Chapter 67 - Rhine Kingdoms Underground Dungeon 1 (1/2)

She would often advise King Frey the Honorable, and upon his death had done everything she could to protect her son from the ravenous nobles.

It was due to this, that these same nobles had taken such harsh actions against her. They insisted that she was suffering from a mental trauma and would have to be confined to her chamber for her own safety. Eventually it went as they planned, and Joanna had been helpless to stop the poisoning of her own son.

Perhaps she was the biggest victim of this entire attempted coup.

“Ever since he was a boy, John has been quite different from his father Frey. He had a big, but fragile ego, always seeking attention.”

Joanna led him down the dark, secret passage as she reminisced about the past. She had yet to get past the sadness of losing her son.

“It isn’t your fault that he is dead.”

“No, if I had been more assertive from the very start, perhaps things might have turned out differently. I was too naive and should have notice Count Gwain’s ambitions ever since Frey had become bedriddem.”

Joanna couldn’t help but blame herself.

As he followed her, Woohyuk felt a pang of guilt. He had known the whole time that John was going to be poisoned.

‘There’s nothing I could do.’

Woohyuk returning to this timeline was all in order to put an end to these endless trials set by the Creator, to free everyone.

In order to achieve such a grandiose goal, some sacrifices were inevitable. It was a dilemma he would come across often in the coming years.

“There was this woman who was once betrayed by her own party. Unable to get over such an event, she had lived a wicked life ever since.”

Woohyuk broke the uncomfortable silence between them. It was the story of the Blood Queen Alice.

Woohyuk knew it well because he had faced off against her countless times in the past.

“Did you know her well.”

“Not really, she was more of an adversary.”

Alice had never trusted someone again. She went about killing everyone that irritated her, only creating vampire vassals. From then on she only acted in her own self interest.

It was the opposite case of Joanna.

“What ended up happening to her?”

“She conquered vast territories and rose to the position of Overlord, but that was all.”

Alice’s attitude of resorting to any means to achieve her own goals, wasn’t able to rally others to her cause.

No one wanted to be turned into a vampire against their will, and as such an anti-vampire alliance was formed. This resulted in her forces suffering numerous defeats due to being assaulted on all sides.

Eventually Woohyuk had been the one to drive a stake through her heart, leading to quite the pitiful end.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Woohyuk had no idea how to comfort others. His experiences were limited to the 40 years he had spent on the battlefield. Still, his clumsy attempts at it were enough to touch Joanna.

“... Thank you for your concern, I haven’t done anything to deserve this.”

She turned to look at Woohyuk who was following behind her. She was still wearing the Banshee’s Veil and as such was invisible.

‘Despite of his appearance, he is quite kind.’

Her first impression of him hadn’t been all that good. Vicious eyes like those of a wolf, as well as a flat inhuman tone.

There had been nothing positive that she could take away from their first meeting, but her opinion was starting to change.

‘Is he interested in me?’

She was still relatively young by this continent’s standards. Even with their age gap, she would still maintain her youthful beauty for the next 150 years.

If Woohyuk was aiming to sit on the throne, what better way than to marry the Queen. Of course, a useless man like Arnold would give way to him either way.

As Joanna was thinking of such things, Woohyuk’s eyes locked with hers.

‘He can see me?’

Startled, she averted her gaze. She thought that Woohyuk had only managed to follow along based on the sound and footprints.

“Don’t act so surprised, I have a unique ability.”

By using his Demonic Energy, many things were possible. Of course the range that he could control was still limited due to his low proficiency in its usage.

‘Its particularly difficult here.’

Utilizing his Demonic Energy outside of his body was several times more difficult here because of the Dragon inscriptions set upon the castle walls. Basically he wouldn't be able to use any of Asura’s abilities in the Rhine kingdom’s underground dungeon.

Shortly after arriving at their destination, Woohyuk walked up to the red altar which stood in the centre of the chamber.

“What have you guys tried in order to gain access to the Clavis’ family treasures?”

“Pretty much everything.”

At first we thought that it would require a sacrifice because of the altar. As such we brought goats as offerings, having our Court magician and High priests oversee the procedure.

As we struggled with several attempts, we even tried utilizing the blood of family lines which had participated in the downfall of the Ionel kingdom.

Unfortunately nothing had worked.

“So you’re saying that no ordinary method has worked.”

Woohyuk nodded, as he placed his hand upon the red altar.

A slight flow of magic.

To his experienced eyes, he who had cleared countless Historical Sites in his lifetime, it didn’t feel like anything special.

“Perhaps it is simply a place built to cherish her memory, like a mausoleum.”

It sounded like a legend, the treasure of a royal family being stashed away. After all, the downfall of the Ionel kingdom was something that had occurred centuries ago.

There was still ongoing controversy within the Holy Church about the exact date of the Great God and Demon war, but at the very least it would have predated it.

This was all Joahnna’s thinking.

Woohyuk however approached the problem from a different perspective.

‘The existence of this treasure dungeon could only have been known later on.’

No one would have been able to enter this place until the end of the Great God and Demon war, because Drakia would have been here guarding it.

The reason only the Devos' family knew of this secret was that they might have found an object connected to it since they had been the first to enter.

If it had been but a rumor, it would have long ago become public knowledge, and yet it’s existence had been kept secret all these years.

‘There was someone who already found a way in.’

Count Ludwig. Isaac, who at the time had been the Captain of the Teutonic Knights, has mentioned that the Count had learned of this place from torturing Joanna.

A few days later they entered with the army, able to seize some treasures. Of course, the actual method used to enter had always been kept secret.

“I’ll have to do my own tests.”

His eyes shining with excitement, Woohyuk examined the chamber’s stone wall with his Archaeologist's Golden Magnifying Glass.

It was an object that could not only be used to verify an item’s authenticity, but also its characteristics. Through it, he could discover hidden engravings or arrays.

‘Surely there must be a clue somewhere.’

The Demon that had sided with Count Ludwig wouldn’t have been able to step foot in here. Unless one was on the level of the 72 Demon Kings, they wouldn’t be able to resist the Dragon’s magic.

Likewise Woohyuk was only able to use Asura’s passive abilities, now that he was being suppressed.

In essence, it couldn’t have been a Demon that had come here and forced its way in through brute force.