Knights Order Advisor (2)
Knights Order Advisor (2)
She had brought in someone far more incredible than I'd expected. I definitely needed some advice.
Before my next class started, I visited Katrin's office.
After receiving permission to enter, I walked in and found Katrin polishing a shield.
It was a sight typical of Katrin.
She welcomed me warmly, but I greeted her with a gloomy expression.
"What on earth is going on here?"
Katrin tilted her head in confusion.
"You mean the Duke of Ceuta? Incredible, isn't he? It took a great deal of effort to bring him here. But why?"
"So, first of all, he really was a duke."
Unfortunately, it wasn't just the senile ramblings of an old man.
"He doesn't have a territory, and his title is closer to honorary, but a duke is still a duke."
According to Katrin, the Duke of Ceuta was one of the previous king's many younger brothers.
He had failed to obtain 'Mana Resonance,' which was considered a prerequisite for kingship, and thus couldn't take part in the succession struggle.
Instead, he acquired the 'Mana Circuit Construction Method'—commonly known as the Mana Cultivation Technique—and became the strongest knight in the royal family—no, in the entire kingdom.
"I never saw him myself, but I heard he was truly magnificent back then. If he hadn't lost his mana and abilities while fighting monsters, he might have established a family far greater than your Duke's estate."
The Gracia Dukedom had also split from the royal family around that time.
It was for the same reason as the Duke of Ceuta: they had acquired the Mana Cultivation Technique instead of 'Mana Resonance.'
'Surely, I won't have to go around visiting every duke's estate just to obtain a mana cultivation technique, right...?'
While I agonized over whether I should start writing down the dukes' territories as destinations for the [Artifact Investigation Squad], Katrin continued speaking.
Even after losing his mana and abilities, the Duke of Ceuta apparently retained his status as a royal relative, and the title of duke was bestowed upon him.
But even as a royal relative, no one really acknowledged him, and his ducal title seemed to be purely honorary, without any territory.
"I suppose it couldn't be helped. If a parent loses their mana and abilities, their children won't be able to awaken either."
Why were the laws of genetics in this world such a total shitshow?
I couldn't understand why the inheritance of an innate ability would vanish because of an acquired accident.
Could it be that inherited abilities were passed down through mana rather than DNA?
"Even now, although he's an advisor to the Royal Knights, he hardly ever leaves his house, so very few people in the knights order even know who he is."
She was beating around the bush, but in the end, it meant he was just a washed-up old man who had lost his powers.
Perhaps realizing she'd only said negative things, Katrin's expression turned serious.
"But out of everyone I know, he has the most outstanding swordsmanship."
His eye for talent was certainly incredible.
The problem was that his eye was too good right now. I felt as though all my hidden abilities would be exposed under that sharp gaze.
Did she realize what I was worried about?
Katrin spoke up first.
"And you don't have to worry too much about your abilities being exposed. I already told him that you obtained my family's ability through the dagger I gave you."
"What? Is that really okay?"
She'd revealed such a secret.
Only Katrin knew that I had acquired her family's ability.
Even her father, the Count, didn't know about it, yet she had disclosed it.
The Princess and Balea, who had traveled with me for a long time, probably had a rough idea, but neither of them had ever said a word about it.
"Normally, I should have gotten your permission first, but there was no other way to bring him here."
Even so, she should have told me.
After stealing a glance at my expression, Katrin spoke with a defensive look on her face.
"Even when the Princess brought him a letter herself, he didn't budge an inch. He only finally came because I revealed that secret. I'm sorry!"
She bowed her head deeply along with her apology.
Since she'd done it while trying to find a way to help me, maybe I didn't need to be so upset.
Besides, it was an ability I'd obtained through the sword she gave me, and it was her family's ability to begin with.
Honestly, I should have been grateful she'd kept it a secret for this long.
Her apology just now made my lingering misgivings disappear. Even so, I still had to make sure.
"He doesn't seem like the type to go around blabbing, but will the secret really be kept?"
"He promised me. He's a man of his word."
It was a curious thing.
Why did Katrin trust this old man who had lost his abilities so completely?
