[Silver Ash] - Become The Strongest In Another World
CHAPTER 315: The Discussion of Men (1)

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It's late at night. The only place that had any illumination in this former capital was the place Rudra had made home. Therefore, if one were to look from a distance, they would see nothing but one small lantern that glittered in the distance.

But this darkness may be good. Noelle looked out the window, staring directly at the row of stars strewn across the sky.

It is hard to guess where the north star is. The star did not even exist from the beginning.

Noelle sighed as she burned the scene in her memory, trying not to be too distracted by it.

The small bonfire in the room crackled as Rudra added firewood, and Tania who saw it slowly closed her eyes.

The sights, sounds, and sensations were so soothing that Tania could no longer endure the drowsiness.

With Noelle's lap pillow, she slowly fell asleep.

Seeing that Tania had fallen asleep on her lap, Noelle tried to ascertain whether Tania was well-covered, then gently patted her head a few times.

"What's your relationship? "

Rudra suddenly asked. His almost flat tone of voice was very difficult. Noelle could not guess what she was thinking.

But Noelle ignored her unrest and focused on answering Rudra's questions.

"Rekan .. I guess? "

"Why do you even sound doubtful? "

This time, though a little, Noelle could hear the resignation from Rudra. Maybe because Noelle's answer wasn't satisfactory enough, so she tried to straighten out her point.

"So, we haven't known each other for too long, but we've been through a lot together. Oh, besides, we also have a connection that's hard to explain."

So far, she and Tania are no more than two people who have established mutually beneficial cooperative relationships. Tania helps Noelle, and Noelle helps Tania.

Or at least that was the case at first. But now, all might change.

Tania gradually regained her memories. It was faster than Noelle had experienced. If Noelle only gets her shards through dreams, Tania seems to get one complex dream that explains it all at once.

And from that, they know that they both have a relationship with each other under the names EGOIST and Intaurus.

"Do you believe it? " ask Rudra.

Noelle was confused again. What was the purpose of Rudra asking all of this?

It might have never occurred to Noelle's mind that Rudra was currently looking for chat materials to fill the time.

"Eitherway. I can entrust many things to her, but I can't yet hang important things like my own life on Tania."

Aside from that, there was one thing that made Noelle still somewhat wary of Tania.

It was related to his background having once entered into a place called 'The Underworld'. In addition, she is also a part of the Asterisk, so you could say that Tania is also immortal, although it is not yet known in what way she achieved it.

In the end, Tania was an existence that was still filled with mysteries. Noelle didn't even know a single one of her background, or purpose as she said she wanted to conquer every dungeon that appeared.

"It's confusing" Rudra said as he crossed his arms, appearing to think hard while sitting cross-legged.

Noelle could only smile bitterly as she herself realized that it was true.

"You yourself .. how can you build a good relationship with everyone? I'm pretty sure you don't have many enemies in the kingdom."

Rudra. "In my case, I trust anyone who submits and respects His Majesty. So even if he's an enemy, as long as he trusts His Majesty, I'll still give him a chance for trust."

That terrific. Building trust only capitalizes on the similarity in respect for someone. Noelle was convinced that Rudra was the only one who had such thoughts.

Now it was clear, Rudra, and everyone in the tribe of Artof were a group of people fanatical to the Queen of Beasts, or the Queen of Clament.

Noelle let out a small laugh, along with Rudra who was also laughing for an unclear reason.

"By the way, how are you still alive today? "

Still in a good mood, Noelle suddenly asked and made Rudra confused to answer her.

"Why are you asking that? "

"I'm just curious. In the outside world, it had been over six hundred years since the Kingdom of Fortenia had fallen."

Staring at the sparkling embers, Noelle continued her words, "The Artof Tribe that I told you about, they have a relationship with the Fortenia Kingdom because they are the descendants of all the residents that you managed to save. But you, I'm so curious, how did you survive? "

While Queen Clament changed her identity to Queen of the Bengal, her figure still stands on the bridge that connects life with death. He's alive, but at the same time he's not. That's situation.

But Rudra was not. He did not incarnate into a local deity or something similar like that. He also had no children as he was the only one left in the Royal capital.

600 More years passed, but Rudra was still alive. Obviously this is confusing.

After much thought, Rudra finally replied.

"About that .. I don't know either. My last memory is when I helped pave the way for His Majesty and everyone to get out safely."

The last thing Rudra remembered was the back of the last resident he had managed to save. After seeing that, he fell unconscious.

