Chapter 39#
Temple of the Burning Lamp 10#
“Ssss——”
The flame was swallowed by the scalding wax. A thin wisp of white smoke drifted upward. All the candles in the room went out.
In the dimness, the moon hung at its highest point. Pale moonlight filtered through the window lattice, casting shadows over everything inside the room.
A long shadow suddenly stretched across the empty corridor wall. Then it began to move forward, and the sound of shuffling footsteps rose.
An old man, his body and face hidden completely within a cloak, stepped into the corridor. The clinking of keys sounded, followed by the noise of a key sliding into a keyhole.
The man with the identity of a judge turned over and got out of bed. He moved closer to the wall, listening to the sounds coming from Molly’s room next door.
The door was pushed open. The old man walked into the room with a monk.
“Are you inside?”
The voice was polite, as if a proper butler were asking whether a guest needed assistance.
“Do you need a candle?”
“Where are you hiding?”
Footsteps circled the room next door, then came out again. Clearly, they had found nothing. After that, they went across the hall to the lord and lady’s bedroom — though now it was occupied only by a widow.
The judge was still listening when the sound of a key entering a lock suddenly rang right outside his own door!
He quickly returned to bed, lay down, closed his eyes, and pretended to be asleep.
Then that eerie old man entered his room as well. He even leaned down close to him — a cold breath brushed against the judge’s neck, like a venomous snake sliding past.
After a while, the door closed, and they left.
Only then did the judge open his eyes, breathing nervously.
At this moment, he felt immensely grateful that when Molly had knocked earlier, he had hesitated and ultimately chosen not to open the door.
Molly was a beautiful young girl, delicate and pitiful. In a normal world, no one would refuse such a girl’s plea. And a man like him would never even have the chance to be asked for help by someone like her.
But in a place where human lives were prey, what use were beauty or wealth? The thought stirred a faint sense of dark satisfaction in him.
There were no more distinctions of status, appearance, or riches. Survival was the only truth.
One by one, the doors in the corridor continued to open.
King Shadi was also lying with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep. After the old man finished his rounds and left the room, the king opened his eyes as well, staring blankly at the ceiling.
This companion named Molly looked very much like someone — someone he had admired in secret long before he was dragged into this treacherous world, someone he had planned to confess to the next day.
In truth, he had been waiting for Molly to knock on his door. But perhaps certain he wouldn’t open it, she hadn’t come at all.
He admitted he felt a pang of disappointment, just like the day he realized he would never see that girl again.
But if Molly really had knocked, would he have opened the door?
He wasn’t sure.
When life is toyed with by rules, a person’s nature is stripped bare, revealing its truest form.
The opening of doors continued.
In bright candlelight, King Schiller slept. The scholar slept. In a slightly dim room, the knight commander and a knight lay side by side, separated by some distance. The Empress lay on her bed, and the male servant lay on the floor.
A chilling gaze settled on the pope’s door.
Creak— the door opened. The pope lay quietly on the grand bed. The rest of the room was empty.
Where was the person they were searching for?
Raspy, furious breathing echoed clearly in everyone’s ears, but no one dared make a sound.
At last, they left.
The moment the footsteps fully faded away, in the room shared by Yu Feichen and Bai Song, Molly’s clothing was nearly drenched in cold sweat. Her body slid down along the wall until she collapsed to her knees.
“Thank you… thank you… thank you!” she cried, tears falling.
Aside from King Shadi, who looked cold and unfeeling, she had knocked on every door in her team, but no one opened.
If people who had done tasks together for an entire day behaved like this, the other team would be even less likely to help. Yet just when she had fallen completely into despair, she heard a door open. Through the half-open doorway, she saw the cool, handsome face of the knight commander.
She had been saved by someone she never imagined would help her — like a nightmare that refused to end, suddenly rescued by a prince on a white horse. But when the old man’s footsteps sounded one door after another, she realized something terrifying: she hadn’t escaped danger at all. Instead, she was going to get her savior killed.
