Dark King (1)

After entering Kiten Forest and walking for a short while, Logan looked around and spoke.

“Were the stories about Kiten Forest just nonsense?”

He was referring to the tales that humans who enter the forest are driven back to the entrance.

‘Well, there’s no need to explain it to him.’

Originally, the soldiers of the Deoric family would not even have been permitted to enter Kiten Forest.

They would have been sent back to the entrance by the fairies’ magic.

But because they were accompanying me, Logan and the Deoric family’s private soldiers had no problem passing through Kiten Forest.

“It seems quite different from what I’ve heard…”

Shrouded in darkness, Kiten Forest now had a gloomy, oppressive air unlike usual.

The Deoric family’s soldiers visibly showed their tension at the atmosphere.

“This is it. The ruins are located at the very bottom of this mine.”

“You’re not lying, are you?”

“What would I gain from lying?”

Logan looked displeased with my lighthearted tone, but unlike before, he didn’t push back forcefully.

“I’ll go ahead first, so be careful and follow me.”

Saying that, I hopped into the mine.

Just then, Riya, who had been quietly following beside me, said,

“If it’s here, I think we could deal with him secretly without being noticed.”

Apparently, Riya thought I had led us here in order to dispose of Logan out of public sight.

“No, that’s not my intention.”

“… Really?”

She looked truly puzzled.

She seemed to wonder why I would bother bringing the Deoric soldiers.

“They’re valuable spectators.”

At my quiet murmur, Riya’s eyes gently widened.

Then, perhaps understanding my meaning immediately, her lips curled into a gentle smile.

“I see… That does seem better.”

On the other hand, Maria, who had been silent, looked deeply puzzled.

But she was clever; she would soon realize.

We descended to the deepest part of the mine, and I stopped before a familiar corridor.

“From here, when I swing my sword, run straight through the corridor, got it?”

“What? What are you—”

Whoosh.

Rather than bother explaining to Logan, I picked up a stone from the ground and threw it into the corridor.

KWAANG!

Bang! Bang!

The moment the stone rolled across the floor, traps activated from all directions, pulverizing the stone.

“… Can we even get through that?”

“If you listen to what I say, yes.”

Logan stared at me with utter incomprehension.

The soldiers behind him were the same. They sent frightened looks as if asking how we could possibly get through that corridor.

“I won’t be able to keep it open for long, so I suggest you run as fast as you can.”

With those words, I swung my sword in the air.

Space split open, revealing a pitch-black gap.

“W-what the hell is that?!”

“It’s complicated to explain. You’d better just follow me. Like I said, it won’t stay open for long.”

I leapt into the gap in space first, and Riya and Maria quickly followed.

Logan hesitated for a moment at our actions but chased after us, with the soldiers and knights nervously following.

Of course, not all of them.

A fair number of soldiers fell behind, refusing to enter the space rift I had created.

Once I emerged from the corridor, about half the Deoric soldiers were gone.

Still, it was a considerable number, but Logan’s face twisted in anger when he saw how many had been left behind out of fear.

“You lot! I’ll never forgive you when you return!”

Logan yelled furiously at the soldiers standing on the other side of the corridor.

The faces of those soldiers turned pale in an instant.

After all, Logan would never let them off for disgracing the family’s reputation.

‘That doesn’t matter to me, though…’

Regardless of Logan’s indignation, as I passed through the corridor, I felt a chill from the lingering death energy.

This was being suppressed thanks to the facility created by the Darlos Kingdom.

Mithril had long been used to purify undead or such death energy.

Even after pouring mithril into its construction, this much death energy still seeped out.

‘Well, it was enough to dye the sky black.’

Considering that, it was almost strange how little death energy there was.

Which only proved the Darlos Kingdom’s mithril refining skills were formidable.

“Clay—hmm?”

After passing through the death energy-filled corridor and going further down, Damian greeted me as if expecting us.

However, seeing all those lined up behind me, his eyes narrowed, and he placed a hand on his sword belt.

“Sorry. I had to make an unnecessary misunderstanding.”

“… I see.”

From my brief excuse, Damian seemed to understand the situation.

I had previously spoken about the moves of the local nobles like Deoric and Bellen, so he must have already grasped what was happening.

“D-Death knight!”

The moment Logan saw Damian, he shouted in shock and drew his sword. Crimson aura erupted fiercely from his blade.

As expected of one of the most renowned knights in the Talua Kingdom.

“Impressive. Not just some ragtag amateur, I see?”

Damian looked slightly surprised by Logan’s imposing pressure.

“Clay Vanhart! You really were up to something down here! A talking death knight—what’s your connection to that monster?!”

