Chapter 57

Chapter 57 - The Treasure the Emperor Seeks (1)

Eugene set the marching route focusing on friendly or neutral territories.

The Free City of Veles they were trying to pass through now is also a place belonging to the Nobles' Faction. Therefore, he did not get tense even when seeing a group of armed troops on the highway.

"I am Varden, a knight of the House of Jules."

The knight who seemed to be the captain said while lifting his visor.

"Haha."

At that appearance, Eugene casually burst into laughter.

"Why are you laughing?"

"No, it's nothing."

The reason Eugene laughed was because Varden's action of lifting his visor happened to be exactly the same as a military salute.

He knew that one of the origins of the salute, along with lifting one's hat, was the act of lifting a visor. However, experiencing it directly from inside history gave a distinct feeling.

"Eugene Meyer. I am moving to the fiefdom bestowed upon me by Count Morad."

The House of Jules belongs to the Nobles' Faction. Because he had grasped the inclinations of neighboring families whenever moving from territory to territory, he could introduce himself without worry.

"Ah! You were just greeting a happy occasion. As a fellow knight, I congratulate you."

Varden's voice is full of envy. Catching the eye of a great noble, receiving a fiefdom, and becoming a lord is every knight's dream. Moreover, the knight before his eyes was far younger than himself as well.

Eugene discovered two prisoners bound with ropes behind Varden.

"Are you escorting criminals?"

As winter arrives and the war enters a lull, mercenaries who lost their jobs are spreading out. It was a situation where public order worsened as they changed jobs to bandits.

At times like this, it is common for free cities to offer sincerity to neighboring lords and receive support from knight patrols.

"These bastards are people the Emperor infiltrated nearby."

"It seems they were caught while acting as spies."

"No. If he was going to do that, he would have used adventurers or scouts. These two are knights. They had a small number of subordinates they brought, but we executed them on the spot."

Somehow he thought they looked too noble to be bandits.

"The Emperor probably isn't leisurely enough to dispatch knights to places where there aren't even wars, though."

The Emperor's territory is in northern-central Roman, so there are enemies in all directions. Balance is only barely being maintained thanks to his diplomatic skills and neutral faction nobles fearing a civil war.

"From interrogation results, they say the Emperor is frantic trying to find some treasure."

"As a person opposing the Emperor together, I am curious. Could we hear the story?"

Eugene handed over a leather canteen containing wine.

"The scent is good."

"It is House of Morad wine."

At the precious beverage, Varden's tongue became even smoother.

"The Emperor is secretly dispatching retainers to various places to find the Moving Castle in legends. Accurately, the clues to it."

Varden snickered. Since it was treated as half-commercial tactic and half-legend even in Bonyard, it was natural that it would be worse outside.

Conversely, Eugene did not laugh. For some reason, the moment he heard Moving Castle, the dream he had on the night of the lunar eclipse came to mind.

"A bit more detail, please. My Magician is very interested in those sorts of things."

Valda looked at Eugene, who was calmly selling her out, with displeased eyes.

However, since it was true she was also curious, Varden also made an understanding face saying, 'If she's a magician, of course.'

"As you know, the Emperor is suffering headaches due to legitimacy issues. Upon that occasion they say he began gathering legacies left by the Ancient Kingdom upon the advice of a court magician."

"He intends to establish majesty by wrapping himself in past legacies."

"That is correct."

It is a common occurrence for newly crowned monarchs to solidify their dominance through large-scale civil engineering projects or external conquests.

The Kings of Roman, who possess strong pride in being direct descendants of the Ancient Kingdom, also enjoyed using the method of pioneering legacies from those times.

"The Emperor believes the Moving Castle realistically exists. If he truly secures it..."

"The legitimacy issue would be considerably resolved. Because it is the greatest treasure left by the Ancient Kingdom."

Eugene gazed at the prisoners.

"Do they say they found something?"

"Yes. Since they aren't rummaging around blindly. It's a method where they gather information in the capital, pinpoint a place that could be a clue, and matching sortee there."

Varden pointed to a certain mountain near Veles City.

"They say there is a small ruin from the Ancient Kingdom days there. These knights were caught by us due to a hunter's tip-off while trying to visit there."

Near the soldiers, there is a young man with a face pounding with anticipation. He plans to return to the city together and receive a reward.

"If it is alright, could you tell us the location?"

When he handed over an entire sealed bottle of wine, Varden smiled and received it.

"There won't be any problem. We also already searched it, but we couldn't find anything special."

