Linia, reading that the tide had turned in our favor, shrewdly shouted out.
“All of you! If you do not wish to incur the wrath of Sir Ebel Stroke, one of the Continent’s Twelve Heroes, then lower your weapons at once!”
“Uh…”
Overwhelmed by her strangely confident demeanor, the Caracol clan members broke out in cold sweat and subtly stepped back.
“…Miss.”
“O…!”
Rexar helped Chloeria up amid the chaotic atmosphere.
Chloeria’s face flushed red and blue in turns, but she could only twitch her lips, unable to form proper words.
To think she had spouted such outrageous nonsense—telling the daughter of a great lord, no less than a duke, to work in a pleasure district. If the Croa Kingdom had not been far from the Baskaya Knight Empire, this could have sparked a major conflict. It was only natural she was speechless.
Sizzle!
Currents flickered across Chloeria’s swollen red cheek. The heavy coin purse had been infused with her unique spell <Infinity Shock>, but given the considerable gap in their magic stats, it seemed she had taken no serious damage.
Flash!
After shaking off the lightning with a burst of mana and slowly steadying her breath, Chloeria spoke.
“…Judging by that Seal of Struggle, it is true that you are the rumored Aiden Stroke of the Grand Ducal house. But it seems you have forgotten one thing?”
“What is it?”
“The fact that our clan also has a member of the Continent’s Twelve Heroes, just like your great-uncle. If this matter reaches my father’s ears, he will not let it slide easily.”
I recalled Citrio Altus.
From his actions in the original story, he came across as a highly cautious and politically minded figure.
He was not the type of belligerent man who would pick a fight with the bearer of the Seal of Struggle—and the future heir of the principality—merely because his daughter suffered a little humiliation.
In short, Chloeria was simply bluffing.
I smirked and replied.
“Then go ahead and tell him. If Duke Altus himself comes, I will gladly face him—not you, ma’am.”
“…Ugh!”
Chloeria trembled with rage, glaring at me as if she wanted to kill me, and spat out.
“You will surely regret this day someday. We are leaving!”
“Yes, Miss!”
The Caracol members quickly followed behind Chloeria and briskly left the clan house.
Once the situation had settled, I turned around to find the Lindal father and daughter staring at me with wide eyes.
“So you were the famed bearer of the Seal of Struggle? Quite the remarkable newcomer.”
“Is there really a need for the close friend of the Thousand-Man Slayer—someone far greater than the Twelve Heroes—to be surprised by something like this?”
“Now that you mention it, I suppose that’s true.”
Arent let out a hearty laugh at my flattery.
But it was short-lived; he soon shook his head.
“…To think you had to witness such an unsightly scene on your very first day.”
“I already knew the situation here was dire before coming, so you need not worry about it. More importantly, I threw 110 platinum coins at those Caracol members—how much debt remains?”
“That just covered the entire principal, but around 30 platinum coins in interest are still left.”
There was more debt than I had expected.
Truth be told, I had gotten carried away by Chloeria’s provocation and thrown the purse dramatically, but the financial hit was bigger than anticipated.
Between the money from selling artifacts in the black market, what I had squeezed from the principality’s nobles, and the small earnings I made during travels using original knowledge—it all added up to 115 platinum coins.
After throwing 110, only 5 platinum coins remained in my possession. Of course, I would soon acquire a large sum, so it was not a major issue.
Arent whispered quietly.
“You said you joined this clan purely out of respect for Resha, but it seems you have some other goal in mind.”
“Are you suspecting that I am a spy sent by another faction?”
“Just joking. I cannot imagine anyone using the bearer of the Seal of Struggle—a figure of such caliber—as a spy. Even if that were possible, there would be no reason to send him to a crumbling clan like this. Personally, I suspect you saw some potential in this clan through prophetic dreams.”
As expected of a seasoned warrior—his intuition was sharp, and his guess was quite close to the truth.
“That guess is somewhat correct.”
“…Interesting. Caracol is on the verge of effectively controlling this free neutral city of Elanore. Our clan is like a candle flickering in the wind. Have you thought of a way to overcome this situation?”
“I have my own ideas.”
“I see.”
Arent nodded and tossed something to me.
Whoosh! I caught it and saw it was a clan badge adorned with golden decorations. Such ornaments symbolized an executive position in the clan.
“From today onward, you shall serve as the sub-master of the Blispiel Clan.”
His decision was surprisingly swift.
Well, when I think about it, I essentially paid off the debt of a clan on the brink of ruin with a huge sum, so earning this level of trust makes sense.
“Your stories about Resha were perfectly consistent too. I will trust you this once.”
I had already shared most of the information about Regenshauer while persuading Arent. As long as the clan did not fall and he knew his close friend’s whereabouts, he would not leave Elanore.
I had essentially saved a man’s life.
And now, it was time to move busily.
Though the urgent debts were mostly cleared, Caracol’s goal was to bring most of Elanore’s clans under their control and effectively dominate the city.
They would surely apply pressure again when the time came.
I was pondering efficient ways to prepare for that when, at some point, Amiel began staring at me with sparkling eyes.
“Sir Aiden. Is that sword the beloved weapon of the Thousand-Man Slayer?”
“Uh…”
Come to think of it, this kid was a huge Regenshauer fanboy. His gaze felt burdensome, so I handed Ure over to him. The boy examined it curiously from every angle and muttered.
“This isn’t a dream, right? To think I joined the clan where the Thousand-Man Slayer was active!”
After thoroughly inspecting Ure and returning it to me, he approached Arent and said.
