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Chapter 31




Chapter 31
「Chapter 31」
Translator: Silver
I checked my appearance in the full-length waiting room mirror.
No matter how many times I checked, I still looked like an evil demon king or mastermind.
An RPG graphic of my appearance would scream, “This guy is the final boss.” to anyone.
“Well, if he’s the main character, I’d be the last boss.”
The summoned hero goes on a journey to free the sealed divine servants and save the world.
At the end of the journey, it’s revealed that the final servant had been slain by the evil demon.
……Yeah, I was definitely the last boss.
I picked up my sword and examined my set abilities.
Speaking of which, I got many abilities on the game era’s final day. Still, despite having them for more than a year, I hadn’t adequately examined them.
Did I already have another ability like 『Mark of the Weak』?
There was.
I have one.
It was called 『Training』.
As the same suggested, at the cost of disabling experience gains, it dropped your stats down to the equivalent of half your level.
However, halving LV399 wasn’t much different from the counter stop of Lv200 during the game era.
It was better than nothing, so I equipped it.
In addition to the general weakening, two other abilities could suppress insta-kills.
These abilities were called 『Attack Power Conversion』and 『Guardian Sword』.
『Attack Power Conversion』 converted the weapon attack bonus to an equal amount of magic damage bonuses.
It was probably a way to use a magic swordsman play style using the Depriving Sword.
Well, it was something that wouldn’t have saw the light of day during the game ere given my fighter sub-class.
The other one, 『Guardian Sword』, cut my attack power by 3/4 for a 1.2 defense multiplier.
I remembered that one. The old sword Rue used had a similar ability.
This was really nostalgic. Fully equipped, Rue was an unsinkable ship skilled at protecting her allies!
Now that was something.
In any case, I put the finishing touches on my ability loadout.
『Back of The Blade』
『Mark of the Weak』
『Training』
『Attack Power Conversion』
『Guardian Sword』
It was only those 5 abilities.
This time I didn’t include anything related to attack multipliers, recovery, or anything else advantageous.
That’s right, I was giving him a chance of winning. That guy was just that pitiful.
Just to be sure, I opened the menu and fiddled with the options.
When I first arrived in this world, I spent a lot of time figuring out this menu’s functions. Right now, I set it so that my HP and MP were always visible.
I was worried that Ren might pull out an extraordinary power he received in a pinch.
Leaving him a chance to win and leaving him a chance to kill me were two separate things.
“Lord Kaivon, it’s time.
Now, let’s begin.
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“I was told that my rank will rise if I defeat you, but that’s a secondary concern. I’m going to kill you here.”
“Kill me, not defeat? Isn’t this a duel?”
“Are you scared? My friends already told me about how you brainwashed the people in the palace! I won’t let this country be handed over to you!”
The audience only consisted of involved individuals. I already saw the three ladies that usually accompanied Ren.
Somehow, asking them to be let in had been attributed to brainwashing. I wasn’t shown any kindness.
Onii-chan is a little shocked.
“Let’s start the duel! Get ready!”
I grabbed hold of my sword with one hand and languidly pointed the blade towards the ground.
Ren-kun draws his sword from his waist shift and held it aloft with both hands.
Was kendo a compulsory subject for children now a day?
“Begin!”
At that moment, Ren took a huge step back and cast a spell along the blade of his sword.
A magic swordsman! That’s cool, Ren.
“Lightning and Thunder, strike him down “Spark Whisper.”
“Then, Dark Prison.”
A dark magic-infused ice cage sprung up from the ground to protect me.
The lightning bolt struck the black ice before harmlessly dispersing.
As expected, he had higher than average magic abilities.
“I thought you to strike with the sword. That was unexpected.”
“Che, dark magic.”
Even though I was still surrounded by ripples of darkness, he decided to a frontal assault.
In response to his direct attack, I raised my sword and met his strike with one of my own.
At the moment of contact, a cascade of light particles sprung from his blade and landed on my body.
I felt a slight heat upon contact as if some loose sparklers had landed on me.
When I looked at my HP gauge, I saw I’d taken some damage.
【9018/9022】
What……is…… he actually managed to damage me!!!
That’s wonderful, Ren. You’ve done something that even the dragon god was incapable of right now!
It’s impressive that so much damage was taken, given my defense value.
