Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: The Perfect Black幕
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The reason Sion had decided from the start, when he chose to intervene in the duke family's affairs, to reveal his true identity only to a select few was because he feared attacks from the nobles and clergy of the Obla Kingdom.
If a human who neither aged nor died for nearly a hundred years suddenly appeared and took center stage, chaos was inevitable.
And that chaos would almost certainly bring harm to Sion himself and the duke family.
What about the current king of the Obla Kingdom, who wielded unprecedented royal authority? Couldn't he help?
Even the king of the Obla Kingdom, who was like a nephew to him in private, would find himself in dire straits if Sion revealed his identity.
Everyone knew the relationship between the previous king, the current king, and Sion—and precisely because it was so close, the current king couldn't openly support him.
Would he side with the Dukedom, which was like a half-independent state despite being kin, or listen to the nobles who were his loyal vassals paying taxes steadily every year?
For the king, there was no room for choice.
Choosing the former would shatter the trust between the royal family and the nobility, leaving him open to attacks from the ministers and nobles.
Thus, for Sion, reappearing at the forefront of the duke family held no value whatsoever.
It was far better to reveal his identity only to the core members of the duke family, negotiate, or crush them with force to achieve his goals.
No one knew what the future might hold, but for now, it was the best option.
And that path, no matter how positively one phrased it, was that of a behind-the-scenes manipulator—or black幕.
"Black幕..."
The hero who saved the world from the Demon Dragon, reduced to a black幕? And the black幕 of the very family he had founded himself?
Bael was dumbfounded.
But at the same time, he felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
"Come to think of it, your old comrades always listened obediently to whatever you said, Commander."
"Those guys? Your memory must have deteriorated since we last met, Bael."
From the one infamous for his foul temper, to the inscrutable shadowy figure whose thoughts no one could fathom, to the fake zealot priest who loved bribes and all the rest.
Sion shook his head at the memories of his old hero comrades—each one either missing a screw or two, making the title of "hero" feel undeserved, or possessing utterly extraordinary mental worlds.
"Hmm. Elves don't know how to joke, Commander. You're the one whose memory has faded. Oh, could it be that only your appearance changed, while inside you're an old geezer? The opposite of me, that is."
"Huh..."
What was this? An elf making jokes?
Had a dwarf possessed him in the meantime?
"Anyway, upon reflection, even back then, you were the one who skillfully managed the heroes and united them. The crown prince was nominally the leader, but if you looked closely, the heroes always moved according to your opinions. Quite peculiar."
"......"
Sion couldn't bring himself to respond to the elf, who remembered the past with crystal clarity even after the long years.
Because it was true.
"By rank, you were the lowest. Among the six heroes, the crown prince took the greatest glory, the others gained immense honor and fame, but you walked away with just a fancy title and this worthless, barren land that was good for nothing at the time.
Moreover, everyone thought the crown prince had sent you here out of wariness. Many even said it was more than you deserved."
"...The only thing excessive for me was my wife. The rest, I consider fair recompense."
"Well, that's because the princess threatened the king and crown prince that she'd burn down the palace if they didn't let her marry you."
"......"
Husband and wife are one, but with his beloved wife long departed, Sion invoked his right to silence as her dark history was entered into evidence.
"And that threat was just the princess carrying out what you casually let slip, or so the rumors went."
"No, that's..."
Sion, about to make an excuse, closed his mouth again.
He hadn't expected his wife to actually go through with it when she asked if there was any good way and he offhandedly replied, "Just burn it down or something."
"As you can see from looking back, you clearly had a remarkable talent for being a black幕, Commander. And with the long years passed, that talent must have been honed even further, your methods perfected..."
Bael gave Sion a warm smile as he continued.
"You'll be perfect for it. You'll do splendidly as a black幕."
"......"
Though he had brought it up himself, Sion suddenly wanted to take it back.
* * *
"No girls, and they didn't even strip naked... This is a scam...."
Among the group that had spent the night in the North Mountain Elves' village and departed before dawn, the youngest mercenary, Mista, kept muttering nonstop.
But no one in the group so much as acknowledged his nonsense as they crossed the forest under the guidance of Priel and the North Mountain Elves.
To reach the Sion Dukedom, they should have used the main road, but their destination was far off the path.
Thus, the elves riding Gou led the way, but their speed was noticeably slower, and with visibility limited, everyone was on edge.
Of course, Sion remained utterly relaxed.
'Nothing's changed here.'
When he had first been granted the territory including this forest long ago, he too had moved through it tense like the current group, but now the forest's silence felt comforting.
In his prime, Sion had led elves and a few knights here to hunt beasts and monsters.
As those memories flooded back vividly, the people moving near him took on new significance.
The few knights Yonas had brought seemed somewhat familiar—perhaps descendants of those who had come to this land with him back then.
He hadn't paid close attention until now, but entering the forest and recalling old memories made it clear.
