Chapter 128. When Steel Opens the Door (3)
“……As expected.”
Blanc had somewhat anticipated what would be waiting for him in the second account.
That was why he brought the Gorge Where Even Tears Dried Up and the wastelands around it to Quiesco.
To use what was sleeping in the second account through the abandoned lands there.
“Beronion would have liked it if he saw it.”
If Blanc wanted to reclaim his family that had already burned down, Beronion wanted to revive the World Tree that had dried and twisted.
However, neither Blanc nor Beronion could reclaim what they wanted.
Because those things had already burned down and dried twisted.
They were things that couldn't be reclaimed without turning back time.
“Although it isn't Beronion, I came instead. Sir Ulrich.”
And there was a person here who returned crossing time.
The moment Blanc, having finally reached the altar, picked up the seed of the World Tree placed there.
Instantly, his surroundings were dyed in darkness.
***
“Phew…….”
Despite his vision being blocked suddenly, Blanc did not panic.
Rather, it was a nostalgic feeling.
Instead of looking around, Blanc quietly closed his eyes and listened to find the sound a nostalgic person made.
Scritch scratch.
The sound of writing was heard from beyond the darkness by Blanc’s ears.
The sound of pen and paper touching.
Blanc walked quietly toward the direction where the sound came from.
“Sir Ulrich.”
There was the illusion of Ulrich concentrating on something with a black robe pulled over his head just like when opening the first account.
“……Blanc? How are you here, Blanc…….”
Ulrich panic-stricken seeing Blanc’s appearance.
Although he wasn't an uninvited guest, he seemed flustered that a person deviating from his expectations had reached here.
“Your illusion sent me here. Sir Ulrich.”
The Ulrich here would be an illusion left in the past further back than the Ulrich seen in the Gorge Where Even Tears Dried Up.
“Mmm…… It seems Beronion also eventually failed in regression like me.”
However, Ulrich grasped the situation through intuition just by Blanc’s existence here.
“Still, it is fortunate that at least you came. It seems the illusion left in the future further than I tried to hand over even Beronion’s share.”
Ulrich seemed to be lost in thought for a moment looking at Blanc.
Blanc felt relieved meeting an existence he could rely on after a long time seeing such an appearance of Ulrich.
“Coming all the way to the second account prepared for Beronion means you found all the arrangements I prepared for you.”
“That is correct.”
Ulrich nodded and patted Blanc’s shoulder.
“You really worked hard.”
Blanc felt a corner of his heart heating up looking at Ulrich patting his shoulder.
“The most tender one among us was shouldering the most things.”
The Grand Mage of the Illusion School, Ulrich Tiedemann.
The Captain of Griffin Riders and Guardian of the White Branch, Beronion.
And the mercenary Blanc Cadmus, successor of a fallen Baron family.
Although Blanc couldn't put forward anything like skill or reputation compared to the preceding two people, he eventually crawled up doggedly and accomplished the things he had to do.
Because such indomitable will and mental strength were highly valued, he was chosen over heroes active in the Liberation Front.
“Good.”
Ulrich stood up from his seat.
“Although I was prepared for the failure of the regression plan from the moment I fell into the past, it wasn't the worst.”
The mage living in illusion was a person who didn't give up.
“It was worth struggling. It was worth devoting my life to create the Iron Bank.”
Ulrich’s illusion, looking at Blanc for a moment, smiled and lowered the hood he was wearing.
“……Sir Ulrich?”
Looking at Ulrich who lowered his hood, Blanc panicked.
“It was worth giving up the existence called Ulrich Tiedemann.”
He who was in the illusion always covered himself with a long robe.
As if trying to hide his appearance.
“You made that possible. Thank you truly.”
Ulrich who took off the hood, or rather the person with Ulrich’s appearance was.
“My appearance must be unfamiliar.”
A dwarf with short legs, solid shoulders, and a long hanging beard.
“Currently I am called Joachim Christen.”
Blanc, seeing Ulrich’s appearance, couldn't say anything for a while and just hesitated.
Given Ulrich’s tracks so far, he had thought he would be a figure deeply involved in the Iron Bank, but.
“Is it…… Is it really Sir Ulrich?”
Because he never dreamed he would appear in the form of a dwarf.
Joachim Christen.
Blanc recalled the two statues standing at the entrance of the Iron Bank seeing Ulrich’s appearance.
Two statues the dwarf guard explained with excitement.
One was made honoring the First Chieftain, and the other was.
The statue of Joachim Christen, the founder and first bank head of the Iron Bank.
Seeing Blanc frozen looking at him, Joachim smiled and said.
“The current me is Joachim Christen, but the me of the next life is the Ulrich Tiedemann you know.”
