Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 127: The Taboo

Upon entering the Root Church buried deep underground, Myss had expected to smell dust, but he didn’t.

This place felt empty. Not “empty” in the literal sense. It was a hollow void, like the empty shell left behind by a cicada; the kind that told you something had departed forever and would never return.

The corridors of the Root Church spiraled, but not downward. They spiraled inward, somewhat like the shell of a snail. After walking a short distance, Myss realized the structure was the same size as the circular plaza above. The plaza almost seemed to be the church’s ceiling.

Priest Garnet explained that the confession chamber was near the central sanctuary. They only needed to follow the corridor all the way to the end.

Myss sensed his surroundings for a moment but detected no unusual magical fluctuations. Tass was also staying obediently inside the pocket watch. Myss wanted to take a closer look, but whether intentionally or not, the group quickened its pace after entering the church.

As they hurried onward, Myss only had time to notice that every door lining the corridor looked identical. If the passage hadn’t gradually curved, he would have suspected the same scene was simply repeating itself.

By the time they stopped before a large door, the endless identical arches had nearly made Myss dizzy. Finally, faced with a door that looked different, he studied it intently.

Rather than a door, it resembled a cage meant to contain a wild beast.

It was hollow and cast from some kind of mixed metal, with the pale color of white tin. Alchemical symbols covered its surface, packed together like writhing worms. If one stared too long, the markings seemed to squirm faintly.

Myss lightly poked them with his free hand. They felt hard and cold; indeed they were inanimate.

“Beyond this door, the preparation room is on the left.”

Garnet finally spoke again. They had walked so quickly that he was slightly out of breath.

“There is a private bathroom inside, along with prepared clothing and some food. Once you have changed, I’ll take you through the inner door directly into the confession chamber. There will be no need to pass through the main sanctuary.”

“If you wish, you may choose someone you find agreeable to assist with bathing and dressing.”

With that, he gestured toward the young priests behind him.

Most of them were boys and girls. The girls naturally moved toward Myss, while the boys, including Egan, looked toward Salaar.

“No need,” Myss refused immediately.

He had no desire to show unfamiliar humans the bread against his chest, nor did he want to divide his attention maintaining his control spell while bathing.

Salaar didn’t answer immediately. He silently surveyed the smiling boys.

Myss looked at him in astonishment. “Why are you looking at them? Are you disabled?”

He had only ever seen Salaar help wash him. He hadn’t expected the man to be interested in having someone else assist him.

“Please allow me to assist you.” Unexpectedly, Egan stepped forward of his own accord. “I can help arrange your clothing and attend to your appearance.”

Myss dismissed him contemptuously. Salaar would certainly refuse—

“All right,” Salaar said.

Myss’s head turned with a creak as he stared at Salaar in shock.

“I’ll bathe by myself,” Salaar added quickly. “But we’re outsiders, so we may get some details of the local attire wrong. It wouldn’t be appropriate to trouble Mr. Garnet with such things, so we’ll leave them to you.”

Myss continued staring at Salaar, his eyes boring into him with intensity.

Salaar went on without changing expression. “If possible, I would like to bathe together with my darling. I’ve always taken care of Myss’s hair personally, and since we’re a couple…”

“Of course,” Priest Garnet said with an understanding smile.

Only then did Myss turn his head back and offered a grunt.

But barely five minutes later, he was irritated again.

The bathing facilities in the Root Church weren’t even as good as those in Ring Town. A shallow pool built from stone blocks had been dug into the center of the room. There were no comfortable bubbles and no sweet-smelling oils, only a waist-deep pool of warm water.

Some kind of herbs seemed to have been steeped in it, tinting the water a faint green.

Myss examined it several times but found nothing suspicious.

“What were you thinking, asking a stranger to help?”

Myss removed the bread from his chest and dragged his feet listlessly across the surface of the water.

“There’s something wrong about that guy. I only want to see what he’s planning.”

Committed to keeping up the act, Salaar readily entered the pool and sat facing Myss.

Myss thought back but couldn’t remember anything unusual about Egan.

If he had to compare them, even Father Kalen’s presence was more distinctive than that boy’s.

Perhaps it was some subtle human instinct.

Myss considered it for a while, then decided to abandon the mysterious problem.

