Chapter 127: Engagement Ceremony (4)
Upon their arrival at Langesthei, the party came to stay at the luxury accommodation they had previously stayed.
“Go and take some rest.”
As soon as he unpacked the luggage in his room, Count Chase left the place with Ga?l and Adelia.
It was to greet the important people in Langesthei, including Sir Barua, the knight commander of the Order of the Blue Lion that were in charge of the security in Langesthei.
“Don’t cause trouble, okay? Do you understand?”
“Okay, okay. We aren’t kids, okay?”
“Uh, you’re a child. You also have a record of running away several times.”
Cordelia pouted at Adelia’s perfect and sudden counterattack that were facts, so she couldn’t defend herself, but Jude’s situation with Ga?l was slightly different.
“Please give my regards to him.”
“Yes, I will.”
Jude and Cordelia were slightly acquainted with Sir Barua, the knight commander of the Order of the Blue Lion.
It would originally seem sensible if Jude went too and greeted him together.
But..
“Just stay quiet for a while.”
“Yes, brother.”
Jude and Cordelia were embarrassed to show their faces everywhere due to their midnight love escapade that caused a stir in the entire northern part of the S?len Kingdom.
So it was better to be quiet for a while like Ga?l had said.
“Don’t do anything weird just because the two of you are alone, okay? Do you understand?”
“I understand!”
Cordelia answered without hiding her slight annoyance, and Adelia smiled before she immediately approached Ga?l and held his arm.
“Let’s go then, Lord Ga?l.”
“Yes, Lady Adelia.”
Ga?l slightly laughed before he escorted Adelia, and Count Chase quietly watched them before he left with a very small smile.
And the two were now left alone.
“Ah, seriously. I get the chills when I see them looking at each other.”
“Why? They’re cute.”
“It’s not cute at all. It’s my sister and not anyone else, okay?”
Cordelia frowned, and Jude snickered before he extended his hand to her.
“What is it?”
“I mean, we have to go too. Now that the two of us are left, we have to settle the work that we’ve put off.”
“Work that we put off? I mean, when it’s just the two of us alone?”
“Yes, it’s because only the two of us are left. Let’s go quickly.”
Jude replied with a smile and grabbed Cordelia’s hand as if snatching it, and Cordelia blinked her eyes as her cheeks flushed.
historical
‘What is it? What, what, what is it?’
There’s something we have to do since the two of us are alone?
Cordelia was now 17 years old, and just like children her age, she was brimming with curiosity and imagination.
And that was why she had some unusual delusions in the short period of time when they headed from the lobby on the 1st floor to Jude’s room on the 3rd floor.
“We’re here.”
“W-wait. My heart isn’t ready yet..”
Cordelia reflexively spoke, but Jude was indifferent as he opened the door. She hesitated but entered the room when Jude pulled her by hand.
And around 30 seconds later..
“Tsk.”
“Cordelia?”
Cordelia frowned and pouted her lips when Jude asked her.
What is this, this unexplainable feeling of disappointment.
‘No, what I mean is..I had a feeling this would happen. It would have been awkward and difficult if it wasn’t.’
Various items were nicely arranged in a row on the bed in Jude’s room.
“Because settlement and organization are essential.”
Jude said with glistening eyes, and Cordelia sighed before nodding.
“Fine, let’s organize everything together.”
“Okay. First of all, I arranged the items we used a lot.”
Jude said with a bright face as if he was someone who originally liked to organize items like this, and he pointed to the object on the far left of the bed.
“First is Moonlight. I’ve removed the Snow Queen’s core, but Melissa is still there. It’s still enough for you to use as your primary weapon.”
“But we still need to upgrade it once, right?”
“It will be possible once we get to the royal capital. If we participate in Medb’s auction house, we’ll be able to get better items.”
Medb’s auction house was the largest auction house located in the royal capital of the S?len Kingdom.
It was a must to stop by at that place when one goes to the royal capital because there were various sub-quests available there.
“Next is the Heavenly Judgment?”
“Yes, I thought about giving it to Lena..but we also need a trump card.”
Cordelia had just become a ninth rank angel, so she could not draw out the full power of the Heavenly Judgment.
But it was too precious to hand it over to Lena.
“You just need to raise your rank. My princess, work hard, okay?”
“Yes, Daddy. Just give me lots of pocket money.”
Cordelia replied before looking at the Eastern Warrior’s Sword that was lying next to the Heavenly Judgment.
“Jude, will you go the swordsmanship route?”
“I’ll think about it when we return home.”
Jude was thinking of changing his job from bare-handed fighter to knight, but he changed his mind again after opening the fourth door of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.
