Part 1: Fate
The cold, structured silence of the room returned to its natural state as Haruto look at the table for some quiet moment.
The wooden surface was completely bare, showing no physical sign that a thick, ancient journal had ever rested there.
Then he slowly stands up from his wooden chair, smoothing out his clothes.
His eyes carrying full of deep suspicion and unanswerable questions as he stared at the empty space.
"What was that just now?" Haruto muttered under his breath.
"Why did the book disappears from the table the very second I finished the last sentence?"
"Okay."
"So now this entire world is officially no longer normal for me to analyze with regular rules."
"I should adapt to this type of strange things without showing any outward panic."
"Anything could happen from anyway at any given moment in this land."
"So I should think like that way from now on," Haruto thought in his mind.
Then he turns away from the table and goes towards the door.
And he calmly exits from that door, stepping out into the long hallway.
He started walk through the hallway, his footsteps echoing softly against the stone tiles.
Haruto has firmly decided to go to the secret underground room of the fate castle.
As Hermit Zero explicitly talk about that hidden location in his final notes.
As he walked down the intersecting corridors, he eventually stopped and asked a maid.
Where he could specifically go to find this castle's underground base.
The maid looked at him with a thoroughly confused expression.
"Uhh, actually we don't know anything about that," the maid replied.
"We don't even hear of an underground base in fate castle," she added.
Haruto nodded and dismissed her, as he thought that the answer made perfect logical sense.
"It makes sense that she doesn't know."
"Because an ordinary maid shouldn't know this restricted secret place," he reasoned.
Continuing his careful search through the castle corridors, Haruto eventually find Ken walking ahead.
Ken was talking through that specific hallway, checking on the castle paths.
Haruto approached the armored figure and directly asked him to go to the underground base.
Hearing the sudden request, Ken become shocked for a moment behind his heavy visor.
He shifted his posture and asked him how he specifically knows about its existence.
Haruto instantly understand from that sharp reaction that it is completely true that Hermit Zero was talking right in his text.
Haruto then quickly replied with a calm voice to deflect his suspicion away from the diary.
"Uhh, not actually that I know about a real base being built here."
"I just read many popular novels where in a castle setting, a hidden underground base usually hides beneath the stones."
"That's why I just asked you about it."
"And if you don't have any problems with it, then could I visit that underground base?" Haruto asked.
Ken stared down at the young man for a long moment, the slit of his visor completely dark.
"Sure, no problem," Ken replied in his deep voice.
"But don't tell anyone about it under any circumstances."
"It's a strict secret of the kingdom."
"As you already know about it through your novels, that's why I am allowing you to visit the underground base," Ken explained.
Haruto politely nodded to the knight.
"Okay," Haruto says simply.
Then Ken and Haruto turned down a side path and started to walk toward the lower levels.
After they continue to walk for a while through increasingly narrow passageways.
Ken carefully opens a secret door that led directly down for the underground base.
Haruto intentionally shows a look of sudden shocks by talking out loud to keep up his act.
But in reality, deep inside his face and his cold mind, he wasn't that shocked at all since he already expected it.
They entered through the dark threshold, stepping into a damp atmosphere.
They started to go down the winding stairs, their footsteps echoing into the deep void below.
It was incredibly deep.
And terrifyingly Dark, with only a few torches illuminating the rough rock walls.
As they continue to go even more deep into the subterranean depths.
They suddenly began to hear many different, distorted sounds echoing from the shadows.
Some muffled sounds distinctly feels like the raw sound of humans crying out.
Those terrible sound feels like real humans are desperately screaming in the distance.
And they were loudly asking for immediate help to save them from a hidden torment.
Like they are completely afraid of something monstrous lurking in the dark.
Or perhaps begging to finally become free from an ancient imprisonment.
Haruto and ken doesn't do that much with that ambient sound at all, keeping their focus forward.
As they are steadily going down the endless steps, Ken suddenly started to talk to break the heavy silence.
"Do you have any sister or brother living anywhere, Haruto?" Ken asked out of nowhere.
"Yeah, I had one before, but now they are not with me," Haruto says, his voice flat.
"Oh, then did your brother tragically died before you came here?" Ken says, pressing for details.
"Yeah, it's kinda like that situation," Haruto says vaguely.
"Oh," Ken reacts in a low tone.
"Btw, why exactly do you aks me this sudden question in a place like this?" Haruto asked, looking over.
"Actually, I don't really know myself," Ken says honestly.
"What do you mean by that strange statement?" Haruto asked, slowing his pace slightly.
"Let's just completely skip this topic for now," Ken suggested, shaking his head.
Haruto, however, didn't back down, his sharp mind picking up on the knight's unusual hesitation.
"As you ask me a question."
"And specifically pried about my family."
"Then I must naturally have the authority to ask why you ask me about it."
"Don't you think that's fair, Ken?" Haruto says firmly.
"Uhh, yes, but..." Ken says, his voice trailing off.
"But what? I want my answer, but if you don't say it, then you hurt my privacy and my worth as a companion."
"As you are not saying anything to clarify your motives."
"If you tell me, then I won't be like that towards you," Haruto says while looking directly at Ken's helmet.
Author note: By the way Ken all the time wears a thick knight helmet that covers his entire head. That's why his real face is never shown to anyone.
Seeing the boy's unyielding gaze, Ken finally sighed through his grill and says.
"Actually, it's a long story."
"And right now, I can't tell you about it down here in the dark."
"I will tell you about it when we are up on the surface," Ken says defensively.
Haruto agreed to the condition and nodded his head.
