Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 55 - 55 43 Who Cleaned the Room_1

?55: Chapter 43 Who Cleaned the Room_1 55: Chapter 43 Who Cleaned the Room_1 “Poor Bell and Susan, they probably couldn’t have imagined that their bodies would only be discovered seven hundred years after their deaths.

And poor little Annie, forever waiting for her parent’s return home.” Lina sighed softly, closing Susan’s diary.

“That’s why it’s so important to cherish the happiness that’s right in front of you.” Catherine, sitting at the same desk, seemed to have thought of something.

Her face turned sullen as she sighed, “Parents often leave their children for the sake of their child’s future but they do not understand that children do not need an elusive future.

All they need is to grow up under the care of their parents – that’s true happiness for them.

Unfortunately, by the time parents realize this, it’s already too late to make amends.”

Vivian walked over to Catherine, lightly tiptoed and comfortingly patted Catherine’s shoulder.

She then leaned in, kissed Catherine’s cheek and said, “Don’t be sad, I’ll take care of you for them.”

Catherine laughed, catching Vivian and gave her a few firm slaps on her buttocks before letting her go, “Stop messing around, what are your thoughts about this whole thing?”

“What else is there to think?” Vivian shrugged, “We already know the location, it’s in the cryopreservation room in the Core Area, all we have to do is go directly.”

“Do you know where the Core Area is?

Where’s the cryopreservation room?

Do you know where that is?” Catherine asked.

“Of course.” Vivian clapped her hands confidently, then said, “I have no idea.”

Seeing Catherine preparing to stand up and hit her, Vivian quickly responded seriously, “Okay, okay, you could’ve just said so, sit down.

Actually, I do know.

Didn’t Bell mention the Core Area in the Memory Crystal?

After the residential area is the Research and Development area, then it’s the experimental field, and beyond that is the Core Area.

As for the cryopreservation room, it’s even simpler.

Once we’re in the Core Area, I just have to find an artificial mana transmission pipeline, open it up, and follow the pipeline.”

“Alright then, I’ll leave it to…” Catherine’s brows suddenly furrowed, “Put it down.”

Gaston was lifting a soft skin wallet that was placed under the lizardtail tree gum with the diary.

Hearing Catherine’s words, he looked at her, puzzled.

“I said, put it down.” Catherine’s expression became stern and she repeated, each word clear and distinct.

“Why?” Gaston asked, seemly surprised, “We discovered this together, Rachel and I also have a share.

You can’t kick us out and take the money for yourselves.”

Rachel shook her head and said softly, “Gaston, put the money down.”

Gaston looked at Rachel, confused, “Why do you say so too?

We’re thinking for our future here.”

“It doesn’t belong to us.” Rachel calmly replied, “It doesn’t belong to anyone here.”

“Why?” Gaston seemed displeased and raised his voice, “This is unclaimed money.”

“Not quite.” Rachel still responded softly, “It’s a reward for a mission, a reward for the last mission in the life of a pair of parents.

Unless, are you ready to take over this task?”

Gaston looked at Rachel in disbelief, “When did you become so inflexible?

You were not like this before.

We used to take the money in situations like this, right?

No one knew, no one objected, it didn’t affect our reputation, why not take it?”

“I was wrong before.” Rachel glanced gratefully at Catherine, “I’ve realized many things these days.

I understand what’s right and what’s wrong, I took the wrong path before, now I want to return to the right path.

I think it’s not too late to start now.

And you?

Don’t you want to get back on track?”

“Me, me, I didn’t do anything wrong.” Gaston looked at Rachel somewhat guilty, “Get back on what track?”

With disappointment, Rachel closed her eyes and sighed lightly, “Put down the money, Gaston.

No one here will agree with you to take the money.

It’s a matter of principle.”

“Exactly, it’s a matter of principle.” Catherine held Rachel’s arm tightly and smiled at her approvingly, “If it’s our money, we have the right to get it; if it’s not our money, we shouldn’t even touch it; that’s our principle.

Now, no one has the ability to execute the request of the dying couple, hence no one should touch the money.

Even if it rots here, it’s not to be taken.

So, please, put down the wallet.”

“Have you all gone mad?” Gaston shouted loudly, furious and waving his hand, “This is two hundred mithril coins, a total of twenty thousand gold coins!

Look at the ordinary people outside, they work for it all their lives and may not be able to earn so much in return.

You’re really going to leave it here?

Are you out of your mind?”

“Twenty thousand gold coins are indeed not a small sum.” Catherine nodded, “Even for us, it’s quite a lot.

But to swap it for our principles and our conscience, twenty thousand gold coins is nowhere near enough.

Not even if it was twenty thousand times twenty thousand gold coins.”

“For me, it doesn’t make much difference if it’s ten thousand or twenty thousand.” Vivian whispered to Pannis.

“I don’t need ten thousand.

A thousand is enough.” Lina lifted her gaze from her book and said indifferently.

