Chapter 242
A shackle of covenant?
Upon hearing Yellin’s words, Zeke realized there must be some deeper connection between the Crow Tribe and the Black River Tribe.
After a brief pause, he sheathed the dagger of Annexie and spoke.
“This might take a while—let’s move to a more appropriate place.”
Zeke instructed Paynun to clear out the secure conference room prepared within the research facility.
Meanwhile, Hamel and Yellin brought the unconscious Crows along as they followed Zeke to the secure room.
Once the room was ready, Paynun approached Zeke and asked cautiously,
“Master… are those people practitioners of Ishtar’s forbidden arts?”
Only the Ishtar clan would dare launch such a brazen attack in the heart of Atlas.
Zeke nodded.
“The situation has grown more complicated.”
Understanding without further explanation, Paynun quietly closed the door and returned to the lab.
As Zeke conversed with Paynun, the unconscious members of the Crow Tribe began to awaken. One by one, they removed their masks and knelt in silence. Their brown skin and features bore a resemblance to Hamel, appearing very much like Dark Elves.
Zeke addressed them.
“There’s no need for that. Please, have a seat.”
But Hamel shook his head firmly.
“We cannot dare sit alongside someone who bears the Mark of the Black River.”
The shift in tone was jarring—only moments ago, they had brandished blades with deadly intent. Zeke found it hard to adjust to this sudden reverence.
Resigned, he offered a seat only to Yellin.
Once seated, she removed her hood and veil. Her emerald hair and statuesque beauty lit up the conference room. Even Zeke, who was often indifferent to appearances, felt his heart skip a beat.
While Angelina was widely considered the continent’s greatest beauty, Yellin exuded a refinement that surpassed mere appearance—an air of nobility.
Yellin spoke in a calm, old-fashioned tone that didn’t quite match her youthful looks.
“Sir Zeke Draker, I deeply apologize for the offense we’ve caused.”
Her voice, while gentle, carried an androgynous clarity.
Zeke shook his head.
“It’s alright. But… you’ve broken your vow of silence. Are you sure that’s alright?”
Yellin nodded solemnly.
“The appearance of the Black River’s Mark outweighs the importance of my vow. That’s why I sought this audience.”
From the way Yellin, the acting matriarch, was acting, it was clear the matter of the shackle of covenant was of grave importance to the Ishtar clan.
Zeke asked directly,
“What is this ‘shackle of covenant’ you mentioned?”
Yellin hesitated before replying.
“Sir Zeke… if it’s not too much to ask, may I see the Mark of the Black River once more?”
Zeke pulled out Annexie’s dagger and handed it to her.
Yellin took the blade with reverence, offering a silent prayer before examining it with utmost care.
A moment later, she murmured,
“It truly is the long-lost Mark of the Black River.”
Hearing those words, Hamel’s face flushed with emotion. Tears welled up in his eyes as he gazed at the dagger.
“To think… after two thousand years, the mark would reappear…”
Seeing their reaction, Zeke realized the dagger held a symbolic weight far beyond what he had initially assumed.
He asked,
“Lady Yellin… is this dagger somehow connected to the shackle of covenant?”
Yellin nodded.
“It is. If I may ask—where did you find it, Sir Zeke?”
Zeke considered his answer and decided to reveal only part of the truth.
“It was discovered in an ancient ruin. I can’t divulge more—it's a clan secret.”
Even the Ishtar clan wouldn’t be allowed to pry into the Draker clan’s confidential matters.
Yellin nodded in understanding and returned the dagger to him.
“In truth, this blade is a sacred relic of the Black River Tribe, one of the great ancient clans of the Dark Elves.”
Zeke had already met the spiritual remnant of Annexie and was well aware of that fact—but he pretended not to know.
“The Dark Elves… aren’t they a mythical race?”
Yellin gently shook her head.
“You may have already guessed it, but the Ishtar clan carries Elven blood. Among us purebloods, some exhibit ancestral traits due to regression. Just as humans have diverse ethnicities, so did the Elves. There were High Elves like myself, but also Gray Elves and Dark Elves.”
Zeke was stunned.
“You mean to say… you’re of High Elf descent?”
From the chronicles left behind by the Hero King, Zeke had learned much about the Elves.
High Elves were the most noble lineage of their kind—blessed with the longest lifespans, the ability to commune with nature, and wisdom so profound that even dragons would seek their counsel.
That someone like Yellin could possess such a rare and noble heritage was truly astonishing.
Yellin smiled faintly at his reaction.
“I’m surprised you know so much about the High Elves, Sir Zeke. But these days, we’re little more than a shadow of what we once were. Still, to discuss the covenant, we must go back to the era of the Hero King. The shackle of covenant is a bond that our ancestors formed with the Black River Tribe—a vow that cannot be broken.”
“You mean the High Elves and the Dark Elves once formed a covenant?”
“That’s correct.”
“What kind of pact did you make?”
Yellin hesitated briefly before she opened her mouth.
“The pact was to protect the Black River.”
“The Black River?”
Hearing this, Zeke repeated the name with a puzzled expression.
The Dark Elves had been used as sacrificial pawns by Siemens to summon beings from the Demon Realm. As a result, they came to despise humans and joined the Demon King’s army, waging fierce battles against the Chronos Alliance.
Given all that, it made no sense that the Elves—who had been part of the alliance—would have made a pact with them.
‘Was there something that happened after the Demon King’s invasion that I didn’t know about?’
At that moment, Yellin began to speak slowly.
“This concerns our clan’s history, so I can’t share everything with someone outside the clan. But to summarize the core of it—the reason the House of Ishtar remains bound to the borderlands is because of that pact.”
