As Lucas and Evelyn passed through the magical barrier that resembled murky water, the chamber opened into a white stone room. A tall marble pillar stood in the center, extending into a wall that split the room into two.
“So no monsters,” Lucas muttered. He had already expected that. The chamber was called Trial of Trust, after all.
“Above the pillar,” Evelyn said quietly, her gaze already fixed upward.
Lucas followed her eyes and saw letters floating in the air, each one shimmering in tones of green and yellow.
“Betrayal is the price we pay for loyalty,” he read aloud, already contemplating its meaning.
“You can read it too?” Evelyn’s surprised voice pulled him from his barely formed thoughts.
“Of course. It’s written in…” Lucas stopped, his eyes widening.
The text was written in English.
Why was there English in this dungeon? That question alone was strange enough, but what puzzled him even more was how Evelyn had managed to read it. Could she also speak English?
As he considered whether to ask her, Evelyn pulled a sheet of paper from her satchel and wrote something on it using an overly thick charcoal pencil.
“Can you read this?” she asked, holding the paper out to him.
The symbols meant nothing to Lucas. He had begun recognizing some letters from the book Evelyn had given him, but this script looked different even from that.
“No.” He shook his head, waiting for her explanation.
“The text above the pillar is written in magic,” Evelyn said, storing the paper back into her satchel. “It translates intent, so each of us sees it in a language we understand.”
As Lucas realized what she meant, he noticed a faint sign of relief cross her face. She seemed glad that he couldn’t read those symbols.
But why?
“What do you think it means?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“The text,” Evelyn clarified. “The chamber is called Trial of Trust, and it says, ‘Betrayal is the price we pay for loyalty.’ There’s clearly a connection. Do you have a theory?”
Lucas thought about her words, momentarily distracted from his earlier suspicions.
“One cannot be betrayed without trust,” he said slowly. “But trust is different from loyalty. Trust isn’t always something we consciously choose. We might start trusting someone without even realizing it.”
“True,” Evelyn nodded. “And loyalty is almost the opposite. Loyalty is a choice. We either choose to be loyal or we don’t. That’s why betrayal becomes the price of choosing loyalty.”
“It sounds strange. I think it would have made more sense if it said trust instead of loyalty,” Lucas replied as he walked past the pillar and followed the wall along the left side.
“You are right, but only from one angle,” Evelyn said after a short pause. “In your version, the one who suffers is the one who chooses to trust others. But… Lucas, look behind you.”
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Lucas turned sharply at her call, hands already raised to block whatever might be coming.
But there were no enemies.
“I’m becoming paranoid,” he muttered under his breath as he approached the door that had formed opposite the wall. Or rather, the outline of a door, shimmering green.
“Wait, don’t touch it,” Evelyn called out again when she saw his extended hand. She walked toward him quickly, but the moment she passed the pillar, the door dimmed and disappeared.
“Is it only for me?” Lucas asked, realizing that her approach had caused it to vanish.
Before she could answer, he stepped away and walked back toward the entrance. As he passed the pillar, the door reappeared, now shimmering in front of Evelyn.
“It’s only for one person,” she said quietly. “Check the other side of the wall.”
Lucas nodded and moved around.
She was right. When he passed the pillar on the opposite side, another door shimmered into existence. This time both doors completed their formation, and two separate entrances opened into different rooms.
“We should probably go inside,” Lucas called out, but he received no response. “Evelyn?”
At the same time, Evelyn was calling his name, but her voice did not reach him, just as his failed to reach her. In the end, she stepped into her room.
It was built from the same sterile white stone as the previous chamber.
“Strange,” she whispered.
In the center of the room stood a single object - a marble tub. There was no water inside it. Instead, it was filled with a dense magical energy unlike anything Evelyn had ever sensed.
She searched the surface of the tub for inscriptions, but found none. For a moment, she even considered returning to the first chamber, hoping Lucas might be there.
But the door had vanished.
“So I have no choice,” she thought.
She removed her clothes and stepped inside. The magical essence inside felt pleasant against her white skin. The bruises and dirty spots slowly faded as her skin regained its pristine self.
The moment she lay down, her mind began to ease and body relaxed. She felt comfortable, eerily so. It almost felt as though her mana was slowly returning, because such comfort usually came only when she actively used magic.
As her mind began to get pleasantly heavy, she saw the text.
Not with her eyes - but within her mind.
“What is it that you hide? Reveal your secret.”
All the comfort vanished as Evelyn tried to sit up, to leave the tub immediately, but her body would not respond.
“Who are you?” she wanted to shout, to channel her mana into a rune and shatter the chamber itself.
But she could do neither.
Instead, her thoughts began circling the very secret she guarded the most - the one she needed to hide from everyone and everything.
“Your secret will be revealed to your partner.”
<<<>>>
In the chamber not far from hers, Lucas saw the exact same text.
[What is it that you hide? Reveal your secret.]
But unlike Evelyn, he saw it with his own eyes as a blue notification flashed before him.
Lucas tried to resist it. He did his best not to think about his past, nor about how he could see these blue windows and grow stronger through a game-like system. But simply trying not to think about it was enough to feed the dungeon exactly what it wanted.
Lucas first remembered his past - the death of his father, and how hard his mother had worked to give him a life he could enjoy. He recalled his teenage romance as well, the girlfriend of five years who eventually broke up with him when their love slowly turned into friendship. He even remembered his best friend, who had moved abroad to pursue his career.
Lucas was doing exactly what he had tried to prevent.
Until his thoughts drifted toward his status window and the way he gained experience after killing monsters.
That was when another blue notification appeared.
[Your secret will be revealed to your partner.]
Lucas’s eyes widened with shock and anger. He wanted to curse, to shout, but quickened breathing and rapid blinking were the only reactions his body allowed.
And even those slipped from his control as his vision darkened.
But right before that, another blue window appeared.
[You will now experience your partner’s secret.]
The next chapter on Thursday!
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