Chapter 160
Chapter 160
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: Why Is the Poison King Here?
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The World Erosion that emerged in Hardenharts.
Krash, who had been pitted against it, actually had little to do.
"Don't move around needlessly. Just stay put quietly."
The corpse rat perched on Krash's shoulder warned him.
Krash did as it said, staying perfectly still without touching anything.
And rightly so. Evelask's white bone legion, spreading through the Hardenharts Mountains, was smashing the erosion beasts to pieces.
Evelask was demonstrating the true power of a necromancer.
The white bone legion was an undying army that wouldn't perish until Evelask's power waned.
Even erosion beasts had no answer for the white bone legion.
And that wasn't all.
Evelask's corpses, moving intermittently, displayed yet another level of prowess.
Each with unique traits, they formed their own teams and hunted down the erosion beasts with ruthless efficiency.
Watching the scene from afar, Krash finally understood why the Empire had so relentlessly pursued Evelask.
They wouldn't have wanted to let this slip away, no matter what.
'Arthur made good use of Evelask too.'
From Sigrin's perspective, she was probably furious about losing Evelask, tearing her handkerchief to shreds.
In the meantime, No. 8 appeared beyond the distant mountain.
She gave Krash a brief greeting before vanishing back into the forest.
That was because he had served as the backing she requested for Evelask.
Truly, she was a corpse with a fiercely independent will.
"Lord Krash."
At that moment, Krash turned his head toward the voice coming from behind.
There stood Pelay.
He repeatedly opened and closed his lips, looking like he wanted to ask something.
Finally, he clenched both fists tightly and spoke.
"...Do you know that Night Raven participated in the last Imperial Martial Tournament?"
Pelay wore a resolute expression.
He must have caught on to what Krash's earlier words implied.
"Pelay."
Krash turned to him and tossed out a casual remark.
"You didn't win the tournament because your opponent was strong, not because you're weak."
Pelay's eyes widened as he grasped the meaning.
A slow smile then crept across his lips.
"...You're right about that."
Krash lifted his head after saying his piece.
The yellowish light was fading from the sky.
Sounds of erosion beasts shattering echoed from all directions.
At the same time, the rising sun dyed the heavens in the light of dawn.
"Krash."
Haring, who had approached unnoticed, called his name.
Erosion beast blood splattered across her clothes showed how hard she had fought.
"Yeah."
Haring gripped her dagger tightly.
As if the sky itself shone more brilliantly now that her long-buried trauma had been resolved.
"The World Erosion has closed."
That was the moment the Radiant Priest truly met his end.
＊ ＊ ＊
In conclusion, the streets of Hardenharts were essentially reduced to rubble.
The World Erosion's rank was a full eight stars, just as Krash had predicted.
If Rai's battle had dragged on longer, it could have even grown to nine stars.
Thanks to that, One Sword had poured everything into facing the master of an eight-star World Erosion.
No matter that they were Valheim's famed One Sword, fighting the master without civilian casualties was impossible.
So in the end, they had forcibly lured it away from the town into the mountains for the battle.
Because of that, casualties were relatively low for an eight-star World Erosion.
Places like the Northern Ice Pavilion in Hardenharts were almost entirely intact.
With the Fourth Princess and First Prince there, they had been top priority for protection.
'Priorities always exist for people, after all.'
Krash watched those shedding tears before corpses.
Most of them were commoners.
"Sob, Daddy, Daddy."
"You said we'd go to the mountains tomorrow. How could you leave after saying that?"
"Mom, please, our mom will be okay, right? She'll be fine, won't she?!"
In truth, even knights—often called quasi-nobles—hadn't escaped heavy losses.
Hardenharts' knights had shed their blood battling the World Erosion too.
Yet the reality was that commoners made up the bulk of the dead.
Pelay's face hardened as he led ordinary citizens out from caves for evacuation.
Countless thoughts seemed to flicker across his expression.
A complex mix of emotions, like guilt for failing to protect them, flashed over Pelay's face.
