Chapter 50 : Chapter 50

Chapter 50 - The World I Create

“Who are you.”

After escaping from the stomach of the monstrous whale that fed on Krakens.

And after escaping the sea of monsters and climbing onto land, the first words he spoke.

The bat hunter, who hadn't said a single word since the whale's mouth, chose a question for his first words.

The Silver Mask took off his green coat and threw it to Halsin, who was dressed only in rags.

“Is the client's information necessary for a vampire hunt?”

Receiving it, he tore at various parts of the coat and buried his nose in it to smell it.

It seemed the only thing he could smell was the salty scent of the sea, but.

When you deal with monsters for a long time, you're bound to turn into a monster yourself.

“Seeing as you're quite a powerful sorcerer, it's safe to assume Millesdusk is involved. And that means that blood noble is related to Millesdusk.”

“The Fifth Son of Millesdusk. He is a direct kinsman of Millesdusk and a direct kinsman of the Queen.”

“Khuhuhut... You're not from Millesdusk, are you? Yet you put in an assassination request. Are you a subordinate of some other new-generation kinsman?”

“This is not a Millesdusk kinsman assassination request. It's a noble hunt entrusted to a vampire hunter.”

“Right. It's not my business.”

Halsin, dressed in the dark green coat, slicked back his white hair, wet with seawater.

The white hair had not come from aging, but from the process of fighting and overcoming vampires.

Until his black hair had turned completely white.

The vampires couldn't kill him, and he survived.

There were various reasons for that.

First and foremost, observation skills.

“The high-level illusion you showed me. It seems you cast an illusion on me too to hide your magic power, but I am someone who can withstand even a vampire's mind control. Mystics.”

“......”

Secondly, perceptiveness.

“Yes. Mystics could be Millesdusk's maternal family, but seeing as you've called even me, that Fifth Son must be extremely strong.”

“...That is for you to judge.”

“Ah. Is that so? In that case, there's a high probability that you guys are underestimating the said blood noble.”

“Underestimating? Do you think we would make such a mistake?”

“Everyone makes such mistakes. Mystics. Even if he's only ten, he's a blood noble. And a direct descendant of the Queen.”

He untied the belt of his coat.

He tied back his long-grown hair.

His wrinkled features, revealed with a clear view, had hollow cheeks.

Nevertheless, the venom in his eyes was alive, without a hint of withering.

“He's a kid with infinite potential.”

“...He is certainly showing rapid growth, but before that, he was a guy who spent most of his life cowering in fear.”

“That is a lack of awareness.”

“A lack of awareness...?'

“The image of a monarch that the Queen should have taught him by his side. His own position. The downward gaze. He didn't learn those things, so he didn't know who he was.”

“You're writing a novel. If there's anything you need, just say it. I'll get it for you.”

Halsin looked at the Silver Mask and curled the corner of his lips.

“Peanut butter.”

“...What?”

“Bring me peanut butter. That'll be a one-shot.”

“Pea, peanut butter? Vampires had such a weakness...?”

Halsin's expression crumpled.

“Why would I give something so precious to bats? I've eaten nothing but raw fish for my entire life inside a whale. I want to taste the world.”

I didn't know why the world had to come up in a discussion about peanut butter, but.

The Silver Mask nodded.

“Anything else? Weapons or equipment needed to kill a vampire. Stakes, silver bullets, a silver sword. Things like that.”

“......”

Halsin closed his mouth, then let out a long sigh.

“To think such nonsense rumors are still going around. It seems I really am the last hunter.”

“You're saying that staking them in the heart kills them is a rumor?”

“Anyone dies if you stake them in the heart. But since people go around saying it's limited to vampires, it's a rumor.”

The bat hunting expert, who had clicked his tongue a couple of times, presented a classic solution.

“Just fill a cart with guns and ammunition. Take me to the Dusk Citadel.”

“...Understood.”

The Silver Mask turned around, his shoulders slumped like a child whose illusion had been shattered.

But just before that.

Halsin grabbed his shoulder.

“There's something that must take top priority over the guns.”

“What is it?”

Behind the Silver Mask, his expectant face flushed.

Silver knuckles? Holy water? Firebombs?

