508
Chapter 508
The king remained silent at Zeke's words.
His prediction was correct.
And in that moment, Zeke suddenly realized the principle behind this curse.
'When they believe they're cursed, killing the second son right after birth strengthens the curse through the vengeful spirit's words. The curse has grown stronger through generations of unjustly killed spirits, and then... the curse becomes real.'
Curses are formed by the power of wishes.
When verbal spells influence people to accumulate resentment, the curse gradually takes form and transforms into magic stronger than anything else.
The powerful vengeful spirits from these 'murders' must have materialized into a terrifying curse haunting this castle.
Zeke furrowed his brow and spoke to Herman and the king.
"If it was just a verbal spell, you could have ignored it from the start... Don't tell me you've continued these secret killings for over a thousand years?"
At Zeke's words, the king gripped the handle of his greatsword and spoke.
"This isn't just any spell, it's a curse spat out by the evil dragon Bahamut in its dying moment. If we had ignored it and not killed the second sons, the Thebea dynasty wouldn't have lasted this long."
He understood why the Kingdom of Thebea was particularly hostile to opening the palace.
They maintained a closed and exclusive attitude because their long-held secret murders might leak to the outside.
Zeke thought the king must have a reason for telling him these horrible secrets of the royal family.
"I understand what curse was placed on the Thebea royal family. But why are you telling me this? Does this story have something to do with the Nostra family?"
The king pressed his lips together, then took a deep breath and spoke.
"It was fifty years ago. Shortly after I ascended to the throne."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"As soon as I took the throne, the queen became pregnant, and the child was born after about seven months. The child was... a boy."
"Was this the first child?"
The king shook his head.
"No, I already had a son born before my ascension."
"Then that child was the second son."
At those words, the king trembled slightly and spoke.
"Following tradition, I tried to drown the newborn child. In fact, being seven months premature, he likely wouldn't have lived long anyway. But the queen absolutely refused to let me."
The king exhaled deeply.
"She begged me not to kill him, saying he wouldn't be affected by the curse since he was my first son after becoming king."
Zeke's expression turned serious at the king's words.
Since curses were verbal spells, they could work differently depending on how the words were interpreted.
If the queen and all the royalty strongly believed those words were true, the curse might not have applied.
But if the opposite was true, there was a high chance the curse would take effect.
The king continued speaking.
"After hearing the queen's plea, I contemplated. Then I chose a different method."
When the king fell silent, Herman, who was standing beside him, continued the story.
"As the royal guard at the time, I received orders to take the second son to the underground palace. Then I sent him adrift in a basket through the underground waterway."
They had found a method that was neither killing nor not killing.
Zeke spoke after hearing this.
"If a seven-month premature newborn was sent through the underground waterway, wouldn't that have killed him anyway?"
Herman nodded at Zeke's words.
"I thought so too. But... strange things started happening after that."
"What kind of strange things?"
Herman answered Zeke's question.
"People started disappearing from the palace, and parts of corpses began appearing."
People would suddenly vanish, and days later, severed arms, legs, or heads would appear throughout the palace.
Zeke's expression turned serious upon hearing Herman's words.
'Placing severed corpses throughout the palace?'
The fact that the bodies weren't hidden but placed throughout the palace suggested this was likely some form of curse.
Zeke asked Herman.
"When did the disappearances and corpse discoveries begin?"
Herman thought for a moment before answering.
"It started fifty years ago."
Zeke's expression grew even more serious.
"From when you sent the second son down the underground waterway."
Zeke looked at the king and said.
"Your Majesty, do you think there's a connection between the cursed second son who was abandoned fifty years ago and the Nostra family?"
The king gripped his greatsword's handle tightly and trembled as he spoke.
"...When I started losing my sight, the sounds, the sounds became clearer. The pitiful crying of a child."
WAAAH
Zeke could understand why the king made such a choice in his past life.
When he first saw him here, he thought the king had the dignity of a brave and strong knight like the Lion King, the founder of the Kingdom of Thebea, but that wasn't the case at all.
He was just an old man, scared of his own sins, paralyzed with fear and unable to act.
Zeke fell into thought as he watched the trembling king.
'Given the circumstances, it seems the curse on Thebea Palace and the Boss of the Nostra family are somehow connected... but I'll need to investigate the waterway where the second son was sent to understand the full situation.'
For this, he needed authority to investigate.
Zeke looked at the king and spoke.
"Your Majesty, before being called the Knight of Salvation, I was known as the Exorcist Knight. If you permit me, I will attempt to exorcise this curse placed on the Kingdom of Thebea."
The king stared blankly into space before turning his head toward Zeke.
He looked at him with unfocused eyes and nodded.
"...I permit it."
After weakly uttering those words, the king sank back into his chair.
Seeing the king like this, Herman spoke to Zeke.
"I'll escort His Majesty to his chambers. Please wait a moment."
He reached out again and touched a spot on the chair.
Surprisingly, a portal activated and both Herman and the king disappeared.
Seeing the portals operating throughout the palace, Zeke realized something.
'Come to think of it, this palace itself, especially underground, has a higher mana concentration. Could this also be related to the curse?'
The more he looked around, the more oddities he found in Thebea Palace.
