The People Of Baengnyeong Forest (6)

‘Ever since the “revelation” came….’

Hyeonseong skimmed the notebook again at speed. What she needed to pay attention to was the fact that there was nothing in it.

‘As expected. There’s nowhere that says someone actually succeeded in opening a door to another world with blood jade.’

No matter how she combed through the notes, there wasn’t a single line like that. All she saw were things like how much blood jade some territory produced, or which territory got swallowed up by disaster.

“From the look of it, there really was some kind of ‘revelation’ that came down only to nobles and mages.”

After the entire raid party checked the notebook, someone spoke up.

“But is it even a real revelation? What kind of god would give something this insane as a ‘revelation’?”

“I think that level of prejudice is normal, ‘Screams of Boiling Blood’-nim.”

Anna answered the Constellation message in a sulky voice. To Hyeonseong, it looked almost unbelievable.

‘Wow. Even if some annoying message pops up, I don’t think I could talk back that easily.’

“Either way, the fact it came down in a form that looked like a revelation means it did happen.”

“If it was a real revelation, it would’ve been sent by a god that deserves to be classified as an evil god. If not, then someone forged a revelation.”

“But if it was forged, who would do it and what would they gain?”

“And we don’t even know who ‘sent’ it in the first place….”

The conversation kept looping.

“We’ll think about that later. It’s not something we can figure out here.”

As the speculation threatened to drag on, Ivan cut them off.

“That’s fair.”

“We still have places left to search….”

The Otherworlders agreed with Ivan.

‘But what the hell are these?’

Two Constellations were trying hard to make their presence known through messages. Considering how the Otherworlders had earlier flailed and reacted to a certain Constellation, those two were probably Constellations from Baengnyeong Forest as well.

‘But those people are acting like they can’t see the messages at all.’

Judging by the content, it wasn’t a message targeted only at Hyeonseong either. It clearly should’ve been sent to Baengnyeong Forest people too.

‘Since they’re pretending not to recognize it, I’m ignoring it too for now….’

But the doubt flared up again in Hyeonseong’s mind. She’d have to ask when the opportunity came.

“But what about that safe? It doesn’t look like we found any hint for the code.”

One of the Otherworlders pointed at the last safe.

“There wasn’t anything else in here that could be a clue, right?”

“Right.”

“Even if you look at the diaries and notebooks, there wasn’t anything that felt like a lead to solve that code…”

Hyeonseong also tried to recall whether there had been anything that could serve as a clue.

‘Yeah. I don’t think there was.’

She’d seen numbers everywhere, but none that stood out as something you’d slot into a binary code.

‘If it were base ten, I’d try something like the family’s birthdays… but. Wait, there’s no rule that says this is a binary number in the first place.’

She’d automatically treated the front and back as 0 and 1, but maybe it had nothing to do with numbers at all.

‘If it really is literally just front and back….’

Hyeonseong walked up to the safe. Then she flipped the second and third wooden tiles embedded in the safe door.

‘Not it.’

She flipped them back. This time she flipped the first and fourth.

‘Not that either.’

After restoring it again, she flipped the second and fourth tiles.

A click sounded.

“Huh—?”

A few people jolted at the sound of the lock releasing.

“How did you know?”

“I just guessed.”

“Ah….”

The person who asked fell silent, embarrassed by Hyeonseong’s answer.

“If it’s not numbers but a pattern you match by ‘what looks right,’ there are only so many combinations that look balanced. I thought maybe they made the code that way.”

Since things got awkward, Hyeonseong added the explanation like an excuse.

“Oh… that could be.”

“Sure. From the records we found, this lord didn’t feel crafty and meticulous so much as just greedy.”

“And greedy, rotten people aren’t always the clever, twisted type….”

The Otherworlders accepted it easily. They even attached a plausible interpretation on their own, which only made Hyeonseong feel more embarrassed.

“…Anyway, since it’s open, let’s see what’s inside.”

