Kapitel 66: Chapter 66: First Knight

"Shiloh Blade. Humanity's first Knight... and Mankind's Strongest."

As the words rang deeply in the quiet office, Huey felt the world grow still to his perception. His mind went blank, and there was an indistinct and illusionary ringing at the back of his head, as everything seemed so slow, unclear, and murky. His heart began to slowly race, and Huey's red eyes widened as his orange pupils constricted into thinner slits.

Oblivious to the subtle changes happening to his guest at the moment, Hathaway continued his narration, clearly absorbed in the topic concerning Mankind's greatest success.

"Shiloh Blade. Humanity's first Knight, and mankind's greatest weapon. He was the first of the Knight Program to come out tremendously successful and showed the most promise! In the truest sense of it, he was Humanity's first ray of hope in the apocalypse."

He went on, but Huey wasn't even listening. His heart continued to thump deeply, and the whole office suddenly felt stuffy. He found it almost hard to breathe.

Huey managed to slowly raise his head rigidly. He shifted his stiff gaze to the human-sized holographic image hovering at the center of the office. The translucent blue image depicted the dashing figure of an imposing man. Since it was only a holographic display, the features and details weren't as distinct as staring at the real person, but Huey could already see it closely.

A stark resemblance.

No. It was subtle, but it was still there. He had recently seen a picture of his cousin from before, so he was very sure about it. His memories weren't playing tricks on him.

The man in the hologram was far larger, far more imposing. And most importantly, far older. Represented before him, the man looked middle-aged. Within his late thirties to mid-forties or even fifties. He wasn't sure; the details weren't clear enough.

Contrary to the picture he found at his old home, the traces of childish warmth and naivety were nowhere to be found in the hologram. In stark contrast, the man represented had deep, bleak, and cold eyes. Eyes devoid of emotions and sympathy. They were dark and cruel. He had shorter hair, and his face was chiseled. In the hologram, he donned a technological battle suit that greatly enhanced his physique and hugged his figure and muscles.

Huey's eyes shook. "S... Shiloh...!" He felt a sudden rush of different suffocating emotions. Feelings he never thought he had anymore. There was loss, there was joy. Immense joy. There was sadness, there was shock and relief. And even anger. But it was anger at himself for whatever reason he failed to comprehend.

But regardless of all this, Huey still couldn't let a single tear fall.

By this point, Professor Bling Hathaway had no choice but to notice his strange behavior and paused his narration. He turned to Huey urgently and directed a worried gaze as he rushed to approach him.

"Is something the matter?" he asked.

His voice was like a knock back to reality for Huey. He instantly felt his strange world dissolve and slowly clear as clarity returned.

He came to realize his face was drenched with sweat. With his own sweat! But Huey didn't seem to mind this.

He regained control of his emotions and body and turned to the professor. His red eyes beamed, and his orange pupils sharpened dangerously. The scales on his face became more prominent, and his sharp teeth extended into terrifying fangs. An invisible pressure descended inside the office, and various objects and equipment shook in place.

"What did you just call him?!" Huey demanded, his voice a cacophony of guttural sounds and growls. He released a wave of bloodlust into the surroundings, and his black hair eerily floated in response.

Hathaway felt his skin tingle furiously. Staring into Huey's eyes, he saw himself die countless times over. The professor held his breath and instantly went multiple shades paler and stiff.

Huey regained clarity once he realized the dire state of the professor. He withdrew his pressure and animosity. The fearsome scales on his face merged back with his spotless white skin, and the terrifying fangs returned to his regular sharp teeth. The bloodlust in his eyes also settled, and by the time it was over, calm slowly returned to the office before the professor could soil himself.

Huey took in a shaky breath and lowered his head. Then he said softly,

"Sorry."

The professor seemed to snap out of it after this as he quickly got up and backed away a little. His whitened face was covered in sweat, and his pupils were contracted as he took in deep breaths to calm himself.

"Yes... yes. I-it's perfectly fine," he stuttered as he tried to feign composure.

Huey didn't mind the professor's behavior towards him and took another deep breath to calm himself. Then he raised his head and stared up at the holographic image still standing tall despite everything.

This time around, Huey controlled his emotions more expertly and said to the professor, "Did you say his name was Shiloh? Shiloh Blade."

The professor blinked his eyes out of the trance at Huey's question, then jerked his head towards the image. It took a few seconds to process, then he finally nodded repeatedly.

