Ancestor (Please Follow)

"Since your teacher told you that name, I won't hide it from you any longer."

Earl Arthur spoke softly.

If he had held some doubts before, he was now certain that Chen Mu had not lied.

Because the Black Robe Pathseekers Society was not information Chen Mu could have uncovered himself.

Unless his teacher had told him, Earl Arthur could not imagine where Chen Mu might have learned of it.

What he did not know was that Chen Mu's wizard teacher was fake.

The information about the Black Robe Pathseekers Society had come from the cheat.

"I had my suspicions the first time you told me about being intercepted. This has nothing to do with you, Vieri. The Golden Lion Family's ties to the Black Robe Pathseekers Society go back a hundred years."

Earl Arthur sat in his chair, a trace of wistfulness in his voice.

Chen Mu sat beside him, listening intently without making a sound.

He knew Earl Arthur was preparing to tell him everything.

"It began a hundred years ago. The Lord War had just ended, and the Golden Lion Family was at the height of its power.

"The family's guard corps alone numbered more than ten thousand, and it had dozens of Formal Knights.

"More than half of East River Province belonged to the Golden Lion Family."

By this point, Chen Mu already understood some of it.

The Golden Lion Family now possessed only the Far East Territory. Forget more than half of East River Province—one-tenth would be closer.

Moreover, there were only three direct descendants left in the entire Golden Lion Family. That was worlds apart from what Earl Arthur had described from a century ago.

Sure enough, Earl Arthur spoke again the next moment.

"But just as the Lord War ended, a Wizard arrived in the kingdom. Not some so-called Wizard Apprentice, but a genuine Level 1 Wizard!"

Earl Arthur's voice trembled slightly as he said this.

Though he had never met that Wizard himself, Earl Arthur still could not forget the fear and helplessness in his grandfather's voice when he had told him of it.

"Vieri, you may not understand what a Level 1 Wizard means. Put simply, that Wizard could have wiped out the entire Winter Kingdom alone. That is no exaggeration."

"That Wizard needed young people with wizard aptitude as test subjects, and the kingdom naturally had no power to refuse.

"Commoners with wizard aptitude were exceedingly rare. After searching the entire kingdom, they found only a little over two hundred.

"But that Wizard demanded five hundred—five hundred young people with wizard aptitude."

By then, Earl Arthur's tone had returned to calm, and he continued as though merely chatting.

"The kingdom ordered every family to offer up at least one person with wizard aptitude. How could those great nobles possibly agree?

"The result was obvious. The nobles flipped the table, and war erupted!

"But did it help? Of course not. Instead, it forced that Wizard to act.

"Before a true Wizard, what were nobles? What were families? They were as insignificant as insects.

"No one knew how that Wizard acted. The nobles of the time seemed deeply reluctant to speak of it.

"In the end, the nobles agreed. Every family contributed at least one person with wizard aptitude.

"The Golden Lion Family had only one person with wizard aptitude: Karl Wesley, one of its direct descendants at the time.

"No one knew what that Wizard wanted five hundred people for.

"They only knew it seemed to be for some experiment, and those five hundred people were the Wizard's test subjects.

"Then, twenty years later, seven of those original five hundred returned to the kingdom alive.

"Karl Wesley of the Golden Lion Family was one of them!

"No one knew what they had experienced. All anyone knew was that their temperaments changed drastically, and they stirred up wave after wave of unrest throughout the kingdom.

"Twelve families were wiped out in those upheavals.

"Yes, twelve noble families. The weakest was a viscount's family, while the strongest was a marquess's family.

"The Golden Lion Family was fortunate. Though it suffered heavy losses, it was not exterminated. Karl Wesley spared the Golden Lion Family.

"Of course, the kingdom was not helpless either. It secretly had a Level Three Wizard Apprentice in its service.

"The unrest did not last long. Within only a few years, those seven people vanished into hiding.

"Those seven survivors who returned to the kingdom and sparked the unrest founded a Black Wizard organization."

At this point, Earl Arthur looked at Chen Mu.

Seeing the understanding in Chen Mu's eyes, he continued, "That's right. This Black Wizard organization was the Black Robe Pathseekers Society!"

After hearing his father Earl Arthur's words, Chen Mu understood everything completely.

The information from reality now lined up perfectly with the secrets he had learned from the Simulator.

Chen Mu had not expected a true Wizard to be so powerful that even an entire kingdom had to bow before one like a grandson.

Precisely because Wizards were so powerful, Chen Mu would never give up exploring the Wizard Path.

Knighthood was only a transition. Only Wizardry was Chen Mu's true pursuit in this world.

"Father, does that mean the one targeting the Golden Lion Family now is Karl Wesley?"

"How could that be? If our ancestor truly wanted to deal with the Golden Lion Family, how could the family have survived until today? The founders of the Black Robe Pathseekers Society left long ago for the Overseas Wizard Continent."

"Then who could it be?"

After hearing Earl Arthur's words, Chen Mu pressed on.

If his earlier confusion had been an act, he was genuinely curious now.

If it was not Karl Wesley, then who was it? After all, if this stemmed from hatred, only Karl Wesley—who had been offered up by his own family—should have borne such hatred.

"Too many people. Anyone in the Black Robe Pathseekers Society could be responsible. You may not know this, but none of the twelve families destroyed back then belonged to those seven founders."

Chen Mu was no fool. He immediately understood what Earl Arthur meant.

If it was not hatred, then it could only be for profit.

What interest could connect the Black Robe Pathseekers Society and the Golden Lion Family? It could only be because Karl Wesley was one of the Black Robe Pathseekers Society's founders.

Sure enough, Earl Arthur's next words cleared up Chen Mu's doubts.

"While the founders of the Black Robe Pathseekers Society were still in the kingdom, their families had declined from their former glory but still remained standing within it.

"But after they departed for the Wizard Continent, those families vanished one after another.

"Today, only two families connected to those founders remain in the kingdom. One is the Royal Family, and the other is our Golden Lion Family."

After hearing his father's words, how could Chen Mu not understand?

The families of the Black Robe Pathseekers Society's founders had disappeared one after another after they left the continent. That alone explained everything.

Some people in the Black Robe Pathseekers Society were clearly searching for something.

And they believed those things were connected to the families of those founders.

Chen Mu had not expected things to end up like this.

It was the complete opposite of what he had imagined.

This had nothing to do with that ancestor. On the contrary, that ancestor was the Golden Lion Family's potential shield.