NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20
The weapon in the hulking figure’s hand was an axe.
He held a gigantic axe that was as huge as his colossal frame.
KWAANG!!
The giant’s right foot stomped down hard on the prison floor. The soldiers around finally noticed Duke Yuma and his group.
“W-what the hell?”
“Intruders!”
Kidnapping and imprisonment. They were the forces involved in illegal activities. Even if Yuma revealed his identity now, it was unlikely they would surrender easily.
And it didn’t seem like the drooling giant in front of him would understand him, either.
Yuma stood before the giant.
“Grrrlr!”
“Morton!! Kill them all! There’s no way you can’t take them down!!”
A cry echoed from a man behind the giant. It seemed the giant was named Morton.
‘Pretty strong, huh?’
Yuma focused on Morton using Search Eye.
[Lv. 103]
Morton
Alignment: Evil
Class: Warrior
Skill Level: Master
Caution: Dragon Blood has been injected into his body. This has greatly enhanced his physical abilities. His mind is not all there.
‘Dragon.’
This confirmed that the being occupying Count Rubelt’s body was indeed a dragon.
“Grrrlr….”
As Morton drooled and glared at Yuma, the moment Yuma stepped on the stairs—
“KWAHAWAAARK!”
Pouring red energy from his body, he charged at Yuma.
Morton’s arm shot up high, then vertically came crashing down.
With red energy swirling around the axe, it plummeted ferociously.
The trajectory was incredibly oppressive, crushing the air itself.
KWAHAAAAAA!
Yuma gripped the [Black Dragon Bernac’s Tooth] in reverse. He carefully watched the end of the axe’s trajectory with sharp focus.
The exact central point of the axe blade. That was the ‘Parrying Point.’
Using the [Extreme Focus] skill, he accurately pinpointed that spot. Then he swung the shortsword he held in reverse.
WAAAAAAAANG!!
The golden circular impact indicating a successful parry erupted. A tingling pain surged up Yuma’s arm.
But.
<Indomitable Will>
He wouldn’t be broken.
<Absolute Counter>
The red flash bursting from [Black Dragon Bernac’s Tooth] completely swept away Morton’s upper body, including his head.
Morton, who had been standing firm, suddenly fell to his knees.
KUU—WOOONG!
It was an instant death.
The faces of the soldiers who had been relying on Morton turned rigid.
Duke Yuma surveyed the soldiers stepping forward with his eyes, while activating the Search Eye.
[Lv.53] [Lv.42] [Lv.65]…
The highest level was only 65. Yuma glanced at Hestia and Cloney.
“Don’t hold back any mercy. It’s crucial to suppress them completely.”
Cloney nodded fiercely. Without waiting for Yuma to finish, Hestia kicked off the ground and charged forward. It was a given that they were involved in the kidnapping of her precious sibling.
Even without Yuma’s words, Hestia wouldn’t have shown any mercy.
Hestia charged fiercely, wielding the [Crescent Moon’s Kisetelia], swinging her sword at the soldiers without hesitation.
Cloney raised her staff and unleashed lightning.
It was magic to support the swordmaster-level swordswoman, Hestia, as she led the charge.
Zzaaaap!
“Graaaaah!”
Hestia, slicing through the upper bodies of two dumbfounded soldiers at an angle, was met with Cloney’s lightning dropping onto the heads of the advancing enemies.
Blood splattered against the walls.
Behind them, they were quickly neutralizing the enemies, when another figure followed.
It was Knight Murphy.
Crushed by the weight of reality, his sense of justice, which had been suppressed, started to rise once again.
‘I knew it!’
This was his first time facing this prison directly.
But he had heard from the senior knights that these children were innocent, imprisoned without any guilt.
If the Count were to idly stand by this situation, he could very well be the mastermind behind it.
Murphy was already sensing it. Yet, he hadn’t stepped forward.
Because he was scared.
However, seeing the children inside the cage filled him with an overwhelming guilt. To overcome that guilt, he had to stain his hands with blood.
Murphy began to subdue the soldiers alongside Hestia.
It was a battle that crossed paths.
He ended the lives of 8 soldiers and bound 10 others.
Click!
Yuma, along with the blonde Countess’ daughter, Luine, used the key that was hanging from the pocket of the male guard to unlock the prison doors.
Inside were boys and girls, along with several adult men and women, all tied up.
The missing persons from the Count’s territory.
“…Kai is not here, brother. I think we should go down to the basement.”
Luine freed the children’s bindings and, while trying to soothe the trembling kids, couldn’t hide her downcast feelings.
