Chapter 270: Victory (3)
Terms used in this episode:
Executor Sword – This is a reference to a myth-rank equipment called Jin Myung Hwang’s Conduct Sword in the MMORPG, Lineage 2. This sword is known to be expensive because of its long and complicated crafting process, to the point that it became a term in other games (in Korea) for any sword or equipment that is extremely hard to craft.
Even a well-behaved cat would first head to the fireplace – a proverb similar to ‘A fair face may hide a foul heart’. It means that even if a person looks and acts good, they may still do or think of something bad.
There were no specific regulations prohibiting members from dating or marriage in the Guardians of the Holy Cross.
Therefore, there were many married people who had children like Carmen, and there were many members who were interested in dating like Manuel.
“Fufu.”
“Huhuhu.”
Carmen and Manuel silently laughed as they faced Jude lying on the bed with disheveled clothes yet had a rather shameless look, and Cordelia who was sitting on a chair by the bed but had even more disheveled clothes as she slightly avoided their gaze.
‘Their clothes are a mess.’
‘Lady Cordelia has some marks on her neck and clavicle.’
Manuel and Carmen only spoke to themselves as they studied the other side’s gaze and facial expressions.
Cordelia wiggled her fingers as she turned away her blushing face, while the brazen Jude stretched out his hand and grasped Cordelia’s hand.
‘Lady Cordelia is flustered.’
‘But her facial expression says that she likes it.’
A shy but somehow joyful – no, a proud expression.
She looked very cute with her head down as she slightly turned her gaze to look at Jude, and then turned her eyes again at their clasped hands before giggling.
‘We have to hurry and get out of here.’
‘We have to finish this quickly.’
Carmen and Manuel thought the same despite not exchanging glances, so the two proceeded with their topic.
“This is the statement that General Kamael told us to deliver.”
Manuel handed over some documents to Jude who was sitting on the bed.
The documents contained information on the distribution of Malekith’s corpse which was the biggest loot from the battle, and also included the transportation and storage costs.
‘Hmm, as expected. This statement is very much like Kamael.’
Kamael had an upright personality, so the loot was distributed accurately according to one’s contribution.
He also attached the calculation formula and the basis for how he calculated one’s contributions.
‘We have the biggest share.’
Individually, Landius had the largest share, but the two had the biggest share when combined.
Moreover, Jude and Cordelia’s shares were not significantly smaller than that of Landius in the first place.
If Landius had 10, Jude and Cordelia had 9 each.
‘As expected of Kamael.’
He included in one’s contributions not only the battle with Malekith himself, but also the process that led to this battle.
As a result, the shares of Jude and Cordelia naturally grew.
‘We dealt the last hit.’
Jude passed the documents to Cordelia who was looking at him with curious eyes and a happy smile, and sent her a magic.
[We also have the largest stake in the Dragon Heart.]
[Really?]
[Yes, really. It’s written on the last page.]
At Jude’s words, Cordelia quickly turned to the last page, and her smile grew bigger as if a flower had bloomed.
[It’s real.]
The Dragon Heart of an Ancient Dragon.
It was not in perfect condition. The Dragon Heart had been exposed to the destructive power that came from Ascalon, so it broke and shattered into pieces.
But still, it was the Dragon Heart of an Ancient Dragon.
Each piece was like a powerful magic weapon that had tremendous power.
[Hehe, hehehe.]
What will I do with this?
What shall I make with these pieces?
Cordelia couldn’t stop smiling as she imagined it. Because this was reality now.
[Hurray for reality. Reality is the best.]
If this was a game, if this was Legend of Heroes 2, the loot one could get from defeating Malekith was quite few.
Something like that.
But that was not the case in reality.
All of Malekith’s corpse could be taken.
[Even after getting a full set, it seems like we can form an army wearing dragon equipment from the remaining loot.]
Cordelia smiled and spoke via magic, and Jude nodded right away.
[That’s right. In the game, one had to work with guilds in order to get at least two myth-rank dragon equipment.]
[Yes, that’s why I like it.]
Cordelia couldn’t control her excitement as she even trembled.
Myth-rank dragon equipment.
Those could only be made from the parts of an Ancient Dragon, so they were the most expensive items among the crafted items.
‘It was the so-called Executor Sword in Legend of Heroes.’
Malekith was the only Ancient Dragon to have appeared directly in Legend of Heroes 2.
Therefore, it was impossible to craft a myth-rank dragon equipment in single-player mode.
‘Because it’s not something you only collect once.’
However, it was not easy to craft it even if one played in multi-player mode.
