Sumore family has several properties under their name in the Alanor Kingdom. The Sumor Keep was one of them. It was a big castle, located in the southern part of the Kingdom, at least 10 days away from the capital. They live in this place because the kingdom rules specify that all the Marquis had to live at least 9 days away from the capital.

It is precisely because of which, the Sumor Family doesn't stay in the Sumor Castle, which is around a day or two away from the capital. Because of the rule and bare minimum caretaking of the castle, this place was on the verge of becoming a ruin. Sumor Family does come to live in the castle from time to time, but no one likes to spend a lot of time here because of the creepy vibes of the place.

Which was rather sad as it was located up a hill, surrounded by dense greenery from all sides.

Even Gregor, the ex-patriarch of the family lives in the capital, and not this castle because this place had become a dump due to the neglect of the previous generation. One of the ancestors of the family was a Mage and decided to experiment in place around three hundred years ago. That experiment resulted in an explosion on the eastern side of the castle, blowing up the space.

That also resulted in ruining the foundation of the castle as well. But Gregor’s father started stabilizing the project of the castle, and it had been mostly completed. And Gregor wanted to turn this place into his retirement house of sorts. Which is where Drac came in. His job was to take care of the castle, and at the same time oversee the reconstruction of the crucial parts of the castle.

Helen with Agatha left for the castle, after staying a day there. During this Drac was not able to move deeper into his plans. So after they left, he concentrated on the project at hand.

First, he started by reviewing the things that he needed to throw and things that he needed the keep. There were several portraits of ex-heads of the family and their legacy items. These items were personal stuff like axes and swords. There was also a cane that had been passed on in the family for generations.

Then he moved on to the rooms where the main residents would be hosted and made a list of the changes that he decided to make in the place. He then made a report of the places that needed some repair and sent everything to the manor of Gregor in the capital.

The butler of the manor would then approve of the changes, and then he would have to get to work. This was a very inefficient way of working, but Drac didnt mind. Now at last free from the daily chores, he focused on his training. With only 17 people, including him, living in a place meant to host around 150 people, he was able to get a lot of time for himself. Mainly he trained and absorbed the mana stones.

After two weeks of repeating the task, when Drac finally lost it.

DAMN IT! I am not supposed to sit around and train, without any goal. I need to do something… Anything that could be worth my time.

A part of him wanted to go on a run but knew that he wouldn't be able to run too far. A plan of betraying the Sumor family came to him, he could rat them out by telling some other Marquis family about the magical beast corpse that is located in the Sumor Sanctuary somewhere.

Sumor Santuary was a valley, made by 5-6 big moutains. This place was supposed to be the place where the family originated from. It was not too far away from here, around 4-5 days of journey away.

That day, in the morning he left his duties and started exploring the hill and the castle. He didnt know what he was looking for, he just moved where his legs took him. Eventually, he came to the part of the castle which was destroyed.

The ruins were spread across a huge area, and most of the walls of the castle had long fallen on the ground, although some were still standing tall, they looked quite fragile. The place was mostly covered in moss and weeds, which made it quite hard for him to imagine what kind of place this used to be, it was only after looking around the place did he found something very interesting.

In the dead center of the ruins was a big place that was as big as a ballroom. He saw some half-destroyed pillars around the place, along with the section of wall. That section of the wall contained a fireplace covered with intricate carvings of flowers etched onto grey stones.

Seems like the Summer Family was very rich from the start. He was not an art expert, but he knew that this sort of carving would cost an arm and leg in this world.

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He looked around and saw the granite tiles covering the floor. With his shoes, he tore the dirt and weed away from one of the tiles to reveal an intricate design of a vine.

Drac looked around the room, The tiles of the room, the insignia of the Sumor Family might be etched on them.

Sumor Family insignia was a knight’s helmet covered with thorny vines. They were the only family in the whole Alanor kingdom who didnt have a beast or animal as their sigil.

