The Final Protectors

Underground Palace Part 3

Just like that, Karlos left with the rust-spotted greatsword without a care. Roy and Mr. Good shared a look. Mr. Good awkwardly voiced out, “Err… Isn’t that sword…”

Aldo’s gaze did not leave Karlos as he explained, “That sword is his personal property. The Fraruitt family symbol had been etched on it. However, in a fight, it was accidentally burnt away by a fire-element Decay — It’s not a symbol of a Cleric whatsoever. A Cleric is ‘the highest-ranking commander-in-chief capable of substituting for the Archbishop in wartime’. There is no relation to an actual sword. The later generations must have misunderstood.”

Mr. Good and Roy were shaken up by this sudden benign treatment.

He… He actually spoke! He actually spoke with a cordial face! And even initiated to clear up their doubts!

Archbishop Aldo, what happened to you? Wake up! Don’t be like this! After losing your senses the whole morning, did you suddenly get a double personality disorder?

One must know that with the exception of Aldo’s dazzling entrance at the very beginning, his first time leaving the Underground Palace was specifically to take the Abyss Dhole’s corpse. During that process, he displayed aloofness and irritation, as if the Devil-ranked Decay was simply a lump of scrap for sale. But who could expect that his second time leaving would be to that “Sinister Museum” or something together with this ignorant “1-Day Temple Tour Group”?

The Sinister Museum was truthfully designed very lazily.The dim entrance was decorated with a few thick curtains similar to ones used in haunted houses, with bizarre eerie sounds set to be produced inside. Tourists were to get onto a small cart on a track, and experience the scares brought from terribly made props and Decays suddenly jumping out.

“Why aren’t there any lit candles?” At the entrance of the museum, Aldo questioned, perplexed.

“Because this is the Sinister Museum, Sir.” A tour guide diligently popped into the scene upon hearing a voice. With his face colored gaudily, and a rubber skull accessory on his hair, he spoke eerily, “There are no candles, lights, nothing that could light up the place. If you must have an answer, there is only light from— phantoms— The resentful souls killed by demons, and one unable to reach the afterlif…”

But the unlucky tour guide failed to recite all of his lines. With what little light there was, his eyes saw the long-robed man clearly and immediately, his words stopped in his throat like a projector that ran out of electricity. Then, he sucked in a fierce breath, stumbling back and nearly bumping into Karlos next to him. He raised a hand shakingly. “T-The statue!”

The Creepy Musuem’s tour guide, renowned for his expertise in scaring customers, was unexpectedly and shamefully given a fright by the customer himself — it seemed that in every line of work, some people would always love to make a fuss out of nothing.

Pulling Karlos’s shirt, Mike puckered his lips, finding the tour guide really too lame.

Mr. Good began to feel a deep concern for the work standard of his employees. He could only let out a dry cough, “Duck.”

Mr. Tour Guide finally saw this odd but grand line-up in its full glory — two little imps, a statue, a pretty male stranger, a Golden Emblem hunter, an Archbishop as well as the new Cleric — his mind turned into complete mush. His speech turned incoherent, “Er… Er, I apologize. May I have all of you sit in the carts. Uh… children under 12 have to be supervised by their parents… No, Sir, you can’t bring in your s-s-sword can’t be brought in. Not even if it’s the Cleric’s greatsword!”

This poor child. When uttering the last sentence, he nearly bit off his tongue.

Lily popped her head above Karlos’s shoulder, blinking. “Why isn’t he scary or funny? Emily is a big, fat liar.”

Karlos did not even look back; a certain someone’s gaze felt like a knife on his back. He was too much of a coward to face his name, and was even more so when it came to that person — his young teenage infatuation, his heart that faced repeated disappointment up until he left the Temple. After enduring the long, torturous yearning and forcing himself to forget, he had grown capable of feigning indifference when he returned to fight alongside him… Yet, after their lives and deaths in these thousand years, these feelings completely transformed into goo, leaving him without even a shred of courage to look back at him.

And the poor tour guide, Duck, was in complete tears by the man’s bold cold shoulder and the girl’s provocation, her bluntness typical of children.

Each car can only hold one person. Even if it was children the size of Mike and Lily, one adult can only bring one child with them. Karlos carried Lily. Jel originally intended for Mike to come with him, but unexpectedly, before he could speak, Mike was taken away by the seemingly schizophrenic Archbishop Aldo.

