Pretty, The Ninth Transmigrator and the Eight Impenetrable Kingdoms

Prologue - Hontila Tower

On one cloudless night, the gray tower of Hontila glistened under the beam of the full moon in the Kingdom of Flynosa. The tower was surrounded by a wide stretch of forest for all directions and only a small town surrounding the tower was the only civilization that could be seen for miles. A man cloaked in black robe traversed the maze of houses and buildings in that town, walking towards the tower’s direction.

He passed through the lawns and makeshift wooden fences the residents around the tower made for their homes. Most of the residents were in their beds and only the sound of crickets and other insects gave life and presence to the silent town. There was no light to be seen and only the moonlight beaming on the town was his only guide.

He passed the last row of houses and was greeted by the moat that encircled the tower. It was wide, around 100 meters across, with various types of river creatures living in it, dancing below the moon-lighted surface of the moat. It reflected moonlight around him and he stared at it as if in trance.

A distant memory flashed through his mind.

He stood there for a few moments reliving the emotions of that memory, and then the memory was gone again.

He crossed the only working bridge of the moat just ahead of him. There was no one guarding it like it used to, hundreds of years ago. As the times passed, the tower and the religion that supported it, got weaker until only the resident living in the free land around it took over in cleaning of the decrepit tower.

A huge untended wide space of area sprawled before the tower walls. Trees surrounded the premises and the various green untended plants thrive vigorously with no one to tend to them. Only a clear trail amongst the impassable foliage of trees and undergrowth led towards the open doorway of the tower.

The sleeping citizens of the Tower of Hontila did not notice that someone just entered the grounds of the tower they were supposed to worship and guard. Even if they were aware. they probably wouldn't care. After all, they internally knew that the tower they guarded was just a fake tower, not the one said in the legend that was the key to endless treasures.

The tower had stood through tough times of calamities and disasters. Countless conquests of various kings across the lands and ages had already perused and checked the whole tower. They never found what they seeked. Even when it was opened for the public, anyone curious and greedy for treasures had tried to check every nook and cranny of the tower. From the bottom to the top of the spiral stone staircase, only old stones worn by time could be seen. To everyone who had been there, it was simply an old tower. Sturdy enough to stand through times but was bound to topple someday. Not the tower that the legends claimed.

Even those citizens whose houses circled the tower, and whose generations of families have lived in the area had deemed that this tower was just an old, well-built tower representing their sturdy belief in the god they worship. But to the man that was currently walking in front of it, it was not just a simple tower. Because he had witnessed it before, the real secrets of this tower.

He did not stop in front of the doorway of the tower. He didn’t even go near it. He passed beside it and continued walking on, circling the tower towards its back. He stopped on one area of the wall where there were just bushes and old trees around. The wall in front of him was bereft of anything other than the smooth but jagged surface of stone blocks that composed this tower.

He rummaged through the satchel that he was wearing and fished out a medallion made of quartz with an intricate symbol of a tower etched on it. He pressed it on the surface of the wall and muttered some words. Not a second later, the walls opened up to reveal a new set of stairs leading below the tower.

The hooded man descended the steps with familiarity as if he had walked the stairs many times before.

The silent beings that lived in the tower for thousands of years, opened their eyes when they felt someone had just opened a passage to their home. They stared intently at the hooded man trying to figure out who he was, as he passed towards the dark eerie stairs without any hesitation. Even with the hood, it did not hamper their vision to see through the man's visage. They did not recognize him and they were sure it was the first time for the man to enter the tower, the real tower.