A Treacherous Courtier Manages the Empire Well

64 – The Hero and the Holy Sword

Kaldoran’s great-grandfather was a viscount. He was an adventurer.

“You want to find the location of the hidden labyrinth of the Holy Sword!”

In his youth, everyone in the empire had heard the legend of the hero at least once, and his great-grandfather set a grandiose life goal of finding the labyrinth and succeeding. He gathered friends and investors, forming an expedition to explore the labyrinth.

For over 50 years, his great-grandfather searched every corner of the Aylam Empire as if possessed, but in the end, he passed away without reaching the end of the adventure.

Kaldoran’s grandfather was a baron. Investors left in droves, debts piled up in the family, forcing them to sell off estates and manors, leading to a significant decline in their status.

Unfortunately, he was an adventurer as well.

“I shall carry on my father’s legacy!”

He once again gathered every last bit of wealth he had and set off on an adventure. The adventure lasted for 60 years.

He explored places his great-grandfather couldn’t, even going to the feared Rako Mountains. He completed the original map of the Rako Mountain range. While he made some money with this map, it all vanished in the frivolous adventures.

He, too, passed away before reaching the end of the adventure.

His father was a viscount.

Now, there were virtually no estates left, only a single decrepit manor.

His father was a realist.

“If we are to reclaim our past titles and estates, we have no choice but to find the Holy Sword!”

No. He might have just been a fool.

His father meticulously analyzed every adventure record left by his great-grandfather and father, pinpointing areas yet unexplored. Finally, after pooling together every ounce of resources, he embarked on another adventure.

His father ventured into the Green Hell, and after five remarkable adventures, he returned as a corpse, slain by monsters in the Green Hell.

Kaldoran was a commoner.

Due to the extensive three-generation quest to find the vast labyrinth, the family fell into complete ruin, unable to maintain their estates and titles, ultimately becoming commoners. Kaldoran had completely given up hope on the labyrinth and the Holy Sword.

“The legends of the labyrinth and the Holy Sword can go to hell.”

He had to make a living.

He too had a family and was too old to continue the reckless adventures of his ancestors.

In his fifties, the middle-aged man with a worn-out ship spent his days growing older, selling maps that were the results of his ancestors’ efforts and adventures.

Of course, he also kept the legacy left by his ancestors intact.

“Son, is this foolish father destined to die in the Green Hell?”

He remembered the letter his father left behind just before dying in the Green Hell.

“There are no sacred swords in the Green Hell. You can trust the conclusion I reached after investing my whole life. If that’s the case, there is only one place in the entire continent where there might be a sacred sword and a labyrinth.”

From great-grandfather to grandfather to father, the Caldoran family had explored every corner of the empire through three generations of grand adventures, except for one place.

“The Palace. The only place we haven’t entered and explored is the Palace. They say the most obvious things are the hardest to find. The labyrinth and sacred sword must be hidden underground in the Palace. Carry on the legacy of your ancestors and me. There will surely be a labyrinth underground in the Palace.”

“Damn father!!! How can a nobody like me, a mere mapmaker, investigate the Palace!”

Caldoran crumpled the letter roughly and threw it into the trash. But try as he might to forget, his father’s words kept lingering in his mind.

As cars began to roll on the streets, the price of spices dropped, the first train station opened, radios and televisions appeared in homes, and the first soccer match was broadcast, Caldoran, quietly living through the rapidly changing times, one day…

“Grandpa, when I went to school, the kids were all scared of me.”

“Huh? What’s going on? Our grandson?”

“Dragons attacked us. Amy cried saying we’ll all die. Will I die too? I don’t want to die.”

Hearing his grandson sobbing, Caldoran realized the seriousness of the situation.

That day, he took out a letter that his father had crumpled in a drawer during his youth and read it.

“Did you say there’s a sacred sword underground in the Palace?”

The sacred sword was the only weapon that could confront dragons.

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In this era, there would be nothing more necessary than that.

Caldoran tightly clenched the letter that his father had crumpled and, the next morning, dressed in his finest clothes, headed towards the Palace.

