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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 21
Louise Heretia.
The third prince of the Brillant Kingdom, and the one furthest from the line of succession.
He’s terrible at handling people, so politics is completely out of the question.
The only thing he’s somewhat good at is swordsmanship.
But even that still needs a lot of improvement.
To rally a faction strong enough to rival the first and second princes, he would at least need to reach the level of an advanced knight.
‘Finally...!’
The grave of the Red Moon Tribe.
He had finally found the resting place of the legendary chieftain who had once unified half the desert tribes.
‘It must be here. No—it has to be.’
The Red Moon Tribe was said to possess a secret method for creating a miraculous elixir, passed down only within their ranks.
Thanks to this, the tribe’s chieftain became the greatest warrior in the desert, and even the regular tribesmen were said to be much stronger than others.
Perhaps because of this, a legend had spread among desert tribes that the recipe and remnants of this elixir were hidden in the Red Moon Tribe’s grave.
Louise planned to use it to quickly gain power.
‘Hmm...?’
As soon as they entered the grave, Ren walked straight toward the chieftain’s tomb.
Louise worried that Ren might find the elixir first but quickly shook the thought away.
‘It was Ren who found the grave. Even if he finds the elixir and claims it, I have no right to argue.’
Louise knew that without Ren, he would never have found this place.
So he suppressed the momentary greed that had flared up.
‘If anything, even if I find it, I should give Ren a share.’
Resolved, Louise approached Ren.
Ren was muttering to himself as if talking to someone.
“Did you find something?”
“Ah... no. Nothing here.”
Ren, who had been staring blankly into space, shook his head.
“...Huh? What’s that...?”
“What is it?”
“No, it’s nothing. Haha...”
Ren muttered something to himself, scratched his head, and let out an awkward laugh.
Louise tilted his head in confusion and examined the chieftain’s tomb Ren had been looking at, but nothing seemed suspicious.
‘...So it’s not here.’
Louise clenched his jaw.
Since it was a legend, the absence of the elixir wasn’t too surprising, but the disappointment was real nonetheless.
* * *
Just how strong was this burly-looking chieftain?
Would he be stronger than Layton Trevis, whom I saw last time?
Layton was certainly a giant, but even he seemed smaller compared to this chieftain.
‘Just standing near him is intimidating enough.’
— How do you see me? And why have you disturbed my slumber?
“I’m a gravekeeper. I came here because I heard the king of the Red Moon Tribe, who once ruled the desert, rests here.”
— Gravekeeper...?
“Yes. A gravekeeper honors the spirits of the dead. I’ve come to ease your regrets.”
I swallowed hard as I looked at the chieftain.
Zalatan, chieftain of the Red Moon Tribe.
Recalling his great achievements and fearsome rumors filled me with dread.
What kind of favor would he ask?
What if it’s a quest I can’t possibly complete?
Before the quest even popped up, a flood of worries and curiosity rushed through my mind in just a few seconds.
— Regret? Do you mean to accomplish the grand ambition I failed to achieve?
“...Huh?”
Grand ambition?
Don’t tell me...?
— The complete unification of the desert tribes. I do regret not accomplishing that.
“...”
His request left me speechless.
I didn’t know what to say.
‘Complete... unification...’
As I was still chewing on that absurd idea, Zalatan burst into hearty laughter.
— Kahaha! Why are you so serious? Do you really think a weakling like you could do something like that?
“...”
From the look on his face, I could tell he was joking, teasing me.
I almost snapped back with my usual sarcasm, but one glance at his fierce face made me swallow my words.
‘So there’s no quest...? Then this whole trip was pointless...’
— Hmm... You look a little offended. Are you more confident in your skills than I thought?
I wasn’t offended—it was just disappointing that there wasn’t any reward.
Still, I nodded.
— In that case, take care of the beast that’s been roaming near our graves. It’s been disturbing us lately. If I were alive, I would’ve fed it to the tribe as a snack the moment it showed up.
[Sub-Quest – Request of the Red Moon Chieftain]
[A beast called the Dusk-Tinted Earthworm has been attacking the grave of the Red Moon Tribe. Zalatan finds it annoying. Kill the Dusk-Tinted Earthworm.]
[Reward – Strength +0.8, Stamina +0.5, Vital Energy +0.3]
‘Oh... Finally!’
The quest popped up—and the rewards weren’t bad.
I had hoped to gain one of Zalatan’s unique abilities, like Havenberg swordsmanship or the Wolf Tongue, but unfortunately, no such luck.
Still, this was good enough to be worthwhile.
‘The Dusk-Tinted Earthworm...’
It was definitely the desert boss that had separated Louise and me from the main force.
We had to defeat it anyway, so this worked out—except now I had competition from the expedition.
That group included monsters like Scarlett Arzen and knights from the Baran Empire.
I had to slay the beast before they did...
‘But how...?’
The thing was massive and had the desert on its side.
Did I really have the skill to take it down?
It crawled underground, making it easy to lose track of.
I didn’t even know where it was now.
‘Tch, should I just give up on Zalatan’s quest?’
“Did you find anything?”
I turned to see Louise, who had approached at some point and was scanning the tomb quickly.
“Ah... No. Nothing here.”
I’d already checked around the place—Zalatan’s grave didn’t seem to hold anything special.
— You think there’s something amazing buried in a dusty desert grave? Kahaha! Well, maybe there is!
I looked at him in surprise.
“...Huh? What do you mean...?”
— Complete my request and I’ll tell you! Even for a gravekeeper, if you can’t handle this small task, you don’t deserve anything.
I forced myself to keep a straight face, hiding my frustration.
Louise was watching me closely, after all.
