“You know, I give him respect for all the effort and care he poured into his show.”
“You won’t let that get in the way of your evaluation of it, right?”
“Of course! He should be grateful that I am even watching his show to the end. How could he expect me to give it a good evaluation too? Even if he lacks a conscience, he should have realistic expectations. It’s obvious that the whole point of his show is self-promotion and showing how awesome he is as the best-in-the-world main character. He should be the one praising me for watching his ridiculous show so seriously.”
“That’s true.” Lyla nodded without a moment of hesitation. “You still have to be careful. Even though Glen Zenard is a stupid guy who wanders around in his delusions and doesn’t even have his regression power anymore, you can’t look down on the tremendous length of time that guy experienced and went through.”
“Of course. I don't even plan on looking down on it.” Even if Glen was a complete delusional idiot, he had managed to accomplish his goals when he focused on them for a long time. After all, Zich had also lost to Glen before the regression.
“Unlike before, that guy doesn’t realize what’s really going on from our end, while we have a pretty accurate grasp of his situation. It’s different from the situations where things were only to his advantage.” Then, Zich smirked and said, “If you think of it that way, there’s no better environment than now to mess with him.”
“Don’t show that kind of smile anywhere else. I’m used to being with you, but it even gives me the chills. It makes me want to move away from you immediately.” Even if Lyla’s affection for Zich was strong, it couldn’t overcome everything. Like that, the meal was over. Zich swiped the table, chair, empty plates, and so on all into his magic box and waved his hand at Lyla.
“I’m going now.”
“Okay. I will try to make some progress before you come back from the Horus Gorge,” Lyla said.
“Like I said, there’s no need for you to hurry. This incident isn’t going to end overnight anyways.” Zich was about to leave when—Tap! He felt something press his back. Zich looked behind him and saw that there was nothing there.
‘I didn’t feel a presence, so it’s expected but…’ If someone could approach Zich so closely while concealing their presence, he or she would have to be a very powerful being. However, Zich didn’t think such a being could exist. No matter how amazing someone was, there was no way he would fail to catch their presence if they were right behind him. That meant something besides a human had pressed his back. Zich immediately thought of the suspect.
Swoosh! Zich pulled out Windur from his back. Without even trying to make excuses, Windur continued to curl the ends of one of its blades.
“It’s you again.” Zich wasn’t even surprised anymore after seeing his sword act strangely so many times. “So, what is it, this time?”
Other people would have thought he was crazy for talking to his sword, but Zich remained calm. Likewise, Lyla also didn’t think it was strange as she watched, and both of them looked at Windur curiously to see what kind of response he would show. Soon, Windur fulfilled their expectations.
Swoosh! The sword’s blade moved and pointed toward Lyla’s location.
‘Is it pointing at the crystal?’ Both Zich and Lyla thought Windur was pointing at the giant crystal behind Lyla, but when Zich moved closer to the crystal, Windur’s blade changed directions. Zich moved Windur around, and whenever he did this, the sword continued to change directions. After some trial and error, Zich and Lyla became certain of what Windur was pointing at.
“Me?” Lyla pointed to herself in surprise.
“That seems to be the case.” Zich circled Lyla and Windur continued to point at her.
“This guy clearly needs something from you. Do you have anything in mind?”
“No. Nothing at all.” Lyla appeared stunned to have become Windur’s target.
“Hm.” Zich tried to decipher Windur’s intentions and glanced up and down the sword’s branch-like blades. Then, he looked back and forth between Windur and Lyla.
“Here!” Zich went to Lyla and handed Windur over.
“What? Huh?” He basically pushed the sword into her hands.
Sssssh! In an instant, Windur’s blade that was pointing at her returned to normal. It seemed to have fulfilled its wish.
“Has it returned to normal?”
“I think it wants something from you.”
“What would Windur want?”
“How would I know?” Although Windur was his treasured sword that helped him in many ways, it never explained anything easy enough for him to understand. It could be that the sword couldn’t talk, which played a great factor in this, but Zich disagreed with this opinion.
‘Even if this guy knew how to talk, it would only say what it wanted and keep its mouth tightly sealed otherwise,’ Zich genuinely thought. He could bet on it too.
“If I had to make a guess, isn’t it because it needs you to search the ruin?” Zich said while looking around the ruin. This was the only reason he could think of, and Lyla agreed. However, they still had more questions than answers.
“How?” Lyla asked, perplexed. Zich also struggled to reply.
“Maybe something will pop up if you keep researching with that guy.”