“My peanut butter.”

“......”

“Peanut butter comes before guns. Let's go to the food district.”

The Silver Mask imagined reporting the details of his deal with Halsin to the head of the Mystics family.

It would not be money, nor status, nor honor, nor a cure for a curse.

Peanut butter.

It would be a hymn to the savory and sweet.

***

The sun rose.

In the training that began with the sun, the two sorcerers became swordsmen.

One held a Bone Sword, the other a Magic Sword.

The tips of their swords were aimed at each other, which was the same, but the difference in the perfection of their stances was clear.

It was the difference between 40 years and 40 minutes.

But that 40-year gap was rapidly closing.

As if 1 second was 1 minute, as if 1 minute was 10 minutes.

“Young Master. When you're this close to an opponent, a large sword is disadvantageous. There are other ways, but for now, you must get used to controlling the distance.”

“Ah. Like this?”

“...That's right.”

Teach him one thing, and he knows two.

He wasn't a prodigy who knew ten, but he always knew two.

And when a part he knew came up, he would realize thirteen things and apply them.

That sight was just like watching the northerners.

The northerners who are said to hold a sword before a spoon.

The northern knights who are said to raise horses instead of dogs at home.

Teaching the Youngest Son the sword, for some reason, reminded me of them.

It wasn't to say he learned the sword as quickly as the northerners.

Of course, it wasn't that there was no such feeling at all.

The main reason was in the habits ingrained in his movements, the innate sense to apply them to knowledge he already possessed.

It was the same now.

Swaaaak─!

A slash that stretched out in a sharp crescent moon shape, then suddenly split into smaller pieces and scattered chaotically.

An opponent hit by this would be watching the crescent moon, only to suddenly have their body minced.

...The scars on my thighs and calves throbbed.

“Young Master. That technique is very, very similar to one I know.”

The reason I didn't say it was the exact same technique was because his way of handling magic power was fundamentally that of a sorcerer.

Even if a sorcerer and a swordsman handle the same power, the way they use it is bound to be different.

The gatekeeper, the northern swordsman he knew, used this for an ice-and-snow-based slash.

The Youngest Son used this to unleash a slash containing the power of a curse.

Even without the Limitless Sword, various curses were revealed in his hands.

So many that it made one wonder when he had learned all these curses.

“Why. Did I touch some forbidden art that I'm not supposed to use?”

“...That's not it. It's just that it is the main technique of the Transcendent Knights of the North, specifically the Full Moon Legion Commander.”

“What a coincidence. It's a technique I came up with while looking at the crescent moon that was up last night.”

A half-moon was up yesterday, but the gatekeeper just let it slide.

Millesdusk didn't care who used what technique.

As long as that technique wasn't used to stab them, they wouldn't touch you no matter what you learned.

The same went for the swordsmanship of the North.

However, what was curious was how he had learned it.

'That ten-year-old couldn't have seen the Full Moon Legion Commander. Nor could he have been hit by his swordsmanship.'

The sparring continued amidst that question.

The Bone Sword and the Magic Sword clashed with pure skill, without magic.

The Bone Sword was lacking in every aspect compared to the Magic Sword.

Cutting power, hardness, weight, length.

There seemed to be no reason for the Magic Sword to lose.

However, there was a difference in the hand that held the hilt.

The Bone Sword clashed with the Magic Sword, but then slid down its blade.

It advanced, sliding down as if on a slide.

Using the Magic Sword's blade as its path, it came right up to his nose.

And.

Puk─

It absolutely did not stop.

“Consider it tuition.”

“Expensive.”

The Bone Sword was pulled out of his chest.

The body twitched due to the muscles that had reflexively contracted the moment he was stabbed.

The parted skin was joined together again.

“Learning with your body is always the fastest. You should also learn the price of making a mistake.”

“Just say you were too lazy to stop.”

“Yes. I am lazy.”

The Bone Sword was raised once more.

The same for the Magic Sword.

The gatekeeper smiled a cheerful smile for the first time in a long while.

“The Young Master's Cursed Swordsmanship is passable thanks to the large number of curses you can use and your magic power recovery rate. The problem is the basics.”

