Misunderstanding
The Ring of Ephrasia.
It was one of the few artifacts that existed in this other world.
The ancient elves had discovered the two essences hidden within the World Tree.
The source of light that reached upward: the Sephirot.
And the root of chaos that spread downward: the Qliphoth.
To balance those two powers, the high elves forged the Ring of Ephrasia.
It allowed the wearer to absorb the chaos of the Qliphoth and sublimate it into the light of the Sephirot.
That was the ring’s true nature.
And as for Rudine’s Heavenly Slaughter Star—
It was a fragment of chaos that had fallen from the Qliphoth.
The Heavenly Slaughter Star exuded the aura of death; it was the trace of forgotten chaos.
That was precisely why the Ring of Ephrasia was needed.
Because it was the only artifact capable of absorbing that trace of chaos and purifying it into Mental Image.
In short:
A human charger, I suppose.
The ring absorbed Rudine’s Heavenly Slaughter Star and converted it into Mental Image.
Rudine wanted control over the Heavenly Slaughter Star, and I wanted to make up for my lack of Mental Image.
We needed each other.
Of course, it only absorbed the energy and could not truly heal the source, but as a means of control, it was more than sufficient.
So I just put it on?
I looked down at the ring resting in my palm.
The slender band, made from a branch of the World Tree, glimmered with a faint blue light.
I slowly slipped it onto my finger.
At that moment, a strange vibration spread from my fingertip through my entire body.
It felt as if something was resonating with me.
I clenched and relaxed my fist, checking my condition.
Outwardly, nothing had changed, but the depleted Mental Image in me was gradually being replenished.
At this rate, I’d be back to normal in a day.
“Not bad.”
As expected, it was worth the effort of coming all this way.
It was a treasure I had to obtain if I wanted to use runes, so it was a tremendous gain.
Even if the condition was that I had to stay near Rudine.
The mere fact that I no longer had to trouble myself by wandering around to absorb other runes was, frankly, a triumph.
I suppose it’s time to head back.
Since I had spent several days camping on the way here, that day was drawing near as well.
The day that no official could ever avoid—
the day to be evaluated on the state of the territory, one’s administrative performance, and the progress made so far.
With that, my business here was finished.
All that remained was to return to the office.
“Let’s go back.”
“…Okay.”
****
Walking behind Luke, Rudine recalled what had happened earlier.
Especially the scene of him performing that mysterious ritual.
That decayed, twisted giant tree radiating an ominous aura.
Even if she didn’t know what it was, she could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary tree.
…Strange.
Luke was the man who had obliterated a rank beast that was considered a legend in the blink of an eye.
It wasn’t even a battle; it had been overwhelming force.
A power beyond all standards.
She couldn’t even tell what sort of power he wielded.
Everything about him was a mystery.
There was nothing she could grasp, nothing about him that wasn’t extraordinary.
At first, she had simply followed him out of curiosity.
He was the first man who had ever tried to save her.
It had been nothing more than idle curiosity, and yet he had known about the madness she had hidden all her life. Then he had dragged her along, saying he would help control it, and that was where things stood now.
The same was true here.
It was absurd, watching him move around as if he knew every inch of this place.
Until now, she hadn’t thought much of his erratic behavior, but as time passed, a peculiar feeling had begun to take root.
...What is he, really?
She truly couldn’t make him out.
That ritual just now was the same.
He had muttered incomprehensible words, the mural had begun to glow, and an unidentifiable voice had drilled into her ears and rung inside her head.
[O pilgrim bearing the burden of Ephrasia, may the blessing of life descend upon you, great sovereign of magic.]
Every word of it had been meaningless.
The only part she had been able to understand was...
...Sovereign of magic.
The strange voice echoing in her head had unmistakably called Luke that.
Sovereign of magic... honestly, what an absurdly grandiose title.
As far as she knew, there were only two beings permitted a title like that.
And among them, the most famous race was—
Dragonkind?
Dragonkind.
A great race that inherited the will of a forgotten god.
...Was that really possible? She had heard that they sometimes walked among humans in human form.
If the strange power he used wasn’t mana at all, but dragon mana, and that incomprehensible incantation had actually been a true command word... no, even so, hadn’t Dragonkind gone extinct? Could he be a half-blood?
“……”
“……”
How long had they been walking?
