WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Pushover Young Lord in a Romance Fantasy Won't Take It Anymore ◈

Chapter 57: I Was Faster

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The heat of the departure ceremony had yet to fade outside the castle walls.

With the march about to begin, I stepped away from the ranks for a moment.

“Brother…”

Celine’s cheerful demeanor was nowhere to be seen. Tears pooled in her large eyes.

They looked ready to spill over at any moment.

I opened my arms and pulled Celine into a tight embrace.

“Don’t cry. It’s not like I’m heading off to die.”

Her small back trembled against me.

I lightly patted Celine’s shoulders one last time before pulling away.

“Go wait quietly. I’ll finish this quickly and come back.”

Celine sniffled as she clenched her tiny fist.

“You have to… you have to come back safely.”

I barely held back a laugh at her stuffy voice.

Instead of answering, I vigorously ruffled her little head. Celine forced a smile without even noticing that her hair had become a mess.

Rumble!

At the commanders’ orders, the expedition began to move.

Ten thousand footsteps moved as one, kicking up clouds of dust.

“Eeeh…”

After giving her cheeks one last squish like clay, I turned away.

When I looked back, Celine was pressing the backs of her hands against her eyes.

Before long, I stood at the very front of the vanguard, with Lucia in uniform beside me.

The ring knights forming the main force and veteran mercenaries followed behind in layered formations.

Ariel and the elven scouting party had set off a step ahead of us.

“I’m jealous. I wish I had a younger sibling who worried about me too…”

Lucia spoke with a faint smile.

She was an only child, and her father was her only family.

Lucia cared deeply about family.

I remembered hearing that she had cried a great deal when her father died.

My younger sister, who had become the Outer God’s servant, killed my father and elder sister. I killed that sister with my own hands.

The day Lucia learned my secret, she offered me a cigarette.

“You were pretending to be fine all this time? Hey, shut up and smoke one today. It might help.”

That was Lucia’s particular brand of comfort, the kind she pretended was not comfort.

She felt kinship with me, or perhaps pity.

What did you know?

Back then, I had thrown the cigarette Lucia offered me to the ground and crushed it beneath my heel.

I remembered the stunned look on Lucia’s face as she lowered her head.

That had been one of my mistakes too.

‘No one will lose their family in this life. Not me, and not Lucia.’

I would make sure of it.

“Big Sister!”

Celine’s voice rang out behind us.

Lucia and I turned around together. Celine raised a clenched fist encouragingly.

I glanced at Lucia’s face. A faint smile had already spread across her lips.

‘Big sister, huh.’

My gaze moved past Celine’s shoulder.

Toward the distant Cardenos castle walls.

Was it pride? Or had Selena never intended to join us in the first place?

Even after we set off, Selena was nowhere to be seen.

In the first timeline, Selena chose death even though she could have killed Celine herself and saved the House.

Selena simply did not show it, but she truly loved her family.

I had thought I was family to Selena too.

“Young Lord? What is it?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

I shook my head and turned my gaze forward.

Quietly, I let go of that expectation.

* * *

The Ashen Forest was an unprecedented demonic realm created by the Demon King’s remains.

It had once been the elves’ home, the most splendid forest of all.

Now, its soil, plants, and animals had fed on the blood, flesh, demonic energy, and bone dust left behind by the Demon King and become what they were.

The moment we crossed the forest’s boundary, the world’s colors died.

Ash covered everything around us, even the sky, clouding our vision.

Thick fog crept in from all sides, while shadows stretched from withered, twisted branches stripped of moisture.

‘Still no news.’

I lowered the hand holding the magical communication stone.

Ariel’s elven scouting party had been the first to enter the forest.

They pressed through the fog, prepared for threats they could not see.

“Ugh, this already feels ominous…”

“We just got here. What are you complaining about?”

“They won’t suddenly jump out of the fog, right? Please, no.”

Anxiety began to spread across the faces of soldiers who had been excited by the departure ceremony.

The deeper one went into the Ashen Forest, the more deadly demonic energy mixed with the falling ash.

Once we had advanced farther and the soldiers began coughing, I raised the magical communication stone.

“Only those struggling to breathe should put on gas masks. Attach oxygen tanks.”

The shouts of the centurions who received the order echoed through the forest.

Those whose breathing had grown ragged swiftly put on gas masks and attached oxygen tanks.

Then I gave the main force another order.

“Cut down the forest. Clear away everything obstructing our path.”

The Ashen Forest was a sea of densely packed, skeletal trees.

We needed clear sightlines and room to fight if we were to maintain formation and swing our weapons.

We also had to secure an open route of march to prevent ambushes from the outset.

I knew the contents of the journal Lucia had written in the first timeline.

“The Ashen Forest must not be treated as a simple campaign to subjugate magical beasts.

“Cut open a route of march, then build palisades along it from the felled trees.

“We must approach this as a war of fortification, expanding the cleared ground while pushing our fortifications forward.”

“Do we really have to cut down the whole forest?”

“The noise will probably draw magical beasts in. It’s a huge waste of stamina too.”

The mercenaries’ doubts were reasonable.

That was exactly what I wanted.

“Luring in magical beasts is one of our objectives. Searching the forest for them would consume even more stamina.”

