The Duke of Taron, Ilias (5)
“D-Duke! What brings you here?”
“Are you feeling better, sir?”
The knights guarding the treasure vault looked at me in surprise. I calmed them down with a brief exchange, and their expressions softened.
“It is a relief to see you recovered.”
The first door to the treasure vault swung wide open. From this point on, it was a place only I, Duke Ilias, could enter.
“It would have been easier to see if you had come during the day. Please, go ahead.”
A knight took a torch from the wall and handed it to me. I accepted it and descended the spiral staircase. The stairs were not long. Soon, a steel door appeared before my eyes.
I pulled out the ring of keys I had found while rummaging through the bedroom earlier. There were four keys on the ring.
One was for Duchess Diana’s bedroom, one for the treasure vault, one for a room with the peculiar name "The Light Pierces the Sky," and the last was for the library tower. The library in the library.
My own bedroom key was on its own, without a ring. It was convenient to carry in my wallet.
I gripped the vault key and inserted it into the keyhole. As I turned it to the right, the door emitted a glow and a metallic click.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The moment I thought it was dark, the golden candelabras on the walls all burst into flame at once. It became bright in an instant.
Various luxurious treasures were revealed, neatly displayed.
“Oh…”
As expected of a ducal house, they were wealthy indeed. Just selling one of these treasures would be enough to buy a mansion without breaking a sweat. However, I had no intention of stealing them. I would be residing here for the time being, and therefore, the ducal house must not be shaken. I didn't want to do anything that would tarnish Duke Ilias’s reputation or directly harm the house. They needed to be stable to protect me well.
But then…
I saw a treasure whose temptation I could never resist. While searching for the Demonic Sword Gore, I discovered a pill the size of an eyeball called "Gu-jeong-ryeok."
The name written on the paper was Gu-jeong-ryeok. It meant "seeking vitality."
The pill was wrapped in paper, and there was a memo with an explanation besides the name tag.
Made from the testicles of a bull that lived for 500 years, grazing daily on precious Ikinas grass in deep mountain valleys. It is the most powerful aphrodisiac in the world, with no equal.
While it significantly enhances male sexual function, a side effect was discovered during experiments. Upon ingestion, there is a risk of death due to poisoning from the Ikinas grass, which possesses potent toxic properties.
In experiments with Lurker males, all twenty subjects died within two days.
— Dated 8 years ago.
“Poison…?”
If it’s poison, I’m an expert. I am desensitized to tasting poison, having no fear of it. For years, I consumed poison daily and endured every painful symptom, and as a result, I gained a constitution immune to all toxins. The hero party’s help was significant in that process. Whenever they hunted monsters and found anything related to poison, they dumped it all on me. I’ve eaten all sorts of rare poisons and most of the miraculous elixirs said to be good for detoxification.
“Can you beat my body?”
I unfolded the neatly folded paper and picked up the pill. It was a black, eyeball-sized sphere. It wasn't hard, and when I pressed it, it cracked and fissured.
Gulp.
I put it in my mouth without hesitation, chewed it, and swallowed. It tasted intensely of herbal medicine. After swallowing every last bit, I observed the changes in my body. My cock felt… it felt…
“Nothing unusual. Not yet, anyway.”
I couldn't tell the difference. “What is this? Is it ineffective?”
The moment I thought that.
“Ugh!”
I collapsed to the floor as if I’d been struck down.
“Aaaargh!”
I grabbed my cock and rolled around. “Guhhh… It, it hurts like hell!”
It felt as if something was connected in a straight line from my heart to my cock, and it was excruciatingly painful. It felt like someone had opened my mouth wide toward the sky and shoved a sword straight down into my internal organs. The pain was so intense that my disguise dissolved on its own. I reverted to my original form and rolled on the floor. My underwear was damp. Without me realizing it, semen was leaking from my cock, soaking the fabric.
The horrific pain continued.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
I was panicked. I hadn't felt like this from poison since my early training days. I felt like I was going to die. I was worried that I would leave this world without having achieved anything. I struggled not to lose consciousness.
Suddenly, I remembered the person who taught me the profession of a thief. And the person who trained me. I recalled the words of my old master, who had made me train by eating poison every day, saying that a thief must become strong against toxins.
‘The pain is there to heal you.’
I kept repeating those words to endure the agony, and at some point, the pain began to subside. My body, which had been rolling on the floor, finally stopped. I lay staring at the ceiling, taking deep breaths to calm my racing heart.
