Translator: Wan ED/PR: Fan
“How is Cronia these days? Hyung-nim has never been away for so long before.”
After the carriage put some distance from the villa, Lucion spoke up.
He ordered Hyum to send a letter about the problems ‘Cronia’s trading partners’ have, so he wanted to know how it turned out.
“Father is there, so don’t worry.”
But Carson didn’t give Lucion the answer he wanted.
[I guess they decided to keep it a secret from you no matter what, huh?]
Russell quickly checked Lucion’s expression.
It didn’t distort even a bit.
It seemed like he expected it.
“I was short-sighted. Father is there, so what do I have to worry about?”
Lucion smiled slightly.
Novio was strong.
It was not for no reason that he was called the Ruler of the Border.
“But Hyung-nim.”
“Speak.”
“The imperial family and Grand Temple joining hands will affect the border too, so I’m a bit worried about it.”
“No one can replace our position at the border, so don’t worry. Personally, I’m rather dissatisfied with this situation.”
“Dissatisfied?”
“Didn’t they use you?”
‘… ah. It may look like this.’
Lucion didn’t reply and waited for Carson’s words.
“The Grand Temple sold you for the price of covering this incident up, and the imperial family drags you to the palace to make it known that they brought the Grand Temple under their feet.”
Carson clenched his fists.
“Is it not just you who’s having a difficult time?”
“Please don’t worry. After this, my position will absolutely never be taken lightly.”
He wasn’t going to let himself be quietly used. At Lucion’s words overflowing with confidence, Carson nodded.
“Okay. It’s you, so I believe you will do well.”
***
A carriage passed through the pavement filled with people.
The symbol with a fox.
The moment people saw that symbol, they cheered and called ‘Cronia’ and ‘One blessed by the Divine Beast’, and stepped aside to make way for the main character today.
— Whoaa. There are so many people! Amazing!
He had no idea how Latta, who was in his shadow, could see outside, but Lucion couldn’t look out.
From the moment he heard cheers, he already felt his chest tightening because he couldn’t escape.
‘I would like to have some documents in my hands.’
Lucion tightly closed his eyes and recalled the documents he saw in the morning.
The documents he brought from the room of the warlock, who worked for the count Roberio, were not only orders from the Count Roberio, but also documents with orders from someone else.
‘Thinking back… ‘that’ was in the documents.’
The crow symbol.
Lucion flinched at the shiver that went down his spine.
‘Hand of Void!’
It was the symbol of the organization made by the final boss in the novel ‘Clutches of Darkness’.
‘I obtained quite some good information for the price of one broken arm.’
Lucion licked his lips.
He had been thinking why that warlock, who was Roberio’s subordinate, was connected by the blue thread, but that bastard was actually a warlock of the ‘Hand of Void’.
‘However, I can’t be certain if that warlock was a double-agent, or if Roberio already joined hands with the Hand of Void.’
Lucion felt somehow ominous about it.
‘There are still two years left…’
The important thing was that the Hand of Void was already moving.
It would be good if those movements were simply in preparation for two years later, but he already changed the flow of the novel.
Didn’t he block the Grand Temple bombing incident?
‘Is it the butterfly effect?’
“We will soon arrive, so open your eyes.”
At Carson’s words, Lucion opened his eyes.
When the surroundings quieted down at some point, he moved his eyes to the window.
Behind the carriage window, the buildings and people were slowly disappearing.
From the looks of it, they entered the road heading to the imperial palace.
“Are you still nervous?”
“Yes. I’m nervous. My hands are trembling, and my heart is racing.”
At Carson’s question, Lucion confessed honestly.
During the banquet, the main character was not him, but Beros, who had the Divine Beast.
But today, the main character was him.
It wasn’t something he experienced even as Lee Haram, so his lips were parched from anxiety and nervousness.
“It’s okay even if you make a mistake.”
Carson reassured Lucion.
“If you really can’t endure it, stomp out of there.”
“Can I really do that?”
Lucion was shocked.
