Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Belverk's First Monster
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“Uwaaah! Don’t touch me!”
The mysterious woman’s hand kept burrowing into my clothes, sending chills sweeping over my entire body. Terrified, I started thrashing around.
“...Stop.”
But the woman, who had been silently looking down at me, whispered in a cold voice.
“Ugh... Human. Stay. Still.”
The knight with the massive build standing beside her muttered in a heavily accented tone as he roughly grabbed my body.
“No way!”
“Grak!”
Of course, I had no intention of just taking it. I kicked out with all my strength, aiming for the face of the one trying to hold me down.
“Ugh... This is orc assault.”
But instead of being pushed back, it felt like I’d kicked a rock. As I stared in a daze, the knight shrank back with a sullen voice for some reason.
- Snap!
He snapped his fingers together and flicked my forehead. A tremendous shock hit me instantly.
“Kyaak.”
My head jerked back, and I staggered. Then came that accented voice again from in front of me.
“Do girl fists hurt that much? Heh heh.”
“...She’s a girl?”
“Aying. That’s mean. Human.”
Only then did I properly notice: the massive orc with protruding buckteeth was sulking. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“The head maid is blocking the underground.”
“......”
“But please hurry. The auction house lights have already been restored.”
Even with my eyes closed, familiar terms suddenly rang in my ears.
“......”
At that moment, the hand rummaging through my clothes quietly withdrew.
“It seems there’s no black heart engraved on you.”
At the same time, the knight in the robe who had been standing silently behind murmured in a low voice.
“The scars all over your body are a bit concerning... but at any rate, you don’t seem to be on the Holy Church’s side.”
The orc holding me then widened her eyes and tilted her head.
“Grur?”
Her eyes grew even more vacant as she... no, she asked.
“Then, let go?”
“No. Hold her until orders come.”
“Gruk. That’s easy. Orc style.”
By then, I cautiously opened my eyes and mustered the courage to ask the mysterious woman looking down at me.
“W-What the hell are you?”
“......”
“You kinda feel like Mom for some reason...”
The atmosphere around us instantly grew icy.
“And your subordinates feel familiar too...”
Right then, the mysterious woman who had been listening silently slowly began removing her mask.
- Swish...
I watched tensely, then my eyes widened, and I froze.
“Gasp.”
With the mask off, she revealed the face of a young woman with a hime cut, eerily similar to Mom’s distinctive aura.
But unlike Mom’s maternal warmth, this face radiated a cold charisma laced with cruelty—intimidating enough to make casual conversation impossible.
“You’re...”
But the most striking part was her black hair and crimson eyes.
And as far as I knew, only one being in the world still possessed those traits.
‘It’s Big Sis, the eldest daughter...?’
That’s when I realized my kidnapper was Belverk’s veiled eldest daughter.
“Questions.”
She looked down at me with eyes devoid of any mercy and spoke in a low voice.
“First, the fake saintess’s whereabouts. Second, the reason behind this incident. Third, your purpose in Belverk.”
But as the eldest daughter fell silent after that, the robed knight stepped forward and listed the questions.
“Answer every detail without a shred of falsehood.”
“What if I don’t wanna?”
For some reason, defiance flared up in me. I put on my fiercest face and opened my mouth.
- Swish...
“Okay! I’ll talk!”
The massive orc was winding up for another flick, so I panicked and spilled everything.
“F-First, she’s not a fake saintess—she’s the real one.”
“......!”
“I orchestrated this to rescue her!”
As I sweated bullets answering the first and second questions, the atmosphere grew deadly serious.
“Fake is real? How’s fake real? Grurrk. Head hurts. Explain orc-style.”
The massive orc scratched her head, muttering alone as if struggling to understand.
“We barely obtained that info ourselves—where did he learn it? The connection to the Holy Church should’ve been severed long ago...”
But the robed knight, seemingly the strategist, furrowed her brow as if already deep in thought.
“Third question.”
Amid that, the cold voice came from the front again.
“Answer.”
At the blunt threat, I swallowed dryly and mustered my courage once more, raising my voice.
“...I’m going to become the head of Belverk!”
Icy silence descended again.
“So you’ve really absorbed the Third and Second’s factions?”
“Not exactly...”
The robed knight fired a sharp follow-up, so I gave an answer that wouldn’t get me caught.
“Lilien Sis and Uriel Sis are my friends!”
