Fragments of an Ancient Relic
“Fragments of an ancient relic?”
“Yes.”
Xavier held up the glass shard reacting to me, his voice laced with unease as he asked.
“Do you know where I found this?”
“Hmm.”
I was about to say of course not, but a memory surfaced in my mind just then.
Before the monster surge truly erupted, monsters had suddenly swarmed the base. Xavier, out on an expedition, had been chased like mad by those beasts.
Recalling that moment, I lifted the corner of my eye.
“No way?”
“Yes.”
Xavier's eyes narrowed as if reliving the same memory. Then he began recounting the tale of exploring the ruins with the knights.
“The place I went to was...”
* * *
A few days before the high-grade monsters invaded, Xavier had left the base with a handful of knights to search for ancient steles.
Thanks to the knight order's regular subjugations, scouting around the monster habitats had become increasingly feasible.
Still, danger lurked, so the knights escorting Xavier remained ever vigilant.
Xavier galloped ahead in his usual state of excitement, clutching a small mana detector in his hand.
Steles were most often found where mana converged. This was a magic item he'd commissioned from the Magic Tower upon learning that. It made ruin explorations far smoother—no more wandering lost like before.
“Lord Xavier, please slow down.”
A knight grumbled from behind, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Damn otaku bastard.
The knights secretly echoed their young duke's muttered words from earlier.
Then they all came to an abrupt halt as Xavier suddenly stopped.
“It seems to be this way.”
“Hmm...”
The knights scanned their surroundings with sharp eyes. No sign of monsters.
They nodded, and Xavier pressed on toward where the detector pointed.
Soon, a small cave appeared before them.
“It must be inside.”
“We'll check first.”
In case some beast lurked within, the knights volunteered to enter ahead.
They needed torches at first, but light grew as they ventured deeper—thanks to tiny mana stones embedded throughout, glowing faintly.
Such stones in northern caves weren't unusual the higher north you went, so Xavier and the knights advanced nonchalantly.
Yet no stele appeared, even at the innermost end. It was just another ordinary cave.
Disappointment flickered across Xavier's face after scouting to the end.
“We've seen it all. Let's head out.”
“Haah, yes.”
Xavier turned listlessly to follow the knights. Then something crunched under his foot.
“Hm?”
He bent down to look. What seemed to have been a black orb lay shattered and rolling on the ground. He hadn't broken it—it had been cracked for ages.
Puzzled, Xavier gathered the fragments in his palm. As they came together, they began emitting a faint light.
Had a mana stone shattered? Xavier tilted his head.
But high-grade mana stones didn't break on their own. Unless someone had forcibly shattered it...
Even then, could something called the essence of mana shatter so easily?
A strange noise echoed from deeper in the cave amid his doubts.
Grrr... grrr...
“W-what is that?”
The lead knight whipped around in alarm. He'd confirmed nothing was there moments ago. Yet now a beast's growl emanated from within.
“Lord Xavier!”
“...!”
When he startled and turned, massive fangs loomed right before his eyes.
“Gasp...!”
“Grrr...”
But the monster, mouth agape, couldn't approach Xavier any further for some reason. Too panicked by its sudden appearance, Xavier and his escorts fled the cave without noticing, and Xavier ran for his life amid the growing horde of beasts.
That was the full story of the minor mishap just before the high-grade monsters overran the base.
* * *
“A monster appeared inside the cave where there hadn't been one before?”
“...Yes.”
Xavier nodded gravely.
The knights I assigned as his escorts were all seasoned veterans. No matter how dark the cave, they wouldn't miss a monster's presence.
I stared incredulously at the glass shards in Xavier's hand.
“Don't tell me this thing... summoned the monsters?”
“I suspect it might be the medium that calls them forth.”
“Ha.”
Finally, the puzzles jumbling my mind clicked into place.
Monsters weren't occurring naturally after all. Someone was deliberately creating and controlling them to their whims.
We were mere playthings in their hands.
“I haven't mentioned it due to lack of evidence until now, but seeing this, I can say for certain.”
Xavier continued earnestly, looking at me.
“From deciphering the ancient steles, I discovered that the north had a god they worshipped too.”
“What?”
I blinked in confusion.
“Wasn't the north's object of worship a dragon?”
The black dragon that contracted with the founding Duke Carpoem—the very being that passed its power to me.
“That's what I thought as well.”
Xavier swallowed hard, set down the relic fragment, and rummaged through the desk again. He soon handed me a sheaf of papers.
