Chapter 20
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Tibel's Demise
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No matter how much unexpected power and aura he possessed, there was still a gap in experience!
He thought that as he sensed his own victory.
Ka-ga-ga-gak!!!
But.
"What... this can't be..."
An aura membrane protecting his entire body.
The aura flow, symbolic of a Sword Master, blocked his sword.
It depleted rapidly, but the moment his attack was halted, the loss was immense.
"S-Sword... Sword Master?!"
"Wrong."
Seok!!
In the next instant, Leon's sword carved a massive gash across his abdomen.
The moment his body staggered from the sudden blow, Leon accelerated as if in a burst of speed, leaving countless wounds across his entire form.
"Even if you were a Sword Master, you should have come prepared."
Of course, the remaining Sword Masters of the Bata Kingdom, loyal only to the royal family, wouldn't serve as his allies anyway.
"Kuhk... Gurk..."
Tibel Cascadia, leaning on his sword like a cane, struggled to stand and tried to widen the distance, but his body no longer obeyed.
"If you'd kept your greed in check, it would have been better for both of us. I wanted to take you alive if possible, but no matter how I think about it, the damage from letting you live is too great."
"Do you think scum like you can defend the county? Weaklings like you and the late count can never protect this place!! You know nothing..."
Wuuuuung...
"I'm not your lawyer."
As a massive aura suddenly pressed down on the surroundings, startling Tibel into silence, Leon gripped his sword with both hands and began drawing out his aura to its maximum.
The sheer volume was incomparable to what he'd estimated just moments before.
"Uncle, I'm not here to hear your last words. If you wanted to leave a will, you should have prepared a retainer fee."
"You... you mad bastard..."
With those words.
Leon channeled the vast aura into his sword.
Kwa-chit!!
He slammed the sword down like a massive hammer striking the ground.
The moment the tip of Black Night Sword No. 1 collided with the floor.
Kwaaaaaang!!!!
The uncontrolled aura erupted with explosive force, utterly pulverizing the entire area.
Its power rivaled that of grand magic in terms of destructive force.
"If it weren't for you, our house wouldn't have suffered like this."
Nearly six months since his father passed.
The resentment toward the root cause of all that hardship ran deeper than he'd imagined.
Tibel's mansion had been reduced to complete ruins.
On one side, the shockwave from the massive aura explosion had blown away an entire wall of the building—not stopping there, it turned the rear garden into rubble before finally dissipating.
The bodies of Tibel and Bibel Cascadia, caught in the attack, were beyond recovery.
"Cough, cough, uwek..."
A mouthful of blood spewed out, but most was black—dead blood.
This was the process of expelling accumulated waste from the body, proof that it wasn't a setback but rather a sign his physique was improving.
Massive aura discharge detected. Judged as highly inefficient attack method.
"Sometimes you have to vent it all like this to accelerate physical growth."
Analogy to muscle training confirmed. Please verify.
"Close enough. Think of it as clearing out stagnant aura to strengthen the meridians."
It wasn't quite that simple in detail, but it didn't matter.
Accumulating aura was the hard part; recovery happened just by resting, as it was that kind of energy.
Honestly, the remaining enemies were weaker than expected.
The mansion's leftover forces amounted to Tibel Cascadia, a Sword Expert, and one remaining knight.
The rest were mostly Aura Users or even below that.
To be precise, compared to the slaughter in the alleyway, this was child's play.
They must have sent most of their forces to attack.
Whatever the case, he dragged his fatigued body onward.
With Tibel dead, House Cascadia's peace was restored, but this mansion still harbored a time bomb.
If those things truly existed in the basement, just as he'd learned upon arriving here...
Space confirmed directly below.
"Yeah."
Forcing open the hidden basement passage revealed a concealed staircase.
Descending slowly, a horrific stench assaulted him as the space came into view.
It was an animal pen.
But it didn't hold just animals.
"...This is insane. On this scale?"
He stared blankly at the captives in the cages.
If it had been only humans, it might have been less shocking.
Young-looking dwarves, elves from who-knows-where.
And worst of all, monsters that shouldn't emerge from the Demon Realm.
Monster confirmed. Specimen estimated as Clay Wolf.
High elasticity; wraps and suffocates prey or hardens for hunting with sharp claws/teeth.
Hunt difficulty: Low.
"Trash, you could've explained your identity in that much detail."
My identity is Librarian.
"Sure, next trash."
Not trash.
The stench mostly came from those yellow clay-like wolves.
Unconscious slaves and monsters baring their hostility, ready to chew through the bars and kill everyone.
The straw piles nearby suggested they planned to burn the whole place down.
But their plan fell apart when they were wiped out.
