Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: A Test of Truth
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I collapsed where I stood, my stamina almost completely drained.
It was also a sign that my tension had finally broken, but I could see that the two surrounding me were frozen stiff.
‘Serves you right, you bastards.’
The same people who didn't even blink when their comrade fell were now frozen solid at the appearance of the Iron-Blooded Duke.
I could understand why.
Even I felt a little intimidated by the aura the man exuded.
“Damn it…!”
The grotesque man was the first to move.
Perhaps judging he had no chance if caught, he turned and fled without a moment's hesitation.
Thud—.
And before he could take three steps, he collapsed.
Drip…….
Blood trickled from the fallen man.
I blinked.
I prided myself on my good night vision, but I hadn't seen what just happened at all.
The Iron-Blooded Duke didn't even glance at the fallen man as he spoke to me.
“I wanted to let you choose.”
I wondered what he meant, then realized he was responding to my earlier bluff.
That nonsense I'd shouted about sparing only one of the three.
I let out a dry laugh, too exhausted to reply, though I had thought that if only one were to be captured alive, the grotesque man would be a better choice than the woman.
“Kaaah!”
Just then, the woman made a sudden move.
She was still pouring cold sweat like rain, but breaking free from the Iron-Blooded Duke's pressure was certainly an impressive feat.
The moment her robe billowed violently, I felt a powerful surge of energy from within it.
Immediately after, green tentacles emerged from beneath the hem.
‘A curse?’
How had she hidden that until now?
I'm not just talking about its size.
The energy contained within the tentacles was extraordinary.
Even at full strength, I wouldn't have been confident enough to face that power head-on.
In other words…….
Those tentacles held the power of the [Demon King].
‘So she was hiding a trump card after all.’
Even so, I wasn't particularly worried.
As if confirming my thoughts, the Iron-Blooded Duke's indifferent expression remained unchanged.
The Iron-Blooded Duke looked up at the woman and drew his sword. Not a sound was heard as the chilling blade emerged from its scabbard.
For a brief instant, it was as if the forest had become a world devoid of sound.
Click—.
However, the sound of the blade returning to its scabbard was distinct.
The Iron-Blooded Duke sheathed his sword as if he had finished his attack.
‘It's amazing how an act like that doesn't look like a bluff when he does it.’
I let out another dry laugh.
Even I hadn't fully perceived the attack, and the woman probably hadn't either.
“Gasp……”
Blood spurted from the woman's body, and she collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
‘…….’
The people who had given me so much trouble were all gone, but I didn't let my guard down.
It wasn't because I thought there were still enemies nearby, but simply because of the man standing before me.
“Relax. There are no more enemies.”
“…How do you know?”
“I can feel it.”
It was a vague answer.
And something about it bothered me.
I considered holding back my question, but I felt I might never get another chance, so I spoke.
“Were you aware of their presence this whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you intervene from the start?”
The Iron-Blooded Duke looked at me with those same inscrutable eyes.
In that moment, I realized why I could barely sense any of his emotions.
He wasn't hiding them; he simply didn't have them.
‘How strange.’
His obsession with blood ties seems, at first glance, to be a highly emotional trait.
It's not for nothing that we have the saying 'cold-blooded'.
So, the contradiction within the Iron-Blooded Duke was bizarre.
“What about mosquitoes?”
“…Pardon?”
“In the middle of the night, in your room, you can feel a mosquito is there, but sometimes it's hard to catch. It's similar to that. I could sense them, but catching them was difficult. Until they came crawling out into the open like this.”
“……”
Was that really a fitting analogy?
I felt bewildered, but I couldn't think of a rebuttal right away.
Saying something like, 'But people aren't mosquitoes,' wasn't going to convince the Iron-Blooded Duke.
In the end, I changed the subject.
“Could you please undo these chains… Ah. Thanks.”
Clank.
The Iron-Blooded Duke had released the chains before I even finished my sentence.
He had merely extended his hand, and the chains came undone on their own, as if they had a will of their own.
Freed from the tightness, I let out a refreshing breath.
“Did you kill them all?”
“Why do you ask?”
