Bai Shi had only wanted the man to hear him out, but...
Why was this knight, one of ssr's own n, suddenly pledging his loyalty to him?
Wasn't this just blatant treason?
Bai Shi was having an existential crisis.
Sure, he was the legitimate successor... but had he reached the point where his re presence could make an enemy defect?
That wasn't the script he'd been given...
Bai Shi hesitated. The knight remained bowed, refusing to look up, seemingly determined to stay there until his pledge was accepted.
The other soldiers around him began to follow his example, kneeling in reverence.
Bai Shi suddenly felt as if a crown were being forced upon his head.
This... This is a set-up! You’re condemning your emperor!
Poaching his brother-in-law’s n right off the bat? What kind of situation was this?
Bai Shi walked over and stood before the knight.
“Um...”
“Aren’t you one of ssr’s n?”
At the ntion of ssr, the knight began to tremble, his posture radiating fury.
“I have nothing more to do with that vile serpent who betrayed and defiled the Erdtree!”
Bai Shi studied the knight before him.
Even with his face concealed by a helt, his anger was palpable, raw, and direct.
‘What’s going on here?’
‘A rebellion among ssr’s ranks?’
After a mont of thought, Bai Shi quickly understood why the knight had been so quick to swear fealty.
He had already turned against ssr, though the reason remained unclear.
Bai Shi helped the kneeling Black Knight to his feet and said,
“Tell
everything in detail.”
“The history of Queen Marika in this land, your own identity, and what ssr has done.”
The Black Knight rose and gathered his thoughts.
“You may call
Harold. That is my na.”
“Where to begin...”
As Harold hesitated, Bai Shi made the decision for him.
“Start with Queen Marika and Lord Godfrey.”
Harold nodded and began to recall the past.
“In the beginning, Queen Marika traveled the lands, spreading the teachings of the Erdtree.”
“The Hornsent people constantly stood in her way, and the imnsely powerful Gloam-Eyed Queen was also her sworn enemy.”
“It is said Queen Marika faced near-death situations several tis due to their interference.”
“But when Lord Godfrey appeared, everything changed.”
“Queen Marika and Lord Godfrey beca consorts, and the Erdtree’s power grew and expanded.”
“During that ti, every enemy was crushed by Lord Godfrey and his armies.”
“The once-invincible Hornsent people suffered their first defeat, and in the end, they could no longer halt the Erdtree’s rise.”
“In the dawn of the Erdtree, war was constant. Thus, Lord Godfrey was also the king of the battlefield.”
“After that war, it is said that Queen Marika reached so kind of agreent with the Hornsent.”
“However, I do not know the details. I only know that from that day forward, the Hornsent no longer interfered with the Erdtree.”
Harold paused for a mont before speaking again.
“It was after this that I, too, joined the Erdtree’s cause.”
“Later, under the Queen’s guidance, the Lord found the weapon to hunt the great serpent and slew the God-Devouring Serpent.”
“We followed our Lord through countless campaigns, and at last, we utterly defeated Queen Marika’s rival—the Gloam-Eyed Queen.”
“After the Gloam-Eyed Queen’s fall, Queen Marika underwent a transfiguration within the Hornsent people’s divine tower and beca a god.”
“In that mont, order was remade, and the Erdtree beca the sole sovereign of the Lands Between.”
“And Lord Godfrey beca the Elden Lord.”
“When the Lord was bestowed the dew, his presence was magnificent, brimming with power—in that mont, he stood perfectly still.”
“The King of the Erdtree, standing tall upon the land!”
Speaking of Godfrey, Harold’s voice was filled with reverence.
Bai Shi nodded.
There was no need for him to recount what happened next; Bai Shi already knew.
Afterward, to protect the Erdtree, Queen Marika united with other forces who held a grudge against the Fire Giants and marched on them.
With the end of the War against the Giants, the Erdtree faced no further threats, and the glorious age of life truly began.
But after Queen Marika launched a war against the Hornsent, the Land of Shadow was sealed off from the Lands Between, and the Scadutree vanished with it.
Without the Scadutree, the Erdtree could no longer rain down its dew, and the age of plenty was fleeting.
Bai Shi then asked the Black Knight,
“What is your identity, and that of your knightly order?”
Harold puffed out his chest and replied,
“We are the Black Knights. We carry the blood of the Crucible and once trained alongside the Crucible Knights.”
“Beyond the power of the Crucible, we are also devout followers of the Erdtree, mastering various incantations for its protection.”
“It is no exaggeration to say that we, the Black Knights, are the staunchest bulwark of the army.”
