The Doomed Fief’s Dying Lord (48)

“Izack? You…“

Alejandro’s eyes followed Izack as he descended the stairs.

Ronari belatedly recognized her father and was flustered.

“Dad?!”

“Don’t let go of Alejandro. Denabi needs a Lord.”

Watching Izack speak so calmly, Ronari was stunned.

“What, how… did you follow me?!”

“There was nothing to follow. I assumed you’d be here, of course.”

Izack* looked past his daughter to the other two and said.*

“And I had to come here too.”

Meanwhile, Alejandro tore free from the two people who had been holding him.

He seemed to have put aside the idea of jumping into the well for the moment.

But Ebinger still watched his master with tense eyes.

Alejandro asked Izack.

“Why did you have to come here?”

There was no sense of suspicion in his voice.

Instead, it sounded like he was asking after an old friend’s wellbeing.

“Alejandro Astrier.”

The Lord’s name slipped from Izack’s lips.

It was something unthinkable in a feudal society, and naturally rude.

Ronari and Ebinger were aghast.

But Alejandro, conversely, looked composed.

Izack* said.*

“Old comrade. We were once brothers.”

“We are still brothers.”

Izack* shook his head at Alejandro’s words.*

“No. Not anymore. Even this close, it’s as if we’re separated by thousands of miles. Because I came to hate you.”

Ronari thought.

Her father still wanted to hold Alejandro responsible for her mother’s death.

It was a foolish thing.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault.

Just as she was about to say that.

“Dad…”

Alejandro’s voice cut through them.

“I understand you.”

“You… understand me.”

Izack* repeated Alejandro’s words.*

Alejandro bowed his head.

“Yes. It’s my fault. I should have helped you. I didn’t take proper care of you. Nadia too.”

Nadia.

That was the name of Izack’s deceased wife.

Izack* felt a homesick longing for a past that could never be returned when he heard that name.*

Something familiar.

But lost forever.

Alejandro continued.

“Even after becoming Lord, I failed to take proper care of the Lower Quarter. I left it to fester with disease… I’m sorry. I’m only saying this now.”

“Yes. It’s your fault, Alejandro. It’s all your fault.”

Izack* muttered and nodded.*

But his muttering soon stopped.

He closed his eyes.

“…Once, I thought that way.“

“Izack.“

“I couldn’t have borne it otherwise. I really hated you. I still do. But I never truly believed that everything was your fault.”

Izack* opened his eyes.*

“It was just the whining of a foolish husband who’d lost his wife.”

Ronari was surprised.

She had expected her father’s hate to spill out here.

But he quietly acknowledged his own responsibility.

“Nadia’s death wasn’t your fault. After I returned, you always acted like you owed me something. Don’t do that. You owe me nothing. If anyone owes a debt, it’s me.”

“A debt? What do you mean by that?”

Alejandro asked.

Izack* answered.*

“Don’t ask foolish questions. It means it’s my turn to step forward now.”

Izack* said that as he set down the items he had brought.*

They were metal stakes and a rope.

A lead weight was tied to the end of the rope.

It was plainly equipment for someone about to descend into a well.

“Izack, why did you…“

“I fought for Ronari. I was ready to sacrifice anything for that, even myself. That way Ronari’s life wouldn’t be indebted to anyone.”

Izack* said.*

“But Alejandro. In the end the one sacrificed was Shane. Your son.”

“That’s not your fault!”

“No. It’s my responsibility. He promised me he’d protect Ronari’s life. I promised him in return that if he ensured Ronari lived, I’d give my life. I have to keep that promise.”

Izack* skillfully drove the metal stake into the ground and hooked the rope to it.*

“And this domain needs him.”

-splash

Izack* lowered the rope down into the well.*

The time had come.

Izack* hadn’t come to follow Ronari or to stop anyone.*

He intended to jump in.

“No! Dad…!”

Ronari lunged at Izack.

Her arms reached out toward Izack.

But what she grasped was empty air.

She rolled across the floor.

“Ugh!”

-splash

Izack* dove into the well.*

“Dad…”

Ronari sat down and stared into the well.

After Shane, now her father.

Both of the people Ronari cherished had been swallowed by that well.

She tried to jump into the well as well.

But this time Alejandro and Ebinger grabbed her.

“You can’t! Ronari Administrator!”

“But Dad is in there… the young master is…”

Perhaps they had all become Mana crystals.

They might never return.

And yet there was nothing she could do.

Ronari cursed her own powerlessness.

A world quest, huh.

What the hell is that.

It’s completely out of the blue.

I floated in the sea of mana and stroked my chin.

‘No… this is suspicious, right? A quest that never showed up from the moment of possession suddenly appears?’

It’s ridiculously suspicious.

It sounds like it’s going to make me do something.

Is the Status Window more than just a system?

Does it have some agenda?

I narrowed my eyes.

And I asked the Status Window.

“That quest — is there a reward? What’s the reward? Why should I do it?”

My voice echoed strangely through the medium of mana.

The Status Window answered immediately.

[You do not have viewing permission.]

Of course.

I expected that answer.

It’s a master of dodging questions.

But if it’s like that, I have my own idea.

