The countless pointed towers of Bomari Castle pierced the sky, and the dust on the ancient rose patterns engraved on the towers were wiped off, reappearing once again under the sky.

The soldiers of General Vulture and Lantoft almost all died in the internal strife yesterday. General Sheehan led his troops to conduct a comprehensive cleaning and search of the castle. While the King saw the “treasure” in the general’s carriage.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

It was a box made of unknown metallic material.

It was said that many of Lantoft’s soldiers died in order to unearth this chest.

The Marquis of Chavos State reported to the King what he had discovered. The box was taken out by Lantoft from the tower in the middle of the castle, but there seemed to be a strange curse on that tower. All those soldiers who participated in the excavation would all die within three days. If Lantoft hadn’t used the lives of his men to fill that tower, it was still unknown whether yesterday’s infighting would have been as successful.

On the night of the internal strife, the Marquis and General Vulture snatched the box from Lantoft’s own soldiers.

The whole body of the box was dark gold, but it gave people an unusually luxurious feel. On the dark gold box, there were countless budding roses engraved, and on the front of the box was a relief mountain ridge, with hideous and weird patterns etched on it——that was a giant dragon entrenched on the mountain ridge and roses were coiled around the bones of the dragon. When one sees this box for the first time, one would think of ancient and absurd legends, the breath of ancient times rushing towards your face.

With just one glance, one could tell that it definitely had a vital connection with the Rose family.

“Have you heard, this is a treasure that can make angels descend and aid you.”

The King walked around the heavy box, raised his head, and looked at the Marquis with a smile.

The old Marquis smiled wryly: “General Aldo and Lantoft are still young and reckless, and have the capital to squander time and energy. An old man like me only wants to be able to hunt and take a walk on my fief.”

“The Marquis’ fief seems to be near a dense forest and snowfield? I have heard people say that the scenery of the snowfield is quite peculiar.” The King reached out and tapped lightly on the box, making a dull sound.

“The snowfield is like that all year round. If Your Majesty is willing to pay a visit, it will be the honor of Chavos State.”

The old Marquis chose his words carefully. The young king before him was not a man to be trifled with. The Marquis was a little unsure whether or not the purpose of the King’s question was to take advantage of the situation and wipe out the Chavos State. One must know that the current Legrand’s could be called an irresistible force.

The King glanced at the old Marquis: “Is it too hot in this room?”

“Legrand regained Bomari and restored the long-lost Bomari to its old glory, even dispelling the severe winter cold as well.” The old Marquis replied with a smile, and he raised his hand to wipe his forehead, “You see, even an old bag of old bones like myself has started sweating.”

The King had a half-smile on his face, and he withdrew his hand: “Newcastle and Balboa will become the new county towns of Legrand, and the stability of the Northland snowfields will depend on Chavos.”

The old Marquis bowed: “Please rest assured, Your Majesty, Chavos State is at your service.”

After retreating from the luxurious hall, the old Marquis stood outside, shivering when the wind blew past. At this moment, his back was covered with cold sweat, the King was clearly giving Chavos State a warning just now. The King’s seemingly casual words already contained enough shocking news.

This time the two most powerful states in the Rebel Alliance would cease to exist from now on.

The Legrand Empire would no longer have the State of Newcastle, nor the State of Balboa, and would be replaced by the County of Balboa and the County of Newcastle. The old Marquis couldn’t help but think of the military castle built by the Rose royal family in the Northland. At that time, the castle was directly named “Newcastle”.

This couldn’t help but make people have some conjectures:

Had Legrand already been determined to recover its lost territory and put it fully under the rule of the King?

The old Marquis took a deep breath, and the cold air filled his lungs. He seemed to see a chariot, a steel chariot slowly moving forward, and all obstacles would be crushed to pieces in its path. The chariot was being driven with dreadful methods by the young king, the iron-handed and domineering monarch.

Going forward, where was Chavos State’s future now?

In the main hall.

Thick black fog poured out from the corners of the room like a tide, and the Devil in a black dress suit stepped out with a red rose pinned to his collar. He bowed gracefully to the King: “Good day, my dear Majesty.”

“Is this the treasure you mentioned?”

The King knocked on the box with his fingers and asked.

Lantorft and General Vulture had obtained this heavy chest successively, but when the King walked around it he found that the chest seemed to be in one piece, with no keyhole on it, as if the chest had been built like this since the first day of its casting and there was no plan to open it again.

