Chapter 16 (1/2)

Chapter 16

However, very soon I no longer had the time to wonder whether Yiweisibel really was my Fruys or consider how I could go meet His Majesty the Ice Emperor.

A rather serious problem of my own turned up.

While I was working, a troupe of soldiers charged into the Adventurer’s Guild along with the owner of the p.a.w.nshop, who pointed at me and said: “Sir, it’s him!”

And thus I was arrested and thrown into prison.

‘Could it be that the ruby pendant my mother treasured for so many years is fake?’ I pondered while squatting inside my cell. If it was…then it really couldn’t be helped that the people at the p.a.w.nshop reported it to officials. I could only curse my own luck for ending up this way.

Someone who looked like he had quite a bit of status, perhaps the commanding officer of the area, came to interrogate me not too long afterwards.

I was asked where I had gotten the ruby pendant, so I answered that it was pa.s.sed down to me from my mother.

The man became extremely angry and wanted to use torture to force me to tell the truth; luckily, he was stopped by an elderly officer beside him who quietly whispered a few words into his ear.

The way the man looked at me grew a little more inquisitive, then he asked me where I came from.

I thought for a little, and honestly told him: “I came from the other side of the sea, Finanse.”

The commanding officer ordered his men to bring over a silver box which contained a circular green stone.

If I was not mistaken, this was the Stone of Bien I had heard of before. Reportedly, it was regarded as a symbol of royal power because it was very rare and would only react to the blood of the Bein royal family.

At all levels and parts within the country, each had a piece of the stone that was bestowed by the king and served as a token that granted his retainers the authority to govern a territory.

The commanding officer took out a small knife and sliced my left hand with it, before pressing the wound against the Stone of Bein — instantly, the original green color of the stone gradually faded and revealed a pure white rock.

Afterwards the ruby pendant was returned to me, and I began to live my days like a prince.

Apparently, I had the purest blood of the Bein royal family in my veins, and it was at that point that I discovered that the ruby pendant my mother claimed was a family heirloom was actually the Bein royal family’s long lost national treasure, the Blood Stone.

It was said that it was blessed by an ancient devil king to grant power, status, wealth, and good luck to the wearer.

However, I could clearly remember that my dear mother, who worried that I would foolishly fall in love too early, gave me the pendant only after I came of age. She said that it was only a jewel that brought love.

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Finding Fruys on that beach actually had some special significance to me — long ago, my father found my mother there after she drifted ash.o.r.e along with Anna.

I knew that my mother came from the Ican continent, but she never spoke about her life before she met my father. Thus, I became ever more curious about her homeland and grew fond of listening to wandering poets whenever they told tales of the continent on the other side of the sea.

A person was dispatched by the official to come escort me to the capital, and from their mouths I found out what should have been the original ident.i.ty of my mother: Princess Abeila, second in line to the throne in the Kingdom of Bein.