novelraw Chapter 141
Chapter 141
Chapter 141
At the moment when the battle staking the future of the Assassin Order began on the sandy desert outside the cave, Hastings entered a vast stone cavern and walked along a path that led to a dead end.
‘The Chief Steward should be fine… There were some who followed behind us….’
Hastings had already sensed the presence of those who had been tailing him and Chief Steward Naramshin. He simply had not been able to bring it up because of the Chief Steward’s urging.
‘Right… that is not my fight. That is entirely the fight of the Chief Steward who has led the Assassin Order for so long. It is not a fight I should interfere in.’
The wrinkled corners of the Chief Steward’s eyes. The resolute gaze hidden within them prevented Hastings from involving himself in that battle.
He was grateful for the Chief Steward’s goodwill, but Hastings had something more important to attend to.
‘There is something in here. It would be good if the Assassin Order could obtain it as well, but… it would not be easy to be welcomed by a faction already on the brink of civil war just because I appeared. What is before my eyes takes priority.’
Putting the matters of the Assassin Order aside in his heart, Hastings followed the dead-end path of the stone cavern without hesitation. There was not a single point of light, but mere darkness was not an obstacle to Hastings’s steps.
And after walking for quite some time like that, Hastings discovered a small hollow at the end of the cavern. The only thing visible inside the hollow was a small box placed at its center.
Hastings approached the box without hesitation and opened it.
“…A book?”
Inside the box lay a single book, neatly wrapped. Hastings immediately picked it up and examined it.
“This is… which country’s script…?”
What greeted him was a bizarre and grotesque set of characters he had never seen before. Hastings had once worked as a librarian in the Imperial Library and examined all kinds of ancient texts from across the world, but the writing before his eyes was something he could neither read nor even identify where it was used. That was only natural. It was not an ancient script at all, but a script of another world—Chinese characters.
“Damn it… an unknown ancient language? Just how old does it have to be….”
Blocked by the bizarre characters, Hastings gave up on reading it and was about to close the book and put it away when, at that very moment, something unexpected happened.
Giiiiing—!
The Raven Dagger that Hastings had carefully kept at his waist began to tremble on its own, emitting a low resonant hum.
“…What!”
Before Hastings could even react in surprise, the red gem embedded in the raven’s eye emitted a bewitching light. The instant the gem began to glow, Hastings realized it instinctively. It was a light familiar to him.
‘This light is…!’
It was the same light from the past, when Yuwon had lost consciousness after the bloody battle at the ‘Tomb of Swords’ and the group had lost their way, only to be guided by that light into the secret underground space of the library. Back then as well, the Raven Dagger had opened the path for them—and it did so again today.
‘Not just then. It was the same when I entered this cavern today. This thing is helping me again…!’
Just who had created such a blade, and with what magic? Hastings had suspected from the moment he obtained the Raven Dagger that it was no ordinary object, but even he had not anticipated something like this.
The light of the self-illuminating Raven Dagger shone upon Hastings, and the light, together with the mysterious magic inherent within it, exerted its power and conveyed new knowledge to him.
Crack—crack!
It was a sound only Hastings could hear. A strange noise, like tree roots sprouting inside his brain, echoed within Hastings’s skull. Along with the crackling sound that resonated through bone and rang in his ears, knowledge he could not comprehend was forcibly engraved into his mind.
Hastings stood there blankly, as if he had fainted while standing, receiving the flood of new information pouring into his head. It was not something he had wished for. At that moment, there was nothing else he could do.
Only after thirty minutes had passed in the silent cavern did Hastings finally open his tightly shut eyes. A sense of certainty dwelled within them.
‘I can read it now.’
For reasons unknown, Hastings was convinced that he could now understand those bizarre characters he had seen earlier. Acting on that conviction, he opened the secret manual again—and his certainty soon turned into truth.
It was a secret manual that had been passed down through generations to the Shadow Raven that protected the House of Reqil. Hastings examined its contents without hesitation, yet with calm focus.
“…Hah!”
His first reaction was shock. Being able to read and comprehend characters he had never seen before created an immense sense of dissonance. But that shock was fleeting, and Hastings soon lost track of time as he read through the contents of the manual.
With no way to tell the passage of time, the interior of the cavern cut Hastings off from the outside world. Rather than resisting it, Hastings seized the opportunity to immerse himself deeply in the secret manual he held.
With every page he turned, Hastings opened his eyes to a new world he had never seen before.
“Haah… how could such martial learning exist in this world…? It is so systematic and detailed, as if it were knowledge from another world altogether. Everything I have known until now was….”
It was a discovery so great that everything he had known thus far seemed trivial by comparison. The martial learning written in those unfamiliar characters followed a completely different path from anything Hastings had ever known, filling him with awe.
And when he reached the final part and closed the book…
“Ah…!”
That name appeared once again. The founding contributor of Aphahiel and the great general who had remained by the side of the First Emperor throughout his life—General Geiorn. In other words, Tang Seogyeom.
