Chapter 31 : Chapter 31
Chapter 31. The King's Blood
Elves?
That mysterious race that existed only in ancient ballads and woven tapestries was actually connected to the land beneath their feet?
His eyes blazed as he turned to Hadi.
“Elves? Hadi, what else do you know about these ‘Children of the Forest’?”
The sudden intensity of his lord’s interest made Hadi a little nervous.
He searched through the dust of his memory, his graying brows knitting tightly together.
After a moment, he finally spoke slowly.
“My lord, I... I only heard scattered fragments from my forefathers.
Legend says that long before the Kingdom of Orlando united the Western Frontier, this land was once an independent kingdom.
And the man who founded that kingdom...” Hadi’s voice dropped instinctively. “...was the first ancestor of our duke’s La Roche Family, Roderick La Roche.”
“According to the legend, Roderick La Roche was no ordinary man.
He lost his way in the depths of Nightsong Forest and, when he was on the verge of death, he was saved by an elf woman with silver hair like moonlight.
That elf not only saved him, but fell in love with the brave human warrior, and in the end became his queen.
It is said that it was precisely because of the mysterious knowledge the elven queen brought with her, the blessings of the forest, and the allegiance of some elven warriors,
that Roderick was able to establish the foundation of the first kingdom upon this land of savage beasts and foreign races, and become its founding king.”
Eli and the personal guards listening nearby all held their breath.
The queen had been an elf?
It sounded like the most legendary kind of tale a bard would sing.
“And then?” Clark could not help asking.
“With a start that incredible, how did it all... end up becoming just a legend?”
A trace of complicated emotion crossed Hadi’s face. “Afterward... no one can say for certain what happened afterward.
Legend says that after Roderick became king, his temperament changed drastically.
It is said that he no longer trusted the power of the forest, and even... began to fear and reject everything his elven queen represented.
After one fierce conflict... the cause of which no one knows, he...”
Hadi swallowed with difficulty.
“He personally... killed his own elven queen.
And he ordered all the elves within the kingdom to be driven out, while all shrines and records connected to the elves were destroyed.
From that day on, the elves vanished completely from the Western Frontier and became a true legend.”
The Council Hall fell into dead silence.
He had personally killed the wife who had saved his life and helped him found his kingdom?
“What about other places besides the Western Frontier?” Eli broke the silence.
“My lord, some scattered legends about elves seem to exist in the Southern Frontier as well, but they are nowhere near as... heavy as those of the Western Frontier.”
After Hadi withdrew, Eli fell into a long silence.
Could the ruins Wolfgang had discovered have been left behind by the elves?
If so, what might be hidden inside?
Lost knowledge? Powerful ancient weapons? Or... traps cursed by the elves?
Great temptation and equally great risk clashed fiercely in his heart.
The elves had been betrayed and driven out so cruelly by the La Roche Family. What kind of hatred would they hold toward the humans of this land, especially the descendants of the La Roche Family?
If they rashly intruded into those ruins, would they bring down unimaginable retribution?
“We’re going!” Eli rose to his feet, his eyes shining.
“Wolfgang, when the time comes, you’ll lead the way. Bol, gather ten personal guards to accompany us.”
“Now that’s more like it!” Clark instantly sprang back to life, rubbing his hands together excitedly. “This is straight out of a knight’s adventure tale!”
...
Early the next morning, before the mist had fully lifted,
a lean, battle-hardened squad slipped into the deeper, darker reaches of Nightsong Forest under Wolfgang’s guidance.
The branches and leaves of towering ancient trees intertwined overhead into an almost lightless canopy.
Only scattered patches of light managed to break through, casting broken shadows across the ground.
The farther they went, the more completely all traces of humanity disappeared.
Massive vines coiled around tree trunks so large it took several men to encircle them.
Faintly glowing moss spread across rocks and fallen, rotting logs.
Relying on a Wolf-kin’s innate sense of direction and sharp sensitivity to the forest’s presence, Wolfgang made his way through the dense woods where there was barely any path at all.
Clark had put away his usual flamboyance and carefully sensed every disturbance around them.
After trudging on for more than half a day, when even the sunlight was almost completely shut out, Wolfgang abruptly stopped and let out a low warning growl.
They pushed aside a gigantic fern draped with aerial roots, and the sight before them suddenly opened wide, drawing a sharp breath from every man present.
In the center of a vast clearing embraced by giant trees stood... a stretch of ruins.
That was definitely not the work of human hands!
Enormous fallen stone pillars lay scattered across the ground, each so large that it took three or four men to wrap their arms around one. Thick moss and creeping vines covered them.
Carved into the pillars were intricate and strange patterns—abstract symbols woven from stars, sun, moon, and bizarre birds and beasts.
Under the dim light, those patterns seemed to contain some kind of living force in motion.
Huge stone slabs lay scattered about, their edges polished to an unnatural smoothness. The seamless craftsmanship of their joining far surpassed the present level of the human kingdoms.
Even after the endless erosion of time and the swallowing advance of the forest, one could still imagine the grandeur these ruins had once possessed.
On some of the relatively intact stone walls, the faint outlines of great arches and exquisite relief carvings could still be seen.
