As Relict continued recounting the events that transpired after leaving the library, Augustus quietly listened without interrupting. The patriarch's expression remained calm throughout the entire narration, but his mind was already comparing his son's account with the information gathered by the family's investigators.
Several details immediately stood out.
Particularly, one person.
The carriage driver.
After a brief silence, Augustus finally spoke.
"You suspect the driver was involved in the setup?"
Relict nodded.
"Yes."
His answer came without hesitation.
"I believe so."
Then he continued explaining.
"He was the one who suggested changing our route after leaving the library."
At the time, the suggestion had appeared reasonable enough. However, after everything that followed, the timing became far too suspicious to ignore.
Augustus silently nodded.
"I will interrogate everyone connected to him."
His voice remained calm.
"And detain his family if necessary."
The words sounded harsh.
However, neither Relict nor Seila found them surprising.
This was simply how noble families operated.
The authority possessed by aristocratic households extended far beyond what ordinary civilians could imagine. If Augustus truly believed someone had endangered the future heir of the Lyn Family, he would not hesitate to uproot everyone involved until the truth was found.
Relict naturally understood this.
However, as Aton, he could not simply agree.
"Father."
His voice remained calm.
"Spilling innocent blood will only bring us more problems."
Augustus merely glanced at him.
His expression did not change.
"Only if they are truly innocent."
The answer immediately ended the discussion.
The patriarch was not interested in unnecessary cruelty.
However, neither was he willing to gamble with his family's safety.
While they spoke, the trio gradually arrived before Aton's bedchamber.
Seila stepped forward and opened one side of the large double doors while continuing to support Relict. Then she stopped and waited for him to enter first.
Relict lightly nodded.
The two began walking inside.
However, Augustus remained standing outside.
As if suddenly remembering something, he spoke again.
"There is another matter."
Relict paused.
Augustus continued.
"Our investigators found large amounts of book pages scattered throughout the areas where the ambush and pursuit took place."
His eyes settled on his son.
"Many of them had arrows embedded into them."
There was a brief pause.
"They appeared to have been used as shields."
Then he finally asked.
"Was that Seila's doing?"
The moment the question was raised, Relict immediately understood what Augustus was truly asking.
The scattered pages.
The arrows lodged into them.
The missing details from his explanation.
None of those things could be explained by Seila alone.
Relict lightly raised his hand.
Seeing the gesture, Seila immediately stopped walking and turned around together with him. The two silently faced Augustus once more.
For a brief moment, nobody spoke.
Then Relict suddenly asked.
"Father, do you trust me?"
The question caused Augustus to pause.
Only for a moment.
Then he answered without hesitation.
"Yes."
One word.
Nothing more.
Yet it was enough.
Relict smiled lightly after hearing that answer.
"Then I will tell you when the time comes, Father."
He continued calmly.
"For now, I simply want to become stronger and find a way to overcome my illness."
Augustus silently looked at him.
The corridor became quiet.
Neither father nor son spoke again.
After several breaths, Relict slightly nodded toward him before entering the room together with Seila.
The double doors slowly closed.
Augustus remained standing where he was.
His eyes lingered on the closed doors as various thoughts surfaced within his mind.
The pages.
The escape.
The details his son deliberately omitted.
And finally, the question he had asked earlier.
'Father, do you trust me?'
Augustus slowly clenched his hands behind his back.
He was not a fool.
For years, he had watched his son's condition worsen day after day while being powerless to stop it.
For years, he had prepared himself for the possibility that Aton would never recover.
Yet now...
For the first time in a very long while...
He could see another possibility.
If he still could not understand what his son was implying after reaching this point, then he would not have been able to lead the Lyn Family for so many years.
"Aton..."
He softly muttered.
A faint smile gradually appeared on his face.
Then, turning around, he began walking away from the bedchamber.
"You don't have to worry, son."
His voice was low.
Barely audible within the quiet corridor.
"I will always support your decision."
...
After entering the room, Seila carefully guided Relict toward the bed and helped him sit down on its edge. The events of the day had been exhausting even for her, much more for someone whose body had only recently recovered from the brink of death. Seeing her young master quietly leaning against the headboard, she naturally assumed that fatigue had finally caught up to him.
