Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: #5 Magic Beast Hunt (6)
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Luton felt as if he had been possessed by a ghost.
That impression lingered stubbornly while Elric inflicted wounds and bruises on his body, butchered the Blade Wolf, and shattered all the nearby trees sliced clean through.
It was the same afterward.
“Then we’ll part ways here. I’ll be waiting at the cabin.”
Even after Elric said that and limped off the way they had come, Luton remained dazed.
A throbbing ache pulsed through his entire body.
His dented armor chafed his movements.
Enduring it all, the moment he returned to the village,
“K-Knight!!!”
The hunters’ voices finally snapped Luton back to his senses somewhat.
“Ah….”
“You’re alive! But your condition….”
Luton gave an awkward smile at the leader of the hunters, who looked on the verge of tears.
He couldn’t check his face without a mirror, but even just looking down at his body, he looked like someone who had just come back from a battlefield.
Wondering how to explain, Luton finally answered thus.
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing?! Your injuries are so severe! M-More importantly, what about the magic beast? We did request reinforcements, but….”
“Handled it. Blade Wolf.”
A chill ran through the hunters’ bodies.
Shock beyond mere surprise began to dawn on their faces, turning to awe.
“Bl-Blade Wolf….”
“That’s an upper-class magic beast. And you said there were several….”
“As expected of a knight….”
The murmurs didn’t stay confined to the hunters.
Even the villagers started looking at Luton like he was some kind of monster.
Unable to explain, Luton scratched his head.
What came to mind was Elric’s single stroke.
That inexplicable technique he hadn’t even perceived, let alone reacted to.
‘Come to think of it, he wasn’t even holding a sword.’
With the staff, then? But could a staff slice so cleanly?
Beyond that, how had Elric become so strong?
Certainly, ten years ago, he had been outstandingly strong among the village kids.
But not to the point where it hinted at such an absurd technique.
Confused, Luton soon gave up thinking.
He simply smiled faintly and gazed at the sky.
‘As expected of the boss.’
Once he stopped thinking, his chest finally felt clear.
Yeah, whatever the case, the issue was resolved successfully, so all was well.
The moment Luton set down whatever had been weighing on him, such words circulated among the murmuring crowd.
“Blade Wolf—that’s the magic beast with blades for claws?”
“A person beat that? Several of them, even?”
“S-Sword Breaker! Sword Breaker Luton!”
Sword Breaker Luton.
That reverent nickname began to quietly echo from a corner village in Weibin.
*
Elric and Tiria were rescued a few hours later.
The villagers hauled a sled up the valley and brought the Fortman couple, who had been hiding in the cabin, back to the village.
It was an open secret that Aldio, arriving late upon hearing the news, embraced Elric with a tear-streaked face.
Back at the Fortman estate.
“Her Ladyship has a high fever. It seems she’ll need to rest for a while.”
“Understood. I’ll head out again shortly, so see to your duties.”
“Yes.”
Aldio bowed and left Tiria’s room.
Elric quietly gazed at Tiria, lying in bed.
His expression was complicated.
Half worry, half anger at her reckless actions.
The resolve to question her thoroughly once she woke solidified.
He let out a deep sigh midway through.
Elric’s gaze soon swept over her room.
‘Spartan.’
It was so sparse that he could tell at a glance she hadn’t brought in many new things over the past ten years.
A bed, a shelf, a single bookcase, and a side door.
That back area must be the dressing room.
Reflecting, this was the first time he had entered her room like this, stirring fresh curiosity and a touch of embarrassment.
As he thought that, Elric looked at her again.
Her always-pale, snow-white face was flushed red.
She seemed to be sweating coldly, her breathing ragged.
Elric dabbed her forehead gently with a handkerchief.
Each time, her furrowed brow relaxed a bit, and the reaction struck him as oddly amusing given the situation, drawing a small chuckle from him.
“You really went through hell.”
Of all things, five Blade Wolves appeared, and she had charged into the mountains without a thought for her knees.
Thanks to that, her recovering knees were reinjured.
Along with a longer recovery period, they now ached even when she just sat still, like when she first got hurt.
Troublesome.
“This is really troublesome. Too… much so.”
He caught himself relieved that the injury gave him an excuse to stay longer here, and that realization troubled him.
“I feel like I’m becoming too shameless.”
Before he knew it, Elric’s hand had stopped.
“I’m finding myself growing accustomed to life here. And it doesn’t feel bad—in fact, my mornings feel refreshingly clear.”
It was at that moment.
Tiria’s body twitched, and her eyes slowly fluttered open.
Elric’s eyes widened.
“Lady… ugh!”
Forgetting his knee, he shot up, only to stagger from the pain.
Wincing as he steadied himself, Elric checked on Tiria.
“…Hm?”
Her eyes were glazed, staring into space.
She blinked dazedly a few times, then turned her gaze to him.
Their eyes met, and Tiria fumblingly grasped Elric’s index finger.
No strength in her grip.
“Lady…?”
“…”
Tiria stared at the finger she clutched, then curled up, pulling Elric’s hand toward her.
Startled, Elric let himself be drawn along.
His hand ended up hugged tightly to her bosom.
Wondering what this was about, he observed a bit more, and she promptly closed her eyes and fell back asleep.
Elric let out a hollow laugh.
“You needed something to hold while sleeping.”
Tiria’s complexion had eased considerably.
*
Confirming Tiria fully asleep, Elric headed to the study.
He would handle the estate affairs while she rested.
With what he had learned so far, simple tasks were within his grasp, so he had just spread out the documents when, upon seeing his hand holding the pen, another thought seized him.
It was inevitable—starting work always scattered his focus somehow.
‘Has my edge dulled a bit?’
Elric recalled the moment he dealt with the Blade Wolves on the snowy mountain.
‘I could have sliced them more cleanly.’
He had overlooked it amid the urgency then, but in retrospect, his mana control felt clumsier than in his battlefield days.
After all, his original goal had been to neatly carve only the Blade Wolves without harming the surrounding trees.
He hadn’t been looking directly, nor holding a sword, but those weren’t real issues.
The technique was about honing mana like a blade and emitting it around his body—no sword required.
Elric frowned.
He pinpointed the cause immediately.
‘My killing intent has weakened.’
The Sword Realm subjugated mana through sharply honed killing intent.
Unlike typical mana cultivation methods, the further one strayed from killing intent, the harder mana control became.
It wasn’t about reduced total mana or power.
He simply lost the finesse to regulate the output precisely.
In other words, stepping onto a battlefield like this could lead to sweeping away allies and enemies alike in one go.
In truth, back when controlling his killing intent was tough, he had often engulfed allies in the battlefield frenzy.
That had bred several grudges.
He needed to stay alert.
Or he might repeat those accidents.
‘Maybe some rehabilitation training….’
Even thinking that, he hesitated unconsciously.
Weibin’s pastoral atmosphere had dulled him like this.
Returning to the battlefield.
That notion brought ever-thickening hesitation with each passing day.
“Hu…”
Elric sighed.
A knock came then.
“Young Master.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Sir Luton says he’d like to pay his respects before departing.”
Already leaving?
Elric jumped up in surprise.
“I’ll come right away!”
Thud. Leaning on his cane, he left the study.
He headed straight to the reception room.
“Ah! Boss is here?”
Luton greeted him with a hearty laugh.
But Elric couldn’t laugh.
“Hm? Why the long face?”
Luton, grinning playfully, was covered in ugly purple bruises from head to toe, like he had been beaten with clubs.
Elric’s handiwork.
‘…Should’ve gone a bit easier on him?’
A pang of guilt suddenly welled up.