Chapter 117
Chapter 117
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 117
Chapter Title: The Guide's Gift (3)
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Laura said.
"His words are true."
"You're saying the Dragon Demon Worshippers will really incite wars between humans?"
"Including that, everything."
"The part about scheming to disrupt human society from the Dark Frostlands?"
"Like Yuren Lister's past."
When Yuren was young, he had been deployed on a mission to disguise himself as a street urchin and assassinate a wealthy elderly couple. The reason the Dragon Demon Worshippers killed the innocent old couple was to seize control of the local commerce. When legitimate trade offers were rejected, they resorted to dirty tricks.
In that manner, the Dragon Demon Worshippers infiltrated human society to establish their footholds. They interfered in the succession disputes of rural noble houses to swallow them whole, or took over underworld organizations and spread drugs.
Azel furrowed his brow.
"Drugs?"
Yuren answered that.
"They're effective for corrupting humans and rotting society from within. Most of the drugs circulating on the continent that are loved for their cost-performance ratio are probably supplied by the Dragon Demon Worshippers."
"......"
Azel was stunned. It was something he had never considered.
Laura continued.
"The Guardian Shadows restricted their activities... so their methods diversified accordingly."
Before the Guardian Shadows appeared, the Dark Frostlands had schemed far more boldly. They planted spies not only in major noble houses but even in the royal families, manipulating royal authority and becoming the true powers in the shadows.
But with the emergence of the Guardian Shadows, who drew in those with power and status like Kairen, their activities faced constraints. In the early days, they were unaware of the Guardian Shadows' existence until their foundations were utterly destroyed, with countless such cases.
Laura said.
"I heard they were methods not used before the Guardian Shadows... that is, before the Great Darkness. In fact, if the Great Darkness had succeeded as planned, everything would have......"
"...Hold on."
It wasn't Azel who interrupted her—it was Kairen. He asked in a trembling voice.
"You're saying... the Great Darkness was an artificial disaster orchestrated by the Dragon Demon Worshippers?"
Laura tilted her head at his words. Her expression remained blank, but it was as if she were asking if he hadn't even known that.
"Yes. That was......"
Thud!
Suddenly, a dull noise echoed right in front of Laura's eyes. Kairen's hand had already reached right up to her slender neck. He hadn't gripped it with the intent to snap it only because Azel had seized his wrist and stopped him.
"...Duke."
"......"
Kairen glared at Laura with eyes that seemed ready to kill her on the spot. It was natural for him to lose his reason in that moment. After all, he had personally endured the Great Darkness.
Azel said.
"It's ridiculous to defend her like this, but she wasn't even born back then. Cool your head first."
"...My apologies."
Kairen apologized in a trembling voice and withdrew his hand.
For him, the Great Darkness was an eternal nightmare he could never shake off. Though hailed as the Sword Duke of Lurein Kingdom and lionized as a hero, back then he had despaired at his utter powerlessness. People were grieving, suffering, and dying around him, yet he had no way to save them, forced to make agonizing choices again and again... those were horrific times.
Azel said to Laura.
"Continue."
"...Yes."
Laura's voice trembled slightly. She must have been frightened by what just happened.
"The Great Darkness was the king's legacy."
"...Atein's? That's absurd."
"Why?"
"If such a thing existed, why wasn't it used during the Dragon Emperor War? The records show the plague that spread during the Great Darkness was unstoppable until Biyan devised a cure."
"The king didn't leave it as a weapon to be used."
"What do you mean?"
"The Dark Frostlands has records left by Aunsor."
The records preserved by the Aunsor clan like sacred relics were of enormous volume. Aunsor, being a mage, loved documentation, and given his extraordinarily long life, the collection spanned over a hundred volumes.
After becoming Aunsor's successor, Laura had read them all. That was a major reason she became interested in Azel.
"When the king was not yet king... the four Dragon Demon Generals created countless legends."
To humans, these were folk tales of unclear origins that circulated vaguely. Or perhaps many stories were lost through the Dragon Emperor War, the collapse of the Nadik Empire, and the Great Darkness, failing to be passed down.
Yet the records left by one of those very protagonists remained intact.
"You might not believe it... but before the Dragon Emperor War, the king and the four Dragon Demon Generals wandered the world, saving many people."
For over a thousand years, they roamed various corners of the world. They explored unknown lands, battled and defeated threats to the world, and rescued people in dire straits, offering them hope.
In that process, they clashed with an entity that proclaimed itself the God of Plague.
"Surely not a real god?"
"Aunsor assessed it as a being with power worthy of claiming divinity."
It was too bizarre to be considered an earthly lifeform, capable of causing and controlling all manner of diseases. It even granted superhuman strength to healthy humans through plagues, turning them into apostles—enough for Aunsor to make such an evaluation.
"The king and the Dragon Demon Generals defeated it, but they couldn't destroy it."
Surprisingly, the God of Plague was an existence nigh unto immortality. They broke it with force, but could not annihilate it. Even the divine relics it wielded as weapons belonged to the realm of immortality.
"So the king sealed it away."
The entity's essence and its divine relics were sealed by Atein's magic in a place untouched by human hands... the frozen northern lands called the edge of the world. That is, the very place now known as the Dark Frostlands.
"No one could unseal the God of Plague. But they could come up with the idea of using its divine relics."
Even that was no easy feat. After long years of research in the Dark Frostlands, they discovered a limited way to utilize them.
