WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈
Chapter 57: The Treasure the Emperor Seeks (1)
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Eugene planned his marching route to pass mainly through friendly or neutral territories.
The free city of Velles, their next stop, also belonged to the Noble Faction. That was why he did not tense up when he spotted an armed group on the road.
“I am Varden, a knight of House Jules.”
The knight who appeared to be their leader said this as he raised his visor.
“Ha ha.”
Eugene laughed without thinking.
“Why are you laughing?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Varden’s gesture happened to look exactly like a military salute.
Eugene knew that raising one’s visor, along with lifting one’s hat, was one possible origin of the salute. Still, experiencing it firsthand in this historical era felt strange.
“Eugene Mayer. I am traveling to the fief granted to me by Count Morad.”
House Jules belonged to the Noble Faction. Eugene had looked into the leanings of nearby houses whenever he crossed into a new territory, so he could introduce himself without concern.
“Ah! So you have come into good fortune. As a fellow knight, congratulations.”
Varden’s voice was full of envy. Catching the eye of a great noble, receiving a fief, and becoming a lord was every knight’s dream. On top of that, the knight before him was far younger than he was.
Eugene noticed two prisoners bound with rope behind Varden.
“Are you transporting criminals?”
With the war slowing down for winter, mercenaries who had lost their work were spreading across the land. Many had turned to banditry, making public security even worse.
At times like this, it was common for a free city to show goodwill toward nearby lords and receive support from knight patrols.
“These men were planted nearby by the Emperor.”
“So they were caught spying.”
“No. If that were the case, the Emperor would have used adventurers or scouts. These two are knights. They had brought a few subordinates with them, but we executed them at the scene.”
Eugene had thought they looked too refined to be bandits.
“The Emperor cannot have the spare resources to send knights somewhere there is not even a war.”
The Emperor’s territory lay in north-central Roman, with enemies on every side. Balance was only barely maintained thanks to the Emperor’s diplomatic skill and the neutral nobles who feared civil war.
“According to the interrogation, the Emperor is desperate to find some treasure.”
“As someone who also opposes the Emperor, I’m curious. May I hear more?”
Eugene handed Varden a leather waterskin filled with wine.
“It smells wonderful.”
“It is wine from House Morad.”
With such a fine drink on his tongue, Varden became much more talkative.
“The Emperor is secretly dispatching subjects across the land to find the Wandering Castle of legend. More precisely, the Emperor is looking for clues to it.”
Varden snorted. Even in Bonyard City, it was treated as half sales pitch and half legend, so people elsewhere naturally took it even less seriously.
Eugene, on the other hand, did not laugh. For some reason, the moment he heard of the Wandering Castle, he remembered the dream he had on the night of the eclipse.
“Please tell me more. My mage is interested in such things.”
Varda gave Eugene a displeased look for casually using her as an excuse.
Still, she was curious herself, and Varden wore an expression that said, Of course a mage would be.
“As you know, the Emperor has been plagued by questions of legitimacy. Then, on the advice of a court mage, the Emperor began gathering relics left behind by the Ancient Kingdom.”
“The Emperor intends to bolster prestige with the legacy of the past.”
“That is correct.”
It was common for a newly crowned ruler to solidify their authority through massive construction projects or foreign conquests.
Roman kings, proud to be direct descendants of the Ancient Kingdom, also often sought to uncover relics from that era.
“The Emperor believes the Wandering Castle truly exists. If the Emperor actually secured it...”
“The legitimacy problem would be largely resolved. It is the greatest treasure left behind by the Ancient Kingdom.”
Eugene looked at the prisoners.
“Did they find something?”
“Yes. They are not simply searching at random. Information is gathered in the capital, and once a likely location is identified, they are sent there.”
Varden pointed toward a mountain near Velles City.
“They say there is a small ruin from the time of the Ancient Kingdom there. These knights were headed there when a hunter reported them to us.”
Near the soldiers stood a young man whose face shone with anticipation. He would return to the city with them and receive a reward.
“If it’s all right, could you tell us where it is?”
Eugene handed over an entire sealed bottle of wine, and Varden accepted it with a smile.
“There’s no problem with that. We searched it already, but we found nothing special.”
They had apparently found things worth money, though. A spare horse was loaded with expensive-looking pottery, silver candlesticks, and gold-plated ornaments.