“If you don’t tell me, I won’t do the quest either. If there’s no reward, why would I? Whatever that ‘sword of the four seasons’ is… go collect it yourselves!”

Then the Status Window replied like this.

[Denabi’s Overseer, Shane Astrier. You have an obligation to complete the quest. If you do not follow the set quest line, you will die.]

“What…?”

It was the first time the Status Window had spoken at such length.

And it was the first time it had been so blunt.

‘What… I thought it was just like a voice recognition AI assistant on a smartphone.’

There was a clear will behind what it had just said.

‘This thing isn’t a normal Status Window no matter how you look at it. There’s definitely something hiding behind it…!’

I asked the Status Window.

“What do you mean by I’ll die? If I don’t follow you, are you going to personally kill me?”

[You do not have viewing permission.]

The expected answer.

But an entirely unexpected message followed.

[However, for this case only, I will disclose information about your fate.]

[Shane Astrier, the ‘Sword of the Four Seasons’ marked ten meters in front of you is, at this point, the only means by which you can destroy the Dungeon Core without self-destruction.]

I stared at that ‘Sword of the Four Seasons.’

It was absurdly small compared to the massive Dungeon Core.

And yet that was supposed to be a tool capable of shattering the Dungeon Core?

[If the Dungeon Core is not destroyed, the dungeon’s gate will not reopen.]

[If, according to the quest, you do not pull out and obtain the ‘Sword of the Four Seasons’, you and all your comrades trapped in the dungeon are doomed to die.]

The Status Window’s language had become almost a threat.

But I couldn’t just dismiss it.

I had no sharp alternative either.

What lay before me was indeed the Dungeon Core, and realistically I had no way to destroy it without dying myself.

‘Wow, I thought pulling something like this was my specialty.’

The Status Window.

Now that I saw it, it was a rather disquieting thing.

I begrudgingly swam forward.

I approached the Dungeon Core.

The Status Window still highlighted that ‘Sword of the Four Seasons.’

The shape of the sword embedded in the Dungeon Core was unusual.

‘What the—it’s a double-edged Eastern-style sword?’

Its construction was odd as well.

Half embedded in the Dungeon Core, its full form couldn’t be seen, but I’d never seen a sword like it.

There was a wooden core for the blade, wrapped by a U-shaped metal edge.

And on the wooden core there were engraved characters I couldn’t read.

‘Ah… now the characters are readable.’

Soon the characters were optimized for me.

I could understand them.

‘Blade of Spring’

More characters continued, but they were obscured by the Dungeon Core.

The ‘seasons’ in ‘Sword of the Four Seasons’ indeed referred to spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

‘This… there’s definitely something to it.’

Dungeons spew various resources, including Mana crystals.

Among them could be valuable relics and gear buried within the dungeon.

Such a mysterious place.

And the single sword lodged in the Dungeon Core.

It certainly looked like a precious artifact.

I’m a fantasy reader, and the protagonist, after all.

It’s not like I don’t feel possessive.

I looked down at the sword and asked the Status Window.

“Can this single sword really destroy the Dungeon Core? Will we all be able to get out if we do?”

Once again the Status Window did not refuse to answer.

[Yes.]

‘Wow. It confirms so readily that it’s really suspicious…’

Giving such a powerful sword for free… and the quest is to collect four of them?

And the quest name is something like device activation…

What happens when it’s activated?

(Censored)?

What’s the role of this sword?

Is it a key for the device?

Questions kept piling up.

But whether I thought so or not, the Status Window brazenly pointed to the Blade of Spring.

It seemed to say as much.

[So what if I’m a bit suspicious?]

’…There’s nothing I can do.’

I had a mountain of questions.

But I had an obligation.

The duty to clear this dungeon.

‘Save them all.’

I had to save people and get them out.

It felt wrong, like it was flowing according to the Status Window’s sly intentions.

But what could I do…

I carefully pulled out the Blade of Spring.

“Blade of Spring — Domok Yeonyeong.”

I read the inscription on the pulled sword.

It was an unconscious action.

‘The reflection of the mirror tree in the nail’s shadow.’

What a cool name.

But its look and name fit wuxia more than anything.

Anyway, it’s suspicious.

Just as I was thinking that.

The Dungeon Core split into thousands upon thousands of fractures centered around where the sword had been pulled.

Light leaked through the cracks like a shattered pane of glass.

At the same time, the Mana crystal in my arm and the sword’s inscription began to glow.

‘Wait, wait, wait…! What is this?!’

My internal mana was reacting to the sword.

‘This was an artifact…?!’

A magically functional tool.

An artifact.

Its power was being unleashed.

Clearly, speaking the sword’s name had been the trigger.

The Dungeon Core collapsed in an instant.

Amid the powdering fragments of the Dungeon Core, the Status Window spoke.

[Dungeon Clear.]

[Milestone Achieved.]

[Partial access to personnel information has been opened.]

[Personnel #1]

[Shane Astrier]

[Blood mana concentration: 0.051%]

[The critical threshold has been exceeded.]

“Exceeded…?”

I repeated the Status Window’s message to myself.

And before I could do anything more, the next message was displayed.

[Mana crystallization is accelerating.]