Chapter 242: Knight Templar

After hearing their honest confession and rather brutal admission of ignorance regarding the workings of the Nether Lands, Aelric regarded them with the expression of someone who had just discovered that his students had somehow managed to attend an entire year of lessons without opening a single book.

Still, he couldn’t exactly blame them because he had once been in their position.

Six years ago, before his own exile, Aelric had shared the same belief that being cast into the Nether Lands was nothing short of a death sentence. Unlike the group however, he hadn’t possessed the luxury of being surrounded by a group of companions.

Survival had been brutal. It had been him, his Soul Beast, and an almost irrational determination to remain alive purely to spite the people who had made his life miserable beyond measure.

There had been no grand plan, no reliable shelter and no powerful allies; just survival... And even that had nearly failed.

There had been a time when Aelric had come infinitesimally close to death, so close that, had it not been for a Sanctuary scout finding him and dragging him back from the brink, he would have become nothing more than a corpse beneath the soil—his grave eventually decorated by grass tall enough to hide a man’s head.

Aelric had survived and because he had survived, he understood their ignorance better than most. He might not have appreciated it, but he could accept it.

After the others finished speaking, Aelric said nothing. He simply allowed a small contemplative silence to settle over them.

The Terracottas remained motionless around them, their hollow gazes adding an almost absurd solemnity to the conversation.

Eventually, Aelric sighed before saying. "Actually, I don’t blame you guys." He rubbed the back of his neck. "In fact, you could say expecting you to know all this was a mistake on my part."

His expression softened as he added. "However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn about the history of Aetherium." He then shrugged. "Anyway, if you safely reach the Sanctuary, you’ll probably learn more about it."

His emerald eyes moved towards the ancient chamber. "For now, I’ll tell you what a Forbidden Ruin truly is."

As he said this, Aelric assumed an expression of scholarly seriousness.

Then, without hesitation, he began explaining right there in the middle of the crypt, surrounded by more than a dozen Terracottas that could, theoretically, decide at any moment that the lecture had become sufficiently boring and start killing everyone.

Strangely enough, the group didn’t seem particularly concerned, instead, they gathered closer to Aelric. Apparently, ancient history had somehow managed to temporarily become more frightening than ancient stone warriors.

"You see," Aelric began, his expression calm and his voice deep, "Forbidden Ruins are actually a classified archaeological category of their own." He gestured towards the surroundings as he explained. "They represent remnants of ancient civilizations and epochs that have either vanished completely or been buried beneath the passage of time."

He paused briefly allowing that to settle before continuing.

"In simpler terms, they’re what you would call archaeological sites." His eyes narrowed. "And their significance is so immense that scholars, governments, noble houses and powerful organizations will go to extraordinary lengths just to investigate them."

He looked at them as he explained further. "But there’s another reason I said kingdoms would kill just to get their hands on one and that reason has to do with a mysterious warrior convocation."

Aelric’s expression then became serious as he asked. "Have any of you ever heard of the Knight Templar?"

The question produced another round of blank, bewildered glances, their ignorance practically radiating through the chamber.

Fortunately, Kaeloris seemed to possess at least a fragment of an answer because the moment he heard the question, the failed Gnost adjusted his glasses before answering.

"Are you talking about the progenitors of Soul Essences?"

Aelric looked at him with the same expression a teacher might give a student who had finally answered a difficult question correctly.

Then he nodded smilingly. "Good.You’ve heard of them."

Before he could continue, however, Sylveris furrowed her brows.

"Uhm... Kaeloris?" The fourteen-year-old tilted her head. "Who are the Knight Templars?"

As it turns out, Sylveris happened to have merely voiced the question occupying everyone’s minds and immediately, the others turned towards Kaeloris.

Meanwhile, nobody noticed the subtle change in Regaleon’s expression.

The moment Aelric mentioned the Knight Templars, the silver-haired Knight’s brows narrowed as he descended into a pensive thought.

Whenever the word Knight was mentioned, House Valehart was usually the first thing that came to mind. And because of that, Regaleon couldn’t help wondering whether these Knight Templars were somehow connected to his House.

