Published at 11th of September 2026 7:06 am

Chapter 2003: Royal Crypt

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Adam stepped through the secret passage.

Rumble...

The wall slowly closed behind him, sealing the entrance to the royal chamber.

Darkness immediately swallowed him. Adam raised a hand and cast [Illuminate]. A soft sphere of light illuminated the narrow passage ahead as he began walking.

The air was stale and suffocating, carrying the lingering scent of decay. His footsteps echoed through the cramped stone corridor, each sound disappearing into the darkness ahead.

For a while, there was nothing. Only darkness. Only silence.

Adam continued forward, guided by nothing but the faint glow of his spell. As he ventured deeper, however, he began to notice something. The passage branched off in several directions.

Some tunnels led upward, while others descended deeper beneath the castle. There were narrow corridors connecting one section to another. It did not take Adam long to understand their purpose.

These are escape routes, he thought.

Makes sense.

Secret passages that connected several parts of the castle, allowing its inhabitants to flee in the event of danger. But sadly, those who had attempted to use them had never escaped.

Adam’s footsteps gradually slowed. Dark stains covered the walls.

Blood, he thought with a sigh.

The darkened stains had long since dried, but they remained etched into the stone. In some places, bloody handprints were visible, fingers stretched desperately across the walls as though their owners had tried to crawl away.

Then Adam saw the first skeleton.

It lay against the wall, its bones scattered across the ground. A rusted, broken blade had been driven through its ribcage.

Further ahead, there were more.

Skeletons lay across the narrow corridors, some piled atop one another, while others remained frozen in the positions they had died in. One had collapsed beside the body of another, its bony fingers still wrapped around the other skeleton’s wrist.

Another skeleton lay facedown on the ground, one arm stretched toward the darkness ahead. As though it had been crawling. Trying desperately to escape.

Adam’s expression slowly turned grim. These people who had entered these passages had believed they would survive. Instead, they had been trapped and hunted and slaughtered.

He could almost imagine their final moments. The sound of hurried footsteps echoing through the corridors, the cries of terrified men and women, children being carried through the darkness as adults desperately searched for a way out.

Then the enemy had found them, and there had been nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Adam’s gaze swept across the bloodstained walls and countless remains, and he thought bitterly:

Jacob’s men must have entered these passages and slaughtered anyone even remotely related to the d’Aubigny royal family.

His expression slowly darkened. The words of the elderly gypsy woman resurfaced in his mind.

Then throne and bloodline, root and vine, were washed away by his design.

Adam slowly looked at the skeletons scattered throughout the passage.

He was now certain.

The d’Aubigny royal family had been eradicated. Not merely the king and queen. Not merely the children. Everyone connected to their bloodline had been hunted down and killed. No one had been spared.

Adam remained standing in the passageway, gazing at the heap of corpses with a blank look in his eyes.

A long time later, he heaved a deep sigh and continued onward.

After mapping almost the entirety of the secret escape routes, Adam continued deeper into the castle.

At some point, he realized that the sounds of fighting had ceased. The castle had fallen eerily silent. Adam immediately contacted Luca through the communication artifact and confirmed that he was still alive, though heavily injured.

After ending the communication, Adam continued exploring. Eventually, he found his way to a secret temple dedicated to the sun god.

The temple was surprisingly well-preserved compared to the rest of the castle. Tall stone pillars supported the ceiling. At the far end of the chamber stood a statue of the Sun God. Though dust covered the floor and age had dulled the walls, the sacred atmosphere had not completely faded.

This temple was most likely used by the royal family, Adam thought.

He carefully searched the temple. After some time, he discovered a hidden mechanism beneath the altar. With a low rumble, part of the floor slowly opened, revealing a staircase descending into the darkness below.

Adam followed it, anticipation slowly blooming in his heart. The deeper he descended, the colder the air became. And soon, he arrived at the royal crypt.

The atmosphere was gloomy and oppressive. Thick stone walls surrounded the underground chamber, while the aura of death and decay continued to linger in the stale air.

Rows of stone tombs stood silently in the darkness. Each tomb bore the name and title of the person buried within.

Adam slowly walked between them. These were the final resting places of the members of the d’Aubigny royal family.

Kings, queens, princes, and princesses. Generations of the royal bloodline had been buried here. Except Louis d’Aubigny and his family, who had never gotten the chance for a burial.

Adam’s senses swept across the silent crypt. The dead remained undisturbed, their stone tombs covered in dust as they slept eternally beneath the ruined castle.

He stood there for a long time, his senses focusing on every little detail in the chamber. After a few long minutes, his head snapped toward a particular tomb.

Adam’s lips curled into an expectant smile. He walked toward it and pushed open the heavy stone lid. As expected, the tomb was empty. Instead, a narrow staircase descended deeper into the bedrock.

He followed it downward until he reached a small chamber carved directly into the bedrock. At the far end stood a wooden door. Several warding spells had been placed upon it, concealing and protecting whatever lay beyond.

Adam carefully examined the magical formations before him. With a few simple spells of his own, he deactivated the wards one by one.

A brilliant smile appeared on his face.

He reached out and pushed the door open. Then, he stepped through. His eyes widened slightly as he took in the room before him. He had finally found what he had been looking for.

"Val," he called out.

A flash of grey light, and Valerian appeared on his shoulder again.

"What—"

The little fellow’s words got caught in his throat when he looked at the scene before him.

"MYU!!"

Adam had found the secret vault of the royal family.

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