The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 100

85. Where to?

“Hey.”

The trainee simply handed over a note and walked down the hallway without looking back.

“Hmm.”

Caryl clicked his tongue softly as he watched the child’s retreating figure. But soon, looking at the words written on the note, he wore a peculiar smile.

‘Look at this?’

Whirr-

As soon as he finished reading the contents, the note in his hand burned away in an instant, turning to ashes.

“…….”

It seemed magic had been cast on it to burn automatically the moment it was unfolded.

Caryl brushed off his hands and muttered in a low voice.

“They must have been quite anxious.”

The real power behind Wooden Cloud, which had seemed like grasping at clouds, now felt a little more tangible.

‘The destination is the same anyway. If I just change the route a little, there won’t be any problems… Since an aide to the Emperor will be attached to me, it would be fun to bring those two together in one place.’

The Emperor and Wooden Cloud.

He decided to simply enjoy watching the competition between these two excellent traders to win Caryl.

“I wonder what you will offer.”

* * *

Caryl looked around the carriage he had taken to the Order, seemingly with a fresh sense of nostalgia.

“Ahem. You’ve arrived safely.”

The supply wagons, which contained goods to be offered to the Order, had finally arrived since they couldn’t use the teleportation magic circle.

“It’s amazing, even seeing it again. This is enough for half a year’s worth of daily necessities for Heim. The Bishop was also very pleased.”

Joy Johannsen approached and greeted him as he was inspecting the carriage.

“Is that so? I wish the Bishop would also allow the magic stone trade, if possible.”

At Caryl’s words, Joy smiled awkwardly.

“If you handle this well, it might be possible.”

Yurin Hugart, standing next to Joy Johannsen, said in a stiff voice.

Despite having seen Caryl making a deal with the Emperor, the giant, who was two heads taller than Joy standing next to him, still treated him condescendingly.

“Joy, the Bishop has given permission. You and I will go with Caryl.”

Perhaps because he thought of himself as an aide to the Emperor, he didn’t seem to like Caryl’s behavior.

‘Well, he is actually an aide. He crushed the heads of the Blue Roar fanatics of Wooden Cloud on behalf of the Order, but it was actually for the Empire.’

For that merit, he was the only priest who was both a first-class priest of the Order and bestowed with a title of nobility from the Empire.

‘He was even a candidate for Bishop of the Order later, but he gave up on his own and lived the life of a nobleman, so I can roughly guess his character.’

Even though they had only met for the first time in the underground, Yurin Hugart’s attitude towards Caryl was worse than his attitude towards Joy Johannsen.

“Me too?”

“Yes.”

Joy Johannsen asked back, as if he hadn’t expected to be singled out.

‘I expected him, who is skilled in exploring ruins, to join, but I didn’t expect Yurin Hugart to come as well… Was the Emperor involved?’

As Caryl’s gaze turned to him, Yurin Hugart said to him with an indifferent face.

“Yes. Where do we have to go? I don’t know if you’ve made a proper plan.”

‘That guy, isn’t he already a nobleman, not just receiving a title for suppressing fanatics a few years later?’

Yurin Hugart’s manners seemed more like a nobleman than a priest who was devoted to asceticism.

‘Well… a crazy person will be much more helpful than ambiguous combat power in the place we’re going to from now on.’

He was arrogant and haughty like any other nobleman, but Caryl was rather satisfied that he, not someone else, had become part of the group.

“You can trust him. Our Master is not one to do things carelessly.”

“Oh…? Oh?!!”

Joy Johannsen was startled as he looked at Aidan, who suddenly appeared from behind him.

“…….”

Unlike him, Yurin Hugart’s reaction was calm, but judging from the fact that his hand was on the handle of the mace he was wearing on his waist, he seemed just as surprised.

“Who is he?”

“Ah, Sir Yurin, this is your first time meeting him, isn’t it? Sir Joy has seen him, right? He was sitting in the coachman’s seat when we left for the Order.”

