Leave No Trace (Part 1)

Chapter 11

Leave No Trace (Part 1)

"Did you memorize what Keith was explaining before?"

Royce shook his head at Nameless' question, "Not really. But I've memorized the area you mentioned. But," He led her to the basement, "Let's deal with that guy first."

Nameless and Royce moved fast, the three children followed calmly.

It didn't even take a second to deal with him. She unhesitatingly pounced the dagger, she brought with her, to his throat. The dagger, no, an ancient relic Nameless had stolen from Gashu's vault of treasures, devoured the blood on it and piled up on the hole by the handle.

The blood that surged on the hole turned rigid, trembled and became solid.

It was how crimson gems are made.

And such relics weren't just in the form of daggers but also in different equipment.

As if sensing the drain of his life essence, Georgies eyes flashed open.

"Ughk...! Y-ugh! Huu—"

He made bubbling and breathing noises, Royce took a deep breath and shoved a cloth in his mouth. He was disgusted.

The man's eyes held fear as if pleading for help.

"As if anyone here will help you..." Royce frowned and looked back at the kids, "Emman."

The child in the middle stepped closer and clicked his tongue at the dying man, "When he's not moving, bring him to the fire. We know what to do already." 

Hearing Emman's witty remarks, Nameless scoffed.

These people were the same group who handled Irazai's threat before, minus Royce who led the way for Eliron. Because they were new faces, the dragon might not have noticed but the three were late in boarding him and sneaked closer at the end.

She called this group in her head as the 'Assassination Team', though they were young they had the eyes of mercilessness. 

Royce was the sole survivor of his generation's mining group, withstanding the manual labor all on his own with brute strength. Given that he had a fourth of dwarven blood, he is naturally strong, and being half elf, he also has the instinctual wisdom to detect threats.

Emman was human through and through but he was gifted in smarts. If the escape didn't occur, he would be the youngest to be recruited as Pearce's scholarly assistant.

The two kids, Lemon and Lime, were twins. Despite their very human appearance, they have thick tails hidden in their long shirts for being half-orcs. They have a sickly greyish skin but maybe its because of the orc, elvish and demon blood mixing in their genes. 

Lime smiled at Nameless and handed her a clean cloth, "Young Miss, I'll clean your hands!" Her green eyes showed her excitement. 

But before she could receive an approval, her brother, Lemon, walked even closer to Nameless, "No, Milady, please accept my handkerchief! It's even cleaner!"

"Emman." 

"As you wish, Miss." With a call, Emman grabbed the back of the two kids' shirts and pulled them back. The twins hurled annoyed insults towards the only pure human of the group but he was unfazed.

While the twins were peculiar in their own way, being the chosen aids for Nameless when she received Gashu's favor. The trio was even weirder. 

Lemon and Lime never hurt Emman despite his lower status, the twins were an un-numbered child of Gashu but there were still privileges in being one. But they never dare to bring it up with Emman.

It was probably because of the profound instinct of potential, something every child of Gashu had.

"Lead the way, Royce." Ignoring the squabbling children, Nameless and Royce went back to the kitchen.

The two of them walked down the dim corridor, passing by three doors, one of which was marked for storage.

At the end of the hall was a large dusty picture frame hung up on the wall.

Somehow the space around it felt abandoned, almost like someone had intentionally distanced it from the rest of the building. The area gave off an eerie message, as if to tell visitors that they'd ventured down this way for nothing.

But there was something: the picture.

It was a community photograph, done with a camera. It was an invention of great importance back then which enhanced the use of light magic besides the usual lights and welding.

The picture depicted members of different species standing together in a candid shot.

Out of all the faces, Nameless focused on four of them.

Near the far edge of the picture stood a young Georgies, barely recognizable in his childlike innocence. That detail made it obvious that this photo was a relic of the past.

In the center, three more figures drew her attention— a baby, an older child, and a teenager.

The older child looked away, distracted by the baby, while the teen gazed forward, his face clearer and more mature. Nameless knew him instantly.

It was Pearce, the human prince who had summoned Gashu to this land. And if that was Pearce, then the baby had to be the human princess, Irazai, Nameless' mother.

As for the familiar blond child between them…

"So, it was here all along." 

A voice came from behind. 

Royce jumped, startled, while Nameless remained calm. She didn't need to turn around; she'd memorized Eliron's voice by now.

"I saw you had kids bring the body out to burn..." He mentions why he found them and Nameless shrugged. "Why would you let those kids... No, they seem peculiar nonetheless. They didn't even let me help them."

"Well they're my trained entourage."

Eliron frowned at those words but his focus naturally trailed back to the picture.

Nameless saw that and followed along.

"You haven't changed at all," she said with a slight smirk, glancing at the dragon in disguise. "The human prince became the aide of Gashu, the princess became my mother, but you? You stayed the same—a kid." She stuck her tongue out, teasing.

Eliron rolled his eyes. "Dragons grow slower than humans. I may look young, but I'm 200 years older than any of you children."

"Excuses," Nameless teased with a shrug.

Eliron groaned, visibly bothered. He'd never felt awkward about his appearance until now.

Nameless grinned then gestured toward the picture. "So, since you're a part of the prince's entourage, do you know the secret of this frame?"

Eliron's expression turned unreadable, and he stayed silent.

