The Coffin in the Basement

Creak. The hinges of the expensive oak doors gave a soft, smooth hum as they swung open. Leather boots clicked crisply against the spotless marble floor. Sonia stepped into the dim ground floor of the villa, passing through the foyer, her left hand quietly tightening around the hilt of her sword. With the faint starlight filtering through the windows, her ruby eyes took in the entire ground-floor living room, focusing especially on the shadowy corners where someone might hide. Not a soul was in sight. Her gaze traced the staircase up to the second floor. At the banister, only a single Lady of the Night orchid swayed gently in the starlight; the rooms deeper down the hall lay concealed in darkness. The restless Golden Fish, Seven-Colored Tail, and Colorless Dream secret poison settled down at once. The Paw-Stretching Swordmaster loosened her grip on the hilt slightly and stepped aside to let her teammates inside. "The decor is pretty nice... Looks like your little brother really isn't home," Aisha said, glancing left and right as she entered. "And here I thought I'd get to stumble upon a juicy scene of him fooling around!" "Felix may have a few unsavory rumors attached to his name, but he has held himself to high standards since childhood. Nothing of the sort would happen," Dimi defended his younger brother with firm conviction. "In the future, he will be a model among nobles." "A model among nobles? You mean debauchery, extravagance, and living in a drunken stupor?" Yadas sneered. "Yadas, I know you have seen ugly, shameless nobles, and I know the nobility has grown increasingly degenerate in recent years, fallen from the glory of our ancestors. I share your anger at this state of affairs, because it shouldn't be this way." Dimi did not deny it, calmly accepting Yadas's taunt. "In the era when the Nobility Act was promulgated, all nobles were disciplined, noble-minded, passionate, and virtuous. The Blessing of the Stars was both their reward and their safeguard. "It wasn't like today, where the Blessing of the Stars has turned into an entitlement and the rock bottom of noble conduct. As long as it doesn't break the law, anything goes... Exploiting loopholes has become a noble's lifelong ambition. "I don't know if I can reverse this declining morality or reform the nobility from within, but if I don't try, I will never find peace of mind, let alone give up." Dimi looked at Yadas. "To reform a corrupt class, the best way is to inject fresh blood. Yadas, I know you are still reluctant to accept something as filthy as a noble title, but Stars needs more nobles like you—elevated from commoners—if it is ever to improve. "Besides, your presence will inspire many ordinary people, giving them the courage to embark on the path of the sorcerer. It will let everyone know that they, too, can become shining stars." Yadas remained expressionless, though his tone lost some of its edge. "To hate an entire class, one has to join it just to change it?" "Because the 'Starry Nobility' is the best system we can find at present," Dimi said. "There is no reason not to make use of the great order provided by the Divine Lord of Stars. "One day, the Starry Nobility will come to an end. The people of that era will be fortunate, for they will witness a better world. "Yet we are fortunate as well, for we can spend our lives uncovering the dawn of that new era." "Well said." Sonia clapped lightly, soundlessly leaning back against the entrance door. With a gentle push of her back, she closed the door, the click of the lock overlapping perfectly with the sound of her applause. Yadas grunted cold mockery under his breath, but said nothing more. Aisha shrugged. "The sound I was hoping to hear was your little brother shrieking, Senior, not a sermon... Let's get to work, get to work. Let me see if your brother has an underground dungeon for locking up pretty girls." Aisha rolled up her left sleeve, revealing an intricately crafted bracer glowing with green light. With a sudden flick of her arm, the bracer unfolded layer by layer into a medium-sized buckler, brimming with fantastical wonder. Yet this was no miracle, but a mass-produced sorcerer's contraption: a "shield bracer." Of course, Aisha had purchased a custom-tailored model; its weight and dimensions were perfectly fitted to a female sorcerer of her build, and the shield could serve as the casting medium for most of her sorcery spirits. As the shield expanded, ripples splashed outward from Aisha, swiftly sweeping across the entire villa. A complex architectural layout then appeared on the surface of her shield. The Shield Maiden glanced at it and arched an eyebrow slightly. "There really is a basement—uh-oh, Dimi, if we uncover a Vosloda scandal, are you going to silence us? You aren't bound by the Blessing of the Stars yet!" Dimi gave a helpless chuckle. "Stop joking around. Besides, isn't it completely normal for a villa to have a basement? The previous villas had basements too." "Still, this basement seems absurdly deep..." "I've visited that basement," Sonia spoke up suddenly. "It's Felix's training room. We used to spar with swords down there." Aisha exchanged glances with the other two, her eyes darting around with an amused smile. "Captain, we promise not to breathe a word. Tell us honestly: did you and Dimi's brother ever have a thing...?" Under the ice-cold glare of the Paw-Stretching Swordmaster, Senior Aisha's voice grew fainter and fainter until she ducked