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Translator: M.S
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: A Sorry State
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“What do we do…”
“He’s going to die at this rate…”
Sixteen? Seventeen?
A boy and a girl were fighting.
Both wielded deep blue longswords.
Droplets of blood splattered, and their glares grew more venomous by the second.
The children surrounding them were all pale, unsure of what to do.
And in their midst, one man was smiling.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties, dressed in a black shirt and black light armor.
All the children did was watch him, gauging his reaction.
Continental Calendar, Year 1351. April 6th.
Just before the miracle,
this was the story of that morning.
* * *
If you were to ask me why I live,
I’m just… living.
After losing my limbs and my Aura Core cracking, I honestly just wanted to die.
All my closest friends were dead anyway.
The only reason I didn’t was because I couldn’t bear to leave the remaining children behind.
But the funny thing is, there’s not much I can do for them by staying alive.
Living on won’t help me achieve anything more.
I’m just struggling not to lose anything else.
Still, the children need me… so I’m just enduring as long as I can.
So, to be honest,
I don’t have much motivation.
“Lansen! Teacher! Quick! Quick! It’s an emergency! Big sis and big bro are fighting!”
So, when the six-year-old, Seon, ran up and tugged at my sleeve, I was still indifferent.
It wasn’t the first or second time the kids had gotten into a scrap.
But Seon’s gestures were so desperate that I feigned ignorance and let him pull me along.
Limping.
My prosthetic left leg and prosthetic right hand seemed to ache more than usual today.
‘Who’s fighting today?’
There were so many kids these days it was hard to remember them all at once.
When we first arrived here, we were just sixteen, still children ourselves.
The last descendants of the Vanroah Kingdom.
But,
the number of children kept growing.
Orphans kept popping up in the ruins of Kushan City, in the Ilneon Dungeon, and since they were around the same age, they naturally started following us.
It was the same even after we became vassals of Ksias and started living in our own mansion.
My younger siblings kept bringing home orphans like they were stray cats, and our family just kept expanding.
Seon was the youngest to join us like that.
Unaware of our past, this little guy just enjoyed playing with his big brothers and sisters.
Since there was a big age gap between us, he called me teacher or sir.
“Lansen! Teacher! Quick!”
“Yeah, yeah. Alright.”
The children’s hideout, the Ilneon Dungeon, was right next to the mansion where we lived.
Seon skillfully darted through the collapsed piles of stone and descended the stairs leading underground.
As I limped along behind him down the dark dungeon corridor, I froze in my tracks.
‘The smell of blood!’
And it was thick.
My intuition screamed a warning.
This wasn't a simple fight.
“Seon. Hold on.”
*Thud!*
I pushed off the ground with my good right leg and ran.
The ruins of the corridor blurred past me.
The scene at the end came into view.
Daisy and Seklan were fighting, covered in blood.
‘Why are they…?’
Daisy was the youngest of my siblings from Vanroah.
The last remaining blood of the Marquis Julien family.
When she was little, she was the one who followed me around the most.
Seklan wasn't from the Vanroah Kingdom, but he had been with us for ten years, like family.
They were even best friends, the same age.
But fighting with real swords?
It was impossible.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
*KRAAANG!*
I stomped my foot with all my might.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the hard granite tiles, and a sound like a bomb blast echoed through the ruins.
Daisy and Seklan flinched in surprise and separated.
I slowly turned my gaze.
The cause of this whole mess was right in front of me.
Amidst the crowd of children aged five to eighteen, one man stood out: a twenty-seven-year-old.
His name was Nagi.
A vassal of Ksias.
We used to see each other often.
This was our first reunion in three years.
“What are you doing?”
When I asked, he grinned as if he were happy to see me.
“Well, well! Lansen! It’s really you!”
“I asked what you’re doing.”
“Ah… this?”
Nagi gestured with his chin toward the blood-soaked Daisy and Seklan, then waved his hands as if it were nothing.
“Just holding interviews.”
“Interviews?”
“Yes. If I see some potential, I’m thinking of taking them in as my kin. Under my direct command, of course.”
“...Kin?”
What kind of vampire nonsense was this?
After Count Dekashu’s death, Count Ksias had taken his true blood and become a vampire.
He wanted to overcome the frailties of his aging body.
Now, most of Count Ksias’s vassals were vampires.
So what that bastard Nagi was saying was…
He was planning to drain Daisy or Seklan of their blood… and resurrect them as vampires.
And as lower kin, forced to obey a piece of trash like Nagi’s every command.
It had been a long time since I’d been this angry.
I felt every single hair on my body stand on end.
But Nagi, either oblivious or doing it on purpose, paid no mind and continued at his own pace.
“Yes. Kin. I’d heard rumors, but I can’t believe you’re really in a place like this. Still, you must have some money saved up. Why are you living in such a remote place?”
“Whose blood… do you dare think of mixing?”
“Oh, right. These are ancient ruins, aren't they? I heard an elixir was discovered here about 200 years ago? What a shame. If you had that, you could have fixed your body.”
“Are you looking to die?”
“Still, isn’t it a bit dangerous? They say these ruins are over ten thousand years old… What if they suddenly collapse?”
“Does the Count know about this?”
The words “the Count.”
At that single phrase, Nagi’s demeanor changed.
“The Count? Ah… my dear Lansen… you still don’t get it, do you?”
Nagi strode toward me, his eyes gleaming.
“Do you still think you’re a Sword Master? You think the Count gives a damn about you now that you’re a cripple, a washed-up has-been?”
“So you came here on your own? Even though you know this is our family’s territory?”
“Yes. I came knowing it’s your family’s territory. I heard a rumor. That the great Sword Master Lansen lost his limbs all because of some little kids.”
“What…?”
A smile slowly spread across Nagi’s face.
Not the fake smile from before, but a real one, flickering with madness.
“But it’s true, isn’t it? You’re doing this to protect them?”
Nagi’s gleaming eyes swept over the children, as if memorizing each and every one.
“I’m not thrilled about it, but maybe I should take them all as my kin? They’d be the lowest rank, so they’d get a little dumber… but they’d live better than they do now.”
His intention was successful.
I felt a threat so palpable it made the fine hairs on my arms stand up.
The me reflected in Nagi’s eyes probably had flames dancing in my own.
Not figuratively, but literally.
“Don’t touch the kids. You’ll die if you do.”
“Do you have the power for that?”
In that moment,
I made up my mind.
*SWISH!*
I drew the sword at my waist and swung.
*Kill him. Just kill him, and then beg the Count for forgiveness, even if I have to sell off all my remaining treasures. That would be better.*
But the blade never reached Nagi’s neck.
*Tak!*
A man and a woman appeared as if they’d dropped from the sky.
Both had pale faces, a sign they were vampire kin.
*CLANG!*
The woman blocked my attack while the man lowered his stance and slashed at my good right leg.
*KAKAKANG!*
Sparks flew as we exchanged blows in an instant.
‘Expert, Low-rank…?’
No, considering the superior physique and aura of a vampire, they could be considered Mid-rank.
They were high-class kin, then…
So what?
I moved, dodging the attack, and immediately drove my fist and foot into them.
“Huk!”
“Gack!”
It must have hurt.
I’d struck their vitals perfectly.
They stumbled back, rolled, and collapsed to the floor.
But their eyes quickly filled with venom as they rose again, swinging their swords.
I simply tilted my head slightly to evade the attack.
“Newbies? You’ve got guts.”
“Well, our opponent is a has-been.”
That bastard Nagi definitely had an inferiority complex when it came to me. Every other word out of his mouth was "has-been."
Fine. I’ll show you how a has-been fights.
*Slice!*
“Aaaargh!”
I aimed for the attacking man’s wrist and slashed.
Blood spurted from the severed artery like a water gun.
“You…!”
Seeing this, the woman charged, but the result was no different.
*THWACK!*
“Ugh!”
I lightly kicked her in the stomach, knocking her down, then brought my sword down and slit her ankle.
“Aaaargh!”
*Splurt!*
The woman curled up, clutching her ankle, but blood gushed between her fingers.
The male kin was in the same state.
Neither could regain their senses from the fatal wounds.
Still, they were just mosquito bastards. They’d heal soon enough.
“Take a break.”
I hadn’t killed them on purpose. Only Nagi needed to die. There was no need to provoke Count Ksias any further.
Nagi. As I recalled, he was an Expert Mid-rank.
He had some talent, so he might have reached High-rank by now.
Objectively, I was at a disadvantage.
My damaged Aura Core could only produce an output slightly below Mid-rank, and my hands and feet weren’t normal.
But,
‘You think a former Sword Master is a joke?’
An Expert High-rank was someone I could definitely take on.
I flicked the blood from my blade.
“Nagi. I know you have an inferiority complex about me.”
“I do? About you?”
He said, his eyes scanning my prosthetic hand and leg.
See?
It was an inferiority complex.
“It’s not an inferiority complex? Then is it because of that girl you liked?”
“What?”
“You know, four years ago. Was her name Zenia? But that wasn’t my fault. She said your face made her want to puke. She told me that every time we ate together. Said she wished you’d stop talking to her.”
“...Ha?”
“I still took your side back then, though. Told her you weren’t a bad guy.”
“Well, I’ll be…”
*Kiiiiiing!*
For the first time, Nagi unleashed his fury.
The red aura he emitted consumed the surroundings.
The younger ones, who had been watching anxiously, shrank back from the pressure.
*Woooong—*
I, too, drew upon my aura.
The Vanroah royal family’s aura technique, Iron Heart, summoned a deep blue aura.
But compared to Nagi’s menacing red aura, mine was like a candle in the wind.
‘The difference in output is too great. A direct confrontation is impossible. I’ll trick him with a feint and take his head in one strike.’
Once the decision was made, the action had to be swift!
*THUD!*
I stomped the ground as if to shatter it and charged forward.
A bluff.
I raised my sword as if I were betting my life on a single strike.
He wouldn’t be able to resist blocking it.
That was the whole reason for my childish provocation in the first place.
