Chapter 92 - The Difference Between Alms, Rewards, and Spoils (4)

The dark gray blade that began about half a hand's span wide and narrowed toward the bottom remained the same, as did the blue and red shimmering jewel. The black and white wing decorations, seemingly symbolizing those of angels and demons respectively, and the hilt wrapped in black leather were also just as they were in the past.

But despite all that, I felt a sense of incongruity.

The aura it had built up over hundreds of years could not be felt. No, it could be felt. It was just so faint that it wouldn't be noticed unless I paid attention to it.

My original body, which had drank the blood of all sorts of auspicious and ominous things and risen to the status of a divine artifact on its own, had become as insignificant as if it had just been forged.

It was a completely unexpected change, so I was left entirely dumbfounded.

What I had wanted to reclaim was Gruhorn, which was called a Divine Sword and a Demonic sword, not a precious sword that was merely sharp and beautiful.

"This makes no sense..."

I let out a sigh over and over again in my daze.

"Your Highness. Please, only look with your eyes."

"Please step back."

I had unconsciously reached out toward the sword. The royal knights and the old knight immediately blocked my path and warned me.

At that moment, anger flared up within me.

It was my body, my precious body, and something had gone wrong with it. But the actions of those who blocked my way so I couldn't even check on it made me boil with rage.

"Get out of the w—"

But before I could even finish speaking, an unfamiliar voice echoed in my head.

[Your Highness? Who the hell is this bastard to be called Your Highness?]

A frivolous and tactless voice.

"His Majesty the King has ordered that never again..."

"Shh."

I raised my hand and covered the old knight's mouth.

[Was there such a pretty-boy looking bastard around?]

That same frivolous voice continued to chatter in my head.

[He really looks unlikable.]

As I stood still and listened to that voice blabbering, I froze in place.

["From now on, I am the master of this sword!"]

The voice of a boy I had heard right after waking up from my slumber.

["Shut up! There is nothing in this country I cannot lay my hands on!"]

["With this thing, neither His Majesty the King nor the nobles will be able to ignore me anymore."]

That voice, full of stubbornness and inferiority.

["Oh, great Dragon Slayer! Lend me your strength!"]

["Oh, Gruhorn!"]

The voice of the Scoundrel bastard who had desperately called out to me before plunging the sword into his own stomach,

["Gruhoooorn!"]

[What are you staring at? You obnoxious-looking bastard.]

overlapped perfectly with the voice ringing in my head.

"First Prince?"

At the words I blurted out thoughtlessly, the voice that had been chattering without rest came to a sudden halt.

[Don't tell me you...]

And after a long while, a tearful voice could be heard.

[Can you hear my voice?!]

[Tell me! You can hear my voice, right?! Answer me!]

[Right this instant!]

[Please get me out of here!]

[I said hurry up and save me!]

[Hurry!]

Unrefined thoughts threw my mind into chaos.

[Go right now and tell my mother!]

[That I, Adrian Leonberk, am trapped inside the sword!]

That desperate voice indeed belonged to the original owner of the body I had occupied, the First Prince.

And I was left devastated by this sudden, unexpected situation.

* * *

"The King's command is absolute."

The old knight was resolute.

"That's why I'm telling you to go and ask."

But as I continued to be stubborn, they eventually had no choice but to send a royal knight to convey my request to the King.

"His Majesty the King has accepted Your Highness's request. However, he stated that taking the sword outside is absolutely forbidden, and you will not be permitted much time."

Only after the royal knight returned with the King's permission did the old knight grant my request.

"There is only one entrance to the vault, so please do not harbor any other intentions."

The old knight, issuing a warning until the very end, led the royal knights and left the vault.

Finally left alone, I strode over and grabbed my original body.

[Who the hell are you?! No, more importantly, get me out of here first! If you just get me out, I'll grant you anything!]

As soon as I grabbed my original body, the Scoundrel bastard started chattering noisily.

I ignored the Scoundrel bastard and examined my original body.

"Ah..."

I let out a sigh of relief.

The aura I thought had completely disappeared touched my hand. Even though it was frozen solid and showed no intention of moving, the aura definitely existed. My original body seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep. Just as I had for the past 400 years.

I tried with all my might to wake it, but my original body showed no sign of waking up.

And I knew when my original body would seek sleep like this. I also knew when it would remain so unresponsive.

It was when the other party was unqualified, when it did not acknowledge the other party as its master.

