Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: I Am Not Human
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I am not human.
The auction house interior was quite spacious.
It didn't seem to be a building dedicated solely to auctions; it was divided into multiple floors, and looking up from the first-floor lobby revealed them all clearly.
In short, it was a fine building.
Even the chandelier adorning the ceiling looked dreadfully expensive.
So where had all that money come from?
"Screening out the riffraff is essential, after all."
To set the world's order right, superior elves must rule while inferior humans submit—that was the ideal structure.
Any humans who couldn't grasp that simple truth and ran wild needed to be dealt with early.
[But isn't Daddy human too?]
"Half-elf, so it's fine."
[That seems contradictory...]
"That's what racism is—pushing forward while enduring such contradictions."
[Ah!]
After asking a passing attendant, he found the auction hall.
It was on the basement level one. The moment he opened the door and stepped in, a vast open space greeted Enoch.
'Hasn't started yet, looks like.'
He casually slumped into a back-row seat and crossed his legs.
Elves came at the very end of the auction.
He planned to catch some sleep until then.
*
"Hmm..."
In his half-asleep state, he sensed the atmosphere shift oddly.
Had the time come already?
Enoch opened his eyes to find the auctioneer gushing excitedly.
"And now, the grand finale of our auction! I know many of you have been waiting for this!"
Glancing around, the crowd hadn't changed much from the start.
There couldn't be that many rich folks.
Did they lack money to bid but still wanted to spectate?
Whatever. Spectators weren't his concern.
"And this time! Our boss himself will introduce the item!"
The auction hall fell instantly silent.
Piercing that quiet came the sound of footsteps: thud—thud—
"Pleasure. As you all know, I'm Adolf."
The man who announced his name appeared young.
Save for his sharp eyes, he looked like any handsome thirty-something human male.
The most striking feature was the thick mustache grown right in the center of his philtrum.
"Elves. The perfect slave race. Flashy on the outside, obedient, and barely aging at all."
Yet he commanded a presence that silenced the entire room.
Every word he uttered carried weight, pressing down on everyone's shoulders.
"And the elf we're offering today is special among specials. Young and unmarried to boot."
But despite that gravity, did his words strike a chord?
Roooar─────!! Cheers erupted.
Adolf smiled in satisfaction and raised his hand.
The auction hall quieted again.
He continued.
"An unmarried elf is a virgin. Unless she was previously dragged in as a slave, that is."
Wahaha! Laughter exploded.
Even Enoch, watching silently, nodded at that.
Rape was as rare in elven society as exceptionally talented humans, and since elves mated for life with one partner, she wouldn't have an ex-lover.
The kind of race unicorns went mad for.
Well, even without unicorns.
Among the desires of those craving elf slaves, sexual elements were a must, so the word "virgin" made an already special elf even more so.
"Bring her out."
At Adolf's command, the curtain at the back of the auction hall parted.
And out came a single female elf, bound head to toe.
Truly an elf, indeed.
Even bound, her beauty drew gasps from the audience.
His men grinned at the reaction and dragged the elf toward the stage front.
Or rather, they tried to.
"Insolent."
Had Enoch not appeared on stage in an instant.
"Far too insolent. How dare you. How dare you lay hands on her?"
Crackle—! With a brief flash of lightning, the two men reaching for the elf exploded.
Literally shattered to pieces.
Boom—!
"Kyaaahhh...!!"
"M-Murder...!"
The auction hall erupted in chaos in seconds.
Enoch positioned himself with the elf behind him, locking eyes with Adolf.
"You're rotten to the core."
"...What the hell are you?"
Adolf barely suppressed his surging rage.
He was furious at the ruined auction, but the speed that caught him off guard proved the intruder no amateur fool.
"Filthy and repulsive. Know your place, you lowly scum. Elves are not for the likes of you humans to touch."
An elf?
No, his ideology seemed a bit off for that.
Not some naive punk driven by a laughable sense of justice against slavery.
Closer to a lunatic, really.
Best to drop any underestimation and eliminate him swiftly.
Then the auction could resume right away—not a total loss.
"Adolf...! Kill him!"
"Kill him quick and let's get back to the auction!"
Emboldened—whether by faith in their own power or Adolf's—the audience began cheering loudly.
Adolf grinned and raised his hand straight up.
"To meet those expectations..."
Screeech───────
A sharp sound rang out.
Adolf reacted instantly, swinging his fist.
Crack—!
Caught on his fist was a thread of lightning.
Realizing it, Adolf whipped his head toward the audience seats.
"No...!"
Swoooosh────────
The range was too wide to block entirely.
He had prepared for ambushes, but not targeting the customers.
A painful blunder.
But Enoch had no need to sympathize.
The result was gruesome.
"Eeek...!?"
"Kaaahhh...!"
Adolf's rear—most seats excluding the center.
The bodies of spectators there sliced cleanly apart and slid across the floor.
Enoch nodded in satisfaction, scattering the ten threads dangling from his fingertips.
A three-digit number of the world's useless trash had vanished.
"C-Crazy...!"
"Murderer! He's a mad murderer!"
"How can someone in human skin do this...!"
The lucky ones in the center or those who barely saved themselves screamed and fled.
"Call the knights now!"
"Anyone connected to the lord?!"
Judging by their panic, knights would swarm soon.
Enoch gathered lightning in his hand.
"Seize them, explode them. Burn them to death, and their corpses too—rip them apart."
A mad incantation.
Where Enoch's eyes turned.
Adolf charged with bloodshot eyes.
"You mad bastard!"
Boom—! Unprecedented power infused his fist.
Murderous energy wreathed in crackling stars, dense and compressed aura swung at Enoch's head.
Kiiiiing────────
Enoch, halo floating above his head, hurled the orb from his hand.
Its target: the fleeing spectators.
Adolf hastily redirected his fist at the magic.
Kaboomboomboom────────!!!
Fist and magic collided in a violent explosion.
Enraged, Adolf seized and tore the magic apart, then lunged straight at Enoch.
Click. Enoch drew his sword.
Violet lightning wrapped the blade, a star embedding within.
Soon fist met sword,
"Urk..."
Boom—! Enoch staggered back several steps.
Adolf snarled.
"Kill this bastard now!"
His dazed underlings snapped to and unleashed attacks.
They took care not to hit the trembling elf behind amid the chaos, but Adolf didn't.
"He's blocking anyway—just fire!"
From toes to waist, waist to fist.
Power flowed like water and detonated at Adolf's knuckles.
Boom────!
Enoch blocked with his sword again, clicked his tongue, and sheathed it.
"...Sword's inconvenient after all."
He had drawn it thinking of slaying an elf's foe with an elf's blade.
But it wasn't the play against a tough opponent.
"Um, excuse me..."
"Yeah?"
"Shouldn't we run first?"
The nameless elf pressed tight against Enoch's back.
With mad barrages raining down, it was only natural if she wanted to live.
"Hmm."
Personally, Enoch felt a bit disappointed.
Hadn't he finally killed humans for the first time today?
Passing such a milestone day so blandly felt off.
Kaboomboomboom—!
He swatted away all incoming attacks and eyed Adolf.
With the elf behind him, winning outright seemed tough, and dragging it out would bring knights—definitely trouble.
"Here, a parting gift. Something fitting."
Enoch crooked his finger.
Adolf charged, swinging his fist.
Watching closely, Enoch drew forth his power.
Heavenly Slayer Thunder God Art.
The matured martial art gathered at his fingertips.
Thrust Kill
A stabbing fingertip.
Adolf grimaced and poured everything in.
Mein Kampf
A single strike encapsulating his history of struggle.
The fist, brimming with vast momentum, clashed with Enoch's fingertip.
KABOOOOOM────────!!!!
The impact shattered the auction hall.
No trace of the seats remained, and even underground, the ceiling gaped open to the pitch-black night sky.
"Cough...!"
Overpowered in strength, Enoch spat pale blood and grinned.
"Bye-bye."
The ability of the Heavenly Slayer Thunder God Art.
Magic triggered with the technique's execution swept the surroundings.
A storm of lightning.
The widely scattered bolts spared Adolf, incinerating only his underlings.
"You bastard...!"
Mad with rage, Adolf lunged to crush Enoch, but
In that split-second glance at his men, Enoch scooped up the elf and vanished into the distance.
"Uwaaaaaahhh...!!"
Furious, Adolf stomped the ground.
The shock split and upheaved the earth.
But that wouldn't catch the fleeing Enoch.
Too late now—he was too fast.
"Rat bastard!"
Panting, Adolf scanned around.
Plenty of surviving underlings remained.
Best to gather them first and fend off the incoming knights.
Any sane knights wouldn't charge in.
"Damn it! What the hell was that guy?"
Anything like a clue?
Racking his brain, Adolf recalled the emblem engraved on the intruder's sword hilt.
'Definitely... Estor's emblem.'
So he really was an elf?
Infiltrating to rescue a comrade?
As he pondered, today's events resurfaced.
The Sword Empress's voice echoing from the pieced-together sky.
Her disciple.
Her nearby retreat.
The intruder's oddly un-elflike ideology.
'Her disciple doesn't have to be an elf.'
There could be ideologically weird elves, but his gut said no—not an elf at all.
Adolf's face hardened at the swift conclusion.
'If he's really the Sword Empress's disciple, we're in deep shit.'
She might storm in tomorrow.
Total annihilation then.
"Damn it all...!"
Adolf bellowed at his surviving men.
"Move the wounded for treatment, send every able-bodied one to hunt that bastard! You! Contact the higher-ups right now!"
"B-Boss!"
"Shut it! No time! Find and kill him before the Sword Empress arrives!"
Messing with him lightly was one thing; having done it, they had to finish clean.
Adolf's eyes blazed hot.
*
"Hmm."
Perched atop a tall building, Enoch overlooked the city shrouded in night.
He had massacred a bunch of humans, but none at that auction were decent anyway, so Lione probably wouldn't scold him.
Best if she never found out.
"Um, can you put me down now?"
At the voice from his arms, Enoch set the elf down.
Simultaneously, he pinpointed the tracking spell he'd left earlier.
"Foolish human, receive heaven's punishment."
With the incantation, thump—, his heart raced.
The pulse inscribed a law upon the world, and as he wished, lightning crashed from the sky.
Kaboom—!
Far off, a flash severed the tracking signal. Enoch smiled in satisfaction.
Coming to hunt a moonlit fairy? Know your limits.
"You, what kind of human are you?"
At the sharp voice, Enoch turned.
The elf glared fixedly at him.
"Are you a bit off in the head maybe?"
"......"
She had snapped boldly, but as Enoch stared through the white mask's eyeholes, she flinched.
"Ah, no... I am grateful you saved me, but..."
"Even an elf struggles to let such insults slide."
"Ah, well, still, that was too much...! Is that what a sane person does!?"
"I'm not human. Half-elf, you could say."
At the out-of-nowhere claim, the elf rolled her eyes in fright.
"Wh-What...?"
"Take back that 'human' remark."
She really had fallen into the hands of a lunatic.
The elf's face paled.