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Elisha POV
Hearing that name was surprising.
But what surprised me more was not the name itself.
It was everything surrounding it.
Crystal.
A clan that supposedly existed for centuries.
A clan that worshipped Goddess Mei.
A clan that was now completely gone.
I stood there silently, staring at nothing in particular while everyone discussed the information they had found.
But my mind was somewhere else.
Because there was one question that kept repeating itself.
What the hell is this Jade Pavilion?
I looked around the empty mansion.
This place was supposed to be for fortune telling.
Even though no one in Thyrelith knew
A place where people could come to seek answers about their future.
So why were there archives here?
Why were there records about destroyed clans and forgotten tapestries?
Why would a fortune teller keep records of things that had nothing to do with fortune telling?
The more I thought about it, the stranger this place became.
First, it was located in a street that nobody in Thyrelith seemed to know existed.
Then that street itself was impossible.
A place that looked like a town but had no life.
No people.
No movement.
No time.
And now...
A pavilion filled with records of things that had already disappeared.
I frowned.
Something about this place felt like we had accidentally walked into something we weren't supposed to find.
"Elisha?"
Nathaniel's voice pulled me back.
I blinked.
He was looking at me.
Actually...
Everyone was.
I immediately relaxed my expression.
I didn't want them noticing that something was bothering me.
I sighed.
"What crap is this..."
I rubbed my forehead.
"No fortune teller, but stupid archives. We are trapped inside this large pavilion, we have no fucking clear idea how to get the hell out, and now I'm hearing about some clan nobody has ever heard of before that was wiped out."
I grabbed my hair with both hands.
"And you're telling me this pavilion keeps records of bad news?"
I released my hair and looked around.
"Arrgh."
I took a deep breath.
"Let's calm down and forget the clan for now."
I pointed toward the mansion.
"We should search the master's chambers and look for a way out of this creepy place."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Because if we don't, I'm pretty sure we're going to become records here as well."
For a moment, nobody said anything.
Then Xavier laughed.
"You're such a pessimist, Eli."
I looked at him.
"Though this place is weird, we won't die."
He shrugged.
"But if we don't look for a way out, we won't leave until we find a way out."
I stared at him.
A completely blank expression formed on my face.
"We would die of starvation first if we don't get the hell out, Xavier."
I crossed my arms.
"And I'm not being pessimistic."
I looked away.
"I'm being realistic."
Paige immediately spoke.
"I don't know..."
She shrugged.
"But that sounds pretty pessimistic to me."
I slowly turned toward her.
My eyes narrowed.
Before I could say anything—
"Yeah, I think that's enough."
Nathaniel's voice interrupted.
He looked at all of us.
"Time is against us."
He started walking toward the master's courtyard.
"You all can argue when we get out."
He glanced back.
"But we don't know what might happen when night falls here, so let's get moving."
I looked at him walking away.
Then I looked around.
Night?
I almost laughed.
"Does this place look like somewhere that experiences night?"
Everyone stopped.
I continued walking.
"Don't know about you, but this place looks still."
I looked at the grey sky above us.
"Night or day makes absolutely no difference here."
My expression became serious.
"It's dead anyway."
Everyone was quiet.
I walked ahead of them.
After a few seconds, I turned around.
"Well?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Hurry up."
I faced forward.
"We don't have time to spare."
The group eventually followed.
But while we walked, my thoughts returned to this place.
Silent Street.
No.
That wasn't right.
The more I thought about it...
The more obvious it became.
This wasn't a street.
It was too large.
Too complete.
A street wouldn't have multiple inns, houses, shops, and buildings stretching endlessly.
This wasn't a street.
It was a town.
A dead town.
And somehow...
It was trapped here.
I looked toward the Jade Pavilion.
Now back to this place.
The Jade Pavilion.
A place famous for fortune telling.
But what kind?
What kind of fortune did it tell?
The past?
The future?
The present?
A person's life?
Or something deeper?
Fate?
I remembered what I had been taught.
Tapestries were woven by ancient clans.
Especially those clans near the tomb of Goddess Mei.
