Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

Alan said once again.

“That’s it about those seven temples.”

The other two people in the room, still smiling awkwardly, turned to him.

“But, those seven temples are not that important.”

“They are not?”

Alan shook his head.

“They are indeed important, but not as much as the last temple.”

“The last temple?”

.....

“Yes.”

“What is that?”

Alan thought for a moment before standing up and picking up a paper and pen from the team leader’s desk. He then put the paper on the small desk in between the sofas and started to draw something on it.

“Hey, Kairen. You know the locations of the temples, right? Tell them one by one.”

He drew a small Hainston, a Bordkly next to it, and then other neighboring nations all around. The paper soon resembled a small map of the continent.

“...Okay.”

Looking at the drawing, Kairen started to point out the approximate locations of the temples one by one. As he did, Alan marked those locations on the paper.

“That’s all.”

“Yes.”

Alan then put his pen down and picked up a pen with another color.

“Now look here.”

Putting the tip of his pen on one of the marks, Alan drew a line, connecting the circle that was the location of a temple to the other temple beside it. He then drew another like, then another line. Then another line.

After drawing seven lines in total, Alan raised his hand and then pushed the paper towards Kairen and team leader Dains.

“A heptagon?”

Kairen tilted his head as he looked at the shape drawn on the paper.

“Yes. A heptagon.”

Tap Tap

Alan tapped on the shape he had drawn on the paper.

“If you connect the temples with a line, they would make a heptagon, more or less. The shape is not as exact as it’s drawn on the paper in reality as it’s obviously hard to build them in a way that they would form an exact heptagon, but that’s the overall shape.”

Kairen frowned at the mention of that shape.

Heptagon. He had seen that shape several times in several ruins.

‘A coincidence?’

Nah. There was no way that it all was a coincidence.

Tap Tap Tap Tap

Alan then tapped the center of the heptagon.

“This place.”

He drew a circle there. In the exact center of the shape.

“It’s where the last temple is located. The eight’s temple. The Temple of Dawn.”

Two widened pairs of eyes stared at the circle drawn by Alan.

“The what?”

Kairen asked while still staring at the circle.

“The Temple of Dawn. The Temple of Beginning. The Temple of Birth. It had so many fucking names... And the name is honestly not important just call it whatever you want.”

Blink Blink

Kairen tilted his head as he thought about those names.

“I’ve never heard of any of those names... not about a temple that was in that location.”

He had investigated that religion for a long time, but this was the first time he was hearing about a temple with such names and in such a location.

“Even in the library, there was nothing about this. And... I never found anything about this heptagon shape that the temples make either... Not even a thing about the shape of ‘heptagon’ being something special.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t. This place I’m talking about is actually a hidden building. I don’t know the structure, but it was only seen once and that once was when the leader of the religion did some sus stuff and brought it out of nowhere? I’m not sure, really. Even the high-ranked heads of the religion didn’t know that such a place existed so it must’ve been a hidden temple that only the leader knew about or something like that.”

Alan ignored the other two who were looking at him open-mouthed and continued to talk.

“I told you, all of the information on that religion was destroyed long ago. Or at least, most of them got destroyed. So it is obvious that something like this temple, that even the believers and the heads of the religion didn’t know about back then, would be unknown to you.”

“...I understand...”

Kairen said as he blankly nodded his head.

‘No, really? Is he that old? He is really from back then? There is no other way he would know so many details if he is not from that time... Or he has at least seen that time so he can be even older? How many years ago did the religion perish? Oh my god!’

Alan didn’t answer the curious gazes directed at him, but he didn’t try to change their thoughts or deny the things they were guessing either. It seemed that he didn’t care if his age was revealed. He had already revealed a lot about himself and his past in just a few minutes as if it didn’t matter to him if people knew who he was and what he had done anymore.

‘Is it because of the things that Phliomns is doing?’

He revealed so much about himself while he bought up the issues of hundreds of years ago that no one knows about just after the talk the team had about Phlomns probably starting the war. He then shared information that could help Kairen and team leader Dains to know more about him and even guess his age without any fear.

‘Is he doing it on purpose to gain our trust, or maybe make his words more believable to us... Or is it because of the thing that he thinks Phliomns is doing? If he thinks there is no point in hiding his past now that things have come to this...’

Kairen frowned his brows.

‘What the hell is Phliomns planning to do?’

With that question written all over his face, Kairen turned to Alan once again.

“I’m not sure.”

Alan answered his question even without him asking anything.

“It’s just a guess. I can’t help but think of that temple after hearing about the things done by Phliomns. The monster generation rate, the sudden appearance of the artifacts, people visiting the temples that were forgotten for ages... And a leader with an unknown goal that does anything to achieve what he wants... Everything is just too familiar, I can’t stop being reminded of that time.”

Alan sighed with a tired face. He kept explaining even without being asked.

“There is something nasty in that temple. Something dangerous, ominous, and frightening. It appeared after that man did some strange rituals in that temple... I’m not sure of what it was supposed to be but the thing couldn’t appear completely as the forces of the empire interrupted the ceremony. But I do know that the thing, although not complete, was capable enough to wipe out almost all of the empire’s forces that were near the temple. Damn it! That crazy man! And then he ran away just like that! After he left, the temple also disappeared. I don’t even know if that thing he brought out still remains there or that too was gone.”

“....”

Alan looked at the two people’s almost pale faces. He didn’t even care if his words were making the two brats scared and confused, he just told them everything they had to know.

“I’m giving you free information, so you should use your brains to understand the current situation yourselves.”

Tap Tap Tap

He kept tapping on the location of the Temple of Dawn and looked at the two as if asking them to state their minds.

“Do you mean that Phliomns wants to do the same thing that the head of that religion once did?”

Team leader Dains asked, hesitantly.

“That’s the only thing that I can think of.”

Alan finally took his hand off of the paper and leaned back.

“But... Who was that man... the head of the religion? What did he want? Why did the empire’s forces fight against him?”

Kairen listed his questions one by one.

“Ah, did he really live for 500 years?”

“That isn’t important right now.”

Alan completely ignored all of Kairen’s questions.

“You should now only focus on finding that temple and destroying whatever there is before Phliomns can do their shit.”

“...”

While listening to his words, Kairen looked at the piece of paper once again.

.....

“Ah?”

Then, he suddenly jumped on the paper, startling the two other men who were sitting around the table.

“What the hell brat!”

“Look here!”

Kairen picked up the pen that Alan had dropped and started to mark something on the paper.

“What?”

Team leader Dains and Alan leaned forwards to look at what he was drawing.

“Here! This!”

Tap Tap Tap

Kairen tapped on one spot on the paper.

“This is the location of the first ancient ruin that we visited!”

He then drew two other circles.

“And the second one, and the third!”

Kairen moved aside from the paper a little bit.

“Do you see it? The shape!”