Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Sealed Vault

Chapter 38. Sealed Vault

Arken Empire, Imperial Palace Underground Prison.
Soldiers in guard uniforms shouted.
“Hey, shift change!”
“Ah, dammit… Why don’t you hurry up?”
“What are you talking about? I arrived before the scheduled horn blew.”
“Ugh, you son of a bitch, I’ll pay you back later for what you pulled.”
The guard made a disgusted face and proceeded with the relief.
“More importantly, it’s been a while since there were people in this prison.”
“Come to think of it, you guys were deployed, right? Are these fellows really demon worshippers?”
The man asked about what he had felt while on duty.
No matter how much he thought about it, he could perceive nothing other than the impression of starving commoners rather than demon worshippers.
“I don’t know about the ones we caught, but they were with demon worshippers.”
“Whoa, real demon worshippers? Isn’t that just something they used when suppressing rioters?”
“Those bastards seem to be the real deal. We caught them in a raid.”
“Real demon worshippers showing up… the country seems to be going to ruin.”
At that, the guard on duty glared at him sharply.
“Don’t say that kind of thing lightly anywhere. If I report you, will you be arrested as a demon worshipper on the spot?”
“Oh, how terrifying. Cut it out and let’s switch shifts quickly. I have to go see Ashley today.”
“Why is he so obsessed with that bar hostess…”
The guard on duty checked the prisoner capacity chart, and his tongue clicking abruptly stopped.
“Hey, did this bastard skip one and fail to count the numbers properly?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You reported capturing 12 prisoners.”
The guard on duty pointed at the total and said.
“Then why are there 13?”
“What nonsense? Were there 13 when we brought them in?”
“What, man? We reported binding 12 ourselves and bringing them, would we be wrong?”
“You’re the one saying I’m wrong? I counted them one by one as I threw them in! Come look for yourself!”
“Oh? Want to bet 1 gold?”
“I can bet 10 gold too, bastard!”
“Deal! 10 gold. Get ready, bastard.”
The two walked toward the cell holding the heretics with confident expressions.
They counted the exhausted, collapsed group one by one with their fingers.
“One, two, three, four…”
After counting from the far right to the far left, the winner was decided.
“There are 12, you idiot!”
The guard on duty smacked the other guard on the head.
“What? That can’t be?”
Unable to believe it, the guard counted as well.
“Huh?”
Just as he said, there were only 12.
“You bastard, you caused a huge mess. Did you drink on duty?”
“J-just a little, man.”
“Just a little! Ugh, you’ll be thrown into the dungeon! If you don’t want to go to the dungeon for drinking on duty and dereliction, have 10 gold ready, got it?”
“Agh. Tsk… That’s bizarre.”
The guard tilted his head and looked inside the bars.
The helpless commoners merely awaited the day they would die.

Meanwhile, inside the Imperial Palace,
“As expected, it isn’t easy.”
Brown hair, an angular jaw, and sharp features.
A face that seemed to have heard “you must have made quite a few women cry” more often than “you are handsome.”
Jed Swallow.
He avoided the gazes of others and entered the restroom, looking at himself in the mirror.
“‘As if I need two eyes,’ my ass. I do need them, yes.”
He was in an extremely displeased state.
The process of entering the prison and escaping from it.
All of it required skills usable only by those thoroughly familiar with them.
‘This is none other than the Imperial Palace.’
The moment someone realizes an escape has occurred, an emergency will be declared immediately.
What happens when an emergency is declared?
The finest knights and magicians on the continent will swarm to capture Jed, and then Jed will truly be caught, no excuses.
So he truly had to appear and vanish like flowing water.
It was not an easy process in the slightest.
Thus, Jed used his experience to devise a method.
‘Like ditching a partner at a party…’
The key is to slip away when the other party is intoxicated by the atmosphere.
That makes them believe what they were seeing wasn’t real, only realizing the truth after everything is over.
The process itself was easier than expected.
No, it was even easier than ditching a partner at a party.
At least they don’t go wild swinging weapons while shouting Jed Swallow’s alias.
‘Perhaps I actually have some talent.’
Having escaped like that, Jed slipped into the servants’ changing quarters, exactly as he had scouted in advance.
At first, he worried whether there would be a size that fit him, but there was no need.
Because inside were uniforms tailored to fit all sizes.
‘It seems more than one or two die here.’
Lives like flies.
Dozens die as a baseline, lives replaced the moment they perish.
It is possible because they treat servants as consumables.
It was not a pleasant thought for Jed.
Because it wasn’t someone else’s story.
‘Ferda Valdrova.’
He thought deeply about his superior.
‘What am I to that human?’
Judging by his manner of speaking, a man not merely blunt, but rude.
Yet even that rudeness did not feel malicious.
Others might not, but Jed could definitely sense it in the nuance of his words.
‘It feels like a human dealing with a person for the first time.’
Someone who has never communicated properly, only engaging in one-sided conversations.
The typical traits that emerge when such a person attempts to communicate were evident in Ferda as well.
The moment he could feel that was right before the tea party, when he asked for advice.
