Menad Hamite is a desert city that has held onto a single river and endured for a thousand years since the age of the Shah. With the Flood Festival just around the corner, every street is buzzing with jewels and crowds.

But the archaeologist Pepe, longtime friend of the museum's deputy director Titi, couldn't care less about the festival. In exactly two months, her younger sibling will leave for the Golden City to become 'Chronicler' in her place.

Before that happens, she needs to prove something. So Pepe's plan was this — secretly stuff an unidentified gemstone into the chest of the thousand-year-old mummy, the star of tomorrow's museum special exhibit.

1. A secret rendezvous with a mummy, and by next day he's imitating a person

Pepe borrows Titi's access pass and sneaks into the museum at midnight. A clue from her father's old research notes said that placing gemstones symbolizing the heart, lungs, stomach, and liver into different parts of the mummy's body would trigger something.

The moment she inserts the first gem, a blue light really does flicker in the mummy's chest. Of all times, a guard chooses that moment to make his rounds. Pepe scrambles to hide, and the mummy, still dazed, ends up greeting opening morning as is.

The next day, in the middle of the opening speech, someone gives acting director Anat's ear a sly tug. She assumes it's just Titi's usual prank — but when she turns around, Titi is all the way over in the audience.

It was the mummy that moved. Pepe had spent all night teaching him to walk like a person (including how to be held, and how to fall over). After the resulting commotion, it comes out that the mummy can even talk, and he introduces himself as Zubayr.

He even has a personality — enough to turn walls into sand and pass through them, or to want to sneak off and see the city behind Pepe's back. Amid the chaos, in a corner of the museum, a tourist from Minos, Aspasia, is fuming over her homeland's artifacts being displayed all wrong.

Muttering "This is all wrong!" as she gathers the pieces one by one, Aspasia ends up accidentally becoming the hero who calmly guides the panicking crowd. The problem is, someone else was also eyeing this opening — the smuggler Narantuya, who's after the Padishah's daughter.

Narantuya's plan was flawless — save for the one detail that the room she targeted already had a thousand-year-old bodyguard in it. Knocked unconscious, Narantuya gets dragged straight out the window.

2. A five-piece treasure hunt, with a spoonful of bribery on the side

Zubayr tells Pepe his story. He was the guardian who watched over the Shah's treasure vault, and the clues to its location are split across five gemstone fragments. One has already been found; four remain.

But he attaches one condition: he wants to see the sunrise. Pepe loads the mummy into a leaf-collection cart and sneaks him out to the riverbank, where the two sit side by side and watch the sun come up.

Greetings to you, Horakhet.

— Zubayr

It was his first greeting in a thousand years. As it happens, they find the third clue at a harvest festival gathering by the river. It's the prize for a contest — but entering requires a rare collectible.

Pepe bribes and threatens the judge with a single golden slipper, a family heirloom, to secure 'exactly second place.' But it turns out the first-place entrant had also arranged in advance to concede the ranking, so Pepe ends up in first place after all.

Meanwhile, once she comes to, Narantuya mistakenly believes she's recruited the Minos tourist Aspasia, who saved her, as a "reliable subordinate." Aspasia enters the same contest — staking her ten silver medals on it.

Their conversations always go the same way. No matter what Narantuya asks, Aspasia's answer never changes.

Communication is the cornerstone of understanding.

— Aspasia

3. The cloud leopard coughs up the fifth clue

The fourth clue arrives via an anonymous invitation. It's a perfect trap, right down to the line "come alone" — but Pepe goes anyway, unbothered.

Meanwhile, Titi is holding her beloved cloud leopard Mio and grumbling, "I wish Anat would just stick to what she believes." Then Mio suddenly coughs up a gem. It was the fourth clue.

Meanwhile, the special exhibit officially opens and the museum turns into a madhouse. Devoted fans showing up in wedding dresses, a kid tapping on the mummy's leg, visitors even tossing coins at him — and through it all, Zubayr diligently explains proper viewing etiquette.

It was Narantuya who set the trap. But once she realizes the bait gem is nothing special, she changes plans — selling a "fake mummy" (actually the real Zubayr, with his own consent) to gem exchange manager Razvar to raise a lump sum.

The deal goes off without a hitch. But right after, Razvar's pets Mio and Woof quietly exchange a few words. "Well done, Razvar." — a strange way of speaking, for mere pets.

4. Her sibling already left — and everyone already knew

As Pepe sets out to find the missing Zubayr, Anat belatedly confesses something to her: her sibling's departure date, supposedly two months away, has actually already passed. Their father pulled strings and sent the sibling off early, while Pepe was away on a site survey.

Her sibling left behind only one message.

She said she knows she'll never have the chance to see you again in this life, and that she just hopes you'll remember her voice.

— Anat

Pepe realizes she never wanted to beat her sibling — she just couldn't stand the thought of her sibling being left alone in that city. And that her sibling felt exactly the same way.

Meanwhile, at Razvar's gem exchange, Zubayr reunites with Mio and Woof. All three have fully returned to their former selves. Zubayr now asks them for one favor — confirm Narantuya's bloodline, and test whether Pepe is worthy of joining them.

5. The mummy is remodeling the city without permission

Breaking news comes over the radio: metal dolls are smashing homes and looting gems all over the city. The culprits are the 'gem constructs' Zubayr had recovered.

