0. The Enthronement Ceremony>There was something commoners had always wondered: who was it that decided a noble’s rank?
There were no clear standards. And yet, they said that to higher nobles, it was plain to see. Thus, when a viscount looked, he could see the difference between the realms of a baron and a viscount; when a count looked, he could distinguish between the realms of a count and a viscount. In other words, ranks were decided by nobles of a higher station.
Then who, indeed, could judge a duke?
Naturally, only another duke.
The noble houses across the continent were in an uproar. From marquisates to counties, from counties to viscounties. News began spreading in every direction, enough to set the vast continent astir.The birth of a duke, something that happened only a handful of times in a century. And the method of being acknowledged as a duke was simple: a contest against the duke born just before. Strictly speaking, there was no need for it, but until now, this ducal enthronement ceremony had continued like a relay. There was even a joke among the public that dukes deliberately sought it out to escape being the youngest.
The nobles who heard the news grew feverish. They wondered whether they might be able to witness the duel of the century. Especially since the most recent enthronement ceremony of Duke Conrad had taken place in secret, away from those around him, the people’s longing was even greater.
Regarding this, Duke Carltonheim and Duke Conrad readily agreed.
And among those nobles was Viscount Kokul.
Sian, Steel, and Viscount Kokul were cutting straight across the plains, pursuing the resonance of Acra.
Viscount Kokul had no hesitation in speaking respectfully to the young-looking Sian. After all, one could not judge a person’s age by appearance at all. And if he was as strong as Viscount Roke had said, then despite his youthful looks, he must have lived for several centuries.
“Hmm… Was it all right for those two barons from earlier not to come?”
“The area around Carltonheim is fine, but… near our territory, Narija-class species are fairly abundant, so I feel more at ease leaving them behind…….”
“Mm? Are there almost no hostile races around Carltonheim?”
“About three hundred years ago, I believe… an Alpha appeared, and it was apparently quite threatening, so they carried out a large-scale subjugation. Since then, only weaker races and friendly species have remained. They say they uprooted them so savagely that the hostile races who saw it never even thought of coming.”
“Huh…….”
Hearing that, Sian thought of the Gran and nodded. Even though the threat had passed, Viscount Roke was still joining forces with nearby nobles to comb through the whole forest and hunt the Gran. Sian had told him there would no longer be such incidents, but he did not seem particularly inclined to listen.
“How curious. Has everyone been burned badly before?”
If they cleaned things out that way, there should be no Rotan-class hostile species left in the vicinity. And yet the nobles were excessively afraid of the birth of a Rotan-class hostile species. No matter how much trouble those things called the Swarm and Murakan had caused, that had been three thousand years ago. From what Sian had heard, even a duke’s lifespan was only a thousand years, so there should be no one alive who had experienced those days. This reaction was strange.
At those words, Viscount Kokul trembled all over, as if some unpleasant memory had surfaced.
“Uuuugh.”
“Mm?”
“It’s nothing. I just remembered something unpleasant…….”
And at Viscount Kokul’s explanation that followed, Sian clicked his tongue.
“Huh… Nobles go through that when they rise in rank?”
“To be precise… they go through it when they go to receive a Kiculus sapling.”
It was impossible for a baron, but once one reached the level of a viscount, everyone wanted to possess a protected territory where a Kiculus tree had been planted. It allowed them to grow their power far more stably.
Kiculus trees were now distributed by the Ducal House Lorval. They had been developed by the Marquis House Kiculus, but after Marquis Kiculus became a duke, he handed the secret method over to the Ducal House Lorval.
At first, viscounts visited the Ducal House Lorval with nervous hearts. That was because nobles who had already received saplings threatened them, saying that one always had to pay a great price.
The Ducal House Lorval. A powerful group capable of imposing responsibility upon nobles who feared nothing and sought only rights.
“Wow… They’re more reckless than I expected.”
The methods of the Ducal House Lorval, said to support the human race, were more extreme and crude than expected. But the effect was certain. With a simple method and a few kinds of special abilities, they had steadily made the human race of this continent powerful. In fact, the number of Kiculus continued to grow, and the number of nobles continued to increase as well.
“On top of that… every time a noble with a protected territory rises in rank, they get dragged there again. Hoo…….”
“…….”
In the case of a marquis, he would be dragged there as many as three times in order to protect that noble domain, and the higher his realm became, the more helpful he was in guarding the border, so he was often held there for even longer. What the Ducal House Lorval said each time was similar.
“Huh… It’s like the Great Northern Wall, though they get dragged there by force.”
As they chatted about this and that, the three kicked off the ground and advanced swiftly. Perhaps because Viscount Kokul had been to the Carltonheim Marquisate before, he did not bother stopping by any territory to ask for directions. Following the faint rise and fall of the resonance, he kept changing direction here and there as he steadily moved onward. Matching his pace felt a little slow, but there was no urgent business, and having someone to talk to made it interesting, since Sian could hear about this world.