Without disturbing him, she began preparing the room for the night.
The curtains leading to the balcony were drawn shut one by one, blocking the faint lights coming from the manor grounds outside. Afterwards, she extinguished the ceiling lamps, leaving only the softer glow of the bedside lamps to illuminate the room. Their warm yellow light spread gently across the furniture, creating a peaceful atmosphere that contrasted sharply with the danger they had faced earlier.
Only after making sure everything was in order did she finally turn toward the bed again.
At some point, Relict had already closed his eyes.
Seeing this, Seila quietly abandoned her intention of saying goodnight. She simply smiled faintly before heading toward the door. A few moments later, the room became silent once more as the door closed behind her.
Several breaths passed.
Then Relict slowly opened his eyes.
The exhaustion shown earlier immediately vanished from his expression.
Without hesitation, he got off the bed and walked toward the bathroom. This routine had already become familiar during the past several days. Once inside, he opened the faucet and allowed water to gradually fill the bathtub. The steady sound of flowing water echoed softly throughout the room.
After the tub was filled, he removed his clothes and carefully lowered himself into the water.
The warmth immediately spread throughout his body.
Relict leaned back and closed his eyes.
For a while, only the faint ripples of water disturbed the silence.
All matter possessed the ability to absorb world essence from the environment.
The process occurred naturally, whether the object was alive or not. Trees absorbed it. Animals absorbed it. Even ordinary stones continuously interacted with the essence permeating the world. However, absorbing and utilizing were two entirely different concepts.
To actively control world essence, a being needed to establish a connection between two dimensions.
The first was the physical universe.
The second was the Substrate.
The former required no effort. Everything created within reality was already connected to the physical universe by its very existence. The latter, however, was different.
One had to enter the Substrate personally and establish an astral representation of oneself within that dimension.
Among the draconians, this process was known as entering the Inner World.
The current civilization regarded it as a mystical realm hidden within oneself, the source from which dragon essence originated. Yet during the Heaven's Alignment Era, it was understood differently. The Inner World was merely another interpretation of the Substrate, a higher-dimensional layer of existence where consciousness could directly interact with world essence itself.
For reasons that remained unknown, Aton Lyn had never been able to enter that place.
He could not establish an astral persona.
He could not perceive the flow of world essence.
And naturally, he could not consciously control the dragon essence residing within his own body.
This condition alone would already place him at a severe disadvantage compared to ordinary draconians.
Unfortunately, that was not his only problem.
Aton also possessed an unusually sparse draconic bloodline.
The amount of dragon essence flowing through his body was far lower than that of ordinary people. Under normal circumstances, such an individual would simply progress much slower than others. However, combined with his inability to enter the Inner World, the weakness became far more severe than anyone could imagine.
As for the Curse of the Surface, its origins remained a mystery even in the current era.
Every animal born upon the surface of the world would eventually be affected by it. Some religions believed it was divine punishment. Others claimed it originated from an ancient calamity buried beneath history. Numerous records and legends attempted to explain its existence, yet none of them had ever been verified.
What was known, however, was its effect.
The curse continuously inflicted subtle damage upon the body.
For ordinary draconians, this was hardly a problem. Their dragon essence naturally circulated throughout their bodies and repaired the damage as quickly as it appeared. Most people would never even realize that the curse existed because their bodies compensated for it automatically.
Aton was different.
He could not actively control his dragon essence.
His bloodline was too sparse to compensate for the loss on its own.
As a result, the damage caused by the curse accumulated throughout his life little by little. Day after day. Year after year. Until eventually, his body could no longer endure it.
That was the true reason why Aton Lyn had nearly died.
And why Relict now found himself submerged within the bathtub night after night, searching for a solution that neither the Lyn Family nor the physicians of this era had been able to find.
As the warm water gently rippled around him, Relict silently reviewed the condition of the body he currently occupied.
