Chapter 4: Waking Up in a Complete Mess

Gawain felt his condition rapidly improving. His mind was clearing, and he had regained full control over his body, able to move freely. Finally, he had the energy to pay attention to the girl still being held captive. “By the way… what’s going on here?”

The half-elf girl had been doing her best to keep a low profile, hoping that the Cecile family members would be too shocked by the “audience with the ancestor” to remember that someone had been digging up their ancestral tomb. But before she could find a chance to slip away, Gawain’s gaze landed on her. The unlucky thief shrank back, looking pitiful. “I just wanted to hide here for a bit…”

“To hide, you have to crawl all the way into the deepest chamber of the tomb?!” Hetty shot him a sharp look and said, “Ancestor, this despicable grave robber has desecrated your resting place and disturbed your slumber!”

Gawain blinked, then looked at the half-elf girl with a strange expression. “So… you’re the one who ‘woke’ me up?”

If her body structure allowed it, the thief would have shrunk her head down into her pelvis right then and there. Her voice trembled as she protested, “I really didn’t do anything! At first, I just wanted to find a safe place to hide. But then, my professional instincts kicked in, and I accidentally ended up in the tomb chamber. But even then, I didn’t—”

Gawain thought for a moment, then said seriously, “Well, thanks anyway.”

The thief blinked. “…Huh?”

Everyone else, including Rebecca and Hetty, was stunned. “…Huh?”

“Ahem, let her go. Four grown men holding one little girl like this looks bad,” Gawain said after thanking her, suddenly realizing something was off but not wanting to backtrack. So he forced himself to continue, “It’s not very knightly. Yes, knightly conduct.”

Hetty’s face twitched with hesitation. “But Ancestor, she is—”

“I want to thank her for waking me from my slumber,” Gawain waved his hand. “Let her go. I don’t mind, so what else is there to say?”

Sir Byron gave the “Cecile Ancestor” a strange look but, after a glance from Hetty, she sheathed her longsword. The three soldiers nearby stepped back as well.

The half-elf girl looked around carefully to make sure this wasn’t a prank, then cautiously stood up and confirmed with Gawain, “Um, you’re the elder, so you have to keep your word. No backing out, okay?”

Hetty’s eye twitched again. She had to suppress the urge to beat this grave robber senseless, using all her years of noble upbringing to hold back.

Gawain looked at the girl curiously. From the memories he had just inherited, he could tell she was a half-elf. “What’s your name?”

The half-elf blinked. “Amber.”

Gawain stroked his chin. “Amber? That does sound like a forest elf name…”

At that moment, Hetty interrupted, “Ancestor, I’m sorry to interrupt, but now is not the time for chatting. We’re not safe here!”

Gawain tried to slip into his new role. He looked at Hetty seriously. “What’s happening outside?”

“Monsters!” Rebecca, who had been silent for a while, suddenly shouted. “Monsters pouring in from the Serin Gate and the mines! The army and the militia here can’t hold them off—the outside is probably completely overrun by now…”

“We did our best to organize resistance,” Hetty added, “and before the situation collapsed entirely, Knight Philip led some soldiers to escort civilians to safety. But before the second evacuation group could leave, the monsters destroyed the suspension bridge. Rebecca and I, along with the brave soldiers, fought in the castle until the very last moment—until even the inner courtyard gates were breached, and we had to retreat here.”

Gawain asked more questions and finally pieced together the situation:

This was the ancestral domain of the Cecile family, passed down from the first ancestor. The girl holding the iron staff, who looked like a high schooler, was Rebecca—the current lord of this land. When the monsters attacked, the young lady had done her best to organize resistance but had clearly failed. The monsters destroyed all defenses and slaughtered every human in their path. After the first group of survivors was evacuated, Rebecca and the last soldiers were trapped in the castle. They fought for a long time, but when the castle fell, they had no choice but to retreat into the ancestral tomb beneath.

And that was when Gawain—well, his spirit—had “resurrected” or rather, possessed this body.

Hetty, the beautiful noblewoman, was actually Rebecca’s aunt.

But all these family relations meant little to Gawain. They were all great-great-great… great-granddaughters anyway. One more or less didn’t matter.