After looking around, he was about to go back to his duties when from the corner of his eye he spotted something that made him stop in his tracks. He turned towards the tile that caught his eye, like most of the tiles it was covered in a thick layer of dirt and weed. But a part of the tile was visible, from which he saw a red color shining in the sun.

Their insignia doesn't have a red color in it, right?

As he had nothing better to do, he went to investigate. Like the tile from earlier, he tore through the dirt with his shoe, only to reveal a tile with a petal etched on it. A petal, that seems rather too familiar to him.

Immediately he went on his knees and started removing the dirt from the neighboring tiles. After dirtying his clothes and his hands, he was able to clean around 5-6 tiles. And they all reveal a part of a flower, that he was too familiar with.

This can't be. This can't be a coincidence.

Drac ran to the castle and brought back a shovel. Luckily for him, no one spotted him as no one liked to come to this remote part of the castle. That day he spent hours cleaning the whole ballroom area. Exquisitically designed granite tiles were spread all across the floor. In the outer parts, every tile had some design on it, and together as a group, those tiles were making a very beautiful vines-like pattern on the floor. The center of the room was covered with much smaller tiles of different colors compared to the outer parts, together they were making an image of a very beautiful red flower.

The red flower had broad leaves and a stem full of thorns. It was a blood-red Rose, similar to the insignia etched on the ring of the albino woman.

***

That night everyone living in the castle was sitting in the dining area. Beside Drac was Greg, when he noticed the had he was not eating. “You alright there boy?” Greg asked Drac, who had been quiet most of the dinner.

Drac looked up from his plate and nodded, “Yes. I am fine,”

Jina, a married woman in her thirties who was their cook spoke, “Well you have not even touched your plate dear. Is everything alright?”

No, I am not fine Jina. A black mage wanted to find the house with Rose insignia. I dont know what to do this with information. Which is why my mind is occupied, He wanted to say it out loud. But with a fake smile, he picked up the spoon and started digging through the lamb stew.

“Commander Greg,” one of the soldiers spoke, “Is it true that Mistress Kaila and her sister are going to come live here?”

Greg raised his eyebrow, “What made you think that?”

The soldier looked troubled, “Cannot tell you my source, but I have heard some things”

“Dont know,” Greg said, and then towards him, “Have you heard something in that regard Drac?”

He shook his head, “No.”

There was a chance that it might be true. He could sense that Helen didnt really like Kaila, so it made sense for Daniel to ship off his elder sister here to appease his wife.

To him, it really didnt matter.

The thing that was occupying his mind was the Rose. The albino woman was looking for the family with that insignia, and considering that the Sumore Family had this castle for at least a thousand years, it made sense that the albino woman was looking for this household. But the question was, why?

While reading about the Era of Ice, he had gone through many diaries and biographies of heads of Sumor families. And not even in one of them Rose was mentioned. So he was having a hard time understanding what the Rose represented.

The rose could have been the insignia of the family before the Era of Ice. And they changed it later on. Otherwise, there was no way in hell anyone would etch the floor of a room that big, with someone else’s insignia.

There were Several mysteries related to the Era of Ice, still left unexplored. And the mystery of insignia had also joined the queue.

What I cannot understand is, what the albino woman wanted with the Sumor Family in the first place.

He was thinking that maybe Daniel or Gregor might have contacted the woman for some job or something. But considering how devoted the family was to the church of Itab, he didnt think that they would try to contact or invite someone like that albino woman.

Clearly, that woman came here, looking for the Rose because she knew something that I dont.

The Sumor Family doesn't use the Rose insignia in any way or form. So there was no way that the albino woman came here looking Sumor Family. She came here to look for the family or some sort of secret related to the Rose.

Whatever the reason might be, Drac realized that he needed to find some hard facts about that Rose. Maybe the castle that he was in, might hold secrets after all, left by the ancestors of the Sumor Family, waiting to be explored…