章節 11: Chapter 170
Vishukel pushed the sweet potato croquettes aside, hands trembling.
'Oh, I'd love to kill him! I very much. Would love. To kill. This annoying bastard!'
If he didn't scream his heart out, Vishukel would explode.
"Bouvard."
"Yes?"
"Please go outside for ten minutes."
"Why?"
"Just… Please. I beg you."
"Uh-huh… Alright, I will. Oh, because there's no milk!"
"AAAAAAAARGH!"
Crash!
Vishukel destroyed the wooden table and screamed. Bouvard frantically scrambled outside. Even then, he tried to pick up and spare some of the croquettes that fell on the floor.
'Wow, Bouvard Gaston. Considering that he's a human made of chaos, he's definitely a special hunk of meat… Hehe.'
Even Yona had to sigh in disbelief as she watched the series of events from the window.
Vishukel went down to the basement and screamed as if he were in an asylum.
"AAAAAAH! ARGH! PLEASE! DIE!"
As the roars continued to echo in the basement, Yona watched and smiled.
"Phew."
Vishukel returned to the first floor after calming down, then rearranged his hair.
Bouvard reentered with only one croquette left in his hand. He awkwardly glanced at Vishukel before cramming the snack into his mouth.
Chew, chew.
Even watching this pitiful sight, Vishukel didn't react.
"Are you alright?"
"...Let us continue our previous conversation, Bouvard."
The conversation that had been interrupted by Jin's unexpected arrival.
"Oh, yes."
"The leader officially wants to end all alliances with the Zipfel Clan."
Vishukel started with important information.
Yona put her ear closer to the window. Normally, she would keep a distance. Approaching an 8-star knight was hard even for her. Despite this, Vishukel's senses were weakened due to him enhancing his patience beyond the boundaries of human capability just to tolerate Bouvard's bullshit.
"Ahhh, please tell them that was a great decision. The Zipfels are much worse and more evil than Jin Runcandel. Using the Demon God's Orb and breaking it… We should've ended it from the start!"
"...It's not the best situation. In order to execute our big plans, we needed their support. Whenever you craft artifacts, the quality of your ingredients won't be as luxurious."
"Wait! There was that problem! But Sir Vishukel, it's fragmenting, not crafting. They are two completely different disciplines. And they aren't 'artifacts', but 'pieces'. Pieces of art. How many times do I have to explain this?"
"Yeah, fragmen… Piece…"
Vishukel barely contained his contempt and hatred.
"How big is the difference in quality for the ingredients?"
"We will never get any remains of deceased gods. As for the remains of old civilizations, we won't get half of what we used to get."
"Ha?!"
"Instead, according to the deal, we will retrieve all of the pieces that we gave to the Zipfels."
"The Compass!"
Bouvard's eyes glimmered.
"We must retrieve the Compass! With that, we will easily find gods and get more ingredients."
"The Compass will definitely be one of them."
"Honestly, if we just get that back, we can let them have the rest. My best piece after the Demon God's Orb. Compass. Hehehe. My baby, you're coming back to daddy…"
"Bouvard. Even then, you shouldn't be too happy."
"Why?"
"When they first received the Demon God's Orb and Compass, how did they behave?"
"Just like I did. They were about to lick the leader's toes."
"And with the terms of cutting alliances, they are willingly giving it back. Do you really not have a single clue what this means?"
"They're done using it…?"
"No. It means that they are able to make tools like the Compass by themselves."
"No way. There's no way. It's impossible without my talent."
"Their magic is beyond your comprehension. It wouldn't be weird at all if they can replicate it, let alone fix the Orb. On top of that, we will retrieve such items on the first day of June next year, which gives them more time to experiment."
"Uh, why so late? The leader gave them that much time?"
"It's because of the revocation clause. Since we initiated the revocation, I couldn't refuse."
Vishukel bit and lit a cigarette in frustration. Bouvard nodded.
"First of June next year… Uh, would there be any way to shorten that time?"
"The leader said that he will go all out if the Zipfels don't keep the promise this time, so it's basically impossible. As long as the Runcandels stand, they can't fight us."
"That's a relief. First of June next year… Where will the rendezvous point be?"
"The Bellard Empire's southern island, the Land of the Pirates."
"Thankfully, it isn't anywhere with annoying monsters. Please take me too."
"Why?"
"I must be there so that the returning pieces won't get tampered. We can't have any issues afterwards."
Vishukel's eyes widened. He couldn't believe Bouvard could speak sensibly.
"That's… right. I will tell the leader."
"Oh, and Sir Vishukel, did we ever find him? The one that I transformed into a Zipfel magician."
