Chapter 243
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
—————–
Chapter 243: Blanca Roche (2)
***
A searing pain erupted from Blanca’s shoulder, coursing through her chest, upper abdomen, and flank.
The excruciating agony felt as if her muscles were being torn apart as if her very bones were being shattered.
She could vividly feel her ribcage, the protective shield of her torso, being sliced open.
All strength drained from her body. Her legs could no longer support her weight.
Without even a moment to gather her composure, her knees buckled and she collapsed to the ground.
Blood gushed forth from her gaping wound, an alarming crimson torrent staining the once pristine academy grounds.
The severity of the hemorrhage was undeniable. If this had not been Master Class, she would have been dead by now.
When Would It End?
Blanca’s mind was consumed by a whirlwind of questions. She had barely read Damien’s movements, let alone seen him swing his sword.
“A shallow cut.”
Damien remarked casually as he wiped the blood from his sword.
Blanca stared up at him, her eyes filled with the dread of impending death.
“This time, I’ll make sure to finish you off.”
Damien said and raised his sword. Though dawn was a holy sword but in Blanca’s eyes it took the shape of a reaper’s scythe
As she stood on the precipice of death, a myriad of thoughts flooded her mind.
What would happen to her if she died? How would people speak of her? What kind of scorn would the Roche family face?
And most importantly, what would become of her son, Gael?
Would he be able to overcome his illness? Would Sla continue his treatment? Would he ever come looking for her?
Would he be able to cope with the absence of his mother? Would he be able to navigate this world alone?
The moment she thought of her son, a surge of adrenaline coursed through her veins, rekindling a flicker of life within her dying body.
She couldn’t die now. She couldn’t leave that precious child alone.
But as it stood, Blanca had no means of escaping Damien’s clutches.
Just then, a booming voice pierced the air and shattered the silence of the academy grounds.
“What is the meaning of this?!”
Blanca’s eyes darted towards the source of the voice. The academy chancellor and several instructors were sprinting towards them.
“Engaging in a duel within the academy grounds! Have you both lost your minds?!”
The chancellor bellowed in fury, unleashing a torrent of mana.
As befitting Grand Mage, his power was formidable. The sheer force of his mana blast sent shivers down Blanca’s spine.
The sight of the chancellor sparked an idea in Blanca’s mind.
“Help me!”
Blanca cried out and she pointed towards Damien.
“This man suddenly attacked me! If you hadn’t arrived, I would have been killed!”
A wave of bewilderment washed over the chancellor and the instructors.
Their eyes flitted nervously between Blanca, a figure as solid and familiar as the academy itself, and Damien, the unsettling stranger who had inexplicably appeared in their midst.
It was clear as day who the chancellor and the instructors would believe.
“You insolent wretch! You dare commit such an act!”
“Step away from Lady Roche immediately!”
The chancellor and the instructors shouted at Damien. Damien calmly addressed them with an unfazed expression.
“Please, everyone, calm down and listen to my explanation…”
“No more excuses!”
The chancellor unleashed the spell. A beam of light materialized in mid-air and hurtled towards Damien.
Damien raised his sword and deflected the beam with its sword.
The impact sent him reeling backward, creating an opening for Blanca to escape his grasp.
“Apprehend Damien Haksen immediately!”
The chancellor’s command prompted the instructors to swarm around Damien. They surrounded him from all sides.
Blanca seized the opportunity and got up to her feet and hastily retreated from the scene.
***
Damien sighed as he looked at the instructors who surrounded him.
“Chancellor, you will regret this later.”
“You’re the one who will regret it! What are you doing? Why aren’t you all subduing him!”
The instructors’ eyes sharpened. It seemed as if they were waiting for an opportunity to pounce on Damien.
Most of the instructors were masters in their own right.
Compared to Damien, they were far from being his match, so it wouldn’t be difficult to defeat them.
The problem was their position.
The academy instructors were held in high esteem by the imperial citizens.
They had come to the academy, abandoning their personal advancement to nurture the empire’s talents.
If he were to kill or injure them, Damien would be on the receiving end of all the blame.
At that moment, Damien remembered the object he had stored in his subspace.
Damien immediately opened the subspace. He took out a sword from within.
As Damien raised the sword high, the instructors who had been charging in all recoiled in fear and stepped back.
“Th-that’s His Majesty’s sword, isn’t it!”
“How did Damien get his hands on that…!?”
Damien raised his sword and shouted at the instructors.
