Chapter 54
Chapter: 54
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 054
>Chapter Title: Clanos (6)
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>Nutcracker.
The first time Masin laid eyes on that sword was over a decade ago.
At the time, Delcross was showing signs of civil war. The Second Prince Braden had suddenly strengthened his faction by absorbing the First Princess's forces and even seized the imperial palace. The First Prince's faction had retreated to the area near the capital's north gate to regroup their forces.
It was then that the 16th Holy Emperor passed away unexpectedly.
"That vile Braden! He must have harmed Father!"
The First Prince Cameron ground his teeth, his eyes bloodshot.
Masin looked at his father, Cameron, with an uneasy expression.
He had been living in the dorms at the Imperial Academy at the time. When the First Prince's faction retreated from the capital, he had been hastily dragged here by the hands of the prince's guards who came looking for him.
His older brother Jayden and his mother, the prince's consort, had been killed in a clash with the guards while evacuating the capital, unable to escape in time.
"That damned Braden! Blinded by the throne, he actually summoned a demon! I should tear him apart!"
Ever since losing his wife and firstborn son so senselessly, the First Prince would occasionally act like a madman. He would lash out at his subordinates for no reason or cling to baseless suspicions as ironclad truths, spewing curses.
"A demonkin has infiltrated the imperial family—the sacred Delcross imperial family! Are you all blind? The millennium-old holy kingdom of Delcross is finished! Damn it! Damn it!"
Whenever the chance arose, he would glare murderously toward the imperial palace and point accusingly. Sometimes he would even draw his sword and swing it at the empty air, as if ready to charge back into the capital the moment his forces were reinforced.
Just as it seemed a full-scale war between the two factions was inevitable, someone suddenly appeared claiming to mediate. It was a man named Richelieu, who had been dispatched from the Brittany royal family and was visiting the capital briefly with a cardinal.
Even as a child, Masin found it suspicious.
The two brothers had drawn swords over the throne. Blood had already been spilled— the blood of a prince's consort and an imperial grandson.
From here on, one side's victory meant the other's total annihilation. Where was there room for mediation in such a situation?
Yet for some reason, after hearing Richelieu out, Cameron seriously accepted the mediation proposal. The First Prince's staff held meeting after meeting, debating fiercely, until they finally formed a small negotiation team.
The unfolding events only made Masin more anxious. No matter how he thought about it, this negotiation couldn't possibly end well.
Especially that Richelieu.
The man, who hid most of his face behind a half-mask and occasionally smirked darkly, gave Masin the creeps.
Sure enough, his ominous premonition soon became reality. The group led by Cameron, who had gone out to negotiate, never returned.
Only one blood-soaked guard knight barely made it back alive, muttering like a madman.
"Y-Your Highness's words... were all... true. Demons... there are demons in the palace! Ack!"
He spat blood from all seven orifices and died right after those words.
"Curse......"
A priest, covered in blood and tending to the guard, cried out in a trembling voice.
"I sense the energy of the curse. Everyone, get out of here!"
Soon, screams echoed throughout the First Prince's camp. People began collapsing, vomiting blood.
Masin, accompanied only by a few guard knights, priests, and attendants, barely escaped the hellish scene.
He had lost his parents and brother in just a few days, but Masin had no time to process the grief. He could feel that vague, ominous danger that had swallowed them whole now swiftly approaching him.
Something bizarre beyond their comprehension was happening in the capital, and the curse's energy was still pursuing their group.
The remnants of the First Prince's faction took the sole surviving imperial grandson, Masin, and hid in a northern border fortress, barricading the gates. After that, unbelievable rumors began pouring in from the capital.
"Demons are in the palace. The Second Prince was a demon worshiper and was punished by the First Prince."
"No, actually, the First Prince was deceived and killed by the Second Prince."
"The long-missing Third Prince has returned. He's an unprecedented playboy, but incredibly powerful."
"He led the Holy Knights and swept away the demons in the palace. He became the new Holy Emperor."
Every report was astonishing, making it impossible to discern truth from falsehood.
And finally, the demonkin curse that had pursued them from the capital engulfed the entire fortress.
Even as they held out with prayers from the holy knights and priests, the First Prince's people began dying one by one, spewing blood from their bodies. It was a terror too intense to endure while sane.
"Please protect him. The only rightful heir to the throne is Lord Masin."
After the loyal guard captain, who pleaded to the end, collapsed with blood streaming from his eyes, Masin was left utterly alone inside the sealed fortress.
The boy sensed his lonely end approaching and quietly sat in a corner, awaiting death. Having exhausted his mental strength so intensely over mere days, he was in a dazed state, unable even to cry.
That he survived two more days alone amid the demonkin curse and bloodied corpses was probably thanks to the Holy Imperial family's unique constitution, highly resistant to demonic energy.
Then, on the third day.
From morning, the area outside the fortress was noisy with booms and bangs for a while. Suddenly, someone effortlessly sliced through the sealed iron gate and entered.
"They said everyone was dead, but look at these liars. Isn't there a child still alive?"
