The Spiral maze (Part I)
—
With just one short sentence, the contract is officially established!
“Ugh!” A sharp pain shot through Ellyad’s heart for an instant, but fortunately, it was fleeting. He took a deep breath and found himself sweating profusely.
At the end of the contract, a line of glowing text appeared. After a few flickers of light, it returned to ordinary black runes, but no one present could understand what was written on it.
“Well done. It seems you are quite reasonable. The Gururu family does not reject intelligent Nameless. You can let him go.” Lofisso tossed the scarf to a nearby attendant and, with a proud stride, led the way out of the room.
In fact, the real truth is: Since the palace had already previously rejected Lofisso’s advances, if she were to forcibly enter and were unfortunately caught by the palace, it would not only harm the Gururu family but also jeopardize Lofisso future social status. Therefore, this prison break plan must not be identified to Lofisso alone. That’s why she had to use Ellyad as a scapegoat; otherwise, she would have stormed the palace herself long ago. She knew Ellyad’s strength was not lacking, and he must also want to rescue Thrett. Plus, now that he had become a Nameless under the command of the Gururu family. With these conditions, if Ellyad were to be caught, as long as the Gururu family denied involvement and attributed it to the actions of a mere Nameless, the palace would not dare to accuse the Gururu family of any wrongdoing just for the sake of one Nameless. Moreover, if Ellyad successfully rescued Thrett, Lofisso, holding the contract of obedience from the Nameless, could order Ellyad to never contact Thrett again and imprison him in a dungeon for the rest of his life.
This is Lofisso’s revenge. She absolutely wants Ellyad to pay the price for humiliating the eldest daughter of the Gururu family several times, to make him understand clearly the vast difference in status between a Nameless and a noble.
After shackling Ellyad with simple ankle chains, the remaining attendants followed behind Lofisso and filed out, while Ellyad silently walked at the back of the crowd. There was no need for anyone to be wary of Ellyad now, nor fear him escaping on his own. With the contract in hand, Ellyad’s life was completely under control, and he had no means to resist.
As they stepped outside, Ellyad realized he was in the brighter upper bridge area. The lighting here was more abundant than in the lower levels where he had been living recently, and the quality of life seemed to be better. It appeared that Ellyad had been taken to an unfamiliar place while he was unconscious, and he didn’t even know where to run if he wanted to escape.
Lofisso boarded a luxurious and noble-looking carriage alone and departed, pedestrians on the sides hastily made way. Others boarded cargo-laden donkey carts and followed behind.
The carriage ahead traveled towards increasingly upper-class areas. Here, the sunlight and air were even more dazzling and fresh than before. The azure sky seemed within arm’s reach, and the bridge was wide enough to accommodate five or six carriages side by side. There were few people on the streets; instead, carriages were bustling back and forth. The railings on the bridge were elegantly designed with wedge-shaped columns, adorned with floral lanterns along the way. Even the tiles on the bridge were engraved with beautiful flat patterns, and the road surface was clean and refreshing. At first glance, one might mistake the Iron Gray Nation as a paradise on earth.
The beauty of the upper class was meant to cover up the dirt and chaos of the lower levels, allowing the people below to decay and perish unnoticed. This was the country’s way.
The carriage finally stopped in front of a massive garden, where several towering and beautiful buildings stood. Against the backdrop of the blue sky, it almost gave the illusion of houses floating in the sky.
As Lofisso descended from the carriage, she proudly proclaimed, “This is the Gururu Manor, located at the southwest of the Skytier No. 3 Bridge, my family’s estate.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“You’re a Nameless, aren’t you? Don’t you know the rules for Nameless before entering?” one guard scolded, while the other pointed the spear tip at Ellyad’s throat.
Although Ellyad had lived as a Nameless before, it was in a land devoid of etiquette, even culturally disconnected. Therefore, he had no idea about the customs for Nameless here.
Seeing his puzzled expression, Lofisso couldn’t help but chuckle and said, “I almost forgot to tell you. Every Nameless entering my house must first kiss the feet of the master or steward.”
Ellyad clenched his fists upon hearing this. In the Iron Gray Kingdom, the treatment of Nameless was such that even their dignity was stripped away.
“Get down on your knees!” the guard shouted, as someone behind Ellyad kicked the back of his knees, forcing him to kneel before Lofisso.
Lofisso extended her right foot forward, waiting for Ellyad to bow down and kiss it.
“Get down!”
“Do you want to defy the rules?”
“This useless Nameless.”
Ellyad hesitated, not moving. The surrounding people’s anger began to boil, but Lofisso remained indifferent, maintaining her smile, knowing that the real show was about to begin.
“Are you sure you don’t want to obey?” Lofisso’s words sent a searing pain surging through Ellyad’s chest as if he’d been pierced by a sword right in the center.
“Ugh… Ah!”
He collapsed to the floor in agony, convulsing and desperately trying to scratch away the pain from his chest, but there was no wound to be found.
“This is the punishment for disobedience, inflicting intense pain directly on the senses. It can make you suffer to the point of death without any visible injuries.”
Ellyad lay sprawled before everyone, trembling as he tried to endure the waves of excruciating pain, but to no avail.
Finally, he saw Lofisso once again bringing her foot up to his face, taunting him with her toes.
“Obey, or die?”
After closing his eyes for a moment, Ellyad reluctantly mustered the strength to lift himself up and placed his lips on Lofisso’s toes. Immediately, the excruciating pain subsided and vanished. With his head bowed, Ellyad silently gritted his teeth, enduring all the humiliation.
