Chapter 73
Chapter 73
"Mother was a Healer class?"
When Zeke was surprised, Rufus nodded and said.
"You probably won't understand if I explain it this way. The concept of classes itself has disappeared these days."
Although Zeke knew what classes were through his previous life's mentor, he pretended not to know.
"This is my first time hearing about classes."
"As a pureblood awakened one of the Drakers, you must remember the blessing ceremony you received in the cradle."
"Of course. It's impossible to forget even if I wanted to."
"While the Drakers call it a blessing ceremony, it's actually just a class awakening ceremony. Most Drakers awaken as the 'Warrior' class."
Surprisingly, Rufus had accurately identified the class of the Draker bloodline.
"Warrior class. Are there other classes as well?"
"Of course. In ancient times, they would discern people's talents and assign appropriate classes to help develop their abilities to a higher level systematically. However, in today's age of knights, they mostly only divide classes into knights and mages."
"Awakening classes according to talent. That sounds quite rational when you think about it."
"Yes. Those talented with swords take the path of the warrior, those talented with bows take the path of the archer, those talented with spears take the path of the spearman. That's the meaning of classes."
Zeke nodded at Rufus's words.
He still shuddered thinking about how he had suffered in the Draker family, which was a warrior house, simply because he was born with healer talents.
'Wait, if Mother was a Healer class, doesn't that mean Father knew about it too?'
Zeke asked Rufus.
"If Mother was a healer, would Arthur Draker have known about this class concept as well?"
Rufus nodded.
"He probably knew."
This made Zeke wonder.
'He must have known I had talents other than warrior talents, so why did he expel me from the family?'
If his mother was a healer, they should have known the benefits of having a healer, so he couldn't understand why they deliberately neglected him.
Zeke asked Rufus.
"Do you know anything about the Healer class?"
Rufus slowly began to speak.
"I don't know the details either. It's such a rare talent that there's almost nothing left in the transmitted records. One thing for certain is that my aunt, the previous head of the family, also had healer talents."
As Zeke expected, Agamemnon's previous family head was a Healer class.
Given that only the previous family head with healing powers and Zeke could activate the golden mask, this artifact was likely only usable by those with healer talents.
"Were there many healers in the Agamemnon family?"
Rufus shook his head.
"They were rare. Most were warriors with physical strength like me and the family elders. However, the position of family head was traditionally held by those born with healer talents."
"Then Mother could have held the position of family head too."
"She was more than qualified. But Laura left this castle for the Holy Kingdom before she even came of age."
Zeke was surprised by this unexpected information.
"The Holy Kingdom? Why did she go there?"
"Laura didn't tell me the details. She just said she was leaving to find a way to save the family. Later, she left saying she would marry Arthur Draker."
The more he heard, the more questions Zeke had about his mother.
Zeke fell into thought as he looked at the emblem engraved on the forehead of the golden mask, which was identical to the Holy Kingdom's crest.
'Perhaps Mother went to the Holy Kingdom to research about the Healer class. To purify the magical energy corrupting the family with her power.'
There was only one person who knew the exact truth about this.
It was his father, Arthur Draker.
'If I ask him, would he even answer?'
Given the circumstances, the Drakers had essentially abandoned the cursed Agamemnon family to solidify their own power.
Moreover, Arthur Draker from his previous life knew Zeke's identity but left him alone until he was expelled from the family, meaning the Agamemnon family would have been completely corrupted by magical energy and disappeared without a trace in his previous life.
Zeke realized that many things were more complexly intertwined than he thought.
'There's a lot to investigate step by step.'
"Zeke, there's something I want to give you."
At that moment, Rufus took off the necklace he was wearing and placed it in Zeke's hand.
Zeke examined the necklace Rufus gave him.
The pendant on the necklace could be opened, and when he opened the lid, there was an old photograph of a woman inside.
Zeke's eyes trembled when he saw the woman's face.
"Lord. This photo..."
"Lora Agamemnon. Your mother."
Throughout both his previous life and current life, Zeke had never seen his mother.
The mother in the photograph appeared to be around the same age as Zeke.
With her long, silk-like beautiful hair swept to the side, she was an elegant yet strong-willed beautiful woman.
Looking at the photograph, Zeke asked Rufus.
"...Did mother also have black eyes like me?"
Rufus shook his head in response.
"No. Laura's eyes were a beautiful emerald green that shone like gemstones."
"All this time, I thought my eyes would have resembled my mother's."
"Except for the eye color, you're the spitting image of Laura. When I first saw you yesterday, I thought Laura had returned."
The other elders standing behind also nodded their heads.
Zeke closed the locket's lid and put it around his neck.
"Thank you, Head of Family. I will cherish this dearly."
Rufus looked at Zeke and said.
"After Laura left the family, one day she suddenly returned after a long time. Then she left again after leaving behind just one statement."
"What did she say?"
"A child with black eyes will restore the family to its original state."
Zeke's expression hardened.
"Was that mother's prophecy?"
Rufus nodded.
"Laura was a Healer class, but she was also an Irregular. She was extraordinary since childhood."
In the Central Continent, the perception of Irregulars was not very positive.
During the Holy Empire period, there were even religious trials and witch hunts against Irregulars.