“What is it?”
“No, nothing. Haha...”
Louise’s pupils trembled slightly.
A flicker of disappointment crossed his face before quickly vanishing.
‘He’s rattled... So he really was looking for something here after all?’
I’d heard rumors from the desert tribes.
The Red Moon Tribe supposedly had an elixir that made them stronger—it definitely existed.
I hadn’t paid it much attention before...
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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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‘But Louise must have believed the legend.’
It all made sense now.
His eagerness to join the strike force, his attempts to secretly find the Red Moon grave, and even why Jane tried so hard to assign me as his personal bodyguard.
‘Being sent to the desert by the first and second princes, he must have felt an even greater sense of crisis.’
Compared to the two, the only thing Louise was confident in was swordsmanship, so he must have been desperate enough to use such shortcuts to improve quickly.
‘Hmm……’
He walked past me and began inspecting Zalatan’s tomb from corner to corner.
That sight only reinforced my conviction.
— Why is that feeble fellow groping around my tomb? Get him off at once!
That booming voice pierced my ears and snapped me to attention.
But I couldn’t exactly drag Prince Louise away by force.
“Um…”
Just as I barely managed to open my mouth to stop him—
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap…
Footsteps echoed from the stairs leading into the tomb.
Louise, the knights, and I all turned toward the entrance at once.
‘Who is it?’
Thump—thump—thump—
My heart began to pound.
Tension sharpened my mind, awakening all my senses.
A physical reaction triggered by the instinctive perception of danger.
I immediately drew the sword at my waist.
“An enemy.”
At my brief warning, Louise and the knights also reached for their swords.
— Strange, isn’t it? This place that no one visited while I was alive suddenly gets visitors one after another.
Zalatan muttered from behind, as if talking to himself.
Hearing that, I instinctively realized: the person coming down the stairs must have been following us.
‘Don’t tell me……’
A group flashed through my mind.
“Oh…”
From the round entrance, the edge of a black robe came into view, followed by a middle-aged man’s voice of quiet amazement.
Then his face and the symbol on his robe appeared.
‘Black mage…!’
I immediately pulled up the black mage’s status window in the air.
[Kaiden]
-Trait: Demon’s Mark
-Skill: Intermediate Black Magic
-Strength: 5.4
-Agility: 5.3
-Endurance: 6.6
-Sense: 4.4
-Mana: 20.3
All his stats except for mana were average, but that one stat was abnormally high.
‘Mana 20?’
Having never met a magic user before, I couldn’t tell how high that really was.
But one thing was clear:
‘We can’t win with our current strength.’
[Mark of the Demon]
-A mark engraved through a contract with a demon.
You can borrow the power of the demon.
Demons—among the demon race, they are the most powerful.
In the past, they invaded to swallow the continent.
In the future, they will once again bring the Brillant Kingdom to ruin.
‘A contract with such a demon…’
It was now certain.
The black mages were the ones who would bring the demons back to the continent in the future.
I recalled the main quest.
[Main Quest – Stop the Black Mage Conspiracy]
Black mages are plotting something in the southern desert. Sabotage their plan.
They were likely after spiritual energy, creating artificial tombs.
And now, they were probably here to extract spiritual energy from the tomb of Zalatan, the chieftain of the Red Moon Tribe, which once ruled half the desert.
‘But since when has he been tailing us?’
Even with my heightened senses due to the spiritual energy, I didn’t notice his presence.
Maybe it was the desert’s unique conditions…
‘This is dangerous.’
At the very least, I had to assume his combat power was at the level of a high-ranking knight.
Considering that high-ranking knights typically have stats over 20, he probably wasn’t far off.
“Ren, fall back.”
Louise stepped in front of me and said.
The knights simultaneously formed a protective circle around him.
Through the gaps between them, I looked at the black mage.
Six against one.
Even mages couldn’t handle knights alone.
Yet the black mage remained calm.
“So you really did find it…”
He muttered while glancing around, clearly not seeing us as a threat.
“Be careful. Think of him as a high-ranking knight.”
I warned the others.
I was the only one who could assess the enemy’s strength with any degree of objectivity.
“A high-ranking knight? That guy?”
“You’re too scared, Ren.”
“Don’t worry. Mages aren’t that hard to handle.”
The knights responded confidently.
Whether it was youthful arrogance or an effort to keep morale up, I couldn’t tell.
“Ren, do you know something?”
Louise at least took my words seriously and asked.
“I’ve heard of a group bearing that symbol before. Black mages. And highly skilled ones at that.”
The knights looked doubtful, but Louise seemed to be considering my words carefully.
“You know us?”
The black mage’s glowing red eyes fixed on me.
“The keeper of the Decaine tomb… I heard even that worthless place had mercenaries sent to it. Could it have been you who dealt with them?”
‘He knows who I am…!’
A chill ran down my spine.
But he didn’t seem too concerned.
Decaine deemed worthless, huh…
‘So they already tried to draw spiritual energy from the tombs before? But if they’re sending more now, something must have changed.’
Not a pleasant thought.
But on the flip side, it meant they didn’t care that much about Decaine if they only sent low-tier mercs.
If Kaiden returns to the black mages' base now, Decaine will attract serious attention.
‘Damn it, we can’t let him go.’
Boom!
While I was briefly lost in thought, the black mage slammed his staff into the ground.
The floor beneath my feet cracked, and purple tentacles shot up, lashing toward me.
“Ren!”
Louise swung his sword.
Slice!
A faint blue aura shimmered on his blade before vanishing.
“Heh… pathetic. Too sloppy.”
The black mage sneered and struck the ground again, causing dozens of tentacles to erupt in all directions.
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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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