Chapter 25: Mirror Lake
The dry wood in the campfire crackled and popped, and the flickering flames cast dancing shadows upon the sleeping mercenaries. A few men had been left behind to stand watch, but the majority had drifted off to sleep, conserving their energy for the even more arduous exploration that awaited them tomorrow.
"Why aren't you sleeping?"
Xianyue approached Du Xin from behind. They sat together atop a massive boulder not far from the camp, gazing out at the crescent moon and the sparse scattering of stars.
"Aren't *you* awake, too? Here—this is for you."
Xianyue caught the box of chocolates Du Xin tossed her way. She examined it for a moment, then asked with a puzzled look:
"What is this? Is it a magic item?"
"Haha, no. It's food—and it's delicious. I brought it with me from my hometown."
Du Xin chuckled softly as he explained. Xianyue took another look at the box, held it beneath her nose to take a sniff, then turned her bewildered gaze back to Du Xin.
"That's just the packaging. You have to open it like this."
As he spoke, Du Xin pulled out another box and demonstrated how to open it.
Having finally managed to open the chocolates, Xianyue found a spot to sit down beside Du Xin. As she ate, she asked:
"This really is delicious—I've never tasted anything like it before. Are you from the Kingdom of the Rose? I've never been there myself; our two nations have been at war ever since the day I was born."
Du Xin listened in silence. He offered no words of his own, for a heavy, palpable sense of sorrow had begun to permeate the air around them.
"I never knew my mother growing up, because she was a native of the Kingdom of the Rose. My father died very early on, too—after drinking himself into a stupor, he wandered outside the city walls alone and was killed by a roaming beast."
A long silence followed—and then, another long silence. Just as Du Xin was about to break the quiet, Xianyue spoke again.
"Could you... could you help me find someone named Eisen Grace? And could you pass a message along for me? Just tell her... tell her that Xianyue... just tell her to live a good life..."
Having said her piece, Xianyue stood up and began walking back toward the camp, leaving behind the empty chocolate box.
"Hey! I'm *not* going to pass that message along for you!"
Xianyue froze in her tracks. She spun around abruptly, her eyes filled with a mixture of disappointment and sorrow. "I'm not from the Kingdom of Roses, but if the day ever comes when you decide to venture out and make a name for yourself, I'll be right there with you!"
Du Xin stood up, walked over to Xian Yue, and spoke these words. He pressed a fresh box of chocolates into her hands, then turned and headed toward the camp—missing entirely the teardrops that fell behind him and the warm, affectionate gaze fixed upon his retreating figure.
"Phew... women are such a hassle."
Du Xin lay down inside the tent that had been pitched for him and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Du Xin and the others rose at the crack of dawn.
"Good morning, Lord Ye Yan."
A mercenary, currently cooking breakfast over a fire, greeted Du Xin respectfully.
"Good morning. Where is your Commander?"
"Oh, he's up ahead, discussing our next course of action with Lady Xian Yue."
Having learned of Zhong Shan's whereabouts, Du Xin went to find him.
"Lord Ye Yan, you've arrived. Please, take a look at how we should proceed. Early this morning, your mount went out to scout the area. Moving forward, we face a choice between two routes: to the left lies a vast grassland stretching for tens of kilometers—to traverse it, we would have to trek across several kilometers of open plains. To the right lies a massive lake. Strangely enough, neither location showed any signs of life—no ordinary creatures, nor any magical beasts."
Du Xin's brow furrowed in deep thought. For the sake of making his adventure more entertaining, he had temporarily sealed away his true powers; thus, should danger strike, he could only guarantee his own survival. However, for the sake of Xian Yue, Zhong Shan, and the others, he knew he had to exercise extreme caution.
