Chapter 163

Chapter 163
Chapter 163

“That is one matter, but this is quite another.”

Joshua was no longer the reckless fourth son of his youth; he had transitioned into a patriarch burdened with the survival of an entire house.

He simply could not dismantle the foundations of his lineage to assist a brother out of mere pity—not when that sibling represented a potential risk to the family’s stability.

“I am sincerely sorry for your hardship, brother. If it were within my power to help, I would do so without hesitation. However, I truly have no wealth to give.”

“I find it hard to tell if you are being genuine or just making excuses. From where I stand, this province appears remarkably affluent and calm.”

“And why do you ignore the fact that the defense of this ‘calm’ province is pathetic?”

Tristan fell into a hush at Joshua’s blunt observation.

It was exactly as he claimed; the martial strength of the lands Joshua ruled was incredibly thin. Despite being veteran troops, the five hundred men Tristan had arrived with were enough to constitute a serious threat.

“This region only looks wealthy because we have neglected military spending until this moment. We could manage that while the Empire enjoyed stability. But those days of prosperity are finished.”

“Is it your goal to muster a legion?”

“Not because of any craving for power. It is for our own protection. Do we not live in an era where you are consumed the moment you reveal a flaw?”

Now that a period of total disorder had dawned, Joshua was left with no alternative.

In reality, even rushing to form a professional army now was dangerously late. Every neighboring territory had already bolstered its ranks, growing significantly more formidable than before.

“I kept fleeing from the truth, hoping the chaos would be short-lived and harmony would return… and that denial brought me to this crisis. I cannot put it off any longer.”

The cost of his hesitation was enormous. While he had been wavering, the capital required to build a force had reached astronomical levels.

A military was always a bottomless pit for gold just by existing, but the modern expenses were beyond anything seen in the past.

“I have reached a state where I must auction off the finery in my own home just to fund a guard capable of basic defense. Given those stakes, how could I possibly provide for you, brother?”

“If you require it, I can oversee the protection of your lands for you.”

“Ha.”

Joshua produced a dry, hollow laugh at Tristan’s interference.

He wasn’t sure if the man was being earnest or if he was shamelessly attempting a blatant power grab.

“Brother, I am no simpleton. Who in their right mind invites another man’s blade into their private quarters?”

Handing over the defense against foreign threats to an outside party was equivalent to surrendering one’s life. Even if the proposal came from a place of pure kindness, it would be highly suspect—but to give control to Tristan, who was starving for a base of operations?

It was no different than gift-wrapping his birthright and handing it over.

“If you desire this province that desperately, then slay me here and claim it. As long as my heart beats, I will never cede this soil to another.”

“…It was merely a thought. There is no need for such drama.”

Tristan shifted his vision away from Joshua’s eyes, which were burning with a martyr’s conviction.

In truth, he wanted nothing more than to topple Joshua right then and seize the region. Since his men were already positioned within the fortress, it would be a simple task if he committed to it.

However, if he perpetrated such a betrayal after arriving as a visitor, Tristan’s name would be dragged through the mud, and he would face universal scorn. Not only would it provide the local lords a casus belli for war, but his standing as the heir of Valdek would be permanently tarnished.

Joshua scowled as he observed Tristan standing in silence for a long duration, trapped in a mental stalemate.

“To be frank… I don’t grasp why you sought me out for aid in the first place. Do you not have a brother in the North who is far better positioned than I?”

“Lucian.”

Tristan’s brow gave a sharp twitch.

The weakling who had lost his mother and spent a full year barricaded in his chambers, crying for their father’s notice.

But during that isolation, he had apparently achieved some sort of epiphany; he returned as a completely transformed individual and moved swiftly to become a dominant player for the inheritance.

Tristan didn’t harbor a deep grudge over the fact that his once-disregarded third brother had evolved into a powerful adversary. Lucian’s feats at that time were grand enough for even Tristan to respect.

However, now that he was more desperate for a lifeline than ever, those recollections made him pause.

‘The third brother’s gift isn’t merely an intuition for talent or aggressive bravery. It’s his vision—the way he arranges the board to his liking and paints the grand mural to guarantee his own gain.’

Reflecting on the past, Lucian always achieved outcomes that served him. Even moves that appeared reckless in the moment were eventually judged as brilliant strategies as months passed.

And every single time, Tristan had been caught off guard and left in awe.

Looking back now, that was a dark omen. It meant he had never once managed to stay level with Lucian.

‘If I had deciphered his motives even once, I wouldn’t feel this dread. But I failed to close the gap with him until the very end.’

It would likely be no different if they crossed paths now. No matter what scheme Lucian concocted, Tristan wouldn’t be able to see through the layers. If he wasn’t careful, he might go seeking charity only to end up as a pawn in Lucian’s grand design.

That was why he had been skirting around Lucian as much as possible, but…

‘I truly have no other options remaining.’

If he didn’t secure backing soon, he wouldn’t even be able to feed his remaining soldiers. Before he was stripped of everything, he had to go to Lucian and plead for assistance.

Showing up without cause would look like a beggar’s errand, but a perfect justification to travel North had just surfaced.

“Now that I think on it, I received word that Sir Eisen was recently taken into the embrace of the Eight Gods. As a student who mastered the blade under him, I ought to go and pay my respects. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to see the third brother’s face while I am there.”

“That is exactly what I am saying. I am far too occupied to make the journey, so please convey my best wishes to Brother Lucian.”

Joshua exclaimed with relief as Tristan showed intent to depart. If the man vanished even a second earlier, Joshua couldn’t ask for a better gift.

