Chapter 49 : Chapter 49

Chapter 49 - The Sorcerer's Sword

An uncomfortable meeting.

It was taking place in the office of the General Construction Manager of the General Construction Department, of all places.

A man who seemed to be a mountain turned into a person.

And a man who seemed to be a boulder turned into a person.

The two men, one of whose parents must have been a rock, faced each other without a word.

The only thing to drink during the conversation was the beer that was always in this General Manager's office.

And it was ice-cold beer at that.

The short man with a long beard broke the silence and laughed heartily.

“Drink it while it's cold. We're not the kind of people who can't share something like this. I gave it to you to drink, so help yourself.”

“Shorty.”

“What is it, land-digger.”

“Didn't the Youngest Son send over a rough blueprint for the citadel?”

“Ahh. Was that your purpose?”

The man called shorty, the Construction General Manager, extended his short but thick arm and picked up a beer mug.

That wooden mug was so large that it seemed it could easily hold a day's worth of water intake.

Gulp, gulp.

But even that was half gone after two sips.

“Khaa... If that's all your business, you should get going. Unlike you guys, we have something called a promised deadline. We're busy, is what I'm saying.”

“No matter how busy you are, what else would you be holding besides beer or a pickaxe?”

Land General Manager Felson also picked up his mug.

The neck, thick enough to withstand a blow to the back of it, gulped continuously.

It was at that moment that the wooden mug revealed its bottom.

Felson, wiping the foam from his beard, continued.

“The blueprint. How was it?”

“Well... there were no problems with the blueprint itself.”

“No, problems, you say.”

“Of course, that only applies within the blueprint. You know too, land-digger. What kind of demonic realm Eclipse is.”

In a word, it was trash.

It was a prime location comparable to the Pantheon, but to draw out its value, an absurd amount of consumption was needed.

That meant manpower, money, and many resources.

Millesdusk had given up on it early on and had completed all construction within the Pantheon.

So, in the current situation, Eclipse had become a "chicken rib" like existence.

The family wouldn't touch it on a family level, but it wasn't something the new generation of kinsmen could handle.

But the Youngest Son had walked in there on his own two feet.

Saying he would make it his home, of all things.

Felson shook his head.

“Eclipse. What kind of nonsense is that.”

“But the plan was good, you say? To make this Dred's heart tremble. He's only ten, but he definitely has potential.”

“It's just an illusion, isn't it.”

“Hey, land-digger. Haven't you ever dreamed in that big head of yours? Imagine it, imagine.”

Dred closed his eyes and recalled the blueprint.

In that drawing, the Youngest Son was speaking.

“He said he would build his domain there.”

“...What?”

“He said he would create a domain where numerous people gather and live, not just ending with a house like other new generation kinsmen or the previous generations.”

Dred chuckled.

With a long, low laugh, his long-grown beard trembled.

The land-digger, who had been silent all this time, asked.

“Is that possible?”

“A domain can be built on any land. Eclipse isn't that far from the big cities. The surrounding natural resources are good, and there are still buildings left. But.”

The eyes of the Construction General Manager, who had been laughing heartily, changed abruptly.

“I have no intention of throwing my kids into a pile of demons like that. No matter how good a city, how good a domain comes out of it, this won't change.”

“Right. I thought so.”

“And you know. A domain isn't finished just by completing the land and buildings. More than anything, you need people to fill the place.”

Who would really want to come?

Who would want to live on land where demon worshipers once set foot and offered human sacrifices?

Then in the end, it wouldn't be a domain, but just a large piece of land.

A clean ruin with many empty houses.

Felson got up from his seat.

“I came to see the blueprint, but I don't think I need to. There's no way there's anything inside a pipe dream. I was wrong.”

“Well, who wouldn't think so. A spirited kinsman just went a little too far.”

“I'm leaving, shorty. Don't go out and get stepped on and die.”

“You too, land-digger. Watch where you're going so you don't bump into something and crack your head open.”

The meeting concluded with a warm exchange of blessings.

Left alone in the room, Dred gulped down the remaining beer and went to his desk.

On it was the blueprint he had been poring over all night yesterday.

There is a dream contained in this.

The opportunity, as a dwarf kinsman, to see a building thousands of years old and tear it apart.

The opportunity to write a new history on top of that history.

The opportunity to see with my own eyes the altar that was covered in the blood of tens of millions.

There were truly many opportunities in this blueprint.

But what's the use?

It was obvious I'd die if I went.

“Am I supposed to imagine the taste of candy I can't eat anyway?”

He sighed and rolled up the blueprint.

Then he shoved it into a corner.

He wouldn't be looking for it again anyway.

***

The Magic Sword moved.

The arm, wrapped in Bloodflame, swung the Magic Sword.

Each time, the tip of the sword drew a blood-red line along its trajectory.

The line did not end there.

Rather, it was the departure and the beginning.

[The Magic Sword Enad uses the curse 「Limitless Sword」.]

Another blood-red line drawn across the first blood-red line.

And another crosshair overlapping the crosshair created that way.

Those straight lines tangled and connected, repeatedly breaking and giving birth to new lines.

The curse of the slash.

The sorcerer, who couldn't grasp any of the four realms of sorcery, picked up a sword.

The end of the sword as seen by a sorcerer was to let go of the sword, but here was a different view.

“...He coats the Magic Sword with the Limitless Sword to substitute for the stability that the hand seal provides, and replaces the increase in power obtained by sacrificing movement with the Magic Sword's power increase.”

The gatekeeper, who had picked up the Bone Sword he had stuck in the ground again.

He kept mulling over the Youngest Son's answer in his mouth.

Looking at it this way, it seemed the Youngest Son was just swinging a Magic Sword, but that in itself didn't make sense.

“The Magic Sword is a cursed weapon. Along with its power, it amplifies the user's killing intent, making them commit indiscriminate murder.”

The Youngest Son right now was still the same as usual.

He smiled as usual, moved as usual, and was efficient as usual.

If he seemed to be overdoing it for a moment, it was a trap.

A trap to solidify the tide of battle, which was about to become even again due to numbers, in his favor.

Just like someone who had been thinking about the ogre's defense and hadn't thought in the slightest about the counterattack that gave up the left arm.

The demons' necks flew into the air as they met the blood-red lines.

In the middle of that, the Youngest Son briefly stopped his Magic Sword.

“I think this is enough investigation.”

The amount of sinister energy in the citadel was immense, but it was not infinite.

The more demons you kill, the more of the citadel's power you consume, which means the reward you will get will decrease.

Unnecessary slaughter is meaningless.

“Gatekeeper. Let's go.”

“...I understand.”

The two ran towards the main gate they had first entered.

Thanks to opening a path with a series of slashes, it was not a difficult task to escape the encirclement.

“It's night.”

I had such a hectic day that I couldn't even see the sky.

Even though night comes properly in Eclipse, too.

“Let's prepare to camp for now. I'll unpack the luggage we brought.”

At the mention of going to Eclipse, the Head Maid had sent a lot of camping supplies.

As if she had recently acquired a taste for spending money, the mansion was full of new things.

Furniture, luxury goods.

Things that would soon be moved to this land here.

Fwoosh─

The gatekeeper lit a campfire.

With it, he drove away the cold and grilled soft bread with butter.

Chewing on good quality jerky, the body is bound to become weary.

Add to that a smooth wine.

“Hoo... Getting away from the noisy mansion is a nice thing.”

“Young Master.”

While I was resting, leaning against a tree, the gatekeeper spoke to me.

It was obvious what he wanted to say.

“You want to teach me, right? I'll accept.”

“...That's not it. I have a question.”

“You're a killjoy. What is it?”

The gatekeeper stared at the flickering fire for a moment, then at the eyes redder than that fire.

“You said you learned the Limitless Sword from my battle, but I understood that you obtained the Limitless Sword from the blood I dropped.”

“Didn't you hear from the Head Maid? About my power.”

“She didn't seem to know the specifics either. She probably only knows what you've revealed, Young Master.”

“That's not wrong.”

“I'm not curious about how you learned my Limitless Sword. What I'm curious about now is the Young Master's opinion.”

I live as a sorcerer, but I continuously swung a sword and saw the pinnacle of the sword.

I judged that its end was in letting go of the sword, and the Limitless Sword was created that way.

As a sorcerer, I discarded the sword and brought only the sword's aggressiveness. The slash.

So I wanted to ask.

“Please answer me. Do you believe the sword a sorcerer pursues can go further than the Limitless Sword.”

“...You. You know that I've only learned the gist of the technique through blood, and my understanding of the sword is short. Are you asking me knowing that?”

I held a Magic Sword, but I didn't know how to handle a sword.

All I did today was ordinary horizontal, vertical, and diagonal slashes.

Even those were swung by feel, relying on physical ability.

To the man who was once the best Cursed Knight in the East, it must have been a sight to make him frown.

But still, the gatekeeper nodded his head.

“It doesn't matter. I just want to ask for your opinion, literally.”

“Hmm.”

The Youngest Son rested his chin on his hand for a moment and pondered.

Because of that, the jerky he had been chewing on dried up in his mouth for a while.

Then, around the time saliva began to pool, a semblance of an answer came out.

“There is. There is definitely something above the Limitless Sword.”

“I'd like to hear the reason.”

“The reason is here.”

I put my hand into the spatial artifact and took it out in one go.

This, which I read thoroughly whenever I have time.

“The Scripture of the Dark Wheel...?”

The gatekeeper, of course, knew the book the Youngest Son held in his hand.

But why was this the reason?

His bloodshot eyes moved to the book.

“They say no one has interpreted this book, but it's definitely a sorcery book written by the first Family Head.”

“...I know that. Then are you saying I have to interpret that to reach the level above the Limitless Sword?”

“To be precise, you just have to interpret one of the six chapters here. If you can, that is.”

“......”

The gatekeeper fell silent.

Any sorcerer who belonged to Millesdusk had a time when they were confident they were a genius.

But that time was bound to be shattered the day they read the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.

The unbreakable wall for the geniuses of Millesdusk and all sorcerers.

Because that was the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.

“I tried reading it when I was young, too. But there was nothing I could understand.”

“Don't they say sorcerers get stronger as they get older? And what does getting older mean? It means you've survived. And surviving is proof of being strong.”

I handed the Scripture of the Dark Wheel I had to the gatekeeper.

“Read it again tonight. Who knows. You might even catch a clue.”

“...I understand.”

Taking the book, he used the campfire as a light and turned the cover.

Beside him, the Youngest Son's voice cut in.

“If there's a part that gives you a good feeling while reading, tell me too. You'll need my opinion, just like this time.”

“I'll keep that in mind.”

This time, the gatekeeper replied as usual and let it go in one ear and out the other.

Saying I'd need his opinion.

Then did the Youngest Son himself gain some kind of enlightenment from the Scripture of the Dark Wheel?

There was no way.

Shaking his head vigorously inside, he began to read the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.

And yet, his eyes were on the Youngest Son, who was slowly about to fall asleep.

Whether he learned something here or not.

As he resolved to try teaching him tomorrow afternoon.

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