Chapter 1382: Chapter 1381: Scars

The ancient observatory wasn’t far from the front-line base, and Philip’s legion had already secured the area for several days. The engineers, while erecting purification devices and sentry turrets, also leveled out a temporary hardened road between the observatory and the base. Gawain, Amber, Lady Diana, and several technical experts from both Typhon and the Cecil Clan soon arrived near the high ground where the observatory was located in their magic-guided vehicle, and saw this large structure that had stood from the ancient Gondor era to this day.

The entire facility was now sealed off by the military, with a "fence" made of alloy and cement piles erected within a hundred meters of the observatory. Atop the fence were simple structure barrier generators and lightning rune arrays. A thin shield surrounded the whole area, with jumping electric sparks wandering across the barrier’s outer layer. A squad of soldiers had been stationed near the observatory for the past three days, establishing two fire points able to cross-lock the high ground facing the wasteland—although in the past three days, neither aberrations nor any other monsters had approached this area.

"Those monsters seem to actively avoid this place," Philip explained. "At least the ’wild’ ones never come within half a kilometer of the high ground, and we haven’t found any sign of monster invasion or damage inside the observatory. Experts suspect it might be due to the low-frequency energy constantly being released from deep within the observatory, which has a ’dispelling non-human monsters’ effect; however, they can’t analyze the exact mechanism. Of course, to be safe, I have set up these defenses here."

Gawain nodded slightly, turning to look at Lady Diana who got off the vehicle with him. The "Iron Soldier" who once served as a guardian at the Wepland Observatory was now somewhat entranced, gazing in the direction of the observatory. Her eyes, made of high-precision man-made crystals and a bionic shell, revealed no emotion, but her stance was very earnest—had she remembered something?

Gawain didn’t know how to judge expressions on a "machine girl’s" face, as he was not Emperor Rosetta Augustus either, so he casually asked, "Lady Diana, have you remembered anything since seeing the observatory?"

"...I vaguely remember what it was like. When I left, it stood just like this. At that time the disaster hadn’t yet spread here, and there was a small forest and a lush hillside nearby," Diana said softly, seemingly nostalgic. "My memories ... have many breaks, especially concerning the events 700 years ago—only scattered fragments appear. But the scene of the observatory standing under the blue sky, I remember clearly. That time..."

She hesitated for a moment, seemingly identifying something, then raised her hand to point to a certain place near the observatory, "At that time, I used to wait at that spot for the sunset every day, then patrolled near the main building until the sun rose again and I returned to that spot for the handover with my daytime-patrolling colleagues. However, there wasn’t really anything dangerous near the observatory; back then the Empire had no bandits or monsters, and even the more dangerous beasts had been hunted to extinction by nearby humans for their tasty meat. But important facilities needed guards, so low-cost, durable ’us’ were the best candidates for such ’necessary posts’..."

Gawain listened to the Iron Soldier’s nostalgic recollections, noticing that her expression remained calm throughout, and couldn’t help but say with some surprise, "It sounds like you miss those days... I thought that the Masters Mage of that time didn’t give you such complex thoughts when setting your minds—I always imagined the ’Iron Man’ to have a cold and rigid character."

"My personality has been adjusted over the past centuries to better suit contemporary people’s acceptance and aesthetic preferences," Diana said with a calm face. "Additionally, models like me, which serve non-military departments, have more flexible character templates. We are able to express richer emotions to reduce resistance from ordinary people. After all, human beings are emotionally sensitive and complex-thinking creatures. When facing an entity very similar to themselves but different in nature, they can easily become tense..."

Gawain understood immediately. He recognized this—the uncanny valley theory, just not expecting that the Gondor Iron Man engineers back then had also specifically studied this aspect...

He was just getting distracted when he heard Diana continue speaking, "...So, seeing your soldiers get along so well with a tentacle emerging from the ground earlier genuinely shocked and even left me in awe..."

Gawain: "..."

