Chapter 423: This Suddenly? (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 423: This Suddenly? (1)
“Hey, hey. Baldy. Do you have any idea what this is? Huh?”
Murakan said, grabbing Vinn Branche by the shoulders and giving him a shake. Picon was currently incarnated within the man’s body.
After leaving the Imperial Palace, Jin had traveled to the territory of Volta with Murakan and Gilly.
Picon had asked Jin to bring back a piece of the Kinzelo Leader’s iron. He’d heard the man could manipulate the metal as if he were the God of Blacksmiths himself.
Fortunately, the iron created by the Kinzelo Leader's power remained on the battlefield even after he and his forces retreated.
The Hairan family had recovered most of it for their mages to research, but Jin had managed to secure a few pieces for himself.
[You impatient brat. Do you think the analysis is done the moment I lay my eyes on it? I need time to actually examine it.]
“How long will it take?”
[A week, if we’re lucky.]
“Can’t you do it faster?”
[A week is incredibly fast. If we’re unlucky, it could take months, and we might not even get any results. Do you think it’s easy to extract information about a user from just a few shards of iron?]
“Ha! Who the hell is that guy, anyway?”
The Leader of Kinzelo.
Two things had become certain about him after this battle. First, he was a Demon, and second, he possessed overwhelming power.
[You said he was a Demon with enough power to overwhelm both you and a 10-star Knight? If he’s a Demon of that caliber, there will definitely be a unique demonic energy left in the iron. So just wait patiently.]
“Fine, fine. I get it.”
[But what are you going to do with the rest of the iron?]
Picon pointed to the shards remaining in Jin’s hand.
“I’m going to hand them over to Valeria Hister.”
[That Record Mage. Good idea. Perhaps that mage can provide more information than I can.]
Of all Jin’s allies, Valeria was currently the busiest.
She was tracking the lost magic of the Hister family, restoring the recording devices she received from Jin, and searching for Temar’s tomb, all on her own.
‘I’d like to meet her soon, but she must be frantically busy. I’ll have to send it with a letter. I should also tell her to prepare a gift for the Emperor.’
The Golden Crown the Emperor had given as a reward had already passed through the teleport gate and arrived at the Garden of Swords.
A return gift was in order.
‘The Demon corpses.’
Rick Helter, the 5th Section Leader of the Imperial Guard, and the subordinates Jin had encountered in the Wantaramo Forest.
They had expected their bodies to oxidize without a trace after choosing to become Demons, but Valeria’s ice-sealing magic had preserved parts of their remains as evidence.
Jin planned to reveal them to the public in the near future.
‘Based on our conversation, the Emperor is ready to discard the Hairan family. It seemed like he wanted to eliminate them the moment he recovered the stone.’
That was why the Imperial family hadn’t intervened to help Hairan, even while Kinzelo feigned innocence and Zipple subtly pressured them.
‘Sending the Dragon Knights at the very end was an unavoidable choice to preserve Imperial authority and because there were too many witnesses. They also had to find the whereabouts of the stone. In his heart, he probably hoped Hairan would be destroyed right then and there.’
Instead of the ‘arrogant and uncontrollable’ Hairan Clan led by Ron, the Emperor wanted a different, more obedient version.
Losing Ron Hairan, the strongest warrior in Viment, and his grandson Dante, who was touted as the next strongest, would certainly be a painful loss.
‘But from the moment the option of Demons became available, they were no longer irreplaceable assets. The Emperor decided that the fact that Sir Ron and Dante could threaten the Imperial family was a bigger problem.’
Body transformation? Is it something like a Bio-Golem?
Similar, but a bit different. I heard the dark mages of old called this Demonization. It’s not a perfect magic circle.
I see it too. The activation is slow, and at a glance, it looks unnecessarily complex and crude.
This was the conversation he had shared with Valeria about the Demons in the Wantaramo Forest. According to her, the current Demons of Viment were not in a perfected state.
Nevertheless, the Emperor believed that the Demons could more than make up for the power lost by losing Ron and Dante.
‘In any case, I can deal an irreversible blow to the Imperial family's public image, just like when Zipple’s Bio-Golem issue exploded.’
Since the terror attack, the Imperial family appeared to be helping Kinzelo rather than Hairan.
However, the citizens weren’t all fools. Even with the media being manipulated and controlled, rumors were spreading that the Imperial family was trying to ostracize Hairan.
The pens of Hairan and Jin were also constantly churning out such articles.
Throughout this, one thing enraged the citizens of Viment more than anything else: Bio-Golems and the giant monsters that seemed to obey human commands.
Especially after the Holy Kingdom incident, the vast majority of ordinary people loathed the very idea of ‘Bio-Golems.’
This was thanks to Jin revealing to the world just how atrocious and cruel the process of creating a Bio-Golem was.
“Hey, kid. What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking that the public can’t distinguish between a Demon and a Bio-Golem.”
“Huh? Where did that come from?”
“I’m going to leak a story that the Demon corpses from the Wantaramo Forest aren't Kinzelo's, but the Imperial family’s Bio-Golems.”
“Young Master, is that alright?”
“It’s misinformation, but the Imperial family might move against Hairan sooner than I expected. I have to stop them. The Bio-Golem controversy will be a fatal blow. While they’re busy with damage control, they won’t be able to make a move on Hairan.”