The genuine surprise on my face caused Ren to become rather boastful.
“He, how do you like my holy sword? Doesn’t it work wonders on demons like you? I’ll let you enjoy your fill!”
“O-Oh.”
That was the sword’s power?
After discovering that those light particles worked on me, what followed was a series of sword exchanges.
However, the particles flew around at random, and not all of them touched me.
It didn’t take long before I grew tired of this exchange, so I switched up my style and began parrying his attacks.
“You seemed to have learned something. But how long will it last?”
No, I could’ve done this from the beginning.
However, his sword arm remained firm.
His straightforward approach remained unchanged.
Therefore, it was easy to parry all of his attacks.
After a few minutes of this, Ren’s breathing started to become erratic.
“Damn it, why?”
“Well, you shouldn’t be so obvious with your attacks.”
“Shut up!”
Realizing he couldn’t win with swordsmanship alone, he began chanting a spell while we were still in combat.
After blocking another one of his attacks, I turned my wrist and struck his jaw with the flat side of my blade.
“Gai!”
Oh, that caused him to bite his tongue,
I only intended to interfere with his spell, but I accidentally caused damage.
“I suppose it’s time.”
Now I went on the offensive.
When I aimed a strike at Ren’s face, he barely managed to block it before he attempted to pivot on his feet and enter my blind spot.
Unfortunately for him, I immediately changed my footwork to block his path and repeated the same actions again.
That’s all it took. I locked him into a state where he was prevented from counterattacking and seemed to be surrounded on all sides.
From the victim’s point of view, it appeared as if I was moving at an incredibly high speed.
Then I started slashing at his sides.
Gradually, confusion set in and created a delay in his reaction time. The delay allowed me to land a heavy blow that broke through Ren’s guard.
Taking advantage of the gap in his defenses, I struck out with my left hand.
“Gue.”
After grabbing him by his throat, I raised my blade and knocked his holy sword out of his hands.
The size difference between the two swords came into effect.
Even though I delivered the blow with one hand, the weight behind the attack was enough to send his sword flying out of his hands.
Moreover, there was an overwhelming difference in strength.
“Next, I have to apply pressure on the carotid artery.”
“Ga! let, go.”
I gradually lifted Ren up with one hand.
Of course, he tried to kick me and break free, but I just waved him around to evade that.
He made a muffled cry every time I shook him, but my hold remained firm.
“Hey, let go of me!”
“Interfering with a duel is prohibited. Please remain quiet.”
When I glanced over, I saw Rue restraining the most abrasive of Ren’s companions with ice magic.
“This is merely a duel. It’d end after you lose consciousness. When you wake up, cool your head a bit.”
“Shit……Why…… I am……”
With hate-filled eyes, Ren let out one last utterance before his body went limp.
……In the end, I didn’t even use any sword techniques.
I wonder if it was my hastily thrown-together strategy or this body that got me this far.
I’m no master martial artist.
All I had was basic knowledge in regards to the field.
When I was younger, I really liked watching video tutorials.
Back then, I was also praised for my dynamic vision, and I came up with various ways to make use of it.
I was really young back then. Specifically, I’d been a junior high school sophomore.
“The winner, Lord Kaivon!”
After they declared my victory, I left the area.
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“Well, it wasn’t a close battle by any means…… but it was satisfying to trade blows with someone.”
“You held back quite a bit, didn’t you? Well, that was still fun to watch.”
“Bonbon, that was an entertaining fight. That spell…… did Rue teach it to you?”
“That’s right. I raised Kai-kun!”
Oink and Rue were already waiting for me when I returned to my room.
The other people were rushed into the post-event activates, and the king lead Ren’s companions to the infirmary.
This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org
Perhaps someone will explain things to Ren there, but wasn’t it better to make use of Oink while she was here?
“This is why it’s good to have a stupid pig.”
“Rightー”
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In the end, the king only managed to convince Ren that there wasn’t any brainwashing.
Saltberg was an example of Ren’s shallowness and willingness to believe everything those who treated him excellent told him. Though he admitted his mistakes, he still proclaimed me to be the villain.
In addition, Oink suspended Ren from receiving certain types of requests. Now he could only advance through monster subjections.
Ren was quite annoyed at that.