“I am here under His Majesty’s orders to capture the dark mage hiding in the academy! Anyone who stands in my way will be cut down with this sword!”
The instructors looked at the chancellor with their faces.
“Oh, no…”
Even the chancellor was so flustered that he couldn’t finish his sentence properly.
If Damien’s words were true, then the chancellor had disobeyed the emperor’s orders. This was something that could not be ignored.
“If you don’t get out of my way, I’ll cut your throats with this sword!”
As Damien threatened, the instructors hesitated and stepped back.
At that moment, an explosion occurred in the distance. A deafening sound erupted, and red flames soared high into the sky.
“Damn it.”
Damien turned his body towards the direction of the explosion.
The remaining chancellor and instructors could only stare at Damien’s back like dogs chasing a chicken.
“…What should we do now?”
One of the instructors asked the chancellor. The chancellor covered his face with both hands.
***
After leaving the scene, Blanca hastily retrieved and drank potions from her subspace.
Some of these potions were dangerous and could shorten her lifespan, but she had no time to worry about side effects.
She didn’t know when Damien might come after her. She needed to heal her wounds and recover her strength as quickly as possible.
Right after recovering, the first place Blanca rushed to was the hospital room where her son was.
Since she hadn’t managed to capture Damien, things were bound to get worse. She needed to escape with her son before that happened.
“Gael!”
Blanca urgently shouted as she opened the door to the hospital room.
“Oh~ why are you here~?”
“Blanca, there’s commotion outside. Did you fight Damien Haksen?”
But her son was not alone. He was with two men.
The two men were wearing the armor of the White Blood Knights. However, there was no respect for Blanca in their demeanor.
“Why are you here…?”
“That’s what we should be asking~ Did you fulfill Sla’s orders~?”
“Did you lose to Damien?”
At that moment, Blanca saw Gael being held by the two men.
Gael’s eyes were rolled back, and his head was tilted back.
“What did you do to my son?!”
Blanca saw this and erupted in anger. One of the men spoke with a tired expression.
“You stupid woman. Can’t you see it’s the opposite?”
“Blanca, we’re saving your son.”
Blanca had no choice but to hesitate at their words.
“More precisely, we’re reactivating him~.”
“Watch closely.”
One of the men injected a substance into Gael’s arm with a syringe.
Gael’s rolled-back eyes returned to their normal position, and strength returned to his drooping head.
“…Huh, huh?”
Gael spoke with a bewildered expression.
“Mother? Why are you here at this hour? Huh? Who are these gentlemen?”
Blanca felt a wave of relief as her son regained his senses.
The two men then spoke to Blanca.
“Do you know? This is a fake~.”
“Your real son died a long time ago.”
Blanca felt an indescribable disgust at their words. Seeing her son alive and well, how could they say such things…?
“Your son wasn’t actually suffering from an incurable disease. His special lineage manifested too strongly.”
“Sla approached you to study that lineage. Your son died during the research.”
Blanca’s anger grew stronger. She glared at the two men, as if ready to kill them.
“Stop talking nonsense. My son is dead? He’s right there, alive and well…”
Suddenly, one of the men next to her ripped Gael’s head from his body.
“No!!”
Blanca screamed and threw herself towards Gael’s head, catching it before it hit the ground.
“No, no… Quickly… If I attach it quickly…”
“Mom…?”
Blanca’s body froze. She slowly lowered her head.
“Mom, are you okay? Why are you crying?”
There’s no one who can live with their head torn off.
“M-mother… Mother…”
Gael started to repeat the same words over and over. Gradually, he began to melt, revealing white bones amidst the dissolving flesh.
“M-mother… Mother…”
His head slowly stopped speaking. The light faded from his eyes.
Blanca stood frozen like a statue. Not even a breath was heard.
“Now do you believe us~?”
“That was a puppet created by Sla. They mixed in your son’s memories.”
“Doing it this way~ no one could tell it was a fake~ Isn’t it amazing~?”
Blanca slowly turned her head. In that brief moment, her eyes had become hollow, like a dried-up well.
“A…”
Blanca cradled her son’s head in her arms.
“Aaah…”
She buried her head in the ground and screamed.
“Aaah… Aaah…”
At that moment, the air heated up. Flames erupted.
“Aaaargh!”
Blanca unleashed a torrent of red flames, blowing the entire building apart in an explosion.
“Sla! Sla! Slaaa!”
Blanca screamed in the endless blaze.
“I’ll kill you! Right now! I’ll kill you with nothing left of your flesh!”