Aldo bent down, extending a hand to Mike and asking mildly, “I will go with you, alright?”

Mike was caught off-guard. He was instinctively afraid of this golden-haired man, but his smile was so pretty, and looked so much like how a puppet suddenly grew a soul in those fairytales.

Children were easily distracted by pretty things. So, he put down his guard at the speed of light. The little Traitor Mike hesitated for a mere second before he took Aldo’s hand without any misgivings whatsoever.

The cars creaked their way on the uncanny rail tracks. Duck wiped away his forehead sweat, and began to tell the stories of every Decay specimen that they approached.

However, as his voice was already broken from the scare earlier, his shaky voice was practically a re-enactment of “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. Other than Lily who was still looking around with faint interest, only the physical bodies of the rest remained dumbly on the cars; their souls had long wandered off to God knew which galaxy.

Mike did not expect the renowned “Sinister Museum” to be so peaceful and boring, so he turned his attention to Aldo.

“Why did you guys fight?” Mike asked.

Aldo glanced at him, his gaze slowly shifting to Karlo’s pencil-straight back three meters in front of them. In order to create a horrific atmosphere, chilly winds were constructed with the help of fans in the Sinister Museum. Every gust sent his long hair flying — a look that easily led people behind him to mistake his hair for tentacles.

Aldo did not know why this happened. Why would Karlos appear a millennium later? Was it an accident? A thought-out plot? Or was it simply a coincidence that moved one to tears?

However, to him right now, the reason did not matter at all.

“For the reason that…” Aldo stroked Mike’s hair, and paused. He knew that these words were in Karlos’s hearing distance. “I simply missed him too much. Even at this moment, it’s as if I’m having a dream. I’m afraid that once he leaves, I’ll wake and find myself in solitude again, returned to that deathly quiet tomb.”

The kindergarten only taught spelling and simple math, not these flowery, cliche phrases. Unable to understand such refined vocabulary, Mike only blinked his ignorant big eyes, replying confidently, “You can give him a telephone call.”

Whatever a “telephone call” was, Aldo did not know, but he did not pursue the matter. Instead, he gazed after Karlos’s stiffened back, gently responding, “No. I’m far too afraid. Only when I feel him in my arms, with my hand on his heart to feel his beating pulse would I truly be able to feel that he’s here.”

The cart in front made a sudden turn. The climax of the Sinister Musuem’s journey was here. The vehicle sped up sharply. In every corner that gave no one time to prepare themselves, a Decay specimen would suddenly jump out to frighten them.

Out of reflex, Karlos gripped the throat of the Decay that leaped on their faces — this had never happened since the opening of the Sinister Museum. The unfortunate specimen could not be withdrawn at all. Thus, a tragedy befell them. The entire mechanism was stuck in place. The car creaked and pulled to a stop.

Mike’s back was facing them, so he did not know that his Sinister Museum tour car had already turned into a “bumper car”, which was heading straight towards the car in front of them. He was still eager for the gossip. “So, is he your lover?”

Just as the question was out of his mouth, the two cars bumped into each other. Lily screamed. Duck finally sucked in a breath and yelled, “Sir, please let go of that miserable Decay! Or we’ll continue to be stuck here!”

Aldo reached out to hold onto Karlos who had jerked forward from the bump. Then, he swiftly released him before he could react. His fingertips brushed across the ends of Karlos’s hair, and practically exhaled a sigh against his back.

“No.” He looked at Karlos, but his words were to Mike. “I think that’s still a no, as he wouldn’t forgive me.”

At that moment, the veins on the back of Karlos’s hands bulged. He stiffly let go of the Decay specimen, and let the recorded screams that had been playing for over ten seconds from the machine behind him end. It was only then that the car began to calmly slide forward on the tracks. Karlos turned his body slightly, eyes lowered, showing Aldo only a small part of his face that grew increasingly distant. He spoke flatly, “Conduct yourself appropriately, your distinguished self.”

Due to a slight congestion from the “traffic accident” in front, Jel had unintentionally heard these few exchanges. His face greened. In his twenty over years of life, it was his first time thinking that he possibly had some congenital listening deficits; his auditory neurons must have grown the wrong way!

