Chapter 102: No Wonder It Was Strange (1)
We moved to another location at my suggestion. This time, it was the room I was staying in.
Though, for some incomprehensible reason, Delward hid his face with his hood, saying he was not yet confident enough to see his father. Fortunately, there was a banquet going on, and none of the soldiers had the guts to stop Leila, so we were able to safely enter my room.
“Hello, I haven’t even introduced myself properly. I’m Delward Thermion. I’m Leila’s second brother.”
Ernest was equally bewildered by the unexpected family reunion. It was a truly awkward meeting. But soon, when he heard the words ancient beings and ruins, his eyes lit up.
“Oh my gosh, ancient beings and ruins… I totally have a feeling…” Ernest exclaimed.
“You think so, too?”
Ernest was ready to run at any moment.
“Fuu… You all really are fearless, you know that?”
I smiled brightly at Delward’s words and said, “There’s one more.”
“…Are you some kind of troublemaker club?”
I didn’t know if she was fearless, but there was one person who spoke in an un-priestly way.
“It’s really dangerous… This isn’t child’s play, really. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I know Leila’s friends are all incredibly talented, but… It’s just too dangerous.”
I said his words back at him, “Then isn’t it more dangerous to go to the Khabarosk Mountains alone?”
Delward seemed speechless. I smiled and hammered my point home. “Sometimes you have to do things alone, but sometimes you have to do things together.”
Now was the time. Of course, even if I said we’d go with him, we couldn’t go right away. After all, sufficient investigation must be conducted first.
“This will probably be less problematic than getting our houses involved.”
“Why can’t we borrow our houses’ power?”
I gave Leila a slightly mixed political perspective, asking, “What kind of house is House Thermion?”
“It is the best house in the empire.”
“Then the Drenik Empire must know about it too, right? Very well, at that.”
“…”
If it were to leak out in any way that someone from the Thermion Duchy was there, the scale of the matter would change.
One more thing.
“If we involve our families, information will leak out in some way. Besides, the Khabarosk Mountains are claimed by both empires. If we get entangled in something useless, it’ll be even more of a headache.”
Delward agreed, saying, “That’s right. I know it’s hard to believe, but there are actually Drenik spies all over the Empire. I found that out while I was over there.”
I also knew this well. Conversely, the Altheon Empire must have planted several spies in Drenik.
“And it’s fine if it’s us?”
“We have a cause.”
But we were different. We could use our club as a reason. And above all…
“House Dylan specializes in exploration.”
We had a son from House Dylan, a renowned explorer family and a man who couldn’t stop exploring. If things went wrong, we could just say we were going exploring.
As I explained these parts of the plan, Delward looked at me blankly and suddenly asked, “…You said you were the same age as Leila, right?”
“Leila’s birthday is earlier.”
“Are kids these days so precocious…? I didn’t know that a kid your age would consider political viewpoints.” Delward clicked his tongue, then nodded. “Alright. But we must keep it a secret. After we leave, during the trip, and after we return.”
That was obvious.
“Honestly, if it were up to me, secret or not, I just want to save Mother, but… Haah.”
I couldn’t even imagine how much mental anguish he must have gone through. Again, this was an incredible act of filial piety. How many years had he been wandering the Drenik Empire, the most dangerous place for the people of the Altheon Empire, to cure his mother’s illness?
Judging from the fact that he managed to obtain information and return safely, he was clearly not an ordinary person.
Anyway, that was how we added another item to our exploration itinerary.
Atalia Island during the holidays, and once preparations were complete, the Khabarosk Mountains. What these two places had in common was the keyword ‘ancient’.
An ancient being, huh?
Was it a golem-like creature like the one I’d only seen in books?
It looked like fun.
“By the way, Leila, I’m glad you have such great friends,” Delward said.
“…I won’t forgive you just because you say that.” However, Leila’s expression seemed to have relaxed a lot compared to before.
Delward smiled in relief and said, “Haha… I’m so glad. It seems like you’re doing well. Oh, Leila. Take this.”
Suddenly, he took out a package from his chest pocket. It was a slightly large box, perhaps taken out of a subspace. It was decorated in a rather old-fashioned way.
“What’s this?” Leila asked absentmindedly, but she seemed interested.
“Open it. That way, you’ll be more moved.”
“What do you mean, moved…?” Leila then took the box and carefully opened the lid.
Then, beautiful music started to flow, and a small statue suddenly popped out of the box and started to spin slowly.
