Chapter 41: Chapter 41

Unfortunately for the villagers, even if Shan had wanted to, it was impossible for him to suddenly settle down as the master of this castle.

If such a thing were possible, masters of various rural villages and fiefs would have long been “subdued” and replaced by robber knights swarming from all directions.

Normally, if the position of fief lord became vacant with no succeeding family left due to various accidents, it was custom for the fief’s liege lord to reclaim the title.

Since Castaman Castle was a direct territory of the royal family, the bedridden king or a new king who acceded to the throne in the future would grant the title of lord to someone.

It was three days after the battle with the vampire when Shan’s army finished cleaning up and returned to the city where they had first been recruited.

There, Roden ended the contracts with the mercenaries and paid them their promised wages.

“Huh?”

“Um, sir…”

“What is it?”

“There is more money here than what we heard before.”

When one mercenary said that, the others gave him sharp looked, silently asking why he was bothering to mention it.

But he had his own defense… what if things went wrong because he stole money from a knight?

Besides, it was not an astronomical sum worth keeping his mouth shut and fleeing to a foreign land for.

“That is because you fought harder than expected. Spread the word far and wide that Sir Shan is not a man who is stingy in rewarding his subordinates!”

At Roden’s words, Shan nodded with an ‘mm’.

Truthfully, he did not even know exactly how much they were supposed to receive, but he trusted that Roden had exercised good judgment.

“Ohhh…”

“Thank you, Sir Knight!”

Holding more money than they had anticipated, the mercenaries bowed repeatedly before taking their leave.

Watching them depart, Shan asked Roden.

“Did you give them a lot of money?”

“Actually, I drove a pretty hard bargain during the initial negotiations. Giving them a bonus like this makes a much better impression than promising a high salary from the start.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, considering the vampire byproducts, mana stones, and various extra income we earned this time, this isn’t even a loss. If those guys spread good rumors after getting a generous payout, it’s more than worth it.”

Such techniques of calculating non-standard gains and losses while manipulating human emotions were far too difficult for Shan.

As he watched from the side like this, he wondered if a day would come when he too could handle such matters as naturally as Roden did.

Perhaps the day he came to understand such things would be the day he became an adult, Shan thought to himself.

*

“Bwahaha! Drink as much as you want! Today it’s all on me!”

“Whoa, looks like you made some serious coin?”

“Of course! Let me tell you what I did…”

Just as Roden had anticipated, the mercenaries who unexpectedly pocketed a lump sum boasted and showed off to everyone around them.

After all, was it not human nature to want to spend lavishly and show off whenever one came into money?

“Is that really true?”

“I’m telling you it’s real! When that guy gestured, the blue sky suddenly turned pitch black and the sun vanished: it was nothing short of the end of the world!”

As tall tales were added in the process, they became heroes who fought off hundreds of vampires swarming from some castle, and Shan was transformed into a legendary warrior who battled a powerful Vampire King who commanded those monsters and even altered day and night.

This was despite the fact that not a single one of them had actually seen Shan fighting the high vampire Kudlak.

Legends were originally born in such a manner.

*

Carrying heavy packs filled with spoils, the two walked for several days and returned to the capital.

As they entered through the northern gate, people recognized Shan’s identity upon seeing Arwin and began to whisper.

“It’s Sir Shan!”

“The Cockatrice Slayer!”

“The Sword of the Altoans!”

As an avalanche of embarrassingly cringeworthy nicknames poured out, Shan cracked an awkward smile and offered a light wave.

He had thought the rumors might subside a bit while he was away hunting vampires, but somehow they seemed to have grown larger rather than smaller.

“From now on, traveling with Arwin means it will be hard to enter and leave quietly like in the past.”

“Look on the bright side. There are countless knights who risk their lives just to gain fame like yours, Sir Shan.”

Speaking in a polite tone since they were in public view, Roden offered words of comfort.

