Chapter 70
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Emperor's Sword (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In the game Frontier Chronicles,
Chairman Eris's story, which had always been only partially revealed,
always left players with nothing but lingering mysteries.
'It's even more so because it's revealed so ambiguously...'
One way to annoy people is to start speaking and then trail off, right?
In a similar vein,
Chairman Eris's story wasn't completely hidden like some background extra,
nor was it just a tiny glimpse.
It also wasn't fully unveiled like a main character's arc.
Exactly that ambiguous middle ground.
Not quite a little revealed,
nor entirely exposed—that vagueness
had tantalized every player's curiosity.
Five hundred years ago,
what was the true identity of her precious friend, Ena Polles?
What could that identity have been to befriend the Dragon of Creation,
and become her most cherished companion?
Also, what promise had Chairman Eris made with that friend?
What could that promise have entailed
for Eris to guard the academy for five centuries,
volunteering to nurture its students?
And finally, how had the Eris of old sealed away the nightmare?
Why, when she once had the power to seal it effortlessly,
did she have to risk her life at the pivotal turning point to hold it back?
All of it
had been dangled like plot bait, ambiguously partial...
yet it ended without resolving a single mystery.
So now,
the tale Reinhardt was sharing wasn't just intriguing to Aden—it was unbearably captivating to any Frontier Chronicles player.
'She... wasn't alone...?'
The plot hooks surrounding Chairman Eris,
five hundred years prior, the nightmare era that even the game left shrouded in unanswered questions, revealing nothing more.
Stories of that time.
A thread leading to the truth...
From Reinhardt himself,
the living witness who had endured that era firsthand,
it felt within reach.
And so,
with that conviction, Aden focused intently on Reinhardt's words.
At last, he began.
"She wasn't alone. I don't remember the name or even the appearance of the being who was with her... but there was another existence that aided the Dragon of Creation."
A name and form he couldn't recall,
yet another someone had assisted in sealing the nightmare.
From there,
Reinhardt slowly resumed his tale.
"I definitely heard the name myself and saw the figure with my own eyes... but afterward, it was as if someone had deliberately wiped it all away."
As if straining to dredge up the memory of the past,
his brow furrowed...
his tone laced with utter bewilderment as he continued.
'Wiped away...?'
Those words
rang so bafflingly strange,
almost impossible to comprehend.
"And others don't even recall that the person existed at all. At this point, I half-wonder if it was all just my imagination."
Erased by someone.
Others might forget, but
Reinhardt's own memories had been tampered with.
That alone
was so profoundly bizarre it bordered on the unbelievable.
'The realm of immortality...'
Reinhardt,
the being known as the Empire's Sovereign,
even judged by today's standards,
stood on par with the Sword Saint, the Emperor, or the Magic Tower Lord.
And in time,
he had even surpassed them all, stepping into the transcendent realm reached only by Eris.
At the very least, he had set foot there.
'The memories of such a being...?'
Thus,
for someone's hand to erase the memories of such a figure
was strange enough, on its own, to raise endless suspicions.
"So take it for what it's worth as reference material. I can't even confirm anymore if that existence was real."
"Got it..."
With that, he wrapped up, advising Aden to merely keep it in mind.
Aden gave a curt nod of acknowledgment.
But truthfully... he didn't buy that it was Reinhardt's delusion.
A being who had ascended to such heights
wasn't prone to simple misremembrances.
And to think only that specific memory had been manipulated? There seemed no motive, no reason to blur just a portion.
Besides, Reinhardt's account flowed
with such vivid, intricate detail it defied any notion of mere fancy.
And above all,
'It all fits...'
Eris's past.
The ambiguously handled threads in Frontier Chronicles,
every last one.
If there had been one person aiding Eris,
most of it suddenly made sense.
'The issue is...'
But that led to
yet another problem.
'Even Reinhardt can't remember.'
Reinhardt, who had attained the realm of immortality,
couldn't recall the one who had stood by Eris, sealing the nightmare alongside her.
He knew only that they had existed—
nothing more.
'Feels like it was... erased...'
As if, incongruously,
only that person's segment had been surgically removed from his mind.
In Frontier Chronicles,
mental manipulation spells of that nature were exceedingly rare.
All were overwhelmingly difficult, high-tier magic,
and most couldn't handle prolonged effects... or affect multiple targets at once.
Even among the rest,
they failed against anyone nearing—let alone in—the realm of immortality.
After whittling them down,
the few that remained...
'No one can cast them...'
No one capable.
And even if there were,
those spells came with brutal penalties, every one.
'And more than that...'
And crucially,
Reinhardt wasn't the only one whose memories had been altered.
It was as if
that existence had been erased from the world itself...
No one alive remembered them.
Was Reinhardt the sole exception
purely because he had reached immortality...? A faint echo lingering in his mind...
'A spell interfering with the memories of every being in the world... even those in the immortal realm...'
In the game Frontier Chronicles,
magic so vast in scope and perilously potent...
There was exactly one.
'Scales of a Lifetime.'
Lost to time... unlearnable, unseen in the game...
Recorded only in tomes from the old kingdom's ruins.
Scales of a Lifetime.
A spell embodying the devotion of one's entire life to a single wish.
That magic,
per its lore, harnessed the world's own power to grant the wish,
exacting a commensurate price.
It surely possessed the raw, unyielding potency
to affect even the immortal realm.
'Not certain yet...'
However...
There was no need to conclude definitively that this existence had invoked the Scales of a Lifetime.
High likelihood, yes—
but still mere conjecture,
not proven fact.
'Hope it's not...'
A highly plausible theory,
one he might even subconsciously accept as truth.
Yet...
He desperately hoped otherwise.
Hoped his hunch was wrong.
Because...
'That's just... too tragic.'
Forgotten by the entire world...
Having saved it alongside others,
sacrificed everything for it in the end,
yet remembered by no one...
Wasn't such a tale
utterly heartbreaking?
So for once,
he wished his assumption dead wrong.
"Not sure if it helped, but that's everything I can share."
"It did. Feels like things are a bit clearer now."
And so,
harboring those thoughts,
as Reinhardt declared this the extent of his knowledge,
Aden offered brief thanks and resumed walking.
"Good then. Gear up—we're almost there."
Soon after,
Reinhardt's words were followed by
the sight of a village like some ruined wasteland,
buildings crumbled and rusted away to corrosion...
uninhabitable by any stretch.
"This is..."
"A village hit by monster raids. Clear them out, rescue the people, build your reputation."
Heading in, past walls long eroded and collapsed,
"It's a wreck..."
"Everything's been like this since the nightmare era."
Devastated.
The word fell short; the village filled his vision in utter ruin.
Buildings ablaze, corroded, collapsing;
ground parched and cracked...
Flora and soil alike bereft of their former luster and life.
At the sight,
Aden ventured deeper into the forsaken ruins alongside Reinhardt.
Kiieeeeeeeek-!!
A guttural screech assaulted their ears,
as four monsters spewing dark purple mana locked eyes on them, poised to charge.
'Grotesque...'
Familiar fare,
monsters he'd seen countless times since arriving in this world.
Basic ones—goblins, orcs—but these were... off.
Repulsive, abhorrent.
Words failed their twisted forms...
'Nightmare corruption...'
The debuting corrupted monsters,
known till now only by reputation or game footage.