But Krash's expression showed little change.
He had seen scenes like this far too many times.
Brutal situations that could make one vomit would repeat endlessly in the future.
One had no choice but to grow numb to them.
Harsh reality always forced death upon someone.
Dreams of protecting everyone in the world didn't exist here.
If they had released the Radiant Priest, casualties might have been fewer.
Letting him go wouldn't have let the World Erosion's difficulty spike like this.
But releasing him would have led to the same tragedy repeating.
And new casualties would have emerged.
'Disgusting.'
For some reason, Krash swallowed a hollow chuckle.
He was reminded that he too forced sacrifices upon others.
[Do you at least feel guilt?]
"Unfortunately not."
Feeling only faint self-loathing, Krash harbored no guilt.
He wasn't meant to grieve.
He was in the position of a noble: preventing such events in the future and issuing commands to resolve the current crisis.
That was a noble's role in this world.
Not bearing sorrow themselves, but paving the way for the grieving to rise again.
"Krash."
Krash raised his head at the call.
A woman stood there.
Her jet-black long hair whipped about as she strode forward heavily, her clothes tattered in places.
Yet nothing diminished her majesty.
Sword Saint, Charlotte Valheim.
His sister.
She glanced at the returned Krash.
"Any injuries?"
"Everything aches."
When she asked, Krash raised his arm and replied.
Though he didn't show it, Krash was in quite a precarious state right now.
He desperately needed rest.
After his answer, Charlotte stared at him briefly before turning away.
"Good enough."
As he watched her walk away confidently, the doors to the Northern Ice Pavilion creaked open.
There stood Sizzly, with sea-blue hair shining and her locks braided into buns.
She glanced at Charlotte passing by her side, then rushed straight to Krash.
"Fourth Princess!"
Her flustered guard, the Light Sword, followed as Sizzly planted herself before Krash.
She moved surprisingly fast on her short legs.
"...You saved her."
Facing Krash, Sizzly let out a long sigh of relief.
Seeing him, she realized he had rescued Evelask.
She hadn't anticipated things escalating this far either.
So she had been worrying about Krash and Evelask constantly from inside the Northern Ice Pavilion.
"Phew, looks like I won't need to use what I prepared."
"...What were you planning to use?"
"You wouldn't like hearing it."
Sizzly shook her head.
Then she glanced in the direction Charlotte had gone.
"By the way, you have a monstrous sister. I knew roughly from what I'd heard, but not to that extent."
Krash looked in the same direction as Sizzly.
"What did Sis do?"
"She was the first to spot the eight-star master heading for the town and held it off alone. Then she linked up with One Sword and took it down."
Haring and Pelay, following behind, stiffened.
They had heard she single-handedly endured an erosion beast on a level far beyond what they struggled with.
Charlotte, who had just passed by, looked worn but otherwise fine.
She still exuded the sharp edge of a honed blade.
[As expected, a monster is a monster. Totally different from her little brother who rolled around desperately to barely defeat an eight-star.]
Krash let out a hollow laugh.
He had certainly grown much stronger compared to the Agares incident.
Even so, asked to defeat one in as pristine condition as Charlotte, he would shake his head.
Of course, purely by circumstances, Krash's had been more disadvantageous.
In his case, he had the greatest card: prior knowledge.
'A mere 16-year-old girl, not even a regressor, faced an eight-star erosion beast.'
The impact was obvious without imagining it.
Charlotte's name would soar even higher today.
As a result, Sigrin, convinced Charlotte was the regressor, would sink deeper into the pit.
"Your face looks grim."
"It's not grim, it's..."
Krash started to reply to Sizzly but felt his vision blur.
Damn, the usual pattern.
"Krash!"
With Haring's startled cry from behind, Krash's body tilted over.
＊ ＊ ＊
A familiar ceiling.
Of course it was.
Krash had seen this ceiling once before.
"..."
But unlike then, his body felt strangely empty.
