Chapter 129
Sieg headed to Felix's hometown.
As Felix had said, it wasn't far from Sieg's domain, and they arrived within half a day.
"Whoo, the village has changed a lot."
Felix, having left his hometown after the death of his grandfather, returned after ten years.
When the knight leading the carriage entered the village, the village chief rushed out, startled.
"Wh-Why are knights visiting such a humble place...?"
Felix recognized the village chief and exclaimed.
"Oh! Uncle Thomas!"
Chief Thomas was surprised to see Felix.
"Huh? Could you be Felix from Old Pav's house?"
Felix jumped down from his horse and stood before the chief.
"Yes, it's Felix. How have you been? I didn't know that Uncle Thomas became the village chief."
Thomas was taken aback to see the mischievous Felix return as a dignified knight.
"Oh my, when you ran away saying you wanted to be a knight and left for the city, the whole village was in an uproar. But did you really become a knight?"
Chief Thomas lowered his voice slightly as he looked at Sieg who gracefully descended from his horse.
To this, Felix shook his head.
"No. I'm still an apprentice knight. This is Sir Sieg Draker whom I serve, uncle."
Sieg formally greeted Thomas.
"Nice to meet you. I am Sieg Draker."
It was at this moment Thomas noticed the gloves Sieg was wearing.
"A-A pureblood Draker! I apologize for my ignorance, Sir!"
Sieg calmed the flustered chief and spoke softly.
"There's no need to be tense. We're just here to look around as it's Felix's hometown."
The chief found it hard to believe that a pureblood Draker would visit a remote village like his.
Felix quietly approached the chief and said,
"Uncle, the Lord wishes to stay quietly. Please don't tell anyone else."
The chief nodded vigorously.
Sieg accompanied Felix to his former home.
"Whew!"
Felix's old home, which he hadn't visited in ten years, was covered in dust.
As Felix looked at the house, he nostalgically recalled memories with his grandfather.
They opened the door and went inside.
"My goodness."
As soon as they opened the door, dust flew up, making it hard to breathe properly.
Felix looked at Sieg and said,
"My Lord, this is the place, but it doesn't seem like there's anything here."
Sieg activated Dragon Eyes and inspected every corner of the house.
There were only ordinary household items lying around; nothing seemed suspicious.
'Did he really leave nothing behind?'
Sieg meticulously searched not just the first floor but also the second floor, knocking on the wooden floor to find any trace.
But nowhere in the house could he find any special clue.
"It should be Felix's grandfather..."
Sieg murmured to himself while standing up and looking around but noticed Felix was missing. When there was no response upon calling him, Sieg went outside.
Going around to the backyard, he found Felix standing in front of three side-by-side tombstones.
"Felix."
Felix stood staring silently at the tombstones.
The tombstones bore the names of his grandfather, Pav Valencia, and two individuals presumed to be Felix's parents.
Felix slowly spoke,
"Grandfather said it was a carriage accident."
Sieg had never heard Felix speak of his parents.
He only heard that Felix had been raised by his grandfather from a young age, which led Sieg to assume there was some reason behind it.
Felix touched his parents' tombstone,
"I think I was about three. The carriage overturned, and I was the only one who survived. After that, I lived with my grandfather."
Sieg asked Felix,
"Do you remember your parents' faces?"
Felix shook his head,
"No. It's so faint that I almost remember, but not quite."
Sieg, not remembering his mother's face or even her name, understood Felix's feelings.
He patted Felix on the shoulder without saying a word.
It was at that moment,
"Wait?"
Felix, who seemed to be in mourning, uttered a curious voice. He had noticed something unusual around the gravestones.
"My Lord, take a look at this."
Sieg looked in the direction Felix indicated.
"What is it?"
"The area around the gravestones. Isn't it too clean?"
Upon Felix's comment, Sieg examined the area around the gravestones.
Unlike the rest of the place, which was overgrown with grass and dust, only the grave area was notably clean.
'Could it be?'
Sieg activated Dragon Eyes and inspected the area around the gravestones.
He discovered an entrance cleverly concealed behind the gravestone.
Sieg told Felix,
"Step back."
Unleashing the Energy of Metal to amplify his strength, he lodged his fingers into the soil behind the gravestone.
He then lifted the heavy stone slab cleanly.
Rumble!
A secret chamber hidden for decades was revealed.
Felix, startled to see an entrance leading underground, exclaimed.
"My goodness, who would've thought there was such a thing in our backyard..."
Thud!
After fully revealing the entrance, Sieg asked Felix,
"Did your grandfather ever mention anything about this?"
Felix nodded.
Together, Sieg and Felix descended the underground stairs.
The stairs led much deeper than expected.
Observing the stone-constructed underground architecture, Sieg admired it.
'This wasn't built overnight; it took decades to complete.'
It closely resembled a catacomb Sieg had seen in a past life.
He recalled seeing catacombs built in a similar manner beneath temples to bury the bodies.
Sieg found it hard to believe that Felix's grandfather had constructed this massive catacomb alone.
As they marveled and walked deeper into the underground catacomb, a grand hall appeared.
On the hall's front, Sieg noticed a sign.
'That is...?'
It was a symbol of the sun.
It resembled the emblem of the Paladins but seemed more complex.
Sieg recalled seeing this symbol before.
'Agamemnon's Mask.'
