Swordsman's Regression: Reawakened as a Necromancer-Chapter 104: Eutheo’s Offer (1)

He realized a second later that he hadn’t. Percival had only shut the door in his mind. Presently, the guards were still waiting for a response. One was already calling his name as if he dozed away.

Percival wished he could doze away. Dozing away was all he wanted to do now. To take himself far into a deep, sweet sleep.

"Sir Hero?"

’Mhm?’

Percival’s eyes widened, then narrowed. He remembered why the guards were here. Baron Eutheo wanted to see him.

Percival could barely recall his earlier meeting with the man. Even then, he had been sleepy, and till now, he was yet to be embraced by the wings of slumber.

How unfortunate.

"Does he demand my presence now?" Percival asked.

"He requests your presence, Sir Percival," a guard was careful to use the word ’request.’ "But as the Baron has an important travel tomorrow, it is paramount that you see him now. There likely would be no other opportunity."

Percival glanced at all four of them. It seemed Baron Eutheo was doing his very best to showcase this as an invitation rather than a summoning.

For that reason, Percival decided to accept. There was no point in antagonizing the man. However, if the meeting drawled on for two long, he would ⸢Grave Step⸥ himself out of that place and return to the solace of this bed.

"Alright then," Percival said.

The guards nodded, slightly with relief, as they led Percival out of the inn.

—---—

The audience chamber of Luvengart’s Fort was quieter than Percival remembered.

Then again, he didn’t remember much at all from that day.

The banners still hung heavy from the stone walls, embroidered beasts frozen mid-roar, but the room itself felt... emptied. As though something vital had been pulled out and not yet replaced. The torches burned steadily, yet their light did little to warm the air.

Percival stood at the center of the hall, boots planted on dark stone polished smooth by generations of power.

Baron Eutheo had not yet arrived.

Percival waited, arms folded loosely beneath his newly-bought cloak, eyes half-lidded. He looked calm to an outsider. Detached. But inside, every sense remained taut.

The doors creaked open.

Heavy footsteps followed.

"Well now," a familiar booming voice echoed through the hall, carrying cheer like a weapon. "If it isn’t the man who turned my city upside down without so much as asking permission!"

Baron Eutheo strode in with theatrical confidence, coat draped over one shoulder, red beard gleaming beneath torchlight. He spread his arms wide as if welcoming an old friend rather than a dangerous anomaly.

"Percival Nightstar!" he exclaimed. "Alive, whole, and—" his gaze flicked pointedly to Percival’s floating crest, "—considerably stronger than the last time we spoke."

Percival did not return the smile.

"Baron," he said flatly.

Eutheo chuckled, apparently unbothered. "Straight to formality. I admire that. Most men start stuttering once they stand where you are."

He moved past Percival without waiting for permission, ascending the steps to his throne before turning around and dropping into it with exaggerated ease.

"Sit," Eutheo said, gesturing lazily toward a chair brought forward by a servant.

Percival didn’t move.

"I’m fine standing."

Eutheo raised an eyebrow, then laughed. "Of course you are."

He leaned back, fingers drumming against the armrest. "You know, when my guards told me you walked out of an A-Ranked Gate World alone, I thought they were exaggerating."

Percival’s expression didn’t change.

"But then the Guilds arrived," Eutheo continued, tone light, conversational. "Shouting. Screaming. Threatening lawsuits, executions, and the collapse of civilization as we know it."

He smiled broadly. "Very dramatic bunch."

"You are a very busy man, Baron Eutheo," Percival said. "Do not let my presence waste your time."

Eutheo’s smile widened, though there was something hidden behind it. "You are a very likeable young man, dear Hero. Did you know that?"

Percival said nothing.

Eutheo’s brow raised.

"Impatient," he mused. "Or just tired?"

Percival’s lips parted. "Both."

For a moment, the Baron studied him in silence. Not theatrically. Not loudly. Like a man measuring the depth of water before stepping in.