"The cursed plagues created using the power of those divine relics were the cause of the Great Darkness."
Had Sage Biyan not appeared, the Great Darkness would have destroyed humanity. But just as the Dark Frostlands judged non-victory within reach, Biyan emerged and lit the beacon of hope for humans.
Naturally, the Dark Frostlands sought to eliminate Biyan. But from then on, Guardian Shadows of unknown origin appeared, blocking their path.
"Biyan's existence remains a mystery to this day. How did a human who hadn't mastered magic find a cure for plagues created and spread by the Dark Frostlands—plagues for which even they knew no treatment?"
In the end, the Dark Frostlands failed to unravel that question and suffered the collapse of their long-accumulated ambitions. And from there, the fierce struggle between the Dark Frostlands and the Guardian Shadows began in the shadows of the world... leading to the present.
"Due to Biyan and the Guardian Shadows, the Great Darkness cost the Dark Frostlands more than they gained, from their perspective."
"But didn't they use the Great Darkness to complete their information manipulation?"
"Information manipulation?"
"About Dragon Demon Armaments and the Dragon Slaying Ritual... or the essence of Spirit Order."
"That was mostly finished before the Great Darkness."
"Hm?"
To the puzzled Azel, Laura explained the Dark Frostlands' information erasure operations. The efforts to prevent the inheritance of Dragon Demon Armaments, the Dragon Slaying Ritual, and the true nature of Spirit Order had begun with the collapse of the Nadik Empire.
"The upper echelons fear humanity."
Knowledge of magic or Spirit Order isn't publicly shared like other disciplines. Like martial arts, it's closely guarded within closed circles, rarely shared outside one's faction.
Due to that secrecy, the Dark Frostlands achieved their goals more easily than expected. Assassinating talented mages, Spirit Order practitioners, and their disciples, then erasing their research records, caused much knowledge to be lost to posterity.
"And even more effort went into severing the transmission of Dragon Demon Armaments and the Dragon Slaying Ritual."
It was possible thanks to Ainsera's Great Darkness. Humans could only surpass Dragon Demon Hybrids by obtaining Dragon Demon Armaments through the Dragon Slaying Ritual. Haunted by the terror etched during the Dragon Emperor War, they poured their hearts into cutting off that knowledge.
Azel clicked his tongue.
"It's absurd... but they say the active exchange and transmission of techniques during the Dragon Emperor War was abnormal, so postwar, it was inevitable."
Especially after the Nadik Empire's dominion over the continent ended and it splintered into seven kingdoms, that tendency accelerated. The more enemies and rivals there were, the more valuable one's secret arts became, making them less likely to leak outward.
Azel said.
"Come to think of it, even the Guardian Shadows didn't know about Dragon Demon Armaments. They didn't all seem to know about the Dragon Slaying Ritual either."
Finally, the pieces of the puzzle in Azel's mind fell into place. He let out a sigh at the conspiracy spanning scales beyond a human lifetime.
5
In the end, Azel decided to alter their course per Yuren's suggestion. The Guide's words lacked credibility, but he felt the need to verify the man named Yuren at least once.
The location Yuren marked on the map was somewhat distant from their current position. Even at their travel speed, it would take about three days.
During this journey, Azel felt a strange emotion watching Laura.
"Just to make sure... do you enjoy doing the dishes?"
Laura was washing dishes.
Setting up camp, preparing meals, and cleanup including dishes were all shared tasks. Laura handled everything except night watch and meal prep.
Laura was clumsy with such chores, like a sheltered noble lady. She would have broken glass or ceramics by now. But since they used metal or wooden travel ware, no mishaps occurred.
Laura nodded.
"Yes."
"......"
"Never done this... before."
Naturally, as an executive in the Dark Frostlands, she had no need to wash dishes. Subordinates handled menial tasks, so she only needed to focus on combat.
"Wiping things clean with my hands... it's enjoyable."
"I-is it?"
"Yes."
"Even after becoming an executive, you never did it before? Not just dishes—cleaning or meal prep?"
"The servants did all that."
"Hmm......"
What a peculiar feeling. She had endured inhumane treatment and survived near-death experiences, yet otherwise grew up like a noble lady.
Laura peered at her reflection in a cleaned dish and said.
"The outside world always bored me. Now it's fun."
"Not something a prisoner should say."
Azel grumbled. Regardless, Laura truly looked like a girl enjoying the journey.
She had never directly exchanged emotions with anyone or shared experiences in her life. Only those above or below her, with strict lines drawn, were ever around.
In the Dark Frostlands, her only pleasure was wandering the cold, silent castle alone, searching old records. Learning of the mysterious 'Elder' and seeking stories from him wasn't long ago.
She only ventured out on missions. Even then, subordinates were always with her. As their executive, she was respected and discussed only mission essentials, leaving her to idly pass time until her moment to act.
That's why she liked this situation now. Even if they harbored hostility and suspicion toward her, sharing time and conversing as equals with them.
"Never... talked this much in my life."
Since surrendering to Azel, she had spoken volumes. Just answering his questions probably exceeded her words over the past ten years. Conversations were that rare for her.
Suddenly, Laura asked.
"Will the day come when I'm no longer a prisoner?"
"......"
Azel looked at her with a complicated expression. Laura was increasingly troubling him.
Perhaps not expecting an answer, Laura quickly turned away. In the end, Azel had no words for her back.