Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 166: The Ultimate Vacation

The place the Marquis led the two was a huge mansion on the slopes of a small mountain.Although it looked very old, it was well maintained with no damage whatsoever.

The Marquis, who opened the door to the mansion himself, smiled brightly at the two.

“Please take your time and look around. I will send a butler to meet you at mealtime.”

“Thank you.”

When Warren greeted him politely, the Marquis smiled kindly and quickly left the room.

The mansion surrounded by mountains had a quiet and comfortable atmosphere. The old trees in the garden were well-kept and had a dignified charm.

He felt a sense of foreboding, but it had a similar atmosphere to the Emperor’s private garden that he had seen not long ago. It seemed that the Emperor’s tastes had been influenced by the previous Emperor.

“It’s amazing that they’ve managed to maintain this place for so long even though no one lives here.”

Warren let out a brief exclamation of admiration as he sniffed the fresh scent of grass. The large trees and well-grown ornamental plants looked like they formed a small forest.

An old mansion nestled in that gap. The moderately grown vines, faded bricks, and worn window frames that gave off a sense of time were just like a scene from a fairy tale.

Leaving the garden behind, Arendt stepped into the mansion. As soon as he took a step, the characteristic scent of a space filled with old paper hit him.

The moment they finally got a good look at the inside, the two of them were left momentarily speechless.

“…”

“…”

What immediately caught his eye was the walls filled with books and shelves. No matter where he looked, there were books.

The walls of the lobby, usually used to welcome guests, and the space under the stairs leading to the second floor were all covered with books… It felt like he had entered a huge library rather than the emperor’s villa.

The only decorations were a few small statues of the god Luce and a few portraits placed here and there, and the furniture was limited to a sofa and a table placed so that one could read comfortably at any time.

“…Didn’t you say that there were about 200 books that came from the Nephele Kingdom?”

“That’s right.”

When Arendt, who had been blankly staring, asked, Warren also nodded in bewilderment.

What did they mean by 200 volumes? Even just looking at it now, it seemed like there would easily be over a thousand volumes.

“Wasn’t there a list of books handed over to the royal family at that time?”

“It was so long ago that nothing remained. What did you find?”

“It’s the same. There’s no record other than that His Majesty the Emperor purchased it and then moved it here.”

A complex conversation took place in front of a vast amount of books.

That meant that since there was no way to know what books had come from the kingdom, they would have to search every single bookcase in the mansion.

Arendt, who was looking closely at the Emperor’s small villa or library, made a brief comment.

“We’re screwed.”

Warren couldn’t help but agree with that sentiment.

There was a brief, escapist conversation about how if the book was a real artifact, it would definitely exude a suspicious magical power, so why not just skim through it with magical power detection?

But there was only one conclusion.

The best thing to do was to go through all those books one by one.

It was much better to suffer right now than to just look at it roughly and miss something.

As if he was in a real library, the books were neatly organized by subject and genre. That meant… that the books from the Nephele Kingdom were all mixed up with everything else.

“You said collecting books was your hobby, but can you really call this a hobby?”

Arendt muttered skeptically, opening the books one by one from the innermost study. At this point, it wasn’t just a collection; it was an obsession.

Warren, who had also started similar work by leaning his back against the bookshelf and slumping down, could not help but regret it.

“If I had known this would happen, I would have brought a few more people.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

He thought about contacting the knights of the palace, but quickly gave up.

The palace was already in disarray. It was clear that mobilizing the knights in a situation where it was not even certain what was there would only draw unnecessary attention.

The first day passed by so meaninglessly.

And the next day, the two of them even prepared a simple snack and headed to the mansion early in the morning.

The Marquis smiled as if he had expected this and gladly prepared a packed lunch for them.

“I’ll come pick you up slowly, so take your time and look around.”

Leaving these words behind, the Marquis pushed them back into the hell of books and leisurely drove away in his carriage.

Arendt was flipping through the book while putting the snack he had brought in his mouth, when suddenly one illustration caught his eye and he stopped.

“This is…”

It had huge bat-like wings, a body covered in beautiful scales, sharp claws, and even breath that poured out from its wide-open mouth.

It was a sight of two dragons howling and attacking each other.

His curiosity was piqued, so he looked back at the content he had roughly skimmed over.

It was a story about a country being completely destroyed in a battle between a water dragon and a fire dragon.

“Has a country ever actually been destroyed because of a dragon?”

“There are often stories like that, but they are all just unverified rumors.”

Warren answered, without taking his eyes off the book he was reading.

“Have you investigated them?”

“They are based on legends and eyewitness accounts. Of course, we also looked into stories of cities and countries being destroyed.”

Llewellyn, who was suddenly ordered to find the dragon, first paid attention to the legends spread throughout the region.

“There has never been a country that was destroyed by a real dragon, at least not since the Great War. Natural disasters, epidemics, corruption of officials… When rumors spread about these things, they were blamed on dragons.”