The white hair that should have been visible wasn't there.
For some reason feeling a pang of regret, Krash touched his neck a moment later.
"You're awake."
At that instant, a corpse rat climbed onto Krash.
The rat, transmitting Evelask's voice, squeaked.
"I thought you'd sleep forever."
"Come on, guys like him pop right back up, don't they?"
At the same time, Crimson Garden's voice rang out.
It came from a crow that had entered through the window.
A crow he hadn't seen in a while.
Had it been following him as a crow all along?
Rat and crow.
An ominous combo in many ways.
"Evelask, Crimson Garden. What's the situation outside?"
"Things are being sorted out. The story going around is that the one who injured the Poison King was the Radiant Priest after all. That girl Haring you brought played a big part."
The Radiant Priest was the culprit behind the Lagren incident.
And the sole direct descendant of the Lagren family, Haring, had personally joined this expedition.
As a result, she rose as the avenger of her house, burying Evelask's presence in an instant.
"Staron seems to have fanned the flames deliberately too."
They didn't want Imperials crossing the border just because Evelask hadn't been caught yet.
Staron took the chance to press the advantage, claiming the Empire had misjudged.
Surprisingly, the Empire seemed willing to let it slide quietly.
"Probably because of the Radiant Priest."
Krash had a rough idea of the reason.
Sena the professor had said there was likely some shady deal between the imperial palace and the Radiant Priest.
And Krash judged the deal's target was precisely the World Erosion group, Ixion—not the Radiant Priest himself.
"Speaking of which, Evelask, you recovered the Radiant Priest's corpse, right?"
"Oh, yeah, I've got it."
The rat perked up its head in response.
"Can you revive that guy as a corpse?"
"It'll take a bit."
"That's fine. Do me a favor."
"Heh, well, if it's a favor... I'll get right on it."
The rat puffed up slightly, arms on hips.
Thinking that mirrored Evelask's expression annoyed him a little.
"Planning to extract info?"
"Yeah, and separately, there's a way to scout Ixion's movements."
The crow's eyes widened slightly at that.
"You don't mean using the corpse to attend Ixion's meeting, do you?"
As expected of Crimson Garden, quick on the uptake.
"Wh-what? What's this about a meeting?"
The only one clueless, Evelask, reacted with alarm.
"Ixion holds regular meetings among World Erosion wielders. It's in a independent space set up by the Black Witch—no one uninvited can enter. So you and I are probably expelled from those meetings."
Evelask belatedly caught on.
"You're thinking of sending the Radiant Priest's corpse to that meeting?"
"Exactly. Even your fellow World Erosion users don't know everyone's full abilities. It's not strange if the Radiant Priest had some hidden resurrection method."
"Hah, but they know about me? They know I can revive corpses too..."
Krash pointed at Crimson Garden.
"You've got this one."
Crimson Garden clicked its tongue.
Its immortality could be shared.
Precisely, it restored the body to a living state at the cost of lifespan, but still.
"You summon the soul, Crimson Garden revives it, and Evelask rips out the heart. Done."
Evelask shuddered at Krash's plan.
"...You're going to squeeze him dry to the marrow."
"No risk. If we're caught, oh well."
But if not, it'd be the perfect card.
"Clever one, aren't you?"
Crimson Garden uttered a short exclamation.
Clunk!
Suddenly, the door burst open.
With a flap of wings, Crimson Garden flew off, and Evelask's corpse rat dove under the covers.
Krash turned to see familiar white hair.
But not a face he knew.
Open disappointment crossed Krash's face.
"...You're up. Though I wouldn't think you'd look that disappointed seeing someone's face."
It was Jenica Hardenharts, Bianca's older sister.
But Krash's expression didn't change.
"What do you want?"
"Perfect timing."
When Krash asked, she peeked outside before firmly shutting the door.
Then she strode right up to him.
Her white hair swaying, she placed hands on her hips with a slightly venomous look.
"Just one thing I want to ask."
