ALL NOVEL Chapter 6 - The Legacy of the Ancestors (2)
3. The Legacy of the Ancestors (2)
In the dark cave, a pair of red glowing eyes flickered.
Yuri hesitantly opened his mouth.
“No way, what kind of mage throws around the word ‘ghost’ without a care?”
“He’s a ghost if he died and came back to life.”
“You should use the technical term.”
“Death Knight?”
“Yeah, like that.”
Yuri said while nudging Jared with his foot.
“Jared, wake up.”
“Hmm, huh…”
“I said wake up.”
After a strong kick to his backside, Jared sprang to his feet.
“Where! Where are we!”
He looked around frantically and was startled to see the Death Knight, raising his sword quickly.
“Death Knight!”
Yuri calmed him down.
“Hold on.”
“P-Please get behind me.”
“Oh, come on…”
Jared gulped nervously.
As the name suggests, a Death Knight is a knight returning from the dead. This phenomenon occurs when a knight with deep resentment is invaded by demonic energy or contaminated by black magic.
“It’s dangerous.”
Jared was confident he could slash through most monsters, but the Death Knight was an exception.
When a knight dies and becomes a Death Knight, they grow stronger than when they were alive.
The incident where Gert, the Knight of Adelbine who was resurrected and destroyed a kingdom was infamous.
“No.”
Yuri shook his head.
“That guy isn’t dangerous.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I have a feeling.”
Yuri walked forward.
“A guardian of our ancestor’s dungeon wouldn’t be hostile to me, Yuri Briol, a bloodline of the founder.”
“That’s far too reckless of an assumption!”
“Just wait and see.”
There was a curious confidence swelling inside Yuri.
It had been so since he first lifted the sword.
Who knew that the old sword, embedded so deeply into the ground, would be lifted so easily.
Even when he fell underground, he felt like the whole dark dungeon was welcoming him.
Therefore, the Death Knight couldn’t be a guardian meant to block him but rather a guide welcoming the descendant of Briol.
“Isn’t that right?”
[No, it’s not.]
The Death Knight swung his sword.
“…!”
The sword’s gleam flashed.
Hernando muttered in despair.
“Wow, the Prince’s head is split in half…”
“Watch your words.”
“Wow, the Prince’s hair is split in half…”
Yuri’s bangs fluttered in the wind.
Even during the fight with Jared, his bangs never stayed intact.
“Are you saying no?”
[Actually, that’s correct.]
The Death Knight responded.
His voice was deep and rough as if rising from the depths of the cave.
[I only pretended to object because your arrogant attitude irked me.]
“Arrogant?”
[You are just like him.]
“Who is he?”
[Erich.]
Hernando cried out.
“Oh-oh…”
Everyone in Briol knew that name.
The founder of the Briol family, the first King of Briol, and an unrivaled swordsman who subdued the continent with a single sword.
Erich Briol.
“Am I the first to come here?”
[Yes.]
“Only the bloodline of Erich can come?”
[No one can draw that sword unless they are a descendant of Briol.]
“Could it be that this is the legendary sword used by our ancestor…”
[That’s the sword I used.]
Yuri jumped back, startled, and threw the sword away.
[…]
“S-Sorry.”
[Are you displeased because it’s mine?]
“It’s not that; I should know better than to touch someone else’s belongings impulsively.”
[Use it if you want. It no longer belongs to me.]
And then the Death Knight turned away. His tattered cloak fluttered like rags.
Yuri picked up the sword again and whispered.
“Let’s follow him.”
“Are you sure? We could go back now and report to His Majesty…”
“No.”
Yuri shook his head.
“We’re going now.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Then how would we leave?”
“Pardon?”
“That skeleton guy…”
Suddenly, the Death Knight turned around.
Yuri stopped in surprise. Fortunately, it seemed the Death Knight hadn’t heard him.
“…do you think he’ll let us go so easily?”
Jared promptly asked the Death Knight.
“Death Knight. We’d like to return and come back later.”
[Does this seem like a neighborhood shop where you can come and go as you wish?]
His glowing eyes blazed fiercely.
[Or do you think I spent all this time here just to exchange jokes with you? Does this feel like a joke to you?]
