Lord: My Shop Connects to Modern Times

Inside a castle in the southern border of the Dawn Empire.

The torches cast swaying shadows in the stone corridor.

The man's boots clicked softly on the flagstones. He had walked this secret passage leading underground for seven years, and each time he felt the dampness on the walls was heavier.

Pushing open the unmarked iron gate at the end, the light became even dimmer.

The room was round and not large. There were no windows in the walls, only a fireplace in the southeast corner, where the fire burned quietly, giving the air a dry, woody smell.

The firelight couldn't reach the center of the room, where a large ironwood table stood, its surface empty except for a sheepskin map spread out on top.

In the lower right corner of the map, there is an area circled with a pen, clearly marked with the words "Gray Rock Town".

The man stopped five steps away from the table and lowered his head.

"grown ups."

The sound echoed faintly in the silent stone chamber.

The shadow behind the table shifted. It was a person sitting in a high-backed chair, wearing a dark gray wool cloak with the hood pulled low, revealing only a taut jawline.

"explain."

A single word, spoken softly and calmly, yet it made the man instinctively straighten his back even more.

"Grayrock Town... it didn't work out." He spoke quickly, as if eager to deliver the bad news: "We lured the monsters there twice as planned. The first time, they held out. The second time, they had walls around them."

"A wall?"

"Yes. It was built very quickly, and the material used was something I'd never seen before—grayish-white, and when it dried, it was as hard as iron… There was also a hunter who was very accurate with his arrows, and the bow he used was…very strange."

A very soft breath came from under the cloak, sounding like laughter, yet not quite.

"Lynn Cole..." the voice uttered the name, as calmly as if reading a mark on a map: "When his father died, he was gambling with dice in the capital's taverns. Now he's learned how to build walls."

The man didn't dare to respond.

"A strange bow... what does that mean?"

"It's a strangely styled bow that I've never seen before." The man considered for a moment before answering, "The bow has a very long range and great power; an ordinary monster's core can't withstand a single shot... It can even fire in rapid succession, and it seems to be a product of alchemical technology."

"Hmph!" The voice seemed somewhat displeased. "I don't recall the Cole family having any alchemists."

Upon hearing this, the man trembled and lowered his head even further.

"Anything else?"

"Not for now. Our men dare not get too close; they're heavily guarded there. But we should have enough food and weapons; Earl Lehman gave him a sum of money recently."

"Lehman..." The person under the cloak pondered for a moment, "How did they get involved with Lehman?"

"It's been investigated. It's because Lynn cured Earl Lehman's youngest son's illness."

"Interesting... alchemical artifacts, and medical skills? Lynn Cole..."

The person under the cloak paused for a moment: "That old man Lehman always likes to do unnecessary things. But it doesn't matter, it doesn't affect the overall situation."

The man waited a moment, and seeing no further instructions, tentatively asked, "Sir, shall we... continue?"

"Continue." The answer was given without hesitation: "This time, use 'Blood-Attracting Powder,' increase the dosage by 30%. Double the number of monsters, send them in two waves, one every three days."

The man's throat bobbed: "The blood-based powder is too noisy; it might leave traces..."

"Then let's make it an accident." The voice beneath the cloak remained calm, yet it carried an undeniable coldness: "Every year, more than one village in the Southern Territory is destroyed by monsters, so one more wouldn't be surprising."

"……yes."

"Also," the voice paused, "find a few trustworthy people to spread the word along the border. Say that there might be something old Cole hid beneath Grayrock Town, something valuable. Let those hyenas sniff around."

The man immediately understood: "Understood."

"Go."

The man bowed and backed away from the room, the iron door closing silently behind him.

Silence returned to the stone chamber.

The fire in the fireplace crackled and flickered.

The man in the high-backed chair slowly rose, his cloak falling to reveal a well-tailored dark casual suit underneath. He walked to the table, his finger tracing the location of Grayrock Town on the map, lingering there for a long time.

He then turned and walked to the other side of the room.

It looked like just an ordinary stone wall, perfectly fitted together. He reached out and pressed three times on a certain spot on the wall.

The stone wall silently slid inward half a foot, revealing the downward steps behind it.

The stairs were narrow, allowing only one person to pass at a time. The walls on both sides were inlaid with glowing moss, and the eerie green glow barely illuminated the ground beneath their feet.

The air suddenly turned cold, carrying a musty smell, like a mixture of rust and damp earth.

He descended the spiraling stairs, which seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. His footsteps were absorbed by the stone walls, leaving only the sound of his own breathing.

The deeper you go, the stronger the smell becomes, mixed with something else, like decaying plants, or some kind of ancient spice.

Upon reaching the bottom, an even smaller stone chamber appeared, a circular chamber without any decorations.

In the center of the stone chamber floor is a complex magic circle, its lines deeply engraved into the stone, with dark red, long-dried traces remaining in the grooves.

Directly above the magic circle, the stone chamber ceiling was not closed, but rather a bottomless darkness, as if leading to the earth's core.

He stopped at the edge of the magic circle.

The air of absolute control he had exuded in the room above was now completely gone. His back was still straight, but his shoulders were slightly forward, and his head was bowed, his entire posture conveying the respect of a subordinate.

He knelt down on one knee.

"My lord."

The voice was kept very low, almost inaudible in the empty stone chamber.

"Graystone Town... has not yet been cleared."

"The target is exhibiting...abnormal behavior. More monsters have been deployed, and they have been strengthened with blood-attracting powder. At the same time, rumors are being spread to lure others to harass them."

He spoke slowly, carefully considering each word, as if afraid of saying something wrong.

After he finished speaking, he remained kneeling, motionless.

Inside the stone chamber, only the faint light from the dark green moss swayed slowly.

Time passed by, bit by bit.

Just as he began to feel the chill of the stones beneath his knees seeping into his bones, a voice seemed to appear out of nowhere:

"abnormal……"

The voice was cold, viscous, and carried a weight as if it had been accumulated over millennia.

Just two words were enough to make the man's muscles tense up instantly.

"Continue to observe..."

The sound continued to seep in, intermittently.

"Don't...startle...them..."

As the last few words were spoken, the temperature in the stone chamber seemed to drop a few degrees.

That terrifying presence receded like the tide.

The man remained kneeling until he was certain the terrifying pressure had completely disappeared, then he exhaled very slowly. A fine layer of cold sweat had appeared on his forehead.

He stood up, stiffly brushed off imaginary dust from his knees, took one last look at the dark red magic circle on the ground and the all-consuming darkness above, then turned and left.

When they returned to the room above, the fire in the fireplace had died down considerably, leaving only a few dark red embers.

He walked to the table, but didn't sit down. He just stared at the circled name on the map.

"Gray Rock Town..."