Seeing that the ancient king was about to continue, Lucian hurriedly stopped him.
"W–wait, hold on a moment."
The ancient king asked, puzzled,
'What is it? Weren't you the one who wanted to hear this?'
Lucian nodded, sorting through the story he had just heard, then asked,
"That's right, but I want to ask a few questions first."
"Could you explain what the Hornsent are?"
"I should at least understand that much first, otherwise I might not even grasp what you're talking about."
The terminology that had appeared in the story left Lucian thoroughly confused.
Especially the Hornsent—clearly the crux of this buried scandal, yet he knew absolutely nothing about them.
Rather than finishing the story only to remain confused and have to ask everything again afterward, it made more sense to clarify these concepts now. That would also make it easier to understand what came next.
As for the suddenly introduced child of Marika—Messmer…
Though he was one of the protagonists of the story, from what Lucian could tell so far, he sounded more like a convenient scapegoat, a tool used to shoulder the blame. Clearly not as important as the Hornsent themselves.
Marika had produced plenty of demigods already, one more hardly mattered.
At most, it only prompted Lucian to sigh inwardly once again:
'Marika truly deserves the title of the Lands Between's most prolific mother.'
The ancient king thought it over, and found the reasoning sound.
'Very well. In that case, I'll explain these matters first, so you can better understand.'
'You want to ask about the Hornsent, correct?'
Lucian nodded repeatedly.
"Yes. The Hornsent, are they a people? A race?"
The ancient king carefully recalled and organized his understanding of the Hornsent, then began to explain.
'The Hornsent are a people who worship horns.'
'They delight in conducting all manner of rituals to commune with their gods, venerating bloodshed and savagery—like uncivilized beasts.'
'That said, despite their blind faith, they did gain certain things from it.'
'For example… magnificent structures built in devotion, and unique god-descending rites that drew upon powerful forces of natural life.'
'Their territory was vast, and their strength formidable. They once occupied most of the central Lands Between.'
'But because their domain was so widespread, and because the Hornsent themselves were a relatively barbaric people—'
'Their internal hierarchy was utterly fractured. Upper and lower classes were practically different species.'
'Internal conflict among their own kind was more severe than that of any other race in the Lands Between. They even made frequent use of mass sacrifices of their own people.'
Lucian frowned in thought. That was a lot to take in.
Bloodthirsty and barbaric, yet capable of producing astonishing civilization through faith, and possessing considerable power.
He wasn't surprised by the ancient king's disdain for the Hornsent.
A savage people driven purely by belief deserved little sympathy; "ignorant" was more than sufficient to describe them.
After all, beasts had once symbolized civilization and wisdom, even serving as priests to the ancient dragons.
Stormveil itself was a power that had developed from the legacy of the ancient dragons. For the ancient king, a mighty storm hawk, to sneer at the Hornsent's barbarism was entirely reasonable.
The ancient king continued,
'From the name alone, one might assume that everyone among them bore horns, yes?'
Lucian nodded. That had been his first impression as well.
But the ancient king denied it.
'The Hornsent worship horns, but not everyone among them grows them.'
'Those who do grow horns are granted high status—but it is said that those who grow too many horns often vanish without explanation… Forget it. If I start recounting every rumor, we'll never finish.'
'In any case, horns were the ultimate symbol of status there, and the disparity in rank was extreme.'
'The Hornsent treated those at the bottom much like slaves.'
'Speaking of horns… this should actually be something you're already familiar with.'
Lucian raised an eyebrow, immediately making a connection.
"Omen horns?"
The ancient king confirmed it.
'Correct. What the Golden Order now views as ominous and defiled was once considered a blessing of the Crucible.'
Lucian nodded. That matched what he'd read in various descriptions.
For example, the talismans associated with the Crucible:
Vestiges of the Crucible of primordial life. Said to be partially inherited across generations, and once considered sacred in ancient times. Later, as civilization advanced, they came to be seen as marks of impurity.
If the Hornsent could be called barbaric, then the Golden Order could indeed be considered "civilization." Chronologically, it made sense.
Yet Lucian suddenly felt that something was… off.
The power of the Crucible was undeniably the power of life itself. That had been true even before the Hornsent ever appeared.
So why did the Golden Order suddenly rebrand Crucible horns as Omen, symbols of curse and misfortune?
Godfrey himself had been surrounded by Crucible Knights.
Could it be that Queen Marika harbored deep hatred toward the Hornsent, and deliberately inverted everything associated with them?
Was that why all of this had been turned upside down?
The more Lucian thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
The Hornsent had left behind no trace at all—within the present-day Lands Between, it was as if they had never existed.
Lucian had never encountered a single record or rumor related to them.
One had to remember: even the Uhl Dynasty, which lay in what could already be considered the ancient past of the Lands Between, still left behind the clayman priests as living remnants.
