Chapter 183 : Woodrock (2)
Woodrock (2)
"What, what is that again?!"
Vamp could not hide his shock at the recording screen floating in midair.
It was showing his own mother, Eramon, affectionately linking arms with Louis and acting cute.
"My mother... in such an indecent pose...!"
There was no mistaking the woman on the screen—she was indeed his mother.
Compared to other devils, she looked like a young woman, so in terms of appearance, she was considered attractive.
Vamp had always been quite proud of this aspect of his mother.
However, he'd never once imagined she'd use her looks that way.
"I remember. I do. Back then, what did you say while grabbing my arm? Wasn't it 'I missed you, husband'?"
"Hiiiiiik!!"
Startled by Louis's teasing, Eramon shouted in dismay.
"When did I ever do that! Vamp! Don't listen to him! Your mother would never do such a thing!"
Obviously, it was something extremely embarrassing for her to admit.
Especially since she absolutely did not want her son to see it.
"But your actions are clearly recorded, mother."
"What?"
"You're lying right now, mother."
"What are you talking about?"
Eramon's voice trembled as she spoke.
"Clearly recorded? Don't tell me..."
"Yup, that's right. The scene where you were coming on to me was captured exactly by the record-keeping magitech device."
"Hiiiik!!"
Eramon panicked and struggled even more fiercely.
She flailed her limbs, desperately trying to undo her restraints, but it was useless.
To make things worse, her eyes were covered, so she couldn't see a thing—her anxiety only intensified.
"Release me at once!"
"Nope."
"Then erase the recording right now! Hurry!!"
"Why are you asking me to erase it only now? At the time, you were all over me."
No doubt, this memory was a nightmare for Eramon.
When it came down to it, acting as Louis's lover had been nothing but a performance.
Of course, her feelings hadn't been genuine, and to her, it must have felt like sheer hell.
'Husband? Honestly, if I were in her shoes, I'd have died of embarrassment.'
Imagine having a child and still acting out such a scene—the emptiness must have been overwhelming.
She probably felt like, 'Why am I even living?'
"Thinking back now, it's amazing, isn't it? A mother with a child calling another man, 'My beloved husband~' right in front of everyone."
"Stop iiiiiit!!"
"Even though you're a married woman... Can you really be doing this?"
"Just shut up already!!"
Eramon shrieked, struggling until her wrists and ankles bled.
But her restraints only dug deeper, leaving nothing but wounds.
"Mother... truly..."
"Vamp! Please, don't misunderstand! Your mother was only...!"
"I will... I will not listen any further."
"No, please...!"
In the end, Eramon wept in despair.
It was amazing that she could even keep her wits after her son saw her in such a humiliating situation.
"But isn't it too bad to end it just like this?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, this isn't just a simple record-keeping magitech device. Headmaster, please explain."
Louis handed over the explanation to Ferus.
"Very well. It'll be easier to understand if I explain, since I made it myself."
Ferus began explaining about the magitech device Louis held.
"Did you know? All throughout the Imperial Court, there are mana routes connected to Zodiac. You can't see them, but every domain or village in the Imperial Court has one."
The objects these mana routes were attached to were mainly huge bulletin boards.
The boards always displayed news from Zodiac and from the capital.
"And the one who controls all this is me."
"So, what are you trying to say?!"
"Of course, it's also possible to connect this magitech device to those mana routes."
"What?"
At those words, vamp's expression stiffened instinctively.
"Connect... you say?"
Naturally, Eramon was also horrified.
"As you've probably guessed already, someone at my level can manipulate those routes as I please. After all, I designed and conceived them in the first place."
"Wait. No way..."
"That's right. I mean I can broadcast this recording onto the bulletin boards installed all over the Imperial Court!!"
With a devilish grin, Ferus declared.
Mother and son looked as if they'd been struck by lightning.
"The whole Empire will witness you being all lovey-dovey!"
"Nooooo!!"
It was bad enough the act was recorded—what would it be like to spread it throughout the entire Imperial Court?
If that really happened, hanging herself with a rope wouldn't even be enough.
"Please, stop! I'll do anything you want, just don't do that!!"
"You said that last time during the interrogation."
"This time I mean it! I'll bet everything! If you tell me to die, I'll die—so please!!"
"Is that so?"
Finally, Louis seemed to be getting through, and he curled his lips into a smile.
So he made his demand.
"Then hand over the artifact blueprints."
"That..."
However, unlike her desperate state from before, Eramon shook her head.
"That's impossible."
"Even if your darkest moments are public for all to see?"
"......"
Eramon shut her mouth, but a strong resolve that she really could not hand it over was clear.
Even at this point, her stubbornness left Louis feeling at a loss.
"This isn't good, you know?"
Seeing Louis's frustrated expression, Eramon smiled as if things were turning in her favor.
—Crunch!
At that moment, a bone-breaking sound could be heard.
"Gaaaaaahh!!"
This time, it was Vamp's screams.
"Wha...what is this... Gaaaaaaah!!"
Just from a simple kick, vamp's leg had been broken.
"What the hell is going on?!"
Upon hearing her son's screams, Eramon was horrified.
"This is why I told you not to make things difficult."
"Ahhh!! My hand! My hand!!"
Snap!—
This time, his fingers and shoulder were shattered.
Even though they were demonkin, Louis showed no hesitation in smashing a being with a human form.
"N... No...!"
"Yes!"
Louis curtly retorted and resumed breaking Vamp's body.
One might think he could die at this rate, but it didn't matter.
"He'll just revive anyway, so what's the problem?"
Each time, vamp's broken body parts regenerated.
