Volume 6 Chapter 147 – Accidental Victory (1)
[Translator – jhei]
[Proofreader – yukitokata]
Morning of September 8th, 1796.
The three finished their face-off against the advanced cadets and sought an inn.
The strange thing was, after destroying part of the city, they went back to the restaurant and left the gold there.
Though, the restaurant where they met was half destroyed and burnt to a crisp…
“Bleuuurghhh!”
Beradin threw up as soon as he relaxed his body.
The result of breathing in the fumes the cadets planted in the streets. The magician didn’t have such a durable body like Jin or Dante.
And even for a magician, Beradin was a little weak.
“Beradin, are you alright?! Here’s some water. Take deep breaths. The fumes need to naturally circulate out of your system.”
Dante pounded his hand on Beradin’s back with a worried expression. While he threw up, Beradin constantly cast healing spells on himself, and every time he felt a little better, he flicked up his thumb.
‘I feel like this is a common sight. Those guys are a dynamic duo.’
They reminded him of Murakan, who chose to fly because he was bored of transfer gates, and Gilly, who had a fear of heights. Jin shook his head.
“His cold sweat isn’t stopping. Jin, is there anything we can do for Beradin?”
“Yeah, Jin. Worry for me! Treating me would be better.”
Jin stared at Beradin.
‘I never know what he really wants.’
Apart from Dante, Jin knew that Beradin was doing it on purpose.
No matter how weak he was, he could instantly eliminate such poisons with his own recovery spells.
‘What’s his intention?’
Pausing his thought, Jin walked over to Beradin, pulled out some herbs, and began to mince it with his dagger’s handle in order to make the antidote he learned from the book.
“Here.”
“Wow!”
Receiving the antidote, Beradin happily looked at Jin. His eyes sparkled. He swallowed it whole and nodded in approval.
“Now I feel more alive. You knew how to make this stuff too?”
“Whoa, you feel better?”
“All thanks to Jin. Fufu, it’s the first time I took an antidote from my friend.”
He really forced the word ‘friend’ into the sentence.
Beradin’s acting was to simulate friendship. If he hadn’t done so, then Jin would always remain distant from him, so it couldn’t be helped.
Of course, Beradin didn’t only think of Jin as a friend. However, he didn’t want to miss moments where he wanted to be a little closer to Jin.
“Get some good rest. There won’t be any attacks before the sun sets.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m playing a game with a higher-up of the city. The rule is that there won’t be any attacks in the day, but she sends groups in the night.”
“What do you earn if you win?”
“Experience and growth.”
“You came to Samil and risked your life just for that?!”
“Why? Can’t I?”
Jin answered calmly. Beradin interjected and Dante clenched his fist thinking:
‘That’s the Jin I know!’
Jin didn’t really bet his life. With Quikantel’s present, he had a last resort at hand. He also didn’t come just for the experience and growth.
However, he had no intention of sharing the Thousand-Poison Antidote with the others, so he didn’t need to mention it. Neither was it an item that he was guaranteed to obtain anyway.
‘It’s not that I don’t like them or anything, but I can’t share that.’
If he acquired anything else, then he could possibly distribute it. Although they tracked him down like stalkers, they joined his cause to fight the cadets on just a few gold pieces.
No one else in the world could move them with such a small reward.
“Thanks, guys.”
On Jin’s mindless comment, the two shuddered.
‘Didja hear that?’
‘Did you hear what he just said?’
The two exchanged glances simultaneously and felt that their visit was worth it. Jin turned around and began to meditate.
‘Once again, I can feel that experience is the most effective way of training. Just fighting cadets for a few days makes me feel close to opening my Mind’s Eye…’
—Use the eye of the mind to observe.
Something Jin heard hundreds of times from Luna during his own cadet days. After multiple years since the start of his Mind’s Eye training, Jin’s understanding became clearer and clearer.
He was desperate, but he wasn’t late. Dante would be surprised if he found out that Jin was close to opening his Mind’s Eye.
Normally, knights would unlock their Mind’s Eye halfway through their training as a 7-star. Yet that only applied to those with talented senses. Mind’s Eye was something that knights had to train endlessly even until 8- to 9-star.
It was the basic ability and sixth sense of those who fought masters or talented knights.
Jin slowly approached it before hitting 7-star. His prowess and Luna’s training as well as the many life-or-death situations helped him to this point.
Life-or-death situations.
He said it with such ease, but no one would believe that a 16-year-old 6-star knight survived battles against a herd of Samil’s advanced cadets.
“Go ahead and sleep. I’ll take care of your equipment.”
“Thank you!”
“So cool!”
The two lay down and began to snore. Their stamina had been depleted from the unexpected battle.
‘Dante is still pretty weak, but he’ll get over it… Starting tomorrow, I’ll use them and protect them somehow.’
