Chapter 164
Chapter 164: The Cellar
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The clock tower was built entirely from white stone bricks, standing about 4 to 5 meters taller than the main building. A large black bell hung from its top, and the tower itself was covered in damage and wear, looking completely out of place with every other building around it, clearly not built in the same era, seeming to belong to a much older time.
The tower stood in an unassuming corner of the Cataloma grounds. If you weren't actively looking for it, the main building in front would easily block it from view entirely. That's why I'd never noticed it before, not until this moment, standing on the rooftop, when it suddenly leaped into sight without warning.
Like a frail and weary old man in his final years, standing alone in the darkness of the night.
Hmm... seems unlikely... but I should go check it out anyway.
I'm already here, so walking over won't take much time.
I curved my body slightly forward, dashed out a quick burst of distance, then launched off the main building in one sharp leap, riding the howling wind straight to the top of the tower beside the bell, landing steadily on the ledge.
A light breeze moved beneath my feet, stirring up fine dust.
I pressed down my fluttering black skirt and looked around. Behind the bell, I spotted a rough stone staircase leading downward, clearly the way into the tower's interior, so I immediately stepped toward it and followed the stairs down, entering the tower in just a few steps.
The inside was pitch black. Not a single flicker of firelight.
The staircase below wound in a spiral, pressed close against the inner tower walls, and appeared to lead all the way down to the very bottom. But there were no railings or handrails whatsoever, the steps were steep and narrow, and in some spots the stones shifted underfoot badly enough that they felt ready to give way at any moment. An ordinary person would have needed to hold a torch just to see the path, making this whole thing seem genuinely dangerous.
Clack... clack... clack...
The sound of hard boot soles striking stone echoed around me.
A sharp, pungent smell drifted into my nose. I frowned and gave a light sniff...
"That's disgusting."
A nauseating odor, like something biological rotting away.
Moments like this made me deeply regret having a sense of smell far keener than any ordinary person's. I immediately pinched my nose shut and carefully felt my way in the dark, stepping onto the wooden floor of the clock tower's top level —
Creak!
The teeth-grinding noise nearly made me jump out of my skin.
What a horrible place... The wood was rotted beyond recognition, coated in layers of old filth, slippery underfoot, and from a purely physical standpoint, deeply revolting.
I still have Captain Grey on my back too! Can these floorboards even hold the weight? What if I fall through...
Well, the fall wouldn't kill me, but someone might find me.
Mostly it just feels really embarrassing.
Creak... creak...
I walked forward with my nerves on edge, eyes straight ahead, passing the haphazardly piled boxes on either side, absolutely no way am I going over to inspect those, not even touching them!
Too filthy. Why did I even come to a place like this...
That uncomfortable mix of irritation and disgust only eased a little once I stepped onto the stone stairs continuing downward on the other side.
Down one more level, and found it was no different from the one above. Still nothing but rotting wood everywhere... Looks like there's nothing here at all.
The rotting stench grew a touch heavier.
I started to have second thoughts... but then reconsidered, I've already come this far, so what's the point in turning back halfway? I stood there for a moment, thinking it over, and ultimately decided to keep going down.
I can always leave through the ground floor entrance anyway.
With that in mind, I picked up my pace a little, down one level, then another.
The smell kept getting worse.
Thud... thud...
At some point, I faintly heard a strange muffled sound, like something repeatedly striking an object. The moment I noticed it, I stopped in my tracks, tilted my head in puzzlement, and stood very still to listen.
...Thud... thud thud...... thud!
The sound came and went, sometimes soft, sometimes heavier, irregular, like someone endlessly slamming their head against a wall. Stopping when tired or when it hurt, resting briefly, then starting again. That kind of feeling.
It seemed to be coming from beneath my feet... Is someone down there?
...But at this hour, who would still be inside this wreck of a tower... It was genuinely strange. I had to go down and look.
My footsteps quickened again.
...Thud.
Thud thud!
As I closed the distance to the tower's base, the strange muffled sounds became clearer... though they were still faint. If I weren't me, with heightened senses, any ordinary person would never have been able to hear them at all.
Which made it all the more unsettling.
I moved quickly down the winding stone stairs, yet the sound remained below me... always below. Even when I reached the end of the staircase and arrived at the tower's ground floor, that sound... was still underneath me.
But below was nothing but solid ground. The path ended there.
I was confused. I quietly made my way along the wall and stepped out through the tower's archway, and the moment I was 2 steps outside, the sound vanished entirely. When I crept back inside, the muffled thudding returned... It really was coming from under my feet. I wasn't mishearing it.
Something wasn't right. I began carefully examining the surrounding space.
Everywhere I looked, wooden planks, stone blocks, rotting crates, all piled in disarray throughout every corner. To the right of the doorway, several large bundles of firewood were stacked up. Aside from the archway and the space left around the staircase, there was almost nowhere to set a foot down.
But clever as I am, I quickly noticed something different in the corner directly across from the archway.
It was piled with junk like the rest, but the items here were all lightweight wooden strips, and beneath them, a large wooden board showed clear signs of having been moved by human hands.
Is this... a cellar?
I picked my way awkwardly across the rubbish heap and pushed aside the wooden strips piled on top. Looking closely, I found a rusty iron latch nailed to the board below, glinting faintly with an odd sheen in the dim surroundings.
...Bingo!
I quickly rolled up my sleeve, grabbed the latch, and lifted the massive wooden board with one hand, revealing a pitch-black opening nearly 1 meter wide underneath, with a vertical ladder propped up at its edge.
...A cellar, just as I thought.
That strange sound was coming from here... Time to go down.
I tightened Captain Grey on my back, crouched down, stuck my feet into the opening first, and climbed down a few rungs of the ladder, then reached up to pull the wooden board back over — the light was cut off completely, and I couldn't see a thing.
But on the other hand, no one would be able to find me in here now.
In the darkness, faint blue glimmers began to rise.
Crack crack crack —
In the next instant, 7 or 8 fist-sized balls of ice, radiating a dim blue glow, spiraled into formation around me, casting the outlines of nearby objects into relief.
Not exactly bright, but enough to see by.
Nothing to be done about it; it's not like I have Fire Order... I'll just have to make do.
I climbed the rest of the way down the ladder to the bottom.
The dirt floor underfoot was soft and loose, and the air was thick with a foul, suffocating smell.
...Disgusting.
This place is absolutely filthy. Through the faint glow, I could even clearly see countless particles of dust drifting in the air.
"Ugh... cough, cough."
I quickly covered my nose and mouth, then raised my eyes to look around.
The cellar, built from green bricks, felt hollow and vaguely unsettling.
Within my field of view, aside from a low table sitting in the corner covered in thick dust, and a few equally grimy low stools, there was nothing else.
...So there really is nothing here?
No, wait, where was that sound coming from?
I pricked up my ears and listened carefully. A moment later —
Thud... thud, thud.
Sure enough, the muffled sound came again. This time I heard it with absolute clarity, it seemed to be coming from... the inner side of the wall on the right.
I froze for 2 seconds, then immediately realized: there was something behind that wall.