Chapter 36
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: 'Eye of Truth' Tarania (1)
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Blanc had lain unconscious for a full week.
Countless minor wounds etched across his body, internal injuries from forcibly manifesting his mental world, and the piercing wound from the black magician's final dagger strike.
All of them were excessive burdens for a fourteen-year-old boy to bear.
The one who had rescued Blanc from the brink of death was Edwin, his teacher and a knight of the Tolome family.
When Edwin arrived as part of the rear guard and reached the deepest part of the mine, the scene he witnessed was hell itself.
Innumerable corpses littered the ground, and amid them, the Tolome knights lay sprawled in disarray, gasping for breath.
At the center of it all were Blanc and, collapsed atop him, Stefan Tolome.
Seeing Blanc's wretched state, Edwin cried out in shock, hoisted both of them onto his back, and raced out of the mine like the wind, pounding on Tigor Baum's manor door.
"Are you finally coming to, Baron Blanc?"
"Sir Edwin..."
Blanc tried to force himself upright, but Edwin stopped him.
"You've been out for a full week. You mustn't move rashly."
"Where am I?"
"Baron Tigor Baum's manor."
"What about the other knights... Where's Rakshar? Is he alive?"
Rakshar had been found with the most severe injuries among the group.
He must have tried to protect Blanc until the very end, only to fall victim to the black magician.
Unable to wield aura, he had no choice but to fight with his bare body.
"His wounds were grave, but... he somehow survived thanks to the werewolf's regenerative abilities. Fortunately, a full moon was out just as we dragged him outside the mine."
No one would have thought Rakshar, beaten so brutally, could pull through, but the full moon's power had amplified his vitality.
"Then the rest of the knights..."
Edwin gave a bitter smile at Blanc's question.
Thirteen knights, with Blanc Cardmus as their leader.
Only five survivors, including Blanc.
Seven squires who followed them into the mine.
Only Rakshar survived.
Total entrants: 20.
Deaths: 14.
Injured: 6.
Rescued: 1.
The vanguard search party had suffered near-total annihilation.
Not a single surviving knight was unscathed; effectively, the entire vanguard had lost their combat capabilities.
Moreover, the knights who volunteered for the vanguard were among the most spirited and righteous in the Tolome order, making it a devastating loss for the family.
The silver lining was that all the knights who made the final push had survived. And they had rescued their target, Stefan Tolome.
Though not in one piece, he was alive.
Blanc sighed in relief upon hearing that the knights he fought alongside and Rakshar had made it.
"Is your left shoulder alright?"
"My left shoulder?"
At Edwin's question, Blanc glanced at his left shoulder, pierced by the black magician's dagger.
It was wrapped in bandages, but dark red scars peeked out from where they didn't cover.
Just then, a maid arrived to change the dressings.
As she unwound the bandages one by one, the wound on Blanc's left shoulder came into view, surrounded by eerie dark red scars.
"This is..."
"A brand."
Someone answered from behind Edwin's shoulder.
"...Who are you?"
It was a one-eyed woman.
She wore an eyepatch over her right eye and exuded a profoundly strange aura.
The eyepatch was odd enough, but her left eye seemed strangely unfocused, as if gazing not at what was right in front of her, but at something far away.
"Forgive my late introduction, Baron Blanc Cardmus. I am Tarania, a knight of the Torch Knight Order."
Tarania bowed politely to Blanc.
"Torch Knight Order?"
Why was someone from the Torch Knight Order—not the Tolome knights—here?
"I brought her here, Baron Blanc."
Edwin explained to the puzzled Blanc as the new figure appeared abruptly.
Seeing the horrific state inside the dungeon, Edwin had realized it involved a black magician and swiftly contacted the nearby Goddess Church.
When the somewhat renowned Edwin in the Felix Kingdom sent a letter stressing the grave urgency, the church recognized the severity and requested aid from the Torch Knight Order alongside their own priests.
Since Blanc was the sixth knight personally appointed by Aselheit, the Torch Knight Order—effectively her knights—took the matter seriously and dispatched their top asset.
That was Tarania, standing before him.
"Take a look at this, Baron Blanc."
Tarania pulled a thick, ancient tome from her bosom and opened it for Blanc.
"What is it?"
"A passage on Tiday Barton, a black magician known to have been active 200 years ago."
"Tiday Barton..."
Black magicians offered their souls to demons, borrowing their power.
The method of borrowing was similar, but how they wielded it varied wildly by individual.
Some summoned demons directly; others raised the dead or spread plagues.
Tiday, the black magician from 200 years ago, had terrorized people as the "Soul Collector Tiday."
"See here..."
Tarania pointed to a section in the book.
"It's a rune."
"Yes. The same rune is branded on Stefan Tolome and you, Baron Blanc Cardmus."
Indeed, as Ronbrando had said, the scar on Blanc's left shoulder closely resembled the illustration in the book.