Malekith received various adjustments in multi-player mode, and he was a raid boss that was difficult to defeat even with a guild full of rotten waters who were fully prepared. The drop rate for materials was also ruthless no matter how many times one defeated Malekith, just like in single-player mode.
‘It’s something that a huge guild can only decide to craft as it also takes a year to make.’
Therefore, even Outboxer009 and Yellow Storm, who were the most rotten among the rotten waters, had only known of its existence, but never actually owned any myth-rank dragon equipment.
‘But this is reality now.’
We defeated Malekith only once and got its full body.
How many times would we have to defeat Malekith in order to get this amount from the game?
100 times?
200 times?
[Hehehe.]
[Fufufu.]
Jude and Cordelia exchanged dark smiles as they rejoiced once more.
Even if it was not myth-rank equipment, it seemed like they could do a lot with the amount they would receive.
‘We’re going to have a lot of money.’
The parts of an Ancient Dragon was pretty much the final boss in terms of scarcity.
Even one small scale was expensive.
[Are we going to be really rich?]
[We won’t be just rich as we’ll be as rich as conglomerates… no, maybe we’ll even be as rich as oil magnates?]
[Ha. I’m so happy. It makes me very, very happy.]
Money can’t buy happiness?
Not true. Those who lack money can be happy.
Cordelia was so happy that she trembled, and Jude turned to Carmen and Manuel before saying.
“Thank you very much. Please relay our gratitude to Kamael-nim too.”
“We will. And… as stated in the statement, it will take a considerable amount of time to transport Malekith and the Dragonflights’ corpses from the island to the mainland. We estimate it to be at least seven days.”
“Yes, we understand that it will take time.”
In fact, it would only take three days if all the 7 southern families stepped forward, but Kamael did not trust the 7 southern families.
The reason why they were able to lead the 7 southern families was because of the common enemy named Malekith, and of Carlos’ legacy, Dragon Sword Ascalon.
Now that Malekith was defeated, it was impossible to completely trust the 7 southern families.
‘It may take time, but the most reliable method is…to call the knights from the Guardians to deal with it from start to finish.’
Jude nodded again before he impulsively pinched the cheek of Cordelia who was still imagining happy thoughts, and then he turned to Carmen and Manuel who were quick-witted enough to not drag it any longer.
“Then, we’ll be on our way. I hope you two have a great time.”
A great time.
Carmen snickered as she quickly left with Manuel, and Jude applauded in his mind the two for their quick-wittedness.
“Jude.”
“Yes, Cordelia.”
Cordelia giggled and crawled back onto the bed instead of continuing to talk. She lied next to Jude and closed her eyes, snuggling into his arms.
Their heartbeats and body temperature.
Their smell that tickled the tip of their noses.
Jude kissed Cordelia’s head before he stretched out his hand and hugged Cordelia by the shoulder. He slowly closed his eyes, feeling Cordelia’s warmth and softness.
‘It feels really nice.’
Just lying like this.
It’s okay if we rest like this for a few days.
Because we’ll be really busy in the future.
They had to build facilities and hire craftsmen needed to mass-produce dragon equipment, find the legendary craftsman who could make myth-rank dragon equipment, and other things they had to do with the money they would get in the future.
He decided to forget all of it for a while. Jude cleared his thoughts and only focused on Cordelia who stroked Jude’s chest and smiled again.
“Good night.”
“Yeah, good night.”
It was still daytime, and there was still some time before nighttime.
But Jude and Cordelia whispered that to each other and fell into a deep sleep.
***
Three days later in the morning.
Count Bayer and Count Chase faced each other with satisfaction.
Because after three days of heated discussion, they succeeded in condensing the list of candidates for grandchildren names into ten.
Five names for boys and five names for girls.
“Well, shall we call it a day?”
“Fine, we have a lot of other important things to do.”
The two of them got up from their seats and moved to the downtown area of Argon Port.
It was to look at baby items that was as important as baby names.
And at the same time.
Unlike Jude who was still lying in bed, Cordelia looked healthy as she chased after Kajsa and Scarlet while wearing a disguise. She was tightly hugging a paper bag to her chest.
‘She looks like a squirrel.’
A squirrel with a lot of food in its mouth, and was in a hurry for fear that someone might steal it.
As Scarlet smiled happily like a mother, Kajsa snickered and said.
“Let me know if you need more later. I’ll show you where there’s even better stuff.”
“Uhh… thank you.”
When Cordelia shyly thanked her, Kajsa said with a furtive – no, a sly smile.
“It will be a good study material.”
A study material.
A very good study material.
