WeTried Translations
Translator: Nemui
Editor: Nemui
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Reincarnated as the Villain's Heir
Chapter 13: A Talentless Hawk Does Not Hide Its Claws
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Time went back a little, to House Balfont.
After their father, Leorg, left the living room, Vaid and Mirei remained there relaxing.
"House Demaseka, hm? Father can be quite nasty."
"Big Brother Vaid, what is House Demaseka?"
"A viscount house in the royal capital. As nobles, they are nothing impressive, but if I recall, the Black Death Butterfly of the Battlefield is there."
"What's that?"
Vaid took a sip of liquor, then gazed into his glass.
In his eyes was a mixture of pity and expectation toward Alphys.
"A man feared as one who brings ill tidings to anyone who sees him. In the mercenary world, he was fairly well known. Now he hides his true nature as a butler, but if Alphys targets that place, battle will be unavoidable."
"You sure know a lot, Big Brother."
"As one who lives on the battlefield, I always keep information on strong people in my head."
"As expected from a battle maniac. So, is he strong?"
Vaid poured the liquor down his throat.
"For the current Alphys, yes... Father is cruel."
"Eeeeh! No way! I have to go watch over him!"
"Do not interfere under any circumstances. If you do, I will kill you."
"Try it."
For only an instant, the pulse released by the two of them covered the mansion.
One servant, in the middle of cleaning the kitchen, prepared for death and pressed a knife to their own throat.
Another servant thought of their hometown and began preparing a will.
Yet another servant sat down on the spot and wet themselves.
"Just kidding. Alphys will be fine."
Mirei's expression changed in a flash, and she smiled sweetly.
Thanks to the released pulse disappearing, many people stopped just before taking their own lives.
* * *
Just as the people from Flash Night had said, the ones in front of the warehouse were an old man and a villain who looked the part.
The old man wore long claws, and his wrinkled face looked as if he had been caught off guard.
The little girl collapsed at his feet was not the princess, was she?
Well, I was seven too. From the look of her, she seemed about the same age.
"Children again? Am I lucky today, or unlucky...?"
"You are the one from House Demaseka, and that bearded face over there is the third-rate thug you are trading with?"
"Th-third-rate?! Don't look down on me, brat!"
I was still talking to the old man, but the third-rate thug took two axes off his back.
A dual-axe user. This guy was not a character in the game.
Which meant he had probably been killed before the game started.
I had no real interest in him.
"Luchel, deal with that bearded third-rate thug however you like."
"Okaaay."
Luchel fluttered forward, and the third-rate thug swung his two axes at her.
With the sound of the axes cutting air, Luchel dodged lightly again and again.
"Slooow! Weakling! So weak!"
"Haaah! Earth Splitter!"
When the thug swung both axes down, a shock ran through the ground as if it would split apart.
The attack had enough power to leave two marks in the ground along with the slashes.
But if something like that did not hit, it was the same as doing nothing.
He did have a decent amount of combat experience, and I would not call him weak.
If anything, among people in his category, he was probably on the stronger side.
At that level, he could certainly act like the king of the hill among thugs.
"Hah... hah... You little...!"
"Aah, I'm tired too..."
"Oh? Then... Guh!"
"You fell for it."
Luchel's arrow pierced the thug through the top of his head.
The thug collapsed face-first, wetting the ground with blood.
Waiting until the enemy got tired and stopped to finish him off was rather nasty.
Though I was not one to talk.
"Lord Alphys, I will do the old man too."
"No, I will handle him. There is no point fighting only small fry. Let me fight someone a little better."
The old man twitched at my provocation.
Of course he would be irritated if a brat like me looked down on him.
"Well, well... This is surprising. Gargot was a reasonably skilled man."
"Yeah, I thought so. So that is the level where someone can call himself skilled."
"It seems you are no ordinary child either. My name is Badoura. I serve as the butler of House Demaseka, but once, I was called the Black Death Butterfly of the Battlefield."
"Black Death Butterfly...?"
That was not a name that appeared in the game.
He was probably another person killed before the game started.
Of course I would not know him.
To begin with, House Demaseka itself only appeared as a small mention in the game.
A butler from a place like that was not even a mob character.
"At your age, you do quite well."
"Heeheehee. Very well. Shall I train you a little?"
"Train me, huh?"
Badoura vanished from in front of me.
The next moment, I blocked Badoura's claws with the magic sword.
I see. He was decently fast.
"Oh? So this much is not enough."
"...Can you perhaps not even judge an opponent's ability? And yet you held back?"
"No, no. I have walked battlefields, so I know the scent of a strong person. I do not think of you as an ordinary child either. Heeheehee!"
"Then why did you hold back...?"
Question marks must have been floating over my head.
That was how meaningless his first strike had been.
Considering the difference in strength between us, he should have gone all out to kill me from the start.
No, to begin with, he should not have faced me head-on.
"Hihihihihiii! Then here I come!"
Badoura ran around at high speed, circling me.
The circle gradually grew smaller. Was he trying to confuse me while applying pressure?
But either way, his target was me.
Just as I expected, the moment Badoura moved behind me, he slashed.
"Hiiihihihihi! Take thiiis!"
Badoura was elated, but his joy would soon turn to despair.
I calmly stopped his claws with the magic sword.
"Ah, uh, my claws..."
"The gaps between your claws make it easy to catch a sword."
I slipped my sword between Badoura's claws and fixed one of his arms in place.
Slowly, I applied force and brought the point of the sword closer to him.
"Guh... I still have one hand left!"
"Ah..."
The instant Badoura attacked with his other claw, I split it apart along with his fingers using the magic sword.
With that momentum, his fingers and one arm were severed and vanished into darkness.
"Hi, hihii?! Impossible! Impossible! For me to be beaten this easily!"
"Well, this is about what I expected. Your pulse was so pathetic that I knew you were weak before we even fought."
"P-pulse, you say..."
"That must have been your full strength, so there is no point continuing this fight."
When I pointed the magic sword at him, Badoura tried to crawl away.
"No, I do not want to die! I have survived battlefields so many times..."
"You picked the wrong opponent. Before House Balfont, anyway."
"House... Balfont... The kingdom's pillar... Then those rumors..."
Badoura stopped crawling as if he understood something.
He must have realized he could no longer be saved.
"The rumors were true... The kingdom's... dark... execution unit... the family that rules from the shadows... Hi, hihihi, hiiiii!"
I stabbed the magic sword into Badoura's back and completely ended his life.
After his final scream, darkness wrapped around him.
I would at least let him say his dying words.
"L-Lord Alphys, aren't you too strong...? Since when?"
"Ah, I normally hide my pulse."
Incidentally, because I usually suppressed my pulse, even my siblings did not know my true ability.
They were probably judging my strength by my normal pulse.
As they said, a capable hawk hides its claws.
By the way, that girl over there could not possibly be the protagonist herself, could she?
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