Yet that was precisely what confused him.

Just like everyone else—Kaeloris being the obvious exception—this was the first time he had ever heard the term.

He knew that the ancestors and founders of House Valehart had descended from ancient knightly lineages, but he had never encountered anything in the historical records of his House suggesting an association with these mysterious Templars.

What the Forgotten Knight didn’t know was that those two words would eventually become far more significant to him than he could possibly imagine. In the years to come, his life would become deeply and inexplicably intertwined with them. For now, however, he remained unaware...

In the meantime, Kaeloris turned towards Sylveris and answered while adjusting his lenses once more.

"Well, no one can say with absolute certainty who the Knight Templars were. However, most scholars have made various speculations over the years that this ancient convocation might have been connected to the emergence of Soul Essences."

Sylveris’s eyes widened.

"In other words, they may have been among the first people to wield Soul Essences. That is why they’re sometimes referred to as the progenitors of modern cultivation."

Sylveris looked like a child who had just been handed a treasure map, her silver eyes shining with the fascination of someone who had discovered gold buried in a grave.

Meanwhile, Valmyr scratched his head.

"So you’re saying these Templars were the ones who brought Soul Essences into the world?" He frowned. "But wouldn’t that make them gods or something?"

Kaeloris immediately shook his head.

"No. You’re getting it wrong." He pushed his glasses higher. "They didn’t bring Soul Essences into existence. Rather, they were among the earliest people known to have received them."

His expression became solemn.

"Honestly, the entire history is so fragmentary that verifying individual accounts is almost impossible but according to most of the books and historical archives I’ve read, one thing seems relatively consistent."

He looked around as he spoke further.

"At the dawn of civilization, the Knight Templars were among those who made the awakening of Soul Essences possible and widespread."

Silence followed. What Kaeloris had just explained sounded almost incompatible with everything they had ever been taught.

According to the history most of them knew, Soul Essences were manifestations granted by the mysterious monolith known as the Ascension Altar.

Yet Kaeloris was presenting an entirely different possibility. A history that suggested Soul Essences had existed before the systems they currently understood.

"Hold on a minute..." Veyrath’s expression changed. "Did you just say Knight Templar?"

His eyes slowly shifted towards Regaleon. "Knight as in... House Valehart? If that’s true, doesn’t that mean Regaleon might be a descendant of these Templars or something?"

Immediately, everyone’s attention turned towards the silver-haired Knight.

Regaleon had been listening absentmindedly until that moment. Seeing their expressions, he finally realized exactly where their train of thought had gone and immediately shook his head in response.

"Actually, I don’t think you could say that. While the word Knight in their name might seem to have some correlation with House Valehart, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Moreover, just like you guys, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of them."

His expression became firm.

"Furthermore, I don’t think most people in House Valehart even know about this information. So trying to connect my House with the Knight Templars based solely on their name would be a fallacious assumption."

The speed with which Regaleon dismissed the possibility told the others what they needed to know; Veyrath’s assumption was probably wrong... Or at least, that was what they thought.

But someone was staring at Regaleon with a very penetrating expression and that person was Aelric.

The others didn’t know it yet, but the green-eyed youth had long since realized that there was something fundamentally different about the silver-haired Knight.

And it wasn’t simply a matter of strength nor was it some other superficial aspect; rather, it was something personal which Aelric had witnessed with his own eyes. Something he had personally experienced... Something even Regaleon himself didn’t yet know about his own existence.

From the moment Aelric had first laid eyes upon him, he had sensed that Regaleon was someone exceptional and his partner, Asterion, had reached the same conclusion.

At the time, however, there had been no way to confirm their suspicions because Regaleon had possessed no obvious affiliation with the object of their comparison.

But as time passed, the more Aelric observed the silver-haired Knight, the more he began to recognize similarities between Regaleon and those people.

There was something fundamentally unique about him, something that went far beyond what any of them understood. But unfortunately, now was not the time to reveal such truths. Because as things stood, Regaleon doesn’t seem to be ready for them...