Chapter 279: The Tin Knight and The Enchanting Demon (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 279: The Tin Knight and The Enchanting Demon (5)
Once upon a time.
A long, long time ago… or perhaps, a time disturbingly recent.
In an ordinary village, there lived a young man who complained a great deal.
One day, the young man lamented.
“Ah! If only I had been born a noble. Then everyone would have revered me without my having to do a thing.”
A wise sage passing by offered him some advice.
“A noble who does not work earns no respect. Even if you were born a noble, with such a mindset, you would struggle to become the heir. And even if you did, you would surely drive your family to ruin in no time.”
The young man closed his ears and pretended not to hear the sage. The sage shook his head and went on his way.
On another day, the young man lamented.
“Ah! If only I had been born rich. Then I could have just played and eaten without doing a thing.”
A diligent merchant passing by offered him some advice.
“What foolishness! The greed of the wealthy is such that no matter how much they have, they always want more. They would never tolerate a child who wastes money and time so meaninglessly! A bum like you would be kicked out of the house in an instant.”
The young man closed his ears and pretended not to hear the merchant. The merchant clicked his tongue in disapproval and went on his way.
On yet another day, the young man lamented.
“Ah! If only I had been born handsome. Then everyone would have loved me without my having to do a thing.”
A beautiful maiden passing by offered her advice.
“Beauty is like a flower that is difficult to manage. If you don’t tend to it with constant care and meticulous effort, it will easily wither. As long as you don’t abandon that way of thinking, your own appearance will soon turn ugly.”
The young man closed his ears and pretended not to hear the maiden. The maiden sighed deeply and went on her way.
Many people offered him advice, but the young man never once thought he was wrong.
He continued to lament and complain about his life, bemoaning the fact that he hadn't been born with more.
For someone who complained so much, one would think he might try to change something, but the young man was not that sort of person.
He merely grumbled with his words, wishing for his circumstances to magically shift in his favor.
It was the mentality of a common thief.
However, a turning point came one day for this young man.
As he was napping at home, the sound of a beautiful flute reached his ears.
As if possessed, the young man followed the sound of the flute and walked into the forest.
How long did he follow that sound?
In a place so deep that not a single human shadow could be seen, the young man discovered a flute playing all by itself.
When the young man unthinkingly picked up the flute, the music that had been echoing from it abruptly stopped.
But the young man did not panic.
Though the sound was no longer audible to his ears, the flute’s will was still being transmitted into his mind.
—Hello, new master. If you act according to my advice, I will give you a gift.
From then on, the young man’s life changed.
—Tell the villagers you saw a wolf targeting the village. They will ignore you twice, but the third time, a pack of wolves will truly come. When that happens, play me, and you will be able to drive them away.
He did as the flute told him. The villagers who had ignored him now hailed him as a hero and apologized for their disbelief. He was happy.
—If you can, please lose money every day in a foolish manner. You can drop it while crossing a river, or keep it in a pocket with a hole. You will become a laughingstock, but thanks to that, you will be able to make a rich man’s unsmiling daughter laugh. The rich man will surely reward you handsomely.
He did as the flute told him, and the young man received a pile of gold coins he had never even dreamed of seeing in his life. He was happy.
—Go to the city and ask the children to sing a song about you marrying the mayor’s daughter. The children might be scared or the soldiers might come after you, but when that happens, just play me. Then you will win the beautiful mayor’s daughter.
He did as the flute told him, and the young man received the love of a beautiful woman he would never have been able to even look at before. He was happy.
After this happened several times, the young man no longer doubted the flute’s words.
No matter how bizarre the process felt, how incomprehensible or irrational it seemed, he had learned that it would ultimately result in his own happiness.
Occasionally, there were those who tried to annoyingly tie him down or cause him trouble, but with the flute’s power, he could freely make them obey or even erase their memories.
And so, he lived his life, reveling in the power of the flute.
One day, while fishing with a straight needle as per the flute’s advice, the lord of a great domain sought him out and offered him a request.
He was to be entrusted with the specific methods, but he had to somehow make Marquis William Hemming and the party of the Witch of the East’s apprentice turn on each other and fight.
It was a dangerous request, but the young man did not hesitate.
He was confident that with his magic flute, he could do anything.
Following the flute’s advice, the young man gathered mice from various places and led them to the Hemming territory.
The marquisate was thrown into chaos, and the young man, with a brazen face, goaded the Marquis, claiming he could solve the problem.
After that, everything went smoothly.
Manipulating Marquis Hemming, a renowned noble of the kingdom and a man of power he wouldn't have dared to look at directly in his past, even brought him a sense of ecstasy.
The arrival of the Witch of the East’s apprentice and her party before he could get his hands on the Lady of Friedel was a somewhat unexpected development, but he wasn’t particularly worried.
If it were a situation that could truly become a problem, the flute would have warned him in advance.
No, in a way, he even saw it as an opportunity.
The lord of the neighboring domain who had given him this job seemed to find that party extremely troublesome. If he took care of them, the lord would surely thank him and offer a massive reward.
It was a remarkably self-serving way of thinking, but his mind, already steeped in the convenience of the flute, failed to recognize the problem.
‘Even if they are quite strong, there are only four of them. On our side, we have hundreds, no, over a thousand allies. Besides, if they’re heroes, they’ll try to avoid harming innocent civilians as much as possible!’
He did not know.
He did not know that Dorothea’s party were people who had wreaked havoc on battlefields where not thousands, but tens of thousands clashed.
He did not know.
He did not know that the information about Dorothea’s party currently circulating in the kingdom was largely a “heroically adapted” version created by the Empress’s propaganda, and that their true nature—be it chaotic good or chaotic neutral—was far from orderly.