Then Eutheo sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his armrests.

"Very well," he said. "Let’s speak plainly."

The hall seemed to fall into a deeper silence than before.

"Luvengart is in danger."

Percival’s eyes narrowed slightly. "That’s not new."

"No," Eutheo agreed. "But this kind of danger is."

He stood, descending the steps slowly this time, his earlier bombast replaced by a heavier thing.

"There is a Gate World," he said. "An Alpha. Not far from here. Across the border, in the province of Hollowcreek."

Percival’s gaze sharpened. "Eldermoor territory."

"Yes," Eutheo said calmly.

"How the hell is that not far from here?"

Eutheo froze, then shrugged. "Don’t judge a man for trying to make light of dire situations. And before you ask, no, the Duke there cannot handle it."

He paused. "Because the Gate is... different."

Percival tilted his head a fraction. The unnecessary lie meant to him that the Baron of Luvengart wasn’t up to a very great start. "Different how?"

Eutheo waved a hand vaguely. "Stronger. Stranger. Resistant."

"That describes every Gate World," Percival replied. "You didn’t summon me to recite common knowledge."

The Baron exhaled slowly through his nose.

"Inside that Gate," he said, "are creatures that do not behave like beasts."

Percival’s lips pressed into a thin line.

"It is strange because even I cannot explain it," Eutheo continued quickly. "I’ve studied Gate Worlds. I know all about them, but this...."

He hesitated.

"Demons," he said at last.

The word landed flat.

Percival stared at him.

Then he laughed.

It wasn’t an enthusiastic laugh. More like a scoff. A short, humorless sound.

"You summoned me," Percival said, "to tell me a children’s story."

Eutheo’s jaw tightened. "This is not a joke."

"Somehow I was amused," Percival smirked.

The Baron looked at him for a moment and kissed his teeth in contempt. "I was of the assumption that you were a serious man."

"What can I say, Baron?" Percival tilted his head. "You’ve managed to break me."

Eutheo grimaced, then looked away

Percival gazed at him for a while, eyes narrowed. Was he truly being serious? About Demons?

"You expect me to believe," Percival continued coldly, "that Demons exist and they have suddenly surfaced in a random Alpha Gate World?"

Eutheo’s eyes hardened. "I expect you to believe the corpses of my strongest Awakeners."

Silence stretched.

Percival’s amusement faded, replaced by skepticism sharp enough to cut.

A Baron like Eutheo would have a vanguard of high level Awakeners, that is from Lvl 100 and above.

A-Ranked Gate Worlds needed a minimum of Lvl 80 to participate alongside a party. If the Baron was being honest about the Gate World’s rank, then his vanguard should have dispatched of this Gate World with ease.

But what would his vanguard have to do with this? The Gate World opened in Hollowcreek, a province in Eldermoor. Why would this be any concern of Eutheo’s? Why were his Awakeners dead for it?

There was a lie somewhere.

"You’re lying," he said.

Eutheo didn’t flinch. "About what?"

"About how you even know about this Gate," Percival replied. "Hollowcreek is another Kingdom. Why would a Gate opening in an Eldermoor province have anything to do with you?"

His gaze locked onto the Baron’s.

"Why was your vanguard there?"

For the first time since the conversation began, Eutheo didn’t respond immediately.

He studied Percival, slow and deliberate.

"...You really are troublesome," he muttered. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Percival took a step forward. "You didn’t just hear about this Gate. You’re involved."

Eutheo straightened.

Percival stared at him for a while, his mind calculating the possibilities of how this could be.

First, the statement by Eutheo from earlier: ’Not far from here’ when Eldermoor was thousands and thousands of kilometers away was suspect.

For the Baron’s senses to be so scrambled that he would presume it to be close, there would have to be a system that allowed him to easily transport to Hollowcreek in short time.

A Portal.

Percival’s blue eyes glistened with realization.

"You built a portal," he said. "An illegal one."

The temperature in the room dropped. The guards shifted uneasily.