Chapter 94: Let’s All Watch Over Hansol Orphanage! (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 94: Let’s All Watch Over Hansol Orphanage! (5)
In truth, I hadn’t considered the possibility of Arcadia getting involved in this incident at all.
It wasn’t just because of that man, the War Demon; every member of the organization known as Arcadia shared an absolute, unbreakable rule.
Under no circumstances shall a child be harmed.
That rule was the primary reason I had intended to bring them over to my side, and why I believed I could fix them before they crossed the ultimate line.
It made no sense for them to come here to destroy an orphanage. They were likely being deceived by the others, or perhaps something had shifted due to a setting intervention.
That was why I tried to talk to him first.
“Do you even know why those bastards came here?”
“I heard they intend to seize the dungeon.”
“No, that’s not all. Those guys are—”
“Even if I didn’t know, there is no need to find out.”
“…What?”
“Boy. If you call yourself a man, then words are useless! There is an enemy before you, and you have interfered with my battle. Is that not reason enough for us to trade blows…!”
It seemed that ‘dialogue’ was something meant for humans to share with other humans, not for a human to have with a crazed muscle-pig.
Actually, I had a feeling it would turn out like this.
Seo Tae-ho was a man who, in the original work, was stubbornly straightforward—for better or for worse.
“Wait—!”
The giant lunged at me with unbelievable speed.
“I have no hobby of bullying the weak, so just stay down…!”
This wasn’t working. If I wanted to persuade him, I’d have to force him to a halt first.
“Grow, Ruyi…!”
The knife-shaped Ruyi instantly reverted to its staff form and lunged toward him, but he didn’t panic, deftly evading the incoming weapon.
“The weapon is fine, but your skill in wielding it is a mess! No matter how good the tool, it is worthless if the one holding it is third-rate!”
In a single breath, the distance between us closed by more than half.
I couldn’t let this continue.
Against a man like this, a half-hearted attack would only tighten the noose around my own neck.
I wrapped Reinforcement around Ruyi. Swallowing a massive amount of Innate True Qi, Ruyi momentarily caught up to its original performance, revealing its majesty as a Myth-grade artifact.
“Split, sharpen!”
Ruyi fractured into hundreds of pieces, instantly transforming into a storm of blades that flew toward the giant.
A rain of edges, each possessing power close to that of a Legendary-grade artifact.
Even facing such a horrific sight, not a hint of tension could be found on the man’s face.
“Boy, you still don’t understand.”
The only difference was that while he had been moving casually without even taking a proper stance until now, he finally braced himself.
“Simply increasing the numbers will not work against me.”
Mana gathered in his fist.
“No matter how many weapons you command, if you cannot control them perfectly, they are inferior to a single, solid fist built on a firm foundation.”
The blades, which could slice through most artifacts like tofu, were miraculously blocked by his rigid Protective Aura.
The mana concentrated at a single point in his fist exploded outward in a straight line, carving a path through the air.
This was dangerous.
“You are unqualified.”
In just two breaths, he had reached me.
…To think I actually bluffed in front of a monster like this last time.
Ruyi shifted its form into a shield. I’d have to ask Sun Wukong to help deflect the impact, then create distance and try to persuade him again.
“You should have dodged, not blocked…!”
Huh?
I hadn’t expected this.
A girl holding a pure white blade threw herself between me and the fist.
She squeezed out every ounce of her strength to swing a slash against the punch, and the collision of their mana created a grinding, screeching sound.
Soon, the balance of power shattered, and with a dull thud, the one who was overpowered was sent flying.
Naturally, it was Ha-ni.
“Urgh…!?”
Overwhelmed in a direct confrontation, Ha-ni crashed to the ground, coughing up blood as if she had suffered internal injuries.
Watching the sequence of events, a strange sense of unreality washed over me.
Ah, I see.
I acted the way I did because I trusted Sun Wukong would handle it somehow, but to others, it must have looked like I was just committing suicide.
That was why Ha-ni jumped in and took the hit for me.
“Hmph. It would have been better if you’d attacked from behind. With that level of skill, you might have actually left a scratch on me.”
The War Demon’s words reached my ears with piercing clarity.
I didn’t know what his intention was, but to my ears, it sounded like he was saying this happened because of me.
“Well, I didn’t want it to end like this, but I suppose I should be glad you’re not dead. Tsk. You, boy—I’ll let you go, so just leave. She threw her life away to protect you; it would be a waste if you went down too.”
Why am I like this?
Thump.
I worked so hard because I didn’t want to see things like this happen. So why does this shit keep happening?
It was happening again.
It was a feeling similar to when I saw the black thing swallow Professor Cathy that day.
Emotions I had no memory of tried to seize control of my body.
The sight of Ha-ni lying on the ground turned into an intense, visceral revulsion that surged through my entire being.
