I Was Reborn as a Daddy in Another World

The Wall - Part 2

Three hours after their discovery in the cellar, Val let himself in through the front door of the guildhall.

He had to admit that the response to his "surprise", thousands of rough, hand-carved images chipped into stone by, assumedly, Ebid himself, had exceeded even his wildest expectations. Katya had cajoled Hal into retrieving whatever other portable lamps were available on the first floor, and then immediately set to work scanning the walls in the only slightly better lit cellar.

Val eased his way back down the stairs, carefully avoiding the rotted out steps that would have sent him tumbling into the darkness, carrying a warm ceramic pot wrapped in a rough piece of cloth and a loaf of bread tucked under his arm.

"Yo!" he hollered into the cellar as he reached the last step.

No answer.

Frowning, he scanned the dark room. It didn't take him long to find Katya seated in a pool of light cast by a handheld lamp, transcribing a section of the wall onto a rolled out sheet of paper with a stick of pressed and sharpened charcoal. Her brow was furrowed in deep focus, so he made his way over to her unnoticed.

"Kat," Val murmured.

She jerked with surprise, despite Val's soft tone.

"Sorry, sorry," Val apologised, "Did I mess up your drawing?"

"No, it's fine," she replied, rubbing at a skewed line with her finger, "What's that?"

"We got lucky," Val said, "That place doesn't normally do take away, but I flicked them an extra copper for this pot and they agreed to let me walk it out."

"Huh, nice."

"Right? I think it had honey in it? Anyway."

Val put the pot down next to Katya and pulled the lid off. The smell of the warm, rich stew inside immediately flooded their corner of the cellar, and Katya's hands drifted unconsciously away from her drawing.

"You mind sharing?" Val asked, "I can go get bowls from the kitchen."

"No, no," Katya shook her head, then held out her hand, "Don't bother."

Val sat down across from her, pulled the loaf in half and handed her the larger piece. Katya tore a chunk from bread and dipped it in the pot before shoving it in her mouth.

"Good?" Val asked, smiling.

"Mm," Katya replied, already dipping another piece of bread in the pot.

Val nodded, taking a bite from his own chunk of bread and chewing thoughtfully.

"Find anything useful?" asked Val, glancing at the sketch on the ground.

"Not yet," she answered, between bites, "But there's other runes scattered around the walls, I'm sure there's some clue."

"Okay..." Val responded, trailing off.

Katya looked over at Val.

"What?" she asked, deadpan.

"I don't know," Val started, "How is it possible that we're the first people to discover this, if it's even something people are looking for? Wouldn't dozens of people have lived here when the guild was active? Wasn't Ebid a really big deal? The way you talk about him I would have expected a state funeral, full military royal honours, that kind of thing."

"Sure, sure," Katya agreed, "That all happened, but not because they had a body."

Val couldn't keep the confusion from his face. Katya, realising she wasn't going to escape the conversation without a full history lesson, held up a finger and quickly shoved the last two bites of broth-soaked bread into her mouth, hurriedly chewed and swallowed.