Bai Shi nodded. The weapons and shields of the Black Knights certainly looked reliable.
But for the Black Knights to possess the power of the Crucible and wield its incantations was unexpected.
Bai Shi asked his final question.
“Then, what is the story with ssr?”
This was the question that concerned him most.
Harold sighed and began to recount ssr’s life as he knew it.
“ssr was Queen Marika’s firstborn child.”
“As he grew, he took part in nurous wars. His strength was peerless, and he quickly beca the strongest warrior under Lord Godfrey.”
“ssr fought campaign after campaign, clearing countless enemies for Queen Marika.”
“He commanded a massive army, including his personal guard, the Fire Knights.”
“Our legion of Black Knights also served under him.”
“In addition, there was a force from the Carian Royal Family, led by Rellana, that followed ssr.”
“After the Fire Giants were vanquished and the dust settled, ssr and Rellana beca consorts.”
Hearing this, Bai Shi blinked.
‘?’
Had he misheard sothing?
Rellana... who was that? And she was connected to the Carian Royal Family.
Bai Shi had only ever known of Rennala; he thought perhaps Harold had misspoken.
But on second thought, if it *was* Rennala, the implications would be far more serious.
Bai Shi interrupted Harold’s account of ssr’s life.
“Rellana, who is she?”
Harold was surprised by the question, but he answered imdiately.
“She is the biological sister of ‘Queen of the Full Moon’ Rennala, a forr princess of the Carian Royal Family.”
“She is known as the ‘Twin Moon Knight.’”
“In the end, she left the Carian Royal Family to follow ssr.”
Bai Shi nodded. So, she was Ranni’s aunt...
Did Ranni even know she had an aunt?
Bai Shi guessed not. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so ignorant about matters concerning the Land of Shadow.
“In the past, we respected him from the bottom of our hearts, following him from one war to the next.”
“But at the end of the Holy War, he betrayed Queen Marika and the Erdtree.”
“He claid the Scadutree as his own, and for that, he incurred Queen Marika’s punishnt.”
“This place beca utterly god-forsaken.”
Harold looked up, his heart filled with complicated emotions.
“Even then, we had not fully decided to rebel against ssr, only that we were deeply dissatisfied with his actions.” “But... Commander Andlos discovered ssr’s true nature as a vile serpent.”
“This was a betrayal and defilent we could not accept.”
“Our Commander and Vice-Commander led us in rebellion.”
“To protect the legitimacy of the Erdtree from being tainted, we declared war on ssr.”
Harold clenched his fists, then slowly let them fall open.
“In the end, we failed.”
“The Commander and Vice-Commander were imprisoned and executed. The rest of us suffered heavy casualties.”
“As for those of us who slipped through the net, ssr didn’t even bother to hunt us down.”
Bai Shi pondered this.
From the sound of it, although the Black Knights had rebelled, their reasons seed quite justifiable.
However, according to the information the ancient king had provided, none of this had escaped Queen Marika’s control.
ssr’s ‘betrayal,’ by all rights, was rely at Marika’s behest.
The truth of the matter was likely concealed from the soldiers in the lower ranks.
But people change, and Bai Shi had no idea what ssr’s true intentions were now.
The fact that the Black Knights under his command had staged a rebellion made the situation truly difficult to gauge.
He would have to wait until he t the man face-to-face.
Unfortunately, since this knight had participated in the rebellion, he couldn’t ask him to be a guide.
Bai Shi patted Harold’s chest plate and gave him a nod.
“Very good. Thanks to you, I’ve learned a great deal.”
Harold lowered his head. What he had done was nothing special.
Suddenly, Harold rembered sothing.
He turned to the three soldiers behind him and said,
“Quick, bring the item we’ve been guarding.”
One of the soldiers imdiately turned and walked away briskly in a specific direction.
Bai Shi watched him go, curious, and began to guess what he might bring back.
Would it be a weapon? An incantation? Or so special item related to the Erdtree?
Whatever it was, it was clearly sothing quite rare.
Soon, the soldier returned, reverently holding a small box in both hands.
The soldier stood before Bai Shi and the Black Knight, presenting the box.
Harold produced a key, unlocked the box, and then stepped aside. The item was finally revealed to Bai Shi.
Inside the small box, cushioned by soft cotton, lay a small golden vial.
Its surface was adorned with the branches and leaves of the Erdtree, and a gentle, blessed power emanated from it, felt even through the glass.
Bai Shi stared at the item before him, nad ‘Marika’s Blessing,’ his eyes wide.
This was clearly a physick flask, and one with an incredibly powerful effect.