He immediately retrieved Agamemnon's Mask from his inventory.
The emblem on Agamemnon's Mask matched the symbol's form perfectly.
Initially, he thought this symbol was the same as that of the Holy Kingdom, but upon inspection, there was a subtle difference.
Surprisingly, the symbol created by Felix's grandfather in the catacomb matched the emblem on Agamemnon's Mask perfectly.
'Could Agamemnon's Mask be related to this place?'
Sieg pocketed the mask and activated Dragon Eyes to inspect the surroundings.
Soon he realized something he hadn't known before.
'It's actually a tomb.'
Inside the walls, cleverly hidden stone-covered tombs existed in the dozens.
While examining these hidden tombs, Sieg found names finely inscribed on them, which surprised him.
"Rubern?"
The unexpected name appeared.
Sieg confirmed each tomb.
Though not all, most tombs bore the name Rubern.
Sieg then realized what this catacomb was.
'These are the bloodlines of the Rubern dynasty, who were cut off in the Holy Empire. Pav Valencia secretly relocated them.'
The Arc Paladin was a primary force in the Holy Kingdom.
Disbanding a force capable of opposing the Dark Knights seemed unreasonable, which had always been puzzling to him. Now, it began to make sense.
To the Holy Kingdom, formed of Papal factions, the bloodlines of the Rubern dynasty were a weakness that could undermine papal authority.
Even as an Arc Paladin, Pav went against the Holy Kingdom's orders and relocated the Rubern dynasty bloodlines to the Troy Duchy.
'This was more severe than simple political intrigue.'
If Pav Valencia, an Arc Paladin, had joined forces aiming to oust the corrupt papal factions to form a new Holy Kingdom centered around the Rubern dynasty, it would have been a catastrophic event that could collapse the entire order.
Sieg felt a sense of futility looking at the tombs containing the Rubern dynasty's bloodline he sought due to his quest.
'Perhaps Rubern's lineage is no more.'
At that moment,
Sieg's Dragon Eyes detected something new.
There was an empty space behind the solar symbol hanging in the hall's front.
Sieg leaped onto the wall.
Using the edge of his hand, he sliced open the solar emblem.
Thud!
When the emblem hit the floor, a hidden space was revealed.
He reached inside and pulled out what was hidden, landing smoothly.
What Sieg pulled out was a long box wrapped in cloth.
"What could this be, My Lord?"
"We'll find out once we open it."
As Sieg unwrapped it, an old box emerged.
He removed the locked padlock and opened the box, revealing a sword sheathed and a book along with a letter.
Felix recognized the handwriting on the letter and was taken aback.
"Oh? This is Grandfather's handwriting."
Sieg unfolded the letter left by Pav Valencia.
He quickly scanned through its contents.
'My guess was right. Pav Valencia aimed to save Rubern's bloodline.'
He had rescued the Rubern dynasty bloodlines imprisoned deep within the Holy Kingdom's Grand Church and escaped to the Troy Duchy.
Even while in hiding, he traveled the continent in search of the scattered bloodlines post the Holy Empire.
During his endeavors, he had taken a child he met by chance as an adopted son, who eventually wed a village maiden and fathered Felix.
Unfortunately, Felix's parents didn't die in a carriage accident.
Agents from a secret organization of the Holy Kingdom, tracking Pav, murdered Felix's parents as an example.
Though they couldn't kill Arc Paladin Pav, they warned him that the sin would be forgiven if he returned to the Holy Kingdom.
Yet Pav Valencia steadfastly sought out Rubern's bloodline and raised young Felix like his grandson.
Before dying of illness, he even transferred his aura to Felix.
However, he wished not to pass his mission onto Felix, choosing instead to quietly bury this secret.
Reading the final words of the letter, Sieg felt a twinge.
〈The church feared Rubern's bloodline would return to the outside world yet feared their lineage dying out. It's likely due to their hereditary ability. Rubern's bloodline possesses the ability to 'invoke miracles'.
Believing this task was divinely ordained for me by God, I aimed to save those confined and exploited for their abilities by the church solely for its benefit.〉
The letter ended there.
After contemplating, Sieg handed the letter to Felix.
The judgment on the secret his grandfather hid was Felix's to make, not his.
While Felix read the letter, Sieg examined the sword and book left by Pav.
He unsheathed the sword, recognizing it immediately.
"Orichalcum Sword..."
It seemed to be an orichalcum hammer forged into a sword.
Observing the gentle luminescence from the Orichalcum Sword, Sieg felt familiarity.
It had a similar sensation to the Rubern's Crown, which Richmond had offered as a treasure.
"The crown wasn't Orichalcum though. Strange."
It wasn't the material, but the power contained within it felt similar somehow.
Sieg used Dragon Eyes to verify the sword's information.
―Sword Information―
Description: An Orichalcum Sword crafted meticulously by an outstanding artisan.
Unique Ability: Penalty of Light (Applied only during strikes), Curtain of Light, Arrow of Light
Special Note: Inflicts three times the damage when used against undead and demons.
Like the crown, the sword bore the inherent abilities of Light.
These abilities seemed ingrained since its days as a hammer, even before being forged into a sword.
'The abilities differ from the Mace of Light and Shield of Light. Should give it a test.'
Sieg raised the sword and called out.
"Curtain of Light."
In an instant, a massive halo of light surrounded his body.