The Genius Mage Was Reincarnated Into A Swordsman Family

Chapter 365: The Weight of Secrets

The cold bite of Queen Ellah's aura was enough to shatter the bones of a normal Swordmaster. Frost crept up Klaus's legs, cracking the leather of his boots, seeking to freeze the blood in his veins. The guards lining the walls had already dropped to one knee, their heads bowed, trembling under the weight of their Queen's wrath. The very air in the throne room had turned into solid ice, suspending dust motes in a frozen grid.

Yet Klaus did not flinch.

He did not bow. He did not shiver. Instead, he exhaled a slow, steady breath that manifested as a dark mist, contrasting sharply with the Queen's blue frost. The frost creeping up his legs halted, then sublimated into vapor before reaching his knees.

Klaus lifted his chin. His white hair floated slightly, not from wind, but from the sheer pressure radiating from his body. It was not cold like hers. It was heavy. It was a presence that felt like standing at the bottom of an ocean, or perhaps staring into the event horizon of a void. The dark energy leaked from his pores, swirling around him like a cloak of living shadow.

The clash of pressures sent a shockwave through the room. The ice crystals hanging in the air shattered into dust. The guards gasped, some falling flat on their faces as the two opposing forces collided.

Queen Ellah's glowing white eyes narrowed. The frost on the throne behind her cracked further. She had expected fear. She had expected submission. Instead, she felt a pressure that rivaled her own, emanating from a boy who should not even be able to stand in her presence.

'How can a kid have such a vast presence?' Queen Ellah thought, her composure shaken for the first time in decades. 'This is not just mana. This is something ancient.'

Klaus met her gaze, his own eyes blue and unreadable. The dark aura around him settled, not retreating, but stabilizing. He was not attacking. He was simply stating his worth through force of will.

"This inside war will only weaken our continent when the real threat crosses our ocean," Klaus said, his voice cutting through the tension without needing to rise. "Especially if the whole Runiya continent should be protecting the Ice Palace."

Queen Ellah's face twisted in fury. The temperature plummeted again, sharp and sudden.

"The Ice Palace does not need outside protection!" Queen Ellah voiced boomed, shaking the entire throne room. The crystal chandeliers above rang like bells. The ice beneath their feet groaned. "We have held the line for thousands of years without your Empire's help. Do not presume to know what we can or cannot handle."

Klaus waited for the echo of her voice to fade. He did not raise his voice. He did not need to.

"To be honest, I do not really know what is sealed beneath the Ice Palace," Klaus said, his tone conversational, as if they were discussing the weather. "But I know it is important enough that creatures that should not exist in our realm crawl from the depths of the earth to try to unseal it. And for beings with might that defied our understanding to corrupt an entire continent to try to invade our continent just to get their hands on it."

The specific wording hung in the air. Creatures from the depths. Beings corrupting a continent.

Queen Ellah stared at him. The fury in her eyes dimmed, replaced by a dawning horror. She knew what lay beneath the palace. She knew what the Frostfang Peaks were guarding. And she knew that knowledge was not something a boy from the Rikxia Empire should possess.

The pressure in the room shifted. Queen Ellah's aura receded, pulling back into her body like a tide going out. The crushing weight was lifted from the guards, who gasped for air, remaining on their knees. The Queen slowly sat back down on her throne. The ice beneath her smoothed itself out.

As she sat down, Klaus also subdued his presence. The dark mist around him dissipated. The room returned to its normal, frigid temperature. The guards remained where they were, too afraid to move without permission.

Queen Ellah folded her hands in her lap. Her white hair settled around her shoulders. Her red eyes, no longer glowing with power, were sharp and calculating.

"What are those beings you are talking about?" Queen Ellah asked. Her voice was quiet, but it carried a command that made the guards hold their breath.

Klaus looked at her. He could feel the tension radiating from her. She was testing him. If he gave the wrong answer, the frost would return, and this time it might not stop at his boots.

"Though I do not have the full picture yet," Klaus said with confidence. "They are called Messengers."

Queen Ellah's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before returning to their calm. It was a tiny reaction, but Klaus caught it. It was the reaction of someone who had just heard a password they thought was lost to history.

"Continue," she said.

"To my understanding, those Messengers can't directly manifest their full might in our realm without alerting the real protectors of Xyros, beings called Celestials," Klaus continued, weaving the information from his fake Arkadius existence with his own intuitions. "To bypass those protectors, they corrupted the people living in Arkadia. I do not know how yet. But those Messengers can sync themselves with the rifts that appear in our continent. And if my theory is correct, those rifts link directly to Arkadia."

Queen Ellah could not hide her shock anymore. She knew about Celestials. She knew about Messengers. But this knowledge was only privy to her and the eight founding families of Iskandriel. They were the ones protecting the seal beneath the Ice Palace for thousands of years, passing this sacred duty with each new generation of heirs.