Krash looked at her, utterly baffled.
"...You. Are you even aware you're Bianca's fiancé?"
Krash made a face like she was spouting nonsense.
"Things went crazy the moment you collapsed."
She recalled the commotion at the entrance.
Haring Lagren, direct descendant of the Lagren family, had broken down in tears in an instant, and the rat beside her squeaked enough to give a headache.
Even Fourth Princess Sizzly Epania had shouted for a medic with a grim face.
"...No matter how you look at it, that's not normal between friends."
Those intense reactions weren't ordinary, even to Jenica.
They clearly went beyond typical emotions.
But Krash's response was nonchalant.
"They were probably just shocked I collapsed."
Jenica felt a surge of irritation.
She wanted to yell it was way more than that, but Krash didn't know exactly how others reacted after he fell.
The panic that erupted the instant he collapsed.
"And yeah, I'm well aware I'm Bianca's fiancé. Don't worry. No side affairs. I'm even thinking of marriage once she's 15."
"R-really?"
Jenica responded awkwardly as Krash answered seriously.
His expression seemed utterly sincere.
But she chewed her lip.
Despite his firm words, the situation around him screamed distortion.
A woman's intuition told her.
It was a battlefield.
'...Does she even know about this mess?'
Recalling Bianca's letter, Jenica fiddled with her side hair.
She worried if Bianca knew her fiancé was smack in the middle of chaos.
For some reason irked, Jenica started to say more but stopped.
She had nothing left to say.
Did she even have the right to step in for Bianca now?
"..."
"Anything else?"
As Jenica fell silent, Krash prompted her.
She fidgeted before turning away.
"N-no, that's it."
Jenica left the room as if at a loss for words.
And she thought to herself.
'Whatever. I still need to tell her this.'
At the very least, Bianca needed to know Krash's current situation.
'At least close the door.'
As Krash eyed the open door Jenica had left, someone peeked through.
"You look fine now."
It was none other than Fourth Princess Sizzly Epania.
She stared at Krash before shaking her head.
"My goodness, stop pushing yourself in front of people and keeling over like that. You just made everyone's hearts drop for nothing."
"Wasn't my choice."
"Fair enough. Still, the Empire's going to be in an uproar over this."
She crossed her arms, lost in thought for a moment.
Sizzly, with her sharp mind.
Her quick wits soon yielded an answer, and she looked at Krash.
"I'm heading back to the Empire for a bit."
Krash's eyes rounded.
"What for?"
"While you were out, I got the gist from Professor Sena Mayer. I thought there were odd movements in the Empire—not just one or two—but now it feels like it's eating away at the Empire itself."
Krash knew Sizzly cared for the Empire.
That was why the bystander was finally drawing her sword.
"Digging too deep could be dangerous."
Krash didn't know everything about the Empire either.
But from what he knew, its internals were more tangled than expected.
At his warning, Sizzly shrugged.
"I'm the cute little princess, aren't I? Safer than most."
She flashed a mischievous smile.
"And above all, I've got someone who'll swoop in with a 'ta-da' if I'm in danger."
Who else?
Krash made an exasperated face.
"I'll bring good news."
Sizzly waved goodbye and left.
Her guard, the Light Sword, gave Krash a quick nod before following.
A storm of a woman in every way.
The moment Sizzly departed, another presence appeared at the door.
They came one after another.
"Krash."
It was Haring.
After Jenica and Sizzly, now Haring.
From yesterday's events and all her crying, her eyes were terribly red.
"...You okay?"
But seeing Krash, color bloomed on Haring's face.
Haring had pushed herself nearly as hard as Krash.
When he collapsed, she cried until exhausted and passed out too.
Upon waking, before seeking him out, she heard one piece of news.
Deep worry etched her expression.
"What happened?"
"Well..."
Haring hesitated before sheepishly stepping outside.
With a slightly troubled look, she continued.
"Father wants to meet you..."
Suddenly, he was going to meet the Poison King.