Chương 76: The Miracle

"Calm down, Susanne. The boy was nobody; people get killed all the time. If you do not walk forward, you will be next. Weak people have no place in this world," Linlyn shouted at her granddaughter. She was irritated by how she was being pestered over a guy they had met yesterday. Susanne was completely dumbfounded by her grandmother's shout. Although her grandmother was never nice towards her ever, she had expected to receive some support and have her grandmother fight for her in this place.

However, after seeing her behavior, Susanne lost all the hope she held for justice being given for Arthur's death. She started to feel that her grandmother had never come to rescue her, but to participate in the trial. This thought placed a great distance between her and her grandmother, and she felt very alone compared to before she had arrived here.

"Now tell me, did he or did he not awaken from the deep sleep?" Linlyn asked in a displeased tone. Susanne, however, did not pay her grandmother any attention as she simply stood unmoving like a statue. Seeing this, Linlyn shook her head in disappointment over the failure of her granddaughter.

"Heir of the Flynns, come here," she suddenly called out to Charlton, who was sitting near the group of researchers. Hearing her, Charlton quickly ran toward her with confusion on his face.

"What is your name, kid?" she asked.

"My name is Charlton, ma'am," he said.

"Now answer my question, did the boy wake from the deep sleep?" she asked him before giving a firm look at Susanne. Charlton, however, was surprised upon hearing the question. He quickly glanced toward Susanne for help, seeking any signal as to whether he should answer or not.

"Don't look at her. Your father pleaded with me to save you from the trial. If you want to live, you have to obey my orders. Now answer my question: did that boy named Arthur wake up from his deep sleep or not?" Linlyn demanded, leveraging her promise to save him from the trial. Hearing about his father's plea to rescue him from this place, Charlton finally found the courage to speak. Without hesitation, he told her everything that had happened after they arrived.

"So he indeed woke up from the sleep, but before he woke up, he summoned a skeleton?" she reiterated what he said.

"Yes, we were trying to wake him up when we noticed movement in his eyes. Then suddenly, one of his skeletons appeared beside him and grabbed his hand," Charlton explained, adding more details. Linlyn suddenly fell into deep thought. She already knew about the people who fell into a deep coma. They were considered the beacons of the trial because they held key information about the kind of terrain participants would encounter as they advanced toward the center of the trial.

But she had never heard of anyone awakening from the deep sleep in the waiting area of the arrival spot, nor did she know what such a phenomenon signified. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Furthermore, one gained the ability to read the inscriptions of the Torical Secret Chamber after killing a person who had awakened from the deep sleep. What would have happened if the boy were still alive?

Would he have possessed that ability, or did he gain it upon waking, only for it to transfer to his killer upon his death? Did that mean if someone were to kill Dejan's grandson, they would also gain the ability to read the inscriptions? A multitude of scenarios ran through her mind. She hadn't expected any of this when she first decided to enter the trial, but at the end of the day, it was an unexpected gain.

Securing at least one treasure from the chamber would put her family a century ahead of the other families in Faith City, or perhaps even the entire country.

"I heard you went hunting with him. Did he behave or act weirdly in any way?" she continued her inquiry.

"No, ma'am. Though we had just met the day before, he didn't behave any differently than he had previously," Charlton said.

"Did he mention anything about what he saw while in his deep sleep?" she asked.

"Yes, he talked about what he saw while he was asleep," he replied.

"What? What did he say?" Linlyn blurted out, shocked to hear that the boy had revealed the details of his dream. Typically, when people eventually awakened from the sleep, they woke up with a blank mind, completely unable to remember what their consciousness had experienced. Now, this boy had not only woken up at the arrival safe spot, but he also remembered where his consciousness had been. This was a massive discovery regarding the Concentric Trial.

"He said he was falling from an endless cliff without ever reaching the bottom," Charlton explained, recounting what he had heard while they were walking toward the crater.

"Endless falling," Linlyn muttered.

"Yes, that's what he said."

"Anything else?" she asked.

"No, ma'am, that's all he said. But when we mentioned that it was a miracle he woke up, considering no one who went to sleep before him had ever awakened—""What did he say?" she interrupted.

"He said it wasn't a miracle, and that those people will wake up eventually," Charlton said.

'A miracle... I also thought it was a miracle, right up until he was killed, which nullified that miracle,' she murmured to herself.

"Anything more?"

"No, ma'am, that's all the interaction I had with him before he was killed by Victor," Charlton said.

"Hmm, you may leave," Linlyn said as she fell into deep thought. The word miracle started nagging at the back of her mind. Did his awakening really signify a miracle? What kind of secrets would the world have uncovered if he hadn't been killed and his miracle stolen? The person who founded the Union Government through sheer strength and brutality was the only individual who ever claimed to have entered the Torical Secret Chamber—and actually proved it to the world.

But he had refused to reveal how he opened the chamber. Could this be the method? If he had revealed it, people would have gone mad, bringing disaster upon humanity. Was that the reason he refused to share the truth, enduring all kinds of curses—like being labeled the "betrayer of humanity"—when he withheld the secret? Where would that have left humanity's further growth? In the end, he died taking the secret to his grave, only for it to be discovered more than a century after his death.

"Is this discovery going to plunge humanity into chaos?" Linlyn muttered to herself. Whatever the secret was, they needed to hide it from others and prevent it from becoming public knowledge. Otherwise, people's lives would be in danger. She decided that when the pact was made, she would insist on including this condition without any compromise.