DMHS 14

Kian shrugged.

“Black eyes are rare.”

“It is also the eye color of the strongest swordsman, Sir Yan.”

“That is not import… well, yes, that is true.”

Certainly, Frederick, whose intentions showed in every word, was easier to deal with. Daisy’s offhand words always carried a peculiar weight.

Kian changed the topic.

“About what you mentioned before. That the North Party endures wrongdoing to check the South Party.”

“That is right. It is unpleasant, but it is an undeniable fact.”

Kian read through the record book Ibrahim had found for him.
To summarize its contents simply, it was as follows.

When the Delia tribe’s shaman Ivan Harkin died, his half-brother Gimere Harkin, who declared he would avenge him, made a proclamation of war against the Chronos Knights.
But the Lord of Chronos sided with the knights and did not open the castle gates on the day of the Harvest Festival.
When the sun set to the west that day, a man appeared before the fortress walls. It was Gimere Harkin, staring gloomily at the fortress. Alone, he used one of the forbidden magics, necromancy, before the fortress walls.
By his command, countless corpses rose inside and outside the Chronos fortress. Before midnight of that day passed, the dead slaughtered all the living in Chronos.
Having succeeded in his revenge, Gimere Harkin climbed the fortress and looked down at the mountain of corpses. Then he met the death that came as the price of using forbidden magic. When his body was found below the fortress, he was smiling…

“I have looked into the ‘Bloody Harvest Festival’ for the past few days. The records say it was caused by a shaman of the Delia tribe. Is this incident related to the South Party?”

“Of course it is related. Why did Gimere Harkin destroy Chronos?”

“Because his brother was killed by the Chronos Knights.”

“That was the wrong idea from the start. Gimere Harkin fell for political scheming. The force that killed his brother, Ivan Harkin, was not the Chronos Knights but the Fourth Tower.”

Daisy’s claim was different from what was written in the records.
She continued her explanation.

“Ivan Harkin had enemies on both sides to begin with. It is true the Chronos Knights had long been hostile to the Delia tribe. No, calling it hostile is too weak. The Chronos Knights and the Delia tribe fought constantly over the border of the northwestern lands.”

“……”

“But the Fourth Tower was also not on Ivan’s side. When Ivan, trusted by the former Tower Master, was appointed as the new Tower Master, the kingdom’s mages in the Fourth Tower were dissatisfied. A mere shaman of the Delia tribe became the master of a sacred tower. The humiliation and rage they felt was enormous.”

“……”

“The Fourth Tower people plotted. More precisely, the kingdom’s mage faction centered on the South Party. They staged the incident to look like the work of the Chronos Knights and killed Ivan Harkin.”

“Hm…”

Kian let out a low sound.

“But who bore responsibility for it? The innocent people of Chronos. The South Party committed such atrocious acts and never admitted their crime. Instead, they blamed the destruction of Chronos on the knights and accused us. At this rate, a confrontation between the two parties will be unavoidable.”

Kian could not ignore Daisy’s last words.

“Are you saying war will break out in the kingdom soon?”

“I hope as much as possible that will not happen, but…”

Her blurred words were not hard to guess. It meant that if things continued as they were, war could not be avoided.

“Right now the South Party is openly securing war supplies. They are collecting dues from the capital’s market folk, and the tax rate in regions under the South Party has risen more than five times. At this point, only us knights, who swore loyalty to the kingdom, will be able to defend the kingdom of Celestia.”

The situation of the kingdom was worse than Kian had thought. This was not on the level of two ducal houses simply struggling for power.

‘War…’

Kian recalled the last war he had joined. He remembered the boy soldiers who fought without knowing why they killed or why they had to die.
The corpses that piled into mountains, and the blood flowing from them forming rivers. A dreadful sight.

Kian shook his head and turned his thoughts.

‘Even now, the one who killed Ivan Harkin has not been clearly identified.’

At present, the North Party named the tower, while the South Party named the knights. With Chronos city already destroyed, finding new evidence would be difficult.

‘This way of driving the situation to the extreme is familiar.’

It took a great malice to let one death call forth many more. Kian knew someone who manipulated people with malice. The development and conclusion of the event called the Bloody Harvest Festival, and even the effect it had on the present, it would not be strange if it was all his work.

‘It is too early to conclude, but I will need to find out for sure.’

***

The day of the second test dawned. The candidates were summoned to Caladium Palace.

‘Why are they calling us to Caladium Palace instead of the training yard?’

‘Could it be that this test is not the physical trial?’

Most candidates, who had spent the past week practicing with the physical test in mind, trembled with anxiety.

At that moment, an official appeared.

“From now on we will conduct the second test for mate selection.”

At his signal, attendants brought in a large table into the banquet hall. On top of the table lay a strange stone that glowed a dark blue.

“The method is simple. If you can break this stone, you pass. You may split it completely in half or only chip the edge a little. Of course, use of tools other than the body is not allowed.”

People gathered around the table.

There seemed to be about thirty stones, clustered on the table, prepared according to the number of participants.

“The time limit is one hour. We will assign you a place, and you will attempt it there. You may begin now.”

Attendants entered and set tables around the platform in the center. Perhaps to prevent anyone who succeeded from helping another. With the tables arranged in a circle, everyone could see each other’s attempts.

Kian too was assigned one table and one stone. He could heard people whispering.

‘They are telling us out of nowhere to break a stone. What is the palace thinking?’

‘One thing is certain, this stone is no ordinary stone. Look, the reflected color changes moment by moment when it catches light. It is definitely a magic stone.’

‘Can a magic stone be broken without tools?’

‘Well, whatever the case, we will have to try.’

Soon thump thump thump thumb reverberated throughout the banquet hall.

At first people only tried tossing the stones carefully against the tables, but when that did not work, they began hurling them at the hall’s walls and floors.

“We will certainly file a compensation claim for any damages done to Caladium Palace.”

Only after the official stepped in did those attempts stop. Instead, people started resorting to bizarre antics, like knocking the stones against their own heads or trying to chew them in their mouths.

Kian held the stone, small enough to fit neatly in his palm, then opened his hand again, while surveying the surroundings.

The moment he saw the stone, he had already identified what it was.

‘As expected.’

Kian was not the only one who had recognized the stone. Daisy and Frederick had also caught on and were working earnestly to break the magic stone.

At the moment the stone did not break and showed no progress, but with time it was a challenge that could succeed.

And an unexpected figure too had identified the stone and was making the correct response.

‘Gavin.’

Graduating from the academy just this year must have helped him. The academy gathered all sorts of eccentrics, and among them were always some obsessed with magic stones.

Kian clenched his fist again and opened it. The way to break a magic stone was simple. Every magic stone had a core that served as the source of its mana.

In other words, if the core was destroyed, the magic stone would break easily. But what was simple in theory was extremely difficult in practice, for two reasons.

First, ordinary people could not see the core. Without knowing its location, they wasted time searching for it until they failed.

Second was the problem of breaking the core. To shatter a core, a crystallization of mana, one had use a greater mana force focused intensely.

This meant that only mages who directly handled mana or knights who wielded mana in the form of aura could break a magic stone.

Therefore, in this test, the stone-breaking itself was only a formality.

The real purpose of the test was to measure how well the candidates could handle mana.

The three who had seen through the test’s purpose, Daisy, Frederick, and Gavin, were channeling mana into the magic stone, searching for the core.

A bluish light flowed from Daisy’s fingertips and seeped into the stone. Frederick and Gavin did the same. Wherever their fingers pressed carefully, blue energy rippled. Kian leisurely watched them.

‘As for me, I will just use my remaining pass.’