“No, it’s not that I hate it, but…”

He simply missed the time when he could naturally blend in among people like an invisible man, Shan said quietly.

He was not unaware that his words were nothing more than childish grumbling, and that to achieve his desired goal, he needed to become far more famous and grander than he was now.

Waving to the cheering crowd as he returned to the Weavers mansion, Shan finally relaxed his shoulders and let out a sigh.

“Whew.”

“Well, don’t worry too much. Even with all that, if you walk around in ordinary clothes, hardly anyone will recognize you.”

“I suppose so, but…”

While the two were removing their armor and unpacking their belongings with the help of servants, a servant politely addressed Shan.

“Young Master, the barding you ordered arrived just yesterday.”

“Oh, where is it?”

“We placed it next to the stable. If you give the word, we can immediately…”

Before the servant could even finish saying that they would try it on, Shan sprinted straight to the stable.

“Arwin! Let’s try putting on your barding!”

In fact, how anxious he had been last time, worried that Awin might be struck by the vampire’s magic.

No matter how skilled Shan was, it was difficult to protect Arwin while deflecting every single volley of arrows pouring in from all sides.

Seeing the heavy plate armor the servants brought out, Arwin wore a disinterested expression, but she did not resist having it put on.

A short while later, seeing his fully armored figure, everyone could not help but exclaim in admiration.

“Ohhh…”

“Combining a magnificent horse with magnificent barding makes him twice as impressive. Though it’s a pity that beautiful coat of hair is completely covered.”

The barding perfectly covered almost every part except for small eye holes, nostrils, and the legs.

Even the exposed legs looked as if his whole body were made of metal due to the characteristic metallic sheen of his fur.

Mounted on Arwin clad in barding, Shan rode a light lap around the garden and spoke to him.

“How is it? Is it uncomfortable? If there’s anywhere getting in the way when you run, I’ll ask them to alter it.”

Although the horse could not understand human speech, Arwin gave a soft snort and leaped once, demonstrating that she had no great discomfort in moving.

Despite the barding weighing nearly 35 kilograms due to his larger frame compared to other horses, his movement remained graceful and fluid, eliciting automatic gasps of admiration.

“Hmm, should I ask someone to enchant this barding using the vampire mana stone we obtained this time…?”

“Even so, you should enchant your own armor first. And don’t go talking carelessly outside about enchanting things with mana stones, even if there’s no one around to listen.”

At Shan’s distracted attitude, Roden reined him in with an incredulous look and glanced discreetly at the servants standing a short distance away.

Of course, all the servants of the Weavers mansion were long-serving individuals with proven loyalty, but there was still no need to give them any room for temptation.

“More importantly, let’s figure out how to visit the princess. Looking at the situation, unless you go alone at night, deceiving people’s eyes won’t be easy.”

Just seeing how Prince Elvin found out about Shan visiting late at night under Kagon’s guidance showed that acting covertly was truly no simple matter.

Showing others that he was visiting continuously multiple times, rather than just once, was naturally a bad idea.

Of course, if Shan went alone just like he did right before, it might be fine, but Roden felt uneasy letting Shan meet the princess by himself.

It felt like sending a child to play by the water.

‘Hmm, wait… maybe it’s not as concerning as I think?’

Thinking back, naive as Shan was, he possessed an ability to keenly detect hostile feelings directed at him.

One could say his intuition was quite sharp.

Of course, it was better for himself to handle things like negotiations, but the princess was also acting friendly for now to draw Shan in.

What interrupted Roden’s thoughts were the words Shan blurted out without much thought.

“Couldn’t we ask Professor Maya?”

“Huh?”

“We met the princess through her in the first place. I think we can just contact her and go visit. We had to get a physical exam anyway.”

“Come to think of it, that’s true.”

Unlike Shan, Roden did not interact with her often, so he had failed to recall it immediately.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Roden immediately dispatched a servant to send a message to Maya’s workshop.

Requesting to schedule a physical exam for tomorrow.