It was not anyone else, but Carson who said that, so he couldn’t believe it.
“The imperial family already knows of your condition. Didn’t they call you to the imperial palace regardless?”
[As expected, no backing and support for you is now a family history.]
Russell quietly nodded.
“I found it admirable that you have gathered such courage to go out and even to board a carriage heading to the imperial palace now.”
Carson tightly clenched his fists and quietly met Lucion’s eyes.
“Up till now, Cronia… couldn’t serve as a great shield for you, but now you can trust the Cronia name.”
Seeing Carson’s eyes, which were full of regrets, Lucion quietly called out to him.
“Hyung-nim.”
“Yeah.”
“I like meat.”
He was still growing.
If he wanted to grow tall, there was nothing better than meat.
— Meat?
Latta reacted immediately.
“I’ll prepare it.”
Carson’s eyes shook, but he managed to answer.
“I also like macaroons.”
“I’ll prepare that, too.”
Lucion said what he liked one after another.
Each time Carson quietly listened and said he would prepare it.
“It will probably be difficult today, but please make sure to fill up the table with the dishes I told You tomorrow. Shouldn’t I eat delicious things when I’m tired?”
“Lucion…?”
“If I wanted to run away, I would have already run away. I worry about myself as much as Hyung-nim. But there is no reason to avoid it, right?”
Lucion showed his teeth and smiled.
“Hyung-nim.”
“… Yeah.”
“You don’t have to put in such effort for me.”
Lucion knew that Carson’s worries stemmed from guilt.
The guilt from being unable to prevent his kidnapping to the enemy country in the past.
“I don’t hold any more grudges against Father and Hyung-nim.”
Something he wanted to tell Carson someday.
He was trying to leave the past behind, so shouldn’t Carson also let it go now?
“So, don’t feel sorry now.”
“If you say so…”
Carson swallowed saliva with difficulty, and turned his head to look outside.
“Okay.”
Carson said as if speaking to himself, and soon quietly smiled.
***
“It’s nothing much.”
Lucion entered the room given to him by the imperial family and spoke up.
Since he left the carriage and entered the room, Russell’s eyes kept asking him what that was about.
[No. I’m just curious, so you don’t have to talk.]
“It’s nothing much anymore.”
Lucion sat in the chair and drew a breath.
From the moment he left the carriage, the imperial knights swarmed around as if they were going to kidnap him.
No matter how much he told himself it was for his safety, if Carson wasn’t there, he might have collapsed on the spot.
“I don’t know how old I was, but when I was quite young, I was caught and taken by the enemy to the enemy country.”
[Enemy country…?]
Russell had a hunch he touched on the wrong thing from the starting words.
“To be precise, I was betrayed and taken away. Anyway, I don’t have a clear memory of the torture and beating I endured there, but I have some scars. But my limbs are intact, so shouldn’t I be glad?”
[…]
Russell’s hair, which was calm a moment ago, exploded in all directions because he was so angry.
Lucion calmed Russell with an embarrassed face.
“There is no need to be angry. It was already a long time ago.”
[Why you?]
“Unlike Carson hyung-nim, who had talent for swordsmanship, and Shaella nunim, who had talent for magic, I was ordinary. Even if they wanted to target those two, they couldn’t.”
Russell at last properly understood what Lucion meant when he often brought up ‘Cronia’s weakness’.
It was a much heavier word than he expected.
— Hiss! Latta is angry! Latta won’t forgive!
Latta, who came out of his shadow, was enraged for the first time.
“It’s okay. Father already punished them.”
Lucion rubbed Latta’s forehead.
It was probably the reason why Novio started to be called the ruler of the border.
“Please don’t make such a heavy expression, Master-nim. Thanks to that, I received the blessing of Darkness, and met Master-nim, Latta and Hyum. I’m quite happy now.”
Even when Lucion smiled brightly, Russell’s expression was stiff just like before.
No. It twisted even more.
[You mean you received the blessing of Darkness late?]