And the saddest outcomeミ
“I can’t follow Ren-sama anymore…….”
“Likewise…… there’s no point being together if we can’t see the Seven Stars.”
The two girls, besides the brash one, abandoned him.
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“So, what do you want me to do?”
“Well, if lord Kaivon is interested in freeing the Seven Stars, we can support you.”
“I’m not doing it.”
“T-That’s! You’re so powerful, though…….”
Does everyone with great power required to take on responsibilities?
……That’s not true.
If that was true, how about the rich people of the world start distributing their wealth to the poor.
Well, it would be inconvenient and troublesome if I said that out loud.
“So, is there anything else? For the time being, I’m the equivalent to a duke.”
“I-I beg your pardon!”
I stared at the back of Ren’s former companion, but my gaze turned to the remaining girl.
She was a slim blonde girl with sleepy eyes.
The fact that she hadn’t left after seeing the previous exchange was making me nervous.
Or rather, this child has something she wanted to tell me.
I wonder where this strange sense of intimacy she directed towards me came from.
“……This sofa is very comfortable, and I’m sleepy.”
“You can sleep here. I’ll get out.”
“Oh, I understand.”
The girl actually lied down.
The girl grabbed one of the throw cushions and rested her head on it.
I decided to leave because she looked comfortable.
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Rue was waiting for me outside the room.
Since she forcibly restrained the three companions during the duel, I made sure those two and her didn’t cross paths when they requested a meeting.
Well, it was really that brash girl that kicked up a fuss, not those two.
“Kai-kun, is the meeting already finished?”
“Yes. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“That means you’re free right now? Would you like to go out together?”
That’s right, now that the troublesome thing was dealt with and I didn’t want to get entangled with Ren again, how about we do a little sightseeing and held to the port city early.
“Hey, Kai-kun. What makes this a good country?”
“That’s sudden.”
“Kai-kun, I want to hear your opinion.”
Rue brought up a strange topic the moment we left the royal palace.
“That’s…… I don’t know much about the founding, but the current state of this country is solid. Maybe it’s because there are two rulers instead of one?”
There weren’t three branches of government, but there was something close.
The king governed the nobility and maintained the old-fashioned powers.
And Oink, who stood on the side of the people, had the power of adjudication and modern-day political knowledge.
It could be said that this country’s stability was thanks to those two people.
If the two of them were on bad terms, it would result in a civil war.
“That’s right, I think so too. However, I was along on the outskirts of this country, right?”
“Ah, yes.”
Oh……I see.
Have you thought about this before?
And now those old melancholy thoughts had returned?
“Even without me, maybe everything would’ve gone well. I don’t know. It seems that many people survived the Genesis. But, I couldn’t find them.”
“I heard they were mainly concentrated around Fastrial.”
“If I borrowed the power of those people, and the king and guild joined forces…….”
Perhaps you wouldn’t have had to sacrifice yourself.
There wasn’t an Oink back then, and the country was far from what it is now.
In addition, times have changed, but people remain the same.
It was regrettable, but most people would choose the easy solution before looking for alternatives.
“Rue, don’t think like that. Let it stay in the past.”
“……That doesn’t comfort me.”
“Then, if Rue hadn’t been there, I would’ve been alone, right?”
“Ah…… that’s right, yeah, that’s right.”
Perhaps, coming to this country’s capital for the first time caused Rue to reflect on her past.
And seeing Oink, who seemingly had the same memory of the Genesis and the gods, must’ve been upsetting given their respective social standings.
Feeling overwhelmed in this situation was inevitable.
Because it was inevitable, I’ll spoil you rotten today.
“Look, take my hand. Today’s Rue seems likely to get lost.”
“Yes, please.”
Once this sightseeing session was over, we’ll finally leave this country, which had become my starting point.
Little by little, my mind had become obsessed with the thought that the distance between my best friends and me was shrinking.
So, today I’ll be sweet on Rue.
I was depended on. She relies on me. That was fine.
From now on, we moved forward together.
Unfortunately, I forgot something important because I was so focused on moving forward and meeting old friends.
There was “another self” I left behind.
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Hey, where are you now?
Does my voice reach you?
Did you read the letter?
Hey, do you remember me?
Do I remember you?
I’ll raise a brush today as well.
As I write today’s letter, I believe we will meet someday――