The feeling of knowing all sorts of advanced techniques but not the basics.

Until now, it seemed he had compensated for those basics with his physical abilities, but that would eventually lead to a wall.

“It might be fine for now, but if you meet a true master of interpersonal combat while treating the sword like you do, Young Master.”

“If I meet one?”

“Then even the Young Master's regeneration won't be enough.”

In a word, it meant only death.

“Let's work hard so that doesn't happen.”

The Magic Sword and Bone Sword continued to spark afterwards.

Each time, the number of wounds on the Youngest Son's body increased.

But the gatekeeper felt it.

That his own term of service was gradually getting longer.

Because the frequency of the wounds was getting longer and longer.

Then, he was now able to match him quite well.

It was something that happened in just half a day.

The gatekeeper, though he didn't want to show it on the outside, was amazed on the inside.

He was surprised to be next to his talent.

'Getting cut by a blade. It must hurt quite a bit.'

Actually, this was something I had felt even during our first meeting.

'Well. Back then, his arm was cut off, but he didn't even bat an eye.'

Regardless of what happens to his own body, he secures the benefit in front of him.

This could be called daring, but it was closer to dangerous.

A person accustomed to throwing themselves off a cliff will choose the cliff even when there is a path that is not a cliff.

They think that since they have always survived that cliff, they will be able to survive this time as well.

But a cliff is a place where you die even if you slip up once.

“Young Master.”

“What is it? If you want to start heading into Eclipse, I'm all for it. I need to practice multi-person combat now, don't I?”

The cliff right now was that demonic realm.

The first cliff was a certain Executioner Knight.

The gatekeeper could now predict that increasingly higher cliffs would appear and await the Young Master.

And also that he would jump without hesitation.

He could see it now.

“Let's do that. I will follow you.”

“What is it? It seems this wasn't what you wanted to say. Hurry up and say it.”

“I was just about to say that it's a pity. Because I want to stab you as much as I can before we return to the mansion.”

The Youngest Son smiled.

“Let's go. We'll reach the center of Eclipse within a week.”

“I will follow. If you collapse again this time, I will abandon you without hesitation and go.”

“That won't happen. I've thoroughly taken care of the problem child.”

Enad, who had been transferred to runes on my forearm again, was still quiet.

Even when I drew or contained its power, it was quiet without a word.

It felt that the time was not yet right.

It had judged that it could not win right now.

But what could be done?

That time will never come.

Kuuuung─

I summoned the Griffin.

This time, it was not an investigation, but a conquest.

Rather than walking on foot, we had to go as far as we could at first.

The Griffin carrying the two people spread its wings sharply.

As pointed and sharp as an arrow's fletching.

[Activating Unique Skill 「Subsonic Flight」.]

Kuuuuhhh─!!

With a pressure that felt like my neck would snap back.

The Griffin flew like a bullet.

It was incredibly fast, but it was a method that couldn't last long.

Subsonic flight was difficult to change direction with, and anything that flies in a straight line is bound to be caught eventually.

“Are they heated up from our ‘investigation’? Their reaction is much faster than I thought.”

“Isn't this what you expected?”

The demons piled their bodies to create a barrier.

But they weren't the demons that looked like they had arms and legs sewn together that we usually saw.

Dressed in blackish-red armor, with scales on their exposed skin and the head of a goat.

And those things flying in the sky with wings like a dragon's.

“Are those among the things you studied?”

“They are the Guardians.”

Beings like a firewall that protect the center from virus-like invaders.

If we just break through that, we're at the center.

But the Youngest Son's expression was somewhat strange.

The gatekeeper narrowed his eyes while holding his Bone Sword.

“Why do you look so excited? These are the things we have to catch from now on.”

“After we catch them. After we break through, won't we obtain them? That's what I'm looking forward to. So take a good look now, gatekeeper.”

Starting with the guardians, the demons we've killed and passed through so far. And beyond that, the altar of the demon worshipers.

The knowledge of demon worship that will be at the altar and the wall of white bones surrounding this place.

The legacies of the past that everyone avoided because they were stained and dirty.

“How this will change when it passes through my hands. I will show everyone here and out there clearly.”

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