“There is something wrong with your heart.”
That was the oldest fragment of memory Jake could recall.
It was the year Jake turned five. Since birth, he had been slow in movement and frequently ill, and though he had been examined by numerous doctors and priests, the cause could not be identified. Suspecting there might be something wrong with his mana, the Duke summoned the family mage to examine Jake. And the result was as stated above.
Having something wrong with the heart—the organ that stores mana and assists in its use—meant not only that he could never become a mage, but also that he could never achieve more than a certain level of accomplishment with the sword.
Jake remembered only two things from that day. The mage’s diagnosis that informed him there was something wrong with his heart, and his father’s expression upon hearing those words.
It was not sadness or pity.
That emotion was anger.
“If his condition is this serious, there should be abnormalities in other bodily organs as well, but fortunately Jake-nim is very healthy. However…”
“However?”
“The real problem isn’t that mana storage isn’t smooth. Jake-nim has difficulty even walking and running, even breathing. At this rate…”
“That’s enough, you may leave.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes.”
The mage had to leave the room without finishing his statement that at this rate, Jake wouldn’t live long.
After that, Jake learned the sword. At first, he had difficulty even gripping a sword, let alone holding and swinging one, so he trained with the goal of building stamina, but even that wasn’t particularly helpful.
“Jake-nim is a genius.”
Jake’s swordsmanship instructors all said the same thing without exception.
His understanding of the sword was exceptional. Teach him one thing and he knew ten. ‘If only he could hold a sword,’ he would reach a high level at a young age. However, unfortunately, Jake couldn’t properly manage that ‘holding of the sword.’
His stamina was weak, so he became short of breath with even the slightest movement, and no matter how much he trained, he didn’t build muscle. Even when he swung his sword, the speed was so slow that if a situation arose where he needed to draw his sword, it would be better to run away in that time.
The swordsmanship instructors advised that it would be better for Jake to pursue a path other than the sword. However, the Duke wouldn’t change his mind, saying that learning the sword was the duty of one born as the heir to the House of Duke West.
Jake was secretly relieved by that answer.
Because he loved the sword.
*Hic,*
Sword training was fun. Although every time he swung his sword, a *hic-hic* sound like mocking laughter came out, and his palms always stung and hurt, it was still fun.
*Hic,*
It was this fun even now, so how much more fun would it be if his skills improved? So Jake swung his sword even when his palms tore open. On days when he pushed himself harder than usual, his body would heat up with fever and he would fall seriously ill the next day. Still, he didn’t care, and when the fever subsided, he would pick up his sword. Satisfied that the *hic, hic* sound of wind that could be heard each time he swung his sword was increasing one by one.
“Haah.”
One day in the year Jake turned thirteen.
That day too, Jake was walking slowly while breathing heavily. With his faint heartbeat and ability to move without presence, when Jake moved about slowly, even his father’s knights sometimes didn’t notice his existence. That day was exactly one of those days.
Jake headed to the Duke’s room without anyone knowing.
The Duke would often leave the castle and return exactly after two days, but recently that cycle had been getting shorter. Curious about what he was doing, Jake tried to secretly search the office, but the security was too tight and he had to turn back without even entering. However, whether it was a trait of the West family bloodline, Jake felt severely frustrated by the lack of information and didn’t give up, deciding to search the Duke’s room instead.
Unlike the office, which was guarded by multiple knights taking turns 24 hours a day, only one knight guarded the Duke’s room. It was protected by various magical spells for safety, and since the door couldn’t be opened unless one was of West family blood, they must have judged it would be fine not to station knights there.
Whether there was only one trustworthy knight, the Duke moved together with him when leaving his post. Did he trust that his son Jake, the only one besides himself who could open the door, wouldn’t try to open it? Or perhaps because he usually lived his life erasing Jake’s existence from his memory, he had even forgotten he had a son.
*Creeeak—*
The door opened easily.
He went inside and carefully examined the Duke’s room, but there was nothing particularly noticeable.
‘There’s nothing here.’
Jake was about to give up and go back. It seemed better to use this time to swing his sword one more time.
“Ah!”
As Jake turned around, he tripped over his own feet and fell. It was a common occurrence.
*Crash—*
“Ugh,”
His wrist that hit the ground hurt as if it would break. It was only this much thanks to the thick carpet; if he had fallen on the bare floor, something would have broken.
Jake pressed both hands on the floor, groaning as he tried to get up.
At that moment, a faint light leaked through the thick carpet.
“…?”
Jake forgot about the throbbing pain and lifted the carpet.
Beneath it, a magic circle was emitting a faint light.