The name of the human hero who had opened the path for humans to wield magic power, once the exclusive domain of fairies and dragons, appeared here once more.
“To think this is a book left behind by General Geiorn….”
After examining the contents of the secret manual, Hastings realized instinctively that this was the reason Marcellus had been able to grow so strong.
Within the manual lay the secret behind how Marcellus had once been able to seize Yuwon’s Sleeping Den. The secret manual left behind by Tang Seogyeom in the past had not been solely for his successor within the Sichuan Tang Clan. Here and now, resting in Hastings’s hands, was another secret manual he had left behind.
And just like the secret manual Yuwon had acquired, it was not something Tang Seogyeom had created out of personal ambition, but a manual crafted with the purpose of protecting the House of Reqil.
As he closed the manual, Hastings found it easy to surmise that there had been something between Reqil and Geiorn.
“General Geiorn… and Lord Marcellus….”
Starting from General Geiorn in the distant past, the Geiorn Ducal House was said to have had its lineage severed in that very generation. Geiorn, who had left behind the White Dragon Sword for the imperial family, had left this secret manual for Reqil.
‘If the General went so far as to do this himself, then perhaps….’
Even Hastings could not help but form a conjecture.
‘Perhaps… Geiorn’s bloodline was not truly severed after all.’
But such thoughts did not linger long. Hastings was not a man who clung to the past.
“Your Highness… no, Your Majesty. Please wait just a little longer. I will… return soon.”
At last, the will that Marcellus had failed to pass on in time reached Hastings. Teachings not permitted in this world were finally conveyed to him.
Clang—!
The moment the two swords collided in midair with a resounding clang, one of them fell from a man’s hand.
“Hoo… no matter what I do, I simply cannot stand against Your Majesty.”
“Even so, you lasted quite a while today. You are steadily improving, so do not reproach yourself.”
“Is that so?”
“It certainly is. You can feel it yourself, can you not? Do not doubt it. You are doing very well. Let us stop here for today. You worked hard, Terrien.”
“No. It is my lord who worked hard. Thank you for your guidance today as well.”
When Yuwon declared the end of the day’s training, Terrien bowed deeply and expressed his gratitude. Yuwon picked up Terrien’s sword from where it had fallen at his feet, handed it back to him, and lightly patted Terrien on the shoulder.
“I am raising my knight for my own sake. What hardship is there in that? Enough.”
“Haha… hearing you say that leaves me at a loss.”
“You rascal. Acting shy when it does not suit you. Still, you have done well, Terrien. To be able to handle the power of lightning, which was never originally yours, to this extent already… Perhaps you might even be stronger than Hastings now.”
In truth, that assessment was not far off. Through the grueling training marches he had endured alongside Yuwon, Terrien had grown remarkably.
“Ah, is that really true?”
Terrien was overjoyed at Yuwon’s words. Hastings had been a friendly rival to him, but Hastings’s absurdly rapid progress had clearly weighed on his mind.
“Yes. That is how it feels to me now.”
“Hoo… hearing you say that is truly a relief. I have crossed the brink of death countless times, but I really do think coming to the Great Jungle was the right choice.”
“Yes. I trusted that you would do well once you came here. No matter what anyone says, in the end this place is where you—.”
“…Pardon?”
Yuwon, who had slowed his words out of lingering doubt, failed to finish his sentence. The clear, shining eyes of Terrien told him plainly that Terrien was unaware of the truth of his own birth.
‘After all that, and he still has not noticed a thing… If he did not have the sword, what would he have believed in to live… Tsk.’
Terrien’s almost foolishly pure demeanor brought a smile to Yuwon’s face. Yuwon did not dislike that side of him.
“…I was simply going to say that I never doubted the threats here would make you stronger in the end.”
“Ah, of course. Haha!”
Only now had Terrien become able to channel, even slightly, the power of lightning he had gained by slaying the Thunder Bird into magic under his own will. Yuwon had no intention of spoiling Terrien’s joyful reflections.
‘I noticed it, yet he has not noticed it himself… Haha. I thought he would realize when the time came, but if he truly leaves the Great Jungle without ever noticing, perhaps I should quietly tip him off before then….’
Just then, Terrien, who had been lingering restlessly even after the training had ended, cautiously opened his mouth.
“Your Highness… may I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
“When the Orc Great Chieftain Mukwiam came to visit… you did not tell me at the time, so I have held it in until now. What exactly did you do then?”
“Ah… that fellow? If you were so curious, you should have asked right away. Why did you not?”
“I thought it was something I should not ask about.”
At Terrien’s words, Yuwon let out a small chuckle.
“Well, it was nothing so difficult.”
— This secret manual is entrusted to the Shadow Raven who protects Reqil. Let the raven serve him with the safety of Reqil as its highest priority. One who lacks the qualifications shall never be able to read it.
— Written by Dant Ser Geiorn.