Chapter 4

The gigantic door creaked open as the dust swirled around it. Gerald was standing in front of the Ancestral Chambers, stunned. He'd never been here before. Apparently, he was too young to be brought here before leaving the territory, and it wouldn't have been wise to show him something so important before sending him off to the family's enemies.

He was supposed to pay respects to his ancestors here before being named Viscount. It was tradition, and honestly, he was more than a little curious about these chambers.

He slowly stepped into the large hall, followed only by Arthur and Uncle Rudolf and no one else. Luckily, old Arthur had the sense to not mention the matter in front of everyone else, and so the annoying Renard didn't have a chance to snoop around this matter. Gerald didn't think that he would have to wait long for the Duke's rat to start sniffing over everything, though.

The hall was neither too wide nor too narrow. The first thing Gerald saw when he stepped inside was the large statue at the other end of the hall. It was a standing stone statue of a man with a sword in his hands. The sword was planted in the ground while the man rested his hands on its pommel. The standard warrior stance when being painted. It was easy to execute for a whole day without getting sore arms.

The peculiar thing about the statue, though, was its face. It was without one. There was almost nothing there. It was like the craftsman who carved the statue left a blur over the features of whoever it depicted.

Surprisingly, it was Uncle Rudolf's voice that explained the peculiarity and not Arthur's. "That is the Great Ancestor, Gerald. Your father was supposed to bring you here to pay your respects when you became sixteen years of age. The Great Ancestor isn't anybody in particular. It is all of your predecessors. Every head of the family had his blood buried below that statue."

"How do you know all this, Uncle Rudolf?" Gerald raised an eyebrow as he asked.

The old man scratched at this grey hair slightly before smiling with what seemed like apology. "I'm afraid I wasn't completely clear with you, Gerald, before all this. I didn't know you'd be heir to the family," he said with a sigh.

Gerald narrowed his eyes. More secrets? Uncle Rudolf was awfully full of them, starting from his Warrior strength all the way to this. "Are you going to tell me now?" Gerald cocked his head.

Uncle Rudolf nodded. "I'm sure that you have already figured out that I'm not just your steward, yes?"

Gerald nodded. He really wouldn't deserve any explanations if he was stupid enough not to see it. Uncle Rudolf was much more than that to him anyway. He was a protector, a teacher, and a man of great counsel.

"My household has been sworn to serve your family for generations," Uncle Rudolf started. "It's better to say that there would have been none of us if it weren't for your ancestor, though. We were saved by one of your ancestors. And our bloodline is sworn to always be in your family's service"

"So you and all your descendants will have to…" Gerald trailed off. It was kind of sad. He would be feeling sorry for himself if he was Uncle Rudolf.

"Yes. But we don't just do it for a long gone debt. We do it because we are part of the house. I was raised by your grandfather, and he treated me and my father before me like family. And I'm sure you will treat my daughter like family too. We don't begrudge you our loyalty; otherwise, we would have left long ago."

Gerald nodded. It didn’t make sense that they would be forced into this. He was thinking too much. Nobody would do something like this without wanting to do it, no matter how indebted they were. "Thanks, Uncle Rudolf. I appreciate it."

Uncle Rudolf smiled gently and nodded. "Now," he said. "You should observe these paintings of your predecessors." The old man gestured towards the walls on both sides.

Gerald was surprised to find a collection of paintings, that had escaped his notice, crowding the walls for space. He didn't look into the details of any painting, but most of them seemed to be about some epic encounter or battle. "What are these exactly?" he asked.

"These are the most important moments each of your predecessors have been through. Hard-fought battles, treaties that took decades to come into being, and all sorts of achievements that are worthy of being remembered," the old man explained.

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Gerald walked to the nearest one on his left. He was surprised at the sight. This one was quite different compared to the raging battles and epic poses of the other paintings. It was of a man who looked wiser than any other Gerald had seen. The man was pointing at the air as if he was giving a speech and under his other hand was a parchment. The patchment didn't leave much to the imagination. It was the standard parchment of treaty that nobles used. It did look like an older kind, though. As if it was some original form that the newer ones were inspired from. Around the wise-looking man in the painting, stood a group of people, carrying axes and wearing decent hides.

Uncle Rudolf was quick to explain. "This is your first ancestor. He was a sort of diplomat. He helped the first king of Maric unite the local lords and form the kingdom. He was the one who earned your family the noble title and its first territory."

