Being a knight is not easy

Chapter 141 Alger

That night, in the guest room of North Wind Fortress.

Robin wiped the Tang sword, and the silver-blue carvings on the blade glowed faintly in the candlelight.

He began to think back to his meeting with Alger today, and he felt like something was wrong.

Suddenly, the window opened silently, and Alger slid in like a cat.

"Good evening, my lord." He sat down across from Robin without any ceremony. "Mind chatting?"

Robin raised the tip of his knife slightly: "Visiting in this way?"

Alger shrugged and took out a mechanical pocket watch from his pocket. The sound of the precise gears turning inside the dial was clearly audible.

"Do you recognize this?"

Robin's pupils shrank slightly.

That's the work of the Mechanicus.

Alger's smile turned dangerous. "Something has awakened beneath Frost Fortress, and the 'key' in your hands is exactly what they need."

Outside the window, the north wind was howling, like the breath of some giant beast.

Robin lowered his dagger slightly, the blade still locked on Alger's throat, but his tone was terrifyingly calm:
"What do you want? No, what does the Frosthawk Family want?"

Alger's smile gradually faded, and a sharp light flashed in his ice-blue eyes.

He gently pushed away the tip of the knife, took out a yellowed sheepskin map from his arms, and slowly unfolded it.

On the map, the underground structure of the Frost Fortress was clearly visible - but what was even more striking was that there was an inverted mechanical clock tower marked directly below the fortress, exactly the same as the ruins found on the seabed of the city of Obedi a year ago.

"We want to 'wake up.'" Alger's voice was low and dangerous.

Alger tapped the clock tower pattern on the map with his fingertips. The sound of the mechanical pocket watch's gears was particularly clear in the silent room.

"Three hundred years ago, the first Grand Duke of the Frosthawk family, Edmund Frosthawk the Frost Blade, reached a pact with the Mechanicum."

His voice had a certain ancient rhythm, as if he was reciting a secret family history.

"We offered shelter, and they gave us 'eternity'."

Robin's pupils shrank slightly: "...Are you the guardians of the Mechanicus?"

Alger chuckled and shook his head: "No, we are just 'guards of the cage.'"

He pointed to a mark at the farthest point on the map—a pattern of gears entangled in chains.

"Beneath the Frost Fortress lies the 'core' of the First Forge—a wisp of the will of the Machine God. What you destroyed in Obedi City was but its shadow."

As the candlelight flickered, a trace of struggle flashed across Alger's eyes, but then he returned to his cynical look.

"My father, the current Grand Duke of Frosthawk, wants to awaken it completely in exchange for the Machine God's 'Gift of Eternal Life.'" He sneered, "But I think it's better for that thing to sleep forever."

Robin's dagger suddenly vibrated, and the silver-blue markings on it glowed faintly. Alger's attention was immediately drawn to it, and his voice suddenly became urgent:

"Your sword—the Watcher's 'Key'! It can seal the core completely!"

He suddenly grabbed Robin's wrist and said, "Help me destroy it, otherwise the North will become the second Obeidi City... No, it will be worse!"

At this moment, a very light "click" sound came from outside the window - like the friction of metal joints.

Alger's expression suddenly changed, and he blew out the candle instantly.

In the darkness, he lowered his voice:
"They've already discovered you...'Gear Eyes' are everywhere." Moonlight shone through the window lattice, reflecting a black shadow that flashed by outside the window - it was a semi-mechanical monster with sophisticated gears rotating in its eye sockets.

Robin's pupils suddenly contracted as he stared at the black shadow that flashed by outside the window - the Gear Eye.

Its body was like a spliced ​​puppet, its metal joints glowing coldly in the moonlight, and the most terrifying thing was its head—it had no facial features, only a huge, constantly rotating gear, with a scarlet mechanical eye embedded in the center of the gear, silently staring at the two people in the room.

If Robin hadn't mastered the key, ordinary people, no, even legendary knights and wizards of the one ring would not be able to see through the invisibility function of the Eye of Gear.

This is also the reason why they dare to monitor openly.

"They are stronger than they were a year ago." Alger lowered his voice to a very low level, his fingers unconsciously stroking the gear patterns on the pocket watch.

Robin's Tang sword trembled slightly, and the silver-blue markings flickered, as if warning of something.

Alger quickly drew the heavy curtains, took out an ice-blue rune stone from his waist, and pressed it against the window frame.

The runestone glowed faintly, forming a barrier to keep out prying eyes.

"After the city of Obedi, the remnants of the Mechanicum lay dormant for a year," he explained quickly. "But they are evolving—no longer simple iron golems, but living machines."

Robin recalled the Gear Eye just now - that thing's movements were smoother than the previous mechanical guard, and it even had some strange vitality.

"They can parasitize the human body, transform flesh and blood, and integrate with machinery." A trace of disgust flashed in Alger's eyes. "People in three villages in the North have already been 'assimilated'.

Alger pulled out an ice crystal pendant from his bosom, which contained a pulsating silver-blue energy—exactly the same as the markings on Robin's Tang sword.

"I stole one of my father's 'collections,'" he sneered. "It's a fragment of the seal left behind by the Watcher... He wanted to use it to weaken the core's constraints."

Robin's Tang sword suddenly vibrated violently, and the silver-blue engravings on the scabbard burst into dazzling light!

Alger took a step back abruptly: "It's resonating!"

In the silver-blue light, a strange memory suddenly emerged in Robin's mind -

Melinda stood in the center of the inverted clock tower, her silver hair flying and her mechanical wings fully extended. Her voice traveled directly into Robin's consciousness:

"Remember, the Machine God is not dead... he is merely asleep."

"When the Eyes of the Gears open, they will first devour the North... then the entire Coron Archipelago, and ultimately attract the Rose of Destruction."

"The key must be in the heart... but at a price..."

Memory suddenly interrupted.

Robin staggered and held onto the wall, cold sweat oozing from his forehead.

Alger stared at him intently: "What did you see?"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Elina's voice sounded from outside the door: "Alan, have you rested?"

Robin rubbed his temple and said, "I'm taking a break. What's going on?"

Elina said, "I have something to talk to you about."

Alger gave an ambiguous smile. How could a playboy like him not understand what Shen Gen meant by coming over in the middle of the night to have a chat?

"I'm leaving first. I just wanted to say hello to you tonight. We have a chance to cooperate. You will trust me slowly. I'm leaving now."

After Alger finished speaking, he climbed out of the window.

(End of this chapter)