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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: The Young Mad Dog (2)
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3.
A cloud of dust rose from the aftermath of the massive explosion.
Karron pushed himself up, helping Hans, who had been shielding him.
"…That was a close one."
A deep crater had formed around the corpse.
A situation where he could have easily lost his life.
The sense of unease he'd felt earlier must have stemmed from this.
*Close? You were about to be blown to bits. If it weren't for me, there wouldn't have been a single scrap of you left.*
A mysterious voice echoed in his mind. But Karron quickly realized whose it was.
"I didn't know you had a voice feature."
*A sword of my caliber should have one, obviously.*
"An Ego Sword?"
He had heard of them once before.
Legends of Ego Swords, crafted by a few mad blacksmiths using souls as material.
Given that Guillotine was the sword of the first family head, he thought it might be possible.
But the sword itself reacted sensitively to the term.
*Compare me to some Ego Sword one more time, and I'll chop off your head right now.*
"If you were going to chop it off, why'd you save me? All bark and no bite."
*Listen to this little shit.*
"We can talk details later. That's not what's important right now."
Karron plunged Guillotine into the ground, then let out a long breath and checked on Hans.
Blackened blood trickled from the corner of Hans's mouth. Fortunately, he was still breathing.
Karron had felt Hans overload his mana channels in the final moment before the explosion.
He must have turned his own body into a shield to protect Karron from the blast.
*The explosion was too close. I managed to contain it from spreading, but if it weren't for him, you'd be in a coma at the very least.*
Listening to Guillotine, Karron slowly surveyed the battlefield.
The battle was over.
But the state of the battlefield was stranger than he had expected.
Only three enemy corpses remained. In the places where the other bodies had been, there were small craters.
"…A chain of self-destructions?"
*Seems to be a spell cast by at least a 7th-Circle warlock. Damn magic-users, same bunch of psychos now as they were back then. Thanks to those bastards, I blew through all the mana I'd painstakingly saved up. Hah.*
One thing was certain: just as Guillotine said, this place could have been his grave.
Karron frowned and let out a deep sigh.
Not long after, the Sea Wolf Knights and Leo came running from behind.
"Lord Karron!"
"Karrooon!"
Only then did the tension finally release, replaced by a wave of exhaustion.
"Karron, are you okay? Are you hurt? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Leo, covered in sword wounds himself, fumbled over Karron's body, his voice cracking.
"I'm fine, thanks to Hans. Ah, Squad Leader. What are the damages?"
At Karron's question, Ian, the squad leader who had arrived with Leo, answered in a blunt voice.
"Three were killed in the last explosion. The rest of the men are able to move."
"…Still, a lot of them made it. Is the train okay?"
"Thanks to the explosion's small radius, everyone on the train is safe."
"That's a relief. Squad Leader, I'm fine, so please take care of Hans first. I'm counting on you."
Karron handed Hans over to Ian, then sighed and slumped to the ground. He looked at Leo and said.
"You should help the Squad Leader clean up the battlefield, brother. I'm just going to sit and rest for a bit. I'm exhausted."
"Okay. Call me if anything happens. Got it?"
"On your way, splash some potion on your wounds. There should be some on the train. Bring me one later, too."
"Just wait a bit. I'll be right back."
Leo nodded and ran quickly toward the train.
A glimpse of his back revealed blood on his sword.
Seeing this, Karron smirked and nodded to himself.
"He's all grown up, my brother."
*What a little old man. I doubt even your ancestor, that Rael fellow, was like that. Well… you're a reincarnator, so I guess it's not that strange.*
The voice of Guillotine, stuck in the ground, echoed in Karron's ears.
Karron gave the sword a light kick with his foot as he replied.
"How did you know I was reincarnated?"
*Because I can see souls. I knew from the very first moment you held me.*
"Right. In a world where swords can talk, what's the big deal about reincarnation?"
*Don't you think that's a rather insolent way to speak to someone you owe your life to?*
"Better than the one who could talk all this time but kept it hidden. What the hell were you thinking?"
The fact that Guillotine had another function was welcome news. However, he was bothered by why it had been silent until now.
It seemed to have awakened during the Eye-Opening Ceremony, so it must have had some dark, ulterior motive.
But a moment later, Guillotine began to make excuses in an aggrieved tone.
*It's only been a short while since I could communicate. I need to drink blood to be fully unlocked, but that got delayed because you were cooped up in Azure Castle.*
Blood.
Did that mean this thing had fully awakened only after his first mission?
A sword that awakens by absorbing blood… that was completely…
"So this bastard was a cursed sword. Halo said the demon's consciousness was completely eradicated, but was that not the case?"
Wasn't this a cursed sword in its own right?
As far as Karron knew, only cursed swords lent power in exchange for blood.
If so, perhaps the Blue Dragon he had briefly met at the Eye-Opening Ceremony had been lying.
*I guarantee you're an imbecile on a level that Rael bastard couldn't even compare to. Congratulations. You've already surpassed your ancestor.*
"If a sword that drinks blood isn't a cursed sword, then what is?"
*My very essence is different from those demons, you little… piece of… ah.*
It seemed he would have to ask Halo for more details about this sword.
*You should be thanking me, but instead you compare your savior to a cursed sword… you… piece of trash.*
"Why has your voice suddenly gotten so weak?"
Its voice was noticeably quieter than before.
At the same time, the light emanating from Guillotine was beginning to fade.
*This is what happens when I save… you… Ugh. I should have absorbed more mana… Stupid master.*
It seemed to be running low on energy.
Karron stood up and gripped Guillotine.
"Is killing enemies the only way for you to recover your strength?"
