Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 004
Chapter Title: The Legion Witch
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“…….”
The woman fell silent.
“You're pretty quick on the uptake.”
Finally, what emerged from the woman's mouth was praise.
Shwick!
The Bon Spider's legs snapped back like a whip.
Freed at last, Sein plummeted through the air but managed to regain his balance.
“I just needed to verify. Your blood…”
Humm!
A necklace emerged from around the woman's chest.
“…is Demorus blood.”
“Did you really need to tie me up for that?”
“I like to be certain.”
That was what the woman said.
‘She's still suspicious.’
Sein kept his wary gaze fixed on her.
He just wasn't foolish enough to let it show.
“You're not surprised? That you're a Demorus?”
“I already knew I was special.”
Sein spun around in midair, checking himself over.
‘My past life has activated.’
The tutorial had finally ended, granting him his past-life perk.
Normally, it would have been random, but Sein got to choose.
‘And my cheat is active too.’
That was Sein's cheat ability.
The power of ‘Choice.’
The imperial crown prince's greatest perk was…
“You knew you were special?”
“You saw it yourself. Me using aura.”
“…….”
“How many kids my age can wield aura?”
The woman seemed to nod quietly in agreement.
“And I awakened it on my own in this back alley dump with no proper master. You know what that means, right?”
“……?”
“It means I'm a genius.”
Sein said the embarrassing words with bold confidence.
“How did you awaken it?”
“How do you explain breathing? It just happened naturally. And doesn't that prove I'm a genius?”
He had thought about this day countless times.
Dozens, hundreds of excuses prepared.
But his conclusion was always the same.
“Waking aura in a crappy back-alley dump like this proves how extraordinary my blood is. I even wondered if I might be from some fallen ancient empire.”
Bluffing boldly.
Pushing hard like this had worked better than expected.
It was then.
Twitch.
At the mention of the old empire, a faint change crossed the woman's face.
A change so subtle he wouldn't have noticed without his past life activated.
“That makes sense. What about the dragon's breath, then?”
“Same thing.”
So she had been watching from that point.
Yet she observed without intervening.
‘To test me.’
But Sein continued without showing it.
“Some traveler gave it to me.”
“A traveler?”
“Obviously a fugitive. You already know I've made a name for myself in these back alleys.”
Naturalness.
That was the most important thing.
He was a foreign entity in this world, and he knew from past experience what happened because of it.
-The absolute rule for enjoying Sanctuary.
He had even posted about it on the info site.
-First rule: Do not reveal your otherworldliness.
Penalties existed in Sanctuary for that too.
But that didn't mean he planned to hide himself completely.
-Second rule: Reveal your uniqueness naturally.
Not as otherworldliness, but as something special.
If Sanctuary's residents, the NPCs, accepted it that way, the penalties would ease significantly.
“It's not without holes, but it's believable enough.”
The woman slowly approached Sein.
She extended her hand.
“I've been rude with introductions.”
The woman said to him.
“My name is Arin.”
“…….”
“They also call me the Witch of the Legion.”
That was his first meeting with Arin.
“I'm Sein Demorus. Nice to meet you, Arin.”
*
*
*
Thud!
One of the underlings kneeling before Sein toppled over from his kick.
“B-Boss!”
“Spare us!”
He wasn't the only one on his knees.
At least five or six.
And they were none other than…
“Even the mutts I raised know their master.”
The traitors.
“Feed 'em, house 'em, and they wag their tails like it's great.”
Sein slouched back and glared at them.
“But what the hell are you?”
“Boss!”
“I feed you, house you, clothe you, protect you when dogs from other turf try to bite. And still you bite your master?”
“Boss! It's not like that…!”
The limp-legged Thomas's raid.
It had been suspicious at first glance.
And even more so when recalling the situation of the attack.
It was clearly planned, impossible without a traitor inside.
“Derun.”
At Sein's call, a hairy brute approached and bowed his head.
“What if these aren't the traitors?”
Derun was special.
“Are you lying? Or are they?”
From the moment Sein had opened his eyes in this unfamiliar body, Derun had been like a benefactor, raising and clothing him.
Even now, with Sein as boss, Derun was the only one he could truly trust in these back alleys.
“No proof?”
“I saw them meeting Limp-Legs a few times. And they took big money from him.”
“Th-That was!”
