Chapter 135: Secret History of the Queen of the Land of Shadows
Huh!?
At this moment, Lucius finally showed an utterly astonished expression!
"You're King Arthur? That Romulus!?"
"Yes, that's me, but compared to Romulus, I'd prefer you call me Noah Blake."
Seeing Noah admit it, Lucius grew even more surprised.
"If you really are King Arthur, then how dare you come to Roman territory after declaring war on Rome?"
...
If someone else had asked this, Noah wouldn't have thought much of it, but... what right do you, Lucius, have to ask me that!
That's what Noah thought in his heart, but he didn't say it out loud.
"I have my reasons for coming to Rome. For example, I plan to visit the Pantheon in Rome, and I also came to Rome to find someone."
And besides...
At this point, Noah paused, then gave Lucius a profound look.
"Just as you are curious about King Arthur, I am also curious about Rome's current emperor, Sword Emperor Lucius. Especially after learning that I was once given the name Romulus in Rome, and then my entire family was exiled and hunted down—that made me even more curious about that Sword Emperor."
Hearing Noah say this, Lucius nodded repeatedly.
"So that's how it is. Indeed, it's normal for you to be interested in the Pantheon. As for coming to see Sword Emperor Lucius..."
Here, Lucius also paused.
Noah thought she would admit it directly, just as he had.
But in reality, when Lucius spoke of herself, she let out a deeply regretful sigh, as if the Sword Emperor had passed away, and then showed clear disgust on her face.
"There's nothing worth seeing about her. She's just a pitiful creature bound to the emperor's throne. If you really want to see something like that, why not buy a bird, put it in a cage, and watch that? That would be more than enough."
When Lucius spoke of this, her words noticeably increased, and her speech sped up considerably.
"And since you were exiled to Britain from a young age, you probably don't know this, but here in Rome, the normal format for names is given name plus clan name plus family name. Only those without a large enough clan to require a clan name would have a given name plus family name."
"But Sword Emperor Lucius—because both her parents were from major noble families, major clans, and from different families and clans—before she became emperor, her parents argued fiercely over which clan name or family name she should bear. They argued so intensely that in the end, Lucius was simply called Lucius, with neither a clan name nor a family name."
"Also, regarding Roman names, names ending in 'us' like that are generally used for men. For women, names are more often like mine—Lucia—ending in 'ya'."
"But Sword Emperor Lucius, even though she's a woman, uses the name Lucius, right? That's because, before she was even born, this child—who would satisfy the interests of everyone at the time if she became emperor—was directly given the name Lucius..."
"Someone whose value was calculated before they were even born, whose entire life has been arranged by others—there probably isn't much on her life's path worth being curious about or capable of bringing surprises."
Clearly, Lucius was quite dissatisfied with her own life.
Even she, who had harbored no malice up until now, only revealed a trace of resentment at this moment.
And this was the only negative emotion Noah had sensed from her since they first made contact...
Apart from this, even if she was as she described herself, most of the time she was still dominated by sunny, positive, and optimistic emotions.
What a peculiar individual...
"Alright, enough about Sword Emperor Lucius—since you are King Arthur, you must know a lot about Britain, right? Can you tell me about it? I'm curious!"
Hearing Lucius say this, Noah nodded to her.
Regarding his own affairs, he truly felt there was nothing he couldn't share. If she wanted to know, and since today was only their first day in Rome, chatting with her wouldn't be a bad idea.
But Noah hadn't expected that as soon as he nodded, he would see Lucius's eyes light up as she pulled several books from her pocket.
And the one on top was...
—Epic of Radiance!
A story written about him by bards from Britain!
Could it be that she was going to ask him whether the events in the story were true...
As Noah was thinking this, he saw Lucius take out the book, only to stuff it back in, then rummage through the other books, putting most of them away.
She kept only one.
It was a book with nothing written on the cover. When Lucius opened it, the contents inside showed many corrections and revisions, making it look less like a bard's tale and more like a personal diary of some sort.
Lucius picked it up, flipped through it for a long time, and then showed one of the pages to Noah and the others.
"This is it—I heard that within the territory of Britain, or maybe within Hibernia, there's a place called the Land of Shadows, right?"
"I saw in this note, written by who knows who, a lot about the Queen of the Land of Shadows. I'm really curious!"
"It says here that although the Queen of the Land of Shadows appears human, her true form is actually a monster. Is that true? Does Britain really have such enormous monsters as described in this note?"
Rome was no longer in the Age of Gods.
So many things that seemed perfectly ordinary to the mystical forces of Britain were already the stuff of myths and legends in Rome.
Thus, it was only natural for her to be curious.
"..."
But...
"Britain and Rome are about to go to war, aren't they? At a time like this, meeting me, King Arthur, you show no interest at all in Britain's plans for this war..."
"Oh, right!"
Lucius first had a moment of realization, then shrugged indifferently.
"That kind of thing doesn't matter at all. After all, I'm just a mercenary, not the Emperor of Rome. Let the palace worry about such exhausting matters."
No, no, no...
Noah's Observation Haki sensed Lucius's completely genuine emotions, and even from his own perspective, he couldn't help but inwardly deny them repeatedly.
However, before he could speak, he saw Scáthach approach, leaning her face toward the notebook in Lucius's hand.
Then, in a tone devoid of emotion, she slowly read aloud the contents written on it.
"...All the information above comes from the observations of one of the terrifying Queen's disciples. I swear on my dignity as a warrior that everything written here is true.
"The Queen of the Land of Shadows once ventured alone into the deep sea, where she found a monster with eight enormous soft tentacles and a head as large as a small island. Yet, when the monster saw her, it was the monster that fled in terror."
"Even the wise men and sages, who possess eyes capable of seeing the truth, are so frightened every time they see the Queen of the Land of Shadows that they can barely speak. This must be because they see something we cannot perceive.
"So, don't be fooled by the Queen of the Land of Shadows' beautiful appearance—it's merely a trick of this ancient being who has lived for who knows how many years, pretending to be cute... Tsk, quite the writer, isn't he?"
Scáthach's lips curled into a smile, but Noah could see there was no trace of amusement in her eyes.
"So, Lucia, right... Do you know who exactly wrote this notebook?"
Hearing Scáthach's question, Lucius pondered for a moment.
"I think someone mentioned this to me before, but I forgot... Hmm, how about this—I'll take you to ask someone who knows!"
Scáthach nodded, then looked at Noah.
Noah lowered his voice.
"We can go, but what good will it do you to know who wrote it now?"
Hearing that Noah didn't refuse to follow, Scáthach snorted coldly.
"No, I have a feeling that I'll meet my disciples again sooner or later... So, let me first find out who wrote such things and spread them around. When I see them again... hehehe."
Hearing Scáthach's laughter, even Noah, with his considerable Divinity, felt a chill run down his spine.
Though I don't know who it is, you'd better pray for your own luck...
Noah silently apologized to the person in his heart, then nodded at Lucius.
"Alright, let's go ask then."