“Ah… yes.”

“He’s just a coachman from the merchant guild. Originally, I should be escorting you, but unfortunately, I think I’ll have to return from here.”

Aidan pretended to drive the carriage and said with a nonchalant smile.

“A waste of talent to be a coachman. He seems capable enough to do more than that.”

Yurin Hugart said in a strangely stiff voice.

It felt like the madman’s side of the battlefield, which he had suppressed with the teachings of the Order, was slowly crawling out as he thought about leaving this place.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Caryl lightly tapped Aidan on the back and separated him from the two.

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“Yes? What are you talking about?”

Aidan grinned at Caryl’s appearance of nudging his side while speaking in a low whisper.

“Hey… I’m just saying they should know a little bit about you too. It seems like those guys just think of Master as an ordinary merchant.”

“I don’t think of you as an ordinary merchant even now.”

“Then they should act a little more politely. Even though the priests of the Order have the privilege of extraterritoriality [exemption from local laws], that doesn’t mean rudeness is forgiven.”

For Aidan, who didn’t know that the two of them were at the meeting with the Emperor, it was a kind of consideration.

“Especially that big guy. He’s been talking to Master informally since earlier, what’s up with that?”

Caryl looked at him and chuckled.

He didn’t dislike Aidan thinking of him.

“You’ll get beaten by that priest later if you keep that up.”

“Me? By a mere priest? Don’t you know? I’m from the Dark Shadow.”

At Caryl’s words, Aidan waved his hand with a smile.

‘Yeah. But that guy is a madman.’

While thinking that it would be interesting to see the two of them fight, Caryl couldn’t bring himself to say that to him and just nodded.

“But that technique of erasing presence, does it have a name?”

Was it thanks to stirring up the Order? Or was he training separately like Mikhail? Caryl felt that Aidan’s skills had improved more than before.

“Yes. It’s called Inbo (忍步) [a stealth technique]. It’s about erasing one’s presence with magic according to a specific gait. It’s a bit different from the invisibility of wizards. That’s why we call it a technique.”

“Magic transformation, body transformation, and even Inbo… The techniques of the Eastern Kingdom have many useful things.”

“Do you know about body transformation?”

Aidan asked back with a surprised expression at Caryl’s words.

“Yeah. Isn’t Juke using it?”

“Wow… Since when did you know?”

“From the beginning.”

Of course.

If he hadn’t met her in his previous life, he wouldn’t have known, but Aidan just thought that Caryl’s eye for detail was amazing.

“What I said to Juke wasn’t a lie. I’d like to meet the master of the Eastern Kingdom sometime.”

Caryl knew better than anyone how useful the techniques of the Eastern Kingdom were in war.

Simon Coden.

The master of the Eastern Kingdom who helped him during the Divine Trust War was a man with snow-white skin and long hair that shimmered like snake scales.

‘His personality is as snake-like as his appearance, so you can’t know what he’s thinking, but his skills are on par with a Sword Master.’

Caryl looked at Aidan.

“Should I tell the Dark Shadow people in the Order? Say I’ll send them because there’s a traitor. Then I think I can meet the master of the Eastern Kingdom right away.”

“…Please stop joking. It’s not funny.”

Caryl grinned at Aidan’s words. Then, he took out a piece of parchment from his arms and handed it to him.

“Okay. Enough with the nonsense. Now we have to work. First, when you get back, tell Dushala that if the groundwork is finished, we can start executing the plan from now on. There’s no risk in the operation, so it’s okay to go with Plan B.”

“Plan B?”

“Yeah. If you say that, she’ll know.”

Aidan nodded at Caryl’s words.

Before leaving Tatur, he had already anticipated this and given instructions to divide the plan according to each case.

‘How many plans did you think of?’

Aidan shook his head, recalling Caryl’s appearance of grumbling that using his head wasn’t his forte a while ago.

In fact, he was worried when he heard that Caryl would be going on a trip with the priests for a while.

