Chapter 363
Episode 111: Traces (3)
“If I hadn’t told you, sister, you might never have known.”
“In that case, Mother probably would have…”
Informed me and the other knights. After all, it would have been for the sake of the family.
Mary didn’t finish her sentence. Before hearing this, she might have believed it, but now she wasn’t so sure that Rosa’s decisions were truly made solely for the family’s benefit.
The fragile trust Mary had in Rosa had crumbled like a sandcastle.
“…Anyway, I’ve just heard something quite extraordinary. If I reveal this at the council meeting, it’s bound to throw the family into chaos.”
Not only Mary and Dipus, but all the knights from now on would seek out and protect Temar’s tomb. And it wouldn’t stop there—key figures in the Elder Council, especially someone like Jorden, who still clings to his old ambitions, would get involved.
Because this was a rare opportunity to achieve a ‘great feat.’
Some would act purely for the family’s sake, while others would be driven by the desire for honor.
Whoever found or guarded Temar’s tomb would have their name etched forever in Runcandel’s history.
“Chaos. Looking back, that’s always been my role in the family.”
“No wonder the Elder Council has such a grudge against you.”
Mary’s voice softened as she spoke.
“That goes for you too, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t think so. There are plenty of old men who like me. Hmm, after the chaos you’ve stirred up this time, I hope some order returns. See you at the meeting.”
But Jin didn’t attend the next meeting. Using a mission as an excuse, he left the family once again.
‘Good thing I was assigned a task.’
No matter what agenda came up, the main topic would inevitably be Temar’s tomb.
There was nothing for Jin to gain by attending the meeting where Mary would drop her bombshell.
‘I wonder if Mary is surprised I’m not there? Still, she would have pushed the matter into the open, so the meeting must be in an uproar by now.’
Though he regretted not witnessing the chaos firsthand, he didn’t want to get caught up in the exhausting drama.
Jin planned to return slowly—waiting until all the key players were ready and the real action began.
‘Ten days, maybe two weeks. That should be enough. This mission is pretty significant. Well, rescuing royalty from a sea fortress isn’t exactly a knight’s usual job, but…’
Of course, Jin wasn’t the one handling the heavy lifting.
Belop Schmitz was the one assigned to rescue the royal family this time.
Jin worried a little if Belop could pull it off, just as Belop was desperately searching every sea fortress near Biment, shouting, “Where the hell is the target?!”—all while fending off a constant barrage of mercenaries’ blades.
‘Hang in there, Belop.’
There was someone else who needed to keep their strength up.
Not a person, but a dragon.
Jin had come to Tikan to witness the dragon’s awakening.
“You’re here, Your Highness.”
“Whoa! It’s Lord Jin!”
“You’ve arrived!”
As soon as he entered the mansion, Kashimir, Enya, and Jet all greeted Jin at once. Other comrades gathered to exchange greetings.
Enya, as usual, turned her back and talked about signatures, while Jin smoothly wrote on the back of her shirt like water flowing.
“I keep getting these meaningless autographs every time.”
Murakan ruffled Enya’s hair, and Alisa chuckled softly.
“Murakan, aren’t you also fond of collecting meaningless books?”
“Alisa, that’s not true. How could collecting such refined tomes be meaningless? But this smell… hmm, Quikantel must have brewed the potion well.”
Murakan sniffed, nostrils flaring. The ‘potion’ he referred to was none other than the core essence of Ozdok.
Since Jin had procured the core essence, Quikantel had been staying up every night brewing a miraculous elixir to awaken Julian’s guardian dragon, Kaltor.
Jin had told Picon he wasn’t interested in any elixirs brewed from core essence, but even Murakan, a dragon himself, couldn’t help but salivate at the scent.
“Still got your skills, huh? Quikantel’s always been amazing at brewing potions. So, how’s Kaltor? Any improvement?”
Since his rescue, Kaltor had been little more than a corpse.
His pulse was barely detectable, and he hardly breathed.
Broken bones showed no sign of healing, and the scars left behind were deep and permanent.
Anyone who saw him would have thought him dead. A dragon with a fatal heart wound could never rise on its own.
Even Murakan, the undisputed strongest dragon, had been asleep for a thousand years after a heart injury.
If Jin hadn’t found the Storm Fortress’s underground chamber, Kaltor would still be unconscious.
“There’s some improvement. But Quikantel said Kaltor’s body is so weak that administering the elixir must be done with extreme caution.”
Latrie looked toward the door beyond which Misha had once healed Murakan.