"Mato Baker?"
"Something like that."
"Because of that case, the headquarters are having a hard time…"
Vishukel cut off mid-sentence and stopped moving.
After slowly examining the room, he checked every single window.
'Heh. Man, I got too close.'
Ssss, shuffle, shuffle…
Yona backed off from the window and hid. As she ran across the yard, not a single blade of grass bent or deformed.
'I sensed a faint footstep… Was it just me?'
Vishukel went out to the yard and shuffled through the lawn. The only thing he saw was Jin's footprints.
"What's the matter, Sir Vishukel?"
Bouvard waddled out and shrugged.
"Nothing."
"When I look at you, I think you're such a snowflake. Compared to you, Lady Margiela's optimism makes me happy. How are you siblings so different? Hehehe."
"..."
Vishukel remained still for a second.
"Starting tomorrow, we will move your hideout. Somewhere the Zipfels don't know."
"Ugh! That's annoying!"
Vishukel stared at the spot where Yona had been. He didn't know, however, that she was ever there.
And Yona ran into the forest, giggling.
'I don't know what that chaotic hunk of meat and poor snowflake talked about, but I'm sure Jin would love it!'
* * *
"Whoa… My goodness."
Listening to what Yona heard, Jin had his jaw dropped the entire time. Yona repeatedly grabbed her stomach as she laughed while narrating.
"They're that interesting? That face is hilarious. So you can look stupid like that too."
"This is packed with facts. I can't believe I got all of this in one day—in a few hours. This is more surprising than digging through the Runcandel Clan's archived documents."
"That much? Tell me about it too."
"Hm, so what you told me was—Oh, before that, you can't tell Owal any of this."
"Promise!"
Jin explained his experience with the Kinzelo Group as well as the information brought today. However, Yona couldn't understand any of it. She tilted her head to the side.
In reality, she just thought that her little brother was cute, so she wasn't listening at all.
"...So now you know why I'm so shocked."
"Yeah, sounds super fun."
Either way, it wasn't very important to her. She only remembered that Bouvard was an entity of 'chaos'.
"But Yona, what did you mean when you said Bouvard was like you?"
That seemingly small detail was stuck in his mind. How could that fat pig be similar to his sister?
"Oh that… I can't tell you yet."
"You're gonna play like that between us?"
"You have your secrets too…"
Jin conjured up spiritual energy and showed it to her.
It was his way of saying that there were no more secrets between them.
"Ack!"
Yona scrambled backwards, as if she had seen something she should have never seen.
"Huh?"
[Die!]
Confronted with the spiritual energy, the endless whispers within her became louder.
A voice strong enough to compel her to slice her brother's throat open.
She and Bouvard were born from deeply concentrated chaos. However, Bouvard's chaos wouldn't react similarly in the face of spiritual energy.
"Get rid of it!"
Jin dispersed the smoke on his hand. The voices in Yona's head died down, and she was able to be freed of her impulse to kill Jin. The spiritual energy only lasted for about two to three seconds, but her entire body was covered in sweat. She gasped for each breath.
If she didn't truly love Jin, she wouldn't have been able to hold herself back.
"Yona!"
"From now on, never… never show that thing to me again. Don't ask any further."
"What…?"
Jin deduced a conclusion.
'She definitely backed off to not attack me. The spiritual energy stimulated her.'
A few seconds ago, Yona's widened eyes filled to the brim with fear.
The fear of almost killing her own brother.
Jin suppressed his feelings of horror and shook his head.
"I don't understand, but I apologize. I didn't know."
"If I see spiritual energy, then I lose my consciousness. No need to be sorry, since I never explained it. Heh, I thought you'd hide that secret until you actually became a flag-bearer."
"Why would I?"
"Am I not someone to be trusted that much? Or is it because you might not like me?"
"The former is completely wrong, but the latter sounds like an honest concern. It's true that I wanted to hide that bit. Until we spent time together in the flower fields, that is."
It wasn't the smoothest reply, but he didn't want to lie. If he had his spiritual energy out for a little longer, Yona would have killed him on the spot.
Jin had no intention of making her sad.
"I should be more careful. We'll naturally solve this problem when I get strong enough, so you can't do anything. Don't worry too much."
"Heh. Dream on, kiddo. Now play with me like you promised."
Afterwards, Jin and Yona traveled around the area and hung out.
Not only were Joshua's knights stationed in the area—although they were already dead—but Cyron's knights were also guarding it.
And naturally, news of their little 'playdate' reached Cyron's ears.
章節 12: Chapter 171
Slash, slash! Pssssht!
As always, one man was plowing through the monsters of the Black Sea with a concealed letter in this chestplate—Guardian Knight Khan.