Because there was so much to do.

Of course, Aidan had no way of knowing Caryl’s plan to target both Wooden Cloud and the Emperor at the same time, but anyway, he hadn’t yet gotten the three countries in his hands.

But at Caryl’s one word, he realized that these worries were unfounded.

“Why don’t you put down the sword and do politics instead? I think you’ll be better at it than swordsmanship.”

“You guys have to do that.”

“Yes?”

“Actually, you’re better at this than I am.”

“Hey… No way.”

Aidan shook his hand and laughed at his words. But Caryl knew very well that the one who led the largest information organization on the continent in his previous life was none other than him.

“That technique. It would be good to gather a few useful people and have them learn it.”

Caryl got to the point.

Because he had instructions to give to him as well as to others, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to see him for a while.

“Hmm… To be honest, the reason I taught Mikhail magic transformation was because I didn’t think he would learn it.”

“But he learned it. And too easily.”

“That’s right. I wondered if there was such a monster, but anyway, teaching Inbo is a bit difficult. Unless permission is granted from the Dark Shadow.”

“Since we’ve already betrayed them, isn’t it okay to betray them properly?”

“That’s a separate issue. It’s okay if it’s just one person like Mikhail… If we train them on a large scale, Tatur might become an enemy of the Eastern Kingdom.”

“If that happens, we can meet the master sooner.”

“Ugh… Please don’t say things like that, even as a joke, Master.”

Caryl chuckled at Aidan’s words.

‘The establishment of the Shooting Star should be set after meeting Simon Coden. Suan is already planting people in each country and region anyway.’

Even though he knows the future, the future can change at any time, as it has been until now.

‘There are already things that have changed.’

Caryl knew the importance of information better than anyone else, so he felt that the time for the establishment of the Shooting Star was approaching as his power expanded.

‘If all the members of the Shooting Star can use the techniques of the Dark Shadow…’

They will be able to have mobility and stealth that cannot be compared to the Shooting Star of his previous life.

“Okay. I understand. Let’s think about that later. And take this with you and tell Dushala to keep it safe. Show it to the dwarves who have finished repairing the ship and see if they can make it.”

Caryl handed Aidan the box containing the blueprints of Ascalon, which he had received from Joy Johannsen.

“But didn’t you say this was in two volumes?”

Aidan, who had heard Caryl and Joy Johannsen’s conversation in the garden, asked without forgetting.

“That’s right.”

“It can’t be operated without the activation stone anyway. They’ll judge whether the dwarves can process the contents of this book. It’s not too difficult to get the remaining volume.”

Looking at Caryl saying that he could get the relics of the ruins without any problems, Aidan let out a low exclamation without realizing it.

“I understand. I’ll report back when the results are out.”

Aidan nodded, taking the box containing the ancient book.

“Then where are you going now?”

“Didn’t I make a deal with the Emperor? Now I have to go with the priests to find the secret of eternal life.”

“Is there really such a thing?”

Aidan looked at Caryl with a dubious expression.

“Well. Wouldn’t there be one in a place like a dragon’s lair?”

“Yes?”

It felt like seeing his mysterious smile, which he couldn’t understand, for the first time in a long time.

“Don’t worry about that big guy. He’ll naturally become more talkative in the future.”

Aidan suddenly thought of what happened in the South.

‘Oh, he’s going to work them hard… I don’t know what it is, but it’s going to explode properly. He always does big things when he makes that expression.’

Looking at the two people standing outside, not knowing the hard work that would befall him, he also wore a strange smile like Caryl a little while ago.

“Then, see you in Tatur.”

“I understand.”

Aidan bowed his head.

‘Hey, he wouldn’t really go to fight a dragon.’

He chuckled, repeating Caryl’s words that he had said as a joke.

‘Even the Empire can’t do that.’

Aidan looked at Caryl’s back as he left as if he was going on a trip, just like when he came to the Order.

“…No way?”

Caryl’s smile kept coming to his mind.