“That guy over there.”
I pointed to the grotesque man.
“He seemed to know me. It would be a shame if he's dead.”
“……”
“Do you happen to know who he is, Family Head?”
“He is someone you don't need to know.”
That meant he knew.
At the same time.
“Does that mean you won't show me?”
“Not exactly. But it might introduce unnecessary distractions to your growth.”
“Hmm. With all due respect, I believe that's a needless worry.”
At my words, the Iron-Blooded Duke no longer objected and gave a calm nod.
“See for yourself.”
I approached the grotesque man's body and pulled down his hood.
“—”
And my expression couldn't help but harden.
It wasn't a familiar face, but it was one I knew.
Ludwig Bednicker.
The face of the Iron-Blooded Duke's son, who was said to have gone missing, was under the hood.
* * *
“…He's alive.”
I said after checking Ludwig's condition.
This grotesque man, who had collapsed in an instant, was surprisingly still clinging to life.
The Iron-Blooded Duke would never make such a mistake.
It was safe to assume that keeping this man alive was his intention.
“You don't seem that surprised.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke said in a flat voice.
Somehow, I got the feeling that this man had been scrutinizing my face from the moment I checked Ludwig's.
What was the reason?
‘Because he suspects me.’
A chill ran down my spine at the belated realization.
And I was reminded once again.
The Iron-Blooded Duke.
The man with a heart of iron.
The man before me trusted no one and suspected everyone.
Even if it was his own child.
Even an incompetent like me, known to the world as a wastrel.
“…I had some inkling.”
“That it was Ludwig?”
“No. That it might be someone related to the family.”
“On what grounds?”
“He knew a lot about the Bednickers. About you, too, Family Head.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke looked at me.
For a moment, a flicker of interest seemed to cross his indifferent eyes.
“What did he say?”
“…He said that once someone falls out of favor with the Iron-Blooded Duke, he doesn't hesitate to cast them out, even if they're his own blood.”
“Hmph.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke neither confirmed nor denied this.
He simply said in a flat voice.
“Cover his face again. No good will come from others seeing it.”
“Didn't you say there was no one else here?”
“I did.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke gave a strange reply, but I lowered the hood to cover the face without another word.
It felt like closing a coffin, but for now, the man was still alive.
“Were you close with Ludwig?”
“Not really. Our relationship wasn't as bad as with my other siblings, but…”
Ludwig disappeared before my Blessing Ceremony.
Meaning, if he had seen me without a single Blessing, it wouldn't have been strange for him to pick a fight, just like the others.
“Why did Ludwig attack our family?”
“You seem to want to know.”
“I think I've earned the right. I did put my life on the line, after all.”
“A valid point.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke reached out his hand.
He had no intention of attacking me. Shhhh……. The dry twigs and fallen leaves on the ground gathered together, and a moment later.
Fwoosh—.
A faint flame flickered to life.
The Iron-Blooded Duke sat down in a suitable spot and stared at me.
It seemed like an invitation to sit, so I sat down opposite him.
“How much do you know about Ludwig?”
“Uh… almost nothing. Just that he went missing from the main estate two years ago.”
“That's the official story.”
The official story?
“Ludwig left the family of his own accord. He then joined the Dark Cult and became a servant of the Demon King.”
“……”
I put on a slightly shocked expression.
The Iron-Blooded Duke looked at me and said.
“Do you understand now why I hid the truth?”
“Because it would be a disgrace for a Bednicker to become a servant of the Demon King…”
I trailed off intentionally, watching the Iron-Blooded Duke's expression, then changed my tone.
“…but that's not it, is it?”
“……”
“There must be some other reason, isn't there?”
“Your reasoning.”
“If that weren't the case, there would be no reason for you to keep Ludwig alive, Family Head.”
“There is a reason to keep him alive. We can extract information from him.”
“In that case, you should have kept Ludwig's companions alive as well.”
“Why?”
Is he really asking because he doesn't know?
No, that can't be it.
The Iron-Blooded Duke was testing me again.
It was infuriating.
Being unilaterally tested by someone is never a pleasant experience.
