Chapter 104 - Power and Love (10)
Power and Love (10)
Translator: XZY
Chapter 104: Power and Love (10)
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“We already heard about Viscountess Rodeia’s legendary deeds on Rodentz Island in the last meeting. I heard she wielded the Holy Blood Sword and stormed through the vast underground hideout, cutting down dozens of necromancers in a single day.”
In front of Elente, who had finished her explanation, the expression of the Margrave of Belmeade, sitting at his office desk with his arms crossed, had become even more serious.
“They say her appearance, returning to the garrison covered in the blood of necromancers every time the sun set, was like that of an envoy from the underworld. It was also said that she, who has pursued the necromancers of Rodentz Island her entire life, could distinguish the necromancy of Rodentz Island just by seeing the faint energy lingering in the magic.”
The factions of necromancy were diverse, but at least when it came to a necromancer from Rodentz Island, they could never escape her discerning eye.
The Margrave of Belmeade gently closed his eyes.
If Leonard had truly gone to learn necromancy under the pretext of a pilgrimage, this too was a great misfortune for the Belmeade family.
It was a situation where a daughter and son were pointing fingers at each other, shouting that the other was a necromancer.
From the perspective of the Margrave of Belmeade, who had to mediate, his head was bound to become complicated… but in the end, at the very last moment, he had to make a decision.
Even if it was his own flesh and blood, no different from a part of his body, he had to cut it off when the time came.
He had to cut off either his daughter or his son today. That heavy fact made the inside of the Margrave of Belmeade’s chest feel damp and heavy.
“Father.”
Towards the Margrave of Belmeade, who was casting his gaze down under the weight of that responsibility, his daughter Elente, who was receiving the malice of the mansion’s retainers and servants all at once, spoke.
“Father, you have lived as a lord who ran through battlefields from a young age, led great armies, commanded the heavens and the earth, and led people.”
“…”
“I admired that life of yours, Father. I believed that a life of holding power in one’s hand, seizing victory, and being revered by people was noble and wonderful. The most glorious and ideal life I could think of was a life just like yours, Father.”
Were those words meant to flatter the Margrave of Belmeade? They were not.
The Margrave of Belmeade knew Elente better than anyone. Elente was not the type to offer cheap flattery to win someone’s favor, no matter how cornered she was.
“However, the life of yours that I imagined must have been very different from reality. As you climbed to the top of this Belmeade, you must have experienced many trials and falls. At times, you must have been betrayed, lost colleagues you considered family, fallen short of your goals, had what you possessed taken away, suffered from slander, and been broken by the checks of those who were jealous.”
She just spoke in a warm voice, gently tracing the hem of her dress.
As if she had realized something new in this hellscape where everyone in the mansion was shouting that she was a witch.
The dreamy girl who had blindly reached for that power she so admired had matured further, and was now discussing the journey of life and the rise and fall one experiences in that process.
The Margrave of Belmeade’s pupils trembled for a moment seeing that side of Elente.
The girl he had thought was just having a hard time, trapped in her room, had met someone and her perspective had widened. She had learned something, and because of it, had grown more.
Teaching a person must be such a thing.
Elente whispered with an even more relaxed appearance.
“That too must be a part of life.”
And Elente gently closes her eyes again before continuing to speak.
Even at this very moment, the world must be full of those who were walking this surging journey of life in their own ways.
And then, as if she had made up her mind, she speaks, her eyes gently opened.
<><><>
— ‘Father. I won’t ask you to believe me right now. However, there is just one thing I wanted to be sure to tell you, Father, who has worked day and night for my sake.’
The basement where Leonard’s screams echoed.
The mercenary with flowing white hair summons a magic arrow and tries to subdue Leonard.
Leonard quickly takes out a small flask from his bosom and throws it on the floor. Smoke billows from the flask that shatters with a clang, and it begins to fill the narrow underground research lab.
Derek quickly covers his nose with his sleeve and conjures wind magic to regain his vision.
As his vision returns, the corpses that had been raised by Leonard’s necromancy rush towards Derek with bizarre movements.
