Chapter 21: Death Flag 2

First, I gazed at the ring on my index finger and ordered the system mentally to show the descriptions.

Emberforge Ring (Tier 2) middle-grade, (2/3.)

It provides the owner with an affinity with the fire element for five minutes. In that span, the user will have the ability to control the fire but only limited to changing the direction of the spell. The artifact has been imbued with the mana stone of a fiend witch, a dark-elemental creature from the dark forces. It has been purified by the Grandmaster Yin of the Emberheart kingdom, cleansing the dark element and leaving the fire element behind.

It took me some time to comprehend it.

I broke its description into three parts.

First is the affinity with the fire elements.

It doesn't mean that with the artifact, I could be blessed by the Sun of God.

Certainly, not.

And even if I did try to go to the church to get blessed, I'd just be asking myself to get killed in the process.

Since I'll be meeting the avatar of the god in another world with my soul, it will quickly detect my irregularities.

I can't afford to commit such a stupid and massive mistake.

Anyway, the reason the previous owner of the body chose this artifact was to treat it as a support for other artifacts.

After all, most of them were in fire elements, and since some of them are offensive, I must, at least, control them, right?

Of course, to protect myself from harm since I'm just a human who easily gets burned.

And with such great support, it would assure my safety whenever I activated other artifacts.

The second description was the fiend witch, a dark-elemental type creature from the dark forces.

A fiend witch has power equal to a High-Mage rank with yellow cores, meaning they could only cast level four spells and below.

Anyway, some dark creatures are magicless, but they were formed purely with elements.

Thus, their body was powerful enough to cause trouble, as if they were a battlemage that couldn't cast a single spell.

Nevertheless, a fiend witch is a pure spell-caster creature.

They possess dark elements.

However, dark elements are versatile.

They corrupt other elements and make them theirs.

Hence, a fiend witch's core possessed a dark element in the fire element.

Now, the third description was about the Grandmaster Yin.

He was just none other than who erased the dark elements in the fire element in the core.

Of course, there were drawbacks, such as the fire element getting thin.

That's why I could only activate the artifact three times, while the core, in the previous state, could chant it dozens of times.

Anyway, the third description mentioned about a prominent figure in the kingdom-

No, in the Empire.

The Empire only has four grandmasters in blacksmithing.

One resided in the Empire as being the greatest and a bit more skillful, from the rumor says, than Grandmaster Yin.

While the other three resided in the four archdukes' kingdoms.

The only archduke who did not have them was the Atlas Kingdom.

There was one they were eyeing for having the potential to be a grandmaster, but that person was so loyal to a marque; hence, the latter was facing pressure.

Nevertheless, despite possessing not a single grandmaster, the current king, Adrianus Atlas VII, continued to prove his status as the archduke.

Anyway, why I'm so interested in Grandmaster Yin was that he was so loyal to my father.

In fact, all these artifacts were created by him.

I recalled that he used to pamper me.

He was so kind, while his temper was explosive to my father and even to his closest aide.

'Maybe, I should pay him a visit after the blessing,' I thought, finding it amusing.

After all, I haven't met him personally, for I only had many conversations with him on this body's memories.

Furthermore, I want to learn blacksmithing from him, as I was thinking of creating my own weapon.

Since this world was set in the Victorian age, naturally, weapons would be useless.

After all, sooner or later, it would be replaced with guns and machinery.

Of course, cold weapons were still famous for being a massive aid to the battle mage or even knights, who've proved that even being less talented in magic they had someplace on the battlefield.

With the aid of inscriptions, it wouldn't be difficult for me to create a tier 2 artifact… maybe even tier 1!

If only I wasn't emotionless, I would have been grinning like a maniac.

"Young Highness, Wilfrid is here."

I was snapped awake by Sophie's cold and emotionless voice.

Returning to my current world, I've noticed I'm in a broad hallway filled with decorations – ranging from knights' armor, artistic statues, paintings of a man, or even just a picturesque view, vases, etc.

Then, before me, approximately ten meters away from me, sauntered two people as the other in front, wearing a fiery noble outfit, the one that usually an Emberheart would wear, was gazing at me with serene composure.

He seemed like he didn't have an enemy nor intended to make one.

His kind countenance alone could influence other people into thinking he was a good person to befriend.

I smirked internally.

How rubbish his acting was.

Too obvious.

Well, only those who know his true nature would notice it.

"Oh, younger brother, it's nice to meet you," he greeted with a beaming smile.

"Likewise," I replied with the same smile.

Of course, mine was obviously greater.

Once he was near me, he halted, and so was his personal maid.

When I peeked at her, I noticed her face so unblemished, but I knew her body wasn't the same.

It was filled with bruises and trauma.

Since she was forced to shut up, no one would know.

Not even her fellow maids.

When I think about it, I couldn't help but be enraged mentally, knowing that physical abuse was happening in front of me.

Yet, I still couldn't act yet.

However, I could still perform some actions.

"Your maid is beautiful, I see."

He smiled, but I wasn't done yet.

"I swear that if someone is treating her like an animal, I won't hesitate to slaughter that person like a pig."

The maid trembled, and so was the handle of my wheelchair behind my back.

'I see, even Sophie knows about it.'

Yet, I forgot about them and scrutinized Wilfrid's reaction.

He managed to compose himself. How admirable.

Well, I obviously just need a little push.

"Only a pig, who doesn't even have a single thing to do but be a heavyweight in the family, deserves to be slaughtered when he acts out of his place. He must, at least, know he's just a pig and would remain as it is for the rest of his life."