645
Chapter 645
KWAKWAKWAKWAKA!
Zeke felt like he was being sucked into a dark tunnel instantly.
‘UGH!'
He felt dizzy and about to lose consciousness from the dizzying sensation.
However, he was able to maintain consciousness thanks to his unique ability.
Soon the dark tunnel ended and his vision filled with light.
Zeke could open his eyes again.
* * *
"Rex."
Returning to Rex Tourn's body, Zeke was startled by the person in front of him.
'Mother?'
Laura Agamemnon was looking at him with a worried expression.
'How is mother here?'
Rex also looked at Laura in surprise and said.
"Laura? How is this possible?."
Looking around, it seemed to be the campsite they had set up in the surrounding caves before entering the dungeon.
The arrival point of Ramon's spatial movement scroll had been set to this location.
"URGH."
Rex realized his body was wrapped in bandages.
Every part of his body ached.
He opened his mouth while looking at Laura.
"H-how did…?"
At that moment, Ramon emerged from the forest carrying dry twigs.
"I called Laura."
He put down the twigs and approached Rex.
"The scroll I used was given by Laura. Just in case. I set the location, but I never thought I'd actually use it. She saved our lives."
Hearing Ramon's words, Rex tried to get up.
"Ugh..."
Laura supported Rex as he tried to force himself up and said.
"Although I healed you, you haven't fully recovered yet. Stay lying down a bit longer."
The injuries from the dungeon seemed to have worsened during spatial movement.
As Rex tried to compose himself while barely enduring the pain, he suddenly came to his senses and shouted.
"Arthur!"
He vividly remembered Arthur collapsing with his heart pierced by an unknown demon.
He looked at Ramon, but he just sat silently on a nearby rock.
Laura spoke while looking at Rex.
"I came here right after receiving Ramon's message . It's been about two days since you came out of the dungeon. But... Arthur hasn't come out yet."
At Laura's words, Rex forcefully tried to get up.
Ramon quickly approached to make Rex lie down again, but he rejected the helping hand by swinging his arm.
Rex glared at Ramon and said.
"Arthur is in there. We need to go get him."
Ramon furrowed his brow at those words and said.
"Rex, Arthur is dead."
At Ramon's definitive statement about Arthur's death, Rex jumped up.
"Arthur isn't someone who'd die just because you kill him!"
Although he was a boringly serious person who only thought about himself, Arthur was still their precious friend.
He was a weird sword maniac who only gave strange daggers from who knows where as birthday presents every year, but Arthur never missed his friends' birthdays.
Although Laura's personality didn't match well with Arthur's either, she still accompanied him whenever he suggested going to dungeons, even while complaining.
Though they had fought quite badly recently and said they wouldn't work together again, it was something that would eventually be resolved.
They understood that even though he was clumsy at expressing it, he sincerely considered them friends and cared for them.
That's why Rex didn't want to accept Arthur's death, and even if he had died, he couldn't leave his body in the dungeon.
But Ramon was different.
"Think rationally, Rex. That thing killed Arthur in one hit. Going down there injured won't accomplish anything."
Ramon, true to his Jiemens bloodline, assessed the situation logically.
Rex understood the situation intellectually as well, but his heart just couldn't accept it.
"Arthur can't be dead. He must have pretended to trick the demon. He must be waiting for our rescue somewhere in the dungeon."
He forcefully tried to get up and find his sword.
Watching Rex, Ramon shouted.
"You idiot!"
Ramon forcefully pushed Rex down to prevent him from getting up and raised his voice.
"If you go, you'll die for nothing! Is that what Arthur would want?"
Ramon glared at Rex while breathing roughly.
His clenched fists were trembling.
Looking at Ramon, Rex slowly lowered his head.
"...Ramon."
He knew that Arthur was already dead and realized he was being unreasonably stubborn. But he couldn't just stay still like this.
Then Laura, who was behind them, spoke up.
"Ramon, I think we should first inform the Drakers about the situation. Even if Arthur is... really dead, Rex is right that we need to recover his body."
At her words, Ramon briefly held his breath before sitting down on a nearby rock with his body relaxed.
After a moment of silence, he slowly opened his mouth.
"...Draker won't take action even if we tell them."
Rex and Laura were both startled by his words.
Laura looked at Ramon and asked.
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't the Drakers take action? Arthur is Draker's pureblood direct descendant. So why wouldn't the family act?"
Then Ramon lifted his head and continued.
"He is indeed Draker's pureblood direct descendant. But... that's exactly the problem."
At Ramon's words, Rex's eyes widened as if he noticed something.
"Don't tell me you're talking about the Draker successor competition?"
Ramon slowly nodded at Rex's words.
Although Arthur Draker was a pureblood direct descendant, he wasn't the only one. Rather, he had quite many siblings.
Moreover, when it came to bloodline alone, he was actually quite far down in the succession order.
The size of the maternal family is important to gain power in the succession competition.
The current head of Draker formed marriage alliances with not only massive blood alliance families but also smaller families when strategically necessary, and had children.
Thanks to this, the Draker family was able to grow even larger than before.
