The room looked abandoned — as expected, since no one had used it for years. It wasn’t Jhen’s room anymore.

She had left her job at the royal palace a long time ago. Countless others had come and gone, using the room throughout the years.

But Jhen was convinced that no one had ever discovered where she hid the castle map. According to her, the cleaning staff never bothered moving furniture around, so hiding it behind the drawer had been, in her words, the perfect choice.

William wasn’t buying it. To him, it was an obvious hiding spot. No way no one had noticed it.

Still, he stepped into the room, walked straight to the drawer, and pushed it aside.

To his surprise… the map was there. Old, dusty, but perfectly intact.

“No fucking way no one saw this,” he muttered. “Are people seriously this lazy?”

Behind the drawer, the floor was covered in dust, cobwebs, and dead bugs — clear signs that no one had bothered cleaning back there for years.

William crouched down and grabbed the brittle parchment. As he unfolded it, the entire layout of the royal castle unfolded before his eyes. Every hallway, every room — and even a few secret passages marked in faded ink.

He frowned. “Why the hell did Jhen even have this? A servant shouldn’t have had access to something like this. Was she hiding something?”

He pushed the thought aside. Right now, the only thing that mattered was that he had the map — and with it, the next step became clear.

His goal: the armory room with the statues. According to what Jhen had told him, it contained many enchanted armor sets like the one following him, and those equipment would help him fight Kier and his group, and kidnap someone to help him open the door.

The map showed the room wasn’t that far from his current location. The real problem was getting there. The castle’s layout was a maze of twisted hallways and dead ends, designed exactly to confuse intruders like him.

Without the map… finding that room would have been impossible.

But now that he had the map, William could easily navigate the corridors without getting lost — and that alone made everything so much easier.

Others might’ve had to worry about traps, but not him. That was one less problem to deal with. His progress through the castle was smooth, and in no time, he found himself standing before the door to the armory — the room that held the enchanted armor sets.

He paused for a moment, staring at the door.

A thought crossed his mind — “Would all of them obey me?”

There had to be a limit, right? What if the one armor set following him was the only one willing to listen? If that was the case… this entire detour would’ve been pointless.

“Fuck it,” he muttered.

William grabbed the handle and shoved the door open.

The sight inside was breathtaking. Dozens of armored figures stood motionless, lined up like statues waiting for orders. As soon as the door creaked open, every single one of them stirred — heads turning, helmets shifting, glowing blue eyes locking onto him.

Each armor set was equipped with something different. Swords, two-handed swords, spears, bows, shields — even a couple holding staves, clearly designed to cast magic. These weren’t just decorations. They were powerful.

And then… he felt it.

The connection.

It was real. The same strange link he had with the first armor set was there, connecting him to all of them now.

A grin stretched across his face.

“Holy shit… it actually worked.”

Fifteen enchanted armors. All his. Ready to fight, ready to protect.

For some reason, William couldn’t stop himself. He threw his head back and started laughing — loud, unhinged, maniacal laughter.

“Finally,” he said between breaths. “Finally something works out for me. Kier’s gonna learn real quick what a bad day feels like.”

He pulled the map back out, scanning it carefully. Judging by the direction Kier’s group had taken earlier — and how slow they had to be moving thanks to disarming traps — William figured they hadn’t gotten that far yet.

He picked a route. A path that would intercept them.

“Alright… let’s go.”

As he started walking, the army of armored soldiers followed, their heavy metal boots stomping in unison. The sound echoed through the castle — loud, thunderous, impossible to ignore.

It was comically loud. With just one armor set following him earlier, the noise had already been bad. But now? Now it sounded like an invading army marching straight into battle.

There was no sneaking around anymore. No way to stay hidden.

But that didn’t matter. Not in the slightest.

William had power now. Real power. And if Kier had any sense left in that head of his… he’d turn around and run. Because standing against this?

It wasn’t worth it.

*

“Stop!” Kier shouted.

Everyone froze. They halted whatever they were doing immediately.

“What… what is that sound?” Kier asked, his eyes narrowing.

It was distant, but growing louder — heavy, rhythmic footsteps, metal slamming against stone floors. A mechanical, relentless march.

The sound was coming closer.

No one in the group had any clue what it was. Except… the girl working on deactivating the traps. Her face went pale. Fear twisted her expression, her lips trembling — as if she recognized the sound but was too afraid to speak it out loud.

