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Deep darkness is a Harbinger of the Coming Dawn (5)
It was a simple act of healing.
The enormous amount of mana the king had gained and the metamorphism his body had gone through was only an incidental income; the essence of what I had done was to heal the king’s wounds.
I had just wanted the king to live; it was that simple.
I wasn’t hoping for a reward, and I never wished for anything more. However, for that selfless act, an outspoken reward was given to me: Dragon Slayer, my body.
My body, which had remained silent, as if sealed, finally responded.
Its reaction was completely different from what I expected.
‘Hwaak!’
After completing the king’s treatment and returning to my room, my true body suddenly began to emit light.
At the same time, a tremendous chill flowed from it.
My fingertips froze in an instant, a bone-freezing chill that invaded into my shoulders from my hands. Frightened, I quickly summoned my energy and resisted the chill.
After fighting against the cold for a long time, the light of my true body, which had radiated brilliantly, faded. The great coldness also disappeared. My body returned to the state of a normal sword as if nothing had happened. It was absurd, but because it was my body, I knew what this reaction meant.
It was the reaction you’d see if it didn’t like something. It was rebelling; it was grumpy.
Still, I don’t know if the act of trying to freeze the soul of a human being could be termed as mere rebellion or grumpiness.
“Ha.”
It had been a great jolt of frost, but because I had known what I was doing, I didn’t get a fever. I was more embarrassed than angry, and the embarrassing thing was that the thing that didn’t like me was me. A body that rejects its souls: I was beyond embarrassed; I was ashamed.
Regardless of my emotions, my true body remained silent. It was like when I had first reunited with it. However, my body, as it currently was, was not the same as it had been then. I was sure: It was watching me. The odd gaze that I occasionally felt was proof. The purpose of that gaze was probably to judge my qualifications.
“Have you ever seen such a cheeky guy?”
Where else in the world would you find someone who treats his other half like this?
It was absurd, but it wasn’t that I didn’t understand. The body I occupied was merely a usual type of body. After hundreds of years of gaining knowledge and experience and raising countless knights, I was only able to become a Master after taking the elixir. I had reconstructed my human body to overcome its limitations to some extent, but it was not perfect. It was still not enough to pass the judgment of a supreme artifact with numerous [Heroic] and [Mythic] poems.
If I had been like I originally was in this flesh body, my true body wouldn’t have even reacted, let alone been cranky. But now, I had the karma to overcome the bodily qualities that I lacked.
In addition to the heroic battle I had won by killing the Warlord, I had the karma of numerous other feats supporting me. But my body still saw me in my weak human body, which gets stepped on from time to time, and it might feel that every time that happens, its soul gets trampled.
It would be a waste to hide away, but it might be unwise to bare its full power and make me drunk on that right away. I’m sure this was how my true body saw the situation. So: It couldn’t do this, it couldn’t do that, it could only be grumpy.
If I was in its position, it was unlikely that I would have acted otherwise. I instinctively convinced myself of this. The question was, why did the main body start showing interest in me only now?
Not so long ago, it didn’t react to me at all, even if I held onto it and shook it around. There was nothing different between then and now; at least, I thought so. After contemplating it, I found out the reason. The answer lay in my friend’s will.
‘Please take care of my descendants.’
Four hundred years ago, my friend asked me to take care of his descendants, and I replied that I would – and my friend died.
I fell asleep waiting for someone to come to me to so that I could keep my promise. I slept for a whopping four hundred years.
In the meantime, the kingdom established by my friend became a vassal state of an empire that would be hard to war against. The descendants of my friend had to live in humiliation and dishonor through the generations. It wasn’t by my intention, but as a result, I had failed in keeping the promise made to my friend. It was a very unfair situation for me.
There were actual reasons for it, though.
Firstly, it wasn’t that I didn’t keep my promise, but rather that I didn’t have the opportunity to keep it. My friend’s descendants didn’t wield me, leaving me deep in the palace.