Bai Shi reached out, lifted it from the box, and carefully sensed the power contained within.
After just a few seconds, he identified the source of the physick’s effect.
The ingredients seed unremarkable, yet the effect was unprecedentedly potent.
Furthermore, the power it contained was very familiar to him.
It was a fragnt of the power of Grace itself.
Considering its na, this was likely a physick personally crafted and blessed by Queen Marika, which was why it had such a powerful effect and special significance.
Bai Shi held the physick in one hand and rested his other on his chin.
Instead of contemplating how to use the physick or when, a much bolder idea was forming in his mind.
He had used the blessing of the Great Runes a few tis before, but the recipient had always been a person.
He had never attempted to use the Great Runes' power to bless an inanimate object.
If he could bless a physick flask just as Queen Marika had, couldn’t he mass-produce this powerful and rare item?
Even if the effect was slightly weaker, he could just accumulate them over ti. Quantity could make up for quality.
At this thought, Bai Shi imdiately took out his own Flask of Wondrous Physick.
Inside was the mixture lina had personally prepared for him, containing a Crimson Crystal Tear and a Greenspill Crystal Tear.
The forr could instantly heal a large amount of damage, while the latter provided a boost to stamina.
Bai Shi tried to channel his Great Rune, infusing its power into the physick.
The blessing truly activated.
As the runes in his body were consud, the flask began to shimr with a brilliant golden light.
Seeing this, Harold’s eyes widened beneath his helt.
The light radiating from that flask was identical to the one from ‘Marika’s Blessing’!
Bai Shi looked at the Flask of Wondrous Physick in his hand and nodded.
Then, he drank the entire contents in one go.
He could always mix more later; it wasn’t a big loss.
Just as he expected, the blessing did more than just add a golden visual effect; the restorative power was greatly enhanced.
Though the effect couldn’t quite compare to ‘Marika’s Blessing.’
That was to be expected. That one was personally blessed by Queen Marika herself; there were likely steps in the process he didn't know about.
But Bai Shi’s approach was all about quantity and potency, like a small workshop dumping in premium ingredients.
Who cares how Queen Marika did it? Just keep pumping runes and blessings into it!
After testing the effect of the blessed physick, Bai Shi was quite satisfied.
Next, he took out his Flask of Crimson Tears and Flask of Cerulean Tears, which he hadn’t used in so ti.
As the level of his battles continued to rise, the healing effects of these two flasks had started to feel insufficient.
Since it was difficult to collect more Sacred Tears for now, he would use this blessing to increase their restorative power.
After trying to bless both flasks, Bai Shi had upgraded all of his recovery tools by a full tier.
Each blessing on these flasks cost about three to five thousand runes.
But to the current Bai Shi, that number of runes was just that—a number.
He still had over two million runes left after his last level-up, and he had accumulated another three or four hundred thousand since then.
Having done all this, Bai Shi beckoned to the dumbfounded Harold, motioning for him to co closer.
Harold stepped before Bai Shi, unsure of what he intended to do.
Bai Shi looked at the Black Knight, so utterly loyal to the Erdtree, and extended his hand.
The knight understood imdiately what was about to happen and dropped to one knee, his body trembling with excitent.
A golden light flowed from Bai Shi’s hand, descending upon the Black Knight.
With the blessing of the runes, the golden engravings on the knight's armor began to glow, and his power rose steadily.
When the blessing was complete, Harold looked upon the grace that had returned to him, still in disbelief.
Such a blessing had completely vanished from his life when the Land of Shadow was sealed away.
The only trace of Queen Marika and the Erdtree that remained upon him was the unfaded gold in his eyes.
It was the symbol of one who had received Grace, and it was the last bastion of faith they could cling to.
He never thought that today, the grace that had long departed would return once more.
Harold’s heart was a storm of emotions. He lowered his head to Bai Shi.
In that mont, he swore a silent oath to follow Bai Shi until death.
Bai Shi smiled.
For those who steadfastly believed in the Erdtree, who held faith even after being abandoned, a blessing was the greatest comfort.
Queen Marika’s old practice of using blessings to spread her faith and guide her warriors was now of great help to Bai Shi.
From now on, when facing similar individuals, Bai Shi had an easy thod to win their allegiance.
He just had to declare his legitimate claim and then bestow a blessing, and he could basically raise their affinity for him to ninety or higher.
For these devout warriors, locked away from the Erdtree in the Land of Shadow, such a blessing was a guiding light, a return of their faith.
Though their loyalty was currently to the Erdtree and not Bai Shi himself, it didn’t matter.
In ti, that devotion would gradually transform into loyalty to Bai Shi.
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