Chapter 53

The tragedy at the Karnak mine was officially announced, under strict control of the imperial court and the Holy Kingdom, as “black magic terrorism instigated by remnants of the Duke of Valois.” The name “Ashen Worm cult” was sealed within the report, and the truth became a secret known only to a small number of the powerful. But truth is like water: no matter how solid the dam, it will seep out through the smallest crack.

The long-time rival of the Kairos Empire, the capital of the Valerian Empire, “Ethernom.”

The “Shadow Minister,” Duke Alcard von Valenstein, head of the imperial intelligence bureau, was reading an urgent report brought to his office. His bloodless white face and red pupils betrayed that he was a high-ranking vampire, not human.

“The Karnak mine… a joint operation by the Holy Kingdom and the magic tower…”

A cold smile curled at Alcard’s lips. The report was fragmentary. Because the Kairos Empire was intentionally blocking information. Even from the scattered pieces, he sensed that something vast was hiding behind the incident.

“An old fanatic named Commander Gerard who knows nothing but conviction, colluding with an arrogant old mage called Archmage Velleius? The funniest joke I’ve heard in my life.”

He summoned his aide.

“Awaken the ‘Ghost.’ Send him to Kairos. Tell him to pose as a merchant and watch the recently rising Aster family and the Dawn Guild. That name has always been at the center of these commotions. And… if anyone survived Karnak, extract ‘information’ from them by any means necessary.”

Although the two empires were hostile, minimal exchanges such as merchants and scholars traveling still existed. And through that gap, Valerian’s sharpest shadow began to move.

At that moment, Rian, the source of the storm, was laying the foundations of a new empire in an abandoned quarry adjacent to his estate, the monster forest.

The quarry’s entrance was perfectly concealed by Magic and Argos’s intelligence resources. The cavernous interior was, under Rian’s command, transforming into a vast secret base.

“Human brat! Did you really design this?!”

The bearded dwarf ‘Steel-Beard’ Brock shouted as he looked at the blueprints Rian had handed him. He was the leader of a legendary dwarf smithing clan secretly hired by the Dawn Guild with promises of the empire’s best treatment.

“This structure… isn’t it a ‘mana engine’ that converts the energy of mana stones into power without loss? This is the work of gods! And this alloy… mixing monster bone and iron to maximize aura conductivity? Impossible!”

Brock and his kin were initially skeptical, but when the small mana engine Rian personally demonstrated roared to life and the test alloy withstood the blade of a sword expert, they could not hide their astonishment. In their eyes, Rian was no longer just a human boy. He was a living incarnation of the smithing god.

“Here, you will make history.”

Rian had perfectly secured the dwarves’ loyalty.

A few days later, others arrived at the quarry. They were knights and mages left without a home when Marquis of the Reinhardt family and the Valois family fell—abandoned and without refuge. Their eyes were full of defeat and despair.

Rian stood before them.

“I do not ask for your loyalty. I only offer a bargain.”

He unveiled the prototypes the dwarves had just completed: ‘aura amplification armor’ and a ‘mana focusing staff.’

“You have lost your masters and are letting your swords and Magic rust. I will give you the finest equipment no one else in the world possesses, and the chance to take revenge on those who betrayed you. In return, you must become my blade.”

Hector, a stern knight who had once served Marquis of the Reinhardt family, stepped forward.

“How can we trust you?”

Instead of answering, Rian fitted Hector with the aura amplification armor. When Hector skeptically infused his aura, the magical circuits etched on the armor’s surface glowed blue and exponentially amplified his aura. The force radiating from his body was immeasurably stronger than before.

“…!”

Hector and the other knights’ eyes filled with shock and exhilaration.

“I will give you not faith, but power. The choice is yours.”

That day, the abandoned knights and mages fell to their knees before the lord of shadows and swore new fealty.

Rian watched the blades being forged in his secret base, the ‘Shadow Forge.’ The red glow of the furnace stoked by the dwarves flickered across his young face.

In the quiet of his peaceful estate, a powerful army for Rian Aster alone was quietly coming into being—unknown to any force of the empire.