Entering The Witch’s Corridor properly, one finds it resembles an “exhibition hall” more than it appears from the outside. In the classical and magnificent corridor, portraits are hung on the walls every few meters.
“Hmm…”
Will walked slowly. This was his first time in this entirely new place, which he hadn’t even heard of in the original work. And it was a place with an overwhelming amount of information he had never imagined. With almost every step, he would pause and carefully examine the portraits.
Names were also attached below the portraits. This “exhibition hall” was less like a “museum” from the art world and more like a “hall of fame.” Each painting depicted a specific individual.
“This person is… Monte. If I recall correctly, he was a famous Adventurer from three hundred years ago. Monte’s specialty was defense with fire and steel, but unfortunately, he died in a battle where his attack power was insufficient.”
“And this person must be Elena, the Ice-attribute Magic Master of Entak Academy? She founded ‘Thermodynamic Magic.’ In her books on this school of magic, she left many portraits of beautiful ice sculptures…”
“And… oh, it’s a former head of the Hysterm Family, and a rare one with good reviews. I remember him and his wife being Adventurers as a pair, but sadly, they both perished in the Dungeon.”
Here, some portraits were of “famous people,” but others were of obscure juniors. However, the vast majority were of famous Adventurers.
Some portraits were still clear, showing who the person was and their name below. Many others had become terribly blurred, as if an oil painting had been heavily splashed with water before drying, leaving them unsightly.
Will pondered as he looked. Was The Witch’s Corridor part of a Dungeon? Why would a part of a Dungeon record human Adventurers? And… Will felt a strange “familiarity” with these people. He had read their “history” and heard their “stories,” but seeing their lifelike portraits here, and feeling their aura in the paintings, was like getting to know them anew through history.
He even had the illusion that he had met these people before. Connecting this to the foreshadowing in the original work, and… what the original author had told him in an interview once… what could be the connection?
Just as Will was about to reach a crucial point in his thoughts, Liya’s voice interrupted him—
“You are indeed very familiar with the history of Adventurers and the history of Magic. It’s no wonder the History teacher always praised my homework to me.”
“Huh? You mean that stuffy old lady? She even asked me if I wanted to be her student. History is much easier than experimental magic; essays are easy to write and get started with.”
“So… how did you answer?”
“Are you kidding? Who could possibly compare to Teacher Liya?”
“…Alright, I knew it.”
Lis suddenly stopped in front of them, turned her head, and looked at Will. She was floating in mid-air, which made walking faster and less tiring. More importantly, it made her appear taller, less like a “junior.” She used the tip of her staff to lift Will’s head, forcing him to look up at her in a somewhat stiff posture.
“So, after seeing all this, what did you think?”
“I… I thought, well… so Dungeons sometimes record famous human figures. Are these two worlds more interconnected than I imagined?”
A hint of doubt flickered across Lis’s face. She lowered her staff.
“You didn’t know?”
“K-know what?”
“I thought you knew, otherwise, why would you talk about searching for the Witch Iaar?”
“Th-that is…”
Will was trying to formulate an explanation that Lis would believe, and that wouldn’t be too far from the real reason. In the original work, information about the Witch Iaar appeared in the fragmented memories of a very important “monster” from Apex of the Galaxy. It described how she was treated as an “outsider” by humans, how she interacted with more “outsiders,” and how she became a Witch. Will vaguely felt that “monster” and Iaar must have some inseparable connection. If only he could find her… But how could he explain this?
Lis waited for a few seconds, seemingly not expecting an answer, and just shook her head.
“Never mind. You’re still holding the pendant she left, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Come here.”
“So, Mother, what exactly is in the corridor? And what are we going to find for Iaar?”
Liya also leaned in. She felt Lis was hiding a lot of information that a Witch should know, wondering if it was for her protection or because she wasn’t yet worthy.
“It’s something you’ll have to know eventually. I’m sorry, but for a long time, I was searching for clues about Iaar, which prevented me from telling you these things.”
Lis walked a few steps forward. The Witch’s Corridor was very long, but its spatial relationship was not “stable.” Simply put, you might have been standing in front of the tenth portrait one second, and the next second, you could be standing in front of the twentieth.
“We’ve arrived. This painting, does it look familiar to you?”
“This is—”
Will looked up. The portrait depicted a “young girl” who looked no older than a teenager. Her headdress was a distinctive blue rose with a petal missing. Will suddenly realized that this was a member of Entak’s royal family, likely a princess.
“Princess Cécile.”
“This name…?!”
Will took out the pendant. “The names… they read the same.”
The reading of the two names was almost identical, with only a few letters affecting the “expression.”
“She must have been a princess of Entak’s second-generation royal family? She was passionate about exploring Dungeons and excelled in ice-attribute magic. Unfortunately… in her last expedition, perhaps due to the tradition of infighting within the royal family at the time…”
“She died in the Dungeon?”
“That’s right. According to history, she was a pampered Little Princess who lived in her own castle. She was also one of the few who wished to establish her authority through Dungeon exploration. These two identities created a conflicted person.”
Hearing this, Will seemed to understand something. He looked up, carefully observing the portrait, comparing it with the Empress in his mind. Of course, the person in the portrait was completely different from the Empress of The End of Ice Abyss that the pendant originally belonged to. Neither her hair color, eye color, nor facial features were the same. The painting was also slightly blurred, looking more like a layer of color had faded from sun exposure.
Yet, the innocent and cute princess, who seemed to carry a hint of wildness and disdain… and the person who stood on the castle that day, seemed so similar in temperament and “personality.”
“It’s almost like… the same ‘soul’.”
“Mhm, do you understand now? Will.”
“Mother, surely not…”
However, the answer came from Liya, who had been listening quietly—
“The Empress with human consciousness and the ‘monster’ we encountered in the Dungeon, both originated from…”
“These Adventurers recorded as having died in the Dungeon, right?”
