◈ Episode 512. An Unpleasant Matter, Indeed (1)
『Granfell did not take pride in his family’s wealth and glory.』
Back then, I think I’d written that roughly to emphasize Granfell’s nobility, how he didn’t flaunt the halo of his family name…
But thinking about it now gave me chills.
‘Then where the hell did this sky-high self-esteem come from?’
To think it was self-esteem that had welled up purely from within.
‘You’re scary. Seriously.’
That was impressive in a different sense, Granfell.
But even if Granfell tried to disregard the halo of Claudi—
There was no guarantee that I, Lee Hoyeol, would do the same, was there?
‘I’m in a position where every little thing counts.’
The Abyss of Claudi.
For the name of a treasury where the Claudi family’s immense wealth and glory had been accumulated, it left an unpleasant taste in my mouth, but I didn’t shrink back.
A fair price.
I had offered up what was most precious to me.
And hadn’t I entered with my head held high?
‘At the very least, I have the right to take a look at the green tea bags.’
And yet.
‘……
Huh?’
There was nothing?
The vast space was simply empty!!
Oh no.
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
As I said, the Claudi territory had once collapsed in the past.
‘……
Actually, it’d be stranger if it were intact.’
Whether in reality or on the Arcana Continent, grave robbers had no mercy. If there was money to be made, they would dig up even graves; why would they fear a destroyed Claudi family and leave the treasures alone?
‘No wonder it felt too easy.’
With just one green tea bag.
Because I’d thought of eating up the treasures of Claudi for free.
Had I been struck by divine punishment or something?
‘The promise is canceled, Granfell. This time too, we’ll go with discounted green tea after all……’
It was the moment I swallowed a taste in my mouth more bitter than cheap green tea.
Granfell’s voice flowed out between my lips.
It was an order as the head of the Claudi family.
“Reveal your true form before me.”
An action as natural as breathing in and breathing out.
As if it were obvious knowledge one should possess as the head of the family.
The line just now did not feel awkward in the slightest.
‘Is something hidden here?’
So it hadn’t been looted by wicked grave robbers……?
Just as I muttered inwardly while still half in doubt—
Granfell’s unwavering voice continued.
“Even if it once collapsed. Claudi is still Claudi.”
Granfell-style speech.
If I were to unravel its implied meaning… even if the family had been exterminated, before the prestige Claudi had built up, no one would have dared to think of digging through the Claudi territory. That was what it seemed to mean.
‘Wait.’
It wasn’t just baseless nonsense overflowing with confidence…
Until I found it, the Claudi territory had been a hidden piece, hadn’t it?
On top of that, in the Claudi territory, the orders of Granfell, the family head, were absolute.
‘To the point where he could present rules no one could defy.’
Good grief, you forgot something you shouldn’t have, Hoyeol.
What kind of family was Claudi?
At least, what kind of Claudi had I written down in my notebook?
‘It was great enough that no one could covet it.’
That was right.
My dark past.
The moment I acknowledged that dark past once again—
[The Abyss of Claudi reveals its true form.]
My vision flickered, and Claudi’s treasury appeared.
Something poured down from the air like a waterfall.
Before my eyes were gold coins truly comparable to grains of sand on a beach. However, I, Lee Hoyeol, was not bewitched. Was I belatedly taking after the incorruptible Granfell?
……
As if.
If I became incorruptible too, we might end up drinking only green tea until we starved to death from malnutrition, you know? Yes. The reason I, Lee Hoyeol, could remain calm before gold and silver treasures was simple.
‘What is this?’
Achromatic.
The gold and silver treasures that should have been glittering brilliantly had no color at all.
[Pentagram of Pure Knowledge].
Because I possessed knowledge of all minerals.
I merely recognized that the coins were made of gold.
‘To other people’s eyes……’
It wouldn’t have been strange if they mistook them for coins made of stone.
Their color was that shabby.
For a moment, the back of my head rang.
The shock must have been as great as my expectations.
This was why one should never get their hopes up.
However, our Lord Granfell—
“Did I not say it?”
Even in this situation, he nobly scratched at my insides.
“Wealth and glory are nothing but illusions.”