"Does this make any sense?"

I had looked forward so much to the day I would reclaim my original body, but what kind of bolt from the blue was this?

I had been rejected by my own body.

I was beyond dumbfounded and even felt despondent.

My head throbbed. This was truly a situation I hadn't even considered.

[Take me to my mother right now!]

My head hurt even more because of the noisy chattering of the Scoundrel bastard.

"Shut up."

[Wh-What? Sh-Shut up?! You insolent bastard! Do you know who I am?! I am none other than...]

The bastard screamed at the top of his lungs.

As the bastard threw a fit, my head conversely cooled down.

"You're the idiot who committed every kind of atrocity imaginable, only to stab your own body and get trapped inside a sword."

[You insolent bastaaaaard! How dare you!]

"You know no one else but me has heard your voice, right?"

[That's why I'm telling you to hurry up and go tell them! If you save me, you will become the benefactor of this country!]

Benefactor my ass. To the bastard spouting such nonsense, I spoke with a growl.

"From now on, don't say a word unless I ask you first."

[How dare someone like you give me orders!]

"You don't seem to have a grasp on the situation. I could turn around and walk out of here right now. Then you'll have to rot here for the rest of your life, staring at the backs of royal knights who won't hear you even if you chatter for a hundred days."

It was a childish threat, but the effect was excellent.

[N-No! I-I'll be quiet. So please don't leave.]

The bastard who had been whining without grasping the situation now pleaded desperately.

It was only natural.

Fighting time all alone in a place no one visits is a terribly gruesome thing. I knew that fact better than anyone, so I fully understood the bastard's feelings.

However, just because I understood the bastard's loneliness didn't mean I sympathized with his plight.

The harm the bastard had caused the world during his life was immense. On a smaller scale, he had tormented his subordinates and made their lives miserable, and on a larger scale, he had turned hundreds of knights into cripples, shoving the kingdom's future into the gutter.

And yet, he was a bastard who hadn't shown even an ounce of remorse. What good would it do to sympathize with such a bastard?

It felt a bit too shameless to say this from the position of the one who had taken his body, but it was better for the bastard to stay trapped inside the sword.

I had no doubt that it was the way for the sake of the world.

No, before that, I didn't want it. Because now, I didn't have the slightest desire to return inside the sword.

"Since when have you been inside there?"

I threw out a question first to grasp the situation.

[I was swinging the sword when my vision turned white, and when I came to my senses, I was inside the sword.]

It exactly matched how I had woken up in his body.

"You didn't feel any special signs or anything like that?"

[There was none. I was just trapped in here, endlessly waiting for someone to help me.]

I asked a few more questions, but the answers weren't very helpful.

[I don't know. It's been a long time since I came inside here, but I still don't know what is what.]

The bastard knew nothing at all.

The original body that had fallen asleep and wouldn't wake up, the suddenly swapped souls, the reason for that bizarre phenomenon, or anything else—the bastard knew absolutely nothing.

He just repeated like an idiot that when he woke up, he was inside the sword.

"You really are a useless bastard."

[M-Maybe the imperial ambassador knows something.]

But then the bastard said something unexpected.

[Marquis Montpellier told me the location of the vault and gave me information.]

Montpellier's name popped out from an unexpected place.

[He said that with the power of the Dragon Slayer wielded by the Founding King, I would be fully capable of reclaiming everything I had lost as the legitimate eldest son of the Royal Family.]

I felt as if I had been struck in the back of the head.

"Tell me in detail."

[A few days before that happened, Marquis Montpellier came to see me. Wait, if I tell you all of this, are you going to get me out?]

"I'll listen and think about it, so just finish what you were saying for now."

The Scoundrel bastard chattered on and on for a long time.

And when I heard the whole story, I couldn't help but laugh in sheer absurdity.

"This bastard played me."

As I continued to chuckle hollowly, finding it so ridiculous and absurd, the Scoundrel bastard asked cautiously.

[By the way, who on earth are you? I've never heard of there being a guy like you in the Royal Family.]

"Who am I, you ask?"

I pondered his question for a moment.

"The person cleaning up the shit you took."

[What does that...]

"Your Highness. Time is up."

Before the bastard could fully resolve his doubts, the old knight's voice came from outside the door.

"We are coming in."

With words closer to a notification than asking for permission, the door burst open, and the old knight and the royal knights barged in.

"Please put down the sword."

