Chapter 422
Chapter 422
Chapter 422
'A golden opportunity to catch Abel?'
When Duke recalled these words in his mind, Zeke understood and nodded.
"If we infiltrate when they open Rom to set their trap and kill Abel, Jiemens will lose their justification for occupying Rom."
Although Jiemens had the blood of an Elector Prince who could become Emperor of the Rom Empire, they were very far down in the line of succession.
However, when Julius, who was the regent, sided with Jiemens, Abel was able to have his succession rights recognized. Thanks to this, the occupation of Rom was treated as a civil war, blocking the possibility of outside intervention.
But if Abel died, there would be no one left with succession rights, meaning Jiemens would lose their basis for occupying Rom.
"Then Draker can directly intervene in the Rom Empire. The nobles of other empires will also turn their backs on Jiemens."
Duke slowly nodded after hearing Zeke's words.
'I understand what you're saying. But how will we avoid the trap they've set, and how do you plan to draw out Abel who will be deep inside the imperial palace?'
In response to Duke's concerns, Zeke grinned and sent another telepathic message.
"Don't worry about that. I have a good way to draw out Abel."
Duke frowned at Zeke's confident words.
'This guy, you're not planning something reckless again, are you?'
Although he was the most talented disciple across the continent, Duke was always worried about him because his personality was as reckless as his talent.
Thinking further discussion would be pointless, Duke poured another full glass of alcohol and said:
"Well, I'm sure you'll handle it well. I'll just watch from the sidelines."
Then Zeke looked at Duke and said,
"By the way, there's something I wanted to ask you, Master."
"What I don't know, you probably don't know either. What are you trying to ask?"
Zeke fumbled around in his chest and pulled something out to hand to Duke.
Duke received the old parchment Zeke handed over, and when he unfolded it, he almost spat out his drink.
"HACK! W-what is this?"
What Zeke had handed to Duke was none other than Captain Kidd's sea chart.
"As expected, you recognized it right away."
Duke's hands trembled for a moment.
"Are you crazy? Where did you get this?"
Zeke leaned back on the sofa and said:
"It was in my mother's notebook."
Duke was shocked at his words.
"You're saying this was in Laura's notebook?"
Zeke nodded and took a sip of tea.
Then he asked Duke.
"The story you mentioned before. Couldn't you tell it to me now?"
Zeke was now a Black Knight and the family's Guardian Knight.
No matter how classified Duke's story about going beyond the Dark Sea was, a Guardian Knight was qualified enough to hear it.
Duke struggled with the decision before clutching his head.
"UGHHHH. Damn it."
He downed his glass of alcohol in one go and let out a deep sigh.
"Fine, I'll tell you everything today."
Duke took a deep breath as if he'd made up his mind and looked at Zeke.
He slowly opened his mouth.
"I went beyond the Dark Sea with Draker's knights under Arthur's orders."
"What orders did you receive from the head of the family?"
"...It was to find a tower in the new continent beyond the Dark Sea."
Zeke's eyes wavered upon hearing Duke's words.
'The abandoned continent that exists beyond the Dark Sea. They said the final tower that sealed the Demon King's soul in the Book of the Dead was there. Is that what he's talking about?'
The final dragons were said to have sacrificed themselves to create a tower to seal the Book of the Dead.
Zeke realized that Duke's mission was to find this final tower.
Duke caught his breath and spoke again.
"It was a long journey. We sailed endlessly westward toward an unknown continent we'd never seen before, one we weren't even sure existed."
"How did you find the route? What about the monsters of the Dark Sea?"
Duke shook his head at Zeke's questions.
"I don't know about that part either. Arthur prepared most things. Our mission was simply to find the tower once the ship reached the unknown continent."
Through Duke's words, Zeke learned that Arthur had already known how to reach the abandoned continent.
'Even Captain Kidd could only cross the Dark Sea with the unbreakable ship Triangle. Yet Arthur Draker knew how to get there with a regular ship. How?'
The fact that Arthur Draker knew about the final tower in the first place was shocking.
Duke leaned back on the sofa and barely continued speaking as he recalled the terrible old memories.
"After the long voyage, we finally managed to reach the unknown continent. And that's when the nightmare began."
Before Duke knew it, his body began trembling.
He opened his mouth with unfocused, blank eyes.
"Monsters kept appearing endlessly. The knights and I swung our swords without a moment's rest, again and again. But the monsters never decreased. It was as if the entire continent was filled with them."
Duke poured his glass full of alcohol.
Then he drank it all in one go with big gulps.
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Duke continued.
"Everyone died. Except for me, all twelve knights assigned to the mission were Red Knight level. They were all brave and strong. But they were all torn to shreds by those horrible monsters' teeth. Their blood and spilled organs rained down on my head. We ran out of food and water. Zeke, can you guess what I did then?"
Having gone through long, tedious, and horrific wars himself, Zeke could guess what Duke had done but didn't answer.
Duke spoke with dead eyes.
"I drank my comrades' blood flowing into my mouth and chewed their entrails. Because humans need to eat to have strength. That's how I was able to escape from there."
Now it made sense why Duke could no longer wield a sword in battle.
The horrific deaths of his comrades and the sight of his own numbed humanity had created severe trauma.
There seemed to be more, but Zeke couldn't push Duke who was already in enough pain.
