Chapter 93
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: The Hunt
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The White-Masked Young Master.
A new star who appeared in the Deformed City by passing the Calamity Princess's groom trials.
Furthermore, even after acquiring the Wyvern's Estate, he not only sold countless bandits into slavery but also started a high-end slave dispatch business.
He even conquered a labyrinth on the verge of a dungeon break and made the Treant Lord his vassal.
Having caused all sorts of incidents in just a few months, the ever-rumored White-Masked Young Master was the center of everyone's attention.
But that was a story of the past.
After destroying the Kahul family.
The White-Masked Young Master had ceased all external activities and gone into seclusion.
Although his slaves continued their dispatch work, that was a mundane affair compared to his previous exploits.
People thought.
That the White-Masked Young Master had finally learned some self-restraint.
...That is, until another rumor began to spread through the Deformed City.
“The White-Masked Young Master captured the four Laying brothers?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“Apparently, a criminal organization he uncovered while digging into the Kahul family was connected to the Layings.”
“No wonder he's been so quiet lately… Was he planning something like this?”
Though the dormant White-Masked Young Master had once again obliterated a family, people's surprise was unexpectedly muted.
The four Laying brothers were practically fallen nobles, with open rumors circulating about their ties to criminal organizations.
They were no match for the White-Masked Young Master, who had brought down even the Kahul family, a relatively successful low-ranking noble house.
There was also the justification that they were connected to the Kahuls.
So, this would be the end of it.
The situation would soon be resolved.
It was only natural for those who thought so to wonder what the White-Masked Young Master would do next.
However…
“Hey, the Crepare family has fallen!”
“What? Why them?”
“It was the White-Masked Young Master again. The Laying brothers supposedly confessed they were partners.”
“So the Crepares were bandit nobles too?”
“That must be why he did it.”
The next day.
A family that had long amassed wealth in the Deformed City through the minting industry.
When even the Crepare family fell at the hands of the White-Masked Young Master, people began to feel that something was amiss.
And another day later.
“…This time, it's the Ulman family?”
“Good heavens…”
The Laying family.
The Crepare family.
And now, the Ulman family.
A total of three families had been shattered in just three days.
With 15 high-ranking Awakened nobles and dozens more, including low-ranking Awakened vassals, taken prisoner.
People groaned.
Only then did they realize.
That this turmoil would continue.
And that the White-Masked Young Master wasn't just targeting one or two bandit nobles.
—The Bandit Noble Alliance.
As the darkness of the Deformed City.
Known to all who were in the know.
A powerful faction that even the strongest nobles avoided mentioning by name.
That he had declared war on them.
“Is the White-Masked Young Master out of his mind?”
“They say a pup doesn't know to fear a tiger…”
“After an unbroken string of victories, he's forgotten his place.”
“Destroying three families in a row is certainly extraordinary, but to think he'd try to stand against the Bandit Noble Alliance.”
A clear act of suicide.
That was everyone's unanimous assessment.
Picking a fight with the Bandit Noble Alliance, an organization with an unknown number of dozens of member families, was a move that screamed certain death to any onlooker.
And so, they waited.
Some lamented the futile self-destruction of this new star.
Some placed bets on how many days he had left.
And some, filled with envy and jealousy, eagerly awaited his downfall.
They waited for the moment the praying mantis that had dared to stand before the unstoppable wheel of the Bandit Noble Alliance would be crushed.
…A few days later.
Until a certain rumor began to circulate.
“What?”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“No, wait. Is that true? Not just a baseless rumor?”
So absurd.
So utterly preposterous.
That anyone would have thought it was clearly fabricated.
The moment they realized that the piece of news everyone had laughed off as a ridiculous rumor was, in fact, true.
Everyone who heard the rumor was unknowingly struck dumb.
“…This is insane.”
***
“This is… insane…”
He swore under his breath, thinking.
How did it come to this?
He had been one of the very people in the Deformed City who had scoffed the most at the White-Masked Young Master's outrages.
One reason was that he was a bandit noble belonging to the Alliance.