When they reached the cliff where they had descended by what could only be called a fall, the man who had been looking straight ahead suddenly turned around.
“Rudine.”
“…Yes?”
“Get on.”
“……”
Rudine blinked twice, then obediently climbed onto his back.
****
A mountain road lay on the border between the Empire and the Winfred Duchy.
It was the only road connecting the borderlands of the Carlyle earldom with Blackmore, the Empire’s greatest hellscape.
Two men seated inside a rough-shaking carriage were chatting lightly.
“The road’s in terrible shape.”
“At the outset, this isn’t a place people are meant to travel through. You understand that, surely.”
At the wrinkled man’s words, the gaunt man chuckled.
He was Kraton, the general inspector of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a pillar of the Empire itself.
And the person Kraton was speaking with while carefully gauging his mood was...
“Tch. And what use is there in managing a place like this...”
Arda Meredail.
A high-ranking imperial minister.
“It’s a region where disappearances happen constantly.”
“A sane person wouldn’t willingly step into a demon realm.”
“Haha, quite right. But what can we do? So many reports keep coming in that even the higher-ups are getting a headache over it.”
“Still, sending only one civil administrator... what do they expect to accomplish with that?”
The wrinkled man clicked his tongue.
“Isn’t it enough for us to do what we always do?”
Exactly.
They would evaluate the state of the territory and administrative performance, then receive a report on the current progress.
“True. There’s no way a place this large could be managed properly.”
“Then we use that as a pretext to pull the fellow out and send in the Special Task Force.”
“Heh heh, now that’s good. And with a perfectly adequate justification, too.”
“Once this is over, I’ll arrange a meeting with the captain of the Special Task Force. He won’t be able to simply ignore it.”
Captain Derek Baldwin of the Special Task Force.
Anyone in the imperial family knew that he had his eye on Blackmore.
His obsession with Blackmore was famous.
But Luke Richter’s appearance had changed the situation.
Some unknown man had been appointed administrator, and now he was making a name for himself over the assassination of the Shadow Society leader.
They had already been making moves to remove him, but his name had spread so widely that even that had become difficult.
If they investigated his administration in detail now, they were bound to find something.
Then, if they used that as leverage to expel him, the situation would swing back in their favor.
“We’ve arrived.”
The coachman opened the carriage door.
The two men got out and followed the escort that had arrived ahead of them, walking along the road.
And then—
“The road’s clean.”
The route that had been in such poor shape until moments ago was now neatly maintained after they passed through the entrance.
Smooth enough that walking posed no difficulty at all.
Moreover—
“...Directional signs?”
There were signs planted along the road.
As though this were some famous attraction, they pointed the way at every fork.
And then—
“What on earth are these placards...”
Every few steps, bizarre placards had been planted along the roadside.
The messages were absurd beyond belief.
From the sudden declaration that you were not alone, to warnings about monster sightings, to limp wordplay, and even taunting lines asking whether you could catch monsters.
“This is ridiculous.”
“Indeed it is.”
They had been walking for quite some time when—
“...Hold on.”
The escort leading the way stopped.
Following his gaze, they saw several men standing in the distance.
There are people here?
This was a demon realm.
Not a place ordinary people should be roaming around in.
“Who are they?”
“I’m not sure. Their presence is... unusual.”
“Could they be no ordinary men?”
“Yes. At the very least, they’re stronger than master class.”
Stronger than master class.
Even within the imperial court, that was the level of a top-tier expert.
And there wasn’t just one of them.
What on earth were that many powerful men doing gathered in a place like this?
As confusion washed over them—
“Have you come to see Lord Luke?”
The men had approached at some point and now stood before them.
“W-well, yes...”
“You’ve come from the imperial court.”
“...That’s right.”
After confirming their purpose—
“Please follow me.”
“???”
—they started leading the way.
“Who are you people?”
“We’re retainers.”
“Whose?”
“...We serve Lord Luke.”
They were operatives of the executive branch under the Arkan Monarch Assembly.
However, because the monarch herself had personally ordered them to serve Luke Richter for five years, and instructed them to treat him as they would treat the monarch, they answered through gritted teeth accordingly.
Those who didn’t know the circumstances, however—
“...Huh.”
—were thrown into utter confusion.
Utter, complete confusion.