And he looked at his front, continuing the descent.
From his position on the stairs from his back side.
Ken was staring intensely down at the back of haruto's head as they moved.
And as he stared through the gloom, he suddenly saw a completely different person manifesting in Haruto's place.
An illusion of a stranger who is walking straight down the steps ahead of him.
And that mysterious person suddenly looks back through the mist.
And softly says a single phrase.
"Big Brother."
Ken blinked heavily, and then in real life.
Haruto was actively calling his name to snap him out of his sudden daze.
Ken noticed it instantly, shaking his helmed head.
And then they again started to walk down the remainder of the stairs together.
The stone stairs was very long and steep, twisting deep into the foundations.
After walking continuously for about 30 minutes.
They finally reached the bottom floor of the massive underground base.
They saw a another huge hallway stretching out before them, lined with thick stone arches.
They started to walk down the center path, the air growing thick with dust and ancient age.
They saw many locked rooms built in that underground base.
Then haruto saw a exceptionally large room with the doors wide open.
He cautiously entered the room and saw a huge ship resting there on a massive scaffold.
It was a heavily broken, decayed ship made of dark wood.
"What is this, Ken?" Haruto asked, marveling at the size of the vessel.
"This is an ancient and national treasure for the Fate kingdom," Ken explained, walking up to the hull.
"It's officially known as Napoleon's ship," Ken says solemnly.
Haruto quietly nodded his head in absolute realization that Napoleon is the exact same name from earth's popular figure name.
"Is this ship actually made by a person?" Haruto asked, seeking validation.
"Yeah, it's made by a person named Napoleon," Ken says.
Haruto thoroughly understand in his mind that it's the earth's Napoleon who ended up in this world.
"As earth's history changes the moment an individual teleport into Tenzu."
"So Napoleon might be missing in the history of earth, I suppose."
"But wait, I remember something critical."
"From Ryuk, I known that this teleport incident is happening only in Japan."
"It doesn't happen in any other countries on Earth."
"Then how does Napoleon teleport into Tenzu as it's only happening in Japan?"
"That's a thinkable question," Haruto thought to himself, his mind spinning with the paradox.
Ken, oblivious to Haruto's internal panic, started to explain more about this ship.
He stated that Napoleon's ship is made by a person named Napoleon.
But he accidentally died in a war eras ago.
And his ship is taken by the Leon empire.
And then, this ship helps a lot to win the 5th Great War of Tenzu.
But at the end of the conflict.
It got damaged heavily by enemy strikes.
And now it's in the vault of the Fate kingdom.
And ken also told an interesting story related to this ship.
So many long years ago.
A Fate princess rules Fate kingdom with absolute authority.
And she was unmarried throughout her life.
And she was quite happy in mind and gentle in nature.
She was always act very kind with her people.
But out of sudden, without a single warning or explanation.
She entered in the underground base alone.
And she got missing forever from that night onward.
No one could able to find her anywhere.
She vanishes like wind into thin air.
Like she never exists in the real world to begin with.
But after her missing incident.
A dangerous virus take over our kingdom.
Many died in that virus.
And many lost their families to the sickness.
But at the end, the fate kingdom could able to counter that virus and survive.
But the main thing is after she got missing.
This ship completely becomes useless.
It doesn't work well anymore.
That's why it's still a mystery where our former princess goes.
And why she left the kingdom so abruptly.
Then, leaving the vessel behind, they moved towards a another room deeper in the corridor.
They saw a room with thick granite walls.
A large chain is attached with the corner of the room.
The room was Dark.
And multiple swords were engraved on the floor.
Haruto and ken saw Princess Ariel at the centre of the array.
She was trying to pull out a red and black and gold handle big sword from the stone.
But despite her efforts, she completely fails to budge it.
"Oh, you two here," Princess Ariel says, wiping her brow as she noticed them.
"Why are you here, princess?" Ken asked, stepping forward.
"It's my ancestors sword," she explained, catching her breath.
"A legendary sword."
"Which carries red lighting powers."
"For the up coming war vision I saw in my dreams."
"For that, I am trying to pull it out form here."
"But as you saw many swords here."
"It's all our ancestors swords left behind."
"And this one is the strongest one."
"Named Valger!"
"But right now, I am not that worthy of this sword," Princess Ariel says with a sigh of defeat.
While they were talking, Haruto saw a wall Infront of them.
It was restricted to go near it.
Haruto go Infront of that wall, ignoring the weapons.
And he asked.
"What is this?" Haruto asked.
Princess Ariel replied.
"It's a Special wall named Fate wall."
"We don't know much about it."
"It was sealed by our ancestors."
"And we don't know what is it."
"And who made it."
"People often say that this wall could show us our fate."
Haruto looked at that wall.
Then suddenly.
Haruto fell his mind started to blur.
His eyes suddenly turns pure white from corner to corner.
Like now, haruto is not in his control anymore.
Haruto's hand goes forward into the air.
And he touched the wall with his bare palm.
Then suddenly.
Haruto saw multiple vision exploding in his mind.
Multiple vision of something that was hard to tell or describe.
A mix of red and orange pattern swirling together.
And a mix of different images.
And some looks like galaxies.
And some looks like stars.
Before Haruto could understand what he was seeing.
Haruto started to bleed from the sheer weight of the information.
Haruto vomits blood there onto the floor.
And he was bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth simultaneously.
His eyes turn red.
And princess Ariel and Ken was shocked.
Not because of Haruto's physical state.
But because of some weird clock and wheels from chapter 5 over haruto's head which was floating silently in the air.