Emperatrices transmigradas (hombres y mujeres)

Capítulo 60

Kurada and I searched around that wall for a long time, but we couldn't find anything that could open the door.

"Maybe the mechanism to open the door isn't here. Let's look elsewhere," Kurada said, trying to comfort me when he saw my dejected look.

We turned around and looked more closely into the stone chamber. In the center of the chamber was a skeleton, and to the right of the skeleton was a book made of cowhide. Apart from the skeleton, the book, and the lamp on the stone wall, the stone chamber was completely empty.

"It's over." I slid down the wall and collapsed to the ground. "We'll be just like that skeleton now. If anyone comes in again, they won't see one skeleton, but three."

Kurada remained silent, still searching for the mechanism to open the door.

Finally, he walked to the skeleton and picked up the leather-bound book.

"Purple Promise, come and see!" Kurada's voice trembled slightly. What had he seen?

I got up from the ground and ran to Kurada's side. He handed me the leather book he was looking at. I took it, turned a page, and froze. The first page of the book had a picture of a woman in a red dress, the same as the picture on the leather in the king's hand in the palace. In other words, the woman in the first page of the book looked exactly like me.

"Could it be that this book records my past life?" I asked Kurada doubtfully.

"possible."

"Zi Yue, Zi Yue." The walkie-talkie rang, and I quickly picked it up. "We've opened that stone slab and are now heading in the direction you're going." It was Shi Kong's voice.

"We're locked in a stone chamber, and we haven't found the mechanism to open the door. Keep going forward to the end of the passage, and see if you can find the mechanism to open the door outside."

Okay, let's keep in touch.

Kurada and I curiously flipped through the book, and slowly, I became attracted by its contents. It was like a story, an ancient myth.

Kurada and I sat next to the skeleton, huddled together, and looked through the leather-bound book.

The woman in the red dress in the book is named Alidodona; she is the daughter of a commoner in this city. The book mainly consists of illustrations, along with some partially understood text—an ancient script that I cannot fully comprehend.

The story goes that one day, the king in the palace wanted to marry Aridokona as his queen, but Aridokona refused. I don't quite understand the reasons between them, but it seems that Aridokona had a man she loved. However, the king's decree could not be disobeyed. On the appointed day, Aridokona was forced to wear a red dress and a red wedding crown and was taken from her home to the palace to marry the king.

The illusion reappeared before my eyes. On that stone-paved street, I was wearing a red dress and a red crown, sitting on a stone chair that was being raised high. In reality, it was just a stone slab with four stone pillars at the front and back, and four strong men were carrying it. I was sitting on it. The slab was covered with red flowers, and red ribbons hung down from it, fluttering gently in the wind.

It was a very long procession, with women in colorful clothes at the very front, dancing and singing in beautiful voices: "Red dress, red crown, red shoes and stockings, the beautiful girl is getting married today, because she has been fortunate enough to be chosen by the prince, she will marry into the palace, just like all girls dream..."

Following the women were musicians who provided music for them. Behind them were soldiers in full armor. I sat on the stone slab in the middle, next to a young man in armor and a crown, his hand always on the hilt of his sword.

The streets were lined with people, cheering along to the music.

I felt a deep sadness in my heart, and I couldn't explain why. In the distance, I saw a young man in the crowd looking at me. His eyes held an indescribable sorrow, and his face was so familiar.

My consciousness began to fade. I felt a cool sensation on my face, and I woke up.

It was the same stone chamber, but Kurada and I were tied up. Three men in black robes stood opposite us, the one in the middle being the hunchbacked old man whose face looked like a dried corpse.

"You, did you sleep well?" The hunched old man chuckled, his voice sounding somewhat like the grinding of a sanding wheel.

"Did you drug us?" I glared at the despicable old man.

"Haha, how was that book? Was it good?" The old man ignored my question and instead asked me with a smile.

"Why hasn't Kurada woken up yet? What drug did you give him?" I ignored the old man and just yelled at him.

"What? Do you want him to wake up?" the old man chuckled. "Very well, everyone who's supposed to be here is here." As he spoke, the old man gestured to a man in black robes behind him. The man in black robes went over and wiped something on Kurada's face. After a while, Kurada woke up.

