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Chapter 8

“Is everyone here?”

“That’s right.”

There were only five of them.

Even though it might feel like I wasn’t being treated like a direct descendant of the family head, this was still better than a swarm of soldiers.

In any case, this was beyond my expectations. The knights of the main house had never come for me in my previous life. This meant that my actions had created a change in the future.

Did Kayan already submit his report to the main house?

It had only been a week.

Considering the distance between the main house and this mansion, this feat was physically impossible, but it was possible if magical transportation methods were used.

“Why is the main house looking for me?”

“It is the family head’s order.”

“Order? What’s the order?”

“Yes. I will now relay the message the family head asked me to tell you.”

The one standing at the very front, the knight named Osel, cleared his throat.

“‘Luan Bednicker is to visit the main house to attend the Second Blessing Ceremony before the end of this month’.”

“...”

“...”

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

I let out a dry laugh. “So, why is he calling me back for the Second Blessing Ceremony now?”

“It is the order of the family head.”

“Why?”

Osel looked surprised at my answer.

“Please excuse me, but I am just a messenger. There is no way I could know the family head’s thoughts.”

Honestly, if I had heard this in my past life, I would’ve shouted in celebration.

Depending on how I interpreted it, an order from the Lord of Blood and Iron to attend the Second Blessing Ceremony could mean that my father was giving me a final chance.

Of course, no such garden of hope was blooming in my head right now.

Something’s a little fishy.

Had Kayan’s report already gone through the Council of Elders and reached the ears of the Lord of Blood and Iron?

“Wait, when did you say the time limit was?”

“Before the end of this month.”

“And what’s the date today?”

“Today is the 17th of December.”

“There’s not even two weeks left.”

From this mansion situated at the edge of The Empire to the main house...

Even if I took a coach, two weeks was quite the tight deadline.

I just stared at the knights.

I considered whether they might be lying to make fun of me.

“We won’t be late if we go through the mountain range,” said Osel.

“The mountains?”

“The Gem Mountains, to be precise.”

I felt like I’d heard about them somewhere before.

“We came here through the Gem Mountains to survey the area on the way, and it took about a week.”

Now I realized why the group was so small. They’d been planning on taking me through the mountains to begin with.

A large group would only be cumbersome when climbing mountains instead of going across the fields.

...Since it’s the order of the family head, I don’t really have a choice.

The command of the family head of House Bednicker was absolute. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say his word was law.

Although the tone suggested that I might have a choice, if I were to refuse, waves of collectors would come after me, not just to slice my tendons but to end my life.

In all honesty, I didn’t really like getting forcibly pulled away, but going to the main house wasn’t bad for me at all.

The main house of House Bednicker contained the Council of Elders and the family head.

If I showed them the White Sun Form or negotiated with them through other methods, I wouldn’t need to fear interruptions from the house any time soon.

Of course, my siblings from the main house would take the opportunity to come and insult me, but that didn’t bother me much. I could ignore most of them, and if they crossed the line, I could crush them.

After finalizing my decision, I nodded at the knights.

“All right. Let’s go now.”

“Today is a little late, so let’s head out early tomorrow morning.”

The sun was still high up in the sky... but it could be that the sun would be setting when we arrived at those Gem Mountains or whatever.

“Really? Well then, we have guest rooms, so you can stay in the mansio—”

“Thank you for your words, but we have already booked lodgings for the meantime.”

I see.

I just nodded as I looked at Osel again.

His smile was annoying me. As I looked at his face, I couldn’t help but say something.

“Did you say you’re Osel?”

“Yes.”

Since this was our first meeting, and since he wasn’t directly under me, I decided to let him off with a light warning.

“Don’t cut me off when I’m speaking.”

Osel maintained his smile as he lowered his head a little.

“I will keep that in mind.”

* * * * *

* * * * *

After the knights left, I began my own preparations.

Although I didn’t have any luggage I needed to pack, I still needed to prepare enough to survive a week inside the mountains.

First, I ordered the servants to pack clothes that would protect me and make it easier for me to move around. My sleeping bag was packed as well.

The servants all looked a little surprised, but no one said anything. They still seemed to be wary of interacting with me.

I was a little sorry, but it was easier for me since I didn’t need to explain or justify any of my actions.

“What do I do about food?”

It might be obvious, but it was impossible to pack a week’s worth of food inside my bag. Even if I could, it would go bad during the trip.

Of course, I didn’t think the knights would make me starve, but it wasn't bad to pack something just in case.

Since we were heading into the mountains, if push came to shove, I could just run about and gather things to eat myself.

I’d thought that maybe I would have enough space to pack simple cooking utensils and seasoning, but that proved to be false.

