Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: 47. Prestigious Families Live Up to Their Name (2)
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Gunne had returned.
She conveyed the situation inside the swamp.
Through her, I learned that the Imperial Army was so overwhelmed by monsters that they couldn't even pay attention to the Dotrin forces.
"What kinds of monsters?"
Gunne furrowed her brow slightly.
Unfortunately, she didn't know the exact types of monsters.
There was nothing to be done.
A pure-blooded elf might have known about ancient monsters, but she was a half-elf.
Her lifespan couldn't compare to a pure elf's, nor did she have access to elven lore.
"Good work."
I patted her shoulder, and Gunne hesitated before parting her lips.
The swamp was crawling with monsters. It was dangerous.
Ilai, who had been watching us anxiously from the side, asked me.
"Are you really going to do it?"
I didn't answer.
"Are you really going to do it?"
Ilai asked again.
**
"You really did it! You really did it!"
Ilai screamed at the top of his lungs.
Sasasasak.
But his screams were soon drowned out by a chilling noise, like hundreds of snakes slithering across the ground.
Hundreds of branches, vines, and roots were approaching.
To suck the blood of living humans.
Wuuuuung.
A clear sound pierced through the eerie noise, ringing out.
It was the sword's cry.
Ilai had begun a full-on battle with the Trent.
His sword aura moved like a beam of light, slicing through the evil spirit's tentacles. But no matter how many he cut, their number didn't decrease.
"You need to attack the main body."
As I gave advice leisurely, Ilai shouted back.
"Who doesn't know that! In this situation, the main body?!"
His frustrated bellow made me chuckle.
For some reason, it stirred a nostalgic memory from the past.
Back when I was just a sword, it was always like this. Giving orders and watching.
Agnes's voice reached me. Unlike usual, it carried a slightly sulky tone.
But she quickly shook it off and spoke to me.
I glanced to my side at her words.
There was Adelia, gripping her sword with a terrified expression, staring at the Trents.
Unfortunately, the first foes she encountered in the swamp didn't stimulate her Slaughterer or War Maniac traits at all.
And without those traits activating, she was just a frightened woman.
"Anne. Hide your presence for now."
With that, Agnes fell silent.
Sasasak.
Some of the tentacles creeping toward Ilai paused, shuddered, and turned their heads toward us.
With my main body's presence deeply suppressed, they finally felt bold enough to bother us.
Adelia's face grew even paler at the sight of the approaching tentacles. She was trembling so violently that it wouldn't be surprising if she dropped her sword.
To her, I said quietly.
Ilai was too busy protecting himself, and without mana, I couldn't fend off each tentacle one by one.
"So you protect me."
I could have said it more gently. I could have encouraged her, easing her tremors.
I didn't.
That wouldn't let her stand on her own.
Adelia had been through many battles so far. Yet her mind remained that of a timid handmaiden.
Because she had never once overcome fear on her own.
She had merely forgotten it.
Borrowing the power of her Slaughterer and War Maniac traits to grip her sword and rampage madly.
That wouldn't surpass the wall.
Swordmastery was the realm of perfection, harmony of body and mind—unreachable without it.
It wasn't an easy stage for someone who had never wielded a sword by their own will.
She had to overcome fear without traits. She had to pick up the sword herself, not anyone else.
If she couldn't, she'd stay stuck there forever.
A sharp but unusable blade.
Excluded from countless battlefields before, she'd remain in the rear from now on too.
Sasasak.
Dozens of tentacles were now right in front of us.
Adelia looked at me with a face about to burst into tears.
"I-I..."
Instead of comforting her, I asked.
"Adelia Bayern. Are you a knight or a handmaiden?"
Adelia didn't answer.
She just alternated her trembling gaze between the approaching tentacles and me.
I lowered my sword. Then I planted it into the ground.
Conveying with my whole body.
If you don't protect me, I'll die.
A few tentacles hissed like snakes.
Even with the main body's presence suppressed, they were still wary.
But the probing didn't last long.
The Trents' gluttony was too overwhelming to ignore a terrified woman and a man emitting no presence.
Saak!
A sharpened branch end lunged at me.
"Y-Your Highness!"