Hyeonseong changed the subject and opened the safe door.

‘A bundle of keys?’

Inside were two bundles of keys. She took both out and examined them closely.

‘They both look crude, but….’

At a glance, neither looked special. But when she studied the teeth that would go into a lock, there was a clear difference.

‘This bundle is simpler. This one’s surprisingly complex.’

One set had simple teeth. The other had grooves cut in a surprisingly intricate pattern.

“What are these keys for?”

“There are still a lot of places we haven’t been able to enter, so there has to be somewhere they fit.”

Others took the key bundles and looked them over too.

“I think this one is for the third floor.”

Pablo pointed at one bundle: two long keys and ten short keys tied together, all with simple teeth.

“So these long ones are the stairwell keys?”

“There’s no reason to put different locks on stair doors, after all.”

“Then this one…”

Naturally, everyone’s gaze shifted to the bundle with the complex teeth.

“It’s for the basement, and the two towers outside.”

“Oh, right. There were towers too.”

At the mention of towers, a few people grimaced. The scope of what they had to search was wider than they liked.

“Still, it’s a relief. It looks like we found most of the keys we’ll need.”

“That’s true. I was worried we’d have to keep scraping up one or two at a time.”

“So we really found everything we can find here, right?”

People who’d looked away from the safe swept their eyes around the room again.

“The rest were just ordinary books and documents.”

“Calling those black magic books ‘ordinary’ is a bit…”

“Either way, you’re saying none of them help us clear this dungeon.”

There wasn’t anything else useful among the books and papers. And beyond the safes they’d found, there weren’t any more hidden spaces either.

‘And the false-bottom drawer thing was only that one, too.’

Once they concluded there was nothing left worth searching, everyone left the room.

‘We’ll grab this place for kindling too.’

Outside the room, Hyeonseong finished up by opening Infinite Corridor in the center. Books, documents, and furniture all got sucked cleanly into an empty compartment.

“Then on this floor, there’s only that one unopened room left, right?”

Someone looked toward the one door still shut. There was now only one room on the second floor they hadn’t checked.

Pablo used a large, impressive-looking key to open it. The room revealed was the most ostentatious one they’d seen so far.

“Just looking at it, this was the lord’s room.”

“It looks like he collected anything he heard was expensive or made by a famous artisan, without any restraint.”

The Otherworlders who went in first checked the worn furniture and bedding.

‘There were records in the ledger and diaries about buying expensive furniture too.’

Hyeonseong entered and lifted the carpet. For something that should’ve been pricey, it was badly frayed and even had holes.

‘The blankets were still decent, but this one was a dud.’

She dropped the carpet and stood back up.

“What should we do?”

“Let’s inspect it like the study—first.”

This time too, they decided to search by hand first, turning things over directly. Hyeonseong helped.

After a short while, the search ended. There were only two clues found in the lord’s room.

“This is a diary, and this is…”

“It says ‘Book of Revelations,’ at least.”

The Otherworlders said while looking at the items.

“The diary feels similar to the ones the other family members wrote…”

“The only truly new thing is that only one child is blood-related, and the rest were adopted.”

“And this ‘Book of Revelations’ doesn’t seem that different from what we saw in that notebook earlier.”

They finished checking the contents quickly. Most of the diary overlapped with the other family diaries and the study notebook.

But one notable point stood out: aside from one child, they’d adopted the rest around the time they began making blood jade.

‘They needed hands to help with production.’

Hyeonseong pulled out the diaries they’d found in other rooms again.

Even rereading, there was no explicit mention of adoption. But if you thought about it a little, there were scattered lines that made it easy to infer some children weren’t biological.

‘No wonder they all seemed to be watching the lord’s mood so much. It wasn’t just because his personality was trash.’

After putting the diary back into Infinite Corridor, she checked the “Book of Revelations.”

It was a thin, small booklet. The content wasn’t much. Just as the Otherworlders said.