At those words, I looked back and forth between the knights and my original body, then slowly let go of my hand.

[W-Wait!]

"I'll be back soon."

[No! Isn't this different from what you promised?!]

The bastard shouted desperately, but I had already turned my body away.

"Then I will take you outside, as promised."

Pulling the bastard out of the original body was beyond my capabilities, but taking him out of this pitch-black vault along with the sword wouldn't be that difficult. Of course, I would have to pass the King's test before that.

* * *

Gawain's mind was a mess.

Since arriving at the royal palace, he had become completely unable to figure out what was what.

He had endured hard days imagining a strong King unyielding to foreign powers, loyal and wise nobles following such a King, and himself and his comrades standing proudly before them. But the reality he actually faced was nothing like what he had imagined.

Even though the monarch of a nation was clearly sitting on the platform, the dog of the empire acted without any hesitation, and no one raised any objections to this.

The loyal and wise nobles he had pictured did not exist.

There were only weaklings trembling in fear after submitting to the empire's prestige.

Even the King was no different.

While the imperial ambassador interfered in their nation's internal affairs right in front of him and intimidated the nobles, the King simply sat on the platform and took no action whatsoever.

When the imperial ambassador mentioned lifting the seal on the Magic Tower, he even rejoiced as if he had received a grand prize.

He understood it in his head.

For a kingdom where the Magic Tower was sealed, being able to train Mages again was a massive event. As a nation's monarch, he thought it was natural to be happy about gaining an opportunity to make the country wealthy and powerful.

However, he could not understand it in his heart.

It wasn't to see such a wretched sight that they had severed their circuits while vomiting blood.

He had hoped that at least the King would remain steadfast, and he had believed it would be so.

But it wasn't.

Through Gawain's eyes, the King looked as though he were rejoicing after accepting a bone thrown by the empire.

It was an irreverent and blasphemous thought. He tried hard to erase it, but the delusion in his mind simply wouldn't disappear.

His comrades, too, had become noticeably silent since arriving at the royal palace.

Just by looking at their expressions, he could tell they had fallen into the same delusion as he had.

It would have been better if they had died back then. If they had ended their lives instead of severing their circuits, they wouldn't have reached such a wretched state of mind.

As he was looking over the walls of the Prince's Palace with a gloomy face, the First Prince, who had gone out saying he had business, returned.

The First Prince's expression, which had been normal until he left, was now frozen as hard as a stone.

"Your Highness. Did something happen...?"

Karl Ulrich, was it? The handsome royal knight greeted the First Prince with a worried face.

Looking at that Karl Ulrich, the First Prince spoke in a cold tone.

"Send someone to Marquis Montpellier."

"Your Highness?"

"Tell him I want to see him."

When Karl Ulrich blinked his eyes in confusion at the sudden words, the First Prince spoke again.

"Tell him to come here right this instant."

The imperial ambassador, whom even the kingdom's monarch couldn't treat carelessly, was being summoned by the First Prince as if calling a subordinate.

"Will he come just because you tell him to?"

Perhaps having the exact same thought as Gawain, Karl Ulrich asked the First Prince.

"He will come."

The First Prince replied without a single hint of hesitation.

"Unless he wants to die."

Startled by those menacing words, Karl Ulrich looked around. He seemed worried that there might be listening ears.

"Hmm."

Karl Ulrich's gaze landed on Gawain.

Gawain pretended not to notice and quietly watched what they were doing.

One of the royal knights left the 1st Prince's Palace. And not long after, he returned.

Beside the knight who had returned was the imperial ambassador.

However, the ambassador's face, which had been so high and mighty even in front of the King, was rigidly frozen.

A face that looked as if he were terrified.

"Karl."

Looking at the Marquis, the First Prince spoke in a low voice.

"Close the doors."

As soon as he finished speaking, the royal knights closed the entrance to the Prince's Palace.

THUD!

The doors closed with a heavy noise.

"Y-Your Highness..."

With a pale face, the imperial ambassador looked back and forth between the tightly closed doors and the First Prince.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Looking at the ambassador, the First Prince spoke coldly.

"W-What on earth are you talking about...?"

"Tell me everything, leaving nothing out."

No matter what the imperial ambassador said, the First Prince paid no attention and simply said what he needed to say.

"What do you know about the Dragon Slayer."

At the mention of the Dragon Slayer, the imperial ambassador froze on the spot.

"And what you were planning to do by taking the Dragon Slayer out of the vault."