Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Family Cleanup (6)
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“Looks like you’ve come to capture me, judging by your words.”
Hakim picked up the liquor bottle.
He poured some into the glass I had pushed toward him.
“Lydia’s hired assassin, right?”
“No, just one of the empire’s citizens.”
Empire citizen.
Hearing that, the prince scoffed.
“What have I done wrong for a citizen to come after me personally?”
The prince shrugged his shoulders with an exaggerated look of injustice.
“Betrayed by my brother and mother, thrown into this underground hell. Isn’t it too unfair?”
I lifted the glass he had given me.
Then, curling my lips into a smirk, I said.
“Unfair, you say?”
When I shot back, the bastard grinned shamelessly.
But that smile vanished soon enough.
“The citizens you exploited while in power, the women you force-fed drugs and used—thousands of them.”
Because I had flipped over the glass of liquor he gave me.
“On top of that, swearing loyalty to the crown prince and even planning to kill your family.”
I tossed the glass aside carelessly.
Instead, I grabbed a watermelon from the basket and munched on it deliciously.
“Go back to your homeland right now.”
I placed the rind, eaten clean to the flesh, on the plate.
Then, smirking, I said.
“If you don’t want to die by my hand, that is.”
The prince blinked his red eyes after hearing me.
To charge into the enemy camp alone and act this bold.
“You’re insane. You’re really courting death.”
He no longer tried to pull me to his side.
He simply ordered his knights.
“Kill him.”
The knights drew their swords in unison.
They glared up at me with fierce eyes.
The former Eastern Knight Captain rose to his feet as well.
Perched on the railing, he commanded.
“No need to take him alive. The one who beheads him first will be my next vice-captain.”
The captain, Hammus, knew I was on the same level as him.
Yet he didn’t step forward himself, using his subordinates instead.
I stood up.
Placing my hand on Irina’s longsword, I said.
“A captain hiding behind his men? Aren’t you ashamed?”
Hammus remained impassive even after my words.
He even had the leisure to curl his lips.
“Such childish provocations are useless.”
I wondered why a knight captain followed Hakim.
Turns out he was the same breed.
In response, I turned my head as well.
“Listen up, all of you.”
Then, looking down at the cluster of Eastern knights, I earnestly advised them.
“Your captain knows my strength and is still sending you to your deaths.”
The knights furrowed their brows at the word “deaths.”
They exchanged uneasy glances.
“He knew I was a Swordmaster even before I came here.”
I infused my eyes with golden mana to prove it.
They pointed at the glow in my eyes, realizing my words were true.
“In other words, he’s using you not as subordinates, but as fodder to wear me down.”
Fodder to wear me down.
At that pathetic role, the knights began murmuring among themselves.
“And the proof is his collusion with the crown prince.”
They had clashed with the crown prince’s forces before, pursing their lips.
Emboldened, I rattled off their grim future.
“Even if you luckily kill me, the key positions will go to Leon’s knights. You idiots!”
In the old days, they would have blindly followed Captain Hammus’s orders.
That’s how they were trained.
But.
Now, they were steeped in liquor and debauchery.
And resentment.
Filled more with desire and suspicion than trust in each other.
“So, your captain is desperately hoping you’ll fight me and end up crippled.”
They didn’t immediately accept my sudden revelation.
But creating confusion was enough.
“What’s going on here?”
“Is that guy telling the truth?”
Amid the growing commotion, I raised my sword high.
Aiming it at the Eastern captain, I asked.
“Hey, Captain. You still not coming out after hearing this?”
I grinned widely beneath the fox mask.
Staring at the tight-lipped captain, I played it cool.
“You bastards…”
Then, the Swordmaster’s patience finally snapped.
He bellowed in a thunderous voice.
“What are you waiting for? Fight! That’s an order!”
Perhaps because it was underground.
His resounding shout snapped a few loyalists back to their senses.
They channeled mana into their legs and charged at me for their aged captain.
But I wasn’t flustered at all.
‘This is exactly the situation I aimed for—a few charging in at a time.’
Sword aura.
I wrapped golden mana around the blade.
Then swung at the oncoming foes with one hand.
Claaang!!
Three swords clashed against my longsword at once.
Overwhelmed by the vast difference in mana quality, they were pushed back.
Seizing that split-second opening, I slashed one first.
“Argh…!”
By the time the other two recovered and lunged again.
I spun and took them both down simultaneously.
“…”
The less loyal knights who saw it hesitated.
“Captain Hammus, still not stepping up?”
I asked, gazing at the blood of imperial youths staining my blade.
But the Eastern Swordmaster still didn’t move.
“Attack together. Close the distance, and even a longsword is helpless.”
He only issued orders from the back.
“Tch! Ruthless, too ruthless!”
Five elite swordsmen surged forward.
As per the captain’s command, they rushed straight at me.
I swung my sword through the air toward them.
A golden sword beam shot up at them.
“…!”
Because they had charged with all their might.
They couldn’t attack even after closing in, dodging the sword beam.
Thanks to that, I could swing my sword with both hands full force.
Before the dense, long-condensed mana, their one-handed swords shattered.
They split open from head to toe the moment they lost their weapons.
“Urgh…”
The knights writhed on the ground.
Clutching their chests, they gasped for breath.
“How drowned in booze and drugs do you have to be to not even block this?”
Pitiful compared to Lydia’s knights.
‘Disgusting to think these guys aimed to retake the East.’
The crown prince would surely devour them later.
I passed them indifferently.
Looking up at Captain Hammus on the pavilion, I said.
