The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 38

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Chapter 38

11. Forbidden Region

[ Not trash. ]

Radis stuck the note on the rusty sword.

When Yves said that at the auction, she wondered what he was talking about when he said it’d look like trash.

But when she brought the sword back to the mansion and placed it on a white marble table, indeed, it looked like trash that had to be cleaned up right away.

It’s safer to just put a note on it.

Carefully sticking the note on so that it wouldn’t fall, Radis examined the sword carefully.

The surface of the sword was covered with a thick layer of red rust with a tangy black glaze.

At a first glance, it definitely looked like a piece of garbage to anyone. It’s only after you look at it carefully that you’d realize it’s a rusty iron sword.

Radis touched the rough surface of the sword with her fingertips.

“I can’t believe it’s been so badly deformed.”

She knew what the true identity of this lump of rust was.

The craftsmen of Kelenocross had their own secret way of forging iron bars and refining them.

In the process that they used, the mana stone contained in the iron would be rearranged, and they were able to create a different kind of mana-reinforced sword that had completely different properties compared to how it was previously when it was just an iron bar.

As it was made this way, the mana sword would keep developing as it continued to accept its owner’s mana.

After being tamed by the owner’s mana, it would become an excellent sword, but there were also some cases where the sword would be broken.

Getting the sword broken also could result from something going wrong in the process, and there were times when black substances flowed out like this as well.

‘My old sword was like this, too.’

Radis sighed.

The sword she had before, the one that Robert gave her, was a good one.

But when she received the sword, she had already been poisoned by demonic energy.

After accepting her mana, the sword would shed black matter like tears.

It was a small amount, so if she just sharpened the blade, the black spots would disappear.

So, as soon as Radis saw this sword at the auction, she knew exactly what it was.

The rust covering this sword was similar to the one that flowed out of her sword before.

‘What do I have to do to get all this off? Should I grind it? But it’ll take a long time to grind everything off through a whetstone.’

Radis asked herself as she placed a hand over the sword’s rough surface.

“What happened to you, hm?”

Mage knights who wielded mana swords would often say that their swords were alive.

Radis agreed with them.

This sword was covered in a great deal of rust, but it was definitely still alive.

It was fast asleep, but deep inside, she felt a certain throbbing sensation.

It was a very faint echo, like a small seed that had endured over time beneath the hardened mud ground.

After the meeting, the commander of the subjugation squad, Lux, had a smile on his face.

It’s because, this winter, the subjugation squad and the Black Lion Knights would be splitting up to cover the territory during this year’s monster subjugation.

“Ardon, let’s work hard together!”

On the other hand, Ardon’s expression was not so good. He was thinking about just how to balance the scheduled training and this subjugation.

However, in the name of protecting the territory, it’s not possible for the knight order to reject the command of monster subjugation.

In the end, it was something that must be done.

But just as expected, it was like a punch to the gut seeing Lux have a shit-eating smile that said, ‘Thank you for cleaning up this mess!’

Ardon spoke.

“You’ll have to pay off this debt.”

“No way, what do you mean debt! Aren’t we a family that eats together? What kind of debt is there between family?”

“I don’t recall having any family like you.”

“Bwahahahaha!”

When he heard Ardon’s clearly displeased tone, Lux laughed it off as if he just heard a good joke.

With a clap on Ardon’s shoulder.

With one eye closed because of his mirth, Lux said,

“Don’t be scared. I don’t know why, but this year’s monsters are exceptionally slow. If you patrol properly, nothing will happen to the territory.”

“The monsters are slow?”

“Yeah. Maybe because this winter is cozy.”

“What the, how careless…”

At that moment, as though Lux had cast a magic spell, a squire from the subjugation squad came running from the other side of the corridor and shouted.

“Commander! A village at the border has just been attacked!”

With an extremely annoyed look, Ardon glared at Lux.

Turning to the squire, Lux’s neck became tucked in like a turtle.

“Tell me the details.”

“The village is near the forest of monsters, and it’s said that there was a light-scale attack.”

Lux’s neck straightened up again.

“It’s not our area of responsibility then.”

Ardon glared at Lux with even more anger in his eyes.

Nevertheless, Lux grinned widely.

“But still, it’s an area of our land’s territory. So, what’s the extent of the damage?”

“Ah, we hadn’t received an immediate request for subjugation. The monsters appeared and then ruined the land. Since it’s common during the start of winter, I believe they handled it well by asking the mercenaries in the area to do the subjugation.”

“Mercenaries? Which group?”

“I’ve heard that it’s the Kingsnake Mercenary Corps.”

