The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 97

83. Tedious Work

“I didn’t expect things to turn out this way. I’m sorry, Carryl. I didn’t think the Bishop would object…”

“It’s alright. The Bishop has a point. Trading with worldly merchants wouldn’t suit the Order.”

After reading the data Aedan gave him, Carryl pondered how to meet Joey Yohanessel again.

But unexpectedly, things resolved easily.

Because the person in question came to him directly.

‘He must be anxious. The Order is unnecessary, but if you’re the Emperor’s man, you’ll need me.’

Carryl was strolling through the garden with him.

Walking around late at night, close to dawn, with two men trying to avoid people’s eyes, looked suspicious no matter how you looked at it, but their conversation remained ordinary.

“Frankly, I didn’t anticipate the Bishop’s reaction. Even the high priests welcomed the idea of joining hands with a guild that owns a Mana Mine…”

“In the Order, the Bishop’s command is absolute.”

“If you give me a few days, I’ll try to persuade the Bishop again with the other priests.”

Joey Yohanessel made the first offer to Carryl.

Since Carryl wanted to stay in the Order and find someone related to Wooden Cloud anyway, there was no reason to refuse.

“Ah, right… Leaving the deal aside, there’s something I need to tell you. I was too distracted to mention it. I’d appreciate it if you could pass it on to the Bishop, Joey.”

“What do you mean…?”

Carryl spoke to Joey Yohanessel first.

“There’s an old ruin under the Tri-Kingdoms. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. We discovered it while preparing to mine the Mana Mine, but there was nothing noticeable, so we left it alone.”

“…”

“As you know, ruins are dangerous, but the value of the artifacts you can obtain is immeasurable. Frankly, I was greedy. Tatur is a place where people gather to risk their lives, so we decided to explore it half a year ago.”

“What? Half a year ago?”

Joey Yohanessel couldn’t hide his surprised expression.

“Yes, half a year ago.”

“Hmm… Well…”

Of course.

It was a lie.

In the first place, he had never discovered the ruins, and the distance between the Mana Mine and the ruins was far.

However, Carryl was merely dredging up the secret of the ruins from Aln Zabiuss’s memory and speaking about it.

‘He’s hopeless as a spy, even if he dies and comes back to life.’

Looking at his expression, Carryl could easily read Joey Yohanessel’s thoughts.

The thought that the artifact he obtained from the ruins might just be an empty shell, and the core had already been taken.

‘No, that can’t be. When I received the report and went down, the seal was still intact. He must be talking about other ruins.’

However, Joey Yohanessel was also experienced, so he didn’t easily take Carryl’s bait.

But Carryl thought that even that fleeting sentiment was enough to shake his thoughts.

“Dragon Slayer.”

Carryl didn’t loosen the reins [control].

If he was going to shake him, it was better to show him the cards he had.

“As an aside, since Tatur is a place where all sorts of people gather, there happened to be an exiled priest who knew a little ancient language, so we were able to examine the artifacts from the ruins, though not perfectly.”

“…”

“That priest said that the artifact inside the ruins was a blueprint for a Magic Machine Soldier that existed in ancient times.”

Carryl said, pretending not to know anything.

“If it’s a Magic Machine Soldier, isn’t that the Golem you’re talking about? As far as I know, there are still Golems in operation in the Principality…”

“So I heard.”

“It’s useless for ignorant people like us to see… The priest said it was in two books. Unfortunately, we only found one.”

Carryl said with a strange smile.

What he said a moment ago was a lie, but what he was saying now wasn’t wrong.

In fact, the blueprint for Ascalon was hidden inside those ruins.

And that book was clearly divided into two volumes, upper and lower.

The operating dolls called Golems were artifacts that represented the Magic Era.

They moved with the magic power of the activation stone instead of a soul, which was the same principle as the Knights Templar’s airships.

Even now, Golems that still work are sometimes found in ruins.

‘But Ascalon is special.’

The creator, Wolfgang Schumar, was the creator who made many Golems in the Magic Era. But as a human, he was inherently unable to overcome the wall of the dwarves, who were excellent creators.

