Despite being drunk, Kasim carefully saw to Damon’s bedding after entering the room.
“Thank you.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Damon stared intently at Kasim.
“Listening to your circumstances, it seems you’ve had quite a cruel fate. To have to let go of the person you love against your will.”
Kasim silently shook his head. As if he did not wish to speak any further, he pulled the blanket over himself and replied.
“I’ve already forgotten it. I showed you many disgraceful sights without meaning to. From tomorrow on, I’ll be more careful with my words and actions.”
“There’s no need to hide what’s in your heart, Kasim.”
Damon gazed forlornly up at the ceiling. Sensing the tenderness buried in his voice, Kasim stopped moving.
“Even so, you can send her away by your own will. But there are also those who cannot do even that.”
“……”
Damon slowly turned his gaze toward Kasim.
“Do you remember what I once told you? About the girl who resembled Juliana.”
“I-I remember.”
“I’ll be honest with you. She was my first love, and the only woman in my life.”
Hearing Damon suddenly speak of love made Kasim’s ears perk up. Until now, he had thought there was no one who could understand his sorrow. The pain of love was something only those who had experienced it could truly feel.
“It may be hard to believe, but she is still alive.”
Kasim’s eyes widened. Damon might have been able to live through five hundred years with his magic having reached the extreme, but an ordinary person could never do such a thing.
“H-how…? Then is she also a mage?”
“No. She is trapped in a forced sleep, against her own will.”
The story of Daphne flowed from Damon’s lips. The woman Damon truly loved had been turned to stone by the hand of the Dragon Lord and lay sleeping. At those words, Kasim was overcome by a feeling as though his hair were standing on end.
“T-then Damon has been waiting for her for five hundred years…”
“That’s right. In truth, the chances of saving her are extremely slim. No matter how much I polish my magical ability, how could I break a spell cast by the Dragon Lord? But I will not give up. No matter what method I must seek out, I will save her…”
Every word Damon spoke dripped with firm resolve. At that sight, Kasim could not help but grow solemn. In a word, Damon’s circumstances were far more desperate than his own.
“I-I’m sorry. I was complaining as if I had no worries…”
“No. Both are equally difficult. The issue lies in one’s will. The key is how desperately you want her.”
After hesitating for a moment, Kasim finally revealed what was in his heart.
“To be honest, even now, I want to hold on to her. During the ten years I wandered as a mercenary, there was not a single moment when I forgot her. I can say with certainty that she is everything in my life.”
A red hue was slowly spreading through Kasim’s eyes.
“I thought she must have already married. A woman’s heart is prone to change, isn’t it? I assumed she had already forgotten me and married someone else. So I thought I would keep her carefully in my heart and live alone for the rest of my life. I never dreamed she would wait for me for ten years. If I’m being honest, I feel like running to her even now, kneeling down, and begging her to accept me…”
Tears streamed down from the corners of Kasim’s eyes. They were the tears of a hot-blooded man.
“But it is too late. The situation has worsened too much for me to do anything now. Even if she were to change her mind, how could I cancel a wedding that has already been decided? And I think it would also be impossible to change the hearts of the lord and his wife. They are no different from benefactors to me. I never want to hurt their feelings. That is why, at present, the best thing I can do is quietly leave.”
Damon, who had been listening silently, let out a single remark.
“It’s a problem with many things tangled together. Difficult. Very difficult. But do not lose heart. Heaven never abandons those who strive. There is still a little room left for you to make an effort.”
“……”
“Attend her wedding tomorrow. Shouldn’t you do your utmost until the very end?”
“Wouldn’t that only confuse her heart?”
“No. You never know what may happen in human affairs. Promise me. Promise that you will attend her wedding and watch until the end…”
Kasim, who had been listening quietly, finally nodded.
“Understood. As you say, I will attend the wedding.”
“Good.”
With a smile on his lips, Damon rose from his seat. Seeing him walk straight toward the door, Kasim looked puzzled.
