Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 50 - 50 40 Disaster_1

?50: Chapter 40 Disaster_1 50: Chapter 40 Disaster_1 (Thank you for all your recommendation votes, thank you for your great love, your support is my biggest motivation)

The beds in the mage residential area are entirely different from the beds of the ordinary servants and guards that we had previously seen.

Ordinary workers are only equipped with the simplest beds made of metal frames and metal bed boards, padded with simple bedding, which obviously feels very uncomfortable to sleep on.

However, the mages’ beds are made of thick solid wood, painted different colors according to the user’s preference.

These beds, paired with walls painted a warm yellow that completely hide their metallic color, make the small rooms seem comfortable and cozy.

The half-meter-high solid wood bed has no legs, but connects directly to the ground, with only a five-centimeter protrusion at each corner, creating a small gap between the entire bed and the floor.

On top of the frame lies a bed board made from lizardtail tree gum, a product favored by the wealthy.

The bed board, shaped like a groove, has a base and four sides made of metal wrapped in a wooden shell.

It is filled with refined lizardtail tree gum, which is higher than the sides of the groove, and covered tightly with Katatak beast skin.

The refined lizardtail tree gum retains its original elasticity and toughness while becoming extremely soft; these two sensations combine to provide great comfort for the person lying on it.

“Wow, that’s a mattress worth several hundred gold coins.” Catherine observes as Pannis and Gaston prepare to lift the bed, she couldn’t help feeling envious, “These people are really rich.”

“After this mission, we can also get a bed like this for our house.” Lina sits gracefully on an armchair in front of a desk, holding a small mirror and tidying her already neat hair.

Hearing Catherine’s sigh, she casually responds, “Paired with a velvet duvet, only such a bed can match the identity of this princess.”

“Oh, Princess Heidi, long time no see.” Vivian waves to Lina, “How’s your injury healing?”

“Huh?” Lina pauses, “What injury?”

Vivian grins mischievously, “Ha, didn’t Indulgence give you a good beating a few days ago?

Yesterday, Anna told me that you were so depressed all day that you wouldn’t recover for eight to ten years.

You healed so quickly?”

“Annoying brat, you’re not worth my time.” Lina snorts, changes tactics, and refocuses on the small mirror, ignoring Vivian’s annoying face.

“Okay, one, two, three, lift.” At Pannis’s command, they both exert their strength, lifting the heavy solid wood bed high, everyone’s gaze turns to the space under the bed, but it’s awfully empty underneath, with nothing there.

“Strange, there’s nothing.” Pannis puts the bed back down and looks at the bed with puzzlement.

Suddenly, he reaches out, grabs the bed board, and lifts it hard, “If it’s not under the bed, then it must be inside.”

“Ah.” As the bed board is lifted, Rachel lets out a short gasp and all of them get a clear view under the bed board.

This type of bed isn’t solid between the bed board and the bottom of the bed, it’s hollow, like a large box, where you can store all sorts of rarely used items for daily life.

But now, what is lying there are not miscellaneous items, but two mummified corpses hugging each other.

Both corpses are dressed in the same standard white robes, one of which is smaller in size and should be a woman.

It is lying on its side in the space under the bed, leaning on the other corpse, with its head resting on its dried-up arm.

Upon close inspection, there’s a deep wound over the woman’s heart, most likely inflicted by a dagger.

The man’s corpse is lying face up, left arm hugging around the neck of the woman he’s lying on top of, right hand clutching a dagger sticking in his chest.

Wrapped around the dagger, is a necklace with a crystal pendant.

The corpses display no signs of struggle, looking just as if they’re in deep sleep.

The girls, accustomed to seeing all kinds of corpses throughout their adventures, showed no disgust or unease at the corpses.

Even Rachel’s short gasp just now was out of surprise, not fear.

Seeing the corpses of their peers finally appear, Vivian steps forward, walks to the side of the bed, and looks down at the two who lived hundreds of years ago.

“Obviously, they committed suicide.” Vivian said, “They committed suicide very calmly, it should have been their own decision not forced by others.”

“Looking at the neat condition of the room, it should have been cleaned before their death.” Catherine also joined in to observe the corpses, “And they even had time to prepare this coffin-like place for their death, clearly it was not a sudden decision, and there were no signs of urgency.”

Vivian pulled out another pair of gloves from her backpack, threw them over the gloves she was already wearing, and bent down to force open the dead man’s hand still clenching the dagger.

She pulled the dagger out of the corpse and untied the necklace wrapped around it, “This is a Memory Crystal.

It can record a few minutes of image.

Activating it requires a certain amount of mana.

It may contain their last message before death.

Would you like to see it?”

“Let’s have a look.” Catherine nodded, “There might be something important.”

