CHAPTER 146. Have You Ever Heard of Guilt by Association?
The So-geomjeon (小劍殿) where the Young Lord resided.
Sion paced the reception room with anxious steps.
How much time had passed like that?
“Young Lord, the Master of the Tower has arri—”
“He’s here?”
Sion flung the door open and greeted Aster.
“Sit, first. I have a lot I want to ask, but… before anything else, I should apologize. Truly, I’m sincerely sorry.”
Unlike the roundabout apology from before, this was a direct, straightforward apology.
The young master of Rortel lowered his head.
And yet, why was it?
Aster said nothing—neither this nor that.
Sion lifted his head slightly to gauge Aster’s expression, then carefully asked,
“Are you… all right?”
“…All right?”
“Your expression is bad. Is your internal injury severe? Hey! Is anyone outside? Bring a potion that’s good for internal injuries!”
At Sion’s call, the attendant waiting outside responded at once. And it didn’t take long at all before a potion was placed in the Young Lord’s hand.
“It’s a potion. Unlike an internal-injury pill, it should be remarkably effective even without a breathing technique.”
A high-end luxury item on an entirely different level from the potion Kalahen had before.
Aster accepted the bottle in silence and gulped it down in great swallows.
His expression being bad wasn’t because of internal injury, but it was free—and his internal injuries weren’t exactly light, either.
And when Aster finished draining the expensive potion—
Sion asked,
“Seeing that you came back alive, it sounds like things went well… yes?”
Aster nodded.
For now, just as the Young Lord guessed, the matter itself had ended well.
‘I thought I was going to die for sure…’
Unexpectedly, Rortel’s Head of House accepted all of our demands.
Not only the Infinite Chain, which had been the original objective—when I seized the moment and casually mentioned even the “Sword God’s Tomb,” he nodded as well.
Anyway.
“The Infinite Chain said he’d like to speak with you.”
“Mm…! That’s a relief! Once again, I’m truly sorry. Was there anything else said? I can hear it separately, but… I’m curious, you see.”
“Something else…”
Aster briefly summarized and explained the conversation he’d had with the Head of House regarding the Infinite Chain.
For now, the deal itself would proceed exactly as agreed with the Young Lord.
However—
Call it a favor, maybe… They said they would personally send the First Sword to Baidun Village and mention the cancellation of the trade.
It might have been nothing more than the natural follow-up from Rortel’s standpoint, but from Aster’s perspective, it was something to be quite grateful for.
Why?
‘Because Deculan will realize a variable has appeared in Rortel, soon enough.’
I’d made too much of a spectacle.
In the middle of the night,
a pillar of flame punching up through the sky from the heart of Rortel was a sight you couldn’t help seeing—even if you didn’t want to.
So even if not right this moment…
‘…It’ll still be, at most, a day or two.’
In that time, Deculan would find out as well.
Then, how would Deculan respond?
A variable born in Rortel. They might not guess as far as a contract cancellation, but it would be enough for them to make contingency preparations. And once they learned the fact of the cancellation, too…
Since they already had suspicions about Parun, they’d likely occupy the routes leading to the Academy. Or they might attempt some unexpected scheme.
But—
‘If the First Sword moves, Deculan can’t afford to focus elsewhere.’
They would probably concentrate the full power of their intelligence network on tracking the First Sword’s movements.
Unless Rortel had lost their mind, they wouldn’t move the First Sword in order to strike Deculan—but if, even by some chance, that happened, Deculan would have to accept considerable losses.
That was the strategic value carried by Rortel’s Ten Swords, and by their leader.
So.
“…It seems Father has shown you quite a favor.”
You could understand why Young Lord Sion reacted so absentmindedly like this.
Sir Zeke was also a man counted as “third,” but Hamellan—the leader of the Ten Swords—stood on an altogether different tier from the other Ten Swords.
It was around then that Sion voiced his doubt.
“But you… why do you look like that? Did something happen?”
Sion studied Aster’s face and carefully raised the question.
