However, there was now nothing left, when Ashes looked at the ground she saw nothing besides the ground covered in seaweed that also made it slippery. After the ruins were discovered by Thunder, many other explorers had arrived here, one after another had come to plunder this place, so if they were able to find a magic stone, it would be a curious occurrence.
But Tilly was still in high spirits, holding her torch up high, she carefully searched through every corner of the hall, especially in the darker places which was where she would ask the sailors to come over with some more torches. Meanwhile, Molly summoned her magical servant, letting it spread over the ground, turning it into a cushion for everyone to rest on. Ashes instead kept herself constantly at Tilly’s side, and overlooked her feeling the wall to examine it.
“Hey,” the 5th Princess suddenly shouted and stopped, “What is this?”
When Ashes looked down at Tilly’s hand, she merely saw a piece of a wall covered with green algae, but then she discovered a faint reflection of their flames.
Tilly immediately reached out with her hands to tear the algae off, exposing a gem half buried into the wall to their eyes — it had a prism-like shape, and was almost arm thick, and sparkled as brightly in its scarlet color. But it seemed to be inlaid in a golden frame, like a card slot to be fixed inside. Even soaked in seawater for so long and the gold just like the stone was as bright and clean as if it was new.
Tilly tried to pulling out the stone, but the precious gem didn’t move a single bit.
“Let me try it,” Ashes offered.
The 5th Princess shook her head, seemingly thinking about something, she then put her hand on the prism and closed her eyes.
Suddenly, a brilliant light flashed through the center of the prism — when nothing further happened, Ashes already thought that her eyes had played her a trick on her. But then, a rumbling sound could be heard coming from behind the wall, as if a mechanism had suddenly began to move, in no time the sound spread through the entire hall. It seemed as if the rumbling noise was coming from everywhere, followed by the sudden appearance of a soft light on top of the wall, even the ceiling above their head began to light up.
Not knowing what was going on, the Sailor stood up in panic and pulled out their weapons. But as they did not know from which side they should defend themselves they ultimately decided to gather together standing back to back. Molly’s servant once more enclosed them in its magical embrace.
However, no monster appeared or rushed at them.
When the sound finally calmed down, the hall started shining in bright light.
“This is… how did you do it?” Thunder, not believing his eyes, stared at the walls with his mouth hanging wide open.
On top of the walls, tens of small holes opened up and each of them contained a stone which emitted a pure white light. But not only on the wall, even at the edge of the ceiling this fantastic stones were embedded, surrounding the whole room. In the soft light of the stones, every detail within the hall became visible at a glance.
It was the first time that Ashes saw the explorer show such an expression, and seeing it immediately filled her heart with joy, “Don’t you know? By willing magical power into these stones, witches can arouse additional abilities.”
“Then what is with these stones, are they also Magic Stones?”
Thunder cautious and solemn took one piece of the light stones and held it within his hands, but even after taking it out of the hole, the light the stone released didn’t weaken to the slightest amount.
“I don’t know,” Tilly shook her head. “These stones may have been here for hundreds of years — in case the ruins have such a long history. Previously they were all hidden behind a slate, therefore not visible to our eyes. And if you want to start the unique mechanism, you can only accomplish it with a witch’s ability.”
“Wasn’t it you who lit them light up?”
“No, the ability to light up comes from the stones themselves,” Tilly grabbed another piece of the magic stones and held it in front of her eyes, the pure white light then caressed her beautiful face, “In case they were a device which required magic in the same way that the flame cannot easily leave the candle. From my perspective, besides containing these stones, there is nothing special about the holes in the wall.
“If it really is like you said and they can light on their own, and they continued to light for hundreds of years, then their value is practically unable to be estimated,” Thunder clicked his tongue in wonder. “You must know that the Kingdom of Eternal Winter produces crystals, which have the size of a fist already sell for several hundred of gold royals, but their brightness is even less than half of this.”
The moment the sailor heard such an astonishing price, their kind of gaze with which they looked at the stones immediately changed.
