Chapter 32
Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Incognito Knight Conquest Chronicle
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After the liberation of one city came to an end.
The group continued their journey to the next city.
During the trip, Jane kept finding herself preoccupied with old butler Dominic.
When she first sensed that killing intent back at the mansion, it had felt like a warning about the realm of ordinary superhumans drawing near.
But upon returning to the inn and mulling it over, Dominic's words seemed far removed from any such thing.
Recalling the look in his eyes right after he withdrew the killing intent—reminiscing about something—he had been purely worried for Jane.
'What on earth happened in his past?'
She gazed at the old man's back as he rode alongside her on horseback.
'He might not be just a simple escort.'
For a fleeting moment, she grew curious about the old man's past, but she quashed the impulse.
That wasn't what mattered right now.
'He's someone I'll part ways with once all this is over anyway. What's the point in digging now?'
She averted her gaze from the old man and looked ahead.
The gates of the new city came into view.
*
The liberation of the second city wasn't much different from the first.
Dominic breached the gates,
the squinting tax inspector handled the rank-and-file soldiers with magic,
and Jane dueled the mafia family boss.
The second boss was a Minotaur swinging a hammer.
His spiked hammer was infamous for turning people into minced meat, shield and all.
'Tonkatsu Hammer, huh.'
He vaguely remembered it having some nickname starting with "money," but Dominic had no desire to waste brain space on such a minor character.
Dominic named the boss and observed the fight between him and Jane.
Jane dodged the Tonkatsu Hammer by a hair's breadth and struck back.
Her boldness in landing hits without allowing a single effective blow was commendable.
But...
'Too aggressive.'
Her dodges were too close for comfort.
There was a fixed number of times she could evade that hammer and counterattack anyway—walking such a tightrope was inefficient.
'She's impatient.'
Dominic read impatience in her movements.
The anxiety of burning herself out to complete her revenge showed even in battle.
'If she keeps this up...'
Thwack!
'As expected.'
In the end, her impatient tightrope walk cost her a hit.
She barely blocked with her sword, but it snapped, and her left arm twisted in an unnatural direction.
Dominic's fingers twitched.
But recalling his promise to her, he quietly maintained his stance as a bystander.
"Found an opening!"
Slash.
He sliced an attacking mafia underling into four pieces and glanced back at her.
"Boe!"
In response to her cry, a green aura flowed down her spine.
Her speed surged, leaving trails of green energy like a cape in her wake.
"Parkel!"
She shouted once more, and red energy settled in her eyes.
"Gould!"
With the third incantation, a golden helmet materialized over her head.
Having buffed herself three times over, Jane forced her mangled left arm back into place and picked up her broken single-wheeled sword.
Transformed, she was incomparably faster and stronger than before.
But the old butler and the squinting tax inspector watched her with worried eyes.
"Spirit possession, huh."
"Such a reckless stunt..."
The technique she used was an ancient elven ritual akin to the beastmen's "divine descent."
It involved contracting spirits to possess one's body, granting specific powers.
If beastmen's divine descent consumed stamina to massively boost strength and speed,
elven spirit possession offered lesser enhancements but awakened special abilities.
However, the method Jane employed was far more reckless and dangerous.
"She possessed three spirits at once."
The squinting tax inspector spoke to Dominic as he used magic to shove the corpses aside.
Quantity over quality.
He offset the lower enhancement by possessing multiple spirits.
"Sure, that's one way, but mess it up and your mind could shatter."
Just as beastmen had to resist being overtaken by feral instincts during divine descent, possession required resisting the erosion of one's humanity by the spirits.
And with three at once, the erosion was inevitably severe.
Elves who overdid possession like that ended up fully eroded, perceiving the world through spirit senses rather than human ones.
- "Huh? Humans can just be reborn anyway, right?"
- "They turn to fertilizer when they die anyway—helps the ecosystem, doesn't it?"
They became elves spouting such tree-hugger nonsense.
The squinting tax inspector Hailudin knew plenty of such types, being a dark elf himself.
Thus, he worried Jane might become one...
"Come to think of it, she's had plenty of tree-hugger moments already. If it gets worse, traveling might get exhausting..."
...He was worried, at least.
Dominic ignored the tax inspector's mutterings and watched Jane's fight.
Moth to a flame.
That's the image she evoked now.
Soon, the battle reached its conclusion.
The Tonkatsu Hammer boss used divine descent too, trading fierce blows with her, but Jane ultimately won with her spirits' special abilities.
"Aaaargh!"
"Cough..."
She smashed the boss's head with her golden helmet, screaming until her throat cracked.
In the end, she slew the alliance's second executive.
"Well done."
As before, Dominic offered her a towel.
But her eyes stared into empty space, seemingly unaware of the towel he held out.
"She's passed out."
The old butler sighed and scooped up her blood-soaked form.
Not minding the blood staining his own clothes.
Several hours later.
When Jane opened her eyes again, she found herself in a hospital room in the liberated city.
As she sat up in bed, the towel draped over her head slipped off.
Splat.
Ignoring the damp towel on her thigh, she looked around.
Night had fallen outside the window, and no voices rose from the streets.
She probed her throbbing head for her last memory.
'The boss...'
She had definitely finished him with the helmet strike.
She had succeeded in killing that loathsome Minotaur.
The sensation of his skull shattering through the helmet was still vivid.
Yet, for some reason, she didn't feel good about it.
'Tch.'
