Chapter 332 - Swordmaster’s Youngest Son

Episode 332
Episode 103: Records of the Past – Steward Leet Damiro Yul (Part 2)

Hope.

Those two desperate words, so desperately needed in the face of the enemy’s transcendent, demonic power.

The people gathered in the conference room stared blankly at the words displayed on the translucent screen Leet had summoned.

Meanwhile, the inscriptions written by the stewards and scribes continued to fade away, erased one by one.

“Thank you for your hard work, Steward!” Diana grasped Leet’s hand tightly. “According to what’s written here, even with their wicked ability to manipulate history, they can’t overcome the Head of the House…!”

Three thousand twenty-six mages, including Elona Ziphl.

Three thousand twenty-six.

That number meant only one thing: it was the total count of Ziphl’s elite mages that Runcandel had identified—and it matched perfectly.

Elona Ziphl was widely recognized as the strongest mage within Ziphl, despite not being the Head of the House.

Having fought countless battles alongside her, Temar and the Ten Knights concluded that Elona alone accounted for over half of Ziphl’s entire magical force. Nothing better illustrated her power.

The fact that Elona—the monstrous mage—and all the elite mages had already attempted to undermine the Head of the House once was shocking.

Paddler shuddered. He recalled how, last year, he and the Ten Knights had managed to hold Elona back.

That day, the Ten Knights realized for the first time that there was another ‘monster’ in the world besides Temar.

“How the hell are they manipulating history? Damn bastards… It must have something to do with the Tower of Stories…” Sildray exploded in frustration.

As he said, Runcandel still didn’t know exactly how Ziphl was altering history.

They only knew that after Ziphl’s mages swarmed the Tower of Stories en masse, the manipulation occurred.

But that was just speculation. There were several other places suspected of being used for ‘history manipulation’ besides the Tower.

Since the Head of the House had already decided to prioritize destroying their magic towers, the answer would come soon enough.

The main building of the Lutero Magic Federation, Drakka, remained untouched for now—Elona guarded it constantly.

The magic towers were being destroyed steadily. Except for the Tower of Stories and other key Ziphl strongholds, over a hundred magic towers had already been razed.

“Sir Sarah Runcandel of the Ten Knights has returned!” a guardian knight burst into the conference room.

Leet and the Ten Knights immediately rushed out to greet her.

They had been waiting anxiously for either Temar or Sarah to return. Both were leading the other Ten Knights in assaulting Ziphl’s magic towers.

So desperate were Leet and the knights that they didn’t even stop to shield themselves from the pouring rain as they ran to meet Sarah at the castle gates.

“Sarah!”
“Sir Sarah!”

“Well, it seems you all have been waiting for me quite a lot. I’m no puppy, you know—running up like this is a bit embarrassing,” Sarah smiled at her comrades.

Despite the torrential rain, the scent of smoke and ash clung to her—a testament to the fierce battle she had just fought.

“Especially Paddler here—he’s such a weakling, he’s going to catch a cold out here. Ha ha.”

“So, how did it go? Did you manage to destroy all the enemy towers?”

“No, I couldn’t. Could you believe there was another mage like Elona? Sildray, it was terrifying. I smashed about fifty towers before I had to give up and come back.”

“R-really!?” Only Sildray fell for Sarah’s clumsy lie.

“Again? You fell for it again, Sildray? Ha ha! You’re so easy to fool, I can’t stop teasing you.”

“What? Another lie?”

“Yeah. There’s no way there’s another crazy monster like that in the world, right? Honestly, you’re so dumb it’s kind of cute.”

“We were all on edge waiting for you. Why tell such lies?”

“I just wanted to calm your nerves a bit. That’s what big sis does.”

“Even though you’re five years younger, you call yourself big sis…”

The others had already realized that Sarah’s mission had succeeded the moment she started joking around, as usual.

“We destroyed all the towers assigned to our group. Brother—no, the Head of the House’s group had fewer towers, but I think we turned at least ten thousand mages into ashes.”

Sarah was truly the strongest among the Ten Knights. The number of mages she killed was no exaggeration.

“The Head of the House’s group should be finishing up soon. It’s strange, though. They had more towers to destroy, so I thought they’d finish first.”