“Master Lindal! Please tell me stories about the Thousand-Man Slayer!”
“What an impudent little rascal! Fine—since we had a small celebration today, reminiscing about the past would not be bad.”
Joining the Blispiel Clan seemed to have a positive effect on the boy, at least.
‘Thousand-Man Slayer’ Regenshauer Krantz.
‘Sword Saint’ Edval Heimfjord.
The two swordsmen of the century, who had fought to a draw, reunite after nearly 30 years and exchange the blades they had tempered for so long.
That was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event decorating the climax of Reca Chronicles Part 2… or so I thought back then.
The foreshadowing had been laid out enthusiastically from the early stages, but unfortunately, this matchup never happened in the novel.
To be precise, it ended as a mere teaser.
The two did reunite in the middle of Part 2, lightly exchanged a single blow, had some conversation, and then parted. They hinted at an upcoming duel, raising readers’ expectations.
Of course, this trash novel did not kindly meet those expectations.
Both ended up fighting random opponents out of nowhere and retiring abruptly, never facing their true rival. Readers who had waited through all of Part 2 just for this duel were left utterly dumbfounded.
-keepcro: Is the author sane? Where the hell did Regenshauer vs Edval go???
-trueblue: I overlooked the many unrecovered foreshadows before because they weren’t important, but this is too much.
-rornflvpvp: Dropping this.
For reference, that reader ‘rornflvpvp’ stuck around until the finale.
Such reactions were only natural, since the story had laid very important foreshadowing related to the duel between the two swordsmen.
In the original, both the Sword Saint and the Thousand-Man Slayer were described as having created ultimate finishing moves containing the essence of the swordsmanship they had mastered to defeat each other, and it was hinted multiple times that they would use them in a rematch.
Yet neither technique was ever revealed.
So this too became a MacGuffin.
This absurd development provided the decisive trigger for the downfall of Reca Chronicles, which had boasted a solid—if niche—readership.
During free serialization, the latest chapter views were 1,400.
On the first day of paid conversion, views plummeted to a whopping 800.
Around 600 readers followed until near the 500th chapter, the end of Part 2.
If you know about long-running series on ‘Moonstopia’, you will realize this was an incredibly tenacious retention rate.
However, after the Regenshauer-Edval duel fell through and Part 3 progressed to around the midway point of the 700th chapter, only double-digit readers remained.
This was only natural.
It was more mysterious how it had retained so many readers until chapter 500.
As chapters piled up, the already mediocre writing and foreshadowing recovery grew increasingly sloppy, and drop-offs increased proportionally.
From around chapter 800, only 30 readers—including me—remained, self-mockingly called the ’30-Man Suicide Squad’. These top-tier suckers followed it to the very end.
The story got long, but the core is the duel between Edval and Regenshauer. If I could witness the fight that ended unresolved in the original, I would recover one MacGuffin—albeit one with very low odds.
Hearing this, Arent wore a dazed expression.
“Strange. In the prophetic dream you saw, the two never dueled again?”
“It was a hazy dream, so I am not certain, but it seemed there were unavoidable circumstances.”
“Hmm…”
Arent let out a low groan.
From the start, his close friend Regenshauer had left the clan precisely to face Edval in a rematch.
For him, a duel that never happened would be undesirable.
Our interests roughly aligned.
“For now, one of my personal goals is to witness their duel.”
“Understood. I will cooperate.”
After finishing my meeting with Arent, I left the empty office. In the lobby were Jaela at reception, the three companions I had brought… and, in addition, the bewildered elite knights.
Long-term, my goal was to turn this fallen Blispiel into a great clan capable of interfering in the internal affairs of neighboring countries. After all, without continental influence, I could not properly respond to the enemies of Part 4, let alone Part 3.
Chesa approached me.
“Aiden.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for earlier.”
For slapping that bitch with platinum coins?
It was only the natural thing to do.
But Chesa shook her head.
“Her father is one of the Twelve Heroes, you know. That earlier incident will surely become a big obstacle in the future.”
“No need to worry. The Caracol clan master is not that idle.”
Despite my words, Chesa still looked gloomy.
She had lived only receiving cold treatment in the Utland mansion or the magic tower.
Because of this, she seemed to have become quite passive. But in the original timeline, even though taciturn, she overflowed with confidence. She had become a truly remarkable mage, easily shaking off her teenage complexes.
I should soon create opportunities for her to realize just how extraordinary her talent is.
While drawing up blueprints in my mind, I asked Jaela.
“Miss Jaela. It is probably unnecessary to ask… but how is the clan’s financial state right now?”
“There are about two platinum coins left in the vault. Including debts, we are in the red. But with the sub-master and several new members joining, if we steadily take on requests from now on…”
“No. If we continue operating haphazardly like this, we will stay stuck forever.”
“I-Is that so…”
From what Arent told me, Jaela had only recently joined the clan. She did not know how a massive clan like Blispiel operated in its prime.
I had planned to head out to recruit the original protagonist once I settled in the clan, but it seemed I needed to lay some groundwork first.
“For now, setting everything else aside, we need to find someone to handle accounting.”
There were many reasons I chose to base myself in Elanore, one being that it was in the central continent and thus had a rich talent pool.
And nearby was a suitable talent for financial management.
Someone who, if born in a place like modern Wall Street, would have lived lavishly at a securities firm.
But around this time, no one recognized his value, and he was going through considerable personal difficulties—so if I solved his problems, I could easily bring him into the clan.
I immediately left the Blispiel clan house.