However, that wasn't the only message he was delivering that day.
After four days of monster slaughter, Khan handed the letter to Cyron.
"I was told that Young Master Jin spent time with Lady Yona, milord."
Cyron did not answer. He merely opened the letter; the first ever since Kashimir was called to the Black Sea.
(On the first sheet, you will see a list of Young Master Jin's actions and results. On the second, there are descriptions of the series of events directly quoted from the young master. You may skip as you please. I hope you do not find this letter arduous to read…)
From there, the letter was written in an organized manner. Like previous letters, it wasn't too verbose, nor was it too curt.
'Kashimir, that fellow, is finally sending some normal letters.'
Seeing each short description of Jin's travels, Cyron's eyes narrowed.
'8-star magician Rolt Joe and a White Wolf Tribesman. Hafalep… Haven't heard that in a while.'
Cyron also fought a White Wolf Tribesman in his youth. After his twenties, he fought the chief of the Hafalep Tribe as he aimed towards achieving 10-star.
The chief was a 'memorable' opponent. They dueled for five hours, and the result—of course—ended with Cyron's victory.
After surpassing 10-star and becoming a feared Genesis Kight, the tribe chief he fought wouldn't stand a chance.
However, Cyron noted that the warriors of the Hafalep Tribe retained battle skills that surpassed those of the regular White Wolf Tribesmen.
'Then the one that Jin killed would be the old chief's son's generation. If the Hafalep Tribe is still filled with powerful warriors, it would be a meaningful victory.'
He flipped the page, and the specific descriptions began. As if reading a novel that he had been waiting for, Cyron read each word carefully and religiously.
(When cutting Goltep's hammer in half, he said he chanted some spell. 'Cut' or something like that. I think that's just a placebo of some sort. Whenever he encounters something that is challenging to cut through, that word helps him gain the concentration and strength to slash through his target.)
Cyron was very interested in that section of the letter.
'It isn't just any placebo. It's an old technique from the ancient Runcandel magic swordsmen. It's the same as the ones in the archives.'
As the patriarch, Cyron knew every single secret of the Runcandel Clan, and he was able to weave it into Jin's actions to make sense of them. The history of the 'Era of Magic Swordsmen' that the Zipfel Clan couldn't get rid of, or how those with Solderet's blessing wielded the sword; with this knowledge, only the patriarch could confirm Jin's actions. Not even flag-bearers or elders could encroach upon these sacred concealed texts.
The chant, the blade, the spiritual energy.
After becoming the patriarch and reading the archives—especially when he read the few lines left of Temar's battle history—he remembered one question he had the entire time.
'Are his achievements as a magic swordsman far greater than mine?'
That one unanswerable question set a ripple through his body.
'The record called it Shadow Blade.'
He wanted his son to cast it this very moment, but he had to patiently wait. Either way, Jin's would be incomplete. The technique had been discontinued for years.
Completing his thoughts while reading, Cyron closed the letter.
"Khan."
"Yes, Lord Patriarch?"
"What did Jin and Yona do for two days?"
"It seems they just hung out. The youngest lady is very sensitive, so supervising her 24/7 was impossible, but they were just fooling around."
"Just the two of them?"
"Yes."
"Anything that Jin requested of her?"
"According to the guardian knights stationed in the Kon Kingdom, there was nothing to be reported. After he received the Thousand Poison Antidote, you warned him through Gilly. I'm sure the young master wouldn't dare to break such promises."
Cyron blinked.
"He's a fascinating kid. Fearless and all."
"Do you mean Young Master Jin?"
"Yeah. I would've never imagined Yona getting along with another person. Even Owal, who received some of her love, still got assassination threats often. Even Luna keeps her afar."
Khan lowered his head and Cyron smirked.
"Tell the guardian knights in the Kon Kingdom to loosen their supervision on Yona. If I disturb her play, then she'd kill them all, even if she knows they're my troops."
"Understood."
* * *
As soon as Jin returned and told everyone about his trip, the group at Tikan held a meeting.
The information was shocking.
"The Zipfels' and Kinzelo's recent alliance is groundbreaking. And the dissolution of the alliance was because the Zipfels broke the Demon God's Orb. And that was all because it was… broken by none other than Young Master Jin?"
Jin destroyed the Zipfels' little artifact when he fought Andrei Zipfel on an uninhabited island in the Vermont Empire's waters.
More accurately, Luna broke it. However, her introduction into the entire affair was because Jin met Andrei in the first place. Thanks to that, Jin changed Enya's and Euria's destinies, and the Zipfels lost both their second-in-command and wind dragon that day.