Adelia screamed.
But I didn't pull out my planted main body or draw Dusk from behind my back. I didn't even twitch.
I just watched her pale face.
The tentacle whipped forward, stabbing at my shoulder.
Kwaduk.
The Trent's tentacle scraped across the iron pauldron, making a chilling sound.
But it couldn't pierce the sturdy armor, only scratching the surface.
Grrruk, grruk.
The tentacle groped around the armor for soft flesh. Adelia screamed and rushed to me.
She wasn't in her right mind.
Without even thinking to swing the sword in her hand, she tried to bat and push the tentacle away barehanded.
Sensing soft flesh, the tentacle turned toward Adelia.
Kwak.
I reached out and grabbed the tentacle heading for her.
The tentacle screamed inside my iron gauntlet. Then it coiled around my forearm like a snake.
Unlike the shoulder armor and gauntlet, the leather wrist guard dented immediately. Reddened skin emerged.
The Trent's tentacle latched on eagerly.
Gulug.
A sharp pain accompanied the blood being sucked out.
No blood scent wafted.
The Trent devoured even that aroma.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!"
Adelia screamed, clawing desperately at the tentacle on my forearm.
The greedily sucking tentacle. Adelia's deathly pale face.
Excited Trent tentacles were flying in behind.
I grabbed her and pulled her behind me.
Dozens of tentacles swarmed me.
The armor dented and tore in places.
Until then, Adelia stared blankly at me.
As if unable to comprehend what was happening.
I glanced back.
The tentacles that had torn the armor lifted their heads, hissing.
As if delighted by the impending feast.
I looked at Adelia again.
Golden light gathered in her eyes.
An auspicious glow, distinctly different from her Slaughterer and War Maniac.
Sasasasak.
In that instant, golden aura flashed around me.
Tudududuk.
Severed tentacles rained down everywhere.
I turned to Adelia, watching the fallen tentacles burn black.
Her hands still trembled, her face on the verge of tears.
But she held her sword by her own will.
I smiled brightly.
She severed the tentacle around my forearm. Then desperately peeled off the end clinging to my hand.
As the tentacle detached, flesh came with it.
Blood scent spread everywhere.
"Huh? Huh? Where do you bastards think you're going?"
Ilai's voice rang out.
Adelia blocked my front.
Her small shoulders heaved.
Was she crying? Trembling?
I couldn't tell.
I just saw the countless tentacles surging beyond those small shoulders.
My hand subtly gripped the main body.
The moment I gripped the main body, Agnes scolded me.
"If it got dangerous, you or Gunne would step in."
"I could've handled it myself."
I'd told Adelia I couldn't fight Trents without stamina, but that wasn't true.
With just Dusk's sharpness, I was confident I could slice tentacles aplenty.
Even without mana, a Swordmaster was a Swordmaster.
Though the Trent's main body might be a bit tough.
Paht.
Right then, dazzling golden light exploded right in front of me.
Sword flashes erupted everywhere.
The endless tentacles were swept up, sliced, and torn.
Adelia still had her back to me.
I smiled contentedly.
Now, one step.
The moment handmaiden Adelia became knight Adelia Bayern and took her first stride.
**
No sooner had the battle ended than Adelia dropped her sword and burst into tears.
"Sob. I-I'm sorry. Your Highness. I'm sorry. Your Highness."
Apologizing endlessly, she kept crying.
"It's not even cut deep, just a surface scrape. Why make such a fuss?"
Ilai grumbled.
His whole body was a mess.
Sliced, torn. Exposed flesh covered in bite marks, face pale.
But neither Gunne nor Adelia paid him any mind.
While they fussed over the small wound on my forearm with medicine and bandages, Ilai had to tend to himself alone.
He vented his frustration.
A hollow outburst with no one listening.
I laughed mockingly at him.
But even as I laughed, my mind raced furiously.
I knew the world had changed, but witnessing it firsthand, the shift was beyond my expectations.
I hadn't imagined seeing ancient evil spirit trees.
Elves would faint at the sight.
Since elves had driven the Trents to extinction.
Elves pushed into the forest by the Sky Sovereign, then Trents extinct from the elves settling there.
