The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness Chapter 496: Shadows of the Past

"Found it!"

Muen snapped his eyes open, a sharp light flashing through them, and just as he was about to rise, his face suddenly went pale. His body swayed, and he nearly collapsed.

But at that mont, a cool, soft sensation accompanied by a faint body fragrance approached him; Celicia was sohow already standing beside him, catching him with a smooth, practiced motion.

"Are you all right."

She asked with her usual expressionless tone.

"I'm fine, just too much ntal power consumption."

Muen let out a sigh and let himself collapse directly into Celicia’s arms, looking as if he couldn’t even stand.

"Sigh, completely overdrawn, completely overdrawn... at this rate I might not even be able to walk."

"Then what should we do?"

Celicia frowned slightly. She had magic stones that restored mana, but she had no item that could replenish ntal power. Besides, in this world, except for a few strange ancient relics, there were hardly any thods that could quickly restore ntal power in the first place.

"Don’t worry about it, small matter."

Muen waved his hand, looking completely unconcerned:

"I once got an old redy, and it says when your ntal power runs low you just need a cute girl’s lap pillow— pfft! Ouch! I said lap pillow... not knee-strike..."

Celicia withdrew her now extrely perfected knee-strike without a word and looked at Muen, who was curling up like a shrimp, her gaze icy:

"At a ti like this, you still have the leisure to joke?"

"...You looked too tense, I wanted to lighten the mood."

Muen laughed awkwardly and supported himself on Celicia’s arm to stand.

Celicia kept her face cold. She originally wanted to shake off this bastard scumbag’s dirty hand, but her eyes, sweeping over him by chance, noticed that the pale color on his face was real—it still hadn’t faded.

In the end, she didn’t shake him off.

"You found it?"

"I found it."

The corner of Muen’s lips lifted as he looked toward the depths of the dark corridor. "Hidden quite deep."

If he hadn’t been able to directly pull information from his soul, the two of them could have searched here for a lifeti and still never discovered its location.

After finding the place, they didn’t linger. Following the images in Muen’s mory, they walked deeper into the corridor.

On the way, they encountered two more patrolling sentinels, who were eliminated just as silently.

Then they reached the end of the corridor.

Here the path suddenly bent sharply to the right. If one followed it, they would discover they had walked in a complete circle, returning to the starting point.

Because it was a circular corridor, seemingly a place built to prevent the workers inside from slacking off—only one entrance existed.

"Here?"

Celicia looked at the empty surroundings and asked.

"Here."

Muen nodded.

He released Celicia’s arm and walked toward the wall.

With the ntal strength he had developed from long training inside the Black Book, that little sting earlier had already recovered, but since Celicia had shown kindness, he didn’t bother to say anything. And the tsundere ice-cold noble girl’s touch truly was exquisite.

Muen slowly crouched down beside the wall and began feeling around. His brows lifted slightly.

A faint glow gathered in his palm, forming a tiny spotlight that illuminated the area he had just been searching.

A thin seam, nearly invisible to the naked eye, appeared under the focused light.

"A hidden door?"

"Seems so. And it has a disguise spell—without strong light, you wouldn’t find it at all."

"I see. It really is hidden. Then opening it... brute force definitely won’t work."

Celicia’s fine brows knitted. If they forced it open, it would alert the enemy, and they still hadn’t learned anything useful yet.

"Do you know the chanism or key?"

"No idea."

Muen replied:

"But I have a way."

"A way?"

Celicia was a little surprised:

"You don’t know the chanism, you don’t even know if there’s a key... how are you opening it?"

"Heh, as long as it’s a door, I can open it!"

Muen let out a confident little laugh.

"As long as it’s a door, you can open it?"

A strange expression floated across Celicia’s cold, beautiful face. No matter how she heard it, that line didn’t sound reliable at all.

But only a short while later, even she froze.

Because she watched Muen «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» ask her for an extrely thin ice needle condensed from cold energy, insert it into the seam of the hidden door, tap it lightly while putting his ear to it, fiddle a few tis, and before one could even brew a cup of coffee...

The hidden door gave a creak and opened.

Those skilled hands, that efficient movent, that professional posture—leaning against the door, listening with absolute focus, butt stuck up high... It was hard to imagine that if he hadn’t imrsed himself in this craft for a long ti, he could be so proficient.

If he could open this so easily, then even the imperial bank vault underground probably couldn’t stop him.

"You’re a duke’s son. How do you know this kind of skill?"

Celicia narrowed her eyes:

"Is this also a skill for helping you peep on people?"

Invisibility, breath-masking, lockpicking—this was a duke’s son, and all his skills were sneaky and underhanded.

It was hard not to think in an improper direction.

"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding, truly a misunderstanding."

Muen sighed helplessly:

"I didn’t want to learn these skills either. I was forced by the family’s all-embracing library."

Celicia: ???

She beca more confused. What did a library have to do with this? Could it be that the duke family’s collection was all about lockpicking, theft, and livestock farming?

