Chapter 58: The Treasure the Emperor Seeks (2)
Chapter 58: The Treasure the Emperor Seeks (2)
Whether it was the aftereffect of having been sealed for long ages, its unfocused, wavering blue eyes quickly grew clear.
The desecrated ruins had awakened the duty bound by his oath. That alone restored the mage's sanity more effectively than a hundred exchanges of questions and answers.
[To plunder the king's study.]
"Wait! I swear on my honor and soul, we did not loot this place!"
At Eugene's cry, the mage's boiling fury halted.
Being a spiritual existence, a single word laden with sincerity exerted a stronger influence than dozens of swords laden with brute force.
[Your claim is true.]
With the atmosphere suggesting a fight might be avoided, Eugene nodded.
"That is so. Ghost mage."
[I am no ghost. I am a court mage who served His Glorious Highness Lucius.]
"Then reveal your name."
[My name... my name is...]
The mage still seemed unable to remember his name. He shook his head from side to side, trying to drag the memory back out of oblivion.
In the meantime, Eugene asked Varda.
"Do you know who Lucius is?"
"He is the last king of the Ancient Kingdom. But that is not what matters."
Varda looked genuinely shocked.
"His sense of self is intact enough to hold a conversation. Someone extracted a human soul and sealed it into a Guardian."
The vast majority of Guardians were beings akin to spiritual golems. They could not manage even a simple greeting in words, let alone a conversation. They simply guarded, expelled, and fought.
"A sort of burial sacrifice, then."
"Worse than a burial sacrifice. At least death frees the victim of ordinary human sacrifice. This would leave the soul bound here forever, even after death."
At that moment, a blue will-o'-the-wisp also kindled within the helm of the seated knight.
CLANK.
Rising slowly with a clatter of armor, the knight surveyed the ruins, now in shambles. Then, wordlessly, he drew his longsword and leveled it at Eugene.
"On my honor, I swear we—"
Unlike the mage, with whom dialogue had been possible, the knight charged in, poised to fight without warning.
Twang!
Homi immediately fired her crossbow, but the bolt failed to penetrate the thick armor. It merely gouged a considerable scratch before ricocheting away.
"Fall back! Protect Varda-nim!"
Homi drew her shield and war hammer and retreated together with Varda.
'Of all things, a Guardian as an opponent in a place where the power of vegetation is weak.'
For Varda, unsuited to direct combat, both the terrain and the compatibility were unfavorable.
FSSSSS.
The gouge in the armor sealed itself seamlessly, as if filled by water. Against spiritual beings, one could not properly land a blow without silver arrows or weapons imbued with magical power.
As the knight swung his longsword, a tremendous blast of wind pressure surged forth.
Eugene dodged the first strike and blocked the second with his shield. Blue sparks flew from the iron shield where the spirit sword collided.
'Nothing I can't handle.'
The steel shield was sturdy, and the Etherje sword contained the authority to destroy all magic.
BANG!
The flat face of Eugene's shield slammed into the knight's chest.
The impact spread out more than it would have with an edge strike, but the move came out as quickly as a boxer's jab. Of course, it was a jab only from Eugene's perspective. To the knight taking it, it was more like being slapped by a bear.
The knight staggered from the sudden impact but still swung his longsword.
SKRANG!
Eugene received it with his shield forward and delivered a full-body tackle with all his strength behind it.
BOOOOM!
Struck squarely, the knight lost his weapon and went flying through the air.
After crashing into a ruined pillar, he was slammed to the floor and slid along it. His black armor scraped against the stone, putting on a display of sparks flying in all directions like stolen kisses.
This was the reason Eugene dismounted when facing powerful foes. It allowed him to maximize the utility of his shield.
A steel shield, with its broad surface available for both attack and defense, was the best insurance when fighting an unfamiliar enemy.
The Guardian rose slowly, black smoke seeping from dozens of fissures all over his body.
FSSSSS.
The sword the knight had dropped evaporated like smoke, then reappeared in his hand.
