Chapter 57: Chapter 57

“Speaking of wizard legends, we have to talk about the origins of our Sis Territory. About two hundred years ago, a Grand Knight was granted territory for his merits. But instead of choosing a prosperous region in the kingdom’s core, he chose to come to this frontier to expand.”

The crackling of firewood burning in the fireplace and the shifting shadows cast by the dancing flames added a touch of mystery to Aunt Mary’s narration.

In front of the fireplace, Ron and Liya sat shoulder to shoulder, listening intently, as Mary’s narration continued:

“We all know now that it’s difficult for ordinary people to cross the wilderness. So, where did the first batch of subjects in our Sis Territory come from?”

“Did a wizard intervene?” Ron asked in cooperation.

“Of course not!”

Aunt Mary shook her head. “If a wizard could just step in so easily, it wouldn’t have become a legend. It was a wizard’s legacy. It was precisely because the first-generation Lord obtained a wizard’s legacy capable of dispelling Evil Spirits over a wide area that he decided to establish the territory at the kingdom’s frontier.”

At this point, Aunt Mary paused deliberately and asked Ron, “Do you know what lies to our east?”

“The east? Isn’t it an unexplored wilderness?” Ron asked in confusion.

In “Ron’s” memories, there didn’t seem to be anything about what lay east of the Sis Territory, and people in the territory rarely discussed this topic.

If Aunt Mary hadn’t suddenly asked about it, he probably wouldn’t have paid attention to this question until after he became a Formal Knight. Still, finding out a bit earlier wasn’t a bad thing.

“The east is, of course, a wilderness right now, but before the Sis Territory was established, in the more distant past, the east, and even the area where our Sis Territory currently stands, all belonged to a powerful kingdom.”

“What happened to that kingdom now?” Ron hurriedly asked.

“It fell long ago.”

Saying this, Mary looked at Ron with a very meaningful gaze. Seeing this, Ron felt somewhat uncomfortable, and he quickly reflected on whether he had said something wrong.

Just then, Mary suddenly let out a long sigh and said to Ron, “It seems you don’t remember anything at all!”

“Remember what? Should I remember something?”

Ron searched through “Ron’s” memories himself and found that there were indeed no memories of this matter, so he could only turn a questioning gaze back to Mary.

“Hasn’t your father told you? When you were very young, your father carried you across the wilderness to the Sis Territory. The direction you came from was the east!”

“This…”

Hearing this, Ron was extremely surprised. He had originally thought that “Ron’s” so-called Eastern origins were just like others in the Sis Territory who had Eastern blood, merely a descriptor of his appearance.

He never expected that he actually came from the East.

Just as Ron was reeling from this shock, Mary revealed something even more astonishing:

“Actually, it’s not just you; the ancestors of many people in the territory also fled over from the east, myself included. It’s just that when my ancestors came to the Sis Territory, a large group of them traveled together. In the process, perhaps more than ten times the number of people who arrived perished in the wilderness.

“But your father, holding only the swaddled infant you, braved the wilderness alone to reach the Sis Territory.

“Even now, I still don’t know how he managed to do it. If your father hadn’t already sacrificed himself in the Aberrant Beast invasion five years ago, I would even suspect that your father was likely a Grand Knight just like the first-generation Lord.”

“I don’t know either; Father never told me these things,” Ron said in a low tone, seemingly unwilling to continue on this topic.

Mary immediately understood, and she steered the topic back to the wizard legends:

“The lords across the Kingdom of Helios have an agreement: as long as lords are willing to incorporate newly pioneered lands into the Order of Helios, the kingdom will recognize the ownership of these new lands.

“Because the first-generation Lord of Sis possessed a wizard’s legacy capable of dispelling Evil Spirits over a wide area, he wanted to expand eastward and occupy the former territories of the long-vanished Kingdom of Gustara.

“But as I just said, things related to wizards often attract Evil Spirits. The first-generation Lord could have achieved great things within the kingdom’s interior, but due to his excessive ambition, he chose this frontier.

“What the exact price was for the frequent use of that wizard’s legacy is something we outsiders cannot know. But judging from the stories passed down by word of mouth over the years, the first-generation Lord’s end was very tragic.

“After him, the Sis Territory was never again able to expand outward rapidly, and it even lost contact with the kingdom’s interior for a time. Fortunately, the kingdom doesn’t easily abandon any territory of Order, so the connection was eventually re-established.

“And then the territory developed bit by bit to how it is today.

“So, what Auntie wants to tell you is: it’s fine to learn the stories of wizards, but whatever you do, never touch a wizard’s relic. It will bring you misfortune.”

Hearing Aunt Mary’s caring reminder at the end, Ron felt a wave of warmth in his heart. He told himself that, unless he was absolutely certain of his safety, he would never touch a wizard’s relic.

If even a Grand Knight couldn’t withstand it, then his frail little body certainly wouldn’t stand a chance.

As for the authenticity of this story, Ron was willing to believe it for the time being. For a story like this to be passed down for over two hundred years, even if it were false, what difference would it make?

He still had no choice but to treat it as the truth.

…

Due to the sudden foreign enemy attack, Ron didn’t return to his own home to rest that night. Instead, he stayed at Liya’s house, sleeping next to the fireplace holding a pile of dry straw.

But while his body slept, his consciousness remained awake.

Returning to the perspective of his Light Orb true form, Ron didn’t delay for even a moment, immediately setting to work to check the pollution situation after today’s full day of outbound training.

First was the large mass of Pollution Secret Patterns that had been expelled beyond the Body Secret Patterns and Transcendent Secret Patterns. The amount that increased just during the daytime today was roughly equivalent to what would naturally accumulate inside the territory over five days.

This meant that the moment he left the Sis Territory, his “lifespan” would immediately drop to one-fifth of its current rate. Of course, this was calculated solely based on the pollution rate of an apprentice.

If he were a Formal Knight, it would presumably be somewhat slower.

Next were the Pollution Secret Patterns within the Body Secret Patterns. Ron didn’t purge all the Pollution Secret Patterns mixed into his Body Secret Patterns every single day, moving them to other locations on the surface of the Light Orb.

As long as they didn’t affect his daily training, he wouldn’t actively expel them.

Today, however, while outside the territory during the day, a certain amount of Pollution Secret Patterns had once again mixed into the Body Secret Patterns, but the volume was only two to three times that of his normal daily accumulation.

This contrast was the most direct evidence that achieving transcendence could resist the Pollution Secret Patterns.

As for the sheltering effect a Transcendent body provided to the Light Orb true form, that would require further investigation into the relationship between the two. But from what he had observed so far, the effect would definitely improve, though by how much was hard to say.

In short, his primary goal remained to achieve transcendence.