Chapter 516,
Chapter 142. Negotiations (2)
* * *
While Joshua fell, the ceremony honoring Jane the Black Knight took place solemnly.
The servants offered a long silent prayer outside the mausoleum with harmony in their hearts, and the guardian knights made their way to the mausoleum holding their swords upside down and holding them against their chests.
Rosa held up Jane’s black helmet like a portrait, and Murakan stood next to her.
The Dark Knight and the Horsemen, the elders, the family writers, and the guardian knights and nannies followed. All were dressed in black uniforms and mourning clothes.
The deepest part of the courtyard past the swords tightly packed in the pavilion. Even before the procession entered the mausoleum, there was a thick metal smell like the smell of blood.
The flag of the Black Sword fluttered slowly in the mausoleum’s cold wind. The sound spread through the stones inside and sounded like crying, but no one was actually crying.
Those who deserved to cry swallowed their tears, and those who did not suppress their emotions. Only the black helmet occasionally glowed in the dark.
This is a special space prepared for those who have protected their family to the end.
For the Dark Knights, the mausoleum could be said to be the final destination of their pilgrimage. As long as they don’t commit treason, they’re bound to be buried here.
The deeper the mausoleum, the darker it became.
And the matrix got smaller and smaller. At the entrance, the gatekeepers and butlers and other attendants stopped walking, and the elders stood tall in the middle.
Those remaining in the procession until the end were Rosa, the Black Knight, the riders, and Murakan. At the end, only the outlines of each other were visible.
Shake well…
Rosa put Jane’s helmet on the sarcophagus in the middle.
“Even if one day the Garden of Swords is crumbled down to every single stone and scattered by the wind, and the world will forget even the name Runcandel. This loyalty and glory will never leave this place.”
Murakan created a reiki and placed it in front of Jane’s black helmet.
“Thank you, Jane.”
The sarcophagus was closed and the procession left the mausoleum a long time later. When leaving, those who had been waiting at the front joined the procession in the reverse order of entering.
Eventually, as the procession came out of the mausoleum, the waiting knights raised flags throughout the Garden of Swords.
The ceremony of enshrining Jane’s soul in the mausoleum, which lasted from early dawn until noon, came to an end.
Originally, it took more than a week to enshrine the mausoleum, but Rosa and the riders carried out the ceremony in an informal manner, considering the various circumstances of the family.
The fact that there was no body of the deceased, the fact that there was a major battle not long ago, the fact that Joshua, the next head of the family, was imprisoned, etc.
In the Garden of Swords, an air current flowed that was more disturbing than ever before.
“It’s complicated…”
“That’s right.”
Daytona and Haytona. The two of them smoked cigarettes while standing on the eaves of an outdoor building to avoid the rain that suddenly began to fall.
Naturally, some riders were gathering there. It wasn’t to avoid the rain or because of Tona’s brother.
It was because I could see a woman kneeling in front of Joshua’s private house beyond the eaves.
She was Ilina Runkandel, whom the brothers knew as Joshua’s wife.
Although she was Joshua’s wife, she had no real power and her position in the family was ambiguous, so she could not participate in the ceremony in honor of Jane.
People thought that the reason she was kneeling outside her private house was not to honor Jane, but to make a silent appeal to please be considerate of her husband.
“I know how you feel, but I would have been better off staying inside.”
Ran shrugged and said. Buggo nodded.
“There must be a reason why my mother left me after seeing that. Leave it alone, I’ll stop if I know it’s no use and I might die.”
Deepus thought that the reason Rosa didn’t stop her was because, in the end, it would make even the slightest justification for Joshua’s reinstatement.
And the two people who knew her identity, Mu and Ann, had insensitive faces.
Jin was focusing more on Mew and Ann, not on Illina.
‘The atmosphere has changed strangely…’
If it’s Mu and Anne he knows.
Of course, he had to show his nervousness nervously. Because they wouldn’t have the certainty that Joshua would be reinstated like he and Difus.
‘Did your mother tell you that Joshua was going to be reinstated someday? No, there’s no way my mother needs help from my sisters.’
Now, it doesn’t seem like Mu and Ann have any hidden potential or determination, but it didn’t feel right for some reason.
‘Did I just make up my mind or is there something else.’
It felt like seeing someone else, not Mew and Ann.
“Lan Vigo, my brother. Let’s talk.”
“we?”
“yes.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Are you going to end like this? The lesser riders must also unite and take charge of a faction within the family. Otherwise, in the future, when someone takes the throne, there will be no choice but to be purged?”
Mew seemed to speak without hesitation even though Jin and Deepus were listening.
“Mu Ann. Who’s killing you? Regardless of which of the remaining top riders takes the throne, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“If the youngest ascends to the throne, I think we’ll drop our heads that day, Brother Difus.”
“Oh, if you keep being crooked with Mary, you can get hit and die. With your family at this point, are you still concerned only with personal survival? Do your thing in your place. When are you guys going to be human?”
At those words, Mew and Ann let out bitter laughs.
“…I guess being human is wrong now.”
“Lan Vigo, if you’re willing to talk, come to my room anytime.”
After Mew and Ann left, Petro found Jin.
“The young master, the acting head of household, is looking for it.”
Then Difus nodded as if he had come.
“Have a good trip, Jin.”
“Yes bro.”
The reason Jin and Deepus reacted this way was no different.
Part of the ship blueprint and machine obtained from the 2Magic Tower Vault.
Jin hadn’t handed them over to Rosa yet.
I moved along with Petro. Rosa was waiting for Jin at the central arena. The Dalian Grounds had not yet been fully restored after Jin’s declaration of family lords.
On the way, the rain stopped.
“Did you come?”
“Yes, acting governor.”
For a moment, the hats looked at each other in silence.
“Last night the Prophet sent me a message.”
Rosa brought it up first, not the blueprints and the machine.
‘message? Wasn’t Mother communicating directly with the Prophet?’
-Mother will never give up her prophetic powers. What brought Joshua down this time… maybe a warning to the Prophet. If the relationship between the mother and the Prophet isn’t as close as Joshua’s, it’s possible.
-So what you’re saying is that the mother intends to bind the Prophet and later put everything on him and restore Joshua’s rights?
A conversation I had with Difus a while ago.
As Jin guessed then, Rosa had no direct communication with the Prophet. It’s not that they never met in person, but they didn’t even know Illina’s identity.
It’s not because of Rosa’s lack of ability. It’s just that the power of the Prophet is that great.
“What was the message?”
“The content was that he had a way to create a fleet by perfectly interpreting and supplementing the unfinished blueprints.”
The item has not yet been handed over, but when Jin reports, he informs them that the blueprint is currently treated with cryptographic magic that cannot be deciphered with Runcandel’s technology.
It goes without saying that the blueprints for mass-produced warships, unlike general blueprints, cannot be deciphered or copied by anyone.
It was impossible to even guess what kind of ‘machine’ they had captured together.
“In addition, he said he knew what the machine was for. They say it’s something that can change the game of war in the future…”
“Acting Governor.”
“Speak.”
“Do you know what catalysts the power of the Prophet is realized?”
“A living human being.”
There was not the slightest hint of remorse or shame in Rosa’s voice.
“In this mission, the infiltration routes, tunnels, and the key to the 2nd Mage Tower and related information were all obtained by the Prophet using human materials. Riccarton’s prisoners were used.”
A human tower that Dox witnessed in Riccarton.
It was they that the Prophet used as material for Joshua’s Sota Desert mission.
“I sent a family black knight to Riccarton. However, he did not return even after the deadline, and when I visited the place myself, only human bones estimated at least 10,000 remained. Perhaps the bones of the innocent were also mixed in.”
Jin sent Dox there too, and I haven’t heard from him yet.
And when Dox was on the verge of death, it was Rosa’s Black Knight who helped him.
“Is the black knight still not back?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you send the Dark Knight to Riccarton when you already knew the Prophet was using humans? What were you trying to check? Did you rule out the possibility that the Prophet could harm the Dark Knight?”
“There is no reason for me to answer all your questions. I didn’t even call you here for that. If you don’t like my judgment and actions, you have to defeat me and prove it. You don’t sound like you. If it’s because I feel ugly, that’s only proof that you’re afraid of me.”
calmed the excitement.
As Rosa said, she was not in a position where she had to answer Jin’s questions.
“Originally I planned to use them through the Prophet.”
If Joshua had shown his awakening, Rosa would have handed over the blueprints and machine to the Prophet without hesitation.
Although he did not fully trust the Prophet, he was convinced that all his action principles were for ‘Joshua Runkandel’.
Anyone who had ever faced that absolute prophecy in person had no choice but to be so sure.
“However, I changed my mind this time by suspending Joshua as a jockey. Negotiations with the Prophet will be suspended. During that time, prove that you have a method superior to the Prophet.”
Hester.
and Hester’s record magic.
As Joshua predicted in the past, when the riders were given a permanent mission to find ‘Arya Owlheart’. Rosa already thought that Jean was making contact with Hester’s survivors.
Judgment that if it was record magic, there would be a way to use things in a better way than the prophet’s authority.
That was the reason Rosa called Jin.
“If I fail, the Acting Governor… will hand them over to the Prophet. That’s what you’re saying.”
“Yes.”
“Even if they fail, they won’t go to the Prophet. Acting Governor.”
“If you fail and do not hand over the goods to the family, they will be taken by force.”
“What the family pursues is not immorality. Affirming and using the power of the Prophet is an act far beyond the line. You sound like someone possessed by something. To some kind of curse.”
“You must have felt a lot about the enemies in Sota Desert, but you are saying that you are full. Listen up, Jean Runkandel. my youngest son.”
To me, the survival and prosperity of Runkandel is the most important value.
Nothing can precede its value.
“Even if humans die in the billions in the process of realizing it, in the end, the world will perish in that devastating struggle and fight, and even if only a few members of Runcandel remain in it. It has nothing to do with me.”
“Then what I have to do, as always, is to destroy my mother.”
“Don’t expect it.”
Jin turned around and left the arena.
Even after Jin left, Rosa stood alone in the arena for a long time.