After running for quite some time, something began to appear faintly beyond the far horizon.
Seeing it, Steel tilted his head. The resonance was still faint, so it seemed they still had a long way to go.
“Don’t tell me that’s…….”
“Yes, that’s right. The Kiculus of the Carltonheim Marquisate is beginning to come into view.”
“Wow…….”
Steel let out an exclamation mid-run.
Its overwhelming size was visible even from far away. Compared to that tree, the Kiculus in Viscount Roke’s territory was child’s play. It was an enormous tree rooted as if it would swallow an entire stretch of mountain range.
“Haha. That is why that Kiculus is nicknamed
“Oh, it even has a nickname?”
“Of course. Once a Kiculus belongs to a marquisate, there are not many of them. And even among protected territories, the Kiculus of the Carltonheim Marquisate is a little unusual.”
“Hmm? What’s unusual about it?”
“I said earlier that normally, one becomes a noble, rises to the realm of a viscount, and receives a Kiculus sapling from House Lorval, did I not?”
“You did.”
“But the Kiculus of several marquis houses are a little different.”
“Hmm… Why is that?”
At Steel’s question, Viscount Kokul smiled and answered.
“How many years does that tree look as though it has grown?”
“Hmm… It certainly doesn’t look like something that grew for only a few decades, does it?”
Nobles had long lifespans, but even so, raising a tree like that while aging along with it seemed impossible.
“That’s right. That is a tree that has been grown since the time Kiculus was first created. After the rebellion of Murakan and the Swarm, when the number of nobles drastically decreased, it was established and has grown until now.”
“Hmm? Didn’t you say it grows by receiving a noble’s energy?”
“That is correct. At the time, the number of surviving commoners and nobles had plummeted, and Rotan races took advantage of that gap to greatly expand their power. Because of that, nobles and commoners had no choice but to gather together, centering around the marquises, who at least had some numbers. At that time, a total of twenty-one Kiculus trees were established throughout human territory. And while House Lorval was holding back the Swarm and Murakan, commoners and all the nobles joined forces around the Kiculus and the marquises and began raising them.”
“Hmm…….”
“After that, they gradually expanded their power around the twenty-one Kiculus, pushed back other races, and beneath the marquises, counts and viscounts began establishing their own protected territories and spreading outward. That Kiculus Vladek before our eyes is also one that has grown while aging for three thousand years.”
“Twenty-one… Then only the powerful among the marquises can possess them?”
“That is correct. Even among Kiculus belonging to marquis houses, they are not the same Kiculus. And there is a separate name for those twenty-one Kiculus.”
“Oh… What is it?”
“They are called
“Duke’s Nests…….”
“Marquises powerful enough to take possession of those Kiculus almost always become dukes. Put another way, if one wants to become a duke, one must possess a Kiculus of that enormous size and grow while being constantly supplied with Acra. A marquis who embraces such a Duke’s Nest and continuously raises his realm ultimately reaches the realm of a duke. And when he leaves his protected territory, another marquis inherits that Duke’s Nest.”
“I see… So that’s why you said it wasn’t raised by one person. Because one person did not raise it.”
“Exactly. Conversely, you could say those Kiculus raise marquises. Moreover, they say the dukes who trained with those Kiculus… come to possess some unusual special ability. In many ways, they are trees that make humanity stronger.”
After talking about this and that while running for quite some time, they were eventually able to reach the vicinity of Vladek’s roots.
“Hmm… What do we do for lodging?”
“Haha, nobles can stay inside the trunk. I imagine a considerable number have gathered already.”
“Oh… Already?”
“Well… they did say they would arrive soon. If they are dukes, they can follow the resonance of Kiculus more quickly. This way, please.”
Viscount Kokul took the lead and ran, guiding the two toward Vladek’s lodgings.☆ ☆ ☆“Hmm… Just what tree did he grow up beside…….”
Duke Carltonheim pondered deeply as he read the information about Duke Conrad. At first, he had thought Conrad might be a self-made type who had grown independently without relying on a tree, but from what he had heard, Conrad used all kinds of special abilities. And an astonishing variety of them, at that.
“Well… I’ll know once we cross blades.”
He would know once they clashed. Carltonheim, thinking of the soon-to-arrive Con
He smiled pleasantly as he waited for -rad.
☆ ☆ ☆
‘Are those the self-made types who supposedly appeared recently? Hmm… It certainly seems Count Karim won’t be enough anymore.’
Marquis Ritzen, who possessed a marquisate in the southern region, said this as he looked at the two who had newly entered the pillar. The woman was undeniably strong. Strong enough that, if she possessed a protectorate and trained steadily, she could reach the realm of a marquis. The resonance of Akra filling her entire body showed as much. Count Karim was fairly strong even among counts, but against someone of that level, he would not have had an easy time. He had probably attacked her believing she had no Akra, but now that her Akra had grown, he would lose if they clashed.
What interested the marquis, however, was not the woman, whose strength was plain to see, but the man.