Just that, it seemed they found things that could become money. Because expensive-looking pottery, silver candlesticks, gold leaf ornaments, and such were loaded aplenty on reserve horses.

'The aura of magic cannot be felt.'

Perhaps she had the same thought as Eugene, Valda also had a relieved face.

"Hey, hunter! Come here and tell Sir Eugene the location."

After hearing in detail the topographical features to use as milestones, they parted ways with Varden's group. They said they planned to patrol the surroundings a bit more.

"The Moving Castle was something that really exists?"

"I thought that was a lie the city bastards made up to call tourists."

While the mercenaries who followed from Bonyard chattered as if fascinated, Eugene and Valda looked at each other.

"We should search it, right?"

"You're saying something obvious."

Even if things that could become money were robbed, there was no way knights and soldiers could discover even the secrets of magic.

What if they discover even one ancient knowledge that might be asleep in the ruins? To a magician like Valda, one such encounter becomes a fortuitous event that raises their realm.

"Perhaps the place you saw in your dream could also..."

"I also had that thought."

Magicians grant great meaning to ties and destiny. Both Valda and Eugene felt a kind of connecting ring with the dream they had at the House of Knights.

"We must enter the city first."

Twilight was already falling. Rummaging through a mountain they had never been to in the middle of the night is practically crazy behavior.

* * *

Veles is a free city handed down since the Ancient Kingdom days. Unlike Bonyard, which originated from a workshop, because it was constructed as a city from the beginning, it boasted beautiful and excellent facilities.

Naturally, the local notables ruling this place have strong pride. That was also loyalty to tradition.

It is a natural occurrence that the people of Veles became an extreme anti-Emperor faction, enraged at the Emperor's usurpation.

"At this rate, isn't the Emperor's army going to invade?"

"Emperor my foot! Enemies are in all directions, so would he have the time to care all the way here? Even if they come, what are they going to do? How will they cross the castle walls of the Ancient Kingdom."

"It's not even a country of profligates far away, to bring a disgusting word like Emperor into sacred Roman, tsk tsk!"

Thanks to that, Eugene, who visited as a member of the Nobles' Faction, received extremely hospitable treatment.

"I heard you stepped forward as vanguard and slashed the imperial guards consecutively."

"Ah, yes. I did so."

The Veles City security officer smiled broadly and filled his cup.

Unlike the plump Panis, this person possesses a natural-born martial frame from his appearance. Antipathy toward the Emperor and goodwill toward a mighty knight. The two overlapped as he looked at Eugene with eyes dripping honey.

"Did you know it is the first time in over ten years that a stone castle was captured by a battering ram? It is truly a regret of a thousand autumns that I could not see that spectacle! A regret!"

"Mmm."

Although the treating side chatters out of goodwill, Eugene's taste was bitter. Because if possible, he wanted to make his name known through field battles, bandit extermination, and monster hunting.

"Sir. There will be no one supporting the Emperor in this banquet hall. I heard they were already pushed out of city power and are in a state right before expulsion."

Hind, who was passing by nearby, spoke suggestively.

Unlike the majority of knights whose brains are also made of muscles, he is calm and knows how to read the atmosphere. He knew how to tactfully gather and report what information his temporary lord needed.

Considering even his martial prowess as a knight is excellent, it is a rare virtue.

"I see. Why don't you have some too, Sir? I don't smell any alcohol at all, did you not drink even a sip?"

"I do not like alcohol. A knight must always have a clear mind."

"You speak words that would put knights all over the world to shame."

At the place Eugene signaled with his eyes, knights who came up from other regions were drinking heavily with their arms around each other's shoulders.

"Come on, come on! A toast to the hero who caught the Emperor bastard's lackeys!"

Whether Varden was also invited, he had become dead drunk from the alcohol poured for him from all directions.

"To speak honestly, I hate alcohol. Both the feeling of getting drunk, and the appearances shown by drunken people."

The departing Hind tactfully avoided alcohol and enjoyed gastronomy.

"It seems you have gathered a competent knight."

"He's a friend who finds work on his own, aside from just standing like a background behind me."

"I should call this birds of a feather flocking together."

Valda smiled with satisfaction.

Thinking of tomorrow's operation, it would be troublesome if the knights were drunk. Drunkenness could not intrude upon Eugene thanks to his physique, and Hind thanks to his personality.

* * *

Dawn the next day. As soon as the castle gates opened, Eugene's group left the city.

Since the dead-drunk Varden chattered about the ruins at the banquet, rumors will soon spread. If adventurers or city notables intrude, it will be annoying.

Following the marks the hunter had explained, they could discover the ruins without difficulty.

A secluded location where one had to go around for a long time riding a side path between dried-up valleys. It was a place one could not help but not know unless they intended to find it.

"Everyone wait here. Sir Hind. I request you take command. If easygoing people come up, chase them away, otherwise, drag out the time as much as possible."

"Understood."

They deployed troops because they might be interrupted by any chance. A knight and dozens of mercenaries would overwhelm most opponents.

Hind utilized the mercenaries to construct a solid temporary base. He deployed scouts in high areas and even set up barricades by cutting down trees.

'I really hit a windfall.'

At that commendable appearance, he smiled pleasantly.

"Shouldn't you take a few bastards to do odd jobs, Sir?"

The mercenary captain asked.

"If there are many people, Lady Valda's concentration will be disturbed. Just defend here ironcladly."

They might discover things to be proud of, but they might also discover things more wicked than the bloodletting dagger. The fewer eyes seeing it, the better.

Eugene took Valda and Homi and entered the ruins. It's a place with a feeling like a ritual altar with an open ceiling.

Since Varden's group took all the things that could become money, what was left were entirely rusted and broken remnants.

"It seems this was a place doing magic research. You can also feel the aura converging in this place, right?"

"It has a similar feeling to the mansion Lady Valda stayed in."

There exist places in the world where mysteries gather like gold veins. Such places became magicians' residences or laboratories. Here must also be a place used for such purposes.

"It will surely be a place that researched magic concerning other worlds."

"For example?"

"Summoning arts or powerful secret arts handling space."

"How can you know?"

"Buildings erected in such places are built to be sealed. So that the surging aura does not leak out but concentrates inside."

"It's bright open here."

The ruins have both the ceiling and sides wide open.

"Among magic, there is only one that has the need to do so. Only the academics researching the connection between this world and other worlds."

Eugene recalled the custom of leaving the front door and windows open so ancestors could enter when holding ancestral rites. This ruin also seems to be a similar principle.

While searching the surroundings, they discovered geometric figures on the floor of the ruins.

"They are magic circles."

Homi opened her eyes wide and examined. Because nothing was visible in her eyes.

"This was not drawn with ink or dye. If so, it would not have endured the long years. It's a kind that can be seen only by those who understand magic."

Valda stroked Homi's hair.

"If it's like this, even the Emperor's knights wouldn't be able to find it, though."

"They wouldn't be able to dispatch precious magicians blindly. It will be a method where a magician finally goes to check on a place filtered through and filtered through."

Although faint, an aura of magic is still flowing in the magic circles.

"Hmm."

"What is the matter?"

"Because a dissonance is felt in a few places of the magic circles."

"It seems parts of the magic formulas have been disturbed because it is too old. Although it cannot be felt by me."

"Eh?"

Eugene was genuinely surprised. To him, Valda was an existence who knew everything.

"Do not act so surprised. Because the fields of magic are countless, and the abilities to see, hear, and feel them are each different."

It is not strange that Eugene can see what she cannot see. Because it's a matter of affinity, not a matter of realm or knowledge.

"Come to think of it, your Holy Communion was also a power drawn from another world. Being sensitive towards this side is a natural occurrence."

Valda took Homi and stepped back. So that Eugene could concentrate.

'Is this the part?'

When Eugene approached the place where the dissonance occurred, an anomaly occurred.

The aura flowing in the magic circle was drawn to Eugene like an osmosis phenomenon, and due to that movement, the blocked flow had opened up.

A magic circle changed to rotate smoothly. Valda also detected that subtle change.

"Did you touch something?"

"Not at all. I just went near it, but it arbitrarily..."

Homi, who had been listening quietly, reflexively aimed her crossbow. There were two existences in that place, not knowing when they appeared.

One person standing with a straight posture tightly wrapped their body in a magician's robe. Inside the hood, there is only pitch-black darkness filled up.

The other one is a knight sitting leaning against a pillar of the ruins. The deeply bowed head made it look like it was sleeping, but expectedly there is also only darkness chock-full inside the helmet.

Both gave off an intense smell of magic as if vibrating.

"To think there are Guardians in such a small place!"

Valda shouted in surprise.

To think not just one, but two magic sentinels rarely discovered only in large-scale ruin sites would appear here.

At that time, 2 lights were generated in the darkness inside the magician's hood. The eyes wavering like will-o'-the-wisps scanned the ruins that had become a mess after Varden's group robbed it and left.

'Damn it.'

Eugene drew Last Autumn and lifted his shield.