Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: 47. Famous Families Aren't Famous for Nothing (3)
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The Gawain trio raised their swords in unison and stepped forward.
I warned them.
No wounds, not even the smallest scratch. Even a tiny cut on the skin could let the plague of mutation take hold.
At my warning, the trio—who had been charging at the beastman with their swords extended—froze for a split second.
"Graaaah!"
In that fleeting moment, the lycanthrope lunged.
Thud!
The beastman's claws, extended long and sharp, raked across the three knights.
The knights dodged or blocked.
Then they pressed forward again, counterattacking.
That was the beginning.
The three knights tangled fiercely with the massive beastman, swords clashing against claws.
Ilai hadn't budged an inch.
He was hesitating.
And I already knew exactly why.
Bernard Ilai.
Even when the world changed because of the mana rings,
even after heart mana was dismissed as a low-grade technique only cheap mercenaries bothered with,
the firstborn son of the Ilai count family who stubbornly clung to heart mana to the end.
Once called the kingdom's greatest knightly house, but until just recently, a man who ran a decadent club in the capital, fleecing wastrel noble sons.
He was gripped by fear.
Fear of drawing his sword and reciting his family's battle hymn once more.
Fear that the sword he drew would break, and his family's hymn would fade into oblivion.
Fear that his entire life, devoted solely to rebuilding his house and reclaiming its past glory, might be denied.
He was terrified.
Terrified of ending up a loser, just like his father and grandfather, whose lives were marred by defeat.
Hiding his true feelings behind cocky speech and expressions.
Concealing his real skill with flashy, superficial swordplay.
So he could have excuses if he lost.
I glanced at Adelia. Then back at Ilai.
Their trembling forms from fear weren't all that different.
Death and pain, or failure and defeat.
The objects of their fear differed, but both were paralyzed before the same wall they couldn't overcome.
My dear cowardly knights.
It was heartbreaking.
Heartbreaking that all I could do in this moment was watch.
Fear was their trial to conquer.
Even if I stepped in and swept it away for them temporarily, they wouldn't advance a single step.
Ilai groaned in agony.
Adelia shuddered.
I simply watched.
Grrrrr.
Then came a low growl, utterly distinct from the roars and cries filling the battlefield.
From the beast horde's shadows emerged a wolf standing on two legs.
Another emissary from the Full Moon Clan.
It growled lowly as it approached me.
Adelia shot a tearful glance at the Gawain trio.
But the trio, barely holding off their own foe, had no attention to spare.
Adelia looked back at me.
Her eyes were pleading.
Just give her an order. She'd fight then.
I didn't grant her request.
She trembled violently... then took a step forward.
And stood before me.
Her slender shoulders quivered with fear.
Yet she didn't retreat.
Beyond her guarding shoulders, a golden aura began to rise.
Faint compared to its true form, but to me, it shone brighter than anything.
A sword drawn not by anyone's command, but by her own will.
I couldn't help but grin proudly.
But her body, rigid with tension and fear, couldn't match the beastman's feral speed and savagery.
Still, I wasn't worried.
She wasn't alone here.
A broad back aligned beside her.
It was Ilai.
"Damn. Damn. Damn."
He spat curses nonstop.
"If I die here, it's all Your Highness's fault."
He said it without even turning.
"If I can't rebuild my house, that's on Your Highness too."
Ilai raised his sword.
"And if luck's on my side and I beat that thing..."
Ilai's aura surged suddenly.
"That's all because I'm that damn good."
Playful words to shake off his anxiety.
With that, Ilai's sword began to sing.
Hummm.
Amid the clear, resonant sword cry came a ringing voice.
"The wind does not linger on the blade. It stretches forth as gale, whirls as typhoon."
In that instant, Ilai thrust.
A stabbing assault like a hail of arrows.
A beat later came a thunderous rumble.
"Kek!"
The lunging beastman was impaled on Ilai's sword.
It screamed briefly and slashed with its claws.
But before it could fully extend, a second thrust pierced its torso.
"Graaak!"
Thud.
The beastman reached out as if to grab the blade.
A meaningless gesture.
Ilai had already withdrawn and thrust again.
That was the start.
Ilai's needle-like thrusts pierced the beastman countless times.
"Graaaaaah!"
Screaming in pain, it swung wildly.
Ilai, body angled obliquely, evaded every blow with light steps.
And whenever an opening appeared, he stabbed mercilessly.
He occasionally unleashed slashes, but rarely.
Ilai's swordsmanship was almost purely thrusting—straight and linear.
The beastman's body soon turned crimson from the lightning-fast stabs.
It was covered in wounds.
Many looked like fatal blows piercing vitals.
Any ordinary knight would be on the brink from just a few.
But unfortunately, this wasn't human.
A semi-immortal monster whose skin wounds healed in moments.
The beastman's bleeding holes closed rapidly. Tough fur sprouted over pale flesh.
