In front of the Jervain treasure vault.
The great stone gates, graven with a splendid sword pattern, stood as if untouched by the long river of time.
Jervain of the North, who’d participated in the founding of the Kingdom. Their history was here.
“By the way. You’re here to guide me, is it?”
“Yes.”
In front of the treasury –
Callius’ eyes were fixed on Nochtel, with a complicated gaze as if looking at a problematic opponent.
“Since the armaments in the treasure room are ancient existences, if somebody without strong mental strength touches them inadvertently, they might end up being devoured. And even among those, there are some treasures that are particularly dangerous, so I’ll leave them out when guiding you.”
His speech was firm and clear, but Callius refused with a single sentence.
“No need.”
“You’ll need it.”
“Cheeky. I said I don’t need it.”
“Even so…”
“Go away.”
“Master. Originally, there is no precedent for a guide to the treasury. However, the patriarch broke the tradition for your sake.”
“I didn’t ask you the reason.”
Callius looked at Nochtel without speaking further. At the very image of an ordinary, old-fashioned butler.
However, he wasn’t someone normal.
In the first place, how could an outsider guide you through the treasury that contained the history of Jervain?
No matter how many years he’d lived among the Jervain family, such an outsider was an impossible existence.
Therefore, he had to be different from the ordinary image he projected.
“You’re not of Jervain’s bloodline, so how do you know about the armaments in the treasury?”
“That’s because I’ve been in the North, in the Jervain lands, all my life.”
He’d been here for his whole lifetime.
Even so, did it make sense for a butler to know about the treasure trove of the Jervain patriarchs passed down for generations?
The concept itself was absurd.
“Then when is your next lifetime?”
“… What are you talking about?”
Nochtel’s eyebrows twitched.
Letting out a sly smirk, Callius made a gesture to shoo him away.
“If you don’t want to talk, I don’t need your guidance, so just leave.”
Those aged eyes shone brilliantly in the dark for an instant, but then they calmed down.
“… I see. Please be careful.”
They disappeared as if it melting into the darkness.
‘So gloomy.’
After Nochtel disappeared, Callius approached the treasury doors and took out the key.
“I messed with him for nothing.”
Nochtel was no ordinary human.
Far too thoughtful to be a dragon, far too good to be a demon, far too fragile to be a giant. A being bound by a contract.
Even so, a creature superior to a mere human.
A fairy.
“It’s not that important right now, so let’s think about Nochtel later.”
Shall we go in first?
Cheok. He put the key in but it didn’t turn. He’d have been embarrassed if he hadn’t known why.
As soon as pure divine power was poured in, it spread like the roots of a tree along the groove carved on the door.
Drurururuck!
With a loud noise, the great doors to the treasury swung open.
The torch and the glowstone emitting the light of divine power cleared away the darkness, and finally showed the inside scenery.
“It’s bigger than I thought.”
It was a new feeling to see the treasure trove he himself had set in real life.
A view of a large open space, with magnificent weapons on display at every side.
Everything that you could think of.
From small rings and artifacts that looked like trinkets, to gauntlets and boots, to full body armour.
All the precious weapons used by the previous patriarchs were here.
And of course –
“Even the swords made from their carcasses.”
There was no vision sword that could rival the Storm Sword – Callis. However, there were definitely spirit swords that could produce powerful strength.
Preferring light armament, Callius held a thin armour made of leather and interlinked chains.
It was a unique armour with leather on the outside and chainmail on the inside, but it was lightweight and had good elasticity.
On one side of the treasury was another beautifully decorated door.
It was covered in dust, but once he exerted quite a bit, the door opened with the cracking sound of grinding stones.
Again, and again.
As he walked deeper, there were no artifacts unlike the outer area, and swords that emanated a feeling of reverence as if holy relics that should be worshipped, began to appear in front of his eyes.
The enshrined swords had their names written on the accompanying tombstones.
『Sixteenth Head, Lokranta von Jervain』.
‘The Engulfing Sword, Lokranta.’
Engulfing Sword – Lokranta’s ability is storage.
It’s a sword that can absorb, store, and use the power of any weapon it collides with.
If this sword clashes with the Lightning Sword, for example, it can then use the power of lightning inherent in the Lightning Sword – but only once.
Depending on how you use it, it’s a great sword that can deliver a perfect blow to the enemy.
『Fourteenth Head, Rickel von Jervain』.
‘Ripple Sword – Rickel.’
A sword that uses the air itself as a medium and delivers rippling waves to strike the enemy’s insides.
Another sword to be coveted.
The opponent might even lose his bearings mid-battle because his internal organs become twisted, or his head is clouded just by getting struck with this sword.
After that, various swords appeared in Callius’ front.
『Thirteenth Head, Chroma von Jervain』.
‘Crystal Sword – Chroma.’
Fine and sharp crystals can grow on its blade, which can be shot.
A sword that can attack from range.
If struck by its attack, invisible crystal fragments get trapped inside the opponent’s body, causing pain and internal bleeding.
And after that –
『Twelfth Head, Mahad von Jervain』.
‘Silvermoon Sword – Mahad.’
A sword resembling a silver moon.
『Tenth Head, Baun von Jervain』.
‘Vampire Sword – Baun.’
There were many great swords.
Of course, not all of them were here.
“Firefly Sword, Pulsating Sword. Glacier Sword, and a few more.”
There was no spirit sword of higher rank than the ones here.
The sword of the first patriarch –
Storm Sword – Callis, was already in Elburton’s possession. But the second to sixth swords were missing. They must’ve been lost in battle, due to the wielders’ deaths, or taken away by others in the family.
“Which sword did Violet take away, again? I can’t remember.”
