chapter 20
20. Rescue (2)
The weapon in the big man’s hand was an axe.
The guy was holding an ax as big as his body.
Kwaang!!
The giant’s right foot hit the floor of the prison. Only then did the soldiers around them notice the presence of Yuma and his group.
“What, what?”
“It’s an intruder!”
Kidnapping, confinement.
This is a military unit that helped carry out illegal activities.
Even if Yuma revealed his identity now, there was no way he would easily surrender.
And I didn’t think I could communicate with the drooling giant in front of me.
Yuma stood in front of the giant.
“Grrr!”
“Morton!! Kill them all! There is no enemy you can’t kill!!”
The shout of a man behind the giant rang out. It seemed that the giant’s name was Morton.
‘It’s strong.’
Yuma looked directly at Morton through his search eyes.
[Lv. 103]
Morton
Alignment: Evil
Class: Warrior
Ground: Master
Caution: Dragon blood, dragon blood, has been injected into the body. As a result, his physical abilities were greatly strengthened. I am not of sound mind.
‘Dragon.’
With this, it became clear that the entity occupying Count Rubelt’s body was a dragon.
“Grrr?”
Morton, who was glaring at Yuma with drool in her mouth, as soon as Yuma stepped on the stairs─
“Kwaaak!”
He rushed towards Yuma with a red airflow flowing from his entire body.
Morton’s arms rose high. And it fell straight down.
The ax falls violently, with a red flag wrapped around it.
The trajectory pressed down on the atmosphere in a truly intimidating manner.
Quaaa!
Yuma held the [Black Dragon Bernak’s Tooth] In reverse. And I looked closely at the end of the ax’s trace.
The exact center point of the ax blade.
That is the ‘paring point’.
I was able to pinpoint the point with the Skill. And she swung the shortsword held in reverse.
eee!!
A circular golden impact burst out, indicating that the parry was successful.
Yuma felt a numb pain rising from her arm.
But.
It does not collapse.
The red flash that erupted from [Black Dragon Bernak’s Teeth] Completely swept Morton’s upper body, including his head.
Morton’s legs, which had been standing firmly, collapsed.
Kuh──Woong
It was instant death.
The faces of the soldiers who believed only in Morton hardened.
Yuma looked at the faces of the soldiers who walked forward with her eyes. She left the navigation inside deployed.
[Lv.53] [Lv.42] [Lv.65]…
The highest being was only 65. Yuma looked at Hestia and Clone.
“Do not leave mercy in your hands. It is important to completely subdue it.”
Clone nodded his head loudly with a determined look on his face. As soon as Yuma finished speaking, Hestia kicked off the ground and ran away. It seems to be an established fact that they are the ones who helped kidnap her beloved younger brother.
Even if Yuma didn’t say anything, Hestia couldn’t have placed mercy in Yuma’s hands.
Hestia’s body rushed furiously. He held the [Full Moon Ciseteria] That Yuma had given him and swung his sword at the soldiers without hesitation.
Clone raised his staff and shot out a thunderbolt.
It was a magic that assisted Hestia, a sword master-level talented swordsman.
Chaaa!
“Kaaak!”
After fiercely striking, Hestia slashed diagonally across the upper bodies of the two soldiers standing blankly.
Clone dropped a thunderbolt on the heads of the enemies rushing towards Hestia.
Blood splattered on the wall.
Behind the two who quickly neutralize the enemies. One more new model followed.
It was Knight Murphy.
The sense of justice that had been unable to unfold due to being weighed down by the realistic situation was brought back.
‘You knew it!’
This is my first time encountering this prison in person.
But I knew about it because I heard it from senior knights. That these children are innocent children who were taken in without any crime.
The fact that the Count is vaguely ignoring this means that he may be the mastermind behind this.
Murphy already had a hunch. However, he failed to come forward.
Because I was scared.
But when I saw the children in the cage, I felt a strong sense of guilt. And in order to overcome that feeling of guilt, he had to get blood on his hands.
Murphy subdued the soldiers next to Hestia.
It was a battle that crossed the firing line.
Took the lives of 8 people. Ten people were captured.
Slap!
Yuma. And the blonde countess’s daughter, Ruine, opened the doors to the prison cells with the key hanging in the pocket of the man who was the jailer.
Boys and girls inside. Several adult men and women were also tied up.
Missing people from the Earldom.
“…There’s no Kaisen brother here. I think I’ll have to go down to the basement and see.”
Ruine frees the children from their restraints. While calming down the children who were trembling with anxiety, they were unable to hide their sullen emotions.