*Absorb the mana in blood… Your blood… works too.*
"Aha, so the master has to self-harm just to replenish your power… I knew it, you are a cursed sword."
*You crazy… bastard.*
"Get some sleep. I'll wake you up later. Ah, before you go, let me ask one more thing. The guys approaching from over there, they're on our side, right?"
Karron asked, pointing to the horses galloping fiercely across the field.
Guillotine replied in a weary voice.
*I don't sense any killing intent. They're allies.*
"Then, just one last thing."
*What is it?*
"Can you talk while you're in your scabbard?"
*
"Perfect. Then you can shut up."
*You son of a…*
*Shing.*
Karron grinned as he slid Guillotine into its scabbard.
"As expected of a cursed sword, you've got a foul mouth. What kind of sword talks back to a human? Reflect on your actions."
Guillotine. It might be a much more interesting sword than he thought.
He'd have to double-check whether it was a cursed sword or not, but in truth, Karron himself knew it wasn't.
If it were a cursed sword, it wouldn't have been able to withstand Azure Mana.
"Seems like a fun one to mess with."
Perhaps, after Leo, another being had appeared to cure his boredom.
With the scabbard at his waist, Karron looked at the people who had now arrived within close range.
Simultaneously, the Sea Wolf Knights, who had been securing the area, took up defensive stances and confronted them.
Karron approached them with a light step.
Squad Leader Ian, standing at the forefront, stopped him.
"Lord Karron, please stay back. Their identities have not been confirmed."
"It's fine. They're not bad people."
The soldiers wore armor emblazoned with the trident crest symbolizing the Tebe Autonomous Prefecture.
They dismounted, and soon their leader stepped forward.
"A pleasure to meet you. I am Hairi, Captain of the Guard for the Tebe Autonomous Prefecture."
"Karron Leston."
"We feel an infinite sense of responsibility for involving members of the great Leston Ducal Family in such an unfortunate incident. The mayor has ordered us to escort you to safety, using any and all means necessary."
With the train destroyed, they had no other options.
The best course of action would be to wait in the Tebe Autonomous Prefecture for word from Azure Castle.
Karron nodded and replied.
"We have many wounded. We'll be in your care."
An unscheduled stop had just been added to their itinerary.
4.
Some of the guards, including four members of the Sea Wolf Knights, remained at the crash site to investigate, while the rest of the party, escorted by the guards, headed straight for the city.
Inside the swaying carriage, Hans, who had regained consciousness, spoke with a frown.
"I am not sure if going to the Tebe Autonomous Prefecture is the right decision."
"You have a point, but we don't have a choice right now, do we? We can't move with the bodies and the injured. This is the best we can do, Hans."
"…Hmph."
"Besides, the Tebe Autonomous Prefecture should be relatively safe. The Imperial Guard has likely already departed from the capital, and I've already contacted Sir Jeras."
Karron pulled out some jerky from his pocket and began to chew on it. He slowly continued.
"Sir Jeras is on his way here himself, so let's just wait until he arrives."
A direct descendant of the ducal family had been attacked—an unprecedented emergency.
It was a situation that had never occurred since Halo ascended as the head of the family.
Azure Castle was probably in an uproar by now.
Making a rash move at a time like this would only earn them criticism. The right call was to wait until the truth of the matter was uncovered, and then act.
"Here, brother Leo, have some jerky."
Karron tore off a piece of jerky and handed it to Leo. Leo took it with a trembling hand.
"…Thanks."
It seemed the reality of having killed someone was only now sinking in, after the situation had ended.
That's how a first kill always was.
Even if you killed to survive, the guilt didn't just vanish.
It was something he had to overcome on his own.
No words of comfort could help him get past it.
It was a necessary process to become a knight. It would be difficult for a young master who had been raised delicately, but this too was a growing pain.
*Raising kids really isn't easy.*
Karron silently patted Leo's back, then turned back to Hans.
"You seemed to know that 6-Star knight who self-destructed earlier. Who was he?"
"Shion Hakimi. A knight from the Pavarre Sultanate."
"The Pavarre Sultanate… This just got complicated."
A neighboring country that shared a border across the Silent Desert, located in the eastern part of the Empire.
And as neighbors often are, they were a nation on unfriendly terms.
A non-aggression pact, personally brokered by Halo, maintained a fragile peace, but lately, it seemed the treaty could be broken at any moment.
*Even so, this is beyond common sense.*
He and Leo were still relatively unknown figures, their only real significance being that they were the grandsons of Grand Duke Halo.
In other words, they weren't targets worth risking a war over.
This was pure madness.
There was no other way to interpret it than a blatant declaration of war.
"What do you think, Hans?"
At Karron's question, Hans also let out a small sigh and shook his head.
"Even if relations between the Empire and the Pavarre Sultanate have worsened, they haven't deteriorated to the point of attempting something like this."
"But the evidence we've seen is enough to justify a war."
Not only did they attack the children of the Leston Ducal Family, but they also committed the treasonous act of damaging the railway.
It was clumsy, but on the surface, it was undeniable sabotage.
"What a pain in the ass just to get to the capital."
Karron sighed, sinking into the carriage seat.
In truth, discussing it with Hans now was rather meaningless.
Making the final judgment wasn't his job.
It was a task for the elders of the family, including Halo.
"We are arriving shortly."
Captain Hairi's voice rang out from outside the carriage, and Karron turned his gaze out the window.
A city lined with tall buildings.
The most prosperous place in the Empire after the capital.
Tebe, the city at the heart of the Tebe Autonomous Prefecture.
Karron gritted his teeth as he looked at the city's magnificent entrance.
"It's damn glamorous."
"…I agree."
Sooner or later, a storm would descend upon this place.
Whether they wanted it to or not.