That evening, returning home from work, Callion smiled a loose, uncharacteristic smile while intoxicated and spoke.

“Lately, there isn’t a single thing that isn’t going smoothly!”

“Is it to that extent?”

“Of course! Knights who would have acted stuck-up in the past are actually bowing their heads to me now! Bowing their heads!”

At the sight of Callion raising his glass and shouting, “To the health of the great Sir Shan!”, Roden shook his head.

When several errant knights offered flattering words and expressed a desire to socialize lightly, Shan replied that he would gladly do so whenever he had free time.

Compared to the sponsorship he had received so far, such a thing was nothing.

*

The next afternoon, Shan and Roden headed to Maya’s workshop dressed in comfortable, inconspicuous clothes.

As expected, Aran and Kagon were looking around near the workshop just like before.

“Hello.”

“You’ve come.”

“By the way, I’ve felt this for a while, but aren’t you two way too noticeable for secret guards?”

“I-Is that so?”

At Shan’s pointing it out, Kagon answered with a flustered expression.

Judging by that attitude, he seemed to believe they had been escorting covertly and effectively until now.

Leaving behind the two guards’ question of what they should do then, Shan and Roden knocked on the door of Maya’s workshop.

Before long, a middle-aged woman with a plain appearance opened the door.

“Have you arrived? I heard that you won the last jousting tournament. Congratulations!”

Meeting Professor Maya was the first time since inspecting his body with Princess Cheryn’s help last time.

Even though Shan had become a knight and won the jousting tournament since then, Maya treated Shan like an ordinary boy just as before.

Such an attitude felt somehow warm and comforting to the current Shan.

“Thank you, Professor.”

“You came for an examination, right? Hurry in and sit down.”

Following her inside, Princess Cheryn was waiting as expected.

Dressed in the same attire as when they first met.

“Hello.”

“It has been a long time, Prin…”

“Why the sudden honorifics?”

“Pardon?”

At Cheryn’s counter-question, Roden was so bewildered that he dared to ask back.

Professor Maya surely knew Cheryn’s identity as well, so was she trying to thoroughly push the setup of an ordinary mage girl even when everyone present knew the truth?

No matter how he looked at it, that seemed like far too unreasonable a demand.

Seeing his expression full of inner conflict, Cheryn chuckled and spoke.

“Ah, fine. Let’s stop! At any rate, there’s no need to stand on ceremony. After all, I came here as a mage for now.”

“I look forward to working with you.”

At Shan’s response, Roden shifted his eyes in surprise.

Why was his tone far less formal than before, as if they had grown remarkably close when they met last time?

Just then, Cheryn looked at Shan and playfully chided him.

“Now, now, didn’t I tell you? That is only when it’s just the two of us.”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“Not that you need to act so stiff either.”

‘Only when it’s just the two of us’, it sounded beyond suspicious and downright sacrilegious.

Had strangers witnessed this, they would have assumed the two were lovers.

Gauging Cheryn’s and Maya’s expressions, Roden subtly signaled Shan with his eyes.

Asking what on earth had happened when they met privately last time.

‘Was there something you didn’t tell me before?’

‘A little.’

‘Let me tell you when we get back.’

Afterward, an ordinary examination just like last time followed.

Drawing a bit of blood, snipping hair, and shining light emitting from unknown magical tools all over his body.

The only difference was that Cheryn and Maya, no longer needing to hide her identity, addressed each other according to their statuses.

After the examination ended, the two mages observed the reactions of various reagents and groaned softly.

“Mmm.”

“Ah…”

“How is it?”

“Regrettably, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly different.”

Having already been informed via letter, Maya also knew that Shan had hunted a high vampire this time.

That was precisely why Cheryn had come along to conduct the test together.

At her answer, Shan did not show it on his face, but he was slightly disappointed.

Although he did not fully understand it, according to Cheryn’s hypothesis, he should have absorbed part of the vampire’s power or something.

