"Is that really true?"
"For Ha-neul to change like that so suddenly..."
After arriving at Fort Dawnguard, I explained the whole situation to the party. Everyone struggled to hide their shock.
"Right. I'm certain it was some kind of hypnosis."
Even though I didn't take the vampire route often during my many Skyrim playthroughs, I remembered the general flow and the vampires' abilities.
Most likely, they mixed something into the food to weaken Choi Ha-neul and then used Vampire's Seduction, one of the powers of the night, on her.
"What the hell am I supposed to do..."
I had managed to handle every crisis flexibly until now, but this time, I was so stuck I felt like tearing my hair out.
'To break a vampire's charm, the caster has to release it personally, or you have to kill the caster.'
But given the circumstances, the one who cast the charm was clearly Harkon.
"Why is everyone standing around looking so gloomy?"
Isran and Tolan, who were in the middle of repairing Fort Dawnguard, noticed us having a serious conversation and approached.
I explained the situation to them as well.
"Ha! I knew it. That's why I told you not to go!"
I couldn't even talk back.
"Look, pull yourself together. If she's sided with those monsters like you said, then that elf is an enemy now," Isran said bluntly.
"If I can just break the charm, everything will be solved! Do you happen to know a way?"
"Hmm... I'm a specialist in hunting, not medicine. I wouldn't know."
Isran rubbed his chin and thought hard, but he couldn't come up with a real solution.
A brief silence fell. Then, Lydia quietly broke the stillness and spoke up.
"Mister Bart, actually, a letter arrived for us while we were waiting at the fort."
Lydia pulled a piece of parchment from her pocket and handed it to me. The document bore the General's official seal. The content was as follows:
"The negotiations with the Jarl of Winterhold fell through?"
"Yes... Even without Choi Ha-neul, we have to rejoin the Legion immediately."
It seemed General Tullius had failed to persuade the Jarl of Winterhold.
"Let's get to Winterhold immediately."
I squeezed my fist tight and lowered my head as I spoke.
"Are we really going without Ha-neul...?"
"We have no choice."
Of course, I wanted to get Choi Ha-neul back as soon as possible, but we were soldiers now. We had to follow the General's orders and head to the battlefield.
Disobeying on a whim could lead to punishment under military law.
Things were bad enough already; I had to avoid that at all costs.
Ultimately, we set off for Winterhold, missing the core power of our party.
Having traveled from Winterhold to Markarth, Camilla took a look around the city.
The city, famously built by the ancient Dwemer, had most of its buildings and facilities constructed from stone and metal.
It possessed a unique design completely different from any other town or city in Skyrim.
The market looked lively and the people seemed generous enough, but the place gave off a somewhat unsettling vibe.
After a quick survey of the city, Camilla entered Understone Keep, the residence of the Jarl of Markarth, to find the Dwemer researcher Enthir had mentioned: Calcelmo.
"Wait, what is your business here?"
Since it was the Jarl's residence, the guards blocked Camilla's path. She quietly held out the forged permit Karliah had made for her.
"My apologies. You may enter."
The doors opened, and upon entering the keep, Camilla headed straight for Calcelmo's office.
There, she found Calcelmo immersed in research, various magical tools spread out across an enchanting table.
"Excuse me."
"Hmm? Who are you?"
At Calcelmo's question, Camilla explained that she had come through Enthir's recommendation.
"Enthir? Ah, you must mean that Bosmer mage. So, why have you come to see me?"
"I heard you are the preeminent authority on the ancient Falmer language."
Flattered, Calcelmo squared his shoulders and stroked his beard with a satisfied smile. Naturally, Camilla's intent was to win his cooperation.
"Ho ho, when it comes to Falmer, there is no one who can keep up with me."
Once the atmosphere had softened, Camilla got straight to the point.
"Due to some personal matters, I need a guide to decipher Falmer. Could you please lend it to me?"
However, Calcelmo, who had been in a good mood just a moment ago, immediately flared up in anger and flatly rejected her request.
"What? That research is a masterpiece I devoted my golden years to complete! Did you think I would just give it to you?"
'Hah, of course it wouldn't go smoothly.'
Camilla considered trying to play on his emotions by shedding a few tears like she did at the College of Winterhold,
But since Enthir had warned her that Calcelmo's personality was as foul as a senile donkey, she gave up on that idea.
"I'll come back later, then..."
"..."
Deciding she wouldn't get anything out of Calcelmo directly, Camilla left his presence.
'If Calcelmo refuses, sneak into his museum. The data will surely be there.'
Recalling Enthir's words, Camilla successfully reached the museum entrance while avoiding the guards' eyes.