The filth nestled in my heart squirmed, and though I tried to catch the fading Noise, memories that couldn’t be fully blocked by the static began to leak through.
— Why do I like you?
What surfaced from the far side of my memory was a version of Ha-ni who looked slightly more mature than she did now.
However, unlike her current self, this Ha-ni had accepted her identity as a woman. She looked at ‘me’ with hollow eyes.
— It’s simple. You don’t try to see me as a person. That’s why I like you.
— …What kind of crazy talk is that?
— Who knows? It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. I need someone who will use me like a tool.
— Because I don’t need a ‘me.’ Yeah, that’s why I like you.
In her eyes as she gazed at her sword with a seductive aura, there was a simultaneous flash of longing and resentment.
I didn’t like that look, but the ones who made her that way were none other than me and that guy.
To offer a sincere apology now would be nothing but deception.
That was what I thought, and that was why I couldn’t say a single word to her.
“Move. There’s no glory in beating down someone who isn’t a warrior…”
— So don’t make that face at a tool. It doesn’t suit you.
Her expression in the memory tightened around my heart with vivid clarity.
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“I don’t know what the hell this is, and if you were going to help, you should’ve crawled out sooner. I don’t know why you always wait until someone is a mess to start this shit.”
My head felt like it was splitting open, but thanks to that, I remembered one thing.
I never wanted to see someone I care about get hurt ever again.
‘I’ hate seeing Ha-ni get hurt.
I wanted to see her smile more honestly.
I wanted to see her cherish something other than her sword once in a while.
I hoped that one day, she would truly smile with happiness.
It was obvious, a fact I already knew, and having to remind myself only after things turned out like this was proof of my own foolishness. Nevertheless, regret continued to wash over my ice-cold mind.
“…The atmosphere has suddenly changed. Your eyes look better, but that won’t be enough.”
“Yeah, you’re right. You’re absolutely right.”
I couldn’t go on like this.
He was an opponent I couldn’t be sure of defeating even if I regained everything from ‘that time,’ and my current body wasn’t ready yet.
But I had things now that I didn’t have back then.
The artifacts I possessed were things the ‘me’ of that time lacked.
If I didn’t have teeth, I’d use my gums. Since I had the means to substitute, I could at least give it a try.
I reshaped Ruyi.
A short dagger wasn’t a suitable weapon for fighting that man.
However, I couldn’t handle a greatsword or a longsword with this body.
That was why I chose a short sword.
Fortunately, it was also the weapon ‘I’ was most proficient with.
“Heh, it’s almost like you’ve become a different person.”
I lunged into his personal space while he was off-guard.
I ran with everything I had, but my body was frustratingly slow.
The discrepancy between my ideal movements and reality was unpleasant, but for now, this would suffice.
It goes without saying that the lifeblood of a surprise attack is speed.
Seeing me launch a surprise attack with such sluggish movements would make him even more careless.
That arrogance of not even taking a stance, that complacency of adjusting to this slow speed and reacting lazily—that was the opening I would exploit.
The distance closed, and just before his fist could reach me, I used Reinforcement to accelerate in an instant.
“Oh?”
The man, trying to accelerate in response, looked at his arm in confusion as it refused to move.
Black Shadow.
Shadows I had fired out, made as thin as threads, became black restraints that bound his limbs.
“You…!”
It took him only a single second to shake off the Black Shadow. But that was enough time for me, having already closed in, to swing my blade.
At first, he tried to block it with his aura, but being the intuitive fighter he was, he must have sensed something was off and pivoted to dodge instead.
“Ugh…!?”
Thanks to my pathetic physical stats, the attack didn’t land, but I had broken his posture, which was enough.
At the same time I retracted the wires, I fired black spikes made of Black Shadow toward the direction he was falling. He released a burst of mana to forcibly change his trajectory and evade.
An immediate counterattack followed—a counter launched from an impossible posture. Proving that his title of ‘War Demon’ wasn’t just for show, that fist was still powerful enough that most heroes wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
If it hit, that is.
The bracelet, already prepared, glowed, and my body melted into the air.
The punch whistled through empty space. His posture was completely broken due to the forced counterattack.
There was an overwhelming gap between me, who was already in the air prepared to strike down with my sword, and him.
I focused all of Reinforcement into Ruyi, but it was still not enough to pierce his Protective Aura.
“Become heavy.”
So, the moment I swung the sword, I increased Ruyi’s weight to boost its acceleration and power, compensating for my lack of physical strength.
Astonishment flashed across the man’s face.
In the battle of wits, I had won perfectly.
Therefore, the fact that defeat followed was simply due to the difference in physical specs.
The War Demon, who hadn’t used anything but one arm until now, stomped the ground and kicked me with a leg clad in aura.
I blocked it with Ruyi, which I had shifted back into a shield, so there was almost no damage, but because it was an unexpected strike, I couldn’t deflect it perfectly.
The distance widened.