The power of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors could be placed in everything under the heavens and earth, but the most natural way to unleash its power was the fist and leg techniques with a pure body as its foundation.
“But I have no intention of giving up this sword. I can use it for its killer technique.”
“Well, that’s true.”
After all, the lethal skill of the Eastern Warrior’s Sword, Hell’s Blood Slash, felt like shooting a pistol.
‘Because there are many swords with built-in lethal moves.’
He had enough reasons to carry the sword even if he didn’t use it as his main weapon.
Cordelia herself didn’t use a sword, but she still carried the Heavenly Judgment.
“Then your main weapon is the gauntlet?”
“It will be for the time being.”
The gauntlet he obtained from Frost Anvil was remodeled by the blacksmiths in the wild lands.
It also contained the power of the wild gods, so it could be used as his main weapon for a while.
‘I think I’ll change this once I go to the royal capital.’
He felt a little sorry for the wild gods, but he couldn’t help it.
One of the pleasures of playing RPG was to change to the highest level equipment every time one went to a new town.
“We can use the divine items of the wild gods for a long time in the future, right?”
“Because they’re highly useful tools.”
Blade Song’s divine items – the Cozy 1-pyeong and the Black Wolf Skin.
Great Storm’s divine item – the Wind’s Wing Arrow.
As Jude had said, these items were highly useful and would be helpful even if they became stronger than they were now.
“Next is..”
Cordelia smiled and turned her gaze to the side before her eyes suddenly narrowed. Jude coughed and feigned ignorance.
“Hey, Mister Jude.”
“Yes, Miss Cordelia.”
“What is this?”
“It’s useful equipment.”
Cordelia’s eyes grew even narrower, and Jude’s coughing increased a bit.
The rabbit set and cat set were boldly placed among the items that they needed to take in the future.
There were no problems in wearing it in the wild lands since many people wore similar equipment there but wearing it in the S?len Kingdom was actually courageous in itself.
“Are you telling me to wear this?”
“No, but wouldn’t it be useful someday if you had it?”
Jude took a peek at Cordelia’s face, and Cordelia quietly stared at Jude with almost closed eyes now.
A few seconds passed like that.
“Ahem, ahem, let’s move on to the next.”
Jude coughed again and pointed to the items placed next to the rabbit and cat sets.
“Magellan’s ancient artifacts that we got from the wild fairies are for enhancing the power of attributes, so it would be better to carry everything with you even if it’s a little uncomfortable.”
“Ahem.”
Cordelia’s gaze was still on the rabbit set, and Jude hastily pointed to the things next to him.
“The next are the items your father gave to me. Most of them are for me to consume, but.. Cordelia, there are items that may help you, so I arranged them here first.”
Numerous drugs filled half of the spacious bed.
Most of them were items to increase Jude’s physical strength, but Cordelia didn’t highly desire any of it.
But only one, there was only one that bothered her.
“Eh? Why isn’t that here?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, you know, what my dad gave to you last time. What he gave you to eat later.”
Cordelia spoke while her hands moved and drew the shape of a box, and Jude unconsciously flinched and cleared his throat as he said.
“Ahem, ahem, I’ll eat it later as your father had said..”
“What was that?”
“Ahem, ahem, it’s that kind of drug. Kids don’t need to know about it.”
“Hey, aren’t you a kid too? You and I are of the same age.”
“I can’t because you can’t even guess it at this point. I’ll tell you later.”
Having said so far, Jude tightly shut his mouth, and Cordelia puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction, but didn’t pry any further.
She knew well that once he shut his mouth in that way, he wouldn’t open it no matter what.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.. Anyway, are these all the items?”
“Yes, there are some trivial stuff but..they’re not something that we’ll continue to use in the future. These are all we need to take when we go to the royal capital.”
“Hmm..Then we should prepare some defensive armor first. Even if it’s not armor.”
“It can’t be helped. Light armor suits you and me rather than heavy armor, so we should try to get it once we arrive there.”
Since Count Chase joined them, Jude and Cordelia were wearing clothes that were appropriate for a noble young master and lady.
It looked good but was uncomfortable, and the clothes didn’t even have any defensive features.
“Okay, let’s move on to checking our abilities. Do you remember our levels?”
“Of course. I’m 71. You’re 70.”
Cordelia grinned and even flashed a V-sign with her fingers, and Jude clicked his tongue as he said.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, yes, you’re~ notgood.”
After all, she beat Jude or Outboxer009.
“Yes, I’m so good. I’ll reverse it soon.”
