Chapter 173
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: Lesson 34. Free Servitude - 8
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"Those Exodus bastards are really petty. Sending their main force against first-year students."
The kunoichi Aneri Dedota, who had just sunk three enemy ships from that very main force moments ago, clicked her tongue and muttered.
"Or maybe they got paid handsomely."
"Whether it's a plus or minus, it just means they've quickly realized how valuable these kids are as talent."
Having realized it was already too late to rescue his comrade, Quellan Ruchato gave up on the extraction and regained his composure as he replied.
The glare he shot at Aneri brimmed with far more killing intent than when he'd faced Dokgo Yeon.
"So... how did you do it?"
"Lady Dokgo Yeon, this guy's too tough for me to handle."
Aneri whispered just loud enough for Dokgo Yeon to hear, completely ignoring the glaring Quellan. There was no way she'd reveal her abilities to the enemy.
"So please take him head-on. I'll maneuver from behind in the meantime."
"But we still have more I want to hear."
"You don't negotiate with dimensional pirates! Especially not Exodus."
Aneri gave a troubled smile at Dokgo Yeon's response.
"Exodus is basically a religious cult. Plus, they're masters at spinning convincing lies, which makes them tricky."
"...I see."
Dokgo Yeon hadn't thought the man's earlier words sounded like lies, but she had no luxury to entertain distractions against an enemy right now. For the moment, she'd go along with Aneri.
"Then I'll head in first."
Her light blade flapped noisily as it soared upward.
Death surged along the short sword in Dokgo Yeon's grip.
"A frontal fight? You seemed smarter than that."
Quellan raised his mechanical arm with a twisted smile.
A black laser beam erupted from it, maintaining the thickness and length of a sword while forming a razor-sharp blade.
If Ban Yu-won had seen it, he'd have shed bloody tears muttering, "Beam saber...!" It was a lightsaber of perfect construction.
Except this light was stained black, making it a darksword rather than a lightsaber.
"That woman cost us big time. We can't settle this with words anymore."
"Long tongue."
Dokgo Yeon leaped from her light blade's back and slashed diagonally downward.
Quellan's twisted smile vanished from his lips as his eyes flashed, swinging his sword to meet hers. But no clash rang out.
The darkness forming his darksword had cleanly vanished the instant their blades met.
Her sword, undiminished, pressed on to slice its intended target.
His exposed eye, uncovered by the eyepatch.
—Slash
"Gahk?!"
Even with a mechanical arm, his innards were still human. The blood spurting into the air was a vivid, hot red.
But as Dokgo Yeon pulled back to behead him, her instincts screamed. She hurled herself away, landing on the deck.
Glancing back after a stable landing, she saw darkness erupting from Quellan's entire body, devouring the space where she'd stood.
"Dark magic..."
It wasn't limited to his weapon. Quellan himself commanded and wielded dark magic.
"Sharp senses. And you even erased my sword, if only temporarily. Who... the hell are you?"
Quellan growled, covering his wounded eye with his non-mechanical hand.
Knowing it wouldn't faze her, he reflexively raised his mechanical arm anyway, its barrel aimed squarely at her face.
Dokgo Yeon readjusted her grip on her short sword and replied calmly.
"Death."
The darksword, forged from condensed dark magic, had the property of warping material structures on contact, making it devastating in close quarters.
But Dokgo Yeon's power specialized more in slaying concepts, magic, and abilities than mere matter.
A wooden sword wrapped in magic might have served him better than a darksword.
That way, at least when their blades clashed, he'd have had time to realize the danger and shield his face.
"What nonsense... I was starting to like you. Looks like you need proper education."
"Down to the same drivel as the rest of the vermin."
"I'll educate you myself."
His face had brimmed with confidence discussing the secrets of constellations and the tower.
But after eating her strike, here he was.
No different from the other scum who'd sworn to bring her to her knees out of spite.
Dokgo Yeon sighed lazily at the familiar male rage she always faced upon revealing her strength. It had grown tiresome long ago.
But the chance to school this overreaching man as she always did never came.
"I can't allow that."
"--?!"
Quellan Ruchato's head flew.
The man's face tumbled through the air, spinning.
His eyes blinked at Dokgo Yeon, then strained to see his killer, before finally realizing his head was severed. Resignation settled in as he gently closed them.
All this unfolded before Dokgo Yeon could even blink, the head vanishing into a rift in space.
"He escaped."
A man landed on the deck in Quellan's place, muttering in a heavy voice as he clicked his tongue.
Escaped? With just his head?
Dokgo Yeon scowled, incredulous. But the new 'enemy' before her eyes seemed uninterested in clarifying.
"This is why I can't work with low-class pirates. Not only do they defy orders, they covet others' prizes, and abandon comrades to flee. Pathetic scum..."
"Is a full professor hiring dimensional pirates to kidnap students any less low-class?"
Dokgo Yeon gripped her sword tighter, sneering at the man who'd appeared as if watching them all along and beheaded Quellan.
