Chapter 485
Chapter 485
Chapter 485
SCREEEECH!
A sharp whistle sound rang out from somewhere.
The Silver Knights and Black Sword Knights, who were facing off in front of Winterkeep, were startled by the sudden warning signal.
One of the Silver Knights rushed over and whispered something to Kali.
Kali nodded with a hardened expression and immediately went down to Winterkeep’s basement.
Seeing this, members of the Black Sword Knights stepped forward roughly.
“What’s happening!”
“Our lord is down there! Move aside now!”
The Silver Knights blocked the Black Sword Knights who were trying to push their way in.
The two knight orders stood in opposition without giving an inch.
That’s when Duke Draker emerged from inside.
His eyes held fierce anger.
Duke drew the Wind Storm Sword he used during his Black Knight days and spoke quietly to the Silver Knights.
“Move aside. This is your final warning.”
The Silver Knights gulped at Duke’s murderous warning.
But they too were knights who moved under orders from their Lady Kali.
They held their swords and didn’t back down while withstanding Duke’s killing intent.
Seeing their attitude, storm force rose from Duke’s body.
WOOOONG!
Just as he was about to charge at the Silver Knights, something flew in at high speed.
CRASH!
An old sword stuck into the ground between the Silver Knights and Duke.
Duke immediately recognized the identity of that sword.
‘Bernas.’
None other than the Sword King Bernas’s blade.
Soon, Bernas appeared through the Silver Knights.
Duke frowned as he watched Bernas grip his old sword stuck in the ground.
“Sword King, what are you doing right now?”
Bernas simply stood holding his sword planted in the ground without a word.
Duke knew he was Kali Draker’s master and patron, but he never expected him to help her even in this situation.
Moreover, while Bernas had almost no interactions within House Draker, he was close enough with Duke to share drinks.
Duke knew well that the Sword King had no interest in House Draker’s politics or power, so he couldn’t understand his current actions.
And even when Duke expressed such doubts, Bernas still just stood quietly without drawing his sword.
Duke noticed something watching Bernas like this.
‘Could it be…?’
After making eye contact with Bernas for a moment, he took a step back.
Then he sheathed his sword again.
“…We’ll withdraw for now.”
On the surface, it looked like Duke was backing down out of fear of Bernas.
But at least the Black Sword Knights knew well that Duke wasn’t that kind of person.
They thought if he said to withdraw, there must be some reason.
The Black Sword Knights slowly backed away while glaring at the Sword King and Silver Knights at Duke’s words.
Only after the Black Sword Knights had completely withdrawn could the Silver Knights finally relax their tension.
Sword King Bernas remained standing guard even after the Black Sword Knights withdrew.
This was because Gareth, the Scarred Knight who led the Black Wolf Corps, appeared as soon as the Black Sword Knights retreated.
Gareth’s face hardened when he saw the Sword King and Silver Knights guarding the basement entrance of Winterkeep.
“Lord Bernas. The warning signal rang that external intruders have entered the Four Seasons Castle. We need to investigate, so please step aside.”
This time Bernas drew his planted sword and pointed it at Gareth while speaking.
“Denied.”
Though brief, the words carried extra weight coming from Sword King Bernas.
Bernas showed no signs of wavering even in the standoff with the Black Wolf Corps led by Gareth.
As long as Bernas, a Black Knight and currently House Draker’s strongest, was blocking the way, it was difficult for Gareth to push further.
But then Kali Draker came up from the basement.
She slowly opened her mouth looking at Gareth who had brought the Black Wolf Corps.
“Lord Gareth. There was an ambush in Winterkeep’s underground memorial space.”
Kali continued speaking with a composed expression.
“I confirmed that Sir Zeke Draker, who was paying respects… was ambushed by Jiemens’s assassins.”
* * *
The news that the Guardian Knight Zeke Draker, a direct bloodline member of House Draker, was ambushed during the family head’s funeral ceremony in the middle of the Four Seasons Castle quickly spread beyond Atlas throughout the entire Central Continent.
While death hadn’t been officially announced since no body was found, the blood traces left on the memorial room’s walls and floor made his death almost certain.
However, for that sliver of possibility, all of House Draker’s knights were mobilized to search throughout Atlas for the missing Zeke Draker.
While they were searching throughout Atlas, men in black under Howard's orders were moving Zeke's body through an unknown underground waterway.
This old underground waterway secretly connected to Winterkeep's basement was known to almost no one.
Even House Draker was unaware of it since it was built during the Holy Empire era, before Atlas became the center of Midland.
Howard's subordinates went inside along this maze-like underground waterway with practiced familiarity.
THUD!
They set down a chest containing Zeke's body somewhere.
Soon after the men in black left, Zeke appeared from the darkness where no one was present.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
The Zeke in the chest was a fake he created using his shadow clone.
The real Zeke had been observing how Howard and his subordinates would act while keeping himself hidden.
He had been watching who Howard met and discussed with by attaching ghost warriors behind him.
Zeke planned to find all the spys hiding within House Draker through this opportunity.
What was unexpected was where Howard brought the dead Zeke's corpse.
In truth, from Howard's position, the safest method would have been to leave traces of Jiemens assassins on Zeke's body and immediately announce his death to throw the family into chaos.
If they held onto Zeke's body unnecessarily and had their actions discovered by having their tail caught, the situation could completely reverse.
'There must be a reason they brought my body all the way here.'
Zeke examined the room where the chest was placed.
It seemed to be a space created for isolation from the outside, with all sides perfectly sealed off.
'Doesn't seem like a prison. What is it?'