The moment articles and evidence of ‘Imperial Bio-Golems’ began to circulate, the Imperial family would pay the price for subtly backing Kinzelo.
Furthermore, they would be forced to draw a clear line with Kinzelo. If they continued to show an ambiguous attitude, they might be framed as the ‘owners’ of the Bio-Golems that attacked Hairan in the first place.
If that happened, the Imperial family would look as if they had partnered with a terrorist group to purge Viment’s most prestigious family, and failed.
“Now that I hear it, that makes sense. You said the Emperor doesn’t know you have the Demon corpses, right?”
“Yeah, he doesn’t. That’s why he acted so boldly. If he had known, he would have had no choice but to offer me a deal from a position of weakness. Not that I would have accepted it. Dino is going to be frantically busy for a while.”
Jin smiled as he recalled the Emperor’s face. He was curious to see what kind of expression the man would make when the news about the Demon corpses hit all of Viment.
“It’s just a matter of being born in the wrong era. If Ron Hairan had been born when your father wasn’t around, he’s a man who could have easily been called the strongest. Compared to Cyron Runcandel, he’s being treated quite poorly.”
Murakan shrugged.
“Anyway, Lord Picon. We’ll be going now. Please contact us as soon as the analysis is finished and you find any clues.”
[Understood.]
* * *
As soon as the group arrived in the city of Kalon through the teleport gate, they couldn’t help but widen their eyes at the unexpected welcome and cheers.
“Waaaaah!”
“The hero of the Hairan incident!”
“The Flagbearer recognized by the Sword Emperor!”
“The Great Black Dragon!”
A crowd that seemed to number in the tens of thousands welcomed the group. They had all been waiting for Jin’s arrival, eating and sleeping near the teleport gate for several days.
Jin hadn’t realized the extent of his newfound fame. He had been at the Sword Emperor Castle until recently and had come straight here after visiting the Imperial Palace.
But the outside world was already praising Jin as the hero of the terror attack on the Sword Emperor Castle. Stories of the martial prowess Jin and Murakan displayed that day were spreading across the entire continent, including Huphester.
Of course, there were many other warriors who performed brilliantly that day, but it was natural for Jin and Murakan to stand out.
Murakan had protected the Sword Emperor Castle by completely dyeing the surrounding sky with spirit energy, and Jin had fought on the front lines alongside the Sword Emperor.
Rumors were even circulating among the public that the Sword Emperor Castle would have met its end that day if not for Jin and Murakan.
“O Great Black Dragon, please look this way just once!”
Normally, of course, such a commotion would never be allowed in the city of Kalon.
Since the teleport gate was a space used specifically for missions, it was always kept in an orderly state.
Furthermore, it was unthinkable for people to gather to welcome the 12th Flagbearer, who was rumored to have fallen out of favor with his clan.
Nevertheless, the reason the citizens could gather so boisterously to welcome the 12th Flagbearer was a direct result of his declaration for the patriarchate—he had already won over his ‘ten percent’ of supporters.
“What’s with all these people?”
His tone was gruff, but Murakan didn’t seem to mind the sound of humans singing his praises.
“It seems they are people who support you, Young Master.”
“Strawberry Pie, is helping the Sword Emperor Castle really something to make such a fuss about?”
“It’s likely because you played such an active role even while Sir Ron was present, Young Master… Many people are hoping that this incident will lead to an alliance between Runcandel and Hairan.”
An alliance between Runcandel and Hairan was a topic often mentioned among the public.
For now, Zipple held an edge over Runcandel, but everyone speculated about how much that gap would narrow if Hairan were to ally with the Runcandels.
Of course, it was a far-fetched idea, but given how the Imperial family had been pressuring Hairan lately, combined with Jin’s performance, people were starting to wonder.
“It looks to me like more people came to see you than me, Murakan.”
“I feel the same way.”
“Why me?”
“You were the guardian deity of Runcandel for the past thousand years, and you showed an awe-inspiring dignity at Hairan. Don’t keep making that grumpy face; smile for them a bit.”
“Why should I?”
Despite his answer, Murakan waved and smiled anyway, and even more intense cheers erupted from the citizens.
Then, a man wearing a monocle approached the group, accompanied by several Guardian Knights.
It was the Head Butler, Petro.
“You’ve arrived, Young Master!”
“It feels like it’s been a long time since you’ve greeted me so calmly.”
Jin was right. Petro usually greeted him in a frantic rush, as Jin's homecomings often followed some major incident that embarrassed the family, leaving a line of clan members eager to tear him apart.
This time, too, Jin had returned after technically causing trouble. The situation notwithstanding, he had provided an extraordinary amount of aid to Hairan. He had even blocked a mysterious assailant suspected of being a Black Knight.
“I suppose there are no family members waiting for me with sharpened blades this time?”
“It’s not quite like that, but the number of people openly showing hostility toward you has decreased significantly compared to before.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“Instead… a guest arrived a short while ago, Young Master.”
“Who is it?”
“Ghost Captain Rata Prochi. He came to the Garden of Swords without any notice, demanding to see you. And quite brazenly, he brought a large number of armed mercenaries with him…” Petro said with a sigh.