Of course, the only beings likely to have any interest in books of magic were the liches, so Verkis had not installed any particular trials in the magic library. That was how deeply he trusted the brainwashing magic he had cast on them.
Liches subjected to the brainwashing magic could not, under any circumstances, take any action that might harm Verkis. For that reason, the other liches would never even think of entering Verkis’s stacks unless ordered to do so. Even Gedenhyde was no exception. Verkis’s shelves had already been engraved into their minds as forbidden ground they must never enter.
But Damon alone was the exception. Only Damon, who was not being controlled by the brainwashing magic, could step into the library without the slightest hesitation.
“It took me thirty years to slip in past the guards’ eyes. And five years to open the door to the magic library, then another five years to dispel the alarm magic inside.”
Though he had become a master of the 6th Circle, Damon had no way to deceive the eyes of the liches guarding the front of the magic library. Every one of them was a magician of the same Circle as Damon.
Because he could not handle more than ten liches of equal skill alone, Damon had no choice but to devise another method.
The method he chose was to dig a long tunnel underground. Thus Damon dug for a full thirty years, until at last he was able to enter the magic stacks. It had taken so long because he had to dig extremely deep in order to avoid the liches’ notice.
After many twists and turns, he managed to enter the magic stacks, but that was not the end of it. To remove the magic sealing the door of the magic library, he had to spend another long stretch of time. Of course, removing the alarm magic inside the library was no easy task either.
But he did not grow impatient. He unraveled each knot steadily, one by one, and at last the magic books Verkis favored fell into his hands. Holding the magic books, Damon shed tears of emotion at the passion surging up within him.
“It’s done.”
From that moment on, he began training in high-level magic. Of course, since they were a dragon’s magic books, mastering them was by no means easy, but he quite literally staked his life on it. Because he had enough time, he studied them methodically, unraveling their principles, and in that process he was able to gain a vast amount of knowledge.
Since he had no teacher to ask about what he did not know, he had to extract the answers through exhaustive research. Because he leafed through beginner-level magic books countless times in search of solutions, he was able to master almost every kind of magic to its utmost degree. And that process proved an enormous help to his magical ability.
Thus, after two hundred years of effort, Damon was able to become a master of the 9th Circle. A realm surpassing Gedenhyde, who was an expert of the 9th Circle. This was, quite literally, the limit of magic a human could learn. Of course, Damon’s blood-soaked efforts played a part, but this achievement was a realm he could never have reached had he not become a lich. For humans had the limitation known as lifespan…
Now he possessed enough magical ability that even if he faced Gedenhyde one-on-one, he would not be easily overwhelmed. Though it had been somewhat diminished because he had become a lich, when his movements and practical combat experience were taken into account, his chances seemed more than sufficient.
But since he could not reveal his true identity rashly, he still had to keep himself thoroughly hidden.
That was because he still lacked confidence when it came to Verkis.
For that reason, he made up his mind to restore all of the sorcery he had learned in the past. Though internal energy was essential for casting sorcery, considering that he had become able to operate an enormous amount of mana at once as his Circle rose, Damon had long studied a method of having mana substitute for internal energy.
After dozens of years of diligent cultivation, Damon finally became capable of using sorcery. It was an achievement he accomplished after becoming an expert of the 7th Circle. By employing it, Damon was finally able to deceive Gedenhyde’s eyes perfectly. Various sorceries and arts that concealed him completely made it so that, in Gedenhyde’s eyes, Damon’s realm always appeared to be only around the 6th Circle.
That concealment was maintained until Damon became a master of the 9th Circle. Once he surpassed Gedenhyde’s realm, hiding from his eyes and ears became even easier…
But despite all that, Damon was still not satisfied. Though he had become a master of the 9th Circle and had regained his sorcery, that alone was not enough to dare challenge a dragon. Any dragon that had matured to some extent had to be regarded as an archmage surpassing the 10th Circle. If so, even his magical attacks would have to be considered almost ineffective against a dragon. Therefore, following his master’s last words, Damon turned his gaze elsewhere.
He chose the path of becoming a necromancer. Recalling that time, Damon muttered quietly.
“That wasn’t very difficult.”
Verkis’s magic library was piled high with an enormous number of books on black magic and Necromancy. They had likely been acquired when the Great Demon King Nidelhark was sealed.
Damon once again found himself with a considerable amount of research to undertake, and once again he had to devote himself to study upon study. If he became a necromancer and joined forces with high-ranking undead monsters, dealing with a dragon would become far easier.
Another hundred years passed while he researched that process. In the end, Damon did manage to learn most necromancer techniques. But there, Damon ran into a second barrier. It was the problem of time, something he had believed he had already transcended.
“To summon undead monsters capable of facing a dragon, an enormous amount of dark magical power is required. To gather the magical power needed to assemble undead monsters, I would need to devote at least two hundred years to research. There is a limit to the magical power that can be used in the human world. But the dragons’ sleep period will end in ten more years.”