‘Is it basically what we saw in the study, only padded out with more words?’

Even reading through, there wasn’t anything strikingly new.

‘If something stands out, it’s that the “disaster” part is explained clearly, while the blood jade part is relatively vague.’

The disasters were described plainly with keywords like demon beasts and plague, but blood jade was described in roundabout terms—blood, grudges, screams—like it wanted to steer you into interpreting it as blood jade.

“For how fancy it looks, there isn’t much hidden here.”

“The only things that clearly matter really are these two.”

“And besides that… some gems?”

Someone opened a small box. Inside were a few transparent, sparkling gemstones. When they checked the item info, they were ordinary gems.

“Gems lying around in a worn-out, nothing-special castle…”

“They’re not here just for pocket money, are they?”

“Of course not. There’s definitely a use for them.”

It was an extremely firm answer.

‘The sad part is I can’t even deny that.’

Hyeonseong clicked her tongue internally. If they wanted pocket money, they’d have to hunt monsters later.

“Then shall we clean up here too and go upstairs?”

Milena tapped the floor lightly with her staff. With the last room searched, the only thing left was to head up to the third floor.

Everyone filed out. To finish up, Hyeonseong opened Infinite Corridor in the lord’s room and collected everything, then headed for the third-floor stairs.

‘Anything else among what we grabbed?’

While Pablo opened the third-floor stair door, Hyeonseong checked the list of miscellaneous junk they’d swept up on the second floor. It was kindling, kindling, and more kindling.

‘If the black magic books are good quality, maybe we can sell them outside somehow… huh?’

As Hyeonseong stepped onto the third-floor corridor, something caught her eye.

‘The pillow says there’s something inside it?’

Among the household goods from the lord’s room, the pillow’s description stood out.

Hyeonseong immediately opened Infinite Corridor and took out the pillow.

“Why are you pulling that out?”

Someone asked when she suddenly produced a pillow.

“The description is kind of weird.”

Hyeonseong replied, stripping off the pillowcase.

Thunk

Something rolled out from inside the pillow. An Otherworlder hurriedly stepped on it to stop it from rolling away, then picked it up.

“Huh? Isn’t this blood jade?”

They recognized it immediately.

A gemstone stained an ominous dark red. Blood jade.

“I thought there were only five…?”

“And the lord’s diary never said anything about secretly making extra blood jade.”

“So where did this come from?”

Frowns spread at the incomprehensible situation.

“Wait. Looking closely, something’s off.”

Ivan pointed at the blood jade. Everyone, including Hyeonseong, leaned in for a better look.

“Ah! It’s cracked!”

“Check the info.”

At that, they checked the sixth blood jade’s info. Hyeonseong did too.

“This is something made by gathering the imperfect fragments.”

People spoke again after checking.

“Yeah. It wouldn’t be easy to gather defective shards and make a piece like this… but he did it.”

“It says it’s unfinished, but still almost complete…”

“In a lot of ways, this lord was impressive. Even thinking to try it, hiding it completely from his family, and getting this far.”

Uncomfortable voices followed.

“Anyway, we’ve checked everything we can, right?”

Someone said to the group.

“Seems like it, for now.”

“Even if we want to dig deeper, we don’t have any more clues right now…”

No matter how much they stared, they couldn’t get more information about the sixth blood jade. Hyeonseong put it into Infinite Corridor.

“Then we can just proceed like before, right?”

People lightly scanned the third-floor corridor.

“We can open rooms one by one with these keys.”

Pablo held up the bundle of simple keys and used one to open a room first.

“Ghk…!”

The moment the door opened, a chill swept out. Pablo recoiled with a startled cry.

Kyaaaaaaah!

At the same time, a wailing shriek echoed. There was a ghost inside the room.

“A monster! Battle positions!”

“More light—now!”

The Otherworlders snapped into combat stance the instant they encountered the monster. Hyeonseong watched the situation with tense eyes.