Alien world

Chapter 1686, Page 319: Her Identity
In the same year, construction of the Snow Mountain Fortress began. It took more than four hundred years to complete and finally the fortress was built to defend against the demons, until five years ago.

Beset by external troubles and internal strife, the fortress that had protected the people of the North for hundreds of years collapsed.

Finally, the old patriarch told Annan about the two deceased royal families: the Benitez family and the Gana family.

"The Janna family?"

A fleeting image of someone's naked body flashed through Annan's mind: "Why didn't Brino Gana tell me about this?"

"The Janna family has lived in the snow mountain fortress for hundreds of years, doing nothing but killing and sleeping, turning into barbarians. What do they know?"

Annan had no right to judge others, after all, the Reeves family hadn't left any trace of their existence either.

What exactly happened in the abyss?

"I don't know. Let's give up. The twelve kings made a vow that what happened in the abyss must never be revealed."

"How stupid! They went to such great lengths to gather information and just pretended nothing happened?"

"How can you be disrespectful to your ancestors!" the old patriarch scolded Annan. "I can say such things from now on, but you don't have to."

"Then I'll leave it to you... What about the underground ruins of the Snow Mountain Fortress?"

"What ruins?"

Annan thought to himself that the old patriarch was really getting old, so he told him about the underground ruins and the beautiful woman again.

"Never heard of it. Could it be a fortification built by ancient wizards and arcane sorcerers to defend against demons?" Clearly, the old patriarch didn't know much either.

"It's getting late, you should get some rest." Seeing that his elder sister still hadn't finished her nagging and wanted to keep nagging him, Annan, unable to get anything out of her, pushed his older sister away from the embassy.

On the way back, Annan kept thinking to himself, "Such an important matter was kept secret by the Twelve Kings of the North, and there wasn't even any record of it in the family. Our ancestors were too honest, weren't they?"

"Knowing this might bring misfortune," the eldest sister explained. "I think the Fire Dragon Ancestor probably knew..."

"The Fire Dragon Ancestor went too?"

"Yes, the Fire Dragon Ancestor was always inseparable from the Ancestor."

Knowing is useless, "It's probably off running off somewhere having fun." Annan's complaints were even stronger.

Logically speaking, Free City is known to almost everyone from Wilhelm to the Wildlands, yet after so much time, the Fire Dragon Ancestor hasn't sent back a single message.

Either the thousand years he spent in the Reeves family had made him feel stifled and he had no attachment to it at all, or he had encountered some trouble.

However, according to the eldest sister, the family and the Fire Dragon Ancestor have always had a harmonious relationship. Perhaps the Fire Dragon Ancestor is not on the Allen Continent and has gone to other planes.

Lilith didn't find anything either. Apart from verifying what the old patriarch said, there was no new information. No one knew about the ruins beneath the Snow Mountain Fortress, at least not in any historical records.

The question of what exactly attracts the ratmen and demons to the far north remains unresolved, and a host of new problems have arisen.

Annan chose to compile the information revealed by the old patriarch and his own speculations, and then send it all to the ancestor.

The High King Thirteen isn't in a hurry, Wilhelm isn't in a hurry, so why should he be? As long as the Empire exists, Free City will be its loyal follower. As long as the Ancestor exists, Annam will be her obedient child!
Moreover, it wasn't all for naught. Combining the old patriarch's information, Annan came up with a bold conjecture.

Do you think she resembles your ancestor?

After sending his elder sister home, Annan went straight to see Brino Gana, holding the restored drawing paper and asking her questions.

“Look, you are all women…”

"What kind of similarity is this?"

“They are all very beautiful…”

"continue."

“Your Gana family is in the Snow Mountain Fortress, and so is she.”

"This counts?" "The most important thing is that your ancestor disappeared. The Twelve Kings said with absolute certainty that she didn't die. Look at her... doesn't she seem like she didn't die either?"

"hiss……"

Brino Jana gasped, not only finding it reasonable, but also recalling that a force had indeed guided her to find the woman in the iceberg in the labyrinthine underground.

At first, she thought it was an evil spirit that had tricked her and was draining her dry like a demon, but now it seems... could it be that her ancestors are calling her!?

"Just show me a portrait of your ancestors and I'll know," Annan urged hastily.

"No."

Just like the old patriarch said, "They've become barbarians," the Janna family, apart from having a larger population, left behind less than the Reeves family.

There are written records, but they were all left there as garbage when the fortress was evacuated.

Ask the devil for it?

Annan was amused by his own thoughts; the devil was still after him.

What was left in the fortress could not possibly still exist; it was either used by demons to wipe their butts, eaten by ratmen, or used by demons to wipe their butts and then eaten by ratmen.

Annan went to ask the old patriarch if he had a portrait of the first King of the North. He had already asked his eldest sister; all the valuables in the family had been sold off, including antique oil paintings that were worth a lot of money.

“Vivian, take Annan to look for it. It should be in the pile of things I brought.”

Annan followed the old maid to the storeroom, the boxes they had brought still unopened. After searching for a while, the old maid unfolded an oil painting and asked Annan a question.

"Young Master Annan, is this what you think?"

"Are these portraits of the original twelve kings of the North?"

"Yes, the one standing in the middle is the first head of the family."

Annan immediately spotted the guy who looked like the old patriarch. The bloodline of the Lawrence family was truly powerful; at first glance, he thought he was seeing his ancestor.

Of the original twelve kings of the North, only two were women. Annan quickly identified the patriarch of the Janna family in the painting; she was pale, taller than the king of the North beside her, and most importantly—

“They’re exactly the same!” Annan exclaimed.

"What do you mean exactly the same?"

"A beautiful woman hidden in the iceberg!"

Annan took the painting, leaving behind the words "Tell the old master I've borrowed it" before running out to compare it with Brino Gana.

"Yes, it's her..."

Brino Gana was stunned: "Could it be that what I saw was really our ancestor?"

Annan was also pondering whether the Abyss Rift was just a smokescreen, and that the original twelve kings of the North never actually went to the Abyss... Otherwise, how could he explain why Chieftain Gana, who had disappeared in the Abyss, was in the underground ruins?

Of course, he could also make wild guesses based on unofficial history, such as that the twelve kings of the North were fighting amongst themselves and sealed her underground.

So here's the question: what truth were the twelve kings hiding behind their fabricated lies and oaths?
Annan had a vague feeling that the "truth" might also refer to the goals of the Sturn ratmen and the devil.

“I want to go back to my ancestors!” Brino Janna, standing nearby, could no longer maintain her composure.

"Don't rush. The fact that the ancestor is still absorbing the demon's life force means she is still alive. We need to confirm whether the demon has discovered this."

Asking directly won't work, sending someone to investigate won't work either... Send someone...

Annan vaguely grasped something.

(End of this chapter)