Chapter 14 | The Assassin Is Tested
We stepped foot into the most perfect castle in the kingdom. Actually, make that the world.
Just how much did this cost? What level of skilled personnel and labor made this possible?
It was scary just thinking about it.
“It’s even more incredible up close,” Dia said with wonder.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’ve never beheld anything like this, and I doubt I will again.”
This castle had a beautiful sense of aesthetics. Typically, when building a castle, you focused on functionality first and then added beauty and elegance later. However, while House Romalung had concentrated on performance, you could also tell they obsessed over every element, and the perfect capability of it all was radiant.
The unachievable luxury was enough to crush another noble’s ambitions outright.
Dia’s face lit up with curiosity. “Lugh, did you notice that?”
“Yeah, I sensed the mana. I can’t believe they were able to construct such a complex magical tool.”
When we passed through the gate, I got a feeling like we were being watched. We had crossed through a barrier capable of sensing people, like the one at the royal castle.
It was a cruder version, and I could’ve fooled it if I wanted to. Even so, I was floored that human hands had created a magic tool with such complex functionality.
While I was brooding over that, we entered the castle and were greeted by a servant. He was a tall and graceful middle-aged man.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw him. I hadn’t seen this face before, but I knew him.
What in the world is he thinking?
I expected the servant to lead us to a garden or a reception room. To my surprise, however, he ushered us to an indoor training ground. As was to be expected from the size of the castle, it was massive. Over two hundred swordsmen were crossing blades within.
“What do you think? These are House Romalung’s most elite soldiers. Are they not impressive?” the servant asked.
I was flabbergasted. Every single fighter was a mage, and thoroughly trained. People with magic were supposed to be rare, but there were two hundred in this room alone.
House Tuatha Dé had twenty mages total among the main and branch families. That was including the elderly, women, and children.
Each of these mages was a strong, muscular man. The scale was incomparable.
How had they accomplished this?
The answer came without thinking. It could only be the result of House Romalung’s unique methods. They had gathered remarkable people from every corner of the world to sire children with superior blood. Only the most elite were permitted to take the Romalung name formally, but many leftover people still possessed remarkable genetics, even if they couldn’t call themselves Romalungs.
“Those are high-quality swords,” I remarked.
“You have a good eye. We refer to those as steel swords here in Romalung,” the servant replied.
Iron manufacturing technology was poor in this world, and most swords were cast with impure iron. These weapons were on another level, however. House Romalung had mixed iron with carbon to create the much stronger steel.
Their armaments were two steps ahead of the rest of the world. They also could not have made the steel into blades with simple casting. It had only been possible thanks to the talent they’d gathered from around the world.
They had two hundred mages using weapons that were leagues beyond what any other power had. There was no way anyone could challenge their strength.
“There is one more thing I would like to show you, Holy Knight. That group over there is made up of non-mages,” said the servant.
“Those are bowguns,” I observed.
“I am impressed by your knowledge.”
The people in question were in the middle of firing practice, and watching was enough to send a chill down my spine.
The bowguns were a size bigger than standard ones. They were double-layered, which enabled rapid fire, and they had a foot pedal. Each had a winch to make drawing back the bowstring easier.
It was an evolved weapon that allowed the user to fire arrows with much greater force than would have been physically possible otherwise. Back in my old world, this would have been called a compound bowgun.
The user stepped on the pedal and then used their full body strength to draw back the arrow, from what I could see. That enabled much more power than pulling the arrow back with their hand alone.
On top of that, all of the men here were ridiculously strong, to the point that they looked like bodybuilders. They went red-faced as they planted their legs to draw out their full strength. Even relying on the winch, they could only barely nock the arrow.
“How much force do those bowstrings have?” I asked incredulously.
Achieving that level of tension should have been impossible with the world’s current technology.
The two hundred people split into a pair of lines. Their target was a suit of steel armor about fifty meters ahead of them.
When an average mage strengthened themselves with mana, the hardness of their skin surpassed iron. An average mage could not, however, achieve the defenses of steel.
I understood now what they were demonstrating.
“You are about to see something quite interesting,” the servant remarked with a laugh.
“Fire!!”
On command, the first row of soldiers loosed their bolts simultaneously. One hundred projectiles explicitly made for the bowguns lanced forward, piercing the steel armor.
It was proof that non-mages now possessed the ability to kill mages, something previously believed impossible.
“That was certainly interesting. This looks like the beginning of a new era,” I commented.
Truthfully, I was shocked. A mage’s greatest asset was their abnormal defense. An arrow, sword, or hurled stone wouldn’t do much damage when a mage was enveloped in mana.
That was why mages were unrivaled forces on the battlefield and the reason others could only defeat them with magic. They were the leading actors in battle and could kill as much as they wanted without risk to their own lives.
Yet that truth had just been upended.
No matter how strong or fast they were, mages would now perish as easily as anyone else. This development would reduce people with magic from invincible warriors to pieces with a unique strategic advantage like any other. A volley from one hundred soldiers would be very difficult to avoid.
Perhaps I was witnessing the end of the era of mages.
Of course, all of that was only if the mage in question was average. The best sorcerers could still handle such attacks. However, the majority of people with magic would lose their worth and influence.
