Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Clash with the Elf Queen
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“Those arrows from before, and now this Aura Arrow too. Paulo, you're not in your right mind.”
Bacchus assessed Minerva's condition, but how many in this gathering could truly agree with him?
...You think those arrows were shot by someone who's not right in the head?
Each one crumbling the earth beneath our feet, the shockwaves reaching even this far and making it hard to stand steady.
Yet Paulo Minerva treated her own prowess as utterly commonplace(?), not even bothering to address that point.
“...I never planned to settle things with arrows against the likes of you.”
Shweeeee!
The rapier lunged once more for Bacchus's life.
Minerva's eyes gleamed fiercely as she unleashed a flurry of strikes with her rapier.
“Today, right here. You will become my sacrifice, whelp.”
With those words, Minerva leaped into the air, spinning her entire body like a top with rapier in hand as she plummeted toward the ground.
Kiiiiing!
As if she herself had become a shooting star.
Kaboooom!
Bacchus firmly blocked the spinning Minerva with his massive shield.
“...Not bad, heavy enough. But this much? Not even close.”
True to his moniker of the Heavenly Shield, Bacchus's body didn't budge an inch, but the ground beneath these two superhumans couldn't hold.
Rumble!
“!”
The earth, already torn apart by arrows, finally gave way completely under Minerva's assault.
“Got you.”
Minerva seized that fleeting moment when Bacchus's stance faltered and charged.
Beyond the Middle Realm lies another world.
A proverb from the Cardia Continent, meaning there's always a wider world beyond what you know, so stay humble and never arrogant.
But today, I couldn't agree with it.
No need to venture beyond the Middle Realm.
Just recall the clash unfolding before our eyes.
It felt like this battle alone had opened our eyes to a new world.
Moments ago, I'd thought Father was in danger.
I hadn't expected the crumbling ground to disrupt his stance.
And indeed, Minerva capitalized on that gap perfectly.
But the 'Heavenly Shield' was no fortress to topple so easily.
Father swiftly grabbed the shield from his back like lightning, deflected Minerva with his shield hand, and countered just as fast.
“You... were weak!”
The elves' queen screamed in fury.
“No, not just you! Every human on this land! None of you could touch the tip of my toe! That's what you all were! And yet!”
“......”
Father silently blocked Minerva's raging rapier strikes as she spat curses, advancing step by stubborn step.
Did that sight provoke her further?
Minerva's eyes bloodshot, the aura surging through her rapier grew even fiercer.
Kwakwakwakwa!
Each swing cracked the surrounding earth.
“You humans! Why!!”
She was different. Her life had been one of nobility, spent protecting and nurturing her kin.
But humans scrabbled in ugly greed for mere lumps of land.
And other races—no, even their own kind—they enslaved for power.
That's what humans were.
“Even with such greed!! How can you reach such a noble realm?!”
The pinnacle of elves, who had lived nobly her entire life, demanded of humanity's pinnacle.
How could such a lofty realm be granted to you?
Humans, growing bolder over centuries, had extended their claws toward her kin.
And finally, to her most precious family.
“Answer me!”
Minerva's expression twisted as if tears of blood might flow, her desperate plea directed at Father.
Father—Bacchus von Carviot—gazed at Paulo Minerva and replied curtly.
“Quiet, Paulo.”
“......!!”
“You think I came all the way to this distant Elunheim just to hear your laments?”
Pressing forward against her fierce strikes like salmon upstream, Father had closed the distance to right before her.
Kabooom!
Father's heavy blow descended toward Paulo's head.
“Do humans seem like a race driven solely by greed to you? Hardly.”
Kaboom!
“Kuhk!”
Unable to block the second strike, Paulo's body tumbled roughly across the ground.
“Kugh...”
In the center of the collapsed earth, bloodied Minerva lay sprawled.
“Damn... filthy...!!”
The weak human sword she'd struggled against even once had now reached a level where blocking her strikes was a challenge.
“...Human lifespans are short. Even when I was a sniveling kid, you looked just like this. But that's precisely why humans can charge straight toward the values they've chosen.”
“Uwaaaaa!!”
Minerva snatched up her greatbow from the ground.
Countless Aura Arrows bloomed from it, hurtling without error toward Father's head, heart, liver—his vital organs.
“Some might call it greed, as you say. But...”
He gently deflected the arrow aimed at his head.
“Others fight for the glory of the one they serve.”
The liver-targeted arrow was caught in Father's left hand, its power nullified.
“And some stand against overwhelming might like yours, to protect what's theirs.”
The heart-bound arrow was precisely bisected by Father's strike, shattering trees and rocks behind.
“To uphold their values, they clash blades at each other's throats, fighting on.”
Clang!
His sword, unmarred even after cleaving the Aura Arrow, aimed true.
“Have you lived each day with such resolve?”
One continent-shaking powerhouse asked another.
Kiririri...
The greatbow's string, drawn taut, began to lose its tension.
Having poured every ounce of aura from her body, Minerva's greatbow slackened.
“Tch.”
Father spat out the blood pooling in his mouth, frowning.
“This is all you've got? With this level of skill, you thought to make me, Bacchus von Carviot, your sacrifice, Paulo?”
“......”
