Chapter 424: Records of History

Wang Yu did not linger on the questions Selene had raised. Those were matters for later. Once his current work was done, there would be time enough to gather the right people and discuss them properly.

"The Archangel's bombardment leveled everything above ground in the royal palace, but the special vaults where the crown kept its confidential documents should still be intact. They were built deep within the mountain itself. As long as the entire peak wasn't flattened in one strike, those archives should still be there."

The information Charles had relayed was invaluable. Whatever survived in those vaults would serve as a window into the royal family's deeds: a chance to settle the unresolved questions they had left behind, including what had happened to Hugin.

Aurelian was the first to voice what others were thinking. "I have a question," she said. "Wouldn't the Archangel's existence cause problems? Skyborne City is supposed to be a neutral power, but they lent you a weapon of such catastrophic power. If word of this spreads, it could cause quite a stir."

She had been asking many such questions lately, but Wang Yu didn't mind. In a world where dragons were nearly extinct, Aurelian had taken it upon herself to bear the burden of reconnecting her kin with the rest of the continent. This time, though, she wasn't too proud to ask for help, at least not from those she trusted.

For dragons, integration wouldn't be an easy feat. Even in the Dragon God's days, when their kind was at its height, they had rarely left the Isle of Dragons. Their strength dwarfed that of all intelligent races on the continent, and their way of life was utterly different. That gap was not easily bridged.

Sieg had shown them what such a bridge could mean. It had taken him over ten years of hardship and persistence to truly understand the people of the continent—to learn their knowledge, their customs, and their ways of thinking.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Now, it was Aurelian's turn. She possessed overwhelming strength, but her mindset was far from aligned with the continent's norms. Still, unlike Sieg, who had had to feel his way through alone, she now had someone to ask and learn from.

Wang Yu smiled faintly. "You're not wrong. But the Archangel might never be discovered. The Lady of the Night's veil is hiding it. And as for Skyborne City's neutrality—well, that word only really applies to the city itself as a concept."

He gestured loosely as he continued. "Remember the incident with the Dragon God? Skyborne City moved to intervene, but before they launched, they evacuated all the residents from the upper decks. It's the Central Assembly that enforces neutrality, not the scholars and residents.

"Any organization will have multiple viewpoints. And Skyborne City isn't even really an organization in the strict sense. Those scholars up there learn what they can—but you can't expect them not to take sides in anything.

"To put it simply," Wang Yu concluded, "I have a few friends among the scholars. They owed me a favor, so they helped me out. What does that have to do with Skyborne City as a whole?"

He waved it off with the casual air of someone who knew the world's rules were always flexible.

"And even if people do find out and start complaining, who would actually dare to provoke Skyborne City? Who would stop sending apprentices there to study because of some moral discomfort? In the end, strength speaks louder than outrage. Not that your kind needs to worry about that, of course."

Aurelian gave a quiet nod. His explanation made sense. She fell silent, digesting his words, while Edward and his men cleared away the rubble where the palace had once stood. Before long, they uncovered the mouths of the underground passages Charles had mentioned.

Avia emerged from the mindscape and rejoined them in the material world, eyeing the half-exposed shaft leading straight into the mountain. There was no door sealing it, just an open throat of darkness leading below. After a brief examination, she nodded in understanding.

"We're quite lucky," she concluded. "The blast was powerful enough to blow through the upper gate entirely. Ordinarily, such force would've triggered the self-destruct array, but the mana turbulence must've severed the conduits and shut it all down instead."

Without hesitation, the group descended. The tunnel spiraled down for hundreds of meters before ending in front of another sealed portal: a heavy anti-magic gate, thick and ancient. From its construction alone, Avia could tell that reality anchors had to have been embedded within the vault's walls. The void energy here was all but frozen in place.

On the gate was an intricate cipher lock with a 21-symbol mechanism of daunting complexity. How it functioned was anyone's guess, but for Wang Yu and Avia, that didn't matter.

Wang Yu pressed his palm to the metal. The Chariot's force surged through the alloy, mapping its internal structure. Moments later, he relayed the pattern to Avia. The girl studied it briefly, then pointed out several key nodes.

Following her guidance, Wang Yu activated them one by one. With a heavy, echoing clang, the massive door unsealed itself and swung open, revealing the vault beyond.

The interior resembled a bank vault, with its rows upon rows of reinforced cabinets and rune-warded chests, each labeled with a date to mark the historical period its contents belonged to. Inside, bundles of aged parchment gleamed faintly with protective sigils, the preserved chronicles of a kingdom long gone.

