Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Monster
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I asked in as calm a voice as possible.
"Lize, how can you read it?"
Lize tilted her head.
"I... don't really know either."
"You don't know?"
"Yeah... It just... comes into view. Like I already knew it..."
Lize looked genuinely perplexed.
Her eyes darted around, clearly confused by a situation she couldn't comprehend herself.
It didn't seem like a lie.
Lize had never been good at lying.
It always showed on her face.
"Is it because of the enhanced human experiments? Or... am I just weird from the start...?"
"It's just an ability."
How Lize could read it... that could wait.
What mattered now was whether this deciphering was real or fake.
I looked at Sir Heinrich.
"Call the mages. The ones we brought and two from each count's house. All of them."
Sir Heinrich nodded and stepped out.
Count Valdemar had collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
Blood kept flowing from one leg.
He'd stopped the bleeding, but the pain lingered.
Lize was still peering into the book.
"This part... feels like it means 'beginning.' And this... 'king'? Or maybe 'ruler'?"
Her mumbling voice.
Not entirely sure, but she was trying to read it.
About ten minutes passed.
In that time, Lize kept murmuring over the book, while Valdemar groaned on the floor.
Sir Heinrich returned with three mages.
"Young master, I've brought them."
All three were in their forties or fifties.
In this world, mages weren't just spell-slingers.
They were polymaths.
Studying ancient scripts, history, alchemy, magical theory.
Everything.
"Young master, you called for us?"
"Look at this book."
I handed over the book Lize had been holding.
The eldest of the three mages took it carefully.
He opened the first page.
"...This is."
His eyes widened.
"Ancient script. Very old."
"Can you read it?"
"...No. Sorry, young master. Script this ancient..."
He shook his head.
The other two mages examined it too, with the same result.
"If we took it to the Imperial Magic Tower, maybe..."
"No need."
I pointed to Lize.
"She says she can read it."
"...Pardon?"
All three mages turned to Lize.
Lize let out a small hic.
Strangers' gazes.
Three of them.
"Lize, read it."
"Y-yes, young master..."
Lize pointed to a section with a trembling hand.
"Here... it says 'The primordial king slumbers.'"
"What?"
One mage stepped forward.
"How do you read it like that?"
"This character... is 'primordial,' this one's 'king.' And this..."
Lize explained, pointing one by one.
The mages began nodding.
"...It makes sense."
"The sentence structure fits..."
"Then what about this part?"
A mage pointed to another sentence.
Lize thought for a moment, then answered.
"'His legacy lies in the depths'... I think."
The mages exchanged glances.
"Incredible."
"Grammatically perfect."
"Young master, this is... a monumental discovery."
"Certain?"
"Not 100%. But if this girl's translation holds... it's likely First Age script."
First Age.
Over 3,000 years ago.
The golden age of magic and sword.
Thousands of Swordmasters, grand mages soaring the skies.
"This book alone would fetch a fortune from the Magic Tower. But more importantly... what's else inside."
True enough.
The dungeon.
A First Age ruin.
What lay within?
Grimoires?
Ancient weapons?
Or...
Forgotten technologies?
"Congratulations, young master."
Valdemar's voice came.
He was still sitting on the floor.
Looking up at me, face smeared with blood.
"With this... you've pulled ahead of Young Master Ernst."
My heart sank.
What was this bastard saying?
Ahead in the competition?
Valdemar was trying to kill me without dirtying his own hands.
So that's how he wanted to play it?
No more delaying.
"Sir Heinrich."
"Yes, young master."
"What are that man's crimes?"
Sir Heinrich looked down at Valdemar.
"First, murdering the overseer dispatched by His Grace."
Valdemar's face paled.
"Second, discovering the dungeon but concealing it, failing to report to the duchy."
"W-wait..."
"Third, conspiring with Count Gregen to plot rebellion using the dungeon's power."
Sir Heinrich's voice was steady. No emotion, like reading from a ledger.
"Fourth, attempting to assassinate the young master. Fifth, insulting His Grace's past."