“Hahaha, this is the lowly stance of a nameless one. Take a good look at yourself,” Lofisso finally satisfied, she bent down and added one last remark, “Remember this well, nameless ones are pitiful creatures unworthy of dignity. So you better behave yourself. After rescuing Thrett, you’d better disappear from the world obediently.” With these venomous words, almost like a death sentence, she turned and left. Ellyad slowly climbed up from the ground as he was taken away to another place.
Ellyad was led into a dark, dungeon-like space, where faint noises and nervous breaths echoed from various corners. The leader lit a torch, allowing Ellyad to finally see the full extent of the underground chamber.
In this vast space, there were dozens of black beast cages, but instead of beasts, they contained people.
“Everyone locked up here is a nameless one, but Miss Lofisso instructed that you must be kept in isolation.”
The nameless ones were confined in iron cages less than the height of an adult, forced to move in a sitting or crouching position. Some would instinctively crawl toward the bars upon seeing the torch, while the younger ones huddled together in groups in the corners.
For a moment, Ellyad couldn’t shake off the illusion that they were not humans but some other humanoid beings. Perhaps, the nameless ones here were being bred and raised in this dehumanizing manner, and they likely had long forgotten their own humanity.
The nameless ones in the cages gathered their gaze on Ellyad, instinctively curious about the unfamiliar despite their lack of intelligence.
Ellyad averted his gaze, unwilling to confront the dull and lifeless expressions of the nameless ones resembling livestock.
The leader continued to walk deeper into the basement with the torch, descending step by step, the air growing increasingly damp and musty. Finally, they stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. Upon opening it, they revealed a cramped and enclosed space with only one black iron cage partially concealed in the dark shadows.
“Get in,” the leader instructed Ellyad, gesturing with his chin towards the cage.
The iron cage, only reaching up to Ellyad’s waist, left little room for movement once an adult was locked inside, aside from perhaps crawling. But at this moment, aside from compliance, Ellyad had no other choice.
Seeing him enter the cage, the leader stuffed an old shirt to Ellyad, who was already ragged, and locked the iron bars before walking out with the torch. As the door slowly closed, the last sliver of light was taken out of the cramped room. After hearing the clinking sound of the lock, silence and complete darkness enveloped the space.
In the darkness, Ellyad fumbled to put on the shirt. Once dressed, he curled up in a corner of the sturdy iron cage. Besides the damp chill, the basement echoed with faint reverberations, as if coming from the depths of a chasm.
In a country entirely composed of bridges, there wouldn’t be any land to excavate. The underground chamber where Ellyad was imprisoned was likely dug out from the bridge supports. In the architecture of the Iron Gray Kingdom, most structures were built upwards to support the weight above, resulting in thick bridge piers. While there were designs with multiple support points to distribute weight, if one were to construct a cellar, it would undoubtedly be beneath the columnar bridge piers, secretly hollowed out like a mouse burrowing through.
Ellyad reached out to feel the wounds on his body, first assessing his injuries. Despite feeling dull pains in his abdomen and limbs, they were tolerable. These injuries weren’t fatal. However, the wound on the back of his head, where he was initially struck, was more severe. Ellyad felt scabs in his hair, but the wound still felt moist and sticky, indicating it hadn’t fully healed. There was a slight throbbing sensation in his brain.
Perhaps due to blood loss, injury, and hunger, Ellyad’s thoughts felt sluggish, and his entire body was uncomfortable. He even felt a nauseating urge to vomit, suspecting that his internal organs might be injured too.
In the darkness, Ellyad became completely calm. He rested his chin on his bent knees and began to rethink everything. From the moment Thrett was captured, he had lost all rationality, with his thoughts coming to a halt. Now, upon careful reflection, he realized there had been opportunities to escape at that time, but he had been oblivious to them.
He had intended to pull the scarf higher to keep warm, only to realize there was nothing around his neck.
In the past, he had buried emotions like pride and determination deep within himself. However, since meeting Thrett, it seemed as though those feelings had resurfaced. Ellyad was determined not to let anyone strip them away again. That was why, when Thrett and the scarf were taken from him, he felt so helpless, allowing himself to fall into this situation.
After calming down, Ellyad’s first thought was ‘escape.’ As long as he had the Hero sword in hand, this iron cage and dungeon couldn’t hold him back. However, the real challenge lay in the fact that Lofisso had the scarf and the contract in her possession. After escaping from the dungeon, his first priority would be to find the scarf and the contract, and then tear up the contract. Once the contract was damaged, it would automatically disappear. With that done, nothing else would stand in Ellyad’s way, and he could quickly move to rescue Thrett.
‘For now, I can only rest and conserve my strength.’
The pain from his injuries made Ellyad’s body tremble involuntarily, but more than the wounds on his body, he cared about the scarf. Not to mention the healing effects it possessed—if he had it on now, all his injuries would probably heal completely in half a day. However, he had nothing on him at the moment, so conserving energy became his top priority. He decided to take a short rest first; his body would surely feel better afterwards. Then, he would grit his teeth and muster up the strength to break through the encirclement. The only thing Ellyad wouldn’t feel ashamed of anymore was his exceptional swordsmanship. As long as his body could move, he definitely had a hope of escaping.
He slowly lay down in the iron cage, closed his eyes, and tried to relax his body as much as possible, hoping for a quick recovery of his strength.
I have been avoiding this chapters cuz god am I stressed! I skimmed through the chapters and now I’m scared 😭😭
God Loffiso, when I get my hands on you 👹👹👹👹👹
LOFFISO I WILK GAVE YOUR DAMN HEAD ON A SILVER PLATERR
Lofisso you ducking witch! 🤬🤬🤬🤬
just wait till thret is out! Then he’ll kill everyone in your stupid Gururu family so no one I’ll hurt Ellyad ever again!
*will. Not I’ll 😊
Never have I been so deceived by tags before… Like what fluffy??? 😭