A Family Secret

Several days later, one morning.

He walked through the attic and reached the end, where there was a hall.

Guards stood all around, clad in armor, their eyes sharp. They all looked like elite soldiers.

Walking quietly through the place, Arthur's expression remained unchanged. He simply looked toward the hall at the end, where someone was waiting for him.

After some time had passed, the master of the castle, Count Polia, had finally summoned Arthur, asking him to come in person that day to meet.

"Please come with me, sir. The lord is waiting inside."

A young man in a black formal suit, who appeared to be a servant, smiled and spoke to Arthur respectfully and courteously, personally showing him the way.

Arthur nodded, his expression unchanged, and followed the young man ahead of him.

They walked a considerable distance before finally reaching their destination.

"Please go in by yourself, sir. Lord Polia is inside!" When they reached a junction, the young man looked at Arthur apologetically and spoke.

"Thank you." Arthur smiled and walked forward.

Inside, a tall, middle-aged man stood waiting for him.

"My lord!" Without hesitation, Arthur knelt on one knee before the man.

"Rise." A dignified voice came from ahead.

Sensing Arthur's arrival, the middle-aged man turned around and spoke.

Only then did Arthur rise and look up at him.

He was a tall, imposing middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties. His body was powerfully muscled, and his broad face carried an air of authority.

He wore a black robe. His expression was gentle as he looked quietly at Arthur.

This was the first time Arthur had been so close to Count Polia and able to study him. Count Polia had often made his rounds in the past, according to Arthur's memories, but he had always been accompanied by many guards. This was the first time Arthur could remember speaking with him alone, as he was today.

When Arthur saw the count's face, his body suddenly stiffened. A mechanical voice from the Chip had suddenly sounded in his mind.

Name: Polia, Falkus. Strength: 5.7. Agility: 5.4. Constitution: 5.8.

Ding! The target poses an extreme threat to your life. It is recommended that you keep your distance!

In an instant, the Chip transmitted Count Polia's physical attributes to Arthur's mind, jolting him.

Those stats! He was shocked and could hardly believe it.

Arthur had been reborn into this world six months ago. Count Polia was the strongest person he had ever encountered, even far stronger than Knight Flar had been.

Knight Flar had already reached the pinnacle of a knight's abilities. So just how powerful was Count Polia?

Across from him, Count Polia seemed to sense Arthur's tension. He smiled gently, looking like a kind elder. "There's no need to be so nervous. Relax."

"You and I share a surname. Your father is my cousin, so you can call me Uncle if you like."

Arthur froze for a moment, then quickly recovered. He gave the count a warm, shy smile. "Yes, Uncle Polia."

"That's more like it."

Apparently pleased with Arthur's manner, Count Polia nodded with a smile. "Time really does fly. I still remember what you were like when your father sent you here three years ago—so sweet and shy. I can't believe you've become a knight so quickly."

As he spoke, he walked behind himself, took out a box, and set it on the table in front of Arthur.

The box was large and entirely black, but very clean. It was impossible to tell what was inside.

"Open it. It's a gift from me, to celebrate your advancement to knighthood." He looked at Arthur warmly, like an elder who cared for a younger relative.

Arthur stepped forward and opened the box under Count Polia's gaze, revealing what was inside.

It held a black longsword, pristine and polished, its surface reflecting a faint gleam in the light.

"Is this... a weapon forged from Black Rui Steel?"

Arthur gently stroked the weapon. The cold touch made him pause, and he asked uncertainly.

Black Rui Steel was a rare metal in this world, found only in a few mysterious places.

Weapons made from Black Rui Steel were not only lightweight but also strong and sharp, making them highly valuable.

If the longsword before Arthur really had been forged from Black Rui Steel, it would be worth at least five or six thousand gold coins—at least as much as the entire annual income of an ordinary baron's lands.

"Indeed."

Count Polia maintained his smile and nodded in answer to Arthur's question. "It really is forged from Black Rui Steel. I came across it by chance on the battlefield when I was young, and I've kept it ever since."

"Here, pick it up and give it a try. See if it feels right." He encouraged Arthur.

Arthur didn't hesitate. He reached out with his right hand and lifted the Black Rui Longsword from the box.

The black sword was even lighter than Arthur had expected, so light it seemed weightless. Even a child could pick it up.

And as he held the sword, Arthur could faintly sense that Life Energy flowed through his body more easily.

That was one of Black Rui Steel's properties: it allowed knights to channel Life Energy more easily and use less strength to perform Knight Secret Skills.

"It feels right." After holding the sword for a while, Arthur answered honestly.

