Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: EP.29 – King Kong and the Hybrid Collide (7)
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BOOM!
"E-earthquake!"
"E-evacuate! Evacuate now!"
The soldiers, gripped by fear from the relentless tremors echoing through the tunnels, frantically issued evacuation orders.
If the tunnels collapsed now, they would die right alongside the prisoners.
However.
"I told you to grab the prisoners too."
"B-but, Your Highness..."
"Don't call me prince! Call me Sir Aren! We're on official duty right now!"
"Eek!"
"I won't tolerate insubordination. Take all the prisoners with you."
"Y-yes, sir...!"
At Aren Pendragon's command, the soldiers had no choice but to round up the prisoners.
"L-light...!"
"Up ahead! Move it! If we die because of you, it's on you!!"
"S-sorry!"
The prisoners were too busy scrambling for escape to rejoice at the sight of sunlight and clouds after so long, but the thrill of survival turned the natural disaster into something almost welcome.
Normally, even if the tunnels collapsed, those serving life sentences wouldn't be allowed to leave—it was the rule.
But.
"I'll say it again: only take those on this 'list.' If even one outsider slips in, execute them on the spot."
"U-understood!"
The blood of the royal family held the power to overturn every rule.
With his grimy gray hair washed away, revealing the silver-white locks symbolizing Pendragon fluttering in the wind, Aren's orders sent the soldiers into crisp action.
The soldiers trembled in fear but harbored little resentment, deeming his commands just.
"As expected of royal blood. He's making sure no innocents die."
"Yeah, the ones on that list are basically guiltless anyway."
"They called him the noble White Lion for a reason. The title fits."
Among those trapped in the tunnels, these were the rare few with light sentences—those who had fallen afoul of nobles or faced framed charges. Saving only them left no room for complaint.
It was a glimpse of nobility worthy of praise.
But for the one receiving it...
"Damn it..."
It was utterly humiliating.
It felt like stealing someone else's glory.
'I'm just taking orders too!'
The list he'd extorted from the guild through threats, the order to rescue these prisoners—no...
- Remember: if even one from this list is missing, it's a hundred lashes per head.
...an utterly unreasonable threat forced him to give his all.
Why should a royal like him break the law for this? But voicing such complaints risked dire consequences, so Aren swallowed them.
However.
"Th-thank you, knight sir! Th-thank you, truly thank you!"
"Y-you said if I held on for a year, I'd see my mother, but I thought I'd die without even seeing her face. Thank you, knight sir...!"
"Th-thank you for saving us..."
......Damn it!
Aren's chest swelled with something unfamiliar as the prisoners—no, these seemingly innocent folk—thanked him profusely.
What was this feeling?
"N-no need for thanks! Just hurry up and escape!! You there, your leg looks bad. Hop on my back."
"B-but I'll dirty your armor..."
"Don't make me say it twice!"
Aren realized much later that he had stopped fearing the monster and started genuinely trying to help them.
"He's not a bad guy at heart, prickly as he is."
"True. Right now, the moniker 'White Lion' suits him perfectly."
"He does look brave and noble, just like one..."
SLASH!
While Aren led the evacuation, Jake Farman and Yord Decker handled the dual role of escorting people out and cutting down "vicious criminals" trying to blend in.
Some knew Fighting Techniques—clearly Blood Crusaders.
Traitors trying to escape after betraying their own, no doubt.
"No loyalty at all."
"What can you expect from heretics? No, from trash like this."
WHOOSH!
Yord swiftly swung his sword at a prisoner lunging at him.
A flawless horizontal slash at wind-like speed, without hesitation.
SNIP!
A perfectly clean finish.
It was the epitome of swift swordsmanship.
His skill explained why he topped this year's White Silver Lion recruits.
And his senior knight, unwilling to be outdone...
WHOOSH!!
THUD!
"I can't bounce off swords or arrows like that guy, but I'm pretty tough myself."
Jake endured the enemies' attacks with his body and emerged unscathed.
Indestructible.
Before Lee Han taught it to the cadets, the first to learn Aura from him was none other than Jake.
Treated like a test subject at first, but as an already skilled knight, Jake's aptitude outshone the cadets.
Even the Indestructible Training, thought possible only for Lee Han, was within his grasp.
Thus.
"Don't bother being born again. Even breathing is too good for scum like you."
No heretic could touch him.
SLASH!
A perfect crescent slash felled every attacker in an instant, severing their necks cleanly.
As neat as harvesting wheat with a scythe.
