Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Loose Ends
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How advanced was the civilization of the Ancient Empire?
It would take more than a single night to explain, but it could be summed up in one simple sentence.
[All the cities of humankind were built upon the remnants of the Ancient Empire.]
This statement held many meanings, but it was also a literal truth. Most cities were reconstructed atop the empire's ruins.
It was only natural.
The facilities, built with technology far more advanced than the present day, offered countless benefits.
From water pipes and sewage treatment plants to paved roads used by many, sturdy castle walls, and bridges.
With just a little maintenance, they were perfectly usable—in fact, they were far more useful than anything newly built. There was no reason not to use them.
The city of El Round, directly governed by the family, was no exception.
Beneath El Round lay a network of sewers.
These vast underground waterways boasted a capacity so immense that the city could expand for another few hundred years without issue.
If someone decided to hide here, they would be incredibly difficult to find.
That must be why they felt so secure.
“An ambush! It’s an ambu—gack.”
That they were safe.
That they had slipped in undetected.
“Boss, Boss! Do something, quick… Aaargh!”
“He-help me. I didn’t hear anyth—”
*Thwack!*
That their raid would surely succeed.
“Who the hell are you… kegh.”
And it would have.
“Get a grip! It’s just one g—”
“Boss! Get him, quick…!”
If not for Allen.
*Crack!*
He smashed the flat of his blade against a man’s head, which shattered, splattering brain matter. The bandit, who hadn't even noticed Allen's approach, met his end just like that.
Perhaps it was the blood splashing onto his face, but the bandit next to him managed to raise his shield. It was useless.
*Squish!*
Allen’s sword passed smoothly through the shield and pierced the man’s head. The bandit collapsed without so much as a final cry.
“Aaaaargh!”
Even an attempt to ambush Allen while he retrieved his sword was futile. With his blade still embedded in the shield, Allen swung his arm wide.
*Crrrack—*
His body spun, the sword drawing an arc faster than an arrow.
“Gack, keuk…”
“Gyaaaaaah!”
“My, my arm… Aaaaargh!”
The result was gruesome.
The bandits within the arc had limbs severed, spraying fountains of blood. Those nearby had chunks of flesh gouged out, their groans filling the air.
Allen felt a slight sense of emptiness, facing opponents who weren't even worthy of being practice dummies.
*To think I was once beaten by thugs like these.*
No, it was more likely that he himself had become absurdly strong now that he could wield a measure of mana.
So strong that most enemies were no match for him.
“I-I can’t do this. No one said there’d be a monster like this!”
Just as he was about to move again, one of the bandits, his face pale with terror, screamed and turned to flee.
“M-me too!”
“To hell with the treasure, my life comes first.”
Once one of them ran, the others who had been hesitating quickly followed suit. It was an expected outcome; there was no honor among thieves.
Allen smirked as he watched them scatter like a colony of ants.
“If you think you can run…”
Then try.
Allen channeled vitality into his body and kicked off the ground with explosive force.
*BOOM!*
“Huh? Wha—?”
The first bandit to flee wore a dazed expression as Allen appeared before him in an instant. His face was a mask of disbelief, unable to process what he was seeing.
But Allen paid no mind to the bandit’s expression. He grabbed him and slammed him into the ground.
*Splat!*
The other bandits froze, watching a man get planted into the floor like a tree.
The bandit, who had landed headfirst, had his skull burst open like an apple, revealing the white pulp within. His headless body twitched violently.
As his body slowly slumped to the side, his upper torso was so mangled he was unrecognizable.
“Aaaaaaaaaargh! Help me!”
“Boss! Please, Boss, save us!”
They screamed for their boss, but he was already long gone, not even a shadow of him to be seen.
*These guys were probably somewhat notorious on the outside…*
To him, they were less than pebbles on the road.
He was beginning to grasp the extent of his own strength, so there was no need to drag this out any longer.
*I feel like I forgot something…*
“Aren't you going to practice your swordsmanship? You promised you'd learn from me!”