Secondly, Gwangryong had been a mighty being, and in my battle with that mad dragon, I expended a lot of energy. I had needed time to regain the energy I had lost.
Well, it was definitely my fault that I didn’t wake up even when my friend’s descendants came to me later on. I became aware of my faults, so I tried to correct them. Even now, I am doing my best to restore the kingdom to its original state. I believed, in that way, I could fulfill the obligations of the oath I had forgotten. But it wasn’t so; regardless of my efforts, the pledge still remained unfulfilled.
My friend’s request was to take care of his descendants, not to take care of the kingdom.
And strictly speaking, all the efforts I had made were for the Leonberg Kingdom, not the Leonberger family. I have never done anything directly for my friend’s scions.
The only action I had taken was to save the king from dying. At that time, I just wanted to preserve his life, but as a result, it became an act that prevented the entropy that might have come upon me. It wasn’t just the king’s wounds that I had healed.
My soul was being gradually damaged without my knowledge after I had forgotten the oath. And my soul was also one of the things I had healed.
I laughed, for I had saved the king, healed my soul, and gained a sliver of True Silver.
I had thrown a single stone and killed three rabbits – why not laugh?
Still, I only laughed for a while. As I stopped, I lifted my true body and glared at it.
“It’s not long before you’re begging me to leave you alone.”
My body trembled at my words – as if it was excited.
Whether it was or not, I grabbed it tighter and growled, almost screamed, “Just as I am not free of my oath, neither are you.”
As long as the Leonberger family’s blood coursed through my veins, my body had no choice but to accept my mastery of it over time. And at that time, the power that my true body possessed would also be mine. As I thought about that upcoming day, laughter came from me, and I laughed out loud.
Then I suddenly stopped laughing and hardened my expression.
“This isn’t anything crazy.”
It was ridiculous for me to threaten my body.
* * *
I stayed in my room, not going outside for a while. I couldn’t go anywhere because of the grumpiness that flared from my body from time to time. I saw it as a necessary process and received its mounting enthusiasm with joy. After four days, Carls came to me while I sat on my bed.
“You’re here? You told me that you’re busy these days.”
“The Count of Stuttgart kept me busy.”
There were rumors that the palace knight commander had been paying attention to Carls, grooming him as his successor, and it seemed to be true. The little old knight wouldn’t have kept summoning Carls without cause. I was playfully trying to convey my congratulations in advance, but Carls suddenly became excited.
“Recently, unusual rumors are circulating in the palace,” Carls said.
“Rumors? What do- Wait a minute,” I said with a frown, because my body was getting excited again.
“Get back,” I ordered Carls, in case he got caught up in it, and immediately summoned my energy and resisted the chill. As usual, my body remained grumpy until it felt my energy and only relented in freezing me after I battled with it.
“Woo,” I gave a lengthy exhale as I started removing the chill that had penetrated my body of flesh, but as I felt a gaze on me, I turned my head.
Carls was staring at me.
“I was about to tell your Highness of rumors about a strange cold that was flowing out of your palace.”
Carls’ narrowed eyes and frowning faced seemed to be nagging me to tell him what was going on right away.
“Oh, that’s no big deal.”
“Is that true? Your Highness’s right hand doesn’t usually look like that.”
I broke eye contact with Carls and saw that my right hand was frozen stiff with the cold that I had not yet completely shaken from myself. I frowned as I gathered up mana and channeled it into my right hand. When I squeezed and clenched my fist, the layer of ice that was covering the entire hand shattered at once.
“Is your Highness okay?” Carls frowned.
“Is there anything wrong with me conducting individual training?” I demanded.
“Is there any reason in this world to freeze one’s own body?” he retorted.
“I haven’t heard of such methods, no. But as long as I remain strong, he will not be able to freeze my body. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to take my own life at such a young age,” I responded insincerely, and Carls narrowed his eyes even further.
“Then what is that cold?”
I thought about it for a while and then quietly showed him my body.
