The Son-In-Law of the Magician Is a Transcendent Sword Master - Chapter 107
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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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Chapter 107
The deepest dungeon of the Shadow Tower.
On the cold prison floor where Lashelle had been confined just a few days ago, Vera and Sierra now sat slumped.
“…It’s, it’s over.”
As Vera muttered in a hollow voice, Sierra, who was crouched in one corner of the prison, sobbed.
“Huuk, huk. Mother…”
Sierra had always been emotionally volatile. She had already been mourning Arania’s death for three days and nights.
That’s right.
Foster mother Arania Morian Shaydi was dead.
Vera wanted to deny this fact with her mind, but the instincts carved deep into her bones and the mana flowing through her body as a covert mage were proving Arania’s death completely.
“…Really, it’s a dead end.”
As a Daughter of the Shadow, she had lived her life solely for Mother’s will.
Vera had never doubted anything. She had simply walked the path that Mother had ordained for her.
However, Vera was now thrown onto a path without even a signpost.
She couldn’t even grasp how to live from now on.
As she listened to Sierra’s sobbing in the darkness.
—Click, click.
Footsteps echoed from the corridor outside, and a woman appeared beyond the iron bars.
Lashelle Shady. No, Sheril.
The detestable thing that had driven Mother to death and taken the Archmage position instead. Even the clothes she wore were the dark red robes symbolizing the Shadow Tower Lord.
Vera gritted her teeth and glared at Sheril, but that hostility didn’t last long.
‘…No way.’
Vera was a 5th Rank covert mage.
That’s why she realized that the texture of mana surrounding and flowing through Sheril’s body had changed dramatically from before.
Seeing that look in her eyes, Sheril shrugged her shoulders.
“Did you notice? I recently ascended to the 6th Rank.”
Sheril asked indifferently, and Vera shook her head.
“That’s… impossible. How on earth…”
“I was just deliberately not ascending.”
“…”
Vera’s hand that had been gripping the iron bars dropped to the floor with a thud.
All this time, Vera had secretly been jealous of Sheril.
Arania had always favored only Sheril, and it was the same even after she fled from the tower. So Vera thought that if she just tried a little harder, she could become Arania’s first daughter.
But… it wasn’t so.
‘I can’t win…’
The talent gap between Sheril and herself was like heaven and earth, even more stark than that. Witnessing that overwhelming talent gap with her own eyes, she realized that even the jealousy she harbored was a luxury.
Vera asked with a dejected expression.
“Why… did you come here? Did you come to… mock us?”
“No. I don’t particularly have such bad taste as you people. I just came to say farewell.”
“Farewell… you say?”
“Yes. An investigator from the Imperial Magic Association has come to escort you to the Royal Court.”
Investigator.
The moment she heard that word, Vera’s pupils shook.
This meant being dragged to the detention center, Grave.
Vera knew well from what she had heard. Grave was a tomb as its name suggested. A hell from which one could never emerge alive once entered.
“Well then, farewell.”
Sheril left a dry farewell and turned away without regret. Vera didn’t try to stop her. With what face could she, who had been at odds until recently, beg for her life?
“Huk, huuk…”
As Sierra’s crying grew louder, someone entered the prison. It was a handsome man with an amiable impression, having long black hair and red eyes.
“Nice to meet you.”
The man smiled brightly while looking at Vera and Sierra sitting inside the iron bars.
“I’m Chief Investigator Damian Carius, dispatched from the Imperial Magic Association.”
The man, Damian Carius, approached the iron bars and began speaking in a warm voice.
“Are you two the daughters that Lady Arania especially loved?”
“…No. We’re just…”
“No need to be modest.”
Damian took out a key from his waist and lightly opened the lock mechanism of the iron bars.
Click.
The prison door opened.
“Please come out.”
“Where… are we going?”
“Grave, the tomb. Don’t worry. That place is also where people live.”
Though he said that, both Vera and Sierra knew well what kind of place Grave was.
Sierra’s sobbing grew even louder, and Vera bit her lips until they bled.
Then, Damian suddenly bent his waist and met Vera’s eye level.
“Miss Vera, do you want revenge?”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m asking if you want revenge against those who took Mother’s life.”
Hearing Damian’s question, Vera frowned.
‘Is this… leading interrogation?’
It was a reasonable suspicion.
The situation itself where a Royal Court investigator was asking if she had a desire for revenge could only be a trap.
However, Damian seemed to read Vera’s thoughts completely as he shook his head and said.
“I’m just asking out of curiosity. You can answer honestly.”
“…Revenge, you say.”
Vera bit her lips and shook her head.
How could that be possible?
She had just seen Sheril who had ascended to the 6th Rank. Behind her was even the massive mountain called Benheim. Even Renia Erahan von Benheim, the young lady of that Benheim, was 6th Rank.
They could never win even if they died and came back to life.
Revenge was ultimately a right only for the strong.
“No… I don’t want revenge or anything like that…”
“Revenge.”
However, Damian firmly cut off her words.
“Shouldn’t you do it? Isn’t that… the proper duty as a ‘Daughter of the Shadow’?”
Damian’s voice pierced her ears.
Instantly, Vera felt her head becoming hazy as if she had fallen into deep water.
Her vision blurred, and only Damian’s red pupils were clearly etched in her mind. Her philtrum was damp. Blood flowed down from both nostrils like rain.
