Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: What They Were Hiding
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"Am I wrong? You traitors?"
By pretending to keep up courtesies while slipping in a bit of informal speech, the reaction came immediately.
"You damned... bastard spawn!"
"How dare a mercenary's son...!"
Lize's strategy was simple.
Deliberately feeding different pieces of information to the two counts.
**
"If we leak that each is planning to poison the other... they'll definitely exchange that intel. And at the party... they won't be able to drink from each other's glasses anymore."
**
The prediction hit the mark perfectly.
"I am indeed a bastard son. But Sir Valdemar, that 'mercenary' remark... isn't it rather dangerous?"
Valdemar's face stiffened ever so slightly.
He had realized it too.
What he had just said.
Mercenary.
It wasn't an insult to me.
It was an insult to my father.
"Sir Valdemar! What are you hesitating for now? Let's kill that mercenary bastard first and avenge our children!"
"...That might be best, my in-law."
Well, well.
Beating the drum and the gong all on their own.
"Kill that mongrel!"
Gregen bellowed at his knights.
"Kill him! Right now!"
Valdemar raised his hand as well.
But no one moved.
The knights from both sides simply stood in place. Not even drawing their swords.
Their eyes were fixed on one person.
Not me.
Sir Heinrich.
He stood ironclad right beside me, arms crossed, looking down at the two counts.
His expression unchanging, simply standing there, but his presence alone made the air heavy.
His position was Knight Captain.
But here, he seemed higher than the counts.
No, he was higher.
The knights from both sides fell silent.
Their hands rested on their sword hilts, but they couldn't draw.
"Are you deaf? I said kill that brat!"
"Don't talk nonsense. You expect us to... fight that monster right now? That's Sir Heinrich, the Orc Slayer!"
One knight from Gregen's side stepped back, shaking his head.
"A monster who's just half a step from Swordmaster realm!"
A knight from Valdemar's side also released his sword hilt and muttered.
Hold on?
Sir Heinrich is just half a step from Swordmaster?
This was new information.
But it suddenly made sense.
How he had so easily won over the knights.
Last night, I had met with knights from both camps separately.
'We have proof the two counts killed the overseer. But you lot are innocent. You were just following orders.'
'At the party, the two counts will issue some command. If you don't follow it... we'll treat you as not guilty. You'll even get rewarded.'
Sure enough, even during that recruitment, Sir Heinrich had been right there in front of me.
"You call yourselves knights? Cowards!"
"You lot! That's an order! Kill that brat right now!"
The two counts bellowed furiously.
One knight from Gregen's side fully released his sword hilt and bowed his head.
"If it meant dying alone... I would have charged. But if we fail, my wife, children, and parents will all be executed for conspiracy. Forgive me, Your Excellency."
A knight from Valdemar's side took a step back as well.
"Even if we could kill the Orc Slayer... what then? When the monster of monsters, the Knight Slayer, comes for revenge for his son and disciple, it'll just repeat what happened before."
"It was a fight we could never win from the start."
Another knight muttered as he fully sheathed his sword.
"Your Excellency, forgive us."
Their will to fight was completely gone.
The knights showed no intention of battling at all.
But one man was the exception.
Count Gregen.
"Fine! Good! If you won't... I'll do it myself! Die with me, you mongrel!"
Gregen raised his sword high and charged at me.
But...
Whoosh.
The sound of wind slicing.
Before Gregen could take another step...
Squelch. Squelch.
Two short sounds, and both his ankles were severed.
"Arrrgh!"
He screamed as he tumbled to the ground.
I hadn't even seen Sir Heinrich move.
He was still standing right beside me.
Without even drawing his sword.
No.
He had drawn it.
Blood dripping from the sheath proved he had.
It was just that...
Drawing the sword, slicing the man's ankles, and sheathing it again... the entire motion was so fast it was invisible.
They were both Expert-level knights, yet the gap was this wide.
I could see why the rumor existed that he was just half a step from Swordmaster.
"Guhk... guhk..."
Gregen groaned on the ground.
Blood kept flowing.
Sir Heinrich slowly approached him.
"For the crime of killing the overseer dispatched by His Excellency. For plotting to assassinate the Young Master. I will dispose of you here."
Whoosh.
Gregen's head rolled across the floor.
A clean strike.
Sir Heinrich slowly sheathed his sword and walked toward the remaining man.
Count Valdemar.
He was already on his knees.
"Wait! I surrender! Surrender!"
Valdemar cried out in a trembling voice.
"Money! The count title! I'll give it all! Just spare me!"