"Then if it suits you, keep it."

Count Polia nodded. He looked at Arthur, and after a moment, he remarked as if in passing, "I heard you've been asking your father about your mother."

Arthur froze at those words.

In his memories, before he had transmigrated, the original owner of this body had indeed been deeply fixated on the matter. Even after coming to Count Polia's castle, he hadn't given up. He often wrote to his father to ask about it.

Arthur could only go along with what the count had said. He nodded and put on an excited expression. "Does that mean you know what happened to my mother?"

Seeing Arthur's reaction, Count Polia smiled. "I've heard a little about what happened between your father and mother back then."

"Your mother, in fact, was an Elf from a distant land."

"What!" Arthur's face showed "shock," so convincingly that it seemed entirely genuine.

Strictly speaking, his reaction wasn't completely feigned.

He had been prepared for a possibility like this, but hearing the answer still came as a surprise.

Elves were a real species in this world. According to legend, they lived on another continent and were rarely seen here.

Watching Arthur's "shocked" expression, Count Polia fell silent for a moment, then slowly began telling a beautiful story.

It was, in essence, a love story between an Elf who had wandered to a foreign land and a young, strong human lord. It was deeply moving, the sort of story that could almost have been made into a romantic epic.

As Count Polia spoke, Arthur gritted his teeth and listened, his face showing excitement as he quietly heard the entire tale.

"...Unfortunately, any love that disregards the opinions of others is bound to draw opposition from some. When you were very young, some people who disapproved of your father's union with an Elf attacked your mother and killed her."

"You once had a twin sister, but she died in that incident too. Afterward, your father was overcome with grief. He began to hate having anyone bring up your mother, which is why he didn't want to tell you what happened."

"Now that you've grown up, there are things you ought to know. Since your father can't bring himself to tell you, I'll tell you in his place." Count Polia concluded.

Across from him, Arthur put on an expression of sorrow and gratitude. His eyes reddened slightly, and he seemed deeply moved.

Seeing him like this, Count Polia nodded with satisfaction. He spoke kindly with Arthur a little longer, then gave him a badge that served as a Knight Token before seeing him out.

Arthur walked away slowly, keeping a sorrowful expression on his face until he reached his room.

Once inside, Arthur shut the door. The grief and gratitude on his face vanished completely.

"That was a nauseating, sappy, clichéd third-rate love story." Arthur's face was expressionless as he quietly voiced his opinion.

Arthur didn't believe a word of the story Count Polia had just told him.

In Arthur's memories, his father had always been a domineering brute. Though he had treated Arthur well, he had also been lecherous and cruel. Seizing commoners' daughters was nothing unusual for him, and when he flew into a rage, he would beat the girls he had abducted to death.

Could a man like that have had a romantic love affair with an Elf? More likely, he had taken a fancy to her, dragged her back, and forced himself on her.

Count Polia had probably spun the tale to avoid speaking ill of Arthur's father.

Why was Arthur so certain?

Among the books he had read before, there happened to be an epic celebrating love. If you changed the names in its story, it was exactly the same as the one Count Polia had told him.

Arthur's guess was that the truth was that his father had forcibly dragged his mother to his lands. At first, he had probably only wanted to satisfy his lust, but his mother had become pregnant, and that was how she gave birth to Arthur and the sister who might have existed.

Some years later, perhaps when the guards had let their vigilance slip, Arthur's mother had seized the chance to flee, taking Arthur's sister with her. In the end, she might have been killed, or she might have escaped successfully.

Arthur suspected she had probably escaped. Otherwise, his sister would have been more likely to be left behind.

"But if that really was what happened, then it would explain this body's remarkable talent and why its father valued it so much," Arthur murmured.

In this world, it was extremely difficult for Elves and humans to have children.

According to the records, Elves and humans rarely produced offspring. But when they did, their Half-elf children inherited the best traits of both parents and possessed exceptional talents. They were born geniuses.

Though humans and Elves rarely had children together, Half-elves had no such difficulty. They could reproduce normally with either humans or Elves, and their descendants could even inherit the Half-elves' powerful talents.

Arthur's father in this world had little talent for knighthood, and the knightly bloodline in his body was nearly gone. He had no other descendants, either. So when Arthur suddenly came along as an heir, his father naturally treated him like a treasure and placed great hopes in him.

And for Arthur's mother, a Half-elf child was just as rare and precious. That was why she had seized the chance to take Arthur's sister away. The reason she hadn't been able to take Arthur too was probably that, as the heir, he was watched too closely for her to get away with it.