The throne room was cold.

  It wasn’t just because of the gusts of wind that howled through the shattered panes and cwed at the edges of their cloaks. The true cold came from the hollow desotion of the once-majestic hall, its former grandeur now faded beneath the soaring arches. And Viktor, being the only one in the group who still held the memories of a pce that had once shone with splendor, felt it most strongly.

  “There is... nothing here,” Rhea murmured as her gaze swept over the stripped walls, the fractured pilrs, and the empty dais where the throne had once stood.

  Indeed. While his enemies had left the structure of the castle intact, the same could not be said for its contents. Everything inside had been thoroughly looted, and what could not be hauled away had been destroyed. There was nothing left.

  Except one, of course.

  He gnced at a pile of broken stone in the corner. That was the spot where he had found Celeste. It was a stroke of luck that the looters had somehow overlooked the Dungeon Core, and thanks to that, he now had something—no, someone—to help him in the quest to recim everything that had once rightfully belonged to him.

  “We’re going to eat here?” he asked, turning to Lloyd.

  “No, no,” the man replied with a smile. “Follow me.”

  Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and headed for a door on the left wall, though any window in this forsaken hall could have served as an entrance now.

  Following the Emerald Mage, they arrived at a balcony that clung to the castle’s fnk, its stone railing buried under yers of vine and moss. A fire spat embers in a makeshift pit, its fmes licking at the base of the rge pot bubbling above. Stew probably, judging by the hearty aroma. Viktor eyed several rge sbs of dried meat id out by the fire. What kind of meat was that? Was it... beef? How the hell had they gotten beef in a pce like this?

  He was probably the only one here focused on the food, though. Beside him, Rhea gasped sharply. The girl was staring wide-eyed at the scene that y beyond the balcony.

  “Great view, isn’t it?” Lloyd grinned at her, casually leaning against a crumbling pilr.

  Well, yes, the vista was certainly breathtaking, if you were new to the pce. Not so much for someone who had seen it a thousand times. In fact, looking at it now only served to remind Viktor of how much things had changed for the worse.

  The entire castle stretched below them, yes, but what was there to see? Dead gardens? Empty courtyards? Ruined buildings? Cracked walls? Or towers clogging with nests of birds? Beyond the fortress, there used to be the grand city of Voskryn, but now all that y there was nothing but endless wood. In the distance, the river that wound its way around the nd, curving like a serpent, was the only thing here that remained the same, untouched by the passage of time.

  Though, unlike him, Rhea was visibly awestruck. “So many towers... One, two, three...” She began to count them out loud.

  “You can see seven here,” Lloyd said. “And eight on the opposite side.”

  “How many are there... in total?” the girl asked with a trembling voice as she gripped the railing and leaned forward.

  Not even the lord of the castle could remember the exact answer to that question. But no fewer than two dozen, he was sure. These towers had been strategically positioned with overpping sightlines over the surrounding nd, so that anyone approaching from any direction would be spotted long before they could reach the wall. And if, by some miracle, they managed to slip through the fortification, the intruders would quickly discover that they were always within the firing range of at least three turrets no matter where they stood.

  “Well,” Lloyd said, cpping his hands together, “we could have lunch and enjoy the scenery at the same time, you know?”

  Without waiting for any further invitation, Viktor quickly sank cross-legged by the fire, followed by Jeanne and Lloyd. Rhea lingered at the edge of the balcony for a moment, her gaze still fixed on the ndscape, before she too drifted over to join them.

  “You’ve prepared quite a bit of food,” Viktor said as he pulled out from his satchel two meatwraps that he had bought from the Southern man’s shop this morning and tore them into four equal portions. “Don’t tell me you knew we were coming?”

  “No,” Lloyd said with a grin. “Jeanne just eats a lot.”

  The pyromancer pretended not to hear anything. Instead, she took a sb of dried meat and passed it to Rhea. Viktor grabbed one for himself and took a bite. The texture was tough and chewy, with a strong, gamey fvor that he couldn’t quite pce. It was undeniably simir to beef, but at the same time, somewhat different. What was it exactly? Wild bulls? Was that even a thing around here? He could just ask them, of course, but he preferred to find out himself. After all, the taste was strangely familiar. He was sure he had eaten this meat before.

  “No one’s interested in rabbit stew?” Lloyd asked, dling some into his bowl. “I went through quite a bit of trouble just to catch one.”

  “Did you set traps?” Rhea asked.

  “No, I used a sling,” the man in green replied. “A bit tricky to use in the forest. Hard to get a good shot, with all the trees in the way.”

  A sling, huh? An odd choice of weapon. Not something one could just pick up on a whim and expect to be good at immediately. Which was why slings were usually associated with specific regions with a long-standing tradition of using them. On the other hand, this also meant that those who did wield this weapon were likely experts, as they had been trained with it since they were children.

  “What do you make when you’re the one cooking?” Viktor asked, turning to Jeanne. He couldn’t help but be curious. After all, he had never seen her eat anything but sandwiches.

  The pyromancer didn’t answer, looking away to avoid his gaze.

  What?

