Chapter 97
Chapter 97
Chapter 97
Training (1)
Outside the dungeon, hundreds of people were waiting for the party.
"Is that demon king bastard really dead?"
The moment Gray saw Rudian's face, this was the first thing Gray blurted out.
There was no need to think long about who that demon king was.
"Yes, Marbas is dead. I finished him off for sure, so don't worry."
"I'm... I'm seriously starting to respect you, brother."
"So you were fake-respecting me until now?"
"Ah, no, that's not what I meant...."
Well, Gray's usual attitude did have aspects of slightly exaggerated acting, so Rudian let it slide.
"Ugh...!"
Rudian, who had been chuckling softly, suddenly felt dizzy and staggered.
"Brother?"
"Rudian!"
"Lord Rudian!"
The surroundings became noisy at Rudian's suddenly precarious appearance.
Rudian waved his hand in a gesture that he was fine and gritted his teeth as he checked his physical condition.
'...Fatigue, energy depletion, stamina depletion, and even rebound... What a complete backlash.'
Rudian's body, having reached Sword Master level, wouldn't suddenly shake like this from mere accumulated fatigue or stamina depletion.
However, the side effects of drawing upon Diablo's authority were absolutely not to be underestimated.
"Princess Luciella...."
"Y-Yes!"
Luciella, suddenly called upon, answered with a start.
"I'd like to ask you two favors."
"F-Favors? D-Don't tell me...!"
"It's not a dying wish, so please calm down."
Only after calming the restless Luciella could Rudian bring up his business.
"First, there's a high probability that surviving remnants are still around. If we let them escape, it will be a big problem later."
Especially the two highest-grade demons who had faced Sonya and Archduke Quihiller.
When Marbas fell, Rudian succeeded in eliminating Amdusias who had shown an opening, but unfortunately missed Seere, who had been under Asmodeus.
Seere and her subordinate demons would be incapacitated for a while from forcibly drawing out power, but after that, it was unknown what danger they might pose to Rudian and those around him.
"Second, there's a demon force that crossed over to the Iskar territory just a few days ago. Even if there's no need for a direct confrontation, please investigate their whereabouts."
What Rudian had confirmed was a force of over twenty, including highest-grade demons.
If they had participated in this battle from the beginning, the knight orders and magician units might have suffered fatal damage.
"If they heard the results of this incident and simply crossed over to the Kingdom of Rohans, that would be fine, but if they cause trouble in the vicinity seeking revenge, the damage will be great. Please deploy knight orders and magician forces that suffered less damage to pursue them."
"A-Alright."
"Well, I've roughly said what I needed to say...."
After talking so much, his mind became rapidly hazy.
'I never knew the saying about eyelids being heavy as a thousand pounds would hit so close to home....'
Just before losing consciousness, Rudian said to those around him:
"Still, I've taken the heads of the two ringleaders, so I trust you'll handle the rest. So I'll now...."
"R-Lord Rudian?"
"Sleep."
"Huh...?"
Though Luciella was saying something, Rudian's already shut-down brain could no longer process those words.
STAGGER!
In an instant, Rudian's body toppled forward, and just as he was about to fall face-first to the ground.
CATCH!
CATCH!
There were beings who grabbed both of the unconscious Rudian's arms.
"......"
Luciella and Maria instinctively grabbed both of the collapsed Rudian's arms simultaneously, and in that position, their eyes met.
At that moment, everyone present noticed that a subtle atmosphere was flowing between them.
***
Rudian regained consciousness a full three days later.
But during those three days, the Morian Empire had undergone changes that could be described as earth-shaking.
What those changes were will be explained shortly....
"Are you awake?"
"Elvin... Senior?"
The place where Rudian regained consciousness was the Belstad main house, which had now completely become his home.
It was a bit disappointing to see a dark-complexioned man as soon as he opened his eyes, but still, it was nice to see Elvin.
But... Everything's fine except....
"Senior."
"What...?"
"Why has your eye... Become a black eye?"
As Rudian said, Elvin's right eye area was blackened with bruising.
Someone of Elvin's skill level wouldn't end up like this from tumbling down stairs, so ultimately someone had beaten him up to make him look like this....
The problem was that Elvin, the one who got beaten up, didn't look that bad about it.
Rudian called out the name of the first suspect that came to mind.
"Don't tell me Viscount Kaitel did that?"
"He's not the type to beat up his disciple like that."
"It couldn't have been Maria, so then someone from Psychic Luminous? When you collapsed at the Imperial palace before, the people you brought were firmly determined to give you a beating."
Of course, when Rebecca was extracting the magic energy, Elvin was in so much pain that those words seemed to have been forgotten, but anyway, they were also among the suspects.
"Something like that happened...? Unfortunately, that's also wrong."
"Then there's only one left. Was it senior Karen?"
"Heh, heh heh heh...!"
At Rudian's words, Elvin let out a quiet chuckle.
'...Good for him.'
But looking at Elvin's appearance, it seemed like things between the two of them had worked out well.
"How is senior Karen?"
"She's staying with her nanny at the Kepler main house. Nominally it's confinement, but she'll be released soon."
In fact, Karen had supported Captain Pruna, who had betrayed the emperor, so it wouldn't have been strange for her to be charged with treason as well.
However, considering the short duration and that she had committed no actual evil deeds, she was found innocent on the grounds that she had been 'threatened by Captain Pruna' and forced to participate.
"Did senior Karen accept it?"
"...I had a hard time convincing her."
When she first heard that Captain Pruna had died, she truly grieved and wailed.
She even tried to choose to die together with Captain Pruna.
Even though her life had nearly been ruined because of the demon sword Captain Pruna had given her, she still hadn't lost her respect for Captain Pruna.