'So mother was an Irregular...'
Rufus held Zeke's hand and said.
"More than that, you said you needed the family's support. What support? Zeke, you are the only heir to House Agamemnon."
* * *
"Whew!."
In the training room of the Agamemnon castle, Zeke took a breath while wielding Bahamut and swung his sword.
Because the Head of the Family designated Zeke as the family heir, he decided to stay at the castle longer to handle various procedures.
Since there was still time until the martial arts tournament, Zeke decided to follow the Head of the Family's words.
And during his stay, Zeke came to learn the 'Golden Swordsmanship,' the secret sword technique of the Agamemnon family.
He first learned the forms of swordsmanship by studying the family's traditional secret records.
Befitting its long tradition,House Agamemnon had a deep history of swordsmanship.
The hereditary sword technique that direct bloodline members had to learn was ‘Shield Swordsmanship’ that handled both shield and sword simultaneously.
While learning the sword forms, Zeke felt that this technique was similar to both the Paladin's hereditary swordsmanship and the Imperial style swordsmanship.
'Could all three sword styles share the same roots?'
In particular, the Agamemnon-style shield swordsmanship and Golden Swordsmanship, was created on the premise of wearing full plate armor and wielding a large kite shield.
Zeke could now understand why the people of Agamemnon had such good physiques.
While learning the Golden Swordsmanship, he thought of one thing.
'Golden Swordsmanship is a technique with well-balanced offense and defense. If I combine this with the Soul Body Technique I learned from my previous master...'
He couldn't use the perfect Soul Body Technique yet because the dragon clan skill, Incantation, hadn't been unlocked.
After Incantation was unlocked, if he could combine Golden Swordsmanship with the complete Soul Body Technique, it could potentially become a new weapon alongside Elemental Sword and True Dragon Sword technique.
After learning the sword forms to some extent, Zeke activated Hersion to wear it in full plate armor form, then wielded both Golin's shield and Bahamut to demonstrate the Agamemnon's Golden Swordsmanship.
Whoosh!
He struck with the shield, stepped back to thrust with the sword, then turned around to swing the sword again.
He enhanced his agility with Wind Storm technique and strengthened his attacks with Aura.
Whish!
Even without creating an Aura Blade, Zeke's attacks were so fast and powerful that ordinary knights would struggle to defend against them.
Hung!
"Whew."
Deactivating his helmet, Zeke smiled with satisfaction at his movements.
He looked down at Hersion and licked his lips.
"This is really good, but I can't use it properly because I'm worried about those Imperial bastards catching on."
He wanted to use it actively if he could just change its form.
Zeke thought he should make time to meet Golin directly to modify Hersion.
Deciding to finish training here, he deactivated Hersion and left the training room.
When he went out to the garden, he saw the Agamemnon elders surrounding Felix and teaching him swordsmanship.
Whish!
"Don't turn there!"
"Keep your axis more steady!"
"Hold your center of gravity tight!"
Since Paladin hereditary swordsmanship and Agamemnon's Golden Swordsmanship had many similarities, learning from the elders would surely become beneficial knowledge.
However, Felix, who was actually receiving the instruction, was having a miserable time.
"Huuh. Master. Please save me."
Felix looked at Zeke with a crying expression, but he turned his head away and ignored the call for help.
'Work hard, Felix. It's absolutely not because I'm too lazy to teach you.'
For the elders who had been trapped in the castle for 50 years, Felix was good prey.
Zeke left Felix to be slowly cooked by the elders and entered the castle.
At that moment, the head maid approached Zeke.
"Young master. The head of family is calling for you."
The head maid, who had lost her initially gloomy old woman appearance, grew more elegant as days passed.
'Though it's still a bit scary when she laughs with that ‘heek heek’ sound sometimes.'
Zeke followed the head maid's words and made his way to the family head's office.
When he arrived at the office, documents were piled like mountains on Rufus's desk.
As the Agamemnon family was coming out to the world after 50 years, there were countless matters that needed to be handled.
"Grandfather."
Rufus had asked to be called grandfather, not family head, when they were alone.
Rufus saw Zeke through the pile of documents and stood up from his seat.
"Whew. Trying to do paperwork after so long is giving me a headache. Let's go out and have some tea."
When Rufus and Zeke went out to the terrace, maids brought out tea.
Zeke asked Rufus.
"Then how have you been managing the city's operations until now?"
Rufus stroked his neatly trimmed beard and said.
"I left it to proxies outside the territory and only made important decisions which were delivered by letter."
"So there were proxies."
Rufus put down his teacup and said.
"That's actually why I called you."
He looked at Zeke and said.
"The Agamemnon family has protected Mycenae as its guardian for a long time. At the same time, three families helped us manage Mycenae and the surrounding territories."
"You mean the vassals."
"Zeke, to become the official heir of Agamemnon, you need to receive their acknowledgment."
It was a kind of safety measure put in place to prevent those in power from becoming dictators.
Zeke nodded at Rufus's words.
"That works out well. I actually had something I wanted to ask you."
"What is it? Tell me anything."
At Rufus's words, Zeke's eyes gleamed.
"I would like you to invite to the castle all the family heads and lords of the families connected to Agamemnon, including those three proxy families."