NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 349
(349)
Pale moonlight spilled down from the communal ceiling.
Plash. Plash. Plash.
Valenciaunos ascended the dais where the Mermaid Princess’s shell rested without hesitation, looking down at her.
Ssssss.
Exactly a thousand years had passed since the oath of the First Emperor.
The golden net on the radiant green scales dissolved away.
The constraints of incantations that had surrounded Schub Ardelra for so long began to dissipate.
But the look of liberation on her face was fleeting.
“Choose.”
The Bandit Duke stood there smugly, extending both his left and right hands.
The power of a golden spell streamed into a ring forming in his right hand, while his left hand aimed a needle-like dagger—”The Black Scale” at her.
Valenciaunos and Schub Ardelra were barely an inch apart.
No mage could defeat a Sword Expert-level swordsman at such close quarters.
The Bandit Duke, aware of that, continued confidently.
“If you take my hand, you’ll live as a subject of Solletarass for all eternity. If you choose my dagger… well, I’ll have to find a new princess. I’ll need to spend a lot of gold and time preventing the merfolk from seeking revenge and the Undersea People from running amok.”
“…”
“Power, beauty, strength. His Majesty stands at their zenith. The only thing lacking is time. His response to the disturbances of the merfolk and the Undersea People will likely involve collateral casualties, which will eventually annihilate your kind. So—.”
Pledge your eternal loyalty.
Schub Ardelra wore an enigmatic and passionate smile on her face.
A voice filled with resignation emerged like a beautiful melody.
“You… are more devoted than the rumors suggest.”
“Yes. Quick-witted.”
Valenciaunos hadn’t finished off Erianne.
“If I take your hand, you won’t kill me, right?”
“That as well.”
“Then, perhaps I could pull off some cute vengeance.”
Schub Ardelra’s mouth opened slightly, revealing a sharp fang that gleamed.
“Vengeance?”
Valenciaunos glanced back and his confident expression was instantly distorted.
“These foul-smelling things—!”
Lady Trentia was bound tightly by chains of water.
Apparently, she’d used every weapon at her disposal until the end—‘Hwanhan’ and ‘Manha’, large and small daggers, and a short hammer for smashing helmets that were scattered throughout the shallows.
Her extraordinary nerve and skill befitting an upper-tier Sword Expert left devastation in her wake.
Three Sea Giants were rolling on the ground, bleeding profusely. Two Eel Dragons and four Octopus Guardians were dead, with their severed limbs trembling faintly. The heads of Undersea People warriors and Coral Soldiers were countless.
Shark Samurais were clutching wounds and fleeing into the water, while a Crushed-back Hermit Crab Warrior slumped there, bleeding. One side of the sand had been deeply gouged out, forming a small lake.
“Pull!”
“It’s already being pulled!”
Even just holding her there required dozens of merfolk.
“Kiiaaaah!”
Even as they tried pulling her arms and kicking legs, water spouts erupted as she thrashed about.
“Sleep, sleep, go to sleep!”
Merfolk sang their “Song of Calm” desperately, but Lady Trentia grew wilder.
“Kill me! You vile sea maggots! Neither human nor fish! Even if I, Trentia, am to die, I cannot bring inconvenience to my lord!”
Crack!
“Grooaaaarrgh!”
Only when two Sea Giants grabbed her with both hands did she finally slow down.
* * *
“This wasn’t expected.”
Valenciaunos sighed, and Schub Ardelra looked at him with a glacial and eerie gaze.
“Do you understand? It takes about an hour to complete the contract. Even with incantations, enforcing prolonged obedience isn’t easy.”
“…”
“Currently, my subordinates can submerge her in water. By the time you gain command over me, she would have already burst into pieces from being underwater.”
The Bandit Duke gritted his teeth.
Schub Ardelra brought out a fierce determination.
“Fine. Try to subordinate me, oh devoted Duke. And kill your knight.”
Valenciaunos looked at Trentia.
In the midst of the fierce battle, her faceplate slightly lifted, revealing her majestic and proud crimson eyes.
‘Your Excellency, you know what I’m thinking, don’t you?’
Lady Trentia’s eyes spoke.
‘Your Highness, I’m ready.’
The Bandit Duke bit his lower lip and clenched his eyes shut.
It was a sight like the setting sun.
Ping!
The next moment, he firmly grabbed Schub Ardelra’s hand in his right hand.
