Chapter 1431: Tilted History

General Sethran’s stronghold stood like a tall column that was cut out of an obsidian wall. It was purely metallic though, with seven corners, all carved so sharp that they seemed to even tear the reflection of the light.

Inside the building was an even more astonishing sight.

Unlike Duke Amene’s White Stone Castle that looked admirable on the outside but lonesome on the inside, the General’s was the complete opposite.

There was a flourish of servants walking around the first floor which was more of a museum than a homely space.

They were also greeted by a lot of soldiers that hung around the General and carried out tasks for him. Many of them were, of course, the excellent best of the army that even Northern himself had not seen around.

’Are they members of the Aerial Squad?’

That had to be it. Even the Masters of them were bolstering with fierce strength, which was not what one got to see around.

They ascended a couple of floors with the help of a mechanical floor.

General Sethran explained that his home also served several purposes aside from it being his home, the first floor was a Museum, the second floor was an illustrious restaurant that was often frequented by several nobles and many who could afford it, while the three floors were hotel rooms with prolific space woven into them.

Since his place was closer to the Training barracks, the soldiers could always decide to stay here for a reasonable price. He had made all the rooms to be a reasonable price after all.

Northern saw the General in a new and different light, and couldn’t stop staring at him, stunned.

"What?"

"I thought all you get to do is fight and train..."

Duke Sethran smiled.

"I make a lot of money as a General, and a Duke, it would be careless of me to not find a way to multiply that money and also contribute to the growth of our nation."

Northern released an amused smile.

"Ryugan is lucky to have Leaders such as you."

The General chuckled.

"We are the lucky ones..."

He glanced at his friend.

Duke Amene had a warm smile on his face.

"This place is more than a home for us... and his majesty is more than a King to us. We would die to protect it."

Northern allowed an envious smile.

He didn’t have such a place, but he did have such people. Although, to be quite frank, he didn’t see himself dying to protect someone... anyone.

If he had a choice, he would always choose to walk away.

General Sethran opened one more door just as Northern smiled to Duke Amene’s words.

This door was on the sixth floor of his Tower, and the room was a flourish of red. The ground was a red rug and the wall of the room was built with a reddish wooden accent that further draped the space into something quite exuberant.

Northern felt wealthy, like the one percent of the one percent. Being in this room gave one a tremendous ego boost. One, the design of the atmosphere was quite intentional. The second reason it did was because of the items that were being displayed in an encased glass.

"My ancestors were Voyagers before they settled on this mountain. All the items here were collected over the years of endless journey across the world."

Northern stared at the beautiful purple feather that floated in one of the glass cases.

He was stunned for several seconds, simply looking at an ethereal feather, seemingly drawn to it and wondering where it came from.

General Sethran turned to him and filled in the blank.

"Lord Northern, you must have a good eye."

Northern chuckled, straightened.

"You’re not wrong."

General Sethran looked at the feather.

"That is what is left of the animals that once lived in the First Civilization. It’s strange how they drove themselves to extinction... but all the tales I’ve heard about them inform us about their great wisdom and might."

There were several hundreds of the compendium of history of the First Civilization, which was the world before Ul and her brothers broke it to heal themselves. The truth was hidden behind several ways and if not for having a front row seat to an eye-opening conversation with Kryos, he probably also would think like General Sethran and the rest of the world.

The man was not wrong though. This was indeed the feather of a creature that had existed as far as a thousand years ago. But, it either was corrupted by the act of severance committed by the Origins.

This creature with a beautiful feather was somewhere out there, infected and degradable by the tear of the world. And had become a vicious monster that either had been slaughtered or was somewhere, slaughtering thousands.

Northern analyzed the feather itself and kept the form, hoping to be able to use it to build something unique for himself.

"Let me, bring what you came here for."

General Sethran said and walked back to the western wall, where a long brown box with dull golden carvings rested on a raised platform.

He opened the box and retrieved the broken sword and its shard, bringing it to Northern.

The moment Northern’s eyes fell on the sword, his mouth slowly parted.

’Graceful stars.’

His eyes radiated a beautiful blue light as it fell on the sword and Aoi was already analyzing the sword even before it reached him. As he touched the graceful steel, Aoi’s analysis picked up.

Northern could instinctively feel a torrent of information pour into his head. Many of them were like a complex weave of structures that he needed to start unbranching to fully comprehend, a few more were a mess of weaves.

Those certainly would prove more stubborn, but he didn’t worry, not now at least.

At the same time, the light in Northern’s gaze changed.

The analysis was halted.

And he did not do it.

He frowned, deeply alerted. But before he could turn to do anything...

Northern went blind.