Chapter 75: The Return of the Dead

Elias stood up from his chair, intending to return to the manor, but before he could take even a single step toward the door, someone desperately knocked on the chamber door.

"Your Greatness, something extraordinary that requires your attention has happened!" Deacon Bram’s voice came from outside, carrying enough urgency to make Mekah’s expression change.

The old priest furrowed his brows and glanced toward the door before answering calmly, "Come in."

The door opened almost immediately, and Bram stepped inside, breathing slightly harder than usual as he bowed toward Mekah.

"Why are you making such a fuss while I am entertaining a gue—"

"Charles has returned," Bram said.

Elias’s eyes widened, and his body froze.

’What?’

Mekah’s expression hardened as his old eyes trembled slightly, and after a moment of disbelief, he asked in a deep voice, "Charles... you do not mean the ranger who is assumed to have died by the hands of a monster, do you?"

"Yes! He did not die, Your Greatness," Bram said, almost beaming with excitement at the strange occurrence.

Elias and Mekah, however, did not share his excitement.

It was a spatial rift they were talking about after all, and if it were possible for an ordinary, untrained person to enter one, survive its dangers, and somehow return alive on their own, then spatial rifts would not be feared to the extent they were.

Even trained warriors could lose their lives inside them, and Charles was not some powerful swordsman who had entered the rift alone. He had been one of the rangers who entered the Grade Two spatial rift with Elias, Dane, Jessie, Ravy, Lorey, and Smith; yet, everyone had believed he had been killed by the Rusted Reaper.

Now Bram was telling them that Charles had somehow survived.

It sounded no different from some fantastical story.

Regardless, it was not something Priest Mekah could simply disregard based on his own knowledge or wisdom concerning spatial rifts. If Charles had truly returned, then something extraordinary had happened inside that rift, and understanding what had happened could be far more important than the matter of Elias leaving Kilmir.

"Let’s meet that boy then," Mekah said.

"Of course, Your Greatness. I will get the carriage prepared," Bram replied.

With that, the deacon bowed slightly to the old priest before leaving the chamber and closing the door behind him.

Mekah turned toward Elias, his expression thoughtful as he asked, "Would you like to check on this strange anomaly, Sire Elias?"

Elias considered the offer for a moment before shaking his head.

"If Berlic sees me traveling with you, my plan of leaving the city without him noticing may fall apart," Elias said.

"Hmm..." Mekah brushed his beard thoughtfully and nodded. "That may happen. Though I believe the City Lord will call you and the other rangers to check on him anyway. Still, it would have been great to spend some more time with you, Sire Elias."

"I feel the same, Your Greatness," Elias said with a smile.

Mekah smiled faintly before raising one hand in farewell.

"May the Sun shine on us forever," he said.

Elias nodded once. "May it shine on us forever."

He then turned around and left the chamber.

The moment the door closed behind him, Mekah’s faint smile disappeared, and his eyes narrowed as he stared toward the entrance.

"Did you feel it?" he mumbled.

A faint presence seemed to linger within the room, although there was no one else visible besides the old priest.

Mekah slowly stroked his beard, his expression becoming increasingly contemplative as he recalled the moment Elias had entered his chamber.

"To think he has awakened his mind’s eye..." he muttered.

There was a trace of surprise in his voice, but it was accompanied by something closer to admiration.

"Most swordsmen waste away their youth swinging the sword, and when it is already too late, they finally discover that the mind’s eye is a perfect tool to look within yourself."

Mekah lowered his hand from his beard and gazed toward the closed door.

"However, if he continues to ascend like a dragon, he will soon reach the stormy clouds."

Meanwhile, Elias had already left the Sun Church and was making his way back toward the manor.

The streets of Kilmir were gradually becoming busier as the morning advanced, and merchants were opening their stalls while carriages moved along the roads, but Elias barely paid attention to the surrounding activity because his thoughts were occupied by the conversation he had just had with Mekah.

’The east...’

He had already decided that remaining in the west was dangerous, especially after what had happened with Berlic and the Draveon Marchional Clan, but leaving the west also meant abandoning the familiarity of the region and moving toward an unknown destination.

Priest Mekah had recommended going east because the Draveons’ influence would be weaker there, and Elias understood the reasoning behind it.

Still, understanding something did not automatically make it the correct choice.

There were too many uncertainties.

He did not know what awaited them in the east, what kind of nobles controlled the cities there, or whether his status as a bastard of the Crimson Ducal Clan would create different problems once they arrived.

He obviously intended to hide his and his wives identity however, that didn’t mean everything would go smoothly.

More importantly, he was not alone anymore.

If he were traveling by himself, Elias would have been willing to take almost any risk. He could adapt, hide his abilities, and survive if things went wrong.

But Natasha, Monica, and Stella would be traveling with him.

Benjamin and the two maids would also be coming along, which meant that every decision Elias made would affect people who depended on him.

He tightened his expression as he walked.

’Am I making the right choice?’

The question continued to bother him despite everything Mekah had said.

Elias had already decided to leave Kilmir because staying here would only bring more trouble; they couldn’t go farther in the west either because Kilmir was as west as a citizen of the Dracarian Kingdom could go.

The east seemed like the safest choice.

Yet safe did not mean certain.

Elias eventually sighed and looked ahead toward the distant manor.

’There is no point in deciding this alone.’

After all, he was not leaving the west for his own sake.

He was doing it for their safety.

If he truly intended to protect his wives, then their opinions mattered just as much as his own.

Instead of making the decision himself, Elias decided that he would ask Natasha, Monica, and Stella whether they believed going east was the right choice.