After taking several sips of his cold tea and setting down the cup, Zeke looked at Duke and said:
"Master, if you're comfortable with it, may I look directly into your memories of that time?"
Duke, who had been clutching his head, looked up and asked:
"Look into my memories? Where did you learn such magic?"
"It's not magic... you can think of it as an ability gained from the Fairy King's blessing."
When something was difficult to explain, citing the Fairy King's blessing was the most convenient.
Duke rubbed his face with his palms.
Then he nodded.
"Fine, what more do I have to hide from you? If you can see it, go ahead and look."
"Understood."
Zeke got up and approached Duke.
He helped Duke lie comfortably on the sofa.
"Don't worry and breathe comfortably."
Zeke covered Duke's eyes with his palm.
Simultaneously, he accessed Duke's karma data with Dragon's Wisdom, then used Sage's Eyes to examine the data related to Duke's memories.
'Information about the abandoned continent... most of it is what I heard verbally.'
Then a message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[Sealed memory data has been found among related data. The seal can be released using the 'Release' skill. Would you like to release it?]
'Sealed memory?'
As Zeke pondered, he thought this sealed memory might be related to Duke's trauma.
He decided to release Duke's sealed memory.
[Releasing the sealed memory.]
Instantly, the scene before Zeke's eyes changed.
* * *
When he opened his eyes after closing them due to the sudden change in vision, a dense forest spread out before him.
The trees were twisted into grotesque shapes and packed tightly together.
They were unlike any trees seen in the Central Continent.
'Is this the abandoned continent?'
Though he used the Unlock skill, it seemed to work differently from the usual Dragon's Wisdom.
'It feels similar to the hidden stage I experienced in the Inverted Tower.'
Zeke looked around and drew Roland from his inventory.
He could draw his sword just like in reality.
'That's fortunate. If this is a virtual space created based on Master's memories, Master should be here too...'
At that moment, something suddenly leaped at Zeke from the trees.
SWOOSH!
Zeke instinctively swung his sword and cut down what was flying at him.
Looking at what fell to the ground, an unfamiliar monster was writhing with its waist cut in half.
It was a monkey-like monster with bat-like wings on its sides and sharp claws and teeth.
Zeke crouched down to examine the grotesque monster.
'This is so vivid. To think karma data makes this possible.'
Zeke stood up and opened the system window to bring up the map.
[Map will be recorded limited to the scope of viewed karma data.]
Right after the message appeared, the map that had only shown the Central Continent, Dorta Republic, and Eastern Continent expanded, revealing a new continent in the western Dark Sea.
However, only part of the coastline appeared on the map, with the area behind it covered in black, making the terrain impossible to discern.
'It seems this is all the data I can confirm from Master's memories.'
As Zeke looked at the expanded map trying to gauge the total size of the abandoned continent, a strange cry echoed through the forest.
GRRRRRR!
Hearing the monster's cry, Zeke closed the system window and immediately ran toward the source of the sound.
Using Wind Step to move like the wind, Zeke's view revealed a group of monsters and knights fighting against them.
Among them, the knight swinging his sword most fiercely was a familiar person.
'Master!'
Duke from his Black Knight days was unleashing Wind Step against the monsters.
SLASH!
After beheading a monster with his lightning-fast attack, Duke's entire armor was drenched in monster blood.
Behind him were about five knights remaining.
But they were all in poor condition.
Staggering as if they could collapse any moment.
The five knights shouted while facing the monsters:
"Commander! Please go while we hold them back!"
"Commander, you're the Black Knight of Draker and the hope of common knights!"
"Please become a Guardian Knight and change Draker!"
Duke shouted at the knights' words:
"What are you saying?! Come here right now!"
Suddenly another monster burst from the ground.
With hundreds of sharp teeth, it instantly devoured one knight.
CRUNCH!
A severed arm fell between its teeth.
Seeing this, Duke shouted:
"No!"
The remaining knights shouted.
"Commander! Hurry! Don't let our sacrifice be meaningless!"
Duke shed tears of blood watching his subordinates trying to sacrifice themselves for him.
That's when it happened.
GROWL!
Other monsters appeared.
Horrific monsters with long tails and sharp claws - creatures that couldn't possibly exist in the natural world charged at Duke while dripping sticky saliva.
ROAR!
Duke charged at the monsters with his sword like the wind.
CLANG!
The monster's body was as hard as if wearing armor, causing Duke's sword to bounce back from the recoil.
"UGH!"
Duke raised his sword again and changed his attack technique.
He stabbed between the joints rather than the hard shell.
SQUELCH!
When Duke's wind-swift sword instantly pierced the monster's main joints, it collapsed.
Duke beheaded the monster without hesitation.
SLICE!
Green fluid sprayed like a fountain from the monster's severed neck.
Duke stepped back avoiding the seemingly acidic fluid.
After dealing with the dangerous monster, he turned back with relief. But his subordinates were already torn apart by monsters and scattered on the ground.
Among them, a mighty monster with huge horns lifted up one still-living knight with its four hands.
Imagining what would happen next, Duke's face turned pale as he screamed.
"NO!"
Just as the monster was about to tear the knight apart.
SLASH!
The monster's arms holding the knight's limbs were severed in one strike.
Zeke appeared, wielding Roland.