“That means more time is needed.”
“Yes. But they said there’s no reason to worry about him not waking up.”
“Worry? Not at all…”
Though Murakan said this, he glanced toward Julian, who sat quietly in the corner. He seemed genuinely concerned.
Julian had been skipping meals for days, waiting for Kaltor to awaken.
Jin wanted to offer words of comfort but swallowed them back. Whatever he said could wait until after Kaltor regained consciousness.
“By the way, where’s Berys?”
“Oh, Master is working now. The second branch of the Litra Tea House is about to open, and he’s going to be the head chef there. Latrie says he’s quite talented…”
Enya still regarded Berys as her master.
And Berys, having given up resisting, was sincerely passing on his magic.
‘From Tymeun Marius’s hunting dog to a tea house chef…’
Once a killing machine and a genius mage with a modified body, Berys was now more accustomed to baking cookies than carrying out orders to kill.
‘He was raised as a murder puppet from childhood. I wondered if he could live a normal life after losing his magic, but it seems to suit him surprisingly well.’
Jin couldn’t help but think of Yona, his youngest sister, hoping she too could someday live an ordinary life.
“What about Kuzan?”
“Kuzan went to check on the Seven-Colored Bird’s tasks earlier… oh, here he comes.”
Everyone’s attention naturally turned to Kuzan, who had just entered the corridor.
He was carrying a pile of documents related to the Seven-Colored Bird and bowed politely to Jin—only to drop everything.
Clatter!
“Hey! Watch it, will you?”
Jet rushed over to help gather the scattered papers. Then, making a gesture as if clinking glasses in midair, he invited Kuzan for a drink tonight. Jin smiled quietly. The two got along surprisingly well.
“Lord Jin, I was just about to contact you. You’ve got a letter.”
There was only one letter waiting for Jin at Tikan.
‘Valeria!’
Zip! Jin tore it open immediately.
(We’ve found traces of the Myoin tribe. It’s in a forest called ‘Wantaramo’ in the western part of the Kiken Principality. I thought you’d know that it’s no ordinary forest.
I’ll tell you the details when we meet. Come to the largest inn in the southwest of Kiken Principality by September 19.
Also, I ran out of cosmetics. Bring me some, please.)
It was a message he’d waited three whole months for.
And Valeria had kept her bold promise to find the Myoin tribe.
The Seven-Colored Bird had deployed as many people as possible within their means to search for the Myoin tribe but hadn’t found even the smallest clue until now.
That’s how difficult it was to find them. Thanks to record magic, it had taken three months to locate even a trace.
‘Wantaramo, huh…? I’ve never heard of that place. And what does she mean by it not being an ordinary forest?’
Valeria assumed Jin would know, but even with his past life memories, the name Wantaramo was unfamiliar.
“What’s that? Kid, you found the Myoin tribe?”
“Not exactly found, but they discovered traces. It’s a forest called Wantaramo in the Kiken Principality. Do you know anything about it?”
“Wantaramo? There’s a forest by that name?”
While the others looked clueless, only one person—Kashimir—clapped his hands as if recalling something.
“I remember overhearing the emperor and his ministers talk about a forest called Wantaramo when I was a prince. I was very young then, so I’d forgotten, but hearing the name brings it back. I must have been around seven or eight years old.”
“Oh, that’s right. You were royalty, weren’t you? Since it’s in a principality, you might have heard of it.”
It wasn’t an ordinary forest.
Except for Murakan, the others studied the letter carefully, especially that part.
“The emperor and his ministers wouldn’t casually discuss a forest in a principality that most people in the world don’t even know exists. There must be something there.”
When Kashimir spoke, Jin nodded.
If the place was important enough for the emperor to discuss directly with his ministers, then it was definitely no ordinary forest.
“Sir Kashimir, does anything else come to mind?”
“Not really… Ah! Wait, I remember now. The ministers mentioned that they failed in negotiations with Wantaramo. Thinking back on it, that’s quite strange. Ministers of the empire negotiating over a forest belonging to a vassal state?”
There was no way such negotiations should have taken place between the empire and a vassal’s forest.
Extraterritoriality.
The Wantaramo forest was part of Biment’s territory but remained outside its governance.
“Kid, once we get there, that Aria Owlheart fellow will show us what kind of place it really is. No need to overthink it.”
Murakan was right.
“They probably expect me to know everything about the other side, but it’d be embarrassing if I didn’t know a thing.”
Jin shrugged and smiled.