“This is part of what I've translated so far.”
“Hmm...”
I peered at the paper with a serious expression, but the handwriting was so atrocious I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
As I looked up with bleary eyes, Xavier cleared his throat awkwardly and explained.
“Ahem, well, I assumed all the objects the ancient northerners worshipped were dragons. But...”
His finger pointed to some odd drawing—not text, but a picture.
I squinted and muttered.
“...The moon?”
“Yes. A crescent moon symbol. The higher up north we go, the more frequently this symbol appears conspicuously on the steles we've found.”
Xavier pushed up his glasses and asked me.
“The southern god Lumine governs light, right? So what would be its opposite?”
“...”
It was easy to infer.
Crescent moon symbol. The south reveres light, so the north...
“The god of darkness.”
They worshipped darkness.
“We've always known Lumine as the one true god.”
“So that's not the case?”
“Not exactly untrue, but...”
Xavier trailed off momentarily, choosing his words carefully.
“It's more like it's been concealed. Regarding the north's god, that is.”
“Concealed...”
But why bother? As I puzzled, Xavier elaborated.
“I believe it's because of the Demonic.”
“The Demonic?”
If Demonic, wasn't that the ancient demons from the Lumine scriptures? Beings who fell after incurring the supreme god's wrath, banished from the earth to rule the underworld.
“You mean that's the north's god...?”
“Yes, that's my interpretation for now.”
“Haa.”
My mind grew a bit tangled.
Of course, it wasn't some absurd tale that the Demonic or the north's god was causing the monster surge. Likely some shadowy group borrowing that name.
Impersonating a god using northern ancient relics...
“What on earth do they want?”
“...Revenge, perhaps.”
“Revenge?”
I widened my eyes in shock.
“They know of the northern god completely forgotten on the continent. Only the devout can wield such relics.”
“True.”
I'd heard the south's god's relics could only be used by saintesses. The same likely applied to the north's god's relics. Whoever wielded it was behind the monster surge.
“Revenge...”
The target of that revenge: House Carpoem.
The mastermind who tried to curse the duke to death via Marquis Ater. They must despise our house utterly.
“Professor, keep this between us for now. Understood?”
“Ah, yes.”
It could cause massive chaos if word spread. Xavier nodded solemnly, fully aware.
I gazed at the glowing relic fragment with troubled eyes.
* * *
Back in her room, Yurina Florence paced furiously for a while, unable to calm her rage.
Sitting still wouldn't soothe it.
At one point, she stopped abruptly and ruffled her hair roughly.
“Ughhh.”
Abigail needed her. Yurina firmly believed that.
She had to go help her right now. Monsters aside, Abigail likely had no one reliable by her side at the moment.
The crown prince? From the ball, he seemed like a two-faced show-off. Yurina could never accept him as Abigail's fiancé.
The so-called next Magic Tower Lord, an advanced mage? He was even from the Magicus clan. No matter his skill, it felt off-putting.
And above all...
Ian Servbo!
Yurina had investigated him thoroughly in particular. The more she dug, the shadier it got.
Especially that power of his from the Servo family. That malevolent force grated on her nerves.
It perfectly matched his moniker of berserker.
Thus, Abigail's surroundings were filled with untrustworthy people.
So she had to go protect her. Yurina believed this with ironclad conviction.
Knock knock.
“Lady Yurina, are you awake?”
“...Sir Illein.”
Yurina snapped to at the polite knock and invited him in.
The door opened, and Illein entered with a worried expression.
“I heard you skipped dinner.”
“Just... my stomach's upset.”
Seeing her still pouty face, Illein sighed softly.
“Are you still angry at His Holiness?”
“Of course.”
Yurina crossed her arms and turned her head away petulantly.
She was a bit mad at Illein too for sending her back to her room on Julius's orders.
“His Holiness is worried about you.”
And so was he.
The north was dangerous enough already, teeming with monsters now. They couldn't send a saintess there.
Yurina whipped her head back to face Illein.
“Even the founding saintess fought monsters!”
“That's just an ancient legend.”
“It's not! I can feel it from the holy power I inherited. It's all true!”
The first saintess, Ariel, who repelled monsters alongside the empire's founding emperor. Her holy power—and fragments of her memories—lived on in Yurina, etched into her stigmata.
That distant legend was entirely real.
One day, she too was fated to battle monsters like Ariel.
“So help me, Sir Illein.”
Yurina gazed at him with conviction burning in her eyes.