The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 278

189. The Rothschild Family (3)

“You know about the puppet in the sunken land…?! How on earth…”

“It’s not that surprising, is it? It’s just one of the many ruins that exist on the continent. Besides, some ruins are a thousand years old, so this place is only 250 years old in comparison.”

Caryl took a small piece of paper from his pocket.

“You’ve heard of the Gnome Kingdom, right? They were thought to have been destroyed during the Magic Era, but recently, descendants of their king were dramatically discovered.”

“Could it be…”

“Yes. They were revived recently. Kalipsohn, the elder of the Gnome Kingdom, gave us information about you.”

He handed Kay a letter of introduction.

“The craftsmanship of Gnomes and Dwarves has always been exceptional when it comes to making golems. Your Rothschild family’s secret technique is necromancy, but you use puppets like golems. Your connection with the Gnome Kingdom must be special as well.”

“……”

She checked the seal on the letter of introduction. It was, indeed, from the Gnome Kingdom.

The delicate and complex patterns of the seal were impossible to replicate by human hands.

“Also, I was fortunate enough to obtain the legacy left by Kaie Essir. It contained his will, and of course, information about his comrades.”

“That can’t be… The story of Gald Rothschild was erased from history… There’s nothing left, even in the family records.”

Kay replied, disbelief evident in her voice.

‘One of his companions was a puppeteer named Gald.’

There was no information about him in the words Kaie Essir left in Einherjar. Caryl pretended to already know and said the name as if it was nothing.

“Well, maybe there are things you can only leave to your comrades, even if you can’t trust your descendants or tell your family. Like how to operate the puppet in the sunken land.”

“So, you really… You know how to breathe life into the puppet?”

Unlike before, she looked at Caryl with eyes full of anticipation.

‘It’s quite fun to see her so talkative.’

Caryl chuckled, observing her bewildered expression. In his past life, he could count on one hand the number of times he heard her voice until the very end, but now she was like a young girl, reacting to his every word.

“……”

Anthem stroked his neck and smacked his lips, recalling the puppet Caryl had smashed.

It was hard to believe that the face of this girl matched the puppeteer who had tried to attack them without hesitation.

“That’s why I came, as I said. Your family has disappeared into history, but the Essir family still exists in the Empire. In a small warehouse in the mansion called Einherjar, there was a will he left behind. There, I found information about Gald Rothschild.”

Caryl continued without hesitation.

“But his will didn’t tell me what kind of person he was. Then, through Nine Darphon, the leader of the Immortal Society I mentioned earlier, I learned that he was a puppeteer, and finally, I learned your location from Kalipsohn of the Gnome Kingdom.”

“……”

“The sunken land is just a byproduct of that process. In Kaie Essir’s will, he said that there was something as valuable as the treasure he left behind in this place.”

But there was no mention of it being a puppet or a relic.

However, Caryl already knew what was in the deepest part of these ruins.

The memories of his past life and the information he obtained in this life.

When he mixed the two together quite well, Caryl’s story transformed perfectly, like gears meshing together.

Trust.

Anthem didn’t quite understand.

Why Caryl was giving the girl such a detailed explanation.

But this seemingly unnecessary process was not just a means to make her trust him.

What Caryl was aiming for was not trust in him, but trust in the information. Kay was the only one who knew the way to the sunken land, and there was no way trust could be built between them after only one encounter.

‘She may not trust me, but I can gain her trust from the process of how I found the Rothschild family.’

And as Caryl expected, Kay’s expression hardened after seeing Kalipsohn’s letter of introduction.

‘A person who has reached the leader of the Immortal Society, the lost Gnome Kingdom, and Kaie Essir’s will. I don’t know what kind of guy he is, but at least he’s not lying.’

She glanced at Caryl.

‘Besides, he smashed the golem guarding the door. Judging from the fact that he’s not being coercive, it’s true that he wants my help. The problem is…’

It was after arriving at the sunken land.

“We’re here.”

Caryl said as if he knew, even though the entrance was not yet visible.

“Don’t think about going the wrong way. We have to go to the right, don’t we?”

“……”

At his words, Kay hesitated and turned her steps.

‘It’s fortunate that I passed through the sunken land when the oracle was given and I came to find the relic. I don’t remember the way well, but I remember passing through an area where quartz grew.’

Caryl looked at the small minerals that sprouted on the floor of the maze. At the dead end where the path was blocked by a wall, Kay began to fumble for something.

Anthem watched her, and Caryl waited without saying anything.

Clang—

With the sound of something being pressed, the wall that seemed solid surprisingly split open to the left and right and began to open on its own.

“Wow…”

Anthem couldn’t help but exclaim at the sight unfolding before his eyes.

Huge pillars surrounded the area, and a ray of pure white light fell from the ceiling above.

“The air… is heavy.”

“It will be. All sorts of souls are sleeping in here. It uses a medium called a puppet, but it’s still necromancy [the art of raising the dead]. The concentration of soul power is even denser than the dark power called black magic.”