Although Windur was a prissy fellow, it also stepped up when necessary. Thus, it would help out Lyla when needed.
“Wait! Does that mean you plan to leave Windur here?” Lyla was surprised to hear Zich talk as if he was planning to leave his sword with her. Windur was a clue to unearthing the mysteries behind Clowon, but it was also a strong weapon and Zich’s favorite sword. Moreover, it was probably the strongest sword in this world. However, Zich was leaving Windur with Lyla way too easily.
“It can’t be helped, since Windur wants to go with you. Now that I think about it, it might be better if you keep it for the time being. With Windur, you can go in and out of the ruin whenever you want.”
“But it’s your main weapon.”
“Yeah, it’s my main weapon, but did you forget who I am? Even though Windur is a sword with such great functions that it's incomparable to other swords, it’s still just a sword. Even if I use a normal sword, it won’t be a problem for me because I’m not such a weakling to be restricted by the sword I use.” There was not a trace of lie or exaggeration in his speech, because he really meant every word.
Lyla did not refuse anymore, since she realized that Zich wouldn’t accept her refusal anyway. Moreover, she also thought that with Windur, she might find a clue to help with her research. In the end, she said, “I got it. I’ll keep Windur for you for a bit, and I’ll definitely show you some results when you return.”
“That’s more than enough.” Zich nodded.
* * *
Zich moved out of the ruin. Since he didn’t have Windur anymore, Lyla went to the entrance with him and opened the door. The expression he saw on Lyla as he watched the door close was full of resolve. He could probably expect some results when he came back to see her again.
‘It does feel like something is missing.’ Zich slightly touched his back. It felt slightly awkward when he couldn’t feel his sword there, but he would soon adjust to it. Zich took out a sword from his magic box. It was a sword that was good enough to be called a master-crafted sword, even if it wasn’t a legendary sword like Windur, Estellade, or Tornium. Zich put the sword on his hip and was returning to his room when he met Trell in the hallway.
Trell bowed towards Zich and said, “You’ve come out, young master.” It seemed as if Trell had been waiting for Zich to come out.
“Did something happen?”
“The Saintess and Sir Weig have arrived. They both want to meet you.” They probably came to deliver the information they found in the Bellid temple.
“Where are they?”
“They are in the reception room with the Count.”
“Please lead the way.” Zich followed Trell and headed towards the Count’s reception room.
* * *
Zich sat on the reception room chair and took a sip of tea. When he glanced at his surroundings, he saw that the scene that had happened a few days ago was being repeated. The Count, Zich, Lubella, and Weig were in their respective seats, and Trell stood firmly behind the Count.
Zich placed his teacup down and said, “Lady Lubella, I heard that you’ve brought the documents from the Bellid temple.”
“Yes.” Lubella looked at the documents in front of her. There weren’t that many pages, but Zich was certain that those papers contained useful information that they specifically selected and shortened. Lubella pushed those documents to Zich.
Weig explained, “Most of the information is about the location and condition of the other temples. It wasn’t really useful to us since we’ve already found most of those temples, but there were some that we haven’t found yet, so we immediately sent our holy knights there.”
Zich took the documents and slowly read them. The sound of Zich flipping through the papers and the rustling of paper filled the room. Zich roughly scanned through the documents and stared at Count Steelwall. Was he mistaken? The Count’s face seemed extremely stiff.
‘No wonder his expression is like that if he read through this.’ Zich put the documents back down on the table. “Well, this first proves that my predictions were correct.”
“Yes. It’s clear now that the Bellids were planning to make a large lake here.” A part of the documents had detailed plans about the lake. However, this was not very important information since Zich had already predicted this. Of course, since this document proved Zich’s deduction, it wasn’t completely meaningless, but Zich didn’t think this was too important either since Glen Zenard would have stepped forward to correct Zich if he was wrong and shown off his deductive abilities. Considering the fact that Glen stayed quiet, Zich was confident that his prediction was correct. So, the most important information from this document was something else, and this was the reason for the Count’s hardened expression.
“The Steif Fortress…”
As soon as Zich said this name, the Count let out a groan and Trell sighed. The Steif Fortress was a fortress near the Horus Gorge. The Horus Gorge was located near the estate’s boundary, so as a result, it was a strategic point for military operations. The only place for a foreign intruder to easily enter the Steelwall Estate was through the Horus Gorge, so naturally, the Count had built the Steif Fortress to block intruders from coming through. However, the document contained information about this Steif Fortress.
‘The Bellid’s influence is deep within the Steif Fortress.’