“Yes. Darkness stretched out a hand to me at that time. But I didn’t know it was Darkness at the time.”
Usually people received the blessing of Darkness and Light when they were born. Mana picked them out and appeared when they were five years old, so it was called a manifestation.
‘Darkness and Light almost never manifest.’
The conditions for Darkness and Light’s manifestation were unclear unlike with mana.
But it was well-known that it manifested because of ‘earnestness’.
Russell looked at his disciple who had no part of him that wasn’t hurt.
Thinking that he felt happiness from simply eating snacks from the market and walking around the streets, it felt pitiful.
[It may be funny to say such words all of a sudden, but I promise.]
Russell put power in his voice.
After hearing those words, he as a master couldn’t stay quiet.
[I’ll make it so you will never be trampled by others’ power again]
It happened because Lucion didn’t have power.
Something like that could happen again someday.
Therefore.
[As your master, I’ll lead you to become stronger than anyone else.]
Those words were full of sincerity. Lucion felt that he and Russell had now truly become master and disciple.
“Thank You, Master-nim.”
Russell merely said before that he will teach him dark magic.
He never said he would make him stronger until now.
“I’ll train even more diligently to become stronger.”
Lucion said, filled with gratitude.
— Hihi. Then Latta will also thank. Because Latta was born thanks to Lucion.
Latta climbed onto Lucion’s knees and rubbed her face in.
[You’re saying that now, but if I increase the training intensity a few times…]
Knock, knock.
At that moment, they heard a knock at the door.
Through the small door crack, Hyum’s voice came in.
“It’s Hyum.”
‘Good timing.’
Lucion welcomed Hyum more than ever.
“Come in.”
The moment Hyum entered, he handed Lucion a paper, briefly explaining what Lucion will have to do during the ceremony.
“… The order Young Master has to memorize is written at the very bottom.”
“It doesn’t seem like they’re considerate of me. It’s fine anyways.”
Lucion was satisfied that the declaration ceremony was held by the royal family, and that there were not a lot of procedures.
“I heard that the procedures were shortened because the date was set in a hurry.”
Hyum took out a clock from his pocket and checked it.
“There is around 30 minutes remaining. Someone will come to find You 15 minutes before it starts, so how about taking some shut-eye until then?”
It seemed that since he grew after absorbing the white sword given by Heint, Hyum made an effort to try to act more like an adult, according to his growth.
Lucion got to the point.
“You know what bastards you have to look for, right Hyum?”
“Yes. I know. I’ll find them all, so there is no need for Young Master to worry.”
Hyum replied confidently.
While copying all the information from the location under the inn, he memorized the scents of the people who wrote that information.
For today.
‘Hyum will find some bastards, and tomorrow some bastards will collect the information…’
Lucion remembered what Hyum told him about together with the date.
According to Hyum, there was a precise day when the information was collected from what the ghosts chatted about.
However, the people who collect the information also kept changing, so without precisely knowing who was behind that basement under the inn, chasing after them would be like exposing his nape for no reason, so he didn’t order Hyum to do that.
“Hyum.”
Instead, Lucion ordered Hyum to do something more important.
“Did you deliver the forged documents?”
Tomorrow is the day when some bastards collect information.
To feed those bastards wrong information.
To take advantage of it for himself.
He forged information.
*~*~*
Translator’s thank you note:
Hello~ Welcome to the first 50 chapters thank you note. We have a cake, and meat, and macarons. Yes you can mix them, I’ll make people turn their eyes away and not judge you for it. I must admit, this novel is bringing some unique challenges I wasn’t expecting (like it’s the first fantasy novel, not some toxicology or plant systematic textbook that works on me like a magic lullaby or makes me seriously doubt my memory when I don’t remember half of the sentence I just read), but it’s fun! I like being challenged, so thank you for throwing this novel my way and watching my progress through it.
That said, while I’m having fun with the trails, I’m creating double of the usual editor work for Fan, so please honor her work on it.
Thank you again, I’ll hope to see you in the future~
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