She tried to open the door, but it was, of course, firmly locked. Camilla pulled a lockpick from her back pocket.
'What is this?'
Camilla was flustered when she saw the locking mechanism. True to its Dwemer architecture, the lock was very different from standard ones.
No matter how much she wiggled the lockpick inside the uniquely designed lock, the door wouldn't budge.
However, she had another way. If she couldn't pick it with a lockpick, she just needed to use a key.
How was she going to get the key?
—Thump.
"Oh! My apologies."
"No, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."
A guard who had bumped shoulders with Camilla while patrolling the keep apologized to her and went back to work.
"Heh, easier than eating sweetroll."
Camilla said, spinning a key around her finger.
In fact, she had bumped into the guard intentionally, and in the moment of impact, her quick hands had snatched the key ring hanging from the guard's waist.
The skills she had learned from the Thieves Guild were truly useful in every situation.
Entering the Dwemer Museum, she hid in the blind spots of Calcelmo's personal guards while searching for materials on the Falmer language.
'Not here either.'
Since break-ins at the museum were rare, security was relatively lax.
However, as she wandered through the museum looking for the guide, it was nowhere to be found.
"Silk, is it already time for the shift change?"
"Yeah, finished. I'm going in to rest now."
"By the way, what's the laboratory like?"
"Sorry, but I can't tell you that. Master Calcelmo gave strict orders to keep everything about the records room confidential."
"That's a shame."
Calcelmo's Laboratory, which lay beyond the upper floors of the Dwemer Museum, housed various research records he had spent his life compiling.
Even a simple guard duty there wasn't granted to just anyone.
He went as far as to strictly forbid any leakage of information regarding the lab.
'The laboratory?'
It might have sounded like ordinary small talk to others, but Camilla, gaining a hint from their conversation, was certain the Falmer deciphering guide would be there.
Maintaining her stealth, Camilla entered the passage leading to the laboratory.
"Whew... I thought I was going to die."
She finally reached Calcelmo's records room and muttered to herself.
Dwemer machines that fired lightning, metal spiders, and traps she'd never even heard of—the Dwemer ruins were an incredibly dangerous place.
However, she had managed to arrive after dodging the sensors of the machines through various twists and turns.
In any case, inside the laboratory, she worked hard to find the Falmer translation guide, rummaging through documents and books.
But the guide wasn't on the desks, in the drawers, or anywhere else.
"Where on earth did he hide it..."
Camilla murmured as she examined the papers one by one.
Then, she came across a massive stone tablet.
She almost passed it by, but she looked closely at the tablet and—
'This is it...!'
Seeing patterns of language identical to those in Gallus's note, along with explanatory sentences, she was convinced this was the deciphering guide.
"Grumpy old man, to think he'd engrave it in a place like this."
It was good that she had found it, but there was no way she could carry a stone tablet of such immense size and weight.
"Hmm..."
Contemplating her options, she looked around the records room for something useful and found a fresh roll of scrolls and some charcoal on a desk.
"Perfect, this will work."
Camilla crushed the charcoal into fine pieces and held them in her palm.
She sprinkled the dust evenly over the stone tablet and rubbed it with her fingertips, making the black powder seep into every crevice.
Then, she carefully pressed a new scroll over it and began to take a rubbing.
Since the stone tablet was as large as a chalkboard, she had to repeat the process several times.
Finally, once all the contents of the stone tablet had been transferred onto the scrolls, Camilla lightly brushed off the loose powder, rolled them up, and packed them away.
—Muttering.
—!
At that moment, the guard who had come to relieve the soldier she saw in the museum appeared, and Camilla hastily hid her body.
Avoiding the gaze of Calcelmo's personal guards, she slipped out toward the museum's observation deck.
'It's a dead end.'
There was no further path from the balcony, but a waterfall was rushing down right beside it.
Since she couldn't go back inside the tower where the guards were,
She thought about going down with the flow of the water, but she was worried about the scrolls she was carrying.
'If I commit myself to the waterfall, they'll definitely get soaked.'
After a moment's thought, she pulled a rope from her small backpack.
'Always bring a rope, because you never know when you'll have to rob a high-rise house.'
That was the advice she had heard from Mercer while learning the trade.
"To think that bastard would actually be helpful."
She felt strange about being helped by the man she had to take revenge on,
But she tied the rope to the railing and slowly descended into the streets of Markarth.
Fortunately, since it was late, there were no witnesses.
"Whew, now I just have to get back to Winterhold."
Tossing and catching a scroll in her hand, Camilla walked out through the main gates of Markarth.
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