Free Web NovelChapter 413: What the King Revealed
Then again, if the elves of Silvara had possessed any other viable option, they would’ve pursued it long before resorting to this.
After all, they were currently living in seclusion and, more importantly, lacked the ability to properly wield their powers to defend themselves.
So really, who in their right mind would willingly risk their necks on something that could go wrong in every conceivable way?
In truth, Prince Rowan never would’ve gone all the way to the MBE if they hadn’t learned anything more about the situation.
Sure, everyone understood that something significant had happened, or perhaps was about to happen.
But when King Arlen started acting as though the end of the world was looming over the horizon, the rest of them simply couldn’t ignore it.
There were only two possible explanations.
Either their father had finally broken under the immense stress of governing an entire territory while most of the strongest elves remained sealed...
Or he knew something that nobody else did.
And judging by the current circumstances, it was very much the latter.
__
It was the night the clueless Elven Prince heard about something this preposterous...
Inside the royal chambers, King Arlen Elowen had worn a complicated expression as he spoke to his son.
Serious.
Wry.
And carrying a weight Rowan rarely saw on his father’s face.
"It was a very long time ago," King Arlen began. "And it was something passed down only through oral tradition as a warning."
"A warning?"
The King nodded slowly.
"Because it was information intended solely for the next ruler."
In truth, it wasn’t even knowledge that should’ve reached Arlen himself.
Apparently, generations ago, their predecessors had unanimously agreed never to speak of the matter again.
Yet here they were.
And instead of coughing blood like he should’ve been whenever he tried discussing restricted matters, King Arlen was speaking freely.
He should’ve been relieved.
Really, he should’ve felt grateful that the pain was absent.
Yet if given the choice, Arlen would’ve gladly accepted internal injuries over the freedom to speak now.
"In this case," the King continued quietly, "had you formally ascended the throne, I would’ve told you the same story."
"And afterward, you would’ve been expected to pass it on to your successor together with a binding enchantment."
Rowan frowned.
"A binding enchantment, Father?"
But King Arlen immediately cut him off.
"Yes."
His expression darkened.
"An enchantment designed to prevent the information from being spoken."
The King’s gaze drifted somewhere distant.
"One that can only be broken when it recognizes the necessity to reveal the truth."
"Necessity?" Rowan repeated.
"When it recognizes a particular threat."
Silence filled the room. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Prince Rowan stared at his father in surprise, with a good amount of reasonable skepticism.
Meanwhile, King Arlen only looked back with visible pain as he spoke about matters that sounded like children’s tales.
Unfortunately for the prince, he was quick enough to immediately understand the implications.
And that realization was precisely why neither of them slept that night.
Instead, father and son remained locked inside the royal chambers as King Arlen finally recounted the forbidden tale.
A tale about Wyrmfall.
A tale about what lay hidden within it.
And a tale about what was likely connected to the pillar of light every living being in Eryndra had witnessed.
The more Rowan listened, the harder it became to believe what he was hearing.
Truthfully, King Arlen had reacted much the same way when he first inherited the knowledge.
Because the story itself sounded absurd.
The idea that the Great War had never truly ended should’ve been dismissed as madness.
And yet...
Generation after generation had secretly preserved the warning.
A significant portion of what they knew about the fated day wasn’t even firsthand information.
Much of it consisted of deductions made by the earliest ancestor who began passing down the tale in preparation for a future he desperately hoped would never arrive.
Even he had no idea what truly occurred during the final battle because it had been considered taboo from the moment it passed.
But there was one crucial advantage stemming from said Elven ancestor who lived during that era.
Age.
He had been extremely young. So young that no one had even considered placing a child that immature under the same pact as the gathered leaders.
As a result, while the others became bound by silence, the child was left outside it.
And when that child eventually grew up, he found himself unable to let go of the unease that had haunted him for years. After all, one day the horrors he had witnessed simply stopped, yet no one was willing to explain what had truly happened to his older siblings or the countless others who never returned.
The silence itself became an answer he could never accept.
