The Son-In-Law of the Magician Is a Transcendent Sword Master - Chapter 139

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 139
Perhaps it was because I had recently strolled through the Entertainment District where the Crimson Sapphire stood. The landscape of these Slums was the complete opposite.
The brilliant magical lamps characteristic of Orelion and the bustling crowds were nowhere to be found. Instead, there was only darkness and dampness.
The alley floors untouched by light were slick with unidentifiable filth and excrement, while ramshackle shanties barely capable of sheltering one from wind and rain leaned precariously on either side.
“…Reagan, did you know? I actually grew up in a place like this when I was young.”
As we walked through the dim alley, Sheril glanced around and spoke softly. On her usually expressionless face, there lingered the faintest hint of nostalgia.
“…Don’t tell me you’re about to say you miss those days?”
“Of course not. Those were hellish times. I was an orphan with no guardian. In that situation, Arania… that woman took me with her.”
“She must have seemed like a savior.”
“Yes. That’s exactly what she was. After I went to the Shadow Tower, it was the first time I received warm soup, soft quilts, and gentle clothing. To be honest, at that time, Arania Sheydi was no different from a goddess to me.”
“I understand completely. I was an orphan too.”
“Indeed….”
In the past, it was Captain Gerkin of the Black Fang Mercenary Company who picked me up and took me in as I wandered the back alleys begging for scraps.
Of course, whether it was Arania taking in Sheril or Gerkin taking me in, the fundamental truth was the same—we were merely tools to be used and discarded.
“In that sense, we’re kindred spirits.”
“…I suppose we are.”
“So why bring this up all of a sudden?”
“Vera and Sierra, my younger sisters, likely came from back alleys like this too. But when they were cornered in crisis, they ended up hiding in a place like this again. It’s almost amusing—a kind of homing instinct, you might say.”
“Hmm…. They learned necromancy and came here to procure fresh corpses, so it’s probably a bit different, don’t you think?”
In truth, I questioned whether those two women retained any semblance of sanity at all. If they had mastered such a peculiar art as necromancy in such a short time, the likelihood of their minds being intact was slim.
However, I chose not to voice this thought aloud. Sheril seemed to have already grasped as much from her expression.
“…In any case, shall we search for Vera and Sierra?”
“How do you plan to find them? Dark magic?”
“Reagan, as I mentioned earlier, I was born an orphan in the back alleys. That means I’m quite familiar with the ways of vagrants like these.”
Sheril continued, lifting her chin with pride.
“In neighborhoods like this, there’s always a Gang Boss.”
* * *
“So you’re the arrogant bastards who wanted to meet me?”
In the deepest open grounds of the Slums, a man sat askew in front of a shabby tent, flicking a long pipe held between his teeth as he shouted.
Just as Sheril had said, the Slums of Orelion had a Gang Boss who controlled the streets. Typically, they were a vile sort who either sent orphans out to pickpocket or extorted money from the meager establishments in the Slums under the guise of protection fees.
“Ah…. It brings back memories. In the past, I too would give money earned from pickpocketing or rummaging through garbage to the Gang Boss.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I suppose I’ve had a tendency to be a pushover since those days.”
Sheril muttered softly. At that, the Gang Boss frowned and flicked his pipe irritably.
“Hey, I’m busy! Just state your business already!”
I frowned and turned to Sheril.
“Sheril, are all the Gang Bosses in this neighborhood like this?”
“Yes. They’re a pitiful sort who delude themselves into thinking they rule the back alleys. The vagrants only follow them because their interests align, yet they act as though they’ve become kings. Especially here in the Orelion Empire.”
The Gang Boss’s face twisted as he listened to our conversation.
He clearly felt he was being disrespected.
“You bastards! Do you know where you are?!”
The Gang Boss shot to his feet, jabbing an accusatory finger.
Handing over money and persuading him calmly would have been one approach….
‘Then again….’
I saw no real need for such civility.
“Sheril.”
“Yes?”
“Want to handle this?”
“Well… given my past experience being exploited, I wouldn’t mind venting some frustration on an undeserving target.”
Thwack!
In the next instant, Sheril dove into the Gang Boss’s embrace and struck his temple with a sharp hand strike.
The Gang Boss let out a short, piercing shriek and tumbled across the floor.
Though the impact produced a considerable sound, no one outside detected the disturbance. A veil of shadow blooming from Sheril’s fingertips had gently enveloped the tent.
“M-Magic…?!”
The Gang Boss’s eyes widened in shock.
But his alarm was short-lived. As someone who ruled the Back Alleys, he recovered quickly with audacious defiance.
“You fools! Do you know who I am?!”
“Your identity holds little interest to us.”
“Stop this! I have backing from the highest echelons of the Imperial Palace!”
“The Imperial Palace?”
“That’s right!”
With trembling hands, the Gang Boss withdrew something from his pocket and held it aloft.
A small Crystal Sphere adorned with a silver button. He displayed it with the pride of one holding a sacred talisman.
