The Indomitable Martial King

“Using Eldrad as a magic swordsman, huh… This is going to be tricky.”

It wasn’t that he had never fought against Aura users before. However, there was a distinct difference between Aura wielders who had fallen into sloth, neglecting their training, and a magic swordsman who, despite not having awakened his Aura, had put his all into making the best of his situation through relentless effort.

After some thought, Repenhardt couldn’t help but give the latter more credit.

“… Can I win?”

At his murmuring, Sillan asked in surprise.

“Huh? Mr. Repen, you’re not thinking of fighting with the Count of Tenes, are you?”

Repenhardt nodded as if it were obvious.

“We have to retrieve the relics they took.”

Sillan’s expression hardened. He asked again, disbelieving.

“Are you saying you’re going to steal?”

Repenhardt, with a blank look on his face, replied.

“Steal?”

He looked utterly baffled by Sillan’s question.

“Hold on, Mr. Repen.”

After a moment of consideration, Sillan spoke in a serious tone.

“In the Principality of Chatan, I agreed with you because I thought you were right. But this doesn’t seem right. They explored the ruins through legitimate means and took the relics as their due. That makes them the rightful owners of those relics. Taking the relics from them would be theft, wouldn’t it?”

“Uh…”

It was then that Repenhardt finally grasped the situation. From his perspective, Elucion was a ruin he had explored and unearthed himself. Naturally, he strongly believed the relics were his. But in this time period, the relics were indeed rightfully owned by the Count of Tenes. Sillan’s words were irrefutably accurate.

“Is it theft, then?”

Sillan looked incredulous at Repenhardt’s naive question. Did this gentleman really not realize that before?

“Umm…”

Repenhardt, finding himself in a bind, scratched his head while Sillan tried to soothe him.

“There, there, I understand it’s hard to let go, but we can give up on this. We can just find another ruin, right? I still have plenty of money. It’s enough to cover our travel expenses for a while, so there’s no need to rush.” e

Sillan thought Repenhardt was being hasty because he was running out of money. Of course, the truth was entirely different.

‘Ugh, how do I explain this?’

Without being able to talk about his past life, Repenhardt found it impossible to argue against Sillan’s point. Nor could he just brazenly proceed with theft without a convincing reason. If he acted so recklessly without justification, Sillan, disappointed, would surely leave him.

‘I don’t want that…’

Although Repenhardt joked about having a top-quality medicine bottle, he genuinely acknowledged Sillan as a comrade. He was impressed by Sillan’s abilities and personality. Repenhardt also thought that he should explain everything properly when the opportunity arose.

However, it wasn’t yet time to discuss his past life. His words would carry more weight after he regained his magical powers, but for now, he feared he would be treated as if he were insane.

‘How can I persuade him without mentioning my past life?’

As Repenhardt was pondering this, an idea suddenly came to him. He put on a serious face and turned to Sillan.

“Sillan, as a fellow comrade, I feel I should tell you something.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Repenhardt swallowed before speaking. The story he was about to tell required a bit of preparation.

“Did I mention that my martial arts school is called Gym Unbreakable?”

“Yes, you told me about being a disciple of the Fist King, Gerard. I’ve already heard about it.”

Given Sillan’s peculiar fascination (?) with muscles, it was impossible for him to not know about Gerard, the legendary boxer touted as having the most muscular physique in the world.

“But, to pass through our school’s teachings, there are a few trials, you see?”

Repenhardt continued calmly.

He was a disciple of Fist King Gerard and the current successor of Gym Unbreakable. This martial arts school had a tradition of putting its disciples through rigorous tests, and even after leaving the mountain, Gerard couldn’t bear to see his disciples idle. Therefore, he too had several tests to pass, as part of his duty as a disciple.

“So, one of these tests involved your master, Fist King Gerard, placing one of Gym Unbreakable’s artifacts inside the Elucion ruins and asking to retrieve it as part of the trial?”

“Yes, it’s a tradition in our school to toughen up the disciples.”

“The final test, you mean…”

Sillan looked suspiciously at Repenhardt. It was fairly common for martial arts schools to test the abilities of their departing disciples by having them pass through a specially prepared trial, so the fact that Gym Unbreakable had such a test wasn’t surprising. However…

“Choosing an actual dungeon as the test site is something I’ve never heard of before.”

“Our school is a bit old-fashioned in that regard.”

Trying to appear calm, Repenhardt licked his lips again. Since he hadn’t reached the point where he could lie effortlessly without moistening his lips, his mouth kept drying out.

Sillan nodded with an ambiguous expression.

“Well, from what I’ve heard, it does seem like they put their disciples through a lot.”

Sillan had already heard in detail about the kind of training Repenhardt had undergone. Even Sillan, who harbored an infinite admiration for muscles, was horrified by the foolishness of the training method. It made sense, then, that the final test was so brutally unreasonable.

However, there were still doubts lingering.