Something about magical beasts fighting guerrilla battles.

Lucia once joked that even squirrels became smarter if they ground up and drank the Demon King’s bones.

“We should fight in open ground with a clear view, shouldn’t we? Everyone, grab your axes.”

Only then did the mercenaries nod and draw their axes.

Clang!

“Damn it, what kind of tree is as hard as steel?”

“The blades are going to chip!”

The trees looked dry and brittle on the outside. In truth, they had grown while absorbing demonic energy, and their durability rivaled steel.

The soldiers had no choice but to imbue their axe blades with energy.

The lights of Solar and Luna brightened the dark forest as furious chopping continued.

“You need to snap your hips into it. The blade won’t bite if you only rely on your arms.”

“That’s some pathetic axe work. Tsk, tsk.”

Veterans such as Hendrickson and Bagot called out advice.

Those people were as relaxed here as ever.

I rolled up my sleeves and picked up an axe too.

“Young Lord, no, Commander. You’re doing it too?”

Lucia asked from beside me.

“Yes. I should lead by example.”

People said mercenaries only moved for money, but that was not quite right.

After leaving my House in the first timeline, I had spent every day rubbing shoulders with mercenaries. I knew their habits well.

If an employer slept in the same place, ate the same food, and worked alongside them, mercenaries would give more than their money’s worth.

The mercenaries chopping wood glanced our way, surprise in their eyes.

There was no group easier to handle than mercenaries.

“Then I will too.”

Lucia rolled up her sleeves and gripped an axe handle.

Whoosh!

The axe blade, wrapped in mana, flew from Lucia’s hand like a boomerang.

Spinning with five-star mana, it swept through the forest.

Rumble!

Four or five trees in a straight line were sliced through at once as easily as tofu.

Catch!

After completing its rotation, the axe returned to Lucia’s hand.

Only then did the trees collapse in sequence. Dust and ash rose thickly, and the path ahead opened up in an instant.

“Huh…”

“Crazy. What did we just see?”

Those who watched stood dumbfounded, mouths hanging open.

I was not particularly surprised. Just as expected of the protagonist.

“No special message from the scouts, I suppose?”

Lucia asked casually.

“No news is good news.”

There were hardly any magical beasts near the forest entrance.

If magical beasts had been swarming from the start, the Cardenos defensive perimeter would have been guarded several times more heavily.

That did not mean there were none at all.

If there were magical beasts pushed out of the food chain, they should have appeared around here by now.

‘Is it because we entered at a different time?’

My nostrils twitched.

A faint scent of blood. It was not human blood.

There was a choking sulfur stench, a sour acidic smell, and the distinctive gamey, rancid animal odor mixed in.

“Everyone, stop.”

The scent of magical beast blood drifted in on the wind.

“Arm yourselves immediately.”

The soldiers stopped working and gripped their weapons. Tense eyes showed through their gas masks.

I raised the communication stone connected to the scouting party.

“Ariel. Can you hear me?”

Silence.

A sense of dread crawled up my spine.

Elves were the most sensitive to the forest’s presence.

For them to be wiped out without even leaving a warning…

The possibility was not high, but this was the Ashen Forest, a demonic realm beyond human common sense.

“The Ashen Forest is not an ecosystem. It is itself a predatory organ with a mind. In this forest, reasonable judgment and the careless assumption that nothing could happen are simply the most horrific forms of suicide.”

I held my breath and listened.

Crunch.

The wet sound of flesh tearing came from beyond the fog.

Lucia and I exchanged a wordless look. Tension filled her face.

Lucia already had her sword in hand.

Shing.

I drew my sword from my waist with my other hand.

“Vanguard, first rank! Raise your shields and hold formation. First rank, follow right behind me.”

The vanguard headed forward with weapons in hand.

The more we pressed through the ash-filled fog, the thicker the scent of blood became.

Crunch.

The sound of tendons snapping and bones twisting.

Something ahead was killing something else.

Even the dry ash beneath our feet felt sticky, like a swamp.

Whooo.

The gray fog that heavily obscured our vision slowly began to clear. I tightened my grip on my sword.

Figures appeared faintly through the fog. My steps halted at once.

Ariel and the elven scouting party came into view.

Yet what they were doing was strange.

“…Hah.”

A sigh slipped through my teeth.

The corpses of what looked like dozens of magical beasts lay before us.

They were scattered across the ground like butchered lumps of meat, dark green blood splashed everywhere.

I had wondered why there had been no magical beasts until now, but the reason stood before me.

The elves were dismembering the magical beasts.

But they were not the ones who had slain them.

Farther ahead, more than a dozen knights in black iron armor were gathered together. A woman stood at their center.

Drip, drip.

Selena casually wiped the blood from her breastplate.

When I approached Selena without a sound, cold silver eyes gave me a quick once-over.

Eyes that concealed every trace of emotion.

Swish, swish.

Selena waved her sword through the air as she looked at me.

“Didn’t you say your sword would be the first to drink magical beast blood?”

Chunks of magical beast flesh and blood slid down the blade.

Splatter!

She scattered blood through the air, then pointed the tip of her sword at me.

“I was faster.”

Footnotes:

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