Chapter 14

My father was happy to hear the news about my sudden advancement of becoming a junior knight, but he also strictly demanded to keep it secret for now, as it's not the time yet to tell the world about my great achievements.

He was thrilled to know that I'm now an official knight, he said that I could use this to my advantage if I play it right.

"Lucas, as a knight, you now have officially started your journey to become a qualified heir of the Beauford house. I hope that you won't forget all the discipline that I taught you when you were young. A nobleman must always have his own stand and principle, and most importantly never let your desire drive you as a human, always remember where you come from." Gravely said by my father as he stands on his chair and walked toward me as he gave me his blessing of recognition.

"I know that father, I promise that I will never forget all your teaching." I solemnly said to him as I kneel on one knee, and even though I don't want to show any reaction towards this moment I can't help it, but I can no longer hide my emotion as it flooded my entire being.

For a long time, the original owner of this body Lucas, have wanted to hear those words from his father's mouth and now he is gone, but his strong will would forever burn inside me.

"That's good to hear, and if you need more materials for your cultivation just tell it to James he would get it for you." Father said eagerly.

"At the same time, you can also use the secret room in our basement for your training, both of you and Michael can use that place to train in secret. Just make sure you won't tell this to anyone as Michael is the only person outside of our family I allow to go inside of it." he said seriously.

"I understand that father, it's just that I have a few requests. Father, can I remove a small part of the city wall to give way for the water canal project that I started last month? The trial is successful and we already managed to irrigate the huge plot of land around the wall, but there's no way for the water to come inside the city." I said to him apprehensively.

"Lucas I can't promise to you that I can grant that kind of request." Father said solemnly as the smile on his face quickly fades.

"That wall has a more important role to our city. You may not know this, but that wall is not just an ordinary wall, as the next head of Beauford family I can tell you this secret in advance. Our city was established by our forefathers in an ancient relics, which are capable of harnessing the power from the unknown to protect anyone within its vicinity, and the only one who knows this secret is the head of our family." Father said seriously as he educate me regarding the importance of the city wall.

"In our 800 year-long of history, we haven't used that capability of the wall, not even once. But in case of emergency, and the city needs its immediate protection go to the secret room in our basement, and there, you would see it, a hidden chamber behind the walls, and only the blood of a Beaufort can open that wall in order to deploy the power of that wall." Father said as he turn his back to me as he face the window overlooking the northern mountains.

"Father do you mean that our city is established in an ancient relic of the past? How did we even manage to hide this from the kingdom?" I ask in perplex.

"What do you think?... We have sacrificed so much just to build this city and now we can't let that sacrifice go in vain. We don't have enough power to protect this city once that secret was discovered by the others and I know it's hard for you, but I think its the right time for you to know everything about this" He said as he turn to face me as the rays of the setting sun illuminated his body.

"Our past is built within lies, our family has too many secrets that even I don't know the truth. There's too many missing information regarding our history and I hope one day we can uncover them all."

"Okay, I understand father, but I will still insist on the waterway project. It would greatly help us in lessening the burden on gold coins. The trial have produced a great result in increasing the yield of our crops around the wall. With this, our farmer would have a bounty harvest that could greatly help them." I said firmly as I took my stance for this request.

"I know that Lucas so I'll be sending Sandra over to you. She can be a great help, even though her rank is low she is the best option that we have right now, and maybe she can find a way to implement your project without disturbing the magic formation on the wall."

"Thank you father I'm sure that our people would be happy about this." I said happily.

"There's only one thing that I want you to remember Lucas, and that is we must always be careful with every decision we make. There was always a consequence in everything and I learn mine in a hard way, and I hope you won't do the same mistake that I did." He said solemnly as he exited my room.

I don't understand the last thing my father said to me as he didn't explain it further, but I get the gust of what he wanted to say, even so, my head is still full of questions about the last thing he said. About learning his own lesson, I know that it must be not a good memory.

"I understand father." I whispered to the air while looking at his back.

As I kept myself busy the entire day coordinating with Sandra the plan that I have for the irrigation she told me that it would take her days before she can decide if she can help me with it.

As the night descended I decided to take a rest and continue all this work for tomorrow.

Meanwhile deep beneath the cave of the northern mountains, an ancient machine has once again started moving.

Buzzing noise can be heard inside a room, as the light started to flicker and an ancient terminal started its function. At the same time that this machine operated, the northern mountains have started rumbling and a huge surge of energy can be seen by the naked eye as aurora started to form at the top of the mountains.

But what they didn't know is that from the time that the machine has awakened it sent a signal that will be the prelude to something bigger.

This phenomenon has startled everyone living in the Florentine city as the nearest human settlement aside from the soldiers in the great fortress only people of the Florentine city saw this scene.

Lucas was about to sleep at this time but then he felt the house shaking violently, and as he exited his room he saw the servants of their house panicking and clinging to the wall while running towards the exit.

Together with the others, Lucas evacuated the mansion, he even saw the Light crystal violently swinging before he walks outside.

"Wh-Whats going on?" said by an unknown voice in panic.

"The earth is moving." Gaspar said as he quickly exited the kitchen while holding a pan.

