Chapter 94.

“YOU WHAT?” Hubert’s voice echoed in the room as he yelled at the top of his lungs. He just learned about his son’s mischievous adventure in the frozen cave and the danger that they have encountered inside of it.

“Haven’t you learned your lesson yet? Didn’t I tell you to not do anything impulsive, especially during the time of my absences. What would you do if something bad happen to both of you there? Didn’t you see the corpses of those people from the church of Agatha, they all died down there without a fight.” Hubert sternly said to the two as he scold them because of their dangerous actions.

The bunch of corpses they saw in that mysterious cave is one of the reasons why he decided to restrict that place as he don’t want any incident to happen because of it. He knows how important a ruin is but he also knows how dangerous it can be.  

There is also other ruin that was discovered in other places and many wizards and knights have sacrificed their lives just to uncover its mystery. And Hubert doesn’t want this to happen to anyone close to him that’s why he ordered the closure of that cave despite the strong resistance of other people including his son.

He was well aware that ruins like this once fully explored can give then rich rewards but Hubert also knows that in order to get this rewards exploring it is necessary and most of the time ruins like this have some kind of security features that even powerful knight and wizards can’t resists.

The best example of this ruins is the huge space inside of the great fortress, as they can only utilize the outer facility of this titanic building but most of its inner facilities have remained a mystery for many. Even for the powerful Helios empire themselves.

They only managed to uncover the 4 underground floors of the fortress ruins in their thousands of years of their history, and they have remained stuck there for a long time as no knights or wizards can safely passed the 5^th underground floor of the fortress which is full of danger.

Even several teams made out of rank 5 knights and wizards failed to penetrate this deep as the security measure inside of the building is still working preventing them from demolishing it apart.

This is the reason why Hubert is apprehensive in developing the ruin inside of that frozen cave as it would take them a large amount of time and resources to do it. At the same time, that mysterious ruin has easily managed to harvest the lives of many people from the church of Agatha and many of these people aren’t weak at all.

In fact, the armor they wore on their body is a strong proof of their unique strength and this was further strengthened by what they found in one of the corpse clothes especially that badge of honor they got in one of the dried-up corpses.

This is why Hubert immediately went ballistic when he find out what his son did during his absence. They are now back at their mansion, and Hubert have already finished his meeting with his people in regard to the success of their mission and the future steps that they must do from now on.  

So, as soon as they finished the meeting, Hubert immediately call Lucas and Michael towards his private room in order to discuss the things that they have done during the time that he was gone.

"I can't believe it," Hubert exclaimed as he paced back and forth in the room, his face etched with worry and hopelessness. Deep creases on his forehead betrayed his disappointment. "I'm only gone for a short time and yet you already disobeyed my strict order to stay put and guard the city." As he shook his head in disbelief.

“Lucas, do you even realize how dangerous it is for you to explore that cave on your own? It’s a good thing that Michael knows that it is important to keep an eye on you the entire time as we already expected that you would do something stupid like this.” Hubert exclaimed with a voice full of frustration.

“I'm sorry, father," Lucas said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I didn't mean to cause any trouble. It’s just that I have a strong hunch that we missed something important in that cave that’s why I went back to it to take a look.”

“I know it’s a foolish thing to do while we are in the middle of crisis but my intuition tells me that it was the correct thing to do.” Lucas confessed with a heavy voice.

“Intuition? Intuition to what? To put both of your lives in danger?” Hubert asked in an angry tone.

“That’s not my main intention.” Lucas said in defense.

Hubert sighed and looked at his son. “I know you mean well” he said, his tone softening. “But as the lord of this city, and as your father I have a responsibility to keep you all safe. I can’t have you running around and putting yourselves in danger without any regard for the possible consequences.” Hubert said sternly.

“Lord Hubert, It’s is also my fault I didn’t manage to stop him on time.” Michael said as he step forward to take responsibility.

“Michael! That’s not true.” Lucas said in alarm as he saw him trying to shift the blame towards himself.

“This is not your fault Michael, my son is just really hard-headed sometimes besides I’m also mad that he put you both in such a dangerous situation. I know that you are still not accustomed about knowing your true identity but I insist you to call me uncle in private, I’m sure that my older brother would be happy to see you grew up into a capable man.” Hubert said with a sigh as he takes his seat.

Michael’s identity as a part of the Beaufort family is still a secret and only selective people know about this truth. Him being half human half demon makes it harder for Hubert to reveal his identity to the world as Michael’s mother is still being hunted by the church.

