Chapter 05
“In my opinion, this place is—”
Everyone’s attention focused on Serena. She was used to being the center of attention since being reincarnated as a princess, but perhaps because it was an emergency, she felt a bit tense.
“It looks like a royal mausoleum.”
“A mausoleum? Ah, right, that makes sense. As expected of Serena.”
“I think it’s a mausoleum too!”
Philia and Hanson immediately agreed with Serena’s guess. Chrome and Lavenda looked puzzled.
“Princess. What’s a mausoleum?”
“Think of it as a large family tomb. Instead of burying the bodies, the coffins are sealed and enshrined in a building.”
“Even if it’s large, still.”
Chrome looked around and spoke again.
“What kind of tomb has a fountain?”
“I find that strange too, but if there’s a stone structure of this scale underground near Hujichen, I can’t think of anything else besides a mausoleum.”
“Near Hujichen? We were in Hujichen, though?”
“District 7 is an expanded area. It’s been expanded gradually as the population grew. This seems to be a mausoleum built before that.”
Since others might not know, Serena explained why she thought this place was a mausoleum.
“The royal House of Huaim has suffered from tomb raiding frequently for a long time. From the direct line to the collateral branches, the damage from grave robbing has been especially severe. Before safe sea routes connecting to the continent were found, tomb raiders would even cross those mountain ranges to get here.”
“Wow, they crossed that?”
“Oh dear, those heaven-forsaken people.”
“So our ancestors, after much deliberation, built mausoleums. But no matter how well secrets were kept, the larger the mausoleum, the more people would come to know of it. They would abandon mausoleums whose locations were discovered and build new ones, repeating this process.”
Because the dynasty was so old, there wasn’t enough space to enshrine coffins, so they built new mausoleums.
Anyway, while some mausoleums were properly managed and passed down to descendants, others had their information lost and were forgotten. When a royal family lasted a thousand years, records were bound to be lost.
“I think this might be one such mausoleum. A stone structure using magical devices underground near Hujichen. It fits almost perfectly.”
A fountain with water constantly springing forth, and a bright lobby with no visible lighting fixtures. Easy to overlook, but ventilation systems that kept the air from stagnating.
All of these were the power of magic or equivalent technology.
Philia and Hanson nodded like diligent students listening to their teacher. Chrome also nodded, seemingly convinced.
“So that’s what it was.”
“……”
Only Lavenda’s complexion remained unusually dark. To comfort her, far from home, Serena decided to share some relatively good news.
“If this place is indeed a mausoleum as I suspect, there’s one piece of good news.”
“Is there another exit besides this one?”
Lavenda immediately bit at the bait of good news. Serena shook her head.
“Not that, but the enshrinement chamber has a communication device connected to the palace. It’s tradition.”
A tradition that had continued since the days when medical science wasn’t advanced and death diagnoses weren’t certain.
‘If this place was built before the communication device was invented, that would be a problem. But even back then, they connected it to bells outside, I’ve heard.’
Just as she was saying this, Philia exclaimed loudly.
“That’s right!”
“What is it all of a sudden?”
“My communication device! The one connected to my husband!”
“Wow! You have a communication device?”
“Goodness, that expensive thing.”
Everyone brightened at the news that Philia had a communication device.
“Hmm.”
Everyone except Serena.
Philia quickly pulled out her communication device from the pouch at her waist. She spoke the activation word to operate it, but the device didn’t respond.
“Eh? Why isn’t it working? Honey! Can you hear me?”
“That gives me more confidence that this is a mausoleum.”
“Eh? The communication device doesn’t work?”
“Probably it can only be used in the enshrinement chamber. They must have blocked it in other areas.”
“Do they really have to go that far to prevent grave robbing, Princess?”
“I’ve never heard of this either.”
“News to me too!”
“Don’t underestimate grave robbers. They possess the audacity to disregard royal authority, the lack of conscience to disturb the rest of the deceased, the archaeological and architectural knowledge to assess the value of burial goods and locate tomb structures, aesthetic and literary sophistication, and the capital to mobilize expensive equipment like communication devices.”
Grave robbers were that terrible and fearsome?
Everyone was shocked in unison.
Coming from a princess of a royal family that had suffered from grave robbing, her words carried immense weight.