The entire ruin was shrouded in a quiet, solemn sorrow.
It was like the tomb of a giant forgotten by time, silently telling the story of former splendor and final extinction.
“Good grief...” Clark, for once, had lost his usual levity.
“This scale... it’s even grander than the Cathedral of Light in the royal capital. Was this really built by the elves?”
Eli did not answer. His own heart was pounding violently as well.
“Look for an entrance,” Eli said in a low voice.
A ruin of this scale had to have a core area.
The squad advanced deeper into the ruins.
They carefully passed toppled pillars and sprawling thorns before finally stopping in front of a relatively intact giant stone wall.
Above the wall, an underground river burst forth in full force.
It formed a waterfall nearly ten meters high, crashing into the bottomless pool below with thunderous force.
“Eli! There’s no way through!” Clark wiped the spray from his face.
The water was so loud that he had to raise his voice.
Eli seemed to think of something and started toward the waterfall.
But Ella, beside him, caught hold of him.
“Eli, that’s a waterfall ahead...”
Eli took her hand in return. “Clark! Go check whether there’s anything behind the waterfall!”
“Hah!” Clark muttered in complaint as he crept closer, then thrust his sword through the curtain of water.
“It’s hollow! Follow me!”
With startled cries, the others followed him through the waterfall.
Sure enough, there was another world behind it.
Hidden behind the watery veil, covered in thick vines and slick moss, was a smooth, level surface unlike the surrounding rock.
Eli signaled for the soldiers to clear it.
Sharp chopping blades hacked through the tough vines and scraped away the wet moss.
Little by little, a gigantic stone door embedded within the natural rock wall emerged.
The door stood nearly four meters high, carved entirely from a single piece of gray-white stone as smooth and lustrous as jade.
Its two leaves were shut tight, and the surface was smooth as a mirror.
To the left of the door stood a square stone stele made of the same material, inscribed with several lines of strange symbols.
They were exactly the same style as the markings on the stone pillars outside.
“This... this is elven script?”
Clark stepped closer and curiously ran a finger over those cold symbols.
“It looks like utter gibberish. I can’t make heads or tails of it! Eli, do you know what it says?!”
Eli frowned at the utterly unfamiliar symbols and slowly shook his head.
At that moment, Ella, who had been quietly following behind him and curiously studying her surroundings, let her gaze settle on the stele. Her brows suddenly drew together ever so slightly.
A faint trace of confusion flashed through her clear eyes, and her lips moved unconsciously.
It was as though she were struggling to make something out, or as though some sleeping instinct had been stirred awake.
Amid the roaring crash of the waterfall, an extremely soft, halting voice drifted from her lips in broken fragments:
“To... open... the door... requires... the key... the... king’s... blood...”
Though her voice was light, it struck Eli and Clark like thunder in their ears.
“What?!” Clark spun around, his golden eyes widening at once.
He stared at Ella as though he had seen a ghost.
“You... you can read those markings?! Miss Ella, just who are you?!”
She could read elven script that had been lost for centuries?
That was simply unbelievable!
“Clark!” Eli barked, stepping in front of Ella at once.
A storm was raging in his own heart as well, but at this moment, the urge to protect Ella overwhelmed everything else.
Clark’s reaction seemed to frighten Ella. Her face turned pale, and she instinctively shrank behind Eli.
The atmosphere instantly became tense.
“My lord!” The personal guard Aika broke the deadlock. “If Miss Ella read it correctly, then ‘the king’s blood’...
If it means the king from several hundred years ago, doesn’t that mean the bloodline of the La Roche Family? Could it require a sacrifice...?”
“Hah! Not necessarily!” Though Eli had warned him, Clark’s curiosity still overpowered everything else.
“Several hundred years ago, the Western Frontier was a kingdom, and the king was indeed a La Roche.
But what if this ‘king’s blood’ means the blood of a king, not just someone from a certain family?”
Eli fell silent.
The meaning of “the king’s blood” was vague, yet deadly.
A drop or a sacrifice. The blood of an enemy, or the blood of its master.
His gaze drifted involuntarily toward Ella, who was hiding behind him.
In truth, whether it meant the king of the past or the king of the present, Ella fit both.
Chaotic thoughts collided violently in Eli’s mind.
In the end, he drew a deep breath of the icy, damp air and forcibly suppressed his desire to explore further.
“We do not have the king’s blood.”
Eli’s voice was firm and decisive, carrying a resolution that allowed no argument.
“We’re withdrawing.”
“This place is too dangerous to remain in. Wolfgang, remember the location.
Everyone, return to Black Territory immediately! Without my order, no one is to come near this place!”
“Eli, we can still go check the other parts!”
“You talk too much. Keep it up and I’ll leave you here!”
His order brought a clear flash of disappointment to Clark’s face, but when he saw the gravity in Eli’s expression,
and the way Eli instinctively shielded Ella, Clark clicked his tongue and finally swallowed his complaints.
The group quickly withdrew from the elven ruins, still shrouded in an ancient sorrow, under an atmosphere of silence.
Only the giant stone door remained standing behind the mist of the waterfall, silent as ever.
As though it were wordlessly mocking the smallness and ignorance of humankind.