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EPISODE 211 – ULTIMATE ONE (1)
It was the only until next morning did Jude and Cordelia’s nighttime escape was discovered.
When the maid found the letter on the bed, she was surprised and urgently sought for Count Chase, and the news of the two running away at night quickly spread around.
“Count Bayer and Count Chase eloped!”
“What? Count Bayer and Count Chase?”
“N-no! Not the fathers! It’s the children!”
Since it was a topic about Jude and Cordelia, it only took about an hour before the entire royal capital heard the news.
And the reactions of the people who heard the news were largely divided into two.
“Elopement? Aren’t the two already engaged?”
“Their families didn’t object to them, right?”
Those who had learned about the two only after the royal capital’s incident had ended could not immediately understand the current situation.
Because they couldn’t understand why the two ran away at night when their families were okay with it, and no one was stopping them from loving each other.
And the reactions of those who had already known about the two were almost the same.
“Again?”
“Can you still call it an elopement at this rate?”
That was how they reacted.
Because the two hadn’t done it once or twice.
The two had already run away a total of five times.
Moreover, since it was a recognized relationship that their families actively pushed together, running away just because they wanted to go on a trip together didn’t make sense.
“But they’re still engaged, right?”
The two were not married yet.
Furthermore, they were only 17 years old now.
Even if they were engaged, it was inevitable that there would be a scandal if they went on a trip alone.
Just as how bad rumors circulated in the north when the two first ran away.
But the status and public perception of the two had changed since then.
The reactions to the two going on a honeymoon trip were as follows.
“What? They haven’t had an accident yet?”
“I thought she had an accident back then?”
“No, didn’t they run away back then in order to have an accident?”
“Wouldn’t it be because of an accident that they ran away in the first place?”
T/N: ‘Have an accident’ is a subtle way of saying that a woman got pregnant even though she is still unmarried.
It was the scandal that spread about the two known as the couple of the century who were already recognized by their families, as well as the entire royal capital, or rather, the entire Sälen Kingdom.
In fact, the public’s perception of the two was that they were no different from a married couple already, as their relationship had been synonymous to lovebirds who would die if they were separated from the other.
If the two ever broke up, the entire Sälen Kingdom would rise and express their opposition to it.
“All according to plan.”
“Uuuh…?”
The half-asleep Cordelia let out a confused voice, and Jude grinned before saying.
“My princess, shouldn’t you get up now?”
“Mmnnn…”
Cordelia usually slept a lot in the morning, so she was still half-asleep. Jude then lightly kissed Cordelia’s forehead and whispered to her again.
“You have to get up now.”
“Mmmnnn…”
Cordelia waved her hands when he put his lips on her forehead again.
“Kisses… no kisses…”
Because skinship was still banned.
But Jude tilted his head and slyly said.
“I didn’t do anything. Perhaps you’re still dreaming?”
“I-is that so…? Then it’s fine.”
Because kisses are nice.
Cordelia giggled and closed her eyes again, and Jude had a bitter smile before he pinched her cheek.
He wanted to let her sleep more, but it was already time for her to get up.
“You really have to get up now, okay? We’re almost there.”
“Uuuuuh…”
Cordelia forcibly opened her eyes, touching her cheeks as she looked around.
Her eyes were still half-open, so her vision was blurry, but she could roughly see that they were in a forest.
“Yaaaawn…”
Cordelia yawned and stretched her arms, raising her upper body as she closed her eyes again. Jude then quickly brought out a basin he had prepared.
“Now, wash your face. Drink a glass of cold water too.”
“Uuuh…”
At this point, she couldn’t help but wake up.
Having drank cold water after washing her face, Cordelia blinked her eyes, and by the time she was fully awake, her hair was already washed, or to be exact, he had washed her hair.
“Stay still, just stay still.”
“Okay.”
Jude had also learned various basic magic spells aside from <Message> magic, so he mixed <Wind> magic and <Heat> magic in order to dry Cordelia’s hair before he began to comb it skillfully.
‘Isn’t this more comfortable than when I didn’t run away?’
Shouldn’t I be having a hard time since I ran away from home?
Jude finished his combing while Cordelia was thinking alone, and he looked at her hair with a very proud expression before he immediately began to prepare their meals.
Since they were outdoors, he was thinking of serving some pancakes, fried eggs, sausages and a bit of vegetables in moderate amounts.
He fried it on a pan over the campfire.
And he even boiled water for tea.
As Cordelia sat and watched Jude’s actions, she sucked in her lips and said.
“Jude.”
“Yes, Cordelia.”
“I’ll definitely boil you some ramyeon later. I’m really good at boiling ramyeon.”
“Where will you get the ramyeon?”
“Wouldn’t you make it for me, Jude? Oh, and rice too. It’s nice to mix some rice in ramyeon.”
When Cordelia giggled, Jude used that opportunity to pinch her cheeks.
“Don’t you have a conscience?”
“Well, my heart feels warm.”
“Shall we check it then?”
Whether your heart really has any hair or not.
T/N: A return of the ‘hair in your heart’ idiom, which means a brazen or shameless person. Hair provides warmth to your head, so if your heart had hair too, your heart would also feel warm.
After his lame joke, Jude focused on cooking again.
And after a few minutes or so.
Cordelia took a bite of the sausage and looked around.
“By the way, where are we?”
“A nameless forest between Morrison and Garinto. A little further south from here is Mount Damos, which is a part of the fief we’ll be receiving.”
Cordelia’s eyes widened when she thought of the map of Legend of Heroes 2 in her head.
“Already? It’s only been a day since we left, right?”
“It’s the power of the Phantom Steed.”
The Phantom Steed could run continuously without getting tired as long as one supplied it with mana.
On top of that, its rider was Jude who was overflowing with stamina that he only needed to sleep for 2 hours, so it wasn’t a problem for it to run for hours.
“Umm… I’ll clean your ears later.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s just that… you’ve had a hard time.”
“Are you feeling guilty?”
Cordelia’s lips twitched at Jude’s question before she nodded a bit.
“And… I’ll definitely boil ramyeon for you, so you have to make ramyeon, okay?”
“It’s like you’re forcing me to do it, but I understand, Madam.”
In fact, ramyeon was just noodles made from pulling flour, and all he needed to do was fry it in oil afterwards, so he could make it right away as long as he had the ingredients.
“Anyway, about Mount Damos.”
“Ultimate One is found in its underground, right?”
“Yes, though to be exact, it’s located at the smithy of the Black Horn Guild, one of the seven guilds of Sword Seeker.”
The Ultimate Seven series.
Seven decisive battle weapons created by Sword Seeker, one of the 7 city states of the ancient dwarven kingdom.
It might have been awkward at first to attach the term ‘decisive battle weapon’ to a sword, but for the Ultimate Seven series, it was a different story.
As its name implied, the seven were special swords developed for the ultimate sword that they sought, which was what Sword Seeker stood for.
“To make it easy to understand, the seven are mythical items.”
“Mythical items that are above legendary items. In terms of rank, it’s SS-rank.”
Among the items that Jude and Cordelia had acquired so far, the highest-ranked item they had was the Amplification Earrings, one of Arkeman’s treasures.
An S-rank item that amplified the power of spells several times in exchange for an enormous amount of mana.
But Ultimate One was an SS-rank item that surpassed S-rank.
“It’s actually a graduation item for some rotten water.”
If a rotten water got one, they wouldn’t need to get any more swords.
“Ah… I’m getting excited.”
The Ultimate Seven series were items that everyone could get in single player mode, but it was different in multiplayer mode.
They were really unique fantasy items wherein only one of them existed in the entire server.
“You had one too, right?”
“In multiplayer, what I used was… the Solar Blade.”
It was the divine sword of Solari that was used by Landius in the first episode of Legend of Heroes when he was still called the Red-Haired Warrior.
In the second episode of Legend of Heroes, it was also an item that sparked the question of whether Landius was killed by Duke because it was in the possession of Duke, a high-ranking demonic human of the Devil’s Hand.
Anyway, the rank of the Solar Blade was SSS-rank.
In terms of rank, it was one rank higher than the Ultimate Seven series.
“But for the current me, Ultimate One is the best.”
It wasn’t because Landius still had the Solar Blade.
It was because for the current Jude, the first sword of the Ultimate Seven series, Ultimate One, was more useful to him than the Solar Blade.
“Hehehe, anyway, this is good. If we get Ultimate One, we’ll become stronger, right?”
“Well… I’ll become stronger.”
“And if we collect all the Ultimate Seven series later, we’ll become even stronger, right?”
“Should we add the Great Protection of the Four Seasons and the Fairy King’s Protection?”
“Landius might hand over the Solar Blade to you.”
“Will my princess collect the entire Arkeman series?”
“Let’s beat up Malekith and take its Dragon Heart.”
“And wake up Solari’s giant statue with that?”
“Magic robots are amazing~ I love giant robots.”
“I’ve thought about it before, but you really like enormous rides and stuff like that, huh?”
“Hehe. Anyway, I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to get it.”
Cordelia looked ecstatic as she talked about the items, just like how rotten waters did.
“Ha, I suddenly can’t wait to fight Malekith.”
“Hey, Malekith is an Ancient Dragon, remember?”
It’s a monster that can really destroy a country by itself, okay? It even has Dragonflights under its command, okay?
“I know. The Dragon Heart of an Ancient Dragon. Ah…what do I do? Jude, my heart is pounding. I’m so excited.”
It was an item that could not be obtained because it was not implemented as an item in the game.
But this was reality now, so it would be different.
“Yes, yes. It’s an enemy that we have to fight anyway, so perhaps it’s better to continue thinking like that.”
It would be much better than falling into fear and despair.
“Ah, I suddenly regret it. It would have been nice if we had stopped by Medb’s auction house.”
The items they had talked about now couldn’t be found there, but they could still have gotten a few A-rank or S-rank items.
“We’ll have another chance.”
After all, they had to go back to the royal capital.
Moreover, there was a branch of the Medb’s auction house in the south. The southern auction house was close to its main store because Medb was originally a noble from the south.
‘Though it’s strange that we’re going to the branch store and not the main store.’
In any case, they would have a lot of opportunities to stop by at that place.
“Fwoo, I like it. I’m beginning to tremble in excitement. Anyway, what do you call it when you secretly visit your territory? Traveling in disguise? Traveling incognito? I want to do that.”
“Should we make a horse requisition tablet?”
“Yes… The secret royal inspector is here!  And when you shout it, a bunch of your minions will appear as if they were summoned.”
“Hey, young lady. You’re the one who’s a wizard and not me, remember?”
“Moving on.”
Cordelia giggled again and stood up from her seat after finishing her meal.
“Okay! Then let’s start again!”
And as she tried to turn around naturally, she was stopped.
“Hey, Cordelia, aren’t you washing the dishes?”
Cordelia didn’t know how to cook, so her task was to wash the dishes.
“It’s going to get dirty again anyway. Do we even need to clean it?”
“Hey, Cordelia, isn’t it time for you to begin waxing the hair in your heart?”
“I hate doing things like waxing.”
“Don’t change the topic, okay?”
“Tsk, fine.”
In fact, she could wash the dishes quickly if she used her magic.
After finishing their morning breakfast, Cordelia got on Jude’s back instead of riding on the Phantom Steed.
Because it wasn’t good to use the Phantom Steed in the morning when the sun was shining.
“Merge in the outdoors! JuDelia!”
Perhaps because her excitement was at its peak, Cordelia loudly shouted and hugged Jude’s neck, and Jude had a small smile before he kicked the ground.
***
Mount Damos.
It was a small mountain situated between the center and the south, and was known as a ‘mountain that must not be entered’ to the surrounding residents.
The reason was simple – because there were so many monsters.
“But… isn’t it a little strange?”
“It is.”
Outboxer009 and Yellow Storm were famous as rotten waters among the stagnant waters of Legend of Heroes.
That was why they could immediately think of the locations and kinds of monsters that would normally come out here without even needing to search JudeWiki.
But as of this moment, there was a beast that shouldn’t be here on Mount Damos, or to be exact, the beastkin were hanging around this place.
“Vorg.”
“The boar beastkin.”
With an average height of more than 2 meters and their biggest one reaching 3 meters, they were a large, bulky, and strong non-human race, and their entire race worked as mercenaries.
‘Though the Vorg mercenaries and Vorg bandits are almost synonymous.’
They had an impatient personality and had a strong tendency to be violent, so if they didn’t like the contract a bit, they would also betray their contractors.
‘Why are they here anyway?’
The Vorgs were more found in the empire than in the Sälen Kingdom, though one could also find them in the southern wetlands in the kingdom that was quite far from Mount Damos.
[Jude, look at their chests.]
Hiding in the bushes at the end of a slope, Cordelia peeked at the passing Vorg 10 meters below, and as she said, Jude’s eyes widened the moment he saw the copper plate they were wearing around their chest.
[Black Hand Mercenaries!]
They were particularly notorious among the Vorg mercenaries, and were also related to Black Dragon Malekith.
But it wasn’t because of their relationship with Malekith that Jude was surprised.
[Gamorr Khan is here?]
[I think so?]
Gamorr Khan.
He was the strongest and most powerful Vorg even among the ferocious Vorgs.
He was a mercenary, so his evaluation was low, but he was a warrior so powerful that there were some who regarded him as the strongest in the same class as the Ten Great Swordmasters.
And such a guy was leading his subordinates to Mount Damos.
This place, which would become Jude and Cordelia’s fief, was still under the direct control of the Sälen royal family.
[Is he after Ultimate One?]
It was a very sudden connection, but it was also a valid guess.
Because Gamorr Khan was the owner of Ultimate Five – the Shield Sword, Grand Order, one of the Ultimate Seven series.
‘The Ultimate Seven series have a resonance effect.’
All the swords in the Ultimate Seven series had a resonance between each other.
Gamorr Khan was also known for coveting the other Ultimate Seven series.
‘But at this point?’
In the game, he was a guy who wandered around in search of the Ultimate Seven series, but at this point in time, he never came to Mount Damos in search of Ultimate One.
What happened?
Is this one of the changes caused by the butterfly effect that began in the north?
‘Anyway.’
In any case, it had already happened. So they just had to get Ultimate One before this guy.
But it was at that moment.
“Hehehe.”
Cordelia snickered and glanced at Jude, and instead of making an expression on asking why all of a sudden, Jude also snickered.
Because they both thought of the same thing.
““Ultimate Five.””
Grand Order.
Not only Ultimate One, but also the Shield Sword, Grand Order.
Since Gamorr Khan was a subordinate of Malekith, defeating him would also serve a double purpose.
Jude had a dark smile like usual, and the already infected Cordelia also had a dark smile