My curiosity about the Duke of Ceuta grew even further.
I decided to trust Katrin's confidence in him.
Honestly, I didn't think I could keep the secret forever. If I kept fighting, it was bound to come out eventually.
It was already amazing that it had remained a secret for this long.
But I hoped it would be delayed as long as possible. Until I fully grew, until I gained the strength to withstand the aftermath of the revelation.
I needed a little more time.
And I had absolutely no intention of letting anyone find out that my life repeated.
It was an ability that was hard to detect anyway, but if others found out, the consequences would be unfathomable.
Before we knew it, the conversation had shifted to the dagger.
"Honestly, I still don't know why, but I've accepted it by now. There are all sorts of bizarre abilities and artifacts out there, after all. Your ability and the dagger artifact must have been highly compatible."
"It seems the Duke of Ceuta understood it that way as well."
Obtaining abilities through artifacts, huh...
An idea flashed through my mind.
I felt like I might have found a way to deal with the Duke of Ceuta.
Time passed, and it was time for my Knight Faculty class.
Under Katrin's instructions, I headed not to the training ground, but to a private training room.
Even though it was the Royal Academy, heavily sponsored by the royal family and nobility, the private training rooms were not easily accessible.
They were places that only professors, high-ranking nobles, royalty, or perhaps third-year students nearing graduation could manage to use.
I entered the building used for private training and headed to the designated practice room.
When I stepped into the spacious room in the building's basement, the old man was already there waiting for me, as expected.
"Seeing that you couldn't display your true skills with everyone watching, I rented this training room. Now that no one's watching, you won't swing blindly like last time, will you?"
That was an issue, but it wasn't my main concern. I was far more worried about the old man in front of me than the other students.
"Since you probably don't trust me either, here, take this. It's a contract I brought from the temple."
The old man tossed a rolled-up piece of paper to me.
Just as he'd said, it was a contract from the temple.
"It's a contract promising to keep your secret."
I unrolled the paper to check and found that the old man was telling the truth.
It was a contract promising not to reveal my secret to anyone else. A proper contract, complete with a priest's notarization.
Even if he revealed the secret, no curse would fall upon him, but as long as I held this contract, I would be able to tell whether he had kept his word.
That was how much the Duke of Ceuta was demonstrating his resolve.
While I examined the contract, the old man grumbled to himself, wondering why on earth he had to go this far.
I was wondering the exact same thing.
I couldn't fathom why the Duke of Ceuta was going to such lengths for my sake.
"You don't need to know. It's a secret to me, too."
When he put it that way, I had nothing to say.
Instead, I felt like I could show my skills a little more comfortably.
I drew the sword I'd brought with me.
Holding the dagger strapped to my waist in one hand, I unsheathed the greatsword I'd carried on my back with the other.
"I've seen you hold the dagger, but that's the first time I've seen that massive fellow. Is that your dedicated weapon?"
"Yes, it's a sword similar to the dagger."
Honestly, aside from the fact that they were both artifacts, they weren't similar at all.
But since I needed the Duke to come to that misunderstanding on his own, I answered that way.
"Is that so? So that's why you didn't show your true skills last time..."
Looking at the swords in my hands, the old man nodded.
As expected, he'd come to the wrong conclusion on his own.
"Now then, show me what you've got."
Leaning on his cane, the old man stepped back.
The indoor training room, which I was seeing for the first time, was exceptionally fine.
While it fell short of the basement training room at Katrin's house, the spacious training area had walls and floors that looked incredibly sturdy.
Holding my swords, I took a deep breath.
I intended to show my skills, but just as the old man had said, I couldn't show everything.
In particular, I absolutely couldn't show the mana manipulation and swordsmanship I'd acquired from fighting Carlos Hero over the past six months.
In that case, it seemed best to show the level of skill I'd had before obtaining the sword from the Carlos Royal Warehouse.
Since this wasn't a real battle, he probably wouldn't be able to precisely detect the movement of my mana.
With that thought in mind, I unleashed my swordsmanship.
Whoosh. Swish. Whoosh.