I’d always known this would happen, but I had expected it to be when firearms and gunpowder came about. House Romalung achieving this level of might was unprecedented.
I took a deep breath. I was about done playing along with this facade. Intentionally, I changed my tone to one I would use toward a superior.
“For what purpose did you show this to me, Duke Romalung? Are you suggesting that you are going to war and that House Tuatha Dé had better join your side?”
Demonstrating overwhelming force to show that opposing you would be pointless was an established tactic for gathering allies.
“Ha-ha-ha, you saw through my disguise. That is embarrassing. When did you notice?” Duke Romalung answered. He was the servant.
“From the beginning. I am a professional. I will always see through amateur guises. First Lady Nevan tried to fool me, and now you.”
“This is amateur to you? I felt rather confident about it.”
The man put his hands to his face and pulled off his skin. He had been wearing an exquisitely made mask. Anyone other than me would have been fooled.
Tarte and Dia went wide-eyed with shock.
“To answer your question, I showed this to you because I would like you to wed my daughter, and I wanted you to see that the era of nobles will soon come to an end. It is only because of their overwhelming strength that aristocrats enjoy special privilege. Even the most incompetent feudal lord can stand above his citizenry if he promises them protection,” the duke explained.
The greatest fool in the world could manage a domain so long as he possessed mana. Aristocrats held too much power for common people to oppose. Revolts were destined to fail before they ever began. The best an unhappy citizen could manage to do was run away in the night.
Citizens relied on their rulers for protection. They had no choice but to depend on nobles if monsters appeared. Thus, members of the ruling class were seen as gods, and people were willing to set aside any discontent if it meant surviving.
“That is true. If nobles can be killed easily, the whole system will turn on its head. There will come a time when possessing mana will be seen as no more than a talent like any other,” I stated.
If regular people could easily kill mages and deal with monsters on their own, then mages would come to be seen as simple humans rather than deities. All the pent-up frustration that had been building up over the years among the citizenry would explode, leading to insurrections in the domains ruled by the incompetent.
The same thing had occurred on Earth. Once knights could no longer overpower others, the nobility began to collapse.
Knights had been the strongest in society because of their specialized education, horses, and expensive armor. However, armor lost its purpose as weapons advanced, and their combat prowess became less helpful on the battlefield as well. Before long, knights couldn’t even repel roaming brigands anymore. Once they became just another piece to be wielded in wartime, the respect, adoration, and worship the famed swordfighters had enjoyed vanished, and they became no better than anyone else.
A similar thing was beginning here. Incompetent feudal lords would likely get weeded out and replaced by commoners with no mana.
“Don’t you find it funny? Talented people who have been ignored merely because they do not have mana will rise up one after another with newfound ambition… And they’ll shove us, their former rulers, aside. Or perhaps they will create a country comprising only non-mages and try to eliminate us all,” Duke Romalung stated.
“I don’t think it humorous at all. The Alvanian Kingdom is currently at peace. I can’t welcome outright war.”
The duke sniffed at that. “It’s not like you to say something so foolish.” Calling such a logical statement foolish was very like him. He had his eye on the future.
“Allow me to guess what you’re thinking. House Romalung is now able to make weapons capable of killing mages. It’s only logical, then, to conclude there’s a chance others might be constructing them, too, and even if they’re not, they eventually will. You want Alvan to deal with this change quicker than any other nation. If an army of foreign soldiers were to invade us as we are now with weapons that can kill mages, we would be ruined,” I theorized.
“You are correct. That is not all, however,” Duke Romalung replied.
“Furthermore, you believe one who possesses enough strength to survive these weapons is fit to rule. Someone like you, for example. No doubt your bowguns are not powerful enough to slay you.”
Duke Romalung nodded, looking pleased. “Nor you. Yes, that was a perfect answer. There is not a single soul among my vassals who can see things from my perspective. I knew you were special.”
An arrow traveling quicker than the speed of sound came flying toward me from behind. I caught it in my fingers without even turning around.
Duke Romalung applauded, then said, “With the introduction of these weapons, the nobles who hold power simply because they have mana will get sifted out. Any who survive will be the true nobles, the people worthy of leading this country. In that sense, you just earned a passing grade. I want you to join my family. However, I admit my methods of testing to see if you were worthy of my daughter were untoward, so I’ve prepared an apology.”
“About that. I do not have any plans to marry Lady Nevan.” That was something I would never have been able to refuse as a simple Tuatha Dé. As a Holy Knight, however, I could get away with it.
“I am aware of that. I still think you are best suited to my daughter, so please do. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to upset you, and I won’t try any tricks. Nevan is waiting for you, so go to her.”
A real servant then appeared.
Duke Romalung claimed to be testing me, but in a way, this may have been his version of sincerity. He’d hoped to win me over by sharing his thoughts and intentions.
For a moment, I found myself thinking about how fun becoming the head of the Romalung family and ruling this domain would be. With such power, I could do anything.
Yet I was a Tuatha Dé. And I loved Dia and Tarte. I couldn’t abandon all of that.
After a bit of a detour, I was finally going to meet with Nevan. Knowing her, she was plotting something. I couldn’t let down my guard.
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