Chapter 361
Chapter 361
Chapter 361
The group in front of the mansion was none other than the barbarians of the Rock tribe.
King Fist bowed toward Zeke as he put him down.
"Brother Zeke, really missed you."
"Me too. But what brings you all the way to Atlas?"
King Fist scratched his head and said to Zeke.
"You sent letter to father, talking about our tribe and Mohawkin tribe. Father said take more people and eliminate all those who messed with our side."
Zeke had informed Big Foot, the chief of the Rock tribe, that Jiemens' mages were kidnapping and brainwashing barbarians to use them as weapons.
It seemed that upon hearing this, Big Foot had ordered an attack on Jiemens' side.
Originally, barbarians rarely left their territory.
The fact that King Fist and others were sent down showed just how angry Big Foot and other barbarian chiefs were.
After nodding, Zeke looked at the guard captain and knights who were showing confused expressions behind him and asked King Fist.
"But why did you fight with them?"
King Fist shrugged at those words.
"Don't know. I said I came to see you, but they shouting so I just ignored them and came in."
The barbarians, who had lived with a different culture from the central continent, didn't even know the concept of introduction itself.
Moreover, it seemed this happened because they couldn't communicate.
Zeke approached the guard captain and said.
"Thank you for your hard work. I am Zeke Draker."
The guard captain saluted Zeke with a tense expression at his greeting.
"S-Sir Zeke! I am Mark Soren, captain of the 5th Guard! It's an honor to meet you!"
Zeke lightly returned the salute while looking at the guard captain.
"They are my guests. It seems there was a misunderstanding due to communication problems."
The guard captain asked back in surprise at Zeke's words.
"Are you saying the barbarians are your guests?"
"Yes, they are people I formed a bond with during a previous mission, and they came to see me without notice."
At the words that the barbarians were Zeke's guests, the guard captain and gathered soldiers and knights showed expressions of disbelief.
This was because barbarians were known as a race that didn't interact with humans.
'As expected, the Knight of Salvation is different.'
'I can't believe those barbarians follow him obediently.'
Zeke's mystique grew even higher as they saw that even the untouchable barbarians followed him.
After agreeing that the cost of damaged property and treatment for the injured would be calculated and sent to Zeke's side, the guard quickly dispersed.
Zeke took the barbarian group inside the mansion.
Luther and Omar, who were waiting for Zeke in the mansion, had also come outside due to the commotion.
Omar, who had been waiting for Zeke in that state, was startled to see the barbarians walking with Zeke.
"Gasp! F-Forest Keepers!"
Seeing Omar backing away while being wary of the barbarians, Zeke said.
"Sir Omar. No need to worry. These are my companions."
Omar showed an expression of disbelief at Zeke's words.
"H-How can Forest Keepers be companions? They never accept others unless they're from the same tribe..."
Then something suddenly occurred to Omar.
"Indeed the knight chosen by the Phoenix! Oh, Lord."
Omar suddenly sat down on the ground and started reciting prayers again.
King Fist looked at Omar and asked Zeke.
"Why is he like that?"
Zeke pondered how to say it in barbarian language before opening his mouth.
"He's scared of you."
The barbarians grinned and showed off their muscles at Zeke's words.
"Scared!"
"Scared!"
The barbarians were happily smiling innocently.
Zeke looked at the barbarians as if finding them cute, while Omar and Luther looked at the gentle-faced Zeke with eyes of wonder.
And so, with the barbarians joining Zeke's forces, the Barbarian Corps was formed.
Zeke decided to proceed with the meeting with Julius, but he couldn't immediately go over to the Dorta Republic.
This was due to the appointment of the Guardian Knight position.
Since Arthur had told Zeke he would give him the Guardian Knight position, it was clear this would happen.
Therefore, Zeke needed to see Kali's reaction to his final decision and judge how to proceed.
The worst-case scenario was Kali and Helen's side splitting from Zeke and becoming enemies who point swords at each other.
'I'm not sure how Sister Kali will react.'
He thought about contacting her first, but the situation was quite delicate.
Since the family had not yet formally decided to give Zeke the Guardian Knight position, he couldn't carelessly talk about this to Kali.
If this information was conveyed incorrectly, it could make the Four Seasons Castle even more confused.
Zeke sat in his office, organizing his thoughts carefully about what to do while pondering.
During this time, the butler entered the office.
"Master, Miss Arina Lubern has arrived."
Zeke stood up from his seat upon hearing that Arina had come.
"Please escort her to the reception room."
After Zeke left, Arina had remained in the Holy Nation to discuss matters regarding the Pope and the Lubern bloodline.
She had come to Atlas where Zeke was after finishing business with the Pope.
When Zeke went to the reception room, Arina greeted him with a bright smile.
"Lady Arina, you've come. Thank you for your hard work."
After greeting her, he took out tea to serve her.
Arina nodded while savoring the tea.
"The aroma is really nice. Laura would always give me tea with such a wonderful aroma like this too."
This was Arina sharing memories of Laura, Zeke's mother.
Although he knew it, it was surprisingly striking whenever he realized that she was of the same age as Laura Agamemnon like now.
"Did the discussion with Her Holiness Beatrice go well?"
Arina nodded with a smile at Zeke's words.
