Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Imprisonment Life (2)
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Myoran's life was divided into before and after obtaining the Heavenly Jade.
Before she got it, she had lived happily with her father, the sect leader of their clan.
With ample support and no shortages, alongside friendly junior sisters and brothers.
Devoting herself solely to training with them, she had ascended to the realm of Sword Sage at a young age.
But the happiness allowed to her ended right there.
In the year she turned nineteen.
Her sect was betrayed by the Alliance, and her father and all her fellow disciples were massacred.
The sole dying wish left to her, the lone survivor, was one thing.
Flee far away with the Heavenly Jade.
There was no place on the Eastern Continent beyond the Alliance's reach.
So Myoran swallowed the Heavenly Jade and headed to the distant Western Regions.
From that moment, an excruciatingly grueling battle began.
"Offer your body to me. Then I shall grant you the power to avenge your father against the Alliance that slew him."
After swallowing the Heavenly Jade, she kept hearing someone's voice.
The Heavenly Jade constantly tempted her to use its power.
Moreover, her stunning beauty and the mystique of coming from the East drew countless dangers upon her.
Because of that, Myoran gradually came to rely on it, and her madness began to surge.
After all, the Heavenly Jade's power was a massive convergence of yin energy.
"This new warden who's come to you will be just as filthy as the previous one."
"Even if he acts kind now, he'll soon reveal his dark desires toward you. You must kill him."
These voices tormented her without end every day.
Her mind could shatter at any moment.
And yet...
Right now, she couldn't help but wear the most ridiculous expression in the world.
"You're telling me to kill a guy like that?"
"......"
The scene before her eyes was so deflating it made her forget even her madness.
"Living in a bloodstained dump like this twists your eyes like that, tsk."
I sighed as I scrubbed the floor vigorously.
Soap bubbles rose up, utterly out of place in this grim underground solitary cell.
"What the hell are you doing right now?"
The woman battling the soul-possessing specter in her mind asked coldly.
I answered with a perfectly natural look on my face.
"What else? Cleaning the cell, obviously? Gotta sprinkle some coffee grounds later or something."
Myoran glanced up at the empty air.
Then, as if scorning the small voice tormenting her, she spoke.
"You think a guy like that could kill me?"
"......"
The specter fell silent for a moment.
It had nothing to say in the face of the new warden's actions, so utterly at odds with its expectations.
He clearly had the look of a man who imprisons women and demands their purity.
Yet his behavior felt like a father making his daughter clean the training grounds.
"Don't let your guard down. It's just a meticulous disguise. He's definitely after your life."
Myoran furrowed her brow once more at the transcendent being's whisper.
But that pain soon vanished completely under my shout.
"Next time, call me instead of killing them. It's a pain to clean up when you tear everything apart in your rage."
The woman soothing her madness gazed back at the empty air.
The soul within the Heavenly Jade, unusually at a loss for words today.
As if desperate to regain some dignity, it spoke again.
"It's all a planned disguise..."
Kang!!
"Why's the ceiling got so many gaps? No wonder dust keeps pouring down."
"It's a disguise, so absolutely don't let your gua..."
Kang!!
The sound of hammering wooden planks into the ceiling.
The noise left no room for the specter to speak.
"What scheme are you plotting this time?"
"As warden, I'm just repairing the facilities for the prisoners."
"Shut up. You're making me want to twist your wrist right now."
"Can't be helped. You've got me locked up here, so this is all I can do."
Myoran glared up at the empty air again, chillingly.
Weighing me and the Heavenly Jade with cold calculation.
'The orders to imprison and torture me must all come from that soul too.'
No way.
A soul-specter is just ghost-level at best.
Compared to that, I'm on my fourth regression.
By years lived, I'm the senior here.
Thanks to the passive from the Confession Magic, I'd reached the level where I could eavesdrop on his voice with dark intent's senses.
"Why's a warden doing menial chores like this?"
With the soul finally quiet, Myoran asked cynically.
Her tone screamed she'd kill me first if I tried any tricks.
"Because I'm the warden. It's my job to fix the prisoners' inconveniences."
"You think saying that will make me feel touched or something?"
As if.
Misanthropy isn't a disease that cures itself overnight.
'I need to put in steady effort until her heart opens up.'
"Not doing it for your gratitude. If I don't, I'll get punished during surprise inspections."
"Don't trust him. Everyone sent here is a criminal exiled for their sins."
Myoran scowled at the returning hallucination voice.
But deeming it plausible, she shot back darkly.
"I heard everyone here is a criminal. You're no different, so why act so diligent?"
"I bought this warden position. In the East, they call it selling offices."
"Why pick a hellhole like this?"
"This place isn't just full of the villains you imagine. Plenty here are unjustly imprisoned."
I set down the hammer and pointed to myself.
"I was unfairly kicked out of my family too. Figured folks in the same boat could get along."
Myoran sneered.
She knew well the fate of her father, who had pursued justice.
"You're laying the naive act on too thick. Who'd believe that from some guy who suddenly shows up?"
"Not asking you to believe it. I prove it with actions, always."
Clea, enraged upon learning the royal she admired was a lecher after her beauty.
Dark, whose pampered son led his subordinates to ruin and tarnished his honor.
Anje, subjected to brutal experiments and torture by the Holy See after her parents' execution.
And Myoran here too.
I'll rehabilitate them all personally.
"Wouldn't you feel safest with a naive guy like me as their boss?"
Myoran squeezed her eyes shut as more lines poured from my face that didn't suit it.
Indeed, none of the previous wardens had ever properly interviewed her.
"Pretend to sleep. He'll show his true colors when you're completely defenseless."