“Where are you going?”
“To get some air…”
Damon cut him off briefly, opened the door, and went out. After watching him for a moment, Kasim sank deep into the bed. Exhausted to the limit and with the alcohol rising in him, Kasim soon fell asleep. Moonlight pouring through the window shone upon his face.
Around that time, in the mansion of the lord of Arne, someone’s sinister chuckle was flowing out.
“Hehehe. If tomorrow’s business goes well, the entire Arne territory will become mine.”
The one wearing a broad smile, looking immensely satisfied, was none other than tomorrow’s groom, Morcer.
“I had heard that the Arne territory was decent, but now that I’m here, it’s beyond imagination. If I handle this well, I’ll be able to scrape together quite a fortune.”
The Arne territory, which he had come to for the first time in his life, was abundant in every way. The faces of the territory’s residents overflowed with vitality, and each one diligently devoted themselves to their livelihoods. Such a scene of the people living so comfortably was something that could never be seen in his father’s territory, Tudret. Morcer suddenly frowned.
“Lord Arne is utterly hopeless when it comes to gathering wealth. There are places everywhere that money could come from, such as poll taxes and bridge tolls. And to think he only takes thirty percent in tenant rent—does that even make sense? Even collecting fifty percent would leave things tight when it comes time to spend. Well, in a backwater countryside like this, would there even be anywhere proper to spend money?”
Though he was aiming for the lordship of Arne, Morcer had no desire whatsoever to live here.
“If I lived in a rural corner like this, I’d probably go mad in less than a year.”
Of course, there was a way. Like other nobles, he could have an agent manage the territory, then obtain a splendid mansion in the capital, Cordo, and live there. That would solve the problem neatly. Though in order to afford the high prices of Cordo, he would have to collect far more taxes and tenant rents from the territory’s residents than now. Morcer suddenly tilted his head.
“By the way, Matilda’s temper didn’t seem ordinary. Will she obediently listen to me? Well, once any woman gets a taste of the capital’s glamorous life, she’ll never want to come back to a country corner like this, so there’s no need to worry.”
As he arranged his plans for the future, his chest filled with satisfaction on its own. After the marriage, he could live for a while in Cordo on the money his father-in-law sent, and once his father-in-law died and the lordship passed to him, he would simply find a suitable administrator and put him in charge. There were more than enough people fit to serve as territory administrators, and every one of them was well versed in scraping money from the residents. Morcer smacked his lips as he thought of the lovers he had left behind in Cordo.
“Still, it’s a pity I can’t meet my lovers. I miss that bitch Christine most of all.”
He already had three lovers in Cordo. To be honest, the money his father, Count Tudret, sent him was barely enough to maintain even those three. But if only financial matters allowed it, Morcer’s honest desire was to keep even more. Thinking of Matilda’s face, still beautiful despite her age, Morcer let out a sinister laugh.
“I’m dying to know what the wedding night will be like. Seeing how jealously she guards herself, she’s definitely inexperienced. Tsk, tsk. How did she manage not to marry until that age…”
As if he could not wait until daybreak, Morcer fidgeted endlessly. If circumstances allowed, he wanted to take her into his arms right now. After all, he had persistently tried to seduce Matilda all this time, but every attempt had come to nothing.
“Let’s endure until tomorrow. If I act at ease, everything will work out…”
Calming his mind, Morcer quietly approached the bed. Moonlight shone brightly upon his back.
The next morning, perhaps because of his hangover, Kasim woke a little late.
“Good grief. To think I, as the captain, would oversleep…”
As Kasim woke in alarm, someone approached him. It was Mitchell, dressed neatly. He held out a set of cleanly ironed clothes to Kasim.
“Please change into these. I ironed them properly.”
“S-sorry.”
Mitchell smiled softly.
“It’s all right. It’s been decided that I’ll accompany you to the wedding, Captain. As you know, I’m the only one whose looks are up to the task—Kuek!”
Thwack.