I looked at my bag packed to the brim.

“I should go check the mansion’s safe,” I muttered to myself.

I had gone through the safe in my previous life before I left, and there had been a few useful artifacts back then.

A bag enchanted with expansion magic, a wristwatch more useful than a compass, and a sword that could change its shape and size at will and usually took the form of a ring... were these the only useful items I could take for this trip to the main house?

I returned to my room and started to shove everything into the enchanted bag.

Since it wasn’t an extraordinary magic item, I couldn’t fit too much more than a normal bag. At most, I think it was about three to four times the size? But while I had more storage space, the enchanted bag did nothing to help with the weight.

After putting all of my things into the bag, I tried lifting it.

It was a bit heavy, but it wasn’t to the point that I wouldn’t be able to move. Rather, I felt that climbing through the mountains with this on would be a decent way to train.

“...It reminds me of Spirit Mountain.”

There had been a training course that ended only after climbing to the top of Spirit Mountain. I’d needed to climb while dragging a chunk of iron the size of a house.

Although there hadn’t been a time limit, the paths had had so many monsters that I’d nearly died more than ten times. 

After finally reaching the peak, Master had thrown me a huge peach. That thing had tasted heavenly.

It wasn’t just because I’d eaten it after suffering for so long, it was just that good. It was probably the tastiest fruit I’d ever had in my life.

Later, I’d heard from Eldest Senior Brother that it was apparently some great mystic elixir.

“Mystic elixir...”

Thoughts of elixirs filled my mind again. 

Normally, practice was the safest and most surefire way to accumulate internal energy.

In comparison, inheriting the internal energy of another person, taking internal energy by force, and consuming mystic elixirs all had various degrees of risk.

But that wasn’t true for me right now.

Even if I were to consume an elixir, there was no chance that I would suffer side effects or fail to digest it properly.

This was a path I had already walked down.

I had already gone through the process of obtaining internal energy, learning external arts, and developing techniques I had learned and improving them. I had experienced quite a lot of things.

“No, wait.”

As the words “mystic elixir” and “Gem Mountains” crossed my mind together, a memory that had been buried resurfaced.

“Was it... the extreme fire herb?” 

Just as the name suggested, it exuded extreme yang energy, and I had once heard that when it was observed by human eyes, it would stop growing, meaning extreme fire herbs had the easiest time growing in deep pockets of nature far from human sight...

“The Gem Mountains. I did think that name sounded familiar...”

I had heard that the biggest extreme fire herb was probably there.

The reason for the uncertainty in that sentence was that I’d never heard of anyone actually seeing the extreme fire herb for themself.

It might be odd, but the reason the extreme fire herb had become famous in the Gem Mountains was because of an insane criminal. 

Fire Demon.

They were an arsonist who would cause fear all over The Empire in a few years, a lunatic who burned down around fifteen towns in only a year, and the number of victims was close to ten thousand.

In any case, they ended up getting caught by a knight order while trying to plan an arson attack on a major city.

However, the truth that was revealed after investigating their actions... was that he actually had the appearance of an ordinary young man. 

He was a magician that used to be a part of the Red Tower.

None of the people close to him said that they’d felt like he was dangerous before he started doing this. 

Due to the scale of the damages, the investigation and interrogations were thorough, and the reason this ordinary magician became the Fire Demon came to light.

It was because of the extreme fire herb.

The line between poison and medicine was razor-thin.

Too much medicine could become poison, and a well-rangled poison could become medicine.

The magician who consumed the extreme fire herb hadn’t been able to properly absorb the mystic elixir and had thus become the Fire Demon.

“...I don’t remember anything that could be of use.”

Of course, the extreme fire herb was the elixir I needed the most right now.

I would be able to absorb the herb that made an ordinary magician go insane.

But so what? Even though I knew the extreme fire herb was in the mountains, the search area was far too wide.

Searching just one mountain would take at least a few weeks, but I might have to look through the entire mountain range! It would be impossible unless I was extremely lucky.

I paused and realized that I had mostly finished packing up while thinking about such useless things.

Knock knock.

I heard a knock on the door, which I responded to without turning around.

“Come in.”

“Yes.”

Only after hearing that formal voice did I stop and turn my head. An unexpected person was standing there.

“Please excuse me, young master.”

“...”

Red hair and a full suit.

Standing there with a straight back and a stern, unchanging face.

Unlike the knights I had seen before, this was someone I already knew.

No, “knowing” didn’t do it justice.

This was the woman who, in my past life, had made me shiver in my boots at the mere mention of her name.

This was a source of fear.

Butler Arzan.

She was the one who had beaten up this body right before my regression.