Chapter 20 : Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Aran Lubeil (2)
“What?”
“The mission. It's out.”
“So.”
“They say to go to the 6th Sword Order.”
“Who. Aran?”
“No. Grandfather.”
“Suddenly?”
“He said to show you the Sword Order's residence. Since you probably haven't been there once since you entered the castle.”
“Oh.”
I shouldn't have followed the siblings then.
***
Aran and Semenu were different.
A normal relationship is proportional to time, and it had only been 5 years with Semenu.
But if you had spent every day of those 5 years stuck together, it would become quite a deep relationship.
That was why he was suspicious. Because the concentration of that time was so dense.
Moreover, it was a very intense wartime.
‘The 8 years with Aran were too long ago.’
Exa had met Aran when he was 9. They were together until he was expelled. It wasn't all day, but it was for quite a long time.
That was why Aran did not suspect Exa when he saw Simurtr. He was curious about his mana and was fixated on the Selection Ceremony, but that was all.
Aran did not show much of a reaction even when he saw Simurtr's mana.
‘That's normal.’
It was because the concept of reincarnation was rather unfamiliar.
And because the dead Exa and the 16-year-old Simurtr could not be related. Because their timelines could never overlap.
Unlike the flexible, no, stubborn Semenu, Aran was rational. It could also be because he was not used to it, unlike Semenu.
Though he had been with Aran for 8 years, that was the Exa of his childhood. Completely different from the Exa of the Doom War.
When they had reunited on the battlefield, Aran had often been awkward. The young Exa that Aran remembered had no mana and was shy.
To be precise, he was pure.
‘I didn't know the ways of the world back then.’
When he was expelled and decided on a career as a mercenary, he had actually been scammed quite a lot.
It was not a memory he particularly wanted to recall. Nor was it important.
Young Master.
Aran still called the dead Exa that.
It was proof that he still had not forgotten and thought of it as a rather precious relationship.
‘I was grateful, though.’
He was already happy to see him, but he became even happier.
So, now that he knew the truth about Mectera and had decided to look into Gerehk's death someday, even more so.
‘I didn't know it was to that extent.’
It wasn't simple longing, was it?
Aran Lubeil is crazy. Perhaps Semenu's words meant that.
He was like a fanatic. Simurtr saw a glimpse of the worshippers of the Black Land in Aran.
“It's a daily occurrence.”
At Ael's voice, Simurtr turned his head.
When their eyes met, Jahar nodded. The siblings seemed to be used to that embarrassing sight.
“That?”
“The Head of the 6th Sword is a very emotional person.”
They're just brushing that off as being emotional?
“See. It's over.”
Simurtr's gaze followed Ael's finger. A composed Aran was dispersing his mana, and Naor was straightening his clothes.
“Ah. Naor.”
“Yes. Head of the 6th Sword.”
“Make time in the afternoon. You need to relearn the purpose of the 6th Sword Order.”
“…Yes.”
***
Jahar listened to the explanation, and then Ael's matter was also finished.
It had not been a bad time. Simurtr needed time to compose himself.
“You do this kind of work too? Mectera?”
Simurtr's eyes widened as he looked at the document Aran handed him. It was an official document describing the contents of the mission.
“It is an era of peace, isn't it? It's not that there are no front lines, but they are extremely few.
There is no reason for the main house to be deployed where they have already been established. But we can't just let the Sword Orders play around either.”
“But you're a ducal house? No matter how omnivorous Mectera is, isn't it a bit damaging to your pride?”
To investigate the children of nobles.
Though they were a group of swordsmen who were not interested in honor, they were still a ducal house.
“It is for the sake of the empire, isn't it? The main house is a noble of the empire.”
“Where did you get this information? The main house's intelligence network shouldn't be that great.”
Noble investigation. The pretext was slave trading.
Because the empire had banned the slave system long ago. Such laws had become even stronger since the end of the war, but rotten places were bound to exist.
“The Imperial Intelligence Agency.”
“Since when did they live up to their name? Shouldn't they not only provide the information but also finish the job? Or the lord of that territory should do it. They just toss the information and watch?”
Do we need to go this far?
The mission area was not Mectera. It wasn't even nearby; it was on the opposite side.
They're giving information on such a region to Mectera? Simurtr could not easily understand this situation.
