Chapter 203: Learning The Shocking Truth


    I didn''t know why I threatened him by killing all he had known, but I felt bad after saying it. as I was about to correct myself here, he just looked at me with his silly smile as he said:


    "C''mon, you aren''t that bad ass girl you pretend to be. I assume you think bad of me, like I tricked you or yed you, and I have to admit your assumptions are right."


    "What?!" I eximed with surprise and some loss as I began to be more alert like being threatened.


    "Calm down," he said pointing towards me as he sensed my increasing alertness, "I''m not your enemy here, in fact I''m very grateful to you. Without your help and great luck, we couldn''t be here again."


    Well, his words were getting weirder and weirder. Gen was next to me listening to the crap Prino was saying as he aggressively asked:


    "You know this ce, you have been here before, aren''t you?"


    Gen was going to his sword, but Prino just waved his hand as he began to exin:


    "Listen, I know you are suspicious and doubting me from the start, but the fact is I''m still a loyal ve for you princess. Evening back here couldn''t change anything. She also had my people, and my people had changed their loyalty and became her people.


    So chill out mate, we are here to celebrate not fight."


    This Prino was really something! Every time I thought he would speak sanely, I got smashed to the wall and faced his bizarre words.


    "Can you just exin everything in one go?" I asked as I began to lose my patience here.


    Prino seemed to live in a world of his own, like my words and the signs all over my face of getting pissed off weren''t enough for him to care or notice.


    He just kept smiling his silly smile before he pointed to the ground as he said:


    "May wend here?"


    This time my patience was really on the edge of copse, so I grabbed his shoulder as I aggressively said while gritting my teeth:


    "Listen to me very well, if you don''t speak right now then I will order Gen here to kill you then I will take out each one of your people and interrogate them. it''s up to you Prino."


    "You can''t do this, yo"


    He was about to say some nonsense about this wasn''t my nature when I stopped him by raising my spear and saying:


    "Try me and you will be surprised."


    "N-No way, y-you are a nice person. The guardian let you through and this means you aren''t the bad you sound," Prino said with some doubt and fear that I sensed in his voice.


    Finally I managed to shake some sense into this lost man''s soul. I didn''t let go of my hand as I spoke with more determination:


    "I said try me, I don''t mind proving you wrong."


    "W-what?!" he was really surprised when Gen pointed out his sword as he joined the party:


    "Don''t mess up with us, we are really more desperate than you think. If I were in your boots right now, I would ept the good gesture of our princess and speak up," Gen then moved a step forward while adjusting his sword to be on Prino''s neck, "and I suggest for you to do that right now."


    Prino seemed to return to reality by Gen''s words, which was something I appreciated. He just moved his gaze between the two of us before finally exining in in direct words:


    "This ce is my home, or it was what I used to call a home," he looked at me as I was eyeing him with doubt, "I know what you are thinking, as the guardian must have told you about the nature of this ce, right?"


    "Yes, but he didn''t mention people," I replied expressing my doubts.


    "Yes, this could be exined as hmm, look in many universes conception isn''t done in the usual way."


    My look at him was getting weirder as he returned to that nonsense he was talking about before. He seemed to realize his mistake, as he hurried to say:


    "I know this might seem strange and bizarre, but when I was born, I found myself inside this amazing capsule which kept me alive. The more amazing thing was that I wasn''t alone."


    "What do you mean by that?" Gen said.


    "I mean this world collects missing stuff, and the capsule I was inside was considered as a lost item and was brought here. This capsule was designed to keep me growing up until I was born, and I wasn''t the only one to be born here in this way," he exined further.


    "Do you mean you lost your parents and ended up here? who raised you?" I asked with doubt and disbelief.


    "This is another thing, the capsule was programmed to make me grow up to this age before exiting it. so technically I didn''t need to be raised," he said.


    "Does that mean you are months old?" Gen asked with much doubt than I had.


    "No, in fact I''m hundreds of years old," he then looked towards the world beneath us, "this world is miraculous, and it has its way to affect things. Here we can''t age, you have many people whose ages are counted by thousands of years inside your prison."


    His words were unbelievable, however even his amazing life story wasn''t relevant to me right now. All I cared about was this world, and how I could get all the benefits from it.


    "That''s a fascinating story, but I need to know details about this world," I said, interrupting his wonderful state of mind he must be feeling right now.


