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Translator: M.S
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: The Shape of a Dream
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The place we were living now was a grand mansion next to the lord's castle.
One of the perks of a purge was the abundance of free houses. Prime properties in prime locations.
‘The view of the city is nice from up here.’
I gazed out through a large, tall window open at one end of the conference room.
The collapsed buildings were still there, but at least the streets were no longer littered with corpses.
The city was slowly returning to its daily rhythm.
People bought and sold, drank and played in the lamplit streets at night.
*Creak.*
The conference room door opened, and Sea, with her small frame and indigo hair, walked in carrying a thick stack of papers.
In the hand supporting the papers, she held a sword with a gleaming, sharp blade.
Sea stared at me intently before asking.
“Do I really have to do this? Even during a meeting?”
She was asking about the sword in her hand. I had told her not to let it go for a second, 24 hours a day, no matter what.
“Yes.”
“...No swordsmanship theory book I've ever read says to carry a sword around for 24 hours.”
“I'm a hundred times greater a swordsman than the guys who wrote those books.”
“...”
“Just bear with it. You'll be bowing to me in gratitude later.”
With a small sigh, Sea gave up arguing and placed the stack of documents on the desk.
I looked at the top of her small head and asked.
“Why did you want to see me first?”
A full meeting was already scheduled.
But Sea had summoned me an hour before it was supposed to start.
Something she needed to discuss with just the two of us... What could it be?
“Do you remember what I said we needed to confirm before?”
“Before? Ah... time travel?”
“Yes. Time travel through the Book of Fate. I said we needed to verify whether it actually changes history or not.”
“Right.”
“Did you notice anything?”
I shrugged.
Honestly, how could I know? It was the past, more than ten thousand years ago. Would any trace of what I did even remain?
“I thought so. That's why I did some research on my own.”
*Ssk.*
Sea pulled a sheet of paper from the stack and handed it to me.
A quick glance revealed it to be an excavation report on an elixir discovered 200 years ago.
“This is...?”
“As you can see, the elixir discovered 200 years ago was in a bottle that was only half-full.”
“You're right... So my actions in the past really do affect the present?”
“It seems that way, but that alone isn't enough to be certain. But then, this turned up during the excavation of the Glowingsteel ruins.”
*Thwack.*
Sea rummaged through the pile of documents, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and spread it on the desk.
It was a rubbing.
A rubbing taken from a rather large monument, inked and pressed in its entirety.
“Huh...?”
Etched onto the monument was a single relief carving.
There was text below it, but most of it was damaged and illegible.
‘...defended the city?’
That was all I could make out.
But it wasn't the text that caught my attention.
The relief carving looked familiar.
A monster that looked like a hairless werewolf with long tentacles for a mouth and tail. A man and a woman were striking at the monster's neck.
‘Isn't this me and Iodine?’
It looked that way even at a glance.
And on closer inspection...
“What do you think? For me, it was this sword that stood out more than anything. The inverted half-moon crossguard. A design like this is rare.”
She was right.
I'd seen countless swords across both ancient and modern times, but I too had only ever seen one sword like that.
‘Vanroah.’
The king's sword, named after our lost kingdom.
Looking at the crossguard above the hilt, which protected the hand from a sliding blade, there was no doubt.
A half-moon shape, flat on top and rounded on the bottom. An intricate constellation carved within it.
The moment I recognized it, a whirlwind of emotions swept over me.
‘...That event was immortalized as a monument?’
And the people who commemorated us... were they all long dead and buried in a swamp...?
Life. What even is this?
Suppressing the strange, surging emotion, I answered as calmly as I could.
“That's me.”
“I knew it. Did you fight a monster like that when you went back this time?”
“I did.”
“Then it's over 95 percent certain. The probability that it's you.”
Sea carefully folded the rubbing and looked at me.
“With this, we can accept the hypothesis that the place you travel to is the actual past, and your actions there change history.”
“Hmm... You said that could be a problem, right?”
“That's right. From now on, you have to be more careful than ever. Every single one of your actions could drastically change the present.”
“But... there are some things I can't control. The Book of Fate itself seems to want 'historical alteration'.”
I explained the recent regression phenomenon to Sea.
Sea's eyes narrowed slightly.
“The Book of Fate. So it's an object with a will of its own.”
“Exactly. Even if I try to be careful, if it tells me to, I have to change history. There's no other way.”
Sea bowed her head, lost in deep thought.
Her lips moved quickly as she muttered to herself.
“What could its goal be? On a scale grand enough to turn back time... preventing an apocalypse? Then what about us? It's too dangerous to use carelessly... No... there's too little information. Why did the ancient civilization fall in the first place?”
After a moment, having organized her thoughts, Sea looked up at me again.
“For now, let's focus more on gathering information. We'll track how changes in the past affect the present and find out what happened to that ancient civilization.”
“Alright. I'll try.”
“But thanks to this, a lot of new possibilities have opened up.”
“Possibilities?”
“Yes.”
*Tap.*
Sea unfolded a map of Roverland and pointed to the area around Kushan City.
“Here,”
she said, enunciating each word clearly.
“what if we plant... Drakium?”
“!!!”
It was like a thunderclap inside my head.
Drakium.
A priceless treasure known as the Essence of the Earth.
If you buried its seed deep within fertile land and waited for a very, very long time, it would create an orb saturated with the earth's mana—Drakium.
To a knight, it was an elixir of the ages; to a mage, a supreme magical tool.
And the time it took for a Drakium seed to mature... was exactly ten thousand years!
My heart pounded.
“Sea! You're a genius!”
“Well... there's more we can try besides Drakium. I'll draw up a detailed plan and report back. For now... let's figure out a reliable way to activate the Book of Fate.”