Zeke sensed something unusual and asked her,
“Wait a moment… Then does that mean the House of Ishtar settled in the borderlands not after the Golden Age, but even before that?”
“It’s true that our house formally appeared to the outside world during the Liberation War. The warriors who had ventured beyond returned after the war ended—but that doesn't mean the Ishtar clan settled in the borderlands only from that point on.”
Zeke was stunned to learn a version of Ishtar's history completely different from what the public believed.
“So the reason the Ishtar clan has remained isolated in the borderlands all this time was because of the pact. But why is that desert region called the Black River?”
“I was told that long ago, a great river once flowed through that area. Though it’s a desert now and the river has all but dried up, traces of it still remain.”
Zeke looked at Hamel, standing upright beside them, and asked,
“Then the ‘Ravens of Ishtar’—that was the name of an assassin tribe? Were they based near the Black River?”
“Correct. The Raven Tribe was a branch of the Black River Tribe. They made a loyalty pact with them.”
As Zeke suspected, the Raven Tribe carried the bloodline of the Dark Elves.
He turned back to Yellin and asked,
“But that was over two thousand years ago. Are you saying the pact has continued unbroken all this time?”
“Before heading to the battlefield, the Black River Tribe made a sacred vow with our ancestors. They asked us to guard the Black River—what they considered their holy land. The High Elves, being of noble lineage, couldn’t turn them down and accepted the pact. But then…”
Yellin trailed off, then spoke again.
“The Black River warriors went to war—and not a single one returned. No one expected the entire tribe would be wiped out without a single survivor. And so, only the pact remained, hanging in the air.”
Zeke thought of Annexie, who had carried the ceremonial dagger.
Her unit had reportedly been driven into ancient ruins by the allied forces. As they had been in a spiritual form, it was unclear how exactly they met their end, but from what Yellin had just said, if the entire tribe perished on the battlefield, then Annexie’s unit must have shared the same fate.
‘After Chronos recovered this dagger, did he turn it into a hidden stage of the Inverted Tower?’
Zeke asked Yellin,
“Then, does possessing this dagger mean the shackles of the pact can be undone?”
At this, Yellin nodded.
“Yes, you could say that.”
Zeke had only now come to understand that the reason the House of Ishtar had remained cloistered in the borderlands was due to the binding pact made two thousand years ago.
He recalled memories from his previous life.
‘According to the old reports, Arthur Draker died after falling into a trap set by Ishtar and Nirvana. I had always wondered how the Ishtar clan—known for rejecting negotiations and compromise—was even lured into such a scheme. But… what if the Empire had a way to break the shackles of this pact?’
In his past life, after Arthur Draker was killed, neither Ishtar nor Nirvana took part in the Third Continental War, nor did they show any signs of movement.
It was possible that the pact’s chains had been broken and Ishtar had finally left the borderlands for a place of their own choosing.
At that moment, Yellin spoke again.
“As I mentioned earlier, the Ishtar clan was only able to act beyond our borders starting about a thousand years ago.”
“What changed then?”
“This is another of the clan’s secrets, but I believe I must share it with you, Sir Zeke.”
She began slowly.
“There is a record that a thousand years ago, Terakan Draker came to our house.”
“Terakan Draker?”
Zeke was surprised by the unexpected name.
Yellin nodded.
“Terakan Draker sought the power of the House of Ishtar. With a mysterious force, he loosened the shackles of the pact that bound us, creating an opening that allowed us to move beyond our borders.”
Zeke speculated that it wasn’t Terakan alone—but rather the influence of Claudia Lubern or Bahamut beside him—that had made it possible.
‘If it were the power of dragons, it wouldn’t have completely broken the chains, but it could’ve loosened them.’
Yellin continued.
“Terakan Draker promised that if we helped him, he would fully lift the shackles of the pact. But…”
Zeke didn’t need to hear the rest.
“He broke his promise, didn’t he?”
Yellin nodded.
“Thanks to him, the bindings did become looser, but in the end, the House of Ishtar is still tied to the territory of the Black River.”
***
Zeke could now understand why the House of Ishtar harbored such deep resentment toward the Draker clan.
“Terakan really went all over the place causing trouble, didn’t he.”
It was likely that Bahamut had died before the pact could be broken, leaving Terakan unable to fulfill his promise.
Zeke turned to Yellin with a question.
“Lady Yellin, then how exactly can this dagger be used to break the bonds of the pact?”
Yellin looked slightly troubled, then turned her gaze to Hamel. After a moment of hesitation, Hamel gave her a nod.
Yellin slowly began to speak.
“Sir Zeke, beneath the main palace of Ishtar lies an ancient labyrinth.”
“Are you saying the palace was built atop ancient ruins?”
“The Black River region was once home to ancient cities dating back even before the Age of the Hero King. As such, there are still many labyrinths that have yet to be unearthed. Not all of them are beneath the palace, of course.”
Zeke wasn’t sure why Yellin was suddenly bringing up a labyrinth.
Then she got to the heart of the matter.
“The entity bound by the shackles of the pact resides beneath the palace.”
Zeke furrowed his brows at her words.
“Wasn’t the pact about protecting the Black River region?”
“The Black River refers not only to the river that once flowed through that land… it also refers to something—or rather, someone—else. More precisely, the pact is tied to the ‘Hermit of the Black River.’”
Something clicked in Zeke’s mind as he listened to her.
With a sense of disbelief, he asked,
“The Hermit of the Black River? You don’t mean…”
Seeing his reaction, Yellin nodded.
“That’s right. Beneath the main palace of Ishtar…”
She exhaled heavily, as if letting go of a long-held secret.
“…there is still a living dragon.”