(T/N: These two love their puns. ‘Like’ and ‘good’ are the same word in Korean. On the other hand, mu (?) can mean ‘not’ and ‘so,’ thus, ‘not good’ can also be read as ‘so good.’)
“What are you talking about? Your level is lower than mine. Can’t you hear my words well because you’re a low level loser?”
Cordelia trembled her shoulders in excitement, and Jude clenched his teeth.
He remembered the day when he first met Yellow Storm.
“Moving on.”
“Yes, moving on.”
Cordelia agreed to change the topic as if she was being merciful, and Jude sighed before speaking.
“If we add up all the titles we’ve obtained so far, our stats almost reached around level 80. And because I have Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors while you can become a witch and an angel, you could say that we’re actually in the mid-80s or higher.”
“If you considered Cordelia’s route, her average level at the beginning of the royal capital event was usually in the early to middle 40s.. My level is so high now, right?”
“You’re right. Moreover, it’s even more amazing that we’ve reached this far before the event started.”
There was originally a time difference of half a year between the beginning of the Cordelia route and the Jude route.
Since both Jude and Cordelia were rotten water, they didn’t find it necessary to talk about it with each other, but the events of the game were perfectly arranged in chronological order inside their minds.
‘The time when we recovered the memories of our previous lives was almost the same time as the starting point of the Cordelia route, so if I use that as a standard..’
The starting point of the Cordelia route was zero.
The northern barbarians’ invasion began about half a year from zero.
The 300th anniversary ball, which could be considered as the beginning of the royal capital event, was also held about half a year from zero.
But no matter how the player proceeded in the routes, the 300th anniversary ball was slightly ahead of the northern barbarians’ invasion.
‘And now, we are currently about three months from zero.’
In other words, there were still three months left until the 300th anniversary ball.
“Should we go straight to the royal capital?”
At Cordelia’s question, Jude shook his head.
“No, it would be nice if we went ahead and prepared..but it’s too early. We have no justification for going to the royal capital at this moment. And even if we hastened our traveling schedule, arriving a month before the founding ball in the royal capital will be enough time for us.”
“So we won’t do anything for two months?”
When Cordelia asked in surprise, Jude shook his head again.
“No, that’s not right. Because time is gold. So after we do our own training for one month and prepare this and that, we’ll go to the royal capital.”
“After a month of training and another month for our travel to the royal capital, we’ll begin the quest, is that right?”
“That’s right.”
Both Jude and Cordelia had rapidly become stronger in the wild lands, so they needed time to completely get used to their newly acquired powers.
In the game, one just leveled up and they were done with mastering their powers, but this place was reality.
“What are you preparing for apart from training? What are you planning to do?”
At Cordelia’s question, Jude had a wicked expression and a creepy smile as if he was waiting for her to ask that question.
“Hahaha..should I say that it’s the secret to stealing the hearts of the people in the royal capital?”
“Don’t laugh like that because it’s disgusting. You’re like a scammer.”
“Yes, Madam.”
Jude quickly corrected his expression, and Cordelia asked as she sat down on the bed.
“Steal their hearts? What are you talking about?”
“Even if we’re children of the 12 northern families, we’ll still be treated like little kids from the countryside when we go to the royal capital. And as you know, we can’t proceed with the royal capital event by just beating and forcing our way through.”
“But isn’t that possible now? Our levels are high.”
“No, that’s not it. You should know that force alone cannot solve the event. In the first place, there are enemies there who are much stronger than us now.”
“Hmm..”
It was not a place like a snowfield where the uninhabited land was many times larger than the habitable land, just like in the wild lands.
The royal capital.
The capital of the S?len Kingdom, one of the continent’s strongest powers.
It was swarming with strong people, and there were those who possessed great power apart from pure strength.
“It’s not just about force alone. We need to play politics to some extent.”
One of the enemies was Duke Antarius, the Lord Protector and one of the ten great swordmasters.
So there was a limit to breaking through with just force.
‘Of course, we’ll be using force in the end.’
The main enemies of the royal road event were the Devil’s Hand and the corrupted high-ranking nobles.
In order to deal with them – no, in order to lead the political landscape of the royal capital, it was necessary for them to be greatly influential just as how they were powerful.
“Umm..okay. So what are you preparing for in the end?”
“I’ll try it first and tell you if it goes well. I’ll be needing your help anyway.”
“Ah, really. Don’t make me curious and just tell me.”
“Later.”
Jude tightly shut his mouth again, and Cordelia stamped her feet in annoyance as she knew that he wouldn’t tell it to her again.
“Okay, is everything over then?”