Or at least that was what Rudra remembered. She didn't know if there was anything wrong with her memory or not, but she spoke honestly to Noelle.

"When I woke up, this armor was already stuck to my body. I can never take it off even when I force it."

Rudra watched his palm which was now that layer of black metal.

The armour did not want to come off, like it was attached directly to his body. There were also blackish purple crystals growing at some point, but it seemed Rudra was not infected at all.

To be honest, this answer did not satisfy Noelle at all. But at least he managed to gather clues that could possibly be the answer.

"Have you ever investigated how you're still alive today? "

"Stupid if I don't investigate," Rudra replied briefly.

From Rudra's confession, Noelle came to know that Rudra had tried many times to look into his armor, but he felt that there was a thick fog covering it. And as he checked through the mirror, what Rudra caught a glimpse of was enough to shock him.

As an experiment, Noelle took out a small mirror from the spatial warehouse, and pointed it at Rudra.

Surprisingly, there was nothing in the mirror, other than the appearance of the walls and the various objects that were behind Rudra.

There was no armour sitting in that mirror. As if, Rudra had indeed not been there from the start. It was a magical reaction.

There was something that caused Rudra's figure to be unable to be seen through the mirror. And not only the mirror, Rudra's figure becomes transparent when faced on the surface of the object that reflects light; such as metal plates, spoons, and others.

Hearing all that, Noelle tried not to say what was on her mind, and instead secretly used《Clairvoyance》 to prove her own thinking.

That skill Noelle used to peek at what was inside Rudra's armor, and as a result, there was nothing there. It was really just empty armour without a single trace of a biological object like the human body.

Seeing that was enough for Noelle to make her own conclusions.

As Rudra struggled to save those who were still alive, he was truly already in a critical state. And when he woke up from fainting, his body somehow vanished and his own soul stuck to the armor he was wearing.

That was why Noelle could not see anything behind Rudra's Armor, and therefore also the air of Rudra's existence felt so strange when compared to others; it was strong, and therefore powerful, but it's also thin enough to go unnoticed if Noelle isn't focused.

Noelle had no way of explaining this phenomenon.

Indeed, in theory this is similar to golem making, which gives 'pseudo-life' to an object. However, Noelle really did not understand how Rudra's body could be degraded completely and his soul clung onto the armor.

If the making of the golem was to create a pseudo-life by instilling simple commands that would be done, then something that happened to Rudra was more worthy of being called 'embedding a complete soul on an object'.

The concept sounded familiar to Noelle's ears.

He then remembered that there was once a figure who could do that.

By drinking the blood containing the soul of the Vampire King, the body of the person drinking it would be instantly controlled without the slightest hesitation. Noelle almost experienced that too. But instead of being controlled, the soul of the surviving Vampire King was swept away by Anastasia's blessing.

Although it sounded impossible, it still made sense in Noelle's ears. Because what Raka Vampire did was to move her soul into her own blood, something that had a close connection to her.

It was said that blood contained information regarding the soul, but Noelle did not know how much it was. The soul also contains DNA information, so a direct examination can be done.

But what happened to Rudra was completely the opposite.

His soul was embedded in an object he was wearing near death.

(Close connection, somehow that sounds a bit strange.)

Even though that was what Noelle thought, she actually got an additional idea.

"Hey, Rudra .. do you have strong feelings for this armor? "

Noelle used a wooden stick to play the campfire, and Rudra just silently watched her. However, the question made Rudra return to face Noelle.

"I obtained this armor from Her Majesty the King, the father of Her Majesty Queen Clament. This is the gift I got after thirty years of my service to the Kingdom."

In addition to Rudra, apparently Rudra had become a member of the knights of the Kingdom of Fortenia at the age of 13 years. It was caused by a family line that was indeed the loyal bodyguard of the royal family.

At a very young age, Rudra had a very high talent for holding weapons. His way of thinking and loyalty to the royal family was also so high, that Rudra was appointed commander of the entire army at the age of 24.

Looking from the timeline, Rudra had already served the kingdom even before Queen Clament was born.

(Maybe that's the reason …. Oh, no, wait a minute, it's not enough.)

Noelle frowned as she gritted her own teeth. The answer Rudra gave was not enough to lead him to the answer he needed.

Just because Rudra regarded his armor as an extremely precious treasure, it did not mean that his own soul would automatically stick to that armor.

Moreover, the answer Noelle had thought of had yet to explain why Rudra had suddenly lost all of his body when he came to his senses from fainting.

When someone dies, their soul will be sent to a place called 'Zona Zero', which will then enter the reincarnation circle.