Sand pours out of taps instead of water, and enormous sand-sculpted pillars and walls rise up along the streets. Zubayr is reconstructing the old city exactly as he remembers it.

Standing before it, Zubayr tells Razvar the city's true history. Three hundred years ago, a village of gem craftsmen who tried to protect him was wiped out entirely — and Razvar's ancestor was its sole survivor.

Ever since, the Razvar family has kept a scale set up at the Grand Bazaar, generation after generation, waiting for the day when all of Sargon's sand would turn to gems and gather in this city. Today was that very day.

6. They called it a test, but the method is swallowing you whole

Even as the city crumbles, the comedy doesn't stop. Titi carries Anat on her back as they flee, saying, "Don't look back — it's bad for your heart to watch your precious relief wall get smashed, Director," while Anat pours out prayers to the gods.

Just as Narantuya is trying to flee, the metal dolls chasing her suddenly go still — meaning she'd already passed the test. Woof confirms it: Narantuya really is a descendant of Karandu Khagan, the Shah's old nemesis.

Pepe, meanwhile, runs into a strange creature in an alley. The animal, which had looked small, instantly transforms into a giant beast and swallows her whole.

7. They call it a rite of passage, so why is everyone fighting for their life

In place of the swallowed Pepe, Narantuya is put to the test first. In a dream, she relives her own tribe's departure ceremony, but tries to run away, saying, "The Pilgrimage is just too terrifying."

In the real world, it's Aspasia who protects Narantuya — from an actual beast that attacks her. Even as they bicker through it all, the two slowly get to know each other.

Meanwhile, Anat and Titi solve the historical riddles posed by the rampaging gem constructs one by one, digging through Anat's favorite book, 《Journey Across the Earth》, while recalling something Titi told her back in school.

All you have to do is keep saying what you think is right, Anat.

— Titi

Meanwhile, inside the beast's belly, Pepe finds herself standing on the shore of an unfamiliar lake. A boy emerges from the water, looks at Pepe, and calls out. "Sister."

8. A thousand years ago, why an older sibling began chronicling their father

From here on, there's no more joking around. Pepe watches Zubayr's entire life unfold from beginning to end — the boy drunk on victory in war, the young man who inherited his father's guard, and the two siblings left alone after their father vanished.

The older sister among the two siblings channeled her grief into compiling a history — recording every single word their father ever said, so that some descendant born long after could carry it on. That is exactly why Pepe's family has served as Chronicler, generation after generation.

It was never a glorious honor or a sacred calling. It was simply the heart of a child who missed her father. And the younger sibling, gravely wounded in the war, chose to permanently change his body into something else, rather than lie in bed and slowly die.

Pepe realizes that what she'd been chasing — 'leaving a name in history' — was, in the end, no different from this.

If it must not be forgotten, then it must be remembered, however much pain comes with it.

— Pepe

9. The vault's real treasure was, in fact, himself

Having passed the test, Pepe comes face to face with the real Zubayr. The vault is filled with recordings of their father, Lugalshargus, from when he was alive — an archive of longing for their father, left behind by his sister.

It's also revealed that Pepe's forehead ornament is identical to that of Zubayr's sister. It's no coincidence — Pepe's family carried on that sister's legacy.

Zubayr offers to grant her eternal life. When Pepe refuses, he says calmly that his circuits carry an inscribed command to "stop the intruder," and that even he himself can no longer stop it now.

In the end, the two clash — a battle between a twenty-two-year-old archaeologist with a hammer and a guardian who has lived a thousand years. Pepe, eyes closed and tracking her opponent by sound alone, finally lands the decisive blow.

10. You have to let go, to set someone free

Where the hammer strikes, the gem in Zubayr's chest cracks — a fracture that can never be repaired. Smiling, he makes one last request: to be carried to the center of the gem.

Pepe, let go of my hand. I'd like you to let me go...

— Zubayr

Water begins to fill the vault. Underwater, Zubayr slowly dissolves into a golden light, and closes his eyes with a smile.

At the same moment, on the other side of the underground channel, Narantuya dives into the abyss without Aspasia noticing. It was the only way to stop the fissure that would sink the city.

It was also Narantuya who pulled the fading, disoriented Pepe up out of the water.

Gold and treasure cascade like a waterfall from the vault door Narantuya threw open. The piled-up treasure fills the crack in the ground, saving the city from sinking.

The city survived. The constructs came to a stop again, and clear water began flowing through the channels once more. Soaking wet, Pepe murmurs.

Horakhet, please grant his soul rest.

— Pepe

Afterward, in the radiant city

Anat decides to step down as acting director. Instead, she becomes a pen pal of the traveler Erikson, whom she's long admired, and plans to see the world. Titi formally takes over the museum.

Narantuya's subordinates Ayazi and Ayani are formally hired at the museum. Narantuya herself declares, "There's no more debt now," freeing her old crew, and sets off alone on her next Pilgrimage.

All of this — I chose it myself!

— Narantuya

Mio makes an unexpected announcement, revealing that she's been able to talk all along, and declaring she's chosen Titi as her "keeper." Woof decides to stay behind in this still-living city.

A few days later, a messenger from the Golden City appears before Pepe, delivering an invitation — the King of Kings himself is inviting her to the city.

The city sparkles again, just as before. The river still flows the same. The only difference now is that beneath its currents, someone who waited a thousand years is finally resting in peace.