“Almost. There’s one last thing left.”
The last one.
Cordelia’s eyes sparkled from curiosity.
“Jude, are you in there?”
Jude and Cordelia were startled and turned to the balcony where they heard the voice. Because it was Count Chase’s voice.
“Father?”
“Dad?”
Jude and Cordelia hurried to the balcony and opened the door, and Count Chase stood there with his red cloak and stern face as he slightly frowned.
“Were you two together?”
“Yes, we were organizing our luggage together. The ones that we brought from the wild lands.”
Cordelia replied, and Count Chase glanced over the bed behind the two before he relaxed his expression and said.
“I see. Anyway, Jude, this is something new but is quite small. Take it.”
“Ah, yes.”
Jude quickly extended his hands and accepted the leather pouch.
“It’s not much, but it will help. And..keep this a secret from Adelia, okay?”
At his slightly lowered voice than usual, Jude and Cordelia blinked once but soon understood it.
Because they figured out why a person who went out to greet people suddenly came back and why he appeared through the balcony rather than the door.
“Hehehe, my dad is the best.”
Cordelia hugged his arm as she widely smiled, and Count Chase smiled for a very short time before he cleared his throat and spoke again.
“I will go now.”
“Yes, please take care.”
“See you later, Dad.”
When Jude bowed his head and Cordelia waved her hand, Count Chase glanced at the greetings of the two before he flew back into the air and left the balcony.
“He’s a very nice person.”
“Hmph, it’s to be expected as brother-in-law Ga?l is already big. It’s proper to take care of my Jude first.”
Cordelia smiled at her unexpected victory before she turned to Jude again.
“So what is it?”
“Growing drug. It’s a medicine that makes you grow 1 cm when eaten.”
“Oh, that! Wasn’t it the best item that was ranked 3rd in reality?”
“That’s right.”
Jude cheerfully smiled and kept the pouch before he returned inside the room with Cordelia.
“Well, it’s good. Now, if we sneak out at night to go meet the Fall Fairies in order to get the Fall Protection..”
“I feel like I’ve gotten so used to getting away at night.”
“It’s not an escape at night this time but just a short night walk.”
“You have a way with words. Anyway, what’s the last?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, you said that there’s one last left.”
“Oh, that.”
Jude suddenly grinned as if it was on purpose, and he took Cordelia’s hand and whispered to her.
“Close your eyes for a minute.”
“My eyes? Why?”
“Close it first. Don’t you trust me?”
What is he planning?
Cordelia was suspicious but she closed her eyes and Jude led her to a small room that was attached to his large room.
“You can open your eyes now.”
He said it was the last one, so was it a surprise present?
Cordelia’s heart slightly palpitated as she gently opened her eyes, but she soon frowned.
“What is this?”
There were only a few bundles of black cords that were rolled up like a thread on the table.
It was an item she had never seen before in Legend of Heroes 2.
But her reaction was to be expected.
It was an object that didn’t originally exist in Legend of Heroes 2 or in the world of Pleiades.
“Detonating cord.”
Jude said, and Cordelia blinked her eyes.
“Detonating cord?”
“Detonating cord.”
But Cordelia still blinked her eyes. Because it was the first time she had heard of that name.
“What is that?”
She didn’t exactly know what it was, but the name somehow made her heart pound.
So Jude gave Cordelia a short but full explanation.
“It’s a cord that explodes.”
Detonating cord.
As its name implied, it was an explosive that was shaped into the form of a tape or cord.
It was something that he made little by little in the remaining time after their battle on Snow Breeze Plain.
‘It’s still a prototype.’
He was thinking of making something more proper when he returned home.
‘It will have plenty of uses if Cordelia uses her telekinetic power to cause an explosion anytime and anywhere.’
Since she always boasted that she was good at anything she did with her body, it would be possible for her to use the detonating cord as if it was her hands and feet.
‘Will she like it?’
Jude looked at Cordelia, and Cordelia gazed at the detonating cord with a blank expression. But her blue eyes were soon filled with ecstasy.
“Detonating cord.”
Cordelia trembled and soon turned to Jude. She jumped up and hugged Jude.
“I love it! My Jude is the best!”
Jude was slightly anxious at the ecstasy that spread over Cordelia’s eyes, but he eventually smiled. He strengthened his hug and enjoyed Cordelia’s embrace for some time.
The meeting between the detonating cord and Cordelia.
It was the moment when the “Explosion Witch” was born, one that would shake the entire S?len Kingdom in the future.
The detonating cord here seemed to be something that explodes in itself, and not the real life detonation cord/fuse that is a medium for an explosive.