He, who knew Aln Zabiuss well, designed a new Golem in his later years.

He wanted to create a Magic Machine Soldier that would surpass the Golem called Enderas, which was called the masterpiece of the Murga family.

‘And he succeeded.’

From mobility to destructive power, maintenance time, and so on…

It was theoretically perfect.

But his design ended up being just a theory and was never executed.

‘The activation stone that makes the Golem move. According to his design, it would require a huge size, about the size of the activation stone that moves the Knights Templar’s airship.’

In the end.

It was a plan that was abandoned because he couldn’t find an activation stone even in the Magic Era, so it was naturally impossible now.

‘Besides, the book you have is the lower volume of the design. It’s mainly about the activation stone, so you won’t know what it means without the upper volume.’

Carryl searched for the whereabouts of the upper volume in Aln’s memory.

The location where the ancient book was sleeping was so unexpected that it was interesting, but he had no intention of wasting time trying to revive a Golem that could not be realized.

‘Well… unless another genius like Wolfgang Schumar appears. If such a person appears, he might be able to create a Magic Machine Soldier.’

Carryl knew the power of the Golem better than anyone else.

When the Empire invaded the Principality, some of the Golems left in the enemy were operated by magic engineers, causing great damage.

“Magic Machine Soldier… You’ve found something amazing.”

Joey Yohanessel, who hadn’t even interpreted the meaning of the ancient book yet, couldn’t have known this much detail.

If he had, he wouldn’t have left the artifacts of the ruins in such a way in the first place.

“I’ve heard that the Order has been working on restoring artifacts for a long time. I’m telling you this in case it might be helpful.”

“Is that so…?”

“Who knows? If you can really succeed in making a Golem, the Order’s prestige will rise to a level that can’t be compared to what it is now.”

‘In your position, it means the Emperor’s prestige, but.’

Joey Yohanessel pretended to be nonchalant at Carryl’s words.

“That’s an interesting story. I’ll report it to the Order tomorrow morning. If that’s true, I might look for Carryl-nim separately from the Mana Stone.”

“I don’t necessarily have to trade directly with the Bishop. A merchant just needs to make a profitable deal.”

“What do you mean…?”

“The Bishop doesn’t manage the Order’s supplies, does he? I think it would be good if Joey could persuade the high priests who agree with you… I’ll replenish the resources from Tatur.”

“Hmm.”

Carryl watched Joey Yohanessel’s complexion.

‘That way, I can find out who is on the Empire’s side besides you.’

“I understand. I’ll give the priests a hint.”

“Thank you.”

His steps as he turned around seemed to be a little faster.

Restoring the artifacts of the ruins was practically a gamble.

But if it could be restored, its value would be enormous.

Like the Golems of the Principality, and even the weapons of the Imperial Family, some artifacts had the value of a single knight order.

‘Aedan.’

Carryl said only with his lips, without making a sound.

He gave an order to him, who was hiding somewhere in the darkness and watching him.

‘Follow that guy. Find out if he’s contacting anyone.’

Instead of an answer.

The leaves of the garden lightly swayed in the opposite direction of the wind.

“Hmm.”

Carryl, left alone in the garden, sighed lowly and looked up at the sky.

‘Was I such a cunning guy?’

He smiled bitterly without realizing it.

‘As expected, using my head is annoying. It suits me to just sweep them away, but…’

Uuuuuung…

The sword hanging on his waist was emitting a low tremor, as if it were crying.

‘But I don’t like losing a battle of wits to guys who are just using their shallow heads.’

He had rolled around the battlefield for more than a decade than them.

‘Think hard, Joey Yohanessel.’

Carryl smiled as if enjoying the fact that many things would happen in the quiet capital from now on and started walking.

* * *

[Joey Yohanessel, 17 years old. Orphan with unknown parents, entered the Order when he was just over the age of knowing letters. His sponsor is unknown, but the priest who accepted his entry was Yurin Hyugar, the first-class priest. He was taught under him for 5 years and was officially ordained as a priest. Since then, he has left the Order for missionary work.]

