WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

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Chapter 776: No Vice-captain Abandons His Subordinates

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Rem studied the sleeping man's face and thought.

'One swing of the axe would do it.'

Once someone reached the level of a knight, their body became far tougher than before. Skin toughened, bones hardened, and the blood flowing through the body became so much faster that even their reaction speed surpassed what ordinary people considered possible.

That was why humans who became knights were called superhuman. Even so, it did not mean they could survive being decapitated.

In other words, someone asleep could still fall victim to a surprise attack. Especially when half-unconscious, like Ragna was now.

Rem watched Ragna sleeping like the dead, then turned away.

There were times when he wanted to kill the man outright.

'Not like this, though.'

Rem was a man of the West and a warrior. He was also Yaul's partner and the father of a child.

Winning in a head-on fight was one thing. Swinging an axe at the neck of someone sleeping like the dead after fighting their heart out?

Not in ten lifetimes would Rem do something like that.

They had entered the Cursed Ground, destroyed and burned one of its walls, then returned. It would have been a lie to say that had not left fatigue in his body.

Rem himself had killed three large bird Magic Beasts, fallen into one corner of the Cursed Ground, and struggled his way out.

The Cursed Ground was full of things that proved it had not earned its name for nothing.

A horned gorilla Magic Beast had moved more stealthily than an owl in an attempt to get behind him, while a Ghoul whose snout had sharpened to a point lunged at him to suck his blood.

He had also seen quite a few things that might have been Cultists who had lost their minds, or perhaps merely looked that way. He had encountered what might be called half-human, half-demon beings as well, strange brands stamped onto their foreheads as Sorcery flowed from their entire bodies.

'Those bastards, really.'

He could not simply watch them and walk past, so he dealt with them.

After beating down and killing a few, he forced his way through and summoned Wolf's Soul to run while searching for a path.

Wolf's Soul heightened his spatial awareness and extended his sense of smell, allowing him to follow his allies' traces. In the process, eight-legged spider Demon Creatures appeared and repeatedly fired webs at him.

They shot arrow-like webs from holes in the distance that looked like anuses. There were not just one or two of them, but well over a hundred.

He killed half.

There were too many to kill by throwing hatchets, so he had to deal with them one at a time. They were troublesome opponents, using the terrain to hide behind trees and the like.

That did not mean they had been dangerous, but he could not get through without spending stamina and Sorcery.

Fortunately, or perhaps not, once he killed half, the rest fled.

After rejoining his allies and throwing his final hatchet to save that lazy bastard, he returned to the village. He ate, slept, rested, and did nothing but stretch and separate his muscles, loosening every part of his body.

Even so, his body ached all over.

'Still not back to normal.'

Nothing was broken, but his overworked body had developed a strange imbalance between left and right.

Sorcery was, by nature, a power that placed more Load on the body than necessary.

Well, it was not just him. The elf who constantly spoke of their engagement was so pale they could pretend to be half-dead, and Ruagarne had lost a forearm during the fight.

A skeletal human-faced dog had bitten it off, apparently.

Of them all, the lazy bastard who had collapsed in the back was the most seriously injured.

He had overused Will while fighting and ended up half-dead. He woke exactly once, ate a huge amount of food, then fell asleep again. At this point, even if a human-faced dog dragged him away, he would not wake.

"Haaah."

Rem yawned for no particular reason. He intended to be lazy for a little while longer himself.

Through the window, he saw two ugly ones outside, apparently lost in thought. Ugly Fell and ugly Ropord would probably remain out there until evening before coming inside.

A few villagers passed by, glancing at the pair. More people now looked at them with reverence rather than fear.

The village was quiet and peaceful.

'All the Demon Creatures nearby have been swept away.'

He could also see Romen rolling around off to one side.

"You can do more, brother. You still have strength left."

The half-Giant Teresa was helping him train. Beside them, Audin smiled contentedly like a demon.

'Making someone suffer and grinning like that makes him a demon.'

With several stones piled on his shoulders, Romen clenched his teeth before barely managing to open his mouth.