Simultaneously, the merfolk’s and Undersea People’s laughter laced with vengeance, and the splash of water echoed faintly.
That sound was soon buried by the pulsating power of the incantation.
Whoosh!
Under the pale moonlight, golden energy flowed endlessly into Schub Ardelra’s bloodstream.
“Ah.”
The Mermaid Princess smiled bitterly at the familiar return of her collar, and the Bandit Duke, with a determined face, steadily poured in his strength.
When the moon disappeared from the hole in the communal ceiling, Valenciaunos let go of Schub Ardelra’s hand.
“Order them to pull up Lady Trentia.”
Schub Ardelra nodded.
It was also what she desired.
“Pull her up.”
Over an hour and a half had passed.
No matter how skilled a Sword Expert, it was beyond the limit of how long anyone could hold their breath.
Splaash!
The two Sea Giants and the merfolk hauled the knight up and placed her on the sandy islet.
Thump.
She lay sprawled out lifeless, with seawater streaming from the gaps in her plate armor.
An Undersea People warrior approached, trying to raise her helmet-faceplate.
“Kaarrrr.”
In an instant, the knight sprang up, snatching the spear from the warrior’s hands.
“Take your fishy hand off me!”
And she threw it at the nearest Sea Giant’s neck.
Thud!
“Kreeeek!”
The Sea Giant screamed, and the confused merfolk widened their eyes.
“What, what is this?”
“She’s been underwater for over an hour!”
“We saw her thrash and collapse like that…”
But the knight, as if she had never lain there at all, rolled nimbly on the sandy beach, wielding the blade ‘Hwanhan’ and ‘Manha’, and deftly returned to Valenciaunos’ side.
“Your Highness, this Trentia returns alive and well.”
Schub Ardelra saw the wide shoulders of Valenciaunos shaking like crazy.
“You.”
“Address me as Your Excellency, Mermaid Princess.”
And his voice, trying to suppress laughter, also trembled.
“Show it, Lady Trentia.”
The knight raised her helmet-faceplate and spat out the coral talisman she had been holding in her mouth.
Erianne, who was rising shakily, saw the talisman and knelt again.
“Eh, eh? How…”
The latter words didn’t come out, but Trentia confidently continued.
“A Mermaid’s Kiss amulet. If a water-breathing magic tool without time limit was indeed prepared, it was likely made by the princess or that kneeling adjutant of yours.”
Using a mermaid’s kiss to counterfeit drowning in case Trentia was taken hostage.
It was one of the pre-arranged plans.
Schub Ardelra’s mouth gaped open.
“Hah, hah.”
Her pale blue eyes contracted infinitely.
Valenciaunos giggled.
“Did you take a nice nap for an hour?”
The knight shook her head.
“I had difficulty. Even with my eyes closed, seawater kept entering. My fingers have also become shriveled due to the salt, and it’s not a place to stay for long, even if you can breathe.”
The Bandit Duke and his knight playfully exchanged punches.
“Good work, Lady. Your acting skills have greatly improved.”
“Your Highness, you truly have foul tastes. Is teasing the opponent so enjoyable?”
“Ah. Everything is done with consideration. Don’t we need to extract some spirit before meeting His Majesty?”
Schub Ardelra looked up at the two with a resigned smile.
“You… disgraceful Solletarass, worse than barnacles.”
* * *
In the world, rumors about Valenciaunos were clearly divided into two categories.
“He drinks a barrel of wine and smokes an entire box of hallucinogenic tobacco daily, they say.”
“Every day is filled with orgies and sodomy, they say.”
“In the slums, they say, he enjoys hunting humans and even experiments with time.”
One was of a useless noble duke, unnecessarily pretty, and twin-cursed.
“While Lanzo sent some things to Tuo,”
“They slaughtered 400,000 Eastern Continent immigrants who migrated to the Nayt Archipelago,”
“To keep the city quiet during the loyalty pledge, he sold the residents of the slums to the Northern Duke.”
The other was a rational but cruel duke who constantly crossed human boundaries.
And Nancy, the maid at the “End-of-the-Line Port” Governor’s residence, thought that all these rumors might be false.
‘They seem rather exaggerated.’
That he enjoyed drinking seemed true.
High-grade red wine, white wine, all sorts of brandies, cherry brandy, plum brandy, pomegranate brandy, pear brandy, etc., he would drink dozens of bottles daily, costing anywhere from dozens of silver coins to gold coins.