Their past as a vassal family to the Agamemnon family was now untraceable as they stood at the center of the Midlands.
Therefore, the competition to decide the next head of the Draker family could only become fierce.
And while Arthur Draker was a pureblood direct descendant with outstanding abilities, his maternal family's influence wasn't very strong.
To be more precise, rather than being weak, Arthur Draker was at a disadvantage.
His maternal family wasn't a noble family but a merchant family that had amassed great wealth and supplied military goods to the Draker family.
The current head of Draker didn't mind that it was a merchant family and took the merchant guild master's daughter as his fourth wife.
That's how Arthur Draker was born, but the problem was that the merchant guild dissolved after being involved in various corruptions including accounting fraud.
Although it was kept quiet, people within the family knew that it was ultimately the current head who orchestrated this.
The merchant guild's assets flowed into Draker, and Arthur Draker was left in a situation where he received no support while being labeled as someone from a corrupt merchant family bloodline.
If he hadn't been a pureblood direct descendant or hadn't had talent with the sword, it wouldn't have been strange if he had been expelled from the Draker family.
Ramon shared Arthur Draker's current situation with his friends.
Laura, who hadn't known these inner circumstances about Arthur, could now understand why he was so wary of others.
Then Ramon opened his mouth again.
"The Draker council kept being wary of Arthur. Because his talent overshadowed the most likely successor candidate."
There was a principle that the head of Draker should be succeeded by the most outstanding person of the generation.
While the eldest son had the strongest backing within the family, everyone could see that Arthur Draker's talent was more outstanding.
Becoming a Blue Knight in his twenties and creating an Aura Blade was unprecedented even in the Draker family blessed by the Aura.
That's why the Draker family was wary of Arthur Draker.
"Arthur's reckless dungeon explorations were probably a measure to escape the family's attention. But... Draker used that against him."
The moment Ramon said this, Rex's eyes changed.
"Ramon, don't tell me... you think Draker lured Arthur here?"
Rex's words made Ramon's expression harden.
Laura was also shocked by Rex's words and looked at Ramon.
"Even for Draker... setting up a trap for a pureblood direct descendant? How could they..?."
Laura felt dizzy at Draker's vile and heartless schemes.
When her family was cursed and faced extinction, Draker not only refused to help but rather backstabbed them and took the position of ruler of the blood alliance and Midlands.
She knew they were that kind of family, but she hadn't expected them to use such cowardly schemes even against their direct bloodline.
Ramon looked at Rex and Laura and said.
"Listen carefully, everyone. What I just said is only a hypothesis. But if it's not a hypothesis but fact..."
He swallowed dry saliva and said.
"We must keep silent about Arthur's death. Otherwise, we too will..."
"Keep silent, you say."
Just then, a familiar voice was heard from behind.
Ramon, Rex, and Laura were startled and turned around.
Rex jumped up despite his injuries.
"Arthur!"
Surprisingly, Arthur Draker, whom they thought was dead, had returned completely fine.
He slowly walked to where they were.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Ramon's face gradually turned pale at the sound of Arthur Draker's approaching footsteps.
The magic lamp installed in the cave clearly revealed Arthur Draker's face.
At that moment, Laura sensed something odd about the returned Arthur.
'What is this?'
Though his appearance was the same, the atmosphere he gave off was different.
It felt as if some massive power had been compressed into the shell called Arthur Draker.
Rex, seemingly unaware of Arthur's change, approached him and friendly grabbed his shoulder.
"Arthur! Good heavens, I thought you were dead!"
Seeing Arthur alive, Rex unconsciously shed tears.
Then surprisingly, Arthur smiled and responded to Rex's words.
"Rex, my loyal friend. Thank you for worrying about me. You don't need to worry anymore. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."
The previous Arthur had a blunt personality, rarely speaking unnecessary words.
But unlike before when he was awkward with expression, the returned Arthur comforted Rex using elegant phrases like a skilled actor.
Rex, overjoyed at his friend's survival, failed to notice these changes.
Then Arthur turned his head to look at Laura.
"Laura, you came all this way for us. Thank you. Though late, I offer my gratitude."
But unlike Rex, Laura felt perplexed by Arthur Draker's suddenly changed manner of speech.
The previous Arthur, though irritating and unpleasant, still had some human aspects.
But the current Arthur felt strangely repulsive.
'What is this? Arthur's back alive but something feels off.'
She was feeling an instinctive aversion to Arthur.
Despite Laura's complicated expression and silence, Arthur just gave a smirk and turned away.
Then he slowly approached Ramon.
"Ramon, thanks to your quick thinking, we all could survive. As expected of the Jiemens bloodline, truly excellent."
His tone was like praising a vassal rather than a friend.
Ramon felt Arthur's change but couldn't easily open his mouth.
Arthur stood right in front of Ramon and slowly gripped his shoulder while continuing.
"Thank you, Ramon. But there's one thing I'm curious about."
Suddenly Arthur's eyes flashed.
Arthur's hand gripping Ramon's shoulder gradually tightened.
He made eye contact with Ramon and said.
"Why did you lure me into a trap?"