Arclore residents are located to the north of Caldorath Kingdom. Even though it's outside the kingdom, it holds much influence over the kingdom to the point that even a royal family member would think twice in front of the Arclore family. And, with the vast amount of land and the main clear water supply path it controls, the head of the family has tremendous responsibility.
As the current beloved partner of the head of the family, Isadora Arclore shares this burden with her husband.
"Your grace, the harvest report of this year has arrived."
"Place it on the desk."
In her working room, Isadora is looking at a report. The room she's in is magnificently bright, with a large window beside her that opens to the outside valley, calming her mind from the workload if needed.
"Also, your grace, the young master Mordred came to see you, as you requested."
"Let him in."
Mordred, dressed in a brown-colored suit, steps into his mother's office to see she's completely focused on her work. But when she hears his footsteps, she looks up at him.
"Where's your other one?"
She noticed that only Vanessa was accompanying him.
"Absent," Mordred gave a plain answer.
After giving him a strange look, Isadora picks up a list from the pile of reports on her desk and hands it to Mordred.
"What is it?"
"Since you're going to the academy, you obviously have to stay in the kingdom. We have several properties that belong to us. Choose one to your liking."
Looking at the few papers presented to him, Mordred fell into thought.
"Do you need more servants?" Isadora asked casually as she looked into another report.
"Not necessary. I have essential ones."
"Yes, I see. But how could someone be essential for you if they're absent?"
"Oh, I could assure you mother, his absence is the essential one for me."
My mother paused as she looked at me and Vanessa. Seeing her face, I realized that what I said gave her a completely wrong idea.
. . . . . .
A lazy wind blew through a dreaded forest, shaking the tips of the trees, causing loose and dry leaves to fall to the ground.
Walking under these trees was a man riding a horse. The dry leaves fell above the hood he was wearing to hide his face.
The man stood in front of a sign where the words stated "Do not cross."
He looked far ahead where the dreaded forest became more darker and lifeless. Looking around, he saw smoke rising to the clouds from another direction.
"Hmph!"
Urging his horse, the man followed the trail to the smoke. Where he ended up in front of an old tavern.
With a thud, the door of the tavern opened as the man stepped in. The sound of cheers and laughter filled the interior.
"Glass of beer, one copper coin," said the man at the bar table as the hooded man approached.
Clink!
Two poorly rounded coins fell on the bar table in response.
While sitting down, the man focused his ears on the story someone was telling nearby.
"In my days, we used no underwear, you see. So while we peeked at women in the river, climbing onto trees, what we didn't know was that we were also giving them an exclusive butt show for free."
"Kha ha ha!" and the crowd goes wild.
Thud!
Two beer jugs were placed on the table in front of the man. But he only took one, and the other one was moved toward the man at the counter.
"Anything about the forbidden forest?"
The bartender looked at the man and then at the old man who was telling a story to others.
"Hey Willie, you got a customer here."
The old man stopped telling the story and came toward the man in the hood.
"A glass of beer, acceptable, acceptable. So, what do you want to know?"
"Forbidden forest."
The old man fell silent upon hearing. Only for a few minutes...
"Even I don't know much about that place, since nobody's allowed to go there, but I have heard from some of the experienced adventurer folks that a mystical creature used to live in that area, ruling every animal being in the forest. But once a great war broke out, fighting knights barged into the place, enraging the mystical beast. With its anger, it went on a rampage, destroying nearby villages and cities.
Unable to bear the rage of the beast, people begged for two champion-stage warriors. Accepting their offer, they fought with the beast, bringing down the whole forest as an aftermath. Although the champion warriors didn't manage to come out alive, neither did the beast manage to survive. With the wounds it suffered, it died in rage toward us, humanity. That rage turned into a curse, stealing life from everything around the body of the dying beast..." -
...
- "…And rumors say that the place where the body of the beast was buried is what we now call the Forbidden Forest."
In front of Mordred, Negun told all the information he had heard about the Forbidden Forest.
A lore I never knew. Is it possible that this is the truth, and there are no ancient dark beings sealed there?
I have to confirm this myself.
"Prepare the horses. I'm going there on my own."
. . . . .
After long hours of work, when the night fell, Isadora finished her work. Looking outside at the valley brightened by the moonshine, she took a cold, refreshing breath.
Tok! Tok!
"Enter,"
Isadora sat back in the chair, pouring the last bit of wine from a bottle.
"My lady, young master Mordred has left the house."
"At this hour?"
Isadora looked perplex. Although not showing much on the outside, she's been keeping track of her son's every movement—what he eats and where he goes. And she knew, just a tiny bit, that her son was doing something illegal. But she didn't stop him, for as a man, he needed to know both the bright side and the dark side of the world, and it wouldn't hurt if he got experience from those things as long as he stayed in the Arclore territory.
