After his lessons ended, Noah sat in his room with one of his books open. Then he heard a knock at the door, and one of the servants entered.
The man bowed and said:
"This servant apologizes for disturbing the Young Lord, but the head of the family requests your presence at the trial."
"Hmm... A trial? Where? Do we have a court?"
"No, Young Lord. You misunderstood. The head of the family requests your presence at the execution platform."
"Hmm..." Noah’s eyes widened with interest, but he did not ask many questions and followed the servant to the platform.
In the middle of the grand square, Robert stood on the platform with a knight beside him, bound in chains with a piece of cloth stuffed into his mouth.
The man had been stripped of his sword and uniform. Signs of torture and injuries covered his body, but he remained standing straight despite his restraints and injuries.
Bruises covered his face, and a trail of dried blood ran from one of his nostrils, yet there was no fear of death in his eyes.
Noah climbed onto the platform and stood beside Robert before Robert calmly asked:
"Berlusconi, why do you continue to hide this? Considering your long service to me, I could have granted you a merciful death."
The knight, Berlusconi, smiled calmly before looking at Robert’s face.
"This knight stands by his statement. I have no connection to anyone, and everything I did was based on my own wishes."
Robert looked at him coldly. The matter did not seem to concern him.
"Records of our soldiers’ movements, the names of the people who deal with the family, and some books and magical techniques? As a knight who has served for twelve years, why are you searching for these things now?"
Robert looked at the knight again.
"I will ask you one last time. Who gave you the order?"
The knight answered without hesitation:
"No one..."
At that moment, Robert pulled a sheet of paper from his sleeve. It was written in an incomprehensible language.
"Then tell me what the writing here means..."
The knight paused before looking at Robert in shock.
That expression was enough for Robert to reach some conclusions.
"So, just as I expected. You discovered some things and joined them..."
Robert closed his eyes before giving the order:
"Prepare to carry out the sentence."
Noah looked at the markings at the bottom of the paper but did not recognize the written language. The only thing that caught his interest was a seal at the bottom. It showed a sea wave about to crush a small mountain.
The head separated from the body with a single strike, and blood scattered across the wooden platform. The body remained kneeling for a moment before falling over quietly. Just like that, the signs of life faded from the knight.
Robert turned his back to the corpse before ordering:
"Remove his body from misight." The soldiers moved immediately while Noah remained standing on the platform.
He was waiting for Robert’s explanation. The execution itself did not matter him that much as the fact that Robert had executed a capable knight.
Knights moved between barracks and palaces. They had extensive military experience and had mastered methods of guarding. Nobles might see them as tools, but that did not change the fact that most knights could use mana. Fewer than one person in ten thousand could become a knight.
Robert left the platform and gestured for Noah to follow him.
"I heard that knights carry some of the blood of the Superior Bloodline."
Robert stopped and looked at him.
"The knights of today do carry it. But they were not like that from the beginning."
"What do you mean?"
Robert remained silent for a moment.
"What I am about to tell you is not taught in academies, nor is it allowed to be written in books. It is knowledge kept only by noble families."
Noah listened with interest.
"In the ancient times, knights did not need noble blood or inherited talent to increase their strength. Magicians has born with the ability to carry mana within their blood, while knights followed a different path."
"hmm.. different path?"
"They drew mana from their surroundings to brought it into their bodies to refine it,then they keep using it to strengthen their flesh, bones, and organs. by continued training until their blood gradually changed and became rich in mana."
Noah considered his words.
"Does this mean that birth did not determine the potential?"
"A magician needed talent and blood capable of carrying mana, while a knight required neither. It was possible, at least according to the remaining accounts, for anyone to begin the path of knighthood."
"Even ordinary people?"
"Yes. Even those of lower blood."
This information contradicted everything Noah had learned about the current world.
He had been told that mana developed only within the blood of the Superior Bloodline and that only nobles could use it. But ancient knights did not retain it in the same way. They absorbed it from the world and used it to refine their bodies.
Robert continued:
"As a knight advanced in training, his body became stronger and his blood became more capable of holding mana. Those who reached the peak of that path became beings similar to members of the Superior Bloodline."
"Were they still called knights?"
"They were called Paladins."
Robert continued:
"They could not use magic in the same way as nobles, but their bodies were weapons themselves. They could break through magic, hunt magicians, and kill them in direct combat."
"Some of them did not stop at merely matching the magicians."
Robert’s voice carried neither admiration nor hatred. He spoke as though he were merely explaining some historical facts.
"Many things happened after that, and they ended in a great battle. All the knights were killed, and most of the Paladins who knew the ancient path of knighthood also fell."
"Did the nobles wipe them out in that battle?"
"The nobles were not the only side involved. But the identity of those who killed them was not the most important result."
"What was truly matter is the foundation of knighthood destruction."
Noah understood what he means.
Before the battle, the existence of the Paladins prevented the nobles from moving against them easily. But after the strong ones died, those who remained lost the power that protected them.
"The nobles feared that the knights would regain their strength. The problem was method that allowed anyone of lower blood to become capable of killing a magician."
"...Truly interesting. So you simply killed those who remained."
Eliminating the men was not enough.
If the knowledge remained to the new generation can rebuild the knight path for that the nobles targeted the path and its legacy, not the people themselves.
After all...the nobles TRUE fear was the knights.
"But the nobles’ fear did not end there. They did not want to gamble. They feared that a small part of the legacy had found a way to survive."
"So they changed the knights’ training method."
Robert gave him a satisfied look.
"They removed everything that taught knights to absorb mana from the world and gave them a method that could only work with mana inherited through blood."
In the past, a knight could begin as an ordinary person, using mana from his surroundings to strengthen his body and blood. Now, no one could even start training as a knight without a trace of the Superior Bloodline in his veins.
Noah said:
"That is why knights became descendants of distant branches and the illegitimate children of nobles."
"Descendants of distant branches or foundlings and illegitimate children whose blood was not pure enough to grant them noble status, it was just suficent modern knight training."
"And since their strength comes from the inherited bloodlines , they cannot surpass the limit maid by that blood."
"Or reaching what the Paladins reached. They also need the noble families to obtain training, weapons, and status for them "
This was not merely a change in the style of combat.
The nobles had turned a path that anyone could enter into a closed system that worked only for their bastards. The knights had once been an independent force capable of threatening magicians, but they became servants of the families that granted them the right to train.
What genius.