“Eight already. Knights crippled because of you.”
Blood dripped from my longsword slung over my shoulder.
The captain stared silently at the falling drops.
“If you don’t step up to the end, you’ll lose their trust forever, you know?”
Hammus glanced sideways.
He met eyes with Hakim, who stared at him impassively.
A look asking if he really wouldn’t fight.
The prince, having lost eight knights already, seemed quite displeased.
“…”
Only then did Hammus descend from the pavilion.
Standing tall, his massive frame loomed over me.
“Bring me my sword!!”
His voice boomed.
In response, a knight approached carrying a greatsword nearly two meters long with both hands.
He lifted it effortlessly with one hand.
Then, magnanimously said to me.
“I’ll let you have the first strike.”
‘When did sending your men first stop being an issue?’
“Fine.”
I wrapped Irina’s longsword in brilliant golden mana.
Enveloping my entire body as well.
A color bright enough to see from afar.
On the surface, the crown prince might spot it, so I’d hidden it.
But this was an underground city.
No one could see even if I unleashed it fully.
I charged at the Swordmaster, releasing my power after so long.
Swinging with all my might at his neck.
―――.
Hammus stared fixedly at my afterimage with golden eyes.
He immediately raised his greatsword to guard his neck.
One-handed, like me.
Claaang―――!!
The knights stared blankly at the duel of sword saints they’d never witnessed before.
Soon losing themselves in awe.
“Your sword feels weightless.”
The captain who blocked it gripped the hilt with both hands…
Pushing my sword away, he unleashed a massive golden sword beam.
“Even among Swordmasters, the burdens we carry differ!”
A crescent strike of radiant brilliance grazed past my mask.
A cut opened on my cheek because of it.
Kuuung―――.
The building hit by the sword beam collapsed.
Dust filled the already claustrophobic underground city.
But he didn’t care.
As if enjoying the rare duel, he unleashed mana freely.
―――.
Powerful successive slashes crumbling the underground city here and there.
I parried them all decisively.
After dozens of blade clashes.
No one remained around us.
Everyone had retreated far, swallowing hard.
“Huu…”
Amid the dust, the captain exhaled deeply.
He regarded me, his sparring partner, with seriousness.
“Strange. Your first strike was utterly light.”
The more we fought, the heavier my sword felt.
Sensing it, the captain narrowed his golden eyes.
I felt it too.
Facing a Swordmaster of equal caliber, my pre-regression skills were gradually returning.
No.
His attacks were awakening the dormant power of my past life itself.
“Getting anxious yet?”
Faint vibrations began from the underground ceiling.
Dirt particles rained down like hail.
Hammus’s monstrous strikes were shaking the ground.
The moment a single speck fell before us.
“I’ll end this in one go.”
The middle-aged knight captain left an afterimage, closing in instantly.
As if determined to stop me from growing stronger.
In response, I clashed my longsword against his.
――――――!!
Our swords growled, red sparks flying wildly.
Through the flames, we pitted our accumulated mana against each other.
“Foolish. Challenging me to a mana contest!”
The Eastern captain who had fought alongside the emperor for decades.
He pressed me with his condensed mana.
But.
“…?”
He soon realized.
My mana had already risen to match his.
“What is this…!”
Because he poured all his strength into his body.
His wrinkles deepened.
Yet my face beneath the fox mask showed no change.
The captain released one arm from the hilt.
Spinning back while swinging his sword.
A technique shared only among knight captains.
He aimed to finish me with this final blow.
―――.
But he overlooked it.
That his opponent knew knight captain techniques too.
I spun after him, swinging my sword in pursuit.
Before he could land his strike on me.
“Gah…!”
I slashed his chest first.
The golden light faded from Hammus’s pupils.
Gazing at his gushing blood, he dropped to his knees.
Kuuung!!
With bloodshot eyes, he barely looked up at me.
In a rasping voice, he asked.
“How did you see through it…?”
I approached him silently.
Wiping the captain’s blood from my mask, I said.
“Because in my past life, I fought knight captains to death.”
“You’ve fought captains…?”
A young-looking swordsman who had battled numerous sword saints.
At those words, Hammus’s eyes twitched beneath.
“Yes, thanks to you, those sensations are vivid again.”
The captain stared up at me blankly.
Then murmured in a hollow voice.
“You truly are a bizarre one.”
The knight captain stared piercingly into my eyes beneath the mask.
Then made a request.
“Could you show me your face?”
“Think you’ll recognize me?”
I removed the mask.
Then looked down at him with a blank expression.
“…”
Seeing my face, Hammus looked even more baffled.
Writhing in confusion, he asked.
“Who are you…?”
I curled my lips into a smile at his question.
“A Capital Defense Knight.”
Capital Defense Corps.
A group the Eastern knights originally scoffed at and ignored.
“Ridiculous…”
Defeated by a man from that group, Hammus let out a wry chuckle.
Then, with a haggard face, he looked at his subordinates.
“You all, don’t stay in the empire anymore.”
The knights swallowed hard at the captain’s words.
“If a mere Capital Defense knight is this strong, there’s no hope.”
They listened intently to his final words.
“Return to your hometowns, all of you…”
Abandon the rebellion as hopeless and preserve your lives.
Leaving those words, he collapsed onto the rough ground.
At least in his final moments, he acted like a knight captain.
‘If only he’d served the right master, it wouldn’t have come to this.’
Turning from the fallen man, I shifted my gaze.
To the culprit behind it all.
“Shall we go see some sunlight together now, Hakim?”