Hestia opened the door to the fourth prison room.
Immediately, a loud sound burst from Hestia’s mouth.
“Haruk…!!”
Her younger brother, who had been searching for days, was finally found.
“Sister!”
Haruk was held in Hestia’s arms, her brown hair flowing. Hestia patted her Haruk with tears in her eyes.
“I thought you were dead!”
After Yuma confirmed with her own eyes that Hestia had found the Haruk she was looking for, she and Ruine headed towards the dark stairs leading to the basement.
In the dungeon, a young man with blond hair was sitting on a chair.
Still, perhaps out of consideration for being locked underground, the environment was more like a room than a prison. Of course, there were long chain restraints attached to the ankles.
The young man, Kaisen, had no choice but to close his eyes tightly as the bright light seeped in from the suddenly opened ceiling door.
“Brother!”
Ruine quickly ran towards Kaisen.
“…Louine?”
Kaisen, the eldest son of the Count Rubelt family, checked the face of the youngest child and opened his eyes wide.
“Kaisen, the eldest son of Count Rubelt.”
Kaisen noticed that there was a man behind Ruine.
Yuma took out a golden plaque from her arms, signifying that she was the representative of 1st Princess Brigitte, and placed it on her desk.
“First Princess Brigitte’s representative, Yumada.”
“The first princess’s agent…?”
‘You don’t know me.’
Well, if you’ve been stuck here for several months, what you know about yourself is even stranger.
“Tell me what you learned that landed you in this unidentified prison.”
Kaisen looked at Ruine. Her gaze was asking if Yuma knew what kind of person she was.
“It is clear that you are the person who was officially appointed by the First Princess. You have already achieved the result of driving out corrupt forces from a village.”
“…I see, Louis.”
Kaisen, a 22-year-old young man, stroked the hair of his youngest child.
Kai Sen bowed down on his right knee and bowed.
It was a courtesy towards the representative of the First Princess.
“I’m sorry I didn’t know.”
“What can I know when I’m trapped here? Just answer the questions.”
Kai Sen raised his body and opened his dry mouth again.
“The knight under my direct command who was scouting the hill country of the Earldom told me that he saw a dragon…A dragon with jet black eyes and bright red eyes, chewing up a woman.”
Kai Sen continued his speech while sweating.
“He said that with a distraught look on his face. To me. And then…he died. Suddenly at night. He had an affair with the senior knight’s wife. They said the senior knight was angry and cut off his head.”
Kai Sen slowly shook his head.
“My knight was not that kind of friend. He was a knight who pathologically tried to protect his own moral good.”
Kaisen recalled the events that followed.
“So, I went to see my father, Count Rubelt. It was because in my mind I was connected with the disappearances that are currently happening in the county and the scenes my knight witnessed.”
It was a very reasonable inference.
Visiting the Count could not be seen as a strange decision.
From Kaisen’s perspective, he couldn’t tell that Count Rubelt’s mind had already been taken over by the dragon.
“But after answering these questions, my father’s mood suddenly changed. It was as if he had poisoned someone else’s soul… And he ordered me to be locked up. And when I lost consciousness and opened my eyes, it was here. The guards were eating. “The children’s low voices are heard every time the door to the ceiling is opened. That’s why I came to know it.”
Kaisen gritted his teeth.
“So I was certain. The disappearance that occurred in the county and the man-eating dragon…That my father, Count Rubelt, was directly related to them.”
Yuma nodded her head.
“Your inference is correct. There is a high possibility that the thing that is currently taking over the mind of your father, Count Rubelt, is a dragon. If it eats people, it is either because it just wants to kill, or as a means to survive. “I guess.”
Yuma did not feel that the existence of such a dragon was new.
A few of those dragons also appeared in .
And the end of those whose minds were eaten by such dragons was not very good.
Yuma intuitively thought that Count Rubelt would do the same.
“I will oust the current Count Rubelt. That will be the first step in resolving this situation. Whether you take over the Count’s throne immediately or not is not important to me.”
After quickly organizing her thoughts, Yuma told Kaisen the conclusion she had reached.
“The most effective thing in driving out the current Count Rubelt is your testimony, the eldest son. And there are living witnesses as well.”
Children who were imprisoned here. Those children will become witnesses to the Count’s evil ways.
“Tomorrow morning, as soon as dawn breaks, I will go up to the Count’s castle.”
Head-on breakthrough.
Yuma was planning to do it.
‘If you’re scared, you’ll break out of the nest.’
If you destroy the results it has achieved, the dragon will break out of its nest.