The one who had single-handedly wiped out all those mutant dwarves among whom an Alpha had appeared. From the rumors that had spread from Viscount Lok, even Ritzen himself would have struggled against forces of that scale. In fact, that fool Count Karim was said to have made advances on the woman and then been beaten mercilessly by the man. Since there was no resonance of Akra from him, it was impossible to know for certain, but if the rumors were true, he was at least marquis-class.
That was precisely why those gathered here were wary of the two of them.
Once Duke Carltonheim left this territory after his duel with Conrad, another competitor for a marquis’s seat might take root here in Vladek.
That was also why Marquis Ritzen had come all the way to Vladek, despite the considerable distance. Of course, a battle between dukes was an opportunity even a marquis could not afford to miss. But that alone was not enough to explain the number of marquises gathered here.
‘As expected of Vladek…….’
The Kiculus protectorate he had nurtured since his days as a viscount was not small, but compared to the Kiculus here, it seemed shabby. The immense amount of Akra supplied by a staggering number of commoners, combined with the energy harbored by Vladek itself, was enough to make Marquis Ritzen dizzy. He had heard that even among Kiculus trees belonging to marquises, there were great differences, but to think it would be to this extent… Seeing it in person only made him covet it more. The marquises around him were probably thinking the same thing.
But all of that was something to consider after the battle ended. A duel between dukes would surely have much to offer.
Marquis Ritzen looked up toward the upper reaches of Vladek, where the dukes stood, determined not to miss even a single moment of the battle. The battle would take place some distance from Vladek, but from here, it would be more than enough to watch.
☆ ☆ ☆
“It seems the commoners are all hiding inside the roots.”
Sian said as he looked outside from within the pillar. The interior was bustling with nobles who had taken places in order to watch the duel between dukes that would soon begin. The commoners, however, were hiding deep inside the roots, in the innermost depths, not moving an inch. Thanks to that, unlike the pillar, the area around the roots was as silent as a ghost city.
“That is correct. Once the duel begins, even the aftereffects alone will be considerable… Vladek should offset the aftermath to some degree. Though there is some distance… from the commoners’ perspective, being inside Vladek would be safest.”
“…
I thought the nobles would at least try to watch from a little closer, but they’re all inside here too.”
At that, Viscount Kokul smiled awkwardly and said,
“Haha. Well, it is a duel between dukes, after all. And it will be visible even from far away, so there is no need to get that close. In any case, we will also get to see the supernatural ability the duke obtained this time. Duke Carltonheim only ascended recently, so no one has confirmed his power yet. As for Duke Conrad, well, there are only a great many rumors… It should be quite a spectacle in many ways. I suspect they will fight over by that mountainside. The nobles have always complained that crossing that mountain is troublesome. If they erase it on this occasion, it would be convenient.”
At those words, Sian nodded.
‘That man Conrad… I’ll have to meet him after this is over…….’
They said it would not go so far as a duel where one side killed the other, so even if he asked after the duel whether he was the Conrad he knew, it would not be too late.
“By the way… they’ve arrived, so why haven’t they started?”
“Well, they’re both dukes, so they must have a lot to talk about. Let’s wait.”
Sian had clearly seen a powerful aura heading toward the top of the tree, and when the duel did not begin, he grew curious. Steel answered indifferently.
☆ ☆ ☆
Two figures stood upon a branch near the very top of the towering Vladek.
“Good to meet you. Which tree did you grow up under?”
Carltonheim muttered as he looked at Conrad before him. He had only heard rumors and had not known what level the man had reached, but seeing him like this made it clear. A state that could no longer change either internally or externally—the limit of the human species.
He had the appearance of a young girl, but that did not matter. He was unmistakably a duke.
“Is that important? Hehe, in any case, good to meet you. You reached the realm of a duke much faster than expected… I was handling matters elsewhere, so I was a bit late.”
Conrad, who possessed the body of Kal-Kirat, had grown somewhat over the past five years and now looked like a young lady, but in the eyes of Carltonheim, who had lived for hundreds of years, it was merely the body of a child.
“In any case… seeing as you accepted so readily, you must be confident.”
Carltonheim said, slightly frowning. No matter who had reached the realm of a duke first, those blocked by the wall would have their strength determined by the additional abilities they had acquired and how they operated them. And Carltonheim himself was confident in the supernatural ability he had obtained upon reaching the realm of a duke.
Hearing Carltonheim’s words, Conrad smiled and answered.
“Well… that is not the case. In truth, the main reason I came here was to make you an offer to join.”
Duke Carltonheim looked curious as he asked in return,
“Hmm… an offer. What sort of offer did you come to make?”
“Since you have only just become a duke, there must be much you do not know. Well… I have not been in for even five years myself… so I have no intention of acting like your senior, but I happened to be traveling around, so I was given this mission. That is…….”
“Are you, by any chance, already part of the House of Duke Lorval as well?”
Hearing that, Conrad looked at Duke Carltonheim with a strange expression.
“…
Where did you hear that?”
