Deeper In The Underground Cavern

The four of them delved further into the underground cavern, guided by the source of light from Vincent's candle.

The light from the candle was far-reaching and spread out gently in all directions.

Illuminated by the light source, Alec was able to take in a lot more of his surroundings as compared to when he had literally been groping around blindly in the dark. Previously, he had to rely on Bunbun to guide him the entire time.

This time, however, he had left Bunbun back at home.

He realized that instead of normal of a naturally formed underground cavern, there were traces of it being carved out by human hands instead. Previously, he thought that it was only the formation of the small pond that had been worked on, but it obviously wasn't the case.

Alec realized that Vincent and Evin were both touching the walls as well, as if confirming something.

Elias walked over to Alec, whispering to him in a lowered voice. If one wasn't paying attention, the two of them just looked like two friends exchanging words.

"Don't you think that it's just too weird that they left without saying goodbye? No one told us they were graduating as well."

Alec's eyes glinted. Elias was a lot sharper than he looked, with how he usually kept a low profile.

Alec nodded, but didn't say anything else. Elias nodded back. There were things he could infer just from that nod. They would talk more later.

"That aside, did you really fall down into this hole? The drop is rather steep!"

Elias wasn't making light of the drop that he had faced. Even he wasn't sure that he would be able to survive a fall like this, let alone with Alec's shorter and more delicate body. He felt relieved when he didn't notice anything out of place on his friend.

Now that only the two of them were left, they had to depend on each other. Not only was 'big brother' figure Cyrus gone, their 'younger sister' was gone, and even 'haughty big brother' Zach was gone!

Elias, who considered himself as a bigger brother to Alec as well felt like he really got a scare. Even when he had dropped down with their teacher, who had reassured him that they would be fine, his heart still skipped a few beats at the feeling of freefalling.

"Mm," Alec said. "It wasn't too bad." He tried to downplay it as much as possible, but Elias shot him a sceptical look.

As if he would believe that! Luckily, Alec's bunny was rather smart and knew how to give him water. If not for that, he might not be standing here with his friend anymore. When he had been briefed by their teacher earlier, Elias felt like he suffered shock after shock.

Alec felt warm at the hidden show of affection from Elias, patting his hand.

"Let's go deeper in. There's a pond at the end of the tunnel."

The two followed the faint trail of light that they could see in the distance.

When they reached, Elias took a quiet breath at the scene before him. There was a quiet beauty to the scene. It was calm and tranquil, and he would have loved to stay beside the pond as he read a book.

The quiet sound of water trickling down the rocks met their ears. The rhythmic plip plops as the water met the surface of the pond showed ripples across the still pond.

The sight of the skeleton caught Elias' eye, as well as Evin and Vincent, who had followed after them.

Evin instantly felt sheepish and avoided the look his friend shot him. How he hadn't noticed the entire skeleton in the corner was beyond him. Had he really been so distracted at the time? Granted, the sight that Alec made at that time had really shocked him, but that was no excuse to overlook something so conspicuous.

Vincent felt his heartbeat quicken at the sight of the skeleton's armour. Eyes widened, he quickly strode over to it, kneeling down before it.

Evin was caught off guard by his friend's large reaction to the skeleton. The times he had seen Vince react like this could be counted on one hand. The man was rather aloof by nature, only sparing some feelings for his family and close friends.

No one made a sound, the stifling silence broken by Vincent's shocked gasp.

Vincent almost couldn't believe his eyes. This was… if this was really who he thought it was, then Alec had truly discovered something that had been a mystery from the clan for such a long time.

Vincent gestured for Evin to go over to help him. The two men carefully pried off the armour that the skeleton had been wearing, making sure not to damage the armour in the process.

Though Evin didn't know what was making his friend react that way, he would follow his cue on things like this.

Having taken off the armour, which had seen better days, Vincent felt more and more dazed.

It really was.

Vincent immediately eyed the skeleton left behind with a sort of withering, almost disgusted look. He didn't know quite what to feel about this.

The rest of them were notably confused.

"What is it?" Evin asked.

Vincent frowned. "Do you still remember how in the tales, there had been a thief that stole from our ancestor, taking his armour and a few of those miraculous healing potions?"

Evin nodded slowly, turning his glance onto the armour laid out in front of them. "You mean that old wives' tale?"

Vincent turned it around, showing the hollow side of the armour. "Look. Our clan's symbol."

Indeed. On the hollow side, placed where the heart would have met the armour, there was a black, stylized crown, with a faintly shining black onyx in the middle.

"It's not just a tale. What's less well-known is that the so-called 'thief' that had been recorded down in the books is actually the ancestor's brother. Or rather, his half-brother. Different mother, same father. He was working with the enemy faction and was trying to disrupt morale. Who would have thought that he would meet his end here on the Neil Clan compound after all?

There were tracking runes left behind on the armour, through the black onyx, but no one had been able to track him down. They were all led to this spot but unable to find anything, so we assumed that he had somehow managed to get rid of the runes."

Alec, who had been listening with a faint ear as his uncle and teacher talked, absentmindedly and reflexively Awakened the skeleton.

There was a minor change in expression on his face when he realized what he just did. On cue, the skeleton bones rattled ominously, but so faintly that it could have just been their imagination, causing Vincent to immediately shut up as a chill ran up his spine.

Was the ancestor's brother's spirit here?! Shouldn't it have moved on already?!

Alec's mind raced as he quickly prodded the skeleton before trying his best to recall all the magic that he had ever left on the skeleton.

Instead of returning to him, however, the magic dissipated in the air, but Alec felt that the bond between him and the skeleton was broken. His frantically beating heart calmed slightly.

Alec wiped the imaginary sweat off his brow. That had been close! Goodness. He really had to control his instincts so that things like this wouldn't happen again in the future. However, he now knew that it was indeed possible to Awaken things that had already been dead. That didn't quite sit right with him.

The faint connection that he had felt held a faint echo, almost like he had been communicating with the person that had been left behind the moment they died. It was a strange, unsettling feeling, and Alec had no intention of doing it again any time soon.

"What was that?" Evin said suspiciously.

Vincent visibly hesitated before speaking. "The wind?" he said with a straight face.

Evin shot him a look so dry it would not have been out of place in the desert. "In here?"

"Regardless, bring the skeleton up, will you?"

Evin complied, carefully handling the fragile bones to make sure nothing happened.

Vincent gave Alec and Elias a look. "This is strictly under confidentiality, so don't go around mentioning it to anyone."

Elias and Alec nodded.

Elias' eyes were shining with admiration for the Clan Head. Alec caught sight of his look and secretly wondered to himself if that look would still remain so bright when he knew that the reason why they were leaving so quickly was because Vincent had been spooked by the sound of the rattling bones.