As Capa walked toward the display cases, he noticed a young man and woman collapsed on the ground nearby, clutching something to their chests.
He had paid them little mind at first; plenty of visitors lay unconscious along his path. But this time was slightly different. As his gaze swept over them, every detail on their persons was registered with absolute clarity.
He discovered that on the back of both their hands was a bluish-red tattoo—an insignia representing the old imperial Novellian family.
Slightly surprised, he twitched a finger, and two thread-thin strands of mutated tissue drifted down, boring through their skin and entering their bodies.
After a short while, the young man and woman slowly came to. When they opened their eyes and saw Capa, disbelief seized them first, rapidly giving way to ecstasy and wild excitement.
Setting aside what they held, they scrambled to their feet, dropped onto one knee before Capa, and pressed their hands to their chests, saying respectfully, "Your Majesty, your loyal subjects await your command."
Capa smiled faintly. "It seems you came looking for me."
"Yes, Your Majesty. We are from the Frutian family.
"Three years ago, our father, Jorde Frutian, had the honor of speaking with Your Majesty, and we were present as well, fortunate enough to hear your teachings. From that moment on, my sister and I swore an oath to pledge our lifelong allegiance to you.
"Please forgive our presumption. We know that with Your Majesty's wisdom, the workings of all things in the world are clear to your sight, but our yearning to see Your Majesty was simply too urgent. So after returning, we reached out to others who also wished to pledge allegiance to Your Majesty—"
Back then, after speaking with the emperor alongside their father, Jorde Frutian, the idea of rescuing him had taken root. Together with factions sharing the same conviction, they had organized a rescue team.
However, extracting someone from the Blockade Hall was extraordinarily difficult. They drew up plan after plan and even utilized an advanced active conscious entity to run simulations, but every result ended in failure.
Just when they felt the plan had hit a dead end, a turning point quietly arrived.
Prompted by a religious devotee, they decided to seek help from religious forces. After considerable effort, they found a Chan practitioner endowed with spiritual power within the Chan Sect.
That person told them that they could come to the Ancient Museum on the day of the three stars convergence, and that there might be an opportunity then; however, if they did not meet the one they sought, rescuing him would become impossible.
They did not know whether it would succeed, but this plan was far safer and more feasible than any of their previous schemes. Even if it failed, they had nothing to lose. So the two brought along a few things and took a chance coming here.
"The Chan Sect, is it..."
Hearing this, Capa still wore a smile, but his eyes grew slightly more serious.
"This time, we brought something Your Majesty might need."
With that, the brother and sister lifted up the item they had been holding.
They had entered the museum under the guise of making a donation, allowing them to openly bypass security systems and bring this item inside.
The item was crafted from relics, its primary function being to shield against esoteric ritual scrying. As long as Capa left a portion of his mutated tissue inside and they carried it outside, Capa could potentially use that tissue to reconstitute his entire body.
Only, their entry had not gone smoothly. They had originally prepared to wait until the three stars convergence ended.
Yet not long after they arrived, a squad resembling mercenaries had barged in, attempting to drive them and the other visitors out.
Leaving would jeopardize their mission, so they refused to leave, accused the intruders of being bandits, and a clash ensued.
Though both were fighters, they were no match for these fully armed mercenaries. Relying on their protective suits and agile footwork, they fell back, while the mercenaries dispatched a squad to hunt them down.
Normally, they would never have escaped, but for some unknown reason, a sudden wave of weakness washed over them, and after that, they remembered nothing.
Capa said meaningfully, "Your luck was quite good."
He was not referring to their managing to find him here. Rather, if he had overlooked them just now or not bothered to wake them, not only would their mission have failed, but they would have been discovered during the subsequent sweep, implicating their family behind them as well.
In truth, that was exceedingly likely. Waking them had merely been a passing whim, not an obligation—even with the imperial crests on their hands.
"I believe we must have received Your Majesty's protection," the young man said excitedly, and the young woman nodded repeatedly. This was their heartfelt conviction, not mere flattery.
Capa reached out. Accompanied by a crisp shattering sound, the gem-encrusted cruciform longsword broke through the glass display case and flew into his grasp. A shrill alarm instantly blared around them, yet under the influence of his field, it vanished in the very next instant.