“Then it’s already over?”

The squire scratched his head.

“But it’s a sign that the monsters had begun to move, so I thought I should inform you, sir.”

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“Ah, right. Well done, well done.”

Lux patted the squire on the head, then turned to Ardon and smiled.

“Did you hear that? It’s nothing.”

Ardon continued to glare at Lux with contemptuous eyes, then he turned to the other side of the hall.

Lux asked.

“What’s the matter?”

Aron stared intently at the other side of the hall.

“I sensed someone there just now.”

“Really? I didn’t notice.”

Ardon frowned slightly.

Ardon was the commander of the Black Lion Knightage and was one of the best knights of the empire. Lux as well, even though he looked like a moron, was the commander of the marquisate’s subjugation squad and had also officially received the seal of a mage knight.

‘No matter how much you say we’re being careless, does this mean there’s someone in the marquis’ estate capable enough to slip past both me and Lux?’

“Ack, it’s so salty!”

Stroking the pouch full of money, Luke smiled despicably.

“If the land is ruined, they’ll be so scared that they’ll start paying so kindly in advance.”

Luke exclaimed to Gorz.

“I’ve distributed the shares to the members, but there’s still this much left. Let’s go for a good drink today!”

However, unlike how excited Luke was, Gorz didn’t look all too happy.

In fact, he’s been like this for days already.

Starting from not long ago, when that rude lady grabbed him like that at the auction house.

Luke tapped Gorz on the shoulder and spoke.

“Well, she was someone from under Marquis Russell, and I understand how upset you are, but what can we do? Let’s just drink up and forget about it!”

Instead of answering, Gorz spat out from his lower abdomen a huge, keuhaaaaa.

‘I almost fainted back then…!’

When he was suddenly caught by the back of his neck at the auction house without noticing.

’Caught you.’

Just recalling that low voice made his hair rise up.

The person who grabbed him by the back of the neck was clearly a young woman who was wearing a cute dress, but he felt her aura before he even looked back. Her presence was almost comparable to that of a spider, who’d set up a trap.

“Uuuuuuugh!”

Gorz shuddered.

“No, but, when I looked at that wench, why did I think, ‘spider’…!”

Luke also shuddered at the word ‘spider’.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuu-ack!”

As Luke trembled and shuddered, he took out a dirty snake skin from his coat pocket and put it on his forehead like a talisman.

“Why! Why! Why! Why did you have to say the word spider! Uhuuuk!”

“Uhuuuu!”

“Uhuhuhu! Lord Kingsnake, Lord Kingsnake! Get rid of the spider please!”

As Gorz and Luke shuddered even more, their eyes met.

“Let’s go out drinking.”

“Venomous wretch.”

“Very very venomous wretch.”

Luke groaned as he pulled out a large chest from under the bed.

And in that chest, there were huge eggs.

Luke threw the pouch of money next to the eggs and closed the chest.

Then, he went out the door with Gorz.

As their footsteps went farther away, someone who was hiding in the shadows under the stairs revealed herself. It was Radis.

“Tez was right.”

Tez, one of her comrades, had formerly lived in a village near the border before he entered the imperial subjugation squad. His village back then was also near the forest of monsters.

Tez used to speak about this bar with scorn. It’s located in the outskirts of Loire.

‘That’s the base of the Kingsnake Mercenary Corps, those bastards. They were terrible brutes, really.’

The Kingsnake Mercenary Corps lured monsters to attack small villages, and this included Tez’s former village near the border. Those mercenaries were inherently more heinous than any ferocious criminal, even with sins of high treason.

Every time Tez saw this abandoned bar, there was never a time that swears and curses were directed at those mercenaries.

Thanks to that, Radis easily recalled this place.

“As expected, those guys are really terrible brutes.”

Radis pulled open the door that Gorz and Luke had just closed.

It was locked, of course.

“Huhp!”

Clang, clatter.

Pulling it with force, the doorknob was soon torn off.

After chucking the broken knob roughly, Radis opened the door and went in.

With just overhearing their movements and words earlier, Radis could guess where Luke had hidden the chest.

Sure enough, she found the hidden chest under the bed. She pulled it out and opened the lid.

“This…!”

There were eggs in it.

There were two that were the size of a fist, and one that was the size of a baby’s head.

These were not just ordinary eggs.

The ones that were the size of fists had purple stripes on them, and the one that was the size of a baby’s head had even weirder patterns.

There was a subtle glow emanating from it as though a candle had been lit from inside the egg.

And it’s obvious what these eggs were.

“I knew it, monster eggs!”

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