“It is the fate of a Hero Family.”
“What fate is there for a history that's only 21 years old.”
“That is not wrong.”
Aran explained with a bitter smile.
Protecting the empire and eliminating the remaining Doom Species.
Other families did so as well, but a particularly strict standard was applied to the Hero Families.
“The main house has been granted the authority of summary execution. It was personally granted by His Majesty the Emperor along with the fame of a Hero Family.”
If there was a just cause, they could even execute a noble.
Mectera was entrusted with such authority by the imperial family.
“It is to work for the peace of the empire from within rather than from without. Since the main house has lost its hero.”
A Hero Family without a hero. The lowest seat of the Hero Families.
That was how the public saw Mectera.
The Mectera that once boasted power second only to the imperial family was no more.
The authority given by the imperial family was in consideration of such a Mectera….
“Is that right?”
Simurtr cut off Aran's words.
“Consideration? What are the other Hero Families doing, Doom Species? Did that many of those bastards survive?”
“……”
At the words that hit the mark, Aran shut his mouth.
The rifts, the passages of the Doom Species, had been closed long ago. There were not that many Doom Species left on the continent.
21 years since the end of the war. In the time it would take for mountains and rivers to change twice, a battle worthy of the name had only occurred once in the north.
“What kind of weakness was caught that you're being treated like this?”
While the other Hero Families were expanding their power.
Under the pretext of protecting the empire, they were acting as the empire's dogs.
‘Is this all you did this for, killing me and selling my name? That idiot bastard Gerehk.’
The reality of just handling the chores the empire ordered. It was absurd. Simurtr let out a hollow laugh. Because after all that fuss, this was the result.
“Is that something for the Young Master to be so angry about?”
“Ah.”
Aran had called Simurtr 'Young Master'.
***
Because he was intuitive.
He showed it that much.
He did not hide his emotions. If something came up, he preferred to break through it head-on.
‘Aran? It's been a while. Did you hear? That bastard Gerehk sent assassins after me yesterday.’
…He had become a bit, no, a lot more radical.
That was Aran Lubeil's impression of the Young Master he had met again after 10 years.
When he encountered Exa, who had become the Grand General in the Doom War, Aran could not help but be perplexed as he looked at the Young Master who had changed so much.
‘The west? Who? Doom Species? That marquis bastard? He's dead.’
The pure Young Master was no more.
His characteristic bright smile was the same, but it now only came out when he saw an enemy.
‘When the war is over, I have to kill Gerehk. And Bahab and Basor too. The Holy See feels off too.’
The Young Master who used to follow Aran around asking about the sword now cursed and sought out enemies.
‘What? Join forces? Forget it. It's been a while since I was kicked out of Mectera. I'm going to hang out with my kids.’
That was why he disliked the Baperr unit.
Unit members who were all missing a screw, who were lacking somewhere. The Young Master had been corrupted because he had associated with them.
Otherwise, there was no way he could have changed so much.
‘Like this Young Master.’
He was truly similar.
He had heard it through Meram, but seeing it in person was even more so.
The more he interacted with him, the more it induced a deep nostalgia. A strong sense of déjà vu constantly struck his mind.
“I'm not angry?”
“You look angry.”
The intense white mana reminiscent of the Star-Breaking Style.
That temperament of moving as he pleased, which had ended up blackmailing the Head of the Senate of Elders.
A strength that could not be simply explained as talent.
A sword that was already complete, despite never having been taught by anyone.
‘I do not know why you like him. Is it because the nature of your mana is similar? Is that the only reason?’
Medeoban's question from sometime ago came to mind.
But Aran did not care.
Because such a question could only come from not knowing the truth.
‘If the Young Master were in front of me, this is what it would feel like.’
Even at this very moment.
If he closed his eyes and blocked his ears.
No, if he tried to eliminate the source of the voice.
“I said I'm not angry.”
What was caught in his senses was the Young Master.
Not Simurtr, but Exa.
“Let's just say that.”
But that was all.
Aran opened the eyes he had briefly closed.
No matter how similar he was, he was not him.
He was truly the same… but the Young Master in front of him was by no means that Young Master.
‘He must be his disciple.’
The Young Master, that hero Exa Mectera, was not dead.
‘He just disappeared.’
Aran knew that fact, even if others did not.