Considering how well things had gone, Aster’s expression didn’t look normal.
“Something… happened…”
Aster let out a small, stiff smile.
“Because the Head of House gave me a big gift.”
“…A gift?”
“Yeah. A big gift.”
It wasn’t sarcasm.
What Muhad gave Aster truly was a big gift.
It was just that…
- I heard you intend to oppose Deculan… a futile dream.
It was simply, unbearably bitter.
- With a vessel that’s collapsing, you can’t accomplish even a family—let alone Deculan.
A collapsing vessel.
That was…
‘Circle.’
It meant the core’s imperfection.
After all the Shadow Knights had left.
“I heard you intend to oppose Deculan… a futile dream. With a vessel that’s collapsing, you can’t accomplish even a family—let alone Deculan.”
Those were the first words the Head of House spat at me.
“What in the…”
“Don’t ask how I saw it. Sometimes a Demon Sword (魔劍) shows you things you’d rather not see.”
Maybe the ability of the Demon Sword the Head of House possessed was to contemplate my core.
For a moment, I wondered if he’d even discovered the existence of the Reverse-Heaven (역천), but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
Anyway, he added this.
“It isn’t because of a Mind Demon (心魔) or backlash. The secret art itself has a limit.”
The secret art itself has a limit?
‘What kind of nonsense is that…’
It was hard to accept.
And for good reason—what was the secret art I had learned?
I had taken Deculan’s root, the Thousand Origin Art, and overlaid it with the secret art of Scarlet Flame. And there was a limit? That meant—no different from saying Deculan’s secret art had a limit.
But when I thought about it carefully…
‘It’s not like I learned the Thousand Origin Art in a complete form.’
The Thousand Origin Art itself was complete.
I had simply chosen a different method in the process of forging my core.
So what did this mean?
‘The Circle… is an incomplete secret art.’
Honestly, it was hard to believe.
Because—
In the Great Forest, I had reached Transcendence (超越) by completing the Circle.
If the Circle were an incomplete secret art, then I probably wouldn’t have been able to reach Transcendence in the Great Forest in the first place.
But I couldn’t dismiss it as mere bullshit, either.
“For now, it won’t be a problem. But when the vessel grows, cracks grow with it. Whether you believe it or not is your choice.”
The Head of House, seated sternly upon the Iron Throne, looked like he could say complete nonsense and still make it sound plausible.
That’s why position matters.
‘Maybe the reason others can’t trust my words is because my position is nothing special.’
Anyway.
At this point, even I couldn’t ignore it.
So I thought.
‘For now, the Circle in the Great Forest was perfect.’
Then what was the problem?
It didn’t take long to find the answer.
‘The Circle I have now… is different from the Circle I had in the Great Forest.’
Even the size was different, to start with.
If the Circle in the Great Forest was a thick, fully grown anaconda, then the Circle now was like a starving baby anaconda that hadn’t eaten in a month.
‘At first I thought it was just… the difference in the amount of mana. But this wasn’t something I could treat as simple.’
I couldn’t know every cause yet, but there was a difference between the Circle from the Great Forest and the Circle I had now.
“Now do you understand? Why I said I was disappointed.”
I nodded at the Head of House’s question.
If I hadn’t known, fine—but now that I did?
To him, I must have looked pathetic.
The Master of the Tower.
A leader of an organization learning a secret art with an obvious ceiling—how ridiculous must that have seemed to the Head of House?
But around then, I grew curious.
“Why?”
“Speak properly.”
“I’m asking why you’re doing me this favor.”
“Why…”
Head of House Muhad looked at me with indifferent eyes.
Was it my imagination?
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly—like he was sneering. No, to be precise, it wasn’t just a “feeling.”
“Ridiculous.”
“…What is?”
“That effort of yours, struggling even with limits. That foolishness, sharpening your blade while looking at an opponent you can’t even reach. Do you know this? The ‘Infinite Chain’ you’re risking your life to obtain is nothing at all to the main family.”