What Tibel Cascadia intended with all this didn't matter.
The moment this got out to the Dwarf Kingdom or the World Tree, the Bata Kingdom would be dragged into war.
The scale was larger than expected, leaving him dumbfounded.
Pas... Chae-kang!
"Damn."
The moment he drew his sword to slash the bars, the mithril-alloy blade finally snapped.
Black Night Sword No. 1, deceased!
"Oh... I won't forget your sacrifice."
For a mithril blade, its durability was lacking, but the shockwave from the massive aura discharge to expel dead blood had shattered it.
It was made hastily with mithril alloy, after all.
No great durability expected.
Berus would freak out seeing this, but since he'd said to break as many as needed, he'd just gather materials and ask for a remake.
No key, broken sword—he'd have to use his hands.
He crammed his remaining aura into both hands, forcibly enhancing his physical abilities.
Then he gripped the rusted bars and crushed them.
Geu-geu-geu-geuk!!!
"..."
The unconscious elf didn't stir as he pried the bars open.
"Hm... Still alive, at least."
No medical knowledge, so he couldn't tell her condition, but she was breathing.
He crushed the other cages and carried them out one by one.
"Got them all out?"
He'd rescued everyone from the cages. Monsters like the Clay Wolves would be burned entirely.
But the Librarian's next words caught him.
Life signs detected. 1 entity confirmed.
"Which one?"
Further inside.
Following its direction, he walked into an empty passage.
The Librarian might act like trash sometimes, but it was reliable in these matters.
After a while, an empty room appeared.
"Where?"
Precisely on the wall at 15 degrees left.
Approaching as indicated, he felt faint air leaking from beyond the wooden wall.
Meaning there was space inside.
Without hesitation, he squeezed his remaining aura into his fist and unleashed a strike.
Kwaaang!!!
A heavy impact echoed as the wooden wall shattered.
The interior was revealed.
"What, is this a lifeform?"
Confirmed as a lifeform.
Hidden beyond the broken wall was a box emitting a faint blue glow.
Nothing inside was visible, and there were no hinges or handles to open it.
"Hey."
Librarian here.
"Right... Librarian. How is this a lifeform? Something living inside?"
Species unidentified, but life signs confirmed.
"Tibel probably didn't even know what this was and just took it. Let's take it for now."
The box was about 30 cm square.
Lighter than expected.
Whatever it was, the lifeform inside clearly wasn't human or elf.
Tibel Cascadia must have mistaken it for some treasure.
The hidden room was filled with jewels and items that looked immensely valuable at a glance.
Plus a small spatial expansion bag—plenty to take it all.
This sapphire, this diamond. Wow, look at the size. Selling these would make a fortune.
Where Tibel got such wealth didn't matter.
What mattered was they were rich now.
"None left now, right?"
Scan complete. No life signs detected.
The only survivors in the ruined mansion were the slaves locked in the basement.
Irrelevant servants had fled, and his enemies were all dead.
"They're about due..."
Intent confirmed?
He gathered the unconscious elves, beastkin, dwarves, humans in one spot, laid them down, sat, and waited. The Librarian spoke up.
"Nothing major. I can't carry all these people myself."
Confirmed. Indeed.
"So, I need to call Melissa here."
He'd deliberately caused the aura explosion when taking out Tibel partly for this reason.
Anyone not an idiot would realize he'd started a fight from an explosion that size.
All that was left was to wait for her.
Confirmed. Highly efficient method.
Even if not Melissa, someone would come.
Just then, knights on horseback approached rapidly from afar.
Knights sworn to Melissa.
"Young Master!? What is this..."
They couldn't hide their shock at the ruined mansion and him.
"Welcome. Take all these people and handle them."
"These are..."
"Slaves Tibel Cascadia kept. Take them, treat them, remove all slave brands."
Otherwise, war with the World Tree, Dwarf Kingdom, or beastkin lands.
Bata Kingdom couldn't win against any of them.
If that happened, the royals would abandon the Border Count for sure.
Human trafficking was a grave crime; elves or dwarves? Unthinkable.
"Elven slaves... my god."
"That mad bastard Tibel Cascadia."
The knights paled, grasping the gravity.
"Where's Melissa?"
"The Young Lady is subjugating the discovered monster. It wasn't strong, so she'll finish soon..."
As he nodded in satisfaction at the knight's report.
Beep!!
The Red Moon begins its erosion.
Unexpected words accompanied by.
The sky began dyeing blood-red at tremendous speed.
Not a sunset glow, but pure crimson like fresh blood.
And where the sun had been, a massive eye-like moon rose.
"The Red Moon..."
So this was what they meant by the Red Moon.