Lord of Caldera - Chapter 69

Chapter 69: Chapter 69
The day after the coming-of-age ceremony had passed. Despite the cursed sword’s best efforts to reject Sylas, it was completely futile. The only thing the sword could do was summon flames, which were useless against someone who was immune to fire.

As time passed, the cursed sword’s flames eventually died out, and Sylas calmly sheathed the sword.

—Thank you, brother. I’ll use it well from now on.

—…

Ulrich could only stare in stunned silence at Sylas’s radiant smile. He barely remembered what happened after that. His memory of the event blurred; the only thing he recalled clearly was stumbling back to his room in a daze and collapsing from exhaustion. The shock had been too much to endure with a clear head. But waking up now, Ulrich felt even worse than he had the day before.

“Brother, what have you done?!”

The first thing he heard after waking was the indignant voice of his younger brother, Dani, filled with fury.

“How could you give that sword from the dungeon to him?! You should have given it to me!” Dani’s eyes were bloodshot, filled with resentment. Ulrich couldn’t respond. As if I wanted to give it to him! Who could have predicted things would turn out this way?

“What were you thinking? At least explain yourself!” Dani demanded.

You have no idea what I’ve been through, you fool! Ulrich clenched his fists tightly. It wasn’t Dani who was frustrated—it was Ulrich. His entire plan had been ruined, the cursed sword stolen from him, and his half-brother’s reputation now soared beyond reach.

The problem was, he couldn’t explain any of it. He couldn’t even begin to address the fact that he had been outwitted by his own plan.

—Do you think I wanted to give him the sword? I had no intention of giving anything!

—Then how did it happen?!

—I got outsmarted by my own scheme! I used the best bait to lure him in, and he stole it right from under me! Now I’ve lost everything. Just call me ‘Fool Ulrich’ from now on!

“Dammit!”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

As the frustration mounted, Ulrich kicked the table repeatedly, unable to contain his rage. If it had been a bed, he would have been kicking the sheets in frustration like a child throwing a tantrum.

The intensity of his outburst made Dani instinctively step back. “B-brother?”

“Damn that cursed sword! That wretched piece of junk!” Ulrich roared, furiously slamming his fists against the table. Startled by his brother’s unfamiliar outburst, Dani began to retreat, inching toward the door.

Despite never seeing his brother like this before, Dani understood one thing: staying any longer would be dangerous. If Ulrich’s anger turned toward him, there’d be trouble.

I’d better run.

“Argh!”

Following his survival instincts, Dani hurried out of the room. Ulrich, still fuming, collapsed to the floor as his anger subsided. In its place, a deep sense of self-loathing began to settle in.

“That sword… That sword…” Ulrich muttered in a trembling voice, clutching his head in despair. It was true that he couldn’t use the sword himself, but as their father had said, the sword had countless other uses. He could have sold it for a fortune, used it as a gift to earn favor, or even employed it in negotiations with a greedy lord.

Any option would have been worth millions.

“But now, of all people, it ended up in his hands!” Ulrich’s hands trembled with rage. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, almost drawing blood. Just then, Oscar, who had been waiting outside, cautiously entered the room.

“My lord, please calm yourself.”

“How can I possibly calm down right now?!” Ulrich shouted, gritting his teeth as he glared at Oscar.

“So, this was your strategy all along, huh? Brilliant. Now that he has the sword, what should we do? I don’t know, but maybe the ‘young sage’ can enlighten me,” Ulrich said sarcastically.

Oscar hung his head in silence. What could he say? His plan had completely failed, and there was nothing he could offer to defend himself. Even with ten mouths, he wouldn’t be able to justify the disaster that had unfolded.

Seeing Oscar’s silence, Ulrich let out a heavy sigh, frustration and helplessness swirling inside him.

“I can accept that the plan failed, but how could he have been chosen by the sword?”

“My lord, I’ve told you before, that’s not what happened,” Oscar replied, his voice steady despite Ulrich’s anger.

“What do you mean? We both saw him stand unharmed in the flames!” Ulrich’s anger flared up again. How could it not be the sword’s recognition if Sylas had withstood the cursed sword’s fire?

Despite Ulrich’s outburst, Oscar remained firm.

“I did see it. But being unharmed by the flames and being chosen by the sword are two different things.”

“What are you saying? Explain it clearly!” Ulrich demanded.

“It’s simple. Lord Sylas deceived us,” Oscar began, calmly continuing his explanation. “When the sword trembled at the start, it wasn’t accepting him—it was rejecting him. You experienced it yourself, my lord. You know what it feels like.”

“But his servants said it was the sword’s cry, a sign it had chosen him!” Ulrich countered.

“That’s nonsense,” Oscar snapped, his voice rising in frustration. He was exasperated by how the idiotic rumors had spread. All that talk of the sword’s cry and some mythical unlocking of the sword’s true power—it was nothing but baseless fantasy, the kind you’d expect from a failed minstrel.

“The flames were the same. The sword was rejecting him. The only reason the flames intensified was because Lord Sylas wasn’t affected, so the sword kept increasing the heat. If the sword had truly accepted him, there wouldn’t have been any flames at all.”

“Then how did he remain unharmed?” Ulrich asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

“It must be ancient magic—some kind of artifact that protected him from the flames,” Oscar suggested.

That explanation made sense. The sword’s outburst had grown more extreme the longer Sylas remained unaffected, likely because the flames couldn’t harm him. Eventually, the sword had given up.

“Hmm, that makes sense,” Ulrich admitted.

“Exactly. Though we don’t know what that artifact is, it’s clear it protected him from the flames,” Oscar concluded.