It was the reason he had started calling him Young Master but had not used honorifics in the end.
“By the way, what happened to Beden? And Janya?”
“You are clumsy at changing the subject.”
“Just answer.”
Because Simurtr was the Young Master's disciple, not the Young Master himself.
Aran respected Exa's choice.
***
“Sir Beden is receiving education. His supervisor has been changed to Elder Kelken.”
“He's going to have a hard time.”
Kelken. Simurtr nodded at the name. He was the Head of the 4th Sword during the Doom War.
He remembered his temperament as being cruel. He didn't know what he was like now, but he had enjoyed killing.
“And Janya?”
“Lady Janya is not in the main house at present. She has left for her maternal family's home under the pretext of recuperation.”
“You let her go?”
He had thought it would be house arrest at most, but to think she was in the county. It meant they had let her go free.
They had created a very good environment for her to plot her schemes. It was what he wanted. The sooner trivial matters were dealt with, the better.
“We originally considered house arrest, but we allowed it as the Count of Jabad's condition was said to be critical.”
“It's obviously a lie.”
“What can we do? Since when has the main house been interested in outsiders?”
“True.”
“Though it is the right of summary execution, it is not omnipotent.”
“Suddenly?”
“Did you not say it with your eyes? It is not something that can be used recklessly.”
“Since when did Mectera care about such things?”
“Since when, you ask? Since we started being swayed by the imperial family, as the Young Master said.”
The right of summary execution.
He had been annoyed before, but in a way, it was a decent authority.
Couldn't he use that to hunt down the traitors? Simurtr suddenly thought.
“That right of summary execution. Does it work on other Hero Families too?”
Of course, what he wanted was the traitors' heads.
But, if possible, it was right to overturn everything they had built up. Just beheading them didn't seem like it would be satisfying enough.
“Do you think it would?”
“You're honest.”
“The imperial family does not interfere. It depends solely on the capabilities of the main house.”
Though it was called the right of summary execution, in the end, it had its limits.
It could not be applied to families where Mectera's prestige did not reach.
A pretty but useless thing that could not stand against other Hero Families. It meant that Mectera should reign only under the Emperor and other heroes.
‘The imperial family does not interfere.’
Solely the capabilities of the main house.
Simurtr mulled over Aran's words.
It meant that it was not possible for now.
‘It means I just have to get stronger.’
As expected, Mectera was a good background. It was a good thing he had stayed. Simurtr unknowingly grinned.
He had already uncovered the truth about Mectera. Now he just had to build up his strength here.
‘They won't be able to touch me recklessly either.’
It was like a hornet's nest.
They would watch, but they could not touch.
The death of their accomplice Gerehk must have hit them quite hard.
‘They must be scared. They have no justification to touch me directly. So they're just trying to wear me down like this.’
For the past 20 years.
The Hero Families must have been worried all along.
Does Mectera know the truth? they must have wondered.
The fact that the imperial family did not interfere was a good thing. In the first place, Simurtr had decided on the Emperor last.
Whatever his individual capabilities were, the Emperor was the Emperor.
“In fact, there was no justification to refuse. Lady Arnea is already at her maternal family's home for the same reason.”
“Then it can't be helped.”
Janya, who was from a noble family, knew the importance of justification.
“Janya was a Jabad, right?”
“That's right.”
“Was that why you chose the 3rd Sword Order?”
The previous Head of the 3rd Sword had been executed.
He was Janya's faction, and the scale of his corruption was said to be unforgivable.
“You knew?”
Considering that the former Head of the 2nd Sword, who was Arnea's faction, had been merely reassigned as the Sword Master's escort, he could guess the scale of it.
“Wouldn't it be strange not to know? It's so blatant.”
“That's right. Janya will be happy too.”
Simurtr grinned.
It was said that not only the former Head of the 3rd Sword but also quite a few people within the 3rd Sword Order had been won over.
“What do you think, Aran? Do you think it has been cleaned up cleanly?”
“……”
“I'm looking forward to the 3rd Sword Order's mission.”
Jabad. The vicinity of the 3rd Sword Order's mission area this time.
Simurtr remembered the territory of that county.
Near it, was the territory of the Hero Family, the Ducal House of Bahab.
Where the traitor, Akarr Bahab, reigned.