The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 38
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Eldest Daughter Walks the Path of Flowers Episode 38
[Not Trash.]
Radis stuck the note she had written onto the rusty sword with a slap.
When Eve said those words at the auction house, she wondered if this could possibly look like trash.
However, when she actually brought it to the estate and placed it on the pure white marble table, the sword looked like trash that needed to be thrown away immediately.
But with the note attached, she could feel at ease.
After carefully sticking the note so it wouldn’t fall off, Radis took the opportunity to examine the sword closely.
The sword’s surface was covered with dark red rust and some kind of black, sticky substance all tangled together.
At best, it looked like a rusty iron club, and to someone who didn’t know better, it would really look like filthy trash.
Radis touched the roughly hardened surface of the sword with her finger.
“To think it could be deformed this severely.”
She knew what this lump of rust was.
The craftsmen of Kellenokross repeatedly hammered and forged iron ingots containing mana crystals refined through their own secret methods.
In that process, the mana crystals contained within the iron were rearranged, creating mana-enhanced swords with completely different properties from ordinary iron.
The mana steel swords created this way would accept their owner’s mana and continue to grow.
Swords that were tamed by their owner’s mana and grew excellently sometimes became famous blades, and in some cases, they were ruined.
That ruin sometimes meant the sword cracking or breaking, but sometimes black substances would flow out like this.
‘My old sword was like this too.’
Radis sighed.
The sword Robert had given her was a good sword.
However, when she received that sword, she was already in a state of demonic energy poisoning.
The sword that accepted her mana would shed black fluid like tears.
Since it was a small amount, it would disappear if she sharpened the blade.
That’s why Radis could tell immediately when she saw this sword at the auction house.
The lump of rust covering this sword was similar to what had flowed from her sword.
‘How should I remove all of this? Should I grind it? It would take quite a while to grind this off with a whetstone.’
Radis placed her hand on the rough surface of the sword and asked.
“What happened to you?”
Mage knights who handle mana steel swords often describe their swords as being alive.
Radis agreed with that sentiment.
Though covered in a lump of rust, this sword was still alive.
It was sleeping deeply, but she could feel some kind of pulse from deep within.
Like a small seed that had endured through distant time in hardened mud, a very faint resonance.
After the meeting ended, Extermination Corps Captain Luks’s face was full of smiles.
This was because they would be dividing territories with the Black Knight Order for this winter’s monster extermination.
“Ardon, I’m counting on you!”
On the other hand, Ardon’s expression was not good, as he would have to handle both the scheduled training and monster extermination.
However, he couldn’t refuse monster extermination under the great cause of protecting the estate.
It was work that had to be done anyway.
But seeing Luks grinning with a face that said ‘Thanks for cleaning up this shit for me!’ did twist his insides.
Ardon spat out.
“I’ll definitely repay this debt.”
“Oh no, debt? What hurtful words! Aren’t we family who eat from the same pot? What’s there to talk about debts between family?”
“I’ve never had family like you.”
“Uhahahahahaha!”
Even after hearing Ardon’s clearly twisted words, Luks laughed heartily as if it were a pleasant joke.
He even patted Ardon’s shoulders vigorously.
Luks winked and said.
“Don’t be scared. For some reason, the monsters’ movements are unusually sluggish this year. If you just patrol appropriately, there shouldn’t be any problems in the estate.”
“The monsters’ movements are sluggish?”
“That’s right. Maybe this winter will be leisurely.”
“You shouldn’t say such things carelessly…”
At that moment, as if Luks’s words were a magic spell, a soldier from the Extermination Corps came running from the other end of the corridor, shouting.
“Captain! One of the villages in the pioneer settlement has been attacked!”
Ardon glared at Luks with eyes full of irritation.
Luks, whose neck had shrunk, said to the soldier.
“Tell me the details.”
“It’s near the Monster Forest, and there was a light-scale attack.”
Luks’s neck straightened again.
“That area shouldn’t be our territory yet.”
Ardon glared at Luks with even more anger in his eyes.
Realizing his mistake from that gaze, Luks cleared his throat and said.
“But it’s an area that will soon become our territory. So how much damage was there?”
“Ah, it’s not an immediate extermination request. The monsters appeared and ruined the farmland, but this level of damage is common at the beginning of winter, and they seem to have handled it well. They apparently commissioned mercenaries who were nearby for extermination.”
“Mercenaries? Which mercenary group?”