Vivian dragged a desk into the middle of the room and placed the Memory Crystal on it, activated the crystal by infusing it with mana, then quickly retreat a few steps back.

A light column of blurry images seemed to be projected upwards from the crystal.

As the light column spread out, it eventually enlarged into a cylinder with a radius of approximately half a meter around the crystal.

The blurry images within became clearer as the light continued to spread.

In the column of light was a middle-aged man with a short beard, a typical scholarly Mage — thin, frail, with pale skin.

Judging from the environment behind him, this footage must have been recorded in this very room.

A woman in a white coat lay asleep on the bed behind him.

Small, darkened veins could be faintly seen on the man’s face and hands — a clear signal of severe contamination by Demonized Energy and imminent transformation.

Despite this, he appeared calm and composed, showing no fear.

“My name is Bell, a member of the Naren Kingdom National Alchemy Association, a Gold Rank Mage from the southern borders of Naren Kingdom.

The woman lying behind there is my wife, Susanna, also a Gold Rank Mage of the Alchemy Association.

We are currently at the most secret location in Naren Kingdom, the Nala Mountain Range Research Institute.

Time is limited, and since you have found this crystal, I believe you should have an idea of where we are, so I won’t elaborate.”

“It is said that two days ago, or possibly longer, there was an eruption of Demonized Energy underground here, which then slowly spread to the institute.

Due to the gradual increase in energy concentration, no one noticed the impending disaster until two days ago when some were showing symptoms of severe demonic transformation.

The catastrophe was thus discovered.

As the activation of the Teleportation Array requires a special magical waveform, only known to the director and deputy director of the institute.

However, they hesitated between performing an emergency evacuation and salvaging their research trivia for two hours, resulting in many Mages being transformed.

The way to the Teleportation Array was thus blocked by transformed Mages.

The remaining Mages rallied to attempt a breakthrough, but out of twenty of our highest level fighters, only two made it out.”

“From what we know from the two Mages that broke out but died soon after due to corporeal breakdown from exposure to sunlight, the Emperor prevented a large scale team intending to save years of research and data from the institute.

As I was out visiting my daughter during the holiday, I narrowly escaped the disaster.

But since Susanna was still here, I volunteered to join the team.”

“Under the leadership of the Legendary Master Thomas, our team of two hundred people took a full five hours to teleport everyone in.

When I arrived, Master Thomas had already led the front team to break through the transformed, creating a passage.

We did not expect the concentration of demonic energy in this area to be so surprisingly high, with a mere day of exposure being enough to transform a healthy human completely.

Realizing this, I had lost all hope of saving Susanna, yet, for a glimmer of hope, I ventured into the institute with the others and caught up with Master Thomas.

At that point, Master Thomas had already made it through the residential area, but of those saved along the way, there were under ten survivors.

All of them had severe contamination and would disintegrate and die just like the two Mages who went to seek help, upon leaving the underground.

Fortunately, Susanna was one of them, and we got to see each other one last time.”

“Sadly, as if the gods were intentionally tormenting us, just as we were about to breakthrough to the research area, there was a sudden increase in the concentration of demonic energy.

Many Silver Rank fighters in the rescue team were instantaneously transformed.

Only Master Thomas and a few Gold Rank Mages were spared temporarily, although they, too, suffered different degrees of demonic contamination.

Even Master Thomas, with the mildest contamination, probably couldn’t escape death.”

“Knowing the inevitable outcome, we each made different choices.

Master Thomas and the other team members decided to fight to their last breath to reach the Core Area and retrieve the research data.

Susanna and I, being severely contaminated, wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer and chose to return here, to spend the last of our time together.”

“That’s the whole story.

We don’t have much time left now.

Susanna is in the final stage before transformation, alternating between consciousness and sleep.

We have decided to die in our own bodies, preserving the last of a human’s dignity.”

“To prevent our bodies from being desecrated, we hid in a secret compartment under the bed before our death.

The fact that you found our bodies in such circumstances is truly remarkable.”

“I do not know when you will see this footage.

If you can, please go to 41 Malt Beer Street in Briana city, southern border, and hand over this crystal and a diary to Annie who lives there.

The diary is hidden under the lizardtail tree gum on the bed.

Please deliver these two items to Annie, tell her that even though her parents can’t be by her side, we love her forever.

As a token of our gratitude, we’ve left a combined amount of twenty thousand gold coins along with this diary.

We hope you can accept this payment and fulfill the last wishes of us, her departed parents.”

“Alright, Susanna is awake now.

I’m afraid this might be the last time she gains consciousness.

It’s now time for us to go.

Goodbye anonymous friend.”

With the goodbye, the footage froze on the last moment as the light emitted by the Memory Crystal slowly dimmed and eventually faded away.