Skill beyond a mid-tier knight—top-class prowess.
Jake exhaled lightly, cooling his sweat.
"Phew. We get most of them?"
"The heretics seem mostly handled, but... the ones we took down are just a fraction."
"...Yeah."
They'd cut down over fifty, but hundreds of prisoners remained.
And all those prisoners...
"They're still in there."
"...Like Senior Lee Han said—other passages?"
Hundreds refusing to emerge amid quakes and explosions.
...They had something to rely on.
"Phew. Just how many traitors are there?"
Now, they'd learn whether they wanted to or not.
Hidden facilities in the prisoner tunnels, unknown even to them. A suspicious faction leeching off, swelling their ranks.
Not just some terrorist group or heretic cult.
Someone was backing them.
Someone with immense power...!
"...Focus on the situation at hand for now. Getting stabbed while distracted hurts only us."
"......"
"Why the look?"
"...You sound just like Senior Lee Han right now."
"M-me?"
Jake looked shocked.
His speech resembling that scoundrel knight's...!
Did that make him a scoundrel too?
"I-I'm not that bad!"
"You are, heh heh. Spot on."
"You little!"
Jake's blood pressure rose at his sly junior's wicked grin.
This guy used to be such a model cadet. What changed him?
'Th-that guy's fault.'
Lee Han.
A friend in name, but a toxic influence.
Ever since getting tangled with him, nothing went right.
"Haa..."
But Jake's gaze fixed on the pitch-black tunnels.
Worried for the one fighting somewhere in that darkness.
'You okay?'
He wanted to help, but knew he'd just get in the way. The guy shone brightest alone.
Still, it stung.
Stuck on cleanup duty, it highlighted his own shortcomings.
"Tch. Right now, I'd kill to be the Black Lion of the North."
"Black Lion of the North? You mean Vice Captain Black Iron Lion?"
"You know him?"
"His feats are famous kingdom-wide, beyond just the North. Black Lion Maximus Iron de Lionel, the legendary 'Giant Slayer,' right?"
Giant Slayer Maximus.
The brave knight who felled a frost giant alone.
Among the South's young knights, his achievements and fame were on another level.
"...I've only heard stories, but is he that strong?"
"I've seen him once, by chance. ...But."
"?"
"-Strong. Insanely so."
"......"
Impossible to forget.
Back when he trained under his father—his master—in knighthood, they'd gone near the North.
They encountered Northern knights, among them...
- Haha, fine knight!
'He' was there.
Just a teen, yet his presence, build, and aura surpassed even his seasoned father.
- Haha!! Not bad for a white kitten—pretty sturdy. Wanna take my strike? Can't guarantee you'll live. Well, if you die, that's knight's combat for ya! Urhahaha!!
No one that strong since.
His father appraised him thus:
- The light of glory rarely bestows excessive blessings, once every century or so, on one soul. Talent that may appear once in a hundred years, one in ten million.
- What about me?
- Top hundred, I'd say. Heh heh.
- .....
- Anyway, never fight guys like that. Scary strong now, but they'll keep growing endlessly...
Jake agreed with his father.
No choice, with that overwhelming presence.
Wondered if he'd ever meet such a figure again.
...Well.
'Meeting that guy changed my mind.'
A freak who pierced ten-million-to-one odds, in a way.
Matched anyone in skill.
If Maximus was heaven-sent genius, that guy forged power through trials...
In other words.
'Hybrid, chimera type?'
Excelled at all sorts of weird, no, bizarre things.
Ha...!
Jake chuckled, deeming "hybrid" too harsh for a person, feeling a twinge of guilt.
'Buy him a beer later or something.'
......After this all ends safely.
SLASH!!
Jake's sword claimed another hooded beast's neck.
And the genius born with one-in-ten-million talent and the hybrid who'd gained freakish power through trials...
"So, why are you here?"
"Haha, was spying undercover. But they pegged me as suspicious and chased me out. No idea how they spotted me, darn it..."
"...I think I know exactly why..."
"Hm?"
Lee Han and Maximus.
The two knights aimed sword and axe at each other's throats.
Ready to claim heads at any moment.
They held their standoff.
And watching them...
"Uh, excuse me, we're getting buried alive here..."
BOOM!
Derek pointed at the falling dirt and rocks, pleading for them to stop fighting and escape.
Unfortunately.
"Lower your sword first."
"Wouldn't it be better if you dropped the axe?"
"......"
They showed no sign of yielding, and Derek thought.
......No matter the world, men die quick because of that pointless pride.