Chapter 8
Chapter 8
The curse of the Veil was not something that could only be used on the living.
Just as I had used it on Tyrfing, the original Leios had also made good use of the curse of the Veil to bind her when she refused to listen.
“Damn, I almost screwed that up, seriously.”
Maybe it was because I tried to obtain her earlier than in the original story, but her resistance was fiercer than I had expected.
Normally, she would have started talking, saying this and that about testing whether I was worthy to be her master.
If Tyrfing had taken over my body, that would have been the end of everything, future story or not.
I would probably have gone on a rampage wielding the sword for about half a day before having my head cut off by the knights.
She was an incredible sword, to the point of being called a demon sword capable of killing gods, but this was the imperial palace.
This was a place overflowing with experts who could easily chew up and swallow an unawakened demon sword without breaking a sweat.
The imperial palace, where schemes and intrigues ran rampant.
The inept did not survive.
“…….”
Tyrfing, who had been letting out moans, was now limp, as if she had lost consciousness.
What was different between the original Leios and the current me for something like this to happen?
Leios reached the realm of a Sword Master right after graduating from the academy.
He had obtained Tyrfing before that, so there shouldn’t have been much difference from now.
This body of mine, even if I couldn’t fully use it, still possessed strength that wouldn’t lose to most knights.
Even Carius, the First Prince and the strongest among the princes, probably wouldn’t stand a chance against me in a head-on fight.
“Did something happen?”
Only after quite some time had passed since the scuffle with Tyrfing ended did Oz finally show himself.
I stroked a thick tome.
Tyrfing, who had been driven into the floor and knocked unconscious, had already returned to her book form.
It was fortunate that Oz had come late.
Otherwise, rumors would have spread that I had mercilessly beaten a child in the archive.
Ah, well, I was already known as a ruffian, so one more bad reputation probably wouldn’t matter.
“I slipped while taking out a book, that’s all.”
“I’m glad you’re unharmed. No matter how precious the books in the archive may be, if Your Highness were to get hurt……”
‘Oh?’
For some reason, he sounded genuinely worried about me.
I was just about to feel a bit touched when his next words instantly cooled my mood.
“I would be reprimanded.”
“…….”
So in the end, it was about his own safety. When I looked at him with an incredulous expression, Oz smiled slightly and said it was a joke.
He seemed like an odd person.
There was no way he hadn’t heard the rumors about me, and a normal person wouldn’t even dare crack a joke with royalty or nobles.
‘Does that mean he’s that confident in his abilities?’
“So, did you find the book you were looking for?”
“I’d like to borrow this one.”
I held up the book Tyrfing had disguised herself as. Oz examined it closely, then his eyes lit up as he spoke.
“A story about a craftsman who, in a winter of biting winds, remained alone in hell, hammering iron to avenge the resentment of his fallen clan. It’s a good book.”
“You know it?”
Whether it was thanks to the status window or some system assist correction, even I could read the title written on the thick cover.
‘The Final Sword.’
I was slightly surprised by Oz’s words. This book had been tucked away in a rather secluded corner of the archive.
Being able to guess its contents just by glancing at the title was proof of his remarkable insight.
“I am the chief librarian of the imperial archive. I have read most of the books I am authorized to access.”
“Impressive.”
Given that this was the imperial archive, its scale was enormous.
There could be thousands, no, tens of thousands of books, yet he claimed to have read most of those permitted to him.
‘I’ll make you my man no matter what.’
“Then I’ll prepare the loan record for this book.”
“Please do.”
“Ah, and this The Final Sword doesn’t end with a single volume. There are stories that come after, and stories that come before. Unfortunately, this is the only one we have in this archive.”
As he lamented that he couldn’t know the material of the other books, I let most of his words go in one ear and out the other, simply smiling and nodding.
On the way back to my palace.
I encountered several people again, but they all avoided my gaze and instead bowed their heads deeply.
Whether they did or not, I was in a good mood regardless.
The demon sword Tyrfing.
Once her true abilities awakened, she was a weapon powerful enough to contend with the demon race that would later invade the empire, or even dragons, said to be the strongest of all races.
She hadn’t yet acknowledged me as her master, but that was something that could be worked on gradually.
Besides, I knew several sources related to Tyrfing. If I revealed those little by little, coaxing her wouldn’t be a problem.
“Hm?”
When I returned to my room with light steps, there was a woman inside whom I hadn’t seen before.
She, who had been leisurely drinking tea with steam gently rising from it, stood up at my appearance.
“You’ve finally arrived.”
Her striking red hair rustled softly at her waist.
Faced with a beauty who had skin as white as the snow visible beyond the window, I could only stand blankly at the doorway.
“Judging by that expression, it seems you didn’t remember that I said I would be visiting today.”
She let out a sigh and spoke in a slightly petulant tone. Only then did I realize who the woman before me was.
Petra von Leipzig.
Leios’s fiancée and the eldest daughter of the Leipzig Count family.
‘To think I’d see her at this timing.’
The Leipzig Count family had originally been a deeply rooted house worthy of being called prestigious, but for some reason, their fortunes had declined several generations ago.
However, the current Count of Leipzig was a man of great ambition.
For the revival of the family, selling off one’s daughter was no great task. Even if the counterpart was Leios, the emperor’s illegitimate son.
Though it was an unwanted relationship, she too wished for the restoration of her family, and so she willingly accepted her own sacrifice.
Leios’s reputation could hardly be called good. No, in truth, calling it the worst would not be an exaggeration.
Even a corrupt noble who indulged in luxury and debauchery probably would not have been this bad.