Now that he had obtained investigation authority from the king, he needed to track down traces of the curse and the Total Boss as quickly as possible.
Just then, the portal activated again and Herman appeared.
He approached Zeke.
"Sir Zeke, if there's anything I can help with for the exorcism, please tell me. I'll help in any way."
Zeke nodded at Herman's words and spoke.
"There are two things I need help with."
"Please speak."
"First, I need information about the people who disappeared from the palace and the corpses that were found. I need everything from fifty years ago to recent cases."
Herman nodded at Zeke's words.
"Understood. What's the other thing?"
Zeke looked around as he responded to Herman.
"After this time, ensure that no one enters the palace underground."
He turned to meet Herman's eyes directly and continued.
"Only you, Lord Herman, are allowed access."
* * *
'Hmm.'
Zeke was examining the documents Herman had brought in the secret underground chamber of Thebea Palace.
These were records of mysterious disappearances and corpse disposals that began fifty years ago, but there wasn't as much information as he'd expected.
'Since it happened in the palace, it seems proper investigations weren't conducted.'
Zeke closed the documents and stood up.
In truth, he had requested the documents not for their content but because he needed a medium to access the Akashic Code.
With a proper medium, he could access any information through the Akashic Code.
Zeke reached out toward the documents.
KIIIIING
Through them, he connected to the Akashic Code.
Countless pieces of information rushed in from all directions like stars before his eyes.
Zeke activated Dragon's Wisdom and Sage's Eyes to filter the information.
Information related to the disappearances and corpse disposals in Thebea Palace flowed into his mind.
Since absorbing the Elder Dragon's heart fragment, Zeke noticed he could process information much more easily than before.
For an ordinary human, it would have been impossible to process so much information at once in such a short time.
Zeke quickly examined the incoming information, trying to uncover the truth behind the incidents.
Then at one moment, his attention fixed on a single keyword.
'This is...?'
Zeke fell into deep thought as he looked at the keyword that had emerged.
'As I thought, Bahamut wasn't the source of the curse.'
Zeke could somewhat guess how the curse had started from a completely different direction than he'd thought, and how it had become connected to the Nostra family.
He examined the keyword floating before him once more.
'The Cursed Prince of the Fallen Kingdom.'
* * *
RATTLE! RATTLE! RATTLE!
The king of Thebea sat by the fire, trembling.
Even before the blazing fire, he was pale and shaking with cold. Finding the chill unbearable, he shouted at his attendants.
"Stoke the fire more! Hurry!"
The attendants added more firewood to the fireplace.
The flames grew larger, swelling as if to swallow the king.
Yet the king continued to tremble.
"Your Majesty, it's dangerous to get any closer to the flames."
The king tried to stay near the flames despite the concerned warning.
But at that moment, the king startled.
The voice of concern hadn't belonged to an attendant or Herman.
"W-who's there?!"
Zeke emerged from the shadows and approached the king's side.
He created a chair from shadows and sat beside the king.
"It's Zeke Draker, Your Majesty."
The king roared upon realizing an unauthorized person had infiltrated his chambers.
"Guards! There's an intruder! Remove this man at once!"
But no one came running at the king's command.
Zeke looked at the king and spoke.
"I blocked the sound briefly as I have something to discuss with Your Majesty."
The king ground his teeth and flailed his arms.
"Y-you! How dare you threaten me?!"
Seeing the king now seemingly incapable of rational judgment unlike before, Zeke spoke quietly.
"I've never threatened you. I simply came to ask one thing."
He looked at the blind king and said.
"The curse on the Thebea royal family. It wasn't placed by Bahamut, was it?"
The king stopped flailing at Zeke's words.
He glared toward the direction of Zeke's voice with unfocused eyes and shouted.
"What nonsense! This curse was indeed placed by the evil dragon Bahamut!"
"Is that so? Then I cannot break this curse, so I’m taking my leave."
The king panicked at those words, waving his hands toward Zeke.
"W-wait! Didn't you say you could break this curse?!"
"Your Majesty, how could I perform an exorcism without knowing the curse's source? My investigation shows it has nothing to do with Bahamut, so there's nothing I can do."
The king bit his lip at Zeke's words.
He stared into space with his blind eyes, trembling.
Zeke spoke to the king again.
"Your Majesty, if you want an exorcism, you must tell me the true source and nature of the curse."
The king clutched his head, teeth chattering.
He finally spoke with a trembling voice.
"Y-you're right. The curse wasn't placed by Bahamut."
"Then who placed it?"
After much hesitation, the king barely opened his mouth.
"...T-the princes of the fallen kingdom."
Zeke's eyebrow twitched at the king's words.
"Please explain in more detail."
At his urging, the king took a deep breath and spoke again.
"The princes of the Six Kingdoms that fell a thousand years ago... they fled to the Kingdom of Thebea, their last stronghold."
"What connection do they have to the Thebea royal family's curse?"
WHOOSH
The fireplace flames blazed even more fiercely.
The king continued while trembling.
"...Sacrifices were needed."
He spoke with a self-mocking smile.
"To summon absolute power to stop the evil dragon, the Thebea royal family... made sacrifices of the fallen kingdoms' princes."