N/T: Translation made by our friend 'Irving'. A big round of applause for him :)
Chapter 452
When Raon arrived at the entrance of lord's manor, he saw the White Lotus division.
"They really look like defeated soldiers."
As Dorian said, the White Lotus division walked with no energy, like soldiers who had lost a war.
"That's what I told you. It seems like they've lost."
Dorian whispered as he came up next to Raon.
"Hmm? Wait a minute..."
Raon narrowed his eyes as he looked at the White Lotus division.
'Did they really get beaten up?'
When he looked closely, he saw that every single White Lotus division swordsman was wrapped in bandages from head to toe.
'Who did they fight?'
There were no more enemies there.
The Black Tower and the White Crane were both dealt with, but he couldn't figure out against whom they had fought.
"Oh?"
Raon licked his lips and looked at the White Lotus division again, then frowned.
'Even Ayad was injured?'
Ayad seemed to have been severely injured; half of his head and face were burnt, and he had thick bandages wrapped from his right shoulder to his waist.
He appeared to be the most seriously injured among the the White Lotus division members.
"They're really hurt, aren't they?"
Dorian also realized that their injuries were real and let out a sigh.
"I see."
Raon nodded slowly.
'Did they fight the Black Tower's main force?'
He didn't want to admit it, but the White Lotus division was slightly stronger than the Light Wind division at the moment.
It was strange that these people who could be called strong anywhere had been broken like that.
'But why didn't anyone die?'
Strangely enough, everyone had been seriously injured, but it seemed that no one had died. It was a strange situation in many ways.
As he was thinking about the enemies that might be in the Hopiren region, Ayad approached the lord's manor.
"Ugh..."
Ayad looked in this direction, his face contorting like crumpled paper.
"What's going on?"
Raon raised his chin slightly as he looked at the bandages wrapped around Ayad's shoulder.
"When I last saw you, you were playing hide and seek. Did someone catch you?"
Raon mocked him, remembering how Ayad had stayed hidden during the battle with White Wolf..
"...I don't know."
Ayad brushed it off and entered the Lord's manor..
The White Lotus division members, seemingly embarrassed, followed without looking in their direction.
"Hmm..."
Raon smiled faintly and trailed behind the White Lotus division members. He subtly spread his aura to make sure the people walking ahead wouldn't notice them.
"Let's go too."
"Where are we going?"
Dorian grabbed his sleeve in a panic.
"We need to make sure they're giving a proper report."
"They're in front of the lord, they should do fine on their own.".
"No, they had the look of someone who was going to lie outright."
Raon dragged Dorian along, following behind the White Lotus division.
Pathetic.
Wrath exclaimed, patting Raon's shoulder firmly
Revenge is a vain thing. Don't do anything stupid, let's go get some ice cream.
'...Is that really something the Monarch of Wrath would say?'
Raon was surprised that the demon king would urge him not to take revenge, rather than encourage him to do so. He must be really hungry.
However, he had to follow them now, or he wouldn't be able to see Ayad's face crumble.
Please! The ice cream shop will close!
'Then it'll have to be two sets tomorrow.'
Yes! Revenge is definitely something that must be done! Hmm! For the Monarch of Demons revenge will never be too late, even if it takes 1000 years!
Wrath cheered and ran off.
That means we can choose eight, right? First, four mint chocolate, one for the month's flavor, and then chocolate, strawberry, and pineapple... It's a little lacking, though?
'......'
Raon was getting tired of this now.
Raon sighed briefly and stood in front of the audience chamber with the White Lotus division.
As if it had been arranged in advance, the door opened as Ayad approached, and Roenn came out.
"You've been through a lot. Please come in."
"Thank you."
Roenn gestured for them to enter, and Ayad bowed to him before entering the audience chamber.
After all the White Lotus division members had entered, Roenn was about to close the door when Raon approached him.
"Vice division leader of the Light Wind?"
Roenn wasn't surprised, but he tilted his head as if surprised.
