My Mind Sword’s Cooldown Is Too Long

“The Elder Council convened other elders last night?”
“That’s correct.”
During Alfred’s daily morning report, there was something different than usual, so I interrupted him.
Our family’s elders aren’t diligent enough to work at night… something feels unnatural.
“What happened?”
“Two elders responded to Elder Greymore Peldaron’s urgent summons.”
…The Calderon family has ten elders?
“They held a meeting with just three? The other seven were absent?”
“They expressed that they couldn’t respond to the summons due to personal circumstances.”
What circumstances?
I even witnessed several elders leaving the family grounds last night.
With the advancement of magic engineering, electric bulbs have been installed throughout the Empire’s streets, allowing people to walk around at night, but shops are different.
If shopkeepers want to do business at night, they have to install bulbs inside their shops at their own expense and bear the maintenance costs as well.
Therefore, if a shop remains open at night, there must be a good reason for it.
Just by seeing the elders returning to the family grounds thoroughly drunk at dawn, I could tell they had no busy matters to attend to.
‘Greymore is being openly ostracized.’
At this point, it would be strange not to notice, but it’s not something I need to concern myself with.
“After the meeting ended, Elder Greymore reportedly headed to Arcaline.”
“Arcaline…”
“I believe it might be related to the Sword Succession Ceremony.”
The Calderon family has three collateral branches in total.
They are Peldaron, Belmore, and Arcaline.
In the past, the Calderon family had many young, passionate individuals.
Those young and ambitious people wanted to prove themselves.
However, only one person could become the family head.
Therefore, those who couldn’t become the head sought their own paths.
The world outside the family’s protection was as dangerous as a magical wasteland, but the rewards were equally great.
They lived according to their own ambitions, and the Calderon family respected them for it.
Instead of establishing a knight order within the family, the Calderon family allowed them to establish their own houses as collateral branches.
The one who survived the Great War and received territory and title established the Peldaron family.
The one who joined the Imperial Knight Order at a young age and received territory upon retirement established the Bellog family.
And the one who guarded the family’s secrets and old grounds received some land from the Calderon family and established the Arcaline family.
On the territory given to the Arcaline family when they split off as a collateral branch, there exists the Calderon family’s cemetery.
It was a gesture of the Calderon family’s consideration and trust in Arcaline, who had silently protected the family.
Buried in that cemetery were the remains of all previous family heads, including those from both the main family and collateral branches.
As such, it’s a highly significant place within the family.
Since ancient times, most major family events were held there.
The Sword Succession Ceremony is no exception. It takes place in the so-called ‘Path of Trial,’ hidden by a secret passage next to the cemetery.
Therefore, the fact that Greymore, who rarely leaves the family grounds, headed to Arcaline suggests he’s planning something for the Sword Succession Ceremony.
Is he trying to do something before Gin Calderon returns to the family?
“I understand for now.”
I’m not sure what he’s scheming, but there’s no need to worry about it.
If they move up the succession ceremony, it’s good for me too.
The Guardian that one faces during the succession ceremony.
If I destroy that golem that has protected the family since ancient times, I can obtain the hidden item inside the Guardian.
[Ring of Guardian’s Oath], a legendary-grade item of which only ten exist.
The effect of this ring is to create an unbreakable protective barrier.
While the effect is like weightless armor and the total amount of the barrier isn’t high,
since it’s an indestructible barrier, as long as the attack doesn’t exceed the barrier’s capacity in a single hit, you won’t take any damage.
Moreover, this barrier has a unique characteristic engraved in it.
While the barrier is active, it possesses an anti-magic property that nullifies all mental attacks.
If I were to formally confront the Belmagor Order, the evil god Belmagor would launch mental attacks, so this is an item I must obtain.
The sooner I get it, the better it is for me.
The Mind Sword I use doesn’t require mana.
Instead, it just has a ridiculous 30-day cooldown.
Therefore, even if my body’s mana is sealed on the day of the Sword Succession Ceremony, there won’t be any problem.
Considering the cooldown, I’d almost want to ask them to hurry it up.
‘Let’s wait for now.’
It seems like they’re the ones in a hurry.

Electric bulbs are embedded between the wide hollow spaces, emitting light.
The family mansion is brightly lit as if to flaunt its wealth.
The Eildarin family, one of the Empire’s five great houses, a political family.
The most luxurious door in that place opened.
“Ah, Cain, you’re here?”
Merchen Eildarin.
She greeted the man before her brightly.
Deep black hair and calm eyes.
He’s a cold, taciturn man with a chilly atmosphere, but his handsome face devours all his flaws – how many noble ladies tried to trip him up during his academy days?
His presence at the academy was so immense that there were nobles who entered the social circle just to speak to him once.
However, he was a man most had given up on, due to his character of cutting off all relationships and never setting foot in the social circle.
For nobles, building one’s own power base is most important, but that arrogant man didn’t care about such things at all.
“What’s the matter? How is the investigation going?”
“It’s still going smoothly. They’ve tried to hide their tracks in various ways, but evidence tends to remain more easily than expected.”
“How much longer do you think it will take?”
“Hmm… about a month more? It might be even faster. There weren’t as many big fish as I thought.”
“…That’s good. Why did you call me?”
“It’s nothing much… I just wanted to ask you something.”
Merchen paused briefly before continuing.
“Bes the Corpse Eater and Rui the Poison Drinker. Did you kill them?”