"I can't do any more."

"No, you can. And do not speak, brother. If your breath escapes, your abdominal muscles will lose their tension."

Audin the demon casually rejected his protest.

They were having fun.

Rem pulled his gaze away from the window and turned toward the room. He raised his right foot to head for the bed, then stopped and placed his hand on the Inheritance Weapon that always hung at his hip.

The axe reacted after sensing a being radiating killing intent.

'When?'

A brief question rose in one corner of his mind, but he had no time to answer it.

Creak.

The only entrance opened, and something like dense darkness flowed in from beyond. It was no metaphor. Black smoke gathered and spread across the floor.

It was broad daylight, and the sky was clear without a cloud.

Yet when the door opened, the surroundings darkened despite it not being night. A pressure settled over him as though he had suddenly been dropped into the heart of the Cursed Ground.

"If you're a guest, knock first."

As Rem spoke, he drew and threw a hatchet. His arm moved with his words, swinging so fast it did not even leave an afterimage.

Boom!

With the sound of air bursting, the hatchet Rem threw became a complete circle as it flew.

The movement was so fast that before he had even finished speaking, the axe, now a disc, seemed ready to crush the opponent's head.

The owner of the black smoke swept the shield on his left arm upward from below and deflected the disc. A kite shield, broad at the top and pointed at the bottom, was fitted snugly to that left arm.

Bang! Drdrdrdrdrdrdrdr!

The hatchet Rem threw shot diagonally upward with a thunderous roar and flew far into the distance. A long mark remained across the shield, and the axe vanished as if it were becoming a star in the sky. A large hole had also opened above the entrance.

'That was one I rather liked.'

Rem stared ahead. It seemed unlikely he would be able to find the hatchet that had flown so far away.

The black smoke covering the floor was still thick everywhere except around the left arm and shield. As it gradually dispersed, a helmet with its visor pressed firmly down came into view, though nothing could be seen behind the visor.

Clank.

The figure was clad entirely in armor. It seemed almost like living armor, yet no vitality could be felt from it. The armor, made by linking metal over every finger, displayed its maker's skill.

The sword remained sheathed, while the shield was held forward. He raised his right hand and lifted the visor.

Clunk. With the sound of metal catching metal, a face Rem had not expected was revealed.

"Phew, that's stuffy. Since you're not wearing a helmet, I'll lift my visor too. I can't take the helmet off, though. It feels like part of my body now. Well, I'll leave the choice to you. Should I fight with the visor down, or up?"

Rem narrowed his eyes at his opponent.

What was this bastard?

Fell and Ropord, whom he had seen outside only moments ago, were gone. The view beyond the window had somehow become blocked by uneven walls. There were only two people inside the house, Rem and the lazy bastard.

In other words, this was an abnormal situation.

Curly blond hair spilled through the helmet. He had a fairly handsome face. He could not compare to Enkrid, but he was the kind of man who would be called handsome wherever he went.

"Do as you please."

Rem answered indifferently. If he could not resolve the unknown, then he would simply do what he could.

"Then I'll leave it up."

The man smiled. Confidence showed in the corner of his mouth as it curved upward.

Clunk.

He lowered the shield, large enough to cover half his body, and drove its pointed end into the floor. The plastered stone floor was gouged.

It showed that the shield's weight was far from ordinary.

Holding that stance, he made a show of craning his head upward to look behind Rem. He could see well enough without doing that, so he was someone with a habit of exaggerating his movements.

The blond man asked with a warm, friendly smile.

"I only need to kill one person. So if you leave the one behind you and go, I'll let you live. What will you do?"

Rem's condition was not normal. And the man in front of him looked more dangerous than any Demon Creature he had encountered in the Cursed Ground.

'What about the castellan or Apostle, whoever that one was?'

Rem had landed the final blow, but he had not watched the entire process, so he did not know.

At any rate, the reality was that his condition was terribly poor and his opponent's ability was hard to gauge.

Rem might look like someone who had thrown away all emotional restraint and gone mad for fighting, but he originally knew how to assess a situation coolly.

