'Someone tried to cross the magical border barrier?'
Now that was intriguing.
"Which idiots try that without any preparations or go through the proper way?"
"So you do know there is a preparation needed before one could cross the border?" Lucy asked with an intrigued tone. Her eyes were filled with curiosity as she looked at me.
"I thought only we, the Vampire, knew how to cross the border through this cave. Those Royalty and Nobles only knew the proper way above the ground." She added with an amused tone. "Does that mean the church knew about this secret entrance too?"
"The church doesn't know. But the Goddess and the Pope probably know about it." I replied honestly, certain of what I said. "I am just strange and have a massive knowledge of a strange area," I smirked.
"I see. Somehow I am not surprised."
We both fell silent once again. Lucy's gaze went over the city.
As a Vampire, she probably had lived for a long time, a hundred or more years. She had seen this city long ago and had seen many people trying to cross the border and get into the Virtue Kingdom for whatever reason they could think of.
After seeing those people's attempts and finding out about the secret of the border, Lucy decided to settle in this place and built a tower right in front of the cave.
As I mentioned before, the border wasn't a normal border. Nothing could grow on the ground or even underground. All lives were lost, and humans couldn't stay in that place for a long time.
The only chance was when the border was opened, and the barrier was lifted. My memory about it was a bit blurry, and I didn't even know that it also bent some lights, causing the grass and sky in the Sin Kingdom to change color.
"The border will only open for a few hours every year. That time is often used for both Kingdoms to wage war against each other to push the border close to the other side." I began to speak as I lowered my hand.
"If one tries to pass the barrier without going on the proper path near the edge of the world or didn't have any significant preparation beforehand, they can die and won't revive until the barrier is lifted because their soul is trapped inside." Lucy continued my sentence with a nod. "However…"
"This secret entrance was formed one day. People said they felt a quake before the cave appeared." I finished.
Right. There shouldn't be an earthquake in this world where there were edges of the world. Earth's crusts didn't exist in this world. This wasn't a planet but a floating disk with land on top.
There was also no volcanic mountain, so an eruption was impossible too.
According to the lore that I remembered, the quake was because the Goddess created the barrier to keep the two Kingdoms from destroying each other. That way, the balance between Virtues and Sins was maintained.
And this secret entrance was actually dug by two lovers who met in the war. They met each other and promised to meet again after the war. But the official path that could be traversed even though the barrier was up was guarded strictly, and no one without official business could pass through.
So the couple chose to go to the Underground City and dug the secret path. As expected, the barrier didn't extend underground, and they could meet. But that meeting was short-lived because the Goddess immediately put a new barrier underground.
Although it was weaker and thinner than the barrier above ground, no one could pass the secret path that crossed the magical border without bringing something.
That something was called [Moon Stone]. The effect was to cover one's body with a thin layer of moonlight that could neutralize the underground magical barrier.
'That's the real story about this secret path. But I guess Goddess Lilith asked the Castitas and Luxuria Church to spread a false story so those two lovers' stories stayed a secret and they could enjoy their lives. That Goddess loves that kind of stuff, after all.'
More importantly, people from the Sin Kingdom's Border City should've known about it too. They also had the protector of the secret path on that side.
"Were the people who tried to pass through the secret entrance have any kind of identification?" I asked.
"No. They were a party of four people: two explorer-looking men and two beautiful women in skimpy clothes. Those kinds of clothes are normal in the Sin Kingdom Underground City, so maybe they were company girls who were forced to tag along. They looked rather scared."
'So the two explorer-looking men were the ones who actually wanted to cross the border.'
They might be drunk and want to check what Virtue Kingdom looked like. That was a possibility that I couldn't throw away yet because I also knew nothing about them.
"Did something like that happen often?"
"In the past, it only happened six times. But at those times, their clothes weren't as clean as the people from yesterday. Yes, I saw girls before, but they often bruised or something as if they fought before coming to the border."
"So the ones who showed up yesterday looked fine, and there was no sign of a fight?" I asked to confirm something.
Lucy nodded at my question. "The Vampire on the other side should've stopped them. Or at least tried to. The fact they didn't do that means there is something more. But I don't know what it is because communication is impossible due to the magical border."
This time, I nodded at her, indicating that I understood her reasoning. Indeed, we knew nothing about the other side, and neither did they know anything about this side. Only a special communication method, through a letter, could pass through the magical barrier.
'I wonder if my [Love Letter] is also restricted like [Earring of Communication].'
Now I was curious about the other side. What did those people plan to do? The fact they retreated just because Lucy and her company chased them away was strange. From what I heard from Lucy, they also didn't get close to the barrier yet.
'What can I do to know the situation in the Sin Kingdom?'
I tapped the chair armrest with my finger, filling the balcony with a tak sound. Surely, it wouldn't be as simple as curiosity if they were harmless, even when the six instances in the past proved that the Vampires on the other side did their job perfectly.
'There is something…'
At that moment, I remembered something. While [Earring of Communication] couldn't work between the Kingdom, didn't I have someone who could communicate with the Sin Kingdom through the letter and send it from the proper path?
'Duke Blacktomb!'
It was time for him to pay his favor from the assassin incident.
My lips curled up into a smile. I could find out the other side's situation from him.
Standing up, I looked at Lucy.
"If there is someone who tries to pass the cave again, contact me immediately. I will set a [Teleportation Gem] in this place if you don't mind."
"Feel free to," Lucy said, standing up. "I just informed you that because I thought you would be interested."
"I am." I smiled, "And I will find out why they appeared without any sign of a fight. When I get the information, I will tell you about it."
Lucy nodded at my words. She didn't ask anything more after that, and I left the Border City by teleporting back to the Academy City after I reminded her about the plan in two days.