‘I can’t sense any magic.’
Varda seemed to have had the same thought, as relief showed on her face.
“Hey, hunter! Come here and tell Sir Eugene the location.”
After hearing a detailed explanation of the landmarks, they parted ways with Varden’s group. The knights planned to patrol the area a while longer.
“The Wandering Castle was real?”
“I thought those city people just made it up to attract tourists.”
As the mercenaries who had followed them from Bonyard City chatted in amazement, Eugene and Varda looked at each other.
“We should search it, shouldn’t we?”
“What an obvious thing to say.”
Even if everything valuable had been taken, knights and soldiers could not be expected to uncover magical secrets.
What if they found even a single piece of ancient knowledge sleeping within the ruins? For a mage like Varda, such an encounter could be a fortunate opportunity that raised her to a higher level.
“Perhaps the place you saw in your dream was also...”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Mages placed great meaning on connections and destiny. Both Varda and Eugene felt there was some sort of connection to Eugene’s dream in The Knight’s House.
“We should enter the city first.”
Dusk was already falling. Searching an unfamiliar mountain at night was practically madness.
* * *
Velles was a free city that had existed since the time of the Ancient Kingdom. Unlike Bonyard City, which had begun as a worksite, it had been built as a city from the start and boasted beautiful, impressive facilities.
Naturally, the influential people who ruled the place were deeply proud. That pride was also a form of loyalty to tradition.
It was only natural that the people of Velles had become fiercely anti-Emperor after being enraged by the Emperor’s usurpation of the imperial title.
“At this rate, won’t the Emperor’s army invade?”
“The Emperor? Enemies surround that bastard. Do you think they have time to worry about this place? And if they do come, what then? How will they get over the walls of the Ancient Kingdom?”
“This isn’t some faraway country of degenerates. To bring a disgusting word like Emperor into sacred Roman, tsk tsk!”
As a member of the Noble Faction, Eugene received a lavish welcome.
“I heard you took the lead and cut down Imperial Guard Knights one after another.”
“Ah, yes. I did.”
The Chief Constable of Velles City grinned as they refilled Eugene’s cup.
Unlike the plump Fannis, the Chief Constable looked as though they had been born for battle. Their hatred of the Emperor and fondness for a powerful knight combined, and they looked at Eugene with honeyed eyes.
“Do you know it has been more than ten years since a stone castle fell to a battering ram? Not seeing that sight with my own eyes will be my lifelong regret! My lifelong regret!”
“Hmm.”
The host was only speaking out of goodwill, but it left a bitter taste in Eugene’s mouth. He had hoped to make his name through the Hall War, bandit subjugation, and monster hunting.
“Sir. There should be no one in this banquet hall who supports the Emperor. I hear they have already been pushed out of city politics and are on the verge of expulsion.”
Haind, who was passing nearby, said this quietly.
Unlike most knights, whose brains seemed to be made of muscle, he was calm and knew how to read the room. He could tell what information his temporary lord needed, gather it on his own, and report it.
Considering his excellent martial ability as well, it was a rare virtue.
“I see. Why don’t you have some too? You don’t smell of alcohol at all. Have you not taken even a sip?”
“I don’t like alcohol. A knight must always keep a clear mind.”
“You’re saying something that should shame every knight in the world.”
Eugene gestured toward the knights from other regions, who were drinking themselves senseless with their arms around one another.
“Come on! A toast to the hero who captured the Emperor’s lackeys!”
Varden must have been invited as well, because he was utterly drunk from all the alcohol being poured into him.
“To be honest, I dislike alcohol. Both the feeling of being drunk and the way drunk people behave.”
After moving away from Eugene, Haind skillfully avoided the drinks while enjoying the food.
“It seems you’ve taken in a capable knight.”
“He’s the sort who finds work to do on his own instead of only standing behind me like scenery.”
“Birds of a feather flock together, I suppose.”
Varda smiled in satisfaction.
It would be troublesome if the knights got drunk when they had plans for the next day. Eugene was beyond the reach of intoxication thanks to his physique, and Haind because of his personality.
* * *
At dawn the following day, Eugene’s group left the city as soon as the gates opened.
The drunken Varden had talked about the ruins at the banquet, so word would soon spread. It would become troublesome if adventurers or influential figures from the city became involved.