When he occupied Aton's body, the situation was already far worse than what most physicians could diagnose. Years of accumulated damage caused by the Curse of the Surface had weakened nearly every part of the body. Some organs were functioning below normal capacity, several blood vessels had become fragile, and even the muscles and bones showed signs of long-term deterioration. Had he arrived even a few days later, the body would likely have collapsed completely.
That was why his first approach had been straightforward.
Repair the damage.
Preserve the body.
Keep it alive.
The revitalization process had already begun the moment Aton returned from the brink of death. Using the yuan energy continuously supplied by his original vessel, Relict gradually repaired the damaged tissues one by one while simultaneously shielding the body from the effects of the curse. It was a slow and meticulous process, but the results were already becoming visible. The frail youth who could barely remain conscious several weeks ago was now capable of walking throughout the city, attending the Grand Bazaar, and enduring an entire day of activity without collapsing.
Of course, repairing the body was only the first stage.
The current treatment served a different purpose altogether.
Relict's focus now was teaching Aton's body how to properly circulate yuan energy through itself.
Normally, such a process would occur naturally after entering the Inner World. A draconian would establish an astral persona, perceive the dragon essence within their body, and gradually learn how to guide it through repeated practice. However, Aton possessed no such luxury. Since entering the Inner World remained impossible, Relict had no choice but to take a different path.
A far more direct one.
The reason he submerged himself inside the bathtub every night was precisely because of that method.
Traditional cultivation required absorbing world essence from the surroundings little by little and refining it over time. Relict, on the other hand, was bypassing that entire process. The yuan energy originated from his original vessel, traveled through the databook, entered the brain, and was then forcibly circulated throughout the body. By repeatedly exposing Aton's blood vessels, organs, and tissues to controlled flows of energy, the body gradually adapted and learned to sustain the circulation on its own.
The process was effective.
But it was also dangerous.
Every cycle accelerated the movement of blood throughout the body while stimulating countless biological processes simultaneously. If left unchecked, the temperature generated by the circulation could rapidly increase and cause additional damage instead of healing. The water surrounding him existed to solve that problem. While the energy circulated internally, the bathtub continuously absorbed the excess heat being produced.
Relict slowly exhaled.
Then he reviewed the results of today's session.
Compared to a week ago, the circulation pathways had become noticeably more stable. The dragon essence hidden within Aton's sparse bloodline was finally beginning to move with less resistance. The improvements were still subtle, but they were undeniably present.
After finishing his assessment, Relict arrived at a conclusion.
'It should take another five days.'
The words quietly echoed within his mind.
Five days.
That was the amount of time he estimated before the body could sustain the circulation on its own without requiring constant intervention from his original vessel. Once that point was reached, the curse would no longer pose a significant threat to his life. The body would finally possess enough internal resilience to maintain itself.
Relict slowly emerged from the water until only the lower half of his body remained submerged. He rested his head against the edge of the bathtub and looked toward the ceiling above.
Once the foundation stabilized, he could finally begin improving the body through more conventional methods.
Physical training.
Bloodline development.
Strengthening the vessel itself.
Only then could he begin laying the foundations for true cultivation.
At the same time, another matter also required preparation.
Sooner or later, people would notice the changes occurring within Aton's body.
His improving health.
His increasing strength.
His growing capabilities.
Questions would inevitably follow.
Fortunately, the solution was already obvious.
After enough time had passed, he could simply reveal that he had finally entered the Inner World and managed to overcome the Curse of the Surface. For the people around him, such an explanation would be entirely reasonable. In fact, many would likely celebrate the event rather than question it.
More importantly, it would solve another problem.
If someone decided to investigate Aton's rapid improvement, they would naturally attribute everything to that breakthrough. His physical recovery, his growing strength, and even future accomplishments could all be linked back to finally establishing a connection with the Inner World.
It was not a perfect explanation.
But it was believable.
And in many situations, a believable explanation was far more useful than the truth.
The bathroom gradually became quiet once more.
Only the faint sound of water could be heard as Relict closed his eyes and rested against the bathtub. For the first time since awakening in this world, the path ahead no longer appeared uncertain. There were still many obstacles waiting for him, but unlike before, he could finally see where that path was leading.
And in five days, the first step would finally be completed.
...