“What do you think? Isn’t it cool? It’s called a ‘music box’ in the Drenik Empire, and it has an incredibly complex mechanism inside that operates it.”
“Wow…” Leila was amazed, forgetting that she had been angry just a moment ago.
A music box.
I remembered a soldier from my same squad smiling as he bought one with his salary, saying that he would give it to his daughter.
That soldier later got discharged alive and lived well. His daughter had to be all grown up by now.
“It’s… so pretty.”
“Right? This really is something great. It reminded me of you, Leila, from the first time I saw it.”
“Is this powered by a mana stone?” she asked.
“No. You wind the main spring that sticks out like this. As it unwinds, the force of the spindle turning plays music.” Delward added slyly, “And it’s custom-made.”
“Huh? Custom-made? Oh…!” Looking closely, the statue spinning in the center of the music box looked just like Leila.
“How is it? Is it cool?” Delward looked very proud. I wondered if my older sisters felt that way, too.
“…Thank you, Delward.”
“It’s fine. If you need anything later, just let me know. By the way, the Drenik Empire has a lot of fun things made of machines like this. I’ll definitely…”
“You want to die? You’re going there again? Are you crazy?”
Delward’s back probably wouldn’t be lacking bruises today.
Anyway, after a while…
“Yeah, well, anyway. I’m leaving,” Delward said.
“You’re leaving? What do you mean?” At Delward’s words, Leila grabbed his sleeve. “Don’t go.”
“Sorry, Leila. I bought Mother some time, but I don’t know what will happen next. We need to leave a little earlier if we can.”
“…Is this how it goes again? It’ll be years before I see you?”
Delward shook his head and said, “It’s different this time.”
Then, out of the blue, he called out a line of code. It was the code for the communication crystal ball.
“I’m planning on staying in the Empire, so feel free to contact me. If you need me at all, just let me know. I’ll be right there.”
Leila finally let out a deep sigh, as if she had no other choice. “Alright, but you have to be careful.”
“Of course.” Delward smiled broadly.
If he came back after so many years and left without even staying a day, there must be a reason. I remembered Duke Thermion talking about Delward and him lamenting about it being ‘his fault’.
Maybe this was related to that.
Or…
There were other reasons.
Anyway, the brief reunion came to an end…
“…Can’t you at least stay tonight? I have a lot of things I want to tell you…”
“Leila.” Delward bent down to be eye level with Leila and shook his head as if he truly was sorry. “I’ll come back next time. It won’t take long.”
“…Fine.”
“And this…” Delward placed a pouch in Leila’s hand. “Tell Mother to eat it. Tell her about me without telling Father.”
“…Yeah.”
It was likely the medicine that was supposed to slow down their mother’s illness.
After he finished preparing to leave, he came to me and put his hand on my shoulder, saying, “Please take good care of my little sister, Dane.”
“Of course. Take care.”
“Yeah.”
Given how friendly he was with me when it had only been a few hours since we’d met, I had to admit his social skills were great. Well, it must have been because he was so witty that he was able to stay in the Drenik Empire for several years.
“Oh, and my expert explorer friend. I look forward to seeing your performance when we go to the ruins together,” Delward said to Ernest.
“Of course!”
It was time to leave.
“Then, I’ll be leaving now.”
“You have to be careful, got it?” Leila fussed.
“Yeah. Call me, Leila.”
Thud!
Delward jumped over a huge wall in one bound.
“Wow.”
He disappeared in an instant.
“A Drenik leaping device,” I muttered.
Ernest’s eyes sparkled as if he found my muttering interesting, asking, “Is that also a mechanical device?”
“Yeah. probably.”
There were quite a few such devices that were disposable or reusable. There were also semi-permanent ones, but those were very expensive.
Anyway, it was an unexpected encounter and an unexpected experience. Leila stared at the wall for a long time.
I whispered to Ernest, “Try to comfort her a little.”
“Huh? Where are you going?” he asked.
“Just stay in the room for a bit. I left something behind. I’ll be right back.”
“Alright. Go. I’ll stay with Leila.”
I saw Ernest approach Leila and then looked at the wall that Delward had just jumped over.
Now then.
Which way did he go?
Should I try using what I learned from my mother?
* * *
A man ran down a dark alley.
Delward Thermion.
His expression was, of course, not good.
‘I’m sorry, Leila.’