Many of them recorded their history, their towns, their beliefs.
When those clans disappeared...
Naturally, those tapestries disappeared with them.
That was what should have happened.
So why?
Why were they here?
Stored inside this pavilion like some kind of archive?
The more I thought about it...
The more uncomfortable I became.
Then my thoughts returned to Crystal.
How was it destroyed?
Did they weave tapestries?
Did those tapestries reveal something?
But that didn't make sense.
Destroying a clan that existed for centuries wasn't something easy.
And the record said...
There were no descendants remaining.
I swallowed.
But I was the last descendant.
If I continued living...
Wouldn't that mean the Crystal clan continued?
Unless...
Was this record telling my future?
"No."
I shook my head.
"Elisha, don't be ridiculous."
I reminded myself.
"The record was talking about the clan itself."
Some people had left.
The clan itself...
What remained inside the clan...
That was what disappeared.
I sighed.
Whatever happened to Crystal could wait.
Right now...
I needed to get out of this creepy place.
We continued searching.
The Jade Pavilion was far larger than I expected.
The inside of the mansion was almost too normal compared to the strange world outside.
That was what made it unsettling.
There were no strange monsters.
No obvious traps.
No mysterious voices calling our names.
Just an ordinary mansion.
A mansion that shouldn't exist in a place like this.
I entered the inner master's chamber.
The first thing that caught my attention was how normal it looked.
A large bed.
A closet.
A private bathroom.
A mirror.
Shoe racks.
Belt racks.
Even shelves filled with expensive accessories.
Everything about this room screamed one thing.
The owner of this place wasn't some random person.
Whoever lived here was someone important.
Someone wealthy.
Someone with status.
I walked around slowly, observing everything.
If the Jade Pavilion belonged to the fortune teller, then this room should belong to him.
Which meant...
This was probably where I would find something useful.
Assuming there was actually something useful to find.
I looked around.
A fortune teller with a family would have family members with their own rooms.
Apprentices would have their own chambers.
Servants would have their own quarters.
Everything in this mansion seemed organized.
Almost like a small world.
But what exactly was I searching for?
I didn't know.
A clue?
A way out?
A secret?
Honestly, I had no idea.
I just knew standing around doing nothing wasn't going to help.
So I searched.
I checked the bed.
Nothing.
The drawers.
Nothing.
The shelves.
Nothing.
Every corner.
Every hidden space.
Nothing.
Until finally...
I found a diary.
I stared at it for a moment.
Of course.
A mysterious mansion.
A missing fortune teller.
A hidden room.
And the only thing I find is a diary.
How original.
I sat down on a nearby chair and opened it.
At first...
It was boring.
Extremely boring.
The first pages were about farming.
The writer talked about how the farmers who used the land in the east had a better harvest that year, while those who used the west land struggled.
Then there were notes about politics.
The economy.
Trade.
Small events happening around the town.
Honestly, it didn't look like a fortune teller's diary.
It looked like the diary of a wealthy scholar.
Then I turned another page.
There was a section about his daughter.
The writer mentioned that his daughter would marry into a noble family.
But not as the first wife.
The third wife.
However, he wrote that she would still be cherished by her husband.
I paused.
That was strange.
It wasn't exactly fortune telling.
It wasn't like predicting a specific event.
It was more like...
An understanding of someone's future.
An insight into fate.
I continued reading.
The more pages I turned, the more I realized something.
This person wasn't simply telling fortunes.
He was seeing things.
The future.
Possibilities.
Paths.
Then...
Something caught my attention.
A certain entry.
I leaned closer.
The handwriting changed slightly.
Almost as if the person writing it was disturbed.
I began reading.
"Yin energy filling everywhere from the North."
I frowned.
"But there is nothing more than a huge boulder in the North. No corpse. No negative emotions. Where would this Yin energy come from?"
I continued.
"It spreads throughout the town."
"The town becomes cold both day and night."
My expression slowly changed.
"Three days after, fog began creeping in."
"It wasn't thick. It wasn't much."
"But people became afraid."
