Episode 45
“Sacred Guardian Stone? Left by Terakan Draker?”
Zeke was surprised by the unexpected item while looking at the bracelet.
He wondered why an item left by Terakan Draker was tucked away in a corner of the treasury.
He checked the bracelet’s information.
-Bracelet Information-
Description: A bracelet with a Sacred Guardian Stone that can summon spirit beasts
Unique Ability: Summons a spirit beast matching the user’s soul
Special Note: The Sacred Guardian Stone contains the Fairy King’s blessing
“The Fairy King’s blessing.”
Hero King Kaisir was known to have inherited the Fairy King’s blood.
When Zeke learned swordsmanship from Kaisir at the Hero’s Resting Place, he had asked about the Fairy King.
However, Kaisir seemed reluctant to discuss the Fairy King or fairies.
‘Fairies themselves are beings that exist outside the physical realm. They only intervene in the physical world in truly special cases, and even that’s not necessarily good. When they do, it usually means something major is about to happen in this world.’
In stories, the Fairy King was always deeply connected to heroes.
And heroes aren’t simply created.
They appear when something significant is about to occur.
Zeke thought the fact that Terakan Draker, the Dragon Slayer, possessed a Sacred Guardian Stone blessed by the Fairy King might have similar implications.
“Well, whatever. If it’s a legacy from Terakan Draker, it must be good.”
Zeke decided to activate the Sacred Guardian Stone immediately.
“But how do I activate this?”
He examined the bracelet from various angles.
Even asking the system didn’t reveal the operation method.
After wrestling with the bracelet for a while, Zeke casually touched the Sacred Guardian Stone with mana.
WHOOSH!
The Sacred Guardian Stone responded to Zeke’s mana.
“So it works with mana…”
To manipulate mana, one needs to open their Middle diantan.
However, humans typically cannot open their middle diantan.
Even Zeke barely gained this power after nearly dying.
This meant the item wasn’t meant for humans to use in the first place.
Zeke understood why Terakan Draker’s legacy was tucked away in a corner.
Since no one could even check its function, it must have been passed around before ending up in a preservation box.
Zeke put on the bracelet and infused more mana.
The Sacred Guardian Stone emitted an ethereal light.
[Sacred Guardian Stone activates.]
[The Fairy King’s blessing expands matching range to include Spirit Beasts, beings superior to regular spirit beasts.]
[Matching Spirit Beast with user’s soul.]
Light from the Sacred Guardian Stone enveloped Zeke.
Simultaneously, the light transformed into a heat haze.
The auspicious energy-filled haze began drawing mysterious patterns on the floor.
TSSS!
Light leaked from the haze.
A faint shadow appeared within.
The ethereal light exploded outward.
[Spirit Beast summoning successful.]
Zeke watched the Spirit Beast emerge from the haze.
“What’s this?”
[Summoned Spirit Beast Dragon Horse.]
An extraordinary-looking horse approached Zeke.
It had deer-like horns on its head, was 1.5 times larger than normal horses, and had dragon-like scales on its mane-covered neck.
The Dragon Horse, with lustrous gray-blue fur, approached Zeke gracefully.
It lowered itself and bowed its head, seemingly acknowledging him as its master.
[Once you name the Spirit Beast, you can summon it anytime through the Sacred Guardian Stone.]
“Give it a name?”
Zeke pondered while looking into the Dragon Horse’s eyes.
After a moment, he slowly spoke.
“Bucephalus.”
He borrowed the name from Bucephalus, Hero King Kaisir’s beloved horse.
As he named it, Bucephalus’s information appeared.
-Bucephalus Information-
Description: Dragon Horse containing auspicious energy
Unique Ability: Can summon thunder power from its two horns
Special Note: King of high-ranking Spirit Beast Dragon Horses
“King of Dragon Horses?”
Though unsure what being a king meant among Spirit Beasts, he sensed it would be superior to regular Dragon Horses.