“I heard it was the Royal Serpent Mercenary Unit.”
“What? Then it’s already finished business?”
The soldier scratched his head.
“Still, it seemed like a signal that monsters were starting to move, so I thought I should report it.”
“Ah, right. Good job, well done.”
Luks patted the soldier’s head and grinned as he said to Ardon.
“You heard? It’s nothing serious.”
Ardon glared at Luks with contemptuous eyes, then turned his gaze toward the other end of the corridor.
Luks asked.
“What’s wrong?”
Ardon stared intently down the corridor and said.
“I thought I saw someone there just now.”
“Really? I didn’t notice at all.”
Ardon slightly furrowed his brow.
He was the captain of the Black Knight Order and one of the Empire’s finest knights, and this Luks, though he looked like an idiot, was also the officially certified mage knight captain of the marquis’s Extermination Corps.
‘Even if we were off guard, could there be someone skilled enough to deceive both my and Luks’s attention in Lord Russel’s Estate?’
“Heh, quite profitable!”
Stroking his thick money pouch, Luke let out a vile laugh.
“When farmland gets ruined, they get so scared they readily pay this kind of advance!”
Luke shouted toward Gors.
“Even after distributing to the members, this much is left, so let’s go drink really hard today!”
However, unlike the excited Luke, Gors didn’t look very pleased.
In fact, he had been like this for several days.
It was since he had been caught by some insolent woman at the auction house recently.
Luke patted Gors’s shoulder and said.
“Look, the opponent was from the Russel Marquis family. I understand you’re in a bad mood, but what can you do? Let’s drink heavily today and forget about it!”
Instead of answering, Gors spat out phlegm he had drawn up from his core with a long “Kaaaack.”
‘Back then, I almost pissed myself…!’
When his neck was grabbed unknowingly at the auction house.
‘Got you.’
Even now, recalling that ominous voice made his spine chill.
What had grabbed his neck was clearly a woman in a cute dress, but the presence he felt before turning around was almost comparable to a ‘spider.’
“Uuuuugh!”
Gors shuddered.
“Why would I think of a ‘spider’ when looking at such a girl…!”
Luke also shuddered at the mention of ‘spider’.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
Luke trembled violently as he pulled out a dirty snake skin from his inner pocket and slapped it on his forehead like a talisman.
“Why! Why! Why! Why did you summon spiders! Ughhhhhhh!”
“Ughhhhhh!”
“Ahhhhhhh! Royal Serpent, Royal Serpent! Please chase away the spiders!”
After making a huge commotion trembling, Gors and Luke looked at each other and said.
“Let’s go drink.”
“Something strong.”
“Something really, really strong.”
Luke groaned as he pulled out a large chest from under the bed.
Inside the chest were large eggs.
Luke threw a money pouch next to those eggs and closed the chest.
Then he left the lodging together with Gors.
As their footsteps faded away, Radis emerged from the shadows beneath the stairs where she had been hiding.
“Tess was right.”
Tess, who had been a comrade in the Imperial Monster Hunting Corps, was from Pioneer origins and was familiar with the geography around the Monster Forest.
Sometimes when passing through the outskirts of Ruarl, Tess would point at this abandoned inn visible on the horizon and say.
‘That was the headquarters of those Royal Serpent Mercenary Unit bastards. They were absolutely terrible scoundrels.’
To Tess, who was from Pioneer origins, the Royal Serpent Mercenary Unit that lured monsters to attack small settlements was a more heinous criminal than any traitor.
Tess would tirelessly curse the Royal Serpent Mercenary Unit without getting tired whenever this abandoned inn came into view.
Thanks to that, Radis could easily recall this place.
“As expected, they really are bad guys.”
Radis tried pulling on the door that Gors and Luke had closed behind them.
It was locked.
“Hup!”
Crack.
When she pulled with force, the door handle broke off.
Radis roughly fitted the broken door handle back and opened the door to enter.
Just from the sounds she had overheard earlier, Radis could figure out where Luke had hidden the chest.
She found the chest Luke had hidden under the bed, pulled it out, and opened the lid.
“This is…!”
What was inside were eggs.
Two that were fist-sized, and one that was the size of a baby’s head.
They weren’t ordinary eggs.
The fist-sized ones had purple stripes, and the baby head-sized egg was even more peculiar.
A gentle light was emanating from it as if a candle had been placed inside the eggshell.
With eggs that looked like this, it was obvious.
“These are monster eggs!”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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