Aldrich also understood that he made a joke in bad taste. The five families were the families that an Emperor was chosen from within, they were in fact Imperial families.
The bloodlines of each of them is carefully tracked and can't just be found anywhere. As one can imagine this is the subject of a long time of consideration and effort.
There were times in which these efforts have failed, unfortunately.
A long time ago when the current Republic was called the Alliance of the free cities, the magister of one of these cities used dirty methods to acquire a descendant of one of the five families.
And no one was the wiser, for twenty years the matter remained hidden. Even the boy himself had no idea of his true identity.
However, the time to pass on the imperial seat came and the old emperor performed the ceremony. To everyone's shock, no one was chosen on Ashphim.
Instead, the emperor received a divine revelation of the location, face and name of the heir. On that day the entire family of that magister disappeared from this world.
Not just them but the whole city too, no one was spared. The boy, the true heir to the imperial throne was back in Ashphim in less than a day.
The magister was not killed, his soul was pulled out of his body and crucified on the Eternal peak of the Sunbreak mountain. There his soul would burn till the end of time.
It is said that those who go on pilgrimage to the Sunbreak mountain can sometimes hear his wailing and begging to be forgiven. The only answer that awaited him was even greater torture.
You may be able to hide from men and lie to their faces, you may even think that you succeeded, but you cannot hide from god, the one and only god in the world, the almighty Altunan.
That matter served as the catalyst of the war of crusades, the magister that was responsible was apparently an important individual in the free cities.
Of course by then the issues between the empire and the free cities had piled on to a degree that it became hard to sweep it all under the rug.
****
"So, this depth or quality as you called it, how can I improve it? Meditation?" Aldrich hoped that he could get a second crest, it was not a bad thing to have more.
"You can't, it's something natural, like your innate supernatural strength."
"But, does that mean that I can awaken a second crest later? Since I have a special spirit?" Aldrich asked unwilling to give up on this chance.
"No. I mean it's not impossible but really unlikely. You already got a rare symbol, don't be greedy." Ayemon rolled his eyes and chuckled, "besides not all special spirits have the same quality."
"What's the difference? How are they divided?"
"Starting from the weakest and most ordinary spirit, it's called, Colorless. The next level is called, black, in this level you might have a chance to get more Ether than your peers and have a slight chance of getting a second crest."
"Next is the Grey spirit, those who possess this spirit will definitely have two crests along with enormous reserves of Ether and perhaps an innate talent too."
Aldrich sucked in a cold breath, he felt envious even with all his trump cards he couldn't match up to such a talent, it was akin to the unreachable stars.
This talent was born at least once in the five families in every generation! It was not hard to understand how they were able to spread their influence throughout the world.
"Finally, we have the Golden spirit, that only one person in the entire world could have, that is the Emperor himself. All I can say about it is that the emperor alone has all five crests and anything else is beyond my knowledge."
Aldrich looked at his attribute panel.
Name: Aldrich (Beast:+2 all)
Age: 15.5
Strength: 8
Agility: 8
Endurance: 7
Vitality: 8
Intelligence: 7
Spirit (black): 7
Green essence orbs: 11
Red essence orbs: 16
Ether : 9
Abilities: Eyes of Insight LV.2
Skills: Light step LV.2
Condition: blood of ######
Crest of Aeon, Skills:
1) Aurora: Augment Lv.1
2) Invisible sword Lv.1
3)True strike Lv.1
Indeed, his spirit was specifically at the Black quality. This was something that was truly special about Aldrich which was not related to the nightmare realm or the seal of Tindalor.
But wait— something was seriously wrong. The question came out of his mouth without thinking, he was driven by pure shock.
"T-then how did the False Saint's war come to be?"
Ayemon looked at him in shock, like he could not believe his ears.
"I-I mean, if the ceremony was always right, then choosing the wrong man is impossible, since the Emperor would be able to prove his identity by displaying the five crests right?"
The words rolled out of his mouth like a flood, the more he thought about it the more it didn't make any sense.
"There should not be any dispute, no sane man would back the False Saint with that flimsy claim, one that could be disproved so easily?"
How could Vorian and Melowar feel any reassurance in rebelling? Without a legitimate claim no one would care about them, there would be no war as the heir was clear.
"Yes, in that case there wouldn't be any need for war… the night of Weeping Skies was damning for sure but even then no one would try to defend whoever did that." Ayemon sighed with an unreadable expression.
"There would be no need for confusion, no need for division, if everything was clear, but… it wasn't as clear cut as one might like. It was anything but clear." Ayemon placed his hand on his face.
"The truth is, that day, Altunan in his ineffable wisdom chose two, not one emperor but two, and the world was broken."
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