"There are no inexplicable patches of empty ground; both locations must harbor some hidden danger. The lake route is actually the safer option—at worst, we'd be dealing with deep-water magical beasts. If we stick carefully to the shoreline, we should be able to make it across. Besides, I am a practitioner of Ice Magic, which gives me a distinct advantage against water-based creatures. The grassland route, however, poses far too great a risk. Xian Yue, do you happen to know of any magical beasts—specifically those around Rank 3—that are known to lurk beneath the surface of the grasslands?"
Du Xin analyzed the situation based on the information currently available to him, then, reaching a critical point in his reasoning, turned to ask Xian Yue.
"There are many. For instance, the Rock Rats or the Frenzied Rabbits—neither is a creature you'd want to cross."
Having obtained the necessary information from Xian Yue, Du Xin continued to lay out his plan. "Right. Most magical beasts native to the grasslands are fond of setting traps. Moreover—based on your intel—our destination lies to the right, situated just beyond this massive lake. Therefore, we'll take the route to the right!"
Once the specific route of advance had been determined, things became much simpler. After finishing their breakfast and packing their gear, the group set off once again.
After trekking for a dozen or so kilometers, Du Xin and his companions emerged from the forest. Not far ahead lay a lake; strangely, however, not a single sound of water could be heard. Slowing their pace, the group cautiously approached the water's edge. Astonishment, bewilderment, and a primal fear of the unknown seized the hearts of the ordinary mercenaries.
"L-Lord... What... *what* is this?!"
The water itself was crystal clear, yet the surface was eerily still—like a colossal mirror. The entire body of water appeared to be one vast, glassy lake. Through the transparent depths, one could see straight down to the bottom; near the shore, the lakebed consisted merely of rocks and silt. What truly struck terror into their hearts, however, was the fact that not even the wind could stir the slightest ripple on the surface—along with the deepening, abyssal blackness that intensified the closer one looked toward the center of the lake.
"Let's back away slowly. Remember: make absolutely no sound. We'll retreat until we're two hundred meters back before we speak."
The mercenary squad slowly withdrew, finally halting once they had reached the two-hundred-meter mark. The mercenaries formed a defensive circle, while Du Xin and his two companions gathered in the center to begin their discussion.
"What do we do now? To be honest—and this is something my twenty years as a mercenary tell me—I feel that this place is far more dangerous than the grasslands."
"No! We *must* take this route. The grasslands are far more dangerous than the lake. As things stand, it appears the grasslands are home to a dense colony of magical beasts. If we were to enter a place like that, we'd be instantly bogged down—trapped in a quagmire. Any fierce battle we fought there would inevitably draw in even more beasts. We wouldn't need to worry about the ones on the periphery; the truly terrifying threat lies with the beasts lurking deeper within. You have to remember: places like that often serve as the hunting grounds for the most powerful magical beasts of all!"
Du Xin cut in, interrupting Zhong Shan's argument. "In truth, we never really had a choice from the start. Fourth-tier beasts represent the absolute limit of what we can hope to take down; venturing any further carries a distinct risk of encountering fifth-tier beasts. In this region, even the mere presence of a fourth-tier beast in the lake is a worst-case scenario—and crossing the open grassland, where attracting a fourth-tier beast is practically a given, is merely the baseline expectation."
Having said this, Du Xin looked gravely at Xian Yue and Zhong Shan, who were also deep in contemplation.
"Agreed. However, we'll have to abandon these wildebeests; they are far more likely to attract beast attacks than we are."
Once their discussion concluded, the group dismounted, shouldered their essential dry rations and supplies, and then stowed their backpacks within a crevice between two massive boulders by the lakeshore. They tethered the wildebeests in a sheltered hollow on the opposite side.
With everything secured, Zhong Shan gathered the group once more, and they resumed their trek forward.
The sheer magnitude of the unknown made their progress agonizingly slow—a pace further hindered by the fact that their wildebeests had been left behind at the lake.
Before long, the sky was thick with stars, and Du Xin and his companions had already covered nearly two-thirds of their journey. Given the inherent dangers of traveling at night, Zhong Shan—after consulting with the others—decided to move a safe distance away from the lakeshore before making camp to rest.
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