Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: A Way to Regain My Arm
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As morning sunlight poured in, Krash opened his eyes.
Was it the lingering fatigue from his battle with Bergman?
Krash belatedly realized he had fallen asleep again.
"Sleeping with a little girl at your age. What a disgraceful bastard."
At that moment, Krash turned his head toward the voice he'd heard.
There sat the crow by his bedside—Crimson Garden.
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Look to your side."
Krash, who had reacted with disbelief, caught sight of the person lying to his left.
It was none other than Bianca.
Her eyes were puffy from clutching his left arm so tightly.
She had cried so much at dawn, so it was only natural.
He'd have to swell her face up like that when she woke up.
It would suit Hardenharts perfectly, with its eternal snowfall.
"How's the arm?"
Hearing Crimson Garden's question, Krash looked at his right arm.
It was completely empty.
There was no "how" about it.
"I don't feel a thing."
"Well, of course not. You don't have an arm."
Then why ask?
"So, what are you going to do now?"
Crimson Garden tossed out another question.
Krash had promised to become the strongest and steal her immortality for her.
But now his arm was severed.
Obviously, he wouldn't be able to keep that promise.
"Don't worry about it."
But Krash didn't seem fazed by the situation at all.
"I know a way to restore the arm."
"Haha."
Crimson Garden let out a snickering laugh as she looked at him.
"Is this the leisure of a regressor?"
"I could head to the Holy Kingdom right now and it'd be fixed in no time."
One of the four great kingdoms, the Holy Kingdom Freeman.
There was a saintess there who could even revive the dead.
'The reviving the dead part is just propaganda from the Holy Kingdom, though.'
Still, it was true that the saintess possessed tremendous power.
She had been bathed in the sacred relic, the Holy Grail, by the Holy Kingdom itself since infancy.
Thanks to that, she was practically a monster brimming with divine power.
But he couldn't borrow her power right away.
Even if his status had improved a bit recently, he was still a half-breed.
The Valheim family wouldn't shell out the fortune to hire a saintess for him.
They weren't generous enough to waste money on a half-breed.
The most they'd do was summon a priest.
"But you're saying you have no intention of borrowing holy power, right?"
Crimson Garden showed an intrigued reaction.
Krash felt a bit uneasy about being labeled a regressor, but he revealed his plan to restore the arm.
"Since I'm losing this right arm anyway, I'm going to replace it with the best possible one."
"Haha, if arms could be swapped out that easily, everyone in the world would do it."
"There's someone who can do it."
As Krash grinned, Crimson Garden stopped her mocking.
"...Is that why you saved that one?"
The one Crimson Garden pointed to was none other than Evelask.
The world's only necromancer.
A woman who could wield even dead corpses.
Attaching an arm would be child's play for her.
"This is purely coincidental."
Even Krash wouldn't deliberately cut off his own arm like some lunatic.
This was just a fortunate coincidence.
Evelask happened to be there, and his arm happened to get severed.
So he'd use her—that was all.
'Though it'll mean one more deal with her.'
He worried what she'd demand in exchange for attaching the arm.
But for now, the arm took priority.
"So, what arm are you planning to attach?"
"Sword Ghost."
The moment Krash answered instantly, Crimson Garden stiffened.
Krash looked at her and slowly smiled.
Sword Ghost.
Once a powerhouse who shook the world, hailed as a genius of giant sword arts.
No one in the world could match the giant sword techniques he wielded, or so they said.
"You rotten bastard."
And that Sword Ghost was none other than Crimson Garden's servant.
The one she cherished most.
"So, give me his arm."
"No way! Live as a one-armed man!"
"We have a deal, don't we? You have to make me stronger."
"Sword Ghost is the servant I raised from infancy, nursing him myself!"
"Try nursing me a bit too."
Krash shot her a look as if to say, You only ever scold me—what have you done for me?
Crimson Garden spread her wings wide with an incredulous expression.
"You ungrateful wretch! I went out of my way to nurture your lacking talent and teach you Blunt Sword, and now you dare look at your master like that!"
"Crim, aren't you acting a bit too stingy? Sword Ghost died ages ago anyway."
Sword Ghost was dead.
The reason? Old age.
He had simply grown old and passed.
Crimson Garden could share her immortality.
In fact, she had granted it to Sera, Sizzly's attendant.
'No, honestly, that's not true immortality.'
Unlike Crimson Garden's own immortality, what she gave Sera was half-baked.
It was more like ultra-fast regeneration.
'And the drawback is that it burns through the target's life force to activate.'
That's why it was only half immortality.
True immortality meant never dying.
If you died after exhausting all life force, it wasn't real immortality.
Thus, Crimson Garden couldn't revive her beloved Sword Ghost with it.
"I get that you're attached to your servants."
For Crimson Garden, her servants were her only window to the world.
So she couldn't help pouring her emotions into them.
Even knowing it would cause her pain, she kept doing it.
Thus, Krash knew her weakness was ironically her servants.