“Both of you, shut up.” Catherine turned around and glared at Vivian and Lina on purpose.

“You all are mad.” Gaston held the money bag tightly, his gaze rotating around the remaining five people.

Finding no one was on his side, he finally threw the bag onto the bed in anger, stormed towards the door, but hesitated for a moment when he saw the empty corridor.

He turned back to the room, silently fuming.

Ignoring Gaston, Catherine asked, “Pannis, do you see any issues with this diary?”

“No problem with the diary itself.” Pannis stroked his chin and pondered, “But, there are several sensible matters brought up by the diary that I don’t understand.”

“What kind of sensible matters?” Lina asked with interest, “I can help you check the books.”

“First question, earthquakes,” Pannis raised a finger.

“According to records from the diary, a demonic energy outbreak has precursors, namely frequent earthquakes.

However, this situation hasn’t been recorded in any of the documents.

In other words, a normal demonic energy outbreak wouldn’t cause an earthquake.”

“That’s not always true.” Lina shook her head in response.

“Although I didn’t bring that book, I still remember.

In the 13th month of 786, Third Epoch, a large scale demonic energy contamination occurred in Menika City of the Elven Kingdom, which was accompanied by frequent earthquakes.

Luckily Menika City is an aboveground city, and the demonic energy directly exposed to sunlight and moonlight was quickly consumed, thus preventing a much larger catastrophe.

People later believed the outbreak of demonic energy initially occurred deep under Menika City and should have slowly seeped upwards, perhaps taking hundreds of years to breach the surface while its concentration would’ve significantly decreased.

However, the earthquakes created several cracks underground that provided an excellent passage for the demonic energy, causing it to burst out directly after the earthquake.

I believe the same reason applies here; it’s not that the demonic energy caused the earthquake, but the earthquake causing the premature and highly concentrated outbreaks of demonic energy.”

“Alright.” Pannis nodded, raising a second finger.

“Second question, have you guys noticed?

The concentration of the demonic energy here is weaker now, even weaker than the caves outside.”

“Correct,” Vivian replied.

“Right now, even a normal person could survive here for a month without being fully demonized, while a Gold Rank professional could live here for four to six months.”

“Yes, that’s odd.” Lina realized, “According to the diary, the concentration of demonic energy was obviously high.

Given the timeframe of seven hundred years, the concentration shouldn’t have dissipated to this extent.”

“Only one explanation for that.” Vivian slammed the table to emphasize, “The source is here.

The outbreak of demonic energy originated from beneath the research institute and, moreover, the total amount of demonic energy isn’t large.

Only this theory would explain the current situation: as the demonic energy gradually spreads out, the energy at the source has dried up.

Thus, the phenomenon of the concentration in the core area being lower while the external region’s concentration is higher than here.

If so, in less than two hundred years, the demonic energy in the entire Crying Cave will have dissipated enough for normal creatures to inhabit.

Hmm, this might suggest…”

“What’s up, Vivian?

What have you thought of?” Catherine noticed Vivian seemed to be in a trance and asked with concern.

“Nothing, nothing.” Vivian snapped out of her daze and quickly shifted the topic to divert Catherine’s question, “Apart from this, Pannis, have you noticed any other problems?”

“One last problem.” Pannis held up a third finger.

“We’ve searched six rooms already.

Has anyone found a word, a sheet of paper?”

Without waiting for others to say anything, Pannis continued, “There are no corpses, no records, no valuables, and no daily necessities.

Is this consistent with the scene of a daily living space that has suddenly been struck by a disaster?

It might be coincidence for a single room, but not for six.

It’s certainly no coincidence.”

“You’re suggesting someone has cleaned up?” Catherine asked.

“It seems obvious that’s the case.

Both the diary and the Memory Crystal recorded fierce battles taking place here, with many, many people dying.

From the entrance to the core area, there should be bodies everywhere.

But, where are the corpses?

Were they dragged away and eaten by the magical creatures after the demonic incidents?

Even if they had, would they have cleaned up the blood and tidied the place?”

“So, you’re concluding that someone recently came in?” Lina asked tentatively.

“No, not recently.” Pannis shook his head, “On our journey here, we didn’t smell any corpses.

If there were a large number of bodies stored here for several centuries, there would undoubtedly be a lingering smell.

But since there’s none, it implies that centuries ago, following the disaster, someone successfully entered here, likely someone akin to an owner.

That’s why they might have cleaned the place and removed the bodies.

Others would not have done this.”

“The Royal Family of Naren.” Lina clapped her hands as if she had a sudden realization.

“Even the King of Naren.

Historical records show that several neighboring countries that obliterated the Naren Kingdom didn’t find the Naren King; he vanished.

He most likely escaped here.

However, looking at the concentration of the demonic energy here at the time, he probably wouldn’t have lasted many days before becoming demonized.”

“Perhaps.” Pannis nodded.

“I believe we are nearing the answer.

Let’s continue further.”