“Ah.”
Right.
“I’ve been watching you this whole time, and all you do is move around like a brute! Hurry up and try something! I’ll critique you.”
“Alright, now that I’ve found the bandits…”
I’ll give it a shot.
It was time to finish cleaning up the trash.
* * *
“That should be most of them…”
Allen flicked the blood from his blade and surveyed his surroundings.
Only two or three bandits remained alive around him. Even they were moaning in agony, at least one part of their bodies crushed.
“You still have trouble with fine control, don’t you? See, what did I tell you? I said we should practice swordsmanship more seriously, didn’t I?”
As Allen sheathed his sword, Vestla floated up on her own, circling around him.
“Wasn’t I pretty good just now? I thought that was a fairly clean cut…”
“Who swings that widely! What if someone had gotten inside your guard in that time!”
“No, I think it was a decent att—”
“Absolutely not! Do you even want to learn the sword? You just hacked them to pieces with brute force!”
Allen suppressed the urge to argue and quietly conceded.
“…Fine, I’ll keep that in mind next time.”
“Just keeping it in mind isn’t enough. You don’t have anything else to do, right? Then let’s just practice all day!”
Vestla chirped pretentiously, flitting about before his eyes.
Allen half-ignored her voice and closed his eyes.
Instantly, his senses spread out, mapping a radius of several hundred meters in meticulous detail within his mind.
*Has the bandit boss already gotten that far? A normal mage would have given up here, but…*
His limits were far beyond that.
His sensing ability expanded rapidly, reaching even farther.
One kilometer, two kilometers, three kilometers…
Just as a headache began to throb from the flood of information his brain couldn't process, he caught a trace of the man at the very edge of his range.
“Ah! You’re bleeding from your nose!”
“Ah…”
He tasted the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
Allen quickly withdrew his senses, and the splitting headache vanished.
*It’s good that my mana capacity and sensory range have increased, but…*
My body can’t keep up.
The Dragon’s Heart was made bearable by the Giant’s Body.
But how ironic was it that the master of that body lacked the capacity to fully unleash its potential?
*This is why one is supposed to ascend through the ranks step by step.*
His power had skyrocketed while his skill remained the same.
He needed to quickly accumulate more knowledge and skill to resolve the imbalance with his physical vessel.
He couldn't just let this treasure lie dormant forever.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. This is a small price to pay for such overwhelming power.”
Allen answered nonchalantly and immediately ran toward the location where he had last felt the trace.
“Where are you going?”
“A rat managed to escape. The coward even abandoned all his subordinates.”
Thanks to that, he had been able to pick them off easily, but at the same time, he felt a sense of disgust that the one acting as their leader had fled.
“Shouldn’t you rest a little?”
“No, I’m fine. If I delay any longer, I might lose him…”
I need to go faster.
*Catching the leader is better than a few bandits.*
He planned to capture the man to get a confession about the planned attack on the estate.
Allen picked up his pace.
* * *
Krogen pushed the berserk device embedded in his heart into overload and threw himself forward.
The ground cracked with each step, sending stone fragments flying. A faint white barrier shimmered around his body.
“Dammit, dammit.”
This couldn't be happening.
He had worked so hard to rebuild his bandit crew after it had been destroyed once before.
All that effort to reclaim his past glory, to return to those brilliant days.
“And then some monster shows up and…!”
Krogen knew.
He knew what a single superhuman could do.
That was why he had abandoned all thought and fled the moment Allen had shattered his subordinate's skull, moving faster than his own reaction speed.
His bandit crew had been wiped out like that once before.
For it to happen again.
“Aaaaaaaaargh!!!”
He let out a roar of frustration and flinched, but then relaxed, realizing he had come far enough that his trail couldn't be followed.
As he forged ahead, he saw an old man on the path of the sewer, a place where no one should be.
An old man with stark white hair, deep wrinkles, and a benevolent smile.