'Arthur told me directly how to find Crimson Garden's true body.'
The method Arthur gave to locate her.
Capture her servants and torture them directly.
They had a saintess.
No matter the torture, her servants wouldn't die.
Knowing that, Crimson Garden would reveal her true body's location herself.
Arthur's eyes had held no emotion as he said it.
Just mechanically repeating what needed to be done.
He was already broken by then.
"But Sword Ghost died long ago."
Crimson Garden flinched.
"His giant sword arts didn't die, though. And you know them all."
Krash raised his empty right arm.
"With Sword Ghost's arm, I could revive those arts."
Krash was adept at mimicry techniques.
With Crimson Garden's help, he could definitely learn Sword Ghost's giant sword arts.
"Don't you think Sword Ghost would want that too?"
"..."
Crimson Garden froze with her wings spread.
Then she folded them and glared at Krash.
"You silver-tongued brat. Do you think sweet words alone will make my heart melt?"
Failure?
As Krash pondered how to persuade her, she moved to the window.
"...Wait two days."
An unexpected reply came.
She had agreed after all.
Krash smiled faintly.
"Thanks, Crimson Garden."
"Calling me by my true name only when you need something. You brat."
Crimson Garden spread her wings indignantly and flew out.
Watching her go, Krash felt relieved.
He couldn't return to Valheim without an arm, after all.
'The problem is that Hardenharts probably already reported this to Valheim.'
This was the North Sea Ice Pavilion, Hardenharts' main residence.
That meant they knew his condition.
They surely wouldn't have kept it from Valheim.
'How to explain it.'
If he returned with his arm restored after they reported it lost, even the main family would be baffled.
'If I align my story with Hardenharts, it should work out. The issue is coordinating that story.'
He was confident he could explain the arm somehow.
But the real problem was him.
He was supposed to be at Green Pine Pavilion.
If he suddenly appeared from Hardenharts, Valheim would have questions.
'Aliod's the one I'm worried about.'
Krash shook his head.
He didn't dwell on problems that couldn't be solved by worrying now.
That was his way.
He'd make up some excuse for that side.
Worst case, he'd play the delinquent card.
'If I say I was off causing trouble, what can they do?'
They'd disowned him anyway—who cared where he popped up from?
For now, he just had to wait for Crimson Garden to bring Sword Ghost's arm.
'I want to research Annihilating Flame Erosion more too.'
The Annihilating Flame Erosion born from combining Ignis and Extreme Blood Poison Infusion.
In a way, it was Krash's original secret art.
Given its firepower, it would clearly become a tremendous trump card.
'The issue is duration.'
Even pushing his body to the limit, it only lasted three seconds at his current level.
That made it too restrictive, like One Sword.
'Training's the only answer, huh.'
Still, he'd solved Extreme Blood Poison Infusion's berserk issue.
Bianca's stolen Curse Doll would suppress the mania.
'The doll's effect...'
Krash experimentally recalled some irritating memories.
The surging anger was definitely less intense than before.
But it didn't erase emotions entirely like with Bianca.
It felt like they were forcibly suppressed a bit.
'The curse weakens when transferred to a new target.'
Plus, gaining the doll had given him insight.
'The doll suppresses rather than completely erasing emotions.'
That must be why Bianca sometimes seemed to have emotions.
'Back then, a stronger curse had overshadowed the doll, so I didn't notice.'
He'd vaguely thought it erased emotions outright.
But this was better for Krash.
'With this...'
Krash's eyes gleamed.
'I can control it.'
He had harbored countless curses in his body before.
Top-tier ones were beyond even him, but lower grades he could handle.
He wasn't called a curse expert for nothing.
That's why he'd been eager to steal the doll.
Using Sixth Sense, he slowly awakened the suppressed mania.
'Offset the mania with the doll simultaneously.'
He felt the world gradually tinting red.
True to form, the mania surged wildly the moment he released Sixth Sense.
But then he activated the doll's curse.
Like leashing a rampaging beast, the doll forcibly restrained the mania.
The reddening world was crushed back to its normal colors.
A hot chuckle escaped Krash's lips.
That laugh proved he had full control over the doll.
"Not a big deal."
The mania would grow stronger as his World Erosion power intensified.
Eventually, even the doll might not hold it back—but he'd counter with other curses or skills then.
For the foreseeable future, he could use it without mania worries.
So Bianca didn't need to fret about lacking emotions either.
Squirm—
It was then.
Krash felt movement to his left.
Turning, he saw Bianca curling up as she slowly rose.
"...Lord Krash."
She sought him first thing upon waking.
But her swollen eyes made it hard to see; she groped around for him.
Seeing that, Krash felt exasperated but took her hand.
Only then did Bianca relax.
"Can you see?"
"My eyes hurt."
Well, yeah, they'd hurt if they were that swollen.
"Hungry?"
"Yes."
Good, at least she was honest there.
"Let's eat."
Time to fill the stomach.