Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: A Treacherous Subject Has His Uses - Part 6
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“Damn it all! Hah, but… but the opponent is unarmed and alone…….”
The leader of the bandits tried to give orders to his men while slowly backing away.
But before his words could even finish, his head was separated from his body by a violet afterimage.
And before that head could even hit the ground, the violet shadow had simultaneously cut down five more men. In an instant, six out of thirty-two were dead.
The remaining bandits were aghast at the sight, but Beonald never stopped.
‘Easy. This is even simpler than swatting flies.’
This might have been his first actual combat as a ‘swordsman who had learned mana training,’ but Beonald von Neumel, the former Grand Duke and High Noble, was someone who had tread battlefields as routinely as eating meals. Even before becoming the head of his family, under the cruel tutelage of the previous Neumel Count, he was all too familiar with taking lives—including the experience of having his ‘half-brothers’ kill each other.
“Eeek! What the…? I can’t even see it!”
“Th-the boss is dead! What do we do?”
“The opponent seems to be a knight trained in mana! L-let’s form a defensive line! He’s lightly armed! If we attack and hit him, we have a chance……!”
Unfortunately for the one running his mouth, his head too went tumbling through the air.
The difference in physical ability between a knight who wielded mana and a regular soldier was as vast as that between a child and an adult.
Beonald was well aware of this. The Aura, unleashed by the power of mana accumulated over ten years of training in the Imperial Knight Order’s method—this was no longer a fight.
It was a one-sided slaughter, or rather, Beonald’s bug hunt.
‘Hmm. I only ever considered hunting a pastime, but this is quite doable.’
Compared to the training that consumed his own mana and tormented his body, this fight was utterly trivial.
It wasn’t as if these bandit scum had the courage to fight a strong opponent in the first place.
“You bastard! Stop! If you don’t want to see these territory folk die, drop your weapon right now… Gah!”
Schlick!
One bandit had held a blade to the neck of a bound territory resident, taking them hostage, but the bandit’s own head flew off first.
In that brief moment, however, the other bandits succeeded in using the residents as human shields, initiating a hostage situation.
“S-stop right now, you bastard! Can’t you see this? Move and they really die! They die!”
“Stop, I said! If you don’t listen to us…! Aaaargh!”
‘What… I don’t even know what they’re trying to do. What were they thinking, taking hostages?’
An ordinary person might have condemned the bandits’ cowardly act, but to Beonald—a traditional High Noble who had reigned over countless people—it simply seemed like an absurd bargain.
By his standards, a noble’s life was, of course! more valuable than that of a commoner. And his own life, as a High Noble, would only be comparable to that of hundreds of thousands of commoners.
“D-damn it! What are you? Are you insane? Here! Are you just going to watch these guys die… Urk!”
“Th-that guy, he won’t listen! Goddamn iiiit!”
Seeing that Beonald didn’t even bat an eye at their hostage tactic, the bandits eventually gave up on that strategy. By the time the 19th bandit’s head was severed, they lost the will to fight, scattering in all directions, each seeking their own path to escape.
“Waaaah! S-save meee!”
‘Finally running away. But…….’
A sword technique modeled after the movements of a strange desert snake. A sword beam of condensed mana snaked forward in an S-shape, as if riding a wave, avoiding trees before plunging into the back of a fleeing bandit’s skull, causing his head to explode.
Truthfully, he didn’t need to use the Neumel family sword style against drunken bandits; he could have just chased them down and cut them. But wasn’t this a perfect opportunity for a live test of a sword style he had only practiced alone?
During this, he spotted another bandit hiding under a cart, trembling violently.
“This bug didn’t run; it hid?”
At the mansion, he had no chance to reveal his true nature, busy as he was imitating a cute, kind 10-year-old. Perhaps it was the long-awaited sight of blood, but Beonald was gradually revealing his true self.
The true nature of the High Noble Beonald von Neumel, who could watch thousands, tens of thousands of people die without batting an eye, and who was ruthless and cruel to those who threatened him.
A being above humans. One who considered those beneath him as vermin. When he infused that gaze with killing intent, the bandit truly felt the menace of being targeted by a predator.
“P-please! Please spare me. I’ll do anything. So please…….”
“Then will you be good and stay still? If you drop your weapon, strip completely, put both hands on your head, and stay that way until the hunt is over, I’ll spare you.”
“Yes! Y-yes, sir!”
‘I have to restore the lord’s dignity too.’
Having been ambushed helplessly three times, his father’s authority must have taken a hit.
So, he planned to hand this one over to his father, the lord, for a public execution before the territory residents. That’s why he spared him—it made no difference.
Having completed this overwhelming rout, Beonald wiped the sweat from his brow and took a deep breath.
“Whew~ That’s the end of it. Used a bit more strength than I thought? Actual combat really is different.”
In the end, the battle… no, Beonald’s hunt, ended easily.
Surrendered: 6. Corpses: 23. Escaped: 3. He briefly considered chasing them all down and executing them, but soon decided it didn’t matter. Beonald turned and freed all the captive territory residents.
Immediately, they hugged each other in joy, beginning to offer Beonald words of thanks and praise.
“Th-thank you, young knight! We owe you our lives.”
“Truly. I thought we’d be sold off as slaves. Sob… sob!”
“See. I told you the Callermain Earldom wouldn’t just stand by.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
‘Ah~ They think I’m a knight dispatched from the Callermain Earldom. Well, I hardly ever leave the mansion… They probably guessed from seeing me use Aura.’
While his appearance—height and build—might pass for around 15 years old, Beonald was currently a cute 10-year-old. He occasionally showed his face at harvest festivals or celebrations, but as a minor, his role was mostly just watching his father give speeches beside his mother. Having spent most of his time training in the mansion, his interactions with the territory residents were extremely limited.