This was a secret guarded so closely that it was impossible for any of the eight founding families or any generation of Ice Queen to discuss this matter with outsiders without activating a secret sigil in their heart that killed them on the spot. That was how secretly this secret was guarded.

Yet now, a fourteen-year-old boy was talking about things no one else on the continent except them could know.

Queen Ellah raised her hand. Her voice was low, but it echoed with finality.

"Leave us!" Queen Ellah commanded.

The captain of the guard hesitated. "Your Majesty, is it safe..."

"Leave us!" she repeated, louder this time. "All of you. Leave us alone."

They all promptly executed the orders and left Klaus alone with her. The massive doors of the throne room groaned shut, sealing them in absolute privacy. The silence that followed was heavy, stripped of the audience that usually buffered royal interactions.

Queen Ellah leaned forward on her throne. Her red eyes bore into Klaus's soul.

"Just how do you know about this?" Queen Ellah asked.

Klaus looked at her for a quiet moment. He needed to give her enough truth to gain her trust, but enough mystery to maintain his leverage. He could not tell her about his reincarnations. He had to use the assets she already suspected he had.

"I am sure, considering your position, you are aware that what happened in Northwatch is related to me," Klaus said calmly. "Or rather, a being named Gluttony."

Queen Ellah did not blink. "Yes, I am aware that you are one of the seven vessels of forbidden beings."

Her response made Klaus realize that she knew way more about the Arkdieus than all the Monarchs combined. The Monarchs feared the power, but she knew the origin.

He smiled, a small, confident curve of his lips.

"You probably know more about those seven beings than the Monarchs do, do not you?" Klaus asked.

"I know secrets that could make all seven Monarchs wet their pants, boy," Queen Ellah said. Her tone was dry, almost humorous, but the threat underlying it was real.

Confirming that she knew more, Klaus lied with confidence. He needed her to believe his intelligence network was as deep as hers.

"The being that I am the vessel of, Gluttony... it is through him that I know those things," Klaus said. He could not tell her that all that was just a supposition or his intuition driving him to this conclusion. He needed her to believe Gluttony was talking to him.

Queen Ellah nodded slowly. "It makes sense... Arkdieus are ancient. They remember things we have forgotten." She paused, her eyes narrowing. "But how do you know about the Messengers controlling Arkadia? Or even that they are planning to invade our continent?"

"From a very reliable source," Klaus said, thinking about Nicholas Davoss. Though he did not know how Nicholas knew this, after sparring with him, he knew that Nicholas was not what he pretended to be. "Besides, on my way to the Ice Palace, I stumbled upon a blue rift breakdown. A legion of monsters was pouring out of the rift. Since now I have a better understanding of the situation, I am one hundred percent sure they were coming here."

Queen Ellah stood up again. The calm facade cracked completely.

"No, do not tell me there are other waves of monsters coming here," Queen Ellah said. Her pale face became even paler. Just thinking about what was currently happening in the Frostfang Peaks was already stressful enough. But now hearing that there were other monsters coming from the opposite direction made her almost choke. The Ice Palace was the seal. If enemies approached from both the north and the south, they would be trapped.

She gripped the arms of her throne. Her knuckles turned white. The ice beneath her feet cracked audibly.

But then what she heard next almost made her heart skip a beat.

Klaus watched her panic. He needed to reassure her, but also remind her that he was the solution, not just the messenger.

"No, do not worry about those monsters," Klaus said. "I have already dealt with them. And the Messenger controlling them. Just as I will deal with the ones coming from the Frostfang Peaks."

Queen Ellah froze. Her mouth opened slightly, but no sound came out.

"WWWW... What, what?" Queen Ellah stammered.

The Queen of Iskandriel, guardian of the ancient seal, wielder of ice that could freeze time, stumbled over her words. She stared at Klaus as if he had just claimed to have swallowed the sun.

"You killed a Messenger?" she whispered, the words barely audible. "You... alone?"

"I told you," Klaus said, turning to walk toward the exit. He stopped at the massive doors and looked back over his shoulder. "I am not here to ask for protection, Your Majesty. I am here to offer assistance. But I cannot fight a war on two fronts while you lock me in a guest room."

He pushed the door open. The guards outside scrambled to attention, terrified by the aura still lingering on the boy.

"Prepare a map of the Frostfang Peaks," Klaus said to the captain. "And tell your Queen I expect an audience within the hour. We have an invasion to stop."

Klaus walked out into the corridor, leaving the Queen alone in the throne room. Queen Ellah stood amidst the cracked ice of her throne room, her heart pounding against her ribs. She looked at the empty doorway, then down at her own trembling hands.

A fourteen year old boy had just walked into her sanctuary, defied her aura, revealed secrets buried for millennia, and claimed to have slain a Messenger of the Dark Primordial.

And the terrifying part was not that he claimed it.

It was that she believed him.