Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Remnants of Alpha
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“Sa, save…….”
“Shut up!”
Blizan grabbed him and slammed him into the ground.
Thud!
“Uwaaaah!”
Hajan flailed around, rolling on the dirt.
“Considering everything we’ve suffered.”
Blizan kicked him mercilessly in the side.
Thwack!
A dull sound rang out, and Hajan’s eyes widened as if they might tear.
“Guh, guh…….”
He let out a choking gasp, foam bubbling at his mouth.
“I want to kill you right now, but someone else will punish you.”
To keep him from escaping, Blizan stomped down on Hajan’s ankle.
Crack!
“Uwaaaah!”
Hajan’s face turned deathly pale as he passed out.
Blizan grabbed his head and dragged him over to Sersei like a rag doll.
While he was punishing Hajan, Sersei had regained consciousness, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Jan…….”
Blizan looked at her with bloodshot eyes and forced out a few words.
“Mi, sorry…….”
“Jan!”
Sersei burst into tears and ran to him.
Blizan tossed Hajan aside and embraced her tightly.
Skevin, watching the scene, turned his head to survey the surroundings.
All the enemies were down, and the scouts were checking on the hostages.
One of the knights approached and bowed deeply.
“We’ve taken care of everyone.”
Skevin nodded and glanced at Hajan.
“Take that one to the people.”
A short while later.
Skevin rode up on horseback before the hostages who had been captured.
He could sense the wild aura unique to the Horcamun tribe from the women and children.
But among the hostages were about ten men who didn’t look like Horcamun tribesmen.
“Who are they?”
A knight answered his question.
“We asked a Horcamun tribe member, and they said these were captured from elsewhere.”
“Hm.”
A glint appeared in Skevin’s eyes.
He slowly scanned each man.
They were all skin and bones, their bodies gaunt to the point of showing ribs, but their eyes burned with life.
Their mental fortitude was no ordinary slave’s.
Skevin approached them and stood before them.
“State your identities.”
They stared at him silently, lips sealed tight.
“I’ll ask again. If you don’t answer this time, I’ll consider you all Hajan’s underlings and kill you.”
One of them struggled to his feet and met Skevin’s gaze.
“We’re not his soldiers. And before you ask us, reveal your own status first.”
“……!”
Skevin’s eyes flashed.
The man was staring straight into his eyes with utter confidence.
‘No way?’
Skevin furrowed his brow slightly and asked cautiously.
“Could you be nobles?”
The man stared at Skevin before slowly speaking.
“I am Keda, the eldest son of the Alpha Family.”
“The Alpha Family of the Namshar Empire……!”
“That’s right. We’re the soldiers of the family branded as traitors to the empire and massacred two years ago.”
“So the remnants fled here.”
As Skevin’s eyes grew cold, Keda glared back with murderous intent.
“Do you see us as devils too?”
“What do you mean?”
Skevin’s face hardened.
“The Alpha Family gave everything for the empire. They were loyal retainers. Yet they branded us devil worshippers and slaughtered us.”
“……!”
Keda didn’t miss the slight flicker in Skevin’s eyes.
“You seem surprised.”
Skevin quickly erased his shock and asked coldly.
“How can I believe that?”
“You’ll believe me when you see this.”
Keda turned around, showing the brand on his back.
Like the Oscar Empire, the Namshar Empire branded criminals to manage them.
These brands were known across empires, so he recognized what was on his back.
A moon hidden behind clouds symbolizing darkness!
It was the mark given to devil worshippers.
He and the others turned to reveal the same brands on their backs.
“Hmm…….”
Skevin let out a low groan.
Keda asked.
“Now it’s your turn to reveal your status.”
“Sorry, but it seems I can’t make that call.”
“You’re going to hand us over to the emperor?”
Murderous intent filled Keda’s eyes.
At the same time, his comrades rose with killing aura.
The encircling knights drew their swords in unison, aiming at them.
Tension crackled in an instant.
A powder keg ready to explode!
In contrast, Skevin remained calm as he spoke to Keda.
“If you want to die, I’ll grant it anytime.”
“Better to die here than be dragged off by you bastards.”
“Ridiculous.”
Skevin smirked incredulously and continued.
“I never said I’d take you to the emperor.”
“You’ll take us to your master, who’ll offer us to the emperor……!”
Keda’s face twisted.
Skevin had suddenly unleashed his killing intent, pressing down on him.
“You don’t deserve an answer to your question, but I have every right to kill anyone who insults my lord. If you want to live, watch your mouth. No third warning.”
Keda was crushed by the killing intent, unable to speak.
He tried to avert his eyes, but his body was frozen like stone, unresponsive to his will.
‘This level of presence…….’
Sword Master class knight. A family with such a knight had to be at least a count’s house.
Now he noticed the knights Skevin brought were all at advanced levels.
Perhaps a marquis or duke’s knight order.
‘Damn! Is this the end?’
When they’d taken out Hajan’s soldiers and rescued the hostages, he’d glimpsed a spark of hope he’d hidden in his heart.
But it was just his delusion.
Keda collapsed limply, and his followers sat in dazed despair.
Skevin spoke coldly to them.
“Remember, your lives on the way to my lord depend on your behavior.”
Blizan and Sersei approached and spoke.
“Captain.”
Skevin turned on his horse to face them.
“Have you found some peace?”
“Yes.”
Blizan gave a faint smile and shifted his gaze to Sersei.
“She’s the one the Horcamun tribe must serve from now on.”
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Sersei.”
Sersei placed her right hand over her chest and bowed politely.
“I’m Skevin Maximus.”
“Please take care of us.”
Skevin nodded and asked Blizan.
“What will you do?”
He glanced at Hajan sprawled on the ground.
Blizan grimaced and replied.
“We’ll handle it according to tribal law.”
“Let’s begin.”
Sersei moved to where the tribe members gathered, eyes filled with murder. She informed them and led them to Hajan.
They surrounded him, and Sersei nudged him with her foot.
“Ugh…….”
As Hajan regained consciousness amid groans, excruciating pain shot up from his groin, jolting him fully awake.
“Uwaaaah!”
Sersei ground her heel into his vile member and said.
“I’ll give back everything you did to me.”
Thud! Thud!
“Argh!”
She stepped aside, and another woman approached, glaring viciously.
“Every time you touched me, I wanted to die! But I endured to protect my family!”
She shoved her foot into Hajan’s mouth, unleashing her rage.
“Mmph, mmph, guh. Hng!”
Hajan’s eyes bulged wildly, and the other women waited their turns with venomous glares.
About an hour passed like that.
Having vented their pent-up fury, they panted, glaring at Hajan as if to kill him.
Hajan’s face was unrecognizably mangled, his limbs twisted backward.
It was miraculous he was still alive.
“Uh, uh…….”
A faint, barely audible whimper escaped him.
Blizan stepped forward.
“It’s my eternal regret that I can’t kill you myself.”
Sersei stood beside him and declared firmly.
“Now it begins.”
Blizan looked around at the tribe members.
They too must have endured humiliations from Hajan and his men, just like Sersei.
Thinking of the comrades eagerly awaiting their return twisted his heart.
If they learned of these ordeals, guilt would torment them.
He didn’t want that.
From now on, the Horcamun tribe should look only to a bright future.
Blizan met Sersei’s eyes.
“I have a favor to ask.”
Sersei nodded, and he asked her not to tell their comrades about being hostages to Hajan and what they’d suffered.
By tribal law, the family head must know all that befell his kin, but this once, they’d break it for everyone’s sake.
Sersei’s expression showed full understanding.
“Got it.”
“And…….”
Blizan turned toward the children and continued.
“Nothing happened to them, right?”
“Don’t worry. We made sure they didn’t touch the kids.”
“Good.”
Blizan replied softly and turned away.
Imagining the hardships Sersei and the others endured to protect the children fueled his rage.
‘You bastard…….’
Gritting his teeth to suppress it, he approached Skevin.
“It’s done.”
“You’re leaving him like that?”
“It’s his punishment.”
“True, he doesn’t deserve an easy death.”
Skevin looked at the lined-up knights and shouted.
“Move out!”
The knights moved efficiently to their positions.
Skevin turned to Blizan.
“Come with your tribe.”
“Yes.”
Skevin led the way, followed by the knight order.
The Horcamun tribe traveled in the middle of the formation, protected by the knights.
As they vanished, crows gathered from nowhere, descending on the piled corpses like a mountain.
“Ugh…….”
Hajan painfully opened his eyes.
The women who attacked him were gone.
No Blizan, no Julius knights.
The empty plain held only his men’s corpses and crows pecking at their eyes.
He sighed in relief and ground his teeth.
“I’ll definitely…… get revenge……!”
A crow landed before him.
It scanned around, spotted him, and cawed loudly as it approached.
“G-get away…….”
The moment its eyes met his up close!
Peck!
The crow gouged out one of Hajan’s eyes.
Dozens more crows swarmed onto his body.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
Hajan’s agonized screams mixed with the crows’ cries echoing endlessly.
Then, a figure in a dark brown robe appeared like the wind.
The crows startled and flew off into the sky.
The robed man clicked his tongue lowly at Hajan’s gruesome corpse.
“What a pathetic death.”
He scanned the surroundings, then extended his arm to a crow still feasting on a body.
The crow flew into his grasp as if drawn.
“I have a task for you.”
The man met the crow’s eyes and murmured in the runic tongue. The resisting bird’s eyes turned blood-red, then docile.
He imprinted the scene he’d witnessed into the crow’s mind and released it. The crow cawed and flew off vigorously.
Watching until it vanished, the man smirked meaningfully toward where Skevin and the knights had gone.
“The Julius Family, huh……”