, and yet you happen to have such a pleasant scent. If I killed a human woman like you in an ordinary way, it would truly be the greatest regret for me.”

…This pervert…

He lightly propped his chin with one hand and revealed an amused smile. “Ah, speaking of which, you have given me plenty of reasons to kill you. For example… this time?”

Those blood-red eyes, utterly devoid of warmth, fixed coldly on the trembling Vigia.

Landatini tilted his head to the left.

Vigia shuffled three tiny steps carefully to the left.

Landatini slanted his eyes to the right.

Vigia tried hard to squeeze its rear to the right, blinked pitifully, and gave him a fawning smile. “Meow~?”

Landatini smiled kindly. “Woof.”

Vigia silently turned around, clasped its head in both hands, and began trembling with its rear and tail together…

When Landatini turned back to look at Ruiyin again, his smile carried delight from the bottom of his heart.

“Forming factions, plotting a prison break, damaging the prison…” He slowly drew the dagger from his waist and lightly licked the gleaming blade. His increasingly bright eyes filled with greedy killing intent. “My adorable prey… This time, you really have given me quite a few surprises…”

Ruiyin tensed nervously while slowly drawing the dagger she had hidden against her skin.

“I like crossing blades with opponents who use the same weapon,” Landatini said with a smile. “But only if you are qualified to be my opponent.”

The moment he finished speaking, the figure of that member of the Dark Elves vanished from where he stood.

The Dark Elves were assassins of the night, peerless at concealment, kings of close-range attacks. Never mind that Ruiyin was still carrying an arrow wound; even if she had been whole and in peak condition, she would not have survived many exchanges against Landatini. So she did not even try to resist. When Landatini closed in beside her, Ruiyin took a deep breath and shut her eyes at the same time.

“Galahad! Great Light Spell!”

From the hole that Vigia had been blocking, a dazzling light instantly illuminated the Black Magic Crystal prison that had never seen the sun.

Those blood-red eyes, long accustomed to darkness, reflexively closed for a brief instant. In that moment, Ruiyin, who had long since prepared for it, ducked low, grabbed Vigia as it moved aside, and swiftly crawled out through the hole they had just finished digging.

Author’s Note:

Juvina: Once my beauty blooms like a flower, may I stop being used to plug the escape tunnel?