She clicked her tongue and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
At that moment, a voice came from the shadowed corner of the room.
"It's been a week."
"Kyaa! You scared me! Thought my heart would stop!"
"Your voice sounds lively, so you've regained your strength."
"No, make some noise next time... Wait. A week? I was out that long?"
"Oh, good—your sense of time is intact, so your mind's back. Just kidding. It was 7 hours, not 7 days."
"You damn geezer..."
"Looks like you're fully recovered. Congratulations. We were worried while you teetered on death's door about ten times over those 7 hours."
"..."
Only then did she notice the items beside the old butler.
Stiffened red towels and clean ones soaking in clear water.
Noticing her gaze, the butler smiled faintly.
"Spirit possession caused a severe fever. You nearly ended your revenge right here."
"...Thanks."
"No trouble at all. Get some rest."
Dominic gave a perfect butler's bow and left the room.
His flawless poise, unwavering even as he exited, struck her as enviably perfect.
It felt like he was assured of a bright future.
Watching that ideal butler made her own hurried march toward ruin feel all the more pathetic.
"Haa..."
She brushed the damp towel off her thigh and got out of bed.
A dark night, even the moon shrouded in shadow.
Approaching the window, it reflected her like a mirror.
In the glass, the girl who once frolicked with a flower crown in a happy home met her eyes.
But arrogant higher races trampled her life, and the banner of justice burned her new home too.
- Jane! Run!
- You know Daddy loves you, right?
Her nightmarish past unfolded like a panorama before the mirror.
A burning village.
The higher races' laughter amid the flames.
The vigilantes' shouts, stealing happiness in justice's name.
Grind.
Staring at the window-mirror, she clenched her fist.
Her revenge was surely progressing smoothly—why did the pain only grow?
In the tightening ache in her chest, she bit her lip lightly and shifted her thoughts.
'Better this way.'
If anger was her fuel, sustaining it until revenge's end was far preferable.
It was then, as she rationalized her state.
Thud. Thump.
Bam.
An odd noise came from the hallway.
"?"
Snapping from her reverie, she turned toward the corridor.
'Intruder?'
Instinctively, she tried to muster mana.
But drained from the last battle, she had none left.
She drew a spare dagger and braced for the intruder.
Bam bam.
After a few noises, footsteps reached the door.
The presence outside paused in silence, then
Knock knock.
"Miss Jane. It's Dominic. I've brought food. May I enter?"
The familiar old man's voice sought permission.
But with mimics aplenty in this world, she kept her guard up and pressed.
"Prove you're Dominic."
"Shall I recite the number of moles on your body?"
Her thoughts froze at that.
'Wait.'
Her eyes darted to the room, her freshly cleaned body, her patient gown.
Putting it together, she reached one conclusion.
"You pervert geezer!!!"
Bang!
She flung the door open as if to rip it off its hinges.
As it swung wide, the kindly smiling butler greeted her.
"Kidding. The nurse did it."
"...You raccoon geezer."
"I brought soup. It'll help your recovery."
"Not eating."
She refused like a child picky about side dishes.
Part defiance toward Dominic, but mostly guilt.
Having dwelled on her past moments ago, her throat felt too tight for food.
Dominic's blue eyes fixed on the sulking woman's face.
Soon, the old man with his storied past spoke.
"If you burn yourself out already, what'll you have left to unleash on your true target? Plan to set fire to ashes?"
"What do you know..."
"Revenge isn't achieved by burning something up. It's honed like a blade for that one chance—eating well, sleeping well, waiting."
"Sounds like you've done it."
"What does an old man's past matter?"
Dominic brushed it off with a smile.
For a split second, memories flashed: the dragon that hijacked his fateful encounter and botched his schedule, and the three-year journey to wring its neck—but he kept them unspoken.
As always, Dominic offered the tray of soup and bread with a friendly smile.
"Don't become a moth to the flame. Revenge ends with you finding happiness afterward."
"Didn't expect that."
"Pardon?"
"From the guy who said not to swallow enlightenment with killing intent, now advising on revenge."
"That wasn't denying revenge. Stop growing after it ends, and you sink to your enemy's level."
"I think I get it."
In short: pursue revenge, but plan beyond it. Don't become a blood-drunk monster lost in it.
The butler's words resonated a little.
"Thanks."
"My pleasure. If you need this old man's advice anytime, just say so."
Jane nodded.
Dominic nodded gently back and headed for the door.
Just before he left, she called to his back.
"Why go this far for me?"
"I've told you: an old man with nothing to his name just wants to leave something behind in his twilight years."
The old man left her room that way.
His snowy white hair, as he departed, briefly struck her like lingering ashes.
*
Dominic left her room.
Turning a corner in the hospital corridor, a hallway strewn with blood and bodies greeted him.
"One, two... eight. Hmm..."
The old man counted the corpses and nodded.
"Should report to the master."
The butler left the bodies and headed to the squinting tax inspector.
As he departed, one of the fallen corpses stirred and rose.
"Damn. Gotta tell Father."
The black-masked figure abandoned his comrades' bodies, opened a corridor window, and leaped out.
Thus, one less body in the hall when Dominic reached the tax inspector's room.
"Seven uninvited guests showed up. Sorry for the late hour, but could you handle the cleanup, Master?"
The squinting tax inspector gladly obliged.
As the inspector erased the traces of the bodies, Dominic cackled inwardly.
'About time they notice me over there.'