Under the serene moonlight, a fleeting trace of surprise flashed through Raine’s eyes as he listened to Kaelin’s confession, but mostly, it was replaced by a calm sense of expectation.
He had guessed that Kaelin might be a noble of the Northern Territory, but he hadn’t expected her uncle to be the Duke of the North, who commanded the Fenglang Clan.
In the Grim Kingdom, composed of numerous Northern Territory clans, this was an exalted status second only to the King. Even without a formal title of her own, Kaelin was undeniably a high-ranking noble.
Her occasional displays of grace and reserve, her exquisite Skills in Swordsmanship, and even that Storage Bag—everything suddenly made sense.
"You really did guess it."
Seeing that Raine’s face lacked the shock she had anticipated, Kaelin was slightly taken aback before her lips curled into a relieved smile.
The smile carried a hint of bitterness, but also the relief of shedding a disguise. She finally no longer had to hide anything from him.
"I only guessed that you might be from the Northern Territory and that your status was perhaps extraordinary. But I never imagined your background to be even more... illustrious than I thought," Raine said, shrugging with blunt honesty.
"Illustrious?" Kaelin repeated the word, a self-deprecating smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Her gaze turned toward the deep darkness of the night, and her voice gradually lowered. "In the Grim Kingdom, bloodline grants qualification, but only strength can win the throne.
"Just like my father. As the eldest son of the previous duke, he was generous and exceptionally brave, deeply beloved by our people. Everyone believed he would lead the clan to prosperity.
"Yet, in the Fenglang Arena, which decided the succession of the duke, he lost to my uncle. He was defeated without any room for dispute. From then on, everything he had—his wealth, his fiefdom, his power—was justifiably stripped away by my uncle."
She subconsciously tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. "The people of Grim respect the strong, so my uncle naturally became the new Duke Fenglang. No one could question it.
"But he twisted the clan’s martial spirit into an endless lust for power. He is bloodthirsty and warmongering, yearning to pile up his personal glory and ink the tattoos on his forehead using the severed heads of his enemies and the spilled blood of his own clansmen."
Trying her hardest to suppress her surging emotions, Kaelin continued speaking. "Raine, you must have heard that ten years ago, the Fenglang Clan intervened in an internal dispute within the Solan Kingdom, right? That was also orchestrated by my uncle.
"That year, under the guise of ’gaining experience,’ he forcibly took away my older brother."
Her eyes grew unfocused, as if gazing into a past she could never return to. "The night before my brother left, he sneaked out of the military camp to find me and pressed his most cherished Wooden Sword into my hands.
"He told me, ’Kaelin, my sister, practice your Swordsmanship well, but remember, a sword is meant to protect your home and your loved ones, not to create tears.’ He was eighteen that year. He didn’t want to go to war at all.
"But I was still young back then. All I knew was rolling in the snow all day, chasing snow rabbits."
Kaelin’s voice grew tight, carrying a faint tremble. "Until one morning, a bone-chilling notice of his death in battle was delivered to our home.
"At first, I didn’t understand what it meant. It wasn’t until my mother fainted and my father’s hair turned white overnight that I dimly realized... the brother who used to carry me on his shoulders to watch the auroras, who would clumsily help me comb my hair, and who always saved the best dried meat for me... was never coming back."
She turned her back and took a deep breath, as if trying to push all her emotions deep down into her heart.
"And now, disregarding the dissuasion of my father and the Clan Elder Council, my uncle has brazenly dispatched troops again. He even forcibly conscripted my father as the vanguard, tying him to his war chariot. This is clearly a conspiracy!"
She tried to calm her voice, but it still carried an uncontrollable tremor. "Because my father resolutely opposed sending out troops, my uncle has long seen him as a thorn in his side. It’s obvious that he wants my father to die on the battlefield to completely eliminate his opposition.
"To ensure this, he specially dispatched heavy forces to strictly guard my father and his entourage. They have been placed under house arrest in a garrison near Lotte City until they are pushed into the Abyss of the battlefield."
She turned back to Raine. At this moment, only a trace of unwavering resolve remained in her emerald eyes. "This time, I absolutely cannot let him succeed.
"So, I bypassed his informants, evaded his surveillance, and secretly ran away from home during a hunt. Following the army all the way south, I came here as well. I must put an end to all of this. I must end this war!"
Her voice grew even more resolute. "The Solan Kingdom is not a hunting ground for the warriors of the Northern Territory to gallop through. Their blades should be pointed at the monsters threatening our homeland, not thrust into the chests of their former Alliance Army comrades!"
Raine remained silent, listening quietly.
His speculation had been correct; Kaelin’s goal indeed ran entirely counter to that of the Northern Territory’s army.
And her secret mission couldn’t be any more obvious.
She wanted to stop this war.
But the question was, did that ancestral relic really carry enough weight to tip the scales of this war?
Thinking of this, a trace of doubt couldn’t help but flicker through Raine’s eyes.
Kaelin saw the doubt in Raine’s eyes and took the initiative to explain. "My ancestor who died in battle at the Crown of Grey Rock was Duke Fenglang from five hundred years ago, Garson Ice Trace. He was the builder of the Crown of Grey Rock and also its supreme Commander. Buried along with him in the dust of history was a Gemstone symbolizing the duke’s right to rule—the Wolf’s Oath."
Her voice sounded exceptionally solemn in the night. "According to the ancient traditions of the Fenglang Clan, only the one who holds the Wolf’s Oath is the duke truly recognized by the ancestors and the gods.
"As long as my father can obtain it, he can rely on this indisputable legitimacy to unite the Clan Elder Council and rightfully strip my uncle of his power! The elders of the Elder Council have long been dissatisfied with my uncle’s fanaticism.
"This is exactly the purpose of our journey, and it is the ancestral relic I need to find!"
"That makes sense then," Raine nodded thoughtfully.
In other words, the person holding this Wolf’s Oath was the Duke Fenglang in the truest sense.
Over the five hundred years since it was lost, the legitimacy of the Fenglang Clan had actually always been flawed.
Recalling that the Sloppy Ranger had once mentioned the Northern Barbarian Race’s extreme devotion to ancient traditions, Raine believed this Gemstone indeed possessed immense Energy.
"Since this Gemstone is so important and serves as the orthodox symbol of power, why haven’t the people of your clan come looking for it over the past five hundred years?" Raine asked, voicing the doubt in his heart after a brief moment of thought.
"It’s not that no one has looked for it, but rather that it simply couldn’t be found." Kaelin shook her head, hiding nothing. "The reason I was able to pinpoint the approximate location of the Crown of Grey Rock is because of my mother."
Her gaze turned to the distance, as if piercing through the night to see that figure in her memory. "My mother was a Solan, and she was once a Silver Level Adventurer."