Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Maria Timons (1)
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When I pointed to a spot marked on the map and spoke, Count Bellun looked at me with clear bewilderment.
“……You want this mine?”
It was only natural for Count Bellun to be surprised. This mine had long been abandoned.
He stared at me intently, suspecting some hidden motive, but there was no way he could figure it out.
“Yes, I want this mine.”
“Then…… very well. If it’s just this, you’ll let the whole matter slide?”
“Oh, and if you could send about fifty laborers from your estate as well.”
I said it casually, but fifty laborers was no small number.
Count Bellun seemed to think that was my real aim and let out a small sigh before nodding.
“……Understood.”
“Thank you for the good deal, Count Bellun.”
I extended my hand to him for a handshake.
Count Bellun stared at my hand, trembling slightly, before finally gripping it tightly.
He must have held back from saying anything to me because of Riya standing nearby.
“I hope to maintain good relations with the Bellun Count family going forward. So, I trust nothing like this will happen again.”
It was as good as a threat that things wouldn’t end pleasantly if he pulled something like this again.
Count Bellun’s face twitched as he grasped the meaning.
“O-Of course. Nior…… I’ll have a word with him. I apologize once more for the trouble my son has caused.”
“No need.”
I gave Riya a slight glance and rose from my seat.
“Then I’ll take my leave. As for the mine transfer……”
“I’ll have the documents drawn up tomorrow and sent to the Banheart estate.”
“Thank you.”
I gave a crisp bow and exited Count Bellun’s mansion.
Riya followed silently behind me, but once we were a good distance away, she asked in a calm tone.
“I thought you could squeeze more out of him, but Clay’s more merciful than I expected.”
“It’s not like I’m swallowing the Bellun Count family whole. This is plenty.”
“If it were me, I’d have accepted the territorial war and wiped them out. You could even get imperial support in this situation, right?”
“That’s true.”
It wasn’t for nothing that Count Bellun had come in so humbly and surrendered unconditionally. Having Riya Asktalin on our side was practically a guarantee of victory.
[But why didn’t you?]
Gransesia seemed inwardly curious as well and asked.
Under the two women’s interested gazes, I smiled faintly and replied.
“For some reason, I have a feeling I won’t even need to lift a finger.”
“You won’t need to lift a finger?”
“Well, it’s just a hunch.”
I couldn’t explain the details to Riya, so I quietly swallowed the rest.
‘The Bellun Count family will collapse on its own without me doing a thing anyway.’
Currently, the Bellun Count family had one major business they’d invested heavily in.
But that business was about to go completely bust, leaving them with a massive debt.
‘Yet the Bellun Count family overcomes that debt and grows even larger.’
What got them through the crisis came down to two things.
Maria Timons and the mine I’d just acquired.
Desperate to pay off the debt, Count Bellun would push to mine even the abandoned shafts.
In the process, there’d be a rockfall accident—but that would turn into a huge opportunity.
They’d discover a massive deposit of magic stones.
‘And the one who turned that into profit was Maria Timons.’
Maria Timons would show her brilliance, selling the magic stones at top price to clear the debt and bring enormous gains to the Bellun Count family.
[Count Bellun’s just an extra, but he’s got this much backstory?]
‘It’s not Count Bellun—it’s because of Maria.’
Maria Timons was a lead character, one of the heroines in the story.
In the original, Fabian saves Maria at Rabin’s request, exposing Count Bellun’s misdeeds and causing the family’s downfall.
‘Well, this time, they’ll crumble naturally without all that.’
[Not exactly heartbreaking.]
So there was no need for me to get involved. The Bellun Count family would self-destruct under the weight of their debt anyway.
“Clay.”
“Yeah?”
“You’re not talking to someone right now, are you?”
Riya, who’d been walking silently beside me, eyed me suspiciously. Her unexpected words left me momentarily speechless.
“Your expression keeps changing by the second, like you’re in a conversation…….”
“It’s just your imagination.”
“Is that so? Hmm, if you say so, Clay, I’ll let it slide.”
She accepted it reluctantly, but her gaze sharpened suspiciously, still fixed on me.
I kept a straight face, but inwardly I was rattled. No one else, not even Riya until now, had noticed.
‘……Does my face show it that much when I talk to you?’
[N-No? It doesn’t seem that different from usual…… It’s just that lizard girl’s freakishly perceptive.]
That was a relief, but Riya seemed to have a real talent for reading expressions. It was almost scary.
[So, all the urgent stuff to worry about is settled now?]
‘Yeah. Once I take over the mine tomorrow, that’s it. I can leave that to Rabin, so from here on, I just focus on the Single Moon Divine Sword.’
Riya was a bit concerning, but I figured she’d understand if I explained the situation.
‘But will the remaining time be enough?’
I’d only gotten a taste so far, but the Single Moon Divine Sword truly lived up to its title as a divine sword technique.
Even with my improved understanding of swordsmanship, grasping a single form was a challenge.
‘……It’ll work out somehow.’
I had one month until we headed to Aintban.
I had to master the basics of the Single Moon Divine Sword in that time, no matter what.
* * *
A special chamber in the mithril mine.
According to Damian, it had been built long ago by soldiers of the Dalros Kingdom.
The fallen Seven Hero, Rugal Necris, massacred countless people of the Dalros Kingdom before fleeing.
Only another Seven Hero could stand against Rugal, who wielded power great enough to be called the Death King.
