CHAPTER 411: A BROKEN OATH [PART 2]

As tense as the atmosphere was, Alex and Luthor had many things to discuss.

For his safety, Alex asked the old man to remain where he was. Luthor agreed, but he also asked Latifa, Lotte, and Lumi to leave due to the sensitivity of the topic.

Lumi snorted loudly in response, rejecting his proposal for all three of them. To their surprise, Alex also asked them to leave.

"Are you sure about this?" Lotte asked.

Alex nodded. "Yes. I know the three of you are worried about me, but Eiko and Dim Dim will be here and Sir Luthor has already given his word."

"And what value is his word?" Lumi retorted.

"I believe that he will honor it," Alex replied firmly.

As someone who followed the Knight’s Code, Luthor would not want to break his oath twice.

Latifa finally agreed, but she secretly asked Lumi to return to keep an eye on the situation.

Unfortunately, a secondary barrier appeared around the cavern, preventing Lumi from entering it again.

This time, it was erected by Luthor, whose defensive abilities were nothing to scoff at even if they were often outshone by his offensive abilities.

As Eiko slept peacefully on top of the black coffin, Alex and Luthor finally faced each other.

"You have good friends," Luthor commented. "Are they your girlfriends?"

"Not yet, but I’m working on it," Alex replied honestly, making the old man chuckle.

Now that he was alone with Luthor, Alex decided to wait for the old man to talk first.

"You say that your name is Alex Stratos," Luthor said calmly. "But you also claim that you are His Highness, Prince Aetherius Alexian Vademont. Is that correct?"

"My name is Alex Stratos," Alex replied. "But for reasons that I cannot reveal, I believe that I am also Aetherius Alexian Vademont. Sir Luthor, I can only get to the bottom of this with your help."

Surprise flashed across the old man’s face. Alex continued, "If you tell me that I am not the Prince of Aetherion, then I will believe your words. So let us talk about what we know at the moment."

"Fair enough." Luthor nodded. "Now, please tell me why you believe that you are His Highness."

Alex took a moment to organize his thoughts so that he could tell his version of the story in the most detailed but understandable way possible.

When he had decided how to go about it, he began in a voice both firm and calm.

"Not long ago, a party was held in Frieden Academy," Alex stated. "There, a young lady called Evangeline Feylune approached me. She asked me if I remembered a ten-year-old girl and it triggered a memory inside of my head.

"Whether this memory belongs to me or not, I can’t really tell. However, in that memory, I found ten-year-old Evangeline lying on the snow during a blizzard. She was outside the gates of the villa that I was staying at, so I hurriedly went to her rescue. I believe that you were there as well."

Alex then continued his tale about making the girl his maid after saving her life.

He told the old man everything he could remember. But since the memory didn’t last that long, his narration ended after a few minutes.

A few minutes of silence passed before Luthor gave his reply.

"What you have said indeed happened in the past," Luthor replied, using his heightened senses to observe the young man’s heartbeats and energy for any fluctuations that might indicate dishonesty. "Do you have other memories that you want to share?"

"No." Alex shook his head. "That is the only memory that I remember. Truth be told, I plan to ask Evangeline about it when I return to the academy."

After careful observation, the old man deemed that Alex was telling the truth. There were no falsehoods in his words.

"Now, let me tell you how I lost my Prince," Luthor offered. "When His Highness and I were fleeing from the North, the Paragon of Ice suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked us.

"His target was Prince Aetherius, so the two of us clashed. Although he was stronger than me, it didn’t take long for him to realize that fighting against me would result in mutual destruction.

"And so he focused his attention on His Highness, who was simply too weak to resist his power. After making a feint to confuse me, he froze the Prince before sending him plummeting off the cliff.

"The shock and anger I felt back then overwhelmed my senses. I entered a semi-berserk phase. I was driven only by the desire to kill the Paragon of Ice or die trying.