Unlike Conrad’s expression, however, Carltonheim looked as though his interest had waned.
“Well… there are ways of knowing such things. As if that were some great secret.”
“…
It should not be.”
Conrad’s expression gradually hardened.
“In any case, this is a bit unexpected… Did you not skip the enthronement ceremony?”
Duke Carltonheim ignored Conrad’s words and asked about what he himself was curious about.
“Well… my case is a bit unusual, so I only received an offer to join. Talented people like me are popular wherever we go. Even on this side, as it happens. But that hardly matters, does it? We only need to fight once, and then I can decide whether to join.”
As Carltonheim continued speaking informally, Conrad seemed to feel no further need to be polite and changed his tone, returning to his original way of speaking. In truth, if he added up the ages of his reincarnations, he was certainly not beneath this man. And from earlier, he had begun to like this fellow less and less. Something about him felt unpleasant.
“No… it matters a little. If contact with you is lost, that bastard Lorval will know something has happened, won’t he?”
“…….”
Conrad’s expression had now hardened so frighteningly that it turned almost blank.
“…
They’ve already broken through.”
“Hehe, you ran around so diligently repairing the barrier, so shouldn’t you have expected at least this much? I wondered what pretext I could use to summon you, but to think an enthronement ceremony had come into being in the meantime… how convenient. You came at just the right time. Without you, the barrier repairs will be delayed a bit… we’ll gain time… Perfect.”
“…
Damn it.”
Duke Conrad grimaced and drew up the power throughout his entire body. His opponent clearly had no intention of letting him leave peacefully. Seeing his entire body being dyed black, he seemed determined to go all out.
When Conrad saw the status window floating before his eyes, his mood worsened even further.
[Escape]
-While the barrier was being repaired, the enemy penetrated through the opening and invaded.
-Escape this place and inform the House of Duke Lorval of the invasion.
Even against Vladek, he would have to get away from it to fight on favorable terms, but his opponent would probably never allow that. Why would he give up a location advantageous to himself?
At the same time Conrad frowned, Duke Carltonheim smiled pleasantly and charged toward him.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hmm… Viscount Kokul.”
“What is it?”
Viscount Kokul looked back in puzzlement at Sian, who was suddenly staring at him with a grave expression.
“Didn’t you say… the dukes’ enthronement ceremony would be carried out a little farther away so that people wouldn’t get hurt?”
“That is right. No matter how well Vladek can withstand it… the aftermath will be considerable.”
“Then everyone should run.”
“Pardon?”
No sooner had he finished speaking than an enormous sound of ruptured air rang out from above.
Kuuuuung.
“Gah… What is this?”
“Brother? What’s going on?”
Steel frowned and looked upward. In truth, she had a rough idea of what had happened as well. Conrad and Carltonheim had probably begun fighting above. She only asked because she thought her brother might know something more detailed.
“Good grief… I thought people at the level of a duke would be a little more civilized… We should get out as well.”
If they stayed here, Miss Steel would be caught up in it too. The moment he thought they should move away first and then mediate, a strange vibration suddenly began to sound from all around them.
At the same time, the nobles began collapsing, clutching their heads.
“Urgh… What is this…….”
Sian frowned. The marquis’s protectorate, which had until now only been drawing in a fixed amount of Akra, was now absorbing energy at a ferocious rate. He himself was unaffected, but the nobles and commoners who possessed Akra were all suffering because of it.
And the greater problem was that Miss Steel was included among them.
☆ ☆ ☆
“…
What did you just do?”
Duke Conrad, in the midst of attacking with miracles wrapped around his entire body, frowned at the strange suction force he felt beneath his feet and asked. He did not expect an answer, but the unpleasant sensation from below was too irritating to ignore and pass over.
Unexpectedly, Duke Carltonheim answered kindly.
“What else? It’s been a long time since so much food gathered here. How could I just let it go? I even spread the rumors on purpose to lure them in and gave them plenty of time.”
“You prepared thoroughly… When did you get in?”
“Well… for nearly five years, the barrier has been weakening. How could we just sit and watch? One thing led to another, and we got in.”
“Damn it… So Apental weakening was the problem after all…….”
Conrad spat a curse.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Huh… What am I supposed to do about this…….”
Whether the Akra had broken down or gone mad, he did not know, but it was being sucked into the Kiculus tree at a ferocious rate. As evidence, the commoners and nobles around him seemed to have lost their strength and could not come to their senses. Those at the level of marquises or counts were managing to keep their wits and trying to get outside the range, but the roots of Vladek, a Kiculus of a marquisate, spread far too extensively to begin with. It did not look easy to leisurely escape while enduring the resonance of Akra raging inside their bodies and the energy being drained from them.
On top of that, as the clash between Conrad and Carltonheim above seemed to grow more intense, increasingly dangerous energy was reaching all the way down here. Vladek was still blocking it for now, but if the range of destruction expanded even a little more, all the nobles and commoners here would be in danger.
‘This doesn’t seem normal…….’
