Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Myoran's Night (2)
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Public opinion on the Walter Group was sharply divided.
The entrenched executives had been granted immense wealth and power, enough to make them cheer in delight.
Meanwhile, the working class and small companies had suffered countless extortions, building up resentment.
As a result, nobles defended them while commoners staged protests, leading to constant clashes.
Emperor Bodwin VIII proposed several laws to mediate their conflicts.
However, nobles who had taken bribes from the Walter Group or formed marriage alliances blocked them.
Unlike the old empire, where nobles and commoners now both participated in parliament, it took an eternity for any bill to pass.
In the meantime, the Walter Group meticulously hid the assets they had embezzled over the years.
They threw one last party before any legislation targeting them could be born.
「Valhalla Banquet」
It was so grandiose that even the party had a name.
They invited not just imperial dignitaries but officials from other countries, making it extravagantly lavish.
The reason they could afford such leisure was simple.
Their various misdeeds and scandals were tightly sealed by executives from a secret organization.
The organization's name was 'Golden Hand.'
A combination of the empire's symbolic gold and hand, implying they secretly manipulated everything here.
True to its grand name, the lineup of executives was impressively flashy.
Among them, the one concealing the Walter Group's corruption wielded particularly immense influence.
He was Edin, a royal exile from the Bakar Kingdom who had fled with hundreds of soldiers.
"It's almost time."
The second prince, defeated in the battle for Bakar's throne.
After defecting to the empire, he had been nurturing ambitions to swallow his homeland once more.
"The day I return to my country."
In his office located in the northern part of the imperial capital.
Amid dim lighting, Edin clutched a bottle of red wine worth an entire villa.
He savored its taste while reading a single document in hand.
It was the list of mercenaries he had hired to assassinate the current Bakar king.
「Bakar's Worst Murder Demon, Cornicho.」
「Samad's Greatest Lance Knight, Bartoni.」
「Gladiator Champion for Five Consecutive Tournaments, Kunya.」
「……」
The Bakar royal pleasantly admired the lineup of names he had heard at least once.
He leisurely swirled his wine glass, drinking the blood of the people he had embezzled from.
But then.
「……Your Highness Edin.」
Soon, communications from his subordinates began crackling through his crystal orb.
Specifically from the Walter Group's northern branch.
"What is it?"
Edin responded indifferently.
But soon, he had no choice but to widen his eyes and listen intently.
"What did you say?"
The Absolute Box.
A storage-type artifact of the highest value.
Inside it were all the assets Edin had embezzled while staying in the empire.
Its worth alone nearly equaled an entire kingdom.
That's why he had hidden it in the deepest northern vault, guarded by top-tier mercenaries.
"What do you mean the box was stolen?"
Edin slammed down his fine wine with a thud.
Dark red liquid splattered across the desk.
Like spiderwebs spreading from the Walter Group branches everywhere.
As the first transmission cut off, the next one arrived immediately.
"What the hell is going on? Northern branch, northwest branch, respond!"
The man in his thirties bellowed into the crystal orb.
As his clenched fist slammed the desk, the wine droplets scattered completely, like spiderwebs.
Just like their branches that had been obliterated in an instant.
"How the hell did this happen? Who dares touch the Walter Group?"
The Bakar royal was dumbfounded.
The Walter Group, which he had rooted himself in, had support from nobles and factions so strong even the imperial family hesitated to touch them.
Even the emperor was carefully proposing laws bit by bit, so who would dare attack this place?
"I don't know what beastly bastard it is, but it's time for proper punishment."
Edin bit his lip and gripped his prized mercenary list.
Forces said to be capable of annihilating a kingdom.
He planned to dispatch them all immediately to execute the intruder.
"Secretary's office, summon the mercenary corps right now. We're deploying forces north."
But.
There was no need to go searching for the intruder.
"Secretary's office? Why no response? Can't you hear me?"
A few hours after the first transmission.
The intruder had come straight to the heart of the Golden Hand for him.
Screeech―――.
A black silhouette emerged in the bright corridor, contrasting the dim office, haloed by the lights.
"......"
Green eyes glowing with a suffocatingly sweet voice.
Even he, who had hired countless mercenaries, felt chills at her presence.
For the first time in his life, he felt like he had encountered a predator larger than himself; his body froze solid.
"Wh-what are you...?"
Drip...... drip......
A woman in a cheongsam gripping swords in both hands.
Jet-black blood dripped ceaselessly from the blades.
Edin, who had some experience in royal power struggles, quickly grasped the situation.
"Could you be the lone assailant they mentioned in the transmission...?"
His and the Walter Group's glorious heyday would end today.
And at the hands of a single girl not yet twenty.
"Impossible. How could a child like that alone..."
The Walter Group's northern branch, a fortress like a massive cake, had been split open.
The northwest underground base, designed like a labyrinth, had been flooded with his subordinates' blood.
But the nightmare didn't end there.
The intruder reaching the capital branch meant...
The fall of the Walter Group.