Bucephalus seemed pleased with the name, nuzzling Zeke’s cheek contentedly.
Zeke also liked Bucephalus.
He understood what it meant for souls to match.
“Bucephalus. I look forward to our partnership.”
As if understanding human speech, Bucephalus nodded.
Zeke experimentally mounted Bucephalus.
Despite the Dragon Horse’s large size making him wonder about riding comfort, it felt quite stable once seated.
When Zeke mounted, Bucephalus began running around the treasury.
Surprisingly, it made no sound while running.
Even more amazingly, Bucephalus ran vertically up walls and freely moved across the ceiling.
“Goodness! Truly worthy of being a Spirit Beast!”
Though horse-like in appearance, it possessed mystical powers as a Spirit Beast, superior even to regular spirit beasts.
When Bucephalus returned to the original spot, Zeke dismounted with a satisfied expression.
“Bucephalus. Next time I summon you, let’s run freely in a wide open space.”
Bucephalus whinnied happily.
When Zeke dismissed the summon, the dragon horse returned to its original spirit realm.
“I got an unexpected wonderful gift.”
He decided to take the bracelet without looking at anything else.
Although he could have hidden it in his inventory to take it out, he decided not to do so since it was obvious that the armory would be systematically managed through reports.
When Zeke came out of the armory and reported that he would take a bracelet with no special functions, the person in charge tilted their head in confusion.
This was because in most other cases, people would take out swords or armor.
However, since whatever one chooses is up to the person who entered, the person in charge processed the release without any particular comment.
Zeke felt their confusion, but he was just pleased to have obtained a bracelet that could summon the dragon horse Bucephalus.
The fatigue from being worn out by parties for several days seemed to disappear at once.
* * *
Although Zeke went to the Four Seasons Castle intending to see Kali and return, he couldn’t meet her as her external business trip was extended.
Since Duke and Andrei decided to stay at the Four Seasons Castle a bit longer, Zeke returned to the mansion first by carriage.
As soon as he arrived at the mansion, Decker saw him and said:
“Young master. A guest has come.”
“A guest?”
When he went straight to the reception room, there was someone completely unexpected sitting there.
“Cliff?”
Cliff Linehart, the owner of the Linehart Company, had been waiting for him at the mansion.
He bowed politely toward Zeke.
“Lord Zeke, congratulations on becoming an official knight of Draker.”
Zeke said while looking at Cliff:
“It’s awkward when you suddenly speak so formally.”
“It’s only natural that I speak respectfully to the youngest promoted knight on the continent and an official knight of Draker.”
“Well, that aside. Why did you come? I received all the content you sent regarding the first request.”
“I came because I have something I want to say to Lord Zeke.”
“I’m listening, so speak.”
“Could you possibly dismiss your people?”
Zeke looked at Cliff and smirked.
“You sure ask for a lot of things. The servants can’t come in here anyway, so you can just speak.”
Cliff nodded at that.
Then someone emerged from the back of the reception room.
It was a woman with her face hidden by a hood attached to her cape, but somehow she didn’t feel unfamiliar.
‘Could it be?’
The woman pushed back her hood to reveal her face.
“It’s nice to see you again, Sir Zeke.”
Zeke opened his mouth looking at her.
“Princess Melissa.”
Cliff rose from his seat and escorted Princess Melissa with a respectful attitude.
Princess Melissa sat across from Zeke.
Zeke looked back and forth between Princess Melissa and Cliff, trying to figure out the situation.
‘So the real owner of the Linehart Company was the Princess.’
Melissa looked at Zeke with an elegant smile.
“Sir Zeke is certainly different from other knights.”
Only then could Zeke understand why Cliff had recklessly tried to obtain medicine for the Hong Flower Disease.
It was an expression of loyalty to save the life of the master he served.
Zeke looked at Melissa and said:
“What brings Your Highness here?”
“Sir Zeke doesn’t seem very pleased that I came.”
“How could that be?”
Actually, it was true.