This was his first time seeing something called an enthronement ceremony, but if the others had known about this, they would not have remained inside the tree like this.
After a moment of thought, Sian first tucked Steel and Viscount Kokul under either arm. Then he began moving out of the tree at high speed. It would be good to save others too, but for now, the lives of the people he knew came first.
☆ ☆ ☆
Carltonheim smiled pleasantly.
‘Lorval… you son of a bitch, we have returned.’
The Con before his eyes
Con-rad might be powerful, but it would not be easy for him to defeat Carltonheim while he fought with the support of the Tree of Kiculus, which was already in his grasp. No—he would surely win.
Carltonheim had far too little information to work with. As expected, aside from House Lorval, information was being kept under strict control. The fellow before him clearly looked to belong to the Lorval family, so all he had to do was capture him and pry the information out.
It did feel a little early, but he could not let such a fine opportunity slip by, so Carltonheim drove furiously into Con-rad. The man was fairly capable, but… Carltonheim would win. To begin with, this place was practically his home ground. Ever since infiltrating it, he had been cautiously tampering with and modifying the Tree of Kiculus.
The vast energies surging vigorously into his body were the fruits of that preparation. The battle, which should have been an even match, was taking on an entirely different shape because of Carltonheim, who regenerated on the basis of that endless energy and pressed the attack.
“Ha ha ha! You created an amusing technique while I was gone! Have all the dukes learned that?”
“You damned bastard… you sure talk a lot… This is my own original work.”
Con-rad blocked the black whip flying toward him with
-Traits: Ruler of Rodeval, Successor of the Black Serpent, Infected Noble.
-Level: 399
-Akra: ……
-Skills Possessed: Infection, Division, Predation……
He seemed to have hit the same limit. But the conditions were far too unfavorable. The bastard was drawing out the nobles’ energy from below and using it without end. The longer this dragged on, the worse it would be. On top of that, because of the resonance of Akra, short-distance spatial movement and communication had all been blocked.‘He prepared thoroughly…….’Even if it had not been him, anyone who entered this place would have been in danger. He could not even blame himself for being careless. Even knowing of such a situation, it would have been difficult to prevent.
With a bitter expression, Con-rad hurled
Akmasai was a curse that crossed space and shaved down the opponent’s internal coefficients until they were all but mangled. To a superhuman, there was no miracle more terrifying than this. It was a miracle that could cripple someone in an instant. Even if they resisted, it would still deal a fairly effective blow. It was a grand miracle he had personally devoted effort to creating in order to hunt superhumans.
As expected, Carltonheim’s right arm, struck by Akmasai, instantly turned a deep blue, then soon changed to ashen gray and began slowly crumbling away.
But Carltonheim stroked his crumbling right hand with his left. At that moment, pitch-black snakes grew out of his left hand in an instant, devouring the ashen arm as they crawled fiercely upward. The sight of his right arm vanishing in an instant, leaving only small jet-black snakes writhing in its place, was grotesque. Carltonheim looked at the creatures that had devoured his right arm with an expression of fondness.
Soon, the black snakes devoured one another, tangled together, and took on the shape of a right arm. Before long, Carltonheim’s right arm had returned to its original form, as if it had never fallen away at all.
Seeing that, Con-rad stared at him with a fed-up expression. His own miracles were remarkable, but they were a discipline completed together by hundreds of thousands, even millions, of law-masters over the course of centuries. It was astonishing that someone could display that level of power simply by honing innate talent.‘This continent really is… crawling with grotesque bastards…….’As Con-rad grumbled inwardly, Carltonheim raised his completely regenerated right arm and struck at him. Blocking the attack, Con-rad spat out bitterly.
“Damn it… No wonder they said you rose to duke faster than scheduled……”
“Heh heh. If I had not helped, it likely would have taken another hundred years. Fortunately, the humans of this continent have an extraordinary greed for power. I thought they were some kind of barbarians. Heh heh. It was not this bad in the past, was it? From what I saw, they even keep pets and have antique hobbies.”
“Well… I wouldn’t know that much. I haven’t been on this continent for very long either.”
Grinding his teeth as he spoke, Con-rad activated
After being pushed around here and there, Con-rad was eventually struck by the black arm and slammed into a corner of the pillar.
“…
Cough. Damn it… in a place like this……”
When he thought that he had spent hundreds of years striving to cross over to this place only to end up like this, Con-rad found it absurd. Having come here with a light heart, only to suffer such a fate, made it even more ridiculous.
Seeing Con-rad’s expression, Carltonheim smiled pleasantly. First, he would store this fellow away and eat him slowly. With the nuisance gone, the next stage would be much easier.
“Heh heh. Well, the world is vast and there are many strong people, are there not? Do not feel too wronged.”
