Chapter 192
Chapter 192
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Why Does Daddy Live Like That?
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Suddenly, an echo from the unreachable past resurfaced from the depths of his memory.
"Why does Daddy live like that?"
"He's a super famous adventurer, but half his jobs are free charity. The other half? He gets stiffed."
It must have been some day.
The sun was hanging a bit higher than usual, and the waves sounded gentler than the day before.
A trivial memory of strolling along the beach, holding the tall uncle's hand with big sis Milea.
"It's not getting stiffed. If I let them rack up a debt like this, they can pay it back later... with their bodies."
"With their bodies?"
It was only after Aunt Linda punched him on the crown of his head that the tall uncle gave Milea a serious answer to her question.
"Look here. The world might seem flat, but it's actually round."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Helping people without expecting anything in return isn't meaningless. You know what karma is? It all comes back to you eventually."
The tall uncle, who had drawn a circle in the sand, suddenly pulled us into a hug and said this.
"Milea, Miria. If you become people who can help others, be the kind who'll gladly lend a hand to anyone."
Then someday, when you're really struggling and suffering, when it's so painful you can't even ask for help...
Someone will appear in your life.
Someone who reaches out with a smile, without asking for anything in return.
You don't need to be great. You don't need to be famous. Live that kind of life. Become the kind of person who can receive that kind of gratitude.
"A dragon?"
That guy... why that guy?
Does he not know who he's dealing with? No, he has to know. He said it himself.
Arthur Brius snapped his fingers with exaggerated leisure.
"Ah, so you're the one? The one Jernix was begging me to kill. You're probably the bastard who killed my brothers too."
"Looks like they're not on this island? I came planning to send them all to the grave at once."
"Hey, no need to use two cow-butchering knives to catch a chicken, right?"
A silence fell.
It was a taut silence, stretched so tight that the slightest movement might tear skin.
A presence that chilled the spine... So this is the strongest mercenary in history. He knew it instantly.
"Aki, protect Miria."
Before Rain's words even hit the ground, Arthur's body slid forward like a streak of light.
A seasoned warrior reads the immediate future from the target's expression, posture, and gaze, then moves accordingly.
That's what he expected, and acted on it. Just like Rista always did.
Kaaaaang!
Amid the clash of fierce metal sounds, a blade—as if forged from flames, stone spears, and lightning—collided violently.
"Not bad. A puny mage blocking this?"
Heavy... Cold sweat beaded on his lips.
Is his melee skill ten levels above? Close combat against a swordsman—practicing staff arts a bit doesn't cut it.
Of course. The opponent was a first-rate swordsman who had reached the realm of mind sword, just like Rista...
"Just stay put like that. Makes it easier to lop your head off."
With their sword and stone spear locked, Arthur's eyes gleamed with golden light.
Dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon—the absolute hypnotic power seemed to ensnare Rain's soul.
「Step back.」
But in that instant, a mysterious blaze burning deep in the boy's spirit spoke those words, incinerating the invading force in his mind.
"So it doesn't work on fellow dragons."
Rain's eyes narrowed at Arthur's whistle.
He could sense dragon aura from this guy too. Dragon Slayers were human, but did he absorb their power?
Let's observe for a bit.
Barrier formation, 4-star.
Runes to inscribe:
Row (列), Snow (雪), Spark (烱), Hook (釣).
Flames spread dazzlingly (烱) in all directions (列) like snow (雪). The opening move to create distance and buy time.
"You think this'll cut it?!"
But in less than a second, Arthur scanned all directions—east, west, south, north—and swung his sword once...
A golden flash rent the space. A slash too fast to follow with the eye.
In that instant when a dozen streaks whirled, the floor, inner walls, and ceiling were all sliced apart and began crumbling simultaneously.
As the footing vanished, Rain lost his balance and felt adrift.
"Abat!"
Aki, standing guard over Miria, cried out, but her voice was swallowed by the roar of collapse.
"Aki!"
Miria tried to hug Aki like old times, but Aki placed a hand on Miria's head and flashed a sturdy smile instead.
"Aki's protecting!"
In the dust storm, Rain plummeted to the floor below, coughing as he looked around.
He saw several infant corpses crushed into meat lumps by falling debris. Many more babies who weren't dead but had lost limbs.
His eyes shook at the sight of children crying in panic. What the hell is this place?
"Delivery room."
Lightning that had punched through the storm took the form of a sharp blade—sword ki—and charged at him.
"The room where they make those little shits!"
He raised a wall of flame to block the sword ki, but the enemy's mind sword flew in with an unnaturally sharp trajectory.
"What?"
He rolled backward to dodge, and the sword that pierced empty air immediately cleaved the floor vertically.
"You handle staff arts decently, but you don't seem that impressive."
Arthur's words carried provocation laced with quiet doubt.
"Why was Jernix begging me to kill a nobody like you?"
"What were you doing here? Who are these people?"
Right now, Rain wasn't equipped with his dragon scale armor or dragon bone spear.
He couldn't unleash full power; even giving his all, it'd be about 40% of his original strength.
Against Jernix's main body in this state, it'd end in 30 seconds. With his defeat.
"Use that big brain of yours and imagine."
You goody-two-shoes mages can't cast a proper spell when hostages are around.
What spell would you use?
If you don't want all these hostages burned alive, you can't cast anything proper.
"Die already!"
Arthur swung his sword horizontally, unleashing a savage wave of power that obliterated everything in its path.