It was a pity that those swords were missing, but the swords already here were also great enough.
Depending on their usage, some were even better than the Blue Thunderbolt Sword or the Strong Sword.
Callius’ eyes flicked through several swords, then stopped at one.
A sword with a transparent blade, as if made of blue sapphire.
『Ninth Head, Medea von Jervain』.
“This one. It really stands out.”
The unique ability of this beautiful sword was not very useful for combat.
There were many other swords that were more powerful.
Even so, few could compete with it in how useful it would be in the future.
‘For fights, I can take the Lightning Sword or the Predator Sword out of subspace.’
Even the Strong Sword was mighty enough as long as it could be repaired, so what he needed now was utility.
And this was a sword that could be shown in public without hesitation.
‘As long as I have this, passing the heresy interrogation would be a cinch.’
The reason why he’d thought of it from the beginning was because of the heresy interrogation.
No matter how much they tried to manipulate the proceedings, it could prove the truth, so there’d be no problem.
‘There are a lot of things to do after I become an inquisitor.’
Crooked officials. Corrupt nobility.
In order to root them out and punish them, he needed a suitable sword.
“The most beautiful sword in the North.”
And that was the Judgment Sword, known as the cruellest.
The unique ability of the Judgment Sword is to discern the truth. The transparent blade can see through the ugly lies of the opponent, so it’s the perfect implement for uprooting base corruption.
For him, right now –
There was no other sword more fitting.
A new morning had dawned in the North.
Callius had been busy since the early hours.
“Where are you going so early in the morning?”
“There’s a lot to do.”
In a few days, Dexter, whom he’d summoned via a letter, would arrive, and so would the merchants.
It’d be convenient to have the urgent matters done with before they arrived.
“They must be busy making carcasses right now.”
“Are you going to go check on them?”
“There’s nothing wrong with making sure. When the work’s over, I’ll have to accompany them to the Church.”
As he walked to the front yard of the castle with Bruns trailing behind, the soldiers guarding the gates greeted him in a lively manner.
“Master Callius!”
“Open the gates.”
“Yes! Are you going to see the carcass ceremony? Let me guide you…”
“No need. Just tell me the way.”
“Just keep going east!”
“Open it.”
“Yeah! Open the gates!”
Drururuck. The pulley turned and the huge gates groaned open.
After a short walk, a mountain of bloody corpses greeted them.
“They’re doing great.”
Carve the holy name, chant the name of God, and radiate divine power.
Transforming a piece of flesh into a sword harder than steel.
Truly, a divine miracle.
A power given by God.
“Are you here?”
It was Ryburn who greeted Callius.
The other captains didn’t even look at him.
They only continued searching the mountain of corpses.
‘As expected.’
It was also for this reason why he came to watch them.
Even if they became inquisitors, they were still priests of the God, Valtherus.
In front of an excellent sword, positions like heretic inquisitor or captain didn’t matter.
If you’re going to have a carcass ceremony anyway, it’s always better to find a stronger carcass.
So they were probably searching for corpses of warlords or great warriors.
‘Idiot.’
Jervain of the North was no fool.
The bodies of the great warriors and the orc general had long since been secured.
Pssk.
“Many have already stopped.”
“It’s not easy to borrow the power of God. Even an average pilgrim gets tired after doing it three times a day.”
Because the ceremony requires quite a lot of divine power.
It also requires a lot of concentration, and there are many unfamiliar words to be uttered.
Borrowing the power of God is not easy, because it consumes both divine power and mental energy at the same time.
“I thought it wasn’t too difficult?”
“Shut up, Bruns.”
“Yes, yep!”
Of course, Callius didn’t have to.
Because of the so-called player privilege.
“I think it will take a few days.”
“Considering their stamina, it should take about a month.”
An average pilgrim would be limited to once or twice a day.
One person, twice a day.
There were four hundred heretic inquisitors.
Calculated that way, it’d be over in a week, but doing so could put their lives at risk, so the estimate was a month.
It wasn’t bad.
Because there were so many orcs, he couldn’t be vulgar enough to hurry them up when they were already working without pay.
“It’s a lot of work.”
“… No.”
Even if they suffered such hardship, they couldn’t take home even a single gold coin, so how much dissatisfaction did they suppress inside? But that, too, was not for Callius to know or care about.
“If we sell about three-tenths of the carcasses, it should come around twenty thousand gold coins.”
It’d be used to restore the broken walls and destroyed villages.
“Where would you spend the rest?”
“The rest will be given to the knights, and some will be kept and rented out.”
“Indeed, there are always those who break or lose the sword they’ve been given.”
Ryburn interrupted their conversation.
Callius looked at Ryburn with a gloomy look, then turned his gaze away.
Not because he got stung by the remark about the broken sword. He just didn’t like Ryburn at all.
“But what’s going on here? You probably didn’t come to watch us. Did you come to retrieve a sword?”
He’d already gotten it.
The warlord’s body had been handed over to him by Elburton right away, and was in the subspace right now.
It was the body of an orc warlord, so Callius was also looking forward to it, but it wasn’t a carcass he’d randomly create here.
The warlord’s body would be transformed in a place overflowing with pure divine power – the Holy Land of Fatalite.
So he didn’t come here to get a sword.
“I didn’t come for a sword.”
“Then why…”
“It seems like a waste of manpower for captains to do this kind of menial work.”
Like using a cow-killing cleaver to slaughter chickens.
There were other knives more suitable for that.
You should use the cleaver only to slaughter a cow.
“Do you want to go on a hunt with me?”
“Hunt… you mean?”
『Epic Quest』
<Sprout of the Aftermath>
Grade – A+