Meaning—
“I was curious.”
He wanted to see it.
“When I told you your limit, what kind of expression you’d make.”
“What if I don’t believe you?”
“That, too, would be worth seeing. What a sight it would be—someone being told the truth and still turning away.”
Listening to that, I found myself thinking this.
Is this bastard really Rortel’s Head of House?
‘Wasn’t he adopted from Deculan when he was young or something?’
A man who’s the Head of House of a knightly family… sure, the heads of “prestigious houses” (名家) are all cut from the same cloth, but—twisted to this degree?
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even laugh.
But the real spectacle came after.
“So how does it feel?”
“It’s disappointing.”
Damn it—everything is “disappointing” with him.
Back when I was a Troubleshooter trainee, that was the instructor’s favorite line.
- This instructor is disappointed in you all!
And now I was hearing that line from Rortel’s Head of House, too.
But the Head of House didn’t stop there.
“Still, in a way, you’re entertaining to watch. You always move outside expectations.”
“That means…”
“Your limit is clear. And judging by you as you are, the Mage Tower and the Sword Garden will be shabby as well. Infinite Chain? This time you shook off Deculan, but how long will that last.”
So.
“I predict you will be trampled under Deculan and die.”
No—not just that.
“If something like today happens again and again, you won’t even get as far as Deculan.”
What the Head of House said was—
“You are like an insect.”
Then why, after all that, did he change his mind and show me favor?
Well, his answer was the same as before.
“Move outside my predictions.”
In other words… he was expecting it.
Expecting me to surpass his predictions.
To surpass the limit of the Circle, shake off Deculan’s pursuit, grow the Mage Tower and the Sword Garden, and finally oppose Deculan.
This feeling…
‘…This is a filthy feeling I haven’t had in a long time.’
That was why my expression had twisted like I’d bitten into something rotten.
Circle aside—
Rortel’s Head of House had punched me in the solar plexus too hard, too many times.
…After reaching that point in my thoughts, I stared straight at the Young Lord in front of me.
“Have you ever heard of guilt by association?”
“Isn’t that when a crime gets passed down?”
“If you know, you won’t feel wronged later.”
“…?”
I looked at the Young Lord, who seemed bewildered.
But then—
‘If this guy becomes Head of House later, will he turn out like that, too?’
Tch. Then I’d better take him out before that.
“Whatever. Let’s talk about when you’re handing over the Infinite Chain.”
Before the Young Lord could catch on to anything, I hurriedly changed the subject.
The iron grand hall.
After hearing from the Head of House what had happened with the Master of the Tower, Hamellan took a small sip from his cup.
“Hm, if this old man may dare to weigh it… it seems the Master of the Tower pleased you quite a bit?”
“I only pitied him.”
Even in circumstances he couldn’t control, he didn’t flee—he slammed forward. That recklessness that could only end with him crumbling, breaking, and being smashed apart.
It was then that Hamellan shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s all.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Even so, wasn’t this old man your teacher? I believe there’s another reason you haven’t spoken of.”
“Indeed, the eyes of the First Sword cannot be deceived.”
Muhad sipped again, curling the corners of his mouth.
Ever since becoming Head of House, there hadn’t been much to laugh about—but today, for some reason, he felt unusually free with his smiles.
It was then that Hamellan asked,
“May I ask what that other reason might be?”
“A reason…”
Muhad fell briefly into thought.
He recalled a mage from a long time ago, from within his memories.
That mage had nothing in common with the Master of the Tower—nothing he could call similar—except for one single point.
“There was another who always played outside my predictions. Seeing the Master of the Tower made me think of him.”
“‘He,’ you say…”
“Who else would it be?”
Muhad spoke the name he hated beyond measure.
“Paharen von Deculan.”
“……”
Hamellan looked at Muhad with eyes that trembled slightly.
‘The Master of the Tower… compared to Paharen?’
It was a moment that let one glimpse the Head of House’s hatred toward Paharen.