Sword ki that ground the floor, shattered countless pillars, and rent flesh.
The wave of force shifted the battlefield down another level.
The lower floor was no different from above. Women lay on beds like in a chicken coop... Rain swallowed a gasp of realization.
'So that's what it was.'
Kora's words—that being a slave meant being bred like livestock—meant this. This was why Miria always carried that sadness.
Using Link's descendants as slaves—he'd roughly imagined the situation.
But only roughly. He never could have imagined such ugliness happening.
If he'd listened to the villagers' stories first, the shock might have been less. But he had to chase Miria, so he hadn't.
'Interesting.'
Someone whispered in his head.
He felt no anger.
Not anger, but something darker, more chilling... surged hot in his chest.
"Hook (釣), bestow luring properties."
Arthur, pressing the attack relentlessly, suddenly froze as a chill ran down his spine.
"Hmm?"
The embers of that ability he'd extinguished earlier... somehow, without him noticing, they surrounded him.
The fourth rune he'd used was Hook.
A rune mainly for illusion magic, causing various sensory deceptions depending on the caster's intent.
Rain had hidden the embers with it. Made them seem nullified by Arthur's first move. All to wait for this moment.
"Multiple rune alterations: Guard (護), Burst (爆)."
The embers around the women turned into protective barriers, while those around Arthur exploded, whitening his retinas and searing into his brain.
The torrent of flames melted the entire interior of the golden pagoda where the guard couldn't reach, shooting up through the ceiling gap Arthur had shattered earlier.
A deafening explosion that threatened to rupture eardrums.
Then silence.
In the scorching updraft that burned the lungs, ash fragments swirled madly.
A massive hole gaped in the golden pagoda. All connected structures were charred, scorched, melted—deformed beyond recognition.
"Incredible power..."
Miria coughed painfully, looking around. If Aki hadn't protected her, she'd have been caught in that storm too.
"Damn, you wrecked the building like this—Herman's gonna whine for months again."
A voice came from above then.
Only now did they realize the Dragon Slayer stood on the ceiling.
"The prelim ends here. I won't doubt your skill. So gear up properly, and I'll give you a real thrashing."
Then the unbelievable happened. The burned flesh of his left arm regenerated in seconds.
Ultra-high-speed regeneration—the authority of an immortal being... How?
Flames surged relentlessly, but Arthur leaped skyward instantly.
"Don't rush it."
From his palm, the crackling blade became a massive thunderbolt, slamming down onto the golden pagoda.
"See you later."
If Rain hadn't warded with flames, the whole pagoda might have collapsed from that rampage of raw power.
Sword ki plunged with overwhelming force, no technique or finesse.
When the massive backlash from the flame-thunder clash finally subsided, only twitching electrical afterimages remained where Arthur had been. He was gone.
"Come down, Aki! We're chasing him right now!"
Come down?
This was the third floor.
"Tat!"
Aki hopped lightly downward, landing effortlessly as if Miria's worries meant nothing.
"Aki landed!"
She looked straight up at Rain, eyes demanding praise. She wouldn't budge until she got it.
Rain sighed awkwardly, patted her head, and only then did Aki purr happily, "Appu pp u."
As they turned to move, Miria called them back.
"Wait!"
Unlike Aki, Miria had to rappel down a protruding steel beam with wire, taking a bit longer.
Landing in front of Rain, she panted raggedly and grabbed his shoulder roughly.
"What are you doing here?"
She wanted to say thanks for the help, that she'd survived because of him.
"I told you to get out."
But perhaps from the bewilderment, the words that came out were rough and agitated, against her heart.
"When did I ask for your help? Why didn't you leave and keep sticking around?"
No, not just bewilderment.
"The opponent's the Dragon Slayer! That legendary mercenary!"
She just didn't want to drag this guy into this vortex of misfortune.
"You're not the first skilled person who's come to this island with good intentions toward me. Know what happened? They all died! Not a single one survived!"
The battle she'd fought alone for 11 years, the one no one else could resolve—only she could end it with her own strength.
"So you guys... I never asked for help. So—"
In this fight where she had to face a legendary swordsman, she didn't want anyone else sacrificed now. Especially not this guy.
"—I never asked for help."
Looking at Miria like that, Rain found himself answering 'the same way.'
"No need to."
Just like what the dean auntie had said that first day they met, when light pierced the darkness of his life.
"From the moment we first met, your eyes were saying it."
In a smile recalling that day's memory—achingly nostalgic, sadly joyful.
"What..."
Slum orphans learn to keep their mouths shut first.
No matter how hungry, begging food from a dining adult only gets you slapped.
So orphans don't speak. They just stare silently, then leave or steal on the sly.
"Come here, aren't you hungry?"
When the auntie shared food with such an orphan, he thought it was a trap for a slap and protested he hadn't asked. She said just that.
He never imagined the day would come when he'd pass those words to someone else...
"Wait. It'll all be over by tonight."
Aki hopped onto Miria's shoulder and patted her head.
"Wait for Aki!"
Miria watched the father-daughter pair depart, her face expressionless.
'A problem I have to solve alone.'
Only her eyes moved, but the warmth of tears trickling down her cheeks brought a dizzy vertigo.
'A problem I had to solve alone, without tall uncle or the gods.'
In the distant past, amid that nostalgic sea breeze, the tall uncle's voice overlapped with those footsteps.
When you're really struggling and suffering, when it's so painful you can't even ask for help, someone will appear in your life.
Someone who reaches out with a smile, without asking for anything in return.