Ryu Cheol-myeong didn't reply to her jab. Instead, he raised his greatsword, aiming it at her.
"The power gap is clear. Don't force unnecessary work on me. Surrender."
"You never planned to step up yourself, did you? Why? Because Ban Yu-won ruined all your preparations?"
"..."
Ryu Cheol-myeong stayed silent.
Dokgo Yeon knew that silence meant affirmation.
Indeed, thanks to Ban Yu-won, the beastkin who'd gained aerial combat capability had effectively held off Exodus's fleet.
The assassin squad dispatched to eliminate him and open a path for the beastkin invasion had their curse ritual stolen by Ban Yu-won and been wiped out.
Because of that, Ban Yu-won acquired the Forest Worm's power and buried tens of thousands of invading beastkin in the earth within Wolf Fang territory.
Now Ryu Cheol-myeong had no choice but to step in personally.
'Damn it. My body was fine when I beheaded that scum, but it starts weakening the moment I'm facing a student. Not yet? [Ruler of the Forest]...'
He still had a trump card or two.
When he'd decided to secure Dokgo Yeon and Lucelle, his negotiations hadn't been limited to the dimensional pirates.
He knew how to calculate safety margins.
From the moment he'd meddled in the students' special activities, he knew whose power he'd need to borrow to finish the job without alerting that monster—the Chancellor.
A constellation.
"Looks like you've got more up your sleeve."
Dokgo Yeon muttered with a displeased frown, having swiftly judged from his silence.
"Fine, show me everything you've prepared. Ban Yu-won will turn it all to nothing in the end anyway..."
Dokgo Yeon knew her own strength well, but she also knew it stemmed purely from her combat prowess.
Ryu Cheol-myeong had spread his influence everywhere, poured money around, schemed, and turned an entire star into a trap. She didn't delude herself into thinking she could smash it all alone.
Her job was to hold him here.
Meanwhile, her versatile disciple would cleanly resolve the situation.
"You seem to trust that vermin quite a bit."
Ryu Cheol-myeong bluffed to hide his weakening body.
"You don't know why I brought in those weak beastkin, do you?"
"I do. To blind the cameras, right?"
Dokgo Yeon needed time to face Ryu Cheol-myeong too.
She condensed death along her upright sword blade, her cross pupils flashing fiercely.
"You underestimate me too much. Think some manmade junk can capture me properly? Cameras were never a factor."
"Then?"
"There's a transcendent on this star with the same target as me."
She didn't need to ask who or what the target was.
That explained the beastkin connection.
Dokgo Yeon snorted in disbelief as a possibility from earlier resurfaced.
"No way."
"The moment you set foot on this star, defeat was all but sealed."
A sinister smile curled Ryu Cheol-myeong's lips.
His gaze turned toward a distant forest clearing, where a pillar of red light had erupted.
"Looks like the descent succeeded."
"Impossible! Ban Yu-won...!"
—Kuuuoooong
The entire star trembled at the roar of a colossal, immense creature.
Dokgo Yeon realized Ban Yu-won faced his greatest crisis yet. Gritting her teeth, she raised her blade.
She couldn't spare even a second to look at the monster.
She had to finish this bastard as fast as possible and rush to Ban Yu-won's aid!
"Ugh...?!"
While learning kitsune spells in practical combat against the dimensional pirates, Lucelle suddenly doubled over in intense pain and dizziness, dropping to her knees.
"Lucelle!"
"M-Mom."
Lucia, who never startled or yelled, embraced her in shock. But Lucelle slumped back down.
"The constellation... the constellation..."
"Don't tell me that tremor just now was..."
They didn't need to search for it.
At the border of Wolf Fang territory, amid towering trees, a massive monster reared its head high.
"To descend at the cost of such strain... that lolicon bastard I want to rip apart...!"
"M-Master's in danger."
"Wait—you mean your master is there right now?"
"Mom, I have to go."
Since Ban Yu-won became her master, her quiet heart demon had gone dormant. But now, sensing the original owner of its power in the same space—the constellation—it began rampaging.
Still, she couldn't hide here until everything ended.
Lucelle felt the time had finally come.
The moment to sever the constellation with her own hands.
"To do that, I need to reach Master—right now."
"Lucelle."
Enduring her rampaging heart demon that tore at her soul like a wild beast, Lucelle forced her trembling body to stand, teeth clenched, and started moving.
Sending Lucelle alone terrified Lucia. But she couldn't leave either, handling over half their ranged firepower. Biting her lip, she didn't know what to do.
"It's okay, Mom."
Lucelle forced a smile to reassure her.
"I'll settle this and come back. Dad, please hold on."
Yes. The constellation's descent pained more than just Lucelle.
Lucia nodded firmly at her daughter's brave words, seeing her off to the battlefield.
Then, to save her beloved husband, she unleashed kitsune powers and soared into the sky.