"Who are you? Why can you come and go freely in this ancient city known as the Cursed City? Did you kill the people who came with us last time?" I asked the old man repeatedly.

"Don't be so impatient, okay? You haven't finished reading this book, have you? Even if you have, you don't quite understand it, do you? Let me explain it from the beginning, okay?" The old man smiled sinisterly.

"First of all, I think, with your intelligence, you should know that the woman in red in this book is one of your past lives, right? Alidodona. But do you know why the king insisted on marrying Alidodona?"

"Why? That's exactly what I don't understand. What kind of woman can't a king of a city marry?"

"Did you know that this place wasn't originally a desert, but a place full of greenery? One day, the most powerful wizard in the palace discovered that a small patch of desert in the distance was moving this way. So he cast a divination and discovered that the desert was controlled by the wind god, who was about to move it here to submerge the city. The wizard understood that the wind god's purpose in doing this was to take revenge on King Solari of the city. The wind god had once disguised himself as a young man and came to this city to have an affair with a woman. After being severely punished by King Solari, he was banished from the city. Since then, the wind god had harbored resentment and was determined to take revenge. In the end, he found a small patch of desert and began to use his magic to move the desert to the city, burying the city in the desert."

"But what does this have to do with the king wanting to marry Alidodona?"

"This is the key point. Aridonna was the child born from the affair between the wind god and a woman in the city. After discovering this, the wizard suggested that King Sok, the son of King Soradi who had driven away the wind god, marry Aridonna to appease the wind god's anger and also to make him hesitate to act against the wind god. King Sok then used the most respectful ceremony and the most generous gifts to propose to Aridonna. When Aridonna's mother saw King Sok's proposal, she immediately agreed, unaware that Aridonna already had a young man in her heart."

"And then what happened? Didn't Alidodona marry King Sok?" I was completely captivated by this beautiful legend, not even considering how the story had anything to do with reality, and just kept asking.

"At this time, the wizard cast another divination and discovered that the desert had indeed stopped moving, and the wind god seemed to be hesitating. This was a good sign, so he immediately told King Sok. On the appointed wedding day, King Sok used the most honorable ceremony to welcome Alidodona. Alidodona did not want to marry King Sok, but she had no other choice. Finally, King Sok took her to the palace, where a grand wedding was held. For the wedding, the palace was opened to all commoners, and everyone could come to witness the ceremony. Just as the ceremony was about to begin, a young man riding a white horse suddenly rushed in. The young man said to Alidodona, 'Are you happy marrying this king? I don't want you to be unhappy. If you are unhappy, come with me.' It turned out that the young man was the young man Alidodona had fallen in love with. Upon hearing this, Alidodona immediately ran to the young man, mounted his white horse, and they escaped the palace and the city."

"Did they escape?" I asked nervously.

"Escape? No one can escape, no one can escape the wind god's revenge. So King Sok sent all the soldiers in the city to chase after the two. He was determined to marry Aridonna for the sake of the city. The wizard cast another divination. From the moment Aridonna fled, the desert began to move again, and at an even faster speed than before. If the soldiers could not bring Aridonna back and marry King Sok within seven days, the city would be swallowed by the desert. On the sixth day, some of the soldiers brought back the wounded young man. He had been shot by an arrow while protecting Aridonna, fell from his horse, and was captured by the soldiers."

As I listened to the old man's story, my heart tightened.

"King Sok heeded the wizard's advice and locked the young man in the basement, hoping that Aridonna would return for him. The soldiers continued to pursue Aridonna, but the white horse carried her away from the pursuit time and time again."

"Has Ali Duodona not returned?"

The old man gave me a strange look. "She came back, but it was too late. On the seventh day, they finally couldn't catch up with Alidodona. That very evening, the wind god, carrying the vengeful desert, engulfed this once-glorious city. On the eighth day, Alidodona was captured by soldiers not far from the city. She had returned to find the young man, but the city was already buried under the sand. Those soldiers who knew the city had been buried by the sand, in their rage, burned Alidodona and the white horse that had carried her to death. But all this didn't end there. When the city was swallowed by the desert, everyone in the city, along with the wizard, cast a spell. Do you know what that spell is? The spell is that no matter how many times Alidodona is reincarnated, no matter where she is reincarnated, she will return to this city and experience the pain that everyone in this city suffered—the pain of being buried under the sand and suffocating to death!"