'Memories are strange things.'
It evoked a different emotion from looking at Yonas and Sirban, who carried his own blood.
Less a clichéd sense of past connecting to present, more like walking through both eras at once?
The forest was unchanged from then, and those walking with him were descendants of those who had walked it before—so nothing had changed.
The only thing that had changed was the duke family he had founded himself.
'But that's something I need to confirm directly.'
Yonas, his great-grandson, was a bit inflexible but not arrogant with privilege or rigidly close-minded, contrary to first impressions.
On the contrary, his loyalty to the family and to Sion himself was the real deal among the real.
The same went for his great-great-grandson, Sirban.
He was still young, full of youthful vigor and bravado, but not rotten to the core.
From the start, no one with bad character or truly rotten insides would obediently heed his uncle Yonas, who held a high position in the family but little real power (clearly on the outs).
He knew well how arrogant direct heirs of high noble families with assured future power could be.
Yet Sirban, who was sure to claim a spot in the port city of Paloma—prime real estate in the Sion Dukedom—still respected his uncle, who had no children or wife's family due to being unmarried.
In other words, though just the two of them, Yonas and Sirban's behavior was enough to reasonably infer that the problem lay not with the Sion Duke family as a whole, but with a few bad apples.
'Maybe I just need to cut out a few rotten ones.'
Of course, that wouldn't be easy.
Pinpointing and excising only the festering parts required exquisite precision.
Healthy flesh around the wound must remain unharmed—something even surgical operations struggle with, let alone in the tangled web of human blood ties.
Lost in such thoughts, Sion heard Piot's voice.
"Still, it's strange."
"What's strange?"
Having been firmly warned not to let on Sion's true identity, Piot glanced around the deep forest and spoke cautiously.
"I haven't heard a single bird or beast since we got here. Could this forest really have no animals?"
Sion, about to answer, nodded toward Stelmann, the Zanstrick mercenary captain who was sharply scanning all directions.
Stelmann spoke on Sion's behalf.
"This is how mid-to-large monster habitats usually are, young master."
"Monsters?"
"Exactly. It's not that there are no animals— they're hiding their presence. And this forest is quite famous among mercenaries."
"This place?"
As Piot tilted his head, Sirban jumped in eagerly.
"Ah, Uncle, you don't know about the Echo-less Forest."
"Echo-less Forest? Is that what they call this place, nephew?"
"Yes. They also call it the Sound-Swallowing Forest. Once you go in a certain distance, even if you scream, no one outside can hear— that's how it got the name. But the truth is..."
"This forest stretches over 80 kilometers east to west and 20 kilometers north to south. It precisely separates the Sion Dukedom peninsula from the kingdom's mainland.
No one knows how many fierce beasts and monsters live inside. It's precisely because of this forest that the Sion Dukedom has remained safe from external threats for so long."
Low mountains ranging from 50 to 100 meters formed this vast area, each harboring a few beasts or mid-to-large monsters.
So, when Sion first arrived in person after being granted the peninsula including the forest, his impression had been:
'It felt like medieval Korea.'
Didn't they say every mountain in Korea had at least a leopard or tiger—some kind of big cat?
The old Sion Dukedom had been even more so, if anything.
Moreover, the long, massive Brantin Mountains along the dukedom's eastern coast over 100 kilometers harbored all sorts of monsters, with losers of territorial battles spilling into the forest regularly—no peaceful days.
Long ago, the Sion Dukedom had truly been a world of beasts and monsters, and the Echo-less Forest their playground.
"Monsters making the territory safer instead. Ironic."
"Of course, there have been invasion attempts."
"Once, the Pamell Count family—a major territory—invaded."
Sirban quickly interjected, eager to show he knew more about the dukedom than even Sion.
"That Pamell Count family sent over 3,000 troops, but more than half vanished crossing the Echo-less Forest. They were practically annihilated before even fighting."
Sion smiled warmly at Sirban's chatter.
It wasn't just that his descendant knew the dukedom and family history well; it reminded him why, despite all the opposition back then, he hadn't fought outside but lured the enemy inside.
"Our proud founder, His Highness Duke Commander Sion, persuaded those very elves to devise the strategy."
"Oh? The founder did?"
Piot glanced slyly. The founder, with his impassive expression, returned his great-great-grandson's gaze with a faint smile.
That smile brought back Piot's conversation with the founder from the night before.
-A long time ago, some Pamell Count tried crossing the forest to invade the dukedom and got wrecked. That's exactly what we'll do to them.
-Not going straight to the ducal castle?
-Once the ringleader is identified, we squeeze the accomplices first to close off any escape routes.
-Accomplices... You don't mean the Pamell Count family?
-We didn't squeeze them properly back then, so the grudge lingered. It'll be different this time.
The founder's face, declaring himself the black幕 willingly for the family's sake, had been truly terrifying.
(To be continued in the next chapter)