“What nonsense is this! If you persist any further, you’ll be hanged!”

“I don’t care!! I am Caldoran of the famous adventurer family, Pelu! I know the location of the labyrinth where the sacred sword is hidden!! Please take me to the Emperor!!”

That day, he embarked on his first adventure.

With determination to face the consequences in front of the Royal Guards and insisting on meeting the Emperor.

And that bizarre adventure was accepted.

When he came to his senses.

“There is a labyrinth underground in the Palace! Your Majesty! A labyrinth is hidden beneath the Palace!”

He was telling the Emperor about the results of the three generations of adventures.

A middle-aged man in his fifties with a worn-out ship.

But his gaze was as serious as ever. He shook the crumpled letter that bore clear traces.

“My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all dedicated their lives to finding the sacred sword. This is the conclusion! Through three generations of adventures, there is no place our family hasn’t explored. The only place we haven’t explored is here. The Palace. There must be a labyrinth underground in the Palace.”

The Emperor asked him.

“I’ve lived my whole life in the Palace, but I’ve never seen anything resembling a labyrinth even once. Caldoran, do you truly believe there is one in the Palace?”

“I am certain. I would stake my life on it.”

“Can you find it?”

At my words, Caldoran was momentarily taken aback.

“Well… I’m not sure…”

“I have to find it!!!”

At my shout, Kaldoran’s eyes widen. I grab his hand.

“The dragons are gathering! Only with the Holy Sword can we have a chance to persuade them! Find it, Kaldoran! For the Empire! And for your family!”

“For, for my family?”

“Yes. Find it, and I will buy back all the territories lost by the Pelluga family and return them to you.”

“…”

“I’ll even build a grand mansion for you. You know the skilled builders from the Merchant Guild?”

“R-Really?……”

“I’ll let you and your direct family ride the trains for free for life.”

The Emperor adds a word to my statement.

“With such deeds, returning your title should not cause any backlash in the aristocratic society. Restore your Marquis title. Find it, Kaldoran. You are allowed to roam the Imperial Palace as you wish. I permit it.”

Upon hearing those words, Kaldoran swallows hard.

“I will do my best!”

Kaldoran, who is in his fifties but doesn’t seem to be, bows passionately.

The investigation began the next day. Those involved in the investigation were Kaldoran, myself, and Princess Selene, known for her intelligence.

Kaldoran brought out all the exploration data he had stored in the basement of his house and laid it out in front of us.

“My great-grandfather traveled to collect legends of heroes from each region. It was to have a more accurate knowledge of the labyrinth locations. As a result, my grandfather gathered the information and found phrases revealing the labyrinth locations.”

“What?”

“It’s a kind of code. ＜Under the brightest light lies the most sinister darkness. Seven steps and two jumps. And the wilting flower and the frost.＞”

Selene and I furrowed our brows at this strange code.

“What on earth does this mean?”

After pondering for a moment, Kaldoran came to a conclusion.

“The place where this code was found is in the folklore of the southern region known as the hero’s homeland. My father mentioned it. The brightest light there usually symbolizes the most extravagantly decorated place. Princess Selene, where in the Imperial Palace is the most extravagantly decorated?”

“There’s no need to say. It’s the Main Hall.”

We hurried to the Main Hall. The center of all the palace buildings. It connected to every part of the palace. As we arrived at the Main Hall, adorned with various jewels and magnificent stained glass, we had no time to admire it and began the investigation.

“Seven steps and two jumps. The wilting flower and the frost, you say. What does this mean again?”

“I’m not sure.”

At a moment of melancholy from Kaldoran, Selene’s eyes widened.

The Empire’s greatest intellect, born as the incarnation of a dragon.

“It’s a wordplay from the mythological era when Hero Kaldoran lived!”

She justified her name.

“Unbelievable! That’s right! Seven steps and two jumps. If you substitute this sentence with runic characters used in the ancient mythological era, it becomes like this!”

She quickly brought paper and pen, writing down incomprehensible ancient characters.

“Seven steps and two jumps. In this sentence, you repeat seven steps and two jumps again!”