Yet he neither caused accidents when drunk nor while sober.
‘There’s no plan to recklessly sleep around.’
‘There are more enjoyable things in this world.’
Charles hesitantly invited some courtesans and male companions, but Valenciaunos politely yet firmly turned them down. And the various mood-enhancing drugs that Charline sneaked out from the confiscated goods warehouse were also rejected.
Of course, this didn’t mean he was dutiful in what might be called ‘inspection work’ either.
‘Work will be done when the governor returns. I don’t like doing the same thing twice.’
He would walk along the beach before sunrise until after sunset, find scenic islands to cool off, or roam high-end restaurants to explore southern food culture.
Still, Nancy didn’t think he was merely a dilettante.
‘Charles. When you use oppressive sword techniques, always pull your shoulders back. That’s how you keep valor from becoming recklessness.’
‘Charline. Magic is about calculations and rules, but it’s also a fervent prayer. Don’t try to understand all principles perfectly, nor to subdue mana. What if you guide it to naturally follow you?’
He was too sophisticated to be the notorious duke, and too laid-back to be the cruel one.
Everyone working in the Governor’s residence thought the same.
Although Charles and Josephine didn’t completely relax their tension, the stiffness they displayed had softened somewhat.
Charles even went a step further and started asking questions.
‘If he has an agenda, it needs to be identified.’
* * *
Sssshhhhh.
Two men walked along the setting sunlit beach.
Even though Charles was of considerable height, rarely bending before others, Valenciaunos surpassed him by over half a foot in eye level.
Thus, when they walked side by side, Charles had to crane his neck upward to see Valenciaunos’s face, while Valenciaunos kept his distance.
It was uncertain whether that distance was an act of consideration or a wall.
“To tell the truth, I wish to learn Imperial Swordplay.”
“Imperial Swordplay? That is something only His Majesty can teach.”
“Based on personal opinion, His Majesty seems to plan to someday spread this swordplay throughout the empire.”
“Oh ho. Why do you think that?”
“If it’s a swordplay meant only for the Imperial Court, there’s no need to call it ‘Imperial’ swordplay, right?”
“There’s reason in that. But that’s not today’s topic.”
A smile of satisfaction briefly appeared on Valenciaunos face in their brief conversation.
Through the experience of the past few days, Charles realized he enjoyed talking about the emperor.
“Your Highness, what kind of person is His Majesty?”
As if realizing that Charles’s insight was mistaken, Valenciaunos shut his mouth.
After much silence, he finally broke it again.
“What’s your intention?”
“Intention, you say? I just… purely out of curiosity.”
“Pure curiosity about what?”
His voice was colder than ever.
But Charles felt the test-like chill he had undergone many times before.
“Just… aren’t you sometimes troubled by uneasiness or jealousy?”
He expressed his personal feelings thoroughly.
It was a way of speaking that was only acceptable now, in his youth and without formal responsibilities.
To this answer, Valenciaunos gave a sly smile, as if to say there was no such thing as his earlier frostiness.
“Stupid question.”
This was both a firm denial and an ambiguous answer: Even if he did feel jealousy, what could he possibly do about it?
Charles judged at least that Valenciaunos was not traveling across the continent to build a retinue outside of the capital.
‘Or, perhaps he doesn’t intend to involve our governorate even if he has such thoughts.’
That evening, it was a gathering with Governor’s wife Josephine, Charles, and Charline all in attendance.
The atmosphere was harmonious, compliments were exchanged, and talk of the soon-to-return Karlons emerged.
Valenciaunos raised his glass with dignity.
“When he returns, let’s commence official business.”
Charles and Josephine worked hard to suppress laughter.
With the personal loyalty of the Admiral Knight received, Karlons, upon his return, would leave Valenciaunos no choice but to return to the capital to appoint him as Count.
Charline, excited about becoming Empress, also struggled to hold back laughter.
The thought of her long-standing rival addressing her as Her Imperial Majesty made her body quiver.
It was then that a red light was spotted outside the hall’s glass windows.
“Huh?”
“What’s that?”
Karlons’ residence was situated on higher ground, allowing a full view of the sea from the windows.
Amidst the night sea horizon, a flame shot up.
Valenciaunos tilted his glass gracefully with a leisurely smile.
“Alright. Let’s start my duties, shall we?”
It was an unexpected, relaxed smile not mentioned in the rumors.