After the young man who called himself Calzark shouted, silence fell across the room.
“...”
I looked at the brown-haired man.
“The Calzark I knew had a bit of a beard...”
“That’s because that’s when I was stuck on the mountain! Since I’ve returned to civilization, of course I would take care of my appearance again!”
“Hmm. Sure. Your voice is similar to Calzark’s, and I can accept that you would have that face under the facial hair.”
He looked at least twenty years younger than I’d expected, but since my father was the pinnacle of looking young, it wasn’t that unacceptable.
However, there was one thing I couldn’t accept.
“Sir Valter, could you leave us for a moment?”
“Pardon? But...”“Understood.”
Valter signaled his fellow knight and they left the room together.
Seeing that, the young man whistled.
“Wow. I thought you were treated pretty badly by the house, but you’re getting some respect.”
“This is a meritocratic household, no?”
“Oh ho, so you received recognition for something.”
I sat in front of the man who called himself Calzark.
I slowly examined his every feature.
Looking closely, his hair and eye color were similar, and the position of his facial features matched up as well.
It was unexpected that he was so young... but I had a more important question than that.
I pointed to the so-called Calzark’s right arm.
“What is that arm?”
The Calzark I’d seen in the Gem Mountains had been missing an arm. He had lost it in a battle against the Sapphire Snake.
“This? Keke...”
Calzark wasn’t taken aback by my question but rather let out a joyous laugh.
“To put it simply, it’s all thanks to you, Luan.”
“What?”
“So what happened is...”
Calzark explained the situation.
After sending me and Arzan out, the cave had continued to crumble, and then a large rock had fallen between him and the high priest.
Calzark hadn’t had the energy to continue fighting, so he’d tried to run away... only to find himself surrounded by boulders.
“I don’t know how long I stayed like that. Anyway, I got so hungry that I thought I was going to go insane. That’s why I ate it.”
“Ate what?”
“The gem beast.”
I blinked twice before asking, “You ate the Sapphire Snake?”
“Yeah.”
“...Can you even eat that?”
“Probably not? I nearly broke all my teeth. But what could I do? I needed to survive.”
In any case, while barely surviving by consuming the gem beast, he’d noticed his body changing.
The moment he’d eaten the core in the deepest part of the Sapphire Snake...
“I felt so cold that I thought I was going to freeze to death, but when I opened my eyes, I was like this.”
“Ah...”
“I looked pretty young for my age already, but I got twenty years younger still, and look at this.” Calzark waved his right arm. “My missing arm grew back as well.”
I narrowed my eyes a little.
From what he was saying, it seemed Calzark had gone through a rebirth...
But it wasn’t as if he’d reached the peak of martial arts.
Maybe his body had just reconstructed itself after consuming the gem beast’s flesh and core?
If that wasn’t the case, it was impossible to explain his regrown limb.
It was difficult to believe, but since the person was right in front of me, it was even more difficult to deny.
“The problem is that no one believes that I’m me because of this handsome face. They treated me like I was crazy at the entrance, you know? Honestly, I was disappointed. How does everyone who knew me in the past—”
Was Calzark always so talkative?
He had talked a bit, but now he was hurting my ears.
He seemed to be frustrated after having been interrogated here for the last few days.
“...It would’ve been fine if there was anyone left to notice me, but Dellark and the other grand masters are all somewhere else.”
“They’re at the training camp.”
“Yeah, crazy timing. In any case, after being stuck in the main house for a while, I was barely released to the forest, but these guys caught me. Evidently, they didn’t get the memo.”
“And that’s why you’re in this situation?”
Calzark nodded.
“That’s right. And since they’re Bednicker knights, it’s not like I can mess them up or anything... I was about to die from the frustration.”
Now that I understood the situation, I was puzzled.
Had this entire mess happened because of a bunch of little things adding up?
What a mess...
If Calzark had been there before I’d regressed, things would’ve looked much better.
I was also a little frustrated, but I decided to not linger too much on the past.
“Anyway, I’ve recovered my strength. I’m back in my prime, Luan. I wouldn’t have been able to defeat the Sapphire Snake if not for you, and since I’d ended monopolizing its corpse, I might owe you until the day I die,” Calzark said with a confident smile. “I’ll back you no matter what you do in the future. If someone messes with you, tell me; I’ll beat them up.”
“Oh ho.”
That was welcoming to hear.
“All right. Then risk your life with me once.”
“What do you mean?”
I gave Calzark a summary of everything I’d learned.
His expression changed at each beat of the story, and he looked horrified when I told him about the demon-lord summoning ritual.
“...A demon-lord summoning ritual in Bednicker territory?”
“Why are you so surprised? Didn’t you hear everything from Sir Asad?”
“No. I didn’t hear anything.”
Calzark looked flustered by the information.
“Sir Asad just told me to quickly join up with the others since the training camp was already underway. That’s why I thought I was going there as a grand master.”
