Ch.245EP.55 – A Knight Does Not Speak Falsehoods (1)

……Ihan had many questions.

What had happened in the mere five hours since he’d left the mansion?

And why was his wild disciple…

“…in such a tattered state, seriously.”

“Te-Teacher, please treat me gently, Kunta hurts a lot.”

“Stop exaggerating.”

After roughly wrapping bandages around his body and soaking them thoroughly with potion to let it seep in, Kunta’s expression became much more comfortable.

Originally these weren’t wounds that would heal with just a little treatment, but as expected of a mystical barbarian race.

True to his race’s innate physical abilities, he showed rapid recovery.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Kunta is fine. But must quickly return to Arno and bear cub. Two people in danger.”

“…First, can you tell me in detail what happened?”

“Children in danger now. All captured. And those guys said. If not bring teacher, they do terrible things to those two!”

“Those guys?”

“They were strange guys. Their eye pupils were weird, and their skin was bizarre too. Above all, they were incredibly strong!”

“……”

Ihan had a feeling he knew who “those guys” Kunta mentioned were.

‘Half-demons?’

The characteristics Kunta described were similar to half-demons.

Those who gained the power of “demons” through special pills made from monster flesh.

Ihan’s expression hardened rapidly, but something felt strange.

Namely…

“What about the Sword Master?”

“Don’t know. At least when Kunta was threatened by those guys, Sword Master was nowhere to be seen.”

“…What is that woman doing?”

It didn’t make sense that half-demons were running rampant and had captured Arno to threaten Kunta, despite the presence of the great superhuman known as the Sword Master.

Though she might lack humanity, her strength hadn’t gone anywhere.

“……”

…Suddenly.

“What happened to Iliad?”

“Huh? Arno’s father? Don’t know. Di-didn’t see…him?”

“……”

Thwack!

Ihan unconsciously slapped his forehead.

An ominous hypothesis flashed through his mind.

‘Did they touch that woman’s only weakness?’

What if, just what if, they were holding the yokai’s bloodline hostage?

If so…

“Sigh, those crazy bastards. Do they want mutual destruction that badly?”

Ihan thought the half-demons, or rather the cult behind them, were truly insane.

After being quiet for a while, to pull such a crazy stunt…

“Worse than fools…”

Ihan was furious.

The Ophen family being attacked?

He didn’t particularly care.

They’d barely known each other for just over two weeks, so why should he care if they were attacked?

…However, those being held captive were different.

Levi, who was briefly training at the Ophen household, and Arno and Kunta who were helping her.

These three were his disciples, his people.

And at the point where someone had touched his disciples, Ihan’s brow furrowed with such intense irritation and displeasure that veins popped out.

“Te-Teacher…”

“…Teacher is scarier…”

The atmosphere around them instantly became heavy from his emanating aura, pressing down on the ground.

“What kind of bastards are they? The ones who hurt you like this.”

“……”

“I’ll definitely kill those bastards.”

“Teacher…”

Ihan remembered Kunta wounded and bleeding, and Kunta, seemingly moved by this, spoke with a trembling voice…

“Th-this wound happened because I fell off a cliff while taking a shortcut in a hurry. Ku-Kunta wasn’t actually attacked.”

“……”

“Bu-but thank you, teacher, for getting angry on Kunta’s behalf. Should I show you the cliff I fell from?”

“……”

“Teacher?”

“…Bow.”

“??”

“Bow your head to the ground, you idiot!”

“…Kunta is a patient though?”

“So?”

“…How should I bow?”

The barbarian seemed to catch on quickly when forced to.

…Forcibly.

*

*

*

Meanwhile, the Ophen family mansion was quiet.

According to Kunta’s statement, it should have been in a state where battle could break out at any moment, but it was strangely silent, to an unsettling degree.

Like the calm before a storm.

It was an unpleasant and brutal silence where conflict could erupt at any moment.

And in this silence…

“Lord Ali, Lord Mohan. I never thought you would have fallen so far.”

With fierce eyes resembling a wolf, Arno glared at those surrounding them.

“Hehe, you still call us ‘Lord’?”

“It’s proof that you remain composed even in this situation. Hehe, impressive. When I was your age, I was just a reckless youngster, but you control your emotions so well. The qualities of an excellent swordsman—truly a blessing for the Ophen family.”

Crunch!

