Clang! Clang!
The clanging sounds made by men with axes hitting the stones and the grunts from able-bodied barbarians lifting stones and taking them out of the cavern fell into a tall, white-haired man’s ears.
His spectacles had changed into a monocle, and he stood there, his golden chest plate slightly covered by the black cloak over his body, watching the workers clear out the Ashbourne tomb.
They were reconstructing the tomb because, according to his lord, it was more than a tomb. It was a land of heritage.
Through Baron Flameheart, they had invited hundreds of sculptures and shown them the pictures of Ashbourne Lords.
Asher knew his talent would eventually evolve, and he would gain access to every Ashbourne Lord, those that were hidden monsters never mentioned in history, and much more.
House Ashbourne had existed for over 725 years, a staggering 225 before the end of the Abyssal War.
During the Racial War, Zenas was still an egg in his mother, who had not yet met his father. Although it was known that Zenas’s father was a knight who led an independent order, he vanished too quickly for his son to witness it.
This was the reason Zenas found himself as a mere commoner after birth.
However, during Zenas’s childhood, the Abyssal War was ongoing; villages, towns, and cities were brought down, and it was in that era that the Mages began to fall.
Mages that had ruled for thousands of years, ever since the beginning of time. Zenas was still the only Ashbourne lord that lived for almost 300 years!
No other Ashbourne lord crossed 100 despite some of them reaching the same rank as Zenas.
Unfortunately, they all died in battle, sickness, poisoning, assassination, or natural causes, which was rare.
However, from Zenas to Asher, there had been several dozen lords; some ruled for ten years, some five, some twenty, and some 30!
Looking at the white marble being used to replace the old stones, Kelvin chuckled. Asher indeed honored his ancestors.
New statues of lords who were ignored were now behind their tombstones. Seeing all these valiant lords with their twin swords, long or broad or curved, was awe inspiring.
Their armors were painted to be exactly like the one they wore when they were alive. Some wore silver, some gold, some red, some blue, some yellow, most black.
Only the sculptures of the four great dukes weren’t built because their sculptures never broke.
When Kelvin reached the sunken part of the cavern, the place where the tombstones of the four great dukes were, he saw several workers cleaning the place up.
He walked past them.
Kelvin found a narrow passage and walked into it. Not more than a dozen steps, the ground cracked and he fell!
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He crashed on the ground with a great thud, causing him to hiss. Groaning deeply, he turned from his back and got to his knees, his face a little bit red.
The moment he looked up, he saw a statue. They weren’t as gigantic as the Ashbourne Lords, but their looks were noble.
All the statues wore monocles, male or female, and unlike the Ashbourne lord, who had only one female, there were many female statues here.
Their cloaks almost covered their bodies.
“What’s this?”
Kelvin looked down.
“Roland Salvatore, head butler and a great servant of Lord Moses Ashbourne, the fanged wolf!”
Kelvin’s eyes trembled.
“It can’t be.”
He kept looking at their names until he reached the end of the hall where there was a little light that came from an unknown source.
At the end of the hall, there was a tall, beautiful statue of a woman. Looking at her, Kelvin could see the features he had when he was younger.
“Melissa Salvatore, headmistress and guardian servant of Lord Zenas Ashbourne, the vanquisher, the great conqueror, the monstrous wolf, Archduke of the Endless North!”
Kelvin staggered backwards.
So the butlers who served the Ashbourne Lords were also a noble house. A house destined to stand beside the Ashbournes as their helpers.
Under Melissa’s name, he could see a bit of her history. She managed to become Zena’s fifth and last concubine and was also an imperial-ranked swordmaiden!
Compared to him, the gulf was too big. While he was doomed to die at the gold rank, his ancestors had the ability to follow their lords to the end. freёwebnovel.com
Sighing, he turned to his right. There was a stone bowl on a platform. At the ceiling there was a tiny crack, and from there droplets of white, glowing water fell into the bowl.
With furrowed brows, Kelvin stepped on the first staircase. The moment he did, the runes on the staircase unleashed a soft golden glow.
Kelvin paused.
He waited, but nothing happened even after a long time, so he proceeded with the second step.
Boom!
There was an echo that made him turn around. At that moment, Kelvin had no idea that a droplet floated out of the bowl.
It slowly floated toward him until he turned back. Instantly, the droplet moved at a speed beyond what the eye could follow and hit his forehead.
It was clearly water and just a droplet, but Kelvin felt some solid had struck him. The force lifted him off the platform to the ground, a hundred yards away.
Thud!
A wave of dust blasted outward while he touched his forehead, and yet he couldn’t feel any wetness!
“What in the world is going on?”
Just as he got to his feet, he saw Melissa, not the statue but the real woman in all her beauty, walk out of a swirling portal, wearing a smile.
“You will soon become a full-blooded Salvatore. Bear the pain; it’s normal when you are about to awaken your lineage talent this late.”
“What pain—Argh!”
Kelvin screamed as he dropped to the ground, clutching the sides of his head in agony.
His eyes grew dimmer and dimmer until darkness covered everywhere.
As he lay there, his hair began to fall off.