“I stake my neck on it.”
Derun's firm voice sealed their fate.
“N-No, Boss!”
“Boss! Please!”
Shing.
But Sein had already drawn his dagger.
“In this filthy back alley, betrayal means what?”
Sein stood.
“Death, Boss.”
Stab!
Sein's dagger pierced one man's throat, the signal.
“Arghhh!”
The ones fighting for their lives resisted desperately.
Stab! Stab! Stab!
But Sein's waiting underlings executed the traitors without hesitation.
The back alley fell silent once more.
Swipe.
Derun, having finished the last one, wiped the blood from his dagger and spoke.
“But, Boss. What about her?”
In one corner of the alley—a place no outsider could even peep into—stood an unfamiliar woman.
“You've never brought a woman here before.”
A beauty rare even in the countryside.
But more than that, the thick aura of danger kept everyone at bay.
“Her name's Arin.”
“Arin…?”
A name he'd never heard.
“They call her the Witch of the Legion.”
Infamous across the continent, perhaps.
“No idea what that means.”
But the name hadn't reached this rural backwater.
Sein rose to his feet.
“Limp-Legs is dead. Take the kids and secure his turf too.”
“……!”
“And Arin.”
Sein turned around.
“She's from Demorus.”
“……!”
The back alley froze in that instant.
This rural hole hadn't even heard of the Witch of the Legion.
“…Demorus?”
But the name Demorus held power even in a dump like this.
*
*
*
“Three of them weren't lying.”
Sein paused mid-sip of his beer at Arin's sudden words.
This was the inn he ran: Grave of Mercenaries.
“What?”
“Of the six you executed, three weren't traitors.”
“Oh. That.”
Sein grinned as if just realizing.
“They weren't guilty this time, but they were troublemakers. Better to clean house when you have the excuse.”
“Troublemakers?”
Thud.
Sein slammed his beer down roughly.
“Nosy about other turf's business, huh?”
“I haven't finished introducing myself.”
Still, Arin didn't blink.
The woman who had effortlessly torn apart a knight-captain level mercenary.
Swallowing a novice aura user like him would be easier than cold soup.
“I'm your guardian.”
“…Guardian?”
“The one watching over you, judging if you're fit to be the heir.”
“…Isn't a guardian supposed to help?”
“Among other things.”
Under Arin's impassive gaze, Sein finally turned away.
“One touched a married woman. Another messed with a kid…”
“Deserved to die.”
“Yeah, something like that. I can use aura, but turf wars with Limp-Legs left me short-handed.”
“So that's why you kept them alive?”
Her gaze carried a hint of contempt.
But.
“That reason?”
Sein's face twisted instead.
“Is there anything more important than surviving this dogshit hellhole? I had to keep them around however I could. You great Demorus guardian wouldn't understand.”
The hellish back alleys.
Nothing was harder than surviving there.
“Well…”
Sein murmured quietly.
“The one who touched the married woman? I made sure he can't roll with women again. The one who hurt the kid…”
Thud!
“I made him pay back every bit the kid suffered. No one gets beaten that bad for stealing in my turf.”
“Good thing it was them, then.”
“Hey, I'm strict, you know.”
The trivial chatter ended there.
“What happens next?”
Sein asked Arin.
A castle had appeared out of nowhere, and a watcher called a guardian had shown up.
Things would be different from now on.
“We're going to Demorus.”
Obviously.
“I'll watch you on the way to Demorus.”
She was his guardian.
“To judge if you're fit as Demorus's heir.”
In that moment, Sein realized.
‘This is the main quest.’
The fourth life granted to him.
The main quest for the Underworld Heir.
“And if I'm not fit?”
“You'll be discarded.”
“Brutal.”
But it didn't matter.
Sein's goal all this time.
‘Survive.’
Surviving this hellish world.
That's why he had clawed and rolled in the back-alley muck.
Staining his hands with every filth.
But if that was all, he might have given up.
Fleeing this grim reality was an option too.
The reason he endured.
“Fine. Let's go to Demorus.”
It was like a mission for Sein.
The only atonement he could make for destroying the world he loved so much.
The sole wish of Kim Sein, for whom Sanctuary had been everything.
‘This time, I'll clear Sanctuary.’
No one could call it a cheat run.
To someone, this place might be a game world, but to him, it was reality.