And that was how the uncanny inheritance started.
Maybe at first, his warning held hope that those siblings were alive and to keep on looking out in case they returned...
But eventually, what stood out more were the descriptions of the unthinkable hell Eryndra was subjected to during that time.
But perhaps even more interesting was how the orally passed-down warning kept mentioning the days when dragons fought.
"...?"
Much to Prince Rowan’s surprise, he had learned that there once existed an entire black dragon clan that stood against the so-called "true" enemy.
At first, none of that made any sense to him.
An entire clan participating to that extent in a war, and yet no one had truly heard about them?
And this enemy...
Wasn’t the Great War fought against an immortal abomination?
Well, not exactly.
Or at least, that was what his father eventually revealed.
By the time the story was over, Rowan found himself sitting there in stunned silence after being told that the abomination in question had been more of a dragon than every dragon he had ever met combined.
Naturally, the usually rational Prince challenged that reasoning.
How could he not?
But eventually, his father only sighed and said,
"I asked the exact same question."
The prince blinked.
"And then my father, your grandfather, asked me something in return."
King Arlen had paused before repeating words that had remained with him ever since.
"Then tell me," he said, "how could any other entity breathe dragon fire powerful enough to engulf an entire continent?"
"And how can people crumble from dragon fear from a being that wasn’t even one?"
The question lingered long after the conversation ended.
It lingered even as Rowan tried to sleep.
And now, seated across from the Dragon Lord himself, the words still lingered.
Because the truth was that the conversation with his father was one of the main reasons he had come here today.
That had been one of the things he intended to offer.
Not that the elves were secretly holding back some grand bargaining chip.
Perhaps that would’ve been true if they were facing an ordinary enemy. But against something capable of making even the King of Elves tremble, such thoughts felt almost laughable.
In reality, save for the Codex that was no longer even in their possession, there was very little they could truly place on the negotiating table.
An alliance.
Access to their lands.
And whatever information they managed to uncover moving forward.
That was about it.
The situation had already escalated beyond the point where anyone could afford to hoard resources or play political games. What little they still possessed would only retain value if there was a future left to inherit.
And so Rowan had come here with no illusions about his position.
The elves weren’t arriving from a place of strength.
And they were also painfully aware of how unwise it would be to join hands with factions willing to kidnap a child as a hostage.
So no.
That bridge with those folks had long since burned.
But with how fast things were going, it was clearly only a matter of time before the Merfolk approached them with their own conditions and demands. Therefore, if the elves who had been severely weakened wanted any control over their future, they needed to move before everyone else.
In the end, their family arrived at a simple conclusion.
If a war between dragons was truly inevitable, then surely it was better to stand beside the legitimate ones.
"My Lord," Rowan said at last, "I believe we need to investigate the black dragons first."
The statement had been occupying his thoughts ever since his conversation with his father. Even to him, it had sounded strange when he first considered it, so he could understand the look Kael gave him.
What he didn’t expect, however, was the immediate change in atmosphere when he tried explaining his reasoning more.
The killing intent seemed to surge once more, and the pressure in the room grew noticeably heavier.
"It may not make sense right now, but I believe we need to find traces of them before the Wyverns do."
"Why the black dragons?" Kael asked.
The golden dragon’s voice was deceivingly calm, but as someone raised as the Crown Prince, how could Rowan not know the truth behind such a tone?
"And what exactly do you mean by ’before the Wyverns do?’"
The Elven Prince couldn’t help but flinch.
The room hadn’t physically moved, yet it somehow felt as though the entire office had shaken.
Still, with few options remaining, he forced himself to continue. freewebnovёl.ƈom
"Because that is another reason why I came today."
He took a breath.
"It seems the Wyverns have been searching for anything and everything connected to the black dragons."
"Even now, they’ve already begun discreetly investigating territories owned by their allies, so their activities haven’t yet been noticed."
Rowan’s expression darkened.
"And had they not attempted it within our own backyard, in territories inhabited by certain Dark Elf clans, then we likely would have taken much longer to notice too."
"!!!"
