Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 112
>Chapter Title: You Might Have to Draw Your Sword
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Peep! Peek!
It had been a while since I'd last seen Breakfast No. 1 at morning meal, and the thing had packed on some serious weight.
"I heard from the third one. So, you took care of Destrow?"
The principal senior looked pretty haggard.
I alternated glances between Breakfast No. 1, whom I'd grabbed by the scruff, and the principal senior, when a sudden thought struck me.
Maybe familiars just leech off their master's vitality to survive?
How else could Breakfast No. 1 have ballooned up like this?
I released the plump thing, which was now practically a house chicken stuffed with fat, and took a seat on the sofa.
Bawk! Bawk!
Breakfast No. 1 glared at me with beady axe-eyes and pecked away, but it was pathetic.
Go ahead and peck all you want. My barrier's not budging.
Of course, it wasn't like I wasn't annoyed, so I flicked its forehead hard.
Squawk!
Ignoring Breakfast No. 1 as it flopped over, I turned to the senior.
"Yes? What was that?"
"……."
The senior's eyes were cloudy.
Breakfast No. 1's eyes were cloudy too.
In this mess, I was the only one with clear eyes, making me the strongest one here, in a way.
Anyway.
"…I heard from the third one. That you took care of Destrow."
"Ah, yes."
The third one must be the grand duchess.
"Yeah."
"Yes."
"……."
"……."
An awkward silence flowed between us.
What was with this guy? He sent Breakfast No. 1 to summon me quick enough, but now he's quiet as a scarecrow stuck in a field.
"Ahem. Uh. But, seemed like you had companions?"
"You heard that from the grand duchess too?"
"No, I saw them."
The principal senior glanced sideways at Breakfast No. 1. Only then did I recall that Breakfast No. 1 was his familiar.
"The ones you met in the Hamern Great Forest?"
"Yes, picked them up."
"…Picked them up?"
"One I found, one I hooked."
The one I found was Shine. The one I hooked was Rayleigh.
However, the principal senior, unaware of the full story, blinked in confusion, not quite grasping my words.
Oh, by the way, I'd dropped the two of them off at a suitable inn before coming to meet the principal senior. Scaling walls with two in tow was a bit much.
But why was that?
Another awkward silence. This time, I spoke first.
"Don't you have something to say?"
"Huh?"
"Stop beating around the bush and spit it out. I can tell your mind's elsewhere."
"Urgh… That obvious?"
Very.
From what I'd gauged, the principal senior was a madman, but he hadn't completely lost his conscience.
Look at him when I left for Hamern Great Forest.
His manic eyes brimmed with worry… mixed with a dash of guilt, pure chaos.
Yet here he was, not even a "good job" for his safely returned junior, just circling words. How could I not notice?
"It's not anything… Ha."
The principal senior let out a deep sigh and lit a cigarette.
Crackle. Smoke fluttered with sparks. Amid eyes shadowed by fatigue, he spoke soon after.
His gaze had changed.
How to put it.
Like our first meeting? You know, that day he barged in talking kill this, save that.
Grave-faced, the principal senior lowered his voice and opened his mouth.
"Junior. Let me ask you one thing honestly."
"Just one?"
"……."
I could see it. A flicker of embarrassment in those sharp eyes. Tiny cracks spiderwebbing through the solemn air.
But the senior didn't back down.
At this point, I couldn't treat it lightly either.
"It's not just one… but there are things we need to clear up for sure."
"Go ahead."
"I heard from the third one. About that scene when you faced Destrow."
The senior's voice turned serious again. Meeting his eyes, I realized today's talk was an extension of that first day.
"According to her… it was a realm far beyond her own."
Yeah, probably.
I didn't know from when the grand duchess had watched the fight, but that day, I'd reached transcendence. Still, her murderous intent afterward… must've been because she knew my condition then.
Anyway.
I could predict the senior's next question.
The nagging doubt about my existence I'd dodged so far.
'In the end… can't just gloss over it?'
It was a moment I'd vaguely anticipated.
Obern, Riheim senior, and the grand duchess—I'd hidden my identity from them all, but the principal senior could've glimpsed it through their testimonies.
Honestly, I'd predicted it from the day I headed to Hamern Great Forest.
"The Trial Spire… I figured it was possible. That you were some genius, or had your reasons. Your ruthless methods were brutal, but understandable."
Yeah, that made sense.
"Your level at our first meeting… yeah, that was comprehensible too. And the magic you showed when leaving for the forest—understandable."
Yeah.
The Trial Spire.
Even if he let it slide a hundred times over. He hadn't seen it himself, just the traces.
Same with the Crimson Jade I'd first unleashed on him.
But.
