Dragonslayer’s Class Regression 191

Chapter 191

Zeke found Clonne sprawled in front of the castle garden.

Clonne looked quite exhausted as she lay there limply.

“Clonne.”

Hearing Zeke’s voice, Clonne barely managed to raise herself and wave at him.

Zeke approached her.

“Looks like the mission wasn’t easy.”

At those words, Clonne frowned deeply.

“The damn Paladins were all over the monastery. If it weren’t for Boris and the new recruit, it would have been close.”

“Did you safely rescue the descendants of Lubern?”

Clonne nodded. At the same time, she clenched her jaw.

“The Holy Kingdom. If you knew how those bastards treated the children, you’d want to go twist the Pope’s neck right now.”

Seeing Clonne’s agitation, it seemed the treatment of the children imprisoned in the monastery had been quite severe.

“Where is Princess Arina?”

“That Zion? The Family guy you caught. She went down to the basement to treat him.”

It seemed Decker had relayed Zeke’s message to Arina.

After leaving Aslan, who was making a fuss looking around the castle, with an attendant, Zeke dragged Aaron down to the castle’s underground prison.

“UGHHHH!”

Bound by the soul sealing technique and unable to speak properly, Aaron twisted his body around in resistance.

CRACKLE!

When the movement interfered, Zeke sent an lightning shock through the chains.

“KUUUUUGH!”

Shocked by the Lightning, Aaron trembled and collapsed.

“Follow quietly.”

Because Aaron had been brainwashed by Jiemens and was no different from a fanatic, he tried everything he could to escape even in this situation. But he couldn’t escape from Zeke’s grasp.

Zeke threw Aaron into one of the underground prison cells and went to where Zion was.

WHOOSH!

Light magic could be seen flashing from the room where Zion was.

Zeke quietly entered the room. Arina was using light magic toward Zion.

“WHEW.”

After using magic for a while, Arina got up from her seat.

Only then did she notice Zeke standing behind her.

“Sir Zeke!”

“Lady Arina.”

Arina smiled at Zeke as she usually did.

Zeke spoke while looking at her.

“You’ve worked hard. I heard from Sister Clonne that it was quite an intense mission.”

Arina nodded.

“We infiltrated the monastery well in disguise, but we were spotted by the pursuit team while bringing the children. There were so many Paladins. Fortunately, we were able to escape thanks to Sir Felix’s efforts.”

“Felix?”

“Yes. The way he threw himself to save the children was just like the holy knights in old tales.”

Though Arina’s words seemed sincere, Zeke couldn’t quite picture Felix as a holy knight.

“Anyway, I’m glad you returned safely. Where are the children?”

“We’ve hidden them in a safehouse we prepared for now. We plan to take them to Agamemnon Castle once things quiet down with the Holy Kingdom.”

“Good. Even the Holy Kingdom won’t be able to recklessly invade Mycenae.”

The resurrected House Agamemnon was once again recognized as Draker’s blood ally. Moreover, it had strong support from the powerful central houses.

Because of this, it was impossible for even the Holy Kingdom to recklessly invade Mycenae.

Even if they did risk coming in, the Black Sword Knights guarding the castle wouldn’t leave them be.

Looking at the sleeping Zion, Zeke asked Arina:

“How is his condition?”

Arina spoke with a regretful expression.

“I don’t know who performed what kind of horrible experiments, but this child’s body is gradually collapsing.”

“He kept having seizures and didn’t get better even though I used healing.”

“That’s to be expected. Sir Zeke’s healing has tremendous power, but in the end it’s an ability that maximizes self-healing. For a body that’s already begun to collapse like his, no matter how much healing is used, it can only return to the best possible current state, it can’t fundamentally heal a breaking down body.”

Zeke realized for the first time that there were things his healing couldn’t fix.

This also meant that Zion’s physical condition was far from normal.

Zeke looked at Arina and said:

“He’s an important figure directly connected to the upper ranks of the Nostra Family. Isn’t there any way to save him?”

At Zeke’s words, Arina thought for a moment before speaking.

“There’s a light magic called ‘Recovery’.”

“What kind of magic is it?”

“It’s magic that restores damaged bodies and souls. That power might be able to repair this child’s body.”

“Good. Let’s use it right away.”

But Arina shook her head.

“Unfortunately… I can’t use that magic. It’s different from the magic I usually use. However, there is one way.”

“What way?”

Arina pointed at Zeke and said:

“Sir Zeke can use that magic.”

“Me? But I’m not a mage…”

Arina nodded knowingly at Zeke’s words.

“I’ll create an artifact that can use Recovery magic. Then Sir Zeke can use Recovery magic through that artifact. Though it’s magic, you should be able to use it like your usual healing.”

Zeke was surprised by Arina’s words.

“That’s possible?”

“We have to try. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to wait until Alice learns Recovery magic.”

“We should make it as quickly as possible then. What do you need to create the artifact?”

Arina smiled and said:

“The orichalcon sword you had before. That sword should be sufficient to inscribe Recovery magic.”

Zeke nodded and took out the jeweled sword Rolang.

Seeing Rolang decorated lavishly with jewels, Arina was surprised.

“This is completely… old Lubern style.”

“Lubern style?”

“Yes. Lubern style is extremely ornate and detailed. Some scholars nonsensically claim that such luxury led to their empire’s downfall despite establishing it. But the reality is different.”

“Could it be they used the power of jewels even back then?”

“You know about this little-known fact. Yes, records show Lubern developed and used ‘Jewel Magic’ besides light magic. Though it’s a lost art now.”

Jewel magic, which drew power from jewels to use magic, was now a lost technology.

The jewel magic lost hundreds of years ago was now contained in Zeke’s enhanced jeweled sword.

But without further comment, Zeke left the sword with Arina to inscribe Recovery magic.