"How cruel," Kurada finally uttered after a long pause.

“Cruel? What could be more cruel than an entire city being buried alive under the sand and suffocating to death? And that young man who loved Alidodona, he was locked in the basement, and eventually, because everyone in the city died, no one brought him food or water, and he starved to death in the basement too. Who caused all of this?” The old man chuckled sinisterly, a hint of sorrow on his face.

"Yes, if Aridonna had married King Sok, this tragic ending wouldn't have happened." My nose tingled with emotion.

“That’s right, all of this was caused by Aridonna! So, she has to accept the curse of this spell! You are her descendant, so you have to suffer this pain! Although you escaped this curse, you will still die here. You cannot escape your fate!” There was a venomous light in the black-robed man’s eyes.

"Maybe you're right." Tears welled up in my eyes. The thought of so many people being buried alive and suffocating because of a girl's willfulness made my heart ache.

"No! This is just a legend! Ziyue, don't listen to that strange old man's nonsense. It's all just an excuse for him to kill people," Kurada shouted.

"A legend?" The old man slowly walked to Kurada's side. "Look at that skeleton. Do you know who he is? He's the young man who took Aridodona away! A legend? Look at this leather-bound book. The woman in the red dress in this ancient book looks exactly like your Miss Ziyue. And you say it's just a legend?"

"What? This is the basement where the young man who helped Ali Duoduo escape was imprisoned?" I looked at the skeleton, feeling an indescribable sadness.

"That's right."

Tears streamed down my face. If all of this were true—and I already believed it—it wouldn't be incomprehensible that Aridonna had to endure such pain. After all, she caused the destruction of a city because of her own likes and dislikes.

I started to cry out loud: "Everything is so sad, it wouldn't be too much to bear this curse for lifetimes to come."

"Wait, this can't be blamed on Aridorna. She didn't know the wind god was going to flood the city, nor did she know that marrying King Sok would prevent the city from being swallowed by the desert. So, she's not guilty! The guilty one is that wizard. Why didn't he tell Aridorna all of this?"

A wisp of smoke suddenly rose from the old man's hand. He rushed to Kula's side and said viciously, "You're still helping her even now! Have you forgotten how you felt starving to death in the basement?"

"What did you say?" Kurada was stunned.

"I said, you're the guy who was locked in the basement and starved to death, don't you understand?" the old man shouted, pulling out a knife and stabbing it viciously at Kurada. "I'm going to kill you all! Even though you've completely broken the curse, you won't escape this time!"

XVI. Escaping from Death

"Amitabha!" Just as the old man raised his knife to stab Kurada, Shikong appeared. His staff emitted golden light, and thicker smoke rose from the old man's hand. I saw his fingers turning black little by little, as if they were being burned. The knife that was meant to stab Kurada fell to the ground.

"Shikong!" I cried out, my voice choked with sobs. "Let him go. He's just a pitiful old man."

Smoke began to rise from the old man's body.

"I didn't do anything to him. It's really strange. How could this happen?" Shikong said, puzzled.

"Yes, yes, this has nothing to do with this big monk." The old man slowly fell to the ground, almost curling up into a ball. The two black-robed men who had been standing behind him walked up to him and squatted down, slowly lifting the masks off their faces. One of them was the person I had let go that day.

"Do you know who I am? You don't believe in legends, but I'm telling you, it's all true. Because I am the most powerful wizard in the palace, and I'm the one who cast the divination about the wind god flooding the city with the desert."

"What?" The three of us exclaimed together. The three of us were Shuiying, me, and Kurada. Shikong didn't say anything; he wouldn't be surprised by anything.

"You still don't believe me, do you? You'll find out soon enough. I've been alive all this time because of that spell. Now that the spell has been broken, I'll disappear too." As the old man spoke, his hands were gone, and his body was severed in two, but he was still alive, and the smile on his face remained.