Another was that he found the White-Masked Young Master's triumphant air, after taking down three families in a row, utterly pathetic.
Laying, Crepare, Ulman.
Those three families were at the very bottom of the low-ranking nobility.
Their individual capabilities.
The power of their houses.
They were hardly different from fallen nobles, the weakest families in the Bandit Noble Alliance.
With thorough preparation, even another low-ranking noble family could have taken them down in a surprise attack.
If the Bandit Noble Alliance made a serious move, crushing the White-Masked Young Master would be as easy as eating a mana stone while lying down.
‘I was never careless, though.’
But he only scoffed.
He didn't underestimate the White-Masked Young Master.
Judging by his past deeds, it was clear the White-Masked Young Master possessed power comparable to a mid-ranking noble.
If he were attacked while unprepared, he himself would not escape unscathed.
Especially since it was unclear how much information had leaked, and a large organization like the Bandit Noble Alliance would need time to mobilize.
Therefore, he prepared.
He gathered his kin and vassals.
He summoned and armed the bandit group under his command.
And crucially, he brought in two other low-ranking noble families from the Bandit Noble Alliance.
Since they were on a similar level to the fallen families, the two already anxious houses readily joined him.
As a result.
The number of gathered high-ranking Awakened alone was fourteen.
A formidable force assembled from three families, powerful enough to take on a decent knightly order.
That's why he was confident.
No matter what tricks the White-Masked Young Master pulled.
He wouldn't dare touch them.
In fact, he was even a little grateful for the thought of an attack.
Taking that opportunity to eliminate the White-Masked Young Master would strengthen his own influence within the Alliance and earn him renown in the Deformed City.
If he was lucky, he might even be able to plunder the White-Masked Young Master's territory, or perhaps seize it entirely.
And objectively, it was hard to say his confidence was excessive.
‘The only uncertainty was external intervention…’
There were two problems.
One was the rumor that the White-Masked Young Master hailed from one of the Hundred Great Families.
If he truly had the backing of a Great Family, they could crush even the entire Bandit Noble Alliance.
Of course, for him, who considered the rumor itself to be an empty bluff, it was a laughable story…
The second problem.
The intervention of Lord Urk and the Calamity Princess could not be ignored.
It was a well-known fact that Urk, a high-ranking noble, was an ambitious man.
The very reason the Bandit Noble Alliance was wary of the White-Masked Young Master was their suspicion that Urk was behind his bandit-hunting activities.
But, fortunately, amid the misfortune.
Urk was surprisingly quiet.
It was annoying that the Calamity Princess was staying at the Wyvern's Estate, but on the other hand, she wasn't leaving it either.
‘…So, just in case, I took every possible precaution.’
To prepare for a surprise attack through a gate, he bribed the lord of Ogong Castle, where their base was located, and had the gate sealed.
If the White-Masked Young Master forced his way through the gate with his subordinates, he would have to wage war against Ogong Castle.
And if he were to move his territory to reach them, it would take more than ten days.
In case he tried to rent a 1 or 2-star Divine Beast from a nearby castle, he had even bribed the drivers to monitor all approaching Divine Beasts.
It was impossible for the White-Masked Young Master to launch a sneak attack against them, not even by the slimmest of chances.
…Yes.
Logically speaking.
It should have been.
But…
“How… did you ambush us?”
The blood he coughed up.
A rotting arm.
His tattered feet.
Gasping for breath, his body so broken it was hard to find an uninjured spot, he had no choice but to ask.
He had prepared so thoroughly.
Yet, the fact that he had allowed an unexpected surprise attack by the White-Masked Young Master's party, who seemed to have sprung out of nowhere.
Thanks to that, a sudden large-scale spell had half-destroyed the mansion, instantly killing two high-ranking Awakened who were caught off guard.
The result was that two more high-ranking Awakened, flustered in the chaos, along with dozens of vassals and underlings, met a violent end without putting up a decent fight.
It filled him with an overwhelming sense of injustice.
At the same time, a mind-numbing absurdity.