At the same time, it was unavoidable.
This, too, was one of the rights of the strong.
“To get reliable information from people like this, cross-verification is essential. With only one person, what you can learn is limited. And for you, Family Head, capturing one or two would not have been a difficult task.”
Of course, that was as far as my speculation went.
As for why he kept Ludwig alive for reasons other than interrogation, I couldn't guess.
Because he's his son? Out of familial affection?
That was a possibility not even worth considering.
Just then, a laugh was heard.
It wasn't the Iron-Blooded Duke.
I looked at Ludwig with surprised eyes.
The madman was cackling. Then he shot up to his feet.
“Family Head, this one's interesting.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke didn't reply.
He showed no intention of attacking either.
And naturally, Ludwig took a seat next to the Iron-Blooded Duke.
“……”
I looked back and forth between the two men, and a certain possibility crossed my mind.
“Don't tell me Ludwig is…”
“A spy I planted.”
Just as I thought.
“…Was that an order from you, Family Head?”
At that, Ludwig cackled and answered.
“No. It was my own decision. I was curious what kind of place the Cult was.”
His attitude was similar to how I remembered him.
Is this this man's true nature?
“Still, to become a spy for the Cult…”
“I just thought that because it's a fearsome place, I needed to understand it more thoroughly. As you said, it's a disgraceful matter, so after consulting with the Family Head, we concluded the story by having me declared missing.”
It had been a long time since I'd looked at someone and thought they weren't in their right mind.
So this guy had erased his own identity simply out of curiosity.
“Who else knows about this?”
“Me, the Family Head, and now you. And perhaps Lord Asad?”
“Ah.”
In that case, just now.
The Iron-Blooded Duke's order to cover Ludwig's face wasn't because of other enemies, but because of the Bednickers themselves.
“Ludwig, what happened to the High Priest?”
At the Iron-Blooded Duke's question, Ludwig wiped the smile from his face and replied with a serious expression.
“It seems he left right after the Blessing Ceremony. I apologize. He concealed his whereabouts to the very end…”
“If they were that easy to catch, they would have died by my hand long ago.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke replied in a bored tone, then looked at me.
“Ruan Bednicker.”
“Yes.”
“Why do you think I told you about Ludwig?”
I have no idea.
“It's a calculated risk. I figured I should be forthcoming first if we are to share secrets.”
“What do you mean…”
“Keian told me you created your own martial arts. That's not entirely wrong. But if what I saw is correct, you must have received help from someone in the process.”
I shut my mouth.
The Iron-Blooded Duke stared intently into my eyes and spoke.
“From whom did you learn those martial arts?”
“……”
There's no time to think for long.
Hesitation at this point would be a clear mistake.
The Iron-Blooded Duke is suspicious of me right now.
‘So the crisis wasn't over after all.’
But should I call this fortunate?
I have the perfect excuse.
“A forgotten god.”
“A forgotten god?”
“Yes. Actually, there was more to the story of what happened in the Jewel Mountains.”
I brought up the story about the altar.
And about the Martial God I met there.
“Oho. A forgotten god…”
Ludwig said with an intrigued expression.
“If what he says is true, then this guy has achieved something incredible. Securing a forgotten god is one of the Cult's highest priorities, so he's essentially thwarted their plans.”
I know lying is wrong, but I have no choice right now.
“So it's true you met a forgotten god.”
The Iron-Blooded Duke said, looking at me.
Somehow, his eyes seemed to gleam with a colder light than usual.
“But that's not it, is it?”
“Pardon?”
“You didn't learn those martial arts from a forgotten god.”
“Why would you say that—.”
“Discerning truth from falsehood.”
“……”
“Many believe it to be a unique ability of the [Room of Judgment], but that's a misunderstanding. It's a baseless rumor that started because I often handled trials and judgments in that room.”
“What?”
“[Blessing of Truth and Falsehood]. It's one of the Blessings I possess.”
“…!”
I shut my mouth.
Is he bluffing? No.
He's not the type to use such a clumsy trick.
‘…This is not good.’
An unexpected crisis.
In the middle of the forest at night, I suppressed a groan.