After the wars of the heroic Khan, many states were founded, fell, and merged through turbulent times until they settled down as they saw today.

It was a time when dragon tales were created from the mouths of people who feared natural disasters.

“So there were no real eyewitness accounts after all?”

“Well, there was just one place. I heard that Llewellyn had personally checked it out in the past. He said that he started to be obsessed with dragons after seeing it.”

“What was it?”

“It was a small kingdom… they say that a mountain range was blown away during a battle between dragons, and the scars are still there. But that’s all. The battle took place over a hundred years ago, so they say there’s nothing much to be found.”

It was impossible to find the current location of the dragon with this information alone. Arendt leaned back against the bookshelf and took out another book.

This time the story was based on the legend of the hero Khan slaying a dragon.

“…Oh.”

His hands, which had been mechanically turning the pages, gradually slowed down. He thought it was just another novel, but it contained more detailed explanations than he had expected.

Dragons were the strongest destroyers and also the closest species to nature. The moment they are born, they possess unique magical properties that resemble nature.

Even within blood-related clans, dragons with different characteristics often appear, suggesting that it was not necessarily hereditary.

Lexion naturally came to mind.

When Alois went berserk, pitch-black beasts sprang out from all directions.

That must have been Lexion’s magic.

‘What could that be?’

Even though he compared things in his head, he couldn’t get a feel for it. Arendt, lost in thought, picked up the next book and suddenly stopped moving.

Before he knew it, Warren had also raised his head and was looking this way.

His gaze was fixed on the book Arendt was holding.

“You, don’t move.”

“If that could solve it, I want to do that too…”

At the brief warning, Arendt’s lips twisted into a crooked smile.

“It’s too late.”

The next moment, a gust of magical power swept through, and the book was engulfed in a pure white light, then began to swell as if it was about to burst.

Almost at the same time that Arendt reflexively threw down the book, Warren, transformed into a giant wolf, charged at him, barking ferociously.

The book that had been shaking violently soon transformed into beasts made of magical energy and rushed towards the two people.

“Warren, get down!”

Warren, who had bitten a black beast, quickly rolled over at the sound of the voice. Arendt, who had not missed the opportunity to activate the artifact, swung his sword at the beasts who were snapping their teeth at him.

A cold chill descended on the spacious study.

Warren, who raised his head to check the scene in the silence that suddenly felt like winter had come, couldn’t help but lose his mind for a moment.

The magical beasts with sharp teeth and claws were frozen white, as if ready to tear the apprentice knight apart at any moment.

“…”

As Arendt slowly exhaled, still in the same position as he had struck down his enemies, breath escaped from between his lips.

Pure white frost settled on the ground where he stood, on the book that poured enemies from the air, and on the sword he pulled out.

At that moment, Warren was speechless at the unrealistic sight.

Swish. Swish.

Cracks began to appear on the bodies of the enemies who were frozen solid, and soon they scattered into sparkling ice powder with a cracking sound.

Only then did Arendt straighten his posture. Warren glanced at the enemy remnants scattered on the ground and then looked at the apprentice knight again.

‘It seems like he’s gotten stronger than before.’

He seemed to have become more adept at fighting than he was in the not-so-distant past, when they were trying to kill each other.

“You crazy dragon bastard.”

Arendt, who had no idea what was going on, chewed on the curse and sheathed his sword. Warren also turned back into his human form and asked briefly.

“Dragon? Could this be its work?”

“Uh huh.”

It was exactly like the magic of the dragon he saw in the Lucain Kingdom. The apprentice knight clicked his tongue in annoyance and blurted out.

“It seems like he’s messed with us. He probably expected us to come here and pulled off this trick.”

“So… the book we want isn’t here.”

Warren, who had been licking his lips for a moment, also furrowed his brows. The dragon who had come here first to find the book must have also returned empty-handed.

Leaving only this small gift for Arendt, who would come to visit later.

Accustomed to ignoring the chill rising from his chest, Arendt picked up the book in question.

If he had acted just a little bit later, his wrist that had been holding the book would have flown away.

“Magic reaction.”

“I don’t feel anything else. I think that was the end of it just now.”

He listened to Warren’s short answer and opened the frozen white book. There were some parts that were frozen and hard to read, but he was able to figure out the content.

Like other books, it was a dragon tale. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it, such as the illustrations here and there and the somewhat absurd content…

One short word caught Arendt’s attention.

“…”

“Is there a problem?”

Warren asked curiously when Arendt suddenly stopped. But there was no immediate answer.

After a while, a short laugh burst out of Arendt’s mouth.

“Is it like this?”

His golden eyes, which were either cold or, on the contrary, heated, were fixed straight on the letters on the old paper.

He read it again several times just in case he had read it wrong, but there wasn’t difference.

The first page of the book featured an illustration of a bard surrounded by people, telling a story about a dragon.

The first sentence of the preface written on the next page began like this: