The Thief Girl's Usefulness

Gawain had no idea whether this little girl named Rebecca had gotten her head knocked silly while fighting monsters earlier, but he still patiently explained, "I may have 'lived' here for many years... but I was already dead by then! After you die, do you know what your own grave looks like?"

Rebecca thought about reminding her ancestor that the imperial mausoleum of Ansu's founding monarch had been built while the king was still alive, and that the king had even participated in its design. But after thinking it over, she felt that if she kept babbling, Aunt Heti might beat her to death on the spot. So she forcefully swallowed the words in her throat and gave an awkward laugh instead. "Ahaha... that makes sense."

"We can't go back the way we came," Heti sighed, analyzing the situation calmly. "The castle courtyard and the entrance to the ancestral tomb have both been occupied by those monsters. Going back that way would be a dead end."

"We need to find another route," Gawain said as he recalled the memories he had inherited. "Seven hundred years have passed. The castle on this territory probably doesn't have the same layout it did back then, does it?"

"The upper levels have been renovated several times, but the foundations haven't changed," Heti quickly replied. "The entrance you mentioned should still be in the same place."

"Is that so? Then this will be easy." Gawain held out a hand toward a nearby soldier. "Lend me your sword."

Taking the longsword handed over by the soldier, Gawain began drawing on the ground. First, he sketched a top-down outline of the castle, then a side view roughly divided into three levels. Though they were hastily drawn diagrams, the major sections were still clearly marked.

"The entrance is here, on the second underground level, beside the wine cellar and grain storage—at least, they were a wine cellar and grain storage back then. There are two passages leading in, but both require going through the surface, so they're probably unusable."

Rebecca curiously studied the rough sketch Gawain had drawn so casually. "They're still the wine cellar and grain storage now, but I never knew there was a third room between them..."

"It isn't a room, but an interlayer. It used a few architectural tricks and was simply hidden between the walls and supporting beams," Gawain said with a smile. "This land wasn't peaceful back then. It was frontier territory. Monsters emerging from the wastelands of the Gondor Empire, along with deranged soldiers from the old empire, would come knocking almost every ten days or half a month. The earliest Cecil Territory was built almost to the standards of a war fortress. Under those circumstances, secret passages and hidden walls were essential. They could be used for emergency evacuation or to transport supplies during a siege."

Knight Byron studied the crude map carefully, then drew along its lower diagonal with his own sword. "So we need to reach the entrance on the castle's second level... without passing through any surface routes, including the courtyard. This is where we are now. The ancestral mausoleum is an underground structure built southeast of the castle. About one-third of it overlaps with the castle foundations..."

"There should be a passage in this overlapping area," Gawain interrupted Byron. "The tomb was built seven hundred years ago. The craftsmen at the time were the same ones who built the war fortress, and these structures were built according to the standards and rules of that era. A backup passage must exist."

As he spoke, he gave Rebecca a puzzled glance. "You truly know nothing about this? This should all be knowledge passed down through the Cecil Family."

Rebecca lowered her head in embarrassment. "I..."

"Ancestor, we have failed the glory you won for the family," Heti said, biting her lip. Her voice came with some difficulty. "The Cecil Family has gone through many things over these seven hundred years..."

"All right, I understand." Gawain waved a hand. This was not the time for stories. "Once we get out of here, I'll have you properly tell me what happened over these seven hundred years. Right now, our priority is finding a way from the mausoleum to the secret passage."

Rebecca, Heti, and Byron crouched before the crude maps and began studying them. They knew the Cecil Family's ancient castle, but they did not know the tomb's internal layout. This seven-hundred-year-old mausoleum was not some tourist attraction where one could buy a ticket for two silver coins. Forget visiting every few days—even a hundred years ago, before the mausoleum was sealed, the family Heirs were only allowed to enter its interior a limited number of times in their lives, and they were forbidden from approaching the resting place of their ancestors.

Who knew where the secret passage opened?

Faced with this problem, even Gawain's memories were useless. After all, when he died back then, he surely had never imagined that one day he would have to climb back up and figure out how to get out...

But just as everyone was at a loss, Amber, who had been quietly standing to one side, suddenly spoke up. "Um... I might know the way..."

At once, everyone in the tomb turned to look at the Half-elf thief.

Amber's neck immediately shrank back.

Heti frowned. "How would you know?"

"I..." Amber was a little frightened, but when she saw the encouraging look in Gawain's eyes, she gathered her courage. "I crawled in from that direction... It should be roughly that way. I guessed it was the secret passage."

Gawain nodded. "Good. Lead the way."