“……Next life?”
After Blanc returned, the person he searched for first was the mage of the Illusion School Ulrich Tiedemann, the proposer and executor of the regression plan.
However, his traces couldn't be found anywhere.
The name Ulrich didn't exist among those making a name among mages in the Illusion School either.
Even if regression failed, the Ulrich of that timeline who wasn't a Regressor should have existed, but he had disappeared as if he didn't exist in this world.
“……What does that mean?”
“Unlike you, I fell into the past 190 years ago.”
Ulrich, no, Joachim Christen stood with hands behind his back and spoke to Blanc.
“Try to remember. Didn't I tell you when passing through the gate for regression? That we return to the past with only memories and souls.”
Blanc nodded agreeing with Joachim’s words.
“Would the existence called Ulrich have existed for me who returned to the past 190 years ago? So my soul and memories came back to me before the existence called Ulrich.”
Ulrich shrugged and said.
“Into the body of a dwarf named Joachim Christen, my very previous life.”
Ulrich wasn't simply a person trapped in the past.
He was a person who lost his body.
“Also, for me to become the Ulrich of the next life, it also meant I had to put down the memories I have now and become a new soul according to the laws of reincarnation. So I gave that up.”
He was a person who gave up his existence.
“I extended my lifespan as much as I could and eliminated the existence called Ulrich who would be born naturally like that. So I wouldn't have existed in the timeline where you are.”
He was a person who threw away his everything to stop the existence called the Void.
“So I could barely reach you.”
He created the Iron Bank and finished arrangements for the two Regressors.
And indicated the direction to Blanc through the golden statue that would never change forever.
Ulrich destroyed his own existence called Ulrich Tiedemann in the future to achieve that accomplishment.
“Sir Ulrich…….”
Blanc, realizing everything only now, bit his lip and forcibly swallowed what was coming up his throat.
Blanc was someone who risked his life and defeated countless hardships and enemies until now.
It was a solitary and difficult path, and Blanc had also resented the two Regressors who weren't by his side while walking that path.
However, the hardships he had walked through meanwhile were nothing compared to Ulrich who gave up his existence.
“I apologize…… I didn't know. I truly…….”
Although Blanc possessed mental strength tough enough to parry the gaze of the Void, right now he found it hard to hide emotions.
Because the person in front of him right now was a person lacking nothing to be truly called a hero.
Ulrich, who not only sacrificed himself, but even offered his next life as the price.
The person who was Joachim and Ulrich saw Blanc’s eyes turning red and embraced him.
“Thank you. For not making my sacrifice in vain.”
Inside the darkness made of illusion.
Two Regressors looked at each other and pitied each other.
Although they couldn't meet blocked by the wall called time, they could feel each other’s existence at least in the illusion.
The first and second accounts were prepared by Joachim Christen, the first bank head of the Iron Bank, and Ulrich Tiedemann.
They had been stored safely by the solid yet unchanging organization called the Iron Bank.
And finally, they came to meet their owners crossing time.
Following the will of the person who made them.
***
“Ah damn it! What is this!”
Drogan sitting on the jewel throne was flustered, feeling the vibration echoing suddenly in the Neyanpalgar Mountain Range.
This vibration was a completely different type of vibration from when the first account opened.
“It is ringing below us!”
It was echoing from the lowest part of the mountain range where Brotswav was situated, not the Iron Bank.
At the intense and long-lasting vibration, all dwarves in Brotswav held their breath and observed the situation.
And when the vibration finally subsided.
“Is it over?”
Drogan stood up holding the Largest Axe with a dumbfounded face.
He habitually reached out for a beer mug to calm his chest jumping wildly.
One glass of beer and another glass of beer.
There was nothing like this to stabilize a dwarf.
“Chieftain!”
However, before Drogan could stabilize his mind and body, there were dwarves kicking open the door of the audience chamber and entering.
“What!”
Drogan, who was barely finding stability now, lost his temper at the dwarves who popped out suddenly, but they poured out words competing for first without caring at all about Drogan’s shout.
“An earthquake happened but!”
“A passage appeared!”
“It’s something I've seen for the first time!”
“It says only the person with the Largest Axe enters!”
Although they were reports of dwarves without logic, coherence, and order, Drogan understood what they wanted to say at once.
“You say a passage seen for the first time appeared after the earthquake ended, and a writing saying only the one possessing the Largest Axe enter was written in front of it?”
At Drogan’s words, the dwarves who entered competing as if collapsing nodded simultaneously.
Drogan Excelheart.
Excellent in communication and communion, he was a person truly qualified to be the Chieftain of dwarves.
“Lately things don't pass easily at all!”