It howled ferociously, snapping its jaws at Ilai.
Ilai thrust again.
Aiming for the heart.
The beastman thrust out its forearm. Ilai's heart strike stopped at the arm.
"Ah..."
A sigh escaped me.
The Ilai family's swordsmanship was undoubtedly superb.
Footwork light, thrusts without excess.
I'd never seen anyone adhere so perfectly to the basics: float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
But that was it.
The core was lacking.
The Ilai battle hymn was already ruined beyond repair.
All thunder, no storm or gale to match the lyrics—pitiful power.
My brow furrowed instinctively.
First time seeing such a once-glorious hymn reduced to this.
It hurt.
If I felt this way, how must Ilai feel?
"Damn it all!"
Ilai cursed as he kicked the beastman's body.
Probably to rebound and retrieve his sword.
But the beastman didn't budge. Instead, it reached with its remaining hand to grab him.
Ilai released the sword and leaped back.
"Damn hymn. Damn monster."
He rolled on the ground, voice thick with self-loathing, regret, and despair.
"Is this the sight Your Highness wanted to see?"
A voice full of resentment.
In answer, I drew Dusk from my back and tossed it to him.
Thud.
He caught my sword and sneered.
"You really mean for me to fight and die?"
Voice venomous, unlike his usual self.
It was only natural.
He'd lived hoping his family's hymn and swordsmanship would reclaim their glory, only to witness a legacy shattered beyond saving.
No wonder if he'd lost his reason.
"If you want me dead fighting, fine. What's the point of living anyway?"
Ilai spewed hollow rage, words near resignation. Harsh blame and curses came too.
I just listened.
When he finally stopped venting at me, I spoke.
"The Ilai family battle hymn is done. Shattered beyond revival."
Ilai, who hadn't taken his eyes off the beastman once, finally turned to me.
"Now's not the time to..."
"But that's not all there is."
He growled that the latter verses were unusable.
"That's not all, I said."
"Ha. You just have to make it as miserable as possible."
I shook my head at his self-loathing tone.
"What ended is the Ilai family hymn, not yours."
"The family hymn is my hymn, my hymn is the family hymn—what sophistry is..."
"How long will you cling to your ancestors' legacy?"
Ilai's face twisted as if struck on the back of the head.
"A battle hymn isn't blindly following someone else's path."
In a world where new achievements were impossible, legacy was everything. No surprise if Ilai saw faded glory as the whole world.
But he needed to understand.
The world had changed.
New deeds were possible anytime, if he willed it.
"Against the Full Moon Clan, no less. Sounds like material for a fine new hymn, doesn't it?"
Right before us was ample subject for fresh lyrics.
No law said a plain or even extraordinary start couldn't end legendary.
"So you're telling me to go make a new battle hymn out of that thing?"
Ilai asked.
"Why not? Think you can't? You've got nothing left to lose anyway."
He growled at my words.
"Who do you take the great Bernard Ilai for?!"
His rage had vanished, replaced by his usual bluster.
Even after whining about his family hymn's ruin moments ago.
Ilai leveled Dusk at the Full Moon emissary.
Watching him, I whispered softly.
"That's enough now, Ann."
[You're still as two-faced as ever, inside and out.]
Agnes chuckled softly, concealing her main body's presence once more.
The frozen beastman finally stirred.
Ilai charged at it.
No trace of the lingering regrets and fears that had clung like barnacles— a clean, crisp strike.
I was genuinely impressed.
I hadn't expected a few words to shake off the inner demon that had ruled his life so quickly.
[Even if what it held was vain, murky attachment to the past, the vessel itself is far from poor.]
I fully agreed.
Ilai's gift for verse wasn't honed by swinging a sword in training. It came from lifelong inner cultivation since childhood.
"Indeed, famous families aren't renowned for nothing."
To think such a man wasted away in the capital fleecing wastrel nobles.
I couldn't decide whether to pity the duped wastrels or Ilai, who dove into the muck himself.
Then Agnes spoke again.
[Seems my aura provoked the troublesome one.]
No sooner had she finished than a majestic roar echoed.
Mightier than any beast's cry I'd heard, brimming with overwhelming power.
"Oh dear. Looks like we poked the boss."
[No time for leisure. Its aura is beyond any mere beastman.]
As Agnes said.
Soon, a half-man, half-beast monstrosity the size of an ogre appeared.
A wolf with fur as pale as full moonlight—silver.
The Full Moon Clan's leader, drawn by the aura from Agnes's true form.
But the silver-furred beastman's gaze was fixed oddly.
Following it led to Adelia.
She'd stopped trembling.
Come to think of it, besides Ilai, there was another scion of renown here.
Not just any famous house, but one of only five in the world bearing the blood of ancient marquises.
"Blood doesn't just vanish."
Watching her golden aura steadily grow, I laughed aloud.