He felt this was entirely irrelevant, but sensed if he tried to correct it, the conversation would go in an infinitely strange direction, so decisively steered it back on track, "We can save the sentiments and memories for later. Now let’s explore this ancient facility—General Philip has already had its interior structure examined. The whole facility remains very solid, so we can go in with reassurance."

Diana nodded, then strode directly toward the entrance door of the observatory, her steps light and practiced as if this short distance was deeply etched into her man-made muscle bundles. Gawain and Amber led the others and quickly followed—they soon entered the interior of the ancient observatory, seeing the wide hall that had been abandoned for years.

Emergency lighting had been left by earlier exploration teams in the hall. The bright magic crystal lamps ensured that this ancient place wasn’t covered in darkness as it was in the past. But Amber seemed a little uncomfortable with such a bright environment; she muttered next to Gawain, "Exploring these ancient facilities is always supposed to be done in the dark... I’m really not used to it being this bright..."

"Is that triggering your occupational memories?" Gawain glanced at the half-elf, "Are you going to need a coffin in a room to get into the zone?"

"...No, I don’t need that—when you got up from that coffin, it really traumatized me..."

The two chatted half-jokingly while their eyes constantly scanned over the ancient, abandoned devices in the hall and any valuable traces on the corners and ceilings of the room. Philip, who came in with them, provided an update, "All movable items here have already been properly handled and temporarily stored in the base’s secure warehouse. Yet, many traces can’t be moved, such as the characters on the walls and those overly fragile fragments. For such items, the technical experts have only kept digital images or magic power copies and then left them in place... Lady Diana? Have you found something?"

Philip suddenly noticed that Diana was not listening to his briefing but had started wandering as soon as she entered the hall, checking around in a contemplative, reminiscent state. At this moment, she suddenly stopped in front of a wall, staring dazedly at the mottled traces on it, seemingly deeply "enthralled" by them.

Gawain also noticed Diana’s strange change, and he had originally planned to take a quick glance in the hall before heading straight to the sealed upper star observation platform. Yet now he felt a sudden impulse, "Did you recall something?"

"There are marks on this wall," Diana didn’t answer Gawain’s question but pointed thoughtfully at the wall instead, "Did you discover them? These engravings..."

Philip looked closely, then nodded after a moment’s hesitation, "Yes, we noticed some engravings on it earlier, but they’re not any letters; they look more like part of a pattern. Experts think this should be a section of some decorative relief..."

"No, this isn’t a relief carving." Diana shook her head, suddenly reaching out to gently stroke the wall’s surface, an action that made one scholar who had followed in exclaim in a low voice: "Be careful, they are very fragile, I’m afraid they can’t withstand..."

Diana ignored the exclamation behind her, her fingers brushing lightly over the ancient, mottled marks. She seemed to unconsciously draw on the eroded section of the wall next to the marks, as if supplementing the missing structure of the image. Amber’s gaze was involuntarily attracted, her eyes widening as she carefully observed the remaining marks on the wall and the trajectory of Diana’s fingers. Gradually, she discerned several crucial dots, radial lines connecting those dots, and a circular ring outside the pattern...

She suddenly reacted, elbowing Gawain’s arm lightly and murmuring in a voice audible only to the two of them: "It’s that pattern!"

Gawain was stunned and quickly grasped what Amber was referring to—this was intel secretly sent from the Typhon Empire. Yet, it wasn’t considered truly confidential within Typhon’s upper echelons—the Augustus Clan’s maidservant supervisor Lady Diana had a peculiar habit of unconsciously drawing a mysterious pattern repeatedly, no matter the place, be it on the walls of a chamber, the ground, or even on the clothing of passersby attendants. Whenever she thought of it, she would instinctively depict this pattern, which consisted of several dots, radial lines connecting the dots, and a circular ring representing the "border"...

Now, Diana was drawing this pattern—and this pattern was etched into the wall of the Wepland Observatory!

Gawain naturally feigned unfamiliarity, since this was a matter only known to people within the Typhon palace. Hence, he seemingly casually asked, "Lady Diana? What are you doing? You seem to be drawing a pattern... Does this pattern hold special meaning?"

