Return of the Unrivaled Spear Knight

Side Story Chapter 279

“Those… are golems, right?” Anna asked.

Golems were stone relics from ancient times, made to run on an intricately designed concentration of mana. They were over ten meters tall and were as destructive as they were large. The higher their grade, the more smoothly the golems could move.

Anna looked upon legends from the age of magic brought to life, but they were a lot smaller than Anna had learned they were. In fact, they were barely over two meters, a little taller than ordinary adult males.

“It’s known that during the age of magic, the finest golems could fight like Masters. But those exceptional golems tended to be smaller,” Arash explained.

“Does that mean that all of these golems can fight like Masters?”

Arash nodded. “Yes. I admit that there are only five of them, but they live up to their reputation of being the Swallow Empire’s last guardians.”

Anna could imagine how destructive they would be in actual battle. She had been told that golems were so sturdy that even an aura attack couldn’t leave a scratch on them, so if they were equally agile…

“…Wait a minute, this doesn’t make any sense. How does Swallow have these golems?” Anna asked.

Anna could understand if the Terra Kingdom had golems like these, given that it was called the land of magic long ago; however, Swallow was the last country anyone would associate with magic. Undeveloped plains took up eighty percent of the empire, so the empire had a lot more skilled hunters than academics.

“What?” Anna scowled at her.

Arash stroked the golem in front of her, ignoring Anna’s reaction. “Swallow is known for being built by conquest. The empire indiscriminately invaded and plundered the countries nearby, including the Terra Kingdom.”

“In other words, all of these are stolen goods?”

“The empire also kidnapped people. In fact, Swallow’s history can be summarized with one word: looting. It isn’t a proud history, but without it, the empire would have fallen behind long ago.”

There was a limit to what Swallow could do with only the ability to survive in the wilderness.

“What you’re saying is that Swallow stole these golems and kidnapped their creators and five of them became secret weapons that only follow the imperial family’s orders. Did I get that right?”

“Yes, you understood me correctly.”

“Fine. Okay. But that looks like you forgot that I’m an adopted daughter. Doesn’t this kind of stuff react to blood?” Anna asked, scanning the golems.

“From what I know about your father, he would already have taken care of that.”

“Get to the point.”

“Didn’t your father do anything strange to you when you were young?”

Anna flinched but tilted her head in confusion. “Something strange…?”

“Perhaps he kept feeding you something?”

“Ah!” Anna clapped in realization. “Come to think of it, he made me drink some red potion until I was ten years old because I was very fragile due to my innate gift as an elemental spirit mage. The potion tasted disgusting, so I still remember it.”

People who were born with the talent of an elemental spirit mage or a mage were born relatively weak.

“But I guess the potion wasn’t a normal stamina elixir.”

Arash nodded. “Yes, it was probably a special potion made from his diluted blood.”

Anna’s lip trembled at the revelation.

“That is illegal in Swallow though…” Arash trailed off.

“Illegal?”

“Sharing imperial blood with one who isn’t born with the privilege isn’t something the elitists would tolerate—especially the imperial family, since they know about the Vaikals and how strong they are.” Arash looked at the golems. “To be honest, no one would want to share these incredible weapons with others.”

“Yet my father still gave his blood to me.”

“Yes; he must have known that these golems were going to be his biggest obstacles if he went after the throne.”

Draxia had spent his whole life trying to become the emperor of Swallow, and his obsession had even led him to seek Avalon’s help. Anna believed that it was reasonable to assume that Draxia had believed that these golems would at least not be hostile to the imperial family.

However, Anna was left with one big question.

“Did Grand Duke Lucifer not know about these golems? If so, he could have used them in the war against Avalon.”

“No, he couldn’t have done it even if he knew. All of the craftsmen that had been kidnapped from the Terra Kingdom were killed after they finished ensuring that the golems only obey the imperial family as they do now.”

“Then the imperial family should have fought Grand Duke Lucifer with them…”

“Grand Duke Lucifer showed no signs of treason before he purged the entire imperial family one day using poison, assassination, and hostages… The imperial family simply couldn’t fight back.”