Using them was simple. The three meshed well with each other, so they easily filled each other’s gaps.
However, Jin had to consider how to protect them.
‘Elder Sister Yona will probably start sending more skillful cadets. We have to prepare for when a real executioner comes. These two are just good at sword skill or magic. They don’t have much experience on assassinations.’
He felt it the past night. The two only survived because they just overpowered the cadets. Once the stronger assassins come, it would be too challenging for them.
Pondering for a solution, Jin sensed something approaching. He looked around.
‘Footsteps?’
The moment he looked forward—
‘Huh?!’
A man with a white mask stood in front of him.
The Leader of Nameless, Owal. However, since he unstrapped his black belt, Jin couldn’t identify who he was.
Owal just stood and stared at him for a good few seconds. Murderous intent flickered in the leader’s eyes for no apparent reason.
A glare that could break even stones, trees, and other objects.
Jin instantly knew.
He knew that this man could target him one hundred times and kill him one hundred times. Only the most fierce and capable warriors possessed such transcendent glares.
‘He made his footsteps known on purpose. To see if I could detect him. Is he one of the best executioners of Nameless? …No. Excluding Yona, an executioner would have no reason to test me.’
“A distant servant greets the 85th Leader of Nameless.”
It looked as if he showed full respect, but Jin was still seated. Owal was a little surprised, but he maintained his stance as he looked down at Jin.
“Lord Cyron recently acquired a gem. Truly someone to talk about marriage with the Hidden Palace. However, despite knowing it’s me, I think it’s a little too much to remain seated on such occasions.”
Jin almost uttered ‘Pardon?’ like an idiot. It wasn’t surprising that the Leader of Nameless knew his status.
However, marriage talk was not important.
First Jin had to think of why he visited him and what he could earn out of him.
“I tried to see if the owner of the pure-whites would take my life. The moment I die, the ones fated with misfortune wouldn’t be the Runcandels anyway. I presume you came to make me take responsibility for the city I destroyed the past few days.”
“You easily knew that I would never kill you. After messing with my land, you are also very blunt.”
“Since you brought up my father’s name, I felt great respect and consideration from you.”
Even though he was a provisional flag-bearer, there was no need to mention Cyron’s name and try to threaten a Runcandel. Especially for someone who needed to play tug-of-war with the Runcandel Clan, Zipfel Clan, and Vermont Imperial Family.
‘As long as he treats me like Jin Runcandel, it’ll be easy to coerce the conversation in a direction that I please. It’s only disadvantageous if I talk in fear.’
Although he didn’t know the relationship between Yona and the Leader of Nameless, he knew the ties between the Runcandel Clan and Nameless. Jin planned on using that to gain control of the situation.
‘Fighting sword to sword with him would be impossible, but it’d be different in a game of compromise.’
Especially in a situation where he felt like the Leader of Nameless ‘desperately’ sought him. .
Jin never thought Owal confronted him to take responsibility for the city’s destruction in the first place.
If it were that, then he’d send the strongest assassin—looking away from the fact that Jin was a Runcandel—or call him directly to the Nameless Manor to punish him.
However, Owal came to him secretly like a burglar.
‘For what reason did he come so desperately and guarantee that he will not cut my throat?’
As Owal’s harsh glare pressed all over his body, his brain ran and thought of every scenario. If he didn’t do so, then the conversation would go into the leader’s favor.
‘If it isn’t for the demolished city, it must be about Elder Sister Yona.’
Jin opened his mouth first.
“If you have something to say about Elder Sister Yona, then please tell me anything.”
“Haha…”
Owal let out a low-pitched laugh. However, it reeked of bloodlust. Jin’s senses became hyperactive, reacting even to the slightest bit of dust.
“Even Lord Cyron doesn’t toy with the weakness of the Land of White. How dare you, a mere youngest son of Runcandel…!”
Hph!
Jin instinctively grabbed his throat.
He couldn’t breathe at the fighting spirit he felt for the first time.
Cyron’s fighting spirit had a strength that shook the heavens, Talaris’s was the essence of bitter frost, and Luna’s reminded him that there was nothing in the world that she couldn’t cut.
Every great being he encountered, they had that kind of fighting spirit.
However, Owal’s fighting spirit was like a dead night where nothing could be seen. A darkness where it couldn’t be differentiated whether one’s eyes were closed or open.
While his consciousness slowly faded away, Jin thought about his words.
‘Weakness…?! Elder Sister Yona is Nameless’s weakness?’
Owal was mistaken.
The reason why Jin tore down the city. The reason why he was so blunt. The reason why he had such hubris despite being a child.
It was because he knew that Nameless relied on Yona.
‘It won’t be too bad if I start threatening instead of compromising.’
Cough, cough…
Jin let out the stifled air and sat straight up.
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Reaper Scans
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