The War Demon stared at me for a moment, as if he couldn’t believe he had barely escaped by using a part of his body other than his left arm.
“I don’t know how you suddenly started moving like that, but you are still no warrior.”
Certainly, considering the concept of a ‘warrior’ established within him, I probably wasn’t one.
I was closer to those called assassins or killers.
Seo Tae-ho looked at me and grinned.
“But even so, it is clear you are a strong one.”
It seemed he wanted to go another round with me. Fine by me.
I had no intention of letting the guy who put Ha-ni in that state just walk away either.
As he took his stance, I raised my short sword again.
However, our unpleasant confrontation didn’t last long.
A surprise attack.
A sudden barrage of mana arrows poured from the sky, blanketing the surrounding area.
The only saving grace was that the attacker didn’t seem particularly skilled.
Because I sensed it in advance, I was able to transform Ruyi into a shield and protect the fallen Ha-ni.
“…What is the meaning of this?”
Seo Tae-ho was the first to react.
He must have been dumbfounded to be attacked from behind by the very villains who were supposed to be on his side.
But this was predictable from the start.
Their identity was Miel, a corporation that held the largest influence among the villains participating this time.
Their plan from the beginning was likely to hide their strength, minimize their own losses, and then stab the others in the back.
They probably saw the way Seo Tae-ho and I were fighting and the fact that Ha-ni was down as their golden opportunity.
Not that it seemed like a very wise judgment.
In fact, most of those hit by the magic just now were villains who had already been subdued. Almost no one among the guards, let alone us, seemed to have taken any damage.
“It’s a betrayal. Oh, wait, it’s not even a betrayal, is it? You’re the one who caused the trouble first. We intended to do this anyway, but thanks to those students doing better than expected, the opening was cleaner than we thought.”
“Right, well, I have nothing to say to that. Since we’ve now made enemies of each other, you won’t complain if I crush your skulls, will you?”
Toward the growling War Demon, the man flashed a predictably vile smile, revealing his nature as a third-rate villain.
“This is why I didn’t tell you. So I could use you like this.”
“…What?”
“Actually, there’s an orphanage here. Our goal is to take over the dungeon hidden in this place, so we came here with the intention of leveling that orphanage.”
Hearing those words, Seo Tae-ho’s face contorted violently.
“Right, I see. Based on you saying that now, you seem to know our ironclad rule. Should I take that to mean you want me to kill you as painfully as possible?”
“We’ve already finished planting the bombs in secret. All that’s left is to press the detonator.”
“Will you be faster at pressing that switch, or will I be faster at blowing your heads off?”
“Do you even know which one of us has the switch? Or perhaps someone else, a comrade of ours far away, is holding it?”
His face twisted in rage.
For the record, that wasn’t a bluff.
Miel was an organization large enough to be called a corporation; the ones here were only a fraction of their force, and they had their main body prepared separately.
“Well, it’s not like I’m asking you to die. Just go back.”
“Even if I leave, what you bastards are going to do won’t change. Why should I?”
“The orphanage building will disappear, but I promise to let the children out safely.”
“You bastard…”
“Haha, for a villain, Arcadia cares about the most trivial things. It certainly makes things easier for me, though.”
“…”
After a moment of agonizing deliberation, the War Demon relaxed his stance.
“Yes, a wise choice. Oh, and don’t come crying to us later, okay? What if an orphanage just happened to be caught in our indiscriminate terror attack by accident?”
Despite the low-quality provocation, his face was flushed red as if it were about to explode.
It looked like he was about to give up, but who gave him permission?
“Hey.”
“…Yes?”
“Why are you moving the conversation along on your own, you moron? I was the one fighting first.”
“Uh, student. Do you not understand the situation? The War Demon isn’t going to fight us. Are you going to do it alone? Oh, and what about the orphanage?”
“Boy! Think rationally! I know you are angry, but…!”
“Excuse me, Mister. Are we friends now? Since when does a guy who was just trying to kill me act so familiar?”
Thanks to their conversation buying me time, I had finished emergency treatment and given Ha-ni a potion. I’d done everything I needed to do for now.
“Ha… neul.”
“Don’t talk. Just rest.”
“…Are you, a hero, going to abandon the hostages?”
The War Demon shot me a look of contempt, but I didn’t give a damn.
“Shut the hell up, you villain.”
“Haha, it seems you think I’m bluffing…”
“Press it.”
“Pardon…?”
“If you want to press it, then press it, you moron. Why can’t you do it? Want me to press it for you?”
As I strode toward him, the man stared at me blankly. Then, realizing something—or perhaps misunderstanding—he backed away and brandished the detonator.
“This isn’t the only switch! It’s useless to try and take it!”
“Real villains really never listen to what people say, do they?”
The man’s eyes began to tremble.
“I’m not scared for shit, so just press it.”
And naturally, I was dead serious.