When words seemingly praising the Ophen family came from their mouths, Arno unconsciously gritted his teeth.

Ali and Mohan.

They were the captain and vice-captain of the Ophen family hunting unit, who normally didn’t stay at the mansion but defended against monsters in the dangerous forest areas.

Their skills were at the instructor level of the Ophen family, equivalent to high-ranking knights, and they were descendants of vassal families who had served the family for generations.

They had been loyal and excellent swordsmen, yet to think they would…

“Why did you dabble in such wicked things? Why with those heretics…”

Ali and Mohan’s appearances were grotesque.

Eyes turned completely white as if afflicted with albinism, and bumpy protrusions all over their skin.

They looked more like monsters than humans, and it was clear they had accepted the power of monsters.

It was undoubtedly the [Demonization Phenomenon], and Arno expressed not only anger but also regret, knowing that once demonization progressed, it could never be reversed.

That these men, swordsmen who had dedicated their lives to the sword, had crossed a river of no return and fallen.

“…Are you pitying us? Even in this situation?”

“Young master is still soft-hearted. Well, the head of the family was never particularly strict.”

“……”

“Young master?”

Arno maintained his silence.

He seemed to have no desire to continue conversing with them, and instead…

“I apologize, Lady. For showing such an unseemly side of my family before a guest.”

“No, I’m fine. I came to the Ophen family because I wanted to train here, so isn’t this also something I chose? Rather than me, are you alright, Arno? It seems the swordsmen of your family have betrayed you…”

“Are you worrying about others even in this situation?”

“It’s not like we’re in danger, we’re just being detained, right? This much is nothing—I experienced it often when I belonged to the Pollet family, hehe.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Arno quickly apologized, feeling he had inadvertently touched on a dark past, but the girl merely laughed softly.

As if it was all in the past.

“It’s all in the past. I won’t be seeing them in my life anymore. More importantly, who do you think is behind this? From the situation, it seems the heretical organization that’s been rumored lately is involved, but it doesn’t seem to be just them.”

“I think so too. It seems someone high up in the family has joined hands with the heretical organization to plot a takeover of the family.”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“I do.”

“Um, young master? We’re right here…?”

Despite the two half-demons being right in front of them, the pair treated them as if they didn’t exist and immediately shared their suspicions.

It wasn’t that they were fearless.

Rather, they could act so brazenly because these captors had only detained them without showing any intention to threaten or harm them.

“As long as grandmother is here, they can’t attack us. They’ll want to avoid the Sword Master’s wrath.”

“Isn’t she already very angry?”

“That’s why they’re risking their lives to attempt this. And… that person wouldn’t hesitate to bet his life. After all, he’s just a senile ‘cockroach’ with not many days left.”

“Oh…”

Levi unconsciously pursed her lips.

It was the first time she had seen Arno’s diction become so rough.

Of course…

“Who is this cockroach?”

Levi had the kindness to sympathize with her peer’s anger and willingly played along with his words.

To this, Arno snickered and answered.

“There is one. While a swordsman should pursue the way of the sword, there’s still a filthy person who only plays power games… Isn’t that right, Great-Uncle?”

Bang!

Arno provocatively directed his question toward the closed door, and suddenly, as if in response, the door was violently flung open.

From there emerged…

“…Insolent boy, how dare you provoke me, a mere youngster with the dew still wet behind your ears.”

An elderly man with a stubborn demeanor slowly stepped forward, and seeing him, Arno wore a sneer.

As expected, it was this old man.

“Let me introduce you, Lady. Shamefully, this is Gardin de Ophen, the adopted son of my great-grandfather who ‘almost’ led the Ophen family in place of my grandmother. He is our family’s-.”

…You can consider him a ‘ghost’ of our family.

Such was Arno’s harsh assessment.

* * *

Thud!

The old man roughly stamped his cane on the floor.

A burst of strength that seemed impossible from his skeletal appearance suddenly emanated, and the old man glared at Arno.

“Stop wagging that impudent tongue, you wet-behind-the-ears brat.”

“If the blood on my head dried, I’d be dead. Please stop saying such ignorant things, Great-Uncle.”

“Your manners have worsened. You used to at least know courtesy.”

“Shouldn’t courtesy be shown only to those who deserve it? Besides, the person who taught me said, ‘Courtesy should only be shown to those worthy of it.’ He said it’s fine to be a bit harsh to those who aren’t worth it.”