“Hah! Hah! Haa…”
In the midst of that, my cock swelled up and stood tall like a mountain. I reached out and touched it. The hardness was no joke. It was so hard that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a lump of iron, transcending any previous rigidity.
“Haha.”
I finally had enough composure to laugh. I could feel tremendous power emanating from my erect cock. I knew instinctively that it possessed the power to pierce through any metallic treasure in the vault in an instant, and that I had gained the stamina to have sex for 24 hours straight without tiring. The pill was the real deal.
“I want to test it right now.”
It would be nice if there were a woman nearby, but there were only treasures in the room. A silver statue depicting the naked body of a goddess caught my eye. Her breasts were exposed, and her pelvis was sculpted perfectly. In particular, the smooth, convex mound felt quite sexy. Looking at it…
I grabbed my rock-hard cock.
“Kuh!”
A while later.
I was able to look around the room with a much calmer demeanor. Inside, I was cheering. My stamina had become incomparably stronger than before. If I used to collapse after ejaculating 3 to 5 times, I felt like I could handle twenty women now. I had been reborn as a true man.
“Duke Ilias von Taron. I sincerely thank you. From now on, I shall call you my Master of the Cock.”
I pressed my hands together in prayer, then focused on finding the Demonic Sword Gore again. And… I finally found it. I took it out of the wooden box I had seen earlier.
The lost Demonic Sword Gore.
It was a book by a scholar who lived 3,000 years ago, estimating the location of the Demonic Sword Gore that had vanished 13,000 years ago. I dusted it off and opened the book. It was in an ancient language, so it would take an age to read. Even if I interpreted it, it was hard to understand immediately. Some place names from 3,000 years ago were different from today, and it was full of unfamiliar terminology.
“I’ll have to spread out an ancient language dictionary and a map.”
I closed the book and started walking. I planned to take it to my bedroom and read it at my leisure. Who would complain if a Duke took something belonging to the Duke?
“Oh, wait.”
I almost walked out in my original form by mistake. I quickly took out the magic glass bottle containing Duke Ilias’s blood from my pocket, dipped my finger in it, and licked it. Then, I headed outside.
“Are you finished with your business?”
“Yes. I’m going to go and sleep now. You all have worked hard.”
I greeted the knights and turned to leave, but then I turned back. I had noticed a locked room down the hallway. A sudden curiosity arose.
“You lot. I’ve been asleep for a long time, so my memory is hazy. What was that room?”
“Ah, that room is the Duke’s training hall.”
“A training hall?”
“You were training alone in that room, got injured, and haven't been able to wake up since.”
“I’d like to take a look.”
“N-No! You can’t! It will be a disaster if the Duchess finds out!”
“Why?”
“She gave us strict instructions not to let you enter, saying that you shouldn't get injured again practicing the family’s secret arts after you’ve only just woken up.”
The family’s secret arts? A serious injury while practicing? Duchess Diana’s instructions?
‘I have a feeling. They told the world that Duke Ilias was bedridden with an illness, but that wasn't it. It seems he suffered from Qi deviation while learning the secret arts.’
What kind of secret art could it be? Curiosity piqued. I wasn't the type to turn back just because someone told me to.
“You lot, come inside with me.”
“W-We are fine.”
I walked toward the door regardless. The knights followed me in a hurry, looking anxious. When I stood in front of the door, it was written on it: "The Light Pierces the Sky."
‘Now I know the identity of the key with the same phrase.’
I picked up the ring of keys I had at my waist. I inserted it into the keyhole and turned it. The knights trembled.
“Duke, you must only look around. If the Duchess finds out, we are truly done for.”
How terrifying must the Duchess be for them to be this scared? I patted their shoulders.
“I’ll be out soon. Don’t worry.”
“You must, you really must.”
I turned the knob and stepped inside. The candles on the wall lit up on their own, and a wide, stone-floored open space appeared. Various weapons and armor were mounted on one side. I also saw a straw dummy. It felt like a training hall with no special features. Perhaps because it hadn't been entered in a long time, I saw several mice scurrying in the corners.
In the innermost part, I saw a dais about waist-high. A single book was placed on the dais.
"Taron’s Blood Shall Be Eternal, The Black Dragon’s Arm."
The book title was unique.
‘The Black Dragon’s Arm?’
Is this the secret art of the Taron family? I chuckled.
‘I don’t know what it is, but I’ll master it.’
I opened the book and turned the first page.
Elenore