However, Elvin succeeded in turning Karen's heart around through apologies, deep persuasion, and physical dialogue.
'Looking at that bruise... The physical dialogue probably wasn't in that sense.'
As a result, Karen chose to return to her hometown.
No matter how much she was found innocent, that innocence itself was the best result that Elvin and his acquaintances could obtain.
Regardless of the cause, having participated in rebellion meant her life as a knight and noble was essentially over.
Having heard all this, Rudian tilted his head.
"But senior, why does your expression look so bright?"
"She said she'd wait."
Elvin opened his mouth wide with an unprecedentedly bright smile.
"I'm happy that my sincerity was well conveyed through the recent incident."
"Wow...."
...I really want to hit him.
I desperately want to make the opposite side of his eye a matching pair.
Karen too, perhaps feeling much from how Elvin had risked his life to save her last time, didn't unconditionally push Elvin away.
And it seems she suggested that while staying in her hometown, they decide their future after Elvin finishes all the Psychic Luminous affairs.
"Lord Kaitel must be sad. He's lost one disciple."
"Ah, about that...."
Karen's family, the Baroness Leticia house, was literally nothing more than commoners with only a name remaining.
Her parents, the baron and baroness, had died long ago, leaving only her and her nanny living together.
In such a situation....
"...Lord Kaitel is personally going down to look after senior Karen?"
"Yes, it seems the master doesn't want to lose his hard-earned second disciple."
Even if the path of knighthood was blocked, as long as her body was healthy, the path of a warrior wasn't completely blocked.
Kaitel gave such reasons and decided to go down to the hometown with Karen to take care of various things.
"Even though he's the Empire's Sword Master... Is that okay?"
"Of course it would be difficult normally. But the master said that because of this incident, Delphione's status has risen too much and there's a need to be a bit more careful."
Due to this incident, Delphione and Bellatrix, who had lifted the dark clouds from the Empire, had their status rise tremendously.
"Especially since His Highness the 2nd Prince has been officially confirmed to ascend to the Crown Prince position."
In the case of Bellatrix, who was the 2nd Prince's official supporter and had now become related by marriage, they were openly called the Morian Empire's first family.
It was truly a level where it wouldn't be strange for the Morian Imperial Family to become genuinely wary.
As part of this, Luciella returned the tremendous authority she had received from the Emperor back to the Imperial Family, and Kaitel sought to maintain balance by staying away from the capital for a while.
'Hmm, Lady Sonya also has excellent political sense, so she'll handle things well on her own.'
Even without being told by others to conduct herself well, Sonya would maintain balance on her own without crossing the line.
Throughout history, in-laws who acted recklessly rarely ended well....
Well, she'll do fine.
"His Majesty the Emperor is using various measures to check the power of the two great ducal houses. As part of that, Archduke Quihiller, who had officially retired, has returned as Imperial Guard Captain...."
Well, it was natural, but the Imperial Guard Captain position that Rudian had received from the Emperor was only a temporary position to fill Captain Pruna's vacancy.
He hadn't wanted it in the first place, and having already achieved rapid promotion to Count, there was no reason to be attached to the captain position.
"And thanks to that policy, our Psychic Luminous also benefited."
"...How nice, 'Count Young Master'?"
"Heh heh heh...!"
Elvin's relaxed expression wasn't just about Karen-related stories, but was the result of various other circumstances mixed in.
Rudian recited the Emperor's policy that Elvin had told him about and fell into thought.
"A Psychic Magic Tower...."
A new mechanism to check the four great magic towers where Bellatrix wielded absolute influence.
One part of that was the new rise of psychic ability users.
'This is what they call the vicissitudes of life.'
In the original work, Psychic Luminous was complete evil, and the Imperial Family had extremely close relations with magicians to defeat them.
But in this era where Rudian had intervened, that history had completely changed, and instead it became a world where psychic ability users were treated well to check the magicians.
'In terms of military power, there's absolutely no reason to be inferior, so it would be perfect for the Imperial Family.'
In terms of background, they were only Delphione's protégés and not in a completely subordinate relationship, so it would have been sufficiently possible to extract them through negotiation.
Rudian read through the official document that the Emperor had personally given to the Kepler family.
"The Psychic Magic Tower's Tower Master is Count Matheus Kepler, Deputy Tower Master is Lady Maria Kepler, and the members consist of seven families promoted due to this incident...."
The name Psychic Luminous would now officially disappear.
Based on the psychic ability theorization materials that Rudian had provided, they would accept new students and stand tall as a magic study.
But... Everything's fine except....
"Why is my name among the Tower's elder positions?"
Rudian found his name among the members of the newly established Psychic Magic Tower and trailed off with a sour expression.
Not just a simple tower member, but proudly registered as one of the ten elders, the highest rank.
"Well, you're also a psychic ability user."
"If we're just talking about psychic abilities, there are people stronger than me...."
"According to Maria, there aren't many."
"......"
If judged not simply by output but by the power of the lineage, that statement was correct.
'Don't tell me they noticed that I can handle space-time psychic abilities?'
With Maria's capabilities, that possibility was quite sufficient.
Although he hadn't used psychic abilities when confronting Marbas, her detection ability was as extraordinary as her power, which was close to authority.
"You don't need to think too deeply about it. His Majesty seems to have requested this hoping that someone of your level would support him."
"Ah."
This wasn't Maria's or Matheus's judgment, but because of the Emperor's request.
Psychic ability users now had no choice but to stay closer to the Imperial Family than to the nobility due to their position.
'Considering future events, it wouldn't be bad to stay close to the Imperial Family anyway.'
The Emperor would also want to have his own different cards besides the Imperial Guard, so there wouldn't be any problem with getting one foot involved.