Episode 35: I’m a Normal Noble
Surrounded on all sides by poisoned knives, Aquila continued to speak with an air of composure.
“You asked earlier why I didn’t assert that you were ‘born’ as such. It’s because the Astrological Cauldron’s prophecy failed to materialize. That’s why the Federation launched an investigation.”
“The prophecy… if I recall, it was supposed to be an absolute, certain future?”
If Barbat was telling the truth, it was the prophecy that Naia had been spreading far and wide.
Now that I think about it, the damage from that rumor caused commoners to flee the domain without end, gradually crippling the Ortenos economy.
I don’t know if it’s a reaction to that, but the opposite phenomenon is happening now.
“Exactly. According to the prophecy, Ortenos was supposed to be destroyed by a large-scale Demon Beast Disaster six years ago. But when we opened the lid, we couldn’t even confirm the existence of a single Demon Beast. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
Certainly, if no Demon Beasts were confirmed, then a Demonbane Warrior couldn’t have been born. My existence would seem inexplicable.
“That’s certainly an interesting story.”
“Hey, do you realize that among those involved, you’re in the most suspicious position?”
I replied blandly, but Aquila didn’t seem satisfied.
No matter what Aquila thinks, there’s nothing I can do about something I know nothing about.
“Well, a Demon Beast must have been defeated by someone. And in such a short time that no one even noticed its appearance.”
“Kukuku, ahahahaha! That’s too much, even for a joke. The Demon Beast of the prophecy was a true monster that even a Stella-Class group couldn’t defeat. Even if there was one Demonbane Warrior, it wouldn’t change the situation.”
“…Is that so?”
Seriously? Demon Beasts were such monsters?
The existence of Demon Beasts itself has many mysteries.
The biggest one is, “Where do Demon Beasts come from?”
Some say they come from the north, others from the south, and some say they suddenly appear out of nowhere, so it’s all very vague.
And as Aquila says, Demon Beasts are incredibly powerful monsters, so there are very few cases of them being defeated.
“So, today we finally found a clue, and that new Demonbane Warrior turns out to be you… so, what exactly are you?”
“What… what do you mean? I’m a normal noble.”
With the caveat that my Magical Power is unreasonably high.
“No, that can’t be. That light when you killed Barbat was definitely the ‘Stellar Vein’s Radiance’. That’s proof that you’re a Demonbane Warrior.”
“Nope, don’t know anything about that.”
I wasn’t trying to lie, but Aquila’s suspicion didn’t waver.
Stellar Vein’s Radiance? Another term I don’t know.
Come to think of it, I had arrhythmia in my previous life, but I want to have a regular pulse in this life.
“So you’re going to play dumb to the end, huh? …Then I’ll kill you and ask your corpse!”
Aquila used Puppet Magic to launch dozens of poisoned knives at me.
(Now, how should I deal with this?)
To control dozens of knives remotely, he must be connected to each one with a path, allocating a considerable amount of Magical Power to operate them.
The question is whether they’re moving autonomously or not… well, either way, if I mess up those paths, the Puppet Magic should stop working—
(Let’s try an experiment.)
I began to gather Magical Power.
“Magic now? Useless, useless, useless! You can’t escape the poisoned knives anymore!”
The surrounding air seemed to stop moving, and the sound disappeared.
The next moment, as if the air had suddenly gone wild, a strange metallic sound echoed around us.
“Huh?”
Aquila was confused, not understanding what had happened.
That’s because the knives floating in the air had fallen to the ground with a clatter, as if their strings had been cut, before reaching me.
“Could it be that my Puppet Magic was dispelled…? What did you do, you damn noble!”
“It seems my guess was right. It seems your Puppet Magic and I don’t get along.”
All I did was roughly gather Magical Power and leak it into the surroundings.
It’s a technique used for persuasion because it strongly affects the human mind, but this time, I forcibly stripped away his Puppet Magic with a resonance effect on the objects.
“No, no, no! Dispelled just by gathering Magical Power? My Puppet Magic should be able to withstand even Intimidation! It’s impossible for it to be interfered with by someone else’s Magical Power, you damn noble!”
Aquila began to panic, but I wanted to finish this soon and head to Bangwall Fort.
“Sorry to interrupt your confusion, but I’m also busy. Let’s end this soon, Hero Aquila.”
“Damn, damn, damn, I won’t forgive you, you damn noble!”
I held the pipe to my right side and kicked off the ground with all my might.
Hearing the sound of the ground being torn up behind me, I realized that I had already stopped being human with just my raw strength.
I closed the distance to Aquila in an instant, and Aquila’s eyes widened in surprise.
I thrust the pipe like a spear straight at his heart.
“Gah!”
Piercing through the thick, Stella-Class flesh as if compressed by the high water pressure of the deep sea.
I continued straight ahead with that momentum and crashed into the rocky area behind him.