Dragonslayer’s Class Regression 240

Chapter 240

After finishing his conversation with the family head, Zeke left the Four Seasons Castle and headed to Atlas’s mansion.

In the carriage, Zeke was still unable to recover from the shock.

‘To think Arthur Draker was a Grand Master.’

It turned out Zeke’s assumption that there would be no Grand Masters after the Hero King era was wrong.

Then another question occurred to Zeke.

‘If Arthur Draker was a Grand Master, why did he die in my past life?’

The known story from the past life was that after Abel Draker became the successor, Arthur stepped away from family matters and died of illness shortly after.

Even Black Knights can fall ill since they’re human. But for someone of Grand Master level, the situation would be different.

The Hero King, who was a Grand Master, was so powerful that he left for the Fairy Realm saying he himself was disrupting the balance of Karma.

Of course, there would be a gap between Arthur Draker and the Hero King even though they were both Grand Masters, but still, dying from a mere illness was hard to imagine.

Eventually, Zeke formed one hypothesis.

‘In my past life, Arthur Draker likely faked his own death.’

Rather than a Grand Master dying from illness, it seemed more credible that he had faked his death.

‘If that’s true, it’s hard to understand why Arthur Draker just stood by watching Abel and Jiemens… Was he planning something?’

He could only guess that Arthur Draker had some kind of secret.

While lost in thought, Zeke arrived at the mansion and met his master Duke Draker after a long time.

Meeting Zeke, Duke drank as usual and said,

“I heard the Four Seasons Castle is in chaos?”

Zeke nodded.

“Did you know Abel became a Black Knight?”

“I only found out after the appointment ceremony. I thought Arthur must be planning something again when he received the Guardian Knight position, but I was shocked to hear Abel suddenly got promoted to Black Knight.”

Duke also swallowed hard as if he couldn’t believe Abel’s promotion.

Zeke looked at Duke and asked.

“Master, may I ask you something?”

Looking at Zeke’s expression, Duke seemed to guess what he was going to ask, and his face slightly hardened.

Then he slowly opened his mouth.

“You want to ask why my Black Knight promotion was canceled?”

At Duke’s words, Zeke silently nodded.

Duke’s case of being a former Black Knight but no longer one was extremely rare throughout Draker history.

While there were cases of Black Knights retiring due to old age or injuries from duels, having just the Black Knight promotion canceled like Duke was exceptional.

Duke filled his glass with alcohol again and drank it in one shot.

He looked at Zeke and said,

“Do you know why I always drink?”

“I thought you just liked alcohol?”

“You fool! You really don’t know your master at all.”

When he let go of his glass, his hands were trembling.

Duke looked at Zeke and said,

“Since that day, no matter how much I drink, I can’t get drunk.”

Indeed, Zeke had only seen Duke drinking but never seen him drunk. He knew well that although Duke sometimes acted like a drunk, he was never actually intoxicat it ed.

“What do you mean by ‘that day’?”

Duke rubbed his face with his palm.

His lips had turned blue.

Zeke had never seen Duke so terrified before.

‘It’s similar to symptoms shown by mercenaries and knights who received great shock after the war. What did that mage call it? Post-traumatic stress disorder?’

Duke barely gathered his breath and said,

“I went beyond the Dark Sea.”

Zeke’s face hardened at Duke’s words.

“By Dark Sea, do you mean that ocean beyond the western continent?”

Duke nodded.

Zeke asked urgently.

“Why did you go beyond the Dark Sea? Is there something beyond it?”

Duke kept his mouth shut for a while before slowly saying,

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything about that, even if it’s you, Zeke.”

Duke’s voice was firm.

But even with just that, Zeke could deduce quite a lot of information.

‘It was a secret mission of the Draker family.’

If it was a secret mission that required Duke Draker, a Black Knight, it must have been no ordinary matter.

Zeke recalled Terakan Draker’s last message about going to the Dark Sea.

‘Did they assign a mission to find traces of Terakan beyond the Dark Sea?’

Various questions arose, but it was impossible to get information about that mission from Duke right now.

Then Duke opened his mouth.

“I can’t tell you about that mission, but I can tell you about what happened afterward.”

He took another drink and continued.

“After that mission, I became unable to properly use the power of a Black Knight. No, it became impossible for me to fight at all.”

“That can’t be! You taught me the Wind storm technique.”

“I told you. It’s impossible to fight. Just sparring with swords is fine. But real life-or-death combat… that’s impossible.”

Whatever happened beyond the Dark Sea seemed to have dealt a great mental blow to Duke.

Looking at the struggling Duke, Zeke recalled something.

‘I wonder if buffing with the mental skill Indomitable Will would have any effect.’

But he remembered that when he previously buffed Felix with the Sturdy Mental Defense skill, while it was effective, there were aftereffects.

Since mental skills could potentially lead to an irreversible state if mishandled, it seemed better not to meddle carelessly in serious cases like Duke’s.

‘I remember there was an eccentric mage in Nirvana researching post-traumatic stress disorder. I should look them up when I have a chance to go to the Aten Peninsula.’

If Duke Draker could regain his original power as a Black Knight and join Zeke’s faction, they could regain the upper hand in their delicate standoff with Abel’s side.

Duke stared at the amber-colored liquor in his glass and said,

“After that, well. It was the beginning of messy political fights. Since I was one of the main family head faction’s Black Knights, some elders saw me as a thorn in their side. I was also quite reckless back then. They took the opportunity to exceptionally cancel my Black Knight promotion and remove my position.”

