Chapter 1239: Chapter 1238: A Warning

It was a thick, weighty book with a pitch‑black cover. The cover was made of some unknown material, smooth like a mirror, and within it, tiny glimmers of starlight would occasionally flicker into view. The paths along which those stars wandered made Amber involuntarily think of the crowds bustling to and fro on the busy streets of the imperial capital. Aside from that, there were no words or symbols on the cover at all—no title, no author.

It simply lay there quietly at the top of the stone pillar, its star‑lit cover seemingly guarding the contents within, while the pillar itself called to mind a reading desk in a chapel or a library... Perhaps that really was what it was for?

Amber couldn’t help glancing back once more at that colossal throne, and compared to that mountain‑like seat, the tiny stone pillar before her and the Black Leather Tome upon it were so insignificant they might as well have been grains of sand... If this was Lady Night’s reading desk, then using it must be terribly uncomfortable for Her...

All sorts of inappropriate associations bubbled up uncontrollably in Amber’s head, but her attention soon returned to the Black Leather Tome. She heard that old, gentle voice again from within the book, with a hint of laughter in it: "Yes, it seems I really am a book, even though I feel I used to be a person... a human being. Very peculiar, isn’t it?"

"Have you always been like this?" Amber cautiously posed the question. Although she more or less had a grasp on what this bizarre place and this strange "book" were, with the situation still unclear, every word she spoke had to be weighed with care. "How long have you been here?"

"Always... That’s an interesting question, because I don’t know why I became like this, nor when I came here," the voice from the great book replied with a chuckle. "I’ve been here for a very, very long time, but here, the passage of time is barely noticeable. I’m not sure how long I’ve lingered in this place... How did I become a book in the first place?"

The voice from within the book sounded somewhat confused. He seemed to search his memories, then finally sighed in regret: "I haven’t the slightest impression."

After a brief pause, he spoke again, curious this time: "As for you, young lady—how did you come here? You don’t seem nervous or panicked at all... not at all like an ordinary person who has blundered into the unknown."

"I... my situation is a little special," Amber answered the questions of this "Great Adventurer Wilder" while choosing her words carefully. "I came from the shadow realm. I... know a little about this place."

"Oh... the shadow realm..." For a moment, the voice within the book seemed to grow indistinct, as though the Great Adventurer’s thoughts were being disturbed by some vague memories suddenly surfacing. "I know there are always all sorts of strange happenings in the shadow realm... but to be honest, I never knew that something like you, who looks almost like an ordinary person, could appear there. Or should I say... a half‑elf?"

If this topic went on, it would never end. Amber seized the moment when the voice paused to wrest back control of the conversation: "Sir, do you know what this place is?"

"Here? Oh, this is Lady Night’s kingdom," the voice in the book answered at once, speaking quite frankly, with a directness Amber hadn’t expected. "At least, it used to be."

Amber’s eyes widened a fraction. She’d already known from previous information that this boundless gray‑white desert might be Lady Night’s kingdom, but hearing the fact confirmed with her own ears was a different kind of impact. Then she noticed another word Wilder had used, and couldn’t help repeating it: "Used to be? What do you mean?"

"Lady Night has left Her divine seat. She left many years ago... and the kingdom is no longer a kingdom," the voice in the book said slowly, with a tone of lament. "She calls this place a world misplaced and forgotten by all... I don’t quite understand the perspective from which She views things, but the description does fit the reality—though it sounds a bit like mystic rambling."

"So where is Lady Night now?" Amber pressed immediately, then glanced back at the towering throne. The throne remained empty; the master of this kingdom showed no sign of appearing. "Does She not usually reside in Her kingdom?"

"Oh, Lady Night isn’t here right now," Wilder’s voice answered at once, tinged with a bit of puzzlement. "But most of the time She does sit on that throne... I don’t know where She’s gone. I’m merely a guest temporarily sheltering here, hardly qualified to keep track of the mistress’s whereabouts. But I’d guess She’s gone to the ’border’ to deal with the trouble over there... There’s an unwelcome visitor who keeps making mischief, and taking care of the resulting problems has been the main reason She occasionally leaves the throne these past years..."

