‘I need to find the office.’
If the exit was blocked, escape was hopeless anyway. He didn’t have confidence to hide from the knight either.
Then there was only one method. Get his hands on what they were looking for first.
From the circumstances, it seemed Baron Nolson had fled or hidden ‘it,’ whatever it was.
That’s why Father was also looking for the Baron. Not to take him back in or silence him with death, but to retrieve ‘it’ that he’d stolen.
Otherwise, there was no way he’d send even a knight, not just an assassination squad, to find the now-worthless Baron Nolson.
‘You should have trusted and relied on your subordinates normally, Father. Then the Baron wouldn’t have fled.’
Though this wasn’t something someone who let Klad go because he couldn’t give that ‘trust’ should think.
‘Whatever it is, it must be something Father needs. I must find it before the knight does.’
If he discovered ‘it,’ whether he made a deal with the knight or threatened them with it, his chances of escaping this place alive would increase from 0% to about 3%.
Jake judged that ‘it’ would be in the lord’s office.
When they searched the castle with Klad, Klad had found the location of the office he’d never visited before in one go. He must have followed the large amount of mana felt there.
In other words, it meant no particular traces of mana were felt anywhere other than the office.
One couldn’t escape the Duke’s surveillance by fleeing on foot. The fact that Baron Nolson could hide or flee without anyone knowing meant he received magical help. Whether there was a secret passage made with magic or he used a magic scroll, the Baron had used some kind of magic in the office.
If he was going to find his traces, he had to start there.
“Huk, hoo…”
Jake ran, ignoring even his ragged breathing. It was fortunate the office wasn’t far away.
‘How do I find a secret space?’
Without even time to catch his breath, Jake rummaged through every corner of the office.
It was good that he’d run here boldly, but there was no way Jake could find traces of magic.
Kwang—!
Jake struck the desk hard.
What was the point of working hard to make plans? When he couldn’t do anything alone.
Even now, he’d merely struck the desk and his palm stung.
This weakness that couldn’t even withstand a single desk…
Crack—
“…Huk!”
At that moment, the desk split in half.
In a way, it looked like Jake had split the desk in half with monstrous strength.
Knowing well he didn’t have such ability, Jake calmly examined the desk instead of rejoicing.
‘It’s Klad’s magic.’
The protective magic that recognized the shock when he struck the desk as an attack had activated. The desk suddenly received the magic’s counterattack and split in half.
Jake intuitively knew that the protective magic had completely disappeared as of moments ago.
Now he had no way to protect himself even from sudden attacks. So he had no choice but to resolve everything before anything happened.
‘What’s this?’
While examining the desk, something was visible through the gap in the broken top.
Something shaped like a secret space.
Crack.
Jake pulled apart the desk split in half to both sides to fully open it, and found a narrow space hidden underneath.
‘It’s a secret safe?’
There was a secret safe there. Secret safes were things that opened only in response to a specific person’s mana or special items, and couldn’t be opened even by burning with fire or cutting with a sword.
Unaware that Klad’s protective magic, which was superior to the magic on the safe, had broken the magic imbued in the desk, Jake simply thought he was lucky and examined the inside with a bright smile.
Inside the safe was a black sphere about the size of a child’s fist.
‘What is this?’
Jake had confidence he would recognize immediately whatever the Duke was looking for.
However, this was something even Jake, who had grown up wandering through all the hidden spaces of the ducal castle and seeing many things the Duke hid, was seeing for the first time.
Jake held it up to the light and examined it.
The way it sparkled brilliantly was beautiful yet strangely gave him chills.
Why was that? He had a feeling he shouldn’t know what this was.
“Found it.”
At that moment, a familiar voice brushed past his ear.
Before Jake, who noticed it was the knight’s voice he’d heard until moments ago, could turn his head, something blunt struck the back of his head.
Thwack—
***
Clank, clank.
The first thing the unconscious Jake heard when he opened his eyes was the sound of broken scrap metal clattering.
Thanks to that, Jake immediately noticed he was being carried on the knight’s shoulder.
It wasn’t a very comfortable method of transport. His stomach churned as it pressed against the hard armor, but he couldn’t make a single complaint.
Jake continued pretending to be unconscious while trying to figure out where this was.