"I don’t know... I just know this pattern has been deeply imprinted in the core of my consciousness, continually reinforced by some ancient command. At times, I find myself in a daze, and once I regain consciousness, I’ve left these marks somewhere. It even caused some trouble for those around me, I had not expected... it actually comes from here..."

Speaking, the black-haired maidservant supervisor reached out to touch the marks on the wall, her expression suddenly becoming somewhat strange: "Moreover, these marks were etched after I left the Wepland Observatory!"

Gawain was startled, quickly realizing the weight of information in her words: "Wait, you said the things on this wall were etched after you left Wepland!? That means, after the chaotic wave erupted? Someone survived here and left these marks?"

"Not necessarily," Amber immediately chimed in, "After all, when Diana left here, the chaotic wave hadn’t arrived yet, right? Perhaps she left, and those who stayed behind hurried to carve this pattern on the wall, and back then, it was before the chaotic wave erupted..."

Admittedly, even though Amber was often loud and her thoughts sometimes seemed bizarre, the possibility she mentioned was not entirely improbable. Yet upon hearing, Diana shook her head: "That’s impossible. These marks on the wall should indeed have been left after the chaotic wave erupted and were likely etched between fifteen to twenty-five years afterwards because..."

While speaking, one of Diana’s eyes suddenly underwent a change, its internal structure seemingly activated, with a lattice-like crystalline structure opening at the eye’s bottom. After a few seconds, the eyeball returned to normal—it seemed to be a deliberate showcase of some special ability.

"I can analyze the time difference in paint and building material erosion across various regions of the wall with minimal precision error within a millennium."

"...Wow," Amber gasped in shock, "The stuff from the Gondor Era is really incredible..."

She then widened her eyes, turning to gaze at the marks on the wall: "So, in other words, after the chaotic wave completely destroyed the Gondor Empire, someone was still active in this Observatory for many years, and even left this ’mark’ on the wall!?"

"I don’t know... But it’s certain this wasn’t done by irrational aberrations," Diana spoke seriously, "Yet I can’t believe someone managed to survive in such a situation... There weren’t any sufficiently sturdy protective facilities near the Wepland Observatory, and the scholars and officials in the Observatory didn’t possess the prowess to resist the chaotic wave, and..."

As she spoke, her voice suddenly showed some hesitation: "Furthermore, if this pattern was carved on here ten years after I left, why would I know it so well, deeply stored in the core of my consciousness?"

"The pattern was indeed etched after you left, but before that, you and the people of this Observatory should have known it," Gawain said from the side, "This pattern must hold significant meaning to you, to such an extent that even when your memory is impaired, you still remember it firmly. To such a degree that the survivors of the Observatory—let’s assume there are survivors—chose to leave this pattern as their last message after being trapped for many years."

"Seriously, someone managed to survive during the chaotic wave and lived for more than ten or twenty years in an isolated, unsupported Observatory?" Amber couldn’t help but say softly.

At this moment, Philip’s voice suddenly rang out: "It’s not impossible—the dark priests of the Oblivion Association have survived to this day in the wasteland. Although they have paid the price of not being human, this demonstrates that as long as specific conditions are met, it’s possible for normal beings to survive in the wasteland without relying on purification devices. Moreover, this Observatory seems to have been protected by some power; its main body is intact, unlike other Gondor facilities that were melted by the Well of Deep Blue’s magic, and even its upper levels still have a star observation platform in operation."

"The upper level is still operational..." Gawain furrowed his brow, at that moment, he suddenly held a unique regard and a slight wariness towards the functioning star observation platform. He turned to look at Diana, "It seems we should go up and take a look."

(By the way, do you all know about the King of Glory co-creation novel project? My short story "Sea of Storms" is online! It will be updated as part of the King of Glory co-creation novel project. You can find it on the King of Glory Miao Brush plan - it’s about a story related to "Iron Kuang"—though I never won when using him...)

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