Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Return
The House of Iskar is an ancient border county family located in the southeastern part of the Morian Empire.
As one of the founding families of the Morian Empire with over 300 years of history, they were also renowned as a house of swords that defended against invasions from the great nation of Nevan to the south and the kingdom of Rohans to the east.
Although the territory itself was always filled with tension due to its proximity to the border, today was different.
The young lord who had risked his life and left on an expedition to restore his honor had returned triumphantly today, having completed his mission with great success.
"HAHAHA! Calline, my son! This father of yours knew you would succeed!"
"Thank you, Father!"
Count Rickart von Iskar had completely abandoned the serious demeanor he had shown in his office a few days ago, transforming into a doting parent who had come out to greet his son beyond the castle gates.
"Now there are no vassals who will doubt your abilities! You are the future of Iskar! HAHAHA!"
"This achievement was only natural with my abilities!"
"Yes! That's right! When you take my place, our family will truly stand on solid ground!"
...Who would have thought I'd witness the bleak future of an ancient Count family unfold live before my eyes.
Rudian, who had been attending to Calline, watched the spectacle between the Count and Calline with a bitter expression.
If one had to identify the greatest contributor besides Rudian, it would be Derrick, who had held off the Death Knight until the end.
But Derrick himself showed only slight satisfaction at having fulfilled his duty as a knight, with no sign of feeling that his achievements had been stolen.
No, he had probably followed Calline to create exactly this outcome, so for him, this was simply the completion of his mission.
"WOOOOOOOOO!"
"Young Master!"
"You're truly amazing!"
The cheerleaders brought by Count Iskar and the local citizens shouted Calline's name with enthusiasm.
Looking at the results alone, such a reaction was inevitable.
The rewards obtained from defeating the Death Knight weren't limited to the Duchy's holy sword Daylight.
"Incredible! Such a vast amount of gold!"
"How much would all that be worth if sold...?"
Before the eyes of the welcoming crowd, treasures that filled several wagons gleamed with a mesmerizing light.
The dungeon Calline had conquered was the place where Caslay Lichmond had stored his heart.
As such, the dungeon was filled with mountains of treasures that Caslay had accumulated over hundreds of years.
"Hehehe! The Duke will be quite upset when they learn of this."
As Count Iskar said, the result of this expedition wasn't just successful.
It was an extraordinary success that would rank among the top dungeon excavations in Imperial history.
They needed ten carriages just to transport the basic treasures.
After entering the lord's castle, Count Iskar spoke to Calline.
"In about a week, the Duchy will send someone to appraise the holy sword. Even if the Duke doesn't come personally, they'll send someone you cannot ignore. Calline, make sure you make a strong impression on whoever comes."
"Yes! Father!"
"With the success of this expedition, your name will spread throughout the Empire. Not just us, but the Delphione Duchy is involved in this matter too, so it's certain to happen."
At those words, Calline's expression immediately spread into a goofy grin.
The Count and Calline's expedition team don't know that the dungeon's master was Caslay Lichmond.
Even without the fame gained among the readers of "The Chronicles of the Seven-Colored World," Caslay was a powerful and famous black magician in this world, even carrying the title of Demon King.
If this fact became known, Calline would become a knight with not just national but worldwide fame, but Rudian had no intention of revealing this fact.
'It's hard enough to deal with him now, but how would I manage if he caused trouble with even greater fame?'
Calline would likely end up merely reversing his bad reputation as a good-for-nothing, nothing more.
'This is just right.'
As long as Rudian had no intention of quitting his role as Calline's servant, an increase in Calline's fame would actually be poisonous from Rudian's perspective.
If Calline's reputation remained at a level where he just barely didn't cross the line, Rudian could manage things on his own.
While Rudian was lost in these thoughts, Count Iskar suddenly shifted his gaze in his direction.
"Now I think I can confidently send you into social circles. Ah, and... Rudian."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
Rudian quickly knelt on one knee and bowed his head.
"Derrick and the knights have praised you highly."
"I merely did my duty as the young master’s servant."
The count's expression turned warm at this humble remark.
"No, your quick thinking to strike when the Death Knight's attention was elsewhere. Most ordinary people would have been trembling in fear, unable to move in such an extreme situation."
"......"
"You are worthy of continuing to serve Calline. I entrust this fellow to you in the future as well."
"It is an honor, Your Excellency."
'...This old man is saying dangerous things.'
But contrary to his inner thoughts, Rudian bowed his head deeply to hide his deteriorating expression.
***
However, Rudian's deteriorating mood lasted barely three days.
'Hurrah! Long live Iskar!'
Unlike three days ago when he had been cursing the Count in his mind, Rudian had now become a loyal servant of House Iskar.
'A whole year's worth! A bonus worth an entire year's salary!'
That's right.
After about three days of processing the spoils, Rudian received a bonus equivalent to a full year's salary along with ten days of paid leave.