"Hoo…"
The principal senior exhaled thick smoke. No, more like a sigh.
"But this time, I can't just let it pass without asking."
His sunken eyes flashed.
"Who are you?"
"……."
A faint smile tugged at my lips.
* * *
Schubertz stared fixedly at the boy seated before him.
"……."
No reply. Just silence. A faint smile on his lips, saying nothing.
A stark contrast to their first meeting. No, to any Aster he'd seen before.
A bitter smile on his lips.
In the quiet hush, Aster stowed the half-mask he'd worn into his subspace.
But when his hand emerged again, it held a different mask.
The token of Sakwol.
"……."
Aster held out the Sakwol token.
His hand dipped back into subspace, emerging with a semi-royal ticket.
Schubertz said nothing.
He merely took it all in.
His eyes were complicated.
Aster had called those eyes "like our first meeting," but fundamentally different.
At their first encounter, Schubertz had meant to kill Aster. No falsehood there. But now?
The cigarette burned away. White ash, murky and faint.
Hesitation.
Aster's faint smile flickered in his wavering eyes.
Aster gazed at his reflection in those eyes, then slowly let the smile fade.
Schubertz's suspicions were understandable.
He must be uneasy. His junior, fresh from the jaws of death, whom he'd begged for help with his own hands—now interrogating his identity.
But this was Aster's free choice, to the end.
Schubertz's reward? The Rapiter library? Desperate worry for his friend?
None of that moved Aster.
Just the resonance of the Fire Mark. That had drawn him to Hamern Great Forest.
And as he'd thought earlier, this situation wasn't unforeseen.
The faces he'd shown until now could be shoehorned into reason somehow, but that feat in the forest? Impossible.
Felling the Swamp Ruler, repelling Destrow.
No unparalleled genius at Aster's age had such feats. Well, a few might have.
But all under the umbrella of great houses. Blessed few, built on innate bloodlines and massive backing.
In that sense, Schubertz's doubt was natural.
'Maybe…'
Some systematically raised tool from a group? A murder weapon meticulously forged for some purpose.
Apparent age? The shadows teemed with all sorts of bizarre magics—altering appearance was trivial.
Sure, emotions said otherwise.
That death-defying charge before him. The Trial Spire. The shadow in his eyes when mentioning it. The hype when spouting nonsense about opening a library.
But what if? Even a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance?
Schubertz couldn't overlook it.
…And from Aster's shadow.
Crimson eyes like Crimson Jade gleamed.
"This senile old fool gone senile?"
"……!"
Shine popped out from under the shadow.
Schubertz jolted in surprise. Aster didn't. Shine glared at Schubertz with axe-eyes.
"What? Who are you? Is that what you say to the benefactor who saved your friend?"
He'd tried to let it slide, but the more he thought, the angrier he got.
Secretly tailing this schemer to see what mischief he'd get into, and this is the nonsense he overhears?
And that expression.
'Like a dullahan with its head lopped off…'
A bitter smile.
"You…"
Shine declared imperiously, propping one leg on the table.
"You ask about this one? I am Shine von Leman, last scion of the Leman House, lord of the noble vampire clan. Anyway, not the point."
Having journeyed through Hamern Great Forest together, Shine knew the rough reason Aster had come.
"Didn't you send this guy?"
"……."
This guy, that guy—Schubertz knew who was who without asking.
But he gaped, dumbfounded, mouth agape.
No, he had no chance to speak.
"But what? Risking his life in battle and coming back, and you ask who he is?"
Rage boiled over.
"Is that what you say to the benefactor who saved your friend? Truly, like master, like disciple—what scum!"
The grand duchess had been the same. So arrogant. Acted like the world revolved around her. Back in his youth, he'd have snapped her neck in an instant, shown her how vast the world was.
"That puny Destrow, huh? If this one were this schemer's age, one slash… well, not quite, but anyway! So ignorant of the world's breadth! How can you think what you see is all there is!"
A truly majestic sight.
A 200-year-old twenty-something schooling a fresh-faced white-haired elder on the world.
"What you should say to this schemer now isn't 'who are you.' You should be bowing in thanks, and then some!"
But what? This and that?
Who? Whoooo?
Clang!
Shine's sword slid from its sheath. The tip aimed at Schubertz.
"One last chance. Offer him a sincere apology and thanks. If not…"
Killing intent sharpened outward. Amid that razor edge, Shine concluded with majestic momentum.
"…you might have to draw your sword too."
Aster watched Shine, utterly entranced by his gall.
Trembling eyes. Emotions surged. His mouth itched.
But with superhuman restraint, Aster swallowed the words rising to his chin.
'…Petty bastard.'
Telling a mage to draw a sword.
What a grand mindset.