— How do you talk to women?
He never imagined he would ask a question so appropriate for his age.
Jed, excited, gave Ferda advice based on his own actions and experiences.
Based on that advice, Ferda’s response after finishing the tea party was this:
— You are lucky to have that face.
He still couldn’t tell whether that was an insult or a compliment.
Regardless, in this operation, Ferda suggested there were documents related to his younger sister.
If that isn’t a lie, he will discover what their current relationship amounts to.
“Phew, all right. Shall we get to work now?”
After checking himself in the mirror a couple of times, Jed began to move according to the plan.
The moment he set foot in the Imperial Palace,
“You, there.”
A voice calling out to someone echoed through the hallway.
And in that hallway, there was only Jed.
“Who are you?”
Jed muttered to himself.
“‘As if I only needed two eyes,’ my ass.”

Ferda placed his hand upon the Orb of Truth, and the Orb of Truth asked him:
“Do you swear that you do not follow demons and do not abide by their resolution?”
Ferda heard that question and thought to himself:
‘Orb of Truth, my ass.’
Ferda snorted internally.
The Sealed Vault also records how this Sealed Vault was crafted.
What is embedded is not a tool for the Orb of Truth to see through people and discern truth from falsehood.
‘What truly matters is the voice reciting the text of the oath.’
That voice containing magical power.
The moment one’s mind is stolen by the Orb of Truth, that voice shaking one’s conscience for a brief moment is everything.
The orb merely judges whether it wavered or not upon hearing the content of that voice.
‘One only needs to misinterpret it.’
Since Ferda simply intended to loathe everything, it was a very manageable task.
“Do you swear that you do not follow demons and do not abide by their resolution?”
“Regent-nim? Are you all right?”
Even Yuren asked Ferda, wondering if something was amiss.
Now he had to answer.
Ferda needed the demon’s ancient book.
Yet his heart belonged not to demons, but to Valdrova.
“I swear.”
The second question arrived.
“Do you swear that visiting this vault does not stem from private desire?”
All of this was for Valdrova.
It wasn’t even something to question.
“I swear.”
“Do you swear that you are loyal to the Empire?”
‘The Empire.’
‘Must collapse.’
“I swear.”
After a moment, the Orb of Truth, glowing blue, began to pass judgment, and its color shifted.
“Proven.”
The changed light was green.
Ferda withdrew his hand.
‘Is this kind of thing really the entry procedure for the Sealed Vault?’
It seemed shoddy, yet it was a procedure striking a blind spot one couldn’t help but fall into if unfamiliar with it.
Ferda still found it absurd even now, and ended up scoffing.
“It is a truly amusing artifact, is it not?”
As Ferda looked at it in silence, Yuren chimed in.
“Yes, an amusing artifact.”
Leaving behind that amusing object, Ferda and the magic investigator entered.
They descended the stairs for a long time.
Descending the endless spiral staircase, they finally set foot in the first Sealed Vault.
There were storage cabinets, and inside, sealed copper tubes were stacked.
It was the Record Sealing Ground.
A place that recorded the embarrassments of the Empire that must never leak outside, or grand events that could have destroyed the continent.
Ferda used the records here to lure Jed.
‘I thought he would have arrived by now, not yet?’
Since contact was also impossible, he did not know how the situation was developing.
He was left only with the belief that Jed would handle it well on his own.
‘Perhaps after all it was an operation that didn’t need that guy.’
It was a joke he made to himself, but it was not funny at all.
Jed was absolutely necessary in this plan.
“There is nothing interesting to see. Furthermore, these are all things you do not need to know.”
The trivial-sounding words contained a warning not to touch recklessly.
Of course, Ferda had no intention of touching them.
He tossed out a question, if only to lighten the mood.
“Don’t you think you would want to see a place like this at least once upon entering?”
Yuren nodded.
“Of course the urge to look arises at times. Despite appearances, I am a person with a scholar’s disposition.”
“Then have you seen them?”
“Not even once. There is no need for me to know things I do not need to know and complicate my life.”
He was a man with rare professional conviction in this rotten Empire.
That was also why he was able to become a magic investigator.
After merely observing the exterior for a moment, they immediately moved to the next location.
The important matter was the second Sealed Vault, even deeper than this one.
They descended there with Yuren.
Descending in this manner, Ferda could feel it.
‘A familiar scent.’
The groans and tempting whispers emanating from clusters of dense malice and curses.
They surrounded Ferda like eels encircling a sunken corpse at the bottom of a lake.
Yuren, also aware of the intensifying aura, asked Ferda.
“Are you all right?”
The answer here was not “Of course.”
“About what?”
“It is nothing, haha.”
Yuren dismissed his suspicion and resumed walking.
He must not show that he was feeling anything.
Feigning complete numbness was the priority.
The darkness thickened.
Candles attempted to illuminate the surroundings somehow, but repelling all that darkness seemed impossible.
It was a bizarre energy that would cause ordinary people to instinctively feel physiological revulsion and danger, compelling them to retreat.
Yet Yuren took the lead and stepped inside.