Zeke somewhat understood why Duke grew sick of the Four Seasons Castle and wasted time holed up in the academy.

He clicked his tongue and said,

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have thought of returning to Atlas. I didn’t want to see that filthy sight again.”

“But you came back anyway.”

“Yeah. I don’t know how I got involved with someone like you and ended up in this mess.”

The grumbling Duke pulled something from his chest and handed it to Zeke.

It was quite a thick stack of papers.

“What is this?”

“What else? It’s the fruit of your great master’s sweat and effort, running around because of his lacking disciple.”

Zeke unfolded the papers Duke handed him and read the contents.

Surprisingly, it contained organized information about the current Draker family’s power structure and factional relationships.

“Master, this is…?”

“You’ve been busy running around making your Black Sword Knights or whatever, so you must have something you want to do. I mobilized all my old connections to record the best information, so use it as reference.”

Information was life within the Draker family.

Duke, who had been reluctant to come to the Four Seasons Castle, seemed to have endured and taken on the family head’s tasks to collect this information.

Zeke felt genuinely grateful to Duke.

Throughout his past and present life, Duke was the only one besides Decker who had done something for him without expecting anything in return.

He hesitated before speaking.

“…Thank you, Master. I truly mean it.”

Seeing this, Duke lay sprawled on the sofa and said,

“You fool, that’s why you should be good to your master. When I’m old and tired later, who else would I rely on? You should take good care of me and give me alcohol every day.”

Looking at Duke, Zeke smiled.

“I understand. I’ll even find you a good marriage partner.”

“Huh? Who are you trying to shackle? I’m eternally gloriously single, you fool.”

After putting the stack of papers Duke gave him in his inventory, Zeke suddenly thought of Andrei.

“Is Professor Andrei still at Valhalla?”

“He quit after a year saying it didn’t suit him. He went back to the Four Seasons Castle and joined there.”

“Where exactly?”

“The Thousand Sword Unit. These days he gets along well with Aul and comes by every day. Asking me to look at swords. Annoying fellows.”

Though he said that, Duke didn’t seem to actually dislike it.

‘I wanted to ask Lord Aul about the Eastern Empire anyway, so this works out well. I should talk with him when he comes.’

While he wanted to bring both Aul and Andrei into the Black Sword Knights if possible, since it wasn’t an official knight order yet, he planned to slowly persuade them after he became a high-ranking knight.

Zeke thanked Duke once more before going up to his room.

Arriving in his room, he took out Agamemnon’s mask.

Although it was temporarily put on hold because of the Sea God quest, the first thing he actually needed to do was find the Fairy Lake to restore Agamemnon’s mask and recover its power as a holy relic.

Zeke carefully examined the mask, turning it this way and that.

“Given the emblem pattern on the forehead, I thought it might have some history, but I never imagined it would be a holy relic.”

If it regained its original power as a holy relic, it would surely manifest powerful divine abilities beyond purification.

‘It might help when dealing with Abel’s side who received the demon realm’s baptism.’

Zeke put away the mask and took out the absolute compass.

It was pointing in one direction, but it was hard to believe that blindly following it would really lead to the lake. Zeke stared at the direction the compass was pointing while organizing his thoughts.

‘Towards the laboratory… I need to hand over the items from the Inverted Tower and the Baptists’ Hersion to Lord Feinan anyway. I should head out for now.’

Zeke had also hired Gelion, the Soul Blacksmith, to work with Feinan.

Though it was disguised as a pharmaceutical company’s laboratory on the outside, it was essentially Zeke’s secret hideout.

Zeke headed to the laboratory in central Atlas by carriage.

Even while riding, Zeke kept staring intently at the absolute compass, watching where the needle pointed.

But as they entered the city, suddenly the compass needle started spinning around.

“Huh? What’s this? Why is it doing this?”

[The compass is recalculating the optimal route to the ‘Fairy Lake’.]

[Information has been updated.]

[Beginning guidance to new direction.]

The compass stopped spinning and pointed to one spot.

However, unlike before, the needle’s position kept changing as they moved.

“Is it broken? What’s going on?”

Soon the carriage arrived near the laboratory in the city. Zeke got off and checked the compass again.

The needle was still moving slightly.

‘Hmm, I don’t understand what’s happening.’

As he was about to enter the building housing the laboratory, wondering about this, Zeke sensed something strange.

‘Killing intent?’

He felt a subtle killing intent in the surroundings, so faint that ordinary knights would have difficulty noticing it.

Zeke casually entered the laboratory building. He could sense those emitting the killing intent following his movements.

‘Assassins in broad daylight? Whoever they are, they’re bold.’

Perhaps because of this, their movements were unusual.

Zeke deliberately moved to the garden behind the building.

While continuing to detect the assassins following him, he went to the garden and casually sat on a bench.

Then he waited for the assassins to approach while sensing their presence.

That’s when it happened.

“Ah! My lord! When did you arrive?”

Gelion, who had been walking in the garden, spotted Zeke sitting on the bench and approached with a smile.

In that instant, Zeke sprang up, grabbed Gelion, and rolled to the side.

SWOOSH!

The assassins who had been hiding in the blind spots thrust their swords into where Zeke had been sitting.

CRACK!

The bench where Zeke had been sitting completely split apart.

Gelion, whose life was saved thanks to Zeke, turned pale.

Rising from his position, Zeke’s expression hardened as he confirmed who his attackers were.

‘Those guys?’

The assassins were none other than Ishtar’s Ravens.

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