The black-haired woman indifferently adjusted her black qipao hem.
She settled into a seated position to rest.
"No point listening anymore. Get noisy again, and I'll cut your throat. Stay quiet."
She said she was sleeping, but she'd sense my presence.
She probably thought I'd reveal my true intentions once she seemed vulnerable.
All the men who'd approached her so far had been like that.
Like the moon hanging high and aloof in the sky, she completely concealed her immense power.
She already seemed beyond human limits.
'Once the assassin who escaped alive reports back on her state, the real ambush begins.'
If the Heavenly Jade fully assimilates into her, it can't be separated later.
That's why the Eastern assassins and Tutton Grand Duke, the crown prince's confidant, will come storming in.
In fact, Berryhill Prison was shut down for years around now due to a mob raid.
This is what scatters the saintess and Dark too.
A large-scale attack might come in days. Maybe even today.
Because of the being before my eyes.
"......"
I placed my hand on the sword hilt at my waist.
And drew it with a nonchalant expression.
Shadows on my face made my already sharp eyes gleam fiercer.
"Feel it. His killing intent."
"He's drawn his sword. Now he'll kill you and carve up your body."
"Carve it open and extract the Heavenly Jade."
"Toss you in a ditch like a dead cat, then offer this body to the Alliance."
"How pitiful, Myoran."
The woman with eyes squeezed shut plugged her ears with both hands.
Today, the persistent transcendent's voices finally made her bolt upright.
And the moment she looked at me with eyes now turned violet...
"......?"
Myoran stared at me blankly through her disheveled hair.
"Said you were sleeping, but you woke right up."
The man she'd expected to swing his sword at her any second...
Had instead backed away and was practicing swordplay alone.
In utterly ridiculous moves, at that.
"What are you doing right now?"
"Can't you tell? Sword practice. How's a weak warden supposed to protect his prisoners?"
Boasting he'd protect her when he was weaker than the corpses littering the hall.
Astounded, Myoran yelled.
"No, why do it right in front of me?!"
"'Cause you locked me in here?"
I shrugged innocently.
Her pride wounded, Myoran glared murderously at the empty air.
"What, you think that idiot's gonna slice me open like a cat?"
"......What is this? Is Western culture just different?"
Even the Eastern transcendent muttered in confusion.
I watched them slyly with snake-thin eyes.
"Don't mind it. You're not planning to let me out anyway."
I swung the sword oddly again.
Twisting my wrist hard, imitating an action star from a movie.
Focusing purely on flashy moves.
"......"
Long-buried anger boiled up in her.
My snakelike wriggling motions apparently grated on her nerves.
"That's a trap too..."
"Shut up, Moon Spirit."
Myoran cursed the transcendent for the first time.
She flopped onto the bed and covered her eyes with her arms.
But alas, that respite didn't last.
She soon heard the worst technique name imaginable from a swordsman she'd dismissed.
"Iaijutsu...!!"
Iaijutsu.
The snakeling she'd just seen wriggle shouted the flashiest, most superficial ultimate technique.
From the barbaric pirate swordplay even undervalued in the Central Plains.
"Hey."
"This crosses the line."
Myoran approached me with bloodthirsty full-moon eyes.
Green irises glared murderously from her haggard hair.
"What did you just say? Iaij-what?"
"Iaijutsu. My brother in the family taught me like this."
I ostentatiously placed my hand on the sheath and dropped to one knee in pose.
Her eyes, devoid of any hope in life, rolled back at the sight.
"Idiot. You said your family kicked you out. Think the brother who banished you taught you proper techniques?"
"Oh, really? Had no idea."
I scratched my head with the world's purest expression.
Of course, I knew full well.
"So, like this, raising the sword high?"
"That's too big a motion. And you're some noble without even basic form?"
Irritated like a cat scolding a pathetic butler, Myoran chided me.
Then she roughly grabbed my arm with her pale hand.
"Like this!"
"Ah, yeah, that's better."
"You're annoying, so ask ahead. What other crap did they teach you?"
"There's this Parrying thing too. A counter that deflects the opponent's attack..."
Myoran looked up at me in contempt.
The specter lingering nearby had a forgotten look.
"You're nowhere near that level, so shut up and just defend."
"Got it."
I nodded reluctantly.
While the girl from the East, a year my junior, adjusted my stance.
I gazed steadily at the empty air she'd been eyeing.
'Wanna keep leeching off a girl young enough to be your granddaughter at your age?'
"......"
The moon's soul met my eyes.
It glared murderously with blue ghostly light flashing.
Ready to burst from the Heavenly Jade and fight right then.
But the time wasn't ripe yet.
There was something to handle before this soul.
If it could interfere with Myoran this much, it meant she'd nearly fully absorbed the Heavenly Jade's power.
Soon, they wouldn't be separable.
So the assassins who escaped last night would return.
With far stronger experts in tow.
'Tomorrow? Or maybe today.'
Once I deal with them, then the wraith.
"How long you gonna space out?"
"Sorry. You seem to have a headache since earlier."
Indeed, when teaching me, Myoran showed no sign of pain.
She even made peer-appropriate faces.
"That's not your worry. What bugs me now is your shitty moves."
Her speech and vibe were still wrecked.
But compared to her kill-everyone phase, it was huge progress.
"Redo this stance from the start. You follow well when I show you."
"Got it. Like this?"
I smirked and played along with her heated private lesson.
The Heavenly Jade, which had claimed her first, could only watch with eerie aura.
Having been cursed by Myoran and pushed aside.
"I marked this prey first, how dare he..."
To that transcendent, I replied with a sinister smile.
One that made its soul shudder.