Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: 5. Escape (3)
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At that moment
The gate on the opposite side of the city from where the recent incident had unfolded.
Today, as always, Guard Captain Hanson was stationed here.
He'd wanted to join the subjugation of that kidnapper Heinkel, but he'd been ordered to guard this gate in case they came this way.
-Rumble rumble...
Something was vibrating from somewhere.
Hmm? Hanson looked around, but the other soldiers didn't seem to notice anything.
-Rumble rumble rumble...
But the vibrations intensified in an instant.
-BOOM!!!!!!
Something burst through the house in front of them.
A knight in armor... with massive buttocks on his shoulder...?
In just 0.5 seconds, Hanson recognized it.
Wait... that's Charlotte's ass?
This was Hanson, the loyal regular who'd been blowing his entire salary—no savings in two years—on Charlotte!
He knew the size of Charlotte's butt better than anyone.
"Cha... Charlotte!!!! Stop her!!!"
But before he could shout, Charlotte's butt hurtled toward them with tremendous momentum.
'Screw it,' Hanson thought, leaping down from the wall to block the gate entrance alone.
Naturally, Heinkel wasn't the type to stop upon seeing him.
Stammering and standing awkwardly, Hanson got shouldered away with a pwoong~.
"Kyaahhh!!!!"
Oh, Charlotte's butt hit his face.
Hanson's face slammed straight into Charlotte's approaching butt, smashing into the wall with a yelp. His nose was pulverized on impact.
The remaining regular soldiers were yelling, "Run away!!!!"
-Boom
Heinkel kicked the gate open and charged out.
In truth, the gate was incredibly hard to open from the outside, but from inside, it was just a heavy iron door.
-Boom!!
Rian, right on his heels, shattered the entire precariously hanging gate as he pursued.
Finally outside the city walls, Charlotte thought.
"Stop right there!!!"
Rian had wanted to unleash sword qi earlier, but he'd hesitated at first for fear of killing city civilians.
If it were his own territory, he'd have fired without a care for civilian casualties, but this wasn't his empire.
He'd begged for teleport gate permission, instinctively knowing that killing locals would get him killed too.
And now outside the city, he couldn't fire sword qi because of Charlotte.
When Charlotte had thrown her sword earlier, it had clashed properly, and in her face, he'd seen his dead sister Elena.
That vibrant, healthy face really resembled her.
Of course, Charlotte was terrified, interpreting his gaze as murderous intent.
The two barreled along, slamming everything in their path, burning through all their mana in a brute-force chase.
"Release the hostage!!!!"
Rian now wanted to save Charlotte.
"Kukuku... Go suck your sister's tits some more! Oh wait, she's dead, you can't?!"
Heinkel's pad... no, family diss.
"Ah...? Yeah? Your mom's pussy was delicious?"
Rian fired back without flinching.
Online pad disses were all fiction, but these bastards had actually done it all.
"You know what? Your little sis was flooding from her pussy when I iron-branded her ass?"
Rian's combo attack.
"Fuck you... Even dead, your sister's pussy was tight~ That's why I didn't notice she croaked~"
Charlotte, caught in the middle, wondered, What the hell are these guys doing?
These 60-70-year-old geezers sounded like trash-talking elementary kids in a game.
"Kraaah!!... You dare... Ah!... You know about your sister?"
"Wh... What?"
Charlotte and Heinkel went, No way, no way~
"Your goblin whore mom birthed how many goblin brats? Those your siblings? Kukukuku..."
"Uwaaaaaah!!!!!"
Heinkel was defeated.
Losing his reason, Heinkel roughly tossed Charlotte aside and clashed swords with Rian.
"Kyaahhhh!!!"
Flying through the air, Charlotte landed without major injury.
-BOOM!!!!!
Tremendous aura blades collided, sending out shockwaves.
"Kyaahhhh!!!!"
Charlotte got flung again by the blast.
In truth, clashes between Sword Master-level powerhouses rarely happened.
Victory was nice, but if there was even a 10% chance of loss, they didn't fight.
Think about it: 10% chance of death, but win and you get fame points~ Who'd challenge that?
Losing meant losing everything, so they avoided fights.
Most Sword Masters were central figures in their clans, talked out of it by allies.
Sparring? Losing even a spar was social suicide, so no way.
In that sense, this duel was a once-in-an-era showdown.
-Boom!! Boom!!
At a glance, Heinkel seemed dominant, pummeling Rian with aura blades, but that was an illusion.
He was just excitedly swinging wildly without mana control.
Rian, a natural genius, had long known Heinkel's mana reserves defied common sense. He deflected with minimal mana and stamina expenditure.
"As expected, Sword Users ain't shit~"
Rian didn't forget to taunt.
"Graaahhh!!!! Die!!! Die!!!!"
The taunt worked too well.
The clinging aura blades nearly doubled.
"Kuh... Crazy bastard... Your mana increased again...?"
Obviously. Rian was declining with age, but Heinkel had crossed to the kingdom and raped women like crazy.
Watching it all, Charlotte looked somewhat disappointed.
'Hmm... In novels, it's all "such-and-such sword style!!" and shwick shwick slash! Where's that? I can't see shit!!!'
In Charlotte's vision, only the sparks from clashing auras were visible.
Her excellent reflexes let her glimpse the swords faintly, but that was it—no sudden enlightenment from masters' duel.
Just cheer them on.
