"What the hell is this?" Kanaria gasped.
Melody hurriedly checked the radar, finding no sign of life. "No one is there."
"…" Clovis's expression turned grim. Was there really a civilization in the past? Or was this place built only recently?
"I will be going down. Melody will follow me and Kanaria is to observe from this place and call Jay here."
"Alright." Kanaria nodded. Although she wanted to go down as well, Melody was much better assistant than her in this scenario.
So, only Clovis and Melody climbed down the stairs. Clovis's sword remained on his hand in case he found something unexpected.
"There are still no sign of life here," said Melody while maintaining a close look at the radar.
Once they reached the bottom, Clovis pointed the flashlight to the village and turned it on, illuminating the entire village.
Looking at the huts, Melody said, "Their appearance doesn't look that brittle. It doesn't seem that they have been left behind for too long. Years or probably decades, sure. But I don't think it's more than a hundred years, let alone a thousand years. It's definitely something new compared to the geological time scale."
Clovis didn't reply to her, but he indeed agreed with this opinion. If they had been left behind for that long, the wooden logs would have been so brittle that they would have collapsed. And there was no way the beasts would just let them be.
They must have been built recently.
"Does that mean there are survivors from previous civilizations?" Clovis asked before noticing something from the flashlight. "This thing is getting hot."
"That's obvious. It's producing a hundred thousand lumens. This one is better since we have been using it for more than thirty minutes." Melody shrugged. "It's better to take a look at the huts that are still standing with your flashlight."
"Alright." Clovis turned it off and handed it back to Melody. After that, he approached one of the huts. Before opening its door, Clovis glanced at Melody.
"Nothing inside." She confirmed it after looking at the radar and checking the sound inside with her sharp senses.
Clovis opened the door with his sword in front of him. To his surprise, the inside had blood splattered all around the hut. Whether it was the ceiling, floor, or even the wall, they all had marks.
It looked like there were fierce battles inside this hut from all the mess he saw inside, but he didn't know whether this destruction was caused by humans or beasts.
"Are you recording this?"
"Yep." Melody pointed at the floor. "Look at that."
"Mhmm?" Clovis followed her finger and saw markings on the ground. This time, Clovis actually recognized these words. "Huh? This is…"
"My AI actually recognizes these words…" Melody frowned. "They are…"
Both of them said the same thing. "Furenz."
"You know about them?" Melody raised her eyebrows.
"I lived there for three years in the past."
Melody said, "Still… Furenz, huh? If this is the case, these huts are actually made recently by people from the surface. But for what?"
Clovis couldn't answer that question. There were a lot of possibilities and he didn't know which one might be the truth. "But what about those markings on the tunnel?"
"My AI didn't recognize their patterns."
Clovis rubbed the writing gently while saying, "Survive."
"Yes. Looking at this mark, it doesn't seem that they are made of nails or sharp blades."
"Yeah. The thickness alone is…" Melody abruptly stopped and bent her knees. She then placed her nail next to it and pressed down, making a similar stroke. "Human's nail?"
Clovis couldn't imagine what kind of environment would lead to a person using their nail to leave this mark on the floor. And the mark looked much deeper, meaning that it took multiple times to produce each stroke.
"I feel like something fishy is going on here." Clovis raised his head, pondering. "If I have to guess, something illegal. If we get involved in this matter, I'm afraid that it will lead us to an even more troublesome problem."
"So, we leave this place and treat it as if we haven't gone here?"
"On the one hand, I feel like we should report this place at the very least. On the other hand, I'm afraid that whoever's responsible for this place will find out. No, I think I'm more suspicious of the informant."
"!!!" Melody twitched. Clovis was actually right. The informant told them about this ruin, so he must have gone to this place previously.
Had he reported this place to the authorities? If he had, wouldn't the military have acted? What if the one who created this place was much more important than they originally thought? They should have the power to stop the news from spreading.
But if that were the case, they would definitely have found the informant and eliminated him.
So, Melody couldn't help but wonder who was actually the informant?
Clovis gulped down. "Shit. We've been had."
Clovis explained what happened when the informant gave them the option to pay for more information about the hot spring but they acted as if they knew about the ruin.
Clovis ended his explanation with a question. "What if the cave was a secret and the informant knew we wouldn't have known about it? He acted as if he fell for our bluff and gave the information regarding this place."
Melody crossed her arms, finally understanding the actual problem. "Who was actually that man?"
"I don't know. I think it's not good for us to stay here any longer."
"So, we'll retreat right away?"
"No. I don't know if we're being observed or not right now. I think it's best to follow the actual plan and act as if we haven't found this place and go back according to the schedule."
"Making it look like nothing goes wrong?"
"Yes." Clovis might be curious, but this one made him remember the idiom, 'Curiosity kills the car.' Hence, he had no choice but to leave even though he felt that the moment he fell for the informant's trick, he had fucked up.