— ‘Because I am a foolish and lacking daughter, there are still many things I must learn. The one fortunate thing is that I have met someone I can call a proper master… the likes of which I will never have again in my life.’
The sword that Derek draws instantly dismembers the horde of corpses.
However, Leonard uses the gap where Derek’s movements were momentarily restricted to shatter the wooden door with a 1-Star combat magic, Shockwave, and dashes out to the ground floor.
Derek quickly neutralizes the corpses and then chases after Leonard without a moment’s hesitation.
Leonard spits out a curse and looks back at Derek, who is coming up the stairs.
A gaze from which killing intent bloomed. That hostility that bloomed even in the darkness.
The man, who made one’s entire body break out in goosebumps just by looking at him once, had taken on the unmistakable appearance of a hunter.
All a prey facing a ferocious predator can do is run and escape with all its might.
— ‘He is not particularly high in status, nor is he a person who is righteous in all matters… but his life is noble, the conviction he upheld is upright, and if he had a set goal, he never wavered.’
Leonard, who barely escaped the basement, rolls once on the floor of Elente’s room.
The darkness disappears, and his vision brightens. The moment he takes a breath in Elente’s room, where the warm sunlight was rising, Derek follows him up the basement stairs.
Leonard quickly tried to dash out of the room, but Derek grabbed the scruff of his neck and threw him into a corner of the room.
Leonard groans, rolling on the floor with a clattering sound.
As Derek, clutching his sword, walks over step by step, Leonard raises his voice, his whole body trembling.
”Right. I lost. You won. I’ll give you everything you want. Just spare me from being handed over to that Viscountess Rodeia, who is no different from an envoy of the underworld. If you help me escape from this mansion right now, I’ll do everything I can. I’ll give you money, and I’ll restore Elente’s honor.”
He tries to persuade Derek by talking on and on like that, but Derek doesn’t even pretend to listen and kicks him in the face.
With a choking sound, something flies out of Leonard’s mouth along with fresh blood. Looking at the object rolling on the floor, it is a white molar.
— ‘I believe that a good master is one who walks ahead. Times of wandering come in life, and there are many times when life feels like a maze… but if you watch one who walks uprightly ahead, you are bound to find your own way soon.’
Leonard clutches his face, which is beginning to swell, and begs for his life, but Derek speaks. Didn’t I say so from the beginning? Right now, he cannot kill Leonard. He can only beat him to the brink of death.
Leonard speaks in a trembling voice. He begs Derek to beat him up as much as he wants, to make him a mess, but to just spare him from being handed over to that Viscountess Rodeia.
All the necromancers who had witnessed Viscountess Rodeia’s exploits on Rodentz Island thought similarly.
Viscountess Rodeia, who had lost both her parents to necromancers, had staged a grand revenge play on Rodentz Island, skinning those impious blasphemers and tearing out their entrails.
Those who had witnessed that scene of slaughter up close knew full well what it meant to fall into that Viscountess’s clutches. It might be better to be beaten to death by Derek in this very spot.
However, Derek says that he has no intention of killing Leonard.
Leonard, seeing Derek’s indifferent face, grits his teeth, gets up, and somehow pushes him away.
As Derek stumbles for a moment, he shatters the window with his whole body and leaps out.
CRASH!!!
The sound of a glass window shattering spreads from a room on the main building’s side. The sound reaches the office where the Margrave of Belmeade and Elente are having their private meeting.
“…?”
“The person who serves as a touchstone in my life’s journey is who I believe to be a master truly worth trusting and following.”
Something unusual is happening in the mansion.
Nevertheless, Elente continues to speak with an unconcerned expression, her eyes gently closed.
“As I said, I met a good and respectable master. And although I may have wandered a little, I learned how to find my way. The saying that you only know who your real people are when you’ve been thrown to the bottom must truly refer to a situation like this.”
“…”
“Father. I’m not sure if it’s right to say this in a situation like this… but please don’t be too surprised and listen.”