Minerva didn't answer Father's question, merely drawing her bowstring amid coughs laced with blood.
Father's expression grew steadily colder as he watched.
“I worried about my son possibly dying a dog's death, but seeing someone who was like a master to me in the past fall this far... it's unbearable. If you won't snap out of it...”
The sword of one of the kingdom's strongest warriors rose slowly high.
“Let's end it here. For old times' sake, I'll spare you further disgrace.”
This is bad!
No good.
No matter how broken Paulo seemed or how oddly she fought the orcs, she was still the queen revered by countless elves.
Publicly executing her like this would bring endless trouble.
As I moved to rush forward desperately, someone beat me to it.
No, someones did.
“Stop! Please stop!”
Milia, tears streaming, arms spread wide, blocked the wounded Paulo's path.
“No more... don't move another inch. No matter how great a warrior, no one can dodge arrows at this range.”
And Lena, nocking her bowstring from ten paces behind Father, aimed at him.
“You see your queen so ruined with your own eyes, yet still try to protect her?”
Father pointed out Paulo Minerva's pathetic state before all the elves.
“...Even so, she is our queen. A human like you has no right to punish her. And...”
Lena bit her lip as she replied.
“The root of all this is our weakness. So her failings...”
Kiriririk.
Lena drew her bowstring further back.
“...we must judge ourselves.”
Resolve hardened, Lena's eyes no longer wavered.
“......”
Father glanced at Lena's eyes briefly before turning to Milia.
“You think the same?”
“...Mother's just a bit tired. With enough rest... she'll surely return to the benevolent queen of old, walking the right path.”
Unlike Lena, Milia had no affinity for martial arts.
Her frail body trembled under Father's aura.
Yet even so...
She met the eyes of one of the continent's absolute powers head-on, unflinching.
“......”
Father regarded her a moment.
Shling!
He sheathed the sword drawn to execute the elves' queen.
“Enough. I came here to follow my son's wishes and forge good relations anyway. I got too heated myself.”
With that, Father looked to me.
Asking what I wanted to do.
“Let's head back for now. The elves need time to sort things out too.”
Father nodded shortly without further words.
“But idiot brother, what about that pig? Beat him up?”
Mercy mentioned Hatan and the orcs, who'd stood awkwardly like scarecrows since Father and Minerva's duel began.
Right.
The chaos had made me forget for a moment.
I was between Hatan and Makgora.
“...Nah. After a fight like that, continuing some petty brawl now would be ridiculous.”
Hatan looked cooled off from the recent battle too.
After answering Mercy, I called out to him.
“Hatan!”
“Chwiik. What?”
His subdued reply confirmed my guess—his fire had died too.
He'd come as orc king to conquer elves triumphantly, only to realize the unbridgeable gap with Paulo Minerva.
Hatan knew it well.
Without Father's intervention blocking her, the orcs would have been annihilated.
That helplessness must have gripped him.
Ridiculously, I felt something similar.
I thought my past peak had nearly caught up to Father. Wrong.
At the brink of stage 3, I'd believed I'd almost matched Father's prime.
How could I not? Completing Heterogenous Power stage 3 rivaled most masters.
Master.
The realm of wielding aura freely as one's own.
But I was mistaken.
Those on the throne held depths beyond mere 'master.'
Among the orcs, likely only Hatan grasped that.
Returning empty-handed without prospects would trouble him with his kin.
Gotta repay that axe toss from before.
Decision made, I shouted.
“Your goal isn't orc genocide anyway, right? So...”
“Chwiik?”
To this orc I'd grown fond of, I proposed again, as in the past.
“Four years!”
Holding up four fingers.
“Chwiik?”
“Exactly four years from now. We resume Makgora.”
“Chwiik. Four years later?”
“Yeah. After a battle that awesome, some low-level Makgora would be insulting.”
My proposal benefited me too.
Before heading to Olivia, I needed max training for my plans.
Hatan too needed countless fights to expand north; instability now would hurt him.
With a goal...
Growth would accelerate surely.
“Dumb sister. You think that orc will accept? Those battle-crazed monsters...”
“Chwiik, deal.”
“Huh?”
Mercy, who'd scoffed at my idea, looked utterly stunned.
“Chwik, why surprised, human girl? After that fight.”
Hatan slung his axe on his back and mounted his dire wolf.
“...Chwik. Called king, but mountains to climb never end. I'll start over. Again.”
Hatan seemed to have gained much from Father and Paulo's battle.
Makes sense.
I'd felt the wall too.
Some elves tried to block the mounted Hatan.
“Chwiik, out of my way, pointy-ears. I'm retreating out of respect for that amazing human and your queen.”
Hatan's intimidation dwarfed before Father and Minerva, but overwhelmed regular elves.
After brief commotion, Hatan and the orcs departed.
Milia, having finished tending Paulo, approached me quietly.
“Young Master Jerome, if it's alright... could we discuss trade next time? As you see... right now...”
Of course her mind wasn't there. What a day of events.
“Naturally, Milia. We'll take some time and talk slowly later.”
After bidding Milia farewell, I joined Father and Saladin's group, preparing to return to Banten.
The orc-elf war, tangled in all sorts of chaos, finally neared its end.