There can be no accident where a soul fails to return to the Zero Zone, and instead attaches itself to an object in the mortal world.

Unless, there was someone who devised a ritual for it.

(Oh, no. My bad habits showed up.)

Noelle shook her head, trying to get rid of all the thoughts that were starting to go off track.

There would be no result if he kept thinking like that. Noelle chose to get rid of this problem for a moment.

While playing the coals of the bonfire, Noelle decided not to tell Rudra her thoughts. After all, this was still uncertain, and it would be extremely painful if Rudra found out.

It would be best to keep this a secret as soon as the time to reveal it arrives.

His hand that was holding the stick to play the embers suddenly fell silent. His gaze also fell on the face of Tania who was fast asleep.

(You're really off guard.)

Tania looked like she was completely unconcerned with the danger. She entrusted everything to Noelle, who now had her lap made a pillow to sleep on.

Noelle also combed and tidied Tania's long bangs with her fingers, then switched the conversation.

"By the way, is your spear a magic weapon? I saw it teleport a few times while attacking."

"That's right. This spear was given to me by His Majesty the King as a gift of my ascension."

"The promotion ... was when you were twenty-four, right? At that age, have you received such an amazing gift from the King? "

Noelle was not particularly interested in its history, but the spear itself was interesting enough that Noelle could put up with the topic.

"To be able to wield this spear is an honor. This spear was originally owned by the first King, as well as the founder of the Kingdom of Fortenia. He used this spear during the great battle against the demon lord."

Putting aside Noelle who was quite bored with her history, Rudra seemed to take that as a very extraordinary thing. This made Noelle not want to bother him.

"This spear gives its user the power to manipulate space and darkness. This was an incredible spear, so it should be passed down to every generation. But …."

The generation itself is destroyed. Only Rudra remained.

He could not entrust the sacred treasure to anyone.

(Controlling space and darkness …. Not wrong anymore.)

Noelle became even more convinced after hearing that.

Unmistakably, the ability and appearance of the spear perfectly matched the description of one of the star series weapons.

The black spear that gave its user the ability to control space and darkness, resulting in countless attack methods and styles.

Clearly, it was Begwun's spear, which was one of the star weapons, just like both Noelle's sword and Tania's scythe.

"So here he is …."

Noelle let out a small laugh as she looked at the spear on the floor like a small quiver as if it was being excited.

Noelle knows that each star weapon has been scattered since the end of the attack of creatures from outer space that occurred far in the past.

All of the weapons were originally well-preserved, but then scattered throughout for various reasons, some of which were later reunited during the war against the demon lord.

But then, all the weapons were back apart.

Langen, Verstand, and Achto may be lucky enough to be in the same place. Centipede somehow fell into the hands of the Zernroden family, and the Geist in the hands of the Light family at Nothingos.

What made Noelle most curious now was the origin of the Zephiroth scythe.

Tania didn't say anything about it at all.

On the other hand, Rudra looked confused with Noelle who suddenly laughed.

"Do you know anything about this spear? "

Noelle finished laughing and with a happy smile on her face, she replied, "Of course I know. The official name of the spear was Begwun's spear. It was one of the weapons created in the ancient civilization."

Noelle then shows her two swords in their own full form.

"You may be confused, but both my sword, and the scythe Tania used were from the same era. Each of the weapons also had different powers, and their levels were also higher than ordinary artifact classes."

Artifacts have a limit to abilities, while the power of star weapons is permanent and absolute. The ability of a star weapon would not disappear unless it was collided with a fellow star weapon. When that happens, the two opposing weapons will neutralize each other's effects.

Noelle explained it all casually, while Rudra focused on listening.

"One of my swords has the ability to cut anything, but its power is neutralized when it comes into contact with your spear. Do you understand now? "

Rudra. "I don't know where you know all that, but it's amazing."

"Oh, yeah, be careful when you touch Tania's sickle. It has the power to neutralize any magic, I'm afraid something bad will happen if you touch it."

Noelle still can't confirm it. But if Rudra's soul really lived inside that armor thanks to the magic ritual, then it was better to keep Zephiroth away from him.

The magical energy absorption ability of Zephiroth was truly terrifying. Noelle felt herself dry just by coming into contact with her for a few seconds.

"Thank you for the warning. I'll remember that."

While Rudra thanked her, Noelle had fixed Tania's hand position so that it would not be hit and clog the blood flow. Of course, she also made sure not to come into contact with the Zephiroth hanging on Tania's wrist as an accessory.

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