“Then if we go to the enshrinement chamber, we can contact the outside!”
Lavenda’s lavender eyes sparkled. She looked ready to run off in search of the enshrinement chamber immediately.
Introductions were done, they knew where this place was, and a way out had been identified. Now it was time to move.
Without anyone prompting, everyone’s gaze turned to Hanson.
“Eek.”
There was a noble princess, and a noble countess who appeared even more noble than the princess.
There were women who did physical labor, but one of them happened to be a masseuse.
And there was one elderly woman who looked quite spry.
“Me?”
Hanson pointed to himself. There’s no one else to step up in this situation but me! Whether I like it or not, it’s only me!
“I’ll! I’ll go!”
Since he had to step up anyway, volunteering would look better and improve his reputation.
“I’ll be back!”
Hanson grabbed his spear and bravely stood up. Nervous about having to take the lead, his manner of speech had reverted to odd.
“I want to go get my cart too.”
Chrome also stood up and brushed off his bottom. Lavenda hesitated, unsure whether to step forward, while Philia stayed put as if it were the most natural thing.
“I’m going too.”
“Eh? Serena should stay here!”
“That’s right, Princess. It could be dangerous, so please stay here.”
Philia and Lavenda actively discouraged the princess’s recklessness.
‘I don’t want to go either.’
Serena frowned inwardly. Like Philia, she desperately wanted to wait around calmly.
‘Philia. You’ve served me for over five years, and you still don’t know? When I, who hates working, move…’
It’s only when there’s an absolutely necessary reason.
Where there’s good news, there’s also bad news. Serena still had one more thing to tell the four.
“If this place is indeed a mausoleum, there’s one more thing you need to know.”
Sensing bad news from Serena’s tone, people’s expressions darkened. The already tense Hanson grew even tenser and swallowed hard.
“Even when they changed tomb locations due to grave robbing, they were eventually robbed again. Unable to endure it any longer, our ancestors made a great decision.”
“What kind of…”
“They turned all mausoleums into dungeons.”
Dungeons.
In games from her past life, they were usually places where monsters and loot gathered, advantageous for leveling up and farming.
In this world she’d reincarnated into, it was similar—monsters gathered there.
In this world, places with traps and monsters to prevent external intruders—such as monster lairs, mages’ secret laboratories, or nobles’ secret vaults—were called dungeons.
Natural dungeons and artificial dungeons both existed, and all of Huji’s mausoleums were artificial dungeons.
“Then there are monsters?”
“Mostly traps rather than monsters. Monsters could disturb the rest of the deceased.”
They were also difficult to manage. To place living monsters in a dungeon, you’d need to construct an ecosystem and continuously maintain it, which would immediately reveal the mausoleum’s location.
Undead monsters could also negatively affect the bodies enshrined in the mausoleum, so they were excluded from the start.
So the Huaim family mainly installed golems and traps in their mausoleums. They always used the latest technology and put great care into mechanical designs so traps would operate even if power was cut off.
“But those traps…”
Serena trailed off as she searched her memory.
‘This isn’t just ordinary bad news—it’s very bad news.’
As a member of the royal family, while learning family history, she had naturally learned about mausoleums as well.
Because all the elders qualified to teach had been wiped out, she self-studied in the secret library, but the information about traps installed in mausoleums was always the same.
“There will be a great many traps.”
There was no mercy for those despicable people who disturbed the peace of the deceased. The traps were all lethal, and they evolved alongside advancing grave-robbing techniques.
Not just “traps exist,” but “there will be a great many”—at those words, despair settled over everyone’s faces.
Serena hurriedly tried to cheer them up. It would be problematic if their morale dropped so soon after falling.
“Don’t worry too much. This seems to be an old mausoleum, unknown even to me, so it should be easier to avoid.”
“Because the traps might be old and broken?”
“That’s a possibility, but…”
Serena answered as she had self-taught.
“Even after traps were installed, grave robbing didn’t stop. The methods became even more cunning. So the traps evolved accordingly—the newer the mausoleum, the harder it is to get past the traps.”
“If there are that many traps, do you not visit the tombs, Princess?”
“There are secret passages!”
Double Hanson was on about secret passages again.
