Chapter 16
Chapter 16
There was a small hole at the very end of it.
I wondered if a rat had gnawed at it, but when I put my finger in, there was room about one joint deep.
With a nagging suspicion, I took out the items in the box one by one and set them down on the floor.
Just as I was about to pry up the bottom.
“Your Highness, you really must leave now.”
“······!”
At the knight’s voice coming from behind me, I was so startled I nearly jumped off the ground.
Only after biting my lip and tasting the metallic tang of blood did I finally calm down, and then I spoke to him in as even a tone as I could manage.
“I will be out shortly.”
“I will wait outside.”
The knight nodded at my words and lingered beyond the door. He was deliberately making noise to hurry me along.
But right now, my attention was fixed on the box before my eyes.
Creeeak, creeeak.
When I put my finger into the hole and applied force, the bottom lifted up and a hidden space revealed itself.
They were all elixirs no bigger than a fingernail, but their lustrous colors made it clear they were no ordinary items.
“There’s even a letter.”
I called up the status window and read through it. To sum it up simply, what was inside were unrecorded bribes.
They were originally meant to be sent to an inspector, but somehow, they had made their way all the way into the Imperial Palace Treasury.
“How many are there?”
Just roughly counting the boxes stacked in the corner, there were over twenty.
Even if only half of them contained things like this, the total amount was beyond estimation.
“…I can’t exactly take these out with me.”
Unrecorded items could disappear without anyone knowing. But if I took them out recklessly and got caught, it would become a headache in more ways than one.
‘…Eat them?’
The status window displayed above the elixirs inside the box caught my eye.
[Strength Elixir]
Slightly increases physical strength.
[Agility Elixir]
Slightly increases agility.
[Mana Elixir]
Slightly increases mana capacity.
There were dozens of boxes’ worth of all kinds of elixirs and potions.
Gulp.
My saliva went down on its own.
…Could I do it?
“You have come out.”
When I exited the Imperial Palace Treasury, the knight who had been waiting for me with undisguised anxiety lighting his face greeted me with relief.
By the Emperor’s command, he checked whether I had taken only three items, and I passed without issue.
“I beg your pardon for my presumption, but will those really suffice?”
After confirming that what I had brought out of the Imperial Palace Treasury were transparent undergarments, an expensive-looking necklace, and an elixir, the knight asked again with a blank expression.
It was a natural reaction for someone who didn’t know their value, but since I couldn’t be bothered to explain, I snorted and spoke to him in an arrogant tone.
“If you find it presumptuous, then refrain from speaking.”
Since I was satisfied, there was nothing more he could say.
The knight fidgeted as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he closed his mouth.
“Let us be on our way.”
“Glory to the Ribera Imperial Family.”
At my attitude without even a trace of hesitation, the knight bowed his head, and I waved my hand perfunctorily as if telling him to get back to work before leaving the place.
“Your Highness, shall I prepare the meal?”
When I returned to the palace, Parsi, who had been cleaning the room, greeted me with a bright smile.
“Prepare something light today.”
I had eaten quite a lot.
To be honest, I wasn’t hungry at all.
I had stuffed myself by consuming dozens of elixirs at once, but I couldn’t give up my enjoyment of fine food, one of my few pleasures.
Soon, following my words, she brought dinner and began checking each dish for poison.
Ever since I had nearly been poisoned, Parsi had been meticulous about anything related to that.
So much so that even when I said I was hungry, she insisted it had to be done and even blocked my utensils.
“I could do it myself.”
There was a small rod beside the utensils. It was something the court mage who had treated me had sent over, said to be a top-grade artifact used to detect poison.
From then on, I had intended to poke my food with it before eating, but because Parsi carried out such thorough inspections, I still hadn’t had the chance to do so myself.
“Thanks for the meal.”
As I ate, I thought about what lay ahead.
At the very least, a basic foundation had been laid.
Considering the Leios von Ribera of the original work, this was undeniably a situation hundreds of times better.
The notorious reputation of being a worthless, incompetent good-for-nothing remained, but through Parsi, I heard rumors that my evaluation had changed at least a little thanks to those who had witnessed the sparring on Foundation Day.
On top of that, when I considered Tyrfing, the demonic sword known as the God-Slaying Blade, and the three treasures taken from the Imperial Palace Treasury, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call me the protagonist rather than the villain.
Now that the minimum conditions had been met, the next most important thing was a sense of purpose.
Whether in a novel or in reality, people lived with some kind of purpose of their own.
Merely carrying out the tasks placed before one’s eyes was no different from being a mere component of society.
If such a development unfolded in a novel, wouldn’t it get hate comments saying the character was too passive and one-dimensional?
The same was true in reality. And I happened to know someone who had lived such a life right up close.
‘That someone was me.’
A life where I failed as a writer, shut myself up in a room, and merely let the days pass one by one.
I somehow became an editor, but even then, without thinking about the future, I focused only on the moment given to me.
Whether by some coincidence or someone’s intention, now that I had entered the novel, I didn’t want to tread the same old path again.
Then what should I, now possessing Leios’s body, do?
Parsi had told me to do what I wanted.
As I read Leios’s story, there had been only one thing I wished for.
“A happy ending.”
I couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed after saying it aloud. It was vague, but was there anything that could convey my desire more accurately than that?
After enduring a miserable life in the Imperial Palace, Leios built his own power, only to meet death at the end of the story.
I wanted to twist his fate, survive to the very end, and welcome a happy future.