"Look at the northern mountains they are rumbling." said by one of the servants in a horrified tone as she pointed her finger outside the window.

"The Light look at the light." said by another person as the aurora lit up the northern mountains.

"Why is this happening?" said by melissa as she runs towards the exit.

That's just one of the things that Lucas heard among the servants once they exited the house and as he observes everything around him. He knows that something is wrong.

Lucas attention was caught by the flickering light of the crystal chandelier. As the biggest source of light in the Beauford mansion during the night. It's easy to capture that the light from the crystal chandelier is quickly dimming.

As the aurora lights above the northern mountains intensify the rumbling of the earth started to calm down.

"Lucas! Lucas! Are you alright?" ask by my father.

"Yes, father I'm ok." I said to him as we watched the bright aurora light the entire city of Florentine.

"What going on? this is the first time I experience something like this." Said by my father.

"Sir, Sir it's good to know that both of you are okay." Said by James as he gave us a blanket.

"The entire house is shaking it's a good thing that it doesn't do any damage to the house." Said by Melissa.

"But a lot of things have fallen. We need to get back inside and clean all of it some paintings have also fallen to the floor." She added.

"Sir I think you should check the city. People might be panicking at this time." James said as we get back inside the house.

"I know that James. I need you to call all the knights for a meeting, and Lucas you stay here in the house and check if something needs to be repaired while I go outside to check the situation." Father said as he wear his coat and exited the room.

"Alright, I'll call for the craftsman to see if any parts of the house need to be replaced." I said as I look at my father's face.

"Good then I'm heading out I need to check everyone and see the damage this has done to our city." My father said as he ride on his horse.

"Okay everyone we need to clean up everything, and if you see anything damaged report it to me immediately." I said to the servant of our house as some of them are still in shock, maybe because this is the first time they experience something like this.

As they all scramble to go back inside the house and inspect every corner of it I decided to inspect the chandelier hanging on the ceiling.

"There seems to be nothing wrong with it."

"Master Lucas, is there something wrong with the light crystal." Said by James as he offers me some tea to calm myself.

"Did you not see it? While the earth is shaking and the aurora lights up the sky in the northern mountain the light of the crystals have flickered several times and it even deem by a lot but now everything is back to normal like nothing happen to it at all." I said to James with a baffled gaze.

"Indeed master Lucas, that's the first time I've seen something like this there's no information that Light crystal would flicker or deem on its own not that I know of." he said while drinking his tea with his shaking hands.

"Does it have something to do with the quake earlier?" I said with a worried tone.

"I'm not sure but there's a great possibility that it is, and master Lucas you don't have to be worried. It's just a light crystal and look around you, everyone is now back to normal." James said as he clean up my cup.

"Yeah, your right I need to be more concern about the situation in the city I hope that everyone was fine."

"They would be sir. That amount of shaking is not enough to cause great damages to your property as this house was built by using the strongest wood but then some people might not be as lucky as you sir there are some of the houses in the city that wasn't properly maintained."

"Yeah, but when we establish this city we used the same material for everything those houses should be able to endure this kind of shaking."

"Everything in the city is fine master Lucas, it's just the shake caused panic among the people but your father managed to calm them down." Said by Manuel as he enters the door.

"Manuel! great, you're here, how's the situation in the city?"

"The shake didn't cause any serious damage among the buildings, but there's a few unlucky ones who got injured due to falling debris, and none of those injuries are fatal just a few broken bones and wounds so you have nothing to worry about master Lucas." Manuel said as he inspected the structure of the house.

"This is the last room that I needed to inspect aside from a few cracks on this wall and a small hole on the roof a small repair would do." He said while closely examining the damages.

Manuel is now familiar with me since the last time we started the waterwheel project I often visit his workshop every day for a month and now he can talk to me without stuttering or fear in his tone.

"Then it's good to hear my father wouldn't be back until tomorrow I know that he will stay guard for this night as he was worried about the creatures inside the enchanted forest they also felt the shake earlier some of them might attempt to attack us."

"We also inspected the wall master Lucas, and fortunately we haven't seen any serious damage aside from one area where the soil has sunk by a few meters creating a small hole but your father has already covered that hole with big rocks."

"Wait didn't you say that there's no major damage on the wall then what is that hole for?"

"Master Lucas your father has confirmed that it's just the soil has sunk but it didn't do any damage on the wall except for living a deep ditch on that area."

"Then do you think I could use that area to be the entrance for the water irrigation?"

"It should be possible but I need to inspect it more as there are no enough lights for me to see it entirely," he said as he stop examining and began drawing on his board.

"If I used this area and place a few support and some rocks alongside its walls we can do it, but then that area would be exposed to anyone, or maybe, I could do it like a canal, hidden from their sight and just make a narrow entrance," he added as he continuously changes the drawing on his board.

"I think this is possible master Lucas, I can immediately do and start this project by tomorrow."

"That's good to hear, but I need to consult Sandra first, before we start building something on that wall. I'll inform you tomorrow if we could start it. But for now, we should all go back to rest. The knights would remain active for this entire night," I said to him as I went back inside my room still thinking about the reason for the sudden quake and the connection it has with the deeming of light crystal.