107. Arshama’s Tongue

In a situation where he could have been lumped together with Count Alexei and nearly killed, Arshama managed to fend for himself with his characteristically brazen personality.

He explained that his disappearance in the avalanche was because he had followed me as a guide to save me, and that afterward he had barely escaped the avalanche but got caught up in various incidents.

Moreover, Arshama even ordered people who were half-doubting his words to search the basement under the temple quickly, saying ‘what Lady Anette wants is there.’

“Ha, even while dazed from being shot, I didn’t forget to verify the crime scene with this spirit!”

Arshama groaned, “Ugh,” showing his shoulder where he had been shot.

“Why the basement?”

“The stones used to build that basement were special. Well, considering what happened there, ordinary bricks couldn’t have handled it.”

“So you brought all of it back?”

“Yes. The basement itself wasn’t a heritage of the mountain tribe. Even if it was, what’s the problem if I, a descendant of the mountain tribe, say it’s okay?”

“Did you really bring all of it? Those stones?”

“That’s what I’m saying. How many soldiers do we have? The stones were heavy, but it wasn’t impossible to move them one by one.”

I knew things would somehow work out even if I was out of my mind because the knight commander Sir Lucion and Count Spinel, who could be considered the North’s second-in-command, were reliable people, but I never expected this to happen.

“Still, I asked you, didn’t I? After searching the temple, this is what we found, what should we do with it? Then you said that Boyer needed it and told us to take it to him.”

“I said that?”

“‘I said that?’ What, you don’t remember? I heard you’ve been living half-dazed recently, I guess it’s true.”

Oh…… my subconscious.

Quite capable, isn’t it? Since it’s so capable, I wish it would handle today’s work too.

I’d close my eyes and open them to find the sun setting and all the work finished. Since I have a conscience, I’ll finish making the pudding in my right mind, but let my subconscious handle the paperwork.

Clicking my tongue, I explained to Arshama why I had told him to bring the stones from the basement even in such an urgent situation.

“To think that the material for an altar made for the Demon King’s revival would become the foundation stone of a mithril forge. What a world.”

“Huh?”

“We have a blacksmith in our territory named Boyer who tried to refine mithril but kept failing. After research, he discovered that ordinary furnaces couldn’t refine mithril, so he asked me for help. He wanted to start new work with special stones from the North.”

“Mithril, you mean the one that’s most effective in suppressing demonic beings?”

“Yes.”

“That’s certainly an interesting story.”

The affable Arshama gained the favor of the Northern Knight Order during my absence with his unique sociability that allowed him to blend well with people in any situation.

The favor had grown so thick that when he returned to the castle and went back to the foreigner’s tent on his own, no one said anything.

“Now that the curse is lifted, I’ll take the foreigners to Hershma. Since I’m at least half a royal of Hershma, I think it would be better for them to settle there. There are also things I want to find out about my bloodline.”

“Do as you please. When did foreigners ever need anyone’s permission to come and go?”

“From now on, they need permission. As the curse was lifted, our abilities disappeared too.”

“Huh?”

“As the curse flowing in our bloodline was lifted, the mysterious abilities disappeared with it. This means that the foreigners, or rather the mountain tribe, now need to obtain entry permits to cross the border.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Now we’re just humans. Not suspicious, no special magical abilities. Not particularly good at hiding in the dark, just nomads.”

“It means you’ve become ordinary people now.”

I casually offered a handshake.

“Congratulations on the curse being lifted.”

Having completed what needed to be done, Arshama will soon leave for his country. The foreigners who came every year as uncomfortable concerns will no longer come here unless something unusual happens.

Even if they do come, they would probably visit the Inkheart grand ducal family as ordinary citizens of Hershma.

* * *

Arshama looked at the group of foreigners packing their belongings. When he told them they would no longer have to wander for life hated by others, their faces showed vague expectations along with anxiety.

Even if Arshama said that the foreigners’ curse was lifted because he went back to the past and resolved the incident at the ancient temple, it wasn’t something they could feel real.

So Arshama proposed, in his name as the prince of Hershma, to provide a place in his homeland for the foreigners, or rather the ‘mountain tribe’ who had reclaimed their name, to live.

“So from now on, there’s no need for fraud and lies.”

Of course, whether the mountain tribe, who had never worked diligently, could blend into the daily lives of ordinary people was another matter.

The old woman was just silently watching the mountain tribe pack their belongings. She was the elder of the mountain tribe.

