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‘The red swamp’ was the old name that used to refer to the land around the territory of Durgal, while the name before that was unknown.
When the emperor had torn down an unknown god at the top of the Manas Mountains, the dead body of the god rolled down the basin. The blood that seeped out of the god’s body colored the entire area red. The altars and buildings that used to enshrine the god were submerged under the blood, and all the followers of the god were forced to turn their backs on their hometown.
Over time, the god’s blood had permeated the ground. The trees that soaked this blood to grow up grew out red leaves, and the land had been nicknamed the ‘red forest’ instead of ‘red swamp,’ and came to be called Durgal ever since.
Mark Moore, the Lord of the territory of Durgal, was secretly proud of the fact that his territory had such a creepy history. The nasty and rotten smell caused by the red forest’s bloody leaves and humidity, as well as the red fungus that grew tangled in every corner of the territory were all marks of the achievement left behind by His Majesty.
Mark liked the fact that he lived in this famous mythical land. But on the other hand, he was depressed that there were no heroes, great knights, or historical monsters living in the same era as him. There were only crooks, lunatics, and armed rascals.
“It seems like none of the mercenaries that came this time are useful either,” Mark muttered as he looked down at the mercenaries from the second floor of the pub.
The violent and smelly mercenaries that were on the first floor were either criminals or crooks. Mark had been employing mercenaries at high rates for a long time, but the number of mercenaries coming to Durgal had gradually decreased as the vicious rumors about the mercenaries that went insane or were killed started spreading. The mercenaries that still visited the territory of Durgal were either on the edge of life or on the run.
“How many mercenaries are gold grades this time?” Mark asked.
“Only two, my lord. The other seven of the new arrivals are all silver grades, and there are a few that are either bronze grade or have no grade at all,” the butler replied as he rummaged through the list of the mercenaries.
The bronze grades were those who had less than a year of experience as a mercenary, and those without grades were people that came to Durgal recklessly without even being registered as a mercenary. None of them were worth using as a force.
Mark clicked his tongue. Ten years ago, not only gold, even platinum grade mercenaries used to come. Of course, that was a long time ago and even the excavation work now was very difficult.
“It’s already been two years since we found the deep area, but we still haven’t been able to search through it properly and we’ve been putting off the work. Are there really no gold grade mercenaries that are willing to come to Durgal?”
“Rampage, the centurion of the fourth division, and a few of his men were dishonorably discharged a few months ago. So I have been trying to find out what they are up to…”
“A centurion? That’s a reliable position. Were you able to get a hold of them?”
“Apparently no one has heard from them ever since they went down to the south. There’s a rumor saying that he died after being caught up in a disturbance at a certain colosseum, and there’s another rumor saying that he was accused of heresy and burned at the stake. I’m not exactly sure what they are up to.”
“There is not a single man who would be a good help… I can’t believe it… it's like there are no heroic figures in this era.”
“Why don’t we send those without a grade and bronze grades to the middle area and get them to search the area again, my lord.”
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“Ah… how lamentable it is to see only rascals roaming around the land where His Majesty once heroically slayed a god…”
“It truly is, my lord. Shouldn’t we at least make those useless mercenaries pay for the meals we feed them? I’ll send the wrecked ones out the back door as usual.”
Usually, the Lord said whatever he wanted while the butler took care of the territory without paying proper attention to what he said. Despite the excavation of numerous treasures and relics in the dungeon, the territory of the Durgal remained poor. This was entirely because the lord of Durgal, Mark, spared no money and poured all his fortune into the excavation process of the dungeon.
However, the ominous rumors about the mercenaries going insane or being killed had spread as the years passed, which made it difficult to hire mercenaries to search the dungeon. Mark had to change his strategies—whether the mercenaries were powerful enough to survive or not, send all of them into the dungeon anyway. The weak ones would naturally be eliminated, while the survivors would grow in their own ways and become stronger.
Quite a few of the remaining mercenaries had improved their skills that way. But, their mental state had become quite precarious as a result. The ominous rumors had only worsened as a result, but the rapid destruction of the entire system was prevented thanks to the mercenaries who visited the territory of Durgal for money.