"He tried to run away many times, but I activated my domain, which prevented anyone from escaping until one of us was dead. It was a Trump Card that only I knew about. Whenever I used it in battle, I made sure that no witnesses would be left to tell the tale.

"Left with no choice, the Paragon and I were locked in a fight to the death. In the end, I was able to deal the final blow, emerging victorious. But my victory brought me no joy.

"The only thought in my mind was to go down that cliff in order to check if His Highness had somehow survived the fall. The cliff was hundreds of meters tall. When I reached the bottom, only broken ice and cold blood remained.

"I didn’t know if the Paragon’s power could turn a body so brittle that it would shatter with the ice encasing it, leaving no traces behind. All I saw was blood—so much blood that I assumed that the Prince had surely died."

A sigh escaped Luthor’s lips as he pointed to his eyes.

"You see, I made an oath and this is the consequences of breaking that oath," Luthor explained. "Some Knight Classes allow us to make an oath in exchange for a boost in our powers.

"I made a vow that I would protect His Highness until he became strong enough to protect himself. Back then, I was very confident... and perhaps arrogant because no one below the Rank of Paragon could defeat me.

"I should have known that overconfidence was a slow and insidious killer. I thought that the Paragon of Ice would honor a one-on-one battle. I was wrong. Sometimes, people cannot be trusted to do the right thing. I was naive and arrogant and I paid dearly for it.

"Don’t get me wrong. This could not compare to what happened to my prince. He was so young... far too young to meet such a tragic end."

A question popped up in Alex’s head. "If your prince did die when he was thrown off the cliff, why didn’t you lose your sight immediately? If you were able to fight the Paragon, couldn’t the prince have survived the fall?" he asked hopefully.

Luthor sighed. "I wish we could believe that. I didn’t lose my sight instantly after breaking my oath. My vision slowly blurred over the next few days and I used that time to search for my Prince, holding out hope that he might still be alive. Unfortunately, my search was futile.

"Before my vision was truly lost, I journeyed to Slime Paradise and sought asylum. The slimes hid me here in this underground cavern where I ate the moss on the walls and drank from the lake.

"The first weeks posed a real challenge, but gradually, I learned how to navigate the darkness. Slowly, but surely, my senses sharpened until I was able to detect the fluctuations of energy in my surroundings.

"Although this may sound silly, but I could see the essence of the world only after losing my sight. I might be blind now, but I can see things more clearly than ever before."

Luthor paused for a bit. His excitement was getting the better of him, so he took a moment to calm himself down before continuing.

"After taking a good look at your aura, I realized that it is shockingly like the prince’s," Luthor said. "It has grown stronger since the last time I saw it. But there are also slight differences as well. Still, in essence, you and the prince have many similarities.

"Frankly, I want to believe that you are His Highness, who has somehow returned back to life. Also... I once sensed Nero’s seal inside of your head, which gives more credibility to your words."

Luthor then moved to kneel like a knight towards Alex pressing his closed fist over his chest.

Tears started to fall from his clouded eyes because the miracle that he had wished for many years had now appeared in front of him.

"Regardless of whether you really are His Highness or not, I, Luthor Vademont, am glad to see you once more," Luthor said. "Please, forgive me for not upholding my oath to protect you back then. May your light someday guide the Aetherion Empire to the right path."

Luthor bowed deeply, as his tears continued to fall.

He had been alone for so many years that he had accepted that he would die alone in the cavern hidden below a lake in Slime Paradise.

But now, a new calling had come to him.

Although he still wasn’t sure if Alex was his Prince, it no longer mattered.

Fate had given him a new reason to live and a chance to redeem himself. The promise he had once made to the daughter of his best friend might not be broken after all.

Now, he could properly honor the memory of the poor girl who had died birthing the unloved and unwanted bastard Prince.

Alex looked at Luthor with a complicated expression.

One of his many questions had been answered, but there were still a lot of things that he didn’t know.

The young man wanted to know why Prince Aetherius had to flee the empire with only an old knight to protect him from the dangers of the world.