timidly behind Dimi. "...If it's not true, just say so. No need to glare at me so fiercely, is there?" Sonia looked away. "I remember the basement is quite troublesome to open. Let's finish checking the villa and leave." "We can't," Dimi shook his head. "What if the intruder is hiding inside? Aisha, can you do something?" "Of course I can." Aisha looked around, her eyes suddenly taking on a pale green sheen as her prophecy miracle permeated the ground-floor living room. "The construction traces of the mechanism are far too obvious... Interesting, it's actually triggered by a sorcery spirit. Even though I don't know which spirit it is, I don't need to know—just flip the switch directly... Done!" As Aisha swept her hand across the floor, the fireplace suddenly swung wide, revealing a dark, spiraling secret passage leading underground. "Are we going down together?" Aisha asked. "Or should only you go down, Dimi? If there really is a captive maiden inside, that'd give you a chance to destroy the evidence or prepare beforehand." "Yadas and I will go down. Yadas can supervise me," Dimi said. "You two ladies can wait up here on the ground floor and search the other rooms in the villa while you're at it." "Let's all go down together," Sonia said suddenly. "In horror movies, splitting up is usually the prelude to everyone dying." Hearing this, the others stared blankly at the country girl for a few seconds until Aisha burst into a giggle. "I've never heard of a horror movie starring Sanctuary Sorcerers! There are three Sanctuary Sorcerers right here. No matter how you look at it, you guys are much scarier!" "Still, I don't like splitting up." Sonia suddenly acted bashful, stamping her foot. "I just watched a horror movie yesterday, and scenes like this terrify me... Either we don't go, or we go down together. That way, if something happens, at least we can die together!" This sudden display of girlish petulance from the Paw-Stretching Swordmaster instantly overturned the other three's perceptions. Only now did they remember that Sonia was only eighteen this year, just a second-year university student—still a rose-tinted maiden in the bloom of youth. Although they weren't much older themselves, Sonia was indeed the youngest among them, yet undeniably the strongest! This amusing contrast made them chuckle while involuntarily warming up to the Paw-Stretching Swordmaster. "Then let's go down together," Aisha said, looping her arm around Sonia's with a giggle. "Your senior brother and sister will protect you!" Sonia nodded obediently and hung back, looking truly frightened. As she walked, her right hand gripped the hilt of her sword tightly. Inside her soul, every sorcery spirit danced with eager anticipation, ready to unleash world-shattering killing sorcery procedures. "You're so tense," Aisha noticed Sonia's stiff posture and couldn't help laughing. "Does that horror movie have such an aftereffect on you?" "Because in the horror movie I watched, there was a scene identical to this tunnel," Sonia whispered softly. "When the main characters discover something in the basement, someone in the party suddenly goes on a massacre to cover up what's inside... I'm really worried, you know." "Relax, relax," Aisha waved her hand. "Dimi cares deeply about his brother, but deep down he's more noble than any noble; he wouldn't shield Felix. As for Yadas and me, we barely know Felix, so we certainly wouldn't cover for him." "That's good." A faint smile curled at the corners of Sonia's lips, her voice growing even gentler and warmer. "Then I can rest easy." Soon, the light at the end of the tunnel came into view. Sonia's body grew increasingly relaxed, yet deep within her ruby eyes, murderous intent had begun to simmer. Under the present circumstances, even if Yaxiu and the others realized an encirclement operation was underway outside, they couldn't possibly flee the villa—that would carry an even greater risk. Thus, the most likely possibility was that they were hiding in Felix's concealed basement. Two swordsmanship Sanctuaries, one prophecy sorcerer. Sonia quietly calculated the disparity in combat strength. If she wanted to prevent them from transmitting any information outside, she had to kill both Sanctuaries in a single strike—ideally using the Blade of the Hidden Hand to bypass their Sanctuary defenses and decapitate them directly. Once the two Sanctuaries were dead, no matter how formidable Aisha's "Perfect Shield Counter" might be, it would only be a matter of a single slash. *I already gave you a chance,* she thought. *If you hadn't come down, you wouldn't have had to die in this basement.* *Don't worry, though. You won't be lonely. You're merely the prelude to the slaughter. If Yaxiu and I want to fight our way out of the Starry Kingdom, many, many people will die along the way... They will all join you.* This long tunnel felt like a shortcut straight into Hell. *I have already prepared myself to become a devil.* Tap. The moment Dimi stepped into the brightly lit basement and let out an exclamation of surprise, Sonia's sorcery power began to stir, her murderous intent boiled over, her sorcery spirits burst into song, and her miracle was primed to trigger at any instant— "Why is there a coffin here?" Sonia instantly suppressed the turmoil in her veins. Her sorcery spirits settled back into stillness, and she relaxed her right hand from the hilt of her sword. She let out a puzzled, adorable hum through her nose. "Huh? A coffin?"