“I’m just glad that you both managed to return safely from that trip. But please Lucas, be more careful in the future. I don’t want to lose either of you. Every time you do something dangerous it’s not just your life is being at risk but your cousin's too. I’m sure that you both now understand what I meant right?”

“Yes, father.” “Yes, uncle.”

“We understand.” Lucas and Michael said at the same time.

“So, what is that thing that you find in that cave that almost put you both in danger?” Hubert asked, clearly intrigued by the object that pushes his son to risk his life in exploring that ruin.

Lucas and Michael looked at each other contemplating if it was okay to tell him about the floating cube that merges into Lucas body. As they know that they would be receiving another scolding from him once he finds out how the cube assimilated to Lucas and how did it put him in intense misery, but in the end, they decided to tell him the truth.

“That means to say that both of you found a floating cube in a secret room inside that place and Lucas proceeded to touch it without any caution, causing him to suffer intense pain and become unresponsive for a minute?” Hubert asked in distress before glaring at his son.

“Yes.” Lucas can only admit it in shame.

“That’s why I always reminded you to think before doing anything, look what you got now. So, what the heck is that cube?”

“It’s a magic artifact.”

“I know, but I’m asking you what it’s used.” Hubert can only sigh out of exhaustion as he gently massages his temple.

“I-I’m not sure. It is still unknown to me, but there is actually a sentient being living inside of it. He said he was an artificial sentient race made by the age of old and he wants to meet you.” Lucas revealed as he stretch his hands in front of him before the dust-like particles started to gather on his palm forming in the shape of a small cube.

“What did you say? There’s a sentient being living inside of that magic artifact?” And it merges into your body?” Hubert asked in shock as he stand up from his chair.

“Well, that’s how it is.” Suddenly said by a childish voice came from Lucas direction attracting the eyes of three people in the room.

Lucas, Michael, and Hubert. They all looked at the mini figure of a child floating above Lucas hand. The voice that they just heard has come from this small being.

Michael and Hubert stare at it in shock, they were clearly not expecting to see such something like this in their life.

“B-But how?” Hubert uttered in flabbergasted tone.

“Michael, did you know about this?” Hubert said as he quickly turn his head towards him.

“I'm aware of the cube but I have no idea about that, the cube immediately fuses into his body even before I can pull him away from it, and from that point, I can only watch everything unfold in front of me as a powerful barrier suddenly appeared stopping me from getting closed to him.”

“Why are you all looking at me like that? It’s not my fault that this cube has merged into his weak body okay, this cube is an artifact that binds to its user, and your son is the first human that tries to touch it in a long time.” Explain by the childish voice as he hovered above Lucas hand while giving them some weird looks.

Seeing this sight, Lucas immediately introduces him to his family. “Father, Michael I want you to meet Milo, he is the sentient being living inside of this cube that I’m telling you about.”

“I-I have so many questions.” Michael uttered in shock as he stares at Lucas in disbelief.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this the first time?” Michael asks in dismayed.

“Because I told him not to. I’m not so sure yet what’s going on in this world after sleeping for such a long time.” Milo said as he gradually floated closer to Michael.

“So, my son had already hidden your existence from us, and yet what makes you decide to reveal yourselves to us at this time?” Hubert asks puzzled by this cube's action.

“Well, your son had asked me for some help regarding the pollution on your land and I also have an important question to ask,” Milo said as he suddenly stop midair and proceeds to go toward Hubert’s face.

“Wha-What is it?” Hubert said as he lean back his head.

“It’s about the things hidden inside your family’s vault, how did you get that sword and shield?” Milo asks with great intrigue.

Milo is pertaining to the sword and shield that was left behind by the founder of their family, the first Beaufort who own those swords and the one who put a powerful seal to it, not allowing anyone less than a supreme rank from their family to use it.

“Sword and Shield? You mean the one that our founder has left behind for us?”

“Founder? Never mind that, a long time has passed by and I’m sure that none of you here knows the significance of those things. But looking at your appearance you do have some semblance of someone I know. But that person died ten thousand years ago so it’s impossible for him to survive till to this day unless you guys are his descendants then it would explain everything.” Milo explains as his tiny body gradually dissolves into a dust-like particle.

“Hey! Wait, what’s happening to you? You still haven’t to us what you mean by asking those questions.”

“Ah! You have nothing to worry about. I can’t just maintain that form for a long time the cube is still limiting my capabilities.” Milo said in his cubic form as his metallic body vibrates after every word.

“You guys are just one lucky bastard, you have the key to activate those things,” Milo said in a mysterious way.