The Runaway Maid is Loved by the Archmage - Chapter 219

※ This book contains depictions of coercive/dubcon/noncon acts, violence, and immorality. Reader discretion is advised.

“You know about the fragment of primordial magic.”

She moved her lips slowly to articulate the words carefully. Neilla was right. She had come here because of her contract with Ethan, but ultimately, it was to regain her power.

The fragment of primordial magic was what she needed to regain that power.

However, it was a mystery how Neilla knew so much. Neilla simply creased her wrinkled eyes and smiled at Roina’s question.

“Entrust yourself to the flow. You will naturally come to know. It’s enough if you don’t forget what’s important.”

“Are you trying to brush it off with such cryptic words?”

Roina said through gritted teeth.

“I met you for the first time today, so I don’t know what kind of person you are, Neilla-nim. But this is an urgent and important matter for me.”

The image of Lutan, lying in a body that might not even be alive, flashed across her mind. Her voice naturally became tearful.

Neilla looked at Roina intently and then reached out to hold her hand.

Pat pat, a gentle touch patted the back of her hand. A tear that had welled up in Roina’s eye corner trickled down.

“It’s an important matter for me as well. Because it’s related to the end of us all.”

The old woman, whose traces showed countless years had passed, said that and gently embraced Roina.

“I will tell you a way to obtain magic stones even without Airas. You will reach it if you follow that end, so don’t worry too much.”

Neilla’s soft touch brushed against Roina’s back. It had been a really long time since she had received such a kind embrace from someone. She hadn’t intended to, but as the suppressed anxiety broke through, tears flowed endlessly. Roina simply closed her eyes tightly.

Water constantly flows out of Aiha’s temple. That was a fact that everyone in this region knew. But no one knew the reason why. It was enough to simply say it was Aiha’s blessing. Neilla also said that she knew it that way.

However, one day, she came to realize that there was something beyond that blessing. It was because magic stones flowed in with the groundwater as the Airas population decreased significantly. Since the Airas couldn’t collect them, the magic stones accumulated somewhere in the place where the groundwater flowed in.

‘The source will be deep underground, at the very bottom of the Castrello Kingdom. And it is this statue of Aiha-nim that draws it in.’

Neilla said that, reverently drawing Aiha’s symbol with her hand. The phrase “Aiha’s blessing” had such a meaning hidden within it.

‘However, the entrance to that underground place will be in the royal palace, not here.’

Neilla said that and looked at Ethan, and he met her gaze with a hardened expression. Only then did he nod heavily, as Roina looked at him as if to confirm.

The reason he hesitated like that was probably because the royal palace of the Castrello Kingdom had been occupied by Kailum for a long time. Roina looked back at Ethan, who hadn’t said a word since leaving the temple until returning to the inn.

“Ethan. Are you bothered about going to the royal palace?”

“…I am bothered, yes.”

He muttered like that. He seemed to be thinking about something else. Roina patiently observed him and added.

“You were going to guide us yourself, weren’t you? Are you going to be okay?”

There was no one more suitable to guide them through the royal palace than he, who had been the crown prince. There was no one else she knew either. Knowing that, Roina asked him again. She didn’t want his feelings to be ignored.

“…I think I’ll probably be okay.”

Roina couldn’t understand why he added “probably” and stared at him for a while, but he didn’t answer. She decided to let him have some time to sort out his feelings and didn’t say anything more. They were planning to visit the royal palace the next morning, so it wouldn’t be too late to ask him again then.

The four of them soon arrived at the gates of the Castrello Kingdom, formerly known as the Katra gates. This was possible because it wasn’t that far in the first place. However, even so, quite some time had passed, and it was too late to move to another place. They needed a place to stay.