……
No, Granfell.
There’s no need to realize that setting, where anything you say must come true, even in a place like this?! Of course, it wasn’t because of Granfell’s loose tongue that the gold and silver treasures had lost their shine.
My flickering vision.
Because I was seeing color somewhere other than the gold coins.
It was a quest message.
[Hidden Quest: Expose the Abyss]
There is a secret within the Claudi family.
A secret no one has ever uncovered.
Until you realize that secret.
Until you realize its weight.
You shall not be able to wield Claudi’s halo.
—Witness the complete Claudi family. (In Progress)
Claudi’s secret.
‘I may not look it, but I know most things.’
After all, they were settings I had scribbled down.
However, as I had said several times—
Whether my dark past came first, or Claudi came first.
Now that not only Granfell but even the Claudi family had been realized—
How could I be sure of anything anymore?
Besides.
[Understanding of Darkness: 70%]
Even Granfell, who was stuck to me all day long like this, I still only understood seventy percent of what was inside him. So it wouldn’t be strange for there to be at least one secret of Claudi I didn’t know.
But.
‘What’s with the quest objective now?’
The problem was the quest objective.
Where in the current world would there be a “complete Claudi family”……!
Someone might ask me.
Hadn’t I restored the Claudi territory completely with reversal magic?
‘Not at all.’
What I had been able to restore with reversal magic was only an extremely small portion of the Claudi territory. Besides, did “complete Claudi family” here simply refer only to the Claudi territory?
Claudi.
It likely included the prestige of the Claudi family from those days when, under that name, the Arcana Continent trembled, dragons bowed their heads, elves envied them, and even the Empire feared them.
‘Of course.’
With the added bubble of my own status, Lee Hoyeol—
I did think I might be comparable to Claudi.
But I violently shook my head.
No matter how desperate my position was.
‘I absolutely have no intention of officially blabbing it out with my own mouth.’
That meant I could never, even if I died, reveal that I was “Granfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo”……! On that point, Granfell seemed to share the same opinion as me.
“Greatness is not something one reveals for oneself.”
……
Once again, I found myself grateful for that picky taste of his.
Then someone would ask again.
Did that mean I intended to give up on these gold and silver treasures of Claudi?
Glance.
‘Not a chance.’
Among the achromatic gold and silver treasures.
Items that looked incredible at a glance entered my eyes.
Normally, just looking at them would have brought up an information window.
But until I completed the quest, that was out of the question.
‘Think, Hoyeol. Think.’
That was right.
In order to obtain those things.
I needed the desperation to drag out and use everything I had, whether it existed or not.
This was the moment to wrack my brain.
‘There isn’t much time given.’
Only one week.
The time limit was also something I couldn’t forget.
And then, one clue brushed past me.
My thoughts reached the “Space-Time Social Hall,” a space of consciousness relatively free from the flow of time. To be specific, the very top floor of the Space-Time Social Hall.
‘……
The highest-level space-time commission!’
If it was a mythic-grade quest that allowed me to travel between the present and the past?
I had already interfered with the past once and changed reality.
If I simply witnessed Claudi in its complete era in that past—
Couldn’t I eat up this quest for free too……?
‘It says I only have to witness it.’
You’re not dead yet, my little tricks!
If it was a space-time quest, I could be free from the time constraint of one week. In that sense, I did not hesitate. I immediately entered the Space-Time Social Hall.
[Your consciousness enters the “Space-Time Social Hall.”]
With displeased hands, I straightened my clothes.
“One unpleasant matter after another.”
While receiving another scolding from our Lord Granfell, that is.
Still, thank you, Granfell.
For once, you bent that damned stubbornness of yours for my sake.
‘Well, the reason is obvious anyway……’
As expected, it must be because of the premium green tea I promised.
*
The Space-Time Social Hall.
“No matter how many times I see it, this place is fascinating.”
Nam Taemin, Hisagi, Leoni.
The three of them, who had entered the Realm of the Strange and even passed the transcendent qualification examination, met in the Space-Time Social Hall as promised. Of course, even in a place of a different rank, their bickering did not cease.
Thud.
Leoni perched on the table and let out a sigh.