Zeke planned to properly figure out the identity of this space by going outside while hidden in shadows.
A long dark corridor stretched out after going outside the space.
There were many intersections everywhere, and the structure was almost identical making it difficult to distinguish where was where.
The purpose of a space designed like this was one thing.
'Ultimately it's structured to make escape from inside difficult. Even if you could break out of the room, you're made to get lost wandering and end up going deeper inside instead.'
Slowly examining, Zeke judged this wasn't a safe house or secret space Howard created.
No matter that Howard was a Cross Council member of House Draker, it was impossible for him alone to create and maintain a space of this scale.
Even if he could, there was no reason to create such a space.
'Then this must be a place Howard joined hands with. I should be able to find out who his backing is that he trusts.'
In his past life, Howard sided with the Empire and greatly contributed to House Draker falling into the hands of Abel Draker and the Mad Emperor.
In this life the Mad Emperor was dead and the Empire was split in half, so he must have made a different choice than in the past life, but Zeke needed to find out who the target of that betrayal was.
'High chance it's either Jiemens or the Abyss.'
Those two were the only ones that came to mind who could create underground facilities of this scale in Atlas without anyone knowing.
At that moment, Zeke discovered people walking down the corridor and followed behind them while keeping himself hidden.
They seemed to be mages wearing robes, but the evil magic energy that Dark Mages of the Abyss give off couldn't be felt.
'Then is this some secret laboratory of Jiemens?'
Zeke moved closer while listening to the conversation between the two mages.
"Now that chimera research has almost entered the stabilization phase, the higher-ups should recognize our achievements."
"Don't judge hastily yet. It can only be called a proper success when we perfectly finish giving bloodline abilities to the test subjects and testing those functions."
"The bloodline ability enhancement and transfer experiments are practically successful already. We've reached the heights that the Head wished for."
Zeke realized this was a chimera research laboratory after hearing the two mages' conversation.
'If it's a chimera research lab, could it be...?'
Come to think of it, there was one more place that could create such a secret space besides Jiemens and the Abyss.
'The Nostra Family.'
They were mafia that had continued for a thousand years. They had created such a horrific laboratory under Atlas and were secretly creating chimeras as if mocking House Draker.
Zeke realized those Howard joined hands with were the Nostra Family.
Upon this realization, anger surged at the Nostra Family's bold actions and Howard who joined hands with such bastards.
'Howard, you tried to control House Draker by joining hands with mere criminals?'
Following his past life, Howard betrayed House Draker for his own benefit and power in this life as well.
He needed to root out all the family's traitors and dangerous elements including Howard through this opportunity.
'Leaving internal enemies could mean getting stabbed in the back later.'
It was a golden opportunity to eliminate all the internal enemies that had surfaced.
Zeke calmed his excitement and coldly examined the situation again.
'Howard must have tried to fill his lacking forces through deals with the Nostra Family. To remove me, make Sister Kali the family head, and control the family from behind.'
However, Howard's forces couldn't subdue Kali or the Silver Knights.
So it seemed he planned to use the Nostra Family's help to place a binding spell on her to make her follow his orders.
It was a dark and vile scheme to manipulate a direct descendant of House Draker.
'Wait, but a small-minded person like Howard couldn't have openly joined hands with the Nostra Family.'
Howard was a vile and loyal dog who followed Arthur Draker's orders.
'Would Arthur Draker really not have known about dealing with the Nostra Family?'
Moreover, it was hard to believe they were unaware of this laboratory's identity connected to the Four Seasons Castle.
'Rather, there's a higher chance the deals with the Nostra Family were led by Arthur or Baron.'
As he assessed the situation, Zeke speculated that Howard acted as an intermediary manager for the deals, then made new arrangements with the Nostra Family after Arthur's death.
Additionally, the Nostra Family would hold deep grudges against Zeke for losing several test subjects including Dario and the Six.
It seemed they dispatched bloodline ability users through Howard's hands to deal with Zeke in this opportunity.
Having thought that far, Zeke shuddered at the thought that Arthur Draker might have had relations with the Nostra Family as well.
'Just how many secrets was Arthur Draker hiding?'
He followed the two mages inside the laboratory with sunken eyes.
The two mages stood before a large black door and simultaneously placed their hands on two crystal orbs on either side.
WOONG!
Light shone from the crystal orbs and the black door slowly split open on both sides.
Zeke couldn't help but be shocked at what was hidden behind that door.
A turtle-like magical beast floated inside a massive glass tube, its entire body bound by chains.
Zeke recognized what the being in the glass tube was.
'Four Fiends?'
It was Dohl, one of the Four Fiends.
He already knew the Nostra Family's test subjects were chimeras created using Dohl's blood.
However, he hadn't known a place for extracting corrupted holy blood from Dohl existed under Atlas.
The mages examined black blood dripping drop by drop into a bottle placed next to the glass tube containing Dohl.
Then the Head Mage shook his head.
"Both the quality and quantity of blood are sorely lacking compared to before."
"Well, we've been extracting for quite a while, so that's probably why. Even for an extraordinary magical beast, there must be limits."
The Head Mage clicked his tongue and put the collected blood of Dohl into a bottle which he tucked away.
Just as he was about to close the door and leave.
"Hmm?"
Someone seemed to have sent him a message spell.
The mage beside him tilted his head and asked.
"What's wrong?"
He spoke while looking at the senior mage.
"Howard's side contacted to say the promised pure-blooded dragon slayer's corpse has arrived."
The Head Mage spoke with a faint smile.
"An opportunity for the final experiment."