Chapter 22 : Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Blood flowed ceaselessly from the wounds, and with each movement, the flesh that had stuck to the leather armor due to the continuous bleeding tore away.
More than half of my mana was already gone, and the madness of the trait <Desire for Blood> was making my head spin.
‘The bastard is in the same boat.’
The things I had missed, deceived by the bastard’s aura and demeanor, the trivial clues, came together to form a conviction.
The reason why the demonkin, who could crush me with its presence alone, was continuing this sluggish fight even while accumulating unnecessary wounds.
“This is your limit, isn’t it?”
Ian said mockingly as he looked at Ajiyog, whose face was contorted.
“It seems there are restrictions on using your demonic power.
The holy power the bishop scattered earlier seems to be a problem too.”
I could be sure.
From the moment the bastard revealed himself, he wasn't normal.
The fact that he chewed on the bishop’s heart in front of me, and that he let Reina escape with the vice-bishop, was because he wasn't normal.
“Otherwise, he wouldn’t have just let the vice-bishop, who he was drooling over, go.
Even if he was toying with me, he would have surely caught the vice-bishop and chewed her up first.”
Was that all?
He had allowed avoidable attacks and continued to defend with his thigh gushing blood.
At first, I thought the bastard was toying with me, but with the pressure I felt from the demonkin before me, there was no need to allow attacks.
If he had used all the power felt from that demonkin’s body, I would have been unable to move a muscle and would have been nothing more than his toy.
“So you’ve been using all sorts of cheap tricks.”
I glanced at the scratches covering my entire body.
The pain that continued to be felt without healing at all, even after the long battle.
This was clearly some kind of curse or magic.
“If that’s all you’ve got, you’re dead.”
Ian, who had disappeared into the mist again, took out a dagger he had prepared from his pocket, held it in a reverse grip, and stabbed his own heart.
“Keuk……”
Despite having applied a stimpack beforehand, blood flowed ceaselessly along the blade of the dagger that had pierced his heart, and a message window appeared.
[Desire for Blood is activated to its maximum.]
Ian, who had been waiting for this news, smiled fiercely, tore through the mist once again, and charged towards the demonkin.
* * *
Ajiyog moved his demonic energy to find Ian, who was hiding in the mist.
He scattered the thread-thin demonic energy to hinder Ian’s approach and at the same time, raised his sword, intending to end this tedious fight once and for all.
He had already confirmed the bastard’s speed and strength in the hundreds of exchanges.
Convinced that the bastard’s strength could never inflict a fatal blow, he decided to abandon his defense and focus on attacking.
Soon, Ian tore through the mist and charged like an arrow.
“How dare a mere human!”
Ajiyog moved his demonic energy and prepared to attack with a confident face.
However, the bastard’s movements, which he thought he could surely slow down, did not slow down at all, and before he could complete his attack, Ian, who had come right before his eyes, plunged a dagger into his heart.
Kududeuk!
The breastbone shattered, and Ajiyog looked down at the dagger embedded in his chest with an expression of disbelief at the unpleasant sensation of the dagger digging into his flesh and heart.
“H-how.
You didn’t have this kind of power……”
As he grabbed the dagger with a trembling hand, Ian smiled and pointed at his own chest.
“The craziest bastard in this town is also me.”
In the center of Ian’s chest, blood was flowing ceaselessly along the blade of a half-embedded dagger.
Seeing that, Ajiyog let out a hollow laugh.
“Hehehe… you crazy bastard.
A demonkin doesn’t die from something like this.
You, a human, will surely die.”
He didn't know what trick he had used, but it seemed the reason the bastard had suddenly become faster was because of the dagger embedded in his chest.
It was probably a kind of self-sacrificing spell that used life force as a power source.
Whatever that spell was, there was no way he could survive with a dagger embedded in his heart.
It was a shame about this clone, but the thought of that annoying bastard who was smiling so smugly dying was quite satisfying.
