Terminally-Ill Genius Dark Knight

194: The Ashen Wolf [3]

— A full-bellied noble is one who always indulges in alcohol, gambling, and women. There are no exceptions.

Over the past year, I came to truly understand what kind of creatures these so-called nobles are.

They are worms. Corrupt, engage in filthy deeds, avoid responsibility for their own mistakes, and shift the blame onto others,

They were the ones who brought about the era of chaos in the east and caused the downfall of the first and only human-unified kingdom, the Catalyu Kingdom. And who perishes because of their decisions?

It’s always overwhelmingly the slaves and commoners.

This time was no different.

There is an object called the [Philosopher’s Stone]

A tool said to grant everyone’s wishes in the world.

But because of it, a civil war broke out in the Catalyu Kingdom, and as a result, the stone shattered into nine pieces that scattered across the world.

Why do I know this?

[How is it? The feeling of revenge?]

It’s because I can hear the voice coming from the red gem embedded in the back of my hand.

And because I’ve felt its power directly.

He continued to speak to me

[I am Baal. If you seek even greater power, gather all nine pieces of the stone and resurrect me completely.]

The guy called Baal claimed himself to be a demon, one of the Grand Dukes

The strongest among them, and his goal was to manifest the demon realm in this world.

The moment I accidentally found the stone and picked it up, he embedded himself into the back of my hand and wouldn’t come off. I even tried to cut it out, but it only dug in deeper. Having no other choice, I decided to leave it alone.

Anyway, since it was somewhat helpful, I decided to ignore it for the time being, planning to have a skilled priest remove it later.

If they perform an exorcism, it’ll probably fall off on its own. It’s just a demon, after all. At the time, I didn’t think demons were particularly powerful beings.

Isn’t that natural?

The characteristics of demons in the old books from the orphanage were too similar to humans.

They sow discord, make people fight, and ultimately drive them to kill each other.

How is that any different from humans?

Honestly, I don’t think it is.

Of course, I might just be ignorant, but at least that’s how I see it.

Demons and humans are not fundamentally different, and any human can become a demon if they desire it.

‘Well, that’s not important right now.’

Shaking off those thoughts, I stepped over the split corpse of the platoon leader and moved forward. I grabbed the ornately decorated door and opened it, revealing the noble I had imagined.

Behind a transparent veil-like curtain, the man exposed his bloated belly while holding a woman in his arms.

I could hear her coquettish voice.

It struck me anew.

That man and I lived in entirely different worlds.

The reason?

It’s a matter of birth.

From the very beginning, he was born a noble, bestowed with land and slaves.

I was born a commoner, no different from a slave, just one of the countless orphans born during the era of chaos.

A faint smile crept onto my lips.

“Hey, noble sir. Sorry to bother you while you’re busy, but I need a moment of your time.”

“Wh,what! Who are you?! How dare you enter the count’s residence without permission! That’s a grave cri….”

Splat!

“Is there someone else here to enforce the laws?”

I tore through the veil and faced his bloated, sweaty face.

The naked woman beneath his sagging face screamed, but I paid her no mind. My focus was solely on him.

I drew my blood-stained sword and pressed it against his chin.

“Aeloi.”

“W-what do you want from me?”

“Aeloi.”

“A-Aeloi…?”

He furrowed his brow, trying to recall the name.

But it seemed he couldn’t remember, as he tilted his head.

His face looked at me, as if confused

Why should I remember that name?

In a literal sense, it was that kind of expression.

“You killed her”

Just moments ago, Farrell had told me. That I’m alone and weak, and that I can’t change anything.

“I, I don’t know that name! It wasn’t me!”

“It was you.”

He desperately denied it, raising his hands. He looked at me, acting pathetic as if pleading for his life. The woman who had been beneath him had already fled far away.

Why did the Count of Kses look like a dog in that moment?

A dog wagging its tail for its master. Of course, there was no bond between us, but his current actions looked pitiful.

As if he were the victim. Kses was sweating in a cold sweat.

I sneered and began to slowly cut into his chin.

His skin tore, and blood seeped out, running down his bloated neck. It was amusing.

A Count, no less. A noble who must have spent his life strutting around with his nose in the air, now losing all his soldiers to a mere commoner, having his fun interrupted, and now facing death.

But unfortunately, at that moment, I felt no pity for him.

“……It’s unfair. You don’t remember Aeloi, but I have no choice but to remember you for the rest of my life.”

“I-I’ll give you anything! Gold, treasures? Is that what you want? I’ll give it to you! My family has connections with the central government! I’ll buy you any slave, male or female! Come on, if you kill me, you won’t get away with it!”

I will never forget the name Kses.

How could I forget the one who stole something precious from me?

But he would die without ever knowing the reason for his death.

You could say it’s a tragedy in its own way, but I didn’t like that. He had to die unsatisfied.

Even if the wounded remember, the one who inflicted the wound doesn’t.

Just like from some old book I read, dead men tell no tales.

And Aeloi is already dead.

Is it right for me to kill this man here and now?

A sudden thought.

To swing my sword and say, he’s dead, so it’s over. This man has committed too many sins. Even if I’m not devout, even if I asked the gods, they’d probably say the same.

