Isabela Chose the Penalty
Isabela had chosen the penalty. Ziiing-. Kagagagak. The vibrating hum of my sword rang out alongside the grating sound of it shaving down his axe blade as it burrowed inward.
Balram, stunned by the performance of my blade, hastily tried to pull back his axe, but I twisted my sword and utterly wrecked the edge. Normally, when a thin sword clashed with an axe, the sword would be the one to suffer—but Katrin's blade was no ordinary steel. If anything, ever since visiting the World Tree, the edge felt even sharper than before.
Is it because of that spirit? The image of the odd-eyed sword spirit flashed in my mind, but right now, the priority was the brute in front of me. Balram glared down at his ruined axe in fury, and I didn't give him a moment's respite, swinging my blade again.
Clang. Our weapons collided once more, and another chunk of his axe blade chipped away.
"Grk... You bastard, that weird sword..." Balram muttered in bewilderment, but I had zero sympathy for his plight.
He definitely moved like this back then. Replaying Lucille's swordsmanship in my head from moments ago, I was testing out the patterns I'd observed against Balram. I'd stumbled upon the Light Sword's progression by chance in my first timeline, but there was a world of difference between reading about it in texts and witnessing a direct disciple's demonstration firsthand. Sure, my own ingrained habits from self-training meant no massive breakthroughs, but just mimicking another style was yielding plenty of insights.
"D-Damn it all!!"
Even as I emulated Lucille's techniques, Balram's axe kept getting pulverized. He couldn't hide his shock, but there was nothing he could do. I effortlessly dodged his occasional sneaky kicks or wild swings—his attack patterns were burned into my memory from the first timeline.
I smirked at the sight of his axe, now little more than a stick. The massive brute holding his shattered weapon so pathetically looked comically out of place with his hulking frame.
"Y-You mangy cur... Do you even know who I am?" Balram snorted in rage, catching my mocking gaze. But if raw anger changed anything, no one would bother training or hunting for good gear—there'd be no lunatics like me.
"Raaagh!"
My sword sliced across Balram's lower body, ripping a guttural scream from his throat. Even more surprising, my blade was sucking in his dark crimson blood bit by bit. Astonished by how my sword had fully transformed into a Demon Sword, I kept piling on the wounds. What had started as awkward mimicry of the Light Sword—no, Lucille's movements—was gradually becoming second nature, as if they'd always been mine.
"I'll kill you! I'll rip you apart!" Balram bellowed through his mounting injuries.
"Yeah? Keep flapping your gums all you want—it won't save you." I sneered back, but in that instant, an ominous aura surged from his body. His eyes flashed white, and black energy began leaking from him in streams. I instantly recognized it as the demonic energy unique to demonkin, but this was far stronger than anything I'd felt from him in the first timeline.
No way... He was holding back even then? It made no sense. Balram had been a pain, sure, but I'd never sensed this from him before regression.
"I-I'm gonna kill you!"
He growled, and I moved without hesitation. No point waiting around for the enemy to power up—I wasn't that stupid. I drove my sword straight into his ox-like head, and he convulsed before dropping dead. The thick demonic energy vanished without a trace.
"...W-We won!"
The elves cheered at Balram's death, but a nagging unease lingered. Even with him gone, that hidden power I hadn't known about set me on edge.
Worrying won't solve it now. Shaking it off, I scanned my surroundings. Lucille stared at me in wide-eyed surprise; my companions watched worriedly from afar, along with Isabela and her inscrutable expression. The elves rejoiced at defending their forest, while the dark elves battling them sighed in relief at Balram's fall.
I flicked my sword to sever Balram's head, then hoisted it high.
"Balram is dead. Surrender or fight to the last and die—your choice!"
The dark elves finally snapped to attention, glancing around warily. Even the elves, who'd been acting like the war was over, tensed up again.
"...We'll surrender."
A voice rang out from the dark elves' ranks—their leader, apparently, as the rest tossed down their weapons in unison. Amusingly, as the dark elves knelt one by one, the beasts followed suit, sprawling belly-down on the ground.
**
"Don't talk nonsense, Hero!"
Isabela shot back at me coldly. The reason she was baring her fangs at her savior was simple: I'd told the elves to accept the surrendering dark elves and beastkin.
"Then what? Should I just slaughter them all? Huh?"
"Whether you kill them or not is your business. I won't agree to letting them into the Great Forest."
I scowled at her stubbornness. Accepting the surrender was fine, but the problem was the sheer number of prisoners. Surviving dark elves, beasts, plus Dalshinyang's beastkin—together, they outnumbered the elves. Naturally, Isabela wouldn't want to share space with potential backstabbers.
But the empire was the same. Marching in with a dark elf horde and beastkin would scream "rebellion plot" to everyone.
Actually... maybe not all bad? The thought crossed my mind, but with resources still to squeeze from the empire—and my ties to Princess Mary—open revolt was premature.
In the end, my decision was to dump all these stragglers on Isabela's tribe. It'd be petty revenge on the arrogant elves, and nothing bad for me.
"Do I need your permission?"
"...What are you saying? The Great Forest has been elven territory since time immemorial."
She wasn't wrong, but mouthing off like that to her rescuer? Ballsy.
"Bullshit. Who says this forest is yours? Hell, you elves just volunteered to protect it. No reason to care who lives there, right?"
"...I can't accept impure beings in the Great Forest."
I pressed my lips tight as she kept objecting. Frank, Lucille, and the others watched me warily. But contrary to my expression, I wasn't pissed. I'd never expected her to agree anyway.
Fine. If you want the penalty, take it full force.
Telling her to accept other races was just building pretext. My plan was to drag her deeper into the pit, but going too far without cause would sour relations with other kingdoms.
"We'll talk about this later." I cut off the pointless argument and turned my back on her.
**
"Haat... haaang... R-Reward sex... so gooood."
I pistoned my hips into the wildly aroused Karen. Her pussy clenched my cock fiercely, already hypersensitive from the battle's adrenaline. This time, I'd sent Jena off first. As she gazed at me with lewd eyes while gripping me tight, I whispered in her ear.
"Karen, you've got a job to do."
"Hng... A-Anything... just tell me... haat."
She moaned sluttily but answered promptly. I grinned wickedly at her eager compliance.