Copy Skills with Affinity! - Chapter 55

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈

Chapter 55: Retribution (2)

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The ducal castle within the Aslan Duchy, where its eldest son Damian Aslan resided, was surrounded by exceptionally tight security.

The duchy was vast, overflowing with able-bodied men and making it easy to draw military forces whenever necessary. That was especially true now, when everyone was on edge.

“What is the other side doing?”

By the other side, he meant his younger sister, with whom he was still watching for an opening to cut each other’s throats.

When he raised the question during the regular meeting, one of the vassals who had been anxiously reading the room hurriedly placed a document before him.

Damian Aslan ran his cold eyes down its contents. As he did, the man who had handed it over continued in a stammer.

“A cowardly response. Just like Liza.”

Considering Damian’s usual temperament, it was a natural reaction.

A capable commander, an excellent martial official, and, in inverse proportion, a dreadful level of arrogance and self-righteousness.

He was the most difficult kind of tyrant to deal with, one whose ability actually supported that arrogance.

“So, what is the plan of attack?”

At those words, the vassals immediately exchanged glances.

Putting aside his declaration that he would turn a family dispute bloody without the slightest hesitation, there was something right in front of them.

“Young Lord, the Night of the Hunt is near. Are you certain this is wise? If our military strength is spread thin, the duchy itself will be in danger.”

“Even if magical beasts come, they will not reach the main castle.”

“But the civilians in the outer district...”

One of the vassals who had been about to continue promptly shut their mouth.

The meaning written across Damian’s face was all too clear.

Do we need to care about that?

Even if the civilians were attacked, not all of them would die.

Frankly, the lives of the people held no greater value than that to Damian.

Whether they lived or died, he only needed to replenish their numbers later, once times were peaceful again.

People whose numbers only needed to be replenished, like livestock.

But if he did not inherit the title of Grand Duke now, he would never have another chance.

“This is our chance while Liza is holding back. We will erase her foundation in one stroke.”

“... We will obey.”

“Make sure there are no flaws.”

Then, as Damian and his vassals spoke, someone flung open the office door and rushed in, panting.

It was a soldier covered head to toe in dust and soot, as if they had been standing in the middle of a battlefield until moments ago.

Damian frowned at the sight.

“... What state are you in? What happened?”

“The duchy is under attack!”

“...”

Everyone in the room went blank at once.

Under attack? What attack?

In the middle of the duchy?

“What in the world are you talking about? An attack? Who would do such a thing?”

“Th-that is...”

The soldier hesitated for a moment.

They looked embarrassed to even say it aloud.

“... Two women and one man.”

“...”

“They are about to enter the main castle, Young Lord.”

A truly dreadful silence slowly spread through the office.

“... So.”

Damian blinked blankly before barely managing to force the words from his mouth.

“The duchy has been wrecked by only three people, and the main castle is about to fall?”

“...”

Unfortunately.

The soldier’s silence was a very strong affirmation.

▣

“Stop, stop, stop! If you move, I will attaaaack!”

The soldier aiming a gun in their direction was struck in the forehead by a fist-sized stone and immediately collapsed unconscious.

Noel, walking along leisurely, had kicked up something suitable from the roadside and casually thrown it.

The soldier must have felt safe with at least a hundred meters between them and someone armed with a sword, but for the Empire’s greatest knight, even a single stone seemed enough to put someone within lethal range.

“Raise your shields! Under no circumstances can you let them enter the main castle!”

The squad leader urging on the soldiers flew into the air along with them.

Katia had unleashed divinity where she stood, and the violent firestorm she created swept them away, sending them rolling far into the distance.

What was even more absurd was that while doing that with divinity, she was not burning them alive. There were not even any injured. She was purely pushing them back.

It made Aiden wonder just how far someone had to take ability control to pull off something like that...

“Emergency! Emergeeency!”

Clang! Clang! Clang! Bells rang. Desperate cries and screams echoed in every direction.

And in the middle of it all, three people walked along leisurely.

Noel, Katia, and Aiden.

“Oh. The powder magazine went up.”

As the flames she had caused scattered in every direction, Katia muttered that flatly.

The firestorm pushing back the soldiers had caused no casualties, but the nature of divinity itself could only be disastrous when it came into contact with explosives.

... Considering Katia’s personality, there was also a very high chance she had done that on purpose.

The explosion was large enough that his ears rang, not unlike the Hellfire Bombs he had seen a few times.

People ran around like mad, fires rose everywhere, and some were so terrified that they could only scream, unable even to get up.

Pandemonium. A scene from hell.

A great chaos that suited any description spread in every direction.

Then.

“Let’s call that twenty points. Looks like that caught quite a few.”

“That is not even close. Even generously, it is ten points.”

“... Did you earn the title Lionheart just by insisting? Even if we call it ten, I have five more points than you.”

“... We have not even entered the main castle yet. The real thing starts there.”

Their voices drifted lazily over the scene of desperation, screams, and pandemonium.

They were so calm that anyone would have believed they were rival athletes evaluating each other’s performance at a sporting match.

‘Hmm.’

Well.

This was still within reasonable limits, was it not?

No one had died.

“...”

... His mind really did seem to be getting more and more broken.

Aiden thought that with mixed feelings.

‘Meyer said something was strange about me, too...’

He was aware that his sensibilities were gradually moving further from those of ordinary people. Meyer had pointed it out once before.