Unable to bear the animosity, Jared spoke.
“S-S-Sorry.”
He stuttered twice.
Yuri chuckled.
“You’re scared.”
“It’s not that; it’s for the Prince’s safety.”
“Sure, sure.”
Hernando, who was careful about his comments since meeting the Death Knight, snickered as Jared was scolded by the Death Knight.
“Be quiet, Sir Hernando.”
“S-S-Sorry.”
“Ugh…”
“L-L-Let’s move quickly.”
Jared sighed. They just couldn’t get serious.
Hernando hummed a tune.
“A dungeon, how exciting.”
“It’s all thanks to me.”
“Of course.”
Watching the thrilled Hernando and the brazen Prince from behind, Jared pondered how things had come to this.
“Sigh…”
Should they be doing this here?
It was just another ordinary day after work.
And then, suddenly, they were in the Sword Mountain, entering a mysterious dungeon.
It was surreal.
“This can’t be happening…”
None of it made sense.
Yes, it all started then.
His life had changed from the day the Third Prince challenged him to a duel.
This wasn’t what Jared had imagined for his time in the Royal Guard.
He hoped for a peaceful time working, eventually retiring to enjoy his later years.
He never harbored ambitions.
And yet, here he was, in a dungeon left by the founder of Briol.
It felt like a predetermined fate had been twisted and swept away by the whirlwind this young boy created.
“Hey.”
Yuri, who had gone ahead, turned back.
“Are you going to keep us waiting?”
Jared inhaled deeply.
It was dark.
There was no light apart from the faint sunlight seeping in through the cracks, making the prince ahead of him look obscured.
And yet, for some reason, the face of the prince smiling back at him stood out clearly.
Something seemed to overlap atop that image.
A blood-soaked face.
‘Hey, quit your nonsense.’
It was a momentary vision.
Would the prince look like that when he became an adult?
A man with a handsome face, drenched in blood, smiling wearily. For some reason, he felt as if he could lay down his life for this person, though the feeling quickly vanished.
A strange déjà vu.
“Aren’t you coming?”
Jared couldn’t answer.
His feet wouldn’t move.
“Then just wait here.”
As those words suggested, Jared just wanted to stay put.
He didn’t want to get entangled with this reckless prince and be shipwrecked.
But if he did that…
‘Isn’t it boring?’
That’s what the prince had said.
The scenery of a preordained life flashed across Jared’s mind. And atop that, the face of the frenzy-driven prince attacking madly appeared.
Amidst a whirl of thoughts swirling confusingly.
His body moved on its own.
Unconsciously, he stepped forward.
Once he moved, it became easy.
“Your Highness.”
“Huh?”
“I’m coming.”
Yuri looked back while walking ahead and smiled broadly.
“You should have followed sooner.”
Jared smiled in return.
“My eyes needed time to adjust, suddenly coming to such a dark place.”
“Excuses, excuses…”
“It’s not an excuse.”
“Hurry up.”
“Yes.”
And so, he raced towards the back of the reckless Third Prince.
***
The Death Knight led Yuri and his companions to a wide cavern.
A massive stone erected on the altar emitted a deep blue light.
[Has this day finally come…]
The Death Knight muttered. Yuri asked.
“What day is it?”
[You don’t need to know.]
“A good day?”
[Be silent.]
Jared took a step back.
In his view, Yuri seemed out of his mind, casually speaking to the Death Knight.
Hernando whispered to Jared.
“What does he think he’ll do if the Death Knight stabs him?”
“Your words are too harsh.”
“If we end up with the spectacle of the Prince’s head separating from his body, we’ll be in serious trouble.”
“Stop.”
“Or worse—if he gets stabbed in the chest and blood starts gushing out while Sir Jared tearfully performs artificial respiration…”
“I told you, shut up.”
The Death Knight stood before the altar.
Yuri spoke.
“Hey, Death Knight.”
The Death Knight looked at him, allowing Yuri to continue.
“I am Yuri Briol, the descendant of Erich Briol and the Third Prince of the current Briol. Bestow his legacy upon me.”
The Death Knight shrugged his shoulders.
[Who says you can just take away the legacy as you wish?]
“Because I’m a descendant of Briol.”