"The border? Trouble?" Amber was completely at a loss and instinctively wanted to pursue the topic. Yet at the very instant she was about to speak, a chill and dread seemed to surge up from the depths of her soul, sweeping through her entire being and forcing all her words back down her throat. She was deeply uneasy and confused, not knowing what that feeling had been, but she quickly realized what it was—this was a warning from deep within her soul, her powers as a Chosen of the Night alerting her to avoid mortal danger.

In all the decades of her life, warnings like this had only appeared in the rarest of circumstances, but later events had proven that not once had they been wrong. It was one of her little secrets, and one of the reasons she was convinced she truly was a Chosen of the Night. The last time such a warning had taken effect was just before the aberration Army attacked the old Cecil territory.

That time, an overwhelming sense of foreboding from within had driven her, half‑dazed, to rush into the tomb of the Cecil Clan, which allowed her to survive and personally witness the greatest miraculous event in the world. And this time, that warning stopped the question that was about to leap from her lips—cold sweat broke out all over her.

Whatever that "border" and that "trouble" were, she absolutely must not ask, must not hear a word of it! It had to be something that would bring lethal contamination upon anyone who so much as learned of it!

"Young lady? What are you thinking about?" The voice from the book snapped Amber out of her distraction; Great Adventurer Wilder’s tone carried a hint of concern. "Are you worried that you’ll be trapped here and can’t go back? Perhaps I can help... Though I myself cannot leave this place, it’s relatively easy for a ’visitor’ like you, who’s only stumbled in temporarily, to get out..."

"Ah, I just spaced out for a moment," Amber reacted quickly, then stared at the Black Leather Tome in surprise. "Ah, I was just about to ask... So there have been others besides me who accidentally ended up here?"

"There have, though that was before I came here—Lady Night says my days here have not been long, whereas incidents of outsiders straying into this place sometimes only happen once or twice in tens of thousands of years, so I haven’t met any yet," Wilder said slowly. "But Lady Night did tell me how to send those unfortunate visitors away, just in case..."

"What exactly needs to be done?" Amber asked curiously.

"Do you see that slanted pillar next to the throne? That’s the border beacon closest to here. Climb to the very top and jump off. That’s all."

Amber’s eyes flew wide. The expression she turned on the Black Leather Tome fairly shouted, "We have neither grievance nor grudge, why must you take me for a fool"—and that look was clearly "seen" by the book. A helpless old man’s voice came from within: "I knew you’d react like this... Apparently all the visitors who accidentally came here in the past reacted exactly the same way. But this really is the only way to leave this space—or at least the only way I know of..."

It definitely wasn’t the only way—Amber couldn’t help muttering inwardly. From what she knew alone, that "Great Adventurer Modir" currently being personally watched over by Duchess Victoria Wilder had already entered this world three times and returned safely three times. As for herself, she could use Shadow Walk to slip out of here and back into the real world at any time, without climbing any "border beacon."

But after thinking it over carefully, she felt that what had happened to her and Modir could only be considered special cases. Perhaps... for other ordinary people who were unlucky enough to be trapped in this "misplaced kingdom," the only way to leave was indeed to climb up the pillar and jump off?

She furrowed her brow and looked seriously at the Black Leather Tome. "I really have to climb up that pillar and jump off it to get out of here? Why does it have to be like that?"

"I don’t know the exact principle behind it. Lady Night only told me one sentence," Wilder said as he spoke, recalling at the same time. "She said: Falling is the shortcut to waking from dreams."

"Falling is the shortcut to waking from dreams... dreams..." Amber’s pointed ears twitched, and a suddenly pensive look appeared on her face. "What’s that supposed to mean? Is it saying this place is actually just dreams?"

"I don’t know the precise meaning of that sentence, but this is definitely not dreams—physical power works here, and Lady Night once personally stated that. Ah... I’m guessing the reason Lady Night mentioned ’dreams’ might have something to do with how She’s always dreaming Herself?"

"Lady Night is always dreaming?" Amber frowned. "What does that even mean? Why is She dreaming all the time?"