“They use magic. Even this country bumpkin has heard of it. There’s magic that reacts to bloodlines, right? The royal family passes through, and the traps block the grave robbers?”
Serena shook her head.
“There are mausoleums built like that too, but I heard the secret passages were discovered by grave robbers and became useless. As for bloodline magic… even distant descendants can become grave robbers.”
Philia brought up something she’d heard from her parents in her hazy memory.
“Then do they finish the tomb visits from outside the mausoleum? I think my mother said the royal family goes inside the mausoleum…”
After the tragedy of 18 years ago, the Huji royal family stopped visiting tombs. Instead, they hold a memorial service in the capital every year.
“There is a class only the direct royal line receives.”
Since there had been bad news, it was time for good news. Serena bluffed to boost the flagging morale.
“A class where we memorize the trap layouts and patterns of mausoleums.”
‘Though I self-studied because everyone who could teach me died.’
After everyone died on the tomb visit, who would have held young Serena down and taught her trap layouts?
Her grandfather, who lost his wife, children, grandchildren, siblings, and other relatives all at once?
Her father, who survived because he was disliked by the late king for being a drug addict and couldn’t attend the tomb visit?
Her cousin, who was presumed dead and miraculously returned years later, having been a teenager when he went missing?
It was fine. Serena had self-study materials and a study partner.
‘A worthless layabout finally comes in handy.’
Serena, for the first time, felt grateful for having pored over mausoleum blueprints with her brother Seraph in the secret library only the direct royal line could access.
Seraph had thought studying trap structures was pathetic—just hot air about royal privileges—but who knew it would be this helpful?
‘I only skimmed it, but it’ll be fine. Really, it’ll be fine. This place is old, so the traps should be simple too.’
If only her worthless layabout brother were here now.
‘Even dog shit is useful when you need it for medicine, they say.’
For the first time since being reincarnated, she missed her brother’s absence.
‘Pull yourself together. I’m the only one here with any trap knowledge. How many traps have these people seen in their lives?’
At least Serena had encountered traps through various media in her past life and through texts in this life. She was better off than the others.
“There are traditions in mausoleum trap layouts. I know more than you do, so I should go too.’
‘With only one soldier, I can’t send him alone to die.’
Double Hanson was so nervous he seemed likely to walk right into a trap without noticing. She couldn’t trust him.
“I’m going too.”
“Countess? I, I’ll go too!”
When Serena moved, Philia moved too. Philia, who had made this her motto since becoming Serena’s lady-in-waiting, stood up.
Lavenda, not wanting to be left alone, stood up as well.
‘I wish at least one person would stay, just in case.’
While all five left the lobby, someone else might come. Rescue teams might arrive.
Hanson was essential, so he was out.
Chrome had been talking about his cart, so if left alone, he’d probably leave the lobby to find it.
‘Leaving Philia alone could be dangerous if she meets strangers. Lavenda too.’
With strangers and possibly golems roaming around, it was also unreasonable to ask young women with no self-defense abilities to guard the lobby.
Serena thought for a moment, then gave up. Having lived thoughtlessly since reincarnation, suddenly having to worry made her head spin.
‘Ah, whatever. Let’s all go together.’
But first, there was something to do.
“You have a spear and a sword, so it would be better for someone else to carry one.”
Serena pointed to the longsword fixed at Hanson’s waist. She’d already decided who to give it to.
‘I’m obviously out. Philia’s out too. Philia would be swung around by the sword. Lavenda has good grip strength from massage, but her hands are delicate, so she probably hasn’t done rough work.’
“Give the sword to Chrome.”
‘Since he said he does carving, he’d handle blades better than us.’
At least Chrome seemed unlikely to swing the sword around and injure himself.
“Ugh.”
“What’s the matter? If it’s about guard regulations, it’s fine. I ordered it, and it’s an emergency, so it will be tolerated.”
“It’s just that…”
Hanson drew the sword from its sheath. Thinking he was about to swing it at her, Serena flinched. She was too slow to dodge.
Fortunately, Hanson hadn’t drawn the sword to attack Serena. He was holding a wooden sword and kneeling.
It wasn’t a sharp-edged longsword—it was a wooden sword. Seeing it was wood, not metal, Serena’s eyes widened.
“I have committed a capital offense.”
*’What the hell is this?’*