Behind Mitchell, who clutched his head and sank to the floor, stood Damon with his fist clenched. He glared fiercely at Mitchell.
“You bastard. Does your body itch if you don’t get hit at least once a day?”
“Please don’t do this. Truth can never be obscured by force.”
“Let’s see if you can still say that after one more hit.”
“It was a joke.”
Watching Damon and Mitchell bicker, a smile formed on Kasim’s lips. Considering their relationship not long ago, it was truly a pleasing change. They were exchanging harmless jokes, after all. Damon withdrew his gaze from Mitchell and looked at Kasim with an awkward smile.
“Even so, among our group, this fellow looks the least rough, so take him with you.”
“Understood.”
Having changed clothes, Kasim rose with a smile. A heavy burden lay in one corner of his heart, but he forced himself not to show it.
“We’re thinking of enjoying some fishing. When we flew over on the bone dragon, it seemed there were many fish in the river. We’ll be leisurely fishing there, so in the meantime, take Mitchell and go attend the wedding.”
“You mean the Arke River. I will do so.”
Seeing Kasim nod, Damon put his hand into his clothes and took something out.
“By the way, would you hold on to these for me? It would be bad if I dropped them into the water while fishing.”
“Wh-what are these?”
With his eyes wide, Kasim stared fixedly at what Damon held out. In Damon’s hand lay a red jewel emitting a dazzling radiance and a small, strangely shaped scepter. Its shape was similar to a scepter used by a king, but its size was markedly smaller. Without erasing the smile from his lips, Damon began to explain.
“They may not look like much, but in truth, they are tremendous treasures. First, the red orb is none other than a Dragon Heart. It belongs to a wyrm-class dragon I caught after crossing over to Truvenia.”
“D-Dragon Heart.”
Kasim’s eyes bulged. Since he knew well just how valuable it was, he could not help but be astonished. The thought that he had to take charge of something so incredible made his hands tremble without him realizing it.
“Perhaps if you weren’t the captain, I would not have shown it to anyone. And the second is called the Scepter of Verhazel. This, too, is a treasure that belonged to a dragon. It is a kind of weapon that boasts the greatest power in eliminating undead and demonic beasts.”
Damon reached out and pointed to the lower part of the scepter.
“If mana is injected here, the Scepter of Verhazel instantaneously converts the infused mana into divine power possessing the force of exorcism. To undead and demonic beasts, it is power that can be called their natural enemy. Any demonic beast struck by the divine power of this scepter will not survive unless it is fairly strong. The drawback is that using it consumes an enormous amount of mana. An ordinary paladin likely would not even dare attempt it.”
Having finished speaking, Damon carefully brought the lower part of the Scepter of Verhazel and the Dragon Heart together.
“But if this scepter is combined with a Dragon Heart that contains an immense amount of mana, the result will be beyond imagination. If the Dragon Heart were struck against the lower part of the scepter and shattered, though I cannot say for certain…”
Damon lightly shuddered, as if chills had run through him.
“I have not tested it, but even I or a Death Knight could not dare guarantee our survival. Demonic beasts or undead within a radius of one hundred meters would literally be blown away without a trace…”
“Why are you trying to entrust such an incredible item to me?”
Damon winked one eye.
“I told you in advance, didn’t I? It would be troublesome if it fell into the river… Besides, this can also be seen as joint property of the mercenary band, so I think it best for the captain to hold on to it. In particular, this treasure is no different from a natural enemy to me and the Death Knight. If it were to fall into someone else’s hands by chance, that would be no small matter, so you must keep it securely, Captain. Understood?”
Kasim nodded with a firm expression.
“Understood. I will protect it with my life.”
“Good. Then go on.”
Damon waved his hand with a smiling face. Mitchell, with a bright expression, picked up the cloak and handed it to Kasim.
“Shall we go, Captain?”
“Let’s.”
Kasim and Mitchell quietly left the inn. Damon stared intently at their retreating backs.