“...Hmm.”
So Asad hadn’t told Calzark everything either...
* * * * *
* * * * *
I mean...
If Calzark had known that a demon-lord summoning ritual was happening, it was obvious, given his personality, that he would’ve immediately gone to try to stop it.
Maybe Calzark wasn’t completely innocent in the eyes of the house.
Though it wasn’t too odd since they’d hidden it from Juniang as well.
“So do you know who the high priest is?”
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
“The Instructor of Martial Arts.”
Calzark closed his mouth for a moment.
“...Juan? Really? That guy?”
He was more shocked than I’d anticipated.
“I’m pretty sure.”
“I... see.”
I looked at Calzark’s face for a moment before asking, “What is it?”
“...It’s nothing. Sure, if that’s how it is, then I naturally have to help. What are you going to do now?”
“Please move with me for the time being. Of course, you won’t be joining the camp. I’m thinking that maybe you should stay hidden in the forest for the time being.”
For the sake of my plan, I wanted to keep Calzark hidden.
Last time, Rook had ambushed the high priest when his guard was lowered. I wanted Calzark to take on that role this time.
However, Calzark proposed an alternative.
“No, if Juan is the high priest, then it’ll be better for me to join the camp.”
“Why is that?”
“Just by me being there, he’ll change his behavior.”
“...”
Change...
For me who knew the future, that wasn’t particularly welcome.
However, Calzark spoke with certainty.
“Luan, trust me this once. I can’t explain it to you, but things won’t go poorly.”
“Hmm...”
Calzark had been a mercenary before this.
There was one characteristic that all veteran mercenaries possessed: they sometimes got a gut feeling that they couldn’t explain.
I had experienced it a few times as well.
It was like... looking at a request that seemed easy but feeling that something was off and declining it, and then later learning that the mercenaries who had taken that request had all died. Things like that.
I nodded.
“Sure. Let’s go to the camp together, but hide that I met you.”
***
We returned to the camp together.
I ran through the forest with Calzark, and he suddenly said, “I’ve been wanting to ask this since I saw you again...”
“What is it?”
“Did you get something as well?”
What did he mean?
As I tilted my head, Calzark continued, “Obviously, I obtained an opportunity and ate the core of the gem beast, becoming stronger in a short amount of time, but since we last met, you seem to have advanced as much as I have.”
“...”
“No. ‘Advanced’ isn’t the end of it... To be honest, you seem completely different compared to the brat back in the cave—even though you weren’t normal back then either.”
Perhaps I should’ve expected as much of the Instructor of Swords and Blades, but his intuition was impressive.
I smirked.
“I had a few things happen as well. I also rolled around as much as you did. I even received a mystic elixir from the family head.”
“Mystic elixir?”
I took the mystic bead out from my pocket and showed it to him.
“This.”
Calzark was impressed.
“Isn’t that a mystic bead? And judging by the size, it looks like a high-quality one.”
“Are you jealous?”
“Jealous of what?” Calzark shrugged at my joke. “Because I ate the core of the Sapphire Snake, I’m not good with fire ki anymore. You can eat as much of that as you want.”
“Aha.”
“By the way, that Dellark... it seems he likes you a lot. A mystic elixir of that level could be used for quite a lot...”
While conversing, we arrived at the camp.
“It’ll be awkward if we enter together, right?”
“Probably.”
“Then I’ll take a walk around the area. You can enter first.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later.”
After separating from Calzark, I returned to the nurse’s office.
When I entered, Juniang was writing something while sitting in her chair, and she turned to see me.
“You’re back. Did you accomplish your goal?”
“Yes. We now have a reliable helper.”
“Really? Then I suppose you can finally tell me who it is.”
I had hidden from Juniang that I had gone to meet with Calzark because I could have failed.
But since it no longer mattered whether or not she knew, I told her.
“It’s Calzark.”
Juniang tilted her head a little.
“...The Instructor of Swords and Blades?”
“Yes.”
“When did he return to the main house?”
“I think it’s been about a week?”
“Really?” Juniang thought for a while before speaking with a more relaxed expression. “If it’s the Instructor of Swords and Blades... then he will definitely be helpful. Even against the high priest, he should give us a decent chance.”
I glanced to the side to check the time.
Maybe it was because I had set out early in the morning, but there was still a lot of time left.
The young heroes were probably taking their morning lesson.
I remembered it being the Instructor of Martial Arts’s lesson...
Wait.
I suddenly had an idea, and I looked at Juniang.
“Instructor, does the instructor’s lodge also have two people per room?”
“Generally, each person has their own room. Why?”
“One more thing: are there communication crystals installed in the instructor’s lodge as well?”
Juniang looked at me with suspicion in her eyes before shaking her head.
“Nowhere except the control room. The communication crystals exist to observe the young heroes.”
“I see.”
I looked at Juniang and asked, “Where is Instructor Juan’s room?”
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