He was becoming increasingly numb to negative sensations such as pain and fear, his plans against enemies were becoming bolder, and his reason was becoming colder and firmer.

It did not feel like his emotions were dying or he was going insane, but how should he put it?

The speed at which his mind was changing from that of an ordinary person to one accustomed to danger was far too fast.

Not much time had passed since he became involved with Noel, yet he already felt quite different from the ordinary man he had been before meeting her.

There was only one likely reason.

‘... I should ask the shamaness when I meet her later.’

It was highly likely to be the influence of the Outer God attached to him.

There was nothing else in his circumstances that could have changed a person’s character this quickly.

Fortunately, it was useful for the moment.

After all, attacking a duchy with three people was not something anyone in their right mind could do.

“... By the way, Lady Noel.”

“Yes?”

“For someone who asked why we were doing this in the first place, you seem to be putting quite a bit of effort into it yourself.”

“...”

Unexpectedly, Noel, who had clearly been terrified at first, now seemed to be enjoying herself quite a bit.

In truth, Aiden could understand the reason.

“The troop deployment is far too thin.”

Noel narrowed her eyes as she spoke.

“This can only mean he had no intention of protecting the people of this territory from the beginning.”

That much was true.

The attitude that the magical beast attack did not matter seemed to have seeped into every part of the troop deployment.

“As for teaching someone like that a lesson about his attitude, I think I can enjoy doing that as much as I like.”

“...”

Well.

It struck him again that even someone as exemplary as Noel could become this ruthless when dealing with people who refused to fulfill their responsibilities.

“But, Mr. Aiden, what have you been doing this whole time?”

Perhaps because of that, Noel still had enough composure to look his way even while they were creating pandemonium filled with screams from all sides.

Between the Pure White Ki bursting from her body and the streams of divinity pouring from Katia’s, a clearly visible cluster of light hovered around Aiden.

“I wanted to run an experiment.”

“An experiment...?”

Noel tilted her head, but it was an extremely serious matter to Aiden.

‘It feels like my growth has stalled lately.’

His proficiency in fighting was improving faster than he had expected, thanks to Meyer destroying him in dreams every night. But separately from that, the skills he used in battle had not grown much recently.

He had an unidentified skill called Remnant: Lord Protector, but it felt like he would only be able to examine it after Chapter 2 ended.

In that respect, Aiden’s outstanding strength was not merely that he could copy skills immediately by gaining another person’s Affinity. There was also this.

Skill Info

■ Omnipotence [Level 1]

You can combine two or more abilities to produce an effect stronger than before.

▶ Combinations currently discovered

〓 Guardian’s Flame (Heart of Pure White ↔ First Vow)

Mixing abilities together turned out to have more conditions than he had expected.

This was it.

A special ability no one else could even handle. Aiden’s own unique power, acknowledged even by the fastidious Meyer.

He had been trying to mix other abilities together, but...

‘... It is harder than I thought.’

Ki and divinity mixed somehow when he tried whatever came to mind, but Spiritual Power showed no sign of mixing with anything else as the other two had.

No matter whether he pushed Ki or divinity into the cluster of light, it would not budge...

“Are you stuck on something?”

Katia tilted her head as she asked.

Someone who had tried to snipe her from far away had their upper clothing instantly singed by divinity rising nearby and was rolling across the ground, screaming.

It was amazing that she had controlled it so precisely that it had not seriously harmed them, only barely singed their clothes.

Noel often showed ability control close to the miraculous, but Katia occasionally displayed a level of precision far beyond even that.

Even the Combat Path she had mastered was the sort focused not on fighting with weapons, but on controlling divinity with greater precision.

If so.

Perhaps someone so well versed in manipulating abilities could help.

“... No. It is something I did before, but changing the conditions a little has made it stop working.”

“Really? How did you do it before?”

“Pardon?”

“What was the situation like when it worked before? How did you succeed then? Could you not try making things similar?”

... Oh.

Aiden blinked at Katia.

It was an obvious approach once he thought about it, but he had never looked at it that way.

‘Back then, it was definitely...’

It had been an urgent situation right before a fight, and the process of communicating with a god to strengthen his abilities had gone wrong, contaminating an ability.

If he were to recreate those circumstances exactly, the ability he needed to contaminate now was...

Skill Info

◆ Spiritual Power: Savior’s Vow

※ Unique: Only this character possesses this skill!

First constraint: Save the world.

Second constraint: Protect the Empire’s subjects, protect the powerless.

Aiden narrowed his eyes at the window floating before him.

He could not possibly contaminate the first constraint right now, even if he wanted to. At the very least, nothing happening here was a major enough event to threaten the world.

Then he needed to focus on the second constraint.

Naturally, he had no intention whatsoever of corrupting it by beating up the powerless. He could not make a mockery of the will of the Lord Protector, who had entrusted his will to Aiden before departing, with something like that.

Which meant he needed to contaminate it in a slightly different way...

“...”

Protect the powerless.

Protect the powerless...

“Hmm...”

Aiden rubbed his chin and looked toward the main castle, where the Aslan heir Damian should be.

Let him think.

A method that would make progressing Chapter 2 easier.

A method that would let him beat up the bastard who had no intention of properly protecting the people under his rule.

A method that could also raise the Affinity of the Grand Duke of Aslan.

And a method that could contaminate the constraint placed on his Spiritual Power...

‘... The bastard in there is perfect.’