The Eternal Cities still had silver tears and the Nox as proof of their former existence.
Yet the Hornsent, nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Coupled with the deliberate erasure carried out by the Golden Order and the Carian royal family…
To wipe out a people so thoroughly was not something one of Marika's children could possibly achieve.
"…Was all of this done under Queen Marika's orders?"
The ancient king laughed.
'Correct. You're sharp, this is the truth of the matter.'
'What exactly transpired between Queen Marika and the Hornsent, I do not know.'
'But in the past, Stormveil, the Golden Order, and the Hornsent all stood opposed to the Fire Giants.'
'As such, we once fought together to exterminate the Fire Giants.'
'So although the armies of the time called it a holy war—'
'In truth, it was nothing more than a betrayal. A massacre.'
'In the end, the Hornsent were completely erased from the Lands Between.'
'Compared to them, Stormveil's fate was almost merciful, we merely suffered a conventional defeat.'
Hearing this, Lucian couldn't help but ask,
"By the way… how exactly did Stormveil end up at war with the Golden Order?"
Defeat was not a shameful topic for the ancient king.
'As I said before, during the Age of Plenty, the Golden Tree embraced all.'
'After the Fire Giants were destroyed, the four greatest powers in the Lands Between were the Golden Order, the Hornsent, the Carian royal family, and Stormveil.'
'But after the war that slaughtered the Hornsent, the Shadow Tree vanished along with that land.'
'The Golden Tree could no longer bestow its bountiful dew, and the Age of Plenty came to an end.'
'Then the Carian royal family allied with the Golden Order through marriage.'
'At that point, Stormveil was the Golden Order's only remaining threat.'
'Under those circumstances, war was inevitable.'
'You already know the rest, though the ancient dragons attacked the capital to relieve us, they ultimately failed.'
Lucian nodded. At last, the sequence of those ancient wars had become clear.
First, the Hornsent cooperated with Marika; together with Stormveil, the three great powers fought the war against the Fire Giants and destroyed them.
The Academy of Raya Lucaria likely did not participate in that war.
On one hand, the astrologers—the origin of sorcery, had friendly ties with the giants. On the other, the academy may have adhered to a principle of non-intervention.
Meanwhile, the Golden Order found itself fighting on two fronts, sending Radagon to clash with the academy twice, until it all ended with Radagon's marriage to Rennala.
After the war against the giants, the Golden Tree became the law itself. The Age of Plenty arrived, and blessed dew flowed endlessly.
And then—at some unknown point, Queen Marika suddenly turned on her former allies.
At the cost of personally destroying the hard-won Age of Plenty, she expelled the Hornsent from the Lands Between, leaving not a single survivor.
After that, Messmer bore the infamy of the serpent, becoming a figure cursed and reviled by the people.
That entire region was sealed away along with him.
Thus, the so-called "holy war"—in truth a horrifying massacre, was completely buried.
Later still, the Golden Order fought Stormveil and the ancient dragons, finally becoming the Golden Order Lucian knew.
Lucian couldn't understand it.
What kind of hatred or grievance existed between Queen Marika and the Hornsent?
Why could they once cooperate, only for her to later annihilate them so completely?
But with the Hornsent utterly gone, this would likely remain an unsolved mystery forever.
Suddenly, Lucian recalled the flame chariots he had seen outside the academy, bearing the Stormveil eagle crest and shaped like the faces of giants.
He took the chance to ask the ancient king.
"By the way, earlier I saw flame chariots shaped like giant faces, bearing Stormveil's insignia."
"What exactly is their relationship to Stormveil? And why don't we have anything like that anymore?"
The ancient king thought for a moment.
'Ah, those… they were originally designed as shields, meant to warn people of the terror of the Fire Giants.'
'Later, they evolved into battlefield vehicles.'
'Stormveil was quite adept at manufacturing such war machines.'
'The flamethrowers used in sieges, the gunpowder barrels—you've seen those.'
'After our defeat, all of that technology was taken by the Golden Order.'
'That's why nothing remains now.'
Lucian nodded. So that was how it was.
Those machines really had originated in Stormveil, later passing into the hands of the Fire Monks, then traded onward to Caelid and the Cuckoos.
Looks like he'd have to find time to return them to their rightful owner someday.
But compared to flame chariots, what Lucian wanted now was far more ambitious.
He wanted that Shadow Tree.
Even if the land had been completely sealed away, there might still be a way inside.
The Golden Tree held vast power, its symbiotic Shadow Tree surely did as well.
The Great Rune taken from Godrick ultimately unlocked the ability to bestow blessings, but doing so required enormous amounts of runes.
If the Shadow Tree could supply that cost…
Then Lucian could raise an army as powerful as that of the Golden Order in its prime.