And above all, it made him question everything.
“No, more importantly…”
Yes.
Let's concede a hundred points.
He could understand that much.
Odobaekryeong was vast, and no one knew how many Classes and Traits existed.
If an Awakened had used an unimaginable ability or scheme, they could have appeared as if from a labyrinth.
That was why he had been able to respond to the attack calmly.
Although nearly a third of his forces, including four high-ranking Awakened, had been wiped out, he still had ten high-ranking Awakened left.
That was enough to fight against the White-Masked Young Master.
It was fine even if he couldn't win.
If he simply held out, the bribed Lord of Ogong Castle would send reinforcements.
“What… in the world are you.”
In fact, his calculations weren't so wrong.
Two to block the bees and spiders controlled by the kobold siblings of the Hara clan.
One to hold back the rampaging beastkin girl.
Two to tie down the shadow-wielding slave girl.
Two to withstand the dark elf maid who swung her iron fists and iron legs.
By distributing his forces appropriately like that, he was able to deal with the people the White-Masked Young Master had brought.
Though they were pushed back overall due to their lack of individual skill, they could hold on with the support of their vassals and soldiers.
That alone was enough.
Enough to create an opening for the remaining three of the ten high-ranking Awakened to combine their strength and attack the White-Masked Young Master.
In any war.
It was a given that the side to take down the leader first would win.
In that respect, his decision to focus his forces on the White-Masked Young Master was extremely rational and wise.
No matter how great a prodigy the White-Masked Young Master was, it was impossible for him to withstand the combined attack of three high-ranking Awakened.
…No, it should have been impossible.
Hence, with despair.
And lament.
He spoke.
“…Just what kind of monster are you?”
*Whoooosh.*
The swirling, milky-white energy.
The ashen death spreading beneath his feet.
The pitch-black magic writhing in his hand.
Standing tall, wreathed in three different powers, each one difficult for even a high-ranking Awakened to handle on its own.
He gritted his teeth as he looked at the half-masked boy who had single-handedly defeated three high-ranking Awakened, including himself, a master-class Awakened.
If the White-Masked Young Master had been a Transcendent Awakened, he would have simply resigned himself to his fate.
Even for a high-ranking Awakened.
They were beings one could not dare to challenge.
Such were the monsters known as Transcendent Awakened, who had surpassed the wall of transcendence.
The problem was that the White-Masked Young Master was not a Transcendent Awakened.
Mana.
Dark magic.
And even necromantic power.
A Triple Awakened (三重 覺醒者), who wielded three different powers.
A being rarer than not only the already scarce Multiple Awakened but even most Transcendent Awakened.
It was a sight that explained how the White-Masked Young Master had passed the Calamity Princess's groom trials and achieved all his great feats.
Yet, at the same time, it was a phenomenon that made things even more incomprehensible.
“Even for a Triple Awakened, how can you be so strong!”
he demanded as if coughing up blood.
A Multiple Awakened is certainly stronger than an ordinary one.
Just look at the dark elf maid rampaging up ahead; she was pushing back two high-ranking Awakened on her own.
But even so.
There are limits.
Wielding multiple powers is incredibly difficult, requiring several times the time and effort.
Yet, the results were notoriously little more than being slightly stronger than a regular high-ranking Awakened and able to respond to a wider variety of situations.
This was especially true because the more powers one wielded, the harder it became to cross the wall of transcendence.
And yet.
Why on earth.
No, how on earth.
Could simply wielding a few powers make such a difference between high-ranking Awakened of the same level?
Looking at him as he asked, as if coughing up blood.
The half-masked boy smiled faintly.
Then he raised a finger to his red lips in a playful shushing gesture and said.
“Secret.”
“……!”
“Well then, bye-bye.”
*KABOOOOOM!!!*
That was the end.
The moment the head of the Rembhai family, who boasted considerable power among the low-ranking nobility, fell…
…and the moment everyone was horrified to realize that with the collapse of one of the Bandit Noble Alliance's pillars, the White-Masked Young Master's declaration of war was not just an empty boast.