*Desert, current time*
'Good grief, it's really unfortunate…' Shaking his head, Layn silently followed after the rest of the group. Now that the problem of how they should treat him was gone, the atmosphere normalised a bit.
Sadly, this encounter didn't end up as perfectly as Layn would want it. No matter how hard he would try, he was unable to save one of the girls. After receiving the full brunt of the firedog's attack, her internal organs looked like a boiled soup. It was only her insane willpower and some kind of body strengthening technique that kept her alive for long enough for Layn to notice her anguish.
According to his own morals, the archmage initially wanted to offer her relief, but doing so was super risky. If the culture of the ancients didn't approve such acts, he would pretty much destroy the entirety of the positive opinion that he harnessed by healing the others.
While the death of one of the ancients heavily weighted on Layn's mind, her surviving compadres didn't seem to mind the situation at all. Just a single glance at the entirety of the group would deprive anyone of any thoughts that the ancients would grieve over their dead comrade.
'What a strange bunch, ' Layn pondered as he shook his head. 'Maybe it's time? It's been a few hours already… but still. I didn't notice any sad expressions even right as she passed away.'
Step by step, the archmage followed after those heartless ancients. For some reason, the entire bunch turned pretty silent. Ever since his display of power they didn't seem to understand, even Irea turned quiet. It wasn't that she refused to talk at all, but the atmosphere in the group simply made it impossible for Layn to approach her in the first place.
Out of a sudden taking a stop, the leader of the ancients looked at the sun. Only once I followed the path of his eyes, I noticed what was putting me off so greatly. The light of the local star wasn't the same as the one I was used to!
While I accepted the fact that I returned in time to the past that I would normally consider ancient, I couldn't be so sure about what period of the antique I ended up in. And it wasn't as simple to discern as one might think it would be.
The history basically began with the ancient disaster. It's this event that the oldest records ever found depicts. But from just the scale of the ancient ruins left by what was before that grand event, Layn's modern colleagues managed to learn a lot about the antique, about the civilisations that predated the disaster.
But even with this, there was a huge difference between knowing that this sort of limited artefacts came from the antique, and actually knowing anything about its culture of customs. In essence, while the history past the disaster was well documented, once one wanted to
"We should somehow manage, " moving his sight down, the man stared at the shadows thrown by the sparse vegetation around the place. Not really sure what did that man mean, Layn decided to let this remark go past his ears. Right now, he was happy that someone finally started to speak.
Because his translation spell wasn't a miracle. It was a fairly complicated computing structure, capable of quickly learning any language. But in order to do that, it needed to be exposed to as much of said language as possible!
"Don't worry, we are nearing the camp." Concluding without even a single shred of hesitation in her voice, Irea pointed towards the nearby sand dune. "We should see the camp once we cross it."
Now, Layn's curiosity was piqued. What camp? Why there was a need to reach it before a certain time? What was the source of anxiety clearly visible in the eyes of the ancients?
"Say… where are we going?" With no other choice, Layn forced himself to approach the girl. But rather than receiving an answer, he heard a slight shriek as the young female twitched strongly before jumping half of a step away.
"We… We are going to the camp. Don't you know it?" After calming her panic down, Irea replied with a shaking voice.
"Eh, isn't it obvious already?" Smashing his forehead against his palm, Layn decided to go with the simplest lie possible. "I don't really remember anything outside of the abilities ingrained in my flesh. How could I know what that camp is?"
Spreading his arms out to put an emphasis on his logic, Layn looked at the girl with a genuinely puzzled expression. Noticing the look in his eyes, Irea breathed out heavily as if only now did she manage to overcome the panic-born trembling of her body.
"Just wait for a moment and you will see. Basically, it's a gate." Irea's voice was still far from being stable. It seemed that Layn's act of healing both her and her friends put a strange barrier between the two, making the girl frightful of the archmage.
But instead of pushing the female to be more open about things, Layn backed off. Returning to his previous position in the group, he followed the rest of them, heading the advice of the girl. If he could understand something just by waiting for a short moment, then there was no point in scaring the girl even more.
Sadly, Layn failed to account for the usual problem of the deserts. What seemed like a nearby hill of sand, wasn't actually as close as it appeared to be! Taking over an hour to reach its foothold and actually another hour to reach its peak, Layn managed to exhaust himself thrice before the sight that Irea had in mind appeared before his eyes.
'What the…'
Maybe it was due to how little he thought about a civilisation that would allow a group of such lightly armed people to enter a place as dangerous as this desert was for someone who knew nothing about magic. Maybe it was because of Layn's natural disposition to regards the achievements of the ancient cultures, charmed with what modernity brought.
But there was no denying that the ancients managed to create a civilisation that in some regards managed to outclass the modern world that Layn knew of. And now, taking the sight in front of him into the account, Layn realised that he was greatly in the wrong by underestimating what this age had to offer!
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