"Master, fighting~"
Charlotte had no idea what those words would trigger.
"Uh...?"
Shocked that the Elena-lookalike hostage was that rapist's disciple, Rian faltered.
Conversely, Heinkel's berserk state ended, regaining rationality.
Truly, masters' fights turned on a dime.
"Opening!"
-Stab!
Heinkel's sword sliced Rian's left shoulder.
Aimed for the neck but missed narrowly—still, the fight was decided.
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
Rian was pushed into desperate defense.
Soon, his thigh was gashed, left wrist half-severed and dangling.
Heinkel feinted an overhead smash, then force-injected massive mana, curving the trajectory wildly.
-Slash!!
"Kuh!"
Blocking high, Rian's waist got deeply slashed by the curving blade—about a quarter severed, a mortal wound.
Finally ending this hated grudge.
As Heinkel raised his sword for the heart-finishing thrust!
He backstepped hastily.
Simultaneously, a sword dropped like lightning from the sky.
-Boom!!
"Hm... I'm a bit late..."
A young man in a black jacket—not armor—emerged slowly from the smoke.
"Damn..."
Heinkel's face crumpled.
'Wh... what?'
His aura screamed Sword Master, but his face was like a 20s male idol.
Black hair, blue eyes, a sleazy, decadent pretty-boy face that'd make women swoon. Sadly, not Charlotte.
New face! Charlotte was thrilled.
But her expression hardened soon.
-Before Heinkel and Charlotte fled the basement, they'd set simple hand signals.
Just basics: Prepare for emergency, flee.
-And now,
Heinkel, hands behind back casually, signaled wildly with one: Flee fast!
Charlotte realized things were grave.
After staring at her master's back for seconds,
She turned and ran decisively.
Tense Heinkel didn't notice, still signaling frantically.
"Hmm... Hostage or whatever... Not my business."
The young man barely noted Charlotte's flight.
"Haha... Why is Your Grace here...?"
The handsome young man was one of the kingdom's two Sword Masters:
Theodore Duke.
Young-looking duke? Sword Master?
Doesn't he look harmless?
Sword Masters aged slower physically. Young-looking Sword Master? A true prodigy who'd ascended young.
Hard to guess actual age.
"I'm busy, so let's end this quick."
Indigo aura surged around the duke, spreading spherically, trapping Heinkel and himself in a dome barrier centered on him, radius about 10 meters.
"Hahaha... Heard rumors, but seeing it...
In a blink, the duke charged.
-Clang!
Heinkel barely blocked, shoulder slashed.
"Hoo... I still have business left."
Heinkel muttered.
-Clang! Clang! Pssh!
"Kuhk..."
Impossible to track visually. Right attack became left, block and thorns stabbed from below.
The indigo space itself was the duke's limbs.
Darkness blinded, footing vanished,
Thorns pierced from empty space.
Truly, Sword Masters had tiers—shown by Theodore Duke.
"Not yet... not yet..."
-Slash! Pssh!
Duke's sword and thorns grazed Heinkel's forearm and side.
"Kuhhh..."
Body shredded everywhere, but vitals held.
-Humm!!
Heinkel poured mana unsparingly into his aura blade.
Chipped away, he'd die eventually.
Humming mana gathered, forming a 3m aura blade.
"Hraaaah!!!!"
-Boom
Heinkel slammed the barrier with full force.
"A barrier that breaks to that isn't a barrier.
No one short of Grand Master can shatter it."
The duke said calmly.
Not a scratch on the barrier.
"Hahaha... Can't tie the final knot here..."
Heinkel recalled the past.
When the Lust Demon's mana rampaged.
He had vast mana but poor swordsmanship—quickly subdued.
Colleagues, seeing the pretty Lust Demon: "Let's pass her around."
Youngest Heinkel guarded her.
Meanwhile, they stabbed to destroy her dantian.
Then mana rampage...
Heinkel trained long in Lust Arts but didn't know the principle: pure mana cultivation triggering dark magic, absorbing life to mana.
Probably only first Lust Demon Lucia knew.
Well, if dying anyway.
-Stab!
Heinkel stabbed his own genitals with his sword.
"Kuhk!!"
Infused mana, shattering dantian and meridians.
"Hm? Suicide...?"
The bizarre act made Theodore Duke recoil in shock.
"Uh... w-wait..."
Heinkel succeeded.
Gamble on life paid off.
"Kraaaaaah!!!!!"
Couldn't grasp principle, but
Immense mana surged instantly.
No—he got it now.
"Kukuku... Dark magic converts my life to mana!"
More mana than he'd ever amassed in life, gathered in a moment.
Sudden life-or-death duel with two Sword Masters.
Ample mana to spare.
At life's end,
Heinkel ascended to Sword Master.
Not his hack sword qi,
True Sword Master's sword qi.
All life-mana poured into one strike, launched.
-Whoosh
Massive sword qi flew,
Veering past Theodore,
-Crash!
Shattering the barrier.
"What... was that? Nice last try, but shattering the barrier without killing me—what's the point?"
Theodore Duke asked puzzled.
"Kukuku... So that's what 'no regrets in death' means!!!"
Heinkel collapsed limply.
And where he'd launched sword qi:
Lay Rian, bisected and dead.
'Truly done... Avenged family... Passed arts to disciple... Protected disciple.'
No one left alive knew Charlotte's master was Heinkel.
Disciple~
Now...
Live free...