  Lloyd chuckled at her silence. “Jeanne doesn’t hunt often. But when she does, she brings back so much that it’s enough to st us for quite a while,” he said, eyeing the dried meat in Viktor’s hand.

  This, huh? he thought, chewing. He still hadn’t figured out what it was.

  “Actually,” Jeanne said, “it was Lloyd who helped me dry and smoke the meat to keep it preserved. Without him, most of it would have spoiled by now.”

  The man fshed a grin. “Anyway, any guesses on what kind of meat this is?”

  “I don’t know.” Rhea shook her head. “I don’t often get to eat meat, just the occasional hare or poultry.”

  Made sense, considering how poor she was.

  “And you?” Lloyd turned to Viktor. “What do you think?”

  “Taste like beef, but not quite.”

  Jeanne flinched.

  Lloyd’s eyes gleamed mischievously as he looked at the red-haired woman. “Why don’t you tell them?”

  She didn’t reply right away, her face shifting into a complicated expression, her mouth set in a firm line. She took a slow breath, then murmured, “...orgon.”

  “What?” Rhea tilted her head in confusion.

  Viktor, on the other hand, immediately spped his leg as the realization hit him, letting out an excited shout, “It’s gorgon!”

  Everything made sense now. No wonder he recognized the taste; it was indeed something he had eaten before. And of course it was like beef. It was an armored bull, after all.

  The excitement, however, wasn’t shared by Rhea. The girl’s face drained of color. “Gorgon? It’s a monster, isn’t it?”

  Now it looked like she was about to puke. But who cared anyway? He grabbed Jeanne’s shoulders, leaning in close. “Tell me, how did you kill it?”

  “Well, I...” the pyromancer replied. “I lured the beast to the riverbank and bsted the whole pce with a huge fire spell. I jumped into the water to escape the fmes and stayed there until the fire burned itself out. When I came back up, the gorgon was already roasted through and through.”

  “I see. That’s one way to kill it.”

  The pn was well thought out, taking into account both Jeanne’s strengths and weaknesses. She had the raw power to destroy a gorgon, but not the control to limit colteral damage, so unleashing the bst near a rge body of water was a smart way to avoid being consumed by her own fmes. Also, unlike the other rivers of the One Thousand Streams, the part of the Voskryn around here was retively safe, so she could dive in without worrying about what might be lurking beneath the surface.

  “Um... Quinn?”

  “Yes?”

  Only now had Viktor realized that his face was so close to Jeanne’s, and she was shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. “Ah, sorry,” he said as he returned to his seat.

  [Master, what is so special about a gorgon that has you so excited?]

  You don’t know, Viktor replied. I encountered one when I was lost in the Abyss, and it was a wall I couldn’t figure out how to breach. No matter what I threw at it, it just didn’t work.

  Gorgons were an absolute nightmare for all low- to mid-ranked adventurers. They had a variety of deadly attacks, while there was no reliable way for their opponents to defeat them. Large and aggressive, these beasts were covered in thick, metal-like scales that made them nearly invulnerable to all attacks. Swords or arrows, fireballs or wind bsts, all just bounced off, leaving the adventurers helpless against their onsught, being trampled under their hooves or gored by their horns. And worst of all, they could be turned to stone by the noxious green vapor these monsters exhaled.

  I kept running and hiding from it, and only managed to get out of the Abyss thanks to Brandt. After that, I never came back to that pce, Viktor continued. Much ter, I encountered gorgons again in a different dungeon. But at that point, I was already so much more powerful that I instantly killed them without even trying. So in the end, I never had a good fight with the creature I’d once thought of as my nemesis.

  [I see.]

  His attention shifted back to the group that sat with him around the fire. Jeanne was quietly chewing on her portion of the meatwrap, while Rhea had pushed aside her half-eaten gorgon meat and taken a bowl of stew instead, drinking it in quick gulps as if trying to wash away the taste from her mouth. Lloyd, meanwhile, was watching him with amusement.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing,” the man in green replied. “I just found you... interesting. Most people aren’t thrilled when they realize they’ve eaten monster meat. In fact,” he said, gncing at Rhea, “that’s what a normal reaction looks like.”

  Jeanne chuckled. “You’re the one who chose to hole up in this ruined castle, and you’re now talking about who is normal and who is not?”

  Says the woman who does the exact same thing, Viktor thought. Well, at least she had the excuse of being broke. What was his reason anyway?

  “How did you end up here, Lloyd?” he asked.

  “At first, I was like everyone else, heading to Daelin after hearing about the new dungeon,” the Emerald Mage said with a shrug. He had finished his stew. Putting down the empty bowl, he dabbed his lips with a handkerchief. “But when I passed by here, I was drawn in by this mysterious castle. You’ve all seen it yourselves, right? It’s strangely untouched, compared to the rest of the city of Voskryn.”

  “It... it’s because of the Dark Emperor’s magic,” Rhea said softly.

  Lloyd ughed. “Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever it is, I’m keen to find out. Also...”

  “Also what?” asked Viktor.

  “Have you heard the tale of the secret chamber in this castle?” Lloyd said, leaning forward, lowering his voice as if he was sharing a secret. “A hidden pce that has never been found since the death of the Dark Emperor.”

  Oh?