“To think I have to face you guys even here.”
“I’m delighted, Miss Leoni.”
“Gah.”
“Hey, are you crazy? Why would you spit out something that expensive?!”
Hisagi’s greasy manner, which she still could not get used to.
Leoni sprayed from her mouth the Water of Life she had wrung out of Nam Taemin.
Nam Taemin got furious at the sight.
How could he not?
“Do you have any idea how I earned the gold for that? Seriously!”
“Why are you being so petty?”
“You just can’t shake off your berserker habits. I bought it because I felt sorry for you, coming back all wilted like scallions after getting into another fight so quickly, and you spit it right out? You’re hopeless. From next time on, never……”
“What’s with the scallions?”
“Argh, you only pretend not to understand at times like this, don’t you?”
It was like a large dog and a Chihuahua growling at each other.
They had not rented out the Space-Time Social Hall.
Yet coincidentally, only the three of them were currently in the hall.
Hisagi’s snake-like eyes assessed the situation coolly.
“It is only natural, since the Arcana Continent is in upheaval.”
The influence of the rampaging Commander-in-Chief.
It would not be an exaggeration to say the Arcana Continent was changing drastically because of him.
Even if this was a space of consciousness where the flow of time was slow.
“They must not want to miss even a single moment. I understand that well.”
Hisagi bit his lip.
“Because I feel the same.”
“What have you been talking about since earlier?”
“Hey, you drank a mouthful too. Why are you pretending you don’t know?”
Hisagi gave a fake cough and continued.
“Taemin-kun, Miss Leoni. You must not overlook the reason we gathered in this urgent situation. Did you all find it? The final trace of Rise, the Great Sage of the Colossus.”
“You’re changing the subject……”
“Everything is for the Commander-in-Chief.”
“……”
When that name came up, the barbarian and the berserker—
Those two temperaments stopped growling.
Then they immediately listed the information they had gathered.
“I found traces of a great beast going wild in the southwest, but I didn’t find anything that could be called traces of the Great Sage. The mage said there weren’t any mana traces either……”
“Same here.”
“As am I.”
“Did you hear anything from the spirits?”
As a magic spearman and an apprentice mage of the Magic Tower.
Among the three, Hisagi was the one most likely to be able to communicate with spirits. In fact, ever since he had begun to see spirits in their natural state, Hisagi had conversed with them.
However.
“I had already asked Senior Mage Feiyan Lot of the Magic Tower’s Spirit Studies School. I wondered if perhaps the spirits had conveyed any additional news about the Great Sage. But they said even the Spirit Kings had heard nothing about his movements.”
In the end, there was nothing different.
With the tension slackening, Nam Taemin let out a sigh.
Then he glared at the innocent social hall.
“They said he vanished without a trace. So I came here just in case……”
As the Great Sage and a transcendent, he should have been able to enter this social hall. That was why they had entered with one last hope. But as could be seen, the Space-Time Social Hall was completely empty except for themselves.
Nam Taemin shrugged.
“Then should we disband around here and make another appointment?”
Even if the flow of time was slow.
They did not feel at ease spending time idly in such a luxurious place. Hisagi and Leoni felt the same. It was the moment the three were about to leave the social hall.
“Leoni, next time, you’re really buying.”
“What? You’d have better luck taking the liver from a flea.”
“There’s no flea as fierce as you in reality or on the Arcana Continent.”
The vision of those exchanging barbs suddenly flickered.
“!!!”
[The atmosphere of the consciousness, “Space-Time Social Hall,” changes drastically.]
It was an unfamiliar message.
And an unfamiliar presentation.
A melody began to sound by their ears.
~♩♬♩♬♪~
They were not particularly versed in music.
So they could not express it more specifically than that.
But it was excessively sweet and grand.
Thanks to that, they could instinctively tell.
“……
Wh-who is it?”
That the Space-Time Social Hall was playing a melody for an extraordinary “someone” who was about to enter. And that prediction was accurate. A message appeared before the three.
[A VVIP enters the Space-Time Social Hall.]
“V-VVIP……?!”
...
Hey, is anyone listening?
This great VVIP is dying of embarrassment here.
So please, turn off that music……!!