His body seemed to be burned, turning black little by little until it finally turned to ash. Even in this state, he kept his eyes open and smiled. No matter what happened to his body, the expression on his face remained the same. His head was still alive.

"But how was the curse broken?" Shuiying looked at the old man on the ground, whose body was now only half intact, with a puzzled expression. Although she didn't know if he could still answer, she couldn't help but ask.

"Tears, the tears of repentance shed by Aridonna for this city, are the solution to this curse." The old man could still speak; I was truly terrified.

Kurada and I have been untied.

I knelt down next to the old man and looked at him: "If you had told Alidodona about the Wind God, I believe she would have married King Sok."

"Yes, now I also believe that I was wrong about this." As the old man finished speaking, his head began to turn black and disappear.

“You should leave quickly. The curse has been broken, and this city will soon be buried under the sand forever. You’d better leave now,” the black-robed man who had been let go said to me.

"And what about you? Aren't you leaving?"

“We are the remnants of this city. The city will never appear again, and we should stay with it,” said another man in black robes.

"The remnants of the city?" I looked at them.

“Yes, do you remember what the wizard said about those who chased Aridonna? They captured her on the eighth day and burned her alive. We are their descendants. We are to protect this city for generations, and…” The man in black hesitated, “and after Aridonna’s descendants have escaped the curse, we will kill her! Just as she was burned alive in her previous life.” He spoke quickly, “But now the city is to be submerged forever, and we must stay here, never to return to the surface.” He looked at me calmly and said, “You should leave now!”

"...Why does it have to be this way?" I stared blankly at the man in black robes. I realized that people's hatred could be so profound. A wave of desolation washed over me.

“Let’s go, Ziyue.” Shikong walked over, put his hands together and said to me, but I didn’t move. At that moment, someone tugged at me. It was Kurada. He pulled me forcefully and walked outside. After a few steps, I turned around again. The black-robed men were still standing there, not moving at all.

Shi Kong clasped his hands together, turned around, and bowed slightly to the man in black robes. "We respect your choice."

Then Shikong caught up, and the four of us headed back the way we came. Going back through the secret passage was much easier to get out than to get in.

The door to the secret passage was open; I suppose there was no need to close it anymore. The courtyard was filled with mummified corpses—the bodies of my past lives—and my nose started to sting again.

Finally back at the palace, I felt my legs trembling slightly.

"Lamudu, Yudawa, what are you doing here?" Kurada suddenly shouted, startling me. Following Kurada's gaze, I saw Lamudu and Yudawa standing on a stone platform in the palace, trying to remove the jeweled armor from King Sok's body.

"You can't take anything from here!" Shuiying and I shouted together.

"Why not?" Lamudu shouted without turning his head, his voice full of sarcasm, as he tried to remove his armor.

“That’s right, it’s not your property, what’s it to you?” Yudawa chimed in.

“You can’t steal things from here. We may be bandits in the desert, but we’re not thieves,” Kurada said angrily to them.

"What difference does it make? We just need money." The two guys retorted to Kurada without a care in the world.

It seems that sometimes people reveal their true nature when faced with money.

“Listen to me, this city is called Cursed City…” I turned my head, thinking of a way to trick these two greedy guys. “It’s because there’s a curse in this city. Anyone who enters the city and tries to steal something will be punished by the curse. So you’d better put your things down quickly.”

"You're talking nonsense!" This trick actually had some effect; the two guys visibly trembled.

“It’s true. Do you know who’s in front of you? That’s King Sok. He’s the one who came up with the spell.” Shuiying understood what I meant and started making things up too.

"Really?" Lamu stopped what he was doing and turned to look at me and Shuiying.

The tremors beneath our feet intensified, and Shuiying and I became somewhat frightened: "Really, let's hurry, or we'll never be able to leave again, and this city will be buried underground forever."

"Don't listen to their nonsense! The city is fine, isn't it? Hurry up and take the things away, then we'll be done with it!" Yudawa shouted at Lamudu.

"Let's go." Kurada ignored the two men.

"good."