[He returns once every two years to report, mainly about the location of the ruins, and meets Yurin Hyugar separately every time he returns.]

In the documents sent by Aedan, there was nothing particularly strange about Joey Yohanessel.

There were other priests in the Order who were excavating ruins besides him.

But what made Carryl intuit that he was the Emperor’s man, not the Order’s, after seeing his data, was his sponsor, Yurin Hyugar.

‘Yurin Hyugar… Yurin Hyugar, huh… To think I’d see that name here. Frankly, it’s ridiculous that he’s a priest of the Order.’

Carryl recalled the name written in the report.

Yurin Hyugar, the madman of the battlefield.

He was the great general who was said to have cut off the heads of the most generals of the Tri-Kingdoms as the standard-bearer of the Empire, and his shoulders were never free from blood, was now in the Order.

Carryl laughed in vain at the report that he was a first-class priest, the highest rank.

‘How long has he been planting his people in the Order?’

For him, the Emperor had no great presence other than the Edict of Heresy Extermination.

The existence of the Empire had entered his life since Olivon ascended the throne.

For Carryl, the Emperor was…

He was merely playing the role of passing on the Empire he had built to the next generation before disappearing due to illness.

‘But…’

He did not let go of his remaining life and did not give up power until the end.

‘Tairan Schtean, you are a truly greedy person. The reason why you haven’t passed on the throne to your children until now must be because of this.’

Perhaps the Order was the last place the Emperor could rely on.

‘After the Emperor died, Olivon called all the people the Emperor had planted to the Empire. One of them was Yurin Hyugar, and Joey Yohanessel was there at the same time.’

Even the supporting characters of history, who he had thought of as nothing, were being pieced together in this way.

He had gone back in time, but Carryl was not a god.

He did not know the history before he was born, and of course, he could not know the things he had not experienced.

But he was confident that he could make bigger changes by comparing these newly learned small differences to the history he knew.

He just hoped that the future would be better than the one he knew and experienced in his previous life.

“…”

Carryl licked his lips as he looked at the sword leaning against the wall.

“It doesn’t suit my personality after all.”

He sighed lowly, touching his forehead, and slowly got up.

It was a night when he missed the past when the strength that only thought of himself became order and justification.

* * *

Before long, the Order became noisy.

Carryl could tell that what he had been waiting for was happening. A carriage that came to the Order in secret.

There was no escort and no particular decoration, but the man sitting in the driver’s seat and the man inside the carriage were exuding an unusual aura.

Hiiiiing—!!

The carriage stopped and a man got out.

His bent back and hollow eyes seemed to have no strength, and his skin with age spots had lost its vitality.

But the priests of the Order hurriedly came out to greet the mummy-like old man.

“…”

Among them were Joey Yohanessel, his sponsor, and Yurin Hyugar, who had a private meeting with him a few days ago.

‘Is this the first time I’m seeing him in person?’

Carryl, who was looking down with his face out the window, called his name lowly, which he had not met even in his previous life.

“Tairan Schtean.”

His eyes, which resembled Olivon’s even though they were hidden in wrinkles, were somehow distracting and eye-catching.

Aedan said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

“Are you really going to do it?”

“I’ve been investigating for a few days. And as you said, I also found out that the reason why Joey Yohanessel has been exploring the ruins is because of the Emperor.”

At Carryl’s words, Aedan shrugged.

“It’s true that he’s been sending carrier pigeons every dawn, but there’s no guarantee that those birds’ destination is the Empire. Besides, there’s no way the Order wouldn’t know.”

“It’s the Empire. To be exact, it’s that guy.”

“Huh…”

Aedan frowned slightly at his confident words.

“Did you do as I told you?”

“Yes. As you ordered, I left the seal that the master gave me in Joey Yohanessel’s room two days ago. I even saw him confirm it, but he didn’t react much.”

“The reaction is enough for now. The guy who used to talk to me so much until a few days ago hasn’t even shown his face since the day before yesterday.”

Carryl laughed lowly.

Then, leaning against the window and resting his chin, he said in a languid voice.

“It’s about time this tedious work is over.”