The abnormality started from the Black Forest and continued through Blanc and the World Tree until now.
Drogan instinctively felt that all this wasn't something happening by chance.
“Let’s go!”
He put down the beer mug he was holding to verify it himself.
Drogan carrying the Largest Axe and dwarves led by him came down riding mine carts and stood in front of the problematic passage.
“Why is it so big?”
Although they were dwarves with small stature, it was a passage too wide and large even considering that.
“It isn't a passage for us.”
Drogan knew looking at the appearance of the passage that this wasn't a place made for dwarves.
It felt like a passage where something huge, or incredibly many things, had to move.
A passage deceiving the eyes of dwarves who were born with the qualities of miners.
The dwarves escorting Drogan were horrified at the existence of the passage hidden, deceiving their eyes until now and gripping the axes they possessed.
“……What the hell is there?”
Although he grumbled with words, Drogan took the lead more than anyone and walked toward the unknown passage.
Just like the words of dwarves who reported, a stone monument with the phrase saying only the one possessing the Largest Axe entered stood in the middle of the passage.
And under that phrase, the symbol of the First Chieftain Mathias Streich was drawn.
“If it’s like this, really only I can go.”
Drogan, the current Chieftain, had no choice but to walk alone into the passage that was certainly made by the First Chieftain Mathias.
“Everyone wait.”
Drogan, who was walking into the passage with those words, hurriedly returned as if there was something he suddenly remembered.
“If something goes wrong with me, hold a Grand Banquet to elect a Chieftain. As the representative of the Excelheart family, I will send out my son Sten.”
Although Drogan always had a hearty laugh, right now he had a serious expression without a single hint of laughter.
“……Understood.”
The warriors escorting Drogan had no choice but to nod at his seriousness.
“I’m really going this time.”
Drogan entering toward the wide and dark passage with the Largest Axe shouldered.
He walked alone toward the dark passage to perform the Chieftain’s duty holding the largest and heaviest axe.
Only the sound of his footsteps echoed in the passage.
Drogan recalled countless thoughts listening to his steps.
Traces of the past and the current situation they were placed in.
“I’m here.”
And thoughts regarding how the approaching future would turn out.
At the end of the passage finally reached in such thoughts, there was a wide door made of steel.
“Surely it isn't solid steel?”
To make a door of this size with solid steel, quite a lot of effort would have gone in.
Drogan, whose unique dwarven curiosity was triggered, examined the door slowly scanning traces of them.
“Mm…….”
Drogan, examining traces like that, could discover 2 stone monuments standing in front of the door.
Names and phrases he knew well were written on those monuments.
-When steel opens the door, the will of Neyanpalgar shall follow from within.
On the monument on the left, the symbol of the First Chieftain Mathias Streich was engraved along with the phrase engraved on the Largest Axe.
-When all accounts are opened, steel shall open the door and follow the natural order following the guidance of gold.
On the monument on the right, the symbol of the first bank head of the Iron Bank, Joachim Christen, was engraved.
“What do you want me to do?”
Drogan, seeing the phrases ancestors wrote, scratched his head and approached the middle of the door passing the monuments.
“It’s blatant.”
In the middle of the door, a groove was dug where it seemed exactly right if the Largest Axe went in.
As if telling to insert the axe here.
“Hmph, if told to peel, I must peel.”
Drogan brought his axe to that groove.
RUMBLE-.
Then, the massive and wide door reacting to the Largest Axe began to open little by little making a heavy sound.
“Now I’m not even surprised by this much.”
Drogan quickly takes a guard stance not knowing what might be inside.
However, he had no choice but to open his mouth wide looking at the spectacle unfolded before his eyes.
“……Oh my god.”
Golden light starting from beyond the door brightened the dark passage fully.
Inside the massive cavity, a brilliant golden wave was full.
The passage is hidden in the deepest part of the Neyanpalgar Mountain Range.
In the space sealed there.
There were strong and solid things containing the will of the Neyanpalgar Mountain Range.
Seeing them, Drogan could only now know what the First Chieftain and the Bank Head meant.
“……So that was this.”
In the Iron Bank, Perlman opened the second account according to Blanc’s request.
With this, steel that opened all accounts, the first and second, opened itself and revealed its existence.
And in front of Drogan who entered following that place, golden waves that had waited only to move for a long time were situated.
Drogan, even while admiring looking at the things shining with golden light in front.
“Just when is the time for these things to move…….”
Goosebumps rose imagining what kind of flow it would be that required these things to step forward.
“Just what were you preparing for, ancestors?”
The Largest Axe, symbol of the Chieftain.
Drogan’s shoulder holding it became heavy.