Chapter 233: Dungeon

“Haha, Trelinka, hurry up. Has the delicate Her Highness the Princess forgotten how to walk?”

After the old warrior Beigean left, several soldiers approached Trelinka and teased her. One of them even groped her slender waist while pushing her forward.

The soldier turned to his companions behind him and laughed loudly:

“Hahaha, truly worthy of Her Highness the Princess. Her figure is so well-maintained, isn’t it…………”

But his words choked off halfway, because he saw Trelinka turn her head and stare at him with lifeless, dull pupils filled with indifference.

For some reason, even though Trelinka was now just an ordinary person who had lost her Battle Aura, this fourth-level Apprentice Rank warrior couldn’t help but feel a chill run through his entire body. He felt like he had never seen such a terrifying gaze in his life – that bone-piercing lifelessness and coldness was more frightening than any ghoul he had ever encountered.

The soldier who had just been thinking about taking advantage shuddered involuntarily. He no longer laughed mockingly, but instead pushed Trelinka roughly with a fearful expression on his face.

Without Battle Aura for protection, Trelinka fell to the ground. Her head hit the doorframe, and drops of blood trickled down her fair face.

But the injured Trelinka didn’t make a single sound. She stood up as if feeling nothing, completely ignoring the blood flowing from her head as she walked out the door. Since former clan leader Dolan had once taken Trelinka on a tour of this castle, she knew where the Green Vine Family’s dungeon was located.

That evening, Greenvine Castle was filled with an indescribably heavy atmosphere. The massive castle had an unprecedented scarcity of servants and maids. In fact, aside from a very few loyal old servants who had served the Green Vine Family for generations, the other hundred-plus maids including cooks had all been dismissed. Thus, Greenvine City was not only empty but exceptionally lifeless.

Walking down the castle stairs to the dungeon beneath the castle, neither the soldiers escorting Trelinka nor the surrounding guards spoke a word. Only the sound of the massive iron door opening echoed through the empty dungeon.

This dungeon, which usually held over a dozen prisoners, was unusually silent. Under normal circumstances, when a new prisoner was brought in, the other prisoners in the dungeon would definitely make loud noises and commotions. All sorts of vulgar jokes that were hard to come by in daily life would erupt like a geyser in the foul-aired cages – especially when the arriving prisoner was a beautiful young girl. At least for several days, the sound of prisoners banging on the iron bars wouldn’t cease.

But today, there wasn’t the slightest sound in the entire dungeon. Each cage that usually held at least a dozen prisoners was now empty, with only large bloodstains on the hay piles inside seeming to explain this unusual silence.

However, neither the dungeon guards nor the soldiers escorting Trelinka, including Trelinka herself who had become a prisoner about to be imprisoned in the dungeon, paid any attention to the bloody scent permeating the air.Several soldiers gently nudged Trelinka toward a relatively tidy cell. Without a word, one guard produced a large, pre-prepared key and unlocked the rust-covered iron chains.

Clatter!

As the sound of the chains being lifted echoed, the solid iron-barred door slowly swung open. Trelinka was pushed by the guard into the cramped cell, barely large enough for a person to lie down flat. She stumbled and fell onto the dry hay covering the floor, its sharp blades soon scratching several tiny wounds into her delicate hands.

Behind her, the guard had already shut the iron door again. Thick iron bars, as wide as an arm, were entwined with pitch-black chains, while two guards stood meticulously at the cell entrance, showing no intention of leaving.

Stripped of her Battle Aura protection, Trelinka shivered from the cold but said nothing. She slowly crawled to the corner of the cell, curling up into a small ball in that tiny space.

“Perhaps… death is my only destiny now…”

Trelinka thought to herself.

The icy grip of despair gradually consumed the girl’s body heat. The flickering candlelight in the dungeon offered not a shred of warmth, and the distant “hope” seemed as elusive as that wavering flame—existing only in a far-off place, utterly beyond reach, never to arrive before her…

Trelinka gazed blankly with her sapphire-like eyes at the candle flame outside the cell. That small spark burned steadily in the darkness, and she seemed to see the faint glow slowly magnifying before her eyes. A long-lost warmth, reminiscent of her palace chambers, gradually enveloped her.

“Is this… an illusion, or just my imagination?”

Before she knew it, Trelinka had risen to her feet. Floating before her was a palm-sized Fireball, its radiance not scorching but warm like afternoon sunlight. Golden light flooded the entire cell, and even the thick walls took on a semi-transparent, pure white hue under the intensely penetrating glow.

The Fireball’s brilliance didn’t just illuminate one cell; in fact, every brick and stone in the entire dungeon shone as bright as day under this peculiarly penetrating light. Strangely, all the soldiers, including the highly alert guards, remained oblivious to this unusual radiance. Even when the light shone directly on their faces, they felt absolutely nothing.

It seemed Trelinka was the only person in the entire dungeon who could perceive this glow; all other “uninvolved individuals” were forcibly made to “turn a blind eye.”

Staring at the small Fireball before her, Trelinka instinctively knew it wouldn’t harm her. She reached out and gently cupped the gradually shrinking ball of fire. As her hands closed around it, the flames on the Fireball slowly extinguished.

Finally, all that remained in Trelinka’s palm was a lustrous White Crystal Orb. After the flames died out, a faint golden, metallic sheet slowly materialized beside the small sphere. Simultaneously, a pre-set message transmitted directly into Trelinka’s consciousness.

An aged, hoarse voice echoed in Trelinka’s mind:”Your Highness Princess Trelinka—the last member of the Dillon Royal Family. Indeed, when you receive this orb, the Dillon Kingdom has already ceased to exist in all but name… I am a message left by Sangus, and that National Guardian Archmage named Sangus has already vanished into the dust of eternity… From this moment onward, all choices shall be yours alone to make…”

(End of Chapter)