173 The Key to a Lost Throne
Asagrim—once the heart of an ancient kingdom—was in the perfect location.
A fortress city of unparalleled strategic value.
No ruler, no conqueror, no warlord would ever surrender such a stronghold without compensation.
-I have never even laid eyes upon Asagrim. I cannot call the homeland of my ancestors my own. My home is here. I will live here, and I will be buried here. I have no regrets about that. In some ways, I feel relieved. But it is a shame that the legacy of the royal family will be buried forever beneath the throne.
…The throne?
William’s breath caught.
His pulse quickened as he hurriedly read the next line.
-I will leave the key where it is. Destroying it to soothe my own bitterness would be foolish. But at the same time, I cannot see the point of keeping it. There will be no heirs of direct descent. Even among distant branches, my grandson will be the last of the line. A key is useless without someone who can use it. Perhaps I will be cursed for this in the future.
Key?
-Just in case, I have erased my youthful mistakes but left this final page intact. If anyone ever finds this place… If they retrieve the key… They should take it to Asagrim’s White Palace and place it beneath the throne. The royal family’s legacy sleeps there. If time has worn it to dust, then so be it.
That was where the journal ended.
William shut the book quietly and stood.
A key. A legacy buried beneath the throne. And the requirement of an heir.
The pieces clicked into place.
A distant memory surfaced—something the Emperor himself had once written in a letter:
-The second prince cannot use the royal artifact. Only those of true Imperial blood can wield it.
At the time, William had assumed this meant the artifact was bound to the Imperial line through some ancient technology.
But now?
After reading his grandfather’s words…
What if this wasn’t some exclusive Imperial invention?
What if such bloodline-restricted artifacts were actually common a thousand years ago?
What if other royal families had similar secrets?
William’s eyes darkened as the implications settled in.
Without hesitation, he strode toward the ornate display case—the one containing the key.
His retainers tensed.
"My lord, wait—!"
Before anyone could stop him, William reached out and touched the glass.
Nothing happened.
The electric trap that had shocked Raymond moments ago… was gone.
And a second later—
Click.
With a faint shimmer, the lock on the display case unlatched. Discover hidden tales at freewebnovel
The room fell silent.
"…!?"
William smirked.
He reached inside, picked up the key, and turned it over in his palm.
The metal was completely untarnished despite the passage of time.
It wasn’t an ordinary key.
"This… This shouldn’t be possible," Raymond muttered, visibly shaken.
"Why did it open only for you…?"
William turned the key in his fingers, his smirk widening.
"Read for yourselves."
He tossed the journal toward them.
As his retainers crowded around the old tome, their expressions slowly turned to stone.
When they finally lifted their heads to look at him, their gazes were filled with uncertainty.
"My lord…"
"No need to say it."
William’s voice was light, but his grip on the key tightened.
He already knew what they were thinking.
It wasn’t just a key.
It was a test of blood.
Which meant…
His lineage wasn’t as distant from the past as he had thought.
And the Emperor?
Perhaps he hadn’t withheld Asagrim only to prevent the north from consolidating.
Perhaps…
The Imperial Family feared what might be hidden there.
No legacy, no matter how grand, could exist without a place to be stored. The greater the wealth, the larger the vault required to contain it. And if such a location needed to be hidden from prying eyes, the number of suitable hiding places would become even more limited.
There was, in truth, only one place capable of concealing such an inheritance—the royal palace. The Empire must have suspected as much. That was why they never relinquished Asagrim.
They couldn’t simply slaughter the royal family after its surrender. Instead, they stripped them of Asagrim and cast them out, burdening them with nothing but hollow honors. Grimaldi had likely foreseen this outcome and accepted it, clinging to the hope of reclaiming his lost kingdom in some distant future.
But as William’s grandfather had written in his journal, the Empire endured for a thousand years. Grimaldi did not. His bloodline was the first to vanish from history.
And yet, William found himself wondering—why had they handed it over to him so easily?
He had never once set foot in the North. He had never even met his grandfather. More importantly, according to the Emperor’s letter, only direct descendants could make use of the Empire’s inheritance. A distant relative like William should have had no claim to it.
And yet, the legacy of the Northern royal family seemed to allow up to three generations of collateral kin to wield it.
A stroke of luck.
William pressed his lips together, forcing down the grin threatening to break free. If he lost his composure now, he might just burst into laughter. What had begun as nothing more than a treasure hunt had turned into something far greater—a true inheritance, a remnant of the lost royal family.
"Master, I understand your excitement, but now is not the time for this."
Raymond’s urgent voice pulled him back to the present. He grasped William’s shoulder tightly, glancing warily at the records before them.
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"We need to burn everything. The soldiers on guard duty won’t be a problem, but if Sir Glenn sees these records…"
William’s mind snapped to attention.
Asagrim had been safeguarded for a thousand years, kept close in case the unthinkable happened. But now, if it became known that he had a legitimate claim to the inheritance—
At best, they would simply take Asagrim back. At worst, he would be reduced to a mere living key, used to unlock the entire treasure hoard before being cast aside.
It was true that the relics were bound to the bloodline, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be transferred or lent out. The Emperor’s Red Wing Knights all wielded enchanted weapons, after all.
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Author Note : Okay, my noble lords and ladies 🏰⚔️, after your most gracious support, I present to thee twenty chapters, as promised. Bestow upon me thy golden notes 💰, and I shall wield my quill until the last drop of blood is spilt! ✒️🩸