Sarah’s group was assigned twenty towers to destroy.

Temar’s group had forty.

Despite the two-to-one difference, Temar’s overwhelming power more than made up for it.

“Something feels off. Did I just beat the Head of the House for the first time in a while? No, that can’t be. Nothing must have happened to the Head, right?”

“We’ve been keeping a close watch on Elona’s location. So nothing should have happened to the Head. It’s probably because your sword technique is finally complete.”

“Yeah, that must be it. I wiped out the last five towers with a blaze of hellfire. They melted away so easily.”

“Could you please stop using expressions like ‘melt’ when talking about people?”

Paddler frowned, and Sarah shrugged.

“To me, ‘people’ only means those who aren’t Runcandel’s enemies, weakling. You know that, so don’t act all surprised.”

“Still, it doesn’t seem good for your mental health.”

“Am I a moody teenager? You should worry about your own health instead.”

Sarah ruffled Paddler’s hair and laughed.

With the hope Leet had brought and Sarah’s arrival, the heavy expressions of the Ten Knights began to lighten quickly.

“Sarah, take a look at this.”

Leet summoned the translucent screen again in front of her.

“Hm? What’s this, Leet? Three thousand twenty-six mages including Elona Ziphl… Oh! This is really good news. Our brother—no, the Head of the House must be incredible, huh?”

“Of course, we can’t be completely at ease yet. Although it includes Elona and all the elite mages, the Head and Deputy Heads of Ziphl are missing.”

Ziphl had used the Head, Deputy Heads, and five hundred elite mages to manipulate the history of the ‘Fairy Race.’

This was also confirmed through Leet’s recording ability.

Naturally, the power of Ziphl’s Head and Deputy Heads couldn’t be ignored. Though less than Elona, they were still transcendent beings.

It took that much power to erase tens of thousands of years of the entire Fairy Race’s history.

Leet felt both relieved and bitter that, despite using even greater power, they couldn’t manipulate Temar’s history.

His own kin were still being forgotten at this very moment.

And it pained him to think that the tens of thousands of years of history his kin had built might be worth less than that of a single human named Temar.

The Power of Existence.

Leet couldn’t fully grasp what that phrase meant, exactly.

Sensing his thoughts, Sarah placed a hand on Leet’s shoulder.

“Steward, I know what you’re thinking. But, you know, I think this Power of Existence might just be what it sounds like. The real measure is how much change it brings to the world. Ziphl can’t manipulate Temar because he’s causing massive changes. The Fairy Race, as observers and recorders, are meant to stay still rather than change the world.”

“So, you’re saying that the more a being changes the world, the harder it is for Ziphl to manipulate them?”

“Exactly. Temar is completely reshaping the world’s balance right now. The Fairy Race’s role is to watch and record, not to interfere.”

Leet pondered for a moment.

“That interpretation makes sense, Sarah. Of course, it’s just a guess, but it’s plausible. Honestly, even though he’s my brother and our Head of the House, I don’t think Temar’s value surpasses the entire Fairy Race. Among all beings, it’s impossible to say who is truly superior.”

The other Ten Knights nodded. When Leet first brought the news, they were happy but also worried for him, just like Sarah.

“Thanks for your concern.”

“It’s nothing compared to what the Steward does for us. Now, I’d love to have a drink while we wait for the Head to return… but maybe we should help the stewards and scribes first? The more hands, the better.”

As Sarah draped an arm over Paddler’s shoulder, Leet’s eyes suddenly widened as he stared at the recording screen.

“W-wait a moment. What on earth is this…!?”

Leet’s strained voice sent a chill through the Ten Knights.

“Steward, what’s wrong…?”

Diana approached Leet, but stopped speechless after looking at the screen.

Others who saw the screen reacted similarly.

The recording screen was generating sentences that no one could quite comprehend.

<…March 3, … Temar Runkandel and his … followers … destroy the Ziphl magic towers in the … kingdom. …, …>

<…, Temar Runkandel and …, …, …, …>

They were disappearing.

The records of Temar and the Tenteen Knights destroying the Ziphl magic towers—right here, on today—were vanishing.

But the shock for Luet and the Tenteen Knights didn’t end there.

The contents of the record window kept updating relentlessly.

And the final update read like this: