/
Observing my expression quietly, Jemian slowly brought up the last question.
“Then lastly… Has Mister Herzen ever told Miss Catyshia about getting involved with some kind of sword?”
“Sword? Hup.”
I asked back reflexively and, hap, closed my mouth. It was a multiple-choice question, right? Oh my.
‘To think he’s asking about a sword.’
Blasco was a swordsman family. It was indeed a more reasonable topic than Grandfather’s antiques.
The Duke waved his hand at Jemian insincerely. This time, he personally opened his mouth.
“Orange.”
“Yess.”
“Have you ever heard of the name ‘Giost’? Now answer in a descriptive way.”
Giost. Of course, I’ve heard of it. It was not through Grandfather Herzen’s mouth, but rather a name that appeared in the novel that I read.
It was the real name of the Demon Sword that was exactly the only one in this world. This was the sword protected by Blasco and also where Grandfather Herzen’s soul was subordinated.
It was not the name of the sword’s existence itself, but rather the name of the devil who was subjugated by the sword hundreds of years ago.
The real name of the Demon Sword was not known to the general public. Since it was the name of the devil, it had already been hundreds of years since it was strictly forbidden to be talked about. The reasoning being that one will suffer from misfortune.
‘Then, how should I answer this?’
I couldn’t honestly tell the whole truth, saying that I saw it from a book in my past life though.
I was only hesitating for a very short time, but the Duke’s eyes rose to the shape of 10:10 at once.
(t/n: 10:10 is not a ratio. But the shape formed by the needle of a clock showing 10 o’clock past 10 minutes.)
“I’ll ask you again, Little Kid. Did you receive the succession of Giost, which has been Blasco’s family heirloom starting from our ancestors, and the Astroca Empire’s antique?”
“Yes!? No!”
Instinctively, I had an intuition that I should never deny this. It wasn’t even a lie. Grandfather had never even spoken out the letter ‘Gi’ of Giost to me.
“Oh yeah?”
The corners of Duke Blasco’s mouth lifted up to reveal his teeth. At the voice that had seemed to soften a little, the blade came close again.
“If so, explain at once, how we should interpret what was written in this will that differs from your answer.”
The Duke pushed a piece of document whose edges had crumpled in front of me. It was Grandfather Herzen’s will that I sent to Artem.
The document, which was embarrassing to even call a will, only had this written.
[To change the moral principles, Catyshia Ainsley, my house’s Little Kid whom I am raising, will inherit all properties in the name of Herzen Fernandit Blasco. I also give Catyshia the right to become the legitimate owner of the Demon Sword Giost.
This is the end of this will.
No objections are accepted.]
Underneath it were three or four unusual golden seals along with Grandfather’s signature.
“Uh…”
A stupid sound flew out of my open lips.
Giost was Blasco’s family heirloom, which had been inherited only by the Lords for generations.
‘Why would he give that to me…?’
“No matter how I see it, it seems like my Father is trying to hand over this whole family to you though.”
The Duke’s glaringly sparkling dark blue eyes were no longer something that resembled a human.
As he grinded his teeth, his mouth rolled up and asked.
“What do you think about this situation, Orange?”
The Duke now looked like a hedgehog that was emitting blue currents in all directions.
…My Grandfather’s will is surely straightforward.
‘Because of the cold wind that blew too much, even before being able to inherit the property, I’m going to either freeze to death or get stabbed to death by Grandfather’s son!’
I shrieked in my head.
***
Grandfather Herzen passed down the Demon Sword to me.
After hearing that story, Blasco’s enormous inheritance no longer caught my attention…. No, I ended up noticing it a little less.
It was also surprising that Grandfather did not pass down the Demon Sword to the current Duke, but to think that he skipped a generation and chose me as his heir, who was not even his biological grandchild?
‘I’m dead now.’
My future seemed so bleak that I cried.
Jemian worked hard to comfort me.
“Please do not worry too much, Miss Catyshia. Even if the Duke grumbles like that on the outside, it’s not like he will be trying to do something to Miss Catyshia right away.”
“Yess… hic.”
I left the study, holding the kind Jemian’s hand.
Perhaps he thought that I was crying because I was scared. He even gave me a teddy bear that was half the size of my body.
But then again, if one was an ordinary 10 year old child, it was indeed natural to be scared when two adult men were buzzing around in front of you.
“Crying? You’re crying?? The one who wants to bite its fist and weep bitterly now is who, but you’re cry…”
“Oh myy, Your Excellency. If you glare like that in front of a child, it’s not right!”
“Just on whose side are you?”
“I’m on Baby’s side! What kind of mistake does the child have!? And isn’t she cute?!”
“Is being cute everything!?”
“Yes!”
“That is right.”
The Duke was really extremely hot-tempered.
He seemed to be the type to quickly cool down as fast as he heated up and made me confused as to which rhythm I should match to, but I had never seen a person so fast in changing his attitude.
“Forget it. Since I have a headache, both of you quickly disappear.”
Perhaps he thought it was meaningless to stop me and argue, the Duke quickly gave an order to get the guest out with a tired face.
Angel Jemian coaxed me to go and guided me to my bedroom.
“Here. This is the room where Miss Catyshia will stay. What do you think? It’s splendid, right?”
“Yes…”
“If you need something or anything at all, please ask the employees. The food you want to eat, the clothes you want to wear, the things you want to do, you can ask for them all. You don’t need to shrink. Don’t cry, hup!”
“Yes… Hup…”
Jem, this kind and nice person…
Jemian handed me a fat wallet in the shape of a lucky bag and put it in my hand.
“Now, this is Miss Catyshia’s emergency fund. His Excellency the late Duke’s spirit left a message saying to give it to Miss Catyshia when she comes. Although it is outrageously small compared to the things that will be inherited in the future.”
As soon as I held a heavy wallet, I stopped crying. This was because the feeling of round and flat irons hitting each other inside the soft satin was clear.
‘Don’t tell me, this must not be all gold coins, right?’
It was gold coins. I guess it contained 50-60 coins by the volume and weight.
‘50 Gold…!’
Whoa, this was the first time I saw this kind of gold. Since I wanted to try to bite it once, my teeth became itchy.
‘Just how much money is it now? Is it about 500 grams?’
Then if I convert it into Won…?
But that wasn’t the end.
Jemian hung a medal on my neck.
“And this is the pass that the late Duke used. It is connected to the late Duke’s vault in the central bank of the Capital, but since the ban still hasn’t been lifted, you can’t use it. Even so, you can have it. It’ll become a credit, you know.”
“C-can I use it however I want?”
“Of course. Use it freely!”
The black and shiny medal was, so to speak, an unlimited black card. Around that moment, since I was flowing with the blood of the most wretched beggar, my mouth was already open.
‘Wow, it’s also my first time seeing a black card!’
While I was crazily flipping the medal back and forth, Jemian sighed.
“How did a lamb end up rolling into this merciless den…? Please don’t be too hurt if the Duke speaks harshly, Miss Catyshia. He isn’t a person with a bad personality. You know, if you look closely, he also has his warm moments.”
“I’m very fine. Since I don’t get hurt by that kind of thing. Please don’t worry!”
“Huft, you sure are brave.”
If you have the blessing of gold and black cards, is there anything to fear in the world?
Moreover, Jemian seems to have misunderstood something. After all, the reason I sniffled was not because I was scared.
After Jemian, who had been comforting me for a while, left, I quickly began to put my brain to work.
Gold, cards, antique collections, and deed papers. One thing that was different from those was the Demon Sword.
What does it mean to inherit the Demon Sword?
I scraped up the contents of the blurry original work again.
According to my memory, in [Now We’re, Like Magic], the heir of the Demon Sword was determined through an agreement between this generation’s Lord and the Demon Sword Giost. After the Lord’s life is completely surrendered to the sword as a spirit, the ownership of Demon Sword naturally passes over to the predetermined heir.
It is only when the succession ceremony is officially held from the Tower of Spirits, will the person be reborn as the owner of the Demon Sword.
Usually, it was the standard that the succession right of the Lord title and the Demon Sword was handed over to the heir at the same time.
However, in the case of Grandfather Herzen, since he threw away his title and disappeared, only now, after Grandfather’s death, was the succession right of the Demon Sword transferred to his heir.
Then, why does out of all, the souls of a dead human being, and not a living person, guard the Demon Sword?
There was a reason for that. There was a reason why the Demon Sword was imprisoned in the Tower of Spirits.
First of all, most humans who inherited the Demon Sword died younger than their original lifespan. It seems to be resurrected as a spirit after death, but the same was true of losing their bodies.
Then, why was there a high risk of premature death? This was because the human soul and body could not handle the clouded-up magic in the Demon Sword.
If one inherited the Demon Sword, they could freely use the power of the devil in the sword and be reborn as the world’s strongest swordsman, but they would gradually lose their intelligence and become assimilated with the devil.
Before the assimilation quotient reaches a certain level and the soul is corrupted, Blasco’s taboo was to quickly make sure of their heir’s early death.
About four or five strong young men all said that Grandfather Herzen, who was strong enough to fight them without difficulty, died in just a few months, it was enough to be fate.
Jemian’s additional explanation drifted in my head.
“Although the late Duke was strong in his original temperament, rather than that, since he did not borrow Giost’s power at all during his lifetime, he could live long. It has also been a long time since he entirely left the Artem territory, where the Giost is located. He’s endured a lot.”
“Usually, from the moment they succeed the Demon Sword, they live for as short as 10 years and as long as 30 years. On average, it’s about 15 to 20 years.”
Strong power comes with a price.
That’s why Blasco’s heirs were trained to get used to the magic as early as when they were newborn babies. And then when the heir is decided, on average, they inherit the Demon Sword along with the Lord title in their early 30s and become a spirit around their 50s.
Then, it was repeated again with them handing over the Lord title and Demon Sword to the heir in their 30s.
‘Even a swordsman who has been highly trained for decades only lived 20 years at the most.’
Compared to me?
Compared to the direct descendants of the Duke Family, who have reached the maximum level of physical strength, mental strength, attack, and defense, my body was a soft water body.
And you’re saying such a me will succeed the Demon Sword? It was obvious that I would be eroded by the magic without even enduring the succession ceremony. So this was just giving me the, ‘Yeah, you’re dying-young’ ending.
“Ah… a death flag that doesn’t miss.”
Turns out, those who reincarnate into novels are really hooked on dogs or cows or death flags.
‘In the end, this is actually time-limited, right?’
The crisis of death, no matter how I look at it, must be the fate of a person who possesses into a book.
‘It would happen immediately with a probability of at least 500%.’
I only came here to sell my life for a million gold cash though…
Thinking like that, it wasn’t something to laugh about.
I ended up shrieking.
“Ack! I don’t want to!”
I absolutely hate it. What’s the point of money and the deed papers if I die? What was worse, even in my past life, I couldn’t get over 19 years old before leaving the world!
The next morning after staying up all night, I ran to the Duke’s study.