Taking that as him being clueless, Nameless chuckled. "Royce, take down the frame."

Royce hesitated, glancing between Nameless and Eliron, but did as instructed.

He carefully lifted the frame off the wall with worried eyes fixed on Eliron, ready for any sign of objection. But Eliron only watched the picture, his gaze somber as he followed it when Royce moved it aside.

Once it was out of the way, the wall behind it was revealed—a bare, featureless expanse.

While the corridor walls had wallpapers on it, this one wall with the large picture frame, had nothing but cold stone.

Nameless stepped forward, her eyes narrowing in focus.

She reached out and pressed her hand flat against the wall.

A faint golden glow emitted from her palm, spilling over the wall in invisible waves of holy magic that only she could feel. She concentrated, frowning slightly as the magic filtered through her fingers, seeking something hidden.

The golden light spread across the wall in rippling waves, seeping into every crevice until their gazes landed on the faint outline of a doorknob. It suddenly appeared as the light encapsulated its invisible existence. 

She glanced back, meeting the boys' astonished stares, and gave a confident nod.

Nameless took hold of the knob and tried to turn it but to no avail. It was a protruding stone, a part of the wall.

Realizing that, she tried to push it but it was heavy.

She was stunned.

In the group, besides Eliron, Nameless was confident that she was the strongest. It was in her genes to be naturally gifted in strength and regeneration.

"Please help me push it, Mister Dragon." Nameless smiles at Eliron however she pauses for a moment, her eyes catching the small trembling of the blond child behind her. Eliron noticed her looking and stepped up, clenching his hands.

Eliron was hesitant for a bit. He wouldn't know what was behind that hidden wall, but he sensed that it was going to be frightening for himself.

Guuur!

His small hand merely touching the wall for a bit and not even putting pressure, made the wall push out slightly. A slit opening at the side.

Eliron was startled, maybe because he wasn't ready.

Seeing his hesitation, Nameless did not rush him.

Although she wanted nothing more than to get out of this land, she didn't want to aggravate the dragon's already weak heart. Royce stayed silent as well.

Before Eliron pushed the wall completely open, he spoke: "How did you find out about this place...?"

Nameless hummed slightly, taking her time to try and find less painful explanations however the truth itself was rather bad, she grumbled. "I heard that this castle was the final camp for those who fled from Gashu and according to stories, they stored countless relics and weapons here to store what once was of the capital... But when those beings fell, they found nothing here. Just an empty castle."

Eliron absorbed the information slowly.

"You probably knew Georgies but kept quiet. That guy was sent here not just to watch out for threats but also to find hidden treasures, but seeing him grumpy he probably found nothing." Nameless continued, "Now that I think of it, Four might have been here to find it and accumulate achievements through it..."

"So how did you find it?" Eliron sighed, "If they didn't find a trace, how can you?"

"Keith handles and stores the blueprints with Pearce. He mentioned that there was something weird about the structure here since the main palace has the same layout, but this place is just smaller." Nameless pointed at the wall, "In the main castle this area should have a door leading to another room, but the blueprints showed that it was a small corridor.... Royce should continue since he heard Keith's explanation directly."

"Me? Uh, anyways," Royce hesitated in butting in between them. "Keith explained that this area was weird when we got here. Originally we thought that this was where the relic was, but it had nothing and so we went to the kitchen. But Nameless says that it was suspicious..."

Nameless shrugs, "It's strange, isn't it?"

Eliron frowns.

"If you have the blueprints of this place and the palace, it would be easy to notice the difference. But for some reason even when 30 years has passed, none have found it."

"It must be a coincidence..."

"Or maybe," Nameless smiles. "Despite someone's attitude, that person wanted to keep something from his past." She walked close to the picture. Her finger pointing to the person Eliron once thought was a bestfriend. "Maybe he wanted to keep a simple innocence behind to feel like he was a good person. How funny."

Nameless summoned a dark glow on her fingertip and pressed it to Pearce's face in the picture, burning a hole where he once smiled.

"Oh well, there's no second chances in life after all. What did he expect? He toppled the tower built under him. He only needed to nurture and solidify it but instead he tore through it and wasted centuries' worth effort by his ancestors. All for what? A false sense of patriotism?" 

Eliron shuddered. Nameless was saying things he's said to Pearce before.

Though she did not live through those experiences, her words stung more since it was an objective view of an outsider.

"Beings like that deserve no sympathy. Someone advised me that there's only one thing to do with those who don't belong in this world: destroy them."

Nameless turned away from the picture and stared at the wall, standing beside Eliron and placed her hand over his on the wall. "So you should move on too. Get rid of the last string of emotion to a person like that, and you can mourn everything of what once was while you fight against the injustice."

She whispered in his ear, "He took everything away from you. So you shall take his remaining conscience. Let's take everything from this vault, shall we?" 

Nameless grinned and pushed Eliron's small hand forward.

She was only a few centimeters taller than him but her presence and conviction were too imposing that he didn't held back on pushing the wall.

With Eliron's hand being forced to push, the wall opened, revealing a dark corridor.

Nameless walked ahead with a grin, passing by Eliron as she let go of his hand.

"Eliron."

The dragon's eyes shook, surprised at her suddenly call of his name. It's the first time.

"If you want revenge, you can only follow me."

Her figure illuminated by the glow from within, half-turned toward Eliron, beckoning him forward.