But the knight staring at me had her lips twist slightly.
“Decided.”
And at that moment, a chilling voice from ahead.
“Eliminate.”
I stared blankly, not grasping the meaning yet, when the orc holding me asked in a dumbfounded tone.
“Really kill? Baby human. Kinda pitiful.”
“......”
“Look how scrawny. Orc would be dying of sickness.”
But the eldest daughter, shooting the orc a cold glance, quietly shook her head.
“No...”
Before she could finish.
- Shing...
The robed knight drew her sword from her waist.
“Please forgive me.”
As she approached slowly with the razor-sharp blade aimed at me, my face paled—right then.
“Bullshit.”
Suddenly, a very welcome voice from the side.
- Kwadddduduk...!
A knife flew in a graceful arc, and the robed knight barely blocked it, staggering back.
“Third Knight Captain. Long time no see.”
“Kuh...”
“Never liked you since way back. Hypocrite bastard.”
Lilien Sis had appeared before me, knife aimed at the robed knight, murmuring coldly.
“...The head maid!?”
The robed knight—Third Knight Captain—broke into a sweat and whipped her head around in panic.
“Hehe, this is fun.”
Another welcome voice emerged slowly from the darkness.
“Head maid, and the knight captains.”
Uriel Sis, black sword drawn from her back, licked blood from her lips with half-lidded eyes and a terrifying expression.
“Since when were you above the heirs?”
Thus began a highly tense standoff.
“Uriel.”
The eldest daughter, standing still, gazed at Uriel Sis ahead and spoke lowly.
“Disappointing.”
Her voice alone now made my legs tremble.
“I’m the disappointed one, Sis.”
But Uriel Sis didn’t yield an inch, countering coldly.
“...Killing even a ten-year-old kid just for wanting to be head?”
The eldest daughter’s mouth parted slightly as if to retort.
“......”
But it closed again, silence falling. Uriel Sis shook her head as if she hadn’t expected anything, sighing coldly and looking at me.
“Haa...”
At me, still fully restrained by the orc like a true hostage.
“Situation’s not great, Kairen.”
“......”
“Big Sis is strong enough to declare a head succession battle right now.”
At Uriel Sis’s explanation, I looked at the eldest daughter again, shocked.
‘As strong as Mom...?’
No wonder the pressure hit me like a shockwave when she removed her mask.
Even if Lilien Sis and Uriel Sis teamed up, there’d be no guarantee of victory...
“And the Second Knight Captain holding you? Her raw strength is unmatched, no question.”
“Heh heh. Thanks for the praise.”
“Though she’s an idiot who doesn’t realize she’s breaking taboo by interfering in heir competition.”
But the most urgent issue was the orc holding me—Belverk’s Second Knight Captain, apparently.
I’d been trying to activate my crimson eyes and struggle since earlier, but I couldn’t budge like I was buried in the earth. Her claim of top strength wasn’t empty.
“In that short time, you turned everyone in Belverk to your side.”
“......”
“Your Unique Ability really ‘Healing’? Or maybe mental manipulation...”
As my face paled, the Third Knight Captain glanced between Lilien Sis and Uriel Sis before questioning me.
“Hey.”
“......?”
“Been wondering. Since earlier.”
Right then, the Second Knight Captain made a vacant face again, raised one hand high, and asked.
“What. Is. This. Situation?”
An absurd silence flowed around us.
“Hup...”
I seized the moment, gathered strength in my gut, and yelled at full volume.
“Fluffykins!!!”
“Grooooar!”
Without hesitation, Fluffykins burst from my shadow like lightning and clamped onto the Second Knight Captain’s arm.
“Graaaak!”
The Second let out a scream similar to Fluffykins’s, staggered, finally released me, and muttered with teary eyes.
“This is orc assault...”
I didn’t miss the chance, bolting straight into Uriel Sis’s arms.
“Sis, I was so scared...”
“Not over yet. Focus.”
But before she could reply, Uriel Sis urgently reddened her eyes and warned.
“Someone as strong as Mom is about to attack.”
All eyes tensed toward the eldest daughter, standing still with her cold aura—right then.
- Kugugugugugwang!!!
A thunderous roar like crashing thunder echoed, and the ceiling of our room collapsed.
“I-Is this Big Sis’s ability?”
With my ears covered by Uriel Sis, sprawled on the floor, I dazedly stared at the massive dust cloud rising before me and asked.