"He's at the growing age. Social experience is a must for a man to grow. Keep an eye on him."
"At you wish, my lady." With a respectful bow, the butler took a step back from the room as he left.
"You look awfully worried for your son." After the room regained its silence with the departure of the butler, a female voice came from the dark. However, Isadora showed no panic.
"It's nothing to be surprised about; I'm his mother after all," she stood up from the chair and walked to the edge of the balcony.
"A mother can worry about her child, there's no surprise, but I never thought I'd see this side of you, soulless witch of the winter."
Clank!
The wine glass in Isadora's hand shattered at once, and a cold wind blew through the room, pushing everything aside forcefully.
"I'm not the one who changed; time is the one that changed."
"...."
"If you say so, it's all we care about. But remember what we are waiting for."
The voice slowly faded into the dark and disappeared. looking at the mess in the room, Isadora stayed in silence.
... ... ... ...
In the cold night, a horse carrying Mordred raced through a gloomy forest in a hurry. The night sky had a full moon, brightening the surrounding forest. However it didn't help relieve the terror someone would feel in this forest.
After a long, nonstop ride, Mordred halted his horse in front of the same sign Negun had mentioned.
'Do not cross.'
"It takes much more to stop me."
With an urge from him, his horse stepped past the sign and continued forward. In the forest beyond the sign, the air felt more dreaded than before, and Mordred did not see any living creatures in sight.
Whoop!
In the middle of the forest, a strange sound was heard. His horse suddenly froze, and Mordred became cautious, readying to pull out the Gratitude token.
"It's coming from that way."
Urging the horse, Mordred moved again, heading in the direction the weird sound was coming from.
As he moved, he saw a well in the middle of the forest, and the wailing sound echoed from within it.
While Mordred got closer to the well, the wailing sound felt more and more familiar to him.
"Almost like the sound of crying... Could it be, the Weeping Soldier?"
At the edge of the well, Mordred gazed into the inside of the well and saw nothing but a dark abyss.
Just as the lore described it: "It's the tip of the darkness and just a taste of hell."
From his item storage, he took out the Token of Gratitude, and the Knight of Remiar was summoned.
"I feel terror within this thing. It's almost like the cries of innocent souls begging to be saved," Knight Remiar gazed into the darkness within the well, becoming a bit cautious.
"Are you feeling fear?" Mordred gazed at the knight with judging eyes.
"As a guardian knight, I do not feel fear. If you wish to dive into this well, I will be the first one to go."
"That's courageous. Let's move then."
With Mordred's order, the Knight of Remiar held him and jumped into the well. The two were swallowed by the deep darkness within.
In the dark night, the lonely horse stood, gazing at the well that had just swallowed its owner.
Boom!
With incredible speed, they fell. Knight Remiar landed at the bottom of the well after what felt like countless years in darkness. The sound of his landing echoed through the place, revealing it to be a passage. The smell of rotting death loomed in the air, and gallons of blood flowed across the floor like rainwater.
"Not a good place to wear clean clothes," Mordred placed his foot avoiding the flowing blood on the floor.
This place is similar to what was described in the lore, but something is different. Now that I think about it, the lore Knight Remiar mentioned about himself and the background the locals believe about this place, it seems some of the game's factors have changed here. I may have to test this thing practically by myself, but that bears further investigation later.
"Did this thing light up automatically, or has it always been burning?" taking a fire torch hanging on the wall, which is already burning to brighten the surroundings, Mordred moved on.
But as he went deeper into the passage, fire torches began to light up on their own all the way through the wall. Seeing this, he put away the one he was holding.
"Be careful of the surroundings, Remiar."
While Mordred walked in the front, Remiar followed closely behind like a shadow looming over him.
After a long way of walking, they came to a halt.
"This is weird. We've come a long way, but there's no end to this path, and I also don't see the beginning of the path we came from."
This must be an illusion designed to exhaust whoever enters this place.
"Let's make haste."
After that order, he and Knight Remiar walked for a long time. Neither Mordred nor Knight Remiar showed any weakness even after walking for hours. Sometimes they came across another path, and sometimes they encountered larger halls that contained nothing but brick walls.
"This feels like a maze."
Clank!
At once, there came a sound similar to an iron chain dragging across the floor. Mordred and Knight Remiar halted their steps.
At that moment, the two of them were about to step into another large passage after walking through a narrow one for a long time.
Leaning against the wall of the passage, Mordred gazed into the chamber ahead, only to see a fully armored knight standing on the floor like a disabled man. His body leaned to one side, and his legs looked like twisted vines. Wrapped around his body were several chains that connected him to the ground.
Every once in a while, this knight took a step forward, dragging those chains across the ground with a crushing weight.
"The Weeping Knight! Finally, the objective is here,"