Valerian, The Legendary

170 Arrow Off The String.

Valerian stood inside the hidden room with his eyes wide open. He was surprised to see the setup in front of him. The room was covered with a shallow layer of dust. The space was not bigger than ten feet. It was a simple square. Fortuna walked around for a bit before she jumped up to his shoulder and sat down.

The boy cast her a gaze and the cat turned her head the other way. She was still throwing a tantrum at him. Valerian said, “Your Highness, do you see anything that looks like a dragon treasure to you?”

The room was small and empty. Fortuna did not need to look around to tell that there was no treasure in this place, but just when she was about to tell her answer, she suddenly sensed a strong dragon aura inside the room. However, she could not see anything. She channeled her mana inside his eyes and found a small crack in the floor.

She hopped off to the ground and came to the shoulder. Then she walked over to the crack and her senses tingled. She said, “Oye, try to widen this crack, something is buried here.”

Valerian walked over to the place and took out his dagger. He leaned down on the ground and stuck inside the crack, he was surprised by the toughness of the floor material. He asked, “Fortuna, what is this place made up of? That door and the floor both are so hard.”

Fortuna sighed and said, “You need to take up some forging skills. This material is called star wood. This is an extremely refined stage of the Ancient pine wood. Your sword is made from a low-level stock of pine wood.”

Valerian nodded, took back the dagger, and took out the sword from his storage bag. Fortuna asked, “Wise choice, those magical daggers would have snapped if you had insisted on strong-arming the crack.”

The boy did not say anything and simply exerted force and the crack widened slowly. Just when the crack widened for about two inches, a panel on the floor was triggered, and then the panel slid back, revealing a staircase below. Valerian was surprised, but Fortuna was calm, she said, “Go in.”

The two of them entered the staircase and swiftly descended at a fast pace. There were no traps in the place. Valerian still could not help but feel on the edge. He always felt as if someone was watching him from the shadows. The cat looked carefree and her pace was even a bit faster than Valerian’s.

.....

The two of them descended about a hundred steps and found themselves standing in a huge hall. The place was lit up as if it was a bright day. Valerian looked at the elevated platform, there lay a bow. The design of the bow was very fascinating. It looked like two dragons descending the skies, and their tails were connected.

Valerian was mesmerized, to him the space around the bow seemed to be rippling. Suddenly, a voice woke him up, “How dare you intrude in the sacred area? Who are you?”

An invisible force pushed Valerian and Fortuna back. An extremely old person appeared in front of them, standing on the other side of the bow. Valerian did not even bother to raise his guard, the person was radiating the same aura like his master, Fallax. This old man, who seemed to be a flame in the wind was a magnus magister.

Fortuna wanted to attack, but Valerian bowed his head and said, “Greetings Magnus Magister, I am Valerian Verus. The fourth Prince of The Lumen Empire.”

The old man was not moved, he asked sternly, “I do not care who you are, I asked you why you are here.”

Valerian said, “Sir, I came here to meet you.”

His answer surprised both the old man and the cat beside him. Fortuna wanted to ask, what nonsense was he spouting but this boy was so composed that she stopped herself. The old man asked, “Do you think you can escape death by mumbling shit in front of me, boy?”

He was not going to buy it. However, Valerian said, “Sir, if you think that I am here for this bow, then you are wrong. I am aware that with my current prowess, I am not even worthy to hold his divine treasure in my vision let alone taint it with my touch.

However, the emperor of your empire is bent on handing this treasure to the Valkyrians.”

Fortuna understood what was going on and the old man was surprised, he scoffed, “You dare to malign the emperor. On what basis?”

Valerian sighed and said, “Sir, Sapientia have entered into an alliance with the berserker nation. He is willing to conspire against the Lumen Empire for the sake of territory expansion. However, the berserkers are not mindless fools, they are planning to stoke the flames of war between the two nations...”

The silver-haired boy did not hold back and went on to tell the old man about everything he discovered, he did not hide anything at all.

...

While Valerian was explaining things to the old man, Ashlyn was facing the Empress, who was sitting in the chair with a pale face. The princess glared at her and asked, “Did you think that you can taint this palace and cuck the emperor into raising a bastard? Did you think I would be so naive that even with my life at stake, I will keep this thing limited to just myself? You fool.”

The Empress did not look anything like her past glorious self. Her face was pale, she was sure that Ashlyn knew about her secret, she was aware that the girl in front of her had told this to someone else as well. She thought, if she could kill the two people before they could leak her secret, it would save her from doom, and with that thought a sinister gleam flashed past her eyes.

However, the next moment, she realized a harsh reality as the Princess said, “You can try and kill me, by the time you can even figure out whom did I share this secret with, you head will be looped off, with that gigolo of yours. Your child will perish before it is even formed properly. Come, try and kill me.”

Stephanie calmed down, she realized that the princess in front of her was not the naive girl she knew in the past. Ashlyn was a dagger that was stabbing her deep in the heart. With each passing moment, the empress was getting scared even more. She asked, “What do you want me to do? As long as you do not spread the news, I will do anything. Even if you want me to leave the palace, I will.”

Ashlyn smiled and sat down in her chair with a calm face and said, “You do not need to do anything of that sort. I can understand that you are in love, also, your body has needs, so it is fine to get an able bodied man to meet those requirements. I only want you to betray the Emperor.”

Stephanie opened her eyes wide. Ashlyn said, “Hey, do not look at me like that. You have already given your heart and body to someone else? What is the big deal with stopping him?”

The empress fell into the thought, Ashlyn raised her lip slightly, during her discussion with Valerian she had told him that the old expert of the royal family could be guarding that dragon treasure from being used, after all that treasure is the foundation of the nation.

If not for the fear of the dragon treasure, the empire might not have been standing. The only proof about the existence of the super power of the family was the old loyalist. Valerian decided to explore things first. If they are as he was told then he will convince the old man to be the judge of the situation, and the witness had to be the empress.

Ashlyn did not know how she will convince this woman when a thought came to her mind, to think that their gamble paid off, and the oddities were noticed by Sylvia. The plan Stephanie had came crumbling down and her neck was held in the enemy’s hand. Finally after weighting pros and cons, the lady nodded slightly.

Ashlyn said, “Good, you made the wise decision, do not worry, I will not have you suffer. I swear on my mana skills.”

She said that to win the trust of the empress so that she does not rebel at the last moment. Stephanie asked, “What will happen to me later?”

Ashlyn said, “I will not let you give birth to this child in the royal palace, but I promise that I will arrange a castle for you to stay for the rest of your life with your family. Do not worry, no matter what you think, I have always treated you like my mother.”

The arrow was fired, all that mattered now was to see if it will hit the target.