He couldn’t hide his sulky feelings while trying to calm down.
Hestia opened the door to the fourth prison cell.
A loud exclamation burst from Hestia’s mouth.
“Haruk…!!”
She had finally found her brother, whom she had been searching for days.
“Big sister!”
Haruk, with his brown hair flying around, dived into Hestia’s arms. Hestia gently patted Haruk while tears brimmed in her eyes.
“I thought you were dead!”
Yuma confirmed with his own eyes that Hestia had found Haruk and proceeded toward the dark stairs leading down, accompanied by Luine.
In the underground prison sat a young man with blonde hair in a chair.
Perhaps out of consideration for his imprisonment, the place felt more like a room than a cell. Of course, a long iron chain was strapped around his ankle.
The young man, Kaisen, had no choice but to squint against the bright light pouring in from the suddenly opened ceiling.
“Brother!”
Luine ran quickly towards Kaisen.
“…Luine?”
Kaisen, the eldest son of the Rubelt family, widened his eyes as he recognized the youngest’s face.
“I am Kaisen, the eldest son of Count Rubelt.”
Kaisen noticed a man behind Luine.
Yuma pulled out a golden badge signifying his role as the representative of the First Princess Brigitte and placed it on the desk.
“I am Yuma, the representative of Her Highness the First Princess.”
“The representative of Her Highness…?”
‘He doesn’t know who I am.’
Well, it would be stranger if he did, considering he had been locked up here for months.
“Tell me what you learned that led you to be trapped in this unknown prison.”
Kaisen looked at Luine. His gaze seemed to ask if they knew who Yuma was.
“He is indeed formally appointed by Her Highness the First Princess. He even accomplished driving out the corrupt forces in one village.”
“…I see, Luine.”
The 22-year-old Kaisen ruffled the young one’s hair. He knelt on his right knee as a gesture of respect.
It was a sign of respect for the representative of the First Princess.
“I apologize for not recognizing you.”
“How can you know anything locked up in a place like this? Just answer my questions.”
Rising to his feet, Kaisen opened his dry mouth again.
“My direct knights, who were scouting the Count’s mountainous area, informed me. They saw a dragon… a dragon with pitch-black scales and bright red eyes, devouring a woman.”
“He was gnawing on it.”
Kaisen continued, sweating profusely.
“He said it to me with a vacant expression. And then… he died. Suddenly, at night. He was having an affair with the wife of the senior knight. I heard the furious senior knight chopped his head off.”
Kaisen slowly shook his head.
“My knight wasn’t that kind of friend. He was the kind who obsessively tried to uphold his moral compass.”
Kaisen recalled what happened next.
“So, I went to find my father, Count Rubelt. The disappearance incidents happening in the count’s territory connected in my mind with what my knight had witnessed.”
It was a rather logical deduction.
It wasn’t unreasonable for him to seek out the count.
From Kaisen’s perspective, he had no way of knowing that Count Rubelt had already fallen under the mental control of that dragon.
“But as I started to unravel these questions, my father’s demeanor suddenly changed. It was as if someone else’s soul had taken over… And then he ordered for me to be imprisoned. When I lost consciousness and opened my eyes, I was here. Every time the guards brought me food and opened the ceiling door, I heard the low voices of children. That’s how I came to realize.”
Kaisen grit his teeth.
“So I was sure of it. The disappearances in the count’s territory. And the dragon that eats people… they were directly connected to my father, Count Rubelt.”
Yuma nodded.
“Your deduction is correct. It’s highly likely that the one controlling your father, Count Rubelt, is that dragon. Eating people is either a desire for slaughter or a means of survival.”
Yuma didn’t find the existence of such a dragon surprising.
After all, a few of those dragons also appeared in [Loop Blood].
And the fate of those who got their minds eaten by such dragons was never good.
Yuma instinctively thought Count Rubelt would share the same fate.
“We’re going to remove the current Count Rubelt. That will be the first step to resolving this situation. Whether you take over the countship or not, that’s irrelevant to me.”
After quickly organizing his thoughts, Yuma conveyed his conclusion to Kaisen.
“To effectively remove the current Count Rubelt, your testimony as the eldest son is crucial. And there are witnesses as well.”
The children who had been imprisoned here. They would bear witness to the count’s tyranny.
“Tomorrow morning, as soon as dawn breaks, we’ll head to the count’s castle.”
Straightforward confrontation.
Yuma intended to do just that.
“If they’re scared, they’ll break from their nest.”
If he shatters what the dragon had built, the dragon would have to break free from its nest.