Interlude: Meanwhile
In the Paladia Kingdom, where Rio had settled his revenge with Lucius, the man who murdered his mother...
Ambassadors from the Proxia Empire were visiting First Prince Duran in the royal castle, the day after Rio and Aria began their pursuit of the saint. They were the six subordinates of the late Heavenly Lions commander, Lucius, their number including Arein, Lucci, and Ven.
However, the only one in the meeting room with Duran was Arein. The other five waited outside the room for their discussion to conclude.
“It’s been a while. Haven’t seen that squad uniform on you in some time...”
Duran ushered Arein into the room while heavily seating himself in the head seat. However, when he saw Arein’s outfit after entering the room, his eyes widened. Arein was wearing the uniform of the Heavenly Lions.
Most mercenary jobs involved either war or doing the dirty work that kingdoms couldn’t publicize. When mercenaries participated in war, they would wear their own squad uniform to make their squad’s achievements apparent, but they never wore the uniform while doing dirty jobs. Arein had been working for the Proxia Empire for the last few years, so it had been a while since he had donned his squad uniform.
“We came on behalf of Mr. Reiss, but it seems like we’re about to get a job we can claim credit for as the Heavenly Lions. And so, I’d like to get straight down to business,” Arein began.
“I am aware. You’re after your commander’s memento, the enchanted sword, right? Reiss said he’d send a replacement sword, though. You didn’t come barehanded, did you?”
Duran grabbed one of the two swords standing beside him. But instead of handing it over, he tapped the tip of the hilt against the floor. “Yes. The five outside the room are holding onto it.”
“Oh?”
“May they be allowed inside?”
“I don’t mind.”
Duran jerked his chin, signaling the knights by the door to open it. The knights nodded silently and opened the door.
“Excuse us.”
The five squad members, including Lucci and Ven, entered. They were all wearing the uniform of the Heavenly Lions, and they all carried two swords each as they stood behind Arein in his seat.
“That’s quite a few swords you’ve brought. The deal was for a smaller number, I believe.”
A total of ten was no small number when it came to enchanted swords. Duran’s eyes widened when he glanced at the five people standing behind Arein.
“There are three powerful enchanted swords with special abilities and physical body enhancement, and seven weaker swords with just physical body enhancement.”
“Are you saying to choose between the three swords, or the seven?”
“No. I’m offering you all ten.”
“Bwahahaha!” Duran broke out into hearty laughter.
“Did I say something funny?”
“You fool, the deal’s too good to be true. What’s the trick?”
A single enchanted sword could raise the military prowess of a small nation. For a minor kingdom, even three enchanted swords was a lot.
“It’s also an apology for being late to this deal after being the ones to make the offer. We’ve been incredibly busy these days, you see.”
“Still sounds suspicious...”
Duran stared at the man seated opposite him with his sharp eyes. There was an implied request to help them in times of need in exchange for the ten enchanted swords.
“Well, yes. It’s also our intention to strengthen the Paladia Kingdom, whom we are allied with.”
“I see.”
“The weaker enchanted swords are the same as those our squad members are using. They’re more like imitation enchanted swords than real enchanted swords.”
“Imitation enchanted swords, you say... It almost sounds like enchanted swords can be manufactured. Although their abilities are limited to physical body enhancement...”
“Yes, exactly. It’s not like they can be produced in the hundreds, but just between you and me, these seven swords were created in the empire.”
Incidentally, the reason why they were late to retrieve Lucius’s enchanted sword was because it had taken some time to prepare this many swords.
“Oh?” There was a glint in Duran’s eye.
Enchanted swords that could enhance the physical body instead of just affording physical abilities were considered ancient artifacts that were impossible to reproduce with Strahl’s modern sorcery. If a knight that could only use physical ability enhancement magic faced a knight with an enchanted sword for the physical body, the one with the enchanted sword would win by a landslide.
Enchanting just the abilities meant the results were limited by the body’s limits, whereas enchanting the physical body altogether allowed one’s movements to surpass the body’s limits. If a small squad of soldiers was formed with enchanted swords equipped, that squad would be extremely formidable on the battlefield.
“Well, the sorcery effect is a little weaker when compared to the ancient enchanted swords. But even then, if one of your subordinates equipped one, they’d easily be able to take on several knights of the surrounding kingdoms.”
“What a terrifying country the empire is.”
“It’s not the empire that’s terrifying, but Mr. Reiss.”
“A mysterious man indeed.” Duran’s brow furrowed at the thought of such a creepy person.
“But we don’t care about what the empire wants anymore. Will you return it to us? The commander’s memento.”
Arein and the mercenaries standing behind him stared sharply at Lucius’s sword. They seemed rather fixated on the item, which was a memento of their commander.
“Well, I have no reason to decline. They say that enchanted swords choose their own user, but this one seems extremely picky. Neither I nor any of my subordinates could use it. It’d be a waste of a fine sword, so take it. I’ll take your offer.”
If he was to pick a treasure, he might as well pick the usable one. Duran placed the enchanted sword Lucius had once used on the table before him.
“Lucci.” Arein ordered the large man standing behind him to retrieve the sword.
“Right.” Lucci immediately walked to the table and picked up Lucius’s sword. The gazes of all the squad members followed the sword with furious glares.
“Please do away with the bloodlust, all of you.”
Duran shrugged with a sigh. He could tell the bloodlust wasn’t directed at himself, so he didn’t criticize them for it too harshly. He understood—the mercenaries before him had the expressions of men about to head for war.
“That aside, would you all have any interest in working for me? I’ll reward you handsomely.” It was probably his natural disposition that spurred his attempt to recruit Arein and the others.
“Thank you for the offer, but there’s something we must do.”
“Do you plan on avenging Lucius’s death or something?”
“Well, yes.”
“What rashness. Even if I equipped my subordinates with every sword in this room, I wouldn’t want to face that man.”
There was no stopping them. Duran recalled the fight between Lucius and Rio and looked around at the men with a pitying look.
“Yeah, but our target this time isn’t that bastard himself... We’ll be doing this fair and square, the mercenary way.”
Arein seemed to be thinking of someone who wasn’t present, as he glared into empty space with the look of a starved beast.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, in the Galarc Castle, five days had passed since Rio and Aria left to track the saint.
“I’ll be going then.”
“Take care.”
At the entrance of Rio’s mansion on the castle grounds, Orphia was bidding farewell to Miharu, Celia, Latifa, Sara, Alma, Satsuki, and Charlotte; she was leaving in order to give Gouki and the others waiting at the spirit folk village an update on the situation. Their original plan was to return to the village within three weeks of leaving, so exceeding that period by days would be a cause for concern.
Orphia traveled to the gate of the capital in the horse carriage Charlotte prepared, then got off and resumed her journey alone.
Now, to find somewhere near the capital good for teleporting...
She didn’t immediately use the teleport crystal to warp away because she still had something else to do. If she left like this, she would have to fly for two weeks to return. Bringing everyone in Gouki’s group to Strahl like that would be difficult.
This was why she had to set up a teleportation spot in the outskirts of the Galarc capital so that Gouki’s party could teleport directly from the village to Strahl. Somewhere preferably out of sight from other people, where there was ample magic essence in the natural surroundings.
It was decided that Orphia would be the best at finding such a location since she was a high elf with an affinity for ode and mana. She also understood teleportation sorcery the best out of the remaining members at the castle.
I’ll start with a lap around the capital.
Orphia clenched her fists in a cute self-motivating motion, then enhanced her body to run to somewhere less populated.
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