Ri Seishuu lives to serve the Ren royal famiy. His father and grandfather served the Emperor Hakutoku in his conquest of Gou and Gai; his great-grandfather before them served Hakutoku's grandfather in his quest to become the leader of Kou when it was a mere tribe of the Eastern plains; and even before they ascended to such noble heights, the Ris have served the Ren family in war and peace, as stewards, as aides. Theirs is a lineage of noble servitude. And yet, in all the generations upon generations that the Ris have served the Rens, Seishuu doubts there has ever been a task so tedious as serving Ren Kouen.
"You about done?" Seishuu calls from his perch atop a crumbled pillar. "The men are getting restless."
Kouen glances back at Seishuu. It's a little surprising to see him tear his eyes away from the wall he's been agonizing over for the last two hours. "They will just have to wait," Kouen announces, jabbing his stick of charcoal at Seishuu. The fourth prince's fingers are blackened from his meticulous work making rubbings of every carving they've come across. "The Emperor has entrusted me with the duty of conquering this dungeon and bringing back its treasures."
"That would sound a lot more impressive coming from some deep-voiced general," Seishuu teases, "instead of some brat that just happens to be part of the royal family."
That raises Kouen's hackles enough to raise him to his feet. "Calling me a brat is rich, coming from the likes of you. Some miniature manservant has no right to condescend to the likes of me."
Seishuu hops off his pillar and shoots up into Kouen's personal space like a snake about to strike. Instead, he just flicks Kouen between the eyes. "Just because I'm shorter than you doesn't mean I'm not equipped to make commentary. If you're here to get the treasure for the Empreror, then what are we doin' wasting time copying gibberish off these stupid walls?"
Kouen smirks, as though Seishuu has stepped into some sort of trap. "Well, Seishuu, I'm glad you asked." Oh no. It is a trap. "To begin, this is not 'gibberish,' it's the Tran script, a language spoken by the Tran people who are found scattered all over the world, the written form of which appears almost exclusively in dungeons. The script of the Tran-" Seishuu can feel his eyes glazing over as Kouen gears up to talk. He's got no head for rants like this. He rolls his eyes up to the heavens, lost somewhere in the sweltering gloom high overhead. He wonders how long they'll be in this dungeon. He wonders if he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity wandering around after this rambling nobleman. Here he'd thought that following Ren Kouen, the noble warrior who had fought alongside the crown princes, into a dungeon would lead to some action. Instead it's just rants and sermons and sitting around waiting- "Are you listening!?" Kouen bellows, snapping Seishuu back to attention. It's actually pretty impressive how loud he can get.
"Uh... no?" No point in lying when he's been caught.
Kouen sighs heavily and runs a hand down his face. "Then I'll summarize. The knowledge contained in these carvings could provide clues not only to how to conquer this dungeon, but to the people who created it. If we could understand the means by which the dungeons were first created, then Kou would have at it's fingertips a power unlike that which the world has ever known! Do you understand?"
Seishuu considers Kouen's words for a moment, turning them over in his head. "Yeah..." He grins back at Kouen. "Yeah, I get it now. You're a poindexter whose got scowl lines on his face before twenty, but you know what you're talking about." Seishuu whirls on the idling troops and draws his sword, raising it high. "Hey, you lazy dogs! Did you hear that!? Prince Kouen has decreed these stupid walls just as important as the treasure and the djinn! So get off your asses and get working!" When the men just muttered and shifted, Seishuu bellowed some more, chasing them about until every last man was at work making rubbings of the dungeon walls.
Kouen is not entirely sure how he ended up with the world's most ill-trained archaeological team, but he'll take it.