The sun began to set, and there were only a few carriages running through the forest after sunset. Mark decided to go back without waiting any longer for more mercenaries to arrive. Mark let out a long sigh. He had heard that his father was a knight who had fought alongside His Majesty on the battlefield.
Compared to the previous generations of his family, Mark felt infinitely small. His father’s armor that had been handed down to him did not fit his body, and the weapon his father left behind was too heavy for him to lift.
‘Is growing old as a noble in the rural area really the suitable ending for me?’
Mark was suffering from a mid-life crisis.
“Ugh– Ahhhhhhhh!”
At that moment, a sudden scream broke out from the entrance to the village which made Mark frown. There were quite a few incidents where a lunatic wandering around the forest crawled into the village, as mercenaries frequently gathered in the area. Before Mark could give any commands, the mercenaries had already gathered to find out about the source of the scream.
“Should I go and find out what’s going on, my lord?” asked the butler.
However, Mark shook his head and headed to the entrance of the village himself. There was no fighting nor screams anymore—there was only a murmur of admiration and fear. Mark approached the crowd while feeling curious.
“Oh my goodness, that’s…”
“That’s Jules, right?”
“He matches the description given by the guy who returned last time with his lower body completely destroyed. I mean, who else could be Jules other than someone that looks like that guy over there?”
‘Jules?’
Mark heard a familiar name. It was the name of a Templar—the Templar with whom he curried favor and gave a lot of gifts as bribes, even saying that ‘his achievements are on the same level as His Majesty,’ all to bring him to Durgal.
Although he was helpful in the beginning, he ended up being a pain in the ass.
‘He has come back?’
Soon, Mark’s eyes widened when he saw those who had entered the village.
A black-haired young man and a woman who looked utterly tired and covered in blood were walking into the village. The head of a man with messy hair was being dragged by the black-haired young man, while the muddy ground was turning red with blood.
Mark was the only person who knew what Jules looked like among everyone here, and so Mark was certain that the head belonged to Jules.
Jules’ head rolled toward Mark when the black-haired young man threw it, mildly irritated.
“Where the hell is the guy who’s supposed to pay me for this head?” the black-haired man asked.
The mercenaries who had been eyeing each other with perplexed looks all turned their gaze toward one direction.
Meanwhile, Mark couldn’t take his eyes off of the black-haired young man.
‘His Majesty is finally helping me.’
***
“It’s very impressive that you managed to catch Jules. The number of people he has killed should at least be in triple digits. I owe you a great deal.”
Juan and Swallan were currently in the mansion of the Lord of Durgal as he had invited them. The mansion built on the hill overlooking the village had an appearance akin to a small castle. However, it was hard to tell which era the construction belonged to; it looked like the original building had been expanded and altered. In particular, the black stone pavement filled with red mosses gave an extremely unpleasant impression.
“How much is the reward for Jules’ head? As far as I remember, it is pretty big,” Swallan asked.
“Ah-um. I had promised one hundred gold pieces. To be honest, I thought no one would ever be able to catch him, so I had put out a ridiculously large reward… but you guys certainly have the qualities of the legendary heroes, don’t you? I’ll pay you a hundred and fifty gold pieces!”
Swallan didn’t look very satisfied, but she didn’t ask for more since one hundred fifty gold pieces was quite a big amount of money. Juan should be the person to receive the reward since he was the one who caught Jules, but Juan wasn’t interested in such things. Juan only felt that the reward was much better than he had expected.
“If you don’t mind me asking, can you tell me how you managed to capture Jules? Traps never worked on him, not to mention the fact that his wounds would be completely healed in just a day if we somehow managed to inflict any injuries on him. I had started to feel that it was literally impossible to catch him. Templars can be such a hassle. I could’ve asked the Church to take care of him if he had gone insane while still wearing his equipment, but the Templars returned after only retrieving his equipment.”
“Why was a Templar in Durgal?” Juan opened his mouth for the first time after arriving at the mansion.