"These must be the royal records of Aleisterre," Edward murmured, stepping forward. "Accounts of what the crown did over the years—entries about Captain Hugin, about Kevin's old village that was swallowed by plague, about Silfast... and more."

He ran a hand along one of the cabinet frames. His voice softened. "I've always wanted to know what really happened, what the royal family was doing all those years... and how many stories like Hugin's there truly were."

Avia nodded, tracing one of the runic circuits along the floor with her Perfect Fractal lens. "These arrays are all preservation seals," she said. "Now that we've come through the main gate, the rest of the defenses won't activate."

Avia peered through the Perfect Fractal lens, examining the records within. Once she confirmed that all files were now accessible to them, she gave a brief nod.

Without wasting time, everyone began reading. Wang Yu, meanwhile, used the Perfect Fractal lens to scan each file in turn, uploading them all into a private archive in the Midnight Library before joining the others.

They read quickly. After a brief but thorough sweep, the truth of the royal family's actions over the years unfolded before their eyes.

"Wang Yu, look at this..."

Edward handed over a dossier, a complex look on his face.

"Infernal Plane Directed Implantation Experiment'? Successful subjects: Hugin Smokes, Malevolent Possession; Reynard..."

Wang Yu mouthed the words as he skimmed the document. When his eyes landed on a familiar name, he paused, then silently continued reading.

"Is it him?" Avia asked softly from beside him.

"Yes. It's him."

Wang Yu nodded. The old knight Reynard, the first man who had guided him in this world. To think that his captain, Hugin, would be Reynard's son... It was little wonder the captain had taken such an interest in him. There was another layer to it, after all.

Wang Yu read aloud, "The potential Malevolent Possession was induced by demonic implantation. By allowing it to feed on his body and vortex of fighting spirit, the subject lured a being far stronger than an ordinary evil spirit to inhabit its flesh.

"The experiment was initiated by a certain noble with a village as the test site. The villagers never knew they were part of an experiment—they believed it a normal demonic incursion. Many died in the failed trials.

"Later, the royal family intervened, rescued the survivors, extracted the successful subjects, and brought them into the Nightblades. The rest were... disposed of.

"Reynard served the Nightblades for many years. But by chance, his son Hugin learned the truth and told his father. Reynard's body, already ruined by years of overuse of his potential, could bear no more. Disillusioned, he left the capital and became a wandering knight."

Wang Yu finished the account in an even tone. His emotions did not surge. This was a story that had already reached its end. Hugin had avenged his father with his own hands; Wang Yu had completed his revenge on the royal family. Their vengeance was complete. They were vindicated in their decision to destroy the royals once and for all.

"There are many more such experiments," Edward said darkly. "Some even involve gods, or even the void itself. In recent years the royal family's been conducting their research in remote villages. The death toll is... not small."

Though the files spoke of matters in the past, the weight of senseless sacrifice sat heavy on Edward's heart.

"Shouldn't the Church of Light have intervened?" Aurelian asked, setting aside a file on the Church of Dragonkind. She glanced toward Wang Yu. "By their own creed, these deeds must surely count as acts of injustice."

Wang Yu sighed. "So this world has the same problem, huh? Still, that's only natural."

He folded his arms, thinking aloud. "For the Church to intervene, they'd have to know. They aren't omniscient. You can't just judge them for what they didn't do. You have to look at what they did.

"They may not be perfect, but they do act. If you compare the world with and without them, you'll see—without them, everything would be worse. At least with the Church around, the royals have to hide their crimes.

"To treat what the Church does as merely their duty is unfair. Their followers are still human. They gain no benefit from this. You can't question their worth just because they aren't flawless.

"You know," he added wryly, "your way of thinking is actually pretty common, and the Church knows it. But it still does what it can. If everyone understood that much, the world might actually improve."

He shook his head with quiet exasperation. "The Church of Light owes no one anything—and yet people still call them hypocrites."

"I see..."

Aurelian fell silent, lost in thought. Wang Yu turned his focus back to the Midnight Library's archive. As he skimmed the records, something caught his eye.

What bothered him was that the experiments offered no tangible benefit to Aleisterre. Most of their results had never been implemented. It was as if the research existed only for its own sake.

That made no sense. The royal family wouldn't waste resources without reason. Had Selene been influencing their decisions from the shadows?

Then he noticed a particular file: "Capital's Shadow: Testing Grounds for Void Overlap." He frowned. Now that he thought about it, that strange half-material, half-void environment, the capital's shadow, hadn't been mentioned in any recent records...