"Yes, when we talked, Her Holiness was also thinking seriously about this issue. She said it was difficult to break the connections because other cardinals and bishops had such close relationships with both the Empire's side and the Nostra family."
The Empire's attack had created an opportunity to cleanly resolve the evil customs that had continued like a tradition in the Vadoka Holy Nation.
Arina announced the results of the discussion, saying they had agreed to organize and support a vigilante group that would eradicate not only the hunting of the Lubern bloodline but also the activities of slave traders themselves, in cooperation with the Golden Dawn Society.
Zeke nodded at those words.
"That's good. I will support such activities as much as possible."
At those words, Arina smiled brightly.
"Thank you, Sir Zeke. And I have a gift."
Along with her words, Arina took out an old book and handed it to Zeke.
"What is this?"
"It's one of Laura's belongings."
Zeke was surprised at the mention of his deceased mother's belonging.
"Mother's belongings remained?"
"The Golden Dawn Society was managing the hideout of the Eastern Dawn Society where Laura was active. While checking the items being stored there just in case, I discovered this."
It meant traces of Laura Agamemnon remained within the Holy Nation.
Zeke slowly opened the old book.
After quickly scanning the contents, Zeke tilted his head.
"This is... a Bible, isn't it?"
Arina nodded at those words.
"That's right. But it's not an ordinary Bible. This is an apocrypha."
"What about the Apocrypha?"
"It refers to contents that couldn't be included in the Bible because their sources were unclear or the truth was difficult to verify. While Lord Fab and Laura were searching for the descendants of Lubern, they also conducted a parallel investigation into this Apocrypha."
"Your mother? Do you know why she searched for the Apocrypha?"
"At that time, I was blind so I couldn't directly intervene in what the two were doing. I remember Laura was more proactive in this work than Lord Fab. She... wanted to know about the lost history through the Apocrypha."
"Lost history?"
"Yes. The history before the Hero King era. The history of Carcosa, the legendary city built by the constellations."
Even the era of Hero King Kaisir before the Liberation War was now considered legendary.
Therefore, the ancient era of the constellations from even earlier remained only in passages of records whose very existence was questionable.
Only records that separately compiled mentions of gods from the words left by figures of the Hero King era remained.
While others might have dismissed talk of gods as nonsense, Zeke listened to this seriously.
This was because the legend of the God Slayer he heard from Tyr's spirit body happened during this era.
'Perhaps information about the God Slayer might remain in the Apocrypha too.'
Zeke recalled the word Carcosa, the legendary city, from what Arina had said.
'Feels like I've heard this somewhere before. Where did I hear it?'
As Zeke kept pondering, bothered by the word Carcosa, he suddenly remembered.
'Solomon's Ring!'
Solomon's Ring was the legendary item that sealed the constellations and allowed their power to be used.
'They said it was received from the Elder Dragon by Solomon, the king of Carcosa.'
Zeke asked Princess Arina.
"Lady Arina, do you know anything about the city of Carcosa and King Solomon?"
Princess Arina was rather greatly surprised at Zeke's question and opened her eyes wide.
"To think you know about King Solomon... I didn't know Lord Zeke was also well-versed in theology."
"Is King Solomon a figure who appears in the Bible?"
Then Princess Arina shook her head.
"The Bibles available these days are versions newly compiled by the Holy Kingdom, so the content has changed a lot and been reduced. In fact, even in the Holy Empire era's Bible, content about King Solomon was only mentioned briefly."
"Then there's no way to know the details?"
But Arina shook her head.
"That Apocrypha Laura discovered has content about King Solomon and Carcosa written in it."
"Where did mother find this?"
Arina pondered for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.
"In Draker's secure archives."
While Zeke was momentarily speechless, Arina slowly continued.
"I didn't hear how Laura was able to enter the secret archives. But I do know that she entered the secret archives, saw the Apocrypha directly, memorized all its contents, and came out. All of the content that exceeded 200,000 characters."
"You're saying Draker was keeping that much Apocrypha stored away? For what reason..?."
"Laura wanted to find out that reason too. I don't know through what process she married Draker's head of family and gave birth to Sir Zeke, but the Laura I knew didn't have very good feelings toward the Draker side."
"Because the Draker family took all of Midland by taking advantage of the Agamemnon family's curse, right?"
"Separately from that, the Draker family itself... it's weird to say this, but she seemed to hate them."
At Arina's words, Zeke spoke with a puzzled expression.
"It's strange that she still married Arthur Draker despite that. And even gave birth to me..."
Laura nodded at Zeke's words.
"Laura was someone who could see realms that ordinary people couldn't see, so there were limits to my understanding everything about her. Of course, Laura herself was quite a secretive person too."
To Zeke, the existence called Laura Agamemnon was like a mirage that seemed catchable yet uncatchable.
'Since she could prophesy with Chronos' power, perhaps she saw something through future sight.'
It was still difficult to guess what happened between Laura and Arthur.
'When this matter is settled, I should go find Rex Tourn. It's very late, but he did say he would tell me about mother.'
Then Arina spoke to Zeke who was deep in thought.
"The conversation went off track. You were curious about the content regarding Carcosa, right?"
Arina looked at Zeke and said.
"Since it's written in that book, you can read it, but to put it briefly, the reason Carcosa fell was because of the gods' blind love."