If that was the case, then at the very least, I would need power stronger than what Leios had possessed back then.
As far as I could remember, I had recorded all the events that would occur in the future. But that alone wasn’t enough.
I had to prepare thoroughly to make sure there were no gaps, confront things head-on with my whole body, and steer the flow in a direction that benefited me.
If there was any consolation, it was that the cornerstone had now been laid.
[SYSTEM: You have consumed a Strength Elixir. Physical strength increases slightly.]
[STSTEM: You have consumed an Agility Elixir. Your movements become slightly faster.]
[SYSTEM: You have consumed a Mana Elixir. Mana capacity increases slightly.]
…….
…….
…….
Countless alarms occupied one side of my vision.
While I was in the Imperial Palace, I wouldn’t have many chances to act, so I couldn’t feel an immediate, dramatic difference. But once I entered the academy and the world’s story came onto its rails, it would become a massive variable.
I would simply wait calmly for that time.
Clink.
I set my spoon down on the now-empty plate and stood up from my seat. Parsi, who had been waiting, cleared the tableware, and as I put on my coat, I spoke to her.
“I’m going to the training grounds for a bit. If anything comes up, come find me there.”
“Are you going to train?”
Unlike before, Parsi saw me off with a calm expression.
She was the one who used to flinch slightly whenever I said I was going to the training grounds to practice swordsmanship after obtaining Tyrfing.
A few days ago, driven by curiosity, I asked her why, and she said that until now, I had never once stepped forward of my own accord to study anything or train in martial arts.
Since Leios had been hiding his strength, it was understandable that she would be surprised. But after the training that had continued since before Foundation Day, she seemed to have grown accustomed to it, and now there was no particular change.
In my palace, aside from Parsi, only a very small number of people remained.
I had given the attendants and knights time off until the end of the week, telling them to go on vacation, so I walked through the quiet corridors toward the training grounds.
Clatter.
I picked up a steel sword without an edge. Perhaps because I had been using only this lately, the polished hilt fit snugly in my hand.
When I lightly swung it through the air, the blade traced the trajectory exactly as I intended, without dragging me along.
“Tyrfing?”
I cautiously called her name. But perhaps the bitterness from what happened earlier in the Treasury still lingered, because there was no reply.
With no other choice, I began my sword training alone.
After lightly warming up, I slowly started to follow the forms of the Fiore Style that Tyrfing had taught me.
If it were the old me, it would have taken over a year just to memorize those complex forms, but by some trick, I had been able to receive that knowledge directly from Tyrfing.
In other words, my head already knew everything.
All that was left was to unfold it, but knowing something with your head and knowing it with your body were two entirely different things. Mistakes kept coming, and I was met with harsh scoldings.
Thanks to rolling around like that for several days, I was now able to imitate at least one technique fairly convincingly.
With the mindset of getting used to at least one, I repeated only that one to the point of obsession.
The name of the technique was Le Punte(Le Punte).
Swift, single-thrust piercing. It was the secret technique I had finished honing after the spar with August.
Pahng—!
The sound of air bursting reached my ears. But I knew this wasn’t because my skill was exceptional, but because my physical body was.
‘It would be nice if I could move mana like I did back then.’
After the Foundation Day spar, reliving that experience, I succeeded in using mana even while my abilities were sealed by the Curse of the Veil.
However, I couldn’t draw out mana as smoothly as I had during the spar.
Tyrfing said I was thinking too much, but what could I do? Once hardened, an adult’s sensibilities didn’t change easily.
I struggled desperately to draw it out cleanly like I had felt back then, but only an ill-timed fart came out.
“Hoo······.”
With a small deep breath, I let go of my impatience. What was the rush? I could take it slowly. Even a journey of a thousand li began with a single step.
“The Fiore Style, huh······.”
Regretting a sword style I knew but couldn’t use, I muttered quietly. Then, with a chime, a new status window appeared before my eyes.
[SYSTEM: Would you like to activate Fiore Style(Flower of Battle:(Fiore di Battaglia))? Y / N]
“…What?”
Startled by the sudden status window, I quickly regained my composure.
“Yes, yes.”
Carefully raising my hand and pressing Y, multiple trajectories began to appear before my eyes.
They looked just like the lines I had seen countless times before, the ones called system assists.
But unlike then, they were depicting a single movement.
“…Is it telling me to follow it?”
Placing the tip of my sword on the line, I began to move slowly. Sometimes with all my strength and speed, sometimes so slowly I wondered if moving at all was the right call.
As I followed the trajectory, my breathing changed and my steps fell into order. Each muscle responded to the movement, and nothing was wasted.
Before long, I realized it.
This was close to the ideal completion I should be aiming for.
If Darius or Carius were standing in front of me right now—no, even if it were the Emperor himself—I felt confident I could defeat them.
[…What.]
Tyrfing’s voice reached my ears.
She asked in a shocked tone what on earth I had done, but I was immersed in a state of self-forgetfulness that encompassed everything.
Whether because I didn’t answer, or because she realized I was gaining some kind of enlightenment, Tyrfing soon fell silent.
From time to time, she let out words of admiration, signaling that she was watching.
The Fiore Style swordsmanship consisted of techniques from the first form to the thirteenth.
Tyrfing said that as long as one knew the shapes, anyone could follow the first five forms.
But from the latter six forms onward, unless one had reached what people commonly called the realm of a Sword Master, it was impossible even to imitate them.
And yet, my body had already gone beyond the fifth form and reached the sixth.
“······!”