"What brings you here today...?"
"Since the White Lotus division and the Light Wind division were given the same mission, of course I have to participate."
Raon walked out with a steely look on his face.
"Hehehe."
Roenn smiled faintly and turned his head inside.
Following his gaze, Raon looked up at the throne on the stage. Glenn nodded slightly, indicating that it was okay.
"Please come in."
Roenn smiled and raised his hand politely.
"Thank you."
Raon bowed to Roenn and stood in front of a pillar, like the other executives who usually waited to give reports.
"I greet the lord."
As he was not the protagonist of today's report, he spoke in a quiet voice, bowing his head.
"G, greetings to the lord!"
Dorian wiped the sweat from his forehead and bent his waist to a right angle.
"Hmm..."
Glenn nodded in response, seemingly annoyed.
"You, why are you here...?"
Ayad seemed flustered, rolling his eyes and his lips trembling.
"Don't mind me and just start your report."
Raon shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the throne.
"G, greetings to the lord!"
Ayad and the White Lotus division members bowed their heads to Glenn. However, their trembling eyes were still on Raon.
"Ayad."
Glenn looked down at Ayad and the White Lotus division members with a cold gaze.
"I heard that the White Lotus division did not engage in battle with the Black Tower or the White Crane, What's going on with this appearance?"
He furrowed his brow as he scrutinized the White Lotus division members who looked like they were the very definition of defeat.
"To tell the truth...."
Ayad raised his head, biting his lip.
"We were attacked by Eden, not the Black Tower."
"Eden?"
"Yes, Eden's... Merlin suddenly launched an attack."
He sighed deeply as he said Merlin's name.
'...Merlin?'
Raon felt a chill run down his spine as soon as he heard the name Merlin.
'Could it be that she was there?'
The probability of the White Lotus division accidentally encountering Merlin was extremely low.
It was clear that Merlin, who had followed him, was unhappy with Ayad's words and attacked him first.
D-did that perverted stalker really show up there?
Wrath was also shocked, as his lips trembled. He must have been thinking about ice cream and didn't notice.
“Wait a minute.”
Sheryl, who was standing behind Glenn, raised her hand.
“I know Merlin's abilities well. He is still a monster whose mana and magical skills are constantly increasing.”
Sheryl furrowed her brows as if finding it unbelievable.
“How did not a single person die when that madwoman attacked?”
Ayad opened his mouth, clenching his fists until they bled.
“Well, it's actually like this…”
* * *
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After a short rest, Ayad left the Hopiren region with the White Lotus division.
'That arrogant guy. Since he's said it, he won't refuse the sword duel.'
While thinking about his plan to challenge Raon to a sword duel after returning to Zieghart, the sky suddenly darkened as if night had come.
“Hmm?”
When he looked up, there was a figure wearing a mask of an old woman under the dark clouds.
“Merlin!”
Realizing that it was Merlin from Eden, he immediately drew his sword, but she did not attack him. Instead, she was picking petals from the air.
“Kill. Spare. Kill. Spare. Kill. Spare. Kill. Spare. Kill!”
Merlin threw the flower, which had lost all its petals, and cheered.
"That makes it 2-on-2. I can't help it. I'll just end it right before he dies. I think it would be better to leave you as food for him."
When she said she would end it right before he died, countless magic circles appeared from the dark clouds.
*Wooo-wooo-wooo!*
Brilliant light poured out of the magic circles, and various kinds of magic began to pour down like rain.
“Form a defensive formation!”
“Form a defensive formation!”
At Ayad's instruction, the White Lotus division members quickly deployed a defensive formation.
*Tss-tss-tss-tss!*
However, the formation was not properly established, and because it was operated in a hurry, Merlin's magic easily broke through the flow of the formation like a needle piercing paper.
“Damn it!”
Even though Ayad gritted his teeth and spread a barrier of astral energy, he could not stop Merlin's magic, which was falling like a downpour.