Mark had been anxious upon seeing Juan maintain silence the entire time; Mark had instinctively noticed that Juan was the real powerhouse among them. The way Juan talked to Mark was rather insolent considering that he was a noble and Juan wasn’t, but Mark respected the worthy and the strong as much as he could. To Mark, Juan was the closest to the ‘real’ powerful man that he imagined.
“Because of an old legend here. There is an unknown dungeon here in the territory of Durgal. Odd incidents often occur inside the dungeon, perhaps due to the blood that soaked the entire dungeon—the blood of the god who was slayed by His Majesty back in the day. Jules had heard a rumor that there was a heretic in the dungeon, and came to fulfill his duties as a Templar. Well, I can’t deny that some amount of money was also involved in motivating him, but still.”
“Did he successfully fulfill his duty?”
“He was a great force for us since he was a Templar. We had only been able to enter the middle level of the dungeon before he came, but he found a way to the deeper area. But that was it. I have no idea what he saw inside the deeper area, but he went completely insane…”
After that, Jules probably turned into what Juan had seen in the forest.
“Anyway, we made a few more attempts to get into the deeper area in the dungeon, but it was hard to even navigate past the middle area. Moreover, the number of mercenaries who are willing to help out has significantly decreased these days, perhaps due to the prolonged civil war. Haha.”
In fact, the reason why the numbers of mercenaries had decreased was due to the ominous rumors spreading everywhere—but Mark deliberately hid this fact. It would be for the best if they hadn’t heard of the rumors, but even if they had, there was no need for Mark to remind them.
Upon realizing that Juan had no signs of being a mercenary, Mark thought of the possibility that he might not be a mercenary.
‘A mysterious expert from beyond the border.’
Mark felt pretty good about Juan’s title, as the chances of trouble were lesser even if things ended up going wrong. And the woman who came with Juan not only carried an unusual-looking horn bow, but also wore a gold badge on her shoulder. For Mark who had been hungry for experts, they were precious talents that Mark wanted to greet with his arms wide open.
“Now, I want to get down to business…”
“No. I’ll get down to business first.”
Juan cut Mark’s words off and held out a pouch in front of Mark. Mark felt a bit irritated, but looked at Juan as if he was curious about what Juan was about to say.
Upon opening the pouch, fragments of Indeterminate Polyhedron poured out, causing Mark to open his eyes wide.
“Do you know anything about this gem?” Juan asked.
“Huh, this is…? This is a gem that you can only find here. It must have been a pretty big gem based on these fragments. Why is such a precious gem in such a state?”
“This is a mineral only found from the Crack.”
Mark flinched for a moment, but soon shook his head in denial.
“The Crack? No—this is a gem I named ‘god’s blood.’”
“God's blood?”
“Yes. I believe this purple gem is the result of the hardening of the blood of the god that His Majesty slayed. There are only a few of them that can be found in the dungeon, but it’s really popular among the enthusiasts.”
Juan frowned upon hearing Mark’s words. He didn’t care what Mark had named the gem, but he did care about Mark mentioning its amount.
“This is popular? Do you have any more of it?”
“Well… finding something as rare as the ‘Indeterminate Polyhedron’ owned by Bishop Rietto would be difficult. That was the best of all the gems that my father had found when he was alive. I’m sure that most rich nobles own some quantity of this type of gem. This type of gem is like a lofty beauty that gets on people’s nerves, but at the same time possesses them with its charms.”
Juan pondered Mark’s words. It was true that he had killed a god around this area, but he had never heard a story of the god’s blood hardening and becoming a mineral. Juan hadn’t sensed the traces of the Crack from the god he had killed, thus the two were likely to be completely different items. However, this Lord named Mark didn’t seem to know anything about the Crack.
“But…” Mark hesitated and opened his mouth cautiously. “Well, um. To be honest, I can’t say that Durgal has nothing to do with the Crack. Although it is not as bad as it is in the north, I'll admit that this place has been affected by the Crack to a certain extent. But I can swear that I’ve never even seen the Thornbush Priest Organization before. But there is something that concerns me.”
“What is it?” Juan asked.
“The Order of Lindwurm had once been secretly hiding here.”