The Devil approached: “Of course not, it’s just a key to open the treasure, Your Majesty.”

“Key?”

“Perhaps you can take it and go to the high tower where it was unearthed. Then use the ring of the Rose family to open it and the real treasure.” The Devil didn’t answer directly, he looked down at the dragon bones engraved on the dark golden box and seemed to be thinking about something, “A little request, when you open it, could you allow me to watch?”

The King looked at the Devil, who still had that masked smile on his face.

He withdrew his gaze, nodded slightly, and agreed to the Devil’s request.

“Then, let’s go there in a more convenient way.” The Devil said briskly. He snapped his fingers, and the nightmare carriage rolled out of the black mist. The Devil further explained, “Please believe me, Your Majesty, the thing you will open may not be suitable for ordinary people to see…..Of course, your Iron Rose Cavalry is probably not included in this range.”

With Mela the stupid crow as a bet, the King’s Iron Rose Cavalry was simply a group of fanatics brainwashed by His Majesty. Nothing builds the bond of trust and loyalty between monarch and his knights more than going through life and death together…..

Ai! It was a pity that this didn’t seem to be able to apply to the relationship between him and His Majesty.

Thinking of this, the Devil half-jokingly said in a complaining tone: “My dear Majesty, you are so fair and just, so could I implore you to place some trust in your loyal hell knight?”

“If that certain knight is not full of lies, and made of intrigue and cunning,” answered the King.

The Devil spread his hands helplessly.

This was really difficult.

The nightmare carriage carried the heavy box and the King, passing through the hard black stone walls easily. The King noticed that the Devil seemed to be very familiar with Bomari Castle, and as he drove the King through the ancient castle, he hummed an unknown tune softly.

The melody in that minor key was odd, full of a kind of gloom and ornate beauty.

The King listened quietly, and soon, the nightmare carriage stopped in front of the high tower in the center of the castle. General Sheehan had sent the Iron Rose Cavalry to take over all the high towers in the city. The Devil solicitously raised the curtain of the carriage for the King, and stretched out his hand to help the King down.

The King looked up at the tower.

Unlike other castles, all Rose family castles were designed and built without churches. In fact, almost all the churches in Legrand’s royal castles were built after the “Battle of God’s Punishment” when the power of the Holy Court expanded. Bomari Castle was no exception.

The tall tower in front of the King was the tallest tower in the entire castle.

The steeple towers above the black stone, with slender and sharp edges and lines, gave the impression that it was the horns of a dragon raised high. Behind it were mountains rolling and stretching on the horizon, surrounded by other high and low towers. The skylight fell on the black rock, and even the light was absorbed by it.

No wonder the Marquis of Chavos State believed this was a “cursed place”, it really didn’t look like a human creation.

So cold, so gorgeous.

The Devil carried the heavy box and led the King over.

The tower had two basements, and the box was excavated from the lowest basement. In the basement, they could still see the traces left by the previous excavations, as well as smell the faint scent of blood lingering still.

In the middle of the basement, there was a dark room that had been cleared out and the soil removed. In the middle of the dark room was a stone platform with complex reliefs. The Devil placed the box on the stone platform, and then bowed slightly, indicating that the King could open it up now.

The King stepped forward and stuck the rose ring on his hand to the box.

The Devil straightened up and stared at the following scene.

At the moment when the King’s rose ring was pressed to the box, the red color of the rose on the ring seemed to rush like a river in an instant, burning to the rosebuds on the iron box, followed by the sound of metal gears turning within the box. There should be countless fine gears, all rotating in an orderly manner, and the sound of friction they made playing like melodious music.

Scarlet flowed from the ring to each dark gold rosebud, as if the magic of time was fading, and all the rosebuds on the box revived at the same time, regaining life once again. When the last bud was stained with blood, the melody of the gears reached a crescendo.

It was a trick that even the best magician in the world could not outdo.

All the roses were in full bloom at the same moment, and the bright red roses seemed to form an ocean, submerging the dragon bones on the mountain ridge.

At the moment when the roses were in full bloom, the stone platform turned, and dust began to fall from the walls of the entire underground dark room. Dull vibrations traveled from under the feet. Amid the sound of boulders rubbing against each other, the wall facing the King slowly rose. A long passage was revealed.

As expected…..

The Devil sighed inwardly.