With a leather pouch filled with gold coins before his eyes, any disrespectful thoughts Rudian had harbored toward the Count had long since vanished from his mind.
'Why escape in the dead of night? Why would I leave such a good job?'
It is an immutable truth that nobody can deny that money is the primary factor in keeping an employee who wants to quit.
Originally, being the heir of a Count's servant guaranteed a salary comparable to that of any knight's apprentice.
It's just that the wealthy nobles who receive such salaries don't make a show of it.
For Rudian, a commoner by birth, receiving a year's worth of such salary as a reward naturally made the corners of his lips twitch with excitement.
-You look happy.
"Money is good."
-I believe what I smuggled out will be more helpful to you than that pouch, Master.
"But that's not something I can use right now, is it?"
-Gold is easily liquidated. That's a universal truth in any era.
"But you said everything you smuggled out is infused with magical power, right? Try to cash those in and you'll have trackers from the Magic Tower on you in no time."
If anyone from the Count's household had heard this conversation, Rudian's head would have been off that very day.
In truth, the first to discover Caslay’s legacy wasn't the knights but Adi, who knew this dungeon inside out.
-I processed everything according to your orders, Master, but I wish we could have just taken everything. What a shame.
"That is unfortunate."
But when they reached the center of the dungeon, the knights noticed the gold and treasures behind the Death Knight.
Fortunately, they didn't notice the "real" treasures hidden beyond the mountain of gold, and Adi successfully swept them all up without the knights noticing.
The value of those items would easily exceed five times what House Iskar took.
"Anyway, they'll think the treasures were privately collected by the Death Knight, so I don't mind giving up that much. We've already taken what's truly valuable."
What every dungeon exploration team values most in a magician's workshop isn't gold or other resources.
The most important things to a magician are their spellbooks and research findings, which contain their lifetime's work.
'The Lichmond School was once among the top three magical schools on the continent. Selling just a few spell books would be enough to buy several castles.'
Even though he was a black magician, the legacy of a legendary figure who had reached the 9th class master level was invaluable.
House Iskar thought they had hit the jackpot, but in reality, a single servant had stolen most of the valuable items.
"Well, thinking about the future, we need a war fund. Those items may not be usable now, but they'll definitely help later."
-That's true.
'The problem is how that knight who stole Daylight became Caslay’s Death Knight...'
This part is difficult to figure out since it didn't appear in the main storyline of "The Chronicles of the Seven-Colored World." The dungeon where Daylight was hidden never appeared in the original work.
'In the original, Daylight was used by the protagonist's companion, the Sword Saint Crux, after Caslay was destroyed, right?'
The problem is that in the original work, this process was very briefly summarized.
'Crux, who had briefly returned home, appeared with Daylight when they reunited.'
There was no detailed explanation of what friction he had with the Duchy or how he obtained Daylight.
'The author probably thought it was a minor detail since the story was moving into the Heaven Demon Great War arc and cut it out...'
But there was something that bothered him about simply moving on.
"That guy definitely didn't steal it simply out of greed."
It probably had a lot to do with the demon race.
-The demon race... That's a nostalgic term.
"...You do look just like a creature from the demon realm."
-Shut your trap, Master. How dare you compare me to such lowly beings?
"Oh my?"
You're throwing back exactly what I said before?
Rudian and Adi continued their pointless argument for a while.
***
Once their childish argument had somewhat subsided.
"Our primary enemies will be the demon race. They'll probably be the biggest obstacle to recovering your terminals."
-Then naturally, we should sweep them away.
"Yes, with Caslay dead, the demon race will have no choice but to make a move."
As far as Rudian knew, Caslay Lichmond had been disguised as the court magician of the neighboring Kingdom of Rohans.
With his sudden death, the demons in the Kingdom of Rohans would 100% make a move.
"To prepare for what's coming, we absolutely must get our hands on a demon sword."
-Huh? Isn't a holy sword better against the demon race?
"We don't necessarily need to follow the elemental advantage when dealing with demon race."
While holy power is the natural enemy of demonic energy, there's no need to insist on a holy sword.
"Holy swords are extremely difficult to obtain, and their distinctive holy aura attracts the attention of demon races."
Even Daylight was at a difficulty level that Rudian alone could never achieve, even if he died and revived ten times.
Moreover, in terms of performance, one of the top demon swords in the entire "The Chronicles of the Seven-Colored World" was right here in the Iskar border territory.
-Was there such a thing?
"Yes, and it's in a simple ruin with no guardian or anything."
The secret societies hidden around the world and extraterrestrial forces only appear much later in the story, so there's nothing to worry about for now.
Both in terms of the storyline of "The Chronicles of the Seven-Colored World" and for Rudian's future, conflict with the demon race, who appeared first, was inevitable.
For that, he needed to obtain more than enough power.
"The demon sword Diablo. If we can get this, everything moving forward will become much easier."