Vera instinctively realized that the man before her was pulling some kind of trick.
But she couldn’t resist. When she met Damian’s red pupils, the thread of reason melted away helplessly.
“Is that, so? Should I… seek revenge?”
“Yes. Of course. You should seek revenge.”
“…Then, I want revenge.”
“Well said.”
Before long, the focus had completely disappeared from both Vera and Sierra’s eyes.
Confirming those empty pupils, Damian curled up the corners of his mouth and chuckled.
“Well, the preparation process seems to be done…”
Afterward, Damian led the now docile Vera and Sierra and put them in a carriage prepared in advance at the tower entrance. Then he turned his steps and went down to the 7th basement floor, to the treasure vault.
Tower Lord Sheril had already unlocked the stone door.
Damian slowly walked through the empty interior of the treasure vault, looking around in all directions. The interior was desolately empty, as if someone had taken away all the useful items.
“Hmm… The treasure vault is quite empty.”
“Well. Perhaps the previous tower master embezzled them.”
Sheril shrugged her shoulders and spoke brazenly.
“After all, Arania, who was the previous tower master and my adoptive mother, was a wicked person who even committed taboos. It wouldn’t be surprising.”
“….”
Demian immediately saw through the fact that her words were lies, but he didn’t bother to press her.
What mattered now wasn’t trivial odds and ends.
Soon his gaze fixed on the glass display case positioned at the very back.
A pedestal that bore traces of being overlaid with seven layers of protective magic.
However, nothing was placed on top of it.
Demian lightly traced his finger down the glass of the empty display case and let out a chuckling laugh.
“Well, well… I’ve been had.”
* * *
Four days had already passed since the incident at the Shadow Tower was concluded and we returned to Benheim Estate.
The Great Mage Alliance was frantically busy handling the aftermath of the incident, but at least inside the main house, peaceful daily life continued.
“How on earth did you reach the 6th Rank?”
Just then, Arno’s voice filled with complaints echoed through the garden.
“And before me too! You were already faster than me when you reached the 5th Rank!”
“That’s because brother lacks talent. I rose naturally, you know?”
“Where in the world is there someone who naturally reaches the 6th Rank! That’s ridiculous!”
Well, it was a bit noisy.
But this level could be considered peaceful, couldn’t it?
Normally, Sheril or Valen would mediate between the two or pour out nagging, and even Steren was away handling the aftermath of the Shadow Tower incident.
The other researchers of Benheim Mage Tower also seemed busy with matters concerning the Seven Great Towers.
“….”
I leaned against the bench and fiddled with the silver button in my arms.
Quite some time had passed since I contacted Chief Investigator Gideon, but no reply had come from him yet.
Well, it was a matter of catching the tail of that Archmage King.
I hadn’t expected immediate results from the start.
‘It would be better to wait for now.’
However, waiting with my hands completely idle didn’t suit my personality.
‘…There are things I need to do.’
I took out Andvari’s Cube from my pocket.
When I pressed the cube’s button, a subspace opened, and I reached inside to pull out a black silk cloak.
A cloak with golden dragon embroidery clearly stitched on it.
It was the very item worn by the Archmage King, Damian Carius.
‘I wondered if there might be a curse on it.’
After having it verified by a researcher from Benheim Mage Tower, I received confirmation that it wasn’t particularly a cursed item.
However, even the researcher who conducted the examination couldn’t figure out exactly what magical effects this cloak possessed.
“…Still, it can’t be an ordinary thing.”
It was an item worn by the previous life’s Archmage King, who had armed his entire body with top-grade artifacts. So this cloak was also likely a high-performance artifact.
But since even Benheim Mage Tower’s researchers couldn’t discover this cloak’s true value.
For now, I had no choice but to find out about its performance myself.
“Arno, Renia.”
I picked up the cloak and approached Arno and Renia, who were bickering.
Renia’s expression hardened when she saw the cloak in my hand.
“Reagan, that cloak…”
Renia would remember too.
The unprecedentedly grim expression I had made when I saw this cloak in the Shadow Tower’s treasure vault.
I deliberately ignored Renia’s reaction and opened my mouth.
“Just one favor. I’m going to put on this cloak now. If my physical condition seems strange, take it off immediately.”
It was better to be cautious even when crossing a stone bridge. Though they said there was no curse, since it was the Archmage King’s item, there was no telling what side effects might be lurking, so safety measures were essential.
Arno nodded while making a puzzled expression, and Renia frowned.
“Don’t worry, Renia. It shouldn’t be dangerous.”
Probably.
“Then I’m putting it on.”
I took a deep breath and draped the black cloak over my shoulders.
A silk-like texture wrapped around my neck. Contrary to my expectation that it would be heavy, it was light and comfortable like a feather.
There was no feeling of unpleasant energy invading my body either.
‘…Is it just a luxury cloak?’
The moment I had that doubt.
—Kuuuu.
‘…!’
I mistakenly thought all the colors of the world had died.
I couldn’t help it. Benheim’s garden, which had been filling my vision, was suddenly reconstructed into bizarre black and white dots and lines.
That wasn’t all.
My eyes felt hot. A burning sensation. Just as I was about to frown and step back…
“….”
I suddenly realized.
I was looking at ‘myself.’
To be precise, I was observing an area of several meters radius centered on where I was standing.
Without blind spots.
From all directions.
Perfectly.
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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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