He had just opened the black umbrella to cover the King from the dust falling from overhead.

Air poured into the passage that had been dusty for too long, and as the air flowed in, candles lit up on both sides of the passage. There were black iron candlesticks inserted on the walls of the passage. Don’t know how the candles were made but they kept their original shape for such a long time. Those candles ignited automatically, as if the inexorable heroic spirits illuminated the way forward for the King.

“Your Majesty.”

The Devil and the King stopped at the entrance of the passage, and he bowed slightly.

“Please prepare yourself.”

He seemed to know what was hidden behind the passage, and believed that he should not step side by side inside with the King——what laid ahead belonged only to the Rose family.

The King glanced at him, and stepped into the passage.

The Devil straightened up and watched the King’s back melt into the warm firelight. The flames swayed slightly, as if rejoicing.

The Devil smiled slightly and followed.

………………

At the end of the passage was a black iron door, engraved with dense magic runes, which were exactly the same as the magic runes in the Rose Palace. The King vaguely felt that behind the iron door, there was a piece of ancient history hidden.

He reached out and touched the rose ring to the black iron door.

The door swung open.

A strong air current gushed out from inside, and the King’s robes were whipped by the wind. The sound of the wind was like galloping horses, like the shouts from heroic souls, like a dead army being revived.

The King’s pupils were illuminated by the cold light, and in the huge space behind the iron door, pale stone pillars stood vertically, as if propping up another hidden space. Just as the truth of the Rose Palace was revealed in front of the King that time, now, the age of ancient legends had traveled across time and space to appear in this world again.

In front of the King, in the underground space, was an army.

An army that seemed as if only the most insane bard could imagine up. The combination of heavy armor and pale skeletons formed a terrifying army that would only exist in nightmares. The armor of the ancient Gulundi heavy cavalry was ferocious enough, but in front of these armors, there seemed to be a gulf of difference between a beast and a hound. All the armors were engraved with complex and exquisite magical runes, and light flowed through the runic formations, illuminating the entire space.

The King looked up at these armors.

Skeletons, cavalry, armor, magic runes…..

All this was obviously so terrifying, but it only made the King feel so warm.

Where did this warmth come from?

The Devil behind him sighed softly: “Sure enough, the Rose family has managed to preserve it.”

The King turned to look at him, and the Devil stopped smiling. He also stared at the sleeping skeleton army, and said in a low voice, “Or I should say, the Rose family are dragon slayers, as well as guardians.”

“Remember the ghost ships owned by those pirates?” The Devil twirled the black umbrella in his hand, and he spoke as if he had experienced everything himself, “This was the power left by the people of the Age of Legends for later generations.”

The “ghost ships” owned by the Walway pirates were actually relics of ancient alchemy. At that time, the King learned that in the Age of Legends when the Holy Court had not yet expanded, alchemists had not disappeared from the earth, and half-living alchemic magic ships traveled back and forth across the Abyss Strait.

What kind of era was the Age of Legends?

There were dragon slayers, and there were half-living ships…..was it magnificent and romantic like fairy tales come to life?

“The alchemists of the Age of Legends tried to surpass the taboo.”

The Devil said.

In the Age of Legends, some mortals gained power from the gods. But the limitations of mortals themselves were too great, and their power was very limited. So some people tried to use knowledge and wisdom to make these powers play a greater role. Those people were the alchemists at that time.

It was they who built the half-living ships that the Walway pirates contracted with today.

The alchemists of that era were allies of the dragon slayers, and together they fought against the gods and all extraordinary powers.

At the end of the Age of Legends, the first “Millennium Kingdom” came, and the Kingdom of God, Hell, and the mortal world were all swept into the flames of war. The first frontal resistance of mortals failed, so the Age of Legends completely turned into the stuff of myths, the Code spanned the world, and alchemists withdrew from the stage of history.

Originally, the most powerful among the mortal rebels was not the dragon slayer represented by the Rose family, but the alchemist. But the power of alchemists originated from the gods, and they did not expect that their power could be easily stripped away by the gods, so they became the first batch of mortal rebels who died in the flames of war.

Since then, there had been no alchemist to walk the earth.

“The power of these armors comes from their own souls, not the gods.”

The Devil held up the umbrella and said flatly.

In that failure, the alchemists finally understood where they had gone wrong. The power bestowed by the gods was a Pandora’s box full of lies. This batch of armor was a part of the last fruits of alchemy produced by them that still remained.

They had cast themselves into the armor, and at the end of refining these armors, they threw themselves into the furnace and turned into skeleton warriors who directed the armors.

This was the fire of civilization left by the mortal rebels of the Age of Legend.

Those alchemists who failed proved to be just as powerful at the last moment of fate, and they were worthy of being called heroes. They were refined by crimson fire and turned into skeleton warriors, just to make the road of resistance for future warriors to go more smoothly.

“They chose the Rose family.”

The King said softly.

He walked forward slowly, and stopped before the first armored skeleton warrior.

In front of it, there was a stone pillar placed by the later generation, with a brief introduction engraved on it. The alchemist who turned into this skeleton warrior was named “Al Alfa”. The Rose family carved this monumental stone pillar for him.

“I am willing to entrust myself to the dragon slayer, I am willing to be transformed into a sharp sword in the hands of humans, I am willing to sleep forever in the eternal night for mortals, until I wake up and die in battle again.”

These were his last words.

The Devil watched the King read the inscriptions on the stone pillars.

Mortals were truly strange, they were so insignificant and their lives were so short. A single breath taken by a god was the lifespan of a mortal. They were like ants, and would be reduced to ashes with just a light crush of the foot. But why was it that such ants could struggle to stand up again and again from the ashes?

The King walked past the stone pillars.

The war of resistance had been burning since a long time ago, and it had never stopped.

The King finally understood why Bomari Castle was called the “Pearl in the Crown”, and why Henry the Mad King, Charles the Lion King, William III, and the Duke of Buckingham worked hard all their lives to regain this lost territory.

Therefore, in the previous era, there were some people who trusted the Rose family so much that they entrusted everything to the Rose family, and even engraved the Rose family’s emblem on their armor.

“When the day has come that we are needed most, please revive us.”

“Can it be that I am now considered a knight of the Rose family?”

“If possible, in the next war, let us stand side by side again.”

……

Words after words.

What an era it was.

The proud geniuses made a vow that would not change for a thousand years.

So, some people slept forever in the night, turning themselves into swords, and a family stood on the earth, passing on the vow from generation to generation.

After turning into skeleton warriors, the alchemists no longer have their own will, they have completely become swords for people to use, and the Rose family had never used this sword for themselves. This was power left for the mortals, and only to be used to end the war. The Rose family had proved that they have lived up to the trust of their original allies with their persistence for thousands of years.

No one broke their vow.

What kind of a long road was this?

From doomsday to a prosperous age, from darkness to light, so many people used their own bones and blood to fill up the gaps for the future generation, just for the sake of a vague hope.

So foolish, so stubborn.

The King stood before the last stone pillar.

This was the youngest alchemist among all the skeleton warriors, and her lover was a knight of the Rose family. The one to engrave the tombstone for her was her fiancé who had exchanged rings with her.

“Dear Vino:

When I am sleeping, please play a Rose melody in front of my armor. I will sleep in the dark until I wake up in a world without you…..Yes, I know that when I wake up, you will no longer be by my side, but I will be fighting for our world.

As long as there is still a rose blooming in that world, I will be able to feel your existence.

We used to have fights, and like most alchemists I used to distrust you all.

As you know, the dragon slayer was synonymous with pride, intrigue, and unscrupulousness in our eyes back then. It can’t be helped, Vino, you dragon slayers are too proud, never willing to explain anything. Now, I have to be honest, you are right——there is no fairness in this war, and we have to do whatever it takes.

But I am very happy that the dragon slayer and the alchemist finally solved the misunderstanding and finally fought side by side.

You guys must be surprised, all the alchemists have engraved the rose flower on our armor…..It is very beautiful, and we are willing to accept it.

Vino, please don’t feel alone, I am with you.

——Love you, from Hisay”

Below this text, there was another text, which was left by the knight of the Rose family:

“Because you love me, I’m never alone.”

Overcoming the gap between one’s beliefs and methods, at the end of that era, people who could not understand each other finally stood side by side. They took the rose as a symbol and engraved a vow that spanned life and death.

The King closed his eyes.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

A proud and silent family, a family that endured everything, a family that stood like a rock in the long river of time…..Did his ancestors feel extra warm when he guarded this castle?

They were dragonslayers and guardians.

The heroic souls were by his side in the long night, and even if all the warriors died until he was the last one left, he would never be alone.

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