Baldwin followed her line of sight and smiled. "That? Just decoration. Everyone’s looked at it already. It doesn’t move, doesn’t react, and there’s no spiritual fluctuation."
Reesa nodded in agreent. "Yeah, we checked those grooves too. They’re carved with patterns, nothing more."
Yet Zora didn’t move away.
Her eyes remained fixed on the grooves, as if the world around her had faded into the background.
Those patterns...
A faint ripple stirred in her thoughts.
She had seen them before.
Not carved in stone like this, but sowhere else. Sowhere recent.
Her fingers unconsciously traced the air, following the curves of the engravings.
Where was it?
Her mind raced, images flashing one after another. The illusion. The stone chamber. The black iron box. The crystal-clear sword...
Suddenly, her pupils tightened.
In that instant, clarity struck like lightning.
Zora straightened slightly, a quiet certainty settling in her eyes.
She had found it.
"Master... did you think of sothing?"
Black’s voice sounded in her mind, low but alert. Having followed Zora for so long, he knew that look too well. Whenever her eyes settled into that quiet stillness, it ant a thread had finally been pulled loose.
Zora didn’t answer imdiately. She kept her gaze on the stone door, on the two shallow grooves beneath the tal rings. The ancient carvings were cold under her fingertips, their lines smooth with age.
Then she spoke softly, almost to herself.
"Black, White... don’t you think the shape of these grooves looks familiar?"
Her lips curved faintly. "Similar to the end of the hilt of the Glaze Sword, Eira."
For a brief second, the Chaos Ring fell silent.
Then—
"...!"
Both little beasts froze.
Black’s eyes lit up first. "You’re right!" he blurted out, excitent barely contained. "Master, let check! I’ll confirm it inside the Chaos Ring!"
"Go," Zora replied calmly. "Tell once you’re sure."
A faint ripple passed through her hair ornant as Black slipped back into the Chaos Ring. Around them, the main hall remained restless. Spirit warriors whispered, paced, or sat against the stone walls, their frustration thick in the air. None of them paid attention to the grooves everyone had already dismissed.
Zora waited.
She didn’t rush. She had learned long ago that certainty was worth more than speed.
Inside the Chaos Ring, Black darted straight to the Glaze Sword, Eira. The crystal-clear blade rested quietly, its faint red veins pulsing like a sleeping heartbeat. He focused not on the blade, but on the hilt.
A careful comparison.
One glance... then another.
Black sucked in a sharp breath.
"Master!" His voice rang with barely restrained glee. "You’re absolutely right! The groove and the sword hilt match perfectly. Sa curve, sa depth, sa pattern. It’s a perfect fit!"
Zora closed her eyes for a brief mont.
When she opened them again, the faint smile on her lips carried a new confidence.
So that was it.
The key had never been hidden in so obscure corner or complicated chanism. It had been placed in plain sight, disguised as decoration, waiting for the right person to make the connection.
Her gaze shifted slightly, thoughtful now.
"Reesa," she asked quietly, "has Prince Kael been checking this stone door these past few days?"
Reesa shook her head imdiately. "No. Not once."
She sighed softly. "Ever since you disappeared, he barely left that smaller stone chamber. He didn’t sleep properly, didn’t cultivate, and didn’t even look around much. His thoughts were only focused on you."
Baldwin nodded in agreent, his expression complicated. "He wasn’t in the mood to care about anything else."
Zora’s fingers tightened slightly at her side.
So that was why.
With Prince Kael’s insight, he would have noticed this sooner or later... if his heart hadn’t been completely occupied by worry.
A quiet warmth spread through her chest, followed by a trace of guilt.
She exhaled slowly.
"I see."
For a mont, she said nothing more. Her eyes remained on the stone door, but her thoughts drifted elsewhere.
He hadn’t slept for days.
He hadn’t rested.
And all of it... because of her.
Zora made a decision then.
She wouldn’t tell him yet.
Not until he had rested. Not until his mind was clear and his state steady again.
Only then would she reveal this discovery.
Her gaze returned to the grooves, sharper now, filled with understanding.
"So that’s how it is..." she murmured.
From the stone chamber earlier to this sealed main hall, the relic owner had been guiding them all along. Separating them, testing them, then quietly arranging for the final door to require cooperation.
Not brute force.
Not cultivation alone.
But trust.
"Looks like the owner of this ruin never intended for a single person to walk this path alone," Zora thought.
And for the first ti since entering the ruins, she felt she truly understood the test.
From the mont she compared the sealed stone chamber to the heavy gate before her, a question had been circling endlessly in Zora’s mind, like a blade tracing the sa groove again and again.
From the identical arrangents in the stone rooms to the need for two people to act in tandem to trigger the chanism, everything pointed to deliberate design.
The relic’s owner had not been careless.
Every step, every separation, every reunion had been calculated with chilling precision.
Was this inheritance ant to be shared by two people, tested together, trusted together? Or was it far crueler than that, forcing two candidates forward only to choose one at the very end?
If it was the forr, then this trial was generous, even enlightened. But if it was the latter, then the owner of the ruins was ruthless beyond imagination.
Zora could not yet see the answer. What she could see clearly, however, was the present situation.
Compared to everyone else, she and Prince Kael had already gained far more.
They had passed through illusions others had not even understood. They had survived trials designed to separate and unsettle them. They had obtained opportunities that no one else had even glimpsed.
Whatever the final outco might be, at least for now, they stood on higher ground.
And for spirit warriors, that alone was enough.
She let out a slow breath, smoothing the thoughts in her mind. There was no benefit in worrying about the future before it arrived. When the ti ca, she would respond. Step by step, blade by blade.
Just as her thoughts settled, a calm, cool voice drifted to her side.
"Miss Zora," Guinvere said lightly, her tone restrained and courteous, "have you discovered sothing?"
Zora withdrew her gaze from the stone gate and turned to face her.
Guinvere stood there with her usual elegance, her posture unhurried, her expression gentle to the point of faultlessness. If one did not know better, one might think the two of them were rely exchanging polite pleasantries.
Zora smiled faintly, her expression open and unguarded. "If soone like Miss Guinvere has not found anything, how could I?"
Guinvere’s eyes flickered almost imperceptibly. The response was flawless, leaving no opening, no hint of panic or concealnt. Still, her smile did not waver.
"That may not be so," she replied calmly. "Miss Zora is intelligent and well-versed in rare techniques. It would not be strange if you noticed sothing the rest of us overlooked."
Around them, the subtle shift did not go unnoticed.
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