To get him excited and narrow his vision!
The moment he falls for this feint and swings at nothing, I’ll take his head.
But then,
*Slice!*
My sword split in two mid-air.
*Drip—*
Though Nagi’s sword hadn’t even touched me, a line of cold blood trickled down my cheek.
“Lansen.”
Nagi’s sword, a smirk on his face, was unraveling threads of red aura.
It wasn’t that Nagi had seen through my intention.
The threads of aura that dominated the area had simply sliced my sword in half.
The extended threads of aura surrounded me.
Aura Thread.
A technique that could only be displayed by a top-tier Expert.
The reason why a top-tier Expert was special.
‘This… is hopeless…’
Nagi had subdued me without even moving from his spot.
“Why have you become so pathetic, my dear Lansen? I heard your core was cracked. It’s in worse shape than I thought.”
“...”
“Surprised? Did you think I couldn’t reach the highest rank? After becoming a vampire, it wasn’t that hard, you know?”
“...”
The long threads of aura licked at my neck.
I couldn’t move a muscle.
It was obvious that the moment I moved, I would die.
“Now, what should I do? Should I carve up that handsome face of yours right here? So you can never run your mouth about someone else’s face again?”
Cruelty flickered in Nagi’s eyes.
My mind raced.
‘Is there a way to turn this around?’
None.
Then…
‘I have to change my strategy.’
I bit my lip hard, then,
I smiled.
A somewhat servile smile.
I quickly lowered my eyes.
My ultimate tactic.
A complete change of attitude.
“Haha… Nagi. Could you let this slide just once?”
“Hmm?”
Nagi’s voice rose strangely.
“What? Are you begging me now?”
The pleasure in his voice was unmistakable.
Yes. You think I don’t know you?
This is what he wants.
Feeling inferior to me… he’s always wanted this.
To stomp on me, to see me fall.
I could gladly satisfy that desire.
As long as I could protect the children.
I could do it really well.
“But Lansen. Isn’t this a little insincere? You should at least get on your knees.”
“My knees? Haha…”
I pretended to hesitate.
Honestly, I could kneel a hundred times, but not right now.
If I did, he’d lose interest.
He wanted to break me, not see someone who was already broken.
If I were already broken? He would have killed my siblings for sport and left. He was the type of man to do that.
“What? You can’t do it?”
His eyes curved into crescents.
*WHAM!*
*CRACK!*
He struck me with a fist like an iron mace.
Two of my molars shattered and flew out, and my ribs broke with a loud crack.
“Guh…!”
All I could do was swallow a groan.
“It’s not like I told you to get on the ground and lick my boots, right? Huh?”
*Smack! Thwack!*
Nagi slapped my cheek with every word.
My face swelled up, but I just kept smiling awkwardly.
From here on, my acting skills were crucial.
I had to kneel, but as if I were reluctantly, forcibly swallowing my pride…
Nagi’s eyes gleamed.
He glanced around menacingly.
His lips curled cruelly as he looked at the children.
‘Now…!’
I pretended to be startled.
“Stop…”
I made my voice sound as pathetic as possible.
“Stop it…”
Slowly… very slowly, I knelt and bowed my head.
“Please stop… I’m sorry…”
Nagi looked down on me.
*Crunch.*
He ground his dusty boot on the top of my head, pressing down hard.
*It worked!*
Yes, it worked.
Nothing else mattered.
“Agh, geez. Seeing you on your knees like this really gets to me…”
He said, while pressing down harder on my head with his foot.
“Sigh… you’re really making me soft. Alright! For your sake, I’ll let it go for today.”
*Let it go, my ass.*
He was just savoring a tasty meal.
From now on, he would try to break me, little by little, completely.
Teasing me with hope, toying with me.
Still,
at least I could get through today.
“Why do you live like this? I feel sorry for you, I really do.”
Nagi helped me up, dusted off my clothes, and then turned to his subordinates.
“Let’s go.”
“Ye-yes!”
“Yessir!”
The two vampires, their wounds already healed, scrambled to follow Nagi.
“See you again! Lansen. Let’s meet tomorrow.”
*Clomp, clomp.*
Nagi waved his hand cheerfully as he slowly walked away.
I stood still with my head down until the sound of his shoes had completely faded.
Creating an atmosphere of someone chewing on their own misery.
‘…Is he gone?’
Only after I was sure he was gone did I let out a groan and collapse.
I could hear the children whispering.
“Teacher…”
“No way. He lost…”
“He knelt…”
“What do we do…”
My eyes inadvertently met Daisy’s.
She stood there, her fists clenched tightly.
Her eyes were trembling.
She seemed to be in deep shock.
I wanted to say something, but I just swallowed my words.
When I looked down at myself,
I was in such a pathetic state… it was hard to.
‘It’s fine.’
My pride, abandoned.
My revenge, abandoned.
Abandoning, abandoning, and abandoning again, my life is a wretched thing with nothing left but more to give up.
But the reason I keep living…
is to protect all of you, whom I can never forsake.
Well, if that’s the reason, then it’s enough.
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