Caryl said, looking at the coffin placed under the light pouring from the ceiling.

Clatter—

Something caught under his feet.

Anthem quickly lowered his head, and the sound of steel scraping against the floor rang out loudly.

“……!!”

The light coming from the ceiling didn’t illuminate the entire hall, so he hadn’t noticed, but surprisingly, it was filled with severed arms, legs, torsos, and heads.

“They’re not corpses. They’re all remnants of puppets. This is where the Rothschild family’s puppets were made.”

At Caryl’s words, Kay nodded. Then, she strode towards the coffin where the light was falling.

“This is the workshop of our ancestors. We also call it the tomb of puppets. You’re probably the first outsiders to enter this place.”

“You should be grateful that I opened the door when the homeowner can’t even leave the house.”

“……”

She pulled the robe covering her face down a little more, as if trying to hide her expression.

Creak.

Then, she pushed the coffin lid with all her might.

“……”

At that moment, Caryl’s face slightly hardened.

“This is the puppet you were talking about. But I can’t find the operating method, so it can’t move.”

“Ha, haha…”

He let out a low sigh.

Kay tilted her head slightly at Caryl’s reaction.

“Of course. This puppet is completely different from the marionettes you make. You need a soul to move the puppet.”

“A soul? Injecting a soul into a puppet is the most basic thing. You don’t think I wouldn’t know that…”

“You have to use the right soul for the puppet.”

“……What?”

Whoosh…

Caryl took out the heart from inside the puppet and grabbed it.

As one soul rose behind his back like smoke, the smoke began to increase exponentially.

“……!!”

Kay, who could use necromancy, could tell that each of those wisps carried the weight of death.

“W-What is this…”

The number was so dense that it was impossible to count, and the air inside the sunken land, which was already difficult to breathe, became even heavier due to the souls.

[Are you thinking of entrusting me to such a brat?]

“She’s a brat, but the puppet in here isn’t. You also appeared because you were interested, right? No, there’s no way you wouldn’t be interested.”

Caryl turned his head and said.

“Zarka Hoch.”

Caryl said, pointing to Kay, who was frozen while looking at the elf’s soul.

[Yeah. I need to know what the hell is going on. Did you know this would happen?]

He said in a nonchalant voice.

“No. I didn’t know either. If I had known, I would have brought you here right away. Why would I have kept you in the sword so uncomfortably?”

[Hmph…]

“Don’t feel bad. I want to know what’s going on right now too.”

Caryl nodded with a strange smile, as if he understood his words.

He couldn’t see the detailed face because he was in spirit form, but Caryl had seen Zarka as a lich [an undead creature] in the Fortress of the Damned.

“You said that Nar Di Maugh killed you, but you didn’t know who resurrected you. But I heard about the necromancer who resurrected you from Quonithe.”

[Quonithe……?! Are you talking about that spiritist? The one who was called the Pact of the Forest……?]

Zarka asked back, surprised by Caryl’s words.

“She’s just a being of the past anyway. Whatever her title was doesn’t matter, but she told me that the necromancer who resurrected you was one of Kaie Essir’s companions 250 years ago.”

[……]

“That’s why I tried to find a necromancer who was famous in the past, but it wasn’t easy. I found out thanks to Nine Darphon, but now I see why. It’s because it’s a family that disappeared during the Magic Era.”

At Caryl’s words, Zarka said with a stiff face.

[Then it makes sense that there’s a puppet that looks like me here.]

“Yeah.”

Caryl said.

“In Kaie Essir’s will, there was a saying like this: ‘There are two more bastards like me. They won’t be left in history. Those guys are weirder than me.’ As he said, Gald Rothschild is just as eccentric.”

Why couldn’t he remember?

It might be a natural thing.

In his past life, Kay’s puppet was wearing a mask, so he had never seen her face.

In fact, even though she was one of the Ten Chosen of the same oracle, there were so few times that he had talked to her that it was safe to say that there was almost no contact.

“No matter what, I couldn’t have imagined that there would be such a face under the mask. Is this just a coincidence? Or was it an arrangement that you would come here and be with her?”

[Whatever it is, I feel like I’ve been played. The fact that the human who resurrected me as a lich was the puppeteer you were trying to find, and that he did this kind of thing.]

“On the contrary, you might be lucky. What are the odds that your soul and this puppet would meet? Maybe you should be grateful to me?”

The face of the puppet hidden inside the mask.

Surprisingly, it looked exactly like Zarka Hoch’s.

“Kay.”

Caryl looked at her.

“It seems like we have a lot to talk about from now on. But before that, let me ask you one thing. You can think of it as a proposal.”

“……What do you mean?”

“Don’t you want to revive the Rothschild family?”

At his question, Kay’s eyes trembled.

“If you’re going to do it, do it big. Become an existence that handles hundreds, thousands of souls, not just playing around with one puppet.”

As he slowly raised his magic power, the elf’s soul standing behind him gradually began to take on a clearer form.

“I’ll make it happen.”