‘Here… am I still inside the lord’s castle?’
Seeing they hadn’t gone far, he guessed only a few minutes had passed since he’d lost consciousness.
It didn’t seem like they were heading outside, so where on earth were they going?
Clank, clank.
Creak—
The knight who arrived at the lord’s castle reception room set Jake down on the floor as if throwing him away.
Thud.
“Uuk.”
Jake let out a faint groan and pressed his hands against the ground to raise his sprawled body.
His body ached and his mind was foggy, but figuring out the situation came first right now.
Why exactly had they brought him to this room? What was the Duke’s purpose? He had to find out as many things as he could find out.
Step.
Someone approached in front of Jake like that.
Someone who had been standing here all along just waiting for Jake to come.
“Is the Hero game over?”
Jake froze in place.
Realizing that his appearance with his hands on the floor and head lowered looked like he was pledging loyalty, Jake immediately raised his head and stood up.
“Father.”
Let’s be calm.
Though he hadn’t expected to meet Father in a place other than the ducal castle, meeting him soon was within the expected range.
“What brings you out of the capital?”
“There’s nowhere in the Empire I cannot go.”
“Did you lose an important item in this place?”
At Jake’s bluff, the Duke smirked and extended his hand toward the knight. The knight placed the black sphere on it.
‘As expected, it was taken.’
He thought he’d clenched his fist the moment he was hit on the back of the head, but apparently he couldn’t hide it from the knight after all.
It was regrettable that the Duke had retrieved what he was looking for, but for now, just learning of its existence was a great gain.
It was still okay. Nothing was over yet.
“You must be curious what this is, Jake.”
“Even if you don’t tell me, I’ll soon find out what it is. I’m also a West, am I not?”
“If you’re curious about my plan, I can tell you.”
“……”
A lie. It’s not that he could tell him if he wanted to know, but rather he was planning to tell him by force even if he didn’t want to know.
Revealing that plan must also be part of the plan.
‘Which means I’m involved in that plan.’
It was something he’d been guessing since he heard the order to bring him back alive.
Jake steeled himself not to show any sign of being shaken no matter what he heard and waited for the words to follow.
“This is something I’ve researched for a very long time. Baron Nolson was a great help. However, there was one ingredient absolutely necessary to complete this that I haven’t been able to obtain until now.”
“Something Father couldn’t obtain all this time, I suppose that ingredient is a dragon heart.”
“It’s more precious than that. There are multiple dragons, but there’s only one person in the entire world who possesses it.”
“…?”
The Duke held out the sphere toward Jake.
The sphere was shining more brilliantly and more ominously than when Jake first discovered it.
From that sphere, he felt an extremely familiar energy.
An energy like what he felt every day…
“The Hero’s power.”
“What do you…”
“I’m talking about the last necessary ingredient.”
“…Pardon?”
Contrary to his goal of maintaining composure, a clumsy voice popped out.
“Jake, you possessed excessive power yet didn’t know how to use it. Even while keeping you with me, I couldn’t draw out that power. How wonderful it would have been if it were a problem that could be solved with blood or a heart.”
The Duke’s gaze, which had been looking at the sphere with an endlessly affectionate expression, turned toward Jake.
Jake frowned at the coldly sunken eyes.
“How did you do it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m asking how a bastard who can’t even infuse mana into a sword released power.”
“When did I ever use power…!”
Jake stopped speaking mid-sentence and opened his eyes wide.
He thought he understood what the Duke was saying.
‘Don’t tell me… the magic that activated when I struck the desk drew out my power!’
It hadn’t had any effect on his body, so he hadn’t noticed.
But what if Klad’s magic that broke the desk had his power imbued in it?
What if the Hero’s power had been imbued in the sphere hidden inside the desk at that time?
‘Which means… my attempt to obstruct Father actually ended up helping him instead.’
This time it was difficult to hide his agitation even if he tried.
If he hadn’t made a fuss trying to find what was hidden, Father would never have completed the sphere.
Whatever that was, it surely wouldn’t be beneficial to himself or to this world.
And the one who completed it was none other than Jake West himself.
“You worked hard all this time.”
The Duke, judging he could no longer obtain any useful information from Jake, approached.
With a benevolent smile filling his face.
“Now you’ll have to die, son.”
