Grand Duke of the Heibern House

＜Episode 6＞

Calm your mind with deep breathing.

Deeply consciously share the collected information systematically.

Remove negative variables by checking the number of differentiated cases one by one.

I do not forget the directions that I have judged to be useless by deteriorating, and I look back once again.

They are tormented with countless verifications until they finally understand the conclusions they have drawn.

Ruin’s minding technique acquired habitually in the life of a great mage.

This unusual process, which seemed to run a complex magic circuit, allowed no logical flaws.

The reason why high-ranking magicians are called wise men.

It is because their wisdom, their amazing wisdom and discernment are more valuable than powerful magic.

Famous kings were frantic to welcome wise men as advisors.

Unless Kazen was an idiot, there was no way he couldn’t have sensed such a sage from Ruin.

“End of the monthly meeting. Everyone go back and await orders.”

As the vassals sternly bowed and exited the conference room, Kazen took off his lion crown and placed it on the round table.

Ruin silently waits for his father’s reaction.

“It’s plausible, but simplistic. To ask the king for a favor is to be in debt. Do you mean Kazen, the flag bearer of this kingdom, should be in debt to the royal family for just one insignificant mine?”

Self-confidence that is firmly displayed.

It wasn’t just arrogance.

The only duke of the Lemadel Kingdom.

The pride of a rider who held half of the military power and had lasted for more than a thousand years was overlaid like an ironclad on his honor.

Louin smiled faintly.

“Where is the status of the old Duchy of Bern, the vast river area that reached the end of the Great Plain of Loures, the huge army that reached 30,000, the population of 2.6 million, the perfect autonomy without paying taxes?”

Kazen’s pupils blazed with unbridled anger.

“What do you want to say?”

Ruin moved his eyes toward the window and opened his mouth.

“If you want to be content with this narrow fief, live like you do now with the pride of a rider. Since he is a grand duke in name only, don’t pay attention to the whispers of nobles who say that he’s gone.”

“Don’t cross the line. Ruin.”

No matter how much he had endured, a speculation was rising from Kazen’s whole body like a haze.

Eyes burning intensely.

He was the father he wanted to see so much, but when he looked at those terrifying eyes, Ruin felt as if he would suffocate.

Unlike the past, it was quite a stir because he had the lofty ego of a great mage.

Indeed, the head of the great Hibern family.

It is a prayer worthy of the standard bearer of the kingdom.

However, Louin wanted to test his father.

If the pride of a rider was all that his father’s sword harbored, there was no need to remind him of his past glory.

“You mean you can be reborn as a true grand duke just by taking over a mine?”

“It is neither knights nor war horses that change the face of war.”

“then?”

“Wheat and Iron. It will be a small start, but it will become a foundation that cannot be ignored.”

The power to change the battlefield is neither a powerful knight nor a war horse, but wheat and iron… … .

Ruin’s words resonated with Kazen.

However, it is not an unmanned, but a strategist’s point of view.

He had to believe that if he was the Grand Duke of Kisuga, he could dominate the battlefield with strong inaction and spirit.

“There are many other benefits that can be obtained from the Paneom mine. The territory adjacent to Mount Paneom is Shehehel. It’s a family that has a close relationship with the Rencia guys. You can grasp Renciaga’s movements at close range.”

“… … .”

“Also, absorbing guilds related to mining under our influence will have a great effect. In a crisis situation, there is nothing more powerful than a dense information network. Since they were attached to the incompetent Lord Bowen, they should be easy to deal with. They are the ones who can be manipulated easily if appropriate conciliation is offered or pressure is applied.”

Kazen, who had calmed down his anger little by little, gave off cold eyes again.

“also?”

“There is one more great effect than all the benefits I have mentioned so far.”

“What do you mean?”

Ruin’s two sunken eyes.

“The Heibern family, which had always been so noble, who always watched the secret struggles of the aristocratic family, can now act according to their own interests. The grand duke, the highest nobleman in the realm, may turn into a snob.”

Ruin raised his finger and slowly tilted it to the left.

“The weight will tilt. The jockey’s amazing transformation inevitably throws the existing order into chaos. Those who lined up against the Rencia guys are now starting to roll their eyes.”

At this point, even Kazen couldn’t help but be a little surprised.

It was because it showed a side that could not be explained by a simple standard of wisdom, and which was hard to believe for a person of that age.

However, he still maintained a nonchalant expression without showing emotion.

“There is something else I want to ask you.”

“Tell me.”

A suspicious look staring at Ruin.

“If you have thought this far, you will surely know. It doesn’t take much money to clear Lord Bowen’s mines.”

Hibern, the rider of the kingdom.

A renowned swordsman with the authority to reconcile debts between the Darione family and guilds.

If the Heiberng family negotiates with Bowen on the condition that they guarantee it or take on the debt, they can definitely buy the mine at a bargain price.

It was already a dead end on Darione Street.

“Considering the ability of the original family, that could be enough.”

“So I will ask. Your financial plan is too tight. What is the true intention of tying up blood relatives and vassals?”

Luin calmly replied.

“When was the last patrol of your father’s estate?”

“Patrol the territory… … ?”

The Illusion of Jericho, imbued with illusion-type magic, is an artifact with a very sensitive nature.

It was Kazen who could not leave the castle because the illusion magic could be broken at any time in the wagon, which was not in a fixed place, but incessantly shaking.

“All my father could do was sit on the throne and open his ears. ten years of those years. So while my father and I were fools, my uncles grew stronger and my aunts took advantage. The same goes for the vassals in each region.”

“… … .”

“Excessive stockpiling of materials, excessive training costs, and cashier records that neatly ignore the basics of accounting. This isn’t just lame. Why have you never looked into their warehouse? Did you really have full faith in your paper money?”

“They are knights.”

Ruin sighed and continued.

“after… … Knights are human too. A person who prefers to eat tender meat rather than tough greens, and who is more comfortable lying down than standing when his stomach is greasy.”

His son was insulting pure chivalry, but Kazen did not dare to dispute it.

The stubborn nature of human beings and their deep inner desires did not escape the noble knight.

“They really… … .”

“If my father was good at numbers, it was something he could figure out right away. There are clear traces of manipulation everywhere.”

In fact, Kazen did not pay much attention to the books.

Ruin was drying up day by day.

Both his high honor and powerful swordsmanship were infinitely helpless in front of his incurable disease.

However, the human heart becomes thin in front of time.

The weight of the jockey on his shoulders, the grand duke’s responsibility to look after the territory, made him regard his sadness as weakness.

The order of confinement may also have been for himself, not to protect his son.

Because not seeing was the easiest thing to bear.

Kazen looked up and looked at his son again.

All he had to do was look at a report and an account book related to the Wanderers.

However, beyond the solution to all issues, it even suggests the direction for the family to move forward, and even awakens the spirit of the one who claimed to be the standard bearer of the kingdom… … .

“I will ask now. who are you.”

Even with extremely fragmentary information, an insight that takes such a wide view of the issue and creates countless logical descriptions and justifications.

It was a gap in experience that a 17-year-old boy could never bridge.

Above all, Ruin is her own son.

He knew better than anyone how much the soul of a guy who had never escaped from the disease for a moment was being ruined.

How could such a desolate heart contain such wisdom?

“What does it mean?”

“Do you consider me a fool?”

It’s hard to believe that Ruin, who was dying hopelessly, came back to life.

Even more so, since he appeared as a far-off sage, Kazen’s doubts were natural.

“If you have any doubts, you should have done it since I cut out the Blood Mana Stone.”

sh*t.

Kazen blankly stares at his laughing son.

I heard that too.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ruin voluntarily cut the artery of the heart.

It was not an easy task even for knights armed with mental powers like steel that had been trained all their lives.

If you are human, how to fear death instinctively.

“… … .”

Ruin calmly looked at his father who was so confused.

You can fool everyone in the world, but you cannot fool your father.

Even more so, since you are a father who sacrificed everything to protect this ugly son… … .

I want to tell you all of my heart.

At least to this foolishly stubborn father.

However, can he really accept that the cruel curse passed down from generation to generation in the family was the guest of an unrealistic being called a demon?

If you knew that the identity of the curse that had plagued the Heibern family for over a thousand years was just Gyrobel’s prank… … .

Moreover, such a madman and his mind are connected and influencing each other?

This tight-knit father will never tolerate it.

Above all, he was the one who went against the providence.

The secrets of regression were not the kind to be told to the world.

Ruin, who had been making such a complicated face for a long time.

“You look like you won’t say anything no matter what.”

Kazen’s eyes sank even deeper.

“You know that poor excuses don’t work. The insight you have shown is more than mere wisdom. If you had lied about having accumulated knowledge while living in the detention center for more than ten years, I would have banished you from the family right away.”

Luin was laughing bitterly.

A knight who carries the kingdom on his back with a single sword and stands at the pinnacle of this nation’s might.

The giant in front of him was the grand duke of the great House of Hibern before he was his own father.

He himself is a great mage who has accomplished great feats.

However, his father was also not lacking as an absolute man with the best knightly eyes and authority in Lemadel.

“Go back and rest.”

At his father’s plain tone without any regrets, Ruin had an expression that he could not readily understand.

This is because the order to go back like this was not convinced even after mentioning the expulsion from the family.

“Do you mean to dispel any doubts?”

Kazen shook his head quietly.

“I just understood it in my head. For a guy with this level of wisdom, having his chest cut out without hesitation was also a calculation, not foolish recklessness. I am sure that I will be able to live.”

As Ruin pursed his lips and hesitated, Kazen’s solemn voice resounded again.

“Why did you recognize the Blood Mana Stone, how you were able to survive, what is that wisdom that transcends time… … None of these fathers are accepted into the heart. However… … .”

Kazen’s expression softened.

“Your gestures, the sound of your breath, the way you talk, even those eyes… … There is no one that is not my son.”

As Ruin struggled to hold back the burning heat, Kazen grabbed him by the shoulders and blushed.

“Duke of Hibern. My firstborn son, my son.”

“father… … .”

Louin slowly raised his head and met his father’s gaze.

“If only you could get back to being healthy… … That was the only wish of this Kazen. Please forgive the ugly father who was greedy for a while.”

The child does not have to prove anything in particular.

Just because you are alive, as long as you are healthy, your parents are infinitely happy.

That is the heart of all fathers in this world.

“The fact that the grown-up grand duke of the Heibern family has a secret is proof that he is becoming a knight.”

Kazen smiled brighter than ever.

“For knights, isn’t secret another name for belief?”

Like all fathers in the world, his eyes were so warm.

“This father will gladly defend your convictions. Ruin.”