Was that guy too weak of a vampire for that? Or was it because this was not the Demonic Realm?

While Shan was pondering, Cheryn conversed with Maya.

“What are your thoughts, Professor Maya?”

“Wouldn’t we need to know exactly how strong the vampire was? Even within the same species, individual differences tend to be quite large…”

“We’ll need byproducts worth analyzing. Do you happen to have brought any?”

Quietly listening to their conversation, Roden pulled out two pouches tied to his waist.

“As it happens, I brought those. I had been meaning to ask for an appraisal anyway.”

“It’s fortunate that we won’t need to make extra trips back and forth. Conveniently, we have the relevant equipment right here, so shall we try it right now? Just a moment.”

The ashes of the high vampire burned with silver were proof of subduing them while simultaneously serving as high-grade magic ingredients.

After measuring a small amount of the ash on a scale and mixing it with another powder to rub them together, Cheryn gasped in shock.

“Ah…!?”

“What is the matter, Princess?”

“Ah, no. He was a much stronger creature than expected. To take him down without a single injury is truly amazing.”

Glossing over it as if making an excuse, she suddenly looked at Maya and spoke.

“Professor Maya, I know it is rude, but could you fetch some black tea from the guards outside? I would like to drink just one cup.”

“Of course, Princess. Shall I mix in some milk as well?”

“Please do.”

Right in the middle of conducting tests and discussions, to suddenly send her out saying she wanted to drink black tea… what kind of absurd statement was that?

As Maya stepped out of the workshop, Cheryn toyed with her tightly bound hair and spoke.

“The professor won’t come back for a while. That was a signal that I had something I wanted to discuss among just ourselves.”

“Ah…”

“Whether it’s about that spear used this time, or the relationship between the vampire and Elvin, talking about various things is naturally more comfortable with just us.”

“Does the professor know nothing about that plan?”

As Roden brought up Princess Cheryn’s past ambition, she nodded.

“Mmm, it’s not that I distrust Professor Maya, but I generally prefer controlling information so that only those who need to know are aware. To draw in Sir Shan, I had to let him know, and since informing Sir Shan meant you would find out as well, there was no reason to keep it secret from just one of you.”

Besides, to be cold about it, Maya was not valuable enough to draw in by revealing such secrets.

Though she was an outstanding mage, Cheryn had already drawn in the President of the Magic Society, the most brilliant mage in Pendia, for her dream.

Roden nodded as if persuaded and presented the second item from his pouch.

“Here it is, Princess. These are all the useful documents retrieved from his castle.”

What Roden presented were precisely the letters and the vampire’s diary acquired from the lord’s residence.

Cheryn lightly skimmed a few letters with her eyes, flipped through the diary with a swift rustle, and let out a dry laugh.

“It’s Elvin’s handwriting. It seems he didn’t have much intention of hiding it either. Thank you. I can put this to good use.”

“If possible, I hope he doesn’t harbor a grudge against Shan.”

“You truly don’t need to worry about that part. I’ve already finished setting up the scheme. That fellow will mistakenly believe Conrad indirectly used Shan to ruin his plans. Knowing Elvin, he won’t harbor unfair rage toward Shan. If anything, he might want to possess him even more.”

At her confident attitude, Roden also decided not to press the matter further and let it pass.

Questioning it would not be too late even if done after a problem actually arose.

“Understood. More importantly, there was mention of a group called the Council in that diary. I wonder if this might become a problem.”

It was a concern that they might hold a grudge over Shan obliterating what was essentially one of their farms.

At that question, Cheryn also slightly furrowed her brows.

“Mmm, I too have heard nothing about such a group. If they are fellows I do not know of, they likely do not operate within the court at all. I will take this diary as reference and investigate separately.”

If nothing else, Princess Cheryn’s intelligence network was trustworthy.

Even while accompanied by only two rather clumsy knights as her confidants, she was someone who missed nothing.