“Do you know what this is! A communication device given directly by the Imperial Palace’s chief investigator! If you lay a finger on me, you won’t escape unscathed either!”
The moment I saw that button, I nodded quietly in understanding.
Gideon Midian.
The senior investigator of the Imperial Magic Academy. I recalled how he had once contacted me through a homeless man using this very method.
This Gang Boss was clearly one of his informants planted in the Slums.
Actually, this worked out well.
“So that button proves you’re cooperating with an Imperial investigator?”
“Yes, you ignorant fool! Given to me by the esteemed investigator of the Imperial Magic Academy…!”
“You mean this one?”
“Yes! That’s exactly what it looks like….”
The Gang Boss trailed off, staring stupidly at the button in my hand. The realization dawned that it was identical to the one he held.
“H-How…?”
“Well, I’m in a similar position as you. Or rather, at least I don’t wander these Back Alleys like you do, so my circumstances are considerably better.”
Only then did the Gang Boss sense he had encountered someone he should never have crossed. His face drained of all color.
“Stop your bluffing and tell us everything you know.”
Minutes later.
The Gang Boss knelt obediently and confessed every piece of information we demanded.
“The demons in black you’re searching for, my lords… they’ve made their nest in an abandoned manor on the outskirts of the Slums.”
“An abandoned… manor?”
“Yes… It’s always had a sinister reputation, so even vagrants like us don’t venture inside carelessly. It’s a cursed house, you see. Recently, many have reported seeing two women in black clothes entering it.”
“Are you certain?”
“To be honest, I can’t be entirely sure. But the scoundrels who went in with ill intentions after hearing rumors of women there… not a single one came back alive.”
Circumstantial evidence alone was damning enough.
If all the men who entered had vanished, there was a high probability they’d become vessels for Vera and Sierra’s necromancy. The corpses we’d seen before were also dressed as vagrants.
I exchanged a glance with Sheril, and she nodded silently in agreement.
“Fine. Where is this manor located?”
“If you follow the Alley southeast from here, you’ll reach the street where the old nobility’s villas once gathered. It’s one of those.”
“There won’t be just one or two manors. You should at least tell us the name.”
“That’s… it’s been abandoned for so long that it’s only known as the haunted manor, so I don’t quite remember its original name….”
The Gang Boss wiped cold sweat from his brow, thinking hard, before carefully opening his mouth as if remembering something.
“…It was definitely… the Carius Mansion, I believe?”
* * *
Sheril and I arrived at the Carius Mansion well past midnight.
Just as the Gang Boss had said, the Carius Mansion stood out even among the villas where the nobility gathered.
A completely withered and twisted Garden lay before it, with an antique manor nestled within. The surrounding villas had erected tall walls around themselves, as if treating the Carius Mansion as an eyesore, blocking it from view entirely.
“…It certainly does deserve the reputation of a haunted manor.”
“Indeed it does.”
While agreeing with Sheril’s assessment, I furrowed my brow.
The Carius Mansion.
I couldn’t possibly be ignorant of what those four characters meant.
This place was likely….
‘The Archmage King’s birthplace.’
Given that the surname Carius was attached to Archmage King Damian Carius, it was highly probable this was the house where he was born and raised.
‘So his birthplace is on the outskirts of the Capital.’
Was Damian from the nobility of the Capital?
Then why had his background before entering the Royal Court been shrouded in such secrecy? Someone who rose to the position of Chief Investigator of the Mage Guild should have had his family background at least somewhat known.
Well, I’d have to investigate that starting now.
Having finished my thoughts, I spoke up.
“Let’s go in.”
“Perhaps Reagan should take the lead, sir.”
Sheril suggested with an enigmatic smile, and I shrugged before stepping forward.
Upon reaching the entrance, I crouched down to examine the ground. Several footprints were pressed into the stone threshold. Judging by their narrow stride, they were likely female.
These footprints might not belong to Vera and Sierra, but it was clear that two women had recently passed through this abandoned house.
“Be careful, Sheril. There are footprints going in, but none coming out.”
“Understood.”
I pushed open the tightly shut entrance door and stepped inside.
The interior of the manor was desolate beyond measure. Cobwebs hung everywhere, and a thick stench of mold assailed my lungs.
In the center of the hall hung a portrait of a four-person family, but the faces had been grotesquely slashed and torn by something sharp.
‘If this truly is Damian’s birthplace…’
Perhaps some trace of him remained here.
With that thought, I swept my hand across the debris piled high on the table.
Crash!
A glass that had been precariously balanced on the table’s edge tumbled to the floor and shattered.
In the quiet manor, the sound rang out particularly loud.
However, Sheril’s reaction—standing right behind me—was unexpectedly surprising.
“What’s wrong?”
“W-what do you mean?”
“You’re crouching right now.”
“…I was exercising.”
Sheril, who had been curled up like a pill bug, cleared her throat and straightened up. Yet her legs trembled like those of a newborn calf.
Seeing her like that, I could roughly piece together what was happening.
“Sheril.”