‘Well, it would be stranger if they recognized me.’
Anyway, whether to correct that misunderstanding required a bit more thought, but Beonald first wanted to clean up the scene.
“Everyone, you mustn’t let your guard down yet. The ones who escaped might call for reinforcements. So let’s prepare to move quickly.”
“Ah, yes! Understood, Sir Knight.”
Thus, the people immediately began to move according to Beonald’s command, returning to the territory while restraining the captured bandits.
Along the way, he worried the escaped bandits might actually come for revenge, but perhaps thanks to that fear speeding their steps, they reached the territory boundary with its wooden palisade in about 45 minutes.
However, just before fully arriving, Beonald briefly halted the group and spoke to the eldest among the kidnapped people.
“What is it, Sir Knight?”
“Ah, well… Actually, I’m not a knight from the Callermain Earldom. I’m just a wandering knight. I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding beforehand.”
After weighing the pros and cons on the way, he decided he couldn’t let the misunderstanding of him being a Callermain knight persist, and quickly corrected it.
And that wasn’t all. He gathered the severed heads of the bandit leader, Paul, Shante, and the messenger who had contacted them, along with one prisoner, and said:
“And… I have a use for these heads and this fellow here. Is that alright with you?”
“Huh? Well… yes, go ahead, Sir Knight.”
“Then I’ll take my leave… Ah, it’s probably best not to say anything unnecessary. There are circumstances, you see.”
He glared while subtly releasing a violet Aura. The territory resident nodded so vigorously his hair fluttered.
Having already witnessed his martial prowess—effortlessly defeating over thirty bandits without tiring—they had no thought of opposing him.
“Yes! Yes! Of course!”
Thus, Beonald parted ways with the group and immediately headed cautiously towards Paul’s house, taking the two bandit prisoners with him.
He had something to do before the news of the residents’ noisy return reached their ears.
Upon arrival, he knocked on Paul’s door with the prisoner in tow.
“Anyone home?”
“What kind of jerk comes at this hour… Huh? Y-young Master?”
Still, as a retainer of the lord, Paul had exchanged greetings and was acquainted with the lord’s son, Beonald, a few times. He recognized him immediately and was surprised. Beonald, without wasting time on greetings, immediately presented his ‘gift.’
“These people. Familiar faces, right?”
“Gyaaah!”
Paul, who had opened the door irritably, wondering what guest had come in the dead of night, screamed in shock when the severed heads of the dead bandit leader and the messenger he had spoken with just hours ago appeared before his eyes.
‘Wh-what the…? What is this?’
Though accustomed to human corpses, seeing the severed heads of the two people he had conspired with, his heart dropped with terror, and he trembled violently.
“Wh-wh-what is this all of a sudden? Bringing people’s heads at this hour… Th-those guys are…….”
“Ahh~ Trying to play dumb? Here, I have evidence and a witness that you conspired with bandits to plunder this territory.”
“H-huh! That’s…!”
Paul’s face turned deathly pale upon seeing the letter Beonald presented.
Yes, it was the letter he had given the messenger just hours ago, detailing this territory’s defenses.
The handwriting was his own, and when shown the witness—the bandit tied to a tree behind him—there was no more room for denial.
“D-damn it…! By the way, Young Master… Did you perhaps capture those guys yourself?”
“What if I did?”
“…Th-that’s impossible.”
No matter how fast his growth, Beonald was still 10 years old.
When Paul had seen him at the mansion, though his body had grown, he had greeted him with an innocent gaze and childish speech. But the Beonald before his eyes now displayed an attitude befitting a noble elder.
Suffocating killing intent and pressure. The same aura he had occasionally seen high-ranking figures emit during his mercenary days.
“A-anyway, you don’t seem to have come to arrest me personally… Ah, you didn’t. B-bringing that means… you want something from me, right?”
“Want something? Not particularly. I just want you to leave quietly. Whatever reason you give doesn’t matter. Write a letter saying you’re leaving and depart this place quietly.”
“Th-that’s it? Th-that’s all?”
“If Father finds out a long-time comrade betrayed him, he’d be hurt. Write it quickly and leave. Otherwise, I’ll just kill you.”
‘How is that a 10-year-old?’
The suffocating killing intent and pressure, the faintly rising violet Aura—he seemed like a knight trained in mana.
Especially that high-pressure gaze, as if looking at a bug, terrified Paul. As if under a spell, Paul swiftly moved his hand and wrote a letter stating he was leaving this place.
“Th-then I’ll… I’ll be going. Y-young Master, I’m truly sorry.”
“Good. Don’t ever come back.”
“Yes, then…….”
Thus, Paul set off down the road without looking back.
That gaze… he had seen it many times during his mercenary days.
The gaze of the greatest of the great looking down on him. The gaze shown by those who considered taking another human’s life easier than picking their nose.
It was not a gaze a 10-year-old from this rural backwater, not even a proper noble, could possess. It was an existence to be avoided at all costs. To survive, Paul ran like a madman.
“Huff… huff… huff! F-first… first to the Callermain territory…….”
Swish! Boom!
The moment he had run a considerable distance out of the territory, a sound of cutting wind suddenly accompanied the tree beside his head exploding with a ‘Boom!’
‘Son of a biiiiiitch!’
Seeing this, Paul’s face turned even paler, and he quickened his pace further.
But having already run a long way without catching his breath, his speed was gradually dropping.
“Huff! Huff! Huff… No. Please… s-spare…….”
Trembling with fear, Paul finally realized that Young Master Beonald had no intention of letting him live, and shook with terror.
Unable to bear the fear any longer, he turned his head. The violet Aura sword beam flying towards him became the final sight of his life, and his head exploded, ending his existence.