*Kukukuku-kugwong!*
Various elemental magic exploded on top of the collapsed wall of astral energy, and the interior of the formation became a scene of chaos.
“Aaaaaargh!”
“Cough!”
“Uugh…”
The White Lotus division swordsmen could not maintain their formation and were bounced off in all directions by the exploding magic.
“This crazy witch!”
Ayad didn't care if his subordinates died, and he retreated with astral energy wrapped around his body.
“Yeah. I'm a witch. I'm crazy too.”
As Merlin giggled and snapped her fingers, the magic circles floating behind her connected like spider webs and emitted a magnificent light.
Kwagugugugu!
From the magic circles, a thicker and more intense magic circle with a thick mana wrapped around it fell like a meteor shower.
“Argh!”
Ayad tried to run away, but Merlin's magic followed him like they had eyes.
“It's no use running away. It has a tracking function.”
Merlin laughed and danced her shoulders.
“Damn it!”
Ayad stopped and turned around. With his sword, which was burning with azure astral energy, he cleaved a giant fireball.
Shwaaaack!
As the leader of the White Lotus division, his swordsmanship formed a subtle flow and cut down all the magic that came like waves.
But Merlin's magic seemed endless. She kept casting high-level magics as if her mana were infinite.
“Ugh!”
Ayad groaned. As his astral energy ran out, his astral energy barrier was crushed, and magic began to explode on his bare body.
Kwagugugwang!
A severe burn occurred on his right shoulder, which was hit by a fireball, and frostbite appeared on his left shoulder, which was pierced by an ice spear.
He even suffered internal injuries from the impact of the magic that fell one after another, and blood dripped from his mouth.
"It's not over yet."
Merlin could have killed him, but she did not use her full power and only used magic of a moderate level to inflict pain and shock.
“Ugh….”
Ayad raised his head weakly with his sword stuck in the ground.
“K…kill…me.”
He had no mana or strength left, but Merlin was still intact.
At the moment when he thought there was no way to deal with the huge difference in skill, her magic turned transparent.
Puberturburbubuck!
Merlin condensed mana into fist-sized balls and began pummeling her own body like a sandbag.
Simultaneously, more than ten strikes hit Ayad, rendering him incapable of regaining his senses. The endless pain left his mind numb.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Only after Ayad collapsed, vomiting blood, did the lumps of mana dissipate into thin air.
“Don't mock me and kill me!”
He gritted his teeth and asked her to kill him, but Merlin shook her head.
“I think this is about half, right?”
"That should be enough."
Merlin waved her hand with an excited smile
"The rest, you'll do on your own."
With those words, she vanished into a small light.
“Huh….”
Ayad looked at the sky, which was clearing again, and vomited blood.
“What the hell is this….”
* * *
“…That's what happened.”
Ayad told them what had happened so far, leaving out the part where he had tried to run away and subsequently surrendered to Merlin.
“Half? What does that mean?”
Glenn narrowed his eyes, stroking his beard.
“I don't know either.”
Ayad shook his head heavily.
"Yeah."
Sheryl nodded slowly, tapping her chin.
"That's what a crazy person would do. That's the madwoman."
She nodded, saying that Merlin would do that.
"Hu..."
Raon closed his eyes tightly, clutching his forehead.
'It's because of me.'
It seemed like she had targeted Ayad and tried to kill him, possibly because of their earlier encounter. She seemed to have aimed to kill exactly half, as the saying went.
He felt a chill down his spine as if he had entered an ice cave.
"We returned in disgrace, having been humiliated by the enemy and defeated. I apoligize, my lord."
"We apologize!"
Ayad bowed his head, and the White Lotus swordsmen followed suit, bowing and apologizing.
"Get up."
Glenn said in a low voice, flicking his finger joints.
"If you were mocked and defeated by the enemy, you and your subordinates should cultivate their skills so that you will never experience such a thing again. That is the mindset that a person who stands above should have."
"I will remember it."
Ayad clenched his teeth and bowed his head, biting his molars.