Gerald widened his eyes in surprise. He'd never heard his story. So his family's noble status was actually the result of diplomacy not war. That was rare. Nobility wasn't an easy stage to step on. Even the lowest dung of nobility, the court nobles, weren't canonized too often. It usually involved great heroics or shining successes in a war. It meant that his first ancestor was a shrewd diplomat and courtier.

Gerald soon moved to the next painting. It showed the back of an armored man, riding a warhorse while being followed by a group of knights. He was standing on what seemed like a hill, looking into the crowded horizon. The horizon he was looking into was packed full with riders and runners hardly with any clothes. They were obviously not friendly. "Wild tribes," Gerald muttered with widened eyes.

Uncle Rudolf stepped beside him and nodded in response. "Yes. This is your fourth ancestor. Before the Tellus basin was handed to your family as a Viscounty, the house was a small barony on the eastern edge of the Maric Kingdom. Tribal raids were common. But this was one of the greatest of them all. Over one hundred thousand tribals charged the borders armed with iron and hunger. There was a great drought at the time. It was called the Tribal Tide. It happened in several places in the subcontinent, and it's popular with scholars of history now. You could read about it in the keep's library. Your fourth ancestor united with the other lords on the eastern front and won this battle under the lead of the king."

"It probably devastated the territory, though," Arthur chimed in. These were his first words since he came in with them. Gerald was starting to forget he was there.

Gerald gave the painting one last look. The fourth ancestor, huh? It seemed the paintings weren't arranged in the expected order. If Gerald had to guess, they were arranged according to importance.

The third painting in line was one of splendid art. Gerald found it more glorious in its contents, although they were simpler. For some reason, this painting just resonated with something within him. It was true. Truer than most.

He eyed it carefully. It was of a man, or rather the back of a man, who was holding a sword and standing ready with an air of calm. In front of him were three other men who seemed to be his opponents, each holding their own weapon and ready to lunge at the lone warrior. This bit of combat seemed to have taken place on a windy plain as depicted by the flying bits of shrubbery that crowded the surroundings of the combatants.

"Ah. The greatest Tellus yet. The first and last Battlemaster of the Tellus family. Your seventh ancestor," Uncle Rudolf sighed. "I believe he is the most important of your ancestors, though the order of paintings doesn't agree with me. Your seventh ancestor was a very capable fighter who even neared the threshold of a Battlesaint. He was known across the kingdom, and he earned your family the elevation of title, status, and territory. If it weren't for him, the house would still be a small barony. This painting depicts his battle with three enemy Battlemasters. He came out of this battle unscathed and killed two of his opponents. This and the great battle that followed carved his name in the annals of the Maric Kingdom and spread his name far and wide."

"A Battlemaster? I think my father had once mentioned something about this before I left the territory," Gerald mused. "I suppose this is something to be proud of. I also think that my first ancestor was a shrewd man. There are a lot of Battlemasters out there but hardly any of them become landed nobles. My first ancestor chose diplomacy and traversed the ruthless intrigue of the royal court to earn his title. He laid the first foundation of the house. Without him, there wouldn't be a House Tellus."

Arthur nodded to one side, and Uncle Rudolf seemed to be hesitating whether to agree or not. Meanwhile, Gerald caught a metallic glint from the corner of his eye and turned towards it. Whatever caught his eye was at the other end of the hall, near the statue. He squinted and finally saw it clearly.

It was a steel door. The walls of the Ancestral Chambers were black unlike most of the keep, and this steel door was black as well. It hardly stood out. And it seemed to be somewhat hidden behind the statue. "What's that?" Gerald asked, nodding at it.

"Oh, that would be the inheritance hall," Uncle Rudolf answered. "You can go there after paying respects to your Great Ancestor. It contains some secrets that outsiders should never know. Even we have never been inside."

"Huh?" Gerald was surprised. "You don't know what's inside?"

Both Arthur and Uncle Rudolf looked somewhat embarrassed and didn't meet his eye when he looked at them. "Actually," this time Arthur spoke up. "Your father told us what's inside. We have been keeping this knowledge strictly to ourselves, though." Uncle Rudolf nodded in agreement.

"Are you planning to tell me what's behind that door then?" Gerald asked in a more commanding tone this time.

"It would be better for you to see them yourself," Uncle Rudolf said. "It's nothing complicated. And our knowledge is quite limited, as was your father's. If matters were more clear, then the house could have made better use of what's behind that door."

"I see," Gerald said. "Well, let's move on to the paying respects part then."