He sighed and draped himself limply over the edge of the pool, relaxing nerves that had been tense for too long. Halfway through unwinding, he suddenly remembered something and picked up the pocket watch where Tass was hiding.

They would soon enter the confession chamber, and the Dragon Fae still hadn’t made it clear whether he intended to stay outside and cooperate with Kalen or accompany them inside.

“Hey. Hey.” Myss knocked twice against the watch case. “Come out. We need to discuss something.”

There was no movement inside.

Strange. Had the Dragon Fae already left?

Myss sensed carefully. Tass’s aura was definitely still inside the gemstone in the watch. He had to be there.

Myss shook the pocket watch, as if that might pour Tass out. He shook it in every direction for so long that even a raw egg would have been thoroughly mixed, yet Tass still made no response.

Myss hissed, “What’s going on?”

Only then did he realize that the Dragon Fae hadn’t made a sound since they entered the Root Church.

The miniature assassin certainly understood how to conceal himself, but while the two of them were bathing in a sealed room, he would normally have poked his head out and made a comment or two.

Realizing something was wrong, Salaar immediately moved closer. He rubbed his fingertips over the gemstone.

“Dragon Faes can use the power of gemstones to repair their bodies. If he isn’t responding, he’s probably being affected by some kind of magic.”

As he spoke, he gave Myss a questioning look.

Myss shook his head.

“I haven’t sensed any unusual magic. This place doesn’t feel like a Divine Realm either.”

Salaar rubbed the cool case of the pocket watch, his expression turning serious. “This won’t do. We need to find a way to give him to Kalen and see whether Kalen can get him out.”

“A concealed priest won’t be easy to find.” Myss reached for the watch in Salaar’s hand. “His aura still feels stable to me. Why not leave him like this for now? At worst, we won’t take him inside.”

At that moment, a knock sounded at the door.

“It’s me, Egan.”

A clear young voice called from outside. “I’ve brought clothing suitable for the two of you. I need to bring it inside, so please prepare yourselves.”

Myss had only just reached for the bread when the door began to move.

A shirt flew through the damp air and landed over the loaves.

Salaar yanked Myss toward himself, pressing them chest to chest and holding him tightly in his arms.

Myss: “?”

Wet hair covered Myss’s back, while the waist-deep water concealed his lower body. Salaar was now hiding his chest… though the method was somewhat strange, and Myss was being squeezed so tightly that he could barely breathe.

Salaar even extended one hand to grip Myss’s hipbone, further obscuring the gender characteristics of his body.

“May Lord Blind God forgive me. I apologize. I was so occupied choosing your clothing that I forgot the two of you were bathing together.”

Egan’s voice carried embarrassment and panic, sounding entirely sincere.

“That was indeed rather rude,” Salaar agreed, unsarcastically blunt. “Leave immediately, please.”

Egan set down the basket of clothes, lowered his head deeply, and backed out of the room. Before leaving, he remembered to close the door.

Only after confirming that Egan had truly gone did Salaar release a sigh of relief. He didn’t release Myss, however, so the entire breath landed on Myss’s face.

Myss: “…”

Myss’s entire face scrunched up. “So this is the kind of person you let in.”

He had no qualms about assuming the worst of every human, including Salaar. He didn’t believe that brat had entered “accidentally.”

If Myss had merely been an ordinary mage, those few seconds after Egan came inside wouldn’t have been enough time to cast a spell.

Even assuming the best-case scenario, that he’d managed to rashly trigger a domination spell in a panic, he might not have concealed the magical fluctuations well. In the eyes of the genius Lord Myss, Egan had clearly been testing them.

Myss unceremoniously told Salaar his theory, but Salaar shook his head. “That assumes he already knew you were hiding your true appearance.”

“And the test would be far too clumsy. If we harbored malicious intentions, we could easily have attacked him while he was inside.”

Myss stared in disbelief. “You genuinely think it was an accident?”

“No. He definitely has a purpose. I simply can’t tell what that purpose is yet,” Salaar said. “For now, we should focus on helping Tass.”

He tightened his grip around the pocket watch, pouring a steady stream of golden magic into the gemstone.

It was the gem Tass had selected for himself not long ago, an energy-rich hemispherical piece of obsidian.

At last, something stirred within the stone, like a chick scraping its beak against an eggshell.