"Money isn't the issue. Why you killed the overseer... that's what matters."
"I'll tell you that too! No, I'll tell you, Young Master! Just spare me!"
Valdemar's voice grew even more servile.
All the bastard this and that was gone.
Right now, he was just an old noble begging for his life.
"Speak."
"We... found a dungeon in the mine."
In that instant, the party hall buzzed.
The knights from both sides wore shocked expressions.
Gregen's knights, Valdemar's knights—all the same.
It was top-secret, known to only a few.
I tilted my head.
"A dungeon..."
Dungeons were fairly common in this world.
"If a dungeon is found in your territory, you'd get rewards too. Reporting it would have gotten you development rights from the duchy, right?"
That was the normal procedure.
Dungeon discovered > Report to duchy > Development rights distributed > Profits shared.
No reason to hide it.
Hiding it was actually a loss.
"Of course! I said just take the reward! But... but this man..."
His finger pointed at Count Gregen on the floor.
No, precisely at Count Gregen, whose head and body were separated.
"This man said to explore the dungeon well, gather power, and use it to avenge our children! He egged me on! I... I opposed it! But he was so stubborn...!"
I looked at Gregen's head on the floor.
His eyes were still wide open.
Frozen in a face full of rage.
The man he had even arranged a marriage alliance with was pinning all the blame on him, but he stayed silent.
Of course.
A decapitated man can't speak.
**
A dungeon discovery. This was... far too great a merit.
Gold or silver mines would be a 'decent merit'.
We reclaimed the mine the two counts had hoarded. If I gave some of the profits to my brother... it might have been settled smoothly.
But a dungeon was different.
A dungeon wasn't just resources.
Magic stones.
Rare minerals.
Monster materials.
And above all... a training ground to gain combat experience.
For a ducal house, discovering one dungeon was equivalent to gaining an entire territory.
With merit this big?
'Oh, this bastard... he's useful?'
It wouldn't stop there.
'This guy's heir material, isn't he?'
People would start thinking that way.
Of course, that wasn't what I wanted. Even if they thought so, the gap in power between me and my brother was still like heaven and earth.
It would just raise my odds of sudden death.
"Young Master."
Count Valdemar spoke in a trembling voice.
"Over there... over there."
He limped along.
The tendons in one leg were severed.
Sir Heinrich's handiwork.
'He needs to guide us to the dungeon, so leave one leg.' A consideration.
A cruel consideration, though.
Valdemar's wrists bore mana-suppressing shackles.
He had been fed a drug that prevented mana deployment.
And this wouldn't be the end. Every single one of his crimes warranted execution.
No, it wouldn't end with just execution.
"Over... there."
Valdemar pointed with his finger.
A massive cave entrance loomed ahead.
No.
Less a cave and more...
A door.
A gigantic stone door.
The passage leading to it was wider than expected—enough for five adult men to walk side by side.
"Be careful, Young Master."
Sir Heinrich took the lead.
Lize stuck right by my side.
Valdemar... limped behind.
We delved deeper into the passage. A flickering blue light appeared ahead. The dungeon's true entrance.
A dimensional gate.
The gate was far larger than I had imagined.
"You crazy bastards... you were going to develop a dungeon this huge on your own?"
This size alone could spawn a thriving city from development rights.
"...Forgive me."
Valdemar muttered in a trembling voice.
Forgive you? Too late.
"What results so far?"
"We couldn't explore much. Just barely the outermost edges..."
"Obviously. But does that mean zero results?"
Valdemar swallowed hard.
"17 raw magic stones. 83 ancient coins. And..."
"And?"
"A book."
My eyes lit up.
A book from a dungeon.
That wasn't just any book.
Ancient knowledge. Grimoires. Or...
Forgotten history.
"What kind of book?"
"We... couldn't read the script. Looked like ancient characters..."
Valdemar cautiously pulled a cloth-wrapped item from his bosom.
"I always kept it on me. In case someone recognized it..."
It was bound in leather, covered in thick dust.
I carefully opened the book.
First page.
"...This."
It was filled with script.
But unreadable.
A form I'd never seen.
A structure I'd never seen.
Sir Heinrich peered over my shoulder.
"Young Master, what script is it?"
"No idea. Definitely ancient, but..."
Lize looked at the book from the side too.
And then.
"..."
Lize froze.
"Lize?"
I looked at her.
Lize's eyes were wide.
Trembling.
"Uh... uh..."
"What's wrong?"
Lize slowly raised a finger.
Pointing to one line in the book.
"These characters..."
Her voice shook.
"I can read them."