What she hadn’t expected was—
Molly looked toward the hidden door behind her.
Yu Feichen looked as well.
This girl — the others could not save her, nor would they have dared to. But as Ludwig had said, no matter how slim or strange or twisting an escape route is, it must exist.
And as it happened, the knight commander and the popecouldsave her.
They simply needed to push Molly through the hidden door the moment the old man was about to open the visible one. Then, after he left, they could open the hidden door and pull her back.
And just as Yu Feichen had predicted, the deception worked perfectly.
As for why he chose to help—
Perhaps to meet the expectations people had for a knight.
Light, justice, the protection of the weak, standing against evil.
“I don’t know what I did wrong…” Molly whispered.
“Three things. You violated at least one of them,” Yu Feichen said.
Molly stared blankly. “What?”
“First. Did you attend today’s ritual?”
“…No.”
“Second. I’m not sure if this is part of the rules. But everyone has a role. As a nun, when the pope and empress were both present, why did you choose to follow the empress?”
Molly opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Because… she thought a woman would at least be kinder to another woman.
But now, thinking back on the empress’s team — empress, king, king, judge — adding a nun to that group really did feel out of place.
“The third thing, perhaps you didn’t know,” Yu Feichen said. “A nun must not speak too much with outsiders. When you were chatting with your teammates, was there anyone from the temple watching?”
Molly froze.
She remembered that when the judge chatted with her earlier today, there had indeed been a temple nun watching from a distance.
She hugged her arms, trembling slightly, feeling endless cold and malice pressing in. Yet she couldn’t help looking toward the knight commander who had saved her, wanting him to say something more — but he didn’t.
After speaking, Yu Feichen left the room, leaving Bai Song and Molly behind.
In the future, Bai Song would meet many women. A competent teammate must have a firm mind and be able to resist temptation. Yu Feichen decided to hasten the process and help this twenty-three-year-old boy quickly get past the intelligence-lowering phase of youth. And of course, instead of listening to Bai Song’s odd remarks, he could simply go spend time with the quiet Ludwig to relax.
A long time passed before Molly regained enough strength to move.
Bai Song sighed and patted her shoulder. “We can talk tomorrow. At least you’re safe tonight. Get some sleep first.”
Molly’s face was pale. “The knight commander… he isn’t staying with us? What if that also breaks a rule?”
“Well…” Bai Song looked at the concealed door — the one even the cloaked old man didn’t know about. With sincere tone, he said, “We all have our own identities, and those identities come with meaning and constraints. So I think the existence of that door must also have its meaning, right?”
The night passed peacefully, and morning arrived as expected.
Yu Feichen was the first to wake. The first thing he did was push the pope, who had inexplicably leaned against him again, back to lying flat, then checked the state of his injuries.
—Still moving in his sleep. Wasn’t he afraid of tearing the wound open?
Next, Yu Feichen prepared the pope’s clothing.
After that, he set out the washing tools.
Finally, he poured a cup of drinking water.
A while later, the pope opened his eyes.
He sat up and looked at the neatly arranged items beside the bed, staring at them for nearly half a minute.
Then his dark green eyes slowly turned toward the knight commander standing at his side.
Yu Feichen understood immediately. That gaze was too obvious, like seeing one’s tool suddenly come to life and begin working on its own.
The pope was asking him:
—What is with you today?
Nothing much. He had simply been shaken awake by Molly’s ordeal.
He had suddenly realized that this hidden door, one even NPCs didn’t know about, must hold meaning.
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For whatever reason, King Shadi (沙迪) ended up being called King Saya (萨亚) here. Not sure if the author forgot what his name was lol.I’ll continue with King Shadi for consistency.
To recap, there were originally 11 outsiders :
Pope – LudwigKnight Commander – Yu FeichenKnight – Bai SongLord – JudeLady – DjunaNun – MollyScholar – unnamedEmpress – ElisavetaKing 1 – SchillerKing 2 – ShadiJudge – unnamed
Happy reading~
-Syeki
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