Otherwise, he would never have called himself the Aristocrat Slayer.

When he killed those nobles and caused a bounty to be placed on his head, that too had been the result of careful thought.

And so, his conclusion was this: fighting here put him at a disadvantage in every way.

'The house is narrow, and I have baggage behind me.'

The armored man's composure added to the pressure bearing down on him.

He was someone who would even raise his visor before fighting. He was absolutely not someone to take lightly.

But did that mean Rem should hand over a subordinate and choose the path of survival? Leave behind a weak, ailing subordinate and walk away to save himself?

That kind of bullshit was not an option.

"That lazy bastard really does sleep too damn much."

After muttering that, Rem raised his axe slightly and held it before his face. Then he raised his voice slightly as he asked,

"Hey. Do you know who I am?"

The man answered with the same smile.

"How would I know?"

Rem smiled as well.

"Clean out your ears and listen carefully. I am Vice-captain Rem himself of the Madman Knights."

Behind him, Ragna twitched in his sleep. During his fight with the Apostle of the Red Foot, he had felt depletion and relied on Ilchul to draw out the Will he lacked.

The aftermath had forced him to focus on resting. He appeared to be sleeping without a care in the world, but this was the truth of his condition.

He could force himself awake, but he could not fight properly. That was why he rested.

Well, pulling out everything he had and sleeping like that without worrying about what came after did seem like he trusted Enkrid. Whether Ragna trusted Rem was another matter.

The corner of Rem's mouth rose, though Ragna did not trust him.

"A Vice-captain does not calmly hand over subordinates. Wraith."

Rem was a warrior of the West and a Sorcerer. A faint but sour smell came from his opponent. In Rem's judgment, the owner of that armor was not human.

"Vice-captain? Madman?"

The Wraith, or whatever he was, did not know of the Madman Knights. Keeping his smile, he tilted his head, lifted the shield he had planted on the floor, and drew his sword.

Shhhring.

The silver light held by the slowly drawn blade blended with the surrounding darkness rather than driving it away.

That was how it looked to Rem.

The blade was shorter and thicker than an ordinary longsword. Its shape was close to the Gladius Enkrid had used before, though its blade was straighter.

It was well suited for thrusting and could also be used like a shield, while the flat of the blade could serve as a blunt weapon.

"So you're choosing for both of you to die?"

"No. I'm choosing to kill you."

Rem answered without taking a breath.

"Ah, that I understand."

The blond man raised his shield and dominated the narrow space. His momentum surged savagely through the room.

Pressure took shape.

This man's Pressure came with smoke. The smoke took form, revealing the strength he possessed within.

A solid mass of iron, a large cube of metal that could not be cut or split by anything, filled the village hall.

A square object made of smoke exerted pressure.

Rem tightened his grip on the axe.

Baggage behind him. A narrow space.

No advantages, and disadvantages everywhere.

Then he would reduce the disadvantages and create an advantage for himself.

So he did.

Just as Rem influenced Enkrid, the Madman Knights influenced one another.

Rem had always possessed outstanding tactical instincts. He borrowed part of Enkrid-style orthodox swordsmanship, which had been derived from Ruagarne's tactical swordsmanship.

"Someone behind you!"

He shouted loudly, as though someone had really appeared behind the man.

"...You think I'd fall for that?"

The curly blond Wraith gave a dry snort and shook his head.

Rem's aim was not to make his opponent truly fall for it. It was to throw him off with the sheer absurdity.

In that brief instant, Rem's axe shot into the air.

Boom!

The axe he threw upward smashed through the village hall's ceiling. Pieces of the roof poured down: thick, large, blackened, heavy beams that had formed the rafters, stones packed with pebbles and fixed in place with plaster, even dust so old and caked that it had become like stone.

The debris fell like hail. He had split the exact center of the roof, causing the ceiling to collapse.

Breaking through the hail of falling roof debris, Rem slung Ragna over his back and ran.

"Well, well."

The man watched the agile Rem and began to walk slowly. There was nowhere to run anyway.

Footnotes:

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