Amber patted her chest. "As long as you don't keep holding it against me that I dug up your family's ancestral grave..."

Heti shot the tactless Half-elf a glare, raised her staff, and turned toward the tomb chamber's door. Gawain, however, suddenly stopped before taking a step.

"Ancestor?" Rebecca looked at him curiously.

"I need to bring a weapon too," Gawain said. Though he was no longer the legendary grand duke who had opened new frontiers seven hundred years ago, he still had the common sense to find something for self-defense in such a dangerous place.

His Line of Sight swept across the tomb chamber. A soldier voluntarily unfastened the sword at his waist and prepared to hand it over, but Gawain waved away the soldier's kindness. Guided by memory, he walked to the Black Steel Coffin and leaned over to search inside.

Inside the coffin, he found a heavy longsword that was black from hilt to tip, though a faint crimson glow seeped from the blade near the guard.

The moment the sword entered his hand, a familiar, perfectly natural feeling surged into his heart. It was as though every pattern on the sword fit flawlessly against the lines of his palm. Gawain subconsciously swung the sword twice, and each motion felt as if it had been tempered through countless battles.

He knew this was a memory left behind by his current body. Even if the soul had changed, every muscle still remembered how to wield this weapon.

It was a pleasant surprise, though not entirely unexpected.

Besides the memories lingering in the body, his mind also contained all the Combat Knowledge Gawain Cecil had possessed in life. There were not only basic swordsmanship and riding techniques, but also supernatural powers that seemed almost like magic to Gawain. That knowledge was undoubtedly tempting, but this was not the time to test or study it.

First, they needed to escape their current miserable situation.

The instant Rebecca saw the black sword, her eyes widened, and even her voice trembled slightly. "This is... the legendary Ansu Sword of the Pioneer?"

Hearing Rebecca's words, Heti, who had already reached the doorway, instantly turned back. She stared fixedly at the sword in Gawain's hand, unable to hide the excitement on her face. "The Pioneer's Sword?!"

"Now, it's nothing more than a relatively sharp sword," Gawain sighed. "Seven hundred years have passed. Even a weapon blessed by elves may not suffer wear or corrosion, but the magic within it has already completely dissipated. Who knows how long it will take to recharge it."

As he spoke, Gawain turned toward the front of the coffin. There was a small stone platform there, but it was completely empty. Gawain immediately frowned. "Wait, shouldn't I have a shield that never left my side? Wasn't it buried with me? Where did my huge shield go?"

Heti's expression instantly turned ugly. "Ancestor... your descendants have failed your favor once again. The Ansu Shield of the Kingdom Guardian was removed from the mausoleum by your descendant Gruman Cecil one hundred years ago, and was later lost on the battlefield..."

Heti spoke hesitantly, clearly leaving much unsaid. Perhaps she feared that if she revealed what had happened One Hundred Years Ago, the ancestor before her would die from rage on the spot—though with a coffin right beside him, burying him again would be easy enough...

Gawain could sense Heti's hesitation, but he did not press her. Instead, he frowned and cursed, "Wasteful bastard... Good thing the sword was kept inside the coffin. That Gruman wasn't insane enough to pry open his ancestor's coffin just to complete the set!"

Heti and Rebecca could only lower their heads, sweating nervously. Their ancestor had jumped out of his coffin and was now cursing their great-grandfather. This had gone far beyond the realm of fantasy. As juniors, even breathing felt unbearably stressful!

Fortunately, Gawain was only irritated because he had lost a piece of equipment that might have been useful. After cursing once, he said no more and led everyone out of the tomb chamber.

After leaving the tomb chamber and entering the stone hall, Rebecca looked around, then waved toward a corner. "Betty! Come out! It's safe now!"

Gawain looked over curiously and saw a thin, tiny girl, perhaps even younger-looking than Rebecca, nervously emerge from the shadows in the corner. The little girl wore a coarse cloth dress, with several adolescent freckles on her face. Her flaxen hair fell loose behind her, and she clutched a frying pan tightly in her hands.

After seeing Gawain, the girl called Betty clearly showed hesitation and nervousness. With her not particularly sharp mind, she probably could not imagine where this strange man had suddenly come from...

"She's a Maid from the castle. We don't know how she got left behind by the first group that broke through. Anyway, she somehow ended up following us," Rebecca briefly introduced the girl. "Betty, this is..."

A faint tremor from above the mausoleum interrupted Rebecca.

"This is not the time to talk." Gawain raised his sword and looked at Amber. "Now, lead the way."

(Second update! Time to vote with your recommendation tickets!)