"He branded this rune into his minions."
The knights who fought to the end knew something sinister dwelled in Stefan's body and that the black magician's dagger strike on Blanc was an attempt to seize it.
They reported this to Edwin and Tarania, who concluded that Tiday might still live on inside Stefan or Blanc.
"Then inside me?"
"Highly likely."
Tarania's emotionless gaze swept over Blanc's scar.
"Do you suspect me?"
"I suspect everything in this world."
The Torch Knight Order had sent their optimal agent to handle every possibility.
"I trust only my eyes."
Tarania removed her eyepatch, revealing a blue gem embedded where her eyeball should be.
Tarania investigated Blanc using various methods.
Basic checks involved holy water or relics to detect evil presences within.
She had him recite prayers or used truth-discerning artifacts to ask questions.
These verifications were applied equally to everyone who returned alive from the black magician's dungeon.
'Reminds me of the old days.'
Watching Tarania's procedures, Blanc thought they resembled the contamination checks after Void battles in his previous life.
Some who encountered the Void returned bearing vast darkness within, only to crumble later.
Thus, Blanc was certain.
No black magician lurked in his soul.
He was a swordsman who could manifest his mental world in reality. Moreover, his soul had toughened through countless Void encounters in his past life.
Among the Liberation Front warriors, he was one who had faced the Void Heart—the core of the Void—directly and overcome it without being consumed.
"Look into my eye."
Tarania removed her eyepatch and widened her gem-embedded eye.
'Ho.'
Blanc sensed her focus shifting within the blue gem replacing her eye.
"That eye..."
"I won't answer questions about my eye, Baron."
Tarania firmly cut off Blanc's curiosity.
It had been ages since he last felt such intrigue.
Lately, the weight of Void wars and regression had dried his soul, numbing his emotions under excessive duty.
The only human feelings he recalled were irritation at young Izrelin Tolome's antics.
Yet now, he felt curiosity toward this woman with a blue gem in place of an eye.
The blue gem gazing at him glimmered faintly.
A familiar sensation.
Like when Tiday—the black magician whose name he now knew—had pierced him with the dagger.
Though far gentler, of course.
"Well?"
"...No trace of black magic lurks in your eyes, at least... However."
"However?"
Tarania pointed at Blanc's scar with a finger.
"Demonic energy clings here."
Blanc followed her long finger.
The dark red wound he thought a scar was faintly glowing.
After receiving Tarania of the Torch Knight Order's certification that he wasn't under the black magician's control, Blanc's first action was to request command of the 100 rear guard troops who had arrived in Baum territory from Edwin.
As the nominal leader of the search party, he had ample authority for such a request.
And Edwin, being on Blanc's side, accepted without hesitation.
As a result, the Tolome soldiers had pitched camp in the heart of Baum territory.
They weren't overtly threatening, but stationed at Blanc's order in the center, they silently messaged Baron Tigor Baum.
"Thank you for eliminating the evil lurking in our lands, Baron Blanc."
Baron Tigor wiped sweat incessantly with a handkerchief, bowing obsequiously to Blanc.
Though both barons, Blanc now led Tolome forces encamped in the middle of Baum territory, swords at Tigor's throat—reason enough to grovel.
Baron Tigor placed a pouch on the table.
It clinked heavily, visibly bulging, but Blanc sat on the bed, staring out the window without a glance.
"Baron, this is a modest token of my gratitude..."
"Unbelievable. A black magician hiding in those peaceful mountains."
Blanc referred to the mountains housing the Baum mine.
"Th-that... We had no idea! It was a darkness we never detected! But the brave lions of Tolome stepped up and eradicated it..."
"Eight Tolome knights died. They were precious assets who shouldn't perish in a place like this."
Blanc shook his head gravely, unmasking his somber mood.
"I find it truly regrettable."
"We must scour that black magician's mine thoroughly. There might be more undetected darkness."
"Worry not! We'll take full responsibility..."
Baron Tigor thumped his chest, insisting they handle it.
But upon meeting Blanc's eyes, he fell silent like a mute drenched in honey.
"Tolome soldiers will handle the mine investigation. Not that I distrust you, Lord Tigor, but that place is a grave for my comrades."
"V-very well. I understand completely."
The black magician's dungeon in the Baum mine legally belonged to Baron Tigor.
Naturally, as it lay within his territory.
Yet Tolome discovered it. Tolome conquered it.
Tolome could rightfully claim ownership.
Thus, Tigor planned to share generously whatever emerged and appease the Tolome.
Especially since their figurehead leader was a naive fourteen-year-old boy—he figured it would smooth over nicely.
"And I request closing the Baum mine for the duration of the investigation."
"Until when... exactly?"
"Until we deem it sufficient."
He was wrong.
The boy before him was no greenhorn. He was as sharp as the sword he wielded.
And a ruthless negotiator.