At Merchen’s words, I felt my head turn cold.
Did I kill those guys… Of course I did.
Wasn’t I the one who sent her to the cabin in the Forest of Corpses in the first place?
There’s hardly any room for doubt.
I paused for a moment to consider whether it would be advantageous to hide my power.
The conclusion was obviously to not hide it.
When even non-existent achievements should be created to my advantage, reducing my own accomplishments is a decision I absolutely wouldn’t make.
I wondered if there was something I missed, but there wasn’t anything in particular.
“Of course it was me. Why do you ask?”
“…You. Do you know what the Eight Great Villains are?”
“I know. Aren’t they the vermin eating away at the Empire?”
“That’s right, but there’s one more thing.”
Merchen raised her thumb and made a gesture of slitting her throat.
“Even if they’re trash, they’re quite strong and have been giving us trouble. Those heavy-bottomed high officials don’t usually handle such matters.”
“Is that so?”
“No, honestly speaking… someone of the Eight Great Villains’ caliber is way beyond academy level, and we would have needed to mobilize someone of the family head or knight commander level, but there were three corpses.”
“Including one cultist, that’s right, three.”
“So, you killed all three – two of the Eight Great Villains and a cultist?”
“Who else would it be?”
“…They were killed in one go. Without a chance to resist.”
“That’s how it turned out.”
“Cain, if what you’re saying is true.”
Merchen swallowed nervously with a tense face.
“You… are scarier than I thought… Sorry, but could you move a bit further away?”
“…”
Merchen wrapped her hands around her neck and shrank her body.
The response seemed familiar from somewhere, which annoyed me a bit.
“Did you call me just for this nonsensical talk?”
“…Hah. I see my jokes don’t work on you.”
Merchen opened her hands as if it had all been a joke, but
I could see her fingertips trembling slightly.
“Actually, I have one more thing to discuss.”
Merchen handed over a wanted poster she had prepared separately.
“Do you know who this person is?”
[Eight Great Villains: The Purple Burning Witch Lyn]
‘What is this?’
I carefully examined the wanted poster Merchen handed me.
In the game, the Eight Great Villains were designated by the Imperial Palace based on the severity of their crimes, with bounties placed on the eight most evil individuals.
Typically, a simple description of appearance is attached, but no matter how much I looked at the wanted poster, I couldn’t find any such thing.
Additionally, the name was strange.
‘Lyn… That’s a name I’m hearing for the first time.’
Since the Eight Great Villains interfere throughout the middle and later parts of the game, these guys are definitely hunted down before the ending.
Therefore, there’s no way I wouldn’t know about the Eight Great Villains.
But the content written below the name was different.
The evil deeds committed by the person in the wanted poster were definitely things I knew about.
The person described in this content was Libra.
It was referring to the purple-haired witch who was waiting for me at the entrance of the Eildarin family mansion even now.
This is definitely something I’m experiencing for the first time.
The fortunate point is that there’s no description of appearance yet.
If something came out that could specifically identify Libra’s appearance, the situation could turn bad.
“…What is this?”
“It’s a matter that the Imperial Palace’s vassals urgently raised. Apparently, there’s a witch who burns people to death completely.”
“The description… there’s nothing.”
“They seem to be announcing it first and adding details later.”
“That’s strange.”
“You think so too, right?”
Merchen answered as if she had been waiting.
“Whether they’re trying to divert attention or pin crimes on someone, they suddenly started acting noticeably. Thanks to that, it’s become faster to catch their trail.”
“That’s good news.”
“It is, but… I have one question.”
“…What now?”
“Actually, I found this in the Forest of Corpses where you sent me.”
“This is?”
“Purple flames. They burned down the entire cabin.”
Merchen showed me a photo taken with a camera and separate notes she had written.
It’s a modest camera with few colors, but it’s a state-of-the-art item here.
Even with such a camera, the purple flames were clearly visible.
“Cain. Who is this person?”
“…”
Instead of answering, I just looked at Merchen.
Sometimes it’s better not to speak.
Seeing that I had no intention of talking, Merchen sighed softly as if she understood.
“Don’t worry about this part for now. Things won’t go in a strange direction.”
“I trust you.”
“Oh, and what will you do with the bounty for eliminating two of the Eight Great Villains?”
“I’ll collect it when everything is over.”
“…What about my share?”
“? What did you do?”
“You unfair bastard! Do you know how much I’m suffering right now!”
“Don’t shout, it hurts my ears. Besides, isn’t this what you wanted?”
“Oh, really… Fine then.”

You could at least buy me a meal

Merchen grumbled quietly, but I ignored it cleanly.
“I’ll be going then. Call me next time when the investigation is complete.”
“Take care. Oh, you’re having your succession ceremony soon, right?”
“That’s right.”
“I hope it goes well. I always thought you’d be the first among us to become a family head, but seeing it actually happening is quite interesting.”
“You’ll be a family head soon too.”
“In times like this, you just say ‘thank you.’ That’s what you say before leaving. And while you’re at it, come visit me when I become a family head too.”
“Sure. I will.”
I nodded and got up from my seat.
Merchen then followed me out of the room.
“You don’t need to see me out.”
“It’s fine. I’m thankful enough that you graced us with those heavy footsteps of yours. I’ll go to the entrance with you.”
It’s not really necessary.
But there was no need to stop her from seeing me off, so I left the Eildarin family mansion with Merchen.
“…Master late. Almost froze to death.”
“…Cain. Who is this person?”
Ah, right. I had brought Libra with me.