Chapter 299: All is Said and Done
There was no hidden staircase extending downward.
The narrow walkway couldn't possibly be a red herring.
Lynn once again focused his gaze on the main keep's outer wall.
Excluding the possibility that it was a dead end, the only possibility was a hidden door in the outer wall.
With such a design, there was most likely a hidden door somewhere in the outer wall, and behind that door was the castle's secret chamber.
Of course.
To mislead others, the secret chamber didn't have to be designed at the very end of the narrow walkway.
It could be in the middle of the walkway, or somewhere else.
Since there was a hidden door, there had to be a mark on the outer wall.
So Lynn began to meticulously examine the outer wall along the narrow walkway.
And when he reached about two-thirds of the way down the walkway, he suddenly smelled a faint, unique scent.
He couldn't quite put his finger on what was strange about the scent, but he hadn't smelled it on any other floor or in any other room of the castle.
Only here...
Lynn looked at the outer wall in front of him, then activated his Witcher Senses.
A jumble of pheromones appeared in the witcher's sight. Among them, a thorn flower pattern on a certain part of the outer wall was very conspicuous.
But when he deactivated his Witcher Senses, the thorn flower pattern, like the other pheromones, vanished without a trace.
"So it's invisible ink."
Lynn was enlightened.
Invisible ink, as the name suggested, was a kind of ink whose writing would automatically become invisible after a period of time.
This ink would emit a faint, unique scent. Of course, this scent was actually very faint, almost undetectable to ordinary people.
Only a witcher could sense it.
Lynn reactivated his Witcher Senses and carefully, and repeatedly, felt the wall where the thorn flower pattern had been drawn with the invisible ink. As expected, he found that this part of the wall was different from the others.
Then he pressed down.
Rumble—
The wall in front of him slid open, revealing a stone door.
Lynn put another Quen Shield on himself and walked inside.
Inside was a bedroom.
But unlike an ordinary bedroom, besides small holes and cracks for ventilation, there was no window.
And there was no other exit; he could only leave through the hidden stone door he had just entered through.
A white skeleton wearing a rotten long dress lay on a "bed" piled with gold coins.
And even though the long dress was rotten, Lynn could still tell that it was the one the Phantom Lady had been wearing.
In the corner of the room, there was a thick, dust-covered hardcover book, and next to it, a skeleton holding a quill pen sat against the wall.
Lynn first took the skeleton with the rotten long dress and the one holding the quill pen outside and burned them with the Igni Sign.
The Phantom Lady appeared again.
But without the Risen Knight as her Gundam, a mere Gundam pilot was no match for Lynn.
After defeating the Phantom Lady for the last time, Lynn returned to the secret chamber. He didn't touch the gold coins, but first picked up the dust-covered hardcover book and began to read it.
After reading the book, Lynn finally understood what had happened to the castle before, or rather, its history:
The ancestors of the Thorn Flower Family, who ruled this castle, were not Islanders, but from Toussaint. They had been ruling this area for generations before the Drummond Family even came to the southern part of Ard Skellig.
Although the Thorn Flower Family occupied the southeastern part of Ard Skellig, they were not subordinate to the an Craite Family in the northern part of Ard Skellig.
And unlike the Drummond Family, there were very few conflicts between these two families.
When it came to the last patriarch of the family, he, like his predecessors, originally believed in the Lady of the Lake (the Thorn Flower Family did not change their faith after leaving Toussaint and coming to Ard Skellig).
But his faith was greatly tested not long after he inherited the title of patriarch.
His beloved wife died of an illness.
From then on, the last patriarch locked himself in the chapel every day, praying to the Lady of the Lake, begging her to resurrect his wife.
And that was, of course, impossible.
The vassals were anxious and worried that their lord could not get over his grief, but there was nothing they could do.
They could only do their best to handle the affairs of the territory to prevent chaos in the Thorn Flower Family.
Thus, who knows how long passed.
Until one day, the last patriarch finally left the chapel.
The vassals were overjoyed.
They thought their lord had finally recovered.
They never expected that this was the beginning of a nightmare.
Because the last patriarch announced that from now on, the Thorn Flower Family would abandon its faith in the Lady of the Lake.
And turn to worship and offer sacrifices to the local evil god, Svarog.
This action naturally drew the displeasure of the family's vassals.
The last patriarch, without hesitation, executed the vassal who was most vocal in his opposition.
The remaining vassals no longer dared to say anything.
Then, in the following years, due to the last patriarch's tyrannical actions, the once prosperous territory was severely wounded.
Finally, the long-suffering people, incited and instigated by an interested party, marched on the Thorn Flower Castle.
And the captain of the guard, who was directly loyal to the Thorn Flower patriarch, had already been bribed by other vassals.
Facing the angry people, he not only did not resist, but instead opened the castle gates, allowing the people to easily storm the castle.
The last patriarch put on his ancestral armor and charged into the crowd. He easily killed many people, but was eventually overwhelmed and stabbed into a pincushion by countless pitchforks.
Then, the people ransacked the castle.
They desperately stuffed their hands and bodies with treasures, and some even fought to the death over the lord's throne.
After that, specters appeared.
No one knew why the specters appeared.
In any case, when the specters appeared, the people who had not yet left the castle could no longer get out.
The only survivor was the one who wrote this book.
He was originally the spymaster for one of the Thorn Flower Family's vassals. The people's attack on the Thorn Flower Castle was also incited and agitated by him and his subordinates.
It was also his doing that he had heavily bribed the captain of the Thorn Flower Family's guard to betray them.
He deliberately blended in with the rebels to get firsthand information and record it, so that in the future, when his lord came to power and inherited the Thorn Flower Family, he could provide a legitimate reason.
But things went contrary to his wishes.
Although he luckily escaped into the secret chamber and survived, he could not leave it.
And so, he died in despair.
(End of this chapter)
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