The Devil’s Cage

Inside the room, the sounds of books and pages flipping went on for two consecutive days.

When the last book was flipped, Kieran finally sat in his chair, rubbing his swelling temple with his fingers. Even for Kieran, continuous reading with such speed was a little overwhelming, especially when he had to carefully read through some parts and not skim through, burning quite a lot of his energy.

Unfortunately, even after reading all the books available to him, he didn’t get what he was seeking, but it wasn’t entirely fruitless.

Kieran was certain something must have happened 300 years ago, thus the contract.

The reason why he was so sure was because he had read a lot about the internal fights in Yort Fields 300 years ago. All the books had records about the fights back then, but none of them mentioned Naveya at all, which was obviously wrong.

Back then, Naveya should have been a rising city, a prospering location that everyone would know of.

Hero Algor.

The first God of the land.

The Devourer.

When all three of them converged, it should have been enough to write an exhilarating book about their history, but… nothing!

It was too clean! As if someone had wiped out that particular part of history, about what had happened between Naveya and Yort Fields.

Kieran was caressing the book cover with his right index finger, his eyes shining in an interested gaze, but he put his hand over his stomach and stood up.

He had gone two days without food, which wasn’t a big deal for Kieran’s strong body, which was able to go even longer. However, his love for food kept him eating three meals a day. He had broken his own habit this time because he had a lot of catching up to do.

Should he continue?

Stop joking! Life without food is incomplete, it is meaningless!

“I hope there’s still something to eat in the kitchen at this time… Huh?”

Kieran stood up from the chair, returning the book to its original place and pushing the door, but when it opened, he frowned.

A thick mist appeared and blocked his sight and way.

Roffu, who had been on guard a while ago, had vanished without a trace and the mist before Kieran’s eyes started to change.

As though an invisible hand fondled the thick mist, it rumbled relentlessly and almost formed a mist vortex, but the very next moment, the thick mist dispersed.

After the scene became clear, a little stone path appeared, with both sides engulfed in darkness.

It wasn’t a chaotic, abstract darkness though. The darkness on both sides of the path was real, like a wall. Kieran carefully touched one side of the wall and felt like his finger was touching a cold, hard metal.

The little path seemed to be made out of stone, but it was actually metal too.

Kieran looked at the further end of the path, which was endless. He raised his foot and stepped back.

Bang!

The door was shut tight.

Everything went quiet.

Amid the almost embarrassing silence, the thick mist came back and drowned the black walls and path. In the end, the mist converged and formed a translucent figure with a long white robe, white hair, and a beard.

When the translucent figure finally took form, a heavy slurping of saliva sounded from behind the door.

Its hand, which was ready to knock on the door, froze in mid-air.

Seconds turned into minutes. The translucent figure felt a rising danger in its heart and was forced to speak.

“Lord demigod, I don’t mean harm. What happened just now is just some harmless joke.”

After the figure explained, the door opened. Kieran was sitting in his chair, looking at the figure with a smile.

“I prefer to talk face to face. And that was also just a joke. Please, come in,” said Kieran.

The translucent figure spared a glance at Gluttony, hiding in the corner; it didn’t really think Kieran was joking.

Likewise, it didn’t enter the room, despite the invitation.

Its instincts told itself it would be best to not go in.

“No thank you. I am here just to tell you one thing: the history is hidden by a cunning hunter. That is all I know. As for why I am telling you? It’s because a part of the real history is indeed recorded in this collection of books, hence I am able to form—as you might have noticed, I may be a God, but I am incomplete. It’s hard to live up to my title now. And finally, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The translucent figure then vanished into thin air, even shutting the open door.

Gluttony, who was hiding in the corner, rushed out, wanting to open the door for a chase, but before his hand touched the handle, he turned around and looked at Kieran.

Kieran shook his head silently. Gluttony was annoyed but didn’t misbehave, also vanishing on the spot.

“Another God?” Kieran lifted his mouth corner.

Although Gods were real and very active in the current dungeon world, Kieran had never thought he would be able to meet one outside of Naveya City.

Despite a lot of records mentioning the stray Gods, they were nothing but fragments of blurry memories, just like the translucent figure.

Kieran stood up and opened the door again.

“Your Majesty.”

Roffu bowed dutifully.

“Thank you Roffu. Can you get me something to eat? Also, I want to see Mr. Luphus,” said Kieran.

The young soldier quickly went away to carry out his orders.

Less than 10 minutes later, a considerably scrumptious meal appeared before Kieran, along with Luphus.

Kieran forked a sausage from the plate, taking a bite and looking at the ‘wise man’ of Yort Fields.

“Do you know anything about the God of Gordor?” he asked.

“The God of Gordor? I think I might’ve heard of him. The God looks like an elderly man and rumour has it that the Majesty has vast knowledge and understanding of Yort Fields’ history and every other related knowledge. If there is a scholar who is persistent enough and has grasped enough knowledge, after passing the Majesty’s test, a reward will be given relative to the efforts,” Luphus replied, slightly stunned by Kieran’s question.

He then looked at Kieran with a slightly hesitant gaze.

“Did you meet his Majesty?”

Luphus, known as the ‘wise man’, had exceptional admiration towards Gods of knowledge and history, thus he mustered enough courage to ask.

“I did,” Kieran stuffed another piece of cheese into his mouth.

“How does he look like? Is it really as rumoured?” Luphus asked excitedly.

“This is really good.”

Kieran took a big chunk off of the chicken drumstick.

Luphus was stunned at the spot and left confused.

Despite being known for his wisdom, he didn’t understand what the question and the taste of the drumstick had in common.

Did the chicken drumstick taste better today?