Muen didn’t continue explaining. Instead, he gestured and sent a wisp of light into the hidden doorway.

The inside gradually brightened. A staircase leading downward appeared before them.

Muen poked his head in cautiously, observed a mont, then looked up:

"Let’s go. Looks like there aren’t any traps inside."

"Mm."

Celicia gave a barely noticeable nod, her cold gaze lingering on Muen’s back.

...Forget it.

There would be plenty of chances to interrogate him later. For now, focus on business.

After temporarily resetting the hidden door, they followed the staircase downward, unsure how deep it extended.

Soft light flickered, their steps made no sound. Even though, just as Muen’s probing had shown, there were no traps or alarms, their vigilance only grew sharper.

"What’s this fog?"

Muen gathered his full attention, staring cautiously at the layer of grayish mist beneath the spiraling stairs.

The staircase behind the hidden door was already abnormal in length; this gray fog appearing here felt even more unnatural.

"Gray fog... looks familiar..."

Celicia touched her chin in thought, then flipped her hand. A small chanical bird appeared in her palm.

The chanical bird’s gears turned as it flapped its wings, flew around the fog once, dipped into it, and finally returned to Celicia’s hand.

Celicia examined it closely, then nodded:

"No poison. No other danger."

"Good."

Muen exhaled and continued forward.

But after only a few steps, he stopped again.

"What now?"

Celicia nearly bumped into his back and asked impatiently.

"No path left."

Muen pointed ahead.

"No path?"

Celicia leaned to look—and indeed, the staircase simply ended. It was broken, with no way to continue downward.

"How could there be no path?"

"Did we take a wrong turn?"

"No. I think we found the right place."

Celicia’s cold eyes swept across the dim space around the stairs, not letting a single detail escape.

But there was nothing else here. Just the stairs descending... and that—

"Gray fog?"

Celicia murmured again, a subtle glimr flickering in her eyes.

It was as if she suddenly understood sothing.

"Jump down."

"What?"

Muen blinked and looked into the bottomless darkness below, thinking he had misheard.

"Jump."

Celicia’s tone allowed no argunt.

Muen turned back to look at her. Celicia’s expression was as cold as ever, giving away nothing.

He was stunned only for a mont, then smiled.

"You tell to jump, I’ll jump."

And he did—directly leaping downward without hesitation.

Watching the spot where Muen disappeared, Celicia’s lips tugged ever so slightly.

"Idiot."

Her indifferent voice drifted into the faint breeze as she lifted her parasol and jumped as well.

...

Chaos all around.

His senses blurred.

In the faintest perception, countless grand bell-tolling sounds echoed in his ears.

In that instant, Muen felt like he had been stuffed into a spinning washing machine, his body and soul thrown around until they almost separated.

Or like a giant hand from hell was grabbing him and dragging him down, down.

He didn’t know how long it lasted. Eventually, Muen finally felt solid ground. He tumbled ssily across the floor, sucked in several deep breaths, and after great effort, forced his spinning consciousness to clear slightly.

He looked around. He seed to be inside a dim structure; he couldn’t see its details yet, only so eerie silhouettes. But when he looked up, he saw vast black mist rolling overhead, like a sea of clouds.

Whoosh.

A sound behind him. Celicia descended gracefully with her parasol, several hundred tis more elegant than him. From the looks of it... she had experience with this sort of thing.

"Where are we?"

Muen asked:

"You seem to know this place."

"Here..."

Celicia looked up at the churning gray mist overhead. She fell silent for a mont, her voice carrying a hard-to-describe tone:

"This is the Shadow of Belrand."

"Shadow of Belrand?"

Muen frowned. This was his first ti hearing the term.

"You not knowing is normal. This was not sothing Belrand originally possessed."

"Then it’s..."

"This place... was created when the Silent Moon invaded. To devour Belrand, it used its own Authority to construct this false land, this shadow city—an inverted reflection of Belrand’s light. In other words... the Shadow of Belrand."

"Silent Moon..."

Muen’s pupils tightened. False land, shadow city—those weren’t big issues. But the words Silent Moon struck his mind repeatedly.

What the hell?

Why was it once again sothing related to that bastard moon?

A bad premonition spread in Muen’s mind. Ever since the Silent Moon kicked the bucket, every ti he encountered one of its remnants, he never had anything good happen!

So kind of Silent-Moon PTSD triggered again!

"Didn’t the Silent Moon already die? Why does this Shadow of Belrand still exist?"

"I don’t know. I thought this place had dissipated with the Silent Moon’s death. But judging from this... it still exists. Though perhaps not completely."

"But that’s not the important part. What matters is that this place has fallen into their hands."

Celicia gazed toward the fierce, twisted silhouettes in the distance and murmured:

"No wonder... everything was just to hide this entrance. This place doesn’t need guards or defenses at all—because this itself is the most isolated place in the entire Belrand."