“Princess, do you also know runic characters?”

“I learned for a while to pass the time when I was young.”

Learning something so complex just to kill time. Indeed, genius is unfortunate. My thick-headedness seems even more inadequate.

Putting my slight melancholy aside, Princess Selene started to decipher the characters written in the sentence.

“The seventh word written in this sentence is this. It’s the word ‘camel’ that represents the meaning of two. Here, you jump two steps again.”

“What about the two jumps?……”

“It was called the wordplay of the mythological era, right? Two jumps here mean transforming this character twice. In the ancient mythological era, runic characters were altered in form to have a similar but different meaning. By transforming the character for ‘spring’ to express ‘summer,’ and transforming the character for ‘summer’ again to express ‘autumn’ and ‘winter.’

She transformed the ancient runic character representing the number 2 twice.

“By doing this, you can express the number 0. Here comes the numbers. 7, meaning seven steps. 2, meaning two jumps. And transforming the character for the word ‘2,’ the seventh word, twice to obtain 0.”

“7, 2, 0.”

Calderan murmured those three numbers blankly before looking around. Then he suddenly shouted.

“It means clockwise! Look at this! The drawing on the floor! It’s divided into 12 directions!”

“That’s right! This main hall was renovated from an ancient temple built thousands of years ago! In the ancient temple, this main hall was where they looked at the sky and measured time!”

I stood at a distance, watching the two who seemed to be acting out an Indiana Jones scene. I couldn’t follow the flow of their conversation at all.

Clumsily muttering to myself in a corner, I watched as Calderan carefully touched three of the 12 lines drawn on the floor.

“If we take the direction of the North Star as a reference from this position. Here is 0. Here is 7. And here…”

At the end of the three lines etched on the floor, there were three large stone pillars supporting the main hall. These huge stone pillars seemed to have stood in the same shape thousands of years ago.

Calderan approached the stone pillars quietly.

“Bloodstone and Snowflake.”

“This is also a wordplay made with ancient runic characters. Bloodstone is a type of extinct flower now. It was said to emit a faint white smoke when blood was sprinkled on its petals. This is a metaphor for shedding blood.”

“Then what about Snowflake?”

“It means to supply mana. Ancient wizards always had their mana shattered and expressed when casting spells due to their lack of systematic ability to use magic.”

“So, whose blood needs to be shed?”

“The blood of a dragon. Remember, the warrior was a creature that captured a dragon. Right? There is a high possibility that a special incantation spell using dragon’s blood was cast.”

She immediately called for Caria.

“I need the blood of the Guardian Dragon. Can you bring it? Caria?”

“Of course. Sister.”

She went straight to the Guardian Dragon, cut off a few drops of blood from the tip of its wing membrane, and returned. Celestine brought a handful of high-purity magic stones from the tower and spread them on the floor.

“After sprinkling these bloods on the three stone pillars. If we connect the mana?”

With a humming sound, the magic stones began to supply a huge amount of mana to the dragon’s blood sprinkled on the stone pillars.

The dragon’s blood absorbed mana, lost its material form, and began to shatter into mana particles.

That appearance…

“It’s like a snowflake.”

It was very similar to a snowflake.

After shattering for a while, the dragon’s blood was no longer there, and the main hall soon fell silent again.

It seemed as if nothing had happened.

“Why is there no change…”

As I waited for about a minute, growing impatient and speaking so.

It felt like an earthquake.

The floor began to shake.

“Uh… uh!!!”

The floor started to crack. The elaborately decorated floor of the main hall began to sink downwards.

The circular main hall floor gradually faded into a spiral staircase shape, descending lower and lower, and the transformation that had been going on for a while finally…

“It’s the entrance.”

Quietly revealed a huge iron door that had been hidden for thousands of years in front of us.

Calderan sat down with a thud.

He was crying.

“He was there!! He was there! My grandfather and great-grandfather were never wrong after all!!!!”

It was the end of romance.

The ancient labyrinth hidden since the mythical era was revealed by the hands of a mediocre map merchant who inherited all the knowledge of the ancients.