“It’s because this guy is a little bit angry.”
Carls’ expression suddenly turned white at my words.
“Abandon that sword right now!”
“This is a royal sword.”
Carls stiffened.
“Your Highness, if you can’t throw it away, keep it away from yourself. Because when I felt that cold from afar a while ago, I noticed dangerous energies within it,” Carls said as he lowered his voice, his gaze nailed onto my true body.
He looked at it as if seeing something ominous, even a cursed object.
I wasn’t in the mood for his concerns.
“Your Highness… There was a lot of talk saying that His Highness the Third Prince became a madman because of this sword. I am worried that there is a curse that no one knows about, so I can’t dare- I can’t bear it if your Highness takes such risk.”
It did seem that Carls believed my body to be magically cursed. Of course, he was right in a way, but the process I was currently going through was different from the time the third prince had been enthralled. At that time, the prince had merely been a sacrifice. I was a wielder, a solicitor, not a sacrifice. Besides, I believed my true body felt very sorry for me.
“Okay. You’re just seeing it. Know that this cold holds no threat to me at all.”
“I know this is not the first time!”
Carls began pouring out words, his face showing great concern. He told me that in the middle of the night, a sudden burst of cold had erupted, and the on-call knight came to my room, seeing me lying on my bed, frozen stiff. And besides, he said, I skipped all my meals, not touching a morsel. When the maid, who thought it was strange, checked the dishes, she found that the food was frozen.
I frowned. Internally, I cursed my cranky body while I looked at the worried Carls.
“Okay, okay.”
“I’m saying that your Highness will get hurt.”
“Oh… You don’t have to care about that. I don’t.”
‘It’s okay, it’s okay’: No matter how much I said this, Carls didn’t stop his nagging.
If things went on like this, his worries would be frying on the metaphorical plate of my ears non-stop until the day’s end.
“Carls.”
“Yes, your Highness?”
“This procedure is done to make sure Dragon Slayer recognizes me as its master.”
“What is that-”
“The founder of our kingdom went through the same process.”
Carls shut his mouth as he heard my very sincere words.
I wasn’t lying. In fact, I used to be just as grumpy as this when I felt that the behavior of my overly-just friend cramped my style too much. Me using the founder’s name on Carls was an excellent ploy on my part, but the effect proved to be rather excessive.
“Your Highness…”
Carls looked at me with respect-filled eyes. He always looked at me like that, but today, his awe was far greater.
“If it wasn’t for your Highness, who would ever have dared to be recognized by Dragon Slayer? This is an achievement that even the successive monarchs of our great kingdom could not achieve. I, the humble knight Carls Ulrich, simply admire and stand in awe of your Highness’s power.”
It’s not that the kings have failed to master me. It was rather that I had slept too deeply. Seeing Carls look at me with blind faith and fanaticism, I swallowed the words that had crept into my throat.
“I have to tell others about this right now,” Carls excitedly said.
“Until I have-”
“His Majesty is very worried. He heard that your Highness was exhausted in the course of his treatment. His Majesty is constantly worried about whether there is anything wrong with your body,” Carls said, and his ass began shaking, so eager was he to spread the news.
A burst of vain laughter came from me.
Carls’ sincere and thoughtful behavior was why I trusted him more than any other palace knight. At first, he had remained silent about the story of the maids and knights who had seen me frozen, and I figured Carls had come to visit me just to hear my voice and see if I was okay.
It wasn’t a bad feeling to have such a man be privy to my personal affairs. Well, if I let him leave now, he would probably begin shouting out loud that a master of the Dragon Slayer has finally been born to the royal family.
“Carls, because the sword has not fully recognized me, please tell others about this a little later.”
For the time being, I closed Carls’ excited mouth with appropriate words. I was about to spend a long time with my true body, and I wanted to avoid the hustle and bustle of people.
And so, I avoided the hassle of visitors – until one from the Kingdom of Teuton came looking for me.