As Carltonheim finished speaking, his body grew even darker. Soon, from his blackened body, the black snakes that had healed his arm earlier began dropping off one by one. Their numbers grew and grew, until at last there were hundreds, and they began crawling slowly forward, covering Con-rad’s body. Perhaps the black snakes did not intend to devour him, for they wrapped themselves around his body instead. Before long, Con-rad’s body was engulfed by hundreds of black snakes, and they slowly began to merge into a single mass.
Carltonheim watched the sight with satisfaction. The infection of the tree was proceeding smoothly as well. Until now, he had been doing it slowly for fear of being discovered, but if he had such an abundance of materials, there was nothing to hold him back.
In fact, while it had not possessed an auspicious glow, Kiculus—Vladek, which had radiated a healthy light—was now being rapidly eroded by blackness from its roots. Once that black light climbed up and enveloped all of Kiculus, his primary objective would be complete.
But this was no time for that. Word of this fellow’s disappearance would spread quickly. He had blocked communication, but if contact could not be made, it would not take long for them to notice.
With this fellow’s current body, he could not face the other members of House Lorval. But if he simply woke the one below, there would be no real problem.
Carltonheim smiled wickedly and headed beneath the tree. After all, his goal had never been these two dukes in the first place. Carltonheim leisurely flew downward.
“Krrhrr… I do not know why Appental weakened, but… how truly wonderful.”
After passing through the cursed barrier, things had been going smoothly, and Carltonheim laughed in good spirits.☆ ☆ ☆As they quickly left the place and began moving farther from the tree, color gradually returned to Steel and Kokul’s faces.
Once the resonance of Akra that had been rampaging inside her body subsided, Steel grimaced and asked Kokul,
“What the hell is this? Does an enthronement ceremony normally have some vampire-like ritual like this?”
At that, Viscount Kokul shook his head while breathing raggedly.
“No. I have never heard of anything like this… Unless Duke Carltonheim has gone mad……”
That meant this phenomenon was certainly abnormal. And the moment she thought it was abnormal, Steel looked at Sian. Judging from their experiences so far, there was a high chance that the cause was not far away.
“Sian, little brother, is there something… you didn’t tell me? When you closed Appental… maybe you didn’t close it all the way……”
At that, Sian looked at Steel with an extremely aggrieved expression.
“That is unfair. I told you, I even completely smashed the gate before coming back. I confirmed that Appental’s dimension was separating from this dimension. Do you know how hard it was to destroy that thing? That spring must have been acting as the medium… I have nothing to be ashamed of under heaven. I reduced it completely to powder.”
“Hmm… is that so?”
“Miss Steel, suspecting me whenever something happens is a very bad habit. To begin with, I only just arrived here, in this place called the Marquisate of Carltonheim, so how could something have happened because of me?”
“That’s true, but……”
Even so, Steel did not erase the suspicion from her eyes. Rationally, that was true, but it somehow felt suspicious that these major incidents kept happening as soon as they arrived on the continent.
“Honestly… no matter how much you stare at me like that, it is not me this time. It makes no sense in the first place, does it?”
“Tsk… Sorry, little brother. I guess I was just being pointlessly sensitive. Maybe because I was startled.”
“Are both of you all right now?”
“I am fine.”
“Whew… I’m more or less fine too… But little brother, where are you going? Are you going to save all those people?”
Seeing Sian prepare to run off somewhere, Steel looked at him with a puzzled expression. Sian shook his head.
“Well… judging by how it was absorbing them, I do not think it will kill them. They are nobles, aren’t they… Surely they will not die from the aftermath. I need to go find Mr. Con-rad. Otherwise, the clue we finally found will disappear.”
“Ah… right.”
Only then did Steel remember the purpose for which they had come here. Judging from the force of the battle above, it did not seem like they were simply testing each other’s skills. The opponent was attacking with enough force to kill Con-rad outright. Con-rad was a duke, yes, but Carltonheim was also a duke. And from what Sian could tell, the two of them seemed about even.
If that was the level involved, he should be able to stop them without much trouble.
Sian launched himself toward the top of Vladek, where an immense flash of light was bursting forth. Vladek’s leaves and fruit had already been completely shattered, and even its branches were being swept away, indirectly showing how perilous the battle was. It would be a serious problem if Con-rad died, so he had to get there and stop it before then.
But at that moment, the battle stopped, and Con-rad’s presence vanished somewhere.‘Did he die?’Sian was flustered, but when he examined his energy sense more powerfully, it did not seem to be the case. It seemed that the man called Carltonheim had used some method… and before he knew it, Carltonheim, with the battle over, was leaping down beneath the roots. Watching Con-rad and Carltonheim disappear below, Sian clicked his tongue. In the instant he had been flustered by Con-rad’s energy suddenly vanishing, they had slipped away.
Still, there seemed to be some time to spare. Sian changed direction from where he had been flying upward and launched himself toward the roots where the man called Carltonheim had gone.
“Hmm… is it here……”
Sian followed Carltonheim, who had flown beneath Vladek. He flew quietly, worried that if he picked up too much speed, the nobles and commoners floundering above might be injured, and that made it take longer than expected.