"Then report the events that took place before that."
"Understood. I was assigned a search mission and..."
He stood up in a formal posture and began to report the events that had happened so far.
"When we finished exploring the two lakes, the Light Wind division arrived late."
Ayad's gaze shifted to Raon. He nodded with a discreet eye gesture, indicating that Ayad could pass over it.
"Since the two divisions had never met before, we decided to move separately and..."
"That's not it."
Raon interrupted with an upbeat tone, cutting Ayad off.
"Weren't you the one who suggested we move separately?"
"What? Wh-what are you talking about? You and I are not..."
"That's what happened afterward. I suggested that we move together, but then you decided to move separately, correct?"
"Uhm..."
When he said that, Ayad couldn't answer and his fingertips trembled.
"I also remember you saying that you should make the members move one by one and throw them as bait. You heard that too, right?"
Raon poked Dorian, who was standing next to him, with his elbow.
"Guh, that, that's right!"
Dorian nodded with a pale face.
"Used as bait?"
A chilling aura emanated from Sheryl's eyes.
"Hmm..."
Glenn also seemed uncomfortable with the mention of bait.
"What kind of bait are you talking about?"
"It's not bait, but...."
"I mentioned that moving individually would be a bad idea because the lake was where the Warring Steel division had disappeared. However, the White Lotus division leader argued that it was even better. He proposed that if some members were taken by the enemy, we could deduce their location, and it wouldn't matter if weaker subordinates died."
Raon explained the events that had happened there lightly in a voice mixed with laughter.
"Ayad..."
Sheryl narrowed her brows and glared at Ayad as if she wanted to kill him.
"Oh, no, I had complete confidence in saving them! It had been a long time since the Warring Steel division was disappeared, and we wanted to rescue them quickly..."
"Even back then, I mentioned that the Hopiren area is vast. The White Lotus and The Light Wind division couldn't handle it by moving individually."
Ayad waved his hand desperately when Raon intervened with a smile.
"For now, let's continue."
Glenn flicked his finger to continue, as if he would deal with it after the report was finished.
"Yes, I understand. After deciding to move separately from the Light Wind division, we headed straight for the village, but..."
"That's not it either."
Raon waved his hand.
"I wanted to mention a clue I had noticed, but you went on without listening."
"What... what are you talking about!"
"I felt a presence from the ice lake and suggested that we surround them together, but you said that we agreed to move separately and told us to handle it on our own, didn't you?"
As he said this, he pointed to the White Lotus vice division leader who was right behind Ayad.
"Didn't you hear this, too, vice division leader?"
"That's... uh..."
The vice division leader couldn't answer and just cleared his throat, but that was an answer in itself.
Grrr!
Sheryl's eyes turned even redder with evident frustration, as if she had reached her limit, and she glared at Ayad.
If not for Glenn, she seemed ready to unsheathe her sword right then and there.
"Next."
Glenn's voice also filled with coldness.
"Then, after searching various places, we confirmed that magic was erupting from the Ice Lake and rushed over. However, by that time, everything was already over..."
"That's not it either."
Raon calmly raised his hand, teasing Ayad.
"You were hiding in the tree, watching the battle between me and the White Wolf. You saw it, didn't you?"
"That was to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances. In case White Wolf or Blood Cloud Blade ran away or other guys came..."
Ayad also came up with an excuse as if he had already thought about it this time.
However, that was the reason why there were so many loopholes.
"That doesn't make sense."
He shook his head slowly.
"The tree you hid in was in the direction where the path was blocked. They're not stupid, they wouldn't have run in that direction. Even if other guys came, it would be too late to help from that far away."
"T-that's... huck!"
Ayad abruptly stopped his forced explanation.
"Ah..."
Glenn and Sheryl locked eyes with Ayad, their eyes burning with anger, and his complexion turned pale.
Raon nodded his head in satisfaction, drawing a mischievous smile that looked like Rimmer.
'Nice expression.'
That's what I wanted to see.