Cheryn turned her gaze toward Shan and asked.

“So, how was the spear?”

“It was good.”

It was certainly a marvelous weapon that could not even dare be compared to the ordinary mass-produced items Shan had used until now.

Had it been an ordinary spear, it might have snapped while piercing the shield created by the vampire’s blood magic, or even after thrusting through his body, the wound would have healed right away.

As Shan passionately rattled off the merits of the new spear, Princess Cheryn spoke with a somewhat embarrassed expression.

“Y-Yes. I am glad you liked it. More importantly, there is something I wish to say…”

“Please go ahead.”

“In examining the remains of the two high vampires, there was a considerable difference.”

“Yes. The one named Kudlak was much stronger. He used many unusual spells as well.”

Since it was said that stronger vampires held greater value, could he not expect quite a high price?

In particular, the spell he used to crystallize blood and shoot it out was remarkable even thinking back on it now.

Had Shan been bare-bodied without even holding a weapon, blocking or evading such an attack would have been impossible.

It was literally equivalent to breaking through a hail of arrows with his bare body.

“Can you use such magic as well, Princess?”

“If necessary, let us say I can imitate it to some extent.”

“Oh…”

Thinking he would like to see it sometime later, for some reason the princess showed a hesitating posture for a moment.

From experience, a major declaration usually followed after such behavior.

That intuition of Shan’s hit the mark precisely.

“However, the remains of the stronger vampire were not burned with ordinary silver. True Silver… and a large quantity of very high-purity True Silver at that… seems to have been used. Do you happen to have anything to say regarding this?”

As Cheryn’s words concluded, a brief silence settled inside Maya’s workshop.

Roden’s head snapped rapidly toward Shan.

‘You, don’t tell me you burned the guy you caught with A Thousand Shapes?’

‘Yeah.’

‘If you did, you should have told me!’

‘I didn’t know burning him with True Silver would change anything.’

‘Well, I didn’t know either, but…’

Though they did not communicate all of this in spoken words, their intentions were conveyed roughly through eye contact alone.

Swallowing his saliva hard, Roden profanely asked a counter-question instead of answering the princess’s query.

“If someone inspects those ashes, can anyone realize that fact?”

“Anyone well-versed in alchemy would be able to tell. Among advanced techniques, there exists a recipe requiring vampire ashes to be created by burning with True Silver rather than silver. A person who has researched that could tell. In this kingdom, there are probably around three to five such people.”

As Cheryn’s words ended, quiet fell over the workshop once again.

Shan and Roden looked at each other, pondering how to handle this matter.

The reason they hid the identity of A Thousand Shapes was that it was an absurdly, insanely great treasure.

Even the spear Shan had just praised so highly could be considered top-tier among magic weapons, but compared to A Thousand Shapes, it was mere junk.

Was not the amount of True Silver composing that weapon alone enough to drive two kingdoms to wage war, and the magic contained within an ancient spell of the Alto era so powerful that modern mages could not reproduce it even if they died trying?

They had even concealed the identity of this object from Shan’s ultimate sponsor and Roden’s father, Callion.

“Mmm, Princess. That is…”

“Is it something difficult to discuss? If so, I have no intention of prying deeply. I simply did not wish to hide the fact that I am aware of this.”

Roden, who had been trying to gloss over its identity since the fact that they possessed a large quantity of True Silver was already exposed, quickly shut his mouth upon hearing her unexpected answer.

Before being royalty, as a mage her desire for True Silver (a powerful magical medium) must be strong, yet Cheryn surprisingly exercised great self-control.

That was likely because she did not want to break her friendly relationship with Shan by that much.

‘What a relief…’

Releasing a sigh in inner relief only lasted a moment, as Roden screamed in horror upon seeing Shan next to him bringing his hand to his collar.

“Hey, wait…”

Before he could even stop him, A Thousand Shapes smoothly untangled itself, took the shape of a sword, and was aimed at Cheryn.