    "Oh, I had to tell you this so to prepare yourself for the next," he said.


    "What do you mean?" I asked.


    "Do you mean there is civilization here?" Gen suddenly asked something that made my mind realize what I missed. Damn, if there are constant supply of capsules like this, then the number of people living here would be huge.


    That meant they would form societies, mate together and start the normal human life cycle.


    "Well, not just one in fact," he said before pointing towards the far mountains in the distance, "see these in the horizon?"


    "Those mountains? Yes what''s up with them?" Gen asked.


    "No, they aren''t mountains, in fact this is the huge wall which defines one of the empires here in this world," Prino calmly said like he was saying a joke.


    "What?! Is this the boundary of an empire?" I eximed with shock, as the hugely looking mountains in the far horizons didn''t seem that cool to me. if these were walls, then who were the people who built them?


    We needed to be low profile and stay out of sight, and better than that we needed to leave here and return to my world.


    Suddenly that huge giant which I met before seemed not that bad to me, inparison to that danger looming from far.


    "This is just one of the many empires here, however the threats we must look out for won''te mainly from these empires," he kept telling the bad news one after another like he was an unstoppable train.


    "Then who is our enemy?" Gen asked the most relevant question.


    He seemed to struggle to answer that question before he just waved towards the whole world below as he said:


    "If you don''t seek for anything then no harm will befall upon you, but" he paused before looking towards me as he added, "if you decided to seek for treasures, then the whole world would turn upon you."


    I swallowed my throat as this reminded me of the choice I just made with that proimed guardian of this world.


    "May I know why is that? The guardian told me something different," I said.


    "Who is this guardian? Let''s go and ask him again then," Gen said.


    "That''s impossible, you can''t meet the guardian except when you enter here and this would be a big deal in this world," Prino said.


    "Why is that?" I asked when I sensed he was hiding more than he was telling. I began to somehow understand him, he wasn''t mean to us or intend anything bad, he was just hesitant and afraid.


    After all, our fates were connected together.


    "This world, it''s a bitplicated, but let''s say those who came from items that were thrown here can''t seek for other items buried here in this world," he said after much hesitation.


    "Why can''t you seek treasures here?" I asked with some worry as an answer and a theory began to shape in my head.


    "Have you seen a treasure stealing another treasure before? To this world we are just another treasure, mere items thrown and lost. We can''t seek any treasure even if we already know the wholeyout of the treasures in this world," Prino said.


    "What will happen if you pick up one treasure?" Gen asked.


    "The guardian will interfere and thest thing you will see is death. Whoever steals from here would end up dead no matter what," he said with a more worrying tone.


    "So the only way to get any treasure from here is by using us, intruders, right?" I finally said what I was afraid of.


    "Technically yes, but that would only happen after you pick up a treasure of your own. That would be like gates of hell were fully opened upon you. Not too many managed toe here, and as far as I know not many exited here. and whoever did this was already a legend in this world," Prino said in a dejected tone.


    "But you had left here, right?" Gen asked the most important question.


    "That''s because the one who came herest time was fully prepared to what would happen here," he said while pointing out towards these walls as he continued:


    "They first built an empire, gathered as many ves as they could from here, and then they began to excavate for treasures before their luck ran out."


    I looked towards the horizon as another idea popped up my head.


    "Do you mean they were from the demon race?"


    "In fact they are a mix of races, but dominantly ruled by demons and another race that we don''t know what it was," he replied with some pain in his voice, like he was recalling some really bad memories.


    "And why did their luck run out?" Gen asked.


    "Their leader was greedy, as he kept looking for treasures and sacrificing my people along the way. In the end he was tricked to go somewhere cursed and he got himself the punishment he deserved," Prino said.


    "And this curse ended his luck here?" Gen asked again.


    "No, this curse is what brought to the other universe in the first ce," he said while turning to look at me before adding:


    "That castle is a cursed object just like the prison you carry. However to some reason your luck is still kicking wildly, not like that other damned demon."


    "H-How do you know all that? Who really are you?" I asked as the more I thought about it the more unsettled I became.


    "I know all this because I was the one who tricked that bastard to that castle, however I wasn''t smart enough and got myself and many of my kin to be moved with the castle towards that universe where we met there. as for me, I can now formally introduce myself to you. I''m Prino the third, the rightful emperor of this mighty empire you are watching its walls."