"M-misunderstanding! I just admired him from his mercenary king days..."
Valdemar tried to babble excuses, but Sir Heinrich didn't stop.
"Sixth..."
Sir Heinrich paused, looking at me.
His expression said he understood everything with a glance.
"Violating the bond between brothers."
I nodded slowly.
"What's the verdict?"
"Death. Anything less won't suffice. And it won't end with him alone."
"Wait...! Please wait!"
Valdemar crawled forward.
Dragging his injured leg.
"This is unjust! I... I just followed Gregen's orders!"
Sir Heinrich didn't reply. He slowly drew his sword.
Shing.
The sound of blade leaving sheath.
"No! Stop! Hear me out...!"
Whoosh.
The sound of air slicing.
Then.
Thud.
Count Valdemar's body split in two.
The mages' faces drained of color.
All three stepped back, averting their eyes from the corpse.
Natural.
They weren't battle mages. Lab scholars who read books, drew circles, theorized. Not killers hardened by the battlefield.
Lize was unfazed.
Didn't blink at Valdemar's remains.
She'd seen orcs burn in Granfeldt, Gregen's head roll, now this. She was used to it.
So was I.
"Is it... that big a discovery?"
Hic!
A strange sound.
The eldest mage.
Middle-aged, well past fifty.
One of Valdemar's retainers. He clamped a hand over his mouth. The sudden death of his lord shocked him.
"S-sorry..."
He bowed, face flushed.
Hic.
The hiccup from nerves or shock.
Like Lize's hics.
"It's fine. Can you answer?"
"Y-yes... 'Great' doesn't cover it, young master."
"That significant?"
"The Academy might dispatch professors."
I froze.
"...What?"
"A First Age ruin. This scale... at least five, no, ten experts from the Academy. Ancient script specialists, magic theorists, historians, archaeologists..."
His voice sped up.
Excited now.
The corpse-pale face from moments ago was gone.
"This... this will shake the academic world. Most First Age records are lost. Fragments at best... But an intact ruin in that dungeon..."
Hic!
Another hiccup.
He covered his mouth, flustered.
The other two mages nodded too.
"Exactly. A discovery for the ages!"
"The whole duchy... no, the Empire's attention."
I exhaled slowly.
The Empire's attention.
"Then he might come."
I murmured.
The mages looked up in unison.
"He?"
"The Dean of History at the Academy. Duke Sylvesta."
The three mages held their breath.
**
Our family had served House Valdemar for three generations.
Since my grandfather, my father, and now me.
Over seventy years as their mages.
But now... probably not anymore.
The count's house would be wiped out, no doubt.
A count granted title directly by His Majesty the King.
And that count was cleaved in two before my eyes.
The boy watched without a flicker.
No.
Wrong word.
He didn't just see it. He ordered the count's death.
Not merely commanded. He toyed with two counts like playthings.
Two lords, seasoned and cunning, reduced to nothing by a ten-year-old's schemes.
Adrian von Krushtein.
I looked at his face again.
No disturbance after killing two counts.
No.
Not undisturbed.
Calculating something.
Those cold eyes.
No child's eyes.
Hic.
Another hiccup.
I'd heard rumors recently.
In Granfeldt, hundreds of orcs wiped out by fire with zero losses.
And Sir Heinrich handed command to that ten-year-old.
Laughable, I'd thought.
Surely the orc specialist Sir Heinrich did it alone, rumors twisted.
That made sense.
What strategy from a ten-year-old?
What command?
But... this scene before me.
Sir Heinrich.
The proud orc slayer who ignored even Ernst's orders.
His attitude toward the boy was like serving a future lord.
And just now.
"Duke Sylvesta might come."
The boy's words.
Duke Sylvesta.
Had the boy calculated even that?
'This dungeon's discovery will bring Duke Sylvesta.'
'Meeting him forges a connection.'
'That link ties to the Empire's core.'
A ten-year-old thinking that far?
Hic.
Again.
This damn hiccup.
The monster's son is a monster, they say?
No.
I might be looking at a monster beyond Duke Walter.