The drugs made him lose his mind in the end. He misinterpreted the order to find Godswords and thought any old enchanted sword would do. It was kind of funny, when you put it that way. They had only stopped by Ulmutt to get a refill, since their drug supply was running low—its primary ingredient was the venom sacs of Pandemic Leeches found in the local dungeon. Solus was gathering this material when he was captured, only adding to the comic tragedy.
Elza left to return to questioning Seldio’s accomplices. Once she was out of the room, Dias turned to us again.
“I really can’t thank you enough. You took out an entire bag of trash for the Adventurers’ Guild!”
“What do you mean?”
“Their syndicate is the cancer of Granzell’s Adventurers’ Guild, and you took care of them all in one sitting! Oh, thank you so much!”
Cancer? Folks sure hated Seldio.
“Did you get a chance to Identify Seldio?”
Yeah.
“Did you get a look at his skill list? I believe he had Sexual Attraction and Sexual Enchantment.”
Now that you mention it… They hadn’t come into play when he was fighting us, and they had no effect on Fran when he talked to her.
“One of our female Guildmasters was seduced with those skills. That was how he convinced her to promote him to A-Rank. Apparently, women bent over backwards for him.”
And that was enough to make him A-Rank?
“It was one of the reasons,” said Dias. “And the guild listened to her suggestion they admit a man forty years her junior, just because he called her pretty.”
Jeez…that easy?
“There was pressure from House Aschtner itself, of course. And bribes. Lots of bribes. He took advantage of his privileges to lobby the Guildmasters, too.”
“Is the guild okay?”
That sounds distressing. The Adventurers’ Guild was sounding more and more like your run-of-the-mill crooked corporation.
“I can only apologize. Guildmasters are human too, and some of them happen to be trash.”
I guess… Even the politicians and policemen back on Earth committed crimes. More authority brought more temptation.
“I’ve been waiting for him to slip up so I could take his rank from him.”
But I thought he shook people down on a daily basis. Isn’t that cause enough?
“As much as I hate Seldio, what he did was completely legal. He did pay the people he extorted, and no adventurer had actually filed a complaint.”
What? Why? Do they just give up on their weapons and cry themselves to sleep?
The Aschtners must have quite a collection.
“Well, you’re strong. Very strong. Strong enough to beat anyone that threatens you. But an ordinary adventurer wouldn’t dare oppose an A-Rank, let alone the son of a powerful marquis. Especially not after all the nasty rumors.”
I supposed losing your weapon was a lot more appealing than losing your life.
“What made Seldio even more dangerous was the fact that he went crazy. There is manatech that can target criminals, but the criminal needs to feel guilty for it to work.”
That item wouldn’t work against Seldio. To the bitter end, he’d been convinced he was doing the right thing.
I can’t believe that the marquis would drug his own son.
“That’s the thing with nobles, I’m afraid. Having an A-Rank adventurer as your puppet can be very convenient. A-Ranks have the authority to mobilize adventurers—a privilege denied to nobility—and the marquis could easily use Seldio to give out orders. The military power he could’ve wielded is not to be underestimated.”
Okay, but why go through the trouble of drugging him?
“Because he didn’t think Seldio would keep following orders once he became an A-Rank. Drugging him was a safer and more practical option.”
Man, these nobles didn’t play around! We should keep away from them!
“Seldio was also a bastard in the technical sense. Marquis Aschtner treated him like another disposable pawn. He probably saw it as a convenient way to clean out his family’s closet.”
Unfortunate, but I understood Dias’ point.
“I do think the Aschtners are about to get into a lot of trouble.”
“Why’s that?” Fran asked.
“Because they were looking for Godswords. Those weapons are powerful enough to take on an entire army. If word got out that the marquis was looking for them, he might be suspected of treason. His only defense would be if he said Seldio were looking for it of his own accord.”
“Really?”
“Any self-respecting veteran would want to get their hands on a Godsword. Call it the adventurer’s dream. It would be perfectly excusable if Seldio was looking for one.”
It was almost pedantic, but I saw the difference. There was nothing suspicious about an adventurer searching for a legendary weapon, as long as the marquis didn’t have anything to do with it. If Marquis Aschtner told him to look for one, it would be a different story.
“And what have we here…” said Dias as he casually filed through the papers Elza had left. He singled out a piece of parchment. “…is evidence the marquis was the one looking for them.”
“What’s that?”
“A list of the latest information about them, courtesy of Marquis Aschtner.”
Whoa, seriously? I wanted to see! I asked Fran to move to a better peeking location. The names of the Godswords were on it, all right. It even described their appearances and special powers. The list was slightly different from the one Lumina showed us, and I wondered which version was newer. A few weren’t on it at all: the First Godsword Alpha, Mad Sword Berserk, Land Sword Gaia, and Demon King Sword Diablos.
“Hmm…”
“What is it, Fran?”
Fran asked why the five swords weren’t listed, and Dias told her it was because they had already been found. Alpha and Berserk were in the northern continent of Brodin, split between the two great kingdoms of the north. Since each of the quarreling kingdoms had obtained a Godsword, there had been relative peace over the last two hundred years. They knew that going to war would lead to mutually assured destruction.
There was an incident where two Godsword-wielders descended on the battlefield