Following the markers the hunter had described, they found the ruins without much difficulty.
They lay in a remote location that required a long detour down a side path between dried-up valleys. No one could possibly find the place without deliberately searching for it.
“Everyone, wait here. Sir Haind, I leave the command to you. Drive away anyone you can handle, and if you can’t, stall for as much time as possible.”
“Understood.”
They positioned their forces in case anyone interfered. A knight and several dozen mercenaries would overwhelm most opponents.
Haind had the mercenaries build a sturdy temporary stronghold. He placed scouts on high ground, cut down trees, and even erected barricades.
‘What a lucky find.’
Eugene smiled with satisfaction at the commendable sight.
“Shouldn’t you take a few men to handle the chores?”
The mercenary captain asked.
“If there are too many people, Lady Varda will lose focus. Just guard this place like a fortress.”
They might find something perfectly legitimate, but they could also uncover something more wicked than the bloodletting dagger. The fewer witnesses there were, the better.
Eugene entered the ruins with Varda and Homi. It was a place that felt like a shrine, with its ceiling open to the sky.
Varden’s group had taken everything worth money, leaving only rusted and broken remnants behind.
“This seems to have been a place for magical research. You can feel the energy gathering here too, can’t you?”
“It feels similar to the mansion where you stayed, Lady Varda.”
There were places in the world where mysteries gathered like veins of gold. Such locations became mages’ residences or laboratories. This place had likely been used for the same purpose.
“They must have studied magic related to the Otherworld here.”
“Such as?”
“Powerful secret arts that deal with summoning or space.”
“How can you tell?”
“Buildings raised in places like this are normally sealed. That way, the energy gathering there does not leak outside and remains concentrated within.”
“This place is wide open.”
The ruins had no ceiling, and even the sides were open.
“There is only one kind of magic that requires such a thing. The field that studies the connection between this world and the Otherworld.”
Eugene remembered the custom of leaving the front door and windows open during ancestral rites so the ancestors could enter. These ruins seemed to follow a similar principle.
As they searched around, Eugene found geometric shapes on the floor of the ruins.
“A magic circle.”
Homi widened her eyes as she examined it. She could not see anything at all.
“This was not drawn with ink or dye. If it had been, it could not have endured for so long. It is the kind that only those who understand magic can see.”
Varda stroked Homi’s head.
“Then the Emperor’s knights couldn’t have found it either.”
“They cannot send valuable mages around carelessly. They probably narrow down the locations first, then have mages inspect the final candidates.”
A faint magical energy still flowed through the magic circle.
“Hmm.”
“What is it?”
“I can sense discordance in several parts of the magic circle.”
“It seems the magical formula has become partly disrupted over time. I can’t sense it myself, though.”
“What?”
Eugene was genuinely surprised. To him, Varda was someone who knew everything.
“Don’t be so surprised. There are countless fields of magic, and each person has different abilities to see, hear, and sense them.”
It was not strange for Eugene to see something Varda could not. It was not a matter of level or knowledge, but compatibility.
“Come to think of it, your Eucharist is also a power drawn from the Otherworld. It’s natural that you would be sensitive to this sort of thing.”
Varda stepped back with Homi so Eugene could focus.
‘Is it this part?’
The moment Eugene approached the place where he sensed discordance, something strange happened.
The energy flowing through the magic circle was drawn toward Eugene as if by osmosis, and the movement cleared the blocked flow.
The magic circle began functioning smoothly. Varda sensed the subtle change as well.
“Did you touch something?”
“Not at all. I only got closer, and it moved on its own...”
Homi, who had been quietly listening, instinctively aimed her crossbow. Two figures had appeared there at some point.
One stood straight, their body completely covered by a mage’s robe. Inside the hood was nothing but pitch-black darkness.
The other was a knight sitting against one of the ruin’s pillars. Their head hung low as though they were sleeping, but their helmet was likewise filled with darkness.
A powerful magical presence seemed to radiate from both of them.
“Guardians in a place this small!”
Varda cried out in surprise.
Magical sentinels that were only rarely found in large ruins had appeared here, and there were two of them.
Then two lights formed within the darkness of the mage’s hood. Their will-o’-the-wisp eyes swept over the ruins that Varden’s group had ransacked and left in disarray.
‘Damn it.’
Eugene drew Last Autumn and raised his shield.
Footnotes:
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