Ah, right. We couldn't do anything without using the Book of Fate.
But,
“haven't we basically figured that out? It reacts to the heretical cult, right? The Book of Fate.”
“Right. The religion Ksias followed was probably that same cult.”
“Exactly. The only problem is we don't know where the cult's ruins or chapels are...”
At my words, Sea's indigo eyes sparkled.
“There is one. A place definitively connected to the cult.”
“There is? Where?”
“Kashu City.”
Kashu. The city ruled by the Blood Count Delkashu. The land that fell under Ksias's control after I killed Delkashu.
“The cult... is there? Why?”
“Where do you think Ksias got his knowledge of the cult?”
“Ah!”
“The timing and the circumstances make it almost certain. Delkashu was also a cultist, and Ksias gained his knowledge of the cult when he stole his true blood.”
“So there's a cult chapel in Kashu City...?”
“With a high probability.”
I looked out the window again.
As it happened, that was to the east. The direction of Kashu City.
The land of despair that had once brought about my downfall.
“Perfect. I needed to go wipe out Ksias's remnants anyway.”
“Yes. The current governor there is also of Ksias's bloodline.”
Then that settles it.
“It's decided. As soon as things stabilize here, we conquer Kashu City.”
Another task was added to the list.
Take Kashu, activate the Book of Fate once more.
I had to build my power and influence, one step at a time.
“And one last thing...”
Sea fidgeted with the stack of papers.
She seemed hesitant to bring something up.
Why was she like this, when she was usually so blunt?
“What? What is it?”
“...Actually, this is the main point. I thought it would be best if just the two of us discussed it for now. That's why I asked to see you first.”
“What is it?”
Hesitantly, Sea,
“what is your goal? Your true goal. What you really want to do.”
fixed her gaze on me, her eyes as deep as the night sea.
“My goal...?”
I gave a bitter smile.
“Well, my official stance is that as long as we're happy, nothing else matters, but...”
if she was seriously asking what was in my heart,
“isn't it obvious?”
*Fwoosh!*
My vision wavered.
A dark blue flame was surely blazing in my pupils right now.
Just like this phenomenon that proved my Vanroah bloodline, my heart had, in fact, never wavered.
“To take the head of the Empire's emperor, Lokstehlen Gallotti, to tear the Empire to pieces, and to rebuild the eternal kingdom of Vanroah, one that will never fall again. That's my goal. The real one. Yes.”
It was,
my revenge for losing my parents and siblings overnight,
and my duty as the last royal of Vanroah.
Whether I wanted it or not, that had to be my goal.
Across Sea's usually expressionless face,
a faint smile spread.
“I thought so. That's why I prepared this.”
Sea took out a thick bundle of papers from the stack.
On the cover, it was written:
“This is...?”
“The Empire is strong. Absurdly so. There's no way to grasp the full extent of its power, but even its visible military strength is ridiculous. In fact, aside from western Gloryland, the north and south are already imperial territories or vassal states.”
*Flip!*
Sea unfolded a large map and connected three points with her finger.
“So we have to join forces. Through the sea.”
We join forces with Avalond, Novarea, Bridencia, and Ioria to the west of the Empire.
To the south of the Empire, across the sea, we also join forces with Arandria on the northern tip of Deathland.
And we will take the east of the Empire.
“The prerequisite is to take control of the 'Ailun region,' ruled by the Gale King Harun, and the 'Shamalun region,' ruled by the Sea King Zafar. Without that, this plan can't even begin.”
Sea laid out this incredible story with her small mouth.
The Gale King Harun and the Sea King Zafar.
On the vast continent of Roverland, a land teeming with robber barons, only five people could use the title of king.
The Five Kings.
These were titans whose personal martial prowess far surpassed that of a Sword Master, and whose followers rivaled the power of a decent-sized kingdom in Gloryland.
And Sea was saying they had to bring not one, but two of these absolute rulers, feared by everyone in Roverland, to their knees.
“If we take Ailun and Shamalun, we'll control the golden trade route connecting the eastern continent of Oldland and the western continent of Gloryland. Furthermore, it will open a path for direct trade with western Gloryland through Roverland's largest port city, Mashanka.”
To simplify Sea's plan, it was this:
Conquer Ailun and Shamalun.
Form an alliance with western Gloryland and Arandria on the southern continent.
Grow prosperous through mutual trade and pressure the Empire from three sides.
“I also call this the Three-Pronged Strategy. To succeed, we have to win three battles.”
First, we weaken the Empire by blockading its trade routes between the eastern and western continents. Naturally, we'll have to withstand the Empire's fierce retaliation.
Second, we protect the maritime trade routes through the central sea from the Empire. The cooperation of Arandria on the southern continent is essential.
Through these protected trade routes, the three pillars will interact closely, making each other prosperous.
Finally, with the combined strength of the now more prosperous alliance, we strike the Empire all at once.
When we achieve victory in these three battles, the Three-Pronged Strategy, or the Maritime Three-Front Plan, will be complete.
“This plan seems a bit too dangerous to discuss openly yet. For now, I wanted to go over it with just the two of us first.”
I scanned the documents Sea had given me.
She must have prepared this so diligently.
Every single page was packed with data.
From an analysis of the Empire's military strength,
to detailed information on western Gloryland and Arandria, and strategic proposals based on that information.
Every word she spoke was backed by pages and pages of meticulous evidence.
‘Was she always this capable...?’
I knew she was smart, but...
to think she could grasp the state of the entire world while cooped up in this small city of Kushan.
I put down the documents.
I met her eyes,
“Let's do it, Sea.”
and held out my palm.
Sea slowly, but firmly, took my hand.
That day, we defined the shape of our dream.
Precisely and clearly.
A grand dream that would change the very shape of the world.
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