'And Bouvard made that thing. Incredible.'
In his past life, Jin thought Bouvard was just the psychopathic Transformer who put the world into chaos. However, as they uncovered more and more information, he seemed to be the center of the Kinzelo Group.
"In fact, with his special little talent called 'fragmenting', he can make artifacts like the Orb or transform another person using the remains of dead gods…"
Murakan had a rather more serious expression than usual as he spoke.
"By 'remains of dead gods', do you mean things like Numerous's Blood and Tears?"
"Yeah. But kiddo, back when I went to help your division at the unsupervised zone near the Curano Dukedom, I told you that I met a Cemetery Giant."
Cemetery Giants.
The golems had already disappeared without a trace around two thousand years ago. They were tasked with protecting the graves of the deceased gods, but the dragon race had exterminated them. Murakan and Quikantel joined in their eradication.
"At first, I didn't know why a Cemetery Giant was there, but now I do. That was one of Bouvard Gaston's pieces. And that guy's contracted with Well, the God of Fragmenting."
"Well, God of Fragmenting? Never heard of them."
Excluding Murakan and Quikantel, no one else knew of the god. Not many people knew about Well's existence.
"Not surprised that none of you know. If anything, it'd be weird if you did. Just like Kullam back in Kollon, Well is one of the gods that disappeared in history. They're in the graves of the deceased gods."
Well was also the one who participated the most in the creation of the Orb of Origin. After the Orb was destroyed, many centuries passed. They lost their position as a god and descended as a normal human.
The place where these descended gods gathered was called 'the graves of the deceased gods'. The Cemetery Giants were golems created to protect and honor the dignity of these gods.
Murakan explained it as such, and Quikantel just nodded. To most dragons, the eradication of the Cemetery Giants was not a fond memory.
In essence, they annihilated the graves of the entities that were treated like gods.
"Then you're saying that this Well guy resurrected and reclaimed his god title, then contracted with Bouvard. Is that possible?"
"That's the thing. It's impossible. However, if Bouvard isn't Well's contractor, all of these feats and phenomena are impossible to explain. He's transforming people too. So honestly, I think he's not just a contractor but Well himself."
"It's weird how after I become a provisional flag-bearer, I'm constantly being intertwined with gods and divine entities."
"Just as Lord Murakan said, Bouvard seems to be a very miraculous human. Why is that man with the Kinzelo Group?"
"That's probably because he's related to their big projects, Strawberry Pie. First, we need to know what's up their sleeve. It's kind of obvious after seeing the Orb they handed to the Zipfels. They want to become the only god in this realm."
Thanks to his memory from his past life, Jin knew what Kinzelo's 'revolution' was about. To make themselves the king of kings—the king of the world. The same thing as the Zipfel Clan trying to make themselves gods of the realm.
"The most concerning item is the Compass thing. As Vishukel and Bouvard said, that Compass can find contractors."
"I'm concerned about that too, kiddo. They're definitely using the Compass to find the contractors and then absorb them with the Orb."
—For Enya's case, the higher-ups of the Vermont Empire already know who and where she is, but not Az Mil's contractor.
—With that in mind, how did Vyuretta approach Lathry in the first place? Seeing that Vyuretta hasn't returned Lathry yet, I'm pretty sure he knew of the existence of Az Mil's contractor. On top of that, the fact that the contractor is young…
—For sure. Hmm… For the thousand years I was asleep, was there a spell that could detect contractors?
—There's no way something like that could be developed, whether it was a thousand years ago or today. No one could tell who the contractor was until the contractor discovered their own powers.
The conversation that Jin and Murakan had when they first met Quikantel.
Remembering that conversation, the three nodded.
"It seems the Compass doesn't work exactly as intended. They couldn't find Euria, so they kidnapped Lathry instead."
"Next year, on the first day of June."
Jin spoke and everyone stopped talking.
"That's the day the Zipfels return the Compass back to Kinzelo. The location is the Bellard Empire's southern island, the Land of the Pirates."
"A little over half a year left."
"Until then, we have to uncover as much information about the Kinzelo Group and Zipfel Clan as possible. And if doable, identify how we can intercept the Compass."
No one contested, nor did anyone ask for the reason behind it.
Three contractors resided at their main base. If the Compass were to point towards Tikan City, Zipfel magicians and Kinzelo hunters would storm in.
Recalling the final battle with Andrei—where he stated that Jin was 'the best ingredient for the Demon God's Orb' and blabbered that 'twelve gods were within him'—further banished all doubt.
"Thankfully, they haven't snuffed us out. But we don't know when they will. The Zipfels and Kinzelo are doing some serious shit right now. We can't just let them be."
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