But the authority of the imperial family was powerful enough that one would be willing to endure such infamy just to take Leios’s hand, and the Leipzig Count family was desperate.
In the original story, the two were in a relationship where they used and were used by each other.
Bound by the pretense of marriage, it was a relationship of flesh alone, without love.
Yet, at some point, they began to feel a sense of kinship in each other’s appearance, and eventually, they opened their hearts.
They did not know how happy they were to find someone who could at last cradle their wounded hearts. It was clearly a fantasy genre, yet one review even wrote that the dense scent of romance had stimulated the hearts of female readers.
But that too met a disastrous end.
Following her family’s order to betray him, Petra ultimately met death in Leios’s stead.
The lover who died such a futile death.
It sent Leios tumbling into the abyss once more, and in the end, feeding on that rage,
Tyrfing underwent her second awakening.
“…Is there something on my face?”
A beauty ranked within the top five of the world asked with a doubtful expression.
At that, I slightly turned my head, wiped the corner of my eye, and spoke in a low voice.
“It’s nothing.”
“…….”
But her expression did not ease. Well, what woman would like it if the man in front of her were distracted by something else.
But that was the original Leios.
Since I had to play his role outwardly, I deliberately moved with an arrogant expression.
“Sit.”
“…I only intended to see Your Highness’s face and leave, in accordance with my father’s words.”
After letting out a sigh, Petra sat down in front of me. Then, with a serious face, she looked straight at me.
“I heard there was trouble with the other princes.”
“…A little?”
“To call it a little, isn’t the aftermath rather severe?”
At her words, I shut my mouth.
She was referring to the incident where I had nearly been poisoned to death.
Since that was clearly my own blunder, I had nothing to say even if I had ten mouths.
“If I may speak out of turn, Your Highness’s actions affect me, your fiancée, and my family, the Leipzig Count family. So I hope you will be more cautious.”
So, in short, was she telling me to shut up and lie low together.
It rubbed me the wrong way a little, but she was pretty, so I let it slide.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
I said it while nodding, but she still did not withdraw her distrustful gaze, as if she could not yet rely on me.
“Oh, right. What became of the academy matter? I heard it would be announced on the upcoming Founding Day.”
“I haven’t heard anything yet.”
In a few days, Founding Day, commemorating the establishment of the Ribera Empire, was approaching.
Since it marked the day the empire was founded, festivals would be held everywhere, and the imperial palace here was no exception.
And on that day, by the emperor’s command, Leios and August were scheduled to have their academy admissions decided.
Admission to the academy brought about a major change in Leios’s actions, and at the same time, it was the introductory point where the original story began.
I, as the villain, and he, as the protagonist.
That was the start of the main story.
From that moment on, the world would begin to move under the name of story.
“Hu.”
At the sound of a small sigh, I came back to my senses.
No matter how she had taken my reaction, Petra’s face was still dark.
Right, she probably thought she had grabbed hold of a rotten lifeline.
But that thought would soon change.
After Petra left, I carefully reviewed the developments that would occur going forward.
Worried that I might overlook something and ruin things like when I obtained Tyrfing, I went over it two or three times, and only when it was deep into the night was I able to organize the early portion.
With a volume reaching 300 chapters, its roots were unfathomably deep as well.
Scattering foreshadowing and then retrieving it at the appropriate time had been Oneulnal author-nim’s specialty.
Thanks to my memories of working as the editor in charge, even if not everything, I had recorded the rough outline, and I could decide how to make use of it little by little while watching how things unfolded.
“Ugh.”
The time had already passed well beyond midnight.
Parsi, who sometimes slept with me, I had sent to sleep in her own quarters.
I would feel bad if I let her sleep here and she tossed and turned because of the rustling sounds I made.
I wiped the ink from the pen tip and set it down on the desk.
Just as I was about to stretch and head to bed, an unfamiliar voice reached my ears.
“You.”
At such a late hour, there was practically no one who would come looking for me other than Parsi.
My body stiffened reflexively, but at that lisping voice, I was able to identify who it was.
“You’re awake.”
Since when, Tyrfing had been sitting on the edge of the bed, swinging her feet.
At my gaze, she let her jet-black hair, dark like the night itself, flutter as she stood up and approached me.
“What have you been scribbling so diligently until this hour?”
At the stiff tone that did not match her childish, lisping voice, I almost burst out laughing.
I had thought she might charge at me at any moment like earlier and try to snatch away the curse of the Veil, but the hostility I had seen on her face during the day seemed to have subsided somewhat. Instead, what had taken its place was curiosity toward me.
“…Do you know what the Akashic Records are?”
At Tyrfing’s question, I pondered briefly, then brought out an excuse I had thought up some time ago.
“The Akashic Records?”
Perhaps she had never heard of them, as her head tilted.
At the look asking me to explain, I cleared my throat and opened my mouth.
“To put it simply, you could say they are the memory of the world, in which everything of the past, present, and future is recorded.”
“…I’ve heard of something similar. Was it called Idea?”
She did not know the Akashic Records but had heard of Idea.
From a philosophical perspective, I remembered the latter as being more complex, which made it rather ironic.
“Whether it’s the Akashic Records or Idea, the context is the same. The totality of all records. And I glimpsed a part of it.”
“You glimpsed it?”
It was not a lie.
From this world’s perspective, an SSS-Rank Otherworld Absolute was practically no different from the Akashic Records themselves.
Not only had I glimpsed it, but a portion of it even had my stake in it.
…Generously speaking, about five percent?
Tyrfing, seemingly intrigued by my words, came closer to my side and looked down at the parchment on the desk. But there was no way she could read it.
It was written in Hangul, after all.