Level Up Legacy

“I will assume that the man lives here as a guest and not owner,” said Arthur as the two stood in front of the inn. “Have you met them?”

“I have yet to do so, but Layla said it was the owner,” said Rain with a pondering expression. “Is it someone you know?”

“She is quite famous around these parts, but it’s hard to imagine she was the escapee since she is quite old. In any case, let’s go in and find out.”

The two walked into the inn, which looked shabbier than before. As soon as they opened the door, they heard a woman’s voice whining. Layla was leaning over the counter, begging an old woman who refused to look at her.

“Grandma, this is our best chance to save him!” said Layla as she tightened her grip on the counter’s edge. “You would not have another chance to save your son!”

Layla did not notice the two since they hid their presence. However, despite their efforts to remain hidden, Grandma Mo saw them as soon as they entered.

“We have guests, it seems,” said Grandma Mo as she looked past Layla, who turned around with confusion. Arthur and Rain wore cloaks that hid their appearance, and no one would be able to recognize them. “Are you here to stay in our inn?”

“We came here to visit a friend,” said Arthur as he pulled down his hood and revealed his face. “However, I never imagined we would meet again, Grandma Mo. You might not remember me since I had a different face then.”

“I am old enough to see past appearances, young man. Furthermore, once the Manson Gang was destroyed, I made the connection about your real identity.”

Layla looked at the two with a gaping mouth, snapping her neck between the two. “You two know each other?” she asked with shock. “Then, how… is….”

“Is this the crazy man who wants to enter the Light Prison?” asked Grandma Mo with a raised brow, and Layla was at a loss for words. Finally, seeing her reaction, the old lady sighed. “If you had told me, I wouldn’t have refused.”

“Night here told me that she knows a man who escaped from the Light Prison but didn’t mention anything about that man being an old innkeeper. Maybe she told the truth, and there is something you haven’t told us, Grandma Mo?” Arthur playfully said as he walked to sit on the counter.

“My hubby was arrested for no crime other than being himself. I had to get him home as a good wife, but the stubborn man refused my help and stayed in prison.”

“…you infiltrated the prison on purpose?” asked Rain with shock. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to get arrested and escape?”

“I didn’t want to become a fugitive or for them to know who I am,” said Grandma Mo as she wiped her plates one after the other. “Furthermore, only those with heinous crimes go to the Light Prison. I couldn’t hurt anyone, for that matter.”

Rain and Arthur exchanged glances because both of them found it hard to believe. As for Layla, she sat down to stare silently at her grandmother, who was still cleaning the plates.

“We need to do it again, Grandma Mo. However, we don’t even know where the prison is, not to mention how to infiltrate it,” said Rain as she walked toward the counter. “Would you help us?”

pAn-d a-n0ve1.com “I would have refused if not for this man,” said Grandma Mo as she pointed at Arthur with her chin. “My son threw away everything he had, just like his father did, for this man. I want them to meet.”

“Who is your son?” asked Arthur with confusion.

“Her son is Zonas Mantra,” said Layla, who remained quiet all this time. “She is our great-grandmother, and her husband was the king’s hand before he was arrested for treason, just like what is happening now.”

“I told you before, child,” said Grandma Mo toward Arthur. “My husband was the strongest fighter this nation has ever seen, but he was still a Mantra, a family deemed traitors.”

“There is no need for that lie anymore,” said Arthur as he tapped his finger on the counter, and lights shone above it. “I know the truth about the Imperial Family and their lie about who their ancestor is.”

“…I see,” said Grandma Mo with a smile. “If hubby were alive, he would cry rivers for hearing that. But, after all, we had to live as traitors who stole the elements, while his father always told him that we were the only ones who knew the truth.”

“I never imagined him to cry…” said Layla with raised brows.

“Morgan Mantra was a soft man who cried a lot. It was quite a scene when the strongest man in the empire cried every time his son called for him. He wanted to grow powerful enough to redeem our reputation, but he discovered the truth about the imperial family.”

“Thus, arrested and executed,” said Rain with understanding. Grandma Mo nodded with sadness. “If so, how come you still live, and the Mantra Family is spared?”

“No one knows the truth about me, and Zonas never visited to ensure that. I’m an old lady in the slums, so who would care to investigate? As for my son, the emperor knew that the Mantra Family was one of the few families to understand the world. He spared his life and enlisted him as a knight. The rest is known.”

The three sat there, none of them knowing what to say. The Mantra Family suffered through countless generations, and no one knew what happened before that. All because of a lie that survived for a thousand years.

“The past cannot be changed, but the present is different. If I teach you how to find the Light Prison, would you save Zonas too?” Grandma Mo asked Arthur, and the rest waited for his answer.

“Do you think he would accept being saved?” asked Arthur, and Grandma Mo couldn’t answer.

“There is no reason for him to refuse,” said Layla with a frown. “This is different than before. Morgan Mantra refused because he believed the emperor could change, but his son should know better.”

“Men of the Mantra Family are hard to understand, as far as I witnessed. If Zonas opposed the arrest, I doubt he would be captured, given his strength. However, for some reason, he chose to be arrested.”

“…it’s because of Lyle,” said Layla after a pause. “I was there when he arrested grandfather. If a battle broke out, one of them would have to die. If he escaped, then Lyle would bear responsibility.”

It was then that Arthur understood why Zonas accepted his arrest. If he refused, then Lyle would lose his position. If he escaped, then Lyle would lose his position. Revenge was everything to Lyle, and Zonas couldn’t take it away from him.

“If my son is as foolish as his father, then so be it,” said Grandma Mo after a long pause. “All men of my family are foolish, but we must try to save them, right?”

“I will try, but I make no promises,” Arthur said, knowing full well that he would have to ask Lyle about this. After that, Grandma Mo told them about her significant infiltration and even greater escape.

As he listened, Arthur was both amused and horrified. The Light Prison seemed to be hidden from the public eye, and it was floating above the palace. He failed to find it because, as Grandma Mo explained, spatial arrays were also at work.

What horrified Arthur was not its location but how a woman with no runes managed to infiltrate it. She had to hide inside a stone coffin fed to a giant flying monster before it was controlled to fly toward the prison.

Since monsters were deterred using the arrays, the ones that flew directly toward the prison grounds were killed and used as food. Grandma Mo crawled out of the beast after it was dead and made her way toward her husband.

After his refusal, she had to find her way back alone, heartbroken. She spent months in prison to convince her husband and find a way out.

“There is a spatial node used to transport corpses, garbage, and import resources to the prison,” explained Grandma Mo. “I had to jump to that spatial point, which allowed me to teleport away from that horrible place. I almost died but was lucky enough to make it to Halin.”

“You got teleported to that place?” asked Layla with shock. “Then, how did you get back?”

“Just barely,” said Grandma Mo without elaborating further. “Although giants are feared and hated, not all of them are bad people. On the contrary, some of them are good friends of mine, while others were bent on killing me.”

“Land of Giants, huh?” muttered Arthur with interest. Giants appeared almost three hundred years ago, alongside the first gates. After a crushing war against them, the giants retreated to the far end of Anera, creating Halin.