He seemed to have already branded me and Damian as accomplices. But because of the intimidating power emanating from Damian, he didn’t recklessly attack.

“Sir Damian, how long until Lugal’s resurrection?”

“About thirty minutes.”

At this point, it really wouldn’t be strange for it to happen at any moment.

“Logan Deoric. For the record, this is Sir Damian Viet. You’ve heard the name, haven’t you?”

“… What?”

No knight alive didn’t know of the first of the Seven Heroes.

Sure enough, a stir spread immediately among the surrounding soldiers.

“Sir Damian—that’s the one from the Seven Heroes…”

“But he’s a death knight!”

“Even so, he’s speaking… If he was a Sword God, maybe it’s possible.”

The Deoric family’s soldiers and knights all buzzed with uncertainty as they looked at Damian.

Naturally, their faces showed disbelief.

“Are you saying I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Someone of your caliber should be able to tell I’m not lying.”

Logan fell silent, seemingly at a loss for words.

He could sense better than any other knight or soldier just what level Damian had attained.

And the pure magic power radiating from him showed that Damian was different from other evil death knights.

“If you follow that corridor down, you will find the source that is spreading this death energy.”

Damian, watching Logan quietly, finally spoke.

“The source?”

“You brought soldiers with you, didn’t you? You intend to deal with that source. Even if you have to threaten the lord of these lands.”

“T-Threaten? I simply asserted my legitimate rights as the local lord!”

As Logan hastily tried to excuse himself, Damian smirked.

He’d met countless humans as a Sword God. There were many just like Logan among them.

“Logan Deoric.”

Instead of Damian, I addressed the flustered Logan.

“I’ll give you a choice.”

“A choice?”

“As Sir Damian said, you can tell that the death energy is pouring out from below.”

The thick death energy filling the cavern.

A power so overwhelming that anyone unable to handle magic power would instantly lose consciousness seeped from a side corridor.

There was no way Logan couldn’t sense it.

“I will now go down together with Sir Damian below. You may follow if you wish, or stay here and wait if you’re afraid.”

My voice rang loud and clear through the empty cavern.

So that everyone present could hear.

“What will you do?”

“Ugh!”

Logan gritted his teeth and looked at his soldiers.

The Deoric family’s soldiers and knights waited for Logan’s command.

‘I can guess exactly what he’s thinking.’

In terms of pride, just sitting and waiting here was not a good option.

If word spread about what happened here, his reputation would be in tatters.

Moreover, Riya was by my side.

If he showed a shameful appearance before a princess of the empire, and if she spoke of him to the king of the Talua Kingdom or foreign dignitaries…

The repercussions would be beyond imagination.

‘So, in the worst case, he probably thought he could just kill us and escape.’

But that was no longer possible.

First, he would need my strength to pass through the corridor. Second, even if he tried a surprise attack, Damian was with me.

Just attacking two people—a princess and me—would not be easy, and with Damian as our ally, there was no way he would dare attack.

“Logan Deoric.”

In the end, there was only one decision Logan could make.

The claim that he had come to investigate what was happening here in the first place tied him down.

“Don’t tell me, you plan to run away without even a proper investigation?”

At my teasing tone, Logan clenched his teeth.

“I will go with you.”

“That’s more like it.”

He might have ulterior motives, but he truly was among the most skilled in the Talua Kingdom.

Not to mention, the Deoric family’s knights and soldiers were among the elite of the entire kingdom.

‘How wonderful it is that I can exploit manpower for free.’

I hadn’t asked for our family’s soldiers or Black Skull to handle this incident because it was so dangerous.

But if it’s the Deoric family, I could use them without the slightest guilt, no matter how dangerous.

“So, it’s decided. Now, follow us.”

Damian, who had been watching the situation with his arms crossed, calmly began to walk ahead.

Watching Damian, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

‘He’s acting differently from how he seemed in the synopsis.’

In the synopsis, before facing Lugal in battle, Damian seemed quite tense.

But now he looked perfectly at ease.

If not for the thick death energy suffusing the area, he would have seemed like his everyday self.

[Of course it’s different.]

Grancesia spoke in a slightly amused tone.

[Because now, the one at Damian’s side is you.]

Originally, the one at his side was Fabian.

And Damian had warned him to run whenever things got dangerous, even though Fabian was a tremendous powerhouse who’d reached Swordmaster.

That just shows how uncertain the outcome of the fight with Lugal the Dark King was.

But Damian had given me no such warning.

[Right now, you are definitely stronger than the protagonist, Fabian.]

Grancesia’s words sent a thrill through me that surpassed any compliment.

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