‘The losses on this side are not to be taken lightly either…….’
Not only had he used up some of the demonic energy he had secretly gathered in the middle world for over 10 years, but he had also lost the vice-bishop, whom he had been saving to eat without being snatched away by other demonkin.
This was a loss like no other.
It would have been better to have given up the vice-bishop from the start and run away.
He had completely misjudged the power of the bastard before him.
A human who feels neither pain nor fear.
No matter how much individual differences there were among humans, wasn’t this cheating?
He had no intention of letting it slide, if only because it was vexing that he, a demonkin, had been put in a difficult position.
“I know humans well.
A human like you will never be able to close your eyes in peace even after you die.
On the day I return, I will find your soul.
Even if I have to take the fragments of the fragments of your soul, I will make you suffer for all eternity.”
After saying that, Ajiyog gathered his demonic energy and prepared to return to the demon world.
He figured that since there was nothing more to gain here once the bastard died, it was more profitable to save a little more demonic energy.
* * *
As Ajiyog left, the Knight Commander’s body collapsed as if it were crumbling, and silence fell.
“Kehehe… hehehe……”
Ian, who was standing firm, suddenly started to laugh.
“Hahaha!”
He never had the strength to kill him from the beginning.
He had poured all his mana into the final blow, so he had no strength left to move.
Just as the bastard had pretended to be at ease throughout the battle, Ian had only feigned ease for a single moment, just once, at the very end.
As if he could repeat the same attack over and over again.
As if he would really give up his life and continue the fight.
“Hah, I’m tired.”
Ian, who had collapsed on the spot, lay down haphazardly and looked up at the ceiling.
The dagger embedded in his chest had a stimpack applied to it, so it would be somewhat healed after he woke up from sleep, but he had no strength to move.
‘I need to find Reina…….’
He had to at least check on her condition and return to the Lord’s Castle with the members, but the tension that had been released for a moment made his eyelids feel as heavy as lead.
“Just, just for a little while, let’s rest.”
The weariness after the battle washed over his entire body, and Ian fell asleep.
* * *
Waking up to the feeling of something tickling his hair, he saw Reina stroking his head.
“Reina……?”
He quickly sat up and looked around.
The divine statue, still maintaining its benevolent expression while stained with dark red blood, the bright chandeliers, and the bishop’s corpse, which was within arm’s reach.
“The bishop’s office?
Why is Reina here?”
“I came to attend to you, Young Master.”
As Ian frowned and asked Reina, she replied with a bright smile.
Ian couldn’t even get angry and just stood there for a long time, looking at her with eyes full of complex emotions.
“Never do that again.”
She was not a fool.
No, with a trait like Desire for Blood, she surely had instincts more sensitive than a beast’s.
In other words, she knew how strong that demonkin was earlier.
And that when he told her to run away while handing over the vice-bishop, he had actually meant for her to run away while he bought time.
“I could have escaped on my own.”
“I believed you would come back.”
If the demonkin had survived instead, she, who had come looking for him, would have been eaten alive.
“Then you should have kept waiting.”
Even at his reproachful tone, Reina did not lose her bright smile.
“I was going to, but the people outside said they couldn’t wait.
Since Lina has to lead the members, I had no choice but to come.”
She handed him the white mask, stained with sticky blood, and continued.
“Everyone has been waiting outside for hours.”
I followed her as she left the cathedral with a smile.
* * *
That afternoon.
Upon returning to the castle, Ian first sought out the vice-bishop.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m much better, thanks to you.”
She greeted Ian with a slight bow from a seated position.
“So, how does it feel to see the face of the demon you’ve been waiting for?”
As one corner of Ian’s mouth curled up in a playful sneer, the vice-bishop bowed her head again and apologized.
“I apologize.
I never imagined that the master of the Moner family would attack the cathedral……”
“Since God isn't doing his duty, I have to.”