Ferda followed him.
As if passing through a giant curtain, Ferda’s view suddenly opened up.
“……Ah.”
An exclamation escaped involuntarily.
Rather than a Sealed Vault, it resembled the secret vault of demon worshippers.
Among the contents, one object captured Ferda’s attention.
A book on the central display stand, on an entirely different dimension from the other trash.
An item with a black cover appearing deeper than the dense darkness itself, sealed with silver chains.
‘Shadow Arts of Barbatos.’
It bore the epithet of the Secret Demon, but being a Great Demon in his own right, the strength of the seal was formidable.
“What do you think of this place?”
At Yuren’s question, Ferda answered reflexively.
“Given that it is a demon’s domain, it certainly reeks of repulsive energy.”
“Haha, there is no need for formalities. It is filled with wonder rather than disgust.”
Wondrous.
True, it really could not help but be wondrous.
The high-density mana emanating from the cursed grimoires and sorcery tomes.
Anyone would be enraptured if that enveloped their entire body.
A sensation that, if you allow even a fraction in, overwhelming power will course through your body.
It whispers that it is like sweet rain in a drought, more intense than the gratification at the boundary of the five desires.
“No, it is simply repulsive.”
Yet Ferda stood firm.
Even when he genuinely lived in hatred, he never considered this mana to be something good.
Ferda, at the peak of his hatred, was someone who tore apart what he could not possess.
And this mana did not belong to Ferda, nor could it ever.
“Is that…… so?”
Yuren tilted his head.
“It is a bit strange…… A magician of your level would normally be at least slightly enraptured…….”
He shifted his eyes and stared at Ferda.
His gaze was markedly different from before.
It wasn’t due to the strange current flowing within the Sealed Vault.
It was him revealing the true colors he had concealed.
“Whatever, it does not matter. What matters is that the two of us are here.”
Yuren placed the Book of Necromancy of Gamigin he was holding onto the floor and turned his head.
His face was filled with the vile murderous intent he had hidden.
It was an expression that truly suited this room.
“I drafted a scenario on my way here.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“A scenario where I came to the Sealed Vault alongside you at the Regent’s request, fell under the bewitchment of this Sealed Vault, and had no choice but to eliminate the Regent…… What do you think? Doesn’t it sound truly believable?”
Ferda listened and rested his chin on his hand.
At those words declaring he would be killed, doubt arrived before fear.
“Does this place execute people mercilessly if they are bewitched by black magic?”
“There are no exceptions for black magic. Under the almighty Light, there is no mercy.”
A sinister smile formed on Yuren’s lips.
“Even if it is the Regent of the Grand Duke.”
A truly needlessly strict country.
“If I die, will you get out alive either?”
“You do not need to worry about me. Unlike you, I have quite a few escape routes.”
Escape routes for killing the Regent of the Grand Duke.
He was not curious about what route he would take to escape.
What mattered now was that he was trying to kill him.
It was what benefit would be gained from that.
‘He seems to be doing this even while knowing what will happen if I die…….’
Unlike when he was a prospective fiancé, Ferda was currently an official fiancé.
From bearing the surname of Valdrova to being practically family to the Red Dragon.
Killing that family would surely give rise to vengeance, and that vengeance would be directed at the Empire.
It was an act on a completely different dimension from those bastards in the Eradication Corps who come merely to nibble away at some property.
‘Does he rather desire that?’
Inside the Imperial Palace stood someone willing to commit an act capable of upending not only the Empire, but the entire continent.
Suddenly, the Orb of Truth he had passed came to mind.
He had passed all the oaths.
The reason he was able to.
‘He seems to know the secret of the Sealed Vault.’
Since stepping in here, he had done nothing but lie from beginning to end.
‘As expected, there isn’t a single decent bastard among the Empire’s bastards.’
In this cornered situation, a smile curved on Ferda’s lips.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Nothing in particular. Just that I did not expect the childish scenario I wrote to actually come true.”
“A scenario you wrote?”
Yuren, who was smiling, tilted his head.
“I drew up a scenario where I stop the rampage of an investigator attempting to lure the Regent into a trap. Unlike yours, mine is actually taking place.”
Ferda needed the Grimoire of Shadow Arts of Barbatos.
To achieve that, he had to kill the magic investigator.
Whether the man was truly clean or not was no concern of Ferda’s.
“Thanks to you, the thought that I would bear a burden on my heart diminishes. Because I can consider it cleaning up trash.”
At those words, the smile on Yuren’s face vanished completely.
“Do you believe someone like you can kill me?”
What he said was blasphemy beyond imagination in the conventional wisdom of ordinary magicians.
He was a Master Mage who had reached the Fifth Circle.
He was recognized across the continent and held a position high enough to command tremendous status within the Empire.
Yet Ferda’s circle was at most the Third Circle, a mere Magic Walker.
“If you don’t believe it.”
Mana gathered in Ferda’s right hand.
“Won’t you know once you verify it firsthand?”
Magic was fired swiftly from Ferda’s hand.
A sphere too fast for any magician to predict flew toward Yuren.