“Inkheart is a thief who stole our land.”

“That’s not true. I’ve told you many times, elder, that I saw it myself.”

“I haven’t heard such a thing. That story is important for you who will live in the new era, so let someone like me say these things.”

The foreigners had lived for 1,000 years believing that Inkheart was the enemy who destroyed the mountain tribe.

Even if Arshama explained that the truth was different, it was just an unsatisfying story to an old woman who had believed it all her life.

Finally giving up on persuading the elder, Arshama sighed and brought up another topic.

“By the way, the Grand Duchess told me about how the foreigners had given her a fortune-telling. Apparently, she said something quite remarkable.”

To be precise, Anette had talked about the unpleasantness she experienced when she had her fortune told in the foreigners’ tent.

Anyway, that story was interesting to Arshama, who had the blood of foreigners flowing in him.

“What did you see?”

“This old woman lost even the few talents she had because you lifted the curse. And now you’re asking me about that?”

“It’s not like you had such great abilities even back then.”

She was more of a fraud who enticed people with plausible words to give offerings rather than someone who really saw something. Arshama knew that this old woman also had the scammer quality that the foreigners possessed.

To be precise, she had the most of it. That’s why she was the elder.

“The foreigners always lived in the past from 1,000 years ago. We were only obsessed with reclaiming the land we lost and taking revenge on the enemy who took away our home.”

“You think I don’t know you’re changing the subject with a plausible excuse?”

“We always only looked at the past. Even when we had abilities, we were only excellent at seeing the past, not the future that was to come.”

In other words, it was useless to ask her.

“I don’t know what will happen in the future either. Old folks only make predictions based on the experiences they’ve lived through. You young ones will have to face the real future yourselves to know.”

Arshama didn’t believe the old woman’s words.

“The day you gave her the fortune-telling, the Grand Duchess said she heard the voice of someone she saw in a dream. It happened a few more times after that.”

When Arshama first heard this story, he recalled that among the few medicines his mother made in the palace of Hershma when he was young, there was one that made such things possible.

A strange and mysterious medicine that broke down the walls of the unconscious, inviting others into dreams.

“Who did Anette meet?”

“Who knows. But what’s important is that she met the person she needed to meet. Their meeting is the natural order and cause and effect.”

The old elder’s eyes flashed for a moment.

The elder also clearly remembered. Beyond the blue eyes of the Grand Duchess called Anette, the unbelievable world she had shown…… The final pride flashed in the eyes of the old shaman who had practiced deceit and fraud.

“I thought heaven had taken away all spiritual abilities along with the mountain tribe’s curse, but it seems some still remain in you. That bothers you.”

“What did you do?”

“I swear I made no intervention in the natural order of heaven.”

“You also know that the Grand Duchess’s dream wasn’t just a simple nightmare.”

“Oh.”

The old elder grinned. The old woman was clearly enjoying herself.

“I’ve lost the ability to read the heavenly secrets, so I can’t reveal that. Well, if you don’t mind me dying, I could teach you everything, regardless of what should or shouldn’t be said?”

Arshama gave up on extracting more answers from the elder.

“You’re one step ahead. I’ve lost.”

The old elder muttered.

“In the end, the truth will be revealed. Whether Inkheart is benevolent as you say, or not.”

* * *

The northern mountains had not accepted people for a long time. The curse that was placed when the mountain tribe was destroyed had been lifted, but it would take more time for people to realize this fact.

‘Still, no one knows what’s at the top of the mountain.’

Even Inkheart, which had been preparing for the Demon King’s revival since as far back as 1,000 years ago, didn’t know they had demonic beings right above their heads, which said it all.

Even the mountain tribe, who considered the northern mountains sacred land and lived on them, only lived halfway up the mountain.

Don’t look at the mountaintop. Demons live on top of the mountain.

The mountain tribe used to say this instinctively, without knowing what was crouching at the mountaintop.

Was it the intuition of a prophesied people who had to protect this land until the day the prince would come?

After the mountain tribe was driven out, this land was cursed with blizzards and the appearance of demonic beasts, becoming increasingly suitable for demonic beings to live in.

Thus, the demonic beings had been watching Inkheart from a position where they could see everything.

Occasionally, they would make appropriate moves to complicate their lives.

“Um, is it true that if I offer blood, I will be given power?”

A mage wearing a robe asked the demonic being guarding the mountaintop with an anxious face.