[Briol, huh…]
His eyes glowed fiercely.
[I once carried that name too.]
The implication of those words was profound.
Yuri looked at him in disbelief, and Jared and Hernando, standing behind him, froze.
Could it be?
Was the founder of Briol, Erich Briol, this Death Knight?
“Are you saying you’re Erich Briol?”
[That’s not it.]
“You startled me.”
Yuri sighed.
“The esteemed founder wouldn’t have become a skeleton like you.”
[Your way of speaking is fearlessly bold.]
“I inherited it all.”
[Yes, you certainly resemble in that way.]
The Death Knight let out a short laugh. It wasn’t a pleasant sound.
[You’re not particularly reassuring, but the time has come for me to fulfill my duty.]
“What is your duty?”
[To give you what you desire.]
The Death Knight sat down on the glowing stone.
A massive flow of mana was felt.
“Your Highness, step back…”
Sensing something abnormal, Jared pulled Yuri’s coat.
Hernando spoke up.
“It’s a mana stone. I never imagined one so large could exist.”
“That giant thing?”
“Precisely.”
Mana stones had the property of absorbing and retaining mana. They allowed one to use magic without mana, making them more valuable than diamonds of the same size.
“Something like that can really be that big?”
“It’s unreal. A stone of that size could buy an entire city.”
“Then why is something like that stuck in the ground?”
“To put it another way, it implies our founder left something more precious than that mana stone.”
The Death Knight observed them.
[Are you all prepared?]
A heavy silence fell.
The Death Knight didn’t wait for a response.
[I hope you are worthy.]
The moment his words ended, a blinding light burst forth from the mana stone.
The world turned white.
Yuri closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again.
…
The dungeon was gone, replaced by a barren wasteland stretching endlessly in every direction.
“Where is this?”
Yuri looked around in confusion.
An empty wasteland and a perfectly straight horizon surrounded him.
Suddenly, he noticed a figure approaching from the distance.
“Excuse me?”
Yuri called out.
“Stop, stop!”
It showed no sign of stopping.
“Are you… the founder?”
No, that couldn’t be.
“What is that?”
The approaching figure wasn’t human.
Its entire body was translucent, revealing the other side, bearing the shape of a human.
The issue was that it held a sword.
“This is…”
Only then did Yuri realize he was also holding a real sword in his hand.
It wasn’t the sword from the tomb but a standard military iron sword.
“So, I’m supposed to fight?”
As if to respond, his opponent suddenly charged at him.
Yuri parried his attack.
A straightforward exchange ensued.
“Huh…?”
A change occurred.
Inside the opponent’s translucent body, a bluish hue began to swirl.
It began rotating around its heart, spreading through the entire body before extending to its sword.
Clang!
With each clash of their swords, his heart throbbed, and at the same time, the blue aura expanded and contracted rhythmically.
Yuri realized.
“Mana Method…”
The dummy revolved around Yuri, exposing its chest.
Beyond its transparent body, the path of the flowing mana was vividly depicted.
Yuri could now understand.
The swordsmanship, the Mana Method, and the style of fighting were all Erich Briol’s.
The founder, Erich Briol, was truly a madman.
“Learning through direct combat, huh?”
The fortunate point was that this dummy seemed to go easy on him.
Tap, tap.
The dummy pointed at its heart, showcasing how the mana flowed through its body, illuminating a bluish aura.
“Hahaha…”
A well-established Mana Method is nearly impossible to change.
Thus, it must have been designed for individuals without a Mana Method to train, commanding them to feel and control mana immediately.
It was an absurd demand.
Something impossible unless one was living their second lifetime.
“Guess that’s me.”
Yuri immediately sat down on the ground.
Mana pervaded throughout the entire space.
Pure mana began to draw itself in.
In his past life, Yuri extensively studied the Mana Method in an attempt to conceal his identity. Thus, he was confident in handling mana.
“Was it like this…”
He mimicked what he had just observed.
A novice child manipulating mana like a seasoned knight, any dummy would be startled.
He glanced sidewards at the dummy.
“…!”
The dummy had frozen in place, arms bent vertically, one hand pointing upward and the other downward. Upon closer look, it seemed like its mouth was wide open.
It had an impressive ability to express emotions.