“…My relatives were all idiots. What you’re saying is that Grand Duke Lucifer only discovered these golems’ existence after he eliminated all of the imperial family… but that doesn’t make sense.” Anna gave Arash a doubtful look.

“Why not?”

“There is someone with imperial blood standing right in front of me.”

Arash smiled bitterly. “These golems don’t respond to my blood because I have none of the bel Grace blood whatsoever.”

“What? You aren’t part of the imperial family?”

“Although I admit that the confession is long overdue, yes, I’m a fake member of the imperial family; my identity has been presented as an illegitimate daughter so as to not to raise any suspicion—”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Anna interrupted, utterly bewildered. “S-So you’re a fake?”

“…Yes. The Crimson Sky is just as formidable as his reputation suggests.”

“He didn’t leave a single member of the imperial family alive? Ah…!” Anna gasped in realization.

Lucifer used to hold absolute power in Swallow, so the empire must have been chaotic after his death. On top of that, the royal line had been killed off long ago, leaving the empire with no one to sit on the throne. In other words, anyone could become the new emperor of Swallow; no doubt the noble families with power would have coveted the throne greatly.

“In other words, someone created an imaginary member of the imperial family named Arash bel Grace to stop a civil war?”

“Indeed—and I also have a rather useful backstory since there was a tragic prince who wandered the continent after his escape from Grand Duke Lucifer’s grasp long ago…”

Arash was talking about Draxia bel Grace, Anna’s father.

“…I never imagined that I would have such a cunning half-sister… Then do those hyenas in the palace like Duke Voltaire know who you really are?”

“Of course. In fact, Duke Voltaire is the one who started everything.”

“Now I can understand why he was that arrogant.” Anna’a face darkened. “In that case, that means he tried to control the entire empire with a puppet…”

Voltaire had been deceiving the entire empire for decades. On top of that, Anna also had Duke Killian to deal with. Just thinking about them was giving her a headache.

“…But I guess Duke Voltaire trusts you a lot,” Anna mused.

“Pardon?”

“If I were him, I wouldn’t have let you and I go to this secret chamber alone.”

Arash smiled bitterly. “Not exactly. I haven’t told you this because I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging, but it was quite difficult to persuade him.”

“How did you persuade him?”

“If I may…” Arash suddenly started to take off her clothes one by one.

Anna's eyes widened. “Wh-What the hell are you doing?”

“Please look over here.” Arash took off her undergarments and showed Anna her bare chest.

After a moment, Anna’s lip trembled. “That is…”

“Yes, it’s my Forbidden Seal.”

Light shone around Arash’s heart, and Anna could also smell the distinctive scent of a Forbidden Seal’s mana.

“I’ll probably die if I don’t tell Duke Voltaire everything that happened here,” Arash added. “Which is why I need your…”

Anna raised her hand, signaling Arash to stop while Anna sorted out the thoughts jumbled up in her head. In truth, Anna had come here without much thought because Arash had told her that there was a way to help Kireua.

“…I’m going to set all that aside for now and ask you a question. I want you to answer me as honestly as possible. Do you understand me?”

“I understand.” Arash nodded.

“You’re a fake member of the imperial family who has nothing to do with the empire, so what are you trying to accomplish here?”

Before discovering Arash’s true identity, Anna had thought that she was looking to get revenge. As brilliant as Anna was, it didn’t seem like she had any reason to be someone else’s puppet.

‘It doesn’t make sense that she's forced to follow orders because of her Forbidden Seal either. I would have killed myself long ago if I had to live like that,’ Anna thought skeptically.

On top of that, from what Anna had seen so far, Arash and Voltaire looked like equals, not master and servant.

“…Do you really want me to tell you why I’m here, despite everything?” Arash quietly asked.

“Go on. I’m not laying a finger on these golems until you tell me.”

“It might shock you…”

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Anna firmly answered.

Arash was silent for a tense moment.