"Ah, yes. That's Shiloh Blade, the first knight and—" Professor Hathaway began, but stopped all of a sudden. His eyes widened as it all began to click one by one.

His glasses, which hung crookedly off his face, finally fell off as he slowly turned back to stare incredulously at Huey's solemn figure, who just silently stared at the image with a motionless face. Then he said, in a hushed voice almost like a strained whisper, "Your family..."

The level of surprise and shock he felt was enough to almost make him forget to breathe. Huey somberly nodded, silently affirming the professor's thoughts.

'So they really were related after all!' Hathaway's thoughts raced all of a sudden. He had a strange and indistinct inkling at the beginning when he had first met Huey. For one, the last name had struck a chord in him at that time. But he hadn't paid enough attention and had simply disregarded it as two totally unrelated people having similar names. There was nothing strange about that.

But regardless, he planned to clarify it, but then at that time, Huey had his first meeting with the Council that was looming. And the revelation of his nature and what was to come easily distracted Hathaway's mind from such a trivial-seeming topic.

And from there, things only spiraled with more and more significant matters to think about than a common name!

"Shiloh is my cousin. He's my younger brother." After a while, Huey said. But there was a small smile on his face, a smile Hathaway had never seen him don before.

Contrary to his earlier behavior, that smile only continued to emerge and beam. There was only joy written on his face as he repeatedly muttered, "This is good news... this is—this is great! If Shiloh is still alive even after all this time, then maybe..." The excitement and joy were very obvious at this point.

Huey jerked his head to face the professor. 'Indeed, Sonia and I might really be related. But how?' Though he pondered to himself, Huey was already cooking up some ideas concerning that. Then his eyes widened sharply, and he snapped his head back towards the holographic image and gritted his teeth.

"That fucking brat! He went ahead and had a kid!"

At the unexpected outburst, Hathaway flinched. His mind and heart were still unsettled from the turmoil, so he was in a very sensitive state of mind at the moment.

"What?" Hathaway yelped and blinked his eyes furiously.

From the way it looked to him, Huey was spewing bloody curses at the person in the image, Shiloh Blade, and glaring at him, but there was no real anger or bloodlust like the other time. Despite his words and expression, Hathaway could read the joy underlying everything.

It took a while for him, but using his experience, Hathaway managed to regain some composure. The earlier exhaustion that threatened to drown his mind had been thoroughly scared out of his body, and now only wide, cold, and silver clarity remained in his eyes. And a headache. Yeah, he also had a headache now. The whole thing was just draining the poor man.

Hathaway bent to pick up his fallen glasses and sighed exhaustedly to find nothing had happened to their lenses before putting them back on.

He tucked an arm into the pocket of his lab coat, raised the other to hold the side of his throbbing head, and slowly walked back to his seat with repeated sighs. Huey noticed his actions from the corner of his eyes and turned to him.

"Oi, Professor old man, I need you to tell me everything that you know about my family. About Shiloh. Everything."

'Professor old man?' Hathaway felt his heart grow weary from that comment and sighed again for the third time. He really needed a break.

Funny thing was, this was supposed to be his vacation. But then he had been burdened with the threats of total annihilation and transplanting an organic core, to this. Ah, he wanted to cry.

But Bling Hathaway was also no stranger to heavy and tight workloads. It's particularly hard and rare to find time for yourself when you're considered the smartest man mankind had left to offer at its darkest hour. But that was also why he needed a vacation. Why he was here...

'Ah, now I'm just going in circles,' he sighed again, even longer this time.

"Well, from this, I'm guessing you don't have much of an interest in the Knight Program now. Yes, the First Knight... the first successful Knight was Shiloh Blade, who went on to become mankind's strongest and our greatest hope and weapon against the Elder Gods during the First Invasion. And following his success, we were able to create the first generation of Knights, who are now known as the Heroes who later went on to rule and hold tremendous influence in their respective domes..." Hathaway said and tapped on the keyboard a few times.

The next moment, the holographic display of Shiloh returned to that of Sonia.

"Sonia Blade is, as you may have already guessed, Supreme Commander Shiloh Blade's firstborn child and daughter. She's a rising star. And just like her father, she possesses the second greatest talent and monstrous potential recorded..." Hathaway paused, before adding all of a sudden,

"Well... that was until earlier today before Lyra came along."

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