Chapter 7
Chapter 7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: The Duke's Revelation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Almost everyone who knew Sion's true identity had long since passed away.
It was safe to say that in the dukedom, no one was aware he was still alive and well.
But there were no absolutes in the world, and Sion figured a few people must still know about him.
Among them, only a tiny handful were the ones Sion had personally told himself.
There was no reason to reveal it—not with the chaos it could unleash on the world, and certainly not when it came to safeguarding his own well-being and that of his descendants.
That had definitely been the case.
Until quite recently.
But after his encounter with Dercios, Sion's thinking had changed.
Not to everyone, but at least to a select few, it would be better to disclose his identity.
Other players were coming to this world.
And to stay ahead when that happened, he would absolutely need "forces" at his command.
But Sion didn't need to build any from scratch.
He already had the Sion Dukedom and the ducal house—why scrap that and start over?
In the end, after meeting Dercios, Sion's path forward was all but set.
He needed to bring the Sion Dukedom and ducal house back under his influence.
To accomplish that as cleanly as possible, he'd need capable and useful people from all walks of life.
And the woman before him, Jenna Olot, seemed like a decent prospect—even if she didn't take much after her father.
Moreover, the people Sion needed weren't just skilled; they had to harbor fear and awe toward him, along with unwavering loyalty.
There were any number of ways to achieve that, but after living for so long as the legendary hero Duke Sion, he knew one particularly effective method.
"You don't believe I'm Duke Sion, do you?"
"Ah! Uh? Hng! Eh!"
Sion gazed calmly at Jenna's reaction—a mix of shock, fear, and disbelief—as he spoke.
"Have you ever wondered why your father stuck around here until the day he died?"
"Uh, um... Probably because of the Dragon Wasteland..."
"Because of me."
"...!?"
"A few key figures in the Information Guild know the rough outline about me. They knew I quite liked your father, too. That's why they set up a branch here and sent him to run it. The Dragon Wasteland was just an excuse. They could hardly admit they'd dispatched him to keep tabs on Duke Sion, who hadn't aged or died in nearly a century."
"Ah...!"
Jenna let out a gasp as the puzzle pieces fell into place in a way she'd never imagined.
Even she had to admit it made no sense to bury a proven talent like her father in a backwater like Burgos for years over something as vague as the Dragon Wasteland.
It also explained why she'd been made branch chief after him.
Sure, there was still the chance that slimy Yent had pulled strings out of spite or to keep her in check, but at the very least, her initial appointment had likely been at the behest of this client who'd just revealed himself as Duke Sion.
Assuming his words were true.
"But why tell me all this...?"
He surely wasn't telling her to blab it to the whole Information Guild.
"I've got some business to attend to. Looks like I'll need an intelligence network."
"You're not telling me to betray the guild and come work for you...?"
"Are you worth that much? Pulling you out would sour things between me and the guild."
"..."
It stung, but she couldn't argue, so Jenna clamped her mouth shut.
"You're not exactly thrilled about rotting away here forever either, right? Now that I've emerged from the Dragon Wasteland, they might ship you off to some other post—but who knows."
"Ah..."
"Of course, they might not."
"...!"
Her brief spark of hope at the thought of escaping this godforsaken outpost plummeted.
He was right.
If he really was Duke Sion and her father had been made branch chief to watch him, then with the duke out of the wasteland, the guild had no reason to keep a branch in Burgos.
But if that weasel Yent started flapping his gums or scheming behind the scenes, she could be stuck rotting here indefinitely.
"The reason I revealed my identity to you is simple. Stay in the guild and be my inside man. Don't give me any nonsense about betrayal. You're not an idiot—you know damn well every key player in the guild has ties to some noble house or power broker."
"..."
Jenna's conviction grew that the man before her was indeed the real Duke Sion.
His unchanged appearance after more than a decade, plus statements only someone intimately familiar with the guild's inner workings could make.
And...
Thud.
"Two hundred gold coins. Minted by the Enkain Empire during the Demon Dragon War. Take a look. That should come out to about two million dien."
Jenna swallowed hard and cautiously opened the heavy pouch. She flinched.
It was filled with imperial gold coins, renowned for their purity.
Each one was worth roughly a million won, so two hundred made for about two hundred million won.
A tidy sum, but not enough to shake an Information Guild branch chief.
Clunk.
Sion set something else down on the table.
Two sheets of paper the size of a palm, intricately decorated with silver leaf.
"Checks from Brelian Bank. One million dien each."
"Gasp!!!"
Dien was the basic currency of the Obla Kingdom, and one million of them equaled a thousand gold from the empire—a king's ransom.
Two of them, no less.
"This is my initial investment. Bribe the higher-ups, buy premium intel, or blow it all yourself—I don't care. Just make sure that in six months, I'm seeing an official handler from somewhere else."
"I'll do my utmost!"
"Your utmost? Is that the best you've got?"
"...!"
A chuckle escaped Sion, but his eyes didn't so much as twitch. Jenna corrected herself at lightspeed.
"No! I'll make it happen, no matter what!"
"Good."