After a brief pause, Tristan gave a nod and walked toward the exit.

“My thanks for the hospitality. I shall take my leave.”

“I won’t escort you. Have a safe journey.”

As the heavy door latched shut, Joshua released a heavy breath. Managing his eldest brother, who might lose his temper and try to grab the territory at any second, had left him totally exhausted.

The encounter had been like a sudden thunderclap, but because of it, Joshua had learned one vital truth.

“…I must not hold back any funds in creating the standing army.”

In an era of violence, being powerless was a crime in itself. Because if the mighty chose to strike you, no one would be there to intervene.

—

“Are you the smith called Malcolm? The one capable of working with Fairy Light?”

“Y-yes, Your Grace!”

Malcolm threw himself to the floor, his complexion turning ghostly.

He never envisioned he would actually be invited to speak with the Duke in less than twenty-four hours. His frame shook at the encounter with a high-tier aristocrat, someone he assumed he would never even address in his entire life.

His host was an absolute titan who could level a settlement with a single command. Even Malcolm, who had endured all manner of trials in his years, couldn’t help but be terrified before the Conqueror of the North.

“Intriguing. I believed the methods for refining ancient ores had all disappeared. How did you acquire the knowledge?”

“Because my forefather recorded the refining process in a volume, I was able to examine it a bit.”

“A volume? Then you’ve never actually refined it with your own hands?”

“That is the truth.”

“Hmm.”

Malcolm gulped at the sound of Lucian’s thinking voice. He had been honest for fear of the punishment for deception, but if the Duke was let down, it was the end. There would be nothing stopping them from taking the refining secrets and throwing him out if he wasn’t a veteran smith skilled in ancient ores.

“I’ve readied a smithy in the inner keep. Would you care to attempt refining Fairy Light there? I will say this now—it matters not if you stumble.”

“I beg your pardon…? Ah, yes!”

But the Duke’s following words were incredibly gentle. Malcolm, momentarily stunned by the easygoing manner, replied in a rush.

The young Duke seemed pleased with the reaction; he gave a small laugh and rose to his feet.

“Excellent, then let us begin at once. I shall escort you myself.”

Malcolm stared wide-eyed at the Duke’s back as he walked away before trailing after him like a man in a trance. Several guards who had been standing at attention on both sides followed closely to protect the pair.

A short time later, as they reached a section of the inner keep, a flawless smithy appeared before Malcolm. From the hammers and anvils to the pliers and the hearth, every tool was of the finest grade. Even a clumsy novice could likely produce something respectable by working steel in a place like this.

“How do you find it? I did my best to arrange it in my own fashion. I’m a stranger to smithing, so I wasn’t certain if it was done correctly.”

“…It is a forge far superior to what I deserve.”

Responding with total honesty, Malcolm slowly stepped toward the anvil. As if prepared specifically for his arrival, the hearth was already burning at the ideal heat.

Taking a deep breath, Malcolm grasped the purple ingot resting before him.

‘Fairy Light.’

One of the ores he had a complicated history with, one that had haunted him without mercy in his past. As he gripped the hope that had shattered long ago, he felt a wave of sentiment.

Pushing down his feelings, Malcolm shut his eyes tight and shoved the Fairy Light into the heart of the fire.

Whoosh!

The Fairy Light was heated in an instant, glowing a fierce crimson. It was a change not much different from when a common steel bar was heated, but Malcolm never broke his concentration.

Eventually, just as the shade of the Fairy Light began to transition to white, Malcolm extracted it with his tools and dropped it into the cooling trough.

Ssssssssss!

“Wait, what in the world is he—!”

“He’s tempering it without even folding or shaping it?”

Several guards standing behind the Duke yelled in shock at Malcolm’s movements. The act of cooling metal in water was a step taken only after the forging process of pounding the steel. Yet, he had heated the metal only to chill it in water without falling a hammer even once.

It was a refining technique that completely ignored standard logic.

Despite the alarmed voices echoing around him, Malcolm stayed focused and pulled the Fairy Light from the water. Then, the moment he saw that the hue of the Fairy Light had shifted slightly, he immediately brought his hammer down.

Clang!

“This is madness. If he intends to shape it, he should at least put it back in the fire.”

“What does he think he will do by striking metal that has already gone cold?”

At this pace, the ore would certainly crumble rather than take a proper shape. True to their words, the Fairy Light started to crack and split after only a few hammer blows.

“Tsk, tsk. I saw that coming.”

“He’s going to ruin a fortune’s worth of Fairy Light.”

Malcolm didn’t lose his nerve at all, even as he watched the Fairy Light fissure as if it were about to fall apart. Instead, he kept striking it relentlessly, as if he intended for it to break into pieces.

Only after he had been pounding for nearly ten minutes did the guards notice something odd.

“…Why isn’t it shattering?”

No matter how violently he hit it, the Fairy Light only developed cracks; it did not fall apart. It was as if an invisible force was holding the fractured Fairy Light together so it wouldn’t disperse.

After hammering for a long duration, Malcolm finally slid the crack-filled Fairy Light back into the hearth.

Fwooooosh!

“Gasp!”

The moment the fire consumed the fractured Fairy Light, columns of flame roared toward the ceiling. It was a transformation as if a barrel of fuel, not stone, had been tossed in. The raging flames soon began to shift from orange to a deep, mesmerizing sapphire.

“Ah…”

At the sight of the fire’s color, which looked like the sky just before dawn, a single tear tracked down Malcolm’s face.

Everything he witnessed before him was exactly as it had been described in the ancient book he had inherited from his family.