Chapter 54

Time flowed as fiercely as the furnace’s flames. The abandoned quarry Rian had named the ‘Shadow Forge’ had become, more than any secret base of the Empire, a lively and dynamic heart.

“More! Faster! These are not your black trinkets! They’re venom fangs meant to pierce our lord’s enemy’s heart!”

Hector’s booming shout echoed through the shared training ground. The knights once soaked in defeat were nowhere to be seen. Wearing the dwarves’ forged ‘aura-amplifying armor’ and honed by Rian’s personally designed efficient training methods, they had become steel warriors unlike their former selves. The blue aura pouring from their blades shook the cavern walls.

The mages were the same. The ‘mana-focusing staff’ unleashed their potential, and Rian’s taught concept of ‘Magic calculus’ elevated their Magic to the level of art. They were no longer dogs without masters. They were reborn as the shadow’s faithful blades, the ‘Shadow Blade’, willing to shed blood for a new master.

At the forge, ‘Steelbeard’ Brok hammered metal, sweat pouring like rain.

“Hey, human brat! What’s in your head anyway! This thing called a ‘mana rifle’… it’s a revolution! It will change the history of war!”

In his hands rested a new weapon shaped like a gun that compressed the energy of mana stones to fire powerful mana rounds. Rian was turning, one by one, weapons beyond this world’s common sense into reality for his secret army.

Rian watched it all quietly. His eyes were full of satisfaction, but they also looked further ahead.

Meanwhile, the gateway village of the Aster estate buzzed with more life than ever. Having become the base of the Dawn Guild, it was rising as the north’s new commercial center. Amid countless merchants and travelers, a middle-aged merchant in expensive silk climbed down from his carriage. He wore a gentle smile, but his eyes shone with a sharpness that seemed to pierce everything around him.

He was the Valerian Empire’s shadow minister’s elite spy sent by Duke Alcard, code-named ‘Ghost’.

‘This is the Aster family’s estate? It’s nothing like the barren border village in the report.’

Ghost felt a dissonance at the prosperous scene before him. He had posed as a merchant for days to gather information, but strangely could learn nothing. The estate’s inhabitants were kind to outsiders, but like by agreement closed their mouths when asked about the Aster family or the Dawn Guild. It felt as if an invisible great wall wrapped around the entire estate.

‘Information is being controlled. This is beyond what an ordinary rural noble could do.’

He changed targets and began circling the Dawn Guild’s largest logistics warehouse. Amid seemingly lax guards, he spotted one person who stood out. A young man patrolling around the warehouse who looked like an ordinary guard captain. It was Kael.

Ghost perfectly concealed his presence and watched Kael from the darkness. His gait, the way his eyes moved, his vigilance toward the surroundings, none of it was that of an ordinary guard. It was the movement of a ‘shadow’ trained in countless blood and darkness, like himself.

Kael, while circling the warehouse, suddenly fixed his gaze into a patch of darkness. There was nothing visible, but his senses warned him. A predator akin to him, but far more dangerous, was hiding there.

Their gazes collided in midair. No fight broke out. But it was like a silent greeting, confirming each other’s identity.

Ghost quietly turned away. He realized the Aster family’s shadow was much deeper and more organized than he’d imagined.

That night, at the ‘Shadow Forge’.

Kael reported everything about the suspicious merchant to Rian.

“The Valerian serpent has already caught the scent.”

Rian’s reaction was surprisingly calm. He even smiled as if amused.

“Good, Kael. Do not stop him. Do not drive him away. Show him what he wants to see. But only what we want to show him.”

Rian’s eyes gleamed cunningly.

“A guest has come, so we must entertain him grandly. A special gift I’ll send to the Valerian shadow minister.”

The shadow now began to weave a larger scheme, using the enemy’s eyes as his mirror. He planned to turn the Valerian spy to his advantage and leak the false information he wanted.