破曉之刃 - 第6章 這是啥玩意兒 - 清風書屋

Miss Amber, master of stealth, professional in the ways of shadow, and enthusiast of grave-robbing, had a saying she held to be gospel: the road is right there, a door is nothing but a flimsy ornament; set aside your mental hang-ups, and even the door of a royal treasury needs nothing more than a stalk of celery.

All right, celery probably didn't exist in this world, but as far as Amber was concerned, prying open the door of an ancient tomb didn't require celery either.

A little shadow trick, a bit of knowledge about ancient wards, and a modicum of luck were all it took for the half-elf thief to effortlessly break the seals on the Cecil ancestral tomb, and a passage that even Heidi and Rebecca had never known appeared before everyone.

Then everyone followed Amber into the passage.

The tomb corridor, built of stone and soul-calming bricks, was far more spacious than expected. Even heavy knights like Gao Yang and Byron, standing nearly two meters tall, felt no sense of confinement within it. The enchanted lamp fixtures set into the walls on both sides had long since run dry, but after Heidi cast a few basic spells, these ancient lamps, seven hundred years old, lit up one after another, pointing the way ahead.

"I really am just a petty thief, I scrape by day to day," Amber said modestly as she walked at the front of the group. "I'm descended from forest elves, you know. I deeply respect the ancestral spirits. Why would I ever do something like rob graves?"

Gao Yang dismissed her claim with contempt: "You're this skilled at it, and you still have the nerve to explain?"

Perhaps reassured that her life was now safe, this half-elf—who possessed not a shred of racial dignity—was as thick-skinned as the tomb door she had just pried open: "Lock-picking and ward-breaking are standard equipment for our trade. Is it a crime to have solid fundamentals?"

At that moment, Rebecca, walking in the middle of the group, suddenly asked, "Are you a subject of the Cecil domain?"

Amber frowned and thought it over: "I've lived in this area for years, but I never applied to become a formal subject. Still, according to the rules of the Cecil domain, anyone who's resided here over three years and paid taxes on time counts as a subject... so what do you think, does that make me one?"

Rebecca shook her head: "No application, no subject."

"Oh," Amber drew the word out. "Then why did you ask?"

"I am the lord of the Cecil domain," Rebecca said sternly. "So if you were my subject, I would be obligated to protect you."

Amber: "...Then you should've said that earlier! Is it too late for me to take it back?"

Rebecca's face was serious: "Too late."

Gao Yang glanced at Rebecca's earnest expression, then at the utterly shameless Amber, and shook his head with some amusement.

Even though he had woken up into such a mess, being alive again felt far better than that damned state he'd been in before.

He looked at Heidi, walking behind him. This lady—who knew how many times great-granddaughter she was—had stolen glances his way more than once. He had been waiting for her to speak first, but seeing no sign of her breaking the silence, he decided to ask directly: "Whatever you want to ask, just say it."

Heidi started slightly, but quickly took a deep breath to compose herself. Looking at the face identical to the one in the family portrait, she chose her words carefully: "Ancestor... I still can hardly believe it. That you really are..."

"That's right, I really am that Gao Yang Cecil, the pioneer from seven hundred years ago. I can recite my thirty-odd years of life experience for you, or shall I tell you about the Second Pioneering Era? Honestly, though, that alone probably proves nothing—a good historian could likely give a more convincing account than I could, since I'm not much of a speaker," Gao Yang shrugged. "You just want to confirm whether I'm genuine, don't you?"