Of course, he could now deceive the eyes and ears of Gedenhyde and the other liches, but when it came to Verkis alone, he had no confidence whatsoever. Verkis, a master of mind magic, would surely notice the magical realm he had achieved in an instant. In other words, if Verkis awoke, there was a high possibility that Damon would be unable to fulfill his dream. No matter that he was a master of the 9th Circle, there was one being alone—Verkis—against whom he had no means of resistance. Of course, fleeing was impossible as well. No matter where in the world he ran, he could not escape Verkis’s grasp.
“Verkis possesses the Life Force Vessels of all the liches, including me. If that bastard were to notice and shatter my vessel, I would be annihilated on the spot.”
Of course, it was not as though he had made no attempts at all to escape Verkis’s grasp. After gaining power, the first thing Damon tried to do was steal the vessel that contained his life force. But the Life Force Vessel was already somewhere beyond his reach. The place where Verkis slept was located in an area perfectly isolated from the outside, and even with Damon’s abilities, he could not bring himself to imagine breaking into it. If he attempted to force his way through, the alarm magic inside would sound immediately. If that happened, Verkis would awaken, and Damon would surely be annihilated on the spot. As long as the Life Force Vessel was in Verkis’s grasp, he could never act rashly. Therefore, Damon tried to find a solution from another direction.
“They said the dragons possess the orb in which the Great Demon King Nidelhark is sealed. If I can obtain that orb and use its magical power, I can summon powerful undead monsters in a short time. On a scale sufficient to face a dragon…”
But that, too, was not an easy task. First of all, the orb sealing Nidelhark did not exist in Verkis’s lair, and moreover, before anything else, he had to somehow retrieve his Life Force Vessel. Not a single thing seemed simple, but Damon never lost courage.
“No matter what happens, I will do it. After I save Daphne, I will slaughter every dragon I see, one after another…”
In one sense it was an arrogant vow, and in another it seemed impossible, but Damon’s resolve was already firm. Feeling that his chest had been completely restored, Damon rose to his feet.
“Tonight, I’ll have to make a trip to Verkis’s stacks. I’ve already read through every book there, but there’s something I need to look up…”
He moved slowly. Damon’s face, as he headed toward the lair, had once again returned to expressionlessness.
The continent of Arcadia was a new continent exactly one and a half times larger than the continent of Truvenia. Though Truvenia, its place of origin, was walking the path of ruin, the humans of the new continent Arcadia were continuing to develop further and further.
Since it had been discovered by chance by sailors exactly five hundred and fifty years ago, many people had set foot on Arcadia. Their descendants continued expanding their territory throughout the continent. Thanks to the vast, fertile lands spread out before them and the rivers that crossed the continent in every direction, humans were able to reap abundant harvests, and as a result, the population of Arcadia’s humans grew by leaps and bounds.
Most of the ancestors of the people living here were those who had been driven out of Truvenia. Those who had committed crimes, or who, due to religious conflicts, had set foot on the new continent half by their own will and half against it. They bravely fought against the ferocious monsters that attacked without end and pioneered the new continent.
Several kingdoms were established throughout the continent, and based on the blood and sweat shed by the settlers during the pioneering process, those kingdoms were gradually coming to enjoy prosperity. From enormous empires with powerful military strength to small kingdoms on the frontier, Arcadia was undergoing a course of development completely different from that of Truvenia, its origin. But if asked to name the strongest nation among those countless kingdoms, people would undoubtedly choose the Kingdom of Crossen.
As an empire personally founded by the hero who saved the nation, Great Emperor Crossen, the imperial throne of the Crossen Empire was still being inherited by his descendants. It was the nation with the largest territory and most powerful military strength in Arcadia, but even apart from that fact, the kings of the other kingdoms sent boundless reverence toward the Emperor of Crossen. Simply being a descendant of Great Emperor Crossen was qualification enough to be revered…
The kingdoms of Arcadia generally took forms entirely different from those of Truvenia, their origin. Most kingdoms of Truvenia were typical feudal states, where the monarch granted fiefs to lords and knights in exchange for oaths of loyalty. Of course, there were many nobles without fiefs, and there was no way there would not be nobles who were frantic to receive one. Therefore, if one fell out of the monarch’s favor, the noble in question and their household were liable to become penniless overnight.
—I hereby dismiss so-and-so of such-and-such fief from the position of lord.
If such a proclamation was made, countless nobles and knights without fiefs would never miss such a golden opportunity. If they drove him out, they themselves could become the new lord of that territory. Thus, once an edict was issued, such people would surely swarm in like bees and launch an attack, and the fallen lord would be unable to properly preserve not only his territory, but even his life. For that reason, even though there were nobles who had more soldiers than the king, they did not dare dream of encroaching on royal authority. That was the reality of Truvenia.
