Chapter 154: Someone Else Was Listening

Ethan had already decided what he would tell them. For now, keeping how he had truly acquired the energy to himself was the only sensible choice. If he revealed that it had been lurking within Peter’s old injury, and that it had slipped into his own body while he was treating it, it would only raise more alarm. An unknown energy that had once festered inside someone’s wound, now residing beside his own core... they would only worry even more.

And these were questions even he had no answers to. Whatever lay behind all of this felt far bigger than anything he could see yet... for now, it was something he would carry on his own.

Instead, he had prepared an explanation that would satisfy their curiosity and ease their concerns, one they could also relay to the Emperor without any worry.

He lowered the Eternal Sovereign Blade and let the energy recede, watching the dense layer slowly fade from the black steel until only the blade itself remained.

The chamber fell silent once again.

Ethan met Marcus’s and Elena’s eyes.

Sensing that his nephew was about to speak, Marcus released his aura without a word. A barrier spread outward and covered the entire chamber, sealing it so that not a single word could slip past. Elena glanced at it briefly, then turned back to Ethan, her expression unreadable. Yet none of the three noticed that, within that very barrier, someone else was listening as well.

"I obtained it from the Mercenary King’s legacy," Ethan said calmly, without even batting an eye.

For now, the legacy remained the greatest mystery he possessed, second only to the system itself. In his past life, he had at least been able to access some of its functions and use the Martial Forms he had unlocked. But ever since the ring had transformed into the golden dragon outline on his palm, he had no idea how or when he would gain access to everything it held.

Even during the Beast Tide, when he had tried to draw out the Golden Dragon Manifestation, something had stopped him from using it. Whatever power lay behind it was beyond even Iris.

If that power wouldn’t even let him, its wielder, use it, he doubted even Iris had uncovered much about the legacy, even after looking into it in her study... The legacy was shrouded in mystery even to him. If they believed the energy came from it, neither the Emperor nor his family would have to worry about its nature. And the fact that only he could wield the Unknown Energy would only make it more convincing... that the legacy he had acquired was completely bound to him.

"The legacy..." Marcus and Elena exchanged a glance, as though one of their assumptions had just been confirmed.

Ethan nodded.

Marcus weighed the answer for a moment, then let out a booming laugh, the relief plain on his face. Elena, on the other hand, kept her gaze on Ethan a moment longer. Searching his eyes and finding no trace of doubt, she finally let the tension ease from her shoulders.

"HAHAHAHA... so it really is from the legacy. We worked ourselves up over nothing," Marcus said, then turned to Elena. "It seems you were right, Sister-in-law."

Earlier, when Elena had told Marcus that she wanted to ask Ethan about the energy, she had already suspected it might be connected to the Mercenary King’s legacy. It had been the very first possibility that came to her mind, but she hadn’t been certain enough to accept it without asking him directly. Even so, the thought of questioning her son had hurt her. After everything he had endured during the Tide, the last thing she wanted was for him to feel as though his own family doubted him.

Her expression softened, warmth returning to her eyes.

"Why didn’t you mention it earlier?" she asked gently, looking into his eyes.

Ethan explained that he had gained the energy shortly before the Beast Tide, and amid the chaos of the emergency, he hadn’t found the chance to tell Marcus about it, or about how it worked. He described how it had formed a sphere beside his Warrior Core, and what he had learned of its nature.

He also told them about the imperceptible tug he had felt during the Tide each time he killed a beast with it. At the time, he hadn’t even noticed it. It was only after Mythralis descended upon Northwatch, when he looked into the sphere, that he found the energy at its core had grown denser.

As for what happened after that, Ethan didn’t need to explain much. Van had already told them what he had witnessed on the battlements, and Mythralis’s memories had shown them the rest. Wherever the truth would have only made them worry, he mixed in a few white lies.

Both of them were overwhelmed by what he had told them. They had always known that his intelligence and his way of thinking far exceeded his age. Yet hearing how he had managed to think so clearly in such a critical situation only made their surprise more evident.

"So you mean that energy is something only you can wield?" Marcus asked.

"Yes, Uncle."

"Bring it out."

Ethan nodded and called the Unknown Energy into his hand once again.

Marcus stepped closer, but the moment he approached the energy, an instinct honed through decades of battle stirred deep within him, warning him very plainly not to touch it. Elena sensed the danger as well. She didn’t move, but her eyes narrowed slightly.

Yet Marcus’s curiosity outweighed his caution. Despite the warning, he extended a single finger, wrapping it in a thin layer of aura and Intent.

The instant he brought it close, the energy lashed out violently.

It tore through the protective layer and consumed it before Marcus could even react. He pulled his hand back at once. A faint red line had appeared across his fingertip, so shallow that it had barely broken the skin.

He stared at it for several seconds, then at the energy resting in Ethan’s palm, as though he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened. The energy hadn’t merely broken through his Heaven Knight aura. It had devoured it. Even the faint thread of Intent around his finger had been destroyed.

Ethan closed his fist, and the energy sank back into him without the slightest resistance.

After recovering from his surprise, Marcus asked a few more questions he was curious about, and Ethan answered what he could. Elena stayed silent the entire time, simply listening, her gaze rarely leaving her son’s face. With every answer he gave, the worry she had carried seemed to ease a little more.

Finally, once Marcus had asked everything he needed to, Elena stepped forward and gently brushed the hair away from Ethan’s forehead.

"I’m sorry for questioning you like this," she said softly.

"It’s all right, Mother. I’m glad I could put your mind at ease," Ethan replied.

"It seems we disturbed your training. You can continue," Elena said with a small smile. "We’ll take our leave... and don’t be late for breakfast."

"Yes."

Ethan watched the entrance for a few moments after they had gone, then turned his attention back to the chamber. The morning light had grown brighter through the high windows, falling across the long crack he had left in the floor, stretching from the centre of the chamber almost to the far wall. He glanced at it briefly, then looked down at the Eternal Sovereign Blade in his hand.

He was about to draw on the Unknown Energy again when, at the far end of the chamber, the air rippled.

It was so faint that he almost didn’t sense it at all. The ambient mana in the chamber shifted, gathering towards that one spot as though something were drawing it in.

Before Ethan could react, a barrier spread across the chamber in an instant, sealing it off from the outside world. The enchanted lamps along the walls flickered once, then dimmed, as though even the flames were afraid to burn too brightly. Ethan reached out with his senses, but everything beyond the barrier had vanished from his perception, as if the entire chamber had been cut away from the world.

Then a presence descended upon him.

The pressure struck with such force that his legs nearly gave way. For a brief moment, his mind buckled beneath its weight, but Ethan steadied himself and forced his thoughts back into order. Whoever this was had concealed their presence well enough to escape the notice of both Marcus and Elena. More unsettling still, Ethan realised that this person had been inside the chamber all along... watching, listening, and waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves.

At the far end of the chamber, the dim light seemed to bend around the spot where the air had rippled. Slowly, a silhouette emerged from the darkness. Long black hair fell over dark robes, and a slender, pale hand rested at her side. She didn’t appear to have moved across the floor at all; rather, the space around her had simply parted to reveal her.

Then she raised her head.

And a pair of crimson eyes met his.