"Prove you're worth keeping alive. You have five seconds."
From the dark halo, emotionless green eyes commanded the royal.
Like gazing at a bug she could crush anytime.
"Uh-uh......"
Edin desperately wanted to hit the emergency switch under his desk.
The moment he did, mercenaries would rush to save him.
But he soon realized it was pointless.
'That sword... It's Kunya's sword.'
The army of elites capable of toppling a kingdom, his pride...
Had all been massacred by that girl.
"Wh-what you want is the Absolute Box, right? With this key, you can change the box's owner to anyone you want."
Edin pulled an artifact key from his uniform's inner pocket.
He placed it on the floor and politely slid it toward the girl.
"This should be enough, right? Proof I deserve to live."
The key bumped against Myoran's shoe and stopped.
The Eastern Sword Sage picked it up and slowly examined it.
"Hm."
While the girl was distracted by the artifact, Edin pulled a pistol from his drawer.
He stealthily gripped the newly developed weapon.
Just in case.
"I read in the papers that your Walter Group is like a cancer on the empire."
"Haha... what are you talking about? So many people support us."
The blue-haired man desperately laughed and shook his head.
At the same time, he thought secretly.
'She's just a young girl.'
Maybe he could sweet-talk her and turn this to his advantage?
First, find out her affiliation and offer better terms to poach her.
"You look like a foreigner yourself. I help people who've fled or taken refuge from abroad."
"Oh?"
Myoran glanced at the key as she replied.
Seeing a path to survival, Edin spoke even brighter.
"I don't know how you ended up taking on such a brutal job. But if it were me, I'd never send someone like a little sister on a task like this."
His clear blue eyes beneath distinctive Bakar blue hair.
He placed a hand on his chest to appeal.
"Don't we exiles with tragic stories have to help each other?"
"Hm, that sounds good."
Myoran tucked the key between her ample curves.
Securely, so it wouldn't slip out.
"But... why did someone who says exiles should help each other exploit them?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
Myoran expertly raised the swords in both hands.
Her eyes filled with lunar chill and madness.
"I heard your Walter Group factories pay foreign workers only a third of the wage."
"......!!"
He had thought her just a naive girl.
But she had come fully aware of his company's reality.
"You're just like the former warden."
Not a mere puppet following orders.
She had come to smash the Walter Group of her own volition.
"Honestly, it doesn't matter. If the empire falls, it'll give me an excuse to take Derek to the eastern continent."
Myoran's face was no longer that of an innocent girl.
"But I think Derek would hate that. So instead, I'll make this place worth living in."
She smiled like a mature woman who must claim what she desires.
"That way, when the empire improves and he's at ease, taking him will feel right."
Killing intent dripped from her sword tips.
Even the Heavenly Jade laughed heartily, drunk on fresh blood after so long.
「That's it, Myoran. Unleash your madness to your heart's content.」
"In that sense, your existence is something Derek would hate."
With the key secured, Myoran had no reason to linger.
Nor to spare Edin, whose value had vanished.
"So die."
The moment she said it.
The defeated Bakar prince raised his pistol.
When the muzzle spat fierce flames, Edin was certain of victory.
No matter that she had slaughtered his mercenaries.
Blocking a supersonic bullet ambush was no easy feat.
But there was one fact he didn't know.
Kaaang―――!!
That in the past, Myoran had annihilated not just the empire, but an entire continent.
The moon woman stared precisely at the bullet tearing through the air.
And in one stroke, severed it with her blade.
Thud...
"What in the..."
Moreover, what she had slashed wasn't just the incoming bullet.
A red fissure now split the center of Edin's face.
Soon, his body split in half and toppled.
Behind the cleaved corpse, the office wall was perfectly trisected.
And then...
―――, ―――.
Black money the exiled royal had personally embezzled poured out in heaps.
Like slitting open a greedy pig's belly.
"......"
Myoran showed no reaction to the staggering sum.
She silently headed north.
Clutching the key to the dowry funds she dreamed of sharing with him.
Rumble―――.
The Walter Group's capital second branch burned.
As everyone reeled in shock, one woman passed by with a calm face.
"Hoo... Does this girl not even clean up after herself?"
Meanwhile, at Berryhill Prison.
I was cleaning Myoran's vacant cell alone.
I shook out the dusty pillow and neatly folded the blanket.
"Man, having a little sister must feel like this."
Being young, there was no musty smell.
Instead, a fresh, fragrant body scent wafted softly from the bedding.
"Does she plan not to come back at all today? Guess I need to investigate."
Late night under a full moon.
I had been guarding her room alone and sighed deeply.
As I considered napping on the warden's office sofa.
Suddenly, blue text floated in the air.
Accompanied by a very pleasant sound effect.
"......?"
I'd only ever heard bad endings being updated, but this was the first time one was sealed.
Thinking it odd, I reached toward the text.
"What does that mean?"
"What is this?"
While simply tidying the bedding.
I had suddenly become a kingdom's hero.