Thud! As the iron gate crashed to the ground, kicking up dust, a fairly tall man appeared.
Masin reflexively squinted at the sudden flood of bright light. The man sheathed his sword and strode toward him.
"Your childhood face is still somewhat recognizable. Are you Jayden or Masin?"
Though a stranger, he seemed to know Masin.
"...Masin..."
Perhaps due to the strange aura surrounding him, honorifics came naturally.
"Yes. Masin."
The man surveyed the blood-soaked fortress interior, frowning briefly, then abruptly reached toward Masin's forehead. Before Masin could flinch, light from the man's hand enveloped his body.
"...Huh?"
It was warm. As soon as he felt it, his minor scratches vanished, and vitality surged through him. His body, weakened from days of starvation, suddenly brimmed with life force.
Above all, the sticky curse that had clung to him since the capital vanished without a trace. It had been so potent that even Masin, no priest, could sense its malice. For it to dissipate so simply was nothing short of a miracle.
I'm alive.
Masin instinctively realized he was completely freed from that horrific curse.
The moment he grasped it, his body began trembling violently, like leaves in the wind. His body hadn't wavered much even as the fortress's people died, yet now it shook as if truly awakening.
The man tilted his head.
"Your body should be fine now, so why are you shaking more than before? Is something still wrong?"
Another cascade of light poured over Masin's head. The radiant glow felt like a promise of absolute safety, overwhelming him with emotion.
As the boy hugged his knees and silently shed tears, the man finally realized it wasn't a physical issue and stepped back. He leaned slowly against the doorframe and quietly waited for the boy to calm.
Masin knew full well how pathetic he must look. But after days of hellish tension strung taut like a bowstring, its sudden release made the tears flow endlessly.
After who knows how long, the man sitting opposite suddenly sprang up and glared coldly outside the fortress.
He then approached Masin, extended a hand, and said,
"Can you stand? We need to leave here now."
Masin nodded, grasped the man's hand, and rose. Though he'd sat motionless for days, thanks to the man's holy power, there was no strain in moving.
Wiping his tears and looking up, he finally took in the man's face.
Masin had vaguely assumed he was older, but the man was still a young man with boyish features. He didn't even seem much older than Masin.
His neat black hair and clear gray eyes felt strangely familiar yet unfamiliar, stirring an odd sensation.
The man glanced outside once more, then turned to Masin and said,
"Just follow behind me. Even if something appears suddenly, don't panic too much."
Masin nodded, and the man smirked faintly before turning and walking out of the fortress.
The two walked silently along the fortress's ruined outer walls for a while. The noise outside earlier must have been from this destruction.
Masin sipped from the canteen the man had given him and hurried after.
The man strode forward, occasionally muttering to the air as if talking to himself.
"If I hadn't found you, were you planning to bury him like this?"
"That's for me to handle, not for you to worry about."
"I don't trust your words anymore. The conversation's over. Close the channel, Cornshim."
His actions alone would make anyone think him mad, but his calm voice and sharp eyes made it feel perfectly normal. Masin simply thought he must be handling some important matter unknown to him.
To trust a near-stranger so completely—it was remarkable.
Swish. At some point, the man had drawn his sword from his waist. A plain gray blade without ornamentation.
It soon blazed with dazzling white light, revealing a pure white blade extending half a handspan beyond the sword— a remarkably pristine aura blade.
'Aura blade?'
Masin swallowed hard without realizing.
A Sword Master? At that young age?
Slash. The man casually swung his arm forward.
Boom!
In an instant, a distant section of the fortress wall exploded into pieces.
As Masin flinched in surprise, the man swung his sword indifferently once more.
Rumble! Crash! A warehouse-like building to the left collapsed in a heap.
"......?"
What on earth was happening?
As Masin stared in bewilderment, the man suddenly turned backward and swung his sword in a long diagonal arc.
Rooooar—
With a deafening roar, the entire fortress building where Masin had hidden collapsed at once.
Masin's jaw dropped involuntarily.
The distance from here to there was enormous...!
But then, Masin spotted something strange. Beyond the crumbling fortress, dark shapes were fleeing into the distance.
At first glance, black jackals? But no—they were pitch-black starfish-like monstrosities. One raised a leg like a head, scuttling on the other four like a quadruped, bounding away.
'Demonkin...!'
Only then did Masin realize what the man had been swinging at.
The sword's flashy explosions had distracted him, but upon closer look, jackal-sized black demonkin lurked everywhere in the fortress, watching them.
"In the few years I was away, the capital has turned into quite the joke."
The man sighed and turned back toward the imperial palace. Thanks to the power he'd shown, the demonkin kept their distance, trailing far behind.
Whenever those foul creatures edged closer,
Boom!
The man's sword swung without fail, followed by a brilliant explosion.
The overwhelming scenes the man displayed that day would likely stay etched in Masin's memory forever.
The modest gray sword and the pristine white aura blade gleaming above it. Swings that appeared careless yet wasted no motion—elegant, even beautiful sword paths. Destructive power beyond imagination, nothing short of terrifying.
Every detail burned vividly into the boy's mind.