Yet those Trents appeared in Dotrin territory, ruled by the Sky Sovereign's descendants who had driven their natural predator into the forest.
A bitterly ironic twist.
What else lurked in this forest? What other beings had returned?
As if answering my question, a roar echoed from afar.
Auuuuuuuuuu.
"What wolf howls so ominously?"
Ilai said with a pallid face.
He was right. Too sinister for a mere beast's cry.
I knew.
It wasn't an ordinary wolf.
"The Clan of the Full Moon..."
It was unmistakably the howl of lycanthropes serving the Plague Lord.
Auuuuu!
Auuuu!
The single howl multiplied into dozens, hundreds.
I gauged the distance.
Then issued a quick order.
"We're heading back."
Ilai grimaced at the earlier-than-planned return.
But he shut his mouth upon seeing my expression.
"What's a few wolves? Without mana, have you grown timid?"
Ignoring his jab, I urged Adelia and Gunne on.
Thus, we hastily exited the swamp.
Even as we returned to the main force, the wolf howls followed us.
Neither drawing closer nor fading away.
**
We roamed the swamp by day. As night fell, we returned to base and summarized the inner situation for the Dotrin Kingdom army command.
Old man Burk paid handsomely for the intel.
Curious how he had so much money despite no position, the old knights whispered.
The Barten family was one of Dotrin's top noble houses.
Not just any nobles—a ducal house, one of only three in Dotrin.
That explained the old man wandering command freely without rank.
"What an odd old coot."
A man who could live like a king in his domain dragged old knights to war instead.
Anyway, his generosity suited me fine.
Training knights, earning gold. Killing two birds with one stone.
We prowled the forest daily hunting Trents.
Adelia, who only drew her sword after I was in danger on day one, now unsheathed it readily.
Still pitifully trembling from tension and fear.
But the truly pitiable weren't her.
It was the Trents shredded by her blade.
Her swordsmanship, inherited intact from her giant-slaying ancestor, was merciless.
Thus, she grew accustomed to battle bit by bit.
Of course, only against bloodless withered trees. Against real foes, who knows.
Ilai, once busy just fending tentacles, now experimented against Trents.
The late-joining Gerwayne trio honed their skills too.
Everything progressed smoothly.
Except one thing: the Clan of the Full Moon.
No ominous howls, no disturbances.
But they were definitely around us.
Circling our group, endlessly probing.
They never charged aggressively like day one.
Naturally.
Unlike gluttonous Trents, they weren't base creatures. They sensed my hidden prowess.
Like sizing up prey.
Whether this odd being with presence but no aura was a delicacy worth biting, or a poisonous mushroom causing illness.
Under the stealthy spectators' watch, the group continued hunting Trents.
Adelia now faced Trents fearlessly.
Just days ago, she needed multiple flashes to sever one tentacle. Now, one strike per.
Leaps and bounds.
But that was it.
Swinging at ambiguous "living" withered trees wouldn't surpass the wall.
She needed battle with flesh-and-blood monsters.
That was when the giant wolf blocked our path.
How perfectly timed.
Krrrar.
The giant wolf rose.
Not just lifting a paw. It stood on two legs.
Like a human.
Adelia froze at the lycanthrope's majesty, twice a grown man's size.
Making her Trent massacres meaningless, she was terrified like her first swamp entry.
Ilai and the Gerwayne trio too.
They couldn't hide tension facing the bipedal wolf.
Naturally.
It wasn't a mere monster.
A herald from the Clan of the Full Moon's savage half-beasts.
And the Full Moon's message was obvious.
Death or plague.
Krrrarrr.
The lycanthrope growled low.
Facing the malice-filled beast, I smiled faintly.
"Did you think you'd need a taste to judge?"
At my smile, Ilai brightened.
"M-Mana's back?"
"No. Not a scrap."
He scowled fiercely.
Why so relaxed without mana? We'd all die.
I grinned at his outburst.
"Could be."
As he nearly exploded at my calm reply, I cut in first.
"Ilai."
"What!"
"If your house has a hidden battle cry, now's the time."
Ilai flinched.
"Or we'll really die."
No sooner had I spoken than the lycanthrope kicked off the ground.