He gave the longsword a flourish, feeling the jubilant, exultant resonance humming from the blade, before pointing the tip toward the two.
"Kneel."
The young man and woman immediately recalled something. Holding back their excitement, they dropped to their knees on the floor.
Capa rested the longsword on the shoulder of one of them.
"In the name of the Novellian royal house, witnessed by Saint Transitus, I bestow upon you the title of Royal Court Guards. From this day forth, my enemies are your enemies; my will is your will."
Saying this, he tapped both their shoulders in turn.
With a devout expression, the young man solemnly responded:
"I, Lucanio."
"I, Aleia."
"Hereby uphold the oath, loyal and steadfast until life's end."
The instant the oath was spoken, a searing pain welled up on the backs of their hands. Looking down, they saw the tattoos inked before their departure flare with vivid color, seeming almost to come alive.
They did not know that this marking was in fact an oath-bound tattoo, signifying a formal pact forged with the royal house. They had merely inked it before their departure out of personal adoration for Capa.
In truth, this violated canonical law, and required mutated tissue bestowed by the royal house to possess genuine binding power and the strength imparted by royalty.
Only at this moment did the markings truly gain meaning.
As they felt the power coursing from them, a melodious, magnetic voice sounded beside their ears:
"Rise now, my guards."
At his words, the two stood excitedly. The way they looked at Capa was completely transformed now, brimming with fanaticism and worship; they were ready to die for this emperor at any moment.
Capa gestured toward the object in their arms. "Pick it up."
The young man promptly lifted the case they had brought—an elongated case that looked ordinary on the outside.
He carefully opened it, revealing a recessed groove at the bottom.
Capa extended a finger. Before long, a drop of crimson blood welled up from the pad of his finger and dripped into the groove.
He said, "Take it away. While there is still time, leave this place."
It contained a condensed portion of his mutated tissue. Masked by this case, it could be carried past the ritual. If successfully smuggled out, then even if he were captured here, with that single drop of blood, he would still have a chance to regenerate anew.
Yet he had no need to rely on this to escape; this was merely a reciprocal gift bestowed upon subjects who pledged their loyalty to him.
Hearing him say this, neither doubted him in the least. To their eyes, the emperor had already walked out of the Blockade Hall and arrived here on his own, with or without their help; their involvement clearly made no difference.
"By your command, Your Majesty."
After bowing, buoyed by the conviction of a sublime mission, the two departed the exhibition hall carrying the case.
Capa spun the longsword in his hand and planted it into the floor, then spread his arms. Around him, the display cases shattered with crisp snaps.
Amidst the shattering glass and reflected brilliance, the Sash of Divine Grace, the Rose Flame Sacred Robe, the Transitus Chain of Honor, and all the other items that had originally belonged to him floated out, donning themselves onto his person piece by piece.
As he took the Spiral Cruciform Holy Staff into his hand and drew the cruciform longsword Oath of Saint Novel from the ground once more—
At that exact moment, he suddenly felt something. He drew a breath, and a stone slowly pushed its way out from between his eyebrows, finally falling to the floor with a clatter, riddled with cracks.
He immediately felt the power in his body returning. The locks on his mind loosened considerably, though some still remained... A faint smile played at the corners of his lips as he made his way to another exhibition hall, where a half-meter-cubed grayish-white rock rested in the central display case.
The Dragon's Heart.
Legend had it that this came from an earth dragon hunted in the Confluence, once an imperial heirloom that fell into the Federation's hands in the new era.
Yet after appraisal, it had been deemed completely petrified—perhaps due to its ancient age—having lost its research value, and was thus shipped here as an exhibit.
Yet he knew this was not truly stone, but the heart of a Novellian royal ancestor, one that could be revived only through the infusion of a descendant's blood and spirit.
With a press of his hand, the display case shattered. He then rose slowly into the air until he hovered directly above the object. Turning his wrist downward, after a moment, drops of crimson blood began dripping onto it.
The blood rapidly seeped into the grayish-white stone. After just a short wait, the object actually trembled faintly, cracks spreading across its surface as a thudding sound echoed from within.
The sound was very slow, but enormously potent. Each beat caused a sympathetic tremor throughout the entire exhibition hall. The fissures multiplied across its surface until finally, the outer stone completely crumbled away, revealing a fist-sized, bright-red object within.
Chapter 1157