SMT 69

“You asked that a minute ago, cousin.” ¹

“So you still didn’t find him?”

Haas lifted his hollow eyes weakly. In a single day, his face had already thinned, and he held a half-finished stimulant in one hand so he wouldn’t collapse. The one who had forced that into his hand was that devil of a cousin. He had been hounded endlessly.

“…Yes. No matter how much I try tracking magic, it’s impossible unless the Grand Duke breathes power into the tracking gem attached to the sword.”

“Try again.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ve drained my mana so much that even my life force is getting cut away.”

“Stop talking and hurry up.”

Haas clenched his mouth shut because he couldn’t curse at his cousin, then moved his hand.

“I told you, a minute ago there was no reaction… huh?!”

At the same moment he exclaimed in surprise, dots of light rose rapidly from his hand. The dots gathered and drew the shape of some terrain in midair.

“Did it work? Did it track?”

“Wait a second!”

Haas shouted louder and drew more power into his hand, but the light quickly faded.

“Hey! Do it again!”

“……”

“Haas! What are you doing, I said do it again!”

Even when Rick shouted, Haas only stared into the air, so Rick couldn’t stand it and grabbed his cousin’s shoulder.

“Are you out of it?”

“Uh? W-wait, I’m doing it again, but it’s not working. The Grand Duke must’ve pushed power into the sword for a second and then immediately pulled it back.”

“Why?”

“How would I know? Maybe he didn’t want to reveal his location…”

When Haas trailed off, Rick shook his head firmly.

“No. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have deliberately powered the sword at all. It’s more likely he’s hurt so badly he can only use that much power… damn it.”

That was just as bad. While Rick stood there in despair, Haas swallowed nervously and spoke.

“But cousin, about the location that showed up a moment ago.”

“Where?!”

“B-Borhumi Castle.”

“……”

“And it looked like the underground of the main Borhumi Castle.”

“…Borhumi?”

Haas nodded and shook the arm of the dazed Rick.

“What do we do? I think the Grand Duke briefly revealed his position so we’d come save him.”

“Then we’ll go save him.”

“You’re saying we should break into Borhumi Castle?”

Rick couldn’t answer. He grabbed his head with both hands. Should he sneak people in secretly? Who should he pick?

But Tairok’s elite forces already had everything over there under control. It wasn’t even certain they could get anyone inside Borhumi Castle in the first place. Rick’s thoughts were tangled in his head.

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked and one of Rick’s subordinates entered carrying a letter.

“Chief Aide, another letter came through the portal from Adeye.”

“Adeye?!”

Rick suddenly shouted and snatched the letter. Kun wasn’t the only one frantic to find the missing man.

Adeye Lantuya had been tearing through the entire Tubain for the past twenty-four hours, saying she would find her brother. And there was nowhere in the world Adeye couldn’t reach.

If they joined Adeye’s people and slipped in alongside them, maybe they could sneak inside unnoticed. But it wouldn’t be easy to immediately execute the plan.

Adeye…

They had been enemies for so long that hesitation was natural. Haas sensed what Rick was thinking and asked worriedly.

“Cousin, are you planning to tell Adeye about this? Adeye is our enemy.”

But Rick clenched his fist, already determined.

“Even if they’re the enemy, we have to join hands to save the Grand Duke.”

‎

‎

‎

“That’s it? Our position was transmitted for sure?”

I asked Tairok with distrust. I had waited a whole day because he said he needed to train, but all that happened was a brief flash from the sword before it stopped. Tairok answered my question with a grin.

“No, it didn’t work. I’ll need about another year of training.”

His low, slow voice mixed with that smirking grin made him sound like the most irritating man alive.

I had already learned to read his way of speaking, so I understood the opposite of what he said, but understanding him only made it worse. Go ahead and train for a year, I thought bitterly, when a bright tail flicked before my eyes.

[Training approved.]

Why does this divine beast like training so much?

“What did the divine beast say?”

Tairok noticed immediately whenever my eyes turned toward my wrist and asked.

“It said, ‘Training approved.’ The Grand Duke’s training must please it a lot.”

Tairok’s golden eyes rested quietly on my wrist. He hadn’t opened his heart to the Borhumi divine beast yet, but sometimes moments like this happened. It felt as if the two of them were connected deeply enough to understand each other. But soon, Tairok lifted his indifferent gaze.

“Where is this thing’s main body?”

Ah, that. While he trained, I had been searching with the divine beast for where its true body was located. But there was a problem.

The divine beast said its body was under the center of the plaza floor. But there was no visible entrance leading below. That meant there was a hidden passage somewhere. Yet the plaza was absurdly wide for searching one by one.

“It said it’s down there. But there’s no entrance.”

I pointed toward the center of the plaza with my finger and prepared an excuse. I planned to say I had tried to find the hidden entrance, that the place was too wide, that I had tapped every stone one by one, and so on.

But before I could say anything, Tairok turned around without a word.

Tak, tak.

He walked across the stone floor toward the center and raised his hand to me.

“Wait.”

Why? Is there a way to find the hidden entrance…

Boom!!

He slammed his greatsword straight into the floor with brute force. The blade drove in halfway in one motion, and the stone spread across the floor split apart like plaster.

…He’s ridiculously strong.

I stared in shock as he pulled his sword out again. Without any effort, he smashed the ground twice more in the same way. Just when I thought it was pointless digging if there was nothing beneath,

Rumble

The ground shook, and a loud sound echoed as the area he had struck collapsed.

“Huh? Careful…”

My warning was useless. He jumped and stepped back at once. Stones fell with loud crashes, and dust filled the air, covering my sight, until after a while, silence returned.

A hole gaped open before me. So it really was hollow down there. It was dark, so I couldn’t see clearly, but I could make out rough, uneven walls like those of a cave. I tried to take a step closer to check, but Tairok wordlessly held out his hand.

“Why?”

I asked, hesitating, but he didn’t even look at me and gave an order.

“Take it.”

Shouldn’t he at least tell me why? I grumbled inwardly but wondered if he needed help, so I went to his side quietly.

But as soon as I took his hand, he pulled me toward him and wrapped one arm around my waist. Before I could say anything, he jumped straight down.

Hey, at least warn me before jumping! …Huh? It’s really deep.

The fall lasted longer than I expected.

Thud!

Our fall stopped with a recoil. I was too busy looking around to notice that he was carefully setting me down on the floor.

I opened my mouth in awe at the enormous cave around us. A whole underground cavern beneath a crypt.

It was clearly a natural cave, but I could see traces of human work too. It wasn’t bright, but faint glowing things embedded in the walls lit the surroundings enough to see.

“They’re luminous stones.”

Tairok noticed where my eyes were and explained. Ah, so they really were stones.

“So those exist.”

“I’ve never seen them either.”

Then they must be valuable. And yet, they were all over this huge cave. While I stood there looking around, Tairok started walking first. The upper crypt had been a massive circular plaza, but this place was a smaller circular hall.

However, several stone pillars stood here and there. We had landed near the edge of the cavern. What was inside there? I couldn’t see because of the pillars. I tried to take a step ahead to look around, but his voice stopped me.

“Wait.”

“Why?”

He turned around a pillar and looked back at me. There was a flash of disbelief in his eyes. Maybe no one around him ever talked back like I did. But instead of getting angry, he smiled.

“If a monster shows up, I’ll throw you as bait and survive alone.”

1. Haas called him hyung in the original text but they are cousins not brothers and since the story takes place in a European-style setting I changed it to cousin. ↩︎