There was a wider space beneath the roots than he had expected, so he wandered a little, but soon he was able to follow the traces of the man called Carltonheim. Following that path straight ahead, he found Carltonheim inside, wearing a somewhat satisfied smile.‘…
He does not seem like someone with very good hobbies…….’A person with a lively and cheerful disposition would not make a space underground like this, bind someone tightly with black snakes, and drag him down below.
“Hello.”
“Heh heh… A newcomer needs to be managed properly. If a senior acts like this, does that not put the poor rookie in danger?”
“Pardon?”‘Is he a little strange in the head…….’Sian tilted his head as he looked at Carltonheim, who was saying things he could not understand. Then again, seeing how he carried something that suspicious around inside his body, it was understandable that his mind might go strange.
“Well… I do not know what you are talking about, but… if you hand over the person there, I will withdraw quietly.”
The man seemed to be living diligently with some kind of goal, and Sian did not want to throw cold water on that, so he tried conversation first. Based on his experiences so far, whenever he used his fists, things often became even more tangled.
“Ha ha ha ha! What nonsense is this? Since when did Lorval’s servants become so docile?”
“Um… I do not know what you are talking about, but I have nothing to do with that House Lorval.”
“Hmm?”
Carltonheim—no, Cicero, who had been wearing a pleasant smile, only then looked at the man before him as if something were strange. Come to think of it, he could not see the seal of the Rorval family on him. That cursed seal was recognizable at a glance.
“Then what are you?”
“Well, now… judging by the looks of it, you seem to have business with Lord Conrad… but I’m in something of a hurry myself. If you don’t mind, how about handing him over to me?”
“Ha!”
At least the Rorval bastards had some use, but he could not understand why this fellow, who was not even a servant of Rorval, was acting so boldly. And at the words that followed, Cicero was left speechless.
“Well… if I say this, it might sound a little like a threat, but… if possible, it would be better if we just reached an agreement and settled this with words. It’s unfortunate, but so far, the people who have messed with me haven’t exactly… ended well. From what I can see, you seem to be living very diligently… and, well, that attitude toward life… I respect it. I just think there’s no need for you to suffer something unpleasant for no reason.”
“Hohohoho……”
He had spoken in a roundabout way, but translated, it meant: if you don’t want to get beaten up, don’t touch me and hand over Conrad quietly. After all the trouble he had gone through to capture this man!
Well, from the look of it, that fellow did not seem to want to settle things with words either, so that was fine. His own objective had just been completed anyway.
“Heh heh. Well, fine. There’s no need to talk when we have perfectly good fists.”
“Mm? I think there’s been some misunderstanding……”
At that moment, an enormous vibration came from beneath his feet, and something surged up from underground and swallowed Sian.
☆ ☆ ☆
‘Damn it… what the hell is going on…….’
After being swallowed by this black serpent, his miracles, his energy—everything had been neutralized. The power within his body, enough to tear anything apart, was still there, but for some reason he could do nothing about the black curtain wrapped around him.
However, perhaps his abilities as an Aksarai accesser had not been sealed, because he could make out the status window floating in the air. And he could also tell that he was in considerable danger.
[Escape from the belly of the black serpent.]
-Carltonheim has received the energy of the black serpent sealed beneath
-Escape time limit: 5:14
The time remaining to escape was steadily decreasing.
‘Crazy… I should have accepted the seal after all…….’
He had refused because he hated the idea of being bound to one place, but he had never imagined he would meet his end like this.
Then, a new notification window appeared outside. Thinking it might be support, he looked upward with hope on his face, but Conrad fell back into despair.
[The black serpent,
[Status Window: Vladek]
-Traits: Blue Serpent, Beta of the Rebara Tribe, Cicero’s subordinate.
-Level: 1
-Possessed Skills: Predation, Division, ……
‘Damn it…….’
It was over now. An existence that had crossed the wall… This must have been the bastard’s goal from the start.
For something that had happened because one fellow had slipped in while they were off guard, this had grown far too big. Conrad clenched his teeth.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hahahahaha! Success!”
Cicero burst into wild laughter as he watched Vladek stretch out between the roots. Among the roots of Kiculus, which extended for several kilometers, pitch-black pillars wove through them in tangled lines, displaying a sleek sheen.
No one who saw this creature would ever think of it as a single living being. Freed from its seal after thousands of years, Vladek was running rampant, and after swallowing the insolent fellow, it moved between root and root, flaunting its massive body.
When he had crossed over, he had wondered whether things would really go this smoothly, but for them to go this well! Cicero was almost chilled by how absurdly smoothly everything had proceeded.
Before being discovered by the Rorval bastards, he had devoured a fine host and raised him well until he became a Duke. He had needed to wait until the fellow became a Duke before he could begin his work, but the wait had been more than worth it. On top of that, he had even captured Conrad, the Rorval family’s man who used strange abilities. Thinking about it, that fellow had not had a seal either… but the fact that he knew about the barrier meant he was connected to them somehow. If he dug into him, a great deal would come out. Or he could simply infect him altogether. From the look of things, the Rorval bastards had plenty to worry about besides him.