At Ian’s nonchalant voice, she raised her head and looked at him.
Her golden hair, which had lost its luster and hung limp, her parched and cracked lips, and her body so thin that her bones were showing, all vividly revealed how difficult a time she had been through, but her eyes, which had not faded even in that long suffering, shone brightly.
“More people will die.
Now that you’ve killed the clerics of the cathedral, the clerics may refuse to provide treatment.
In the end, Young Lord, you have taken away the hope of the innocent and the last chance of those who could have been treated.”
“Isn’t the hope for a salvation that will never come the cruelest illusion?
This domain was strong even before the Holy Empire declared it a sanctuary, and it will continue to be strong.”
The vice-bishop, thinking Ian’s words were irresponsible, flared up and shouted.
“Do you know how many injured people there are in this domain every day?
No matter what medicine there is in the world, it cannot replace a cleric!”
At those words, Ian plopped down in front of her and met her eyes.
“Vice-Bishop, Ashuita.
That is the problem.
This domain has relied too much on the clerics, and that is why it has handed over too many rights.”
Those who deal with life naturally come to have power over that life, and humans who have confirmed their superiority are bound to become corrupt.
Look at how quickly those who had settled in the domain as a vaccine grew into a cancer.
What Ian desired was the complete independence of the Moner family.
For that reason, he had to deal with the clerics decisively from now on.
“If this continues, at some point, religion will start taking more lives than the monsters out there.
By then, it will be too late.”
Ashuita read the deep disgust and distrust towards the clerics that was dissolved in Ian’s words.
“Before that happens, God would have guided us.”
At her words, which were close to a conviction, Ian chuckled and replied.
“Right.
That’s why he sent me.
By the way, can you walk?”
“Still a little……”
As she trailed off in embarrassment, Ian stood up, grabbed her, and unceremoniously slung her over his shoulder like a sack of luggage.
“Excuse me.”
“What is this!
I can walk on my own!”
Ashuita stomped her feet and told him to put her down, but no matter how much she struggled with her skinny body, he couldn’t even feel her weight.
“Then it’ll take too long.
It’s a hassle.”
After answering nonchalantly, Ian left the room, and Reina followed behind him, carrying a small sack.
* * *
Lord’s Castle Auditor's Department.
Bain, the Head of the Auditor's Department, was cooling his forehead with ice.
His chest felt so tight, as if he had developed a stress-related illness from being plagued by a helpless situation where there was nothing he could do.
It had gotten even worse since he heard the news that the young lord had headed to the cathedral.
He was constantly worried about what he might say there, or whether his temper would flare up and he would cause a scene.
“Haa……”
When he was first appointed to this position, he was full of ambition to develop the domain somehow, but as time went on, he felt a sense of self-loathing, as if he were becoming more and more like the previous head of the Auditor's Department, whom he had cursed as incompetent.
“Tsk, I should focus on what I can do.”
Negative thoughts are like a swamp; once you start, it’s hard to get out.
Thinking that he could make a difference just by preventing the corruption of the domain’s servants, he turned his eyes to his documents, but at that moment, a subordinate burst into the room.
“Chief, the Young Lo……”
“Tell him I’m not here!”
Click!
As soon as he heard the words "Young Lord," Bain, feeling an ominous premonition, hastily stood up and gathered his documents to flee.
You know those days?
The days when you have a premonition that is almost a prophecy.
‘I must not meet him today, absolutely not.’
Whatever trouble the bastard had caused at the cathedral, it was none of his business.
The Regent would eventually take care of it.
Just as he was about to make his escape, he heard a familiar voice from behind his subordinate.
“This is disappointing.”
Slowly turning around, Bain collapsed back into his seat.
Behind his subordinate stood the young lord, carrying a corpse on his shoulder and looking at him with his characteristic villainous smile.
Ah.
Damn it.
The ominous premonition that had never been wrong since his childhood stirred in the depths of his stomach like a coiled snake.