But Blanca couldn’t bring herself to let go of her son’s head.
“You shouldn’t speak her name so carelessly~.”
Blanca froze at the man’s voice.
Right after, a black chain pierced through the flames and impaled Blanca’s chest.
“Ugh.”
Blanca coughed up blood but continued to stare at the flames. She saw the two men standing there, unharmed.
“How… How is this possible…?”
No one can withstand the flames of the Roche family. Moreover, Blanca had strained her mana to the point of injuring herself out of sheer rage.
“It’s thanks to your son~.”
“Why do you think Sla studied your son? Because of your family’s special lineage.”
Blood kept pouring from her mouth. In a weak voice, Blanca asked.
“Then… the reason for kidnapping the children was…”
“Ah, thanks to you, we were able to secure quite a few special lineages.”
“Sla also asked me to convey his thanks.”
The man grinned and yanked the chain. As it was pulled out, her heart and lungs were shredded.
Blanca died on the spot. Her lifeless body crumpled to the ground.
The head of Gael, which she had been holding, also fell on the floor.
Due to the impact, the head, which seemed to have stopped, began to move again.
“Huh… huh…”
Gael’s damaged eyes looked at Blanca.
“Mother… Mother…”
With those words, the head finally ceased functioning completely.
***
“Shall we return to Sla now?”
Valentino asked the man beside him. Then Aktur spoke up.
“Before that, it seems we have one more guest to welcome.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden…?”
Valentino heard the sound of the wind by his ear. Soon, someone landed in front of the two of them. The moment he saw the face, a smile of delight spread across Valentino’s lips.
“Damien Haksen!”
However, Damien wasn’t looking at Valentino at all. His gaze was fixed solely on Blanca, whose body lay on the ground devoid of life.
“…So it was a fake after all.”
After muttering that, Damien finally looked at Valentino and Aktur.
“Damien Haksen, long time no see? Do you remember this old man?”
“I’ve never seen such an ugly face in my life.”
“Puhuhu, you’re still amusing.”
Valentino grabbed his head with both hands and twisted it.
Crack.
With a grotesque sound, Valentino’s head turned 180 degrees.
A normal person would have died at that angle, but Valentino did not.
Instead, he casually returned his head to its original position. Soon, his face began to change.
A face so gaunt that it looked like only skin was stretched over bones appeared.
“The Iron Spider, Valentino Michele.”
Damien muttered softly.
“I thought you’d been turned to ashes after challenging the Mercenary King. Looks like Sla saved you just in time.”
“You still remember this old man~ I’m embarrassed~.”
“Then the guy next to you must be Sla’s lackey too.”
“I’m Aktur. I was once known as the Knight of the High Wall.”
“Oh, I remember now. You were a knight who protected the Imperial Palace. Then you betrayed them and joined Sla.”
“A shameful past.”
Aktur spoke politely.
“Sir Damien, please come with us. Sla is waiting for you.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“You don’t understand my words at all. Sla is waiting for you. Do you not realize what an honor that is?”
As if just the thought made him happy, a smile slowly spread across Aktur’s face.
“You will be embraced by the most beautiful woman in this world. Imagine how wonderful that would be…”
Aktur spoke in ecstasy. Damien responded disinterestedly.
“Beautiful? I don’t see what’s so beautiful about a chunk of meat.”
Aktur’s body stiffened at those words. He turned his gaze to Damien and asked,
“What did you just say?”
“I called her a chunk of meat. It’s not wrong, is it? Sla lost her original body long ago. What remains is just a big piece of flesh vaguely holding a shape. How can that be beautiful?”
Crunch!
Aktur ground his teeth so hard it seemed they might break.
“You… There are things you can say and things you can’t… To call Sla… To call her beauty a chunk of meat? How dare you spew such… such nonsense…!”
“Aktur~? Maybe you should calm down a bit…”
Even Valentino, who was usually calm, tried to stop Aktur. But Aktur’s rage had already crossed the line.
“You… you disrespectful bastard…! Right now, I’ll… I’ll kill you and present you to Sla…!”
Aktur was on the verge of losing his mind with rage. In his fury, he failed to notice one crucial detail.
Damien had drawn his sword and lowered his stance slightly.
“Third Ring.”
Damien’s body disappeared. In the next instant, he reappeared between Valentino and Aktur.
“Huh?”
“What?”
Damien swung his sword.
Once to the left and once to the right.
The sword, flashing like a ray of light, severed the necks of both men.
***
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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