"No one knew what was happening."
"Eventually, people became used to it."
I turned the page.
"But one month later..."
"The insects disappeared."
"Night insects, bugs, and every other creature that lived among humans suddenly vanished."
My eyes narrowed.
"People found it strange, but no one questioned it."
"Then the birds disappeared."
"That was when everyone became afraid."
"People stayed inside both day and night, leaving only when necessary."
"The town became too quiet."
"The fog remained the same."
"The cold never stopped."
"The sky remained unchanged."
"Neither day nor night."
"We could see, but there was no sun."
"There was no moon."
I slowly stopped breathing.
"Many people tried to escape."
"But every time they did..."
"They returned to their starting point."
"People became anxious."
"Desperate."
"Confused."
"Terrified."
"But there was nothing we could do."
Then the final sentence of that page.
"A year later..."
"Everything vanished."
I stared.
The words felt heavy.
But the diary didn't end there.
I flipped the page.
And there it was.
The final entry.
"So..."
"It happened after all."
"Exactly as I saw."
"What a sad, fleeting life."
"So where do they go?"
...
Silence.
I stared at the page.
For several seconds, I didn't move.
Then finally—
"Wow."
I closed the diary halfway.
"So from what the hell I just read..."
I looked around the room.
"He sees the future."
Or maybe...
"Insight into fate."
I looked down at the diary.
"He writes everything he sees."
I stood up.
"So this Silent Street..."
I looked toward the window.
"This place that looks like a street..."
I shook my head.
"It's actually a town."
Everything started connecting.
The buildings.
The size.
The empty streets.
The frozen feeling.
"It makes sense now."
I looked at the diary again.
"But how did a town end up here?"
And more importantly...
"How did these stories become archives?"
I sighed.
"This is a lot of crazy information to take in."
I walked out of the inner chamber.
"Everyone!"
My voice echoed through the mansion.
The others looked toward me.
I walked over and showed them the diary.
"I found something."
I explained everything I had read.
The Silent Street.
The town.
The strange phenomenon.
The disappearance.
The fortune teller.
After hearing everything, they all reached the same conclusion.
This wasn't just a street.
It was a town.
But how did it end up here?
And how did clans history become part of the Jade Pavilion archives?
Paige crossed her arms.
"Maybe it's also one of those clans that was supposed to be near Goddess Mei's tomb."
I looked at her.
"You should be sure of your own words."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Don't talk like you're convincing yourself instead of telling us what you think, Paige."
She rolled her eyes.
"Whatever."
Nathaniel, who had been sitting on a chair reading the diary, suddenly spoke.
"He was a teacher."
Everyone looked at him.
Nathaniel closed the diary slightly.
"A wealthy scholar who had apprentices and a family."
He looked thoughtful.
"He simply had a gift."
He tapped the diary.
"According to what Elisha said, it could be precognition or insight into fate."
He paused.
"But I think it's a mixture of both."
"Huh?"
We all looked confused.
Nathaniel calmly explained.
"There's a reason he was known as a fortune teller."
He looked at the diary.
"If someone asked about themselves, he could tell their fortune."
"But when it came to things like harvest or the town's future..."
His eyes narrowed.
"That wasn't fortune telling."
"That was precognition."
He closed the diary.
"A combination of both abilities."
He stood up.
"But no one except himself knew the true extent of his skills."
He looked at us.
"He kept it hidden."
A strange feeling settled over me.
Because if Nathaniel was right...
Then this place wasn't just a place that recorded the past.
It was a place that knew the future.
Nathaniel continued.
"I think..."
He looked around the silent mansion.
"The way we experience our own fortune telling is going to be different."
Everyone became quiet.
"And if I'm right..."
He looked at the diary.
"Finding this diary was the trigger."
Darcelle frowned.
"How are we supposed to know when our fortune telling starts?"
Nathaniel opened his mouth.
But before he could answer...
Everything disappeared.
The lights.
The surroundings.
The voices.
Darkness swallowed everything.
I felt my consciousness slipping away.
And the last thing I heard...
Was silence.