He also asked her to interrogate the newly captured Aaron.

“Oh my, I don’t know how to interrogate.”

“…What? I saw how you made Dario as docile as a lamb.”

At Zeke’s words, Arina clapped her hands.

“Ah, that’s how? That’s easy.”

Though curious about Arina’s interrogation methods, Zeke had other matters to attend to, so he left it to her and exited the underground prison.

Upstairs, a cleaned and changed Aslan was waiting for him.

“Sir Zeke!”

Though still haggard, the refreshed Aslan now looked more like a dignified old knight than before.

Zeke asked Aslan:

“By the way, Sir Aslan. What did you eat to survive there for thirty years?”

“I barely survived on moss growing on the walls and rainwater that flowed in! Though on days I found rats coming in, I could feast!”

He was a knight with incredible survival skills. Zeke nodded and smiled in acknowledgment.

After confirming Aslan could move without difficulty, Zeke headed to Atlas’s Four Seasons Castle with him to report completing the Cursed Ghost Mansion mission.

* * *

BANG!

Howard Draker struck his office desk.

The crystal ball on the desk fell to the floor.

“How is that possible!”

CRACKLE!

Noise leaked from the fallen crystal ball before barely transmitting the other person’s voice again.

―”We, we don’t know what happened either. There’s been no signal at all from the dispatched personnel…”

“You idiots! Are you saying they were all really captured by the mansion’s ghost?”

―”We haven’t been able to determine that yet…”

CRACK!

Howard crushed the crystal ball under his foot. He gritted his teeth while breathing roughly.

“What kind of people did Abel send to get this kind of result? Damn it!”

Just then.

KNOCK KNOCK.

His secretary entered Howard’s office.

He yelled at the secretary.

“I told you not to come in until I called!”

Though Howard usually pretended to be good-natured, he was showing all sorts of temper now that his plans had gone awry.

The startled secretary carefully said to Howard:

“Sir, Sir Zeke Draker whom you mentioned has returned to the Four Seasons Castle.”

“What?”

He approached the secretary and thrust his distorted face forward as he asked.

“Zeke Draker to the Four Seasons Castle? What for? Don’t tell me he abandoned the assigned mission?”

The secretary shook his head fearfully.

“I-I heard he completed the mission…”

“Impossible!”

Howard roughly pushed aside the secretary and rushed downstairs.

In the central hall, many people had gathered and were buzzing with conversation.

The hall’s bulletin board displayed completed missions, except for those requiring security clearance.

People were talking while looking at the board.

“Wow, did he really clear the Ghost Mansion?”

“And he rescued Sir Aslan Solma of the Cross Sword who was trapped there.”

“That’s incredible. Since Sir Zeke doesn’t have a knight order, he must have gone alone?”

Howard pushed through the admiring crowd to stand before the board.

Seeing the post confirming Zeke Draker’s completion of the family-assigned mission, he clenched his jaw.

‘What exactly happened?’

Just as the murmuring seemed to grow louder:

“Councilor.”

Howard turned at the voice calling him.

Zeke stood there.

He looked at Howard and said:

“Councilor. You shaved your beard. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“S-Sir Zeke.”

Howard stared at Zeke as if seeing a ghost.

Zeke grinned at Howard.

“Thanks to you, I had an interesting experience. While clearing the mansion, I found quite a lot of vicious rats.”

Howard swallowed dryly and said:

“Haha. Is that so?. Must have been difficult.”

“Not really. Now I just need to find where those rats came from, which will be more troublesome.”

Zeke said with sharp eyes:

“Once I find their nest, I’ll have to exterminate them so they can never crawl out again.”

Howard forced a smile with a stiff face at Zeke’s words.

Zeke politely greeted Howard and left the hall.

Aslan decided to stay briefly at the Four Seasons Castle before returning to Thebea to testify about what happened in the labyrinth.

He told Zeke to definitely visit the Thebea family, wanting to repay his debt of gratitude.

Zeke headed to the Atlas mansion by carriage.

‘Howard, you snake.’

Remembering his suffering because of Howard in his past life, even tearing him to pieces wouldn’t be enough.

‘Just wait. I’ll find your weakness and kill you with my own hands.’

While muttering to himself, Zeke looked at the person sitting opposite him and spoke:

“It’s been a while, Shadia.”

Shadia, the Salmak assassin assigned to Zeke and disciple of the Mountain Elder, sat before him with a new face.

“It’s been a while, Boss.”

“So. How was the north?”

Shadia had just returned from investigating the Northern Grand Duke and surrounding situation in the northern continent on Zeke’s orders.

Without further words, Shadia took out prepared documents and handed them to Zeke.

“These are materials I confirmed and gathered while in the north.”

Zeke skimmed through the documents.

They detailed the power dynamics of surrounding lords and old noble families including Himonas where the Northern Grand Duke resided.

Zeke clicked his tongue while flipping through Shadia’s documents.

“The Northern Grand Duke’s situation isn’t good. It wouldn’t be strange if the northern continent’s lords rose up anytime.”

Originally, the northern continent had more other races than humans.

And in the past Holy Empire era, the Pope used various hardline policies to control the other races in the northern continent.

At that time, Himonas’s lord fought against this oppression from the Holy Empire while protecting humans and other races.

Eventually, the Pope acknowledged their autonomy by granting the title of Northern Grand Duke to Himonas’s lord.

Since then, Himonas’s Northern Grand Duke held symbolism equivalent to the north’s king.

It was natural that the northern lords would aim for such a position.

Zeke asked Shadia.

“So what is the Northern Grand Duke doing now? Were there any moves showing who they’re trying to recruit?”

Just then.

Uncharacteristically, Shadia’s face turned pale as she swallowed and said:

“They’re all dead.”

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