As for Amber, the half-elf thief, she really had come looking for shelter this time. It was just that her skills were so good she had managed to sneak all the way into the deepest chamber of the Cecile family’s ancestral tomb…

“Waking up to this kind of mess…” Gawain rubbed his forehead, thinking about how to solve the crisis while searching his mental archives for useful information. “So the monsters have completely taken over outside. Going out is a death sentence. By the way, you keep saying ‘monsters’—what exactly are they?”

“I suspect they’re a subspecies of demons,” Hetty said. “But demons haven’t appeared in the material world for many years. I can’t be sure why they’re showing up in such numbers now.”

Rebecca gripped her staff, looking at Gawain with hope. “Ancestor, surely with your power you can deal with the monsters outside?”

Gawain was momentarily stunned. “Me?”

“Yes! Legend says you were the strongest knight in the Ansu Kingdom, even the entire Northern Continent!” Rebecca’s eyes sparkled. “They say you once killed the barbarian warlord Gulg with a single sword strike…”

Gawain quickly searched his memories and was shocked: Gawain Cecile was indeed a legendary figure!

He was the greatest hero of the Ansu Kingdom’s founding era and one of the earliest pioneers of the so-called “Second Expansion.”

After the ancient Gondor Empire collapsed, and its remnants fell back into chaos and wilderness, with human civilization slowly being swallowed by the spreading Chaos Tide from the continent’s interior, Gawain Cecile and a group of fierce warriors led the surviving humans out of the ruins and marched in four directions. The northern group became the ancestors of the Ansu Kingdom, and Gawain was among them.

His life was short but brilliant: he set out at fifteen as the youngest pioneer knight; along with other pioneer knights and the first king of Ansu, he fought through countless hardships for ten years to establish a new kingdom in the north, restoring civilization and order to humanity; after the kingdom was founded, he became one of the seven generals, guarding the southern border and repelling over a dozen counterattacks from the dark Chaos Tide—never defeated once…

But such a brilliant life was like a candle burning too fiercely. The legendary figure died at thirty-five, exhausted in his final battle against the Chaos Tide.

The inherited memories ended there.

That was the life of this fierce warrior.

Gawain felt a twitch at his temple.

He had possessed someone incredible!

He didn’t feel pride or fear. After a brief shock, his biggest reaction was… uncertainty.

Rebecca looked at him with hope. Amber did too. Even Hetty, the most mature and composed, looked at him with trust and expectation.

But they were looking at Gawain Cecile, not at him.

Gawain looked down at his hands—those of a warrior, broad and strong, calloused—but he had no idea how much of that strength he could actually wield.

This uncertainty didn’t last long. His own memories stirred—memories spanning tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of years. Though the content was sparse, it was enough to steady his mind and fill him with confidence.

He admitted he was a bit overwhelmed by Gawain Cecile’s legendary life, but right now, what he needed wasn’t shock or doubt—it was to steady himself.

The source of that confidence was simple—

Long before any intelligent beings on this continent could even walk upright, he had been watching this world.

He knew these memories wouldn’t offer much practical help, but at this moment, he just needed to psych himself up.

Then, with that strength, find a way to survive.

Once calm, solutions would come.

He quickly found some useful information in Gawain Cecile’s memories.

“Fighting our way out isn’t realistic,” Gawain said seriously, stroking his chin. “I’ve been asleep too long—I might not be able to perform at full strength. And we don’t even know how strong the monsters really are. The best plan is to find a way around them and get to safety.”

“But the suspension bridge is destroyed, and the other roads are blocked…” Rebecca said.

Gawain waved her off. “Underground. The Cecile domain was once part of the kingdom’s southern defense line. There’s a secret tunnel system beneath here, blessed by earth elementals so it won’t collapse for a thousand years. The entrance is right under the castle.”

“There’s such a thing?!” Rebecca’s face lit up. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s find the tunnel! Ancestor, lead the way!”

“But there’s one problem,” Gawain spread his hands. “I only know the route from the castle, not from the tomb.”

Rebecca looked surprised. “You’ve lived here so long and don’t know the way?”

Gawain: “…”

Sir Byron and the soldiers: “…”

Hetty’s face went pale. She thought the ancestor might just die of frustration because of this useless descendant…

(End of chapter)