He wasn’t happy about having his time taken up elsewhere since he needed to quickly train and increase his proficiency in the True Dragon Sword Technique to complete the quest.
Melissa gave a small laugh at the obvious lie and said while looking at Zeke:
“I came partly to thank you for the medicine you gave me that saved my life.”
“It was a fair trade, so no separate thanks are necessary.”
“You set some interesting conditions for the medicine.”
Zeke said with a serious expression:
“Let me tell you, canceling the contract is not possible.”
“Don’t worry about that. However, I came here, risking rudeness, because there’s something I’m curious about.”
“What are you curious about?”
At Melissa’s gesture, Cliff took out a report and placed it in front of Zeke.
“What is this?”
“Please take a look.”
Zeke opened the document that Cliff handed over.
After examining it briefly, his face hardened.
The document that Melissa Allensia brought was a kind of analysis report.
‘The Hong-hwa may be an artificially created synthetic disease by magic rather than a normal illness?’
Melissa slowly began to speak.
“I had put in a request to Nirvana through the Linehart Company to treat the pathogen. We assumed the worst-case scenario that it might not be a normal pathogen. I hoped it wouldn’t be true, but that assumption turned out to be correct. I received this report a bit late, just recently. Fortunately, I was already cured thanks to the medicine Sir Zeke gave me.”
Zeke looked at Melissa and said:,
“Are you suggesting that I created and spread this pathogen?”
“If you had done that, you wouldn’t have infected me with the pathogen. It would be too costly to synthesize a special pathogen, infect someone, and then cure them just to get three requests.”
He hadn’t known that the Hong-hwa disease, which he thought was a common epidemic, was actually an artificially created pathogen through magical synthesis.
‘Come to think of it, the Hong-hwa disease was mainly prevalent around Allensia at the time. It spread to the adjoining Troy Principality and some Midland cities.’
She pulled out another report and handed it to Zeke.
“What is this?”
“It’s an analysis report on the increase in Hong-hwa disease patients.”
After hearing Melissa’s words, Zeke examined the report.
The number of Hong-hwa disease patients was steadily increasing, centered around Allensia’s border region.
“Why are you showing this to me?”
“Don’t you notice something strange?”
Zeke slowly reviewed the report.
Then he understood what Melissa meant.
“Although it’s an epidemic that occurred in the border region, there are no cases in the Empire.”
Melissa nodded.
“The spread is gradually accelerating toward the interior of Allensia from the border region.”
Zeke tilted his head.
As far as he knew, it would be several more years until the Hong-hwa disease became a major epidemic.
‘Why has the timing changed? Did something change when I regressed?’
Princess Melissa looked at Zeke and said:
“I often assume the worst-case scenario. It’s not a good habit, but it’s necessary to prevent the worst outcomes.”
She took a breath and continued.
“What would you think if the Empire created and spread this Hong-hwa disease pathogen?”
Zeke couldn’t easily answer after hearing Princess Melissa’s words.
If that were true, it would mean the Empire tried to assassinate a kingdom’s princess using a bio-magical weapon.
Then Princess Melissa said to Zeke,
“Sir Zeke, please tell me just one thing for certain.”
“What is it?”
Princess Melissa said with a trembling voice:
“That you’re not with the Empire.”
Zeke looked at Melissa and said:
“Would you be convinced even if I said so?”
“Sir Zeke, if I have any merit besides my position as princess, it would be my ability to judge people.”
She pointed to Cliff behind her and said,
“Cliff gave me confidence, and I repaid him with trust. And the Linehart Company continues to grow and will keep growing.”
As Melissa said, the Linehart Company would grow to become one of the continent’s top ten trading companies.
Zeke looked at Melissa, lost in thought.
‘Would working with the princess be beneficial to me?’
As Zeke pondered, Melissa took something out.
“If you give me your assurance, I’ll give you this.”
What Melissa took out was another document.
Zeke was shocked when he checked its contents.
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