“What is this?”
Jake, who was ignorant about magic, couldn’t identify the magic circle, but it was actually a special magic circle that activated only for members of the ducal family.
The magic circle was the most intricate and delicate among the magic spells that the dragon protecting the House of Duke West had placed throughout the ducal castle, and it reacted only to certain members of the West family who had been ‘recognized’ through a special method.
Originally, the Duke should have informed his heir of the magic circle’s existence and gone through the process of infusing mana together to ‘recognize’ him. However, the Duke hadn’t told Jake anything. So he believed the magic circle wouldn’t react to Jake and didn’t even think to increase the security of the room.
But the Duke, who had only believed in the information passed down through generations, didn’t know. The fact that this magic circle had been damaged and lost some of its functions after receiving a great shock several hundred years ago.
Now the magic circle could be activated by anyone of West family blood without going through the special recognition process.
Even if it was someone who accidentally fell and placed their hand on it.
“Whoa!”
The magic circle, which had activated on its own, emitted light and created a path leading downward in what had been an empty floor. Only then did Jake realize that this magic circle was a passage leading somewhere.
*Thump… thump…*
Whether from excitement, his heartbeat, which couldn’t usually be heard well even when running or training, could be felt faintly, having quickened.
‘To think there’s a secret space that opens this way, what an amazing thing.’
Would there be any West who would just pass by after seeing a hidden space? Jake promptly went down below.
“Woow.”
There was a vast space piled with an enormous amount of parchment. Whether it was a space created by magic, even though there wasn’t a single lamp providing light, the interior was bright enough to hurt the eyes.
Jake picked up one of the nearest pieces of parchment. Hoping to discover new information beneath it.
“…Hm?”
But something was strange. What was written on the parchment was both new and not new.
It was history recorded from ancient times to the present, but with content different from what Jake knew. Jake, who hadn’t neglected other studies even though he was less interested in them than sword training, couldn’t have forgotten what he’d learned. Jake carefully read through the history that was recorded similarly yet slightly differently from what he’d learned in history class.
And he realized.
‘What’s written here is the real history.’
Since Father, who emphasized the importance of information, had hidden it so thoroughly, he instinctively realized that the real history wasn’t what he learned in history class, but this one.
Someone had been manipulating history.
It was obvious who it was without asking. How many people would be able to come and go in the space attached to the Duke’s bedroom? This was the doing of his father, and the successive Dukes West who had ascended to the dukedom.
‘To deceive the entire empire…’
The House of Duke West regards ‘information’ as the greatest power above all else. That’s why the successive Dukes had been controlling history, which could be called the most important information.
To gain power.
To shake the world in a direction favorable to themselves.
‘This is truly terrible.’
Jake West had also regarded information as power as a member of the House of Duke West. That’s why this incident felt even more terrible.
In the end, this was tantamount to stealing from others to increase one’s own power.
And not from just one or two people, but from the entire empire’s populace.
‘Does His Majesty the Emperor know about this?’
If so, what about the Lord God? Does the Grand Temple, which has a close relationship with the ducal family, know about this fact?
He was confused.
Jake grabbed and read parchments at random, wanting to obtain even a little more information.
“Is there even a single properly recorded history?”
As the number of parchments Jake read increased, his expression also worsened.
‘Is there no way to correct this?’
The history that needed to be corrected was too vast for Jake alone to reveal everything to the world, and this could rather bring chaos to the empire.
Then how about selecting and revealing only those things that must be made known to the world? No, at least if he could just prevent such things from continuing in the future, the world would be peaceful.
‘It’s very regrettable that I don’t have power right now.’
Military power, political power, financial power. Jake had been given none of those things. He smiled bitterly.
But that was the current story. Once time passed and he ascended to the Duke’s position, the story would be different. Then he would be able to restore many things.
Jake clenched his fist tightly, imagining that day. To do so, he needed more information. He had to find out all the secrets in this room. Jake continued to rummage through the room, forgetting his fatigue.
‘What’s this?’
While doing so, one bookshelf in a corner caught his eye. Unlike the other bookshelves that were packed full with bundles of parchment, it was empty, and it was a bookshelf set unusually crookedly. Was there something behind it?
“Hngh!”
*Rattle,*
Jake put strength into his whole body and managed to push the bookshelf to the side with difficulty. It was heavier than it looked.
“Huff, hah…”
To be gasping for breath from just this much, he felt pathetic.
“Whew.”
Jake caught his breath while examining what the secret behind the bookshelf was.
It was another hidden door.
A door leading to somewhere even deeper below the basement.