“I’m… fine…” A weak voice emerged.

Myss leaned close to the watch. “You… sound… like you’re dying…”

“Go… screw… yourself…” The weak voice answered irritably. “The magic here is faint… but strange… my body… can’t take shape…”

“Doesn’t that mean… you’re dying…?” Myss asked in shock.

The obsidian trembled. The Dragon Fae’s voice rose slightly. “You’re the one dying…”

“Enough.” Salaar interrupted the torturous conversation. “I only have two questions, Tass. Can you confirm that your physical condition is stable? And do you want to come with us?”

“Yes… No…” This time, Tass’s tone was very certain.

“Good.” Salaar cut straight to the point. “I’ll send the obsidian outside. Find a way to meet up with Kalen yourself.”

“Okay…” The Dragon Fae’s voice grew faint again.

After bathing, the two of them changed into local clothing.

Both garments were covered in gemstone fragments and paired with gauzy shawls that ordinary people didn’t wear, making them exceptionally ornate.

Plant necklaces were naturally indispensable, while the matching aromatic wood rings instantly dried all the moisture from their bodies.

The difference was that Myss’s plant necklace was covered in vivid pomegranate blossoms and small bloodred pomegranates. There was also a matching pomegranate-flower hairpin.

Salaar’s necklace was much simpler, decorated only with fresh forget-me-nots.

Salaar dressed quickly, then turned toward Myss.

Myss had already obediently leaned his head toward him.

They weren’t allowed to carry their own accessories. Without a hair ribbon, Myss’s usual braid would be difficult to arrange. Salaar simply gathered Myss’s long hair, wove several fine braids, and pinned it into an elegant bun at the back of his head.

Finally, he secured it with the pomegranate-flower hairpin provided by the Root Church. The result was astonishingly good.

Salaar deliberately slowed his movements and secretly admired it for several seconds before finally releasing his hands.

“This is pretty convenient.” Myss couldn’t see the result. He only knew that the “large tail” behind his head was gone, making it much easier to move around.

“It’s a standard noblewoman’s hairstyle. It wouldn’t have suited you before, but right now it’s perfect.”

Salaar’s eyes crinkled with a smile.

Then he removed the obsidian from the gemstone setting in the pocket watch and concealed it in his palm.

Sure enough, when they left the bathroom again, the door leading back into the corridor had already been closed.

Priest Garnet and Egan were waiting in the center of the preparation room.

Salaar deliberately let Myss walk ahead of him.

Myss’s appearance was already eye-catching. Combined with the magnificent ceremonial clothing and fiery pomegranate ornaments, “Miss Myss” immediately drew both men’s attention.

In that brief instant, Salaar’s right hand slipped into the shadows and gave a light flick. The obsidian containing Tass shot out, bounced once in a dark corner, slid beneath the gap under the door, and escaped from the preparation room into the corridor.

This place had been converted from ancient ruins. The building itself was badly worn and couldn’t possibly be sealed perfectly.

Without producing the slightest magical fluctuation, the Dragon Fae silently “escaped” the preparation room.

Beyond the finger-wide gap beneath the door, a small mouse darted past and picked up the obsidian in its mouth. Its tiny black eyes flashed through the gap and met Salaar’s gaze for a fleeting moment.

Everything happened in an instant.

Myss, meanwhile, wasn’t particularly concerned about whether the Dragon Fae lived or died. He had just finished memorizing the prayer Garnet had taught them.

“The Blind God doesn’t require formalized prayers,” Garnet said kindly. “You need only express sincere goodwill, and the Blind God will accept it.”

“There is only one taboo. Inside the confession chamber, the two of you must never mention ‘leaving,’ ‘departure,’ or any similar word.”

What a strange requirement, Myss thought.

What would happen if someone said “leave”? Would the Blind God personally appear and fight them?

Unfortunately, the instant Myss entered the confession chamber, he learned the answer, very much against his will.

Worse still, he was the first one to enter and therefore the first unlucky victim to face the storm.

“Mommy!”

A small figure rushed forward, wrapped both arms around Myss’s leg, and smiled brilliantly.

The child’s eyes were the lapis-lazuli color Myss knew better than anything.

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The author has something to say:

Myss: ?

Myss: ???

Myss: Is this the future or hell?

Salaar: [okay]

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