As a result.
The young man had to face a truly terrifying existence: a knight in full-body armor, approaching him while snapping people’s legs.
“Keoheok!”
“Aaaargh!”
[‘Tin Knight’ says it’s better to break just the bones cleanly so they heal faster!]
Tap, tap, tap.
Every time the Tin Knight lightly touched the shins of the domain’s residents, who had been selflessly throwing themselves forward to protect the ‘good young man,’ they collapsed to the ground with screams.
He did so without any visible exertion, simply touching them with his sword as if it were a stick.
The fact that he was touching people with a sharply honed blade, yet not a single cut was left, was even more terrifying.
And the other one.
The golden-haired, violet-eyed girl, Adelaide, had a gentler approach.
It might have been a different story if she were facing her family’s enemies, but crushing the bones of innocent people who were merely being controlled, with the thought ‘they can be fixed later,’ did not suit her personality.
Thus, she acted very calmly and composedly.
She grabbed people’s forearms and weapons with each hand, snatched the weapons away and tossed them where they couldn’t be picked up again, and then threw the people high into the sky.
That is, high enough to look down on the roof of the Marquis’s mansion.
Swoosh!
Thud!
The people who soared into the sky did not turn into tomatoes on the ground, because Adelaide promptly caught them from below as if performing a tumbling routine.
Adelaide herself absorbed all the impact that the falling person should have endured, but for her, it was a simple trick.
Once the people who had experienced this rather premature attraction entered an out-of-body state, Adelaide would gently set them down on the ground.
Fortunately, there were plenty of seats, as the customers in the queue, having seen the customers before them, had hastily fled backward.
Unlike the others who were in a state of shock and terror, the witch who had orchestrated this situation was composed.
Having been repeatedly teased by the Tin Knight’s ‘Dorothea Common Sense Restoration Project,’ she was once again refraining from using necromancy in front of others.
The fact that she had orchestrated this tragedy with just a few words and without using a single bit of necromancy was, in a way, a more serious problem, but it was too late for that now.
“Uh, uh.”
They say that when a person sees a car rushing toward them, they are so shocked they forget to move and just freeze.
The young man’s state was exactly that.
The behavior of the two apostles coming to capture him was so far beyond common sense that he seemed to have forgotten the very obvious fact that he needed to run, his mouth just hanging open.
———
Just then, the flute let out a low sound.
The young man, startled, quickly brought the flute to his lips.
～♩♪♫♬～
A mystical melody echoed, and those who heard it, their faces turning dazed, charged toward the Tin Knight’s party.
Even Marquis William and his men, who had been watching the situation from inside the mansion, were no exception.
Dorothea flinched for a moment, but her staff emitted a light and quickly generated a powerful barrier that enveloped the entire mansion.
“Hut.”
“Ugh!”
The Marquis and his soldiers clutched their heads, looking dizzy, but unlike before, they showed no signs of being controlled.
Dorothea looked at her staff with newfound appreciation.
The staff, which she had personally crafted using special materials and which Orin the witch had personally enhanced, seemed to be excellent at defending against mental attacks as well.
All that remained were her companions outside the barrier, but this too was no problem.
The Tin Knight didn't even flinch, as if he were immune to the effect in the first place, and Adelaide, though she twitched slightly, showed no signs of being controlled. There was a reason they were cursed at in the Magic State for being cheaters on a bloodline level.
The young man was flustered.
The flute had always shown its powerful strength, even if the process was a bit tedious.
For its power to be ineffective was a first in his life.
He desperately continued to play the flute, but the Tin Knight was already right in front of him.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Four times on his two legs, once on the shin and once on the thigh.
Another four times on his two arms, once on the upper arm and once on the forearm.
After a total of eight taps, the young man collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth.
It was an empty end for one who had been swayed by an undeserved power.
The sound of the flute ceased, and a deep silence fell.
This was because the residents who should have been causing a commotion had all rolled their eyes back and fainted on the spot.
Around the lord’s mansion.
A four-digit number of unconscious patients had been created.
Adelaide spoke in a panic.
“Uh, what… what do we do?”
[‘Tin Knight’ says since this flute seems to be the cause, shouldn’t we investigate it?]
The Tin Knight snatched the flute from the young man, then, holding the scruff of the young man’s neck in one hand and the flute in the other, he returned to where Dorothea was.
The witch, as if understanding his intent, reached out to take the flute.
But, it was at that moment.
Fwaaaaa!
“Whoa, hey, what are you doing?”
As a tremendous surge of red mana suddenly erupted from Sophia’s body, Dorothea asked with a flustered look.
“Oh my…?”
The problem was, Sophia herself didn’t seem to know what was happening.
The red mana, like wine or blood, was sucked into the flute.
The flute trembled, then suddenly shot toward Sophia with terrifying momentum.
The Tin Knight reflexively tried to restrain the flute with his strength, but the pulling force was so intense that his own impossibly heavy body was moved in its entirety.
Puk!
The magic flute pierced Sophia’s heart.
There was no blood.
As if to replace it, a mark in the shape of a red chalice simply appeared on Sophia’s clothes.
Seeing the emblem, Sophia murmured as if she had understood something in that brief moment.
“…It was a stepping stone.”
Before Dorothea could ask what she meant, Sophia lost consciousness and collapsed.
And the Tin Knight, who had been holding the flute, also suddenly went limp, the will-o’-the-wisp shining from his helmet’s slit extinguishing as he slumped like a piece of decorative armor.
The witch and the lion called their names in panic, but they did not wake up.