Aldo let out a slightly forlorn smile. His fingers hanging in the air lowered, crestfallen. Mike suddenly found this person a little sympathetic. He patted Aldo’s shoulder. With the young voice of a child, he spoke with the tone of an experienced old man. “Be more positive, buddy. Such things are common.”

Aldo shrugged.

So Mike decided to share his experience. “Look. At kindergarten last month, I burned Ruth’s hair. She cried and even swore to ignore me forever— Oh, Ruth is my girlfriend.”

Aldo politely responded with a surprised face.

“Then, I gave her Nepali sweets that Uncle Jel gave me, and she forgave me,” Mike said. He gave Aldo a provoking look. “So you just gotta work hard.”

After turning a corner, a Decay specimen dropped down from above. And with it came a sudden beam of light that allowed Aldo to take in Mike’s appearance clearly. The boy’s eyes were a different color from his twin sister — it was a shade of dark green similar to Karlos’s. His chubby chin was raised in pride. This extremely arrogant, self-important look of wanting to advise anyone in his sight suddenly called into his mind a faraway memory.

Aldo could not help but ask, “What is your last name?”
“Shelton,” Mike said.

“Shelton.” Aldo pondered, and asked again, “Then, have you heard of the Fraruitts?”
“I have. That’s my granny’s maiden name.”

No wonder… Aldo glanced at Karlos who was protecting the girl carefully in his arms.

Outside the tomb room, there were the air of the living, fresh air that poured in, a bizarre new world, as well as a child who resembled that person. Those things, coolly disregarded by him the past few days, suddenly grew real. They deeply, shallowly cut into his chest — into the heart that seemed to have only revived at this moment.

Aldo realized for the first time that he still had a heartbeat.

This boy was a descendant of the Fraruitts! Aldo laughed silently, raising his head to glance at Karlos — Don’t always let me get a hold of your weak spots immediately, Karl.

Just like a man a cup away from dying of dehydration — the light that appeared in moments of despair could arouse the beast hidden in the most fragile man, and trigger a crazed desire to possess everything at all cost.

Aldo could only shut his eyes and tell his restless heart, Hold on a little longer, hold on a little more.

The bumpy Sinister Museum Tour finally ended twenty minutes later. With a green face, Duck went to request the Archbishop for overtime pay. On top of that, he believed that he should still receive some benefits from industrial injury — considering that the many incidents in this trip had given him a small stomachache.

Mrs. Shelton who received the news had hurried over and was waiting for them at the exit. After offering her sincere apologies, she took away the green-faced and anguished Mike and Lily, announcing that she would be having a talk with the two of them.

Finally, only the dull adults who were gravely shocked by the information overload were left.

The group remained silent in unison for a while. Then, Jel finally asked, “So, are you really… that person?”

“Mn.” Karlos averted his eyes. “I’m very sorry.”

Jel’s face immediately turned green. He remembered he had only just told Mr. Good that morning that this man was just like another “nephew” — hear this, how absurd was that?

“So, although it was unrecorded in history, you certainly did take up the post of the Cleric then?” Roy’s focus would likely always differ from everyone else’s.

“Yes, because every Cleric back then died too quickly,” Karlos said.

The people looked at each other for a while. Mr. Good finally concluded, “To be frank, as I’m getting on in years, I need to return for a nap. We’ll have a meeting at a later time on how we should evaluate this matter in words — on that note, if possible, could I have a photo with the two of you?”

Roy, “…”

Jel, “…”

Karlos laughed dryly, “What an honor to have the same treatment as that expired Abyss Dhole.”

“Oh, no, no, no.” Mr. Good waved in dismissal. “How could you be compared to the Dhole? A living Karlos is far harder to meet than a dead Abyss Dhole!”

　　 Karlos, “…Why don’t I find it an honor then?”

Silent at the side, Aldo interjected calmly at this time, “If you do not mind, could I have a few words with my…”

His voice paused oddly at this moment. For some unknown reason, Jel who had heard what he shouldn’t have tensed in anxiety.

“…old friend alone?” Whether intentionally or not, Aldo’s gaze swept past Jel’s face, and elaborated with a half smile, “It has been a thousand years since we last met. It appears that the both of us found this a great shock.”

Such a great shock that you two wanted to get into a fight that could destroy buildings?

Although Karlos’s face was indifferent and rather disinterested, he did not reject the request. So, the three of them shared a look, and took their leave tactfully.