In fact, Scarlet didn’t quite agree with that.
Because Kajsa’s taste was very bad for studying.
“Focus on the things I recommend rather than what Kajsa recommended, okay?”
“What the-… Hey, what you recommended is too plain, okay?”
“What do you mean by plain? And you, I told you to call me unnie, right?”
Scarlet and Kajsa began to argue, but Cordelia did not intervene.
Because she had seen this scene every day for the past few days, and she just wanted to go back to the inn as soon as possible.
“I know the way from here on out. Thank you very much for today. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
Cordelia bade farewell to her friends, or to be exact, her unnies, and she skipped towards the inn while Scarlet and Kajsa who were arguing then laughed out loud.
“Even a well-behaved cat would first head to the fireplace.”
“You’re right.”
Argon Port as well as the south – no, the entire S?len Kingdom, was buzzing with the news of the Ancient Dragon’s defeat.
And one of the people who actually defeated Malekith was thinking of something completely different.
“Well, they’ll have a great time, right?”
“Yeah, a great time.”
“You speak as if you’ve had a great time yourself.”
“Hey, what do you mean by that? What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
Kajsa growled when Scarlet laughed, and Cordelia ignored the commotion behind her – no, she was not paying attention to them in the first place, so she hastened her steps.
And around ten minutes later.
Upon arriving at the inn, Cordelia quickly entered the room and took out the contents of the paper bag.
Audiovisual materials recommended by Kajsa, and books recommended by Scarlet.
Cordelia first opened the book that Scarlet recommended, titled ‘70 Shades of Abyss’ in yellow letters on a red cover. Because she was very interested about the part she had seen at the bookstore earlier.
Gulp.
After glancing around, she opened the cover and focused on reading.
“Ueueue.”
As she read each and every sentence, Cordelia let out a strange sound as her legs lightly shook.
Her cheeks were red and her breathing was getting rough, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the letters.
Because vivid images were being drawn in her mind.
Really? For real?
They seriously did this?
Things that she never imagined.
And that was why it was so exciting.
Cordelia swallowed hard again before briefly imagining it in her mind.
The male lead as Jude, and the female lead as Cordelia herself.
If I reproduce the scene that I just read…
Cordelia inwardly screamed. No, she had no choice but to actually let out a sound with her voice.
Because she heard someone knocking from the door.
“Cordelia? May I come in?”
“Eh? EEEEH? Ah! Yes!”
Cordelia closed the book loudly and jumped up from her seat as she almost fell down, but she wasn’t called a beast for nothing. She managed to somehow balance herself while hiding the book behind her back, and pretended to be as calm as possible – no, she faced Jude with a red face as she sweated profusely.
“W-what’s the matter?”
Cordelia pretended to be fine, but it was only for a short while. Because the scenes she had just read began to fill her mind the moment she faced Jude.
And Jude, who knew what Cordelia was thinking just by looking at her eyes, coughed and looked away.
And that was why he found Kajsa’s recommendations sticking out of the paper bag on the table.
“Ahem, ahem.”
He pretended to not have seen it.
He also pretended to not know what Cordelia was desperately hiding behind her back.
Because privacy was important.
“J-Jude?”
“Uh, yes. That…uh. We got a message while you were out.”
“A message?”
“Yes, some, but not all of them, will be arriving at the port soon.”
“Wow, really?”
When Cordelia brightly asked, Jude nodded his head and continued.
“Yes, so let’s meet them soon.”
The dwarven craftsmen living in Argon Port.
They were the ones who had been struggling to meet Jude and Cordelia for the past three days.
‘Please! Just one scale! No, only two scales!’
‘If possible, some teeth please!’
Because it was none other than an Ancient Dragon.
For the dwarves who were artisans since birth, these were all the material of their dreams.
“Then, we’ll have an advantage?”
“It won’t be just an advantage.”
Jude would simply sell it at a higher price – he did not have such a one-dimensional thought.
He was going to get much more than that.
“You look absolutely evil.”
“Isn’t it a trustworthy smile?”
“Yes, a really good one.”
The dwarven craftsmen who lived in Argon Port.
Before they meet the legendary craftsman who was able to craft myth-rank dragon equipment, they needed to cleverly talk to – no, they needed to coax some ‘friends.’
“Then, I’ll be waiting outside.”
“Eh? Uh… yes. I’ll be out soon.”
Jude left the room, and Cordelia breathed out in relief before she quickly hid the red book under the bed.
And around an hour later.
Jude’s plot – no, his deal that would have a huge impact not only for the dwarven artisans of Argon Port, but also for the 7 southern families, finally began.
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