The old man’s appearance was so out of place here that it would have struck anyone as odd, but Krogen, his vision clouded by rage, was in no state to notice.
He just needed an outlet for his anger.
He could think after he killed him.
His mind made up, Krogen swung his spiked club down, anticipating the scream that would follow.
Or rather, he tried to.
“…Huh? What is this… gack.”
*Hiss—*
Before he even knew what was happening, his head tumbled from his shoulders.
Only then did he realize that the old man before him was a superhuman, just like Allen, but it was too late.
“…Grgle.”
*Thud.*
It was an anticlimactic end for a man whose reputation was that of a leader of a notorious bandit crew.
The old man maintained his benevolent smile, even as Krogen collapsed.
* * *
Allen arrived at the spot where he had last sensed the trail of the bandit leader.
“Is this it?”
“Yes, this is definitely the place, but…”
There was nothing.
“There’s nothing here.”
“Yes, I see that.”
Squeaking rats and bats staring down from the ceiling. The sound of water dripping from a leaky pipe somewhere echoed through the passage.
There were clear signs that someone had passed through, but the trail simply vanished at a certain point.
As if he had evaporated into thin air.
The bandit had disappeared without a trace, with a bizarre lack of any warning.
Only the familiar sight of the sewers greeted him.
*And this direction…*
Wasn't this where the bandits were originally headed?
Allen closed his eyes and extended his senses again. A radius of several hundred meters around him was meticulously scanned, flooding his mind with information.
*This much is bearable. Just a little more…*
As he slowly expanded his sensory range.
“…!!”
He found something—no, someone.
*Tap, tap—*
He dashed forward. The presence remained still. Why wasn't it running? Was it not him? Then who else…
*I’ll find out myself.*
From here, just one right turn and…
“An en-enemy!”
“…A Ratman?”
He spread his senses again, but he couldn't deny that the presence he had felt was just a Ratman, a common inhabitant of the sewers.
“Why did you suddenly take off running? Is something here?”
Vestla, who had flown after him, asked. Allen scanned the area meticulously again for anything he might have missed and shook his head.
“No… I must have felt it wrong.”
But what he had felt for a moment was definitely human…
“Maybe you were just mistaken?”
His strange mood prompted Vestla to say as much, and Allen meekly nodded.
*There’s a chance I really did sense it wrong, but…*
If not, then who?
“For now, let’s head back. Unfortunately, it seems the bandit boss got lucky and managed to escape.”
“Are you okay with that? Do you not need the bandit leader?”
“Catching the mastermind would have been best, but… even without him, I left some of the others alive to testify. Father will understand.”
Allen slowly backed away, keeping his senses focused to check for any anomalies.
But.
“I guess it was just my imagination.”
In the end, he found nothing.
“Let’s go back. It’ll be a waste if the ones I deliberately kept alive end up dying.”
Perhaps sensing the hint of disappointment in Allen’s tone, she chirped brightly.
“Then let’s go, quick! I want to see this Thanksgiving Festival thing, too!”
Allen gave a wry smile at her attempt to lift the mood by deliberately raising her voice and replied.
“Thanks.”
“I didn’t do it for you!”
He turned and left the passage.
The nearest sewer entrance was close by.
*Slither—*
Behind him, as he headed for the surface, a black shadow stirred for a moment before settling back into stillness, as if nothing had ever happened.
The sewers were once again filled with their usual, quiet silence.
* * *
A flash of light descended.
*Krrrr-rumble—*
The sound followed a moment later, a clap of thunder chasing the lightning that had fallen from the sky.
A bolt from the blue—this must be what they meant.
As Julius swung his sword, two forks of lightning shot down from the heavens, striking the mercenary captain on the head.
The mercenary captain moved quickly, but not quickly enough to dodge the falling lightning.
“Kuaaaaaaah!!”
*Thud—*
He could only collapse to the ground, a charred husk.
“Wooooooah—!”
“Julius! Julius! Julius!”
A roar of cheers erupted, declaring the victor of the duel.
Julius was the winner.