"Varda-nim, that one is cheating."
"This is no time for jokes! Do you feel any evil aura or corruption from corpse poison?!"
"Not at all. Neither evil aura, nor hatred for the living. I sense only a pure fighting spirit that has lost its way. He was surely a fine knight in life."
Even from that brief exchange, Eugene had been able to grasp his opponent's essence.
[Cease your attack! He is no thief!]
Even at the mage's shout, the knight did not react. It seemed he no longer retained enough reason even to recognize his comrade's voice, much less answer him.
A mage who cultivated the mind by studying the world's secrets, and a knight who pursued only physical training and glory.
The two had preserved their sanity to very different degrees under the erosion of the immense span of time.
After deflecting the knight's sword with his shield, Eugene swung Last Autumn. The gauntlet was cleanly severed, and the sword it had gripped fell to the earth once more.
Three fingers and half the palm, cut diagonally, evaporated like smoke. Unlike when struck by Homi's bolt, it did not regenerate.
Just as the sword on the ground was about to grow hazy to return to its master.
CLANG!
Eugene's foot slammed down on the blade, and it coalesced back, held fast.
'That actually worked?'
It had been a reflexive action; Eugene hadn't truly believed he could stop it.
WHOOSH!
SWISH!
The trapped sword flickered, blurring and sharpening repeatedly as it tried to escape by any means. But Eugene's firm will became a kind of magic, binding the spirit sword.
It was like watching a snake pinned under a raptor's talons.
[Groorurrr.]
Letting out an unidentifiable roar, the knight charged in with his fists.
CRUNCH!
Last Autumn sheared through the knight's outstretched fist and then pierced his chest.
Through the sword in his hand, Eugene could feel the magics comprising the knight collapsing one after another.
THUD!
Sent flying backward by Eugene's kick, the knight sprawled flat on the ground. The will-o'-the-wisp within his helm vanished, and then his massive armored body scattered like smoke.
Eugene turned back to the mage. He had kept a watchful eye even while fighting the knight, but the mage seemed to have no intention of hostility.
"To protect my life and the lives of my comrades, I had no choice."
[I acknowledge that you acted in self-defense, Sir Knight. I am only grateful that you granted him rest. We have been bound here for far too long, even after what we guarded had lost all meaning.]
"Do you still not remember your name?"
[Decimus. My name is Decimus.]
The mage seemed to grow clearer by the moment, and his speech was steadier than when he had first appeared.
"Names ending in '-us' are a traditional naming convention among the nobility of the Ancient Kingdom."
Varda quietly explained it to him.
"Decimus. I was forced to fight under the false charge of being a thief. I demand an apology for that insult and peril."
In truth, Eugene had not felt particularly insulted or threatened in the slightest, but he carefully managed his expression.
It was the peculiar expression knights wore when wounded pride and anger mixed together. Eugene had seen it often enough lately that imitating it was easy.
[I acknowledge your demand. On behalf of my comrade, I shall offer my apology.]
Decimus readily agreed.
"In return, share your knowledge. What exactly is this place?"
[It was a place for studying magic.]
"What kind of magic?"
[Concerning the secret art of opening a passage to the Otherworld.]
It was just as Varda had surmised.
That also explained why Eugene, who handled power from the Otherworld, had been able to interact with the magic circle better than Varda, whose specialty was forest magic.
[It was His Highness Lucius's command. The research was essential to completing the kingdom's final castle—and to fulfilling his wish.]
"What kind of wish? What could the ruler of the Ancient Kingdom have yearned for so deeply?"
[...]
Decimus's mouth and jaw began dispersing like smoke just as he tried to answer. His hands and feet were dissolving as well.
The ancient magic circle had exhausted itself by manifesting the two Guardians. The mana sustaining Decimus was rapidly running out.
[The research... a success... the castle completed... within it, the suffering still...]
Decimus tried to convey what he considered more important, but he faded away before he could finish.
[Noble knight... take this...]
With that final word, he vanished completely from sight.
"He has been freed from his bondage. I can feel his existence returning to the world's cycle."
Varda clasped her hands and offered an elven prayer. As a fellow mage, it was both a gesture of respect and an act of mourning for a predecessor from the distant past.
"Perhaps the Emperor, too, had an experience similar to what we just went through."
"Perhaps. There must be more than one or two ruins like this."
Roman held more relics of the Ancient Kingdom than any other land in the world. As Emperor, he would also have access to a wealth of information.
"Thanks to you, Varda-nim, we have overcome yet another crisis."
Eugene held Last Autumn upright. Despite having cut down countless foes since, its silver blade remained sharp, without a single chip.
"I hate to think what might have happened against a spiritual being if I had not had this sword."
Varda shook her head.
"Likely, even without it, you would have felled him. Do you recall when you stepped on the Guardian knight's sword just now?"
"Yes. I feared it might return to his hand, so I tried stomping on it to stop it somehow. Though I never imagined it would actually work."
"The moment I saw that scene, I became certain. You are already a mage."
In truth, there had already been plenty of signs.
The Eucharist, possible only for a legendary pope.
The mental fortitude to ignore the enchantment spread throughout the Emerald Forest.
Having restored the broken magic circle merely by existing near it.
All of them were feats ordinary mages could not hope to reproduce.
"Magic is the act of building one's inner will into the form of a miracle in reality. With willpower as formidable as yours, you would surely have struck down the Guardian even without the Etherje sword."
"Well, I suppose he would have dissipated on his own anyway if I had just stalled for time while blocking with my shield."
"That, too, is true. The investigation team dispatched by the Emperor may have used a similar method."
In a fight where the enemy was on a time limit, there was no need to even mobilize a mage. With sound tactics alone, knights and mercenaries could handle it well enough.
Meanwhile, Homi, who had been crouched on all fours like a dog rummaging through the undergrowth, picked something up. It was a golden key, about the length of a palm, from which an intense mystic aura emanated.
"..."
There seemed little need to consider what this was meant to unlock.
"It is an immensely valuable relic, but I do not know whether I should be pleased to have it."
"Why is that?"
"Too much greed invites danger. But the Wandering Castle keeps trying to form a bond with you..."
Varda stopped speaking.
Even though it was spoken out of concern for Eugene's safety, was he not also a hot-blooded knight?
Planting one's own banner atop a great castle and looking down upon the world as its lord. That was the ultimate dream of every knight.
Calling that dream dangerous and denying it to his face felt rude, no matter how close they were as friends.
"Forgive me. My words were excessive."
"Do not apologize. Such concern is always welcome. I, too, have no intention of ending up like a snake whose belly is split open trying to swallow prey too large."
Eugene shook the golden key he had received from Homi.
"If it comes to that, I could trade it to someone else. Surely it would fetch a fine price. Or I could use it as a bargaining chip."
"I am grateful you say so."
There was nothing more to see in these ruins now. They were an empty husk, with nothing left in terms of treasure or magic.
"Dismantle!"
Upon Eugene's return, Haind ordered the mercenaries to break down the temporary barricades and erase all signs of their encampment.
After regrouping his men and descending to the road, a short while later, he saw dozens of people setting out from the city of Veles. They were heading straight for where the ruins had been.
"Are they climbing up, hoping to salvage something as well?"
"Adventurers might do so, but if they are city folk, they would be climbing up to preserve the ruins. As you saw, the people of Veles are exceptionally fervent about the Ancient Kingdom."
"It seems we did well to hurry from daybreak."
Had they been even slightly later, they would have run into those people and it would have become troublesome.
Baden might speak of Eugene, but that was beyond their control. He simply did his best to deal with the situation at hand.
The mercenaries did not ask what had happened inside. Knowing when to restrain their curiosity was a virtue of good mercenaries. Whatever personal familiarity they had with their employer, these veterans knew where to draw the line.