It wasn’t just because he had to leave his sister, whom he hadn’t seen in years, after only talking to her for a few hours.
‘So stubborn.’
Delward never thought they would chase him all the way to the Thermion Duchy’s residence in the capital. They hadn’t noticed him going inside yet, he could tell by the feel of it. However, now that he was out and moving around again, they’d know right away.
‘How on earth did they know?’
Delward had been pursued by assassins from the Drenik Empire from the moment he crossed the border of the Drenik Empire until now.
The reason was simple.
Right before he left the Drenik Empire, it was discovered that he was from the Altheon Empire. They knew that he had been staying for quite some time, so naturally, they decided to pursue him urgently.
‘Fortunately, they don’t seem to know that I’m from the Thermion Duchy…’
In the midst of all this, his decision to visit the mansion was a gamble. Thankfully, it worked, and fortunately, the bastards seemed to have wandered off while he was in the mansion.
‘Good thing I knew about that secret passage.’
But how long could he last? How long would he be able to fend off their pursuit as he searched for each and every hard-to-find ingredient?
“Still, I’m glad.”
Though it might be the last time, he was glad he could at least see her face.
No.
He couldn’t be weak. If he weakened here…
He couldn’t save his mother.
“I can do it.”
Just then—
Ting!
Delward suddenly stopped walking, feeling a sense of uneasiness.
“…Shit.”
He found a wire faintly reflecting the moonlight.
Not just one or two.
The path forward was completely blocked.
Delward looked up, and then he let out a hollow laugh.
“It’s over.”
Four pairs of eyes appeared in the darkness and were looking at him. The fact that the assassins were not in the dark but had revealed themselves meant that the assassination was already completed.
They came down without a word and surrounded Delward.
It was over.
He didn’t think it would be this quick, but this was the end.
“You’re quite stubborn.”
Delward snickered at the assassin’s words. “Oh. I lasted pretty long, didn’t I? Thanks to me, you got the chance to travel across the Altheon Empire and do some sightseeing. Aren’t you grateful?”
Even though he was laughing heartily, the assassins did not react any further and each took out a dagger from their arms.
Delward gave up. His head would have been cut off before he could even touch his sword. It made him wonder how he could have lasted until now.
‘I’m sorry, Leila.’
A clear moon night.
It was a setting for his death.
Of course一
He wouldn’t just die.
Creak.
Delward activated the Drenik Empire’s mechanical device equipped on his arm by channeling mana into it. If he timed it just right, he might be able to take two of them out with him.
Though, it might get a bit noisy.
“Alright, let’s finish this.” Delward chuckled.
But a cold reply came back from the assassins.
“It’s no use. Just remove the detonator.”
“…Damnit.” Delward clicked his tongue.
He couldn’t believe they saw through his last resort. It seemed like he’d die without being able to resist.
‘I should have at least apologized to Father.’
As Delward thought so, three assassins simultaneously raised their daggers—
Shlink.
There was a sharp sound of a blade cutting into flesh.
Delward squeezed his eyes shut. No matter what, it was a bit weird to get stabbed with your eyes open.
But it was strange. He heard a sound, but there was no pain. Was it some kind of poison that numbed the senses the moment you were stabbed?
‘As expected, it’s torture.’
After paralyzing him, they’d take him somewhere…
“Ugh.”
Weird.
He didn’t make that sound.
Pshhh!
Then the sound came again, this time it was from the other side.
Delward opened his eyes. There was no sign of movement from the front or the back. The men who should have been there were down.
“…!”
The one right next to him was looking around in confusion.
Then—
Crack!
Suddenly, roots sprouted from the ground and tied the assassin’s feet together.
Delward drew his sword without hesitation.
And…
Pshhk!
…stabbed the bastard in the heart.
“Keuk.”
The moan didn’t last long. No matter how great of an assassin he was, getting stabbed in the heart would kill you.
“Fuu.”
Thud.
After the last one fell, Delward breathed a sigh of relief.
He was alive. He didn’t know who helped him, but he survived.
Delward immediately looked around.
“As expected, you were being tracked.”
A familiar voice.
He was sure he’d heard that voice somewhere…
“I felt like you left too hurriedly and were too anxious. And… I also felt something strange.”
“…You’re…”
Delward was dumbfounded as he looked at the silver-haired boy who had just walked out of the darkness.
Dane Sogres.
His sister’s… friend.
Dane looked at Delward and said, “Let’s take care of them first.”