And the one who stepped up was Damian.
Damian clashed fiercely with Rugal, pursuing him relentlessly until they reached the vicinity of Kitten Forest.
There, Damian witnessed it.
Rugal, who had abandoned his human dignity to become a lich.
“In the end, I succeeded in defeating Rugal, but he hid his core in a spatial rift, biding his time for a later revival.”
“So that’s why the Dalros Kingdom created this place?”
“Indeed.”
The death aura leaking from the spatial rift corrupted the land, so the Dalros Kingdom built this chamber to contain it.
And to guard against Rugal’s potential revival, Damian too abandoned his human body.
As long as Rugal kept resurrecting endlessly, a human lifespan would inevitably run out.
“For hundreds of years…… I fought Rugal ceaselessly, bringing him down time and again.”
What must Damian’s emotions have been like through that endless-seeming battle?
‘It’ll be the last time this time, though.’
In this revival, Rugal throws everything at Damian but ultimately falls.
And in the fight, Damian perishes alongside him in mutual destruction.
“I never imagined the Dalros Kingdom would fall after that…… But it’s all in the past now.”
Damian spoke bitterly, then slowly rose to his feet.
“Alright, we’ve rested enough. Time to resume training.”
‘Damn it.’
I forced strength into my trembling legs and managed to speak.
“……Aren’t we already training?”
“Is that training? That’s just basic warm-up.”
Warm-up my ass.
I barely swallowed the curse rising in my throat.
While listening to Damian’s story earlier, I’d been training my lower body—bent legs half-squatting, heavy metal weights on both arms.
But that was my perspective; to Damian, it was just light post-meal exercise.
“Now, pick up your sword and come at me.”
A wooden sword was in Damian’s hand.
Normally, you’d assume it was for light sparring, but it was the opposite.
He wielded the wooden sword precisely because it wouldn’t kill me if he struck.
“Haaah!”
In my hand was a real sword.
I even channeled mana, putting full power into the form.
The Single Moon Divine Sword form Damian had taught me.
I swung it, imitating as best I could, and a faint white sword light flickered.
“Sloppy! Faster mana circulation! And your shoulder angle’s off—raise it higher!”
‘Easier said than done!’
Damian had only given me the basic forms of the Single Moon Divine Sword, never properly teaching them.
His logic was that they’d come naturally through practical use.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
“Gah!”
The wooden sword flew mercilessly whenever I showed an opening or failed to execute the Single Moon Divine Sword properly, pounding me.
“Tsk tsk. You can’t even manage the first form, Crescent Moon…….”
I wanted to snap back at Damian’s tongue-clicking.
‘What kind of barbaric training method is this?’
I did need to spar with Damian to achieve proficiency, but I hadn’t expected 90% of his training to be sparring.
And Damian wasn’t the one who devised this brutal method.
It was the ‘certain wicked saintess’ who had trained him.
[……Sorry it’s so barbaric.]
‘If you know, reflect on it.’
[Th-That’s how I learned back then! And this is the fastest way to adapt swordsmanship to real combat!]
She wasn’t wrong.
Damian’s pointers were spot-on, and I could feel myself improving bit by bit with each repetition of the first form, Crescent Moon.
Fighting as if in real battle every time let me grasp when to use it and how to swing for maximum impact, even if my execution was rough.
With such an exceptional teacher, this brute-force method yielded incredible results.
“You’ve improved since the start, at least. Back then, two spars would leave you collapsed.”
Damian muttered as I popped back up like a punching bag.
“With near-daily training like this for a whole month, how could I not get used to it?”
“You’ve got quick recovery, so we could repeat this every day. I never expected such talent.”
Damian sounded genuinely impressed.
The grueling endurance work followed by endless spars.
Bruises covered my body daily, muscle pain trailing after, but a night’s sleep left me good as new.
‘Divine Blood…… It’s cheat-level.’
Divine Blood always kept my body in peak condition.
Surprisingly, it even restored fatigue. Bruises and soreness healed fast, letting me endure this hellish routine day after day.
“Your skill growing so fast despite your talent must be thanks to that too.”
Damian nodded to himself.
“……Has my skill really improved? Honestly, it feels the same every day.”
“It has. Shame you still can’t execute Crescent Moon properly, but give it three more days—you’ll have it down. Then you’ll qualify for the ultimate technique derived from it.”
Ultimate technique.
My eyes lit up at the word.
“The Single Moon Divine Sword consists of twelve forms, four of which branch into ultimate techniques.”
So four ultimates in total.
One was Falling Moon, the follow-up linked after Crescent Moon.
“Falling Moon is the first ultimate technique learned—the simplest, most fundamental one.”
“So if I master Crescent Moon, I can use Falling Moon?”
“No. Mastering Crescent Moon is just the prerequisite.”
“……I see.”
“Of course.”
Damian continued calmly as I showed disappointment.
“No matter how simple Falling Moon is among the ultimates, it’s one of the Single Moon Divine Sword’s essences. It’s not something you can wield after just one form. You need at least half of the twelve forms—six in total.”
Half of twelve forms—six.
For me, who hadn’t even mastered the first, Crescent Moon, it seemed impossibly distant.
Yet it also made my heart race.
‘Crescent Moon alone is this tough—the others must be even more incredible.’
Even just a fraction of the Single Moon Divine Sword revealed its greatness.
Imagining the realm I’d reach upon fully mastering it made it hard to calm my pounding heart.