The greatsword sliced through the air, and the dagger slipped into the gaps.
It was a style of swordsmanship forged in real combat, making use of the unorthodox combination of a greatsword and a dagger.
Since I was demonstrating it alone, unlike when I'd performed with a longsword at the training ground, it looked completely unstructured—so much so that it barely even felt like swordsmanship.
Even so, the old man's expression wasn't bad.
After swinging my swords for a good while, I looked at the old man, who seemed deep in thought.
Still, it wasn't as if I could just ask him what he was thinking.
Even if his title was honorary, he was still a duke.
He was the King's uncle, and although our families had split, technically speaking, he was also an elder of our Duke's estate.
Unlike when I'd first heard it, the title of advisor to the Royal Knights felt entirely different to me now.
Taking a deep breath, I waited for the old man to speak.
After a long silence, the old man opened his mouth.
"It's good, but..."
Even now, something still didn't seem to satisfy him.
"It's not bad as it is. It's worth teaching you for a few months."
Oh, at least he'd had something positive to say. It seemed I didn't have to worry about ending up learning nothing at all.
Since he'd lost his mana, teaching me a mana cultivation technique or sparring with me would be out of the question.
But since he was said to be a master of royal swordsmanship, I'd be more than grateful if I could at least learn the proper forms of the royal sword.
But the old man's contemplation didn't end there.
"But now that I've seen your potential, I can't just leave it at that. I'll have to verify it directly."
After muttering words I couldn't quite comprehend, the old man pulled two worn bracelets from his robe.
Smacking his lips, he slipped one bracelet onto each wrist.
The bracelets automatically shrank to fit his wrists perfectly.
They were artifacts. Seriously, since when were artifacts this common?
More than that, I was curious about why he'd suddenly taken out the artifacts.
He stroked the bracelet and began to speak.
"Decades ago, a powerful monster left the Seal Grounds and kept moving west. A mighty monster that had lost a power struggle escaped from the Seal Grounds."
I remembered.
I'd read in a book in the study that decades ago, one of the monster kings had escaped the Seal Grounds and caused massive damage to several kingdoms.
"The monster kept heading west, striking down any humans who dared to challenge it. Other monsters followed its powerful mana, and the countries and territories they passed through were completely devastated."
Didn't they say the countries to our east became something akin to vassal states of the Empire because of that incident?
"And so, it became our kingdom's turn. And we stopped it."
Come to think of it, it wasn't even that long ago. If it was a story like this, they should have recorded it in the history books and promoted it heavily...
"Because the damage was too severe to leave behind as a proud tale. There were ruined territories, many nobles who fled, and even the royal family suffered casualties."
In the end, it meant the nobility and the royal family had hidden their own disgrace.
It was such a predictable story that it wasn't even surprising anymore.
"I was one of the casualties of the royal family. I was wounded too severely while fighting the monster. I used potions and treated it diligently, but healing my body was the absolute limit."
I listened to the old man's story in silence.
Though it was an ancient tale unknown to me, it must have been the turning point of his life.
He lowered the hand that had been stroking the bracelet.
"Everyone said I'd lost my mana and abilities, but I hadn't actually lost my abilities. Only my mana had vanished. Though, since abilities function based on mana, it wasn't much different..."
He straightened his body, which had been leaning on his cane.
Then, he drew a sword from the cane he was holding.
"If there's an artifact that can store mana like this, I can use my mana and abilities, even if only for a brief moment."
An artifact that could store mana and allow even someone who couldn't use mana to wield it.
It was an artifact that seemed far better than my necklace.
Still, my eyes were drawn more to the sword. A sword hidden inside a cane. He was an elder who truly understood the romance of it all.
"Since something like this has to be tested in person, come at me. There isn't much time."
My face contorted at his words.
It wasn't as if mana had suddenly flooded the indoor training room. Although he was drawing mana from the bracelets, it didn't seem to be an exceptionally massive amount.
But the man himself had completely changed.
His aura, his sheer presence, was entirely different.
The old man standing before me now was no longer the ordinary old man from before.
A knight who looked far more terrifying than a fifteen-year-old hero stood before me.