“But, you said Master Gerard had already explored the Elucion ruins once, right? He didn’t touch a single artifact from the Silver Age inside the ruins?”

It was indeed strange to leave those valuable artifacts untouched after a proper dungeon exploration. But Repenhardt responded naturally again.

“The other artifacts obtained during that were meant as rewards for disciples who passed the test.”

It seemed lying was becoming second nature. Repenhardt added that the information about the Elucion ruins was not known to the world, only to Gerard, so his master had not anticipated someone else taking action first.

“Think about it. How could I have recognized Nihillen if I hadn’t been told beforehand?”

“Ah… now that you mention it…”

Sillan seemed to have realized something.

Repenhardt had immediately recognized Nihillen, which looked like a mere piece of wood. Considering that even the wizards of the Tenes County had discarded the artifact without recognizing its identity, it was unbelievable that he, a mere martial artist, could identify it. However, it made sense if his master had hinted at it beforehand.

“Yes, Nihillen is originally one of our martial sect’s weapons. He left it there so I would recognize it. And you saw how I found the shortcut, right? If that really was an unexcavated ruin, how could I have known about it?”

Repenhardt used Nihillen and the direct back route to the core of the Elucion ruins as evidence to convince Sillan. Indeed, even if Nihillen could be explained away, the secret passage leading directly to the core was information that could not be known without fully exploring the ruins. By this point, Sillan couldn’t help but believe him.

“If that’s the reason, I can understand Mr. Repen’s attitude.”

As it was said, the artifact rightfully belonged to Repenhardt, precisely to Gym Unbreakable, so it made sense that there was no awareness of theft.

“Indeed, it didn’t seem characteristic of Mr. Repen to covet others’ belongings, even if the relics of the Silver Age are valuable. I did find it odd because it’s not in your nature to desire someone else’s possessions.”

“Then, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t cling to this situation; I would just look for another dungeon, right?”

Repenhardt actively agreed, which made it easier for Sillan to come to terms with the situation.

“There’s no helping it then. I understand.”

Sillan completely dropped his suspicions and nodded. With the evidence this clear, there was no room for doubt. Repenhardt sighed in relief and smiled wryly.

“I’m sorry, Sillan. But it’s not all a lie, at least.”

Sillan, with a serious look, asked Repenhardt.

“So, Mr. Repen, you must retrieve that artifact at all costs?”

“Yes, that’s what worries me.”

Sillan’s expression hardened. He understood Repenhardt’s stance, but the fact remained that the artifact was legally owned by the Count of Tenes.

After a moment of thought, Sillan asked out of the blue.

“What will you do then? Go and tell the truth to get only that artifact back?”

“Do you think someone would believe what I just said?”

“It’s unlikely.”

Sillan thought it over; if someone went through the trouble of dungeon delving to acquire an artifact, only for a stranger to claim, “One of those is originally mine. Hand it over,” they would be viewed as nothing less than a bandit.

“What about buying it with a proper price?”

“I’ve thought about that too, but it seems too difficult.”

Repenhardt shook his head.

The relics of the Silver Age were all traded at high prices. Moreover, the relic that Repenhardt sought, the Voice of Elucion, was currently known how to be used only by Repenhardt himself. Even Repenhardt, who had been a great sorcerer, had to research for years to find out how to use that relic, so it was impossible for the sorcerers of the Tenes family to immediately understand its purpose. And before even figuring out how to use it, it was unlikely they would be foolish enough to hand over a Silver Age relic to someone else.

“Sillan, think about it. You have a relic from the Silver Age in your hand, and you don’t know how to use it. Then someone asks you to sell it. Can you sell it, not even knowing what it is, and when it might be of help to you? Especially when the Tenes family isn’t a poor house in urgent need of money. It might take years, you know?”

“That’s true.”

Sillan nodded. Despite appearances, Sillan was quite knowledgeable about the world. He had to admit that there was no peaceful way for Repenhardt to obtain that relic.

Sillan clicked his tongue.

“This is really twisted, isn’t it? Looks like there’s no way but to steal it?”

“That’s the situation now.”

“Hmm…”

Sillan scratched his cheek with a sullen face. As a cleric, he didn’t want to be involved in theft, but the situation was understandable, so he couldn’t keep opposing it. After all, it was about reclaiming what was theirs, so it couldn’t exactly be called theft. However, since the Tenes family hadn’t maliciously stolen Repenhardt’s belongings, it was also ambiguous to say it wasn’t theft…

After being troubled, Sillan suddenly looked determined at Repenhardt. He asked as if to drive the point home.

“So, the only thing Mr. Repen needs is that relic? You’re not touching anything else, right?”

“I don’t need anything else. You understand that I’m not doing this out of greed for money, don’t you?”

Repenhardt’s confident response made Sillan firm his resolve. Among the countless relics, just one didn’t seem like it would cause much trouble. Sillan sighed and then smirked bitterly before speaking.

“Alright. So, what’s the plan now?”