CRASH! BAM!!!
A noise is heard from the direction of the mansion’s central garden.
It is the sound of Leonard trying to escape, and Derek hunting him in pursuit.
While Elente is conversing with the Margrave of Belmeade with her eyes gently closed, the chase between the two men has already reached its climax.
Leonard lands on the ground and runs back towards the main hall.
Derek also sprints in pursuit.
The servants who were handling the mansion’s affairs see the scene and their bodies freeze, dumbfounded.
Leonard shouts.
”What are you all doing? Stop that ruffian. He is assaulting me and trying to slander me.”
He screams like that, but the servants who were cleaning just tremble, unable to grasp the situation.
Leonard’s gait staggers as he runs across the corridor. Perhaps his brain was rattled from being beaten by Derek several times, as his vision sways and blurs.
Nevertheless, he bites his bleeding lip and runs down the corridor, kicking over furniture and pushing over display cabinets. He shows off desperate movements to obstruct Derek’s pursuit, but all the obstacles are blown away by a single blast of Derek’s magic.
He cannot beat a veteran mercenary in terms of physical class. And if you ask whether he can subdue him with magic, that’s not it either.
In the end, for Leonard to face Derek, he had to rely on injustice and luck. Without mobilizing the forbidden necromancy, Leonard could not even reach Derek’s toes.
Derek’s hand, approaching with long strides, reaches Leonard’s back.
Leonard grits his teeth, slaps that hand away, rolls on the floor, and draws out his necromantic magic again.
Countless vengeful spirits gather around his body and take form, and as he clenches his fist, they soon turn into magic.
The magic he unleashed towards Derek is ‘Life Force Absorption’. Among the forbidden magics, it is a vicious taboo that directly steals the opponent’s vitality.
However, before that magic could even properly manifest, Derek grabs Leonard by the collar and begins to punch him in the face several times.
The sounds of thwack, thwack, echo in the corridor.
His face swells up hideously, and he reaches a state where he cannot even let out a groan. Blood splatters on Derek’s face, but his expression, as expected, does not even twitch.
Derek is renowned as a competent mage.
However, he barely uses any proper magic when dealing with Leonard. Responding to an opponent’s magic with proper magic is a story that only applies when their classes are somewhat similar.
Leonard is no match for Derek in terms of ability as a mage. There is not even a need to use magic to subdue him.
But Leonard does not give up. As he unleashes necromancy once again, a hand made of bones extends from around Derek’s feet and trips him.
As Derek quickly corrects his posture, Leonard, who has escaped his grasp, once again runs across the corridor. He somehow puts distance between them with a staggering gait.
He can escape.
Derek is a very competent mercenary, but he is not at a level that is impossible to shake off.
If he obstructs him with his most confident necromancy, interferes, and just escapes outside the mansion, he can somehow preserve his life.
Once he has secured his body’s safety, the time for revenge will come someday.
The Belmeade family will reprimand and disown him, but at least if he can maintain this body… he can always watch for a chance to assassinate that mercenary riffraff who doesn’t know his place.
Fixing his thoughts like that, he dashes out towards the garden again without letting go of the thread of hope.
He runs through the inside of the garden where shrubs are lined up in a maze-like pattern, pushing over the gardeners and entering inside.
BOOM!!!
Derek walks in with long strides, blows away all the garden’s shrubs, and finds his location.
Leonard once again cloaks his body in vengeful spirits and brandishes basic necromancy, blocking Derek’s movements.
Watching Derek’s gradually slowing movements, the corner of his mouth rises at some point. He is clearly troubled, unable to overcome Leonard’s interference.
In the first place, allowing him to escape from an advantageous location like the basement was his mistake.
This mansion is where Leonard had played since his childhood. He has all sorts of escape routes and even small shortcuts in his head.
If he uses the surrounding environment and necromancy appropriately, shaking off that slow-moving mercenary is no trouble at all.
Before the squires or soldiers arrive, he will quickly escape this mansion. If he takes a horse from the stables and gallops away, he will somehow be able to reach the plains before a proper pursuit can be mounted.
It was when he looked back to gauge the distance with Derek.
Tak—
The surrounding magic fluctuates, and his movements become so fast they cannot be followed by the eye.
3-Star Transmutation Magic, ‘Acceleration’.
Derek, who was born with a natural genius for magic, had become able to completely imitate the acceleration spells Siern used just by seeing them a few times.
There was no way Leonard could have known that fact. As Derek deliberately sped up his movements, it was impossible for Leonard to even properly observe his movements.
When he came to his senses, he was just being lifted up, grabbed by the collar by Derek’s arm.
Leonard makes a choking sound and scratches at Derek’s hand, which is gripping his collar.
However, Derek is still unconcerned.
In the middle of the garden where the shrubs have been knocked over and dug up, Derek speaks, holding Leonard up by the collar.
“Shall we leave it at that?”
Saying so, Derek’s calm eyes look up at Leonard.
“Guk, heok… keoheok…”
Only then does Leonard realize.
From the basement, Derek had not lost him in the first place. He had let him go.
If he had used acceleration magic from the beginning, things would not have escalated into such a noisy chase.
But he had given Leonard the hope that he could escape, made it seem as if he could get the better of Derek if he used all his means, and made him struggle, gritting his teeth, to get out of this scene.
Why did he do such a troublesome thing? In fact, the reason was clear.
“N-necromancy…! Y-Young Master Leonard… u-used necromancy…!”
“C-call the Margrave…! The Head Butler too…!”
“Kyaak! Kyaaaaak!”
Watching the situation in the mansion, which was being covered in chaos, Leonard bit his bleeding lip hard.
It felt as if everything was moving on the board that Derek had set.
“It’s noisy outside the mansion, Father.”
Elente speaks quietly.
While the Margrave and Elente were having their private meeting, what on earth was happening outside?
Although there was no way Elente could know that fact clearly, she was speaking with her usual relaxed demeanor.
She lets out a laugh, sweeps back her pretty red hair, and gives a captivating smile.
Even at this point in time when she is buying the hatred and malice of all, she is able to act relaxed, as if to say, so what?
The Margrave of Belmeade, who saw that sight, spoke.
“Yes. Elente. So, what is it that you wanted to say as your last words?”
“…Please don’t misunderstand, Father. As I said, I, Elente, was born an ordinary person with many shortcomings, dreamed of seizing power, met a rival I found it impossible to win against and was frustrated, and was thrown to the bottom and lost all faith and trust.”
There seems to be some deep hidden meaning in Elente’s warm tone.
The Margrave of Belmeade, listening to his daughter’s confession, felt that something was unusual.
“Still, I believe that this entire process was meaningful. Because I met a good person.”
“…”
“Yes. When I think about who stood by my side during those times of trial, it was, in the end, the Baron of Ravencrow. What more is there to say? I have come to believe without a doubt that that man is truly dependable, trustworthy, and if I keep him by my side, he will be a great ally for life.”
The Margrave of Belmeade nodded his head and then finally answered.
“I also agree that that man is a fine individual. There are plenty who wish to take him in as a strategist, but in truth, a lone wolf like him would never pledge loyalty under another.”
“That’s right, Father. But I am not saying that I want to take that man in as a strategist.”
“…? Then what do you mean?”
As he asked back, Elente closed her mouth.
As they made eye contact for a moment, she cast her gaze down as if embarrassed.
Her appearance, oddly blushing and fiddling with her fingertips, looks more like an ordinary girl than a lofty noble young lady.
That gap is so unfamiliar.
What image comes to mind when one thinks of Elente? A rose that bloomed on a cliff, reigning over retainers from the peak of power, exuding such a lofty grace that one wouldn’t even think of trying to speak to her.
That should be the case, but who on earth is this unmistakable girl right in front of him?
Seeing that side of Elente… the expression of the Margrave of Belmeade, who was at first bewildered, began to harden little by little.
Soon, a cold sweat began to flow down the back of his neck.