Louis simply destroyed those parts again as soon as they healed.
Crack!—
"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!!!"
"I told you to stop!!"
"Kyaaaagh!!"
"No!!"
As the sound of her son being tortured to death reached her ears, Eramon struggled desperately to make it stop.
"What are you doing to Vamp?! How dare you do this to my son!!"
"You're not the only one with a child! He had the nerve to lay hands on Headmaster Ferus's neck. Normally, trash like that would've been killed on the spot."
Snap!—
"Aaaaaaagh!!"
"Please stop!! Stop it!!"
If nothing else, she could not stand her child being hurt.
Louis grinned even wider, as if he had found the answer, and continued torturing Vamp.
"So the devils who assaulted the Imperial Court value their own children, huh? By the way, I'm curious how demonkin actually give birth to their children?"
"Ah... I told you to stop..."
At last, Eramon gave up in defeat.
"Alright, fine. I'll give you what you want."
At that, Eramon deactivated the locking spell designed within her own body.
"There. Satisfied?"
Her meaning was clear—she wanted Louis to let her son go now.
Just as she hoped, Louis stopped tormenting Vamp.
Then, Ferus placed a hand on Eramon's shoulder.
"Now, shall we extract the blueprint?"
Thus, the new blueprint came into Ferus's hands.
****
"How admirable. Drinking yourself silly at your age."
Silia couldn't help but scold Andrew, whom she hadn't seen in a long time.
She had heard that he'd taken to living in Ferus's laboratory and drinking all the time.
No matter how much he was her adoptive father, wrong was wrong.
"I don't know how it happens, but somehow my hand just reaches for the bottle. Have you ever experienced that?"
"Never! And even if I did drink, I wouldn't cause trouble for others like the family head does!"
"......"
Andrew looked even more awkward and shrank a little.
Silia was basically his granddaughter, which made it even more embarrassing.
"But the sense of loss from not being able to do anything anymore really eats away at me. You know what I mean, don't you?"
"Yes."
Andrew no longer had the strength he once possessed.
No one asked him to fight with a blade anymore.
Worse, the blood he should have protected—he had cut down with his own hands.
"So I keep thinking about what I should do, but never find the answer. Maybe because of that backlash, my hand just reaches for the alcohol."
"Something you can do, huh..."
Bang!—
Right then, a loud noise erupted in the street nearby.
When they ran over, they saw the scene of a commotion.
"Ugh!"
There, an elf girl clutching a sword was lying on the ground.
"This girl dares challenge me?!"
A mage was yelling at the girl, readying a lightning spell.
"I am Altman, a mage of Zodiac! I came here to help this town develop, and this is the kind of garbage treatment I get?"
"If you don't want to be treated that way, then stop hitting our townsfolk!"
"What?"
Merry, the elf girl, objected. Altman's forehead bulged with veins.
"Do you, an elf, think you can talk back? You're from the trash race that fooled the entire Imperial Court!!"
Zzzzap!—
The lightning spell surged toward Merry.
Already battered and bruised, she had no energy left to withstand such an attack.
But Merry braced herself and raised her blade to block the spell.
"Quick reflexes. But can you keep blocking it forever?"
"Ugh!"
As the lightning spell intensified, Merry's blade was pushed back more and more.
Her legs slid backward, and cracks began to appear in her sword.
At last, with a snap—the blade shattered, but Merry was unharmed.
"What's all this commotion?"
Suddenly, the electric spell vanished, and an old man appeared, having batted the lightning aside with his bare hands.
"I heard this was a peaceful village?"
To Andrew's question—he had blocked the lightning—Silia replied.
"We've had a lot of visitors recently. There are even more people now who demand to be treated like celebrities."
"Indeed, I never saw anyone like that Altman in Zodiac's magic circle."
Having spent a long time in Zodiac, Andrew was well-acquainted with its structure.
There was no mage named Altman associated with Zodiac.
"So, they're basically leeches pretending to be celebrities and sucking the townspeople dry."
"Call it off, old man! If you don't want to get hurt, get lost!"
Altman yelled in anger, but Andrew just smiled.
"We'll see about that. I wonder who'll really get hurt?"
"What?"
Then Andrew reached down to the fallen Merry.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes... but old man, you'd better run—it's dangerous..."
"Lend me that sword for a moment."
Did he mean the broken sword?
"But what will you do with it..."
"Just give it a try. Your reflexes are quite good. You can be a fine swordsman."
What is this old man talking about? Merry wondered, as she had never met the man before.
"I'll show you something special."
"Hey, old man! You wanna die?!"
Altman shouted disrespectfully, but Andrew just smiled.
"I'll teach you how to beat a mage."
"Just die already!!"
Altman unleashed a barrage of spells, not just lightning but all sorts of elements.
It was unclear which association he belonged to, but his skills were above average.
But Andrew, using just the broken blade, cut through every spell as he advanced.
At the same time, he neatly sliced through Altman's staff.
"Huh?"
As his staff was sliced apart, altman looked at Andrew's face and felt a chill of recognition.
"No way..."
Anyone considered the pinnacle of the Imperial Court always had their portrait made.
Andrew's face was near identical to one of the three on those famous portraits.
"Swordmas..."
Thunk!—
Andrew tapped Altman on the crown (of his head) with the flat of his blade, knocking him out.
"There, did you see?"
Having settled the incident, Andrew returned Merry's sword.
Right then, Silia suddenly asked,
"Family head, didn't you say a moment ago you had nothing to do?"
"That's right."
"It looks like something just turned up."
She pointed to Merry, whose face was filled with awe.