“…What is it?”
“Don’t tell me you’re actually scared? Because this manor is supposedly haunted?”
“Have you lost your mind? I am the Shadow Queen. A Covert Mage who dwells in darkness would never fear mere ghosts.”
“Hmm.”
I paused for a moment, then a brilliant idea struck me.
“Sheril!”
I immediately lowered my stance with a grave expression.
“Behind you, behind you! There’s a translucent figure…!”
“…!”
—Whoosh.
Sheril’s form became hazy before she was instantly sucked into the shadows.
Shadow Step. It was the very same covert art that Arania Sheydi had used. But Sheril’s Shadow Step was even faster. So fast that without my swordsman’s dynamic vision, I wouldn’t have been able to catch it.
“…Sheril, lying isn’t good.”
Speaking into the empty air, Sheril poked her face out from the shadows.
“Reagan.”
“What?”
“I always think this, but today especially… I’d love to punch that smug face of yours.”
“Try it if you can.”
Sheril glared at me with fierce eyes, then sighed and reluctantly slipped out from the shadows. And she finally confessed.
“Yes. I am… somewhat afraid of spiritual entities.”
“Really? Why?”
“Don’t mock me. There’s a reason for it.”
As I asked with a twitching smile, Sheril lowered her head and answered.
“When I turned twenty, I learned the truth about the Shadow Tower. That Arania Sheydi… steals bodies. In the deepest level of the Shadow Tower, there’s an underground spring, and scattered throughout it were all the empty husks that Arania had used until now.”
“….”
“What do you think becomes of a soul stripped of its body?”
I couldn’t help but notice the faint tremor in Sheril’s voice.
“That… you don’t have to….”
“They cannot find peace. They linger around that empty husk, lamenting and weeping for eternity. Invisible to the naked eye, but their cries—like infrasound—felt as though they were striking bone. Ever since I witnessed that….”
Sheril trailed off, her lips pressing firmly shut. In those eyes that were always so expressionless, a deep terror now dwelled. There was no hint of deception in her gaze.
“That… Sheril?”
“Yes.”
“I’m truly sorry for teasing you.”
I offered a meek apology.
“It’s too late, you wretched creature.”
Sheril rebuked me as expected. This time, I had nothing to say, so I simply nodded in submission.
“I will inform Miss Renia of this matter.”
“I’m sorry, Sheril. Please, just this once. I’m begging you.”
“Absolutely not. Probing at the wounds of another woman like that—your wife must know of this.”
Thus, after placating and coaxing Sheril for some time, we continued our exploration of the Manor.
The Manor consisted of two stories in total, and aside from being in ruins, there was nothing particularly noteworthy. The valuables and furnishings had apparently been looted long ago by vagrants, leaving only rotting timber in their wake.
Yet the Gang Boss had clearly stated that Vera and Sierra had been spotted here. That meant either they were hiding somewhere within this Manor, or there existed a concealed space.
As it turned out, my suspicion was correct.
“Reagan, look at this.”
Sheril, who had been examining the first-floor hall, called out to me.
“There’s a hidden mechanism here.”
Behind the portrait with the torn-away face that I’d seen earlier, I discovered a lever.
As Sheril carefully pulled the lever.
Clunk—clunk—clunk.
The floor tiles slid open, revealing a narrow Passageway descending into darkness below.
An impenetrable blackness stretched before us.
Cool, damp air wafted up from the depths.
“Reagan, shall I go first?”
“Ladies first.”
“I could end up dead that way.”
In the end, I reluctantly took the lead and descended the stairs.
I hadn’t brought a torch, but that posed no problem. I drew Eclair and illuminated my surroundings with its radiance.
Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, a fairly spacious Basement came into view.
The Basement had a strangely familiar structure.
“This is….”
“An Underground Workshop.”
Experimental workbenches, dried reagent bottles, and faint traces of magical circles lingering on the floor.
A typical mage’s Workshop.
Which meant the Carius Family was a mage family. The Great Mage Alliance should certainly know this, so why was it that no one knew anything about Damian’s origins?
My suspicions deepened in that moment.
“Oh my…”
A familiar, metallic voice echoed from the darkness.
“It’s been so long, sister.”
A woman emerged slowly from the corridor deeper within the Workshop.
Sheril’s expression hardened visibly upon seeing her face.
“Vera…”
Vera Sheidi, the Covert Mage—or rather, the Necromancer.
The moment I confirmed Vera’s appearance, I narrowed my brow.
A pallid complexion and disheveled hair.
And…
‘Her eyes lack focus.’
She was identical to the citizens who had been brainwashed by Malik Elrayson during the Trion incident.
“Do you know how much suffering we endured because of you, sister? I’ve been grinding my teeth for revenge, and finally the moment has come.”
From what she said, it seemed her will wasn’t entirely absent… but it was unmistakably a state of brainwashing.
“Sheril, it appears your younger sister is not in her right mind.”
“…That would seem to be the case.”
I drew Barissada from Andvari’s Cube.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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