Only then did Sion lean back on the sofa with a satisfied smile.
The most effective way to inspire awe and loyalty in the capable was authority, followed by money—and lots of it.
* * *
"Here. I brought everything."
"Mm."
Sion took the stack of wax-sealed letters from the now profoundly deferential Jenna and sliced the seals with a small knife.
This was why he'd come to the Burgos Information Guild branch.
After his eldest son Theo passed away, Sion had tried his best not to think about the ducal house or the dukedom.
But he couldn't completely ignore the house and lands he'd built with his own hands, so he'd commissioned the late Olot—through the guild—to compile annual reports on the Sion ducal house.
The late Olot had been diligent and trustworthy, faithfully carrying out the request even during the years Sion had gone completely dark.
'Let's see. Nothing much until I entered the wasteland...'
Not quite up to Theo's standard, but his grandson Byron had managed the house and dukedom decently enough.
In Sion's eyes, the boy was a bit too sentimental and loose-lipped, which threw off his balance, but the solid foundation of retainers he'd and Theo built held things steady—no major worries there.
And as Sion expected, the reports confirmed the dukedom was chugging along fine, with only minor hiccups and no major incidents.
Except for the very last one.
"...What?"
Sion paused midway through the report from two years ago.
His face hardened as he finished it. He turned to Jenna, who was watching him tensely.
"Is this the latest? What about last year's?"
"It hasn't arrived yet. It goes up to guild HQ every December, then down here in February."
Of all the luck—it was January now. He'd have to wait a full month for last year's news.
"Anything you've heard personally about the Sion Dukedom? What happened last year?"
"I'm sorry. It's so remote, news barely trickles this far."
Jenna bowed her head apologetically.
Sion clicked his tongue inwardly but couldn't blame her.
This world's communication was limited to couriers on foot or birds of prey.
With monsters, beasts, bandits, and thieves lurking everywhere, long-distance messaging was a nightmare.
Only an outfit like the Information Guild could gather a full year's intel from the distant Sion Dukedom and relay it here in a month.
"Hm..."
Sion lapsed into thought.
The events in the Sion Dukedom from two years ago—even he, who rarely batted an eye at crises, found shocking.
And they directly involved his bloodline.
'Worse, it's been over half a year since it went down. Should I move now?'
After a moment's deliberation, Sion shook his head.
Rushing in blind would get him nowhere.
The situation had already played out—better to dig up the full truth, plan accordingly, then act.
Sion looked up at Jenna.
True to her guild roots, curiosity was written all over her face.
'This could work in my favor too.'
Decision made, Sion spoke.
"Change of plans."
"Yes."
"I'll give you two months. Last year's intel arrives next month, right? Don't stop there—gather every scrap you can on the Sion Dukedom and ducal house, by any means necessary, and report back. Think you can handle it?"
"Absolutely."
With his unchanged looks after over a decade, casually flashing century-old gold and bottomless wealth, Jenna was all but convinced this was the real Duke Sion.
A man living a century without aging? Weird?
Sure.
But so what?
Duke Sion was a hero of the Demon Dragon War, recorded as one of the greatest rulers of his era.
It was easier to assume he had some secret magic or mystic power.
And frankly, if he were some villain instead of a hero, why fake his death and lie low for so long?
He'd have swallowed the world whole or built some evil empire and wreaked havoc by now.
Above all...
'I trust my dad's judgment.'
Her father had been gruff, and they hadn't been close since she'd grown up, but Jenna respected him deeply.
Even judged as a guild member rather than kin, he'd been exceptional.
And the man he'd kept faith with for over a decade was right here.
That alone was enough for Jenna to follow this client—no, Duke Sion.
"Never mind the earlier stuff; it doesn't matter. Read this and burn it."
"Yes? Oh, right."
Jenna felt a twinge of emotion as Sion handed over the final report.
Classified intel from a top-tier client wasn't for just anyone's eyes.
No matter the money, it was rare and valuable—likely known only to a handful of guild elites.
For him to show it to her so freely...
'As expected of someone with such wealth and magnanimity...'
"Gasp...!"
Jenna inadvertently sucked in a breath, her eyes trembling as she stared at Sion.
The report's contents were that staggering.
The previous Duke Sion might have been poisoned to death last year—and by his own younger brother, no less.
With nephew and uncle now at each other's throats over the title, and ducal retainers and neighboring lords dragged in, it was a bombshell.
"Plenty to investigate, eh? Gede Sion, Blint Sion—them, all direct and collateral kin in the Sion ducal house, their retainers, Pamell Territory, August Territory—dig up everything. I need to know how it's spinning, what happened. Then punish who needs punishing, execute who needs executing."
Sion's voice and demeanor were calm, but Jenna shivered at the faint whiff of bloodlust.
Having trailed her father and seen her share since childhood, she could tell.
This man had "executed" a great many people.
Now she was utterly convinced.
He was the real Duke Sion.
Who else could so casually declare he'd whip and purge one of the realm's premier great domains and noble houses?
Sorting out a disastrously messy family was the duty of the family elder.