"Ahaha, how would I know?" A hearty old man’s laugh rang out from within the Black Leather Tome. "She just dreams a lot—sometimes dreams while awake, sometimes dreams in sleep. She spends most of Her time dreaming—and I’m only a guest lodging here, a passerby. How could I possibly open my mouth and ask the mistress of this place why She wants to dream?"

"This... well, fine, it does kind of make sense." Amber scratched her hair, carefully noting down the information she’d pried out while thinking about what else she could ask. Just then, her gaze suddenly fell on the cover of the Black Leather Tome. She felt an immense curiosity about this book that called itself "Great Adventurer Wilder" (or perhaps this really was Wilder "himself"?) and, after hesitating for a few seconds, couldn’t help but ask, "Um... can I open you and take a look?"

The voice from the book sounded a bit puzzled at once. "Open me?"

"Yes. Look, your form right now is a book, isn’t it? So I was thinking..." Even with Amber’s iron nerves, talking about this felt incredibly weird. She gestured awkwardly, losing more and more confidence as she spoke. "I was thinking I could just flip you open and take a peek... of course, if you don’t want me to, then forget it. And if you feel offended, I can apologize..."

"Oh no, of course not, there’s nothing offensive about it. I do seem to be a book right now, hmm... and a book can be opened and read." Wilder’s voice sounded a bit odd, as if he himself were thinking of this for the first time. "How interesting, I never even thought of that before..."

"Lady Night has never opened you?" Amber asked curiously.

"Of course not. Her... body is rather large, so She probably isn’t used to reading books this small. And She has said Herself that She’s not fond of reading," Wilder said casually, then his tone turned faintly eager. "Little girl, weren’t you going to open me and take a look? I think you should try. I’ve been lying here for many, many years and no one has ever opened me. Now I’ve suddenly grown a bit curious too... about what’s actually written inside this ’book’ of mine."

Amber immediately broke into a grin. She walked toward the stone pillar, rubbing her hands together in anticipation, muttering as she went, "Well... I’m really going to flip you open, then?"

As she spoke, her hand had already settled on the cover of the Black Leather Tome. A strange sensation—more like touching jade than paper or leather—spread beneath her fingers. The first thing she felt was cold, the chill of lifeless stone, and only then did she carefully turn that pitch-black cover along which starlight kept flowing. The nameless book that called itself "Great Adventurer Wilder" finally opened its first page before her eyes.

The dense text or mysterious, eerie illustrations she’d expected did not appear. On the faintly luminescent white page, only a few huge, striking words met Amber’s gaze:

Beware the sentinel towers!!

The instant she saw those words, Amber felt her heartbeat suddenly quicken a little. She sensed that behind these simple letters something far vaster was concealed, some information trying to pour into her mind, yet it seemed broken, incomplete. The moment she became aware of its existence, it had already dispersed like smoke.

She stared in shock at the letters before her, dazed for several seconds, then, almost instinctively, flipped to the next page. The same familiar words appeared again before her eyes:

Beware the sentinel towers!!

She realized something, and rapidly flipped farther back through the pages. On each of them, sure enough, she saw the same warning repeated over and over: Beware the sentinel towers, beware the sentinel towers! Beware the sentinel towers!!

"Little girl," Wilder’s voice suddenly came from within the book, snapping Amber out of that inexplicable tension and confusion. The old man’s voice sounded warm and full of curiosity. "Did you see it? What’s written ’on me’? Is it my life story? Or important adventure notes?"

"Beware the sentinel towers."

"Beware the sentinel towers? What does that mean?"

"That’s all that’s in there," Amber snapped the book shut at once, as if it were scalding hot. "Sir, you really don’t know what it means? From the first page to the last, your paper is just repeating that one sentence. It sounds like a warning... Beware the sentinel towers!"

"I... I don’t remember," Wilder said, a bit at a loss. "Beware the sentinel towers? I have absolutely no recollection. I don’t even know what these ’sentinel towers’ you’re talking about are..."

Amber opened her mouth, but she had even less idea how to explain any of this to the "book" before her. And just then, a sudden rush of weightlessness and vertigo swept over her, cutting off all thought.

In the next second, she felt herself fall backward and slam solidly into a rock-hard floor...

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