Moreover, the greatest success was releasing the seal on his subordinate, Vladek. He had no idea why so many had gathered just to watch two fellows who were not even Alphas beat each other up, but far more had assembled than expected, allowing him to collect the energy needed to undo the seal with ease.
“Then… I suppose I should turn my attention to Kiculus now.”
Vladek, the black serpent that had swallowed that strange fellow, was unimaginably massive, but even such a creature would take an enormous amount of time to destroy Kiculus. After all, this tree had successfully sealed the black serpent for thousands of years and had been sucking it dry all that time.
No sooner had he finished speaking than a black substance began to crawl out of Carltonheim’s ears. No, not just his ears. From his mouth, his eyes, his nose… from every pore on his body, black smoke began to pour out and seep into the surrounding roots of Kiculus.
Because he had been steadily advancing the infection toward the central area little by little all this time, once he began in earnest, it would proceed faster than expected. Until now, it had been difficult due to a lack of energy, but since he had replenished an enormous amount by draining the ones above, the work would likely be completed faster than he thought.
In a good mood, Cicero invaded toward Kiculus’s core and gave Vladek an order, and Vladek let out a bizarre shriek. When a black serpent several kilometers long cried out, the people above felt as if their eardrums would burst, but without the strength to resist, they could only twitch where they lay.
Vladek continued to emit a high-pitched scream. Realizing the meaning contained within it, Cicero’s expression turned strange.
He had thought it seemed too easy. Cicero hurriedly advanced the corrosion into Kiculus. But the situation was far more serious than Cicero imagined.
The enormous serpent tried twisting its body this way and that in agony, but because it was passing between the roots, it could not move much and thrashed in pain.
Crack!
And the neck of the giant serpent began to split open. Since it was so enormous, even the part that could be called its neck was nearly several hundred meters from its mouth, but the strange sound coming from there reached Cicero’s ears with perfect clarity.
The inside of Vladek’s body was not merely a stomach. Vladek’s interior was a subdimension whose parameters were controlled by Vladek itself. It sealed most of the abilities of those it swallowed. Moreover, since it was a separate dimension, one should not be able to escape simply by tearing through its belly.
But no matter how much he denied it, the middle of Vladek’s neck kept opening wider.
At last, the middle of Vladek’s neck split open and a bizarre being burst out. Unable to endure the pain, Vladek divided into hundreds of millions of small black serpents. Between them, two figures dropped out. They were Conrad, whom it had swallowed, and Carltonheim, whom Cicero had just ordered it to eat. Just from that, Cicero could guess how great a shock Vladek had received moments ago.
“Hoo……”
He had to buy time. He did not know what that fellow’s identity was, but as long as he succeeded in infecting Kiculus… the fellow would never be able to act rashly against him. Cicero spat curses and headed toward the core, and soon, hundreds of millions of black serpents began charging fiercely toward Sian, who had emerged from the belly.
“Hoo… ha… deep breaths… deep breaths… like hell! Argh!”
He considered chasing after the bastard, but if he left the black serpents alone, Conrad, who was unconscious beside him, would be in danger. And even if they were weak, they were closing in from every direction, making it difficult to pull free. Having come outside, Sian began literally grinding apart the black serpents rushing at him.
☆ ☆ ☆
Cicero looked utterly dumbfounded as he infected Kiculus’s core.
‘Focus… focus.’
He would give up on Vladek. There was no way it could survive after falling into the hands of such a brutish monster. He would use it only to buy time. He would also give up on those fellows called Conrad and Carltonheim.
All he needed was to infect Kiculus. If he did that, he could at least buy time.
As if reflecting Cicero’s urgency, the black smoke and mud devouring Kiculus’s core pulsed rapidly. But because his haste had paid off, before long the entirety of Kiculus was dyed black by the smoke pouring from the man’s body. The sight of an incomparably massive tree being corroded by smoke and mud emitted from a single man’s body was grotesque.
‘Done… now if I just release the barrier…….’
“Ha… so here you were.”
Startled by the voice from behind him, Cicero focused his senses. The bizarre fellow who had torn his way out of Vladek earlier was standing right behind the core of Kiculus where he had settled.
“……?”
Seeing Sian prepare to strike, his face plainly asking what nonsense he was talking about, Cicero spoke in a hurried voice.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about… honestly.”
When he saw the fellow tighten his fist with a crack, Cicero, growing desperate, shouted hastily.
“Well… I don’t really get what you mean, but let me ask you one thing. You’re saying I shouldn’t break it because of that barrier thing, right?”
“Then wasn’t the reason you were playing around inside it because you were trying to kill this tree?”
Sian spoke bluntly as he looked at the tree’s life force rapidly dwindling away.
“Then you don’t really have anything else to say, do you?”
Crack!
Before Cicero could protest, the enormous energy condensed in Sian’s hand struck the core that had become the center of the infection.