CHAPTER 262: CHAPTER 202: EDUARDO’S ABILITY

In the chilly cellar, the firelight flickered.

The coffin lay right in the center, black lacquer on solid wood, its lid not fully closed.

Inside was the corpse of a young boy, Aik, a twelve-year-old Snow Swearer.

Louis had it shipped back from the Dongxi Territory a few days in advance, with a simple reason: there might be some disease to study.

He had no special feelings toward the corpse itself, mainly bringing it back due to its connection with the Nest.

"Honestly," Louis sniffed lightly twice, turning his head to look at his brother beside him, "Did you fall into the latrine one day and not wash clean? This smell... how is it more complex than a corpse?"

"Because there’s a pile of shit next to me." Eduardo glanced at him, voice flat, "If this weren’t an inappropriate setting, I’d press you into the wall right now."

"Tsk, you really know how to talk." Louis’s lips curled up, not angry at all, but instead turned and sniffed seriously.

The two brothers have gotten close through several interactions, and both had joking natures, so a little teasing was no big deal.

"I need to use my Bloodline Talent, you should leave for a bit," Eduardo said calmly.

Louis didn’t move, as if he hadn’t understood this "please leave," but instead raised his eyebrow: "Uh? Your talent can’t be seen by others and needs to be used alone?"

"Louis." Eduardo’s tone became slightly more intense, "I am serious. Leave."

"The more serious you are, the more I feel there’s something wrong with you." Louis spread his hands, showing an expression of ’I really can’t help you,’ "Does your talent require you to strip naked to use it?"

"This is the last time I’ll say it," Eduardo lifted his gaze.

Louis shrugged and finally walked towards the door, muttering as he went: "Tsk tsk, even your own brother you guard against, father’s education really failed."

Eduardo’s expression didn’t change, but instinctively he tightened the front of his cloak, as if to conceal something.

He didn’t want to lie, nor could he tell the truth.

Because over in the Golden Feather Flower Religious Authority Country, he was the Bishop’s Envoy; while on this Empire’s land, he was the son of one of the Eight Great Dukes.

Unique reasons let him traverse between two hostile forces, maintaining a subtle and dangerous balance.

The hatred between the Ironblood Empire and the Golden Feather Flower was too deep, not a rift he could mend.

But what he didn’t know was, Louis had already quietly grasped it all through the Daily Intelligence System.

He knew Eduardo was from the Church Court, knew that his true mission on this trip to the Northern Territory was to investigate the disappearance of Grand Mage Jurgen Locke.

Yet Louis hadn’t exposed it.

Firstly, because it wasn’t necessary.

Secondly, because... he still needed Eduardo.

The door slammed shut with a "bang," its echo reverberating beneath the stone archways.

The basement returned to silence, leaving only Eduardo and the young boy’s coffin.

He let out a gentle sigh.

This brother, to be precise, was a brother he hadn’t seen many times.

He had initially thought he would be a calm, composed, careful type of guy.

After all, being able to thrive in such a Northern Territory scenario, becoming a Viscount in a short time, wasn’t something ordinary people could achieve.

The initial impression was indeed like that, but getting along revealed that he actually could make quite offbeat jokes, sometimes even ones he couldn’t respond to.

"Tsk." Eduardo clicked his tongue softly, shaking his head.

Then he put aside his frivolous thoughts, his expression gradually becoming solemn.

Eduardo slowly exhaled, extending his right hand, where a golden pattern like a feather-not-feather emerged in the palm, its golden glow quivering, resembling sacred light unfolding and silently blooming in the flesh.

He bent down, gently placing his palm atop Aik’s chest.

In the next instant, Divine Grace activated.

The pattern’s shimmer surged like a tide, spreading through the resonances of blood, bones, and memories.

Aik’s brief and sorrowful life arose silently like fragments, intertwining, echoing in the depths of his consciousness.

Eduardo "saw" Aik’s childhood...

Amidst a blazing attack, a baby was born crying.

A woman, her face pale, clutched her abdomen, tremblingly handing the child to a bloodied man.

"His name is Aik," she said softly in the end, after which she flickered out like a candle in the wind.

Aik’s childhood lacked a mother’s embrace, featuring only the rough hands of warriors and tents still hazy with gunpowder.

Every morning, Aik stood on the snow hill as a lookout, the cold wind lifting his cloak, appearing like a little adult.

His favorite time was returning to camp at dusk, gathering around the fire to hear his father tell those "honor" stories.

"One day, you too will wear it," Takalin pointed to his cloak of honor.

At that moment, Aik believed he would eventually become a hero.

He nodded, eyes youthful yet resolute.

Eduardo "felt" the child’s enduring fear...

But one day, Herrick suddenly stopped joking. Ula stood motionless in the snow at the edge of the camp, watching the sky at night.

His father ground his teeth at night, muttering words he couldn’t understand during his dreams.

Instinctively feeling the familiar camp becoming foreign,

He clenched his teeth, burying his fear deep in his chest.

The boy didn’t know what had happened, only that he couldn’t let his father worry.

Eduardo "experienced" that escape...

In the dead of night, Aik’s hand was gripped tightly by his father as they fled.

The cold wind tore at their cloaks; he fell countless times, his knees long since battered, blood forming into ice crust along his pant legs.

"Go south, don’t look back."

His father whispered, the voice detached and unfeeling, yet as if stabbing a knife into his ear, piercing his heart.