“...No.”
But unlike before, Uriel Sis’s voice clearly trembled, differing from my guess.
“This is... no one’s ability...”
Her gaze lifted to the sky, so I followed—and that’s when.
- Ahh, can you hear me well?
Marquis Magnaris’s voice suddenly boomed everywhere.
- I, the owner of the Magic Tower and head of the meritorious Magnaris family, relay Astridje’s message.
From the massive mana aura far away, he seemed to be using some clever magic to amplify his voice to us...
- Stop fighting immediately, or I’ll kill you all.
But more importantly, something else demanded attention first.
- That’s an order!
Not just shattering the auction house and basement— a rock far larger, hundreds of times bigger than the one that broke into our room, glowed red-hot and floated in the sky through the hole in the ceiling.
Rough estimate: if it fell at the same speed as before, it’d wipe out not just the capital but the entire empire.
“Remember the Eastern Continent War?”
As we gawked at the colossal meteor, Uriel Sis persuaded with a pale face.
“One meteor like that devastated the Eastern Continent’s martial world...”
“......”
“Everyone, better call it quits here.”
Silence fell over the wrecked auction house basement.
“...Withdraw.”
The long silence broke with the eldest daughter’s cold murmur as she quietly turned.
“As you command.”
“Or, command? Anyway, as that says...”
At her single word, the knight captains—who hadn’t flinched even with the meteor overhead—immediately straightened and followed her.
“Haa...”
As the eldest daughter and her subordinates vanished completely, Uriel Sis sighed, relaxed, and hugged me.
“You got lucky.”
“...Hehe.”
Feeling her warm body heat in her arms, I grinned innocently, realizing I’d survived another crisis.
“So, now...”
Hearing Uriel Sis’s suddenly cold tone, I swallowed dryly again.
“Care to explain, cute little brother?”
...So, how do I explain this?
“In the end, we accomplished nothing today.”
About ten minutes after Astridje forcibly ended the auction house kidnapping. A carriage quietly slipping out of the slums to evade the head’s wrath.
“Never thought she’d float a meteor over the imperial capital.”
In the carriage, the Third Knight Captain, wearing a defeated expression, cautiously addressed the eldest daughter who’d been silent.
“By the way, do you know the head maid’s whereabouts...?”
“......”
“...M-My apologies. I’ll look into it myself.”
But as the silent eldest daughter glared, the Third hurriedly bowed, sweating.
“S-Sorry. My lord.”
“......”
“I-I. Messed up. So with one arm. I’ll atone.”
Meanwhile, the Second Knight Captain, her massive frame crammed into the carriage, fidgeted anxiously, then suddenly drew her axe and thrust her arm forward.
“...Unnecessary.”
The frowning eldest daughter’s cold remark made the Second lower her axe with a sullen face.
“U-Ugh...”
“Anyway, from today’s events, Kairen is definitely our biggest threat now.”
The Third looked at her pitifully, then hurriedly tried to lighten the mood.
“But don’t worry. The plan’s progressing steadily.”
“......”
“Belverk will soon be yours, so next orders.”
As the Third finished eagerly awaiting commands, the Second, watching nervously, bowed clumsily and muttered.
“Or-Orders. Accepted.”
More silence dragged on.
“...Treason.”
The eldest daughter finally shattered it with a spine-chilling whisper, freezing the knights’ faces.
“Confirmed.”
“Finally. The time. Has come.”
But soon, their lips curled as always, ready to serve their lord’s will.
“......”
Meanwhile, Belverk’s eldest daughter gazed at her smiling subordinates, their killing intent rising.
‘Not that...’
She sat with a deeply chilling expression, then mouthed silently, lost in thought.
‘...Doing that would be treason.’
But the timid thought, nearly escaping her throat, stayed inside once more.
‘How did things end up like this?’
Her mouth clamped shut in a daze, she quietly bowed her head.
- Tremble tremble...
As she began shaking silently, the knights before her lit up and chattered.
“M-My lord’s trembling with excitement. Truly worthy of leading us orcs.”
“Belverk belongs in your hands.”
Thus, unintentionally boosting her subordinates’ morale again, the eldest daughter trembled harder, murmuring tearfully.
‘My subordinates scare me...’
Of course, voicing that would be too embarrassing, so she maintained a blank face and thought it only to herself.