Under this feudal system, Truvenia had firmly established royal power.
But the kingdoms of Arcadia were different. They were centralized states in which the monarch held more than half of the kingdom’s military strength, and each lord was strictly limited in the number of soldiers he could possess. Since most of the kingdom’s monarchs had crossed over alone and gathered people to establish their kingdoms, they were naturally weak in terms of history and legitimacy. Therefore, royal authority could not help but always be under threat. To overcome that, the monarchs made it a principle to keep most of the kingdom’s soldiers under their own command—as far as they could sustain them.
Of course, there were frequent cases where nobles secretly gathered soldiers, drove out the monarch, and became king themselves. In such cases, the surrounding kingdoms would tolerate the new king as long as they suffered no particular harm.
This was precisely the influence that Great Emperor Krosen had exerted on the kingdoms of Arcadia. After
founding the Krosen Empire, the Great Emperor left behind these words.
“Everything is decided by one’s own ability. This has been my belief throughout my life.
Come! If there is anyone more skilled than I in swordsmanship, and confident he can rule better than I…….
Then, through a fair and honorable duel, I shall hand over my position.”
Of course, there was no one who would dare challenge Great Emperor Krosen’s supremacy. As the saying went, there were no weak soldiers
under a valiant general, and beneath him, the strongest order of knights in Arcadia—the Krosen Knights—stood with eyes wide open,
ever vigilant. They were so deeply loyal that, at Great Emperor Krosen’s command, they would leap into the jaws of death
without the slightest hesitation. Moreover, all five sons born to Great Emperor Krosen grew into outstanding Sword
Masters, allowing him to live out his natural span in great peace.
Rather, that influence spread even more powerfully to the other kingdoms. Ambitious lords
secretly gathered soldiers and trained them, and whenever an opportunity arose, they did not hesitate to constantly challenge
royal authority. Their reason was a single-minded desire to become king themselves.
Of course, monarchs likewise always had to prepare for challenges from the nobility, and thanks to that,
it became extremely common in Arcadia for the seat of ruler to change hands. Unlike Truvania,
one could never preserve the throne without ability.
As it has long been said that war is what most advances human affairs, because they underwent ceaseless challenges and trials,
the underlying strength of Arcadia’s kingdoms continued to grow day by day.
The monsters that had at first been an enormous threat to humans had now declined so far that it was difficult for them even
to maintain their existence. To the soldiers of Arcadia, tempered by repeated wars,
monsters could no longer be fearsome enemies. Of course, it was not as though Arcadia had
no dragons, but their numbers were not particularly great, and the fact that most of them hid themselves deep in the mountains
may also have played a significant role in humanity’s prosperity.
This was because the dragons here were not as warlike as the dragons of Truvania. Based on
all of this, Arcadia was gradually becoming a continent for humans alone.
Felzentin, the capital of the Krosen Empire.
Though it possessed a history of only five hundred years, Felzentin had grown into a truly immense city.
As befitted the capital of the strongest nation in Arcadia, it possessed a vast population, and the defensive facilities
on its outskirts also appeared to be well maintained. Judged solely by scale, it was by no means inferior to
Feldrian, the capital of Icarotte, which had vanished into the back pages of history. Though it could not match Feldrian
in terms of antique elegance, Felzentin was a city with its own distinctive characteristics.
With its well-maintained road network and buildings constructed in a radial pattern, one could tell at a glance that it was a city
built for the purpose of defense.
At the center of that radial pattern stood the imperial palace. It was where the aged Emperor Valensius I
resided, and also the place where the high officials who led the empire carried out their duties.
Yet from one part of the imperial palace, a long sigh suddenly escaped.
“Hoo.”
The place from which the sigh had come was none other than the consul’s office. The consul, a position
so high-ranking that it rivaled the prime minister. This was an office that had not existed in Truvania. Appointed directly
by the king to prevent the prime minister, who was chosen from among the nobles by majority vote, from running unchecked,
it was originally an extremely high post whose role was to cooperate with the prime minister and discuss affairs of state.
If the king approved major matters such as wars with other countries or the levying of taxes, then these two
possessed the authority to decide comparatively detailed matters. Of course, though they might be considered minor,
as they were affairs of state for a vast empire, they could never be treated lightly. Yet for a sigh-laden
lament to burst out from such a consul’s office was an exceedingly unusual occurrence. Soon, the window opened, and the owner
of the sigh revealed himself.
“This is truly troubling.”
The consul who revealed himself was, unexpectedly, a very young man. He was around his mid-thirties,
an age that could be called unprecedented for a consul, and a middle-aged man of quite handsome appearance.
Judging by his clear eyes, he clearly possessed no ordinary wisdom, and his tightly closed
lips seemed to speak of firm willpower. Yet contrary to his impressive appearance,
his face was now deeply furrowed. Even at a glance, he looked as though matters were not proceeding
as he wished.