“Ha! That’s teaching that hastens death. Sometimes one must bow and live.”

“That’s not the logic of a swordsman, but of a politician. How long will you continue playing political games, Great-Uncle?”

Though they were merely arguing with words, it felt as if sparks were flying between them.

They both bore the name Ophen, meaning they shared the same bloodline, yet their relationship seemed worse than that of strangers.

“Gardin… Ah, could you be the one who once rose to become one of the kingdom’s hundred great swordsmen…?”

Gardin, who was adopted into the Ophen family in place of Felinshia who was deemed talentless as a child, was a genius swordsman whose fame belied his status as a branch family member.

He had risen to the highest position of Grand Master in the Ophen family at just thirty, and if Felinshia hadn’t returned to the kingdom, he would certainly have become the head of the Ophen family.

“That’s all in the past, Lady. Now he’s just a cockroach that refuses to die.”

“Would you like to experience whether that fame is in the past or not firsthand!”

Whoosh!

The aura emanating from Gardin’s body was extraordinary.

Despite being in an enclosed space, it felt as if a cold wind was blowing, and it was so fierce that it stung the skin.

As if proving that his title as one of the hundred swordsmen representing the kingdom was no exaggeration.

“Ha, compared to my instructor, this is just a gentle breeze.”

Yet Arno showed no fear.

Though his opponent was clearly a superior warrior, he had been experiencing a much more ferocious and powerful spirit every day since entering the academy.

Therefore…

“If grandmother let you live, you should have stayed quietly in the back room. Why did you crawl out again and cause this commotion?”

Arno was fearless, and Gardin’s eyes gleamed in response.

As if he was more impressive than expected.

“Not bad. You have remarkable qualities that make it hard to believe you’re Felinshia’s bloodline. Tsk, well, she was a woman with unusually good fortune.”

Gardin gritted his teeth as he uttered Felinshia’s name.

It was undisguised hatred, and there was even a sense of contempt and disgust.

“…You asked why I crawled out of the back room where I should have rotted away? Isn’t it obvious? Finally, an opportunity has come to reclaim my place, and nothing would be more foolish than to miss it.”

“What place of yours are you talking about?”

“Nonsense!”

Swish!

“This place was originally mine.”

“……”

…Such obstinacy was unparalleled.

To think that even at over ninety years of age, he would burn with such lust for power…

‘They say power is a drug you can’t let go of until death, and that’s exactly right.’

Arno was thoroughly disgusted.

He was disgusted that this old man, unable to give up power even after decades, had finally joined hands with heretical forces and demonized the family members.

How terrible, can a person emit such a rotten stench?

“…You’ve touched the wrong opponent.”

“Ha! Are you talking about that woman Felinshia? Yes, of course she’s frightening. There’s no one in this world who isn’t afraid of an Aura User. But that woman can’t move now. How could she move when she’s trapped in a prison of her own making!”

“……”

“Of course, someday she’ll have to make a choice, but I know how indecisive that woman is about anything other than the sword. It will probably take her years to make a decision. And years is enough time to change many things.”

Gardin was confident.

He spoke with certainty that the calamity known as an Aura User would absolutely not move for the time being, and he even wore a sneer.

Just thinking about the despair on that foolish woman’s face filled him with joy…

“-The opponent I mentioned wasn’t my grandmother.”

“…What?”

“Grandmother is someone who exercises restraint, but you shouldn’t expect any restraint from him.”

“?”

“He’s more like, well, rather than a warrior…”

Rumble rumble rumble!!

“…Yes, he’s like this.”

“???”

A sudden massive vibration.

The mansion shook as if an earthquake had struck.

And the next moment…

CRASH─!

…With a sound like a meteorite impact, the mansion was half-destroyed and the ground shook.

People were flipped over and fell repeatedly, with only a few managing to maintain their balance.

But even those who kept their balance couldn’t remain safe.

Because…

[WHERE ARE MY KIDS──!!]

A tremendous roar that threatened to burst eardrums reverberated throughout the mansion, no, the entire domain.

“……”

“I told you, you touched the wrong person.”

“……”

“For your information, once he gets like this, even we can’t stop him. So…”

Huff.

-I offer my condolences in advance.

Arno performed an early memorial service for the ghost.

With a triumphant smile on his face.