Quietly, she inched toward one of the statues in the corridor, trying not to draw attention. Nobody noticed. Everyone was too focused on the echoing thunder of footsteps getting louder by the second.

And then they saw it.

Marching down the corridor toward them — an army.

Fifteen enchanted armor sets, moving in perfect synchronization, like puppets on invisible strings. And standing right in the center of them… was William.

Kier instinctively stumbled a few steps backward the moment his eyes met William’s. His jaw tightened. His breathing hitched.

“You… No. No fucking way,” Kier muttered, disbelief and panic mixing in his voice.

Someone from the group glanced at him, confused. “You know him?”

“Something like that,” Kier replied, his tone bitter.

The armors stopped moving with a loud synchronized stomp as William raised his hand. Silence followed, thick and heavy.

William stepped forward, a grin creeping across his face. “Well… long time no see.” His eyes gleamed with something dangerous. “Remember that day? The day you abandoned me?”

Kier clenched his fists. He shook his head. “It’s not like that. If I stayed, I would’ve been captured too. I had to run. I… I thought maybe I could find a way to help you later—”

William laughed. A cold, sharp, bitter laugh that echoed off the walls.

“Oh, sure,” William said. “Help me? Don’t make me laugh. You weren’t looking for help. You weren’t looking for anything except saving your own ass. Don’t play the martyr, Kier. You left me to rot.”

His grin widened, but there was no joy in it — only fury.

“But guess what? I’m here now. And I’m done waiting. I’m here… to get my revenge.”

“Maybe… maybe we can talk about this?” Kier stammered, raising his hands slightly. “I mean… I don’t wanna die, you know?”

He was desperate — and for good reason. Fighting William and his army of enchanted armor sets was suicide. Kier’s group was smaller, and individually, they were far weaker than those armors. It wasn’t even a fight. It was a massacre waiting to happen.

Despite the burning rage in his chest, William wasn’t stupid. He knew he still needed Kier — and that girl by the statue.

“Lucky for you… I do need you,” William said, pointing directly at the girl trying to make herself invisible next to the statue. “Both of you. So yeah… you get to live. For now.”

William needed Kier to open the door to the chamber where he could enhance his bloodline — and the girl? She was the only one who could disable the traps along the way.

If he dragged Kier along without her, they’d be stepping on every single trap. Slower travel was better than walking straight into death.

Kier let out a long, shaky breath. “Okay… okay. That’s… that’s a good start. Maybe… maybe after all this, you can let us go, right? We… we can work something out?”

William tilted his head. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips — but it wasn’t a friendly one. “Sure… but first… let’s do something else.”

Without another word, he gestured toward the armor sets.

The living armors surged forward like predators unleashed.

Kier’s group barely had time to react. Screams tore through the corridor as massive blades cut through flesh and bone. Blood sprayed across the walls, the floor… even splattering across Kier’s face as he stood frozen, trembling.

Spells flew — fireballs, lightning bolts, barriers — but none of it worked. The enchanted armors shrugged it off like it was nothing. Magic didn’t touch them.

Steel cleaved through bodies like butter. One by one, Kier’s group was torn apart.

And then… silence.

The only ones left standing were William, Kier, and the girl.

William stepped forward, wiping a bit of blood off his cheek with his thumb. “Now… now we can talk.”

But what happened next caught him completely off guard.

The girl — the quiet, fearful one standing next to the statue — suddenly moved her hands, forming strange gestures. Runes glowed briefly in the air.

Click.

The statue shifted. Stone ground against stone as a hidden passage opened behind it.

Before either William or Kier could react, she dashed inside.

“Wait—!” William lunged, but too late. The hidden door slammed shut, sealing the passage. Gone.

“…What the fuck?!” William barked, slamming his fist against the statue. “How did she do that?!”

He ordered one of the armors to attack the statue. The armored figure raised its sword and struck — BANG — but the blade bounced off harmlessly, as if the statue was reinforced by some kind of magic barrier.

It didn’t budge.

The one person who could disarm the traps… had fled.

William turned his gaze slowly toward Kier, who stood there — pale, shaking, flecked with the blood of his former comrades.

“So…” William said, voice low and dangerous. “Looks like plans changed. What am I gonna do with you now?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep