Volume 3 Chapter 70 Oswald’s Melancholy
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”No. After they take enough grain, they will probably burn the houses and head back north as usual. But looking at this large offensive, they seem too serious to just take the harvest. There are talks that the enemy has around 20 thousand soldiers, so maybe they plan to move a whole tribe to Ramsey.”
”Tch!”
Oswald’s face twisted like he had bitten into a bitter bug.
He started pacing back and forth in the cell, turning the dust in the air into sparks.
”So?”
Oswald curled his lips in annoyance.
”They trample my land and spread corpses around, calling the Bloodsucking Kind and Ghouls from the mountains?”
”The Ghouls come to eat the flesh of the dead, but it is said the Bloodsucking Kind might be drawn out for other reasons. In this past month, Cain-type monsters have been appearing all over Izerland. It seems strong ones have shown up in Ramsey too, and every night, maidens in the center city of Ramsey are being killed and drained of blood.”
”Damn it! If I were free, I would turn both the Beastmen and the bloodsuckers to ash! I can’t believe it, but it can’t be Owl sucking my people’s blood, can it? If he’s hunting for his own fun along with his mission, I will skewer his heart, roast him slowly for 3 days from toe to tip, make him regret what he did, and then chop him into pieces to throw into the river!”
”I don’t know. But it seems Lord Owl has asked Your Excellency Maribel to tell him to deal with the Bloodsucking Kind on site and not interfere with the Adventurer Guild. The reason is that if the Adventurers help the enemy soldiers or the villages under enemy control from monster attacks, the situation in the war could turn against us.”
”How dare he ask me to abandon the common people who are begging for help?! Is that guy crazy?! No, I see. He’s a monster. He can’t stand seeing his allies hunted by Adventurers. Damn it…”
Oswald wildly swung his arms, venting his pent-up emotions.
”I’m going to write to Maribel. That little brat… She said something flirtatious about requesting a deal soon, but is this what she meant? I won’t forgive her. When I leave here, if Ramsey is covered in blood and ashes, I’ll make that Westside girl suffer the same fate…!”
”Lord Oswald, I hate to interrupt when you’re fired up, but can you please respond to my request first?”
”What? Oh, you want me to summon the scabbard. Got it. Take it anywhere after this. Everyone here might get roasted if we stay.”
”Also, I have a few questions. Since I entered this prison, while you were sleeping, has the Holy Sword’s scabbard been stolen, lent to someone, or anything like that?”
The blonde young man with a shaved head answered lazily to Priscilla’s question.
”No way. The Holy Sword’s scabbard refuses to leave me. The Holy Sword can be wrapped in thick cloth and managed, but if someone tries to maliciously take the scabbard, Phoenix will turn them to ash. Even Eleonora can’t touch it. The sword Jibril used is definitely something different from the Holy Sword I have!”
* * *
To put it simply, Oswald’s Holy Sword’s scabbard was neither stolen nor broken; it was perfectly intact inside his body.
In other words, the Holy Sword that Jibril used is not Oswald’s.
It seemed that someone had the ability to create a replica of the ‘Parasol of the Night Queen’ that Jibril also used, whether it was him or one of his followers.
If they could copy items that require stealing from weapons possessed by fallen gods or the queen of the underworld, then they must have an ability greater than that of a god.
There was no way to deal with it.
It was creepy beyond belief, but they decided to set aside the identity of Jibril’s ability for now.
”Kian, would you like to have dinner with us tonight? Of course, Priscilla can join too.”
Maribel made that suggestion right after returning from the prison facility to the square beneath the salon through the teleportation gate.
She caught a glimpse of the shadows of the nobles already gathered at the lookout, waiting for the Margrave to appear, and hurriedly added,
”I’d like to hear your thoughts on various things, including the current issue with Ramsey. I would be so happy if you could spare some time~.”
”I’d be glad to join you.”
”I planned to stay here for the night, so I will join you as well. Thank you for the invitation, Your Excellency.”
”I’m glad. I think we will be back a bit late, but please relax in your guest room until then. There is a hot spring in the north wing as well. ──Well then, excuse me.”
After saying that, Maribel turned her dark dress and went up the stairs.
Eleonora, who had been standing close by, tried to follow her but seemed to think of something and turned back toward the square midway.
The red-haired Defense Minister stopped in front of Kian and Priscilla.
”Lady Eleonora, how is Christy doing?”
”Famille has a mild sprain. The pain will remain for a while, but she plans to join the salon this afternoon. She’s probably already waiting upstairs.”
”I see. I’m glad it’s not broken.”
”Haha, I bet Christina wouldn’t have been safe even if she aged another 50 years.”
Priscilla let out a wry smile.
”So, what’s the matter, Lady Eleonora?”
”Well, I had a purely curious thought, just a simple question from someone with no magic training. It’s probably basic, but do you mind if I ask?”
”Yes, of course.”
Priscilla said with a smile, and Eleonora nodded once before beginning to speak.
”To start with, I don’t understand why the magicians are making a fuss over Lord Jibril using a holy sword in the ghost world. And to rethink national defense over this? It sounds like the ghost world isn’t just any space. They can recreate past towns of Azrael on a large scale, generate countless phantasmal shadows of the people who lived there. If the master of the world can do such godly work, why panic over a mere holy sword? Could it be that Lord Jibril was able to use the holy sword because he was in the ghost world? That he could freely create and use the holy sword there? This leads to the idea that he might be able to use it in the real world too.”
She concluded with, “Well, I say, if it means an increase in the military budget, then it’s fine by me.”
”Firstly, Lord Jibril was not the master of the ghost world. He did not have the power to freely reshape it.”
”Hm──. True. Now that you mention it, that makes sense. If it were that woman, Reysa, who used the holy sword, that’s one thing, but Lord Jibril doesn’t have such rights. My apologies, it seems I’ve asked a foolish question that anyone could figure out with a little thought.”
”Moreover, while the ghost world can indeed be reshaped at the whim of the world’s master, it’s not without limits. There are things that can’t be done even with ghost abilities.”
Priscilla said this, raising a finger.
”Even if a ghost’s spirit can grant independent thought to a hundred phantom shadows, if it can’t control a thousand, the uncontrollable shadows will be erased. The same goes for scenery.”
Kian remembered how strange things were in Sarah’s world──people suddenly disappeared, and images jumped around.
The white-haired Witch kept talking.
”The shadow illusions created by ghost can’t have more magic power than ghost itself. If a shadow shows up with more magic power, inside it is a real person. For example, if Lord Jibril appears in the warrior monk’s memory world with his true magic power, it would feel very weird.”
’That’s what made this one feel strange back then──that thing was it.’
(If I had seen Jibril’s real magic power clearly because of your help, I might have noticed there was a real person inside. And hey, ‘glasses’──if you’d pointed that out first, we wouldn’t have been all goofed up helping Sarah.)
’Stop blaming only failures. Even I mess up sometimes.’
(Sometimes…?)
”‘Night Crier’s’ total magic power is the number of magic power she herself has plus the life force contained in the mountain domain that became a different world. That means treasures like the Holy Sword of the Sun or Parasol of the Night Queen, which far surpass that, can’t manifest at full strength. They can only look close. Still, Lord Jibril unleashed the sun’s magic sword and blew me away once. Today, it looked like it contained almost the same amount of magic power as Oswald’s holy sword’s scabbard.”
”The holy sword was powerful for something created by a ghost. In other words, it belonged to Lord Jibril.”
”Yes. So, Lord Jibril should be able to use that sword in the real world.”
”I see.”
Eleonora nodded deeply and furrowed her brows.
”I really understand the seriousness of this. If I had bravely asked Famille about it, my outlook would have been totally different. I need to hurry and form a magician’s team. I’m not good at academics, but I guess I need to learn at least the basics of magic.”
Kian thought, maybe he should have asked Christy from the start.
There was no need to show his ignorance to Priscilla.
However, he decided to keep quiet and smile gently.
Eleonora thanked Priscilla and went up to the salon.
Kian and Priscilla faced each other as her figure disappeared from the observatory.
”What will Ms. Priscilla do now? Are you going to secretly listen to the discussions with the guards?”
”If I join them, I think Your Excellency Maribel will have to worry and won’t be able to focus on the discussion, so I’ll hold back. I can just hear the conclusion from Your Excellency tonight. More importantly, I’m going to meet with my father now. I want to report on the Châtillon situation and hear about Izerland fortress and the Knights of the Sun. What about Lord Kian?”
”Well, I’m…”
”First, I should contact Natra, who are staying in the town, right?” He started to say but suddenly spotted a girl from the Wolfmen quietly moving like a shadow behind the guards lined up in the square.
”Ms. Priscilla, let’s meet again tonight.”
”Huh? Oh, okay.”
”Excuse me.”
Kian said this and quickly walked across the square toward where the guards stood.
Suddenly, Serena’s dog ears perked up as she turned around with her light blue eyes.
”────! K-Kian…!”
”Serena!”
As all the guards looked at them, Kian took longer steps.
”Serena, wait for me!”
”────! S-Sorry!”
”Hey, Serena!”
Kian started running after her as she dashed away.
Serena ran through the exit of the plaza──under the grand white arch, leaving the main building’s grounds.
Kian raised his voice without caring about the gazes around.
”Serena! Wait! I need to talk to you! Please listen!”
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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