Hero without Blood or Tear Chapter 37

I held the Ruble-Raynae that came forth from another dimension.

It was the sword that was gifted, in return, by the 'neither cold nor hot' dragon Goldilock, after the dragon was saved by the feudal lord Ballat, about 200 years ago.  It was a sword made by another dimension's technology.  It would never break.

S Level Magic Weapon.

Attack Power +1,342

Life +310

Power +120

Health +122

Charisma +110

Skill

Lens of the Sun - Emits strong light.

Purification light - Detoxify poison.

The specifications looked fraudulent.  Everything good was listed without any bad characteristics.  Ordinarily, S-Level items called for making some sort of counter requests.

However, maybe because it was given by the dragon in return for a favor, the special feature of the Ruble-Raynae was that nothing unfavorable was being applied to its owner.

"The power of the sword is that it will never break."

"Even if it clashed with even a stronger sword?"

"Yes."

"This is certainly a great sword… Great.  It goes well with you.  Valer, how did you know of this sword's secret?"

Maragreta truly looked surprised.  However, it wasn't always comfortable to give her the answers all the time.

"Everyone has reasons."

"Is, is that so?  Since you do not seem to be interested in answering, I'll leave it at that.  However, Valer… You surprise me every time as always.  I thought I lived long enough, but each time I see you, you make my heart palpitate with such amazement…"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Margareta subtly looked at me as if to say what is this person's true ident.i.ty.

"Per, perhaps, are you a dragon?"

"No."

"…Well, if not, never mind.  Then perhaps…"

"I thought you weren't going to ask anymore."

Margareta pouted again.  She pouted even more severely than before.

"Hm.  It's a good thing at any rate.  There are certain cla.s.ses among the strong demon kings who do not take damages unless such strong weapons are used on them.  It will be helpful in your future battles.  It's very likely that Pajemut will revive immediately unless weapons like that of Ruble-Raynae were used on him."

That's a correct statement.  I know it because I fought him before.  Unless it was a S-Level weapon, Pajemut will revive easily.  Pretending to be injured and weak in his movements, his main strategy was to launch surprise counter attacks once he recovers his strength.

Certainly, he was an intelligent and cunning villain.  I would be so careful to not fall for his cunning schemes.

"There are other pros.  As it looks like an old worn out weapon, no one even thinks about stealing it."

After sending away the real Ruble-Raynae, old worn out Ruble-Raynae has returned.  Amazed, Margareta could not take her eyes off of it while showing how impressed she was by it.  Finally, her curiosity was fully obliged once she has summoned and returned it in herself.

"Hahaha!  This is quite fun."

"Here, let's look at the next one."

The next one was a bunch of letters.  I and Margareta examined them calmly.

"It is Roelin."

"Yes.  It is Roelin.  They were in a relations.h.i.+p worthy of exchanging rather steamy letters."

It wasn't because they were lovers.  They were politically hot for each other.

"My gosh, Roelin was pus.h.i.+ng to make Philip an emperor."

"Is that so?"

Margareta took out a letter and shook it.  It was true after looking at it.

"Hm… It isn't that I can't understand it.  The rose queen Roelin did not have a good relations.h.i.+p with the emperor."

Franz the 4th, the current emperor of the human empire and the rose queen Roelin were constantly on the edge as they wanted to weaken each other.  Although one of the issues was the fact that the emperor's territory and Roelin's Roselant were bordering each other, the biggest issue was due to money.

"It is known that she has been in tough situations due to trade issues.  The emperor Franz the 4th has inst.i.tuted an economic sanction against Roelin as a means to apply pressure."

The elegant work of arts and magical goods of the demon tribes were currently regarded most highly.  Countless number of merchants made their trips to Roselant.

The emperor Franz the 4th demanded tariffs, but, of course, Roelin revolted.  The reason was that why was it that a human emperor was taxing a demon king.

"Economic sanctions?"

"That's right.  Our emperor highness was envious of his neighbor, rose demon queen, who was raking in all that money.  But still, hahaha!  Attempting to collect tariffs from a demon queen, makes you think whether the emperor was simply acting bravado or being foolish."

I was confident that it would be the latter as far as Franz the 4th was concerned.

"I suppose from that emperor's perspective, he wanted to get something out of Roelin who was raking in the money from the demands of the empire.  The empire's internal economic conditions were a mess due to the long time conflicts with the demon queen."

Yet, even if the emperor was in ruins, he still had some resources to b.u.t.t heads with the wealthy Roelin.  As a result, he went after her, demanding her to give up some money.

"That would be impossible based on Roelin's character.  How did he effectuate an economic embargo?"

"I guess that is."

The strategy the emperor employed in order to implement the economic embargo was truly simple and primitive.  He knew that it would be useless to levy taxes on a woman that paid no taxes, so the emperor thought of a scheme.

"He issued attack and seizure orders to the knight families, living in the vicinity of the trade route.  The emperor has said.  According to the laws of the empire, cease any merchants with ties to the demon queen Roelin, or human merchants heading to Roselant.  As a result, knights are running crazy in the southwest of the empire."

Gosh.  Who would have guessed that the method of the emperor's economic embargo has been so cultured.  It was an embargo in words only as it gave permission to rob.

"They said that there is one notable knight among all those knights who are going crazy."

"Who is that?"

"According to his own words, he insists that he is the last one of the great swordsmen.  In fact, he wields such great skills of a swordsman that people say everyone is amazed."

I clenched my fists when I heard that.  The last one of the great swordsmen, what it implied was very clear.  That is, none other than the astute swordsman.  It implies the guardian cla.s.s level.

I've come to learn of another guardian's whereabouts soon after I've destroyed Philip, the iron feudal lord.  I thought to engage myself in this since I've learned about the guardian's interjection.

"Please, do tell me in detail."