“A brat who hasn’t even shed his childishness is already staining his sword with human blood. Tsk tsk…”

Suddenly, a mysterious voice echoed, and a chill ran down my spine.

I quickly dropped Kses and turned around. But there was no one there. The voice had clearly come from there, so why?

Dangerous.

I instinctively felt it and turned around again, swinging my sword.

Chaeng!

It collided.

The man didn’t even try to hide his presence. The middle-aged man who now stood before me seemed skilled with a sword. At the very least, it was clear that killing him was impossible for me.

If he had wanted to?

The man could have cut me to pieces and left me in a ditch.

Who is he?

Is there still someone with such power in the East?

“It seems you’re curious about many things, but you’re not scared. This is interesting.”

“If you wanted to kill me, you would have already done it.”

“That’s not wrong. But that doesn’t mean your life is safe… Well, at least you’re not my priority.”

The middle-aged man said this and grabbed Kses, whom I had let go, lifting him by the scruff of his neck. It was clearly superhuman strength even from a glance. What would happen if he wielded a sword with that kind of power?

Just the fact that he caught Kses, who was trying to flee, was shocking enough, but I had a feeling he would show me something even more astonishing.

If not, he wouldn’t have been able to defenselessly approach me.

“Let’s deal with this worm first, then talk.”“

"W, what is this? Who are you to target me?!”

“Kses. You’ve been notorious for your corruption and atrocities. You’re even more pathetic and weak than I thought.”

The middle-aged man finished a brief, sincere prayer, then spoke softly as he swung his sword horizontally.

“May the Creator, Arden, receive you on their side. Salvation for an evil”

Slice.

The clean cut was in stark contrast to his words. Kses’s head fell to the ground in one swift motion, and as if nothing happened, the middle-aged man began to scrutinize me.

As if it were now my turn.

After a tense silence, he suddenly asked me.

“Revenge, is it?”

“…”

I couldn’t bring myself to answer.

I didn’t even know why I had acted this way, why I had done something so reckless. Among the abandoned children, there are too many like Aeloi who are sold and killed.

So why? I.

Have no choice but to this…..

As my thoughts trailed off.

I suddenly felt something heavy resting on my head.

“It seems you’re caught in a vicious curse. You were born with the talent to reach the heavens, yet you’re letting it rot in a place like this.”

“Talent?”

“Listen carefully.”

The middle-aged man began to ramble on without even listening to me.

“I have to kill you. The red stone in your grasp… the demon within it is the worst Archduke that will throw the world into chaos.”

He added with a serious expression.

“If he awakens, the continent will enter an age of chaos like the East. If all nine fragments of his soul are awakened, the problem will become even more severe.”

“Is he really that powerful demon? This guy in my hand?”

I spoke as if I truly didn’t know, but he nodded with a grim expression.

“Yes. The First Archduke, Baal. He is the most formidable monster among the demons who lead the strongest armies in the demon realm. Even Agares or Belial would not be able to surpass him.”

“I don’t believe in moral law, and I have no intention of dying because of that.”

I said it honestly.

No matter how the world ends, it’s not my business. Even if Baal is a great archduke, and even if the thing embedded in the back of my hand is the Philosopher’s Stone, it means nothing to me.

There’s nothing left for me to protect.

I only pursue my own interests, and I don’t have much attachment to living for that purpose either.

That’s when it happened.

The middle-aged man struck the back of my head and said.

“Ah!”

I let out a sound without realizing it. It seemed he had punched me with a clenched fist as the pain was quite severe.

“Young brat, you’re already making a face like you’ve lived through everything in the world. How ridiculous… By the way, you need to fix that filthy mouth of yours. It’s utterly unacceptable.”

“What?”

“Don’t you want to live?”

A sudden, piercing question. It was hard to answer, but why?

His question had a certain force to it.

“Not really.”

“What do you want to have?”

What do I want to have?

Gold and treasures?

I’ve never even dreamed of them.

Women?

Not particularly interested.

Then what’s left for me.

What is it that I pursue and desire to have?

I….

“Let me guess.”

The middle-aged man said that and looked at me. His eyes were filled with a transparent clarity, free of any blemish. Is it because of his sincerity? something I couldn’t bring myself to possess?

Could it be that something like a sacred power resides within him?

The man continued indifferently.

“It’s a sword. I watched you fight with another guy outside the door. And I realized. What it is that you truly desire and can’t bear to be without……”

Yes, that’s right.

Now I think I understand.

When a terrible sense of loss filled one side of my chest.

Even at that moment,

What was it that I thought I had to possess?

A sword.

One that contains mana, sometimes dazzling,

And at other times, stronger than anything else.

Yes, I need a sword.

“Will you become my disciple?”

But.

Even at that moment, there was one thing that still tormented me.

“But even if I have that, what can I do with it?”

Even if I have a strong sword, what can I possibly change?

Didn’t Farrell already tell me?

That I can’t do anything alone. But that’s when